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Build Guide

John Lance - Ice Pestilence, Johnstone Necromancer

• One of the most performant, fastest and safest build with Pestilence
• Even a casual player can crush the highest Greater Rifts with this build
• Extreme damage, with just enough defense to deal it
• Lots of cooldown, but lots of fun !

Intro

A variation of top necromancer builds, trading The Traveler's Pledge amulet / Compass Rose ring for The Johnstone amulet / Unity ring, granting small damage just after LOD, and above all, consistent defense, moving or not. As dying implies time penalty in GRs, it is important to stay alive.

Requirements :

• Cooldown reduction
• Get 10% cooldown reduction on weapon
• Get 8% cooldown reduction on phylacterys, bracer, pauldron, left ring, right ring and, if possible, on the amulet
• Put a diamond in the head
• You should end up with more than 50% cooldown reduction

• Critical chance
• Less important than cooldown reduction
• You should aim for more than 40% Critical Chance
• Corpse Lance (Brittle Touch) will complete this base

How to play :

1. Auto-key [4] when entering a rift
2. Periodically, right-click (blood rush) to maintain Pestilence damage reduction
3. When seeing trash monsters
1. Tap key [3] to curse and slow them
2. Avoid/evade them and continue to advance, until you see elites
4. When seeing elites
1. Tap key [3] to curse and slow them
2. Tap key [1], then [2] to cast death on the screen
3. Spam left-click on elites to target them
5. Goto 2.

Explanation :

• The whole build is based on Land of the Dead
• Pestilence, Land of the Dead and Auto-devour synergize, creating approximately 20 lances per devour
• Pestilence adds 1650% damage to each lance
• Corpse Lance triggers Corpsewhisper Pauldrons, which adds 600% damage to each lance
• Simulacrum (Reservoir), Maximum Resource, Overwhelming Essence trigger full Reilena's Shadowhook, which adds 330% damage
• Land of the Dead triggers full Krysbin's Sentence, which adds 300% damage
• Land of the Dead, Corpse Lance trigger The Johnstone, which adds 200% damage (only 50 stacks, consumed after Land of the Dead)
• Trag'Oul's Corroded Fang adds 200% damage when targets are cursed
• Convention of Elements adds 200% damage when rotating on Ice
• Corpse Lance (Brittle Touch) improves Critical Chance, which adds xxx% damage (depends on your stats)
• Land of the Dead triggers Bane of the Trapped, which adds xx% damage (depends on Gem level)
• Corpse Lance triggers Zei's stone of Vengeance, which adds xx% damage to each distant attack (depends on Gem level and distance)
• Blood is power reduces up to 20% the cooldown of Land of the Dead
• Decrepify (Borrowed Time) reduces up to 20% the cooldown of Land of the Dead
• Decrepify triggers Dayntee's Binding, which reduces damage taken by 50%
• Dayntee's binding, Unity ensure damage reduction
• Bane of the Trapped, Decrepify ensure crowd control
• Land of the Dead, Devour (Satiated) ensure Maximum Life augmentation for approximately 7 minutes
• Molten Wildebeest's Gizzard ensures your Life regeneration
• Stand Alone adds 100% damage reduction
• Blood Rush (Molting), Auto-Devour trigger Corpse Lance, which ensures Pestilence 50% damage reduction
• Corpse Lance (Brittle Touch) triggers Lost Time, which ensures movement speed
• Nemesis bracers ensures Yellow Elite generation

Alternatives :

• Compass Rose, Traveler's pledge removes 300% damage, but adds 50% damage reduction while moving
• Overwhelming Desire removes 200% damage, but several hits of Corpse Lance might force monsters to take 30% more damage (Overwhelming Desire is the amulet version of Strongarm bracers)

General recommandations :

• Spam key [3] on all monsters, as soon as they appear on the screen. It is a life savier, and you have much more mana than you need to do it.
• Once elites are cursed, be sure to activate both keys [1] and [2] . If needed, spam [1], [2] during one second to ensure both spells are cast.
• If your spells are not ready, find uncursed monsters to curse them. Sometimes, try to go back (Decrepify has a duration of 30 seconds).
• Pestilence launch Corpse Lance on every ennemy, elite or not. Spam left-click on elites to target them with Corpse Lance. Dont maintain left-click, you must spam left-click in order to let Auto-Devour perform its job.
• When your are blocked by a locked door, perform quickly a right-click followed by a left-click on the door. It will Blood Rush, create a corpse, make it consumed by Auto-Devour, create a Corpse Lance and target the door. Repeat one more time, and the door will be destroyed. You might need practice to get the move. If you don't succeed and stay blocked, just wait for Land of the Dead and target the door.

Advanced recommandations :

• Before casting your spells (which have a non-negligeable cooldown constraint), try to drag multiple elites in your vision field. It might save you a round of Land of the Dead.
• Spam key [3] on all monsters, even if they are frozen by Land of the Dead. It might triggers Borrowed Time, thus cooldown your spells.
• If you life is too high, get hit by monsters. It might triggers Blood is power, thus cooldown your spells.

Credits & Inspiration :

• Top Necromancers were great source of inspiration.
• In that builds, damage reduction is not ensured for casual players. Plus, damage dealing can be impoved. Thus, the generic and all-rounder couple Compass Rose / The Traveler's Pledge is replaced by a more dedicated and performant couple, Unity / The Johnstone, which performs better in both defense and attack for the Pestilence Set.

Other builds of the author :

• https://www.diablofans.com/builds/99709-icenayrius-ice-poison-inarius-grim-scythe