Crusader Leveling and Fresh 70 Guide (2024)

Last updated on Apr 10, 2024 at 09:00by Deadset30 comments

The purpose of the beginner Crusader guide is to provide you with a build anditem recommendations that will reliably carry you from leveling, through thepre-Torment difficulties and get you into low Torment farming, without requiringspecific legendary or set bonuses. The guide also includes a section for SeasonalCrusaders, explaining how best to take advantage of the free set from Haedrig'sGifts.

Choose the Crusader if you imagine yourself clad in the heaviest of armors,destroying your enemies with equal parts holy power and raw martial prowess.Descending into battle on a ghostly steed, consecrating the fighting groundsand enfeebling the enemy with resolute judgments, the Crusader proceeds toannihilate the demonic hordes with celestial energy and bombardment volleys.Strengthening your entire party with mighty buffing laws, you are the ultimatetactician in Diablo 3.

Your progression on a given character always start with leveling to 70. Tohelp you with that, we have a beginner leveling build that you can access usingthe link below.

After reaching Level 70, the easiest way to start gearing up and progressing towardsthe end-game is by using the set given by the Haedrig's Gifts. Haedrig's Giftsare cache-like rewards that drop 2 pieces of a fixed class-specific set aftercompleting chapters II, III, and IV of the Seasonal Journey. Havinga full 6-piece set bonus available to you will skyrocket your character's power wellin the mid-to-high Torments. This makes the early portion of the Seasonal Journey yourfirst priority upon reaching Level 70.

This Season, Crusaders will find the Roland's Legacy set in theirHaedrig's Gifts. We have an early progression build for this set, which you canfind by clicking the link below.

While you get a fixed free set at the start of every Season, it is notunreasonable to assume you will attain other sets in quick succession. If youare interested in switching around your playstyle, take a look at the beginnerpoints for other sets below, and note to which endgame builds they point youafter.

To learn how to gear up quickly and approach a character's progression ingeneral, check out our Beginner Seasonal Guide.It includes advice and tactics related to gambling Blood Shards, doingBounties, Regular, Greater and ChallengeRifts, and using Kanai's Cube for easyupgrades.

Certain items can be targeted through the completion of bounties or bosskills. The following is a list of such items, in order of importance for theclass.

• Ring of Royal Grandeur is a legendary from Act I caches that reducesthe number of set items required for set bonuses by one. While it might not beimmediately useful, obtaining powerful bonuses (such as the 4- and 6-piece setbonuses of any set) as early as possible for a huge spike in character power isan opportunity you should not pass up. Doing bounties will be inevitable forcrafting materials anyway, so optimize your farming time and get this ring assoon as possible.
• Avarice Band is an Act III cache legendary ring that extends yourpickup radius by up to 30 yards as you pick up gold. This unassuming bonus hasthe potential to turn in the strongest source of defense duringnormal rifts due to its synergy with Boon of the Hoarder and Goldwrap. Their powers combined, they canrender your character practically invulnerable even in the highest of Tormentdifficulties.
• Illusory Boots are an Act II cache legendary item that removes enemycollision — a staple of support builds inGreater Rifts, but also of Legacy ofDreams/Nightmares set builds that build their DPS and defense around the use ofhigh utility legendary items. The Legacy of Dreams/Nightmares Bombardment Crusader, a supremely powerful build, makes greatuse of Illusory Boots — making them very attractive to theclass.
• Reaper's Wraps are meant to assist classes and builds with resourcemanagement problems — which Crusaders unfortunately are, at least early on.These bracers restore up to 30% of your Wrath reserves when you get healed by ahealth globe, capped at once every 2 seconds. This is an easy trigger if youkeep an eye on the battlefield. Note that these bracers are craftable, and theplan for their creation drops when you kill the Act V boss Malthael on anydifficulty.
• Gloves of Worship are an Act II cache legendary that extends theduration of Shrines to 10 minutes, a very decent farming effect that is usuallystored in Kanai's Cube. The combined power of Empowered Shrines (doubledresource gain, halved cooldowns), Frenzied Shrines (25% Attack Speed) andFleeting Shrines (25% increase to Movement Speed and 20 yard pickup radius),often refreshing before their 10-minute duration, is a huge buff during normalrifts. Crusaders are among the classes that can benefit from Gloves of Worship, as the armor Cube slots of their preferred farmingspecs are flexible enough to fit the item in.
• Envious Blade is an Act II cache dagger with one of the most powerfulspeedfarming bonuses in the game — a guaranteed Critical Hit againstenemies at full health. A well equipped character using this dagger can one-shotentire screens of enemies in a suitable farming difficulty. Since Crusaders cannot dual wield and their weapon slots are frequently taken by more importantlegendaries, Envious Blade is not considered a cache priority.
• Pride's Fall is a helm obtained through Act III cache bounties, whoselegendary effect reduces resource costs by 30% after not taking damage for 5seconds. Almost never fighting at a range that can abuse this power, Crusadersdo not consider farming Pride's Fall a priority.

The majority of the gear will be found by random chance as you farm normally,by killing monsters, opening chests, gambling at Kadala and upgrading rare itemsat the Cube. While the list below is not exhaustive, these are some of the piecesto seek, spend blood shards on, or upgrade yellows for — in order ofpriority:

• Sets: While the seasonal journey will reward you with a complete setthrough Haedrig's Gifts, gambling for armor set pieces still makes sense —to improve lackluster pieces, or complete class sets other than the gifted one.The Crusader sets are:
  • Thorns of the Invoker: Crown of the Invoker, Burden of the Invoker, Pride of the Invoker, Shackles of the Invoker, Renewal of the Invoker and Zeal of the Invoker;
  • Roland's Legacy: Roland's Visage, Roland's Mantle, Roland's Grasp, Roland's Bearing, Roland's Determination,and Roland's Stride;
  • Seeker of the Light: Crown of the Light, Mountain of the Light, Will of the Light, Heart of the Light, Towers of the Light and Foundation of the Light;
  • Armor of Akkhan: Helm of Akkhan, Pauldrons of Akkhan, Gauntlets of Akkhan, Breastplate of Akkhan, Cuisses of Akkhanand Sabatons of Akkhan;
  • Aegis of Valor: Crown of Valor, Spaulders of Valor, Brigandine of Valor, Gauntlets of Valor, Chausses of Valor and Greaves of Valor;
  • Norvald's Fervor: Flail of the Charge and Shield of the Steed.
• The weapon is by far the most impactful item on your damage output, puttinga priority on the weapon slot as the first to obtain an ancient item for. Due toits higher Blood Shard cost (75 for weapons vs. 25 for armor pieces andoff-hands), you should delay weapon gambling — avoiding it at the start ofcharacter progression and only considering it when you start perfecting your gear.If you simply need a specific weapon, you will get a much better deal with theUpgrade Rare recipe in Kanai's Cube. The Hope of Cain recipe (1 rare item, 25Death's Breaths, 50 of white, blue and yellow crafting materials) will onlyproduce the type of item you put in (i.e. flails), cutting out all other weaponsfrom the RNG pool that you would have to deal with through regular gambling atKadala. Flails are the Crusader-specific one handed weapon you can easily targetthrough upgrading rares, with valuable and build-defining flails such as Swiftmount, Johanna's Argument, Gyrfalcon's Foote, Darklight, Golden Flense, The Mortal Drama, Akkhan's Leniency and Fate of the Fell. Other weapons valuable to theCrusader include the Two-handed Swords Blade of Prophecy and Faithful Memory, as well as In-geom, Messerschmidt's Reaverand The Furnace.
• Shields are almost equally important to their weapon companions, and it isrecommended to gamble for them even early on due to their low Blood Shard price.Powerful and build altering off-hands include class-specific Crusader Shieldslike Akarat's Awakening, Jekangbord, Frydehr's Wrath, Ivory Tower and Shield of Fury, as well as standard Shields like Lidless Wall. Guard of Johanna and Denial deserve specialmention in the category, as both shields have a level requirement of 15, meaningthey can drop very early on, or be gambled as early as level 1. This enables thegambling strategy of a level 1 Crusader to spend shards on shields, quicklyyielding Guard of Johanna and/or Denial from the tiny RNG pool ofa starting character. Note that the item's level 1 stats will make it obsoletefor endgame, but their bonus is powerful enough to carry you throughout leveling,and can be stored in the Cube as soon as its natural stats fall behindupgrades.
• Jewelry has a huge influence on your DPS, but similarly to weapons it isexpensive to gamble (50 shards for rings, 100 for amulets). When searching forspecific jewelry rolls, you should consider upgrading rares instead. All threejewelry sets can be utilized by Crusaders, in order of importance: the EndlessWalk set, The Compass Rose and The Traveler's Pledge; the Legacy ofNightmares set, Litany of the Undaunted and The Wailing Host; and theBastions of Will set, Focus and Restraint. Otherbuild-specific Crusader jewelry includes Squirt's Necklace, Justice Lantern, Unity, Convention of Elements and Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac.
• Bracers are a surprisingly important slot for Crusaders, with skill-specificlegendaries like Akkhan's Manacles, Bracer of Fury, Gabriel's Vambraces and Drakon's Lesson being a crucial part oftheir respective builds, as well as cross-class generic bracers like Ancient Parthan Defenders, Strongarm Bracers and Nemesis Bracers all having a solid place in progression or speedfarmingbuilds. The cheap Blood Shard cost of the slot makes bracers very attractive togamble.
• Crusaders have a few belt pieces to watch out for, all parts of signatureCrusader builds — Belt of the Trove for anything Thorns-related, Sacred Harness or The Witching Hour for Blessed Hammerbuilds, Khassett's Cord of Righteousness for Fist of the Heavens, and eventhe cross-class Goldwrap for speedfarm.
• Most remaining armor slots only have a few desirable items for Crusaders. Inthe long run, you will want to find Aquila Cuirass, Heart of Ironand Cindercoat (chest pieces); Hammer Jammers (pants); Leoric's Crown (helm); and Stone Gauntlets and St. Archew's Gage(gloves).

The table below is meant to point you in a general correct direction and isby no means indicative of the exact rolls you want to go for. They can varygreatly from build to build and it is always preferable to refer to ourexact guide page. If you simply use the rolls below however, and roll for skilldamage on the applicable pieces:

• Blessed Shield, Shield Bash, Phalanx, Blessed Hammer, Fist of the Heavens, Sweep Attack on helmsand boots;
• Condemn, Heaven's Fury, Falling Sword, Bombardment on shoulders and chest;
• Justice, Punish, Smite, Slash on belt andpants.

Wherever it says 'Elemental damage', match it to the rune of your damagingskill of choice. You will come out with a functional spec, and probably not toofar off from what we would recommend in a dedicated build!

Your armor sockets should be taken up by the highest tier Ruby gems you canafford at the time, the weapon — with your highest Emerald, while the helmshould be filled by a Diamond to reduce Cooldowns. When you stumble upon jewelrywith good primary stats and a socket, you should start dabbling into LegendaryGems. The Legendary Gems to consider for Crusaders are, in order of importance:

• Bane of the Trapped — staple multiplicative damage increase. Notethat the gem is self sufficient, proccing itself when fighting in melee range,where the Crusader fights almost by default.
• Bane of the Stricken — almost mandatory gem for Greater Riftprogression, as it is designed to whittle down the scaling health numbers ofmonsters with a percentage-based increase on successive attacks.
• Boon of the Hoarder — synergizing with other farming mainstayslike Avarice Band and Goldwrap, this gem will not only keep yourich, but also sped up and safe during normal rift farming.
• Bane of the Powerful — the speedfarm counterpart to Bane of the Stricken, Bane of the Powerful offers a solid overalldamage and survivability increase as long as your killing speed does not fallbehind the timer of the gem.
• Situational gems — Boyarsky's Chip is a vital part of any Thornssetup, of which Crusaders have two — the Legacy of Dreams/NightmaresThorns Bombardment, and Thorns of the Invoker set builds. Esoteric Alteration is a defensive cornerstone in facetanking builds,protecting you against bursty elemental affixes.

Kanai's Cube choices are highly build- and content-specific, making themhard to summarize. Generally speaking, Crusaders should store the powers of thefollowing items in the Cube as soon as they have the materials available: The Furnace, In-geom, Messerschmidt's Reaver, The Mortal Drama, Fate of the Fell, Blade of Prophecy, Faithful Memory, Akarat's Awakening, Frydehr's Wrath, Shield of Fury, Ivory Tower, Jekangbord, Guard of Johanna, Aquila Cuirass, Heart of Iron, Belt of the Trove, Khassett's Cord of Righteousness, Goldwrap, Sacred Harness, Hammer Jammers, Akkhan's Manacles, Bracer of Fury, Gabriel's Vambraces, Nemesis Bracers, Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac, Ring of Royal Grandeur, Unity, Convention of Elements and Avarice Band.

The Kanai's Cube can be used for much more than simply extracting Legendary powers from items. Pleaserefer to our Kanai's Cube guide for more information.

For more information regarding followers, we advise you to read our FollowerGuide, which contains detailed advice for choosing the skills and the gear ofyour follower.