S42 Proposal - Necromancer - Nihlathak - Skeletal Lord

General Discussion
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4K Poster

https://i.ibb.co/17R4svR/nihlathaks-orders.jpg

D3 Planner

https://d3.maxroll.gg/d3planner/915703715

Saw Sword 3D Model
https://battletalent.mod.io/saw-sword
https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/saw-bidenhander-sword-28cc1d2dd792490a8c372d97de82bdf3

Nihlathak’s Orders

Necromancer Set

  • Nihlathak’s Broken Bones (Bracers)
  • Nihlathak’s Rib Belt (Waist)
  • Nihlathak’s Saw Sword (2-Hand)
  • Nihlathak’s Twisted Spine (Finger)

2 pieces bonus: Command Skeletons no longer costs Essence and gains the effects of the Frenzy rune. Frailty gains the effects of all its runes and applies all 3 curses.

3 pieces bonus: The passive effect of Command Skeletons no longer raises skeletons and shapeshifts you into a Skeletal Warrior Lord.

4 pieces bonus: Bone Ringer stacks are always maximum and each stack increases the damage of Command Skeletons by 30%.

Explainer

Fantasy: Skull Knight (Berserk), embody a Skeletal Warrior
Best attributes: Area damage, attack speed, Command Skeletons damage Gameplay: Bone Armor for Inarius. Command Skeletons to attack and move to target
Nihlathak’s Orders: Command Skeletons gets the Shapeshift property. While shapeshifted into a Skeletal Warrior, Command Skeletons (passive, active, runes) and pets bonuses apply to the player. Examples: Tasker & Theo (50% attack speed), Enforcer (90% dmg reduction). Players bonuses are also applied (Attack speed, Bane of the Stricken, other skills available).

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Ah yes the poster is pretty sweet again.

3 Likes
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The 4pc is strong but it’s sometimes hard to require something outside the set just to get it to work. I know I’ve tried to build sets and I’ll go quite a while with such bad RNG that the item in question never seems to drop.

EDIT: I understand the bonus now. Aura of frailty would basically automatically apply all curses.

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Exactly !

It is expected to be a melee build.

Full-runed Fraily (so Aura of frailty) will apply all curses.

Curses

By equipping Decrepify and Leech in your action bar you can choose which runes of Decrepify and Leech will be applied when Frailty hits.

Leech / Cursed Ground seems the best choice for melee.

Decrepify / Dizzying curse (10% chance on hit to stun for 2 seconds) is interesting, as this build is expected to hit super fast (high attack speed with Frenzy, Tasker and Theo and 7% attack speed rolled on most of the pieces)

Set

The 2 pieces gives you :

  • Frenzy for your Skeletons :zap:
  • Your 3 curses applied to enemies within 15 yards when frailty is equipped :biohazard:

The 3 pieces is the transformer:

  • You raise 0 skeletal warrior :bone:
  • You literally become a skeletal warrior :skull:

The 4 pieces grants you:

  • Always Max Bone Ringer stacks against every enemy (no need to stack for 60 seconds) :100:
  • Command Skeletons Damage increase (60 Bone Ringer stacks x 30% = 1800% = x19) :boom:

… But you need to equip Bone Ringer to benefit from the 4 pieces set.

Thorns vs Weapon damage

While it is possible to deal passive Thorns using Aberrant Animator and Sanguinary Vambraces, It might be complicated considering the low proc chance of Sanguinary Vambraces and the slow attack speed of some Rift Guardians.

Weapon Damage is surely the way to go, along with Attack Speed to reach breakpoints, Critical Chance / Critical Damage as you hit fast, and Area damage to spread your damage to nearby enemies.

Move super fast

Finally, you are Skeletal Warrior.

When you Command yourself to attack a target, you behave exactly as a Skeletal Warrior would, which means you can jump to any visible target (roughly 60 yards away), traversing any obstacle !

It also means you can jump from one target to another until you find your prey (elites) !

The 2 pieces grants you free Command Skeletons (no Essence cost), so you get a super fast movement skill with unlimited usage !

… but you need enemies to target, otherwise it is useless.

5

Would be interesting since the last time I tried a melee build with Necromancer was Inarius. I was able to reach GR90 with minimal effort but after a point, the damage output was not sufficient due to nothing beyond the 6pc and gem scaling.

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There is indeed room for improvement for Inarius. :wink:

The advantage of being a Skeletal Warrior is you can benefit from the 90% damage reduction of the Enforcer Gem, which would increase a lot the survavibility of Inarius, especially when you are (often) out of Bone Armor stacks (Rift start, long corridors, enemies killed too fast, after death while reviving, …etc).

7

Can you command skeleton on yourself? That’d be hilarious… I order me to attack until the enemy is dead.

1 Like
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3 seconds

The freeze effect only lasts 3 seconds.
You would have to renew it in order to kill the Rift Guardian faster.

Freezing Grasp

The target of your command is frozen for 3 seconds.

https://diablo-archive.fandom.com/wiki/Command_Skeletons

30 seconds

It is said on Reddit that Command Skeletons lasts 30 seconds max:

The Command Skeleton will last 30 seconds (I am pretty sure) or until the target dies. Whichever comes first.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Diablo3Necromancers/comments/6os264/command_skeletons_frenzy_duration_question/

Unlimited ?

But Diablo Wiki says it is unlimited:

Command lasts until the target dies or another foe is designated

https://diablo.fandom.com/wiki/Command_Skeletons

I agree that a limit should exist anyway. :timer_clock:

That said if it exists nowadays as unlimited, that would be simply the status quo.

9

With its skeleton face, Inarius is the closest we have :frowning:

Keep with the ideas!

1 Like