LoD Poison Scythe Necromancer Trash Killer Variation
Greater Rift Group Speedfarm
The LoD Poison Scythe Necromancer can be adapted to be a group Greater Rift Trash Killing spec, especially when coupled with an appropriate team composition of support teammates. The build deviates in some ways from the base solo progression spec, most notably in the gear and legendary gem selection.
Adapting Skills
Active Skills |
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Passive Skills |
The vast majority of your skill selection for group trash clearing will remain the same as your solo progression spec. For the sake of posterity, this is a short version of the reasoning behind each skill:
Simulacrum
Blood and Bone is the crux of your damage output, strengthened by the
Haunted Visions amulet. The dual summons will mimic your
Cursed Scythe spam.
Grim Scythe
Cursed Scythe is your primary damage dealing skill and a utility powerhouse with its curse-spreading powers. The rune is also poisonous, and will count towards the
Nayr's Black Death stacks.
Bone Armor remains a fixture in the build, considering the poisonous stack coming from
Dislocation and the stun synergy it has with
Krysbin's Sentence.
- Ideally, you will run three other poisonous skills in the build. We
suggest
Command Skeletons
Kill Command (also keeps
Stand Alone bonuses better),
Bone Spear
Blighted Marrow (cheap, far range to draw monster aggro with), and
Skeletal Mage
Contamination (excellent synergy with
Razeth's Volition). You can adjust some or all of them to your preference however, with other options like
Death Nova
Blight,
Siphon Blood
Power Shift,
Bone Spikes
Bone Pillars, etc.
- Your passive lineup should remain
Swift Harvesting for the attack speed,
Stand Alone for the extra armor, and the duo of
Spreading Malediction and
Eternal Torment for the curse synergy with
Cursed Scythe.
Adapting Gear
Since you will not be responsible for CC immunity in groups, you should
replace Krelm's Buff Bracers from the solo progression build for
Ancient Parthan Defenders. Their potent damage reduction effect will be
procced by the pre-nuke cast of
Bone Armor
Dislocation, as well as your
supports — and makes you much more durable in the highly damaging
environments of GR progression.
With the ample protection given to you by supports, you can easily add
another damage multiplier in the build in the form of Squirt's Necklace,
and offset its "increased damage taken" effect with the supports' protective
buffs.
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.
Altar of Rites
The former Season 28 theme, the Altar of Rites, has been revised and re-added to Diablo 3 as a permanent character progression mechanic. — 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 Gems
You will maintain Legacy of Dreams (foundational gem for the build)
and
Simplicity's Strength (damage multiplication for your main source of
DPS) from the solo progression build. Since you will no longer be responsible
for taking the Rift Guardian down, you will replace
Bane of the Stricken
with
Bane of the Trapped for another massive source of damage
multiplication.
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 keep Nayr's Black Death as your weapon Cube power; this is a
major source of damage multiplication for the build, and your entire skill
selection revolves around it. The same applies to
Illusory Boots, which
allow you freedom of movement without losing any potential Poison stacks from
your skill lineup.
Haunted Visions remains a pivotal part of the build due to its
Simulacrum-based powers. Note that this slot is interchangeable with
Squirt's Necklace depending on your better rolled item.
The Kanai's Cube can be used for much more than simply extracting Legendary powers from items. Please refer to our Kanai's Cube guide for more information.
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.
Season 35 Theme — Eternal Conflict
This Season revives the Pandemonium Kill Streak buff from Season 19. Each stack grants a bonus to movement speed and damage, capping at +50% movement speed and +100% damage at 1000 kills. Hitting specific kill thresholds unleashes powerful effects. Read more in our dedicated Season of the Eternal Conflict Mechanics Guide!
While speedfarming sees limited use from this theme, Greater Rift
pushing benefits significantly. Effects like Geysers (150),
Meteors (400), and Angels (500) can clear elites and Rift
Guardians instantly. Players may reset streaks after 150 kills to repeatedly
trigger Geysers or push for 500+ kills near boss fights, often using
Nemesis Bracers to spawn extra enemies.
Because the most potent effects (Geysers, Meteors, Angels) can obliterate Rift Guardians instantly up to GR150, players can retool builds for efficiency and comfort. Here’s how:
Legendary Gem Considerations
Since you can rely on killstreak procs to clear the Rift Guardian,
Bane of the Stricken can be safely omitted in favor of:
- Another generic damage-scaling legendary gem (
Bane of the Trapped for builds with any form of crowd control and/or melee range,
Zei's Stone of Vengeance for far ranged builds,
Taeguk for channeling builds,
Simplicity's Strength for primary attack-focused builds,
Enforcer for pet-oriented builds, etc.)
- A survivability-oriented legendary gem (
Esoteric Alteration,
Molten Wildebeest's Gizzard), or additional utility (
Gogok of Swiftness for CDR-reliant builds,
Pain Enhancer for attack speed-heavy builds, or
Wreath of Lightning for extra movement speed).
Equipment and Skill Flexibility
Adjust your equipment to items that favor durability, health sustain, and ease of movement. Consider adjusting non-essential skills for the build to ones that pull, reposition, or otherwise displace enemies to facilitate large pulls of enemy packs. In more concrete terms, this means:
- For class-specific items, Necromancers should consider
Dayntee's Binding if it's absent from the build; this is a powerful damage reduction item that incentivizes you to be mindful of utility skills by spreading curses on as large of an enemy pull as possible (especially in conjunction with popular Necro passives such as
Spreading Malediction). This synergizes well with the killstreak theme.
- For additional options that balance between defense and offense, the
class-specific amulet
Wisdom of Kalan extends the
Bone Armor stack maximum and can fit into several builds, while other helpful cross-class jewelry includes
Unity (combined with the same ring on the follower plus a follower immortality token), and the Endless Walk set (
The Traveler's Pledge and
The Compass Rose).
- Situational items that can bolster your defenses include
Stone Gauntlets, the drawbacks of which are negated via CC-immunity effects like
Ice Climbers, or the Altar of Rites CC-immunity node. The class-specific
Razeth's Volition and the class-agnostic
Aquila Cuirass are powerful and popular choices for low Essence-spending builds, especially ones built around generators like LoD Poison Scythe. A final niche consideration is
Mantle of Channeling, which balances between defense and offense for channeling builds, often built around
Iron Rose.
- Utility items like
Nemesis Bracers are essential as more elites mean more killstreak maintenance and faster progression. When soloing, they should be equipped by your follower; in groups, at least one party member should commit to wearing them. When focusing strictly on speed,
Steuart's Greaves can be a powerful inclusion for scouting, but builds that are locked into other items for the slot can turn to niche options like
Warzechian Armguards or
Krelm's Buff Belt. To facilitate large pulls, consider using a Follower equipped with
The Ess of Johan, a proc-based analogue to an enemy-pulling skill (albeit outside your control).
- Skill-wise, make sure to include at least one movement skill tool like
Blood Rush. While Necromancers lack an easily available enemy-pulling tool (Rathma Necros build around
Army of the Dead
Death Valley, but are an exception), a stunning skill like
Bone Armor
Dislocation can help manage large packs of enemies and doubles as a
Krysbin's Sentence proc. Take a look if you can include passives like
Final Service (for a cheat-death) or
Fueled by Death (for extra movement speed).
Changelog
- 03 Jun. 2025: Added Season 35 Eternal Conflict killstreak recommendations.
- 20 Jan. 2025: Added Season 34 Angelic Crucible recommendations.
- 22 Oct. 2024: Added Season 33 advice for 4th Kanai slot.
- 10 Jul. 2024: Added Season 32 advice for ethereal weapons.
- 10 Apr. 2024: Guide reviewed for Season 31.
- 10 Jan. 2024: Revised guide for the permanent addition of the Altar of Rites, and added Season-specific Soul Shard recommendations.
- 13 Sep. 2023: Added Season 29 Paragon Cap and Gearing recommendations.
- 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: Minor gear revision and added follower recommendation.
- 19 Nov. 2020: Added S22 Cube recommendation.
- 02 Jul. 2020: Guide added.
More Necromancer Guides
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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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