LoD Singularity Necromancer Skills and Runes

Last updated on Jan 10, 2024 at 09:00 by Deadset 30 comments

On this page, we explain how to choose and use your skills when playing LoD Singularity Necromancer in Diablo 3. Updated for Patch 2.7.7 and Season 30.

Active Skills
Left Mouse Button Simulacrum Icon Simulacrum Reservoir Reservoir Right Mouse Button Skeletal Mage Icon Skeletal Mage Life Support Life Support 1 Frailty Icon Frailty Scent of Blood Scent of Blood 2 Land of the Dead Icon Land of the Dead Frozen Lands Frozen Lands 3 Bone Armor Icon Bone Armor Dislocation Dislocation 4 Devour Icon Devour Cannibalize Cannibalize
Passive Skills
1.

Rotation

The build begins its runs by activating Bone Armor Bone Armor, both for its protective value as well as the damage buff from Scythe of the Cycle Scythe of the Cycle. Note its duration consumption from your regular summons, and recast it as needed. Keep up the Devour Devour casts throughout the rift to replenish Essence consistently, and fuel its Corpse needs with Land of the Dead Land of the Dead on cooldown. Ideally, you will be casting Simulacrum Simulacrum in sync with your Land of the Dead Land of the Dead resource spikes, since the Reservoir Reservoir rune will greatly empower the following summons. To that end, make sure to summon your Skeletal Mage Skeletal Mage Life Support Life Support at or as close to full Essence as you can, since the spell depletes your entire current reserve (due to the free Singularity Singularity from the worn Razeth's Volition Razeth's Volition), and scales its damage based off the consumption accordingly. Depending on your purpose (high end GR pushing or lower tier speeds) you will either be cursing the enemy packs ahead with Frailty Frailty Scent of Blood Scent of Blood, or Blood Rush Blood Rushing to reposition throughout the Rift.

2.

Skills and Runes

Your main damage-dealing skill is Skeletal Mage Skeletal Mage, greatly empowered by synergistic items such as Scythe of the Cycle Scythe of the Cycle, Circle of Nailuj's Evol Circle of Nailuj's Evol and Razeth's Volition Razeth's Volition. The latter will provide the strongest damage dealing rune Singularity Singularity for free; its unique property consumes your entire resource reserve for 3% extra damage per Essence spent. This results in 1860% extra damage per full resource dump on a reasonably equipped character. With the strongest rune added for free, we recommend taking Life Support Life Support as the rune on your bar, since it is more forgiving with its extra duration. Note that your Skeletal Mage Skeletal Mages will match your target (whatever you are currently attacking or mousing over), so make sure to position and pick priority targets accordingly.

When starting out with this build — or depending on your preferences for mobility in general — our basic recommendation is to take Blood Rush Blood Rush. The solitary movement skill of the Necromancer gains some extra resource generation utility with the rune Molting Molting, which grants an extra Corpse at your original location — but still well enough into the range of Devour Devour. You have other viable options for the slot; you can alternate the rune (either to the safer Potency Potency or the all-out double charges of Metabolism Metabolism), or switch the skill entirely to a curse in high-end GR progression, i.e. Frailty Frailty Scent of Blood Scent of Blood. Taking a curse into the build will allow you the safety of Dayntee's Binding Dayntee's Binding, at the expense of greater mobility options (see this build's gear page for more information).

In order to take advantage of the massive Scythe of the Cycle Scythe of the Cycle bonuses, you will need to take Bone Armor Bone Armor into the build. Besides its base damage reduction bonuses, we recommend that you take the rune Dislocation Dislocation for its two-second stun, which provides an additional, consistent way to proc Krysbin's Sentence Krysbin's Sentence in every battle. You can viably alternate this rune to Harvest of Anguish Harvest of Anguish to improve mobility throughout the Rift.

In order to fuel the constant Essence demand of your main damage dealer, you will construct the majority of your remaining skillset to replenish resources and empower your build.

Your Essence restoration hinges on a core Necromancer mechanic: consuming Corpses, which are a unique Necromancer resource that is generated largely through combat. You will be using Devour Devour with the Cannibalize Cannibalize rune to double dip on bonuses, Essence restoration and Health restoration, and their interaction with the Requiem Cereplate Requiem Cereplate bonus will result in an even greater, snowballing effect. Note that due to the skill's lack of casting animation, you are free to spam as much as you need.

A major source of Essence generation depends on Devour Devour, but empowers it greatly. Land of the Dead Land of the Dead supplies you with an infinite amount of Corpses throughout its short duration, allowing you to replenish Health and Essence almost instantaneously. During its uptime, you will be able to get the maximum number of Skeletal Mage Skeletal Mages, all at their maximum power, for a great boost of damage. Note Land of the Dead Land of the Dead's massive cooldown and try to time it with advantageous situations, like engagements with multiple Elites or the Rift Guardian. The rune Frozen Lands Frozen Lands will ensure the powerful Krysbin's Sentence Krysbin's Sentence proc on all enemies on the screen for an even better damage output.

Your final skill slot will be used for Simulacrum Simulacrum Reservoir Reservoir, another one of the Necromancer's longest cooldowns — thankfully now made permanent with the revised powers of Haunted Visions Haunted Visions. The Simulacrum Simulacrum summon will mimic your secondary skill (Skeletal Mage Skeletal Mage, in this case), and will double your Essence reserve through the Reservoir Reservoir rune—an immensely powerful effect with the Singularity Singularity rune in mind.

3.

Passives

Similarly to the reasoning behind Simulacrum Simulacrum Reservoir Reservoir, you will be taking the flat Essence increase of Overwhelming Essence Overwhelming Essence—all to empower the Singularity Singularity mages.

To play to the strengths of your equipped Reaper's Wraps Reaper's Wraps and the constant spam of Devour Devour, Life from Death Life from Death will provide you with a consistent supply of Health Globes. This will greatly improve both the rate and the average power of your Singularity Singularity summons.

Blood is Power Blood is Power is the Necromancer's take on passives such as Evocation Evocation and Beacon of Ytar Beacon of Ytar—along with the significant drawback of needing to lose your health reserve equivalent to trigger it. Since it counts off pre-mitigation values however, this passive will trigger from the very flow of gameplay (constant, high damage hits) in any meaningful Greater Rift progression difficulty. With an overarching goal of reducing Land of the Dead Land of the Dead and Simulacrum Simulacrum downtimes, Blood is Power Blood is Power finds a deserving place in your passive selection.

You have some freedom in your final passive slot. Our basic recommendation is Final Service Final Service, the Necromancer's cheat death, a chance to evade a lethal outcome once every 60 seconds, along with a 10% healing proc per minion currently active. If you prefer utility over excessive safety, you can also try Fueled by Death Fueled by Death in the same slot, or if you went with a curse in your active skill selection, you can increase damage via Spreading Malediction Spreading Malediction.

4.

Changelog

  • 10 Jan. 2024: Skills and passives reviewed for Season 30.
  • 13 Sep. 2023: Skills and passives reviewed for Season 29.
  • 22 Feb. 2023: Skills and passives reviewed for Season 28.
  • 26 Aug. 2022: Skills and passives reviewed for Season 27.
  • 14 Apr. 2022: Guide reviewed for Season 26.
  • 08 Dec. 2021: Reviewed for Season 25.
  • 22 Jul. 2021: No changes required for Season 24.
  • 01 Apr. 2021: No changes required for Season 23.
  • 19 Nov. 2020: Revision of skill, rune, and passive recommendations.
  • 02 Jul. 2020: Revised the build to account for Razeth's Volition changes.
  • 12 Mar. 2020: Revised priority recommendations for gear to better reflect the meta for high-end runs.
  • 22 Nov. 2019: Skill page reviewed and approved for Season 19.
  • 23 Aug. 2018: Skills were reviewed and approved for Season 18.
  • 17 May 2019: Guide was reviewed and approved for Season 17.
  • 17 Apr. 2019: Guide added.
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