Soulrift Necromancer Endgame Build Guide
The Soulrift Necromancer bursts onto the scene with one of the most interesting Unique item interactions in the game! The new The Unmaker helmet transforms Soulrift into an Essence generation and spending engine that output massive Critical Overpower damage, multiple times per second in a huge area. This makes the build great at Single Target and Density farming, since the damage isn't dependent on the number of targets... it just melts everything! To empower this engine further, you need to figure out how to spend and generate full globes of resource, every second. Luckily, we've done the math for you!
Bone Spirit just so happens to spend your entire resource pool everytime you cast it. So the first part of the puzzle is solved. But how do you generate an entire resource pool just as fast? Well that's simple, with Bone Spirit of course! With the Temper: Casting Macabre Skill Restores Resource, and Bone Spirit's natural modifier that says it generates 30% of your Maximum Essence over 4 seconds, merely spamming this skill does both things for you.
Then all you have to find is a way to make the build Overpower on every proc. Lucky for you, the new Runeword Voracious Extinction (Poc + Xan) can Snapshot the Overpower proc over the full length of Soulrift's duration. So whenever you proc The Unmaker, the damage Overpowers!
Requirements for this Build:
- The Unmaker Helmet
- Xan Rune
This build guide assumes you have a Level 60 Character and unlocked Torment 1. To get there, level up with one of our Necromancer Leveling Guides. See how this Build compares against others with our various Build Tier Lists.
Season Theme
Season 6 is the Season of Hatred Rising. It features the Zakarum Remnants faction which hunts Realmwalkers, massive behemoths that roam outdoor zones and beckon Mephisto's hellspawn. Participate in these zone events and take down the Realmwalkers to spawn a portal to a Seething Realm. There you can acquire Seething Opals, new consumables that stack with Elixirs for a XP buff and the chance to gather extra rewards when defeating enemies. The types of Opals are:
- Seething Opal of Equipment
- Seething Opal of Gold
- Seething Opal of Materials
- Seething Opal of Torment
- Seething Opal of Socketables
Use these Opals at all times to earn reputation with the Zakarum Remnants faction and unlock further rewards.
Skills & Gameplay
- Corpse Explosion does not directly contribute to your damage output, but activates multiple buffs for you. Cast this every 5 seconds for maximum benefits!
- Blood Mist is your source of Unstoppable, as well as an amazing survivability tool since it grants Immune for its duration.
- Corpse Tendrils Slows, Stuns, makes Blood Orbs and pulls every monster (except Bosses) into a single space so that all of your AoE damage becomes more effective.
- Soulrift grants Barrier, generates Essence, applies Vulnerable and grants a Damage buff over its duration. Cast this whenever it's available. While its active, you can proc The Unmaker, which is the actual damage effect of this build.
- Decrepify Slows, reduces incoming damage, Stuns and reduces your Cooldowns via Lucky Hit mechanics. Cursed Aura automatically spreads this AND Iron Maiden onto monsters within range.
- Sever is used as a mobility option with the Aspect Inexorable Reaper's. Blight on the Pit Pushing variant is used to add 20% damage multiplier to targets in its radius.
Skill Rotation
- Cast Soulrift to gain the benefits of its Barrier and Essence generation.
- Once the first Corpse is formed from killing a monster or from Hewed Flesh, immediately cast Corpse Tendrils to gain the Critical Strike Chance bonus of Grasping Veins needed to hit 100% Crit Chance.
- Begin spamming Bone Spirit into packs of monsters. You must always Critically Strike to reset its Cooldown, this means you need to hit a target with it as well. Don't spam if there's nothing to hit.
- Remember: The damage of Bone Spirit does not matter, it's just a resource management engine for the build to function.
- After casting Bone Spirit enough times, Xan procs and the next skill you cast automatically Overpowers. You need to line this up with Soulrift's cooldown, which resets quickly due to procs from Decrepify. This is automatically applied to enemies within range of Cursed Aura.
- Begin casting Decrepify to use up Essence, which Soulrift's replenishes. After it replenishes enough to proc The Unmaker's damage, the Overpower applies to the rest of your Soulrift's duration.
- When you proc this Overpower on Soulrift it snapshots (applies to the entire duration and any damage it deals) which allows every proc of The Unmaker to Critically Overpower.
- Reapply Corpse Tendrils whenever it comes off cooldown to maintain its Crit Chance bonus, and keep enemies grouped up.
- Recast Soulrift whenever it lines up with your Xan proc, even if has a lot of duration left. You get a feel for when you need to do this early, or can wait for later on in the cycle.
- Cast Corpse Explosion once every 5 seconds to maintain the buffs it grants.
- Use Sever + Inexorable Reaper's to move between packs and engage onto monsters quickly, to make the most out of your Soulrift duration.
- When in doubt Blood Mist out! Reposition and end the Mist early by clicking the Skill again, once you're ready to re-engage. A great tactic is to generate a Corpse during this time then immediately cast Corpse Tendrils on it for more safety.
Book of the Dead
The Soulrift Necromancer sacrifices Skeletal Warriors - Reapers for Shadow damage, Skeletal Mages - Bone for Overpower damage and Golems - Iron for Critical Strike damage.
- If you feel squishy, sacrifice Golems - Blood for Maximum Life and Skeletal Warriors - Defenders for Resistances. Remember to check you still reach 100% Critical Strike Chance.
Learn more details and how to unlock this system in our full Book of the Dead Guide.
Paragon & Glyphs
Carefully check your Paragon Boards to ensure correct board rotation. Glyphs go from a radius of 3 to 4 at level 15 and from 4 to 5 at level 46. Some of them cannot be activated before reaching these thresholds! Progress through The Pit to rank up your Glyphs.
Use the slider to see the progression steps. At around Paragon 200, leveling slows down significantly and all important Rare clusters, Legendary nodes and Glyph sockets should be unlocked. Afterwards, you can min/max your build with minor tweaks and by picking up additional smaller nodes.
Some Glyph position swaps, board changes and other pathing adjustments may occur as you unlock your full potential. The setup displayed by default is the final version of the build before spending additional points that do not significantly impact your character's power.
Glyph Leveling Priorities
To Level 15
- Control
- Sacrificial
- Essence
- Dominate
- Abyssal
To Level 46
- Control
- Sacrificial
- Essence
- Dominate
- Abyssal
There are a total of 328 Paragon Points. After reaching level 60, you gain up to 300 Paragon Levels, 24 from Renown and 4 from Altars of Lilith. Check out our dedicated in-depth guides to learn more about Paragon Boards and Glyphs.
Runes
You can have up to two Runewords in your setup, each consisting of one Ritual and one Invocation Rune. Socket them in Two-Handed Weapons if your build calls for them, otherwise place them into your Armor pieces to replace normal gems. The Soulrift Necromancer focuses on the following combos:
Best in Slot
- Yul + Xan = This is required for the build to function, since it activates the Overpower proc which you scale from multiple sources.
- Poc + Zec = Helps to reduce the Cooldown on Soulrift to make it easier to line up your procs.
Alternative choices
If you haven't unlocked the final setup or found the top runes, you can also benefit from these options:
- Yom can be used in place of Zec to help stagger bosses quickly and add a measure of extra control over the battlefield.
- Mot for damage reduction, and Qua for movement speed are all great options to fit your particular playstyle.
Learn more about Runes and how they work in our dedicated Runewords Overview and Runewords Tier List.
Mercenaries
Mercenaries are unlocked during the Vessel of Hatred campaign and assist you in battle. There are 4 separate Mercenaries to choose from, each with their own skill trees. You can have one Hired Mercenary that accompanies you into battle, and one Reinforcement Mercenary that triggers a selected Skill from their Tree based on your Skill use or other conditional event:
Hired: Raheir
Raheir offers a ton of survivability from Valiance, and Bastion, as well as CC'ing enemies nearly continuously. They also increase your damage through Inspiration.
Reinforcement: Varyana
Varyana adds another layer of CC on demand for the build, which helps with staggering Bosses via Earth Breaker.
Learn more about Mercenaries and how they work in our dedicated Mercenaries Overview.
Stat Priorities & Item Progression
To enable the Soulrift Necromancer to perform optimally, hunt for these stats on your gear with good rolls and aim to Temper ⚒️ & Masterwork Crit ↑ them accordingly. Keep in mind that certain stats, such as Armor, Resistances, Extra Size Tempers, Attack Speed and more, have caps that may affect your priorities according to the items and Paragon points available at that moment.
Recommended Endgame Stat Thresholds
- 100% Chance for Soulrift to Deal Double Damage
- 100% Critically Strike Chance
- On gear and with Grasping Veins procced.
- 76% Attack Speed (106% on Pit Pushing Variant)
- Armor Capped 1,000
- Resistance Capped 85%
- >7,000 Life
- >60% Soulrift Duration
- >19% Cooldown Reduction (In Stat Sheet)
- +3 Ranks to Rapid Ossification
- >80 Casting Macabre Skills Restores Resource
- Lucky Hit: 15% Chance to Restore 100% Primary Resource
Item Progression Goals
Before you dive into the Endgame with the Soulrift Necromancer, take a look at this overview of the items used in the build. See below for further details about the different progression steps and variants. Some of your Skill Tree choices depend on what Legendary Aspects and Unique items are available to you. Keep in mind that while we can guarantee that everyone has access to the same Codex of Power Aspects, the exact progression is different for everyone.
Learn more details and how to farm Legendary Aspects and Uniques in our General Farming Guide.
Build Variants
This section is designed to guide your Soulrift Necromancer from a fresh level 60 into the very late endgame using the three variants Starter, Ancestral and Mythic. At the final step, you should be fully decked out with a great all-rounder build. From there, follow the other min/max variants if you want to optimize around certain activities such as Pit Pushing, Speedfarming and more.
Begin here if you just made it into Torment 1 or are coming from our Leveling Guide! Since only some Aspects can be guaranteed from Dungeon unlocks for the Codex of Power, focus on acquiring the additional aspects via gambling with Murmuring Obols.
Gear & Skills
- Early on in your progression, focus on Armor & Resistances to survive. Each Torment difficulty adds a penalty of -250 Armor and -25% all Res and it's recommended to keep both capped (1000 Armor, 70+ Res) at all times. As you unlock higher power gear, masterworking levels and more Paragon points, you naturally scale your character into the higher difficulties and can start replacing some of these rolls with offensive or utility stats. Disobedience helps with this.
- If you find a strong 1-Handed Weapon (Sword, Scythe, Axe) with great stats on it, don't be afraid to use it until you find a good 1-Handed Mace. The implicit stat isn't as valuable as great affixes.
- If you do not have Cursed Aura yet, make sure to keep Decrepify applied to all enemies, whenever you engage a new pack or more monsters aggroe onto you. This requires you to drop Sever and Inexorable Reaper's. Place Slaughter on your boots, instead.
- Make sure to calculate your Critical Strike Chance and that you're reaching 100% consistently whenever you cast Bone Spirit. If you don't Crit, you're cooldown is seven seconds longer until you can cast it again.
- If you're confident that you can maintain 100% Crit Chance, swap Swelling Curse for Great Feast.
The goal here is to progress through the Torment difficulties as you unlock Ancestral Legendaries, Paragon points, Legendary Aspects, Temper mods and the most important Uniques to pilot this build. Some Legendary Aspects are used temporarily to fill slots that may be replaced with more Unique items later on.
Gear & Skills
- As you upgrade your gear to Ancestrals with more masterworking levels and reach higher paragon, you can focus more and more on replacing Armor & Resistance rolls with better stats, but ensure to stay capped at 1000 Armor and 70%+ Resistances for the difficulty you're currently in.
- At this point in your gear quality, you should be able to spam Bone Spirit. If you're often "stalling out" where your cooldowns are resetting, add Decrepify back to your Skillbar and spam it between casts to trigger Rapid Ossification.
- The Unique Aspect of Blood Moon Breeches is by far the most important stats on them. A perfect rolled Aspect is worth more than all four affixes rolling perfect.
This is the final version of the build's progression, including all regular Unique items, Mythic Uniques, Legendary Aspects, Temper mods and Masterworking, leaving you with a great all-rounder build for all content in the game. Additional variants use this as a baseline to optimize around certain activities.
Gear & Skills
- Tyrael's Might offers a ton of survivability that also simplifies the stats required to hit your Armor and Resistance caps. The added Movement Speed helps to approach the cap. The Damage Reduction helps to face tank the majority of things that could pose a threat to you in the game. An alternative that offers more damage but effectively no survivability is Shroud of False Death. Recheck that you still reach all of your caps.
The Speedfarming variant optimizes the build for easy activities like Helltides, Whispers, Nightmare Dungeons and lower Pit Tiers after you have finished the Mythic variant and reached a plateau in your progression.
Gear & Skills
- Replace Xal with Qua for more movement speed.
This setup optimizes the build to push the highest possible Tiers in The Pit after you have finished the Mythic variant and reached a plateau in your progression.
Gear & Skills
- When fighting monsters in high tiers of the Pit, remember that after crowd controlling elites for 5 seconds, they become Unstoppable for 8 seconds. This may be the right moment to start kiting them around because your DPS decreases significantly when you're dodging their attacks.
- This setup is HYPER optimized, meaning that every recommended Greater Affix and Masterwork Crit is tailored to hit the exact caps that are necessary. This allows you to swap more Masterwork Crits to + Ranks on Skills and other damage increases. While you may not see a difference at lower tier content, these changes make the differences between highest possible Pit Tier clears.
- Drop Sever for Blight to gain a 20% damage multiplier. This also makes room to add Cursed Aura to the boots to readd Accelerating to cast Bone Spirit at a higher Attack Speed breakpoint.
- Doombringer represents ~40% damage boost just from the addition of more Overpower damage, and adds tons of Maximum Life and Damage Reduction to tank the incoming damage.
- This setup also reaches 150 Maximum Resource with Elixir of Resourcefulness II to trigger The Unmaker two additional times per cast.
FAQ & Mechanics
Once a guide is released, many players have questions on why and how we are approaching certain choices. In this section you can find the answers to the questions that have been asked the most.
I Keep Running out of Essence!
How do I Reset my Cooldowns Faster?
Which adjustments should I make on Hardcore?
Mechanics
Lucky Hit Chance (LHC)
Attack Speed Caps
Stagger
Summary
The Soulrift Necromancer blends together incredible amounts of survivability, utility and raw damage output. By activating the The Unmaker at high rates, while simulataneously emptying and refilling your Essence globe with every cast, the damage procs from this Helmet apply impressive amounts of Critical Overpower DPS.
In Bocca al Lupo!
Credits
Written by MacroBioBoi