Trag'Oul Death Nova Necromancer Greater Rift Speed Farming Variation (2024)

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

During lower tier Greater Rift farming, the balance between defense, damageand utility can be shifted to favor the latter two aspects of characterbuilding.

Active Skills
Siphon BloodNo rune chosenDeath Nova Blood Nova1Bone Armor Dislocation2Frailty Aura of Frailty3Blood RushNo rune chosen4Simulacrum Blood and Bone
Passive Skills
Spreading MaledictionStand AloneSwift HarvestingFinal Service

When you are Speed Farming Greater Rifts, your playstyle should at leastpartially reflect the circ*mstances by focusing on massive pulls, genericbonuses against enemies and chaining pylon effects.

The build will maintain the entirety of the GR progression playstyle(stacking Trag'Oul, using Simulacrums for damage as you channel awaywith Siphon Blood, etc.), but shifts to a faster and more aggressivemindset. You start out the runs by stacking the 300% Trag'Oul health bonus,and then summon your Simulacrums. Activate Bone Armor on a10-pack of monsters to maximize the damage reduction, and then use this skillmostly for the Dislocation stun, which procs Krysbin's Sentence.Time Krysbin's proc to coincide with the Physical rotation of the worn Convention of Elements to maximize the devastation of your Death Nova Blood Nova. It will be cast via the interaction of Siphon Blood with Iron Rose, and will be mimicked by your Simulacrums because of the worn Haunted Visions. While you area force to be reckoned with on regular monsters and elites, the build quicklyloses steam against single targets — so, for the purposes of speedfarming, you do not want to spend over 1-2 Physical Convention of Elements rotations on a Greater Rift Guardian. Adjust yourGR farming difficulty accordingly, or swap builds altogether.

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

• Your main damage dealer is still Death Nova, taken with theTrag'Oul set-appropriate Blood Nova rune. While it can be self-cast,you will mostly inflict it with the channeling of Siphon Blood, whichtriggers the worn Iron Rose off-hand. Selecting a particular Siphon Blood rune is not necessary, since you get them all via theTrag'Oul 2-piece set bonus.
• Mobility is just as necessary in speed farming as it is in Greater Riftprogression, so Blood Rush remains in the build. Much like Siphon Blood, selection of a particular rune is not necessary, as yougain the benefits of all of them from the Trag'Oul 2-piece. In GR speedfarming, using Blood Rush will also net you the massive burst of speedfrom Steuart's Greaves.
• Simulacrums duplicate your Secondary skills (and Death Novafalls in that skill category), and — unlike your own Iron Roseprocs — their Blood Nova casts do trigger Area Damage, makingtheir DPS contribution to the build massive. Make them permanent with Haunted Visions.
• Bone Armor brings up to 30% damage reduction when you cast it with10 enemies inside its radius, and stuns them with the Dislocation rune— giving you the full damage buff of Krysbin's Sentence. Time itwith the Physical CoE rotation for a massive damage burst.
• Frailty culls enemies at the 15% health point, and brings an easyproc of Dayntee's Binding, if you choose to wear it. Take it with thelazy Aura of Frailty rune for a fire-and-forget beneficial effectthroughout your runs.

The Trag'Oul's Avatar set stillforms the basis of your setup; you take five of the available six pieces, andmix it with a craftable set for maximum effectiveness. Early on in characterprogression, consider using the craftable Guardian's Jeopardy set, as its3-piece bonus doubles your main stats (Intelligence and Vitality, in aNecromancer's case), netting you a massive increase of damage andsurvivability at a very low cost. Later on in character progression (once youamass 2k+ Paragon levels and get confident with the build), swap Guardian'sset out for the more traditional Aughild setup, outlined on this build's mainGear page.

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

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

For your weaponry, you should 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 targetsaffected by Siphon Blood, while Iron Rose procs guaranteed Blood Novas as you channel, making for a devastating combo.

To help you with farming the gear you need for your builds, we have two veryuseful guides that you can access by clicking the links below: a Salvage Guide tohelp you quickly check whether or not you can safely salvage a piece of gear anda Legendary Farming Guide to help you efficiently farm legendaries and set items.

The former Season 28 theme, the Altar of Rites, has been revised andre-added to Diablo 3 as a permanent character progression mechanic. — Forvirtually all builds and players of all skill levels — from casual toadvanced — we recommend progressing through the Altar tree using the pathoutlined below. The suggested path is geared towards maximum quality of lifefirst, then amplifying damage, and then mopping up the tree with defensive andedge case utility nodes.

Note that while they require reaching them with a Seal, Legendary PotionPowers are not part of the Seal cost system; Potions unlock with a separateresource called Primordial Ashes, obtained from salvaging Legendary or Setitems of Primal (red bordered) quality. Upgrade them as soon as possible, andin 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 Powersin our dedicated Altar of Rites Mechanics guide.

Both Zei's Stone of Vengeance and Bane of the Trapped bring justas valuable damage multiplication bonuses to GR speed farming, as they do forsolo pushing. Within the limited challenges of Speed Greater Rifts, Bane of the Stricken should be replaced by Bane of the Powerful fora well-rounded damage increase and damage mitigation bonus, with aduration-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 Greater Rift speedfarming as well.

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

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

The Kanai's Cube can be used for much more than simply extracting Legendary powers from items. Pleaserefer to our Kanai's Cube guide for more information.

The recommended follower for this build during T16 speed farming is theEnchantress, due to her cooldown reduction bonus (cutting down Blood Rush downtime) and elemental damage increase. Note that thisrequires 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 FollowerGuide, which contains detailed advice for choosing the skills and the gear ofyour 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 propertiescomplement the naturally high All Resistances stat of Necromancers). Pickwhichever you feel helps you out the most.