Corpse Lance Necromancer BiS Gear, Gems, and Paragon Points
Below, we detail the items and gems that you should use for your Corpse Lance Necromancer in Diablo 3 and why. We also list your paragon points and Kanai's Cube items. Updated for Patch 2.7.6 and Season 29.
Best in Slot Gear and Alternatives
The build incorporates the complete Pestilence Master's Shroud
set bonuses, taking five of the six available Pestilence set pieces, and
then adding two pieces of the craftable Captain Crimson's Trimmings set
— Captain Crimson's Silk Girdle and one more of your choosing,
according to your weakest Pestilence set roll (either
Captain Crimson's Thrust or
Captain Crimson's Waders). This set
provides CDR as well as RCR bonuses, and then scales your damage dealt and
damage reduced according to both stats, respectively — bringing a
massive boon to the build. You will attain the complete set bonuses of this
two-set amalgamation via
Ring of Royal Grandeur in the Cube. Rolls-wise,
this is a
Corpse Lance and Cooldown-centric build, making good use of
both rolls across gear.
Corpse Lance % damage is a possible roll on
Pestilence Robe and
Pestilence Defense, and Cooldown Reduction
— on the
Pestilence Defense and
Pestilence Gloves. The
remainder of your set armor slots (
Pestilence Mask,
Pestilence Incantations and
Pestilence Battle Boots) can be
dedicated entirely to toughness rolls. While Crit stats that are fixed on your
gear due to circumstance are not necessarily lost (they still augment your
initial burst as you stack), their value is greatly diminished.
When talking about Corpse Lance builds, the topic of balancing Attack Speed
and Cooldown Reduction cannot be ignored. For the sake of simplicity, you will
be trying to strike a good balance between the two stats, one that will lead
to the highest Land of the Dead uptime (affected by CDR) to Corpses consumed
for Lance shots (affected by IAS) ratio. A split with proven top tier results
is reaching the 65%+ CDR breakpoint (with Cpt. Crimson bonuses factored in)
and then picking the highest possible IAS range possible with your gear
between (1.5 to 1.71), (1.72 to 2.0), and (2.0 to 2.4). Note that while a Trag'Oul build has to be a lot more
careful with that balance in order not to sacrifice too many other valuable
stats (Crit and Elemental DPS), a Pestilence build can sacrifice many (if not
all) Crit Chance rolls due to the Brittle Touch stacking mechanic. The
rune is able to take you to the Crit Chance cap in mere seconds.
The cubed RoRG leaves space for a potent combo in the jewelry:
Convention of Elements and
Krysbin's Sentence.
Convention of Elements will provide a massive damage increase during the
Cold cycle of its rotation, with an improved uptime compared to other classes
due to the Necromancer's three element rotation.
Krysbin's Sentence is a
Necromancer-specific item that amplifies damage as long as you have a hard
crowd control active; it is a major driving force behind the inclusion of
Land of the Dead
Frozen Lands. Finish off the jewelry with
Squirt's Necklace; rewarding high-range and evasive builds that demolish
their enemies from afar, this legendary piece greatly amplifies both damage
dealt and damage taken.
The build has no particular bracer to occupy the wrist slot, so you can use
the additive damage increase from Strongarm Bracers; note that you have
to roll Chance to Knockback in their secondary stats, as you have no other
feasible way of proccing their bonus. The previous favorite for the slot,
Nemesis Bracers, are still useful to the build — but can now be
equipped on the follower and their power transferred to you via the Emanate
mechanic.
The preferred weapon and offhand combination for the build is the Jesseth set, Jesseth Skullscythe
and
Jesseth Skullshield. The set's revised powers now amplify your
overall damage while
Command Skeletons are attacking a target. Note the
ability of
Jesseth Skullscythe to roll a bonus to maximum Essence in
its secondary stats, and strive to obtain it to gain the most from
Reilena's Shadowhook.
* — Crit Chance is denoted with "lower priority" due to
Brittle Touch stacking. Read gearing section above.
Slot | Pieces | Stat Priority |
---|---|---|
Head |
|
|
Shoulders |
|
|
Torso |
|
|
Wrists |
|
|
Hands |
|
|
Waist |
|
|
Legs |
|
|
Feet |
|
|
Amulet |
|
|
Ring #1 |
|
|
Ring #2 |
|
|
Weapon |
|
|
Off-hand |
|
To help you with farming the gear you need for your builds, we have two very useful guides that you can access by clicking the links below: a Salvage Guide to help you quickly check whether or not you can safely salvage a piece of gear and a Legendary Farming Guide to help you efficiently farm legendaries and set items.
Paragon Points
Slot | Paragon Points |
---|---|
Core |
|
Offense |
|
Defense |
|
Utility |
|
Season 29: Paragon Cap
Season 29 introduces a season-specific cap to stat benefits from Paragon levels, all while updating how Paragon point distribution is handled. For the duration of this Season, you can only assign 800 Paragon stat points to your character, removing the long-standing practice of main-stat stacking (with some gearing implications — see below) after you reach Paragon 800.
On top of that, you could only allocate 50 Paragon stat points to each of the four stats in a given Paragon category (Core, Offense, Defense, and Utility). In Season 29, you can allocate up to the full 200 points per category into any attribute, allowing you to more easily reach necessary build breakpoints (as outlined in the Gear page of the guide) for Cooldown Reduction, Resource Cost Reduction, etc.
With the changes to Paragon in mind, we recommend using the following Paragon distribution for this build:
- Core: Max Essence: 200 points.
- Offense: Critical Hit Chance and Critical Hit Damage: Allocate points so they are as close to the desirable 1:10 ratio between the two stats, as displayed in your Character Details sheet. For weapon-and-offhand builds, this is usually achieved with the full 200 points spent into Critical Hit Damage.
- Defense: Life and All Resistance: Allocate points to maximize survivability; for Necromancers, this is usually achieved by evenly splitting 100 points into Life (directly increasing your Health pool) and Armor (to complement the naturally high All Resistance stat of Intelligence-based characters).
- Utility: Area Damage: 200 points.
Season 29: Gearing Considerations
In terms of gear, keeping the Paragon cap in mind is paramount, as it stymies the traditional endless supply of main stat after Paragon 800. This means re-rolling mainstat off your gear is no longer desirable, and full equipment augmentation with your main stat is even more critical. Additionally, you should take a careful look at your build and consider if you can fit the following changes to strengthen your damage and survivability:
- Guardian's Jeopardy: This is a craftable armor set, and the recipe
for its creation drops from Bounty farming. Guardian's 2-piece provides a
decent damage reduction bonus, but the true powerhouse of the set is the
3-piece bonus, which nets you an additional 100% of your main stats from
equipped items. This is a tremendous benefit in an 800 Paragon capped Season.
If the Guardian set can fit into the build with minimal sacrifices (other
craftable sets, tertiary damage multipliers, etc.), consider its
implementation. The available pieces are
Guardian's Aversion (Wrists),
Guardian's Case (Waist), and
Guardian's Gaze (Head). Of course, you can wear 2 pieces of the set and complete the full 3-piece bonus with a
Ring of Royal Grandeur (found from Act I bounty caches).
- Endless Walk:This is a jewelry set consisting of
The Traveler's Pledge (Amulet) and
The Compass Rose (Ring), and is randomly found through farming, gambling Blood Shards, and/or Kanai's Cube recipes. The Endless Walk set is a nice compromise between damage bonuses (building up while stationary) and defensive bonuses (building up while moving). It can replace glass cannon choices like the Bastions of Will set (
Focus and
Restraint) and
Squirt's Necklace with acceptable losses to DPS.
Unity: A character wearing this ring, along with another
Unity on their follower plus an immortality relic for them (i.e.,
Enchanting Favor), will reduce their damage taken by 50%.
Unity can roll excellent offense-oriented stats and has an innate Extra Damage to Elites roll, which somewhat offsets losing all-out offense jewelry.
Gems
Gogok of Swiftness indirectly provides you with more damage and
survivability by increasing Cooldown Reduction for
Land of the Dead,
Attack Speed for faster
Corpse Lance output, as well as scaling Dodge
chance.
Bane of the Trapped is a potent source of additional damage, as it is
its own multiplier in your total damage calculation. You will be proccing this
gem whenever the
Frozen Lands stun is up (your major damage burst
cycle).
Zei's Stone of Vengeance is another independent multiplier, whose
range-dependent amplification can be easily maxed out by the long reach of
Corpse Lance. The level 25 property will add some minor control and
safety to the build, as well as another proc for
Bane of the Trapped.
Slot | Gems |
---|---|
Jewelry | |
Helm |
|
Torso and Pants |
|
Weapon |
For more information about gems, please refer to our guide on gems.
Kanai's Cube
Your weapon slot in Kanai's Cube should be taken by the two-handed scythe
Reilena's Shadowhook, whose power scales your damage multiplicatively
based on your maximum Essence. This places a strong emphasis on expanding your
resource pool via
Simulacrum
Reservoir and
Overwhelming Essence,
maxing resource in Paragons and attaining a high max Essence in the weapon and
offhand's secondary stats.
With the strong emphasis on Corpse Lance damage, it is only natural
to include
Corpsewhisper Pauldrons in the armor Cube slot. These
shoulders scale
Corpse Lance damage per Corpse consumed, a bonus you
easily max out during
Land of the Dead.
In the Pestilence / Captain Crimson mixture, you will need a
Ring of Royal Grandeur: a cache legendary ring from Act I bounties, to tie the two sets together.
The ability to run with one full 6-piece set bonus and an additional 3-piece
bonus, dodging the undesirable guaranteed stats on the Grandeur by cubing its
power, is a tremendous boost to the build.
The Kanai's Cube can be used for much more than simply extracting Legendary powers from items. Please refer to our Kanai's Cube guide for more information.
Follower
The recommended follower for this build during solo GR progression is the
Enchantress, due to her increased attack speed bonuses (helpful
for the attack speed breakpoint-reliant methods of dealing damage in this
build) via Focused Mind, as well as the cooldown reduction
bonus from
Prophetic Harmony and damage reduction from
Powered Shield.
For more information regarding followers, we advise you to read our Follower Guide, which contains detailed advice for choosing the skills and the gear of your follower.
Legendary Potion
Your recommended potion is Bottomless Potion of the Unfettered, which
renders you immune to Crowd Control effects for a brief time after consuming
it — valuable bonus to a build that lacks means to break away from CC
outside of straight up evasion via
Blood Rush.
Changelog
- 13 Sep. 2023: Added Season 29 Paragon Cap and Gearing recommendations.
- 22 Feb. 2023: Added Season 28 Altar of Rites recommendations.
- 26 Aug. 2022: Added Season 27 Angelic Crucible recommendations.
- 14 Apr. 2022: Guide reviewed for Season 26.
- 08 Dec. 2021: Added Season 25 Soul Shard recommendations.
- 22 Jul. 2021: Added S24 Ethereal recommendation.
- 01 Apr. 2021: Added follower recommendation.
- 19 Nov. 2020: Added 4th Cube slot recommendation for Season 22.
- 02 Jul. 2020: Guide was revised with respect to the changes to the Jesseth set in Season 21.
- 12 Mar. 2020: No changes necessary for Season 20.
- 22 Nov. 2019: Reviewed for Season 19.
- 23 Aug. 2019: Reviewed and approved for Season 18.
- 12 May 2019: Guide was reviewed and approved for Season 17.
- 18 Jan. 2019: Added suggestions for the baseline Ring of Royal Grandeur for Seasonal characters.
- 26 Nov. 2017: Expanded the gearing explanations to clarify proper item rolls.
- 27 Oct. 2017: The Pestilence set is now the main setup (and Trag'Oul is a variation).
- 12 Jul. 2017: Guide updated to reflect the meta shift to Simulacrum.
- 07 Jul. 2017: Gear recommendations updated.
More Necromancer Guides
Builds from Other Classes
Farming Guides
This build is presented to you by Deadset, one of the very few professional Diablo 3 players. Deadset regularly publishes video guides on Youtube and streams on Twitch, where you can see how this and other builds play out in practice.
- Icy Veins Launches Genshin Impact Guides Section
- Upcoming Dev Campfire Chat: November 30th
- Player Gathers All Uber Uniques and Asks “Did I Beat the Game?”
- Diablo 4 Steam Discount and Free Trial
- Diablo 4 Patch 1.2.2 Hotfixes: November 20th
- Diablo 4 Mother’s Blessing XP and Gold Buff Bugged, to Be Increased and Live This Week
- Diablo 4 Patch 1.2.2 Hotfixes: November 17th
- Mother’s Blessing Returns to Sanctuary (November 20-27)