D3 S27 Crusader Fresh Level 70 Guide | 2.7.4

Well, let’s not beat around the bush. The fourth Kanai’s Cube slot is the ultimate buff here. Sure, the Pylons spawning a certain kind of “shadow clone” is cool and exciting in its own way… But when it comes to pure POWER, a fourth Kanai’s slot is probably the strongest ever buff we’ve had!

It doesn’t really help early on, but as you gather more and more legendary effects it will help you out quite a bit. In the end-game, this is, at the very least, a 20/30% power spike to your character.

REROLLING YELLOW ITEMS IS SUPER LEGIT, CHEAP, AND UNDERRATED.
Nicely rerolled yellows will carry you for a LONG TIME.

Craft a Reaper’s Wraps ASAP. For this build, more than most, resource generation will be an issue. Plans drop from any Torment Malthael, and you should get the bounty mats soon enough.

WEAPON: Craft of find a 2H Flail. The stats you want are STR VIT LpH or LpWS (Life per Wrath Spent). Socket is fine too (Purple gem for LpH, Red for DMG+, Green for CHD+). Avoid any other stat for now.

Crusader is an STR Class – meaning you get free ARMOR from all the STR on your gear. This results in a huge lack of ALL RESISTS. So, in your reroll strategy REMOVE ALL ARMOR ROLLS as they’re pretty much USELESS – and replace them with ALL RESISTS. ALLRES is your best defensive stat by a LARGE MARGIN. Socketing Diamonds also gives you ALLRES.

SELF HEALING: Life per Hit and Life per Wrath Spent are huge for your early game survival. You want at least some of it on your gear. LpH rolls on almost anything, but LpWS only shows up on Flails and CRUSADER SHIELDS. Ideally, you want at least one roll of each.

Elemental% can be found on Bracers and Amulets. You ideally want it on both. It’s a toss-up between Holy% and Lightning%. Holy lends itself to be the speedier and safer element, while Lightning is the more tryhard option. If I were to recommend one for the “early to mid” game, and speedfarming – it’s gotta be Holy%

Skill% (Fist of the Heavens%) can be found on Chest and Shoulder. Typically, it’s safer to roll on shoulder, but if you’re removing trash stats for it you can take it on chest, too. In the end you’ll want it on both – even if it has a negative impact on your defenses from chest.

Chest / Legs: STR VIT ALLRES Sockets (3/2). Life% isn’t bad, either. Since you typically get these pieces last, you’ll want decent fillers until you get your 6pc set.

Belt: Is a huge source of defense. STR  > VIT > RES > Life%. You’ll be surprised how a single item can give you a whole load of toughness.

Rings and Amulet: You NEED sockets on these to prep for legendary gems. Get any stat on these that you feel you’re missing. Feeling soft? Get defenses. Need DPS? Crit and mainstat. Feel free to roll “random helpful stats” on these for now, instead of the usual endgame CHC/CHD/MAINSTAT.

GEMS: For body pieces you’ll want Diamonds for ALLRES. Helm may vary (Amethyst for Life%, Topaz for resource cost reduction, Diamond for Cooldown Reduction) depending on your needs. For early game Valor, Topaz on helm is a good idea.

OTHER SLOTS will be taken over by your free set pieces. No matter how bad they are stat wise, the 4pc bonus will heavily outperform any temporary yellow you can make.

Getting the “correct” stats beats getting the “perfect” stats for now. REMOVE USELESS STATS and get any USEFUL STAT for massive gains in power.

Remove useless stats

• Life Regeneration – garbage.
• Attack Speed – it usually an endgame tune-up stat.
• Excessive Resource Cost Reduction – Is a crutch, and only niche builds need it.
• Excessive Cooldown Reduction – Only useful for an endgame “need”.
• Armor – Useless for us, take ALLRES instead.

Take better stats

• STR VIT – can’t go wrong with these. Your core stats!
• ALLRES Life% – Great defensive stats.
• Life per Hit – Great early game sustainability.
• CRIT Stats (CHC / CHD) – More for endgame, but I’d take this over garbage stats.

Bring out Templar with you. The resource generation you can get from him helps!

For clarity this box contains info and builds if you currently have 0 pcs of the Savages free set, going for 2 (you don’t have any Haedrig’s gift bag, going for the first).

This build just so happens to look like Valor already. This build is SHIELDLESS purely to amp up our DPS – using a 2H Flail without having to use the Heavenly Strength passive. It struggles with Wrath Generation so my tip about crafting a Reaper’s Wraps is a huge help. Also reminding you; TOPAZ ON HELM.

If you have a powerful legendary – edit the build to accommodate it if needed.

*Pressing Shift+J (PC) opens up your Seasonal Journey tracker!*

The entries in these early chapters are dead easy. The build above gives you a good balance of offense, defense, and speed built in to help you breeze through this as mindlessly as possible.

Hard Mode on for Chapters 1 & 2. Clear through all the entries on Hard. Just up the difficulty to complete one Neph on Expert.

Don’t forget to level up all the NPCs in town. Completing your weekly Challenge Rift will help you get resources to do this easily, if you haven’t already.

When you’re done here, get your first free set from your mail, and proceed onward.

For clarity this box contains builds and info if you currently have 2 pcs of the Savages free set, going for 4 (you have the first Haedrig’s gift bag, going for the second).

Maximizing the 2pc bonus is WORTH. Basically clear piles with your Fist, and clean up fatties with Heaven’s Fury. Useful for killing elites and bosses quicker! The rune choice is really up to you (I personally liked Fires). Something something Reaper’s Topaz…

Minor adjustments, removing chaff skills and trying to gain as much Wrath as we can.

If you have a powerful legendary – edit the build to accommodate it if needed.

*Pressing Shift+J (PC) opens up your Seasonal Journey tracker!*

Difficulty: Although there are entries here that need to be finished on Master, you can still complete the bounty cache, if you haven’t already, on Hard. For the bounty, try to do the whole five acts as you’ll need to do this down the line anyway.

These entries are still on the easy side, so we can be a little lax with our build making as little sacrifices as possible to retain good DPS, Speed, and some thought to defense. When you’re done with this chapter, collect your 2nd set of Haedrig’s gift and let’s finish the next chapter for the remaining free gear!

4pc Valor gives us much needed resource generation and some defensive capability. The build just instantly feels “better”. DEFENSE will be your only issue as you can pump out a respectable amount of DPS right now.

From here on, you should be transitioning into a Shield (and essentially losing a passive). I mean, don’t force it until you have a good one, but keep it in mind that you’ll need the extra stats from here on.

This build will be the baseline for all entries in this tier (Torment II, IV, and GR20). While this build may seem overkill for the Torment II entries, you may as well prep up for the harder parts of this tier.

Upgrade a Rare to Legendary w/ Kanai’s Cube: 1H Flail for Darklight.

Complete a Torment I Rift: This will be the minimum level you should be farming at should you need to do it. Increase if you can easily obliterate a rift. There’s also a “Kill a Torment II Boss” entry here which should be easy.

Complete any other odds and ends that you can, before proceeding to Torment IV.

Build template in the Torment II tab.

Thankfully, we do have the DPS. You just have to make sure your self-healing and defenses are up to par. Valor is one of the better sets when it comes to 2/4pc bonuses and this shouldn’t be too bad.

In Torment IV things get real. For many of the free sets, this place is the breakpoint whether your build needs help or not. And for S22 and Valor – “GGEZ”.

• Kill Odeg – Keywarden in ACT I, Fields of Misery.
• Kill Sokahr – Keywarden in ACT II, Dahlgur Oasis.
• Kill Xah’Rith – Keywarden in ACT III, Stonefort.
• Kill Nekarat – Keywarden in ACT IV, Gardens of Hope 2nd Tier.
• Kill Specific Boss – Check your journal to see who it is this season.
• Keywardens maps have a key icon next to the waypoint. Purple arrows point you to their location after a short while once you’re in their respective map.

For the boss and all Keywardens – STRAIGHT UP RUSH TO THEM!
Ignore ALL TRASH and just beeline! Get it done ASAP!

You’ll really notice if you’ve neglected your temporary yellow gear and rerolls. Hopefully you have powerful legendary/ies to carry you (and even if you do), you will notice if you’ve neglected your gear. Refer to the very top setting up tab if you need help.

Either way, this is a good time to take a closer look at your items and get as many powerups and rerolls stated in the setting up tab above.

No changes to build.

Repeated deaths will be your only issue. You NEED to have a good amount of defense and self-healing to get past this safely. Thankfully, your DPS should be ok even if you do this straight up RAW without any other legendary effects.

Overall, I didn’t feel like this was very challenging. If you neglected survivability and play loosely you MIGHT fail. Not too worried though, this was one of the easier ones.

You should have an idea of how strong you are given the drops (or lack thereof) you’ve gotten. Be practical and don’t be afraid to shore up your build a little. If you feel a little weak – Do 4 quick Nephs, then do 4 GR10+.

The “ultimate” challenge gating you to getting your full six piece free set! The difficulty varies wildly on your class and seasonal set. As someone who has cleared with EVERY SINGLE SET AND CLASS WITHOUT ANY OTHER LEGENDARY – let me tell you, they’re not all created equal.

As implied, these are the items that are core, or important, to your build. I talk more about how to obtain these later on – remember to keep these in mind always.

At the very bottom of this guide, you can preview what a good base template build is for items / skills / passives to get an idea what you’re going for.

As implied, these are the items that are core, or important, to your build. I talk more about how to obtain these later on – remember to keep these in mind always.

At the very bottom of this guide, you can preview what a good base template build is for items / skills / passives to get an idea what you’re going for.