Rathma Skeletal Mages Necromancer

[Matzstatz 1]

On 22/07/2017 at 1:13 PM, Guest Shelledfade said:

One thing is confusing me and that's the weapon choice that is picked for the cube. 

If we're using the Decrepify curse, wouldn't using Trag'Oul's Corroded Fang be better, as it offers 200% extra damage to cursed enemies? I'm trying to understand why you would use Reilena's Shadowhook in the cube over Trag. Even with 100 extra Essence that's only 50% extra damage compared to Trag's 200%.

I just want to correct a misconception here. If you have 300 maximum essence, Reilena's Shadowhook bonus damage is 150%, not 50%. That bring the Shadowhook closer to Trag'Oul's Corroded Fang (150 vs 200). Also, in a good build, with 20 max essence on weapon, the 50 Paragon points and the passive (Overwhelming Essence), you're looking at exactly 310 maximum essence.

Considering those numbers, we're comparing 155% vs 200%. It's hard to maintain curse on enemies at all times, and I found that most of the time I one-shotted trash mobs before I had to apply the curse on them. Adding to that the wonderful essence generation of the hook (it can't be ignored, it's that good), I think that weapon is more suitable to the build than the fang.

[Arkpit 101]

2 hours ago, Matzstatz said:

Adding to that the wonderful essence generation of the hook (it can't be ignored, it's that good)

This would certainly be a good argument over the Fang! More essence = more Singularities = more worth than about 50% damage probably :)

Edited July 25, 2017 by Arkpit

[Phynster 0]

https://www.d3planner.com/424661933

This is my version of what i called Rathma's Minions, Although similar to your skeleton mage build i find i have more power behind the build. 

Been Farming T13's in about 4mins and although its very squishy the point is to stun lock everything and let your command skeletons take all the hits, and watch as the skeleton mages just melt everything. 

[Guest Andrew888]

I'm confused as to why the guide is recommending ruby gems for toughness

[Deadset 108]

Answering some of the dominant questions (in no particular order):

1. Army of the Dead is part of the set but it's an INCREDIBLY unsynergistic and bad skill in a Rathma setup. It was complained about multiple times over the course of the beta to no action on Blizzard's part. It will hopefully be addressed in a future patch but for the moment, its only use is a minor, unreliable nuke during early gearing stages (where you might be lacking some burst).

2. Land of the Dead is only recommended in the speed farming version; in a well geared setup, it will bring you reliable screen-wide procs of Krysbin's Sentence (a x4 multiplier) on a regular basis due to Ingeom. In earlier progression (say, early season) when vastly overpowering the enemy with damage is still not a thing, you can also run a speedfarm spec like this: https://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/necromancer#acUSdj!deVf!aYcbYc

Equipped just like the progression, but with Nemesis Bracers instead of Reaper's Wraps.

3. An alternative to Zei's when you don't feel like you're optimizing the distance between the enemy and yourself is Bane of the Powerful. Or Esoteric Alteration, if you feel like your Toughness isn't at a great place still.

4. Reilena's Shadowhook brings invaluable synergy for Essence restoration with Bone Spikes. It also doesn't require the spread of a curse, and pets to attack cursed enemies specifically. That being said, both Reilena and Corroded Fang are multiplicative damage sources.

5. There is a recommendation for Rubies for Toughness, since Rubies bring Armor - the lacking Toughness stat for Intelligence-based heroes (which have All Resistance in abundance due to Int scaling it). In 90% of the cases though, you should socket Topazes. Only consider Rubies in very high Paragon, very high end GR pushing situations.

[Guest sudanger]

Having only mediocre items i had troubles doing the 75 GRift solo for Season 11. Changing Devour from Cannibalize to Satiated and putting it on NUM Autocast as well as Life from Death to Final Service helped alot. 

[Dallium 2]

One thing I've found exceedingly helpful in gearing this build is to seek out +Pickup radius as secondary affixes. It's not worth prioritizing over any of the primary affixes, but being able to snatch globes sitting in the middle of a molten explosion or thunderstorm from relative safety has saved my bacon on innumerable occasions. +Pickup can roll on all the set pieces, belt and bracers, giving a max potential of +16 yds.

[Sableflame 5]

So, I see some of the same issues/complaints I faced when I first ran this build... and here's my 2 cents, from someone I would consider an "above average, but in no way elite" D3 player. I should point out, for those who don't click the below link, this is a seasonal character, so supplies/cube items are limited at the moment.

My build: KelThuzad

As you can see, there's some small, but significant differences. Foremost is running Siphon Blood/Blood Sucker over the Spikes. With the Reaper's Wraps, Essence generation isn't an issue... getting to the healing globes IS. Siphon Sucker cures that.

Devour/Cannibalize coupled with the Life From Death passive means nearly limitless health globes. Siphon turns those into limitless Essence, which get turned into a sickeningly hilarious spam of Singularity Mages.

As others have noted, it is well nigh impossible to maintain curses on things, as they die and you have to constantly re-apply - Enter Bone Armor/Dislocation. Yes, the mitigation is less (30% vs. a possible 50%), but you get the dual bonus of not having to spam your Curse to maintain that 30% AND the sync with my cubed weapon, Scythe of the Cycle.  A 300% bonus to SECONDARY SKILLS (hint, hint... that's your mages, folks) and my only cost is every time I cast it I lose 4 seconds off a 60 second buff (w/a 10 second cd reduced by 18%)? Y'all can argue 155 vs 200 for the Hook and the Fang, I'll take 300, thanks!

Since I don't run the curse, there's no reason to keep Dayntee's belt.  Currently have an Ancient Harrington Waistguard, as it's the best piece I own for the slot. My desire is to find a Cord of the Sherma, as the 4 second Blind/Slow field is a perfect AOE trigger for anything that might be out of the range of my BotT.

Other than that, the only other change is Land of the Dead and it's frosty "F U" to every thing on the screen. Coupled with the infinite mage spam it grants you, the ring proc, and the Jesseth set proc for launching your skeletons, and I've yet to find a boss, even the GR75 boss, who lasted more than a handful of seconds against it.

This build, as is (weapon, helm, boots, bracers and jewelry are all non-Ancient) cleared GR75 without a single Caldesann's Despair (the one you see was added after the GR75 run). I'm looking forward to seeing how far it can go once all those toys are upgraded!

Issues:

Um... squishy, squishy, SQUISHY!!!  I have no problem with DPS, mobs literally melt before me... but heaven forbid something gets a shot off and I can't avoid it (... gd succubi and their tracking/homing fireballs... grrr!!!).  I'm running full FR Amethysts just so I can survive those occasional hits that get through my wall of mages/skeletons.  Going forward, this is really my only fear - that I'll be one shot so much at higher GRs I can't go on.  I NEED A MEAT SHIELD! (Cormac??? Lol, no...)

 

Edited August 4, 2017 by Sableflame

[Dallium 2]

On 8/3/2017 at 6:33 PM, Sableflame said:

Other than that, the only other change is Land of the Dead and it's frosty "F U" to every thing on the screen.

I'm confused. What did you replace LotD with? LotD:FL is recommended in the guide.

I like the idea of Blood siphon, I'll have to try that out for lower content, but I think bone spikes just wins higher up. Stun proc, and vastly superior resource generation when there aren't health globes lying around. It's got better maneuverability, too, if you need to keep your Endless walk DR or dodge an bad affix. I think this might be another Devouring Aura v Cannibalize scenario.

I think the opportunity cost of bone armor is too high. You have to get in close with an already squish build, and you lose not just the mitigation from the belt but the reduced damage done from the curse itself, as well as the increased damage from the passive. Adding the cheat death probably helps smooth out toughness a bit, but losing all your SMs for a cheat death is almost as bad as just dying in the first place. OTOH, the increased damage from Scythe of the Cycle might be worth it. It certainly warrants a look.

[Sableflame 5]

On ‎8‎/‎7‎/‎2017 at 5:05 PM, Dallium said:

I'm confused. What did you replace LotD with? LotD:FL is recommended in the guide.

I was commenting on the back and forth in the thread regarding LotD vs AotD.  Some folks swear by Army, because of the CD proc on Jesseth's... but it's too little of burst for my taste, and it's not easily directed.  I hadn't realized the IV build had LotD.

 

On ‎8‎/‎7‎/‎2017 at 5:05 PM, Dallium said:

I like the idea of Blood siphon, I'll have to try that out for lower content, but I think bone spikes just wins higher up. Stun proc, and vastly superior resource generation when there aren't health globes lying around. It's got better maneuverability, too, if you need to keep your Endless walk DR or dodge an bad affix. I think this might be another Devouring Aura v Cannibalize scenario.

At higher levels you're using Command Skeletons on sight, so you have no need for an additional stun/freeze proc.  Devour with Life from Death makes endless globes and Siphon/Wraps ensures you don't have to go hunt them down to keep your Essence (and, of course, your health) topped off - Yes, the base resource generation is lower, but that's not what it is there for - trust me, give it a try.  I'm up through GR80 like this now, and I'm still not Ancient on 2 armor pieces, all my jewelry, and my weapon.

 

On ‎8‎/‎7‎/‎2017 at 5:05 PM, Dallium said:

I think the opportunity cost of bone armor is too high. You have to get in close with an already squish build, and you lose not just the mitigation from the belt but the reduced damage done from the curse itself, as well as the increased damage from the passive. Adding the cheat death probably helps smooth out toughness a bit, but losing all your SMs for a cheat death is almost as bad as just dying in the first place. OTOH, the increased damage from Scythe of the Cycle might be worth it. It certainly warrants a look.

I thought that about Bone Armor to begin with as well... but it actually has a surprisingly long range.  Also, unlike some other stacking abilities, you only need to refresh ONE stack to get the whole 10 reset (maybe D3 has changed that on all of the stacking skills, but I haven't tried out any others lately).  So once you get it to 10, you need only be in range of 1 mob to keep your full DR up.

Otherwise, it works as an amazing deterrent to pesky monsters that like to turbo in close (like those chain climbing bastards from Maltheal's level).  Pop the stun, drop your mages, back off and watch the carnage on their silly stunned faces.  And yes, the 300% damage from the cubed Scythe is heavenly.

[Guest MrBean]

Just hit GR90 with poor rolls with 3:25 min left

Gotta say: First: LotD is primordial for clean and fast ending of freeze spamming or gap closing bosses, as they do a lot of AOE/Fast damage. Second: i love Tragoul fang, as it perma 200% bonus is easily spread (great aoe range of the curse) and it procs BotT.

My char: https://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Kalhan-1184/hero/93246163

 

[Guest phup]

I don't know if the mechanics of consoles change things significantly, but the top current solo rift build on ps4 uses the following variations.

rathma mages with simulacrum is the skill set.  It doesn't bother with extended servitude, because with simulacrum, the haunted visions neck and a decent cooldown reduction amount, you can keep a ton of mages up without extended servitude.

the important gear change is https://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/haunted-visions and convention of elements instead of the traveler's pledge set.  Since no curse, you can also use a witching hour instead of the dayntees belt.

Last I checked, top necro solo was was using this build.  They are behind the PC progress by 5 levels, but I don't know if that's due to this being a worse build or other differences between console and pc.

[Guest WizardKiller]

I had success clearing GR 85 with relative ease, using String of Ears and Esoteric Alteration Gem (instead of Zei's) for survivability. Only 1 augment and 750 paragon, too. Simulacrum-Reservoir and Land of the Dead-Frozen Lands help a lot, as well: was able to melt through elites and the GR boss when combined. I did not like how squishy the Rathma build was, and found that these alterations align with my low-mid skill cap. Devour is great to use, as you can pop your mages up a bit faster (and more damage when consuming gets you to half max Eesence), as they lay waste to the trash mobs. When I can get a few more augemnts and higher paragon, I can see myself swapping out the String of Ears and Esoteric gem for more damage oriented items.

[Guest Shovlin]

I was wondering if Scythe of the Cycle 's 300% Secondary Skill DMG bonus while having Bone Armor activated works with every Skeletal Mage hit or not? Or does it only work with the other Secondary Skills? Does anyone know?

[Guest Eredrin]

Not sure where this question would be most appropriate, so I'm putting it under the set i'm using. What do You think would be better for hardcore hero - Unity or Lornelle's Sunstone?

[Stan 5,240]

3 hours ago, Guest Eredrin said:

Not sure where this question would be most appropriate, so I'm putting it under the set i'm using. What do You think would be better for hardcore hero - Unity or Lornelle's Sunstone?

My personal preference (and probably the safest option for Hardcore) would be using Unity combined with the tokens that make Followers invincible. That's 50% damage reduction straight out of the box without having to rely on missing health to get a similar effect from Lornelle's Sunstone.

From what I read on the tooltip, it isn't even guaranteed 1% damage reduction for every 1% Health missing.

If you roll a 0.75% (minimum), you'd have to be constantly at 34% Health to make the damage reduction from Lornelle's Sunstone to be on par with Unity and that's something you want to avoid in Hardcore mode.

[Immoros 0]

Not one of the top few stats, but what's better on ring between damage range and int?  Primal Ancient, so we're talking 650 int vs 105-210 damage.

Edited August 27, 2017 by Immoros

[Guest Peter Sonnacchio]

On 6/26/2017 at 5:18 PM, Damien said:

This thread is for comments about our Rathma Skeletal Mages Necromancer Build Guide.

Spreading maladiction is useless when you are not cursing enemies 

[Arkpit 101]

13 hours ago, Guest Peter Sonnacchio said:

Spreading maladiction is useless when you are not cursing enemies 

The build includes Decrepify so it is very useful in this particular setup.

[Guest Tony]

Does LOH apply to My pets ? 

[Arkpit 101]

8 hours ago, Guest Tony said:

Does LOH apply to My pets ? 

LoH is based on ability usage so your pets does apply BUT, only the first hit.

Command Skeleton does not apply this at all as far as I know since the generation of the skeleton pets are passive.

[Qzcz 1]

Given the change to Dayntee's Binding post-patch (I was lucky enough to gamble one with the change), what are people's thoughts on changing curses from Decrepify/Dizzying* to something else? An obvious option is Frailty/Aura of Frailty on easy content so you can be lazy and not curse. Frailty/Scent of Blood would mean 15% more damage, plus mobs dying at 15%, but meanwhile they are not slowed/stunned. Frailty/Harvest Essence would be convenient in alleviating the all-or-nothing Essence situation, but you're going to get essence anyway from the dead mob when you consume it, so probably doesn't make any sense...Leech might be nice for survivability, but which rune? Thoughts? It seems like Decrepify/Dizzying is still hard to beat, and the only reasons to change curses would be for faceroll Aura of Frailty builds or for multi-Necro groups.

* Procs Krysbin and Bane of the Trapped (although Bane of the Trapped also self-procs on nearby enemies)

[Kaelos 74]

Low survivability after 2.6.1 changes to build. I think Endless Walk set or Dayntee's should return.. or Unity over CoE?

Edited November 8, 2017 by Kaelos

[Valks 2,375]

On 10/27/2017 at 8:22 PM, Qzcz said:

Leech might be nice for survivability, but which rune? Thoughts?

I think the big factor here is if you're playing with another Necro and what they are using - Frailty SoB is amazing at high rifts, but useless if your Supp Necro is using it. Aura for speed T13 or below 75s isn't bad. I'd likely stick with Dizzying unless you can run SoB at 90+.

[Valks 2,375]

On 10/29/2017 at 7:39 PM, Kaelos said:

Low survivability after 2.6.1 changes to build. I think Endless Walk set or Dayntee's should return

I'd put Dayntee's back for solo, Endless Walk for group.