LoN Corpse Lance Necromancer

[Valks 2,375]

This thread is for comments and feedback about our LoN Corpse Lance Necromancer build.

[Elekim 4]

Some minor notes:

1) In the Gear page it is written: "Molten Wildebeest's Gizzard [...] can be easily replaced by a Bane of the Powerful in Unity-using, sub-GR 100 runs". However, Unity is never mentioned in the guide, even if only for sub-GR 100 runs...

2) In the Gear page it is written: "Note that while you can theoretically equip this ring [Krysbin's Sentence] and cube the worn jewelry recommendations, it is preferable to store Krysbin's Sentence in this slot due to the significant range and importance of maximizing its damage bonus".  Legacy of Nightmares rings cannot be cubed, of course, so this note should be explicitly stated to be valid for S17 seasonal characters only...

3) In the Gear page it is written: "In the stats of the rings, try to obtain a combination of Crit Damage, Cooldown Reduction, and potentially Increased Attack Speed to reach one of the IAS breakpoints outlined above". However, in the table IAS is recommended only as fifth stat on rings (which put it out of "perfect" rings): maybe it should be put before "Average Damage"? In addition, IAS should be mentioned as a stat priority for the weapon and amulet too...

4) Why does Lost Time not have "Corpse Lance %" as a recommended stat priority?

[Elekim 4]

5) This build is labelled as "group", "solo", "gr-pushing" and "speed-farming". In the guide it is never mentioned what the build is best at, and usually build that are suited both for gr-pushing and speedfarming have some minor variants (like the "gold triumvirate"). Are all these labels correct? Maybe a couple of line should be added to the guide to explicit which activity this build can actually do?

[Guest Witching hour]

Why does witching hour not have crit damage in its stat priority? Because you can roll it off.

[Guest Roth]

I do not know about anyone else but this build does not seem viable as even with correct rolls, ancients and half decent paragons getting over a simply level 70 solo is a struggle. Mobs look at it and dies, multiple times, repeatedly. I know their is a GRP RGK variant but even then if the Zmonk an Zbarb are not on form its an endless stream of death after death before nuking the guardian.

[Arkpit 101]

On 5/31/2019 at 7:05 PM, Guest Roth said:

I do not know about anyone else but this build does not seem viable as even with correct rolls, ancients and half decent paragons getting over a simply level 70 solo is a struggle. Mobs look at it and dies, multiple times, repeatedly. I know their is a GRP RGK variant but even then if the Zmonk an Zbarb are not on form its an endless stream of death after death before nuking the guardian.

If you look at leaderboards on Hardcore, think #2 is this build solo.

I used to play a full season of solo lancer on hardcore and it's tricky to learn to be safe but it's a ton of Decrepify spam while keeping Molten Wildebeest's Gizzard shield up with a good chunk of LpS via Draw Life

I personally don't like the playstyle anymore but it's definitly viable without dying but you have to be careful, you are stepping on mines every second of it.

[Jerioke 0]

Wrote a comment here on the wrong page by accident.

Edited June 6, 2019 by Jerioke

[Knutsanity 15]

On 5/31/2019 at 12:05 PM, Guest Roth said:

I do not know about anyone else but this build does not seem viable as even with correct rolls, ancients and half decent paragons getting over a simply level 70 solo is a struggle. Mobs look at it and dies, multiple times, repeatedly. I know their is a GRP RGK variant but even then if the Zmonk an Zbarb are not on form its an endless stream of death after death before nuking the guardian.

My necro uses this and was doing GR 85 just fine. That's with out maximising the damage, haven't used it in a few months. But looking at the ideal build here mine had more toughness, at the expense of damage. I had the Golem pants that give I think 30% dmg reduction when your golem is active, the gloves that the golem sheds a corpse every second, great for land of the dead down time. The rune I used was for collapsing him into a pile of corpses. I didn't use the Life per second part of the build. I used the stun corpse lance, which is defence in itself. I used The storm shield instead of the offhand phylactery thing. That's the biggest difference, the phylacteries are useless for any necro build anyway, shields are awesome for toughness, especially the storm shield, easy to roll with bloodshards too, not a lot of leg options to give a necro. I can't confirm for endgame. But I like to balance my builds and slowly move towards endgame recommendations as I run into progression issues, and start to better understand why I need the recommended changes and how I should play the build. They are often overpowered offensively and lacking toughness, for me on hardcore, and it helps to balance them yourself with changes for more toughness if you are ok with a slower potential progression in GR's, and especially if you die too much, that's no fun I imagine and I think costs you penalties in GR's anyway when not in hardcore.  I wasn't even using simulacrum yet, and the GR 80's were easy offensively. So it may get much higher than that. I even didn't have the right necklace or weapon yet. 

2 simple changes. Storm shield, and golem with the pants and gloves. Is good enough for GR 85+ on Hardcore with no caldessan's and a missing ancient or two. You could probably get by with just one of the changes if you want. Stormshield is easier and less detrimental to your build. Golem helps with Land of the dead down time a surprising amount, but you need to pick a recommended skill to lose ?. Probably devour, but up to you. 

Storm shield has a great 19-24% block chance, about 2K armour, and rolls with an extra 25-30% melee dmg reduction, can still get 10% crit. So that may be more than enough for you. At a small dmg cost of the offhand, and the seemingly unimportant leg ability on it. Golem provides an extra distraction for enemies, extra corpses, the dmg reducton pants, so is an even better help than stormshield defensively I think, at the small cost of 1/10th of your armour passive, and large cost of a skill.

Edited June 7, 2019 by Knutsanity

[Guest Dogg]

Why is this advertised as an RGK when there's no stricken? Not gonna be killing many RGs without a stricken.

 

[Elekim 4]

1) A typo: on the last paragraph of the Skill page there is "tour" instead of "your"...

2) In the Gear page, Illusory Boots are said to be a viable alternative to Steaurt's Geaves, but they are not present in the table of stat priorities: they should be added to the table, as "Alternative".

3) The only real flaw I see in this updated guide is the link to the Follower page, which is still confusing (which follower is the best for this build?) and outdated (presenting damage-oriented followers as viable alternatives, listing Vitality and All Resistance among recommanded stats, missing CR on the Templar shield or crowd crontrol secondaries on weapons, etc etc - see my old posts on that page). Since almost EVERY guide on this site links to that page, it's a pity to see a well-updated guide, with fine details such as added recommandations for secondary stats and legendary potions, link to such an "ugly" page. Please update the Follower page as soon as possible: it should be fast as it is only one page, and with that small effort you will avoid a "bad feel" from dozens of other well-updated guides...

[Elekim 4]

Now that I found the time to deeply check the table of stat priorities, I have quite a few more notes and questions:

4) I don't understand why Life % is a stat priority for the helm: according to other items' stat priorities, isn't Armor a better stat? None of the other items that can roll Life % have it among priorities, while Armor is so imporant that you suggest to socket rubies on torso and legs to get some extra armor from added Strenght...
5) The stat priorities for the helms should include Andariel's Visage too, adding Cold Damage % and Attack Speed (to be put before Vitality).
6) Also, since Intelligence adds to All Resistance, why does this Necro build recommend single resistance as the helm secondary stat (instead of pickup radius or reduce control impairing effects) and All Resistance for the boots (instead of movement speed, which can free up some paragon points to spend on intelligence or vitality)?
7) Maybe there are no particular recommendations, but Corpsewhisper Pauldrons and Steuart's Greaves can roll a third secondary stat...
? As I already said, Illusory Boots should be added to the table as alternative boots.
9) Crit chance has been removed from the stat priorities of every item, but in the skill section Ricochet is said to be an alternative to Brittle Touch: in this scenario Crit Chance will become an important stat, right? I think a clarification is needed: either discouraging Ricochet as an alternative, or mention the necessity of CHC on some items when using Ricochet, or re-introducing CHC in the table os stat priorities...
10) Increased Attack Speed is written twice on the list of stat priorities for the rings: one should be removed...
11) The Ring #1 slot does not have Stone of Jordan among its option: Max Essence should be removed from the list of stat priorities.
12) In the Cube section there is a typo: "the perfect Attack Speed - CDR - Attack Speed roll" should be "the perfect CHD - CDR -Attack Speed roll".
13) I did not understand how much Increased Attack Speed is needed for this build. First, you say thet the "baseline Attack Speed recommendation for solo pushing is 1.72 in your sheet, attainable from Paragon points, a max attack speed roll on the weapon and a single other max attack speed roll on gear", but in the table below IAS is recommended for gloves, belt and both rings ("the perfect CHD - CDR -Attack Speed roll"), but not for the weapon. Then, a few lines below, you give additional numbers, from which I understood you should aim not for 1.72, but 2.0 (or 2.1?) and possibly 2.5 (is it possible?): how much IAS is needed to reach them? If a high IAS is needed, why don't you recommend it on the weapon and the amulet (instead of Intelligence)? Is Andariel's Visage necessary to reach an attack speed breakpoint? I really need a clarification here...
14) I don't understand why "Average Damage" is listed as a stat priority for the rings. Krysbin's Sentence naturally rolls IAS and Int (that should be re-rolled to get the missing between CHD, CDR and socket); CoE naturally rolls socket, Int and CHC (one of which should be re-rolled to get the missing between CHD and CDR); SoJ have even less freedom (given the list of stat priorities as it is, it can have CHD but not even CDR...). So what's the point in listing Average Damage as a priority? For the not-recommended Legacy of Nightmares rings (if so, then they can roll another secondary stat...)? Also, by writing "Average Damage or Increased Attack Speed" it seems that IAS is less important than damage (when "high damage range" has been removed from the weapon's stat priorities!).
15) Isn't "High damage range" a stat priority for the weapon anymore? Does this mean that good damage rolls are less impotant than the stats listed here? Does this mean that the naturally-rolled "+ elemental damage" should be rolled away for CDR od Damage %? Since Max Essence is a secondary stat and the Socket is preferibly added with RG, which is the recommended fourth primary stat? In the first paragraph of the Gear page, Increased Attack Speed seems to be a recommended roll for the weapon, but it's not present in the table of stat priorities...
16) In the Gear page you say that any well-rolled phylactery can take the place of Lost Time. If I'm not wrong, all other phylacteries have legendary powers involving skills that are not used by this build at all, while Lost Time still has some speed&slowing capabilities: is this legendary power so useless that you can freely change it with other phylacteries?
17) The phylactery can roll Corpse Lance %: I think it should be added as a stat priority.
18) Since having an ancient item adds +750% damage, is it possible that, for most of the recommended items for this build, a perfectly-rolled non-ancient item with all desired stats is still worse than a bad-rolled ancient item with useless stats? If that's the case it should be stated more explicitly, as it should the list of which items are mandatory for this build even if in a non-ancient form...

[Guest Skraeling]

Stats for both ring slots are identical. Ring #1 stats even reference Stone of Jordan, which is in the other slot. Are they actually the same for both sets of ring options?

[Guest Ethos248]

The swamp land wanders are only for the witch doctor? What are we supposed to use there for the necro?

[Bubble181 14]

16 hours ago, Guest Ethos248 said:

The swamp land wanders are only for the witch doctor? What are we supposed to use there for the necro?

 

You try to get them from a Witch Doctor alt. The reason for these specific pants is that they are the very only pair of pants in the gamethat can roll with +cold damage %. There's no other pair of pants that has an equal or similar bonus for this build.

[Guest Normal Gem?]

It says yellow for damage and red for toughness? 
 

Wouldn’t it be yellow for damage and purple for toughness?

[Bubble181 14]

13 hours ago, Guest Normal Gem? said:

It says yellow for damage and red for toughness? 
 

Wouldn’t it be yellow for damage and purple for toughness?

No. Purple increases Vitality; this you can simply get from Paragon points as well if needed. Red gives Armor, which is harder to get on a Necro, and has a better return on a per-point basis. Increasing base Armor is also affected by many skills that increase Armor (e.g.Blood Rush Potency), while increasing your health pool has a negative return in some cases (percentage vs point based bonuses - e.g. "health  globe returns an additional X amount of health" secondary stat).