Done leveling your Necro to its Fresh Level 70? You wonderin’ what to do next? Well… Look no further. You’ve found “it”. Here, you’ll find how to get your Haedrigs Gift free set ASAP, builds, items to loo for, and all sorts of advice to get past the early game lull and transition smoothly into the endgame!

Updated Apr 15 2021: Fixed mistaken mentions of “Land of the Dead” to “Army of the Dead”. God. Added mentions of Follower Guide where applicable.

Updated Apr 12 2021: Made 2/4/6pc and “final build template” less crutchy. The Land of the Dead playstyle should be used and / or gotten used to early on! Also added Messerschmidt’s Reaver as the ultimate “first item”, mentioned many times.

In Season 23, the Necro free set is Bones of Rathma. Season 23 reworked Rathmas Set. Essentially you have an Army of the Dead builds. I’ll push you towards an LotD build more suitable for speedfarming.

Season 23 and YOU. How does it affect?

This season’s “theme” is the Follower buff + emanate items. I’m guessing it will be a permanent addition from after this season.

This mainly affects farming speed. While the follower buff skills make them more relevant in tryharding GR’s, it is by no means game-breaking.

Essentially, this season unlocks
NEW HEIGHTS FOR SPEEDFARMING

I highly recommend checking out our Follower Guide (Builds, Item, Skills etc).

Without further ado, let’s get into it.

Fresh 70: The first step – setting up!

Crafted Reapers Wraps – plans drop from any Torment Malthael.
Definitely helps with resource problems early on!

The very first step of your journey! Here, I discuss items, rerolls, and basic advice to keep in mind during your ascent.

Yellow items - stats - rerolls - gems

REROLLING YELLOW ITEMS IS SUPER LEGIT, CHEAP, AND UNDERRATED.
Nicely rerolled yellows will carry you for a LONG TIME.

Weapon: Craft a 2H Scythe with INT and Vit. Third stat can either be socket or Life per Hit. You should have, at least, one Life per Hit in one of your gear. LpH is godlike at this stage of the game. Why Scythe? Some passives only work with it.

— INT Characters need Armor and not ALLRES! —

Since Necro is an INT class, you get free ALLRES as your INT goes up. Since this has diminishing returns, you want to REROLL OFF as much ALLRES in your gear. In its place, ROLL ON as much Armor as you can.

—

Self-healing is important early on – Life per hit is an absurd stat for us since we will be using the Necro passive Grisly Tribute, which gives a portion of our LpH to our minions – effectively healing us “a lot”. A great for the early game, and you should be happy with a roll or two. Amethyst on weapon socket also gives LpH.

Skill% (Army of the Dead%) can be found on Chest and Shoulder. Typically it’s safer to roll on shoulder but if you’re removing trash stats for it you can take it on chest too. Having it on both is great, at a cost to defensive stats.

Belt: Is a huge source of defense. Main stat > VIT > RES/ARMOR > Life%. You’ll be surprised how a single item can give you a whole load of toughness on.

Rings and Amulet: You NEED socket on these to prep for legendary gems. Get any stat on these that you feel you’re missing. Feeling soft? Get defenses. Need DPS? Crit and mainstat. Feel free to roll “random helpful stats” on these for now, instead of the usual endgame CHC/CHD/MAINSTAT.

GEMS: For body pieces you’ll want Emeralds or Rubies for Armor. Helm may vary (Amethyst for Life%, Topaz for resource cost reduction, Diamond for Cooldown Reduction) depending on your needs.

Skill%? Army of the Dead skill% doesn’t exist. More defensive stats and CDR! lol.

Elemental% can be found on Bracers and Amulets. Physical% is a safe bet.

OTHER SLOTS will be taken over by your free set pieces. No matter how bad they are stat wise, the 4pc bonus will heavily outperform any temporary yellow you can make.

It’s better to have the correct stats NOW! Don’t worry about the “perfect” stats yet!

Remove useless stats: Reroll off the stats that really don’t do anything significant.

  • resource cost reduction: Crutchy for most builds.
  • attack speed: It’s only important for absolute endgame build refinements…
  • ALLRES: You get too much of it for “free”, take Armor instead.
  • Life Regen per Second: The worst stat of all time. Trash can.

For good stats like:

  • INT VIT – your core stats
  • Armor > Life – your best defensive stats
  • CDR is decent for this build, but don’t sacrifice absolute core stats for it!
  • Crit related stats – best DPS stats for the endgame

Keeping items important for your Follower Farming Build is high priority!

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0pc Rathma free set – getting the 2pc

Getting 1st Haedrigs Gift

For clarity this box contains info and builds if you currently have 0 pcs of the Rathma free set, going for 2 (you don’t have any Haedrigs gift bag, going for the first).

Necromancer Fresh 70 No Set Build
Skill & Rune
Bone Spike (Open) Blood Spikes
Death Nova Unstable Compound
Corpse Lance Blood Lance
Blood Rush Molting (Potency)
Devour
Command Golem Flesh Golem
Passives
Dark Reaping Stand Alone
Swift Harvesting (Fueled by Death) Overwhelming Essence (Open)

A pretty basic build if I’ve ever made one. Just make sure not to over eagerly Devour – make sure you take out fats with Corpse Lance first. If you’re confident with your skills, you can even fit in Skeletons for a generator-less build, replacing Bone Spike.

If you have a powerful legendary – edit the build to accommodate it if needed.

*Pressing Shift+J (PC) opens up your Seasonal Journey tracker!*

The entries in these early chapters are dead easy. The build above gives you a good balance of offense, defense and speed built in to help you breeze through this as mindlessly as possible.

Hard Mode on for Chapters 1 & 2. Clear through all the entries on Hard. Just up the difficulty to complete one Neph on Expert.

Don’t forget to level up all the NPCs in town. Completing your weekly Challenge Rift will help you get resources to do this easily, if you haven’t already.

When you’re done here, get your first free set from your mail, and proceed onward.

2pc Rathma free set – getting the 4pc

Getting 2nd Haedrigs Gift

For clarity this box contains builds and info if you currently have 2 pcs of the Rathma free set, going for 4 (you have the first Haedrigs gift bag, going for the second).

S23 Fresh 70 Necro Rathma 2pc Free Set Build
Skill Rune
Bone Spikes / Grim Scythe
Blood Spikes / Blood Scythe
Death Nova (can be Corpse Lance)
Unstable Concoction (Blood Lance)
Blood Rush (Devour)
Potency (Voracious / Cannibalize)
Command Skeletons Dark Mending
Revive Personal Army
Army of the Dead
Death Valley / See Notes
Passives
Grisly Tribute
Final Service (Open)
Rigor Mortis (Open)
Dark Reaping (Open)

Major overhaul. Here we try to utilize the Rathma 2pc. The typical essence spenders become completely optional – I prefer to take Corpse Lance. Grisly Tribute is important for our survivability from here onward. Revive and Command Skeletons should be more than enough to trigger your 2pc enough. CDR becomes a great stat now too.

If you have a powerful legendary – edit the build to accomodate it if needed.

*Pressing Shift+J (PC) opens up your Seasonal Journey tracker!*

Difficulty: Although there are entries here that need to be finished on Master, you can still complete the bounty cache, if you haven’t already, on Hard. For the bounty, try to do the whole five acts as you’ll need to do this down the line anyway.

These entries are still on the easy side, so we can be a little lax with our build making as little sacrifices as possible to retain good DPS, Speed and some thought to defense. When you’re done with this chapter, collect your 2nd set of free set and let’s finish the next chapter for the remaining free gear!

4pc Rathma free set – getting the 6pc

For clarity the next boxes contains builds and info if you currently have 4pcs of the Rathma free set, going for 6 (you have the first+second Haedrigs gift bag, going for the third). This segment is further divided into three parts – Torment II, Torment IV, and GR20.

Torment II seasonal journey entries

Torment I-II and general stuff
S23 Fresh 70 Necro Rathma 4pc Free Set Build
Skill Rune
Bone Spikes / Grim Scythe
Blood Spikes / Blood Scythe
Death Nova (can be Corpse Lance) Unstable Concoction (Blood Lance)
Blood Rush (Devour)
Potency (Voracious / Cannibalize)
Command Skeletons Dark Mending
Revive Personal Army
Army of the Dead
Death Valley / See Notes
Passives
Grisly Tribute
Final Service (Open)
Rigor Mortis (Open)
Dark Reaping (Open)

No changes, really. The Rathma 4pc bonus gives you an incredible amount of toughness. Use your minions to body block!

This build will be the baseline for all entries in this tier (Torment II, IV, and GR20) While this build may seem overkill for the Torment II entries, you may as well prep up for the harder parts of this tier.

Upgrade a Rare to Legendary w/ Kanai’s Cube: 2H Axe for Messerschmidt’s Reaver is the best QoL upgrade for the build. However, if you’re desperate for power now, upgrade a 2H Scythe – all of them will give you something usable.

Complete a Torment I Rift: This will be the minimum level you should be farming at should you need to do it. Increase if you can easily obliterate a rift. There’s also a “Kill a Torment II Boss” entry here which should be easy.

Complete any other odds and ends that you can, before proceeding to Torment IV.

Torment IV seasonal journey entries

Torment IV stuff

(build template in the Torment II tab)

In Torment IV things get real. For many of the free sets, this place is the breakpoint wether your build needs help or not. And for S23 and Rathma is ehhh, so-so.

  • Kill Odeg – Keywarden in ACT I, Fields of Misery.
  • Kill Sokahr – Keywarden in ACT II, Dahlgur Oasis.
  • Kill Xah’Rith – Keywarden in ACT III, Stonefort.
  • Kill Nekarat – Keywarden in ACT IV, Gardens of Hope 2nd Tier.
  • Kill Specific Boss – Check your journal to see who it is this season.
  • Keywardens maps have a key icon next to the waypoint. Purple arrows point you to their location after a short while once you’re in their respective map.

For the boss and all Keywardens – STRAIGHT UP RUSH TO THEM!
Ignore ALL TRASH and just beeline! Get it done ASAP!

You’ll really notice the if you’ve neglected your temporary yellow gear and rerolls. Hopefully you have powerful legendary to carry you (and even if you do), you will notice if you’ve neglected your gear. Refer to the very top setting up tab if you need help.

Either way, this is a good time to take a closer look at your items and get as many powerups and rerolls stated in the setting up tab above.

4pc Rathma free set GR20

Spoiler title

Hmm… This one is very doable, but  I can see bad rerolls making this an absolute nightmare. If you’re confident your CDR, toughness, and damage are on-point – and are confident with this playstyle go ahead and do it raw!

Fighting mega-chunks hopefully mixed in with elites should be your goal. Straggler white mobs are irrelevant. Your toughness and self-healing SHOULDN’T be a problem, but DPS can be a little worrying. Temporary Skill% and Elemental% can help you if you feel weak. But honestly, most people should be able to clear no problem.

If for some reason you have a hard time, go do some nephs and low level GR’s and slot some legendary gems.

You should have an idea of how strong you are given the drops (or lack thereof) you’ve gotten. Be practical and don’t be afraid to shore up your build a little.

The “ultimate” challenge gating you to getting your full six piece free set! The difficulty varies wildly on your class and seasonal set. As someone who has cleared with EVERY SINGLE SET AND CLASS WITHOUT ANY OTHER LEGENDARY or took any pylon – let me tell you, they’re not all created equal.

Fresh 70 Necro 6pc Rathma Free Set Build

S23 Fresh 70 Necro Rathma 6pc Free Set Build
Skill Rune
Command Golem Flesh / Ice (Any)
Bone Armor (Open)
Harvest of Anguish
Blood Rush Potency
Command Skeletons
Frenzy (Dark Mending)
Revive Personal Army
Army of the Dead Death Valley
Passives
Grisly Tribute Final Service
Dark Reaping (Open)
(OPEN) Cmdr of the Risen Dead

FROM HERE OUR GOAL IS TO GAIN POWER FAST. The next logical steps are Legendary Gems, and being mindful of the good items you need to find.

Important Build Notes:

  • Generator? This build doesn’t need one (Non Nayr’s speed variants). You can open breakable doors with Command Skeletons.
  • All-in Army the Dead. Initially I thought a generator + spender would be better for newer players to get accustomed to the build, but it felt like a nonsense build. Getting used to the Elite hunting, large group killing playstyle is important.
  • Look out for (and using DB’s to upgrade) 2H Axe for Messerschmidt’s Reaver – it’s your best “first item” by far.
  • Open passives? Grisly Tribute is amazing for survivability. Aside from that, there’s nothing that’s really core right now. Not many passives even benefit our build AT ALL aside from the four listed above.
  • Other skills are set in stone, except for Army of the Dead rune… They all have a use!
  • Reapers Wraps isn’t so strong for this build, but its a “free” non-rng upgrade.
  • Keep in mind the important rerolls I mentioned at the start of this guide. Remove the useless trash stats, put in the high impact core stats.
  • Follower build and items are IMPORTANT!

Also, before you proceed, here’s a preview / reminder/ of items you need to look for.

Core items preview - look out for these!
Slot Name Notes
Helmet Fate’s Vow
Highest impact Army of the Dead item
Bracer Bonds of C’lena
Another LotD specific Legendary.
Ring Ring of Royal Grandeur
Only from ACT I bounties
Belt Cpt Crimson Belt Essentially CDR
Legs Cpt Crimson Legs Essentially CDR
1h Scythe Jesseths Skullscythe
Global DPS boost!
Shield Jesseths Skullshield
Set pair of the Skullscythe
Ring Krysbin’s Sentence
Amazing necro-specific dps ring

I suppose Unity should be here too. Lornelles Sunstone is “ok”.

As implied, these are the items that are core, or important, to your build. I talk more about how to obtain these later on – remember to keep these in mind always.

At the very bottom of this guide, you can preview what a good base template build is for items / skills / passives to get an idea what you’re going for.

Curious about Bone Spirit build?

 

Powering Up: Legendary Gems

Your next step after getting your 6pc is Legendary Gems. Why? LGems are a huge power spike relying on very little RNG. Simply spam Neph -> GR until you get the three gems you need and power them up to 25.

Rathma Main useful gemsOther useful gems

Bane of the Powerful: Really basic and powerful gem that “caps out” at L25. You won’t be sad investing a few points into this as you’ll be using this for a while.

YOU DO NOT WANT ENFORCER.
Pets don’t actually have a huge contribution to your DPS

From here, I suggest another 1 or 2 defensive gems. The best options are Moratorium (good early on), and Esoteric Alteration (scales into endgame). You can use the Moratorium for augments later.

If you really want offensive gems, Bane of the Trapped (“best” generic DPS gem) / Bane of the Stricken (only useful later on) are your best bets. Gogok of Swiftness may be an option for CDR?

Bane of the Stricken – is the go to LATE GAME DPS Gem of choice. Its main use is shortening your Rift Guardian time (and helping out vs yellow elites).

Esoteric Alteration – is probably the best defensive gem in the game, and is worth having a strong one around.

Boon of the Hoarder – is used in many speedfarming builds alongside Avarice Band.

Again, Legendary Gems are a massive priority given their NON-RNG powerspike. Just having three useful gems at 25 will allow you farm a few torment levels higher.

Powering Up: Important Items & how to get them

Of course, any build will need a couple (or more than a couple) items to round out. Here, I list down what items you’re looking for, and how best to get them using various currencies and means.

Blood ShardsDeaths BreathRings and AmuletsThe Classics

Here’s advice on how to spend your blood shards with Kadala, roughly in order of importance.

Helmet – Fate’s Vow: a GODLY improvement to Army of the Dead. 2.5x damage and the Unconventional Warfare rune. The rune actually works like this – it SPLITS that 50,000% amongst all targets. So as you can imagine it will eradicate “single target” or few enemies.

Bracer – Bonds of C’lena: The only other Army of the Dead legendary. Doubles the power, and triples against your Command Skeleton target!

Shield – Jesseth’s Skullshield: It’s a longshot when gambling for offhands, but you’re not gonna be using it elsewhere.

Rings – many random rings: Unity, Lornelles, Krysbins etc. Only go this route if truly desperate of flooding out with shards. It’s expensive and the chance is low. Don’t say I didn’t warn you!

Here’s advice on how to get your weapons from Deaths Breath rare item upgrades, roughly in order of importance.

2H Axe for Messerschmidt’s Reaver. Trust me on this. This is the SINGLE BEST ITEM you can get right now. It provides such a huge pseudo-CDR that you desperately need. Damage is not your concern right now.

1h Scythe for Jesseths Skullscythe. One half of the set (a GLOBAL dps boost as long as your command skeletons are going ham). Other filler items here are TragOuls Corroded Fang which is alright.

Shield for Jesseths Skullshield to complete the set.

Cubed weapon? Seasoned necros will know, there’s many options here. Reilena’s Shadowhook, Trag’Oul’s Corroded Fang… Even Nayrs Black Death can work with the build… Shadowhook is the most “brainless” choice, best for speedfarming.

Rings: Well, it’s a gamble. But if you’re missing good rings and you got Deaths Breath, you might as well spend them.

Rings and Amulets are tough to get from either BS or DB’s (due to the large amount of possible outcomes), but if you’re done getting your core items from them – and you haven’t got your core accessories, it’s a viable way to spend them.

Ring of Royal Grandeur is your best bet for a single ring to improve your build. Get this from ACT I bounties, as it will unlock your capability to wear Captain Crimsons set (legs belt), which give a ton of useful stats.

Krysbin’s Sentence is a godly DPS increase, with very minimal effect on your gameplay.

Unity is okay, buy you’ll need to find 2 for it to work with your immortal followed!

Lornelles Sunstone is an “alright” defensive option. Unity is better if you’re in the market for a defensive ring.

Amulet? Any is fine. Well rolled stats > Legendary effects. At least it’s one less thing to worry about. You can experiment with a some, but I wouldn’t consider any specific amulet core.

Typically you’ll just find these as you grind, as they can be difficult to obtain with currency…

This is just a list of your “all-around” items that may or may not be mentioned previously. While I do not take set-specifics in this tab, it serves as a seasonal reminder (and helpful general list for newbies) on what’s “generally good”.

Reapers Wraps: A Crafted legendary whose plans drop from any Torment Malthael (and is oft mentioned in our Fresh 70 guides), any NON-RNG boost to power (in this case, resource generation) is welcome. MOST builds can benefit from an early reapers.

Nemesis Bracers: An absolute monster for increasing rift clear speed (and a little extra deaths breaths!), newer players might not value this as highly – try it out and you’ll be surprised.

Unity: Used alongside another Unity on your follower (Plus their unique “Cannot Die” relic) essentially halving all damage you take for one ring slot, that’s usable for any character. Not bad.

Obisidian Ring of the Zodiac: Core on many builds, but usable for any build that spends resource. It’s a unique source of “in-combat” CDR that would give you 100% uptime on skills you couldn’t otherwise achieve. It’s pretty crazy.

Focus+Restraint: If you can trigger both halves of the set bonus, and don’t mind losing defenses from rings – this is will “more than double” your DPS.

Travellers Pledge + Compass Rose: Another accessory set, this one is more suited for “elite killer” builds that like to travel in between packs, and face-tanking builds that tend to stay still while DPSing. It’s not very universal, but it can reasonably benefit any character.

Convention of Elements: Literally any character can use this ring. It’s a titanic boost in DPS (especially for builds that have tons of short-duration buffs… LINE THEM UP!).

Ring of Royal Grandeur: -1 set item requirements to help you fit random core or filler legendaries to help your build out. While absolutely necessary on some builds, most builds can benefit from this using “generic” legendaries for a temporary power boost (IE Aquilla Cuirass).

Avarice Band + Boon of the Hoarder (+Goldwrap) the gold farming speedy holy trinity. While you don’t really need all three all the time, this combo allows you to speed through and survive ANY difficulty (careful, this doesn’t improve DPS!).

You also need specific items for your follower build, which again, has a huge impact on your farming speed.

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Rathma Full Build Template Preview

S23 Fresh L70 Necro Rathma 6pc “Final” Build Template
Head Rathma Skill Rune
Shoulder Rathma Command Golem Flesh / Ice
Chest Rathma Bone Armor
Harvest of Anguish
Arms Rathma Blood Rush Potency
Legs Cpt. Crimson Command Skeletons Frenzy
Boots Rathma Revive Personal Army
Belt Cpt. Crimson Army of the Dead
Death Valley / Dead Storm
Bracer Bonds of C’lena Passives
Amulet
Traveler’s Pledge
 Grisly Tribute
Ring
Krysbins Sentence (Unity)
 Final Service
Ring Compass Rose Dark Reaping (Open)
Weapon
Jesseths Skullscythe
 Commander of the Risen Dead (Open)
Offhand
Jesseths Skullshield
 —
Kanai’s Cube Legendary Gems (VERY OPEN)
Messerschmidt’s Reaver / Shadowhook Bane of the Trapped
Fate’s Vow Bane of the Powerful (or Defensive)
Ring of Royal Grandeur (many options) Hoarder, Defensive…

The build is pretty rigid, but there are a few options here and there. If you want more defenses, there’s not much else you can sacrifice. Krysbins to Unity is your best bet. You can also ditch the Endless Waltz pair for other things if your making a farming setup.

Bone Armor and Reilennas Shadowhook are not strictly needed, but they’re the easiest to slot in, and give good effects without the need of other support items or skills.

The above is the baseline template for a fully functional 6pc Rathma. It’s not heavily optimized for pushing GR, but more of a speedy farming slant. It’s a great place to be in, as you adjust the build to your needs!

Bridging to the End-game

So you skipped a whole chunk of the powering up phase with the free set. Now what? Like I always say, “Speedfarming first before pushing GR’s”. So, convert what you have NOW to be as speedfarmy as possible, first.

(( Not all links are updated for S23. But they’re still useful for reference))
((Speedfarming in particular, Rathma is FAST for some kinds of farming…))
((I Still recommend a Scythe-based build, but I will add options in S23+))

It’s highly likely you’ll transition into a PURE speedfarming build. If so, check out:
Necromancer Best Speedfarming Builds

Other Necromancer Guides:

Check out our D3 Guide Directory for other resources.

Well, Rathma was Reworked so it’s nice to get it as the free set! It farms well enough, so I can’t complain!

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39 COMMENTS

  1. Great guide! I appreciate the detailed steps for leveling up the Necromancer. The tips on gear and skills really helped me optimize my build. Can’t wait to try out the strategies in my next run!

  2. Hey, sorry if the question was already answered, but what do we use the Taeguk for?
    In every source I could find online it was said that the the gem doens’t work with blood syphon. Was it reworked?

  5. This was an awesome guide. I started as a beginner completely new to this game and in a month of casual playing I’ve acquired everything in the guide and am now paragon 500. My question is, I’m currently hitting a limit at GR 60 and I’m wondering if I should continue to improve my gem rank/start augmenting/obtain ancients OR if I should start going into other builds. If so, are there any recommendations or guides for hitting GR90 (somewhat comfortably).

  6. Hi, i wanna ask, on the guide it says to get % army fo the dead on shoulders/chests, but its actually impossible to get that affix right now, i double checked with d3planner

  7. Hi, I know the comment thread is pretty old, but I have a quick (and hopefully) easy question.

    I’ve used this guide from level 1 to 70 (w/ +60 paragon) and it worked beautifully!, Thanks very much!

    Throughout this page (Necromancer fresh level 70 guide), the Land of Dead runes listed actually belong to the Army of the Dead spell. Did I miss something, or is this page referring to an earlier patch?

    Thanks again for the awesome guide and I’m loving my 6-piece Rathma set.

  8. What would you recommend for off hand after getting the amulet if the main weapon is 1h Scythe of the Cycle? since there is no bone armor (cold rune).

  9. Thank you for this clear and very well laid out guide. Aside from the LoN/LoD confusion (which a quick google search resolved) I was able to start my journey towards building the masquerade set in a fun and enjoyable way.

  11. HI

    i am still farily new – but there doesnt seem to be a legacy of nightmare gem but that is a set right ?
    do I get that or do i get the lehacy of dreams gem ?

    • Oh boy… HC is a different animal… I hate that your main enemy is against the server. Basically I would add more defense than I would usually – and add the free death passive.

      The main advice? If your free death is down, play safe or GTFO.

      IDK, the topic of HC is a complex one…

  13. In the setting up portion you first say allres is useless so get armor but then a few paragraphs down you say the opposite. So which is it?

  14. It took me forever to find you guys have a DFans build for a gearless 70 necro. Please update this page with a secondary gearless guide like you have for the other classes for other people to have an easier time. Otherwise your guides have been pretty great so far, more fun builds than icy-veins.

  15. Thanks for work you do, thanks to your guides my wife and I have noth been able to get our season sets and have ideas on where to go next. Keep up the great work!

  16. Hi
    Thanks alot for the starter build, I used 2 guides before this one to get the pieces I needed, got them after a bit of struggle but this helped a great and awesome deal for starting Grifts. And ofc speedfarming, and not to mention the guides for the set dungeons, you guys are truly awesome!!! Thanks a bunch the Grace of Inasrius set was exactly like stated brainless. The demonhunter one was challenging but still got it thanks to the awesome guides and maps with routes provided!!!

  17. Thank you for the guide, it helped me, and not only to follow the prescribed steps, but to start figuring out some bits for myself. I’m a casual player, my non-seasonal paragon is only 123 or so.

    I have two questions.
    How high my thorns amount must be for starting out with 4-piece set, striving for 6? I have 12350 now, is that ok to start with and what’s an okay amount to have in the process?

    About trag’oul – I got myself a surprisingly nice pieces of free set, I mean, a lot with armor, which is good for trag’oul, one piece has death nova percent… but how should I reroll the secondaries on it? Should I eliminate all the resistances it has? Should I roll for sockets? Thorns? etc.

    Thanks again

    • try upping your thorns (at least while you’re completing the free set) to around 50k minimum. Get them for your secondary stats for now… Sockets for head (to put in yellow gem for more thorns) and weapon for that added armor.

      • I want to tell the story of how it was for me after all. Didn’t want to reroll for Thorns on my trag’oul pieces having a little experience on which stats will I use/need after the season.

        After all, starting from TI-II it wasn’t easy in terms of dmg. I haven’t got a lot of great legendaries to cube/use on char and materials to upgrade rares (and I have an issues with disconnects, so that is really not helping to do challenges). No Reilena’s, no Bloodtide, no Trag’oul’s fang – I had no dmg. I ended up not using much Thorns and not adjusting my build for them, but I had Heart of Iron which raised its number to ~21k I think, which is near to the number you have in the guide, and I couldn’t see how raising it can improve my speed with Golem I used for corpses tanking the mobs a lot. After all, relaying on thorns dmg takes more time (for mobs to hit you) I think, and time is luxury in GR.

        I had a lot of armor and previously cubed Aquila cuirass and Lornelle’s sunstone, which gave me the ability to survive anything pretty easy – as you’ve said in your guide, it was really a defense overkill. But I had no dmg = no speed for pushing GRs. Of course, there’s Spreading malediction + frailty, but it wasn’t enough and it’s useless against standalone bosses like rift guardians, which can just ruin GR run in the end because of the time you’ll need to wipe RG in the end. And I had to come up with something else.

        So when I found Thunderfury, it was at least something – I cubed it immediately which helped me with packs and speed. I had Lost Time in off-hand, and Devil’s tongue (leg wit no special effect on it but good stats), on which I rerolled AD% to socket and inserted highest emerald which gave me an additional 90-100k dmg which was a real save there.
        And after that I found Oculus ring – chance to create an area of power on monster kill which raises dmg by 73% while standing in it. I already had better jewelry, but thankfully I figured out that it works on follower too, so I gave it to Kormack. It was a final stroke to my improvised build 🙂 Imagine what was like playing it 🙂 I doubt that all that jumping would go well without blood rush.

        So thank you again, your guide inspired me to go for it and search for resolving seasonal goals with what I had in hands, almost literally 🙂 Got my 6 piece, wings and frame.

  18. Maybe a stupid question. But how would you recommend to geht rid of the corpses? In the full set build there is no corpse consuming skill.

  19. TeamBRG, TeamBRG… jus’ wanna shout out for an excellent guide.

    I jumped into the season waaaaay late and Rhykker pointed me towards your build guides. I used it along wit a couple others for reference, but once I hit 70 & started amassin’ the starter set, I found your guide the best of the bunch. And while I had crafted Reapers & cubed the RoRG I got, it was the closin’ remarks of the “Necro Fresh 70 Rathma 4 piece GR 20” section that spurred me on to some of the most fun I’ve had in DIII. Period. As Craig once posited, “…but peer pressure is a MF’er.”

    So, some 8 gameplay hours after dingin’ 70, seven (7) GRifts, countless deaths and a whole lotta learnin’ ’bout DIII & the class lata, my Necro has claimed the 6-pc Rathma’s.

    And how was the diligence to finish it “raw” rewarded? A legendary version of the chest dropped on the killin’ blow AND I got regular versions of the iconic Jesseth set along the way.

    Thanks for the guide… thanks for the motivation… but most of all thanks for the great fun I’m havin’ in DIII as a result.

    • Wow, thanks for the very kind words MrXzavy! Helpin’ people out is our goal, after all!

      On a side note “completing it raw” has been a point of pride for me and princess. It has been done for every class, and ever set, even when the community at large said it was impossible. Peer pressure is a MF’er indeed!

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