LoD Bombardment Crusader Speed Farming Variation

Last updated on Jan 08, 2024 at 09:00 by Deadset 5 comments
Build Variations Updated for Season 30, Patch 2.7.7 Main Build LoD Bombardment Crusader Speed Farming
1.

Speed Farming

The LoD Bombardment Crusader deals with regular Rift farming decently all the way through the highest Torments, making it a viable build for the task. The ability to play with Messerschmidt's Reaver Messerschmidt's Reaver allows for freedom of movement that makes the build especially adept at bounties.

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 Provoke Icon Provoke Flee Fool Flee Fool Right Mouse Button Bombardment Icon Bombardment Barrels of Spikes Barrels of Spikes 1 Condemn Icon Condemn Vacuum Vacuum 2 Steed Charge Icon Steed Charge Endurance Endurance 3 Laws of Hope Icon Laws of Hope Wings of Angels Wings of Angels 4 Akarat's Champion Icon Akarat's Champion Rally Rally
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.

Most of your time will still be spent on the move, proccing your massive Rechel's Ring of Larceny Rechel's Ring of Larceny speed boost with Provoke Provoke Flee Fool Flee Fool and riding from pack to pack with Steed Charge Steed Charge. Once you find a big enough pack, draw them in with a quick Condemn Condemn Vacuum Vacuum and finish them off with a Bombardment Bombardment assault. Last but not least, pop Akarat's Champion Akarat's Champion and Laws of Hope Laws of Hope Wings of Angels Wings of Angels as often as you can — for the cooldown reduction resets (from the former) and the speed boosts and monster collision removal (from the latter).

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.

  • Bombardment Bombardment is still your main source of damage, both manual and automated from the worn Belt of the Trove Belt of the Trove. Stick to the rune Barrels of Spikes Barrels of Spikes for the Thorns damage.
  • Condemn Condemn Vacuum Vacuum will fulfill much the same role as in Greater Rifts; piling monsters on top of you, to be quickly cleaned up with a precise Bombardment Bombardment shot.
  • Akarat's Champion Akarat's Champion is still present in the build as a damage amplifier, but due to the powers of Messerschmidt's Reaver Messerschmidt's Reaver you will be able to cast it in a care-free manner to get the benefits of the Rally Rally rune.
  • For speed farming, you can abandon Laws of Justice Laws of Justice and branch out into Laws of Hope Laws of Hope Wings of Angels Wings of Angels — one of the strongest, group-wide mobility buffs in the game.
  • Another alteration to consider is swapping away from Punish Punish (or Blessed Hammer Blessed Hammer, if you were doing the Zodiac variant) for Provoke Provoke Flee Fool Flee Fool, which will trigger the effects of a worn or cubed Rechel's Ring of Larceny Rechel's Ring of Larceny for a massive speed boost.
  • Steed Charge Steed Charge is just as, if not more useful in speed farming than in GR progression. Consider altering the rune to Endurance Endurance, especially if you are doing bounties.
  • Most of your passive lineup is too valuable to change: Iron Maiden Iron Maiden, Lord Commander Lord Commander and Finery Finery will also be present during farming. By swapping to Messerschmidt's Reaver Messerschmidt's Reaver, you will have to use Heavenly Strength Heavenly Strength in the place of Fervor Fervor from the progression spec.
4.

Adapting Gear

Most of the gear from the Greater Rift progression build will still make sense for speed farming, but a few variations will be necessary in order to maximize your productivity and momentum during regular Rift clears.

The vast majority of your pieces remain unchanged between the two builds; you will still rely on Aquila Cuirass Aquila Cuirass for protection, on Blackthorne's Jousting Mail Blackthorne's Jousting Mail for the extra damage, on Leoric's Crown Leoric's Crown for the CDR, and Belt of the Trove Belt of the Trove for the free Bombardment Bombardments.

You can make some minor alterations to further smooth out farming runs; Stone Gauntlets Stone Gauntlets can be too defensive for regular difficulties, so you can swap it out for the Act II bounty cache legendary Gloves of Worship Gloves of Worship, while Strongarm Bracers Strongarm Bracers can be overkill on damage increasing, so they can be replaced by Warzechian Armguards Warzechian Armguards. Former considerations like Nemesis Bracers Nemesis Bracers and Homing Pads Homing Pads can now be slotted on your follower, and you will attain their benefits from the Emanate mechanics.

Ice Climbers Ice Climbers will also be too defensive for regular difficulties, so you should swap them out for Illusory Boots Illusory Boots; the latter add to the fluidity of farming runs to a much higher degree than any alternative item in the slot.

As for your weapon, replace progression-oriented options like Pig Sticker Pig Sticker with Messerschmidt's Reaver Messerschmidt's Reaver — the speedy fights will feed into your weapon procs for permanent uptime of all your important cooldowns.

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

Boyarsky's Chip Boyarsky's Chip remains a universally desired damage amplification gem for Thorns-based builds. Legacy of Dreams Legacy of Dreams will be required if you run the full-legendary item setup, but if you opt for a Legacy of Nightmares setup, you can run an overall damage increase like Bane of the Trapped Bane of the Trapped (requires crowd control!) or Zei's Stone of Vengeance Zei's Stone of Vengeance.

In normal rifts, Bane of the Stricken Bane of the Stricken should be replaced by Boon of the Hoarder Boon of the Hoarder. This high utility gem feeds you practically infinite gold and gives you a massive short-term speed boost while picking up gold, automated by 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

The weapon cube slot will be taken by The Mortal Drama The Mortal Drama, a flail that doubles the number of Bombardment Bombardment impacts. The effect is simple, but devastating as it not only affects your own shots, but those of Belt of the Trove Belt of the Trove as well.

To complete the Gold-based synergy started by the Boon of the Hoarder Boon of the Hoarder and Avarice Band Avarice Band combo, you should use Goldwrap Goldwrap to ensure practical invincibility from simple gold pickups during regular rift farming. Note that you can wear your better rolled item between Goldwrap Goldwrap and Belt of the Trove Belt of the Trove, and cube the other.

You can use Rechel's Ring of Larceny Rechel's Ring of Larceny in the jewelry slot of the Cube to gain a massive burst of speed every time you cast Provoke Provoke Flee Fool Flee Fool. This ring is similarly interchangeable with the remainder of your jewelry (if you are not using the LoN set, of course), depending on your better rolled items.

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

Two legendary potions can be considered useful in a Bombardment Crusader build. Bottomless Potion of Kulle-Aid Bottomless Potion of Kulle-Aid allows you to break through Waller affixes, which is a great boon to a build that is highly dependent on mobility. Bottomless Potion of the Diamond Bottomless Potion of the Diamond is a straightforward addition that simply layers a short All Resist protective coating after drinking (All Resistance is the preferred form of mitigation stacking for Strength-based characters, since their mainstat scales Armor already.)

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 reviewed for Season 26.
  • 09 Dec. 2021: Added Season 25 Soul Shard recommendations.
  • 18 Sep. 2021: Skill, passive and item recommendations thoroughly revised for Season 24.
  • 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: Item recommendations revised for Season 18.
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