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

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

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

Active Skills
Siphon BloodNo rune chosenDeath Nova Blood Nova1Devour Devouring Aura2Frailty Aura of Frailty3Blood RushNo rune chosen4Simulacrum Blood and Bone
Passive Skills
Fueled by DeathStand AloneSwift HarvestingFinal Service

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

The T16 key farming build will mimic the GR speed farming rotation, butsped up one step further: with extremely aggressive Blood Rushes on topof enemies and their immediate decimation with Blood Novas. You startout 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 throughoutthe Rift with Blood Rush in search of packs of enemies. The interactionof Frailty and Briggs' Wrath will conveniently pull them on topof you, and you can one-shot any pack you come across with a short channelingof 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 GreaterRift progression build, but others will have to change according to the taskat hand. Ability to cross over great distances faster and more efficientlytake 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. If you find the channeling playstyle too slow forT16 rifts, you can viably alternate this slot to Bone Armor Dislocationand 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 utilitylegendary 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 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 T16 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.
• Devour Devouring Aura will consume the numerous Corpses you producefrom your damage burst, and turn them into a speed boost through itsinteraction with the Fueled by Death passive.
• 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 either mix it with a craftable set formaximum early game effectiveness, or with utility legendaries in latercharacter progression. Early on in character progression, consider using thecraftable Guardian's Jeopardy set, as its 3-piece bonus doubles your mainstats (Intelligence and Vitality, in a Necromancer's case), netting you amassive increase of damage and survivability at a very low cost. Later on incharacter progression (once you amass 2k+ Paragon levels and get confidentwith the build), swap Guardian's set out for a combination of Goldwrapand 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. 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. Sooner than later, you willoutgrow the use of both Guardian set and Mantle of Channeling for T16farming, and can use the setup displayed in the table below.

Your jewelry should partially match the GR progression setup, as thecombination of Krysbin's Sentence and Haunted Visions providesway too much value to be swapped around. Krysbin's Sentence amplifiesdamage 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 summonslast 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-tightpull it exerts over enemies affected by your Aura of Frailty curse. Notethat both Aura of Frailty and Devouring Aura sale with Pickupradius on your gear, so try to obtain this stat wherever possible.

For your weaponry, our default recommendation is that you stick todedicated Trag'Oul duo of Funerary Pick as your scythe, and Iron Rose as your phylactery. Funerary Pick brings a massivedamage multiplier against targets affected by Siphon Blood, while Iron Rose procs guaranteed Blood Novas as you channel, makingfor a devastating combo. As mentioned in the skill section however, you canalter 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 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.

Bane of the Trapped brings just as valuable of a damage multiplicationbonus to T16 keystone farming, as it does for GR solo pushing. Within thestandard rifts' limited challenges and rushing playstyle, apositioning-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 yourfollower in solo play), and and provides near-infinite Toughness if you alsoequip a Goldwrap. Lastly, Bane of the Stricken should be replacedby Bane of the Powerful for a well-rounded damage increase and damagemitigation 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 aswell.

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.

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

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.