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AoV Heaven’s Fury Crusader Guide

Last Updated: January 10th 2024

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Introduction

AoV HF Solo Push
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Aegis of Valor (AoV) is the latest Crusader set to be introduced into the game with Season 19. Featuring some impressive numbers—15,000% increased damage, as well as the only stacking buff in the game that was stacking multiplicatively with itself—this set brought about a new era in the world of Diablo III power creep. The highest Greater Rift tier—150—was cleared solo for the first time using AoV Heaven's Fury (HF) Crusader build.

Since then the build was nerfed in 5 separate occasions each time roughly halving the power of the setup, with the addition of a cap to Shield of Fury stacks then a nerf to it, the prevention of animation canceling, the nerf to Ivory Tower and finally the nerf to the (2) Bonus stacks to be additive instead of multiplicative with themselves.

However the build still stands as one of the strongest Rift Guardian Killers and one of the strongest solo builds across all classes. The raw power of the set itself also makes it very easy to get into higher difficulties straight away, even before the full build is completed.

This is an Area Damage (AD) build when using Norvald's Fervor setup, since selfcast Heaven's Fury can proc it, while other setups are not as Shield of Fury does not interact with it and Ivory Tower casts cannot proc it either (see Mechanics). Apart from Heaven's Fury, the set also increases damage of Fist of the Heavens (FotH). AoV FotH Crusader really shines in lower difficulty speedfarming content such as Nephalem Rifts, Bounties and Speed Greater Rifts, where Heaven's Fury is not so good due to its small AoE and overall clunkiness.

Easy to Play ✔
Good Sustain ✔
Good Season Starter ✔
Excellent Single Target Damage ✔

❌ Slow
❌ Limited Skill Choices
❌ Clunky Supporting Items
❌ Sensitive to CC Resistance

Core Setup

Core Item Build

Items

  • Aegis of Valor set provides 50% damage reduction, nearly infinite Wrath and whopping x717 Heaven's Fury damage increase.
  • Captain Crimson's Trimmings set provides roughly 60% DPS increase and more than 100% toughness boost.
  • Ring of Royal Grandeur is necessary to get the full benefit from both sets.
  • Fate of the Fell increases Heaven's Fury by 500% and adds 2 extra beams, in case of Fires of Heaven all three beams can hit the same target, dealing triple damage.
  • Shield of Fury increases Heaven's Fury damage by up to 300%
  • Bracer of Fury increases Heaven's Fury damage by 400% but only against enemies affected by some of hard Crowd Control (CC) effects.
  • Convention of Elements - due to the restriction imposed by Bracer of Fury this ring becomes much more valuable, increasing the overall damage output by more than 150% if CC is overlapped with Holy part of the cycle.


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 additional Attack Speed and Critical Hit Chance to further boost your character's power.
    • Weapons: We want to use Remnant of Pain for the 100% Critical Hit Chance to incapacitated enemies. 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 either % Damage or Holy 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

Get at least 55% Cooldown Reduction to have high uptime on Akarat's Champion. Make sure your defensive slots—Boots, Pants and Belt—have Vitality and All Resistance on them. Stack DPS stats wherever possible: Holy Damage Increase, Heaven's Fury Damage, Critical Hit Damage and Critical Hit Chance. Area Damage should be mostly ignored, because it doesn't get buffed by Shield of Fury.

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
GR Group TK
GR Group RGK
AoV HF T16

Concept
Using AoV Heaven's Fury Crusader in Torment 16 is a lot like coming to a carnival shooting game with your own 105mm M102 Howitzer: people give you weird looks but it works. Generally AoV FotH Crusader will be better for T16, but this is fun in its own way and you also can use Cain's Destiny.

Here we drop almost all our damage multipliers: Shield of Fury, Bracer of Fury, Convention of Elements, Finery, Holy Cause are all gone. However, each of three beams still deals enough damage to oneshot yellow Elites on non-critical hit!

Since the damage is so overwhelming we focus on other stats: Attack Speed, CDR, and Movement Speed. We use a bunch of standard T16 items: Goldwrap, Avarice Band, Boon of the Hoarder, Warzechian Armguards.

Gameplay
This is red-hot 1,000°C Crusader vs Nephalem Rift. Your Heaven's Fury is replaced with a Disintegration Ray and everything it touches evaporates instantly. Rush through the rift and mainly hunt for Elites. The only buff you have to keep up is Laws of Hope Wings of Angels. Don't forget to cast Fist of the Heavens sometimes for Wrath.

Setups
When playing in groups, equip Nemesis Bracers, use Avarice Band instead of Stone of Jordan, and Sage's Journey instead of Captain Crimson's Trimmings. On the boss, equip 2 pieces of Cain's Destiny and Bracer of Fury. When the boss becomes targetable, use Judgment Deliberation to immobilize it for 10 seconds. Even without 20,000% damage from Aegis of Valor (6) Bonus, you will kill the boss in just a few seconds. Enjoy your extra Greater Rift Keystones!

AoV HF Solo XP

Concept
This version of the build is designed for 4 minute runs in low-mid GRs. Convention of Elements is not great in speedruns so we use Unity instead. Molten Wildebeest's Gizzard and St. Archew's Gage protect our Squirt's Necklace. Since we want to CC different mobs all the time, we use Shield Glare over Judgment for its shorter cooldown. We can't fit in Shield of Fury, but most of the targets will be dead long before we can hit them 10 times, so it's not that good anyway.

Gameplay
The gameplay is pretty straightforward: you rush through the rift with Steed Charge looking for Elites and juicy packs of trash mobs. When you find them, you use Shield Glare and obliterate them with a few Heaven's Fury casts. Don't forget to keep up your buffs and randomly cast Fist of the Heavens every few seconds for Wrath.

Setups
If you are struggling to keep your Squirt's Necklace buff up, switch to Endless Walk. Replace St. Archew's Gage with Aquila Cuirass and Molten Wildebeest's Gizzard with Bane of the Powerful. This setup is more clunky so you need to do 5-6 minute runs in higher tier GRs.

Select Build Version

Norvald's Fervor
Norvald's Fervor Solo Push

Concept
In season 30 we can use Norvald's Fervor version of the build without farming outrageously high paragon. Thanks to Remnant of Pain we can drop all Crit Chance for more toughness and we also get damage reduction from Sliver of Terror. This version of the build deals slightly more damage and can also make use of Area Damage but it is incredibly squishy. Instead of having permanent Akarat's Champion, we now play a 32 second rotation. This eases up the Cooldown Reduction requirements as we now need only 64.5%. In its place we get some Area Damage rolls.

Gameplay
The skills are used exactly as described in core gameplay section but now you need to also use Steed Charge before every Holy rotation of Convention of Elements. During your DPS window, you need to position yourself next to Elites or high HP mobs to hit them with all 3 beams of Heaven's Fury.

You are very vulnerable during your Akarat's Champion downtime. When your second damage phase ends immediately use Steed Charge to move to a safer area and keep running to switch Endless Walk into defense mode.

Setups
You can choose between Gogok of Swiftness and Pain Enhancer as your third legendary gem. The former is more consistent and gives you some toughness, while the latter has way more damage potential if you fish for the right rift.

Finally, you can choose between Judgment Debilitate and Shield Glare Divine Verdict. The latter is harder to use, since it has smaller area and shorter duration, but it's a lot stronger defensively (Blind vs 40% reduced damage) and about the same offensively (20% additive vs more attacks while CC lasts).

AoV TK

Concept
The job of a Trash Killer (TK) is killing normal (and sometimes elite) enemies in the rift to spawn the Rift Guardian. In this variant we drop Shield of Fury for Norvald's Fervor set. This lets us get full benefit out of Area Damage so we also need to stack it on gear. In this variant we play a 32 second Akarat's Champion rotation, so you need 64.5% Cooldown Reduction.

Gameplay
Your need to follow the rotation tied to your Convention of Elements. Activate Akarat's Champion exactly at the start of every other Holy cycle, so that you have the buff on every DPS rotation. Sit in the middle of the pull to maximize Pain Enhancer stacks and cast Fist of the Heavens for Wrath. Be careful to not put it on top of too many enemies, this skill can be very laggy with Area Damage! At the beginning of Physical cycle use Steed Charge and start attacking with Heaven's Fury to spawn an Oculus Ring. After it spawns cast Fist of the Heavens some more to refresh your Aegis of Valor (2) Bonus. One second before Holy use Steed Charge to move into an Oculus Ring and start blasting. At the same time your zBarb needs to use Ground Stomp to pull monsters together and stun them for your Bracer of Fury. It's very important that nobody else in the group applies any hard Crowd Control to monsters, as that will make the stun very short!!!

On the Rift Guardian, the gameplay is exactly the same as 2h RGK, except you also need to use Steed Charge one second before your Holy cycle.

Setups
At very high Paragon (5,000+), you can switch to Akarat's Champion Hasteful for more Attack Speed.

2h RGK

Rift Guardian Killer's (RGK) job is to kill the Rift Guardian at the end of the run.

Concept
This variant equips Fate of the Fell and cubes The Furnace. As a result the skill slot previously occupied by Blessed Hammer becomes free. Most commonly used skill is Steed Charge for extra mobility, although it can also be Judgment Resolved for damage or something else entirely.

Gameplay
The Rift Guardian fight is more simple than Hammers version: you don't have a separate skill to stack Bane of the Stricken, so all you have to do is make sure that you cast Fist of the Heavens in the last second of Fire and that you have enough Wrath to spam Heaven's Fury during Holy. When off-Holy you can freely alternate between Fist of the Heavens and Heaven's Fury, just make sure to get your Wrath back and then you can try to squeeze out an extra bit of DPS.

Setups
If you are dying too much in the rift, switch Holy Cause to Indestructible.

At very high Paragon (5,000+), you can switch to Akarat's Champion Hasteful for more Attack Speed.

Video Guide

Mechanics

Shield of Fury

Fate of the Fell

Bracer of Fury

Attack Speed Breakpoints

Ivory Tower

Summary

  • Put together the core items and acquire the full Aegis of Valor set.
  • Stack Cooldown Reduction to keep up all your defensive buffs.
  • Don't recast the buffs until they almost run out.
  • Only use Crowd Control skills directly before your Holy rotation.
  • Don't die 4Head

Cheers!

Credits

Written by Northwar.

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