The knight in shining armor is one of the most epitomizing visuals of medieval times. A chivalrous devotee to a lord, lady, or faith, these courageous individuals often fought at the frontlines of their armies. Mythicman#6942 shares his interpretation of these iconic heroes with his “Going Medieval” build, unafraid to charge into battle atop his loyal steed to cut a devastating swath of destruction through his enemies.

About the Build:

Dozens of films and novels focus on the archetypal mounted knight, stretching anywhere from classics like the tales of Camelot and Don Quixote to more colorful interpretations like A Knight’s Tale or Galavant. While some focus on the individual heroics of a single knight, others highlight the more historical role these warriors played in mass combat. Mounted units were often at the forefront of an army, designed to pierce through a line of defense to make way for their foot soldiers while receiving ranged support from their allies. Today, Mythicman#6942 embodies this role with his Crusader build, truly “Going Medieval.”

Fear me and the army at my beck and call.

Designed with no generator in mind, the primary method of destruction is the holy fires of Heaven’s Fury. Supported by numerous methods of lowering resource cost and refilling your Wrath via alternative means, this build fills in the gaps with ranged support from Phalanx (Bowmen). However, don’t be fooled by their presence; this isn’t just another pet build, and you’ll find you’re most effective when you’re directly in the thick of battle.

The Skills:

The skills of this build have been carefully selected to support Heaven’s Fury in every way possible, making this expensive Wrath spender much more affordable.

Active Skills:

• Heaven’s Fury (Fires of Heaven)
  • Primary damage dealer
  • Enhanced with the Legendary Flail Fate of the Fell to deal massive area of effect damage
• Phalanx (Bowmen)
  • Ranged support
  • Offers a Wrath-free damage dealer to fill in gaps if you’ve not quite perfected your Cooldown Reduction
• Akarat’s Champion (Prophet)
  • Reduces the cost of Heaven’s Fury to help make the spender more affordable
  • Offers a boost to damage and massive survivability
  • Provides a second life ability to keep you in the fight should you go down
• Provoke (Too Scared to Run)
  • Reloads your Wrath virtually to full
  • Massively reduces the movement speed of enemies, keeping them in close proximity
• Laws of Valor (Unstoppable Force)
  • Further reduces the cost of Heaven’s Fury, synergizing with the effects of Akarat’s Champion
  • Provides a helpful boost to damage dealing capabilities
• Steed Charge (Endurance)
  • What is a knight without his faithful steed?
  • Offers both a quick entrance and, if necessary, exit from combat

Passive Skills:

• Heavenly Strength
  • You’ll want to be using Fate of the Fell, making this passive necessary to the build
• Long Arm of the Law
  • Extends the effects of Laws of Valor (Unstoppable Force) to keep Wrath costs minimal
• Holy Cause
  • Increases damage dealing capability across the board
  • Provides hefty healing from Heaven’s Fury
• Finery
  • With several guaranteed sockets on gear, provides a significant source of Strength

The Items:

Despite a mid-to-high gear requirement, there’s some room for personalization in this build, especially among your Legendary Gems.

The full Armor of Akkhan set is integral to ensuring your abilities are always on call.

Recommended Items:

• Fate of the Fell
  • Literally triples the damage dealing capabilities of Heaven’s Fury
• Unrelenting Phalanx
  • Doubles the damage output of your Phalanx (Bowmen)
• Eternal Union
  • Doubles the duration of your Phalanx (Bowmen), ensuring they always have your back
• Armor of Akkhan (6-piece bonus)
  • Significantly reduces the cooldown of Akarat’s Champion, directly impacting your ability to continue firing off Heaven’s Fury
  • Recommended Pieces: All 6 pieces, unless using complementary items listed below

Complementary Items:

• Vigilante’s Belt
  • Provides an additional source of Cooldown Reduction, which becomes quite important after acquiring your Armor of Akkhan set
• Stone of Jordan
  • A great general source of damage for any build, especially with +% Holy or +% Physical damage
• Reaper’s Wraps
  • Further reduces the necessity of a Wrath generator for this build
• Tasker and Theo
  • An alternative to 6 pieces of Armor of Akkhan, should you want to buff the damage of your Phalanx further
• Leoric’s Crown
  • An alternative to 6 pieces of Armor of Akkhan, helpful if you lack substantial Cooldown Reduction and want to hit that 56% sweet spot more easily

Recommended Legendary Gems:

• Bane of the Trapped
  • By lowering your cooldowns, Provoke (Too Scared to Run) will be available consistently enough to benefit regularly from this gem’s damage boost
• Bane of the Powerful
  • A great all-around option, keeping up the 30 second buff from this gem can be done with relative ease once you get going
• Mirinae, Teardrop of the Starweaver
  • This build lacks substantial single-target damage capabilities, and Mirinae can help pick up the slack
• Esoteric Alteration/Molten Wildebeest’s Gizzard
  • Note: These are Season 2 items and not currently available to non-Seasonal characters, though they will be after April 5
  • Jumping into melee combat comes at great risk, and these gems can help take the sting off close encounters

Recommended Stats:

• Cooldown Reduction becomes very important once you’ve acquired your full set of Armor of Akkhan, allowing you to keep Akarat’s Champion up indefinitely once you’ve surpassed 56%
• Resource Cost Reduction can be a reasonable substitute while gearing up, though shouldn’t be prioritized over Cooldown Reduction
• The majority of your damage will come from Heaven’s Fury, so you’ll want to seek +% Holy over +% Physical damage
• Critical Hit Damage and Critical Hit Chance will both help your direct damage as well as the damage of your Phalanx (Bowmen)

Recommended Difficulty and Game Mode:

Mythicman has regularly challenged Torment VI Nephalem Rifts, blasted through Bounties, and climbed up to the mid 30’s in Greater Rifts in Normal play with his “Going Medieval” build. Even without sufficient Cooldown Reduction to attain 100% uptime of Akarat’s Champion, this build is fully capable of tackling Torment VI provided you’ve acquired a majority of the recommended pieces of gear. Though this build neither favors nor disfavors Hardcore play, as with all melee builds, you should be cautious when testing your Toughness limitations.

Why We Like This Build:

The “Going Medieval” build has a clear vision and, when all the pieces come together, fulfills its purpose beautifully. Favoring a generally underused skill is a plus, and it further highlights the versatility of a generalist 6-piece set. It’s a creative, flavorful build that performs quite well and gives another new option to players who might be looking for something different to do with their acquired Armor of Akkhan set.

Destiny guides our fortunes more favorably than we could have expected!

Tell Us What You Think!

Have you experimented with the Heaven’s Fury skill? Would you change anything about Mythicman’s build? Have you created an unusual build using the Armor of Akkhan set? Let us know in the comments or send your build in and we just might feature it in a future blog!

Next week, it will be time to put on our robe and Wizard hat and flex our mastery of magic. See you then!