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Kanai's Cube

• 

  • Messerschmidt's Reaver

  

  Legendary Two-Handed Axe

  • 602 Damage Per Second
  • Primary Stats
  • • +9142 - 13371 Life after Each Kill
    • +946 - 1125 Strength
    • +946 - 1125 Dexterity
    • +946 - 1125 Intelligence
  • Secondary Stats
  • • Reduce the remaining cooldown of one of your skills by 1 second when you slay an enemy.
    • One of 7 Magic Properties (varies)

    • +(1439 - 1788) Physical Damage

    • +(1439 - 1788) Fire Damage

    • +(1439 - 1788) Lightning Damage

    • +(1439 - 1788) Cold Damage

    • +(1439 - 1788) Poison Damage

    • +(1439 - 1788) Arcane Damage

    • +(1439 - 1788) Holy Damage

  • + 3 Random Magic Properties
  Messerschmidt's Reaver
• 

  • Strongarm Bracers

  

  Legendary Bracers

  • 200 - 220 Armor
  • Primary Stats
  • • Critical Hit Chance Increased by 4.5 - 6%
    • +416 - 500 Vitality
    • +416 - 500 Strength
    • +416 - 500 Dexterity
    • +416 - 500 Intelligence
  • Secondary Stats
  • • Enemies hit by knockbacks suffer 20 - 30% increased damage for 6 seconds.
  • + 2 Random Magic Properties
  Strongarm Bracers
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  • Oculus Ring

  

  Legendary Ring

  • Primary Stats
  • • Sockets (1)
  • Secondary Stats
  • • Chance to create an area of focused power on killing a monster. Damage is increased by 70 - 85% while standing in the area.
  • + 4 Random Magic Properties
  Oculus Ring

Season 20 Update:

There's not really anything to update here for Season 20. I expect this build to remain the favorite. We'll see if the power increase for rat runs end up influencing the z build. If so, I will update accordingly. Happy hunting!

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Overview of Rat Runs:

Congratulations, you have decided to play Znec! This is a challenging, but fun and rewarding build used to provide support in “Rat Runs,” the most efficient method of Paragon farming. If you are new to Rat Runs, read on! I will give a brief overview of each group member’s role, with an emphasis on how you as the Znec make this whole thing work. If you are already familiar with Rat Runs, feel free to skip ahead.

Rat Runs consist of two DPS Necromancers (the “Rats,” sometimes called “LoD Mages”), a Zbarb, and you, the Znec. The “Z” stands for “Zero DPS” – you and the Zbarb are only there to enable your two DPS players to deal massive amounts of damage.

We’ll start with the DPS role. Your Rats are using the skill Skeletal Mage with the rune Singularity. This uses ALL their Essence to summon a very powerful mage. But we want a bunch of these powerful mages going at the same time, so we need a way to refill their Essence quickly. This is achieved by their use of Reaper’s Wraps, which restore up to 30% of their Essence every time a health globe is picked up in their vicinity. The DPS’s job is to stay alive, and spam mages as soon as their Essence is full.

So how do we get enough health globes to keep the DPS churning out mages? That’s where the Znec comes in. Znec aims to keep Land of the Dead active as close to 100% of the time as possible. When LotD is active, you will be able to cast your Devour skill nonstop (you will want to numlock/autocast Devour – more on that below). And thanks to your Life from Death passive, every Devour cast has a chance to spawn a health globe. So as you go through the rift, you are keeping LotD active, spamming Devour, and therefore spitting out tons of globes to refill the DPS’s Essence, which they then use to spam powerful mages.

But trying to pick up globes is a hassle and might get us all distracted and killed, right? Enter the Zbarb. The Zbarb’s main job is to pick up all those globes so you and the DPS are free to focus on your respective roles. The Zbarb is sometimes called a “PUR Barb” in reference to their pick-up radius – ideally they will be picking up all globes within 22 yards, providing constant Essence regeneration for the DPS. The Zbarb is also providing toughness buffs for the whole party. Can’t kill much if you’re dead ya know?

So to summarize: Znec makes globes, Zbarb picks up globes, Rats use those globes to pump out oodles of god mages. Simple enough right?

A note for new Znec players: You are the leader of the party and the guide through the map. Your job is to locate Elite packs and scout out Pylons and exits, but don’t forget that you are also a very important part of the group, and the rest of the party needs you nearby to freeze enemies and generate globes. It can be a tricky balance between scouting ahead and staying close enough to perform your role for the group, and it may take some practice. That’s perfectly fine! Just remember situational awareness is key, and make an effort to learn from each run.

Some additional tips are scattered through this guide, particularly in the Skills section.

Gear:

First item listed in each slot is my preferred item for that slot. Slots marked "adequate" are not necessarily inferior and are discussed in the alternative builds section below.

Roll max CDR and Attack Speed everywhere possible. You want to hit the 2.00 attacks per second breakpoint (see my Lancer RGK guide for a breakdown of the math for reaching this breakpoint) for fastest crit cap and more Obsidian ring procs. Otherwise look for defensive stats (Vitality, Life %, Armor, All Resist, Life Per Hit, etc). Strength and dexterity rolls are helpful because they boost armor, which provides extra survivability for a class based on Intelligence/All Resist. I recommend using rubies in chest and legs. Amethyst in weapon helps with recovery. Get rid of Area Damage on all gear and do not spend any paragon points in Area Damage. Unless you like lag.

Strongarms are generally cubed instead of Nemesis to ensure max legendary affix. Well-rolled Strongarms (30% affix) with Nems cubed is fine. Use Steuart's Greaves for speed or Illusory Boots for unhindered movement, whichever you and your group prefer.

Level Gogok of Swiftness as high as you can. Toxin and Iceblink only need to be level 25.

Remember that you aren't necessarily looking for shiny ancients. That ancient Crown with god stats but a 90% affix is much worse than a bad roll with a 100% affix. The "correct" stats are infinitely more important than high rolling on less important stats.

You shouldn't need to augment, but if you feel like it, augment Strength (rubies) for armor. You'll have plenty of Vitality from gear and paragon points. (Note that if you do end up augmenting Strength, you may want to use diamonds (All Resist) in your chest and legs. It may take some experimentation to figure out what works best for you. Keep in mind that stats have diminishing returns, and you want a good balance of Vitality, Armor, and All Resist. Also remember that just like with DPS, your "Toughness" number may not be a completely accurate representation of your actual survivability.)

Alternative gear builds:

At higher paragon when you do not need to rely on extra damage mitigation for survivability and paragon levels are harder to come by, you and your group may want to run a "shrine" build for extra experience. This build incorporates Ahavarion Spear of Lycander and Gloves of Worship. This build sometimes grants a 10 minute shrine effect when you kill a demon. The shrine effects only show up for their normal duration for the rest of your party, but since experience is shared between the party, the entire party will benefit from your 10 minutes of extra XP. You may also want to use Gem of Ease in your weapon, because presumably at this point you can sacrifice defense for XP.

If you struggle with survivability at low to medium paragon and want a tankier build, remember that older Znec builds will still work just fine. For maximum survivability, you may want to switch to Halcyon's amulet, Vigilante Belt, and Pestilence legs/gloves/shoulders with RoRG (dropping Briggs ring) for that extra 50% damage mitigation from the Pestilence 4 piece bonus. This build isn't as popular anymore because the Flavor of Time amulet and Crimson's set are both very desirable, but always remember - you're no good if you're dead. Always play what you are comfortable playing! If you do your job, your group shouldn't be nitpicking the gear you wear.

Note: Some builds suggest using Born's Command set for CDR and XP. It's ass. Don't do it.

Skills:

Numlock Devour (and Command Skeletons if you're using an older style build).

Do NOT numlock LotD. For maximum uptime and DPS support, you need to use LotD strategically instead of just spamming it on cooldown, especially in lower density maps where resetting LotD is more difficult. Cast LotD as it expires, and when possible cast it in a group of elites or immediately after popping a pylon (if using Halcyon's Amulet, it will proc your Strongarms bonus when you cast LotD, providing a nice boost for your DPS). Think ahead, and try to position yourself among some elites as your LotD expires/recasts.

Corpse Lance is used primarily for the Brittle Touch rune, which applies itself to the Corpse Lances fired by your Devour skill, giving your DPS a huge crit bonus. However, you may want to manually fire a few Corpse Lances at elites and the Rift Guardian. Again, the 2.01 attacks per second breakpoint is important here.

I use Death Nova > Blood Nova for two reasons - (1) it's easy to spam without carefully aiming, and (2) it helps proc your Blood is Power passive. Bone Spear > Crystallization is more difficult to play, but it is as good (if not better) than Death Nova if you have the patience and skill to use it.

(Last updated: 11/11/2019 - updated for Season 19)

Paragon Priorities

Note: Do NOT put ANY points into Area Damage! All that math slows down poor ol Diablo. And roll off AD on your gear. Make sure your Zbarb knows whats up too. Area Damage is only for DPS roles.