Trag'Oul Death Nova Necromancer Nephalem Rift Speed Farming Variation

The Trag'Oul Death Nova Necromancer can deal reasonably well with Nephalem Rift Speed Farming, with the ability to drown an entire screen's worth of enemies with the unrelenting tide of 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.

Within the limited scope of regular difficulties, the necessary damage and toughness to triumph over the enemy is significantly smaller. Thus, your best course of action is to improve utility and speed.

Active Skills
Siphon Blood No rune chosen Death Nova Blood Nova 1 Devour Devouring Aura 2 Frailty Aura of Frailty 3 Blood Rush No rune chosen 4 Simulacrum Blood and Bone
Passive Skills
Fueled by Death Stand Alone Swift Harvesting Final Service

When you are speed farming regular rifts, parts of your playstyle will adapt to the lowered challenge and focus more on speed and utility.

The T16 key farming build will mimic the GR speed farming rotation, but sped up one step further: with extremely aggressive Blood Rushes on top of enemies and their immediate decimation with Blood Novas. You start out the runs by stacking the 300% Trag'Oul health bonus, and then summon your Simulacrums, as well as activate your two "background" effects: Frailty Aura of Frailty and Devour Devouring Aura. Zip throughout the Rift with Blood Rush in search of packs of enemies. The interaction of Frailty and Briggs' Wrath will conveniently pull them on top of you, and you can one-shot any pack you come across with a short channeling of Siphon Blood: it will produce the signature tide of Blood Novas from both your Iron Rose and Simulacrums.

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 cross over great distances faster and more efficiently take precedence.

• Your main damage dealer is still Death Nova, taken with the Trag'Oul set-appropriate Blood Nova rune. While it can be self-cast, you will mostly inflict it with the channeling of Siphon Blood, which triggers the worn Iron Rose off-hand. Selecting a particular Siphon Blood rune is not necessary, since you get them all via the Trag'Oul 2-piece set bonus. If you find the channeling playstyle too slow for T16 rifts, you can viably alternate this slot to Bone Armor Dislocation and use Scythe of the Cycle, and then manually cast your Blood Novas. In a non-channeling setup like this Mantle of Channeling becomes obsolete, so you can adapt the utility legendary slot to another farming-oriented item, i.e. Krelm's Buff Belt.
• Mobility is just as necessary in T16 farming as it is in Greater Rift progression, so Blood Rush remains in the build. Much like 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 T16 speed farming, using Blood Rush will also net you the massive burst of speed from Steuart's Greaves.
• Simulacrums duplicate your Secondary skills (and Death Nova falls in that skill category), and — unlike your own Iron Rose procs — their Blood Nova casts do trigger Area Damage, making their DPS contribution to the build massive. Make them permanent with Haunted Visions.
• Devour Devouring Aura will consume the numerous Corpses you produce from your damage burst, and turn them into a speed boost through its interaction with the Fueled by Death passive.
• Frailty culls enemies at the 15% health point, and brings an easy proc of Dayntee's Binding, if you choose to wear it. Take it with the lazy Aura of Frailty rune for a fire-and-forget beneficial effect throughout your runs.

The Trag'Oul's Avatar set still forms the basis of your setup; you either mix it with a craftable set for maximum early game effectiveness, or with utility legendaries in later character progression. 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 a combination of Goldwrap and either Warzechian Armguards (solo), or Nemesis Bracers (group play).

While using the Guardian's Jeopardy set, it will likely take up your bracer ( Guardian's Aversion) and belt ( Guardian's Case) slots. This leaves you to adjust the two utility legendaries for this build — Mantle of Channeling and Steuart's Greaves — according to your better rolled pieces and Trag'Oul rolls. Sooner than later, you will outgrow the use of both Guardian set and Mantle of Channeling for T16 farming, and can use the setup displayed in the table below.

Your jewelry should partially match the GR progression setup, as the combination of Krysbin's Sentence and Haunted Visions provides way too much value to be swapped around. Krysbin's Sentence amplifies damage when you crowd control your enemies, encouraging you to time your Bone Armor Dislocation stun to the Physical CoE rotation. Haunted Visions simply makes your mighty Simulacrum summons last forever. The third jewelry slot should be swapped out of Convention of Elements (used in GR progression and speed farm) however, as its cyclical damage bonus is way too slow for the purposes of T16 farming. In its stead, you should use Briggs' Wrath, for the amazing pixel-tight pull it exerts over enemies affected by your Aura of Frailty curse. Note that both Aura of Frailty and Devouring Aura sale with Pickup radius on your gear, so try to obtain this stat wherever possible.

For your weaponry, our default recommendation is that you stick to dedicated Trag'Oul duo of Funerary Pick as your scythe, and Iron Rose as your phylactery. Funerary Pick brings a massive damage multiplier against targets affected by Siphon Blood, while Iron Rose procs guaranteed Blood Novas as you channel, making for a devastating combo. As mentioned in the skill section however, you can alter your weapon to Scythe of the Cycle and use a self-cast Blood Nova playstyle. Try it out and see if you like it better!

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.

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).

You can read more on the Altar of Rites, Seals and Legendary Potion Powers in our dedicated Altar of Rites Mechanics guide.

Bane of the Trapped brings just as valuable of a damage multiplication bonus to T16 keystone farming, as it does for GR solo pushing. Within the standard rifts' limited challenges and rushing playstyle, a positioning-dependent damage multiplier will be overkill — so Zei's Stone of Vengeance should be swapped for Boon of the Hoarder. This gem increases your movement speed through its interaction with Avarice Band (either worn by you during group play, or worn by your follower in solo play), and and provides near-infinite Toughness if you also equip a Goldwrap. Lastly, Bane of the Stricken should be replaced by Bane of the Powerful for a well-rounded damage increase and damage mitigation bonus, with a duration-based (but very generous and manageable) limitation.

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

Considering its massive, build-defining damage multiplication bonus, Bloodtide Blade is still a mandatory inclusion in T16 speed farming as well.

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

Early on in character progression, you will need to use Ring of Royal Grandeur in the jewelry slot of the Cube, in order to maintain the amalgamation of the Trag'Oul and Guardian sets. Later on, you can swap to Squirt's Necklace when soloing for another damage multiplier, or use Avarice Band when grouped up.

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.

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

The preferred potions for this build are Bottomless Potion of Kulle-Aid (allowing you to break down Waller affixes that impede your positioning) and 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.

This Season revives the Pandemonium Kill Streak buff from Season 19. Each stack grants a bonus to movement speed and damage, capping at +50% movement speed and +100% damage at 1000 kills. Hitting specific kill thresholds unleashes powerful effects. Read more in our dedicated Season of the Eternal Conflict Mechanics Guide!

While speedfarming sees limited use from this theme, Greater Rift pushing benefits significantly. Effects like Geysers (150), Meteors (400), and Angels (500) can clear elites and Rift Guardians instantly. Players may reset streaks after 150 kills to repeatedly trigger Geysers or push for 500+ kills near boss fights, often using Nemesis Bracers to spawn extra enemies.

Because the most potent effects (Geysers, Meteors, Angels) can obliterate Rift Guardians instantly up to GR150, players can retool builds for efficiency and comfort. Here’s how:

Since you can rely on killstreak procs to clear the Rift Guardian, Bane of the Stricken can be safely omitted in favor of:

• Another generic damage-scaling legendary gem ( Bane of the Trapped for builds with any form of crowd control and/or melee range, Zei's Stone of Vengeance for far ranged builds, Taeguk for channeling builds, Simplicity's Strength for primary attack-focused builds, Enforcer for pet-oriented builds, etc.)
• A survivability-oriented legendary gem ( Esoteric Alteration, Molten Wildebeest's Gizzard), or additional utility ( Gogok of Swiftness for CDR-reliant builds, Pain Enhancer for attack speed-heavy builds, or Wreath of Lightning for extra movement speed).

Adjust your equipment to items that favor durability, health sustain, and ease of movement. Consider adjusting non-essential skills for the build to ones that pull, reposition, or otherwise displace enemies to facilitate large pulls of enemy packs. In more concrete terms, this means:

• For class-specific items, Necromancers should consider Dayntee's Binding if it's absent from the build; this is a powerful damage reduction item that incentivizes you to be mindful of utility skills by spreading curses on as large of an enemy pull as possible (especially in conjunction with popular Necro passives such as Spreading Malediction). This synergizes well with the killstreak theme.
• For additional options that balance between defense and offense, the class-specific amulet Wisdom of Kalan extends the Bone Armor stack maximum and can fit into several builds, while other helpful cross-class jewelry includes Unity (combined with the same ring on the follower plus a follower immortality token), and the Endless Walk set ( The Traveler's Pledge and The Compass Rose).
• Situational items that can bolster your defenses include Stone Gauntlets, the drawbacks of which are negated via CC-immunity effects like Ice Climbers, or the Altar of Rites CC-immunity node. The class-specific Razeth's Volition and the class-agnostic Aquila Cuirass are powerful and popular choices for low Essence-spending builds, especially ones built around generators like LoD Poison Scythe. A final niche consideration is Mantle of Channeling, which balances between defense and offense for channeling builds, often built around Iron Rose.
• Utility items like Nemesis Bracers are essential as more elites mean more killstreak maintenance and faster progression. When soloing, they should be equipped by your follower; in groups, at least one party member should commit to wearing them. When focusing strictly on speed, Steuart's Greaves can be a powerful inclusion for scouting, but builds that are locked into other items for the slot can turn to niche options like Warzechian Armguards or Krelm's Buff Belt. To facilitate large pulls, consider using a Follower equipped with The Ess of Johan, a proc-based analogue to an enemy-pulling skill (albeit outside your control).
• Skill-wise, make sure to include at least one movement skill tool like Blood Rush. While Necromancers lack an easily available enemy-pulling tool (Rathma Necros build around Army of the Dead Death Valley, but are an exception), a stunning skill like Bone Armor Dislocation can help manage large packs of enemies and doubles as a Krysbin's Sentence proc. Take a look if you can include passives like Final Service (for a cheat-death) or Fueled by Death (for extra movement speed).