Invoker Thorns Crusader Speed Farming Variation

Last updated on Jan 08, 2024 at 09:00 by Deadset 98 comments
Build Variations Updated for Season 30, Patch 2.7.7 Main Build Solo Greater Rift Progression Nephalem Rift Farming
1.

Speed Farming

The Invoker ThornsCrusader deals with regular Rift farming decently all the way through the highest Torments, making it a viable build for the task. We have solo speed GR rankings and solo speed T16 rankings if you want to know more about which builds are best for speed farming.

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 Slash Icon Slash Zeal Zeal Right Mouse Button Steed Charge Icon Steed Charge Draw and Quarter Draw and Quarter 1 Laws of Hope Icon Laws of Hope Wings of Angels Wings of Angels 2 Iron Skin Icon Iron Skin Flash Flash 3 Bombardment Icon Bombardment Barrels of Spikes Barrels of Spikes 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.

In speed farming, mobility is a much bigger consideration for Thorns Crusaders, since you do not have the AoE clear of the more conventional farming builds. You need to keep up your Laws of Hope Laws of Hope Wings of Angels Wings of Angels up at all times, and zip from one elite pack to another to trigger In-geom In-geom's CDR resets. Keep up your set-based damage reduction by casting a manual Bombardment Bombardment at least once every 20 seconds. When in need to cross greater distances, simply mount up with Steed Charge Steed Charge.

3.

Adapting Skills and Passives

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.

4.

Adapting Gear

You will largely keep the gear pieces from your Greater Rift progression setup. When it comes to armor sets, you will still use the 6-piece Invoker and 3-piece Cpt. Crimson bonusеs, using 5 pieces from the former and 2 from the latter and cubing a Ring of Royal Grandeur Ring of Royal Grandeur to complete their power. The playstyle shifts into heavy use of Steed Charge Steed Charge for mobility, so you can use the Norvald's Fervor set — Flail of the Charge Flail of the Charge and Shield of the Steed Shield of the Steed — to great effect in T16s.

The notable differences are in the jewelry slots, where you can make some adaptations to complement T16 farming. Instead of the slow-and-steady Endless Walk set, you should use a combo of Squirt's Necklace Squirt's Necklace and a Physical damage Stone of Jordan Stone of Jordan — both of which will provide a consistent damage bonus suitable to bursting enemies down. Your second ring should be Rechel's Ring of Larceny Rechel's Ring of Larceny, which has a Fear-based movement speed proc and comes with an innate Chance to Fear on Hit roll, essentially proccing itself.

Note that former favorites for the jewelry slots in T16 — like Nemesis Bracers Nemesis Bracers, The Flavor of Time The Flavor of Time, and Avarice Band Avarice Band — can now be equipped on your Follower, and their bonuses "Emanate" (meaning, their effect applies to you as well). Obviously, you should consider fitting these pieces back into the build, if you are farming T16s in a group.

Slot Pieces Stat Priority
Head
  1. Strength
  2. Socket
  3. Vitality
  4. Life per Hit or All Resistance
  5. Thorns (Important Secondary Stat)
  6. Pickup Radius (Secondary Stat)
Shoulders
  1. Strength
  2. Cooldown Reduction
  3. All Resistance
  4. Vitality
  5. Thorns (Important Secondary Stat)
  6. Health Globe Healing Bonus (Secondary Stat)
Torso
  1. Strength
  2. 3 Sockets
  3. Vitality
  4. All Resistance
  5. Thorns (Important Secondary Stat)
Wrists
  1. Strength
  2. Physical Damage
  3. Life per Hit
  4. Vitality
  5. Thorns (Important Secondary Stat)
  6. Melee or Missile Damage Reduction (Secondary Stat)
Hands
  1. Strength
  2. Cooldown Reduction
  3. Attack Speed
  4. Life per Hit
  5. Thorns (Important Secondary Stat)
  6. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
Waist
  1. Strength
  2. Vitality
  3. All Resistance
  4. Life %
  5. Thorns (Important Secondary Stat)
Legs
  1. Strength
  2. 2 Sockets
  3. Vitality
  4. All Resistance
  5. Thorns (Important Secondary Stat)
  6. Pickup Radius (Secondary Stat)
Feet
  1. Strength
  2. Vitality
  3. All Resistance
  4. Armor
  5. Thorns (Important Secondary Stat)
Amulet
  1. Socket
  2. Physical Damage
  3. Cooldown Reduction or Attack Speed
  4. Strength
  5. Thorns (Important Secondary Stat)
  6. Melee or Missile Damage Reduction (Secondary Stat)
Ring #1
  1. Socket
  2. Cooldown Reduction
  3. Life per Hit or Attack Speed
  4. Strength
  5. Thorns (Important Secondary Stat)
Ring #2
  1. Socket
  2. Cooldown Reduction
  3. Life per Hit or Attack Speed
  4. Strength
  5. Thorns (Important Secondary Stat)
Weapon
  1. Socket (preferably from Ramaladni's Gift Ramaladni's Gift)
  2. Cooldown Reduction
  3. Attack Speed
  4. Increased Damage vs. Elites
  5. Strength
  6. Life per Kill (Secondary Stat)
Off-hand
  1. Strength
  2. high Block Chance
  3. Cooldown Reduction
  4. Increased Damage vs. Elites
  5. Thorns (Important 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

Both Bane of the Trapped Bane of the Trapped and Boyarsky's Chip Boyarsky's Chip remain universally desired damage amplification gems for Thorns Crusaders across all forms of content.

When doing speedruns, health values will be a significantly smaller barrier, diminishing the value of Bane of the Stricken Bane of the Stricken; you would do well to replace it with 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 a and Follower-worn Avarice Band Avarice Band.

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 Physical 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

In regular Rift farming, the pace at which you kill elites facilitates the use of the most potent source of cooldown reduction in your weapon Cube slot — In-geom In-geom. As long as you fuel its power by regularly bursting down elites, it will practically ensure permanent uptime of all of your important cooldowns.

With the changes in Patch 2.7.3, the Invoker set now gains AoE capabilities that were previously absent from the set. To capitalize on those changes, you will be using the Omnislash Omnislash belt, which will give Slash Slash a 360 degrees effect around the character. Note that the removal of the former favorite for the slot, Belt of the Trove Belt of the Trove, necessitates that you use Bombardment Bombardment on your bar.

In order to mix in the Raekor set with the craftable Captain Crimson set, you will need a Ring of Royal Grandeur Ring of Royal Grandeur: a cache legendary ring from Act I bounties, to tie the two set bonuses together.

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.

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, which synergize perfectly for the high attack speed and sustain-through-attacks playstyle of the build.

8.

Follower

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.

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 revised for Season 26.
  • 09 Dec. 2021: Guide revised and added Season 25 Soul Shard recommendations.
  • 23 Jul. 2021: Added S24 Ethereal recommendation.
  • 31 Mar. 2021: Added minor equipment alterations and added a follower recommendations.
  • 18 Nov. 2020: Revised equipment, passives, and Cube recommendations for Season 22.
  • 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.
  • 31 Oct. 2017: Adapted the speedfarming variant to the 2.6.1 changes.
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