Corpse Lance Necromancer Group Progression Variation
Pestilence Corpse Lance Group Variation
In groups, the Pestilence Corpse Lance build assumes the role of an elite hunting, Rift Guardian killing menace. Note that this variation of the build is strictly meant to be played with Support teammates and an accompanying AoE DPS player. This variation is no longer the preferred Rift Guardian Killer for groups, but we leave this page up for archival purposes.
Adapting Skills
Active Skills |
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Passive Skills |
In this group variant you will be scaling off Curse application instead of
the solo progression's Essence scaling. Thus, you should drop
Simulacrum from the soloing build, and use
Grim Scythe
Cursed Scythe in its stead. This alteration will allow you to
more easily stack
Bane of the Stricken, while simultaneously enjoying the
benefits of the base effects of all three curses:
Decrepify,
Leech and
Frailty.
Since you will not need the sustain from Dark Mending due to the
presence of Support teammates, you should alter your
Command Skeletons
rune to the cheaper
Enforcer. The same logic applies to your
Blood Rush rune; you will no longer need the emergency Corpses of
Molting, so you can alter to the added safety of
Potency.
Final Service and
Blood is Power remain just as useful as they
are for soloing Lance builds.
Swift Harvesting should replace the
solo-oriented
Fueled by Death, as faster
Grim Scythe attacks will
stack
Bane of the Stricken faster. Since you alter your damage scaling
from Essence-based to Curse-based, will should alternate
Overwhelming Essence from the soloing build into
Eternal Torment, turning your 30 second curses into an indefinite
debuff on affected enemies.
Adapting Gear
Taking the easily stacking Crit Chance of the Brittle Touch rune one
step further from the following spec, the group variation eschews all Crit
Chance from gear in favor of full investement in Crit Damage, Cooldown
Reduction and Increased Attack Speed.
Slot | Pieces | Stat Priority |
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Head |
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Shoulders |
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Torso |
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Wrists |
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Hands |
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Waist |
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Legs |
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Feet |
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Amulet |
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Ring #1 |
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Ring #2 |
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Weapon |
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Off-hand |
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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.
Season 28: Altar of Rites
Season 28 comes with the theme of the Altar of Rites — a powerful new account-wide and Season-specific progression system that brings tremendous offensive and defensive buffs to every seasonal character. For virtually all builds and players of all skill levels — from casual to advanced — we recommend progressing through the Altar tree using the path outlined below. The suggested path is geared towards maximum quality of life first, then amplifying damage, and then mopping up the tree with defensive and edge case utility nodes.
Note that while they require reaching them with a Seal, Legendary Potion Powers are not part of the Seal cost system; Potions unlock with a separate resource called Primordial Ashes, obtained from salvaging Legendary or Set items of Primal (red bordered) quality. Upgrade them as soon as possible, and in the order shown below (courtesy of Caleko's Altar of Rites planner).

You can read more on the Altar of Rites, Seals and Legendary Potion Powers in our dedicated Altar of Rites Mechanics guide.
Adapting Gemming
Relying entirely on Support teammates for his health sustain, the group
variant of the Pestilence Lancer spec uses Bane of the Stricken in place
of
Gogok of Swiftness. The former is a staple for builds that specialize
in taking down the Rift Guardian in groups, which is your exact role in this
setup.
Slot | Gems |
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Jewelry | |
Helm |
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Torso and Pants |
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Weapon |
For more information about gems, please refer to our guide on gems.
Adapting Kanai's Cube
You will introduce Curse-based damage amplification via
Trag'Oul's Corroded Fang, as well as maintain
Corpsewhisper Pauldrons as a
Corpse Lance-dedicated legendary,
and a
Ring of Royal Grandeur to tie the bonuses of Pestilence and Cpt.
Crimson sets together.
Legendary Potion
Your recommended potion is Bottomless Potion of the Tower, whose
Armor-increasing properties complement the naturally high All Resistances stat
of Necromancers (due to Intelligence scaling Resistances) for optimal
survivability.
Changelog
- 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 potion recommendation.
- 19 Nov. 2020: Revision of item, skill, and passive recommendations, alongside advice for Season 22 changes.
- 02 Jul. 2020: Retiring this variation of the build.
- 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.
- 26 Nov. 2017: Added the group progression variant.
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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