Rathma Army of the Dead Necromancer Greater Rift Speed Farming Variation (2024)

The Rathma Army of the Dead Necromancer can deal reasonably well with GreaterRift Speed Farming, with strong and reliable crowd control at his disposal andmassive burst damage with some timing involved.We have solo speed GR rankingsand solo speed T16 rankings ifyou want 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 Blood Power ShiftCommand Skeletons Frenzy1Bone Armor Dislocation2Army of the Dead Death Valley3Blood Rush Potency4Revive Personal Army
Passive Skills
Rathma's ShieldFinal ServiceRigor MortisGrisly Tribute

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

Similarly to the base build, you should call upon your summons and maximizetheir numbers as soon as possible — all 7 Command Skeletons and the10 Revives — so you get the most out of your Rathma set bonus andchunk the massive Army of the Dead cooldown. With proper Cooldown Reductionoptimization, you should have two activations of Army of the Dead within asingle Convention of Elements rotation. One of them needs to be during thePhysical cycle in order to burst enemies down, while the other will be auxiliarydamage, mopping up stragglers and setting up Oculus Ring spawns.

You will maintain a considerable distance from the enemy — lettingthe minions tank and distract your enemies, and biding your time for a Bone Armor Dislocation activation when the Physical CoE cycle comesaround. Once you get a good hit on an densely packed monster pull, retreat tosafety with Blood Rush to maximize your Zei's Stone of Vengeancebonus, which is based on distance. With both bonuses taken care of, you canunleash the Army of the Dead Death Valley nuke and enjoy the devastation.

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

• Army of the Dead is still the centerpiece of the build, and youshould maintain its rune to the pulling effect of Death Valley for theexcellent battlefield manipulation.
• Command Skeletons stays in the build as one half of the summoned armynecessary for the Rathma set bonuses. The preferred rune continues to be Frenzy, for the hastened resets of Army of the Dead.
• Revive is also a mandatory inclusion in a Rathma build, and youshould run the helpful damage reduction aspect of Personal Army.
• Bone Armor stays in the build for its damage reduction aspect. Youshould also keep the Dislocation rune to have a reliable Krysbin's Sentence proc under your control with its active stuneffect.
• Blood Rush Potency remains in the build as a vital repositioning andmovement tool throughout the Greater Rift.
• Siphon Blood stays in the build for the massive damage scalingagainst affected targets provided by the Cubed Funerary Pick.
• Your passive lineup will be spread evenly between sources of utility( Rigor Mortis as a reliable source of crowd control, and Grisly Tribute for the pet-based life per hit bonuses) and defense(with the once-per-minute Rathma's Shield invulnerability procs, and Final Service for a cheat death failsafe).

The build remains firmly rooted in the combination ofthe Bones of Rathma set(5 pieces) and the craftable Cpt. Crimson set (2 pieces), their full set bonusesattained via a Ring of Royal Grandeur in the Cube. You will also maintainthe weapon and offhand combo from the main build —the Jesseth Arms set, Jesseth Skullscythe and Jesseth Skullshield. Generally, even thejewelry choices will remain the same — all out offensive powers with Squirt's Necklace, Krysbin's Sentence and Convention of Elements boosting your DPS.

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 Bane of the Trapped and Zei's Stone of Vengeance remainvaluable, independent damage multiplication gems for the setup. Your thirdlegendary gem slot should be altered to Esoteric Alteration for themassive, unconditional defensive bulwark it provides.

For more information about gems, please refer to our guide on gems.

The Funerary Pick, Fate's Vow and Ring of Royal Grandeurall remain cornerstone pieces of the build and are firmly fixed to your Cubesetup. Funerary Pick provides incomparable damage scaling againsttargets affected by Siphon Blood. Fate's Vow brings a massiveadditive damage increase (hence the incentive to exclude skill damage rolls ongear, as it falls in the same category) to Army of the Dead, plusgranting you the highest base damage rune, Unconventional Warfare, forfree. Ring of Royal Grandeur grants you the full bonuses of the Rathmaand Cpt. Crimson sets mixture.

The recommended follower for this build during GR speed farming is theEnchantress due to her increased attack speed bonuses (helpful forthe attack speed breakpoint-reliant methods of dealing damage in this build)via Focused Mind, as well as the cooldown reduction bonus from Prophetic Harmony and damage reduction from Powered Shield.

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.

Your recommended potion is Bottomless Potion of the Unfettered, whichrenders you immune to Crowd Control effects for a brief time after consuming it— valuable bonus to a build that lacks means to break away from CC outsideof straight up evasion via Blood Rush.