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 2.7.3 and Season 26.
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 |
|
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
- 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.
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