Hi all,
I'd like to share my season 29 journey on how I got into the top 13 overall for Crusader (using fist of the heavens build) and rank 2 for Invoker on Xbox.
I have an Xbox One X with a SSD but using the Diablo 3 (D3) disc; D3 runs great on it (no lag, load times pretty good). I also have an elite 2 controller (https://www.xbox.com/en-AU/accessories/controllers/elite-wireless-controller-series-2).
I did the usual thing of doing the challenge rift at level 1 to get mats. The mats were used to:
- Get a shield and bracers from Kadala using blood shards.
- Upgrade a rare flail to cube it later.
- Craft a 2-handed rare weapon and re-roll it for reduced level requirement (I got something like -26 level requirement).
I can't remember exactly what shield, bracers, and flail I got. But they were luckily all ones related to the hammerdin build. So I levelled up using rifts until I got my pony skill (Steed Charge).
Once I got my pony skill, I got the Horodric Cube and did some bounties.
Then I levelled up till around level 44 using regular rifts. I then equipped my reduced level 2-handed level 70 weapon. I increased the difficulty to Master and breezed through to level 70.
I did the season journey and got my 6-piece Invoker set. Since both the Aegis of Valor (AoV) and Invoker builds require the Royal Ring of Grandeur, I kept running bounties. Admittedly, running Invoker for bounties is painful as the AOE is lacking.
While doing bounties, there's heaps of Visions of Enmity portals. I had a tough time surviving without the proper gear early on, but the rewards were awesome, like multiple greater rift (GR) keys, heaps of death's breaths (DBs), and lots of legendaries.
After many GRs/bounties, I finally got my basic builds set up for Invoker and AoV. I used the Icy Veins builds:
I had 4 builds altogether.
- Gold farming AoV build (for bounties, Cow Level, Visions of Enmity) using Goldwrap and Boon of the Hoarder
- AoV GR Speed farming build (skills and equipment that enhances speed e.g., the Iron Skin rune that increases speed and Rachel's ring of larceny)
- Invoker push build
- AoV push build
Since not many people push with Invoker, I decided to do so as it's easy to get a high rank. I dedicated all my upgrades to Invoker at the start. I only had one decent ancient on my Invoker build, so I augmented that using an Echoing Nightmare gem. The push to rank 2 was pretty easy. After rank 2 for Invoker, I focused on how far I could push AoV.
My elite controller 2 was a huge help. I can't remember what I binded for my Invoker build, but for my AoV build I bound the underside paddles as such:
- Upper left paddle: alternative to right bumper = Iron Skin
- Lower left paddle: Akarat's Champion
- Upper right paddle: pony
- Lower left paddle: laws of hope
Basically I would simultaneously use the 3 paddle defensive cooldowns then use pony. When pony stopped, I would click all 3 defensive cooldowns then ride pony again. Rinse, repeat.
I did speed GRs to level up my gems.
For mats, I used Cow Sticks, ran puzzle rings, and ran bounties (easily get Vision portals). (Funnily enough, I never got an Avarice Band.)
Through farming, I got 4 primals, dusted them, and upgraded my 2-hand weapon to a primal. I made the mistake of upgrading a Convention of Elements to primal and then not being able to equip the ring. Apparently you can only wear 1 primal-upgraded item at any one time.
Eventually, I had everything except 1 ring and my amulet as ancient. I augmented everything with strength using Echoing Nightmare gems. (Note, for echoing nightmares, I used the AoV push build, waited till level 110, the popped all pylons; you only need to get level 125 since the max tear gem level is 125.)
For my follower, I chose the Templar, even though guides (e.g., Maxroll) say to use the Enchantress. (I was too lazy to level up legendary gems for her.) On the Templar, I put nemesis bracers, flavour of time, gloves of worship, homing pads, wyrdward, thunderfury, oculus ring, and freeze of deflection; for his skills, I chose heal, loyalty, onslaught, and guardian.
Since it's so easy to get GR keys through Vision portals, I could easily "farm" GRs with wide open spaces. (If I got a crap dungeon I would quit and start again.) That's how I got to rank 2 for Invoker and rank 13 for AoV. For reference of time spent in game, my paragon was around 900.
I found my season 29 journey very fun and satisfying. I posted this mainly to share with the hope that it might act as a guide or to help someone simultaneously progress and have fun with the Crusader.