I just finished the thorn crucible shit last night and despite raging at the first 100 points or so, it wasn't nearly as hard as I originally thought and the remaining 400 points I finished in 3 hours or so.
I ran it as a bladedancer with the increased speed/slide perk and a shotgun. My advice is to run only rumble and learn to get good with sliding. It seems really overwhelming at first but it goes by pretty quick.
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