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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Grim Scythe Cursed Scythe Skeletal Mage Contamination 1 Simulacrum Blood and Bone 2 Bone Spear Blighted Marrow 3 Command Skeletons Kill Command 4 Bone Armor Dislocation |
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.
Season 30 Soul Shards
In Season 30, your helm and weapon sockets will be taken over by the supremely powerful Soul Shards. For this variant, we recommend the following:
- Helm — Sliver of Terror with "Your Attack Speed and Critical Hit Chance are increased by 5% for each skill on cooldown" as its Rank 3 power. For optimization benefits, aim for Intelligence or Melee/Ranged Damage Reduction on its Rank 2 roll.
- Weapon — Remnant of Pain with "When you critically hit an enemy, you increase Attack Speed of all players by 5%" as its Rank 3 power. For optimization benefits, aim for Poison Skills % Increase or Weapon Damage Increase on its Rank 2 roll. This Soul Shard delivers guaranteed crits when you apply hard crowd control effects on enemies (i.e., Bone Armor Dislocation).
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.
Changelog
- 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
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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