Alright friends, I wasted a whole Sunday afternoon messing around with Crusader builds like the example said. Yeah, that big armor set everyone shouts about? That’s where I started.
First thing, I threw on the full Akkhan gear, the six-piece one everyone goes crazy for. Felt like lugging around a tank. Went straight into that rift full of demons. Spammed Condemn like a madman, trying to suck those suckers in and blow them up. Stuff died, sure. Felt okay. But man, surviving? That was rough. Any nasty elite pack showed up and I’d be eating dirt real quick. Tough. Had to play like a scaredy cat.
Got annoyed. Switched out some pieces to try that “bombardment” junk people talk about. You know, where horses rain down those big rocks? Looked awesome. Felt awesome… for about five seconds. Damage just wasn’t there. Needed super specific gear like that crazy flail and belt I didn’t have. Spent ages rerolling stuff at the mystic trying to get good stats. Total waste of materials. Went back to base Akkhan, bummed out.
Needed change. Scrapped Akkhan entirely. Remembered I had some Roland pieces collecting dust in the stash. That set buffs shield bash and sweep attack? Slapped that sucker on. Different feeling altogether!
- Speed? Way faster than Akkhan. Zipping around bashing skulls.
- Survival? Actually felt decent punching things up close. Weirdly sturdy.
- Damage? Big yellow numbers popped up smacking elites. Satisfying crunch!
Here’s the messed up part: It cleared about as fast as my painstakingly farmed Akkhan build, but way easier to play! Felt smoother. Took maybe an hour to put together with my junk stash gear. Why’d I bother stressing over Akkhan?
Kept pushing higher rift levels. Roland held up surprisingly well. Pushed as high as I could go on both builds that day. Ended up clearing way faster with Roland simply because I could actually move and attack without worrying about keeling over every two seconds. Akkhan had a slightly higher ceiling maybe, but only if I had absolutely perfect gear, which I sure as heck didn’t.
Real talk? Wasted so much time chasing that supposedly “best” Akkhan build online. All those complicated guides, cooldown juggling… got nothing but frustration and a bunch of useless garbage legendaries. Ended the afternoon almost hitting my keyboard when that ancient Akkhan shield finally dropped with completely useless stats. Seriously. It was trash. Almost salvaged it on purpose.
Today showed me: Don’t just blindly copy the loudest “meta.” Test stuff yourself. Sometimes the simpler, less hyped setup works way better with your junk gear and lazy playstyle. Especially if you, like me, just want to smash demons without sweating bullets. Roland for the win today. Lesson learned? Stop overcomplicating things looking for perfection that doesn’t exist without insane luck.
