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Trag’Oul Corpse Explosion Necromancer Guide

Last Updated:January 8, 2024|Changelog

Disclaimer: This guide is the Season 26 Guide for the Trag'Oul Corpse Explosion Build which is now completely outclassed. For up-to-date Trag'Oul guide, go to the Trag'Oul Death Nova Guide!

Introduction

Trag'Oul 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. But it is only with Season 23 adding the Set leaderboards that the Trag'Oul Corpse Explosion setup really got a chance to shine. These days, this is the go-to build to push on the Trag'Oul leaderboard.

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!

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!

Flavourful ✔
Simple Rotation ✔
Crazy Burst Damage ✔
Homing Missile Spiders! ✔

❌ Very Squishy :(
❌ Rotation Playstyle
❌ Low Single Target Damage
Heavy Cooldown Dependency

Core Setup

Core Item Build

Items

  • Trag'Oul's Avatar grants us every rune on our Blood Rush as well as a 3,800% damage buff to our life-spending skills. We also get 100% healing from these skills and our healing can double our maximum life.
  • Grasps of Essence is our core item providing us with a 1,000% separate damage multiplier to Corpse Explosion.
  • The Johnstone makes our next 50 Corpse Explosions do 200% more damage after our Land of the Dead ends.
  • Jesseth Arms gives a 400% damage buff as long as our Skeletons are commanded to attack a target.
  • 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.
  • Trag'Oul's Corroded Fang provides us with a 200% separate damage multiplier to Cursed enemies and procs our Dayntee's Binding.



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!

Echoing Nightmare Setup
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This build is bad for this game mode. Typically we utilize a Greater Rift pushing build with a few tweaks.

Changes

  • Swap Bane of the Stricken for Gogok of Swiftness since we are fighting hordes of enemies.
  • Stack as much Cooldown Reduction as possible so you can use Land of the Dead more often.


Gameplay

  1. Reach Wave 100 and click Speed Pylon to boost your mobility and dodge Green Meteors.
  2. When you are more than 40% overwhelmed click Channeling Pylon and Power Pylon.
  3. When you are more than 60% overwhelmed click Conduit Pylon.
  4. 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 Explosion. 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

You want to stack damage stats wherever possible, especially Cooldown Reduction, Attack Speed, Critical Hit Chance and Damage, Physical Damage along with as much Area Damage and Corpse Explosion Damage as possible.

Our first priority is to aim for at least 53% Cooldown Reduction which allow 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 Physical cycle.

Attack Speed is very important in order to maximize The Johnstone stacks efficiency, by reaching an appropriate Corpse Explosion Breakpoint (see Mechanics). We focus on 2.08 Attack Speed to reach the 29 frames Breakpoint which allow us to cast up to 8 Corpse Explosions during our Convention of Elements Physical cycle. We get that Attack Speed from 7% Attack Speed on the Weapon, the guaranteed Krysbin's Sentence roll, Skeleton Archers and the Enchantress' Focused Mind.

Assembling the Build

Item Stat Priorities

Gems

Skills

Passives

Paragon Points

Follower

Gameplay

Hardcore

Variants

Nephalem Rifts
Solo Push
Trag'Oul Skeletal Mage Solo T16

Concept
In T16 Nephalem Rifts, as Corpse Explosion is overall not the most friendly skill for speedfarming, we use Skeletal Mage Life Support with Razeth's Volition and Steuart's Greaves for damage and 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.

If you want to play with Corpse Explosion regardless, there's also a setup included in the Planner which you can open by clicking on the embed.

Select Build Version

"Tanky" Aughild
Trag'Oul Corpse Explosion Solo Push Melee

Concept
This is the standard setup we covered in the sections above.

Gameplay
Solo is the most challenging version of this build as we have to pull everything, stay alive, and kill everything all on our own. Use the 48 second downtime on Land of the Dead to gather up gigantic groups of monsters to burn down and make sure you always have your Jesseth Arms bonus. Save your Land of the Dead for when you have a big pack together to get the most from your Area Damage.

Setups
For more survivability, swap Zei's Stone of Vengeance for Gogok of Swiftness. This way you can get 30% Dodge Chance while reaching the 36 seconds Cooldown Breakpoint on Land of the Dead.

Video Guide

Mechanics

In-Depth Corpse Explosion Explanation

Blood Is Power

Reilena's Shadowhook

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 Aughild's Authority set.
  • Pull and gather large groups of enemies when Land of the Dead is on cooldown.
  • When ready, use Land of the Dead to spam Corpse Explosion to flatten enemies!
  • Enjoy killing enemies with the corpses of their fallen comrades!

Credits

Written by Chewingnom.
Reviewed & Updated by wudijo.

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