LoD Blood Nova Necromancer Skills and Runes

Active Skills
Siphon Blood Drain Life Blood Rush Potency 1 Simulacrum Blood and Bone 2 Land of the Dead Frozen Lands 3 Bone Armor Dislocation 4 Frailty Aura of Frailty
Passive Skills
Swift Harvesting Eternal Torment Spreading Malediction Stand Alone

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.

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.

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.