Introduction
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Thorns of the Invoker Crusader build, as the name implies, utilizes Thorns to deal damage. However, the Thorns of the Invoker (6) Bonus makes sure that 99.7% of your damage comes from Punish, effectively turning this build into Generator Crusader with Thorns itemization.
Bombardment changes in Season 22 Patch made Akkhan/Invoker Bombardment build incredibly overpowered, so Thorns of the Invoker set was adjusted to move even more of its power into the (6) Bonus. Buffed at the same time Norvald's Fervor set was now strong enough to be included into the build and overall Invoker Crusader came out of the whole ordeal stronger than it was before.
Invoker Crusader is quite strong as a Rift Guardian Killer. It's also very consistent and brings a great buff Laws of Valor Critical for your Trash Killer.
In solo this build is also quite strong, but it has some major playstyle issues. The only thing you do in this build is stand still and hold down your attack button. All the other skills are just toughness buffs and you cast them as soon as they come off cooldown.
Tanky ✔
Great Sustain ✔
Very High Attack Speed ✔
Great Single Target Damage ✔
❌ Small AoE
❌ Extremely Boring
❌ Inconsistent Toughness
❌ Very Bad at Speedfarming
Core Setup
Items
- Thorns of the Invoker set provides 50% damage reduction, 100% Punish attack speed, 900% increased Thorns, and also lets your Punish deal 675 times your Thorns as damage.
- Captain Crimson's Trimmings set gives around 65% DPS and 65% damage reduction, as well as 20% Cooldown Reduction.
- Ring of Royal Grandeur allows us to get full bonuses from all the sets.
- Aquila Cuirass provides 50% damage reduction, that is always active in a Generator build.
- Endless Walk provides another 100% damage boost.
Global Stat Priorities
There are no Cooldown Reduction Breakpoints in this build, but you still stack as much CDR as possible for more uptime on defensive buffs, as well as more DPS from Captain Crimson's Trimmings. In terms of Attack Speed, you should aim towards a 7 frames Breakpoint (see here for more information), which is achievable with 7% roll on Pig Sticker and a total of 27% on Jewelry and Gloves. You should invest heavily into Life per Hit, as it is your only source of Recovery; try to get at least 40k of it. As usual, you stack DPS stats everywhere—Physical Damage, Elite Damage, Thorns Damage and Strength. Critical Hit Chance, Critical Hit Damage and Area Damage do not work with Thorns and should be ignored.
Assembling the Build
Item Stat Priorities
Gems
Skills
Passives
Paragon Points
Follower
Gameplay
Hardcore
Variants
Concept
The solo push version uses Endless Walk set, Convention of Elements and Echoing Fury to maximize damage. Akarat's Awakening helps us reset cooldowns on all our buffs.
Gameplay
With this build you want to fight lots of small melee trash monsters with some elites mixed in. Try to stand next to your Enchantress so that she doesn't lure the mobs away from you.
You deal pretty good damage to elites and can kill them on big enough maps but you still never want to fight just elites. You need some trash around to feed you Echoing Fury stacks, Oculus Rings and blocks for Akarat's Awakening.
During the bossfight, you won't block enough attacks to keep all your buffs constantly active so instead of spamming Iron Skin and Laws of Valor you can alternate them. This way you always have one of the 50% damage reduction buffs up, and that should be enough to save you from getting oneshot.
Setups
If you are lacking toughness (or playing Hardcore), you can swap Convention of Elements for Justice Lantern. For that, you need to cube Ring of Royal Grandeur and equip the Justice Lantern itself, otherwise you will be missing out on 16% extra Block Chance. This version is twice as tanky, and it also has more consistent uptime on defensive buffs; the downside, of course, is 40% less damage.
At very high Paragon (6,000+) you can use Norvald's Fervor set. You need CDR on every piece and Long Arm of the Law passive to get almost 100% uptime on Laws of Valor and 32s rotation on Akarat's Champion. This setup deals about 60% more damage but you are extremely squishy when Akarat's Champion and/or Iron Skin is down.
Concept
In RGK version of this build all our equipped items stay the same, only two items the cube change. We drop Akarat's Awakening to get The Furnace. Instead of resetting our cooldowns with blocks, we now just stack as much CDR as possible. Leoric's Crown in the armor slot helps with that. Since we no longer need to block, we drop Provoke for Bombardment to activate Thorns of the Invoker (4) Bonus. We switch the rune on Laws of Valor from Unstoppable Force for Critical to buff the damage of our Trash Killer.
Gameplay
In the rift, use your Laws of Valor Critical on your Trash Killer's DPS rotation. You can also put some damage on the Elites, if you manage to get close to them.
On the boss, you just need hold down Slash and activate your buffs in sync with your Convention of Elements. Iron Skin and Laws of Valor at the start of every Physical and Akarat's Champion at the start of every other Physical.
Setups
If you are struggling to stay alive you have several options: you can give up the Attack Speed roll on the necklace to get Stone Gauntlets in the cube. You can change Finery to Long Arm of the Law and Critical to Unstoppable Force. Finally you can switch to Akarat's Champion Prophet. Each of these changes will cost you 12-25% DPS but hey, it's better than dying!
You can choose between Endurance and Draw and Quarter runes on your Steed Charge. The former lets you adjust your position inside the pull so that you can try DPSing Elites in the rift. The latter lets you pull the mobs, which can be very powerful in an open map, thanks to Norvald's Fervor.
Video Guide
Mechanics
Thorns
Thorns of The Invoker
Summary
- Stack CDR, AS, LpH, Physical Damage, Elite Damage, and Thorns.
- Ignore Area Damage and crit stats.
- Never let go of your Slash!
Stab, stab, stab!
Credits
Written by Northwar.