Trag'Oul Death Nova Necromancer BiS Gear, Gems, and Paragon Points

Last updated on Jan 10, 2024 at 09:00 by Deadset 20 comments

Below, we detail the items and gems that you should use for your Trag'Oul Death Nova Necromancer in Diablo 3 and why. We also list your paragon points and Kanai's Cube items. Updated for Patch 2.7.7 and Season 30.

1.

Best in Slot Gear and Alternatives

Your base armor equipment will consist of the complete Trag'Oul's Avatar set, taking five of the six available Trag'Oul pieces and mixing it with the craftable Aughild's Authority set. Rolls-wise, this is a Skill- and Area Damage-centric build first and foremost, but it also takes advantage of maximized elemental and Critical stat rolls on gear. Trag'Oul's Claws Trag'Oul's Claws are a particularly roll-heavy piece, with their ability to roll double Crit stats, plus Attack Speed and eventually Area Damage (replacing Intelligence as its fourth main stat). You can focus fully on tankiness on Trag'Oul's Hide Trag'Oul's Hide and Trag'Oul's Scales Trag'Oul's Scales, while Trag'Oul's Stalwart Greaves Trag'Oul's Stalwart Greaves and Trag'Oul's Guise Trag'Oul's Guise have to balance offense with their mainstat rolls (Skill Damage on the former, Crit Chance and Skill Damage on the latter).

As mentioned above, you will be adding two pieces from the craftable Aughild's Authority set: Aughild's Search Aughild's Search, plus one more piece of your choosing between Aughild's Power Aughild's Power, Aughild's Rule Aughild's Rule and Aughild's Spike Aughild's Spike. This set increases damage dealt while reducing damage taken, with additional benefits against Elites with its 3-piece bonus. The example in the gear table below will use Aughild's Power Aughild's Power, and we generally advise you to use that particular slot, since the shoulder can roll numerous valuable stats for the build — and crafting it yourself gives you a lot more control over the quality of the rolls of the piece.

Dayntee's Binding Dayntee's Binding has a simple, but very valuable effect on your build; it reduces incoming damage in half as long as you have an enemy afflicted by your Curses. This is a trivial requirement to fulfill as you sport an automated curse, Frailty Frailty Aura of Frailty Aura of Frailty, on your skill bar.

For the remaining armor slots, you will be wearing Convention of Elements Convention of Elements and Krysbin's Sentence Krysbin's Sentence as your rings, and complete the jewelry with Haunted Visions Haunted Visions as your amulet. Convention of Elements Convention of Elements will provide a massive damage increase during the Physical cycle of its rotation, with an improved uptime compared to other classes due to the Necromancer's three element rotation. Krysbin's Sentence Krysbin's Sentence is a Necromancer-specific item that amplifies damage as long as you have a hard crowd control active; it is a major driving force behind the inclusion of Bone Armor Bone Armor Dislocation Dislocation.

Haunted Visions Haunted Visions offers a build-defining legendary power that makes your Simulacrum Simulacrum summons last forever at the cost of a negligible life drain effect. (You will not be taking advantage of the additional Grim Scythe Grim Scythe-related power.) The Simulacrum Simulacrum summons duplicate your Secondary skills — the category which Death Nova Death Nova falls under — and unlike your own casts, theirs will trigger Area Damage, making them the main damage dealers of the build!

Lastly, your weapon and offhand duo will be Funerary Pick Funerary Pick and Iron Rose Iron Rose. Funerary Pick Funerary Pick skyrockets the viability of Siphon Blood Siphon Blood as an Essence generator, providing a massive 300% damage multiplier against affected targets, and double that against singular foes. It also amplifies the effects of the Power Shift Power Shift rune and spreads its buff to all of your skills, resulting in a near-omnipotent Primary skill. Iron Rose Iron Rose is a cornerstone piece of the build, allowing you and your Simulacrum Simulacrums to "cast" Blood Nova Blood Novas for free from channeling Siphon Blood Siphon Blood with a guaranteed proc.

1.1.

Desired Stats, Breakpoints and Other Notes

For Offense stats, try to obtain Death Nova % bonus on the Shoulders, Chest and Off-hand (maximum of 45%), Physical elemental damage on the Amulet and Bracers (maximum of 40%), Crit Chance and Crit Damage within a 1:10 ratio (ideally over 60% and 450%, respectively), and Area Damage of 120%+ (Paragons, Shoulders, one of the Rings, Main-hand, and Off-hand). Attack Speed is another consideration for the build, and you will ideally reach the 1.67 Attacks per Second breakpoint with a combination of Paragons, one of your Rings, and your Gloves.

For Defense stats, aim for a life pool of 800k-900k; dropping as much as you can for offense as you grow accustomed to the build. You will sustain health through the excellent healing of the all-runed Siphon Blood Siphon Blood, so life regenerative stats do not need to be a consideration on your gear.

All augmentations on gear should be done with your main stat, Intelligence.

Note that the stat suggestions below portray an ideally rolled item with stats listed in relative order of importance. The first four of them are main stats, and the latter two — secondary stats. If your item lacks and is unable to be rerolled into the primary stats outlined below, especially for a stat higher on the list, strongly consider its replacement. Perfecting Secondary stats is mostly a case of hyper-optimization and is not a case for discarding an item, except where noted.

Slot Pieces Stat Priority
Head
  1. Intelligence
  2. Death Nova % Damage
  3. Critical Hit Chance
  4. Vitality
  5. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
  6. Pickup Radius (Secondary Stat)
Shoulders
  1. Intelligence
  2. Vitality
  3. Area Damage
  4. Life %
  5. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
  6. Health Globe Healing Bonus (Secondary Stat)
Torso
  1. Intelligence
  2. 3 Sockets
  3. Vitality
  4. Armor
  5. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
  6. Melee or Missile Damage Reduction (Secondary Stat)
Wrists
  1. Intelligence
  2. Critical Hit Chance
  3. Physical % Damage
  4. Vitality
  5. Reduced Damage Melee Attacks (Secondary stat)
Hands
  1. Intelligence (or Area Damage at high Paragon)
  2. Critical Hit Chance
  3. Critical Hit Damage
  4. Attack Speed
  5. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
Waist
  1. Intelligence
  2. Vitality
  3. Armor
  4. Life %
  5. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
  6. Life per Kill (Secondary Stat)
Legs
  1. Intelligence
  2. 2 Sockets
  3. Vitality
  4. Armor
  5. Pickup Radius (Secondary Stat)
  6. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
Feet
  1. Intelligence
  2. Death Nova % Damage
  3. Vitality
  4. Armor
  5. Pickup Radius (Secondary Stat)
  6. Health Globe Healing Bonus (Secondary Stat)
Amulet
  1. Socket
  2. Critical Hit Damage
  3. Critical Hit Chance
  4. Physical % Damage
  5. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
  6. Melee or Missile Damage Reduction (Secondary Stat)
Ring #1
  1. Socket
  2. Critical Hit Chance
  3. Critical Hit Damage
  4. Attack Speed (Ring 1) and Area Damage (Ring 2)
  5. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
  6. Life per Kill (Secondary Stat)
Ring #2
  1. Socket
  2. Critical Hit Chance
  3. Critical Hit Damage
  4. Attack Speed (Ring 1) and Area Damage (Ring 2)
  5. Physical or Lightning Resistance (Secondary Stat)
  6. Life per Kill (Secondary Stat)
Weapon
  1. High Weapon Damage
  2. Socket (preferably from Ramaladni's Gift Ramaladni's Gift)
  3. Intelligence
  4. Area Damage
  5. Damage %
Off-hand
  1. High Damage Range
  2. Intelligence
  3. Critical Hit Chance
  4. Death Nova % Damage
  5. Area Damage

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.

1.2.

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.

2.

Paragon Points

In the Core section, max out Movement Speed to the 25% cap. Normally this is done by dumping the first 50 Core Paragon points into Movement Speed, but if your boots have an imperfect roll with Movement Speed as a stat that you cannot replace, adjust the necessary point investment accordingly by simply subtracting your roll from the 25% max. After that, dump as much as you comfortably can into Intelligence, but feel free to invest into Vitality if you feel yourself lacking in toughness. Points in Maximum Essence should not be necessary.

In the Offense section, max out Attack Speed, Crit Damage, Crit Chance and Cooldown Reduction in that order. In Defense, prioritize Armor, then Life %, then All Resistance, and finish off with Life Regeneration. In Utility, build up Area Damage and Life on Hit first, then finish off with Resource Cost Reduction and Pickup Radius.

Slot Paragon Points
Core
  1. Movement Speed up to 25% cap
  2. Intelligence
  3. Vitality (up to personal preference)
  4. Maximum Essence (not necessary)
Offense
  1. Attack Speed
  2. Critical Hit Damage
  3. Critical Hit Chance
  4. Cooldown Reduction
Defense
  1. Armor
  2. Life %
  3. All Resistance
  4. Life Regeneration
Utility
  1. Area Damage
  2. Life on Hit
  3. Resource Cost Reduction
  4. Globe Radius
3.

Gems

Bane of the Trapped Bane of the Trapped is a potent source of additional damage, as it is its own multiplier in your total damage calculation. You will be proccing this gem consistently with the free Suppress Suppress rune on Siphon Blood Siphon Blood, as well as Bone Armor Bone Armor Dislocation Dislocation.

Zei's Stone of Vengeance Zei's Stone of Vengeance is a distance-based multiplicative damage increase which, despite its wording, grants its first stage benefits at 0 yards instead of the listed 10. Despite its counterintuitive application, this is a very competitive and viable bonus — especially as you learn to keep your distance and maximize its potential.

Introduced in Season 4, Bane of the Stricken Bane of the Stricken occupies the third and final jewelry socket in Greater Rift progression. Building up your damage multiplicatively in prolonged fights and with a level 25 bonus specifically targeting Rift Guardians, this gem is designed to assist AoE heavy builds in their struggle against single target, high HP enemies. Death Nova Necromancers are a textbook example of such a build.

3.1.

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 "You cast a devastating Ring of Fire after killing 100 enemies" as its Rank 3 power. For optimization benefits, aim for Intelligence or Melee/Ranged Damage Reduction on its Rank 2 roll.
  • WeaponEssence of Anguish with "When you deal Poison damage to an enemy, they receive 50% increased Poison damage from all sources" as its Rank 3 power. For optimization benefits, aim for Poison Skill % Increase or Weapon Damage Increase on its Rank 2 roll. Note that Essence of Anguish requires dealing Poison damage to trigger its Base Power; in this Physical-based build, you accomplish this either by re-rolling the weapon damage range (the two numbers displayed just under the big total DPS number; the first Primary stat roll of any weapon) of your own weapon to Poison, or doing the same to your follower's weapon.
Slot Gems
Jewelry
Torso and Pants
Weapon

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

4.

Kanai's Cube

The Weapon slot in the Cube will be occupied by Bloodtide Blade Bloodtide Blade, a key legendary power for the build; it scales Death Nova Death Nova damage multiplicatively for each enemy within a 25-yard radius, matching the Blood Nova Blood Nova circle.

Mantle of Channeling Mantle of Channeling is a build subtype staple, offering a substantial 25% damage increase, along with an equal amount of damage reduction while channeling. This is virtually a permanent bonus, as you will be using Siphon Blood Siphon Blood throughout the run.

In order to use both Trag'Oul's and Aughild's sets (or Cpt. Crimson's, should you choose to alternate the setup) without losing their maximized bonuses, you will have to use the Act I bounty cache legendary Ring of Royal Grandeur Ring of Royal Grandeur. This legendary ring reduces the required number of worn set items for set bonus completion by 1.

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.

5.

Follower

The recommended follower for this build during solo GR progression is the Enchantress due to her cooldown reduction buff from Prophetic Harmony Prophetic Harmony, as well as the Focused Mind Focused Mind attack speed buff.

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.

6.

Legendary Potion

The preferred potions for this build are Bottomless Potion of Kulle-Aid Bottomless Potion of Kulle-Aid (allowing you to break down Waller affixes that impede your positioning) and Bottomless Potion of the Tower Bottomless Potion of the Tower (whose Armor-increasing properties complement the naturally high All Resistances stat of Necromancers). Pick whichever you feel helps you out the most.

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: Guide added, as well as Season 27 Angelic Crucible recommendations.
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