Build Guide
Introduction
Here comes a different take on the Masquerade Bone Spear Necro for those of you who play on console and wish to fulfill the fantasy of a Necromancer that can deal great damage from range while his minions face all enemies in close combat. This build makes no claims of being the new push meta but works perfectly for GR 115+ runs and is guaranteed to offer a more relaxed, versatile and what you hopefully will find to be a fun play style thanks to its good balance between offensive and defensive capabilities, its endless essence pool and how minions are used for distance management and crowd control. Many players have also complained about Masquerade requiring the player to enter melee range in order to gain Bone Armor stacks or attack enemies with Cursed Scythe. With this build, you won't EVER have to enter melee range unless you want to as the staples Bone Armor and the Scythe of the Cycle have been replaced with Command Skeletons and the Jesseth Arms set which can safely be cast from a distance.
Gameplay
Set Devour and Skeletal Mage to your trigger buttons. Keep these buttons pressed for the entire rift. When you stumble upon enemies, command your skeletons to attack them and then fire a couple of spears in order to taunt enemies. When enough enemies are close to each other, cast Decrepify - Enfeeblement in order to proc Brigg's Wrath and pull enemies closer to each other (aka pixepull). You're now ready to spam your Bone Spear which will decimate all enemies (except Juggernauts) in no time.
Synergies
Simulacrum - Blood and Bone + Skeletal Mage - Gift of Death + Devour
Simulacrums imitate your secondary skills which, thanks to the Blood and Bone rune, leads to every cast of Skeletal Mage generating 3 corpses for you to Devour. This results in endless resource generation which allows spamming Bone Spear and Command Skeletons without ever having to pause.
NOTE: This synergy is only possible thanks to using the Jesseth Arms set instead of the Scythe of the Cycle, as constantly casting mages would have you lose all of your Bone Armor stacks in no time.
Devour - Voracious + Captain Crimson's Trimmings
50% damage reduction thanks to the Captain Crimson's set bonus offering you damage reduction equal to your resource cost reduction. Since you are constantly consuming corpses, Devour - Voracious offers you 50% permanent resource cost reduction which equals to 50% damage reduction (multiplied by the 20% offered by the Captain Crimson's set itself)
Endless resource generation + Aquila Cuirass
Aquila Cuirass offers you 50% damage reduction while above 90-95% resource. Thanks to the above synergies, you will NEVER find yourself below this level and therefore ALWAYS get the 50% damage reduction.
Command Skeletons + Zei's Stone of Vengeance + Serration
Using Command Skeletons and the Jesseth Arms Set instead of the staple Bone Armor with Scythe of the Cycle, allows us to always fight from a distance and always get the maximum damage bonus from our Zei's Stone of Vengeance and our passive skill, Serration.
Variations
I personally have three different variations I really enjoy playing, where the first could be divided into an A and B version:
1A. Use Decrepify - Enfeeblement to trigger Brigg's Wrath and pixelpull enemies. Gain endless resource generation by casting Skeletal Mages. Use the Ring of Royal Grandeur in order to fit in the Captain Crimson's set (this is the build listed above)
1B. Use Decrepify - Enfeeblement to trigger Brigg's Wrath and pixelpull enemies. Gain endless resource generation by casting Skeletal Mages. Replace the Captain Crimson's Set and Ring of Royal Grandeur with Dayntee's Binding and the Convention of Elements.
2. Stack Cooldown Reduction on your gear (minimum 60%). Replace Decrepify - Enfeeblement and Brigg's Wrath with Land of the Dead - Frozen Lands and the Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac. Spamming Skeletal Mages and Bone Spears (and Command Skeletons if you are a pianist) will proc the effect of the Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac like crazy and allow you to very easily maintain permanent uptime on Land of the Dead - Frozen Lands. Replace the passive Spreading Malediction with Fueled by Death for increased movement speed.
3. Stack Cooldown Reduction on your gear. Replace...
...Decrepify - Enfeeblement and Brigg's Wrath with Command Golem and the Obsidian ring of the Zociac.
...Bane of the Stricken with Enforcer.
...Spreading Malediction with Commander of the Risen Dead.
...Aquila Cuirass with Golemskin Breeches.
You will now be able to command your golem every 2-3 seconds and may choose to either use the Bone Tornado rune which can be used to both pull together and stun enemies, or the Ice Golem which is simpler to use but lacks the ability to pull enemies together.
Conclusion
I've been having lots of fun with this build and hope that you will as well. It is still very much under construction though so please feel free to leave a comment with your feedback or suggestions on how to further improve the build.
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