Invoker Thorns Crusader Speed Farming Variation

The Invoker Thorns Crusader deals with regular Rift farming decently all the way through the highest Torments, making it a viable build for the task. We have speed farming 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
Punish Celerity Steed Charge Endurance 1 Laws of Hope Wings of Angels 2 Iron Skin Flash 3 Condemn Vacuum 4 Akarat's Champion Prophet
Passive Skills
Fervor Iron Maiden Long Arm of the Law Finery

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 don't have the AoE clear of the more conventional farming builds. You need to keep up your Laws of Hope Wings of Angels up at all times, and zip from one elite pack to another to trigger In-geom's CDR resets. Instead of using Provoke to keep monsters engaged, you will be using the quicker and larger pull of Condemn Vacuum. When in need to cross greater distances, simply mount up with Steed Charge.

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.

• Punish Celerity, Steed Charge Endurance and Iron Skin Flash will remain in your active skill lineup from the progression build.
• When speedfarming, the additional durability of Laws of Justice or extra attack speed of Laws of Valor will be overkill, so you can safely swap this slot out for the movement speed buffs of Laws of Hope Wings of Angels.
• Provoke loses much of its value in the quick skirmishes that populate normal Rifts, so it can be replaced by a quick enemy gathering tool in the face of Condemn Vacuum.
• Akarat's Champion Prophet is an omnipresent self-buff in both versions of the build.
• The majority of passives from the progression build are too valuable to ignore; you will keep Fervor, Iron Maiden and Finery.
• In speed farming where damage is of lesser concern compared to mobility, you should take Long Arm of the Law for the improved uptime of Laws of Hope Wings of Angels.

You will still be taking advantage of the full 6-piece set bonuses of Invoker, incorporating 5 of the 6 available pieces according to your best rolls. The existence of the atypical set bracer allows you to tinker with additional bonuses, most notably the inclusion of the Sage's Journey set for Death's Breath farming. Take Sage's Ribbon and Sage's Passage for example, and then complete both the Invoker and Sage set bonuses with a Ring of Royal Grandeur.

The progression-oriented Endless Walk set should be dropped from your jewelry during farming, since the speed of normal Rifts will ruin the uptime of the set's damage bonus. In their stead, use a Physical/Thorns Stone of Jordan for the consistent boost to your damage, and The Flavor of Time for the additional duration on Pylon pickups.

When doing bounties, you can take an extra step in terms of optimization and drop the Pig Sticker for a Swiftmount; the doubled Steed Charge allows for some of the best mobility the Crusader class has to offer.

Slot	Pieces	Stat Priority
Head	Crown of the Invoker	Strength Socket Vitality Life per Hit or All Resistance Thorns (Important Secondary Stat) Pickup Radius (Secondary Stat)
Shoulders	Burden of the Invoker	Strength Cooldown Reduction All Resistance Vitality Thorns (Important Secondary Stat) Health Globe Healing Bonus (Secondary Stat)
Torso	Aquila Cuirass	Strength 3 Sockets Vitality All Resistance Thorns (Important Secondary Stat)
Wrists	Shackles of the Invoker	Strength Physical Damage Life per Hit Vitality Thorns (Important Secondary Stat) Melee or Missile Damage Reduction (Secondary Stat)
Hands	Pride of the Invoker	Strength Cooldown Reduction Attack Speed Life per Hit Thorns (Important Secondary Stat) Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
Waist	Sage's Ribbon	Strength Vitality All Resistance Life % Thorns (Important Secondary Stat)
Legs	Renewal of the Invoker	Strength 2 Sockets Vitality All Resistance Thorns (Important Secondary Stat) Pickup Radius (Secondary Stat)
Feet	Sage's Passage	Strength Vitality All Resistance Armor Thorns (Important Secondary Stat)
Amulet	The Flavor of Time	Socket Physical Damage Cooldown Reduction or Attack Speed Strength Thorns (Important Secondary Stat) Melee or Missile Damage Reduction (Secondary Stat)
Ring #1	Ring of Royal Grandeur	Socket Cooldown Reduction Life per Hit or Attack Speed Strength Thorns (Important Secondary Stat)
Ring #2	Stone of Jordan	Socket Cooldown Reduction Life per Hit or Attack Speed Strength Thorns (Important Secondary Stat)
Weapon	Swiftmount	Socket (preferably from Ramaladni's Gift) Cooldown Reduction Attack Speed Increased Damage vs. Elites Strength Vitality high Damage vs. Beasts and Humans (Secondary Stat)
Off-hand	Akarat's Awakening	Strength high Block Chance Cooldown Reduction Increased Damage vs. Elites 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.

Both Bane of the Trapped and 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; you would do well to replace it with 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 worn Goldwrap and cubed Avarice Band for practical invincibility of your character.

Slot	Gems
Jewelry	Bane of the Trapped Boyarsky's Chip Boon of the Hoarder
Helm	Flawless Royal Diamond
Torso and Pants	Flawless Royal Ruby (Damage)
Weapon	Flawless Royal Topaz (Thorns)

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. As long as you fuel its power by regularly bursting down elites, it will practically ensure permanent uptime of all of your important cooldowns.

Belt of the Trove stays as the default recommendation in the armor Cube slot, in order to maintain the damage reduction of the Invoker 4-piece bonus. If you grow confident in your survivability however, you can swap this slot to the elite spawning powers of Nemesis Bracers to synergize with the bonuses of In-geom.

As mentioned above, cube Avarice Band during farm to maximize your gold gain and clear speed through the Boon of the Hoarder synergy.

The preferred potion for this build is 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.

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.