Corpse Lance Necromancer BiS Gear, Gems, and Paragon Points

Table of Contents

• +Introduction
  • 1. Introduction
  • 2. Video Guide
  • 3. Quick Reference
    • 3.1. Skill Setup
  • 4. Builds
    • 4.1. Gear Setup
    • 4.2. Legendary Gems
    • 4.3. Kanai's Cube
  • 5. Role in the Current Meta
  • 6. Reading Further
  • 7. Changelog
• +Skills and Runes
  • 1. Rotation
  • 2. Skills, Runes and Passives
  • 3. Changelog
• ×Gear, Gems, and Paragon Points
  • 1. Best in Slot Gear and Alternatives
  • 2. Paragon Points
  • 3. Gems
  • 4. Kanai's Cube
  • 5. Follower
  • 6. Changelog
• +Group Progression Variation
  • 1. Pestilence Corpse Lance Group Variation
  • 2. Adapting Skills
  • 3. Adapting Gear
  • 4. Adapting Gemming
  • 5. Changelog
• +Speed Farming Variation
  • 1. Normal Rift Speed Farming Variation
  • 2. Adapting Skills
  • 3. Adapting Gear
  • 4. Adapting Gemming
  • 5. Adapting Kanai's Cube
  • 6. Changelog
• +Trag'Oul Variation
  • 1. Trag'Oul Blood Lance Variation
  • 2. Adapting Skills
  • 3. Adapting Gear
  • 4. Adapting Gemming
  • 5. Changelog

General Information

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 2.6.1 and Season 15.

The other pages of our Corpse Lance Necromancer guide can be accessed from the table of contents on the right.

1. Best in Slot Gear and Alternatives

The build equips all six available pieces of the Pestilence Master's Shroud set, leaving the jewelry for powerful offensive combinations. 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 50% CDR breakpoint (prior to Borrowed Time application) and then picking the highest possible IAS range possible with your gear between (1.5 to 1.7), (1.7 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.

Not skipping on any of the pieces required to obtain the 6-piece bonus of the Pestilence set opens a powerful offensive combo in the jewelry: the Endless Walk set, The Compass Rose and The Traveler's Pledge amulet. This 2.4 rework adds a unique mechanic that slowly increases your damage by up to a 100% if you remain stationary, and drains it away and increases your damage reduction while moving. This dynamic mimics the Corpse Lance playstyle, as you alternate between extended Blood Rush scouting and drawing enemy attention with short periods of stationary Corpse Lance spam.

In the highest tiers of GR pushing (100+), your second ring slot will be best taken by the pure damage boost of Convention of Elements, whose rotation of elemental bonuses you will need to learn and time to maximize the benefits of the short-lived Cold proc. Up to the GR 100 point, you can safely revert to the lesser damage, but convenient protection of a Unity.

Dayntee's Binding is the solitary Necromancer-specific belt, which compensates its lack of flashy offensive powers with a mighty defensive bulwark — 50% extra damage reduction as long as there is an enemy afflicted by your curses. Note that it is very likely to lose this bonus during or in between fights as you kill off previously afflicted enemies, so make a point to re-apply the curse on a regular basis.

The build has no particular bracer to occupy the wrist slot, so you can default to the generic usefulness of Nemesis Bracers. Their additional elite spawns will shorten the time necessary to end the Greater Rift, and feed into the build's elite hunting strengths.

The recommended weapon is Trag'Oul's Corroded Fang, a powerful legendary scythe that triples your damage against cursed enemies; a bonus that is trivial to maintain with a few well-spread Decrepify casts in every battle. Due to the lack of directly synergistic legendaries, you should pair it with any well-rolled phylactery, such as Lost Time. Notice the importance of extra Essence in the secondary stats of both the weapon and offhand in order to synergize with the powers of Reilena's Shadowhook. The weapon and offhand setup will hit for less on average over wielding the two-hander, but will provide more of the vital Cooldown Reduction.

Slot	Pieces	Stat Priority
Head	Pestilence Mask	Intelligence Socket Vitality Critical Hit Chance (lower priority)*
Shoulders	Pestilence Defense	Intelligence Corpse Lance % Cooldown Reduction Vitality
Torso	Pestilence Robe	Intelligence 3 Sockets Vitality Corpse Lance % Armor
Wrists	Nemesis Bracers	Intelligence Cold Damage Vitality Critical Hit Chance (lower priority)*
Hands	Pestilence Gloves	Intelligence Critical Hit Damage Increased Attack Speed Cooldown Reduction Critical Hit Chance (lower priority)* Vitality
Waist	Dayntee's Binding	Intelligence Vitality Armor Life %
Legs	Pestilence Incantations	Intelligence 2 Sockets Vitality Armor
Feet	Pestilence Battle Boots	Intelligence Vitality Armor All Resistance Movement Speed
Amulet	The Traveler's Pledge	Socket Critical Hit Damage Cold Damage Intelligence Critical Hit Chance (lower priority)*
Ring #1	The Compass Rose	Socket Critical Hit Damage Cooldown Reduction Average Damage Increased Attack Speed Critical Hit Chance (lower priority)*
Ring #2	Convention of Elements (Best in Slot) Unity (Alternative)	Socket Critical Hit Damage Cooldown Reduction Average Damage Increased Attack Speed Critical Hit Chance (lower priority)*
Weapon	Trag'Oul's Corroded Fang	High Damage Range Intelligence Socket (preferably from Ramaladni's Gift) Cooldown Reduction Max Essence (Secondary Stat) % Weapon Damage
Off-hand	Lost Time	Intelligence Cooldown Reduction Max Essence (Secondary Stat) Increased Damage vs. Elites Critical Hit Chance (lower priority)*

* — Crit Chance is denoted with "lower priority" due to Brittle Touch stacking. Read gearing section above.

2. Paragon Points

Slot	Paragon Points
Core	Movement Speed up to 25% cap Maximum Essence Intelligence Vitality
Offense	Cooldown Reduction Critical Hit Damage Attack Speed Critical Hit Chance
Defense	Armor Life % All Resistance Life Regeneration
Utility	Area Damage Life on Hit Resource Cost Reduction Gold Find

3. Gems

Molten Wildebeest's Gizzard lis a Life Regeneration-specific legendary gem that almost singlehandedly (optionally, in synergy with the Draw Life passive) takes care of the lacking sustain in this build. Note that this gem is a higher priority for the Convention of Elements high tier progression setup, and can be easily replaced by a Bane of the Powerful in Unity-based, sub-GR 100 runs.

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 consistently with a combination of the Frozen Lands stun and the strong Decrepify slow.

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	Molten Wildebeest's Gizzard Bane of the Powerful (alt) Bane of the Trapped Zei's Stone of Vengeance
Helm	Flawless Royal Diamond (Cooldown Reduction)
Torso and Pants	Flawless Royal Topaz (Damage) Flawless Royal Ruby (Toughness)
Weapon	Flawless Royal Emerald

4. 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.

Finally, the jewelry Cube slot will be taken by Krysbin's Sentence, whose effect doubles your damage against targets affected by a Slow and triples the bonus if you affect enemies with any other form of CC. This potent bonus will be reserved for your Land of the Dead Frozen Lands, but will affect every present enemy in the radius. Note that while you can theoretically equip this ring and cube the worn jewelry recommendations, it is preferable to store Krysbin's Sentence in this slot due to the significant range and importance of maximizing its damage bonus.

5. Follower

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.

About the Author

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.

6. Changelog

• 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.

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