LoD Singularity Necromancer Group Speed Farming Variation

Last updated on Jan 10, 2024 at 09:00 by Deadset 30 comments
1.

Greater Rift Group Speedfarm

The LoD "Rat" Skeletal Mage Necromancer can be adapted to be a group Greater Rift speed farmer, especially when coupled with an appropriate team composition of Support Necromancer and Support Barbarian. The build deviates in some ways from the base solo progression spec, most notably in weaponry and its approach to fights.

2.

Adapting Skills

Active Skills
Left Mouse Button Simulacrum Icon Simulacrum Reservoir Reservoir Right Mouse Button Skeletal Mage Icon Skeletal Mage Life Support Life Support 1 Blood Rush Icon Blood Rush Metabolism Metabolism 2 Devour Icon Devour Devouring Aura Devouring Aura 3 Land of the Dead Icon Land of the Dead Shallow Graves Shallow Graves 4 Bone Armor Icon Bone Armor Harvest of Anguish Harvest of Anguish
Passive Skills

A large part of your skill selection from the solo build will still make sense during GR XP farming. The basis of your damage still lies in the synergy between the (free) Skeletal Mage Skeletal Mage Singularity Singularity rune and the near-instantaneous Essence refills provided by Devour Devour during Land of the Dead Land of the Dead uptime, coupled with the extension of your overall Essence pool reserve via Simulacrum Simulacrum Reservoir Reservoir and Overwhelming Essence Overwhelming Essence. All the alterations made to skills will be made in service of speed and length of buffs, namely:

  • The Devour Devour rune will be changed to the speedrun-appropriate Devouring Aura Devouring Aura, whose power snowballs very effectively with the kill speed inside speed GR runs.
  • Land of the Dead Land of the Dead will be changed to the lengthier effect of Shallow Graves Shallow Graves, as the CC necessary for the full effect of Krysbin's Sentence Krysbin's Sentence will be applied by your support teammates; you only care for the Corpse generating effect and its length.
  • Bone Armor Bone Armor will be taken with the farming-oriented Harvest of Anguish Harvest of Anguish, due to the movement speed buff.
  • Cursing will not be required from you, so your final active skill slot should be taken by Blood Rush Blood Rush, with the doubled charges of Metabolism Metabolism.

Most of your passive selection from progression will be retained, with Final Service Final Service (cheat death) and Overwhelming Essence Overwhelming Essence (extra Essence for DPS) still providing tremendous value. Life from Death Life from Death from the solo spec can be dropped, since you will be fed enough globes by your teammates, and the rate of Reaper's Wraps Reaper's Wraps resource restoration has been tamed by its newfound internal cooldown. Extended Servitude Extended Servitude is a good replacement, as additional summon duration is never unwelcome. Blood is Power Blood is Power from the soloing spec should be changed to Dark Reaping Dark Reaping to provide you with a steady source of life and Essence from the lightning-fast monster kills during farming.

3.

Adapting Gear

From the Devour Devour-related items, Requiem Cereplate Requiem Cereplate retains its value for the snowballing effect in a speed run, and Razeth's Volition Razeth's Volition remains vital with the free Singularity Singularity and Gift of Death Gift of Death effects it provides.

From the "generic" legendaries, consider using Andariel's Visage Andariel's Visage over Leoric's Crown Leoric's Crown for the damage gain, and keep Reaper's Wraps Reaper's Wraps — they remain a cornerstone item in the build for their resource regeneration.

The damage-increasing legendaries are highly desirable in speeds, so you will maintain Tasker and Theo Tasker and Theo for the pet attack speed, Hexing Pants of Mr. Yan Hexing Pants of Mr. Yan for the damage and resource generation increase, and take The Witching Hour The Witching Hour over Dayntee's Binding Dayntee's Binding for the extra attack speed and crit damage.

Since speed is essential in XP runs, you will be wearing Steuart's Greaves Steuart's Greaves over the progression-oriented Ice Climbers Ice Climbers, and will be slotting Blood Rush Blood Rush Metabolism Metabolism in your active skills accordingly (see above).

You will focus entirely on damage-oriented jewelry over the progression spec, with Circle of Nailuj's Evol Circle of Nailuj's Evol making way for Convention of Elements Convention of Elements and Krysbin's Sentence Krysbin's Sentence still amplifying damage dealt vs. crowd controlled foes, and topping the selection off with Haunted Visions Haunted Visions as your amulet.

The weapon and offhand are, as always, Scythe of the Cycle Scythe of the Cycle, plus your best rolled phylactery with appropriate stats.

Slot Pieces Stat Priority
Head
  1. Intelligence
  2. Socket
  3. Critical Hit Chance
  4. Physical Damage %
  5. Skeletal Mage Damage % (if Andariel's Visage Andariel's Visage)
  6. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
  7. Pickup Radius (Secondary Stat)
Shoulders
  1. Intelligence
  2. Cooldown Reduction
  3. Vitality
  4. Armor
  5. Pickup Radius (Secondary Stat)
Torso
  1. Intelligence
  2. 3 Sockets
  3. Vitality
  4. Armor
  5. Melee or Missile Damage Reduction (Secondary Stat)
Wrists
  1. Intelligence
  2. Critical Hit Chance
  3. Physical Damage %
  4. Vitality
  5. Melee or Missile Damage Reduction (Secondary Stat)
Hands
  1. Intelligence (replaced by Cooldown Reduction at High Paragons)
  2. Critical Hit Damage
  3. Critical Hit Chance
  4. Attack Speed
  5. Pickup Radius (Secondary Stat)
Waist
  1. Intelligence
  2. Attack Speed (if The Witching Hour The Witching Hour)
  3. Critical Hit Damage (if The Witching Hour The Witching Hour)
  4. Vitality
  5. Pickup Radius (Secondary Stat)
  6. Life per Kill (Secondary Stat)
Legs
  1. Intelligence
  2. 2 Sockets
  3. Vitality
  4. Armor
  5. Pickup Radius (Secondary Stat)
Feet
  1. Intelligence
  2. Skeletal Mage Damage %
  3. Vitality
  4. Armor
  5. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
Amulet
  1. Socket
  2. Critical Hit Damage
  3. Critical Hit Chance
  4. Physical Damage %
  5. Melee or Missile Damage Reduction (Secondary Stat)
Ring #1
  1. Socket
  2. Critical Hit Damage
  3. Critical Hit Chance
  4. Cooldown Reduction
  5. Life per Kill (Secondary Stat)
Ring #2
  1. Socket
  2. Critical Hit Damage
  3. Critical Hit Chance
  4. Cooldown Reduction
  5. Life per Kill (Secondary Stat)
Weapon
  1. High Weapon Damage
  2. Intelligence
  3. Socket (preferably from Ramaladni's Gift Ramaladni's Gift)
  4. Cooldown Reduction
  5. Damage %
  6. Max Essence (Important Secondary stat)
Off-hand
  1. Intelligence
  2. Critical Hit Chance
  3. Cooldown Reduction
  4. Skeletal Mage %
  5. Max Essence (Important Secondary Stat)

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.

3.1.

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).

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.

4.

Adapting Gems

You will maintain the same legendary gem setup as the solo GR progression build, with Bane of the Trapped Bane of the Trapped, Enforcer Enforcer, and Legacy of Dreams Legacy of Dreams remaining as your most desirable gems.

4.1.

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:

  • HelmSliver 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.
  • WeaponDregs of Lies with "Each time your pet hits an enemy, your damage is increased by 0.5% for 5 seconds" as its Rank 3 power. For optimization benefits, aim for Physical Skills % Increase or Weapon Damage Increase on its Rank 2 roll.
Slot Gems
Jewelry
Helm
Torso and Pants
Weapon

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

5.

Adapting Kanai's Cube

You will maintain Reilena's Shadowhook Reilena's Shadowhook as your weapon Cube power, St. Archew's Gage St. Archew's Gage as your armor Cube power for some upfront shielding during engagements, and add Squirt's Necklace Squirt's Necklace as your jewelry Cube power for a consistent damage bonus (the toughness downsides of Squirt's should be negated by your support teammates).

Once you get a feel that you are beginning to overpower the GR difficulty you have selected for farming purposes, you can make a quick swap of the weapon Cube power to Messerschmidt's Reaver Messerschmidt's Reaver to further snowball that effect.

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.

6.

Legendary Potion

Your recommended potion is Bottomless Potion of the Tower 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.

7.

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: No changes required for Season 23.
  • 19 Nov. 2020: Revision of item, skill, and passive recommendations, alongside advice for Season 22 changes.
  • 02 Jul. 2020: Revised the build to account for Razeth's Volition changes.
  • 12 Mar. 2020: Page added.
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