Blood Wave Necromancer

Overview

With the Hematolagnia upgrade, Blood Wave stops being a big cooldown and becomes your main attack. It costs Essence and has no cooldown. Kessime's Legacy then sends a wave from each side that meets at your feet and pulls the pack in. Corpse Tendrils and Bone Prison bunch enemies up, so every wave hits everything.

Once it's set up it plays almost like a one-button build, and it clears very quickly. The honest catch is that Kessime's Legacy is the key piece. Without those pants the build feels flat, so we'd farm them before anything else.

Strengths

• Fast clears with a very simple rotation
• Pulls packs together for you
• Good healing from Blood Orbs and Life Tap
• Golem and Skeleton Mages add steady damage in the background

Weaknesses

• Weak until Kessime's Legacy drops
• Essence can run out early on
• Packs gather on you, so where you stand matters

Gear for Endgame

• Helm: Leoric's Crown. Affixes: Cooldown Reduction (greater affix), Maximum Life, Intelligence, Armor. Sockets: Abyssal Splinter of Anguish, Abyssal Splinter of the Black Soulstone.
• Chest: Enigma. Affixes: Intelligence, Maximum Life (greater affix), Armor, Resistance to All Elements. Sockets: Ruby.
• Gloves: Aspect of Rathma's Chosen. Affixes: Critical Strike Chance (greater affix), Attack Speed, Ranks to Core Skills, Intelligence.
• Pants: Kessime's Legacy. Affixes: Intelligence, Maximum Life (greater affix), Armor, Resistance to All Elements. Sockets: Igni, Teb.
• Boots: Aspect of Transfusion. Affixes: Movement Speed (greater affix), Intelligence, Maximum Life, Armor.
• Amulet: Banished Lord's Talisman. Affixes: Critical Strike Damage Multiplier (greater affix), Ranks to Blood Skills, Intelligence, Cooldown Reduction. Sockets: Abyssal Splinter of Pain.
• Ring 1: Crushing Aspect. Affixes: Critical Strike Chance (greater affix), Critical Strike Damage Multiplier, Resource Cost Reduction, Maximum Life. Sockets: Abyssal Splinter of Sin.
• Ring 2: Aspect of Potent Blood. Affixes: Critical Strike Chance (greater affix), Critical Strike Damage Multiplier, Resource Cost Reduction, Maximum Life. Sockets: Diamond.
• Main hand: Insight. Affixes: Intelligence (greater affix), Critical Strike Damage Multiplier, Maximum Life, Weapon Damage. Sockets: Skull, Skull.

Paragon boards

1. Start - Blood-drinker
2. Bloodbath - Essence
3. Blood Begets Blood - Imbiber
4. Frailty - Exploit
5. Scent of Death - Amplify

How to play

Rotation

• Open with Corpse Tendrils to pull a pack together. With Get Over Here! it's cast on you, so you don't need a corpse.
• Drop Bone Prison to hold them. Life Imprisonment also raises your Essence Generation while you stand inside it.
• Cast Blood Wave over and over. With Kessime's Legacy every cast pulls the pack back in.
• Keep Decrepify on elites and bosses for faster cooldowns and healing.
• Use your Golem whenever it's ready to get Overpower, then spend it on your next Blood Wave.
• Your Skeleton Mages look after themselves. Just keep them alive.

Getting started

• Farm Kessime's Legacy early. In our view nothing else matters as much.
• Leoric's Crown, Enigma and Banished Lord's Talisman come next.
• Insight is a runeword item made from a common ancestral two-handed weapon. It's a strong weapon until something better drops.

Stats to look for

• On the weapon, look for Intelligence and Critical Strike Damage.
• On jewellery, look for Critical Strike Chance, Critical Strike Damage and Resource Cost Reduction.
• On armour, take Intelligence, Maximum Life and Armor. Pick up Essence regeneration where you can.

Paragon

• Start with Blood-drinker on the Starting Board, then go to Bloodbath for damage while you have Overpower.
• Blood Begets Blood rewards you for picking up Blood Orbs, and Frailty rewards keeping Decrepify on enemies.
• Finish on Scent of Death for damage reduction.

Talisman

• Use a Legendary Horadric Seal with +1 Charm Slot, all five pieces of Word of the Blood Binder, and Red Blessing.
• The set gets stronger with every rank you add to Blood skills, so look for Ranks to Blood Skills on your charms.

Season 15

• We bind the Splinter of Hatred for physical damage.
• Leoric's Crown counts as jewellery, so both of its sockets take splinters. We put Anguish and Black Soulstone in the crown for damage, Pain in the amulet for damage reduction and Sin in a ring for Life.
• Igni with Teb in Kessime's Legacy is the runeword we wouldn't play without. It wraps you in Iron Maiden and heals you when it ends. Enigma and Insight are runeword items already, so this build ends up with three.
• Hire Varyana, and bring Raheir to cast Bastion whenever you use Bone Prison.

War Plans

• In the Pit, start with Choron's Haste and Choron's Blessing for extra glyph upgrades, then work down to Choron's Soul. Heart of Stone is worth it here, because this build clears at a steady pace without dropping it.
• In Helltide, we like Hellmouth into Writhe and Rot and Bursting Brood for Lair Keys and Boss Trophies. Fall of the Fell doubles your Cinders.
• For Lair Bosses, Two by Two into Greater and Ultimate Nemesis is the best line for mythics in our view. Lair of Plenty adds a hoard chest to every kill, and Children of Zir lets Lord Zir's uniques drop in the Pit.
• In the Undercity, Jade Epiphany and Endless Swarm give the most experience. Add Finely Tuned for extra Tuning Prisms.
• In Nightmare Dungeons, Branching Pathways keeps your runs chaining and Waking Spoils adds a chest at the end.
• In the Infernal Hordes, Infernal Hoard and Forged in Flame bring gear and Obducite. Take Flawless Find instead if you need gems.
• In the Tree of Whispers, take Corrupted Roots first, then Wisdom of Whispers for experience and Resplendent Favor for Sparks.