Introduction

Trag'Oul's Avatar Death Nova Solo Push
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Season 27 brought updates to the Death Nova Necromancer with buffs to Funerary Pick and Iron Rose. This patch also included a juicy boost for Trag'Oul's Avatar, all of which combines into a powerhouse for Greater Rift pushing. You can make very similar setups using Legacy of Dreams or Grace of Inarius which are almost equally strong but rank on different solo leaderboards.

All the power comes from having large pulls that scale your AoE damage through the roof. As a result, pushing high in solo typically requires a Rift Guardian that spawns adds consistently (e.g. Saxtris, Eskandiel) or using one or multiple saved Pylons with Nemesis Bracers to spawn extra targets that can fuel Bloodtide Blade. Even with the massive damage bonus of Funerary Pick fights against single targets bosses can take forever on the highest tiers.

While not being very consistent at pushing, it can be really fun to decimate huge pulls in just a few casts with this build. Especially when playing on higher tiers in a group where you don't have to worry about pulling or killing the boss, this build is the most effective. The main parts of the guide describe the solo pushing variant, adjustments for different game modes can be found below.

Easy to set up ✔
Simple DPS rotation ✔
Incredible AoE damage ✔
High toughness and recovery ✔

❌ Requires GR fishing
❌ Simulacrums can die
❌ Has to stand still a lot
❌ Struggles on single targets

Core Setup

Core Item Build

Items

Trag'Oul's Avatar quadruples our Life and adds 6,250% extra damage to Blood Skills. We also gain all runes for Blood Rush and Siphon Blood for more utility and survivability.
Bloodtide Blade adds 400% increased damage to Death Nova for each nearby enemy, up to 10 stacks.
Funerary Pick provides another steady 200% damage bonus after stacking it with Siphon Blood Power Shift as well as an extra bonus against 1-3 targets.
Iron Rose casts Blood Nova automatically while siphoning. These are replicated by Simulacrums, which can also proc Area Damage.
Haunted Visions makes our Simulacrums last forever.
Krysbin's Sentence gives us 100% against slowed or 300% extra damage against stunned (etc.) enemies.
Convention of Elements fits in well with the rotation-based gameplay of the build to provide another 200% extra damage during our nukes.
Dayntee's Binding adds 50% damage reduction while any nearby enemy is cursed.
Mantle of Channeling synergizes with our channeling-based playstyle.

Global Stat Priorities

Our offensive priorities are: Death Nova Damage > Critical Hit Damage > Physical Damage > Critical Hit Chance > Area Damage. As a channeling skill, Siphon Blood has specific breakpoints and we want to either have 1.53 APS (12 frames), 1.67 APS (11 frames) or 1.83 APS (10 frames) together with the Swift Harvesting.

All remaining stats go towards defense in the following order: Vitality > Armor > Life % > Elite Damage Reduction > All Resistance. Note that Vitality is better than a socketed Flawless Royal Amethyst on a Helm up to ~8000 total Vitality.

Assembling the Build

Item Stat Priorities

Gems

Skills

Passives

Paragon Points

Follower

Patch 2.7.0 revamped the follower system giving all 3 hirelings new powers and the emanate system. The first thing you should do is read our complete follower guide and remember the key takeaways:

The emanation system allows followers to share certain legendary and set powers with you. The most important ones are: The Flavor of Time, Nemesis Bracers, Avarice Band, Sage’s Journey and Cain’s Destiny. Click the guide above for the full list.
Follower’s powers are based on their main stat (maxed at 25,000, but they have a 2.5x multiplier so you only need 10,000). This means we stack Intelligence on the Enchantress, Dexterity on the Scoundrel and Strength on the Templar.
Guardian's Jeopardy (3) Bonus works for followers by improving their inherent stat multiplier from x2.5 to x3.5, making it slightly easier to hit the 25,000 main stat threshold if needed.
Followers share 20% of their Experience, Magic and Gold Find stats with you.
Legendary gems do not work on followers, except Esoteric Alteration and Mutilation Guard.
With Enforcer equipped on the player followers stay alive easily even without an immortality relic. The 90% damage reduction counts for them, too.
Cooldown Reduction does not work for any follower skill except the Templar’s Heal.
Followers never deal significant damage; you’re on your own to clear the content.

With these in mind, let’s get into our recommendation for this build.

Select Follower

Speed GR Enchantress

For speed Greater Rifts we recommend this Enchantress setup because she is the only follower that gives Cooldown Reduction, allowing you to spam your abilities more. Since this is speed content, she’ll stay alive with Esoteric Alteration and Mutilation Guard and use Hand of the Prophet to gain all skills. This will give us Cooldown Reduction, Elemental Damage, Reduced Damage from Ranged Attacks, Armor, Attack Speed, and a Cheat Death.
Stat Priorities:Since we do not have the immortality focus, we need to stack survivability on our Enchantress.
Intelligence > Vitality > Life % > Armor > All Resistance > Life Per Hit > Attack Speed.
Key Items:

The Flavor of Time: For double duration on Pylons.
Nemesis Bracers: For more progression from Elites.
Oculus Ring: For 85% increased damage.
Ice Climbers: To make your follower immune to Freeze and Immobilize effects.
Hellfire Ring, Leoric's Crown and Cain's Destiny: For more Experience and Attack Speed.

Gameplay

The overall idea is to make large pulls and blow them up with a few very strong Death Nova explosions through overlapping the effects of Area Damage, Krysbin's Sentence, Convention of Elements and all your other multipliers. The main mechanic to play around is Bloodtide Blade, which is responsible for the huge AoE potential and weak single target damage of the build.

Gather a full 300 stacks of Trag'Oul's Avatar (4) Bonus, then summon your Simulacrums. They are buffed by your increased maximum Life. Make sure you position them well before a nuke, their damage is more important than yours.
Cast Bone Armor once in a big pull to gain the damage reduction bonus (up to 30% from 10 stacks). Other than that, only use it during your nuke cycles (during Physical Convention of Elements (CoE)) to get your Krysbin's Sentence bonus for Death Nova.
Make sure to curse all enemies for synergy with Dayntee's Binding, Spreading Malediction. For a more strategic application, you can also delay the curse to more easily finish off elites when they're low.
Between your cycles, either run or kite enemies towards the next pull.
Stack up Funerary Pick with Siphon Blood before a nuke phase. Try to kill a very small enemy/low HP leftovers to spawn an Oculus Ring.
During your Physical CoE cycle, cast Bone Armor to refresh the duration and apply a stun for Krysbin's Sentence, then hold down Siphon Blood to release Death Novas. Prioritize elites to deal more damage to them. Repeat if there are still enough enemies around, else kite them further. It's fine to skip a cycle here and there to prepare a better pull.
Don't hesitate to skip large trash or elite enemies even when they have rather low hit points. Your ability to finish off single enemies is extremely weak.
In solo push: Towards the end of a run, try to save up 1-2 Pylons (no Conduits) on the map where you will spawn the Rift Guardian. Adding additional enemies to the fight using Nemesis Bracers after you have spent some time stacking Bane of the Stricken greatly reduces the time needed to kill it, especially on single target fights. Especially Horde or Illusionist packs are what you are looking for, as more enemies means more damage from your Bloodtide Blade.

Hardcore

Variants

Nephalem Rifts

GR Solo Speeds

GR Solo Push

GR Group Trash Killer

Nova T16

Concept
We have more than enough damage, so we include extra speed: Steuart's Greaves and Boon of the Hoarder. Wherever possible, stack up more Pickup Radius to increase the size of Aura of Frailty. We don't play around Convention of Elements and just attack whenever we find enemies.

Gameplay
Use Blood Rush to go fast and hunt big packs or elites as much as possible. Keep up Bone Armor and use all damage multipliers (Krysbin's Sentence, Convention of Elements, Funerary Pick) for your nukes. Rejoice as Briggs' Wrath pulls enemies (and their loot) to you!

Setups
To go even faster, you can drop Bone Armor and Spreading Malediction to pick up Devour Devouring Aura and Fueled by Death.

In groups, replace Ring of Royal Grandeur, Mantle of Channeling and Guardian's Jeopardy with Avarice Band, Trag'Oul's Heart, Goldwrap and Nemesis Bracers.

At higher Paragon (2500+), replace Guardian's Jeopardy with Aughild's Authority.

If you don't want to channel and keep up Funerary Pick, you can also run with Scythe of the Cycle to have a more consistent damage bonus. In that case replace Siphon Blood and Mantle of Channeling with Devour Devouring Aura and Krelm's Buff Belt.

Nova Solo Speeds

Concept
This is a speedier version designed for 2.5-3min runs. We include Steuart's Greaves to run faster and don't try to make large pulls but instead managing Siphon Blood becomes more important. Aim for a GR level where the boss dies in around one CoE rotation.

Gameplay
Keep up Bone Armor and use it on elites for extra damage from Krysbin's Sentence. If you are not just skipping long stretches, tap Siphon Blood regularly to keep up the buff from Funerary Pick. When you find a bigger pack or elites, target them to gain the extra damage bonus. On the boss, time Bone Armor to land during the Physical cycle.

Pay special attention to effects that produce large bursts of damage, such as dying Grotesques or Molten Explosions. These can easily kill your Simulacrums and leave you with a long cooldown before they come up again.

Setups
At higher Paragon (2000+), replace Guardian's Jeopardy with Aughild's Authority.

Nova Solo Push

Concept
This is the main variation described in the other parts of the guide. We play around Bloodtide Blade while getting all of our multipliers up for short, high DPS bursts.

Gameplay
At the start of the run, carefully gather 300 stacks of the Trag'Oul's Avatar (4) Bonus, then summon your Simulacrums to improve their survivability.

Make sure to create large pulls and don't waste your time on small pulls or leftover elites. Instead, try to kite them to another group of enemies. Keep up Bone Armor and use all damage multipliers (Krysbin's Sentence, Convention of Elements, Funerary Pick) for your nukes. Make sure your Simulacrums are positioned well inside the pull. Rinse and repeat. Before the boss, save a pylon or two (not Conduit) to spawn enemies during the Rift Guardian fight after stacking Bane of the Stricken for 1-3 minutes.

Pay special attention to effects that produce large bursts of damage, such as dying Grotesques or Molten Explosions. These can easily kill your Simulacrums and leave you with a long cooldown before they come up again.

Setups
For more damage potential, include Zei's Stone of Vengeance instead of Invigorating Gemstone.

At low Paragon (2500 and below), replace Aughild's Authority with Guardian's Jeopardy.

Nova Group TK

Concept
This variant is very similar to the solo version. The main difference is that we are tankier through party buffs and don't have to kill the boss. We include Bane of the Powerful for more damage.

A slightly stronger but more difficult version is available using Scythe of the Cycle instead of Funerary Pick. For that, switch the Siphon Blood rune to Drain Life and make sure to not channel it too much between your CoE rotations as each Nova reduces the remaining duration of Bone Armor, which has to be refreshed more often. This version is especially useful for more coordinated high-end pushes with a separate Rift Guardian Killer in the party.

Gameplay
At the start of the run, carefully gather 300 stacks of the Trag'Oul's Avatar (4) Bonus, then summon your Simulacrums to improve their survivability.

Coordinate with your team about where to make pulls and when to nuke. Keep up Bone Armor (be careful to not interfere with your Supports making a pull for you) and the Funerary Pick buff, then use all damage multipliers (Krysbin's Sentence, Convention of Elements, Funerary Pick) for your damage phases. Make sure your Simulacrums are positioned well inside the pull. Jump into Oculus Rings when you see them and target elites as much as possible for the bonus from Funerary Pick.

Pay special attention to effects that produce large bursts of damage, such as dying Grotesques or Molten Explosions. These can easily kill your Simulacrums and leave you with a long cooldown before they come up again.

Setups
Once you feel tanky enough, you can replace Dayntee's Binding with Witching Hour for more damage.

At low Paragon (2500 and below), replace Aughild's Authority with Guardian's Jeopardy.

You can swap your chosen curse between Frailty Early Grave, Decrepify Wither or Leech Osmosis depending on what your party needs.

Video Guide

Guide Video

Mechanics

Trag'Oul's Avatar

Iron Rose

Funerary Pick

Simulacrum

Summary

Gather the full Trag'Oul's Avatar set together with the core items.
Always keep up Bone Armor.
Make large pulls to benefit from Bloodtide Blade the most.
Move your Simulacrums into position before a nuke.
Prioritize high HP targets and elites with Siphon Blood for the bonus from Funerary Pick.
Save pylons to kill the Rift Guardian more easily with extra enemies in a solo push.

Good luck!

Credits

Guide and updates by wudijo
Reviewed by Northwar

SLOT	ITEM	STAT PRIORITY
Main-Hand	Funerary Pick Scythe of the Cycle Bloodtide Blade (Cubed)	1. Damage Range 2. Socket Ramaladni's Gift 3. Damage % 4. Area Damage 5. Attack Speed 6. Intelligence
Off-Hand	Iron Rose	1. Critical Hit Chance 2. Death Nova Damage 3. Area Damage 4. Intelligence
Helm	Trag'Oul's Guise Aughild's Spike (Crafted) Guardian's Gaze (Crafted)	1. Death Nova Damage 2. Critical Hit Chance 3. Intelligence 4. Vitality
Gloves	Trag'Oul's Claws	1. Critical Hit Chance 2. Critical Hit Damage 3. Attack Speed 4. Area Damage 5. Intelligence
Shoulders	Mantle of Channeling Aughild's Power (Crafted) Trag'Oul's Heart	1. Intelligence 2. Area Damage 3. Vitality 4. Life %
Chest	Trag'Oul's Scales Aughild's Rule (Crafted)	1. Intelligence 2. Sockets Flawless Royal Topaz 3. Vitality 4. Armor 5. Elite Damage Reduction
Pants	Trag'Oul's Hide	1. Intelligence 2. Sockets Flawless Royal Topaz 3. Vitality 4. Armor
Boots	Trag'Oul's Stalwart Greaves Steuart's Greaves	1. Death Nova Damage 2. Intelligence 3. Vitality 4. Armor
Ring 1	Krysbin's Sentence	1. Socket 2. Critical Hit Damage 3. Critical Hit Chance 4. Attack Speed
Ring 2	Convention of Elements Briggs' Wrath Ring of Royal Grandeur (A1 Boun t ies, Cubed)	1. Socket 2. Critical Hit Chance 3. Critical Hit Damage 4. Area Damage 5. Attack Speed
Bracers	Guardian's Aversion (Crafted) Aughild's Search (Crafted) Nemesis Bracers	1. Physical Damage 2. Critical Hit Chance 3. Intelligence 4. Vitality
Amulet	Haunted Visions	1. Socket 2. Physical Damage 3. Critical Hit Damage 4. Critical Hit Chance
Belt	Dayntee's Binding Guardian's Case (Crafted)	1. Intelligence 2. Armor 3. Vitality 4. Life %
Potion	Bottomless Potion of Kulle-Aid	To break walls from Elites

Core	Offensive	Defensive	Utility
1. Movement Speed	1. Attack Speed	1. Armor	1. Area Damage
2. Vitality¹	2. Critical Hit Damage	2. Life %	2. Life per Hit
3. Intelligence	3. Critical Hit Chance	3. All Resistance	3. Resource Cost Reduction
~~4. Maximum Essence~~	4. Cooldown Reduction	4. Life per Second	4. Pickup Radius

Trag’Oul Death Nova Necromancer Guide