LoD Skeletons Group Necromancer Skills and Runes

Last updated on Nov 22, 2019 at 11:08 by Deadset 13 comments

On this page, we explain how to choose and use your skills when playing LoD Skeletons Group Necromancer in Diablo 3. Updated for Patch 2.6.7 and Season 19.

Active Skills
Left Mouse Button Grim Scythe Icon Grim Scythe Cursed Scythe Cursed Scythe Right Mouse Button Command Skeletons Icon Command Skeletons Kill Command Kill Command 1 Land of the Dead Icon Land of the Dead Plaguelands Plaguelands 2 Bone Spear Icon Bone Spear Blighted Marrow Blighted Marrow 3 Death Nova Icon Death Nova Blight Blight 4 Bone Armor Icon Bone Armor Dislocation Dislocation
Passive Skills
1.

Rotation

Your entire active skillset is built around adding stacks to Nayr's Black Death Nayr's Black Death by using Poison, while trying to add as many synergistic runes as possible. While it may seem counterintuitive to spec into Poison runes in a Thorns build (as Thorns is classified as Physical damage), keep in mind you are solely choosing those skills to buff up the Command Skeletons Command Skeletons Kill Command Kill Command with the Nayr interaction. The buff to the Poison-based rune increases its overall damage, including Thorns.

2.

Skills and Runes

Grim Scythe Grim Scythe Cursed Scythe Cursed Scythe is one of the most utility-loaded primary skills in the Necromancer arsenal. By default, it has a chance to apply the base effect of all three curses — Decrepify Decrepify, Leech Leech and Frailty Frailty — without the need to slot them on your bar. This primary gets boosted further by Trag'Oul's Corroded Fang Trag'Oul's Corroded Fang, ensuring the curse application and amplifying damage against affected targets.

In a LoN build, Bone Armor Bone Armor simply acts as a damage reduction buffer, easily maximized in densely packed rifts. Its utility can be further increased by equipping a Wisdom of Kalan Wisdom of Kalan, but this is luxury equipment and is not at all necessary. The more important half of the skill comes from the chosen rune, Dislocation Dislocation — its 2-second stun will provide a moment of respite in the thick of battle, as well as an additional source of Nayr's Black Death Nayr's Black Death and Krysbin's Sentence Krysbin's Sentence procs.

Command Skeletons Command Skeletons is the primary damage dealing skill of the setup, due to the stacking mechanic of the Bone Ringer Bone Ringer phylactery acting as a separate Bane of the Stricken Bane of the Stricken in the build — single-handedly making this a top tier single target spec. You will be using the poisonous rune Kill Command Kill Command in order to add a stack to Nayr's Black Death Nayr's Black Death.

You will be using a duo of Essence spenders — Bone Spear Bone Spear Blighted Marrow Blighted Marrow and Death Nova Death Nova Blight Blight — solely for the stacks added to Nayr's Black Death Nayr's Black Death. As such, only use them to refresh the duration of the Nayr buff — their damage and utility is too limited to matter, and overspending Essence will drop your Aquila Cuirass Aquila Cuirass damage reduction buff.

Your final active skill is the Necromancer mainstay, Land of the Dead Land of the Dead. Contrary to its use in most builds, you will not be spamming any Corpse-related skills during its uptime, but it will — like the rest of your skill selection — give you a stack of Nayr via the rune Plaguelands Plaguelands. Note that it will also trigger the effects of the cubed Bloodsong Mail Bloodsong Mail, granting you the effects of all missing Command Skeletons Command Skeletons runes and amplifying the skill's damage (see this build's gear page for more information).

This concludes the overview of the Active Skills, now let us look through the Passives.

3.

Passives

As a Thorns build that relies on pet application of the effect, you naturally need to include Aberrant Animator Aberrant Animator as a baseline.

Due to the breakpoint-dependent nature of the build, part of your Attack Speed needs will be fulfilled by taking Swift Harvesting Swift Harvesting for faster Bane of the Stricken Bane of the Stricken stacking.

Two interconnected passives — Eternal Torment Eternal Torment and Spreading Malediction Spreading Malediction — will work off each other, with the former making curses applied by Cursed Scythe Cursed Scythe last indefinitely, and the latter — increasing your damage for each afflicted enemy.

4.

Changelog

  • 22 Nov. 2019: Reviewed for Season 19.
  • 23 Aug. 2019: Skills were reviewed and approved for Season 18.
  • 12 May 2019: Guide was revised with additional recommendations for Season 17's LoN buff.
  • 24 Feb. 2019: Guide overhaul with the meta shift into a LoN version of the build.
  • 18 Jan. 2019: Information was reviewed and approved for Season 16 with no changes required.
  • 27 Oct. 2017: Made a few adjustments to the skill list.
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