Blessed Hammer Crusader Speed Farming Variation

Last updated on Jan 08, 2024 at 09:00 by Deadset 31 comments
Build Variations Updated for Season 30, Patch 2.7.7 Main Build Solo Greater Rift Progression Nephalem Rift Farming
1.

Speed Farming

The Blessed Hammer Crusader deals with regular Rift farming decently all the way through the highest Torments, making it a viable build for the task. Note that the deliberate pace of the build (due to the necessary inclusion of Falling Sword Falling Sword), makes lessens its effectiveness compared to other T16 builds.

Within the limited scope of regular difficulties, the necessary damage and toughness to triumph over the enemy is significantly smaller. Thus, your best course of action is to improve utility and speed.

Active Skills
Left Mouse Button Blessed Hammer Icon Blessed Hammer Dominion Dominion Right Mouse Button Falling Sword Icon Falling Sword Part the Clouds Part the Clouds 1 Laws of Hope Icon Laws of Hope Wings of Angels Wings of Angels 2 Iron Skin Icon Iron Skin Flash Flash 3 Provoke Icon Provoke Too Scared to Run Too Scared to Run 4 Akarat's Champion Icon Akarat's Champion Prophet Prophet
Passive Skills
2.

Adapting Rotation

When you are speed farming regular rifts, parts of your playstyle will adapt to the lowered challenge and focus more on speed and utility.

Throughout the farming run, the Hammerdin should keep up the Blessed Hammer Blessed Hammers rotating around them, transporting themselves between packs with a combination of Laws of Hope Laws of Hope Wings of Angels Wings of Angels and Falling Sword Falling Sword. Akarat's Champion Akarat's Champion and Iron Skin Iron Skin should still be applied on cooldown, and Provoke Provoke will remain part of the rotation as an emergency Wrath restoration pop.

3.

Adapting Skills

Parts of the skill and passive selection will overlap with the base Greater Rift progression build, but others will have to change according to the task at hand. Ability to cross over great distances faster and more efficiently take precedence.

  • If you transition Blessed Hammer Blessed Hammer into regular rifts, it is advisable to swap Limitless Limitless away for Dominion Dominion — the orbiting hammers are very convenient in clearing trash as you move between elite packs.
  • In speed farming, the damage you need for an individual enemy pack will be significantly less, allowing you to shift away from Laws of Valor Laws of Valor Critical Critical and focus on speed and utility with Laws of Hope Laws of Hope Wings of Angels Wings of Angels.
  • In regular rifts, where Sacred Harness Sacred Harness can be replaced by Goldwrap Goldwrap, you will need to take Falling Sword Falling Sword with the rune Part the Clouds Part the Clouds — the 2-second stun will proc Hammer Jammers Hammer Jammers instead of Sacred Harness Sacred Harness.
  • The remainder of your skill lineup — Provoke Provoke Too Scared to Run Too Scared to Run (Wrath restoration tool), Iron Skin Iron Skin Flash Flash (auxiliary movement skill and protective value) and Akarat's Champion Akarat's Champion Prophet Prophet (your strongest self-buff) will remain unchanged between specs.
  • Fervor Fervor and Finery Finery will remain part of your passive lineup. You can also bring slightly more damage to the table with Blunt Blunt; the loss of Holy Cause Holy Cause's healing should not be impactful in farming content.
  • If you do not feel threatened by the difficulty, you should replace Indestructible Indestructible with Long Arm of the Law Long Arm of the Law. This change will ensure you have permanent uptime of the Laws of Hope Laws of Hope Wings of Angels Wings of Angels movement buffs.
4.

Adapting Gear

The vast majority of the Hammerdin-specific items will remain unchanged during speed farming. You will still be taking advantage of the full set bonus of Seeker of the Light set, incorporating all 6 available pieces according to your best rolls. The trio of Johanna's Argument Johanna's Argument, Guard of Johanna Guard of Johanna, and Gabriel's Vambraces Gabriel's Vambraces are too valuable to pass up in this build, so they also remain locked in place.

It is worth noting that in the limited challenges of regular rifts, both the Endless Walk set and Convention of Elements Convention of Elements greatly diminish in usefulness. A better jewelry split is a Holy damage Stone of Jordan Stone of Jordan (for the permanent damage increase), and Avarice Band Avarice Band (for the synergy with Goldwrap Goldwrap and Boon of the Hoarder Boon of the Hoarder), as well as Squirt's Necklace Squirt's Necklace for an additional damage multiplier in the build (the former favorite The Flavor of Time The Flavor of Time can now be equipped on your follower and its power will transfer to you via the Emanate mechanics).

This scaling damage increase and damage reduction from the Cpt. Crimson set (used in the GR progression build) will be redundant in regular rifts, where you can get all the protection you will ever need via Goldwrap Goldwrap.

Slot Pieces Stat Priority
Head
  1. Strength
  2. Socket
  3. Critical Hit Chance
  4. Blessed Hammer %
  5. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
  6. Pickup Radius (Secondary Stat)
Shoulders
  1. Strength
  2. Cooldown Reduction
  3. Area Damage
  4. All Resistance
  5. Pickup Radius (Secondary Stat)
  6. Health Globe Healing Bonus (Secondary Stat)
Torso
  1. Strength
  2. 3 Sockets
  3. Vitality
  4. Reduced Damage from Elites
  5. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
  6. Melee or Missile Damage Reduction (Secondary Stat)
Wrists
  1. Strength
  2. Critical Hit Chance
  3. Holy Damage %
  4. Life per Hit or Vitality
  5. Melee or Missile Damage Reduction (Secondary Stat)
Hands
  1. Strength (replaced by Area Damage at High Paragons)
  2. Critical Hit Chance
  3. Critical Hit Damage
  4. Cooldown Reduction
Waist
  1. Strength
  2. Vitality
  3. All Resistance
  4. Life %
  5. Life per Kill (Secondary Stat)
  6. Pickup Radius (Secondary Stat)
Legs
  1. Strength
  2. 2 Sockets
  3. Vitality
  4. All Resistance
  5. Life per Kill (Secondary Stat)
  6. Pickup Radius (Secondary Stat)
Feet
  1. Strength
  2. Blessed Hammer %
  3. Vitality
  4. All Resistance
  5. Pickup Radius (Secondary Stat)
  6. Health Globe Healing Bonus (Secondary Stat)
Amulet
  1. Socket
  2. Critical Hit Damage
  3. Critical Hit Chance
  4. Holy Damage %
  5. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
  6. Melee or Missile Damage Reduction (Secondary Stat)
Ring #1
  1. Socket
  2. Critical Hit Chance
  3. Critical Hit Damage
  4. Area Damage
  5. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
  6. Life per Kill (Secondary Stat)
Ring #2
  1. Socket
  2. Critical Hit Chance
  3. Critical Hit Damage
  4. Area Damage
  5. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
  6. Life per Kill (Secondary Stat)
Weapon
  1. Socket (preferably from Ramaladni's Gift Ramaladni's Gift)
  2. High Weapon Damage
  3. Strength
  4. % Weapon Damage
  5. Life per Hit or CDR
  6. Stun on Hit (Secondary Stat)
Off-hand
  1. Strength
  2. Crit Chance
  3. Cooldown Reduction
  4. Blessed Hammer %
  5. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)

To help you with farming the gear you need for your builds, we have two very useful guides that you can access by clicking the links below: a Salvage Guide to help you quickly check whether or not you can safely salvage a piece of gear and a Legendary Farming Guide to help you efficiently farm legendaries and set items.

4.1.

Altar of Rites

The former Season 28 theme, the Altar of Rites, has been revised and re-added to Diablo 3 as a permanent character progression mechanic. — For virtually all builds and players of all skill levels — from casual to advanced — we recommend progressing through the Altar tree using the path outlined below. The suggested path is geared towards maximum quality of life first, then amplifying damage, and then mopping up the tree with defensive and edge case utility nodes.

Note that while they require reaching them with a Seal, Legendary Potion Powers are not part of the Seal cost system; Potions unlock with a separate resource called Primordial Ashes, obtained from salvaging Legendary or Set items of Primal (red bordered) quality. Upgrade them as soon as possible, and in the order shown below (courtesy of Caleko's Altar of Rites planner).

Altar of Rites Planner

You can read more on the Altar of Rites, Seals and Legendary Potion Powers in our dedicated Altar of Rites Mechanics guide.

5.

Adapting Gems

Bane of the Trapped Bane of the Trapped remains a universally desired damage amplification gem.

During speed farming, Gogok of Swiftness Gogok of Swiftness will be a protective overkill and should be replaced by Boon of the Hoarder Boon of the Hoarder. The latter is a high utility gem that feeds you practically infinite gold, gives you a massive short-term speed boost while picking it up, and synergizes excellently with the worn Avarice Band Avarice Band for a sizable speed boost, and the cubed Goldwrap Goldwrap for near-invulnerability.

Since monster health is much more tame in the standard difficulties, you should also replace Bane of the Stricken Bane of the Stricken with Bane of the Powerful Bane of the Powerful for the consistent, easily sustained damage increase. If you overpower content so much that even Bane of the Powerful Bane of the Powerful is unnecessary, you can consider using Wreath of Lightning Wreath of Lightning for the extra speed.

5.1.

Season 30 Soul Shards

In Season 30, your helm and weapon sockets will be taken over by the supremely powerful Soul Shards. For this build, we recommend the following:

  • Helm: Shard of Hatred with "Your movement speed is increased by 50%" as its Rank 3 power. For optimization benefits, aim for Strength or Melee/Ranged Damage Reduction on its Rank 2 roll.
  • Weapon: Stain of Sin with "You gain an additional Rift Progress Orb when you kill an elite pack" as its Rank 3 power. For optimization benefits, aim for Holy Skills % Increase or Weapon Damage Increase on its Rank 2 roll.
Slot Gems
Jewelry
Helm
Torso and Pants
Weapon

For more information about gems, please refer to our guide on gems.

6.

Adapting Kanai's Cube

The Kanai's Cube selection is largely locked down due to important passive bonuses for the Hammerdin build. Both Faithful Memory Faithful Memory in the weapon slot and Hammer Jammers Hammer Jammers are hard to replace due to DPS value, and Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac is one of your few sources of steady Akarat's Champion Akarat's Champion resets.

The Kanai's Cube can be used for much more than simply extracting Legendary powers from items. Please refer to our Kanai's Cube guide for more information.

7.

Follower

The recommended follower for this build during standard rift farming for keys is the Enchantress due to her numerous utility bonuses, allowing you to smooth out your speed runs even further.

For more information regarding followers, we advise you to read our Follower Guide, which contains detailed advice for choosing the skills and the gear of your follower.

8.

Legendary Potion

The preferred potion for this build is Bottomless Potion of the Leech Bottomless Potion of the Leech due to its Life per Hit bonuses, adding some much needed life sustain to the build.

9.

Changelog

  • 08 Jan. 2024: Revised guide for the permanent addition of the Altar of Rites, and added Season-specific Soul Shard recommendations.
  • 13 Sep. 2023: Added Season 29 Paragon Cap and Gearing recommendations.
  • 22 Feb. 2023: Added Season 28 Altar of Rites recommendations.
  • 26 Aug. 2022: Added Season 27 Angelic Crucible recommendations.
  • 13 Apr. 2022: Guide reviewed for Season 26.
  • 09 Dec. 2021: Added Season 25 Soul Shard recommendations.
  • 23 Jul. 2021: Added S24 Ethereal recommendation.
  • 31 Mar. 2021: Minor build alterations and follower recommendation added.
  • 18 Nov. 2020: Added S22 Cube recommendation.
  • 30 Jun. 2020: No changes required for Season 21.
  • 12 Mar. 2020: No changes necessary for Season 20.
  • 19 Nov. 2019: Guide revised and updated for Season 19.
  • 22 Aug. 2019: Reviewed for Season 18.
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