LoD Poison Scythe Necromancer Skills and Runes
On this page, we explain how to choose and use your skills when playing LoD Poison Scythe Necromancer in Diablo 3. Updated for Patch 2.7.3 and Season 26.
Active Skills |
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Passive Skills |
Rotation
The build begins runs by summoning Simulacrum; due to the rune
Blood and Bone you will get two minions at your side, and you need to be
diligent in their upkeep as a large part of your DPS relies on them (you do not
need to worry about their duration however —
Haunted Visions makes
them last indefinitely). If you find it hard to keep track of them in the thick
of a fight, simply check with a cast of a spender (i.e.
Bone Spear)
somewhere outside the cluster of monsters; if two more spears shoot in that
direction, you are set.
Rotate between your poisonous skills at your discretion; you only goal is to
stay at your maximum Nayr's Black Death stacks at all times. You can throw
Bone Spear to draw monster attention,
Death Nova
Blight to reduce
incoming damage, or
Grim Scythe to restore Essence for
Aquila Cuirass upkeep. Right as your
Convention of Elements rotation
finishes the Physical cycle and reaches Poison, you want to pop
Bone Armor
to trigger the stun of
Dislocation, which will maximize your
Krysbin's Sentence damage bonuses during your burst cycle. After that,
simply swing
Grim Scythe
Cursed Scythe alongside your
Simulacrums
and enjoy the devastation; once the Poison cycle is over, you can resume the
rotation of Nayr upkeep and drawing monster attention into big packs for the next
cycle of mayhem.
Skills and Runes
A major skill slot will be devoted to Simulacrum, one of the
Necromancer's longest cooldowns — thankfully, with the power of the revised
Haunted Visions, now made permanent minions at your side. You will be
taking the "double summon" rune
Blood and Bone, since you want to maximize
the mimicking of your own skills.
You will be using a primary skill that will both
stack Nayr's Black Death and also bring the signature poisonous devastation
of this build.
Grim Scythe
Cursed Scythe is one of the most utility-loaded
skills in the Necromancer arsenal. By default, it has a chance to apply the base
effect of all three curses —
Decrepify,
Leech and
Frailty — without the need to slot them on your bar. This primary
gets boosted further by the worn
Trag'Oul's Corroded Fang, ensuring the curse
application and amplifying damage against affected targets. When you factor in
the
Simulacrums spamming this skill alongside you, it pushes the build
to endgame potential.
You will also be using a duo of Essence spenders —
Bone Spear
Blighted Marrow and
Death Nova
Blight —
again, simply for their Poison stack for
Nayr's Black Death. As such, only
use them to refresh the duration of the Nayr buff — their damage and
utility is too limited to matter.
In a LoD build, Bone Armor simply acts as a damage reduction buffer,
easily maximized in densely packed rifts. The more important half of the skill
comes from the chosen rune,
Dislocation — its 2-second stun will
provide a moment of respite in the thick of battle, as well as an additional
source of
Nayr's Black Death,
Krysbin's Sentence and
Ancient Parthan Defenders (in the group version of the build) procs.
Passives
Swift Harvesting is the most logical addition to a primary
attack-focused build, increasing the Attack Speed of both
Grim Scythe and
Siphon Blood with an impressive 15% bonus.
Since this spec falls into the category of low summoning builds, you can make
use of the Stand Alone passive and its massive Armor bonuses with minimal
losses.
Two interconnected passives — Eternal Torment and
Spreading Malediction — will work off each other, with the former
making curses applied by
Cursed Scythe last indefinitely, and the latter
— increasing your damage for each afflicted enemy with no apparent cap.
Changelog
- 14 Apr. 2022: Guide reviewed for Season 26.
- 08 Dec. 2021: Reviewed for Season 25.
- 22 Jul. 2021: Added S24 Ethereal recommendation.
- 01 Apr. 2021: No changes required for Season 23.
- 19 Nov. 2020: Passives changed to accommodate S22-specific changes.
- 02 Jul. 2020: Overhauled the guide into a Poison Scythe version.
- 10 Mar. 2020: 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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