Invoker Thorns Crusader Skills and Runes
On this page, we explain how to choose and use your skills when playing Invoker Thorns Crusader in Diablo 3. Updated for Patch 2.7 and Season 23.
Active Skills |
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Passive Skills |
Rotation
The build promotes a fearless brawling playstyle that does not just endure
hits to the face, but relishes in them. You will be running from fight to fight
as quickly as possible using Steed Charge, but you will also use this
skill as a pre-buff with a momentary pop before a major fight (and especially
prior to the Physical
Convention of Elements cycle) to trigger the bonuses
of the equipped Norvald's Fervor set. As soon as you find your new
target — preferably a large pack of enemies with an elite in their midst
— you will draw their attention with a centered
Provoke, then
plant yourself in place and start cutting through them with
Punish.
Activate
Laws of Valor when you throw yourself in a bigger fight and
anticipate a lot of burst coming your way;
Akarat's Champion is to be used
as soon as it comes off its hefty cooldown. Pay special attention when activating
Iron Skin
Flash — it will provide you with a burst of maneuverability
and allows you to ignore enemy collision, so use it to reduce incoming damage
and reposition in a fight.
Skills and Runes
Punish is the solitary non-cooldown skill in the build, but do
not be fooled by its unassuming generator damage — it will serve to amplify
your Thorns damage through the Invoker 2-piece bonus, and
conveniently dishes it out through the 6-piece bonus.
Iron Skin is a defensive staple of the class, and Thornsaders are no
exception. While you can take the damage rune
Reflective Skin in most
Greater Rift difficulties to enjoy a
temporary spike in your damage (especially if timed to match the Physical cycle
of
Convention of Elements), in the highest tier of progression you will
need to alternate to the
Flash rune for the freedom of movement
it offers you — more and more necessary as you seek favorable fights and
maximize positioning.
In order to assist the block-based cooldown resets of the build, you will be
using the taunt and Wrath generation of Provoke mostly for the block buff
of
Hit Me. During its uptime, your
Akarat's Awakening procs will
chunk significant portions of your major cooldowns, or outright reset the shorter
ones.
Akarat's Champion is the favorite alternate form of the Crusader
— seemingly irrespective of build, as the Thorns build implements it as
well. While the advantage of the 35% multiplicative damage increase is obvious,
the protection from
Prophet's 150% additional armor and second life
build the skill up to an undeniable status. Cheating death is especially
important, since the build has a hard time fitting
Indestructible in
due to more advantageous passives and a neck slot locked away from a
Hellfire Amulet of Strength by the necessary
The Traveler's Pledge
(see this build's gear page for more
information).
You have some freedom in your 'Laws slot'; for high end progression, squeezing
every bit of attack speed (and damage, respectively) while not losing too much on
survivability becomes a delicate balance, one you can straddle by taking the
offensive Laws of Valor with the
Unstoppable Force rune. While you
do not have any spenders at your disposal, the worn Cpt. Crimson set scales your
damage reduction based on your Resource Cost Reduction, and this rune directly
affects that. Alternatively, you can lean on the old favorite
Laws of Justice; the percentage based scaling of
Decaying Strength
adds some of the highest defense the Crusader has to offer.
Mobility is one of the most important aspects when rifting, and Crusaders have
no better movement ability than their trusty Steed Charge. You will be
picking up the extended duration from the
Endurance rune, allowing you to
reach — or skip — more efficiently. Note that this skill is also used
to trigger the damage multiplication bonus of the Norvald's Fervor set, and you
will need to pop it as a pre-buff to any significant engagement —
especially prior to the Physical part of the
Convention of Elements
rotation. Thankfully, the
Steed Charge animation is easily canceled by any
other subsequent skill.
This concludes the overview of the active skills, now let us look through the passives.
Passives
As a baseline equipment passive, you are locked in Heavenly Strength
due to
Flail of the Charge being a two-handed flail.
A no-brainer inclusion in the build, Iron Maiden increases your Thorns
damage by 50%.
Increased Attack Speed is one of the most important aspects of your damage,
considering the emphasis of primary skills applying Thorns (the 2-piece Invokers)
as quickly and as efficiently as possible (the 6-piece Invokers) — thus
making Fanaticism a great fit.
Finery rounds out your passives with a balanced source of both Damage
and Toughness. Increasing Strength by 1.5% for every socket across your gear
(weapons and jewelry included), it amounts to a sizable boost with an assumed
average of 10 sockets on a well-equipped character.
Changelog
- 31 Mar. 2021: No changes required for Season 23.
- 18 Nov. 2020: Updated advice to match usage of Norvald's Fervor in S22. Changed a passive.
- 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.
- 17 May 2019: Minor fixes to skill recommendations; guide approved for Season 17.
- 24 Feb. 2019: Item and skill recommendations revised further to reflect the meta.
- 17 Jan. 2019: Information was reviewed and approved for Season 16 with no changes required.
- 31 Oct. 2017: Replaced Provoke with Consecration.
More Crusader Guides
Builds from Other Classes
This build is presented to you by Deadset, one of the very few professional Diablo 3 players. Deadset regularly publishes video guides on Youtube and streams on Twitch, where you can see how this and other builds play out in practice.
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