Trag'Oul Death Nova Necromancer Greater Rift Speed Farming Variation

Last updated on Oct 22, 2024 at 09:00 by Deadset 20 comments
1.

Greater Rift Speed Farming

The Trag'Oul Death Nova Necromancer can deal reasonably well with Greater Rift Speed Farming, with the ability to drown an entire screen's worth of enemies with the unrelenting tide of Blood Nova Blood Novas. We have solo speed GR rankings and solo speed T16 rankings if you want to know more about which builds are best for speed farming.

During lower tier Greater Rift farming, the balance between defense, damage and utility can be shifted to favor the latter two aspects of character building.

Active Skills
Left Mouse Button Siphon Blood Icon Siphon Blood No rune chosen Right Mouse Button Death Nova Icon Death Nova Blood Nova Blood Nova 1 Bone Armor Icon Bone Armor Dislocation Dislocation 2 Frailty Icon Frailty Aura of Frailty Aura of Frailty 3 Blood Rush Icon Blood Rush No rune chosen 4 Simulacrum Icon Simulacrum Blood and Bone Blood and Bone
Passive Skills
2.

Adapting Rotation

When you are Speed Farming Greater Rifts, your playstyle should at least partially reflect the circumstances by focusing on massive pulls, generic bonuses against enemies and chaining pylon effects.

The build will maintain the entirety of the GR progression playstyle (stacking Trag'Oul, using Simulacrum Simulacrums for damage as you channel away with Siphon Blood Siphon Blood, etc.), but shifts to a faster and more aggressive mindset. You start out the runs by stacking the 300% Trag'Oul health bonus, and then summon your Simulacrum Simulacrums. Activate Bone Armor Bone Armor on a 10-pack of monsters to maximize the damage reduction, and then use this skill mostly for the Dislocation Dislocation stun, which procs Krysbin's Sentence Krysbin's Sentence. Time Krysbin's proc to coincide with the Physical rotation of the worn Convention of Elements Convention of Elements to maximize the devastation of your Death Nova Death Nova Blood Nova Blood Nova. It will be cast via the interaction of Siphon Blood Siphon Blood with Iron Rose Iron Rose, and will be mimicked by your Simulacrum Simulacrums because of the worn Haunted Visions Haunted Visions. While you are a force to be reckoned with on regular monsters and elites, the build quickly loses steam against single targets — so, for the purposes of speed farming, you do not want to spend over 1-2 Physical Convention of Elements Convention of Elements rotations on a Greater Rift Guardian. Adjust your GR farming difficulty accordingly, or swap builds altogether.

3.

Adapting Skills

Parts of the skill and passive selection will overlap with the base Greater Rift progression build, but others will have to change according to the task at hand. Ability to burst down enemies quicker takes precedence.

  • Your main damage dealer is still Death Nova Death Nova, taken with the Trag'Oul set-appropriate Blood Nova Blood Nova rune. While it can be self-cast, you will mostly inflict it with the channeling of Siphon Blood Siphon Blood, which triggers the worn Iron Rose Iron Rose off-hand. Selecting a particular Siphon Blood Siphon Blood rune is not necessary, since you get them all via the Trag'Oul 2-piece set bonus.
  • Mobility is just as necessary in speed farming as it is in Greater Rift progression, so Blood Rush Blood Rush remains in the build. Much like Siphon Blood Siphon Blood, selection of a particular rune is not necessary, as you gain the benefits of all of them from the Trag'Oul 2-piece. In GR speed farming, using Blood Rush Blood Rush will also net you the massive burst of speed from Steuart's Greaves Steuart's Greaves.
  • Simulacrum Simulacrums duplicate your Secondary skills (and Death Nova Death Nova falls in that skill category), and — unlike your own Iron Rose Iron Rose procs — their Blood Nova Blood Nova casts do trigger Area Damage, making their DPS contribution to the build massive. Make them permanent with Haunted Visions Haunted Visions.
  • Bone Armor Bone Armor brings up to 30% damage reduction when you cast it with 10 enemies inside its radius, and stuns them with the Dislocation Dislocation rune — giving you the full damage buff of Krysbin's Sentence Krysbin's Sentence. Time it with the Physical CoE rotation for a massive damage burst.
  • Frailty Frailty culls enemies at the 15% health point, and brings an easy proc of Dayntee's Binding Dayntee's Binding, if you choose to wear it. Take it with the lazy Aura of Frailty Aura of Frailty rune for a fire-and-forget beneficial effect throughout your runs.
4.

Adapting Gear

The Trag'Oul's Avatar set still forms the basis of your setup; you take five of the available six pieces, and mix it with a craftable set for maximum effectiveness. Early on in character progression, consider using the craftable Guardian's Jeopardy set, as its 3-piece bonus doubles your main stats (Intelligence and Vitality, in a Necromancer's case), netting you a massive increase of damage and survivability at a very low cost. Later on in character progression (once you amass 2k+ Paragon levels and get confident with the build), swap Guardian's set out for the more traditional Aughild setup, outlined on this build's main Gear page.

While using the Guardian's Jeopardy set, it will likely take up your bracer (Guardian's Aversion Guardian's Aversion) and belt (Guardian's Case Guardian's Case) slots. This leaves you to adjust the two utility legendaries for this build — Mantle of Channeling Mantle of Channeling and Steuart's Greaves Steuart's Greaves — according to your better rolled pieces and Trag'Oul rolls (see the table below for a sample gear setup). Once you transition to the Aughild version of the build, re-introduce Dayntee's Binding Dayntee's Binding to the build, and bump up the GR difficulty accordingly.

Your jewelry should match the GR progression setup, as the combination of Krysbin's Sentence Krysbin's Sentence, Convention of Elements Convention of Elements and Haunted Visions Haunted Visions provides way too much value to be swapped around. Convention of Elements Convention of Elements provides a cyclical elemental damage bonus, skyrocketing your damage at the Physical cycle. Krysbin's Sentence Krysbin's Sentence amplifies damage when you crowd control your enemies, encouraging you to time your Bone Armor Bone Armor Dislocation Dislocation stun to the Physical CoE rotation. Haunted Visions Haunted Visions simply makes your mighty Simulacrum Simulacrum summons last forever.

For your weaponry, you should stick to dedicated Trag'Oul duo of Funerary Pick Funerary Pick as your scythe, and Iron Rose Iron Rose as your phylactery. Funerary Pick Funerary Pick brings a massive damage multiplier against targets affected by Siphon Blood Siphon Blood, while Iron Rose Iron Rose procs guaranteed Blood Nova Blood Novas as you channel, making for a devastating combo.

Slot Pieces Stat Priority
Head
  1. Intelligence
  2. Death Nova % Damage
  3. Critical Hit Chance
  4. Socket
  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.

4.1.

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.

5.

Adapting Gems

Both Zei's Stone of Vengeance Zei's Stone of Vengeance and Bane of the Trapped Bane of the Trapped bring just as valuable damage multiplication bonuses to GR speed farming, as they do for solo pushing. Within the limited challenges of Speed Greater Rifts, Bane of the Stricken Bane of the Stricken should be replaced by Bane of the Powerful Bane of the Powerful for a well-rounded damage increase and damage mitigation bonus, with a duration-based (but very generous and manageable) limitation.

Slot Gems
Jewelry
Helm
Torso and Pants
Weapon

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

6.

Adapting Kanai's Cube

Considering its massive, build-defining damage multiplication bonus, Bloodtide Blade Bloodtide Blade is still a mandatory inclusion in Greater Rift speed farming as well.

Steuart's Greaves Steuart's Greaves double your movement speed for a generous, 10-second period after using Blood Rush Blood Rush — a very helpful bonus for the relentless pace of GR speed farming.

In order to maintain the amalgamation of the Trag'Oul and Guardian (or Aughild) sets, as well as a slew of synergistic legendary items, you need to keep the Ring of Royal Grandeur Ring of Royal Grandeur in the jewelry slot of the Cube.

In your 4th Kanai's Cube slot in Season 33, use Scythe of the Cycle Scythe of the Cycle for an additional damage multiplier, easily maintained with a frequent refresh of the Bone Armor Bone Armor duration.

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.

7.

Follower

The recommended follower for this build during T16 speed farming is the Enchantress, due to her cooldown reduction bonus (cutting down Blood Rush Blood Rush downtime) and elemental damage increase. Note that this requires that you run Hand of the Prophet Hand of the Prophet and optimize her survivability, as per our guide.

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.

8.

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.

9.

Changelog

  • 22 Oct. 2024: Added Season 33 advice for 4th Kanai slot.
  • 10 Jul. 2024: Added Season 32 advice for ethereal weapons.
  • 10 Apr. 2024: Guide reviewed for Season 31.
  • 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.
Show more
Show less