Introduction
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Almost completely forgotten and barely able to clear GR125, Bombardment Crusader received a whole bunch of buffs in Season 22 patch. Between reduced cooldown on Belt of the Trove, buffed damage on Armor of Akkhan and Norvald's Fervor sets, and separate multipliers added to The Mortal Drama and Belt of the Trove, the build's damage was buffed by approximately 33 Greater Rift tiers. As it turns out, a build that can clear GR158 (if it existed) solo is a tad overpowered. The build was nerfed before hitting live by approximately 10 tiers via Thorns of the Invoker adjustment.
Even with the nerf taken into account, Bombardment Crusader is the second best Crusader solo build. It also can be used as a GR150-capable trash clearer, although better options exist there.
Akkhan Invoker Bombardment Crusader is a Thorns build, which makes it very easy to get going, but at the same time leaves a lot of room for gear hunt. Getting all items in Ancient quality with Thorns secondary rolls on everything is no easy task.
This build utilizes at least 4 different sets: Armor of Akkhan, Thorns of the Invoker, Norvald's Fervor and Captain Crimson's Trimmings. Some versions of it can also include Bastions of Will set, making it the first Set-only build in history in Diablo III. So if you are worried about the environment, this is your chance: "Play green crusader—save the Earth!"
Tanky ✔
Lazy Playstyle Available ✔
Easy to Get Starter Gear ✔
Can do Everything on the Move ✔
❌ Invoker 2P is Clunky
❌ Cooldown Dependency
❌ Limited Control Over your Damage
❌ Wildly Inconsistent Damage vs Bosses
Core Setup
Items
- The Armor of Akkhan set provides 50% damage reduction, 1,500% damage increase, and it lets us easily achieve 100% uptime on Akarat's Champion.
- Thorns of the Invoker (2) Bonus increases Thorns by up to 900%.
- Captain Crimson's Trimmings gives around 60% DPS, 20% Cooldown Reduction, which is necessary to reach our Breakpoints, and around 70% damage reduction.
- Norvald's Fervor set increases damage by 200% and lets us spam Steed Charge.
- Ring of Royal Grandeur allows us to get full bonuses from all these sets.
- The Mortal Drama doubles the number of Bombardment impacts and increases its damage by 500%.
- Belt of the Trove casts a free Bombardment every 4 seconds and increases its damage by another 500%.
Season 28 Altar of Rites
Season 28 brings a brand new progression feature called the Altar of Rites that grants tremendous powers to your entire account in exchange for sacrifices. It requires you to farm Bounties, kill the Ubers, craft the Staff of Herding, and more. Completing all 26 of these tasks, along with sacrificing 6 Primal Ancients grants you unbelievable Damage, Defense, Quality of Life, Increased Drops, 3 Potion Super Powers, and the juicy Wings of Terror. Read the full guides on Unlocking the Altar and the Altar Mechanics by Raxxanterax and Chewingnom to learn everything about this fantastic Season!
Note: The suggested path assumes you are playing Solo and used the Challenge Rift Cache to help you level up.
Optimal Path
Node 2: Choose Anointed to gain a full set of 70 yellows from level 18-70!
Node 6: Rush to gain double Bounties to help unlock other Nodes in the Altar.
Nodes 7-14: These are the last Nodes you can gain until the Challenge Rift resets. Take at least 1 Node at the bottom of each path to unlock all 3 Potion Super Powers. Pick up the Mirror Node at the top for a colossal 41% extra XP all season. Remember to unlock Father once you clear GR70 solo and have your first Primal!
Nodes 15-26: Pick up the final Quality of Life, Damage, and Defense Nodes (in that order) to finish the Altar.
Potion Super Powers: Take Father first, then Mother, and finally Mortal.
Disclaimer: The Mortal and Mother Potions require you to salvage 2 and 3 Primals respectively. Unlock them as soon as you have those materials as they don't cost a point!
Use the Scroll Bar to see Altar Progression
Global Stat Priorities
Stack Cooldown Reduction to reach 59.3% CDR breakpoint. This lets you cast Bombardment every 16 seconds, on every Physical cycle of Convention of Elements.
Make sure your defensive slots—Boots, Pants and Belt—have Vitality and Resistance to All Elements on them. Your DPS stats are: Physical Damage > Bombardment Damage > Area Damage > Thorns. Attack Speed is mostly useless as it only lets you stack Bane of the Stricken faster; you can get some in place of Strength at high Paragon. Critical Hit Chance & Damage are completely useless, because they don't affect Thorns damage.
Assembling the Build
Item Stat Priorities
Gems
Skills
Passives
Paragon Points
Follower
Gameplay
Hardcore
Variants
Concept
This is almost the same build as the one used for solo pushing at low paragon, the only differences being Bane of the Powerful instead of Bane of the Stricken, Condemn Vacuum in place of Laws of Valor and Akarat's Champion Rally. This build is quite clunky and slow so your runs will be around 4-5 minutes long.
Gameplay
In speedruns, you mostly ignore your Convention of Elements and just use your Bombardment when you see a lot of high HP mobs or an elite pack. Spam Akarat's Champion, Iron Skin and Condemn. When you find a yellow elite and kill everything around it, don't stay and wait for it to die, take it with you on a ride via Draw and Quarter!
Setups
At high Paragon (3,000+) switch from Guardian's Jeopardy to Aughild's Authority for more damage.
Video Guide
Mechanics
Thorns
Thorns of the Invoker (2) Bonus
Bombardment Barrels of Spikes
Belt of the Trove
Summary
- Reach 55.8% Cooldown Reduction before anything else
- Cast Bombardment on Physical Convention of Elements cycles
- Stack Area Damage, Physical Damage and Thorns
- The monsters go "poof"
Dropping barrels full of spikes on top of monsters seems a bit impolite, but hey, it works!
Credits
Written by Northwar.
Changelog
- 19 February 2023
Updated for Season 28 / Patch 2.7.5. - 18 August 2022
Updated for Season 27 / Patch 2.7.4. - 3 April 2022
Updated for Season 26 / Patch 2.7.3.