Blood mage/ cold mage seems to be viable only for speed runs but not higher gr…would like a lod skele mage push build rather than poison scythe and CE as seen on lb…thx
https://us.diablo3.com/en/profile/LebronJames-11782/hero/122870169
He’s 90% playing my build and he just achieved 142GR. Cold Mage is stupid good, my man.
Unfortunately there’s just not enough items for necromancer that can scale Mages as much as Grim Scythe and Corpse Explosion.
Corpselance can be used to push, but the play-style is pretty boring and still not as powerful as the aforementioned skills.
If you don’t like these game-play styles for pushing, then you should play a different class and just use your necromancer for other content such as speed farming or bounties.
Cold mage is good. I did a 120 in NS around 6mins, without having full ancients. Best thing is the added toughness, DPS was always there. It’s been hard to get gear in season though for a mage build.
just checked in game LB, he achieved 142 on poison scythe build, not cold mage…
Any links to your build? Thx
Pretty much this.
https://www.icy-veins.com/d3/lod-singularity-necromancer-skills-and-runes
I use "extended servitude’ instead of “life from death” and “devouring aura” instead of “cannibalize”. Also used Zeis rather than BotT.
Thanks a lot! I’ll try it out.
Btw did you go with leoric’s crown for the higher CDR or Andariel’s for the cold damage%?
Andariels, because I don’t have a good Leoric. But used Hexing Pants instead of Swamp Land. Figured COLD % from Andariel would be enough. Didn’t use frostburns though as I needed to cube Leorics for CDR. But having frostburns would be better to proc Krysbins.
So you think it’s better to have higher cold% than CDR (for LotD)?
This build looks good with potential but I’m still a little confused on the rotations…as in which one goes first 
Also, Bludshed mentioned in his YouTube that cold archer hits very slow while physical blood mage hits almost x2 speed due to dual hands, and the highest clearance should be skele Contamination (poison) where it drops all the aoe around. So my question is, if I wanna try out physical and poison, should I just reuse all my current gears but physical/poison instead of cold? (and no frost burn in cube)
Add on: this build hits super hard but at the same time it’s also super squishy
No, you misunderstood me. I am using Andy’s because I don’t have a good Leoric’s to wear. Have it in cube instead of Frostburn. And using Hexing Pants instead of Swamp Lands.
Oh ok, thanks for the clarification. I’ll go with leoric’s and swamps then…
Which highest gr did you made with this build?
I really wish there was a really good LoD mage build this season. I was excited to have a non tissue paper necro only to see that poison scythe is the only solid solo pushing build.
I haven’t tried it myself but it just looks slow and dull; I personally love the feeling of summoning an army of mages and bursting down the whole screen lol
This is the build I’m running. I can clear 115 pretty easy with plenty of time left so I’m assuming if I cared to try I could get 120 with blood mages. I mostly just speed solo 105’s though.
https://us.diablo3.com/en/profile/Ham-1685/hero/90443422
I play GR with Grim Scythe. Max. GR 114.
I tried your build wit Skeletal Mages. I had to exchange 4 items so I have about 2k less intelligence. It is not bad about GR 100.
I’m more vulnerable with this build.
On higher difficulty, there is a problem with the final boss when it is not killed early, because corpses and therefore essences are missing. Another problem is longer locations without monsters.
I had a problem in one location where the monsters were behind a bulletproof barrier and I couldn’t get through and there is no other offensive skill.
With “Skeletal mage - Life support” the mages live 2.5 seconds longer.
Why not use “Skeletal mage - Skeleton Archer”?
- Higher attack speed = more damage
- With an item “Lost time” i can run faster.
So i found a trick to not running out of essence for the boss at 115. If I consume my golems corpses while at full essence, I can cast all 10 mages at full 660 essence. That requiem armor keeps your essence super full. It melts the 115 GR boss with no stricken in about 10 seconds. So no need for land of the dead at all.
Reason I dont use archers, I like the way the blood mages look better. plus the instant targeting works better imo for speed over the projectiles the archers have.
Thank you. I misunderstood the “Requiem Cereplate” bonus armor. I thought that after 3 seconds only essences above the maximum are guaranteed. I didn’t know that the essence would replenish to the maximum during those 3 seconds. It’s clear to me now.