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Pestilence Corpse Lance Necromancer Guide

Last Updated: January 7th 2024

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Introduction

Pestilence Corpse Lance Solo Push
View all variants

Welcome to the Pestilence Master's Shroud Necromancer, a build that unleashes barrages of Corpse Lance at your enemies while you are able to nearly infinitely spam them due to the powerful combination of Land of the Dead and Devour.

This build primarily does well in speed content such as Nephalem Rifts and Speed Greater Rifts but relies on good timing and positioning as it's very squishy. Regardless, depending on the setup and content you're doing it's possible to through Corpse Lances in all directions permanently while freezing everything around you.

Combining this class set with other powerful sets such as Captain Crimson's Trimmings and Jesseth Arms will pump up your damage and other than that you just need to chase after Cooldown Reduction and Attack Speed so you'll be sending out as many Corpse Lances as possible!

Despite not being the strongest build in any game modes the Pestilence Master's Shroud has always been well received due to it's fast and chaotic playstyle in speed content - the famous Autolancer. While you might not be the strongest, you'll certainly have the coolest visuals.

If you're interested in becoming a high-flying, monster freezing, lance throwing machine - this is the guide for you. Let's dive in and see how to make the most of it.

Great for speedfarming ✔
Utilizes three unique sets ✔
Great nuke and animations ✔
Stacks up critical hit chance ✔

Falls off in higher greater rifts
Zero damage during downtime
❌ Needs a complete setup to work
Very dependent on cooldown reduction

Core Setup

Core Item Build

Items
This build uses three different sets to maximize your damage with Corpse Lance and reduce your Cooldown on Land of the Dead as much as possible. To do this we'll pick up both pieces of Jesseth Arms, five pieces of the Pestilence Master's Shroud and two pieces of Captain Crimson's Trimmings while using Ring of Royal Grandeur to obtain the full set bonuses of each.

  • Pestilence Master's Shroud grants us 6,000% damage, 75% damage reduction and the ability to fire a Corpse Lance every time we consume a corpse. Devour and Land of the Dead allow us to maximize this sets potential and really let the Lances fly.
  • Jesseth Arms gives a 400% damage buff when we have commanded our Command Skeletons on an enemy. This can also be swapped out for Trag'Oul's Corroded Fang and Lost Time while using a curse such as Frailty on the T16 build.
  • Captain Crimson's Trimmings is a great addition to this build since it provides a massive boost to damage, Cooldown Reduction and survivability.
  • Ring of Royal Grandeur is mandatory for this build as it allows us to wear Captain Crimson's Trimmings as well as Pestilence Master's Shroud without losing their full set bonuses.
  • Krysbin's Sentence for the 300% damage to enemies under a control impairing effect.
  • Reilena's Shadowhook 0.5% damage for every point of Maximum Essence we have, which synergizes with Simulacrum Reservoir.
  • Corpsewhisper Pauldrons lends a buff that increases our damage by 75% for each corpse we've consumed, stacking up to 20 times for a massive damage increase.

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! Hint: Make sure to get a Poison Damage Range on your Weapon so it can proc the shard automatically.
  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 others options.
    • Weapons: We want Cold Damage to boost our character's power the furthest. Avoid Damage %, Attack Speed and Critical Hit Chance as their stat ranges are too low compared to the others.
  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 > Attack Speed > Cold Skill Damage > Critical Hit Damage > Critical Hit Chance along with as much Corpse Lance damage as possible. Less Critical Hit Chance is needed for this build if you are using Corpse Lance Brittle Touch as this rune stacks Critical Hit Chance debuffs with every hit. If you're using Corpse Lance Ricochet variant you'll need to prioritize Critical Hit Chance again. We are going to take enough Attack Speed to reach the 1.72 break point for Corpse Lance for a large damage increase. We're aiming for 62.5% Cooldown Reduction to reach the 36 second breakpoint of Land of the Dead.

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
T16 Rifts

Concept
This is the famous "Autolancer" build used for T16 farming. For speed content we want to maximize our Cooldown so that we always have our Land of the Dead up and while the Pestilence Master's Shroud (2) Bonus takes care of most of the damage.

Gameplay
The gameplay is easiest in T16 because our Land of the Dead should always be up. Spam Devour and Blood Rush as you fly forward and everything should die easily! To help with cooldown management, Numlock or otherwise spam Command Skeletons permanently and hover over enemies as much as possible while rushing through the rift to proc Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac. On elites and the boss, you can also cast Corpse Lance manually to help with DPS.

Setups
In groups, drop Warzechian Armguards and Stone of Jordan for Nemesis Bracers and Avarice Band.

Speed GRs

Concept
This is the famous "Autolancer" build used for Speed Greater Rifts. For speed content we want to maximize our Cooldown so that we always have our Land of the Dead up and the Pestilence Master's Shroud (2) Bonus will take care of most of the damage.

Gameplay
The gameplay is easy here because our Land of the Dead should always be up. Spam Devour and Blood Rush as you fly forward and everything should die easily! To help with cooldown management and keeping the Jesseth Arms buff up, Numlock or otherwise spam Command Skeletons permanently and hover over enemies as much as possible while rushing through the rift to proc Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac. On elites and the boss, you can also cast Corpse Lance manually to help with DPS.

Setups
For a slightly weaker but more laid back approach, you can play the same build without Jesseth Arms and the need to spam Command Skeletons all the time by equipping Reilena's Shadowhook, dropping Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac for Haunted Visions and replacing the Skeletons with Simulacrum Reservoir.

To go even faster at the cost of a lot of damage, you can drop Jesseth Arms for In-Geom and Lost Time. This guarantees essentially no downtime whatsoever and give you even more mobility.

Solo Push

Concept
Pushing solo you are an Elite hunting machine with this build. Short periods of massive single target damage allow you to melt the enemies you target. The main idea is to gather several Elites together between your Land of the Dead cooldown to maximize your effectiveness when it's ready to be used.

Gameplay
Solo pushing on this build can be quite challenging and requires excellent Cooldown management as well as the ability to weave between enemies during dire times without dying. The rotation is:

  1. Keep up Corpsewhisper Pauldrons and Gogok of Elements with corpses spawned by Blood Rush Molting.
  2. Gather enemies and use Command Skeletons on a target.
  3. Between mid-Physical to mid-Poison cycle of Convention of Elements, cast Simulacrum and Land of the Dead to be able to spam and Corpse Lance onto the target. Best case, spawn an Oculus Ring before.
  4. Spam Devour as much as possible during this time.
  5. When Land of the Dead has expired, gather more elites until it's ready to be used again.

Setups
It's possible to play a similar setup using Trag'Oul's Corroded Fang instead of Reilena's Shadowhook by replacing Simulacrum with Decrepify Borrowed Time. This allows you to stay alive more easily because enemies will be slowed, doesn't require Maximum Essence rolls on your items and you can replace Overwhelming Essence with Spreading Malediction. The damage potential is slightly reduced but your survivability goes up immensely and with enough targets cursed the additional Cooldown Reduction will allow you to reliably cast Land of the Dead every 2 Convention of Elements cycles. The big downside is that you will deal almost no damage to targets you didn't get to curse before your nuke.

Mechanics

Reilena's Shadowhook

Corpse Lance

Devour

Corpsewhisper Pauldrons

Summary

  • Focus on obtaining the Pestilence Master's Shroud set as well as the Jesseth Arms pieces first, then dive into some bounties so you can obtain your Ring of Royal Grandeur as well as getting the necessary materials to craft your Captain Crimson's Trimmings set.
  • Maximize Cooldown Reduction on your gear and get to the 2.0 Attack Speed break point for maximum Lancing.
  • Pick your elite targets well and learn to fight around your Cold cycle of Convention of Elements .
  • Stay mobile, gather large packs of enemies and utilize your Land of the Dead to do maximum damage when the time is right!

Town Is Lava!

Credits

Original guide by Raxxanterax
Rework & updates by wudijo

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