LoD Blood Nova Necromancer Skills and Runes
On this page, we explain how to choose and use your skills when playing LoD Blood Nova Necromancer in Diablo 3. Updated for Patch 2.7.3 and Season 26.
Active Skills |
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Passive Skills |
Rotation
The build starts runs by activating Bone Armor, in order to obtain the
considerable damage reduction bonuses as well as the damage amplification from
Scythe of the Cycle. Take note of the item's consumption of the
Bone Armor duration, and reapply it accordingly. You will also activate
Frailty, but need do so only once per run due to the permanent bonus of
Aura of Frailty. While the build relies on
Death Nova
Blood Nova for
the entirety of its damage output, you will actually be casting it through
constant use of
Siphon Blood and the subsequent guaranteed proc of
Iron Rose. This allows you to maintain your Essence reserve untouched and
enjoy the benefits of
Aquila Cuirass. Your periods of massive burst come
from simultaneous application of the Necromancer's two longest cooldowns:
Land of the Dead and
Simulacrum; try to time their use to coincide
with the Physical rotation of
Convention of Elements.
Skills and Runes
The focal point of the build is Death Nova, whose damage you will
amplify through various means — elemental damage on gear (see this build's
gear page for more information), the
Scythe of the Cycle and
Bone Armor interaction, and skill-specific
items like
Bloodtide Blade and
Iron Rose. The latter is especially
important, since it practically ensures that you never need to cast
Death Nova manually, with the minor downside that it locks you into the
Blood Nova rune. The upside is that you completely ignore the rune's
blood cost, and even gain the superb health restoration bonuses of
Drain Life on
Siphon Blood, since you no longer need to restore
Essence.
Due to the inclusion of Scythe of the Cycle in the build, you will have
to use
Bone Armor on a regular basis. On top of its base damage reduction
bonuses (extended even further by the equipped or cubed
Wisdom of Kalan),
it is recommended that you take the rune
Dislocation for an extra on-demand
proc of
Krysbin's Sentence from the 2-second stun. Alternatively, you can
slot
Harvest of Anguish for the improved mobility throughout the rift.
A duo of omnipotent cooldowns makes its appearance in yet another Necromancer
build: Land of the Dead and
Simulacrum.
Land of the Dead will
be taken, of course, with the staple
Frozen Lands rune in order to provide
a short period of guaranteed
Krysbin's Sentence damage amplification,
ideally synced with the Physical rotation of
Convention of Elements.
Simulacrum will be (unusually) taken with the rune
Blood and Bone
in order to triple your damage output, as both clones will duplicate your
Blood Novas. The minions will be made permanent (rather than the fleeting
duration they have by default) with the worn or cubed
Haunted Visions
amulet.
In order to more efficiently scout out rift levels, plan engagements, or even
outright skip unfavorable fights, you will be using the Necromancer's solitary
movement tool — Blood Rush. Couple it with the toughness rune
Potency for a brief survivability spike on every engagement.
Lastly, you will be taking a Curse into the build to improve your overall
damage output. For AoE convenience, it is recommended that you take an
automatically applying rune such as Frailty
Aura of Frailty, whose radius
mimics the caster-centric
Blood Novas. Note the rune's synergy with
Pickup Radius on gear, and try to obtain it in the Secondary Stats of your
items.
This concludes the overview of the Active Skills, now let us look through the Passives.
Passives
Since this falls into the category of low summoning builds, you can make great
use of the Stand Alone passive and its massive Armor bonuses.
Two interconnected passives — Eternal Torment and
Spreading Malediction — will work off each other, with the former
making the curse spread by the
Aura of Frailty last indefinitely, and the
latter — increasing your damage for each afflicted enemy with no apparent
cap.
Swift Harvesting is a straightforward addition to the build, as you
inflict all of your damage through
Iron Rose's
Blood Nova procs
via
Siphon Blood, and this passive amplifies the latter's attack speed by
a significant margin.
Changelog
- 14 Apr. 2022: Guide reviewed for Season 26.
- 08 Dec. 2021: Reviewed for Season 25.
- 22 Jul. 2021: No changes required for Season 24.
- 01 Apr. 2021: No changes required for Season 23.
- 19 Nov. 2020: No changes necessary for Season 22.
- 15 Jul. 2020: Guide revised to reflect the changes to Haunted Visions and Iron Rose.
- 12 Mar. 2020: No changes necessary for Season 20.
- 22 Nov. 2019: Reviewed for Season 19.
- 23 Aug. 2018: Skills were reviewed and approved for Season 18.
- 12 May 2019: Guide added.
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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