Disclaimer: This guide is the Season 26 Guide for the Trag'Oul Corpse Lance Build which is now completely outclassed. For up-to-date Trag'Oul guide, go to the Trag'Oul Death Nova Guide!
Introduction
Welcome to our guide for Trag'Oul's AvatarCorpse Lance, a unique set that allows the Necromancer to literally tear himself to pieces for short bursts of damage. Playing a build that goes from 0 to 100 in an instant is not for the feint of heart as you are constantly on the hunt for more Elites to snipe down when your next damage cycle is ready. Come learn how to play this Elite-sniping machine.
Cut-throat playstyle ✔ Crazy damage burst ✔ Easy to get starter gear ✔ Unique elite hunter playstyle ✔
❌ Very squishy ❌ No AoE damage ❌ Zero damage in downtime ❌ Heavy cooldown dependency
Trag'Oul's Avatargrants us every rune on our Blood Rush as well as a 3800% damage buff to our life-spending skills. We also get 100% healing from these skills and our healing can double our maximum life.
Jesseth Armsgives a 400% damage buff as long as our Skeletons are commanded to attack a target.
Captain Crimson's Trimmings is a great addition to this build since it provides a massive boost to Cooldown Reduction but also damage and toughness.
Ring of Royal Grandeur is mandatory to complete our Captain Crimson's Trimmings and Trag'Oul's Avatar sets.
The Johnstone makes our next 50 Corpse Lances do 200% more damage after our Land of the Dead ends.
Krysbin's Sentence for the 300% damage increase against enemies under a Hard Crowd Control effect.
Convention of Elements for 200% damage during our Physical cycle.
Reilena's Shadowhook gives 0.5% damage for every point of Maximum Essence we have for a massive damage increase.
Corpsewhisper Pauldrons increases our damage by 30% for each corpse we've consumed, stacking up to 20 times for a 600% separate damage multiplier.
Strongarm Bracers provide a 30% additive damage bonus if you manage to hit enemies with a knockback during your damage phases. This can be done with secondary rolls on the item itself as well as Weapon and Off-Hand slots.
Season 26 Echoing Nightmares
Echoing Nightmares are a new rewarding endgame activity set within the memories of fallen Nephalem. You must first acquire a Petrified Scream from a Greater Rift Guardian, and then cube it to enter. Once inside you'll be challenged with an endless wave of enemies until you are either overwhelmed or killed. Your goal here is to reach Wave 125 for the highest possible Whisper of Atonement with extra XP rewards added for going higher. Read our complete Season 26 Echoing Nightmare Guide for full information on how it works, and check out our brand new Echoing Nightmare Build Tier List and our META post for the best strategies!
This build is terrible for this game mode. Typically we utilize a Greater Rift pushing build with a few tweaks.
Changes
Stack as much Cooldown Reduction as possible so you can use Land of the Dead more often.
Gameplay
Reach Wave 100 and click Speed Pylon to boost your mobility and dodge Green Meteors.
When you are more than 40% overwhelmed click Channeling Pylon and Power Pylon.
When you are more than 60% overwhelmed click Conduit Pylon.
After all Pylons expire, run away from monsters and dodge everything to squeeze out an extra 3-5 tiers.
Use Land of the Dead Frozen Lands as much as possible and nuke everything around you with Corpse Lance. Activate Command Skeletons regularly to ensure you have the damage buff from Jesseth Arms. Try to make use of leftover corpses to clean up more before the cooldown comes back, rinse and repeat.
Global Stat Priorities
Corpse Lance Attack Speed Breakpoints
Our offensive priorities are: Cooldown Reduction > Attack Speed > Critical Hit Damage > Physical Damage > Critical Hit Chance along with as much Corpse Lance Damage as possible.
Corpse Lance has a very short base animation length of 12 FPA, which means its scaling with Attack Speed is extremely good. Hence we're going to take Attack Speed on our Weapon and both Rings combined with Focused Mind from our follower so that we can get to the 2.0 Attack Speed Breakpoint and maximize our fire rate for Corpse Lance.
Assembling the Build
1. Do the Challenge Rift for the materials to cubeLegendary Powers. You can complete this once a week for additional resources and we always update the guide for you!
2. Gather the full Trag'Oul's Avatar set. Each piece can be gambled from Kadala for Bloodshards. Do not salvage any duplicate pieces you find! Instead convert them to another part of the set with Recipe 4 in Kanai's Cube. If you have extra materials you can use Recipe 3 to craft the remaining pieces, but this is expensive and not recommended for new players.
To avoid Crowd Control effects during your DPS phases
Gems
Bane of the Trapped provides 60% increased damage and is one of the most prioritized offensive gems in the game.
Zei's Stone of Vengeance provides up to 80% increased damage when we are 50 yards away from enemies (which is about 1/2 a screen).
Gogok of Swiftness gives us as 15% Cooldown Reduction and Attack Speed to reach the 5 FPA Attack Speed Breakpoint for Corpse Lance.
Skills
Corpse Lance Blood Lance is our main source of damage and gains massive buffs from Trag'Oul's (6) Bonus, Simulacrum, Corpsewhisper Pauldrons and Reilena's Shadowhook.
Devour Cannibalize is mandatory when usingTrag'Oul's Avatar as it gives us damage mitigation from our skills which cost our health to cast. This skill also synergizes with Corpsewhisper Pauldrons for the 20 stack damage boost and Land of the Dead Frozen Lands.
Simulacrum Reservoir is used in conjunction with Reilena's Shadowhook to give us higher maximum essence for a significant damage buff.
Decrepify Borrowed Time gives Cooldown Reduction and allows us to utilize our Spreading Malediction.
Land of the Dead Frozen Lands lets us spam Corpse Lance while it's up. It also freezes enemies around you making them unable to attack and activating your Krysbin's Sentence. This skill has a very long cooldown but is the backbone of our build and we can do nothing without it.
Blood Rush will have all runes thanks to Trag'Oul's (2) Bonus. Potency increases armor by 100% for 2 seconds, Transfusion restores 2% of our maximum health for every enemy passed through, Molting leaves a corpse at our previous location after use, Hemostasis removes the health cost and Metabolism allows us to build up an additional charge of the skill.
Command Skeletons Dark Mending is used during solo pushes to get the bonus from our Jesseth Arms set.
Passives
Blood Is Power cuts our Land of the Dead Cooldown by a 20% flat amount (after Cooldown Reduction) after spending or losing the equivalent of 100% HP.
Final Service allows us to cheat death, which is very important on a build where timing is everything. Dying right when you activate Simulacrum or Land of the Dead can be very hard to recover from, so having this safety net is recommended.
Overwhelming Essence feeds us 40 more essence for our Reilena's Shadowhook, giving us a significant damage increase.
Stand Alone doubles our armor which we are in need of as an intelligence class.
Fueled by Death can be used for increased Movement Speed.
Paragon Points
Core
Offensive
Defensive
Utility
1. Movement Speed
1. Cooldown Reduction
1. Armor
1. Resource Cost Reduction
2. Maximum Essence
2. Attack Speed
2. Life %
2. Area Damage
3. Intelligence
3. Critical Hit Damage
3. All Resistance
3. Life per Hit
4. Vitality1
4. Critical Hit Chance
4. Life Regeneration
4. Pickup Radius
1 Aim for a decent HP pool (at least 800,000 in Solo Push) as Trag'oul's Avatar doubles that amount.
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.
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 it's much easier to keep followers alive 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.
Select Follower
T16 Enchantress
T16 Enchantress
For T16 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 T16 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 extra Elites, Death’s Breaths and In-geom procs.
Avarice Band: For the insane pickup radius.
Ring of Royal Grandeur: To complete our sets.
Gloves of Worship: For 10 Minute Shrine Buffs.
Sage’s Journey: For double Death’s Breaths.
Cain’s Destiny: For 25% more Greater Rift Keystones.
GR Pushing Enchantress
GR Pushing Enchantress
For Greater Rift Pushing we recommend this Enchantress setup for the Slow from Temporal Pulse, Cooldown Reduction from Prophetic Harmony, Damage Reduction and Armor from Powered Shield, and the Attack Speed from Focused Mind.
Stat Priorities: Since we have the immortality relic, we do not need to stack survivability on our Enchantress.
Intelligence> 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.
Unity: For 50% damage reduction if you're also wearing one.
Ice Climbers: To make your follower immune to Freeze and Immobilize effects.
Mempo of Twilight, Tal Rasha's Relentless Pursuit and Cain's Destiny: For more Attack Speed.
Gameplay
The most important thing to remember is that we can only do damage when we have our Land of the Dead going, and that this window lasts for 10 seconds at a time. So it's important to use it wisely in conjunction with your Convention of ElementsPhysical cycle and gather as many elites as possible before you unleash.
Hunt for elites and gather enemies around them.
Keep up Corpsewhisper Pauldrons and Gogok of Elements the best you can while dodging all incoming attacks. You spawn corpses with Blood Rush for this purpose.
Use Command Skeletons on a target to gain the damage buff from Jesseth Arms.
Between mid-Poison to mid-Cold cycle of Convention of Elements, cast Simulacrum and Land of the Dead.
Begin to spam Devour as fast as possible, kill a small target first to spawn an Oculus Ring then jump in and target Elites with your Corpse Lance skill.
Once your Land of the Dead is over go find as many elites as you can before the next cycle is ready!
Certain Elite packs can be troublesome for this build such Elites with Illusionist and Shielding or blue packs with 5 mobs. Generally try to skip packs like this and focus on the Elites that can be blasted away quickly!
If you keep up Gogok of Swiftness well and have perfect Cooldown Reduction rolls, you will be able to alternate damage rotations with either 2 and then 3 cycles of Convention of Elements.
Hardcore
This build is not hardcore friendly considering it literally uses it's own life to do damage. The stop and go, high-risk high-reward play style is not appealing either. One of the best ways to increase defenses for hardcore is to put more paragon points into vitality and to run the Final Service passive. Molten Wildebeest's Gizzard and Esoteric Alteration can also help to increase survivability.
Check out our dedicated Hardcore Survival Guide to learn more about how to succeed in this game mode!
Variants
Nephalem Rifts
GR Solo Push
Trag'Oul Mages Solo T16
Concept In T16 Nephalem Rifts, as Corpse Lance is overall not a friendly skill for speedfarming, we use Skeletal Mage Life Support with Razeth's Volition meanwhile Steuart's Greaves allow for crazy movement speed.
Gameplay Upon entering a Rift, cast Simulacrum and summon Skeletal Mages before you start to run. Use Land of the Dead as a backup plan whenever you have no Mages and are short on corpses to regenerate Essence with Devour and Life from Death + Reaper's Wraps.
Setups In groups, swap Reaper's Wraps with Nemesis Bracers and rotate out Squirt's Necklace for Avarice Band. Change Life from Death to Dark Reaping as we won't gain Essence anymore picking up Health Globes.
Trag'Oul Corpse Lance 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:
Keep up Corpsewhisper Pauldrons and Gogok of Elements with corpses spawned by Blood Rush.
Gather enemies and use Command Skeletons on a target.
Between mid-Poison to mid-Cold 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.
Spam Devour as much as possible during this time.
When Land of the Dead has expired, gather more elites until it's ready to be used again.
Setups To optimize the setup, you can get some Life per Hit rolls (especially on Bracers) to restore life during your nuke, allowing you to change the Devour rune from Cannibalize to Voracious. Combined with Captain Crimson's Trimmings you can get 50% damage reduction this way.
If you have too much trouble keeping your Squirt's Necklace active, you can also go with The Johnstone but timing your Convention of Elements rotation will become extremely important, as the amulet provides a damage bonus for a limited amount of attacks that will be used up quickly. Moreover you won't be able to deal any significant damage at the start of the run or after a death until you have cast Land of the Dead at least once and you also won't be able to keep up Corpsewhisper Pauldrons between your damage rotations. All in all this is just an emergency option.
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 in time.
Video Guide
Mechanics
Corpse Lance
As Corpse Lance has a base animation length of only 12 FPA, its scaling with Attack Speed goes through the roof, hence why Attack Speed is very important in this build.
The Breakpoint we're trying to reach is to be above 2.0 APS to attack every 5 frames, which is roughly a 17% damage increase. For groups we'll be able to reach the next Breakpoint at 2.4 APS for approximately 25% more damage.
Blood Is Power
As you spend life from your skills (e.g. Blood Lances casts) or take damage from enemies, you will stack up a hidden counter towards 100% life spent.
Each skill is counted separately. After you reach the threshold, a skill's cooldown will be cut by 20% flat of the total (after Cooldown Reduction).
This counter is reset when the skill has fully cooled down or when you die.
Spending life on skills doesn't scale with damage reduction, so you will still lose life in the invincible variation of the build.
Reilena's Shadowhook
Reilena's Shadowhook provides this build with a very significant damage increase based off our Maximum Essence. Make sure your Weapon and Off-Hand both have Maximum Essence as secondary rolls and that you're using Simulacrum Reservoir and Overwhelming Essence to get it even higher.
Summary
Focus on obtaining the Trag'Oul's Avatar 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.
Gather the core items shown in the beginning: Reilena's Shadowhook, Corpsewhisper Pauldrons, Convention of Elements, Krysbin's Sentence and The Johnstone.
Maximize Cooldown Reduction on your gear and get to the 2.0 Attack Speed Breakpoint for maximum Lancing.
Pick your Elite targets well and learn to fight around your Physical 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!