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Akkhan Invoker Bombardment Crusader Guide

Last Updated: January 11th 2024

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Introduction

Bombardment Solo Push
View all variants

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 after the nerf, Bombardment Crusader was the second best Crusader solo build. But then came the Akkhan set rework and while it didn't completely kill the build, it definitely was pushed out of relevance.

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

Core Item Build

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 30 Soul Shards

Soul Shards are powerful socketable items that initially dropped during Season 25 but they are returning for Season 30! There are 4 available for Weapons based on the Lesser Evils, with another 3 for Helmets based on the Prime Evils. They drop at Rank 0 and be upgraded three times with the brand new Hellforge Embers to unlock additional powers, or be used in the Kanai's Cube as Augments. Here's how they progress:

  • Rank 0: Soul Shards begin with a unique static Legendary Power. Creates a Rank 50 Augment.
  • Rank 1: Gives all powers from the normal gems. Creates a Rank 75 Augment.
  • Rank 2: Grants one additional powerful stat. Creates a Rank 100 Augment.
  • Rank 3: Unlocks 1 of 3 bonus Legendary Powers unique to that Soul Shard. Creates a Rank 125 Augment.

Warning: Leoric's Crown and Broken Crown do not work with Soul Shards!

Read our Soul Shards Guide written by Chewingnom for full details on how they work. What you should prioritize on them for Solo Pushing is the following:

  1. The Correct Soul Shard & Rank 3 Power
    The best shards for Solo Pushing are:
    • Helmets: We want to use Sliver of Terror for the massive damage buff from our abilities on cooldown. For the Rank 3 power take the Ring of Fire to unleash a devastating AoE blast for big leaderboard pushes!
    • Weapons: We want to use Remnant of Pain to let our Bombardment Crit. For the Rank 3 power take the additional Attack Speed to further power up your character!
  2. The Rank 2 Stat
    The stats that come from the second upgrade are not equal. Here's what we're looking for on them:
    • Helmets: We want either Main Stat for damage or Melee/Ranged Damage Reduction to survive. Avoid Armor and All Resistance as their stat ranges are far too low compared to the others options.
    • Weapons: We want Physical Damage to boost our character's power the furthest. Avoid Attack Speed and Critical Hit Chance as their stat ranges are too low compared to the others.
  3. The Stat Ranges on the Rank 1 and 2 Powers
    This is just icing on the cake because the ranges will not make or break your build. Still, look for the Soul Shards with the best stat ranges, especially on the offensive stats.

For the other game modes, other Soul Shards can be used. Check the Variants below to see what's used there.

What about extra Soul Shards? Either salvage them for gems, or upgrade and use them in Kanai's Cube for Augments.

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. Thanks to Remnant of Pain our Thorns damage can crit so we stack Critical Hit Damage.

Assembling the Build

Item Stat Priorities

Gems

Skills

Passives

Paragon Points

Altar of Rites

Follower

Gameplay

Hardcore

Variants

Nephalem Rifts
GR Solo Speeds
GR Solo Push
T16 Solo

Concept
In T16 variant we drop Thorns of the Invoker set entirely. There's two reasons for that. First, it's incredibly clunky and you need to stop to hit or get hit all the time to get stacks. Second, Bombardment oneshots everything short of the Rift Guardian even without the set. Instead of damage we focus entirely on Movement Speed and Cooldown Reduction. This build is outclassed by AoV FotH Crusader but it's playstyle is ideal for watching a movie on your second screen.

Gameplay
This is the ultimate lazy build. Belt of the Trove automatically casts a Bombardment (which lasts 4s) every 4s. And that alone will kill everything in sight, as long as you have Akarat's Champion active. So all you have to do is go through the rift and pick up loot. Unfortunately, Belt of the Trove stops casting when there's no enemies on screen, which happens all the time in T16. You can cast your own Bombardment to get some more barrels, but it's not necessary.

Setups
This build is pretty tanky but it's not running Goldwrap, so you have to respect stacked molten explosions. If you ain't about that life, drop Captain Crimson's Trimmings set and get Goldwrap and Gloves of Worship instead.

When playing in groups, equip Nemesis Bracers, replace Rechel's Ring of Larceny with Avarice Band and exchange Captain Crimson's Trimmings for Sage's Journey. On the Rift Guardian switch to Cain's Insight and Cain's Travelers to get extra Greater Rift Keystones.

Bomb Solo XP

Concept
This is almost the same build as the one used for solo pushing, the only differences being Zei's Stone of Vengeance instead of Bane of the Stricken, and Stone of Jordan instead of Unity.

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, Phalanx and Iron Skin. 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.

Bomb Solo Push

Concept
In season 30 we need an extra skill slot to proc Remnant of Pain which makes it impossible to get good number of Invoker stacks. So we replace it with Aughild's Authority.

Gameplay
With this build you follow a 16s rotation tied to your Convention of Elements. At the start of Lightning stop moving and let the monsters gather around you. Couple seconds later, when the CoE buff is at 8 o'clock, use Iron Skin and Bombardment. Quickly follow it up with Steed Charge to get just outside the pull and blind them with Shield Glare. Move into Oculus Ring when it spawns.

To maximize your damage, sync up your Belt of the Trove and Convention of Elements. For that you need to drink a potion when your current element is 1s away from running out (CoE buff at 9 o'clock). Keep in mind that if you have no enemies around, Belt of the Trove will not fire, it will most likely desync and you'll have to do it again. The same will happen if you drink the potion at the wrong moment, so try to avoid panic potions. Changing zones also resets the internal cooldown of the belt, so you need to do it at the same time (3s into any element).

On this build you have plenty of toughness but almost no recovery. Instead you can "die" every few seconds thanks to Akarat's Champion. Especially during your rotation when you go in and facetank everything you are almost guaranteed to die once or twice, so make sure that your Akarat's Champion is up.

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.

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