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Roland Sweep Attack Crusader Guide

Last Updated: January 10th 2024

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Introduction

Roland Sweep Attack Solo Push
View all variants

Roland's Legacy Sweep Attack Crusader build is a very fun build to play. The set provides a massive 375% Attack Speed bonus, which lets you easily reach the Attack Speed cap, even when using a Two-Handed Mace, the slowest weapon in the game. If you want to run around Sanctuary, slapping demons across the face at Mach 20, then this is the build for you.

One nice thing about Roland's Legacy, is that it doesn't require any support skills. Just using your main attack, Sweep Attack or Shield Bash is enough to activate all of the bonuses. This lets you choose the remaining skills, and gives you freedom to customize any Roland's Legacy build exactly to your liking.

On current patch, Roland's Legacy Sweep Attack Crusader is completely outclassed by either Heavens's Fury Crusader or Fist of the Heavens Crusader in pushing and farming alike. But if you want to climb Roland's Legacy leaderboards, this is the build for you!

Tanky
Great Sustain ✔
Very High Attack Speed ✔

2 Completely Free Skill Slots ✔

❌ Small AoE
Short Range
Very Spammy
Not Enough Useful Passives

Core Setup

Core Item Build

Items

  • Roland's Legacy set provides 375% Attack Speed, 56% damage reduction, 40,000% Sweep Attack damage increase, and also lets us reset cooldowns of Iron Skin and the Law skill extremely fast.
  • Captain Crimson's Trimmings set gives around 60% DPS, 65% damage reduction as well as 20% CDR and RCR.
  • Ring of Royal Grandeur allows us to get full bonuses from both sets.
  • Golden Flense increases Sweep Attack damage by 300% and it also solves all our Wrath issues.
  • Denial increases Sweep Attack damage by up to 625%.

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 Essence of Anguish for the Movement Speed and Cooldown Reduction. For the Rank 3 power take the 50% increased Poison Damage, which actually applies to all damage done! Hint: Make sure to get a Poison Damage Range on your Weapon so it can proc the shard automatically.
  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 Fire 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 at least 55% Cooldown Reduction (CDR) to get decent uptime on Akarat's Champion. Life per Hit is your main source of recovery; make sure to have at least one roll on Weapon or Bracers. Since your Recovery is not dependent on your Life pool, you should prioritize mitigation stats—All Resist, Elite Reduction and Melee Reduction—over HP stats, when possible. Finally, stack DPS stats wherever possible: Fire Damage, Sweep Attack Damage, Critical Hit Damage, Critical Hit Chance and Area Damage. Any Attack Speed rolls on gear are completely useless, because your Attack Speed is capped just from Roland's Legacy (6) Bonus.

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 Sweep

Concept
In T16 version of the build we drop Denial to fit in Norvald's Fervor set, which is needed to spam Steed Charge. This build is not the fastest torment clearer, due to small AoE of Sweep Attack, but it gets the job done.

As many other T16 buids, we use the Gold Items: Goldwrap, Avarice Band and Boon of the Hoarder. Together, these three give you a screen-wide pick up radius, 30% Movement Speed, nearly infinite toughness, and a steady supply of gold. With toughness taken care of, we can focus mainly on mobility. We have Laws of Hope Wings of Angels, which not only gives Movement Speed, but also provides a shield to protect our Squirt's Necklace stacks. To make sure that this shield doesn't drop when there's not enough mobs around, we get Long Arm of the Law. Since we no longer have RCR from Unstoppable Force, we switch to Akarat's Champion Embodiment of Power.

Steed Charge Endurance is used for maximum mobility. In our last skill slot we have Condemn Vacuum to pull in the mobs. Obsidian Ring of The Zodiac helps with Akarat's Champion uptime and also lets us use Condemn more.

Gameplay
The gameplay is very simple: run up to mobs, slap them to death, run to the next group. There's no tricks.

Setups
If you play in a group, equip Nemesis Bracers and replace Stone of Jordan with Avarice Band. At high Paragon (3,500+), you can swap Captain Crimson's Trimmings to Sage's Journey for more Death's Breath drops.

Sweep Solo Speeds

Concept
This variant tries to get as much damage as possible, while staying mobile. For that we utilize The Furnace, Convention of Elements, and Squirt's Necklace + Molten Wildebeest's Gizzard combo. To protect the shield we need to have high and consistent damage mitigation. We use Laws of Valor Unstoppable Force, Aquila Cuirass, and Obsidian Ring of The Zodiac for 100% Akarat's Champion uptime. For this version healing is not needed, so you can get an extra CDR roll on your weapon instead.

Our free skill slots are occupied by utility skills: Condemn Vacuum and Steed Charge Draw and Quarter. Thanks to Obsidian Ring of The Zodiac, we can use these two fairly often.

Gameplay
Gameplay in speeds is pretty straightforward: you Steed Charge forward, use Condemn Vacuum to group the mobs, and Sweep Attack them to death.

One thing you should pay extra attention to is your Squirt's Necklace stacks. You have a big shield from Molten Wildebeest's Gizzard, and that shield can take quite a lot of hits. However, since you are melee and have to stop to deal damage, you are almost constantly getting hit. Because of that, your shield rarely has time to regenerate. If you notice that your Squirt's Necklace buff drops, you need to kill whatever you are fighting and then wait a couple of seconds before moving forward to let your shield refresh. If you don't do that, you might not see any Squirt's Necklace stacks until you spawn the Rift Guardian.

Setups
If you find that you Squirt's Necklace buff drops too often, and you don't want to play that shield minigame, you can switch to a different setup that is using Bastions of Will for damage. You have to lose Steed Charge to fit in Justice Sword of Justice but it's not too bad, since you have Iron Skin Flash constantly up. Instead of Molten Wildebeest's Gizzard you use Bane of the Powerful. Squirt's Necklace stays there but it's only useful during the Shield Pylon.

Roland Sweep Solo Push

Concept
The solo push version aims to get as much damage and toughness as possible. For damage, we have Endless Walk set, Strongarm Bracers, The Furnace, Magefist, and Convention of Elements. For toughness, we use Laws of Valor Unstoppable Force. Our third legendary gem is Gogok of Swiftness, which helps us reach 64.5% CDR breakpoint, necessary for 32s cooldown on Akarat's Champion. Our free skill slots are occupied by utility skills: Condemn Vacuum and Steed Charge Draw and Quarter.

Gameplay
Generally, your journey through the rift should follow this rotation:

Convention of Elements CycleActions
2s into HolyFind a place to make a pull; try to position your Templar in the middle. Run around with Condemn Vacuum active to suck in all the mobs.
3s into LightningStand in the middle of the pull and don't move to let Endless Walk switch into damage mode.
3s into PhysicalActivate Condemn Vacuum again to apply Strongarm Bracers debuff.
Start of FireActivate Akarat's Champion, if it's not on cooldown. Stand still and DPS the pull; move to Oculus Ring's zone when it appears.
Start of Holy Use Steed Charge Draw and Quarter to move forward, taking surviving high-HP trash and elites with you.

Of course, you don't have to move every 16s; if you have enough mobs left alive, you can stay and do another DPS rotation.

Setups
You can go for a lower CDR breakpoint: 47.7%. With that you get 48s cooldown on Akarat's Champion and you can have it active during 2 Fire rotations out of 3. In return you get to use Zei's Stone of Vengeance and Amplification from your Enchantress. This version is slightly weaker than 32s one, but it's easier to get the gear for it.

Video Guide

Guide Video

Mechanics

Sweep Attack

Roland's Legacy

Summary

  • Stack CDR to reach the 64.5% Breakpoint.
  • Get Life per Hit on your Weapon.
  • Get one Resource Cost Reduction roll.
  • Always use Blazing Sweep.

Sweep your enemies away with tide of... sweeps... I guess...

Credits

Written by Northwar.

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