Masquerade Bone Spear Necromancer Skills and Runes

Active Skills
Grim Scythe Frost Scythe Bone Spear Blighted Marrow 1 Bone Armor Dislocation 2 Decrepify Borrowed Time 3 Blood Rush Potency 4 Simulacrum Reservoir
Passive Skills
Spreading Malediction Final Service Stand Alone Bone Prison

The Masquerade Bone Spear build is fairly simple to execute; you will begin runs by summoning Simulacrum, since the minions will produce the bulk of your damage and tie into the set mechanics. You will be using Blood Rush to scout around and draw monsters into bigger fights, where you will apply a triple stack of your curses via manual application (casting your equipped curse and receiving the benefits of all three from the Cursed Form rune of Simulacrum, obtained for free from the Masquerade set 2-piece bonus). Lastly, while you will be using Bone Armor for its standard protective purposes, you should also make a point to save its active stun effect from Dislocation right as the Poison cycle of Convention of Elements approaches, so you can strengthen your burst period with a guaranteed proc of Krysbin's Sentence. That burst, of course, will come from your Bone Spear barrage.

Intrinsically tied to the Masquerade set mechanics and receiving a massive damage buff from the 6-piece bonus, Bone Spear is a natural inclusion and the main damage dealer of the build. The preferred rune is the poisonous Blighted Marrow, which increases Bone Spear damage per pierced target — further encouraging you to build up big fights and clump up enemies, and to position in a way to maximize the number of pierced enemies. You will be augmenting the damage of this skill further with the dedicated Maltorius' Petrified Spike scythe, Gelmindor's Marrow Guards bracers and the skill-agnostic Scythe of the Cycle.

Just as important for a Masquerade-based build, Simulacrum needs to be part of your skill lineup. While we have selected the Essence reserve-doubling Reservoir as the rune on your bar, due to the powers of the set you will receive all the runes of the skill for free — this means the triple curse utility of Cursed Form, the extra "cheat death" proc of Self Sacrifice, the Blood skill (i.e. Blood Rush) cost reduction of Blood Debt, and the additional Simulacrum summon of Blood and Bone. Remember that those summons will now duplicate both your Secondary skills (a category Bone Spear falls into) as well as your Grim Scythe, ensuring complete overlap of utility.

Grim Scythe is one of the most utility-laden primary skills in the Necromancer arsenal. In an attack-speed oriented build such as this one, you will be using the IAS-stacking Frost Scythe rune.

You have a degree of freedom when deciding your equipped curse. Our default recommendation is Decrepify with the cooldown reduction bonuses of Borrowed Time, which eats away at your defensive cooldowns and provides consistency to the build. That being said, most curses will work decently here — from the culling effect of Frailty Early Grave, to the healing juggernaut Leech Cursed Ground, and anything in between.

Bone Armor is taken both for its protective utility, as well as the damage buff it provides via Scythe of the Cycle. The preferred rune is Dislocation, whose two second stun will provide a moment of respite in the thick of battle, as well as an additional source of Krysbin's Sentence procs, which should ideally be timed with the Poison cycle of Convention of Elements (see this build's gear page for more information).

In order to more efficiently scout out rift levels, plan engagements, or even outright skip unfavorable fights, you will be using the Necromancer's solitary movement tool — Blood Rush. Couple it with the toughness rune Potency for a brief survivability spike on every engagement.

Bone Prison is a utility-driven pick, as its powers have a chance to imprison enemies struck by Bone Spear — providing another decent proc for the full Krysbin's Sentence bonus.

Stand Alone is a staple passive of non- or low-summoner builds. The Masquerade Necromancer will only suffer a minor penalty for its duo of Simulacrum summons, and still enjoys a hefty 80% armor bonus.

Adding an offense angle to curse application, Spreading Malediction offers an additive damage bonus against enemies affected by the curse — a boon that scales excellently with density.

Lastly, Final Service provides you with a cheat death proc and a safety net against bursty elite affixes.