Chapter 219 - A New Life

It didn’t take long before the clip of Chen Mo beating many levels in the Nephalem Rift using Lin Xue’s account was plastered all over the official forums, and many diehard players were analyzing how Chen Mo managed that.

“Anyone else watched Xue’s livestream? Chen Mo joined the stream, and the most horrifying thing was that he managed to beat twenty Nephalem Rifts levels after swapping out her equipment!”

“Really? I don’t buy it, how could their strength be that much different on the same account? Twenty levels? How much stronger do you need to get?”

“The clip is all over the internet, just have a look yourself. There are recordings of the whole thing. The worst part is that Chen Mo looked through all of Xue’s garbage equipment while mixing and matching different ones. He also had a really weird combination of abilities, yet he was incredibly strong!”

“Alright, I’ll take a look!”

It didn’t take long before it became the most popular thread on the official forums, causing an especially large commotion among Crusader players.

Crusader and Necromancer were clearly inferior to other classes in the Greater Rift as the other classes had more developed builds.

Although the expansion pack had been out for quite some time now, the players still haven’t wrapped their head around these classes. Crusader in particular haven’t had a proper build found out yet.

And naturally, Chen Mo’s new build attracted the attention of many.

The players knew that everytime Chen Mo released a new game, he’d introduce a weird playstyle to the players. For example, he pioneered cyclone spam and mass mines in Warcraft.

Chen Mo’s build must also be something worth looking into and was possibly very important to Diablo’s deep and rich playstyle!

Soon, the players finally figured out Chen Mo’s strategy with the help of many players and the recordings.

This strategy was named explosive cavalry and quickly gained popularity among Crusader players.

The idea of this build was to stack thorns and use the set bonus of The Wailing Host and Litany of the Undaunted to best utilize the strength of ancient equipment. The more ancient equipment, the more damage, surpassing the set bonuses of a full suit of equipment using items from different sets.

In terms of abilities, Consecration, Bombardment, Iron Skin, and Steed Charge could be converted into thorn damage through runes, meaning that all these abilities were damage dealing ones.

And Akarat’s Champion provided an incredible strong buff, providing substantial damage increase.

The last ability could either be Shield Glare or Laws of Justice to increase survivability.

The most shocking thing was the equipment that were all from different sets.

Not only did they improve the set bonus of the rings, they also improved the abilities, so these special equipment were incredibly useful for Crusaders.

Leoric’s Crown, increase the effects of gems. With the help of a passive ability gem, the cooldowns of abilities are decreased dramatically with a diamond equipped in the crown.

Necklace: Hellfire Amulet, Gives the Crusader another passive skill.

Chest Piece: Heart of Iron and Aquila Cuirass, one for stats, the other for effects. The Aquila Cuirass makes it so the player takes 50% damage when the character has over 90% resource. Iron Heart makes it so the player receives bonus thorns damage equal to 300% of dexterity.

This was because the abilities this build didn’t cost any resource, so it would always be full, meaning that the effect of Aquila Cuirass would always be on.

Belt: Belt of the Trove, Triggers Bombardment every six seconds. Bombardment was the main damaging ability of this build, so Belt of the Trove could be described as the most important piece of equipment as it increased their damage multiple times.

Pants: Hexing Pants of Mr Yan, resource generation and damage is increased by 25% while moving and decreased by 20–25% while standing still. As Crusaders of this build would be constantly running around, it perfectly utilized its special effects.

Shoes: Illusory Boots, allows players to move unhindered through enemies, improving the maneuverability of the Crusader.

Weapon: Swiftmount, doubles the duration of Steed Charge. In combination with the cooldown reduction, the Crusader would almost have 100% uptime on Steed Charge, meaning that the player could come and go as they wish without fear of being surrounded.

Infused weapon: The Mortal Drama, doubles Bombardment impacts.

Infused ring: Convention of Elements, increases damage to a single element. For a Crusader, the ring would cycle between Fire, Holy, Lightning, and Physical every four seconds. Thorns damage was considered physical damage, which means that it would further increase Crusader’s damage output.

Although these may not seem particularly effective on their own, they all have their place in this build. When the Crusader are under the effect of all their buffs, the damage numbers from Bombardment will keep increasing, which was how Chen Mo managed to beat over twenty levels of the Greater Rift.

—

All Crusader players were shocked after learning about this explosive cavalry build.

How is this possible?!

These seemingly useless equipment somehow managed to play a key role in this build. Moreover, with this combination of equipment, abilities, and gems dramatically increased the damage output of Crusaders!

While Crusader players were copying the build, the other classes got some inspiration too.

Everyone finally realised there were so many more ways to play the game, no wonder there were seventeen different difficulties!

The players were now sufficiently riled up as it was a key point in time in climbing. All players of different classes were holding their breath as they tried their best to figure out the best build.

Like a firestarter in a barrel of gunpowder, the passion of all the players were realised all of a sudden. The hardcore players were all trying to figure out the game as they look into the potential of the weirder equipment. Even the players who weren’t into exploring every nook and cranny of the game were participating in discussion on the forum for the best strategy and builds to beat as many Greater Rift levels as possible.

Diablo which had cooled down for a bit gained a new life with the help of the new update!