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LoD Corpse Explosion Necromancer Guide

Last Updated: January 10th 2024

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Introduction

LoD Corpse Explosion Solo Push
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When Necromancers got released in Season 11, they instantly became the top dog on the leaderboards using Corpse Lance with the Trag'Oul's Avatar Set, overshadowing pretty much every other skill the class had at its disposal. However, Necromancers have many skills with a strong identity, including the iconic Corpse Explosion!

When Season 21 introduced the new Masquerade of the Burning Carnival Set and buffed Grasps of Essence, players finally got a chance to play this skill at a competitive level. Due to Diablo III corpse mechanics (16 corpses limitation), this build revolves around Land of the Dead rotations to unleash devastating chain reactions on its opponents!

These days with the addition of Set leaderboards in Season 23, it is one of the best setup to compete with on the No Set leaderboards, sharing the crown with LoD Scythe.

In Season 24, this build became one of the top dog solo builds due to the Masquerade Bone Spear nerf and the exclusive Ethereals as well as the discovery of a Shi Mizu's Haori setup. During Season 25 & 30, the Soul Shard Remnant of Pain was perfectly synergizing with the build.

This build is an Area Damage (AD) build, since Corpse Explosion can proc it. This is further enhanced by The Johnstone in conjunction with other cooldown and rotation based damage multipliers, allowing for a disgusting damage burst under specific circumstances (see Mechanics). If you like powerful all-around builds, massive explosions and seeing monsters' HP instantly drop from 100 to 0, you're in the right place. Let's go through how it works and show those demons who's boss!

Flavorful ✔
Very Tanky ✔
Simple Rotation ✔
Crazy Burst Damage ✔

❌ Low Mobility
❌ Gearing Difficulty
❌ Low Single Target Damage
Heavy Cooldown Dependency

Core Setup

Core Item Build

Items

  • The Johnstone makes our next 50 Corpse Explosion casts do 200% increased damage after Land of the Dead expires.
  • Grasps of Essence is our core item providing us with 1,000% increased damage to Corpse Explosion.
  • Nayr's Black Death for up to 500% damage to Corpse Explosion when we use other Poison skills.
  • Trag'Oul's Corroded Fang for another 200% separate damage multiplier and to apply Curses for Dayntee's Binding.
  • Krysbin's Sentence grants us a 300% separate damage multiplier against enemies under Hard Crowd Controls like Freezes from Frozen Lands.
  • Convention of Elements for 200% damage during our Poison cycle.
  • Stone Gauntlets provide an outrageous amount of mitigation and their negative effect can be fully negated by Ice Climbers.
  • Aquila Cuirass and Unity for two sources of 50% damage reduction.

Season 30 Soul Shards

Soul Shards are powerful socketable items that initially dropped during Season 25 but they are returning for Season 30! There are 4 available for Weapons based on the Lesser Evils, with another 3 for Helmets based on the Prime Evils. They drop at Rank 0 and be upgraded three times with the brand new Hellforge Embers to unlock additional powers, or be used in the Kanai's Cube as Augments. Here's how they progress:

  • Rank 0: Soul Shards begin with a unique static Legendary Power. Creates a Rank 50 Augment.
  • Rank 1: Gives all powers from the normal gems. Creates a Rank 75 Augment.
  • Rank 2: Grants one additional powerful stat. Creates a Rank 100 Augment.
  • Rank 3: Unlocks 1 of 3 bonus Legendary Powers unique to that Soul Shard. Creates a Rank 125 Augment.

Warning: Leoric's Crown and Broken Crown do not work with Soul Shards!

Read our Soul Shards Guide written by Chewingnom for full details on how they work. What you should prioritize on them for Solo Pushing is the following:

  1. The Correct Soul Shard & Rank 3 Power
    The best shards for Solo Pushing are:
    • Helmets: We want to use Shard of Hatred for the massive 50% damage buff when surrounded by a lot of monsters. For the Rank 3 power, take the additional damage per stack for a tremendous 100% damage buff in density!
    • Weapons: We want to use Essence of Anguish for the Movement Speed and Cooldown Reduction. For the Rank 3 power take the 50% increased Poison Damage, which actually applies to all damage done! However at the top end Remnant of Pain is preferred for the 100% Critical Hit Chance to incapacitated enemies which synergizes perfectly with Frozen Lands but requires very specific gear. In that case, go for the additional Attack Speed to maximize your damage burst for the Rank 3 power!
  2. The Rank 2 Stat
    The stats that come from the second upgrade are not equal. Here's what we're looking for on them:
    • Helmets: We want either Main Stat for damage or Melee/Ranged Damage Reduction to survive. Avoid Armor and All Resistance as their stat ranges are far too low compared to the other options.
    • Weapons: We want Poison Damage to boost our character's power the furthest, although % Damage, Attack Speed and Critical Hit Chance are not too far behind.
  3. The Stat Ranges on the Rank 1 and 2 Powers
    This is just icing on the cake because the ranges will not make or break your build. Still, look for the Soul Shards with the best stat ranges, especially on the offensive stats.

For the other game modes, other Soul Shards can be used. Check the Variants below to see what's used there.

What about extra Soul Shards? Either salvage them for gems, or upgrade and use them in Kanai's Cube for Augments.

Global Stat Priorities

Our offensive priorities are: Cooldown Reduction > Poison Damage > Area Damage > Critical Hit Chance & Critical Hit Damage, along with as much Corpse Explosion Damage as possible. We get all the Attack Speed we need to get a decent Corpse Explosion FPA Breakpoint from the guaranteed Krysbin's Sentence roll and the Enchantress' Focused Mind.

We're aiming for at least 53% Cooldown Reduction which allows us in conjunction with Blood is Power to reach the 48 second Breakpoint on Land of the Dead. This way we can detonate every fourth Convention of Elements Poison cycle.

Crowd Control Reduction is an incredibly valuable secondary Affix to roll on both Rings, Amulet and Helmet as we are very sensitive to Hard Crowd Control effects and mitigating these will ease up our gameplay significantly. Make sure to get the Primary Affixes locked in before attempting to get CCR though.

Assembling the Build

Item Stat Priorities

Gems

Skills

Passives

Paragon Points

Altar of Rites

Follower

Gameplay

Hardcore

Variants

Nephalem Rifts
GR Solo Speeds
GR Solo Push
GR Group Trash Killer
Echoing Nightmare
LoD Corpse Explosion Solo T16

Concept
For speed content we're pumping up our Movement Speed with Steuart's Greaves, Warzechian Armguards, Blood Rush Metabolism and Fueled by Death. The combination of Goldwrap, Avarice Band and Boon of the Hoarder will make us invincible once we kill an enemy and pick up some gold.

Gameplay
Speed content is easy to play as we don't have to time anything with Convention of Elements. Use Blood Rush Metabolism to quickly teleport on Elite packs and huge packs of monsters, proccing Brigg's Wrath pixelpull. Activating Land of the Dead Frozen Lands will let you use Corpse Explosion infinitely, freeze the whole screen and activate our Krysbin's Sentence.

Setups
This setup gives up a lot of damage for more speed but it should work well with how powerful Corpse Explosion is. If you need more damage throw back on the Trag'Oul's Corroded Fang and things should be just fine. If you are running this in groups, cube Nemesis Bracers instead of Krelm's Buff Belt.

LoD Corpse Explosion Solo Speeds

Concept
For speed content we're pumping up our Movement Speed with Steuart's Greaves, Blood Rush Metabolism and Fueled by Death. We play around Land of the Dead complemented with Messerschmidt's Reaver for maximum uptime.

Gameplay
Speed content is easy to play as we kill plenty of monster to reset Land of the Dead. Use Blood Rush Metabolism to quickly teleport on Elite packs and huge packs of monsters, cast Land of the Dead to freeze them and get infinite Corpses then blow them up using Corpse Explosion.

Setups
This setup gives up a lot of damage for more speed and Cooldown Reduction but it should work decently with how powerful Corpse Explosion is. Due to Land of the Dead rotations, Final Embrace is the way to go for maximum area coverage.

Select Build Version

Standard Setup
LoD Corpse Explosion Solo Push

Concept
This is the standard setup we covered above. Bane of the Stricken is needed to kill the Rift Guardian and we take Ice Climbers to negate the slow from Stone Gauntlets. This setup aims for a 48 seconds rotation with at least 52-53% Cooldown Reduction. This can be achieved with perfect rolls on Shoulders, Weapon, Helmet, Gloves and Prophetic Harmony.

Gameplay
You have to use the 48 second downtime on Land of the Dead wisely to gather up gigantic groups of monsters to burn down. Cast each Poison skill once every 15 seconds for Nayr's Black Death and keep Bone Armor Dislocation stacks or use it to protect yourself with its stun.

Save your Land of the Dead for when you have a big pack together, then pop it to DPS. Try to spawn an Oculus Ring before your Poison rotation by casting Corpse Explosion no more than 4 times, then move into it if it appears in a good spot, else stay in the middle of the pack for maximize your Area Damage.

Setups
If you feel too squishy, don't hesitate to add more Vitality as most of your recovery comes from Leech. If you feel comfortable with your toughness, you can replace Ancient Parthan Defenders with Krelm's Buff Bracers to mitigate annoying Crowd Controls.

At higher Paragon (4,000+) you can drop Unity for either Stone of Jordan or Briggs' Wrath for more raw damage or to pixelpull enemies using Decrepify Borrowed Time. This requires to drop one Poison skill (Bone Spear) and reduces your single target damage, but you can replace some Cooldown Reduction with valuable Area Damage. Be aware that cursed enemies cannot be pulled by the ring, so you have to swing your Cursed Scythe carefully. The Templar can be useful to keep you alive with his Heal then.

LoD Corpse Explosion Trash Killer

Concept
In groups we can be far more offensive with our itemization because we have supports keeping us alive. We drop Ice Climbers and take Illusory Boots, this is possible because the zBarb will give us Ignore Pain which makes us immune to the slow from Stone Gauntlets.

Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac and Pain Enhancer allow us to easily focus on a 36 seconds rotation and greatly improve our damage burst as Attack Speed helps us to use all our The Johnstone stacks during our Convention of Elements Poison cycle. Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac main benefit is to let you stack more offensive stats like Area Damage in place of Cooldown Reduction.

Gameplay
Similar to the solo version, except we don't have to gather the monsters and staying alive is much easier due to our supporters. In a group always move into the zBarb's Ground Stomp Wrenching Smash and Oculus Rings near the pack for 85% increased damage. Make sure to activate all your Poison skills once before a damage rotation to gain the damage buff from Nayr's Black Death.

At the start of a run, pop Land of the Dead immediately to get your The Johnstone stacks, and be ready to hit it 36 seconds later on Poison Convention of Elements cycle. You also want to stop spamming Corpse Explosion 1 second before Land of the Dead ends so you don't waste any Macabre stacks from The Johnstone on the wrong element of Convention of Elements.

Setups
You can go for a hardcap CDR setup by cubing The Flavor of Time instead of Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac if you want to gamble for the right pylons. It is possible to drop a Poison skill in favor of Blood Rush for more mobility or a curse (Frailty Early Grave or Decrepify Borrowed Time) at the cost of some damage. If you can't trust your zBarb to give you consistent Ignore Pain, you can also change your boots to Ice Climbers to prevent the slow from Stone Gauntlets.

Echoing Nightmare Setup

Concept
For more information, check out our full Echoing Nightmare Guide and take a look at our Echoing Nightmare Build Tier List and our META post for the best builds and strategies! This build is decent for this game mode. Typically we utilize a Greater Rift pushing build with a few tweaks.

Changes

  • Use Final Embrace instead of Close Quarters. As a result, cube Reilena's Shadowhook, get Physical Damage and replace Stand Alone with Overwhelming Essence.
  • Reroll Area Damage to Cooldown Reduction as we do not need to make huge pulls.
  • Swap Bane of the Stricken for Gogok of Swiftness since we are fighting hordes of enemies.
  • Use Strongarm Bracers with Knockback on Hit to proc them. The buff procs even if monsters are immune.
  • Frozen Lands has no effect so use Shallow Graves instead.

Gameplay

  1. Click Speed Pylon instantly to boost your mobility and dodge Green Meteors.
  2. Around Wave 90, click Channeling Pylon and Power Pylon.
  3. After Wave 100, use Conduit Pylon.
  4. At Wave 122, stop attacking and run to the corner to let the timer run out.

Use Land of the Dead as much as possible and nuke everything around you with Corpse Explosion. Try to make use of the leftover corpses to clean up more while waiting for the cooldown to come back, rinse and repeat.

Video Guide

Video Guide

Mechanics

In-Depth Corpse Explosion Explanation

Nayr's Black Death

Blood Is Power

Summary

  • Put together the core items and level up the Legacy of Dreams gem.
  • Activate your Poison skills in order, stun with Bone Armor Dislocation on your Poison Convention of Elements cycle to activate Krysbin's Sentence and use Land of the Dead to cast Corpse Explosion to flatten enemies.
  • Gather large groups of enemies and use Area Damage to climb the Leaderboards.
  • Enjoy killing enemies with the corpses of their fallen comrades!

Town Is Lava!

Credits

Written by Raxxanterax with special help from Chewingnom.
Updated by wudijo & Chewingnom.

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