Rathma Army of the Dead Necromancer Physical Army of the Dead Rathma Variant Variation
Physical Damage Army of the Dead Rathma Variation
This is no longer a variation, but has been changed to be the main build as of Patch 2.7.4. Please refer to the main page for the current iteration of this build.
Another option for solo Greater Rift pushing, which is safer and plays at a
greater range, is to alter the build into Physical runes and drop the usual
Nayr's Black Death Poison damage scaling in favor of other multipliers,
i.e.
Trag'Oul's Corroded Fang or
Reilena's Shadowhook. This build
variation guide will give you an outline for both approaches, which will
achieve a similar result in terms of endgame viability.
Active Skills |
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Passive Skills |
Adapting Rotation
Similarly to the base build, you should call upon your summons and maximize
their numbers as soon as possible — all 7 Command Skeletons and
the 10
Revives — so you get the most out of your Rathma set
bonus and chunk the massive
Army of the Dead cooldown. With proper
Cooldown Reduction optimization, you should have two activations of
Army of the Dead within a single
Convention of Elements rotation.
One of them needs to be during the Physical cycle in order to burst enemies
down, while the other will be auxiliary damage, mopping up stragglers and
setting up
Oculus Ring spawns.
Unlike the base build, you will be at a considerable distance from the
enemy — letting the minions tank and distract your enemies, and
judiciously applying Decrepify (mind your Essence!) for the
Trag'Oul's Corroded Fang damage bonus. As your Physical rotation of
Convention of Elements approaches, you will need to move in closer to
the fight, stun the pull with
Bone Armor
Dislocation to get the maximum
Krysbin's Sentence damage bonus and then teleport away with
Blood Rush to maximize your
Zei's Stone of Vengeance bonus, which
is based on distance. With both bonuses taken care of, you can unleash the
Army of the Dead
Death Valley nuke and enjoy the devastation.
Adapting Skills
Most of the skill and passive selection will overlap with the base Greater Rift progression build, with minor adaptations to accommodate the purposes of a Physical damage-centric build.
Army of the Dead is still the centerpiece of the build, but you should alter its rune to the pulling effect of
Death Valley for some excellent battlefield manipulation.
Command Skeletons stays in the build as one half of the summoned army necessary for the Rathma set bonuses. The preferred rune continues to be
Frenzy, for the hastened resets of
Army of the Dead.
Revive is also a mandatory inclusion in a Rathma build, but you can drop the annoying fear of the Poison rune in favor of the much more pleasant damage reduction aspect of
Personal Army. Note that this rune should be changed to
Oblation if you opt to use
Reilena's Shadowhook-based damage amplification, since this rune will help proc
Blood is Power more reliably — in fact, you will need to use the skill quite often to assist the process yourself!
Bone Armor
Dislocation stays for both the additional defenses and the
Krysbin's Sentence proc with the active stun effect.
Blood Rush
Potency remains in the build as a vital repositioning and movement tool throughout the Greater Rift.
- Instead of rushing into the fray to apply curses manually via
Cursed Scythe, you can do it from the safety of your minion backline with sparing use of
Decrepify
Borrowed Time. If you opt to use
Reilena's Shadowhook-based damage amplification, this slot should be swapped to
Simulacrum
Reservoir, and its use should be timed to the Physical rotation of CoE every 3 cycles.
- Taking cues from the main build, you will maintain
Spreading Malediction for the damage bonus, as well as
Grisly Tribute for the minion-based healing effect, in your passive lineup. In a
Trag'Oul's Corroded Fang setup, adapt the remaining two passives to
Dark Reaping for Essence sustain and
Final Service for safety. In a
Reilena's Shadowhook setup, change
Spreading Malediction to
Overwhelming Essence (for the Essence gain, scaling your damage) and swap
Final Service to
Blood is Power to mitigate the massive
Simulacrum CD.
Adapting Gear
The build remains firmly rooted in the combination of the Bones of Rathma set (5 pieces) and the
craftable Cpt. Crimson set (2 pieces), their full set bonuses attained via a
Ring of Royal Grandeur in the Cube. You will also maintain the weapon and
offhand combo from the main build — the Jesseth Arms set,
Jesseth Skullscythe and
Jesseth Skullshield. Generally, even the
jewelry choices will remain the same — all out offensive powers with
Squirt's Necklace,
Krysbin's Sentence and
Convention of Elements boosting your DPS. You can make a minor
alteration in a
Reilena's Shadowhook-reliant build by swapping the
amulet to
Haunted Visions, which will greatly reduce the strain on your
cooldown management, but will lose you a damage multiplier — a
convenience change with significant tradeoffs. In a
Reilena's Shadowhook-leaning variation, you will also have to take
Maximum Essence in your Paragons, as well as the secondary stats of your
weapon and offhand.
Slot | Pieces | Stat Priority |
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Head |
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Shoulders |
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Torso |
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Wrists |
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Hands |
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Waist |
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Legs |
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Feet |
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Amulet |
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Ring #1 |
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Ring #2 |
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Weapon |
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Off-hand |
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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.
Season 28: Altar of Rites
Season 28 comes with the theme of the Altar of Rites — a powerful new account-wide and Season-specific progression system that brings tremendous offensive and defensive buffs to every seasonal character. 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.
Adapting Gems
Both Bane of the Trapped and
Zei's Stone of Vengeance remain
valuable, independent damage multiplication gems for the setup. Your third slot
can be altered to
Bane of the Powerful in a
Trag'Oul's Corroded Fang
setup, since it is safer and less CD-reliant than its sister build
variations.
Slot | Gems |
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Jewelry | |
Helm |
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Torso and Pants |
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Weapon |
For more information about gems, please refer to our guide on gems.
Adapting Kanai's Cube
Both Fate's Vow and
Ring of Royal Grandeur remain cornerstone
pieces of the build and are firmly affixed to your Cube setup.
Fate's Vow
brings a massive additive damage increase (hence the incentive to exclude skill
damage rolls on gear, as it falls in the same category) to
Army of the Dead,
plus granting you the highest base damage rune,
Unconventional Warfare,
for free.
Ring of Royal Grandeur grants you the full bonuses of the Rathma
and Cpt. Crimson sets mixture.
The weapon Cube slot is the reason for this variation's existence, and you
can either go for a Trag'Oul's Corroded Fang setup (safer, more consistent,
harder Essence management) or a
Reilena's Shadowhook setup (higher burst
during
Simulacrum uptime and easier Essence management, but requires Max
Essence rolls on gear and has less CC). Both sub-variants perform comparably, so
it is up to your preferences how you build your Physical Army of the Dead
Necro.
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.
Follower
The recommended follower for this build during solo GR progression is the
Enchantress, due to her increased attack speed bonuses (helpful for
the attack speed breakpoint-reliant methods of dealing damage in this build)
via Focused Mind, as well as the cooldown reduction bonus from
Prophetic Harmony and damage reduction from
Powered Shield.
For more information regarding followers, we advise you to read our Follower Guide, which contains detailed advice for choosing the skills and the gear of your follower.
Legendary Potion
Your recommended potion is Bottomless Potion of the Unfettered, which
renders you immune to Crowd Control effects for a brief time after consuming it
— valuable bonus to a build that lacks means to break away from CC outside
of straight up evasion via
Blood Rush.
Changelog
- 22 Feb. 2023: Added Season 28 Altar of Rites recommendations.
- 26 Aug. 2022: Variant retired, since the Physical version is rolled into the main build.
- 14 Apr. 2022: Guide reviewed for Season 26.
- 08 Dec. 2021: Added Season 25 Soul Shard recommendations.
- 22 Jul. 2021: Added S24 Ethereal recommendation.
- 29 Mar. 2021: Guide added.
More Necromancer Guides
Builds from Other Classes
Farming Guides
This build is presented to you by Deadset, one of the very few professional Diablo 3 players. Deadset regularly publishes video guides on Youtube and streams on Twitch, where you can see how this and other builds play out in practice.
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