LoD Poison Scythe Necromancer Trash Killer Variation

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.

Active Skills
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
Stand Alone Swift Harvesting Overwhelming Essence Spreading Malediction

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

For more information about gems, please refer to our guide on gems.

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.

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.

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:

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).

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).