Chains of Command Viodforge
Rallying Cry Necromancer Build

Updated for Patch 3.22

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It's a build that uses very specific Chains of Command Body Armour that grants you the unique Skill - Animate Guardian's Weapon. You can put a very powerful weapon on your Animated Guardian and then summon over 10 copies of it to fight for you. Voidforge seems like the best choice. It's a relatively powerful weapon for its price, the favorite of many Attack builds. It grants 700% of random Elemental Damage based on the Physical Damage of the Attacks. It encourages us to gain a lot of base Physical Damage for our Animated Weapons, so it can be then multiplied by seven. The most effective way to do so is with Rallying Cry and a weapon with a lot of Damage, wielded by the character. The Divergent Rallying Cry is specialized for such occasions. It grants up to 20% of the weapon's Damage as Added Physical Damage to Attacks. Here we can use The Winds of Fate for around 166 added Physical Damage (this buff is around 250% as effective on your Minions), so quite a lot when compared to Voidforge's 62 to 129. These weapons normally spawn when your Guardian Kills something, but by equipping it with Gravebind Gloves, he will take the credits for all the kills.

We're using more Unique items to enhance the build further - Ancient Skull for Critical Strikes, Triad Grip to Convert the original Physical Damage, Corpsewalker to spawn Corpses, and Leash of Oblation as Minion Crit builds on a Necromancer will benefit from all the Offerings. Investing into Critical Strikes seems like the best idea with Assassin's Mark and a few extra passives to improve Minions' Crit Chance. The downsides of the build, often discouraging players, are its suboptimal survivability and the tendency of the weapons to die too quickly. We can mitigate these problems with a few adjustments. Gathering Block Chance from Divergent Bone Offering combined with Ashes of the Stars will provide the character with a lot of it. You can go for the 75% cap with passives like Enigmatic Defence, Withering Barrier, and Rumi's Concoction Flask. Select the Enfeeble Curse instead of Punishment to lower incoming damage. The build may lack Armour so if that's the case, swap Haste for Determination and get Energised Armour Jewel. Your Minions are heavily fortified against Hit Damage with Fortress Covenant Jewel, Decay Ward Notable, and Feasing Fiends Notable for Leech which is important as they do take a lot of Chaos DoT from Ancient Skull. We also attempted to automate the build as much as possible. The only Skills to use are Cyclone, one Mark, and one Hex Curse (with proper items you won't even need to Cast the Enfeeble nor Elemental Weakness Hex Curses). Rallying Cry can be Cast instantly with Call to Arms so you don't need to stop Cycloning.

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1. Gameplay

Upon entering a new area use Writhing Jars to spawn the first Animated Weapons. If there is only one boss in the area, get at least three of these Flasks to get enough weapons. When moving around use Cyclone. It will trigger various Offerings for more Damage, Movement Speed, and Block Chance. For even more Damage use Rallying Cry - it's an extremely potent damage source. Your Curses are Assassin's Mark and Enfeeble (or Punishment). Elemental Weakness should be cast Automatically. Your Aniamte Guardian will grant the other Minions Feeding Frenzy and apply Exposure on enemies. For Auras, use Hatred, Generous Haste (or Determination), and Precision with Purity of Elements for Resistances. For a Guard Spell select Bone Armour.

2. Build's PROS & CONS

3. Leveling tips

The build requires a lot of Uniques and very specific Rare Items so the transition from a leveling build to this is abrupt. You need to already have your items ready before the ou switch. Remember to have your Animated Guardian Skill Gem at level 20. If it dies you lose the items. Follow our Witch Leveling Guide using Minions up to the character level 90. Pick anything you're familiar with - Raging Spirits, Skeletons, or Absolution. These don't require any expensive or specific items.
 

Bandits:

When dealing with the bandits, kill all of them for two extra Passive Skill Points.

4. Final Skill Tree, Ascendancy Points, and Pantheon

Final Skill Tree:

115 Points Final Skill Tree (doesn't include Unique nor Cluster Jewels)
123 Points Path of Building (PoB) link

Ascendancy points:

Preferably in that order:

1. Commander of Darkness
2. Mindless Aggression
3. Bone Armour
4. Mistress of Sacrifice

Pantheon:

Major God: Soul of Arakaali: 10% reduced Damage taken from Damage Over Time

Minor God: Soul of Ryslatha: Life Flasks gain 3 Charges every 3 seconds if you haven't used a Life Flask Recently; 60% increased Life Recovery from Flasks used when on Low Life

5. Final Gems links

[DPS] Animate Guardian's Weapon setup socketed in Chains of Command
	Minion Damage Support - Grants more Damage, but lowers Minion's Maximum Life.
	Multistrike Support - Allows Minions to attack more times a second, but reduces their damage a bit.
	Melee Physical Damage Support - Use for more Physical Damage, very important with Voidforge.
	Increased Critical Strikes Support - Increases Crit Chance for your Weapons.
	Elemental Damage With Attack Support - Grants more Elemental Damage with Attacks for your Minions.
	Increased Critical Damage Support - Increases Critical Strike Multiplier for the spawned Weapons.

[UTILITY] Cyclone Offering setup
	Cyclone - Cyclone is a Channeling Skill that allows you to move around. It slows you down so to combat it use the Divergent version.
	Cast While Channelling Support - Spells listed below will trigger in sequence every fraction of a second.
	Bone Offering - Use it for Attack and Spell Block Chance for you and your Minions. Divergent one grants more Block Chance.
	Flesh Offering - Use it for Attack and Cast Speed for you and your Minions, The Divergent one is excellent for even more Attack Speed.
	Spirit Offering - Grants a lot of Crit Chance and Crit Multiplier. Use the Divergent variant again - here it increases Crit Chance.
	Purifying Flame - It creates Consecrated Ground and the Divergent Quality also makes enemies take increased damage. If you don't have enough Mana, which may be an issue, use  Inspiration Support here instead.

[UTILITY] Curse and Rallying Cry and setup
	Rallying Cry - It adds Attack Damage sourced from your Weapon to your Minions. Up to 20% of it with around 250% increased Biff Effect. Use the Divergent one here.
	Assassin's Mark - Hits against an enemy with the Assassin's Mark are more likely to be Critical. Such an enemy also takes increased Damage from Critical Strikes.
	Enhance Support - Increases the Quality of linked Skills.
	Enfeeble - Enemy afflicted with Enfeeble deals less Damage. It can be cast automatically on-hit as Gloves' Corrupted Implicit. You can swap it for  Punishment if you prefer to deal more damage.

[UTILITY] Animate Guardian setup
	Animate Guardian - The Minion that should wield the Voidforge. Use a Divergent Version of the Skill Gem as it grants increased Maximum Life. Check our Animated Guardian guide to learn more, and see the next section of this guide to check which items to give him.
	Minion Life Support - Guardian has more Maximum Life. You can't let him die.
	Elemental Army Support - Your Guardian will apply Exposure on Hit. It's the best way to apply all three Exposures, but you can do it also with Starlight Chalice.
	Feeding Frenzy Support - AG will grant your other Minions Feeding Frenzy for 10% more Damage, 10% increased Movement Speed, and 10% increased  Attack, and Cast Speed.

[UTILITY] Auras and Convocation setup
	Haste - Haste increases Attack and Movement Speed for your Minions. It's an Aura that you can easily swap for  Determination if you prefer to do so. Just unlink it from Generosity Support if that's the case.
	Precision - Adds Accuracy Rating and increases Crit Chance, both are crucial for your Weapons.
	Generosity Support - Your Minions need these Auras more than you do. It increases their effect and makes your character unaffected by them.

[UTILITY] Purity of Elements
	Purity of Elements - Gives you the immunity to all Elemental Ailments and some Resistances. You can use the Anomalous one for more Resistances. It's good for your Minions too.

[UTILITY] Hatred sourced from Corrupted Anathema
	Hatred - Hatred adds Cold Damage sourced from Physical Damage, and grants more Cold Damage. You have no sockets left so pick up a Ring with one, or better yet, get it as a Corrupted Ring Implicit. It's not that important, it requires a lot of Reservation Efficiency from the Impossible Escape - leave it for the finishing touches.

[UTILITY] Elemental Weakness sourced from Corrupted Triad Grip or Hunter's Rare Ring
	Elemental Weakness - Lowers all Elemental Resistances as you deal all kinds of Elemental Damage. This Curse you can apply yourself via Gloves Corrupted Implicit or Hunter's Rare Ring Suffix.

6. Gear Setup

There are a lot of Uniques you can use, almost all of them you definitely should. We recommend wearing only one Rare Ring that should provide you with Resistances and Dexterity. Corrupt The Uniques that are Cheap - the Unique Helmet, Ring, and Gloves can get you some powerful effects. The remaining Chaos and Elemental Resistances with Dexterity should be gained from Jewels or the large Cluster Jewel. After that's settled, increase your Minions' Crit Chance, Attack Speed, or add Physical Damage to their Attacks. You should also take care of their defenses - you cannot allow your AG to die. Weapons will die often unless you invest in their Block Chance and Life Recovery/Life Leech. The AG setup is - Voidforge, Mask of the Stitched Demon, Doppelgänger Guise, Gravebing, and Legacy of Fury.

Our recommended items will:

1. Cap your resistances 
2. Give you enough DPS/Life to start mapping successfully

(Helmet) Ancient Skull - Makes your Minions less durable, but more Aggressive and damage-oriented. Your AG has to have a lot of Chaos Resistance or Life/ES Recovery to withstand the Whispers. For the Corrupted Implicit, seek the 90% Reservation cost for socketed Skills, and socket your Auras here.

Minions deal (15-20)% increased Damage (150-200)% increased Armour and Energy Shield Minions have (40-20)% reduced maximum Life Minions have (15-25)% increased Movement Speed Minions have 50% increased Critical Strike Chance per Maximum Power Charge you have Minions can hear the whispers for 5 seconds after they deal a Critical Strike

Helmet enchantments: 15% increased Rallying Cry Buff Effect

(Weapon) The Winds of Fate - It is the weapon we would recommend. It has high base Damage to improve your Rallying Cry and doesn't allow you to deal damage with Non-Critical Strikes.

+18% Chance to Block Attack Damage while wielding a Staff (700-800)% increased Physical Damage +100% to Global Critical Strike Multiplier 75% of Physical Damage converted to a random Element 25% of Physical Damage Converted to Chaos Damage Maximum Critical Strike Chance is 50% Non-Critical Strikes deal no Damage

(Weapon) Marohi Erqi - It has slightly higher damage, but you need five blue and one green socket here so it may be a bad choice after all.

45% increased Stun Duration on Enemies (500-600)% increased Physical Damage 25% reduced Attack Speed (40-50)% increased Stun Duration on Enemies -500 to Accuracy Rating

(Body Armour) Chains of Command - It has the built-in Skill which the build is based around. Your Guardian, wearing Gravebind Gloves, will summon Voidforges whenever an enemy dies (including worms from Writhing Jar). They will last for 20 seconds which is enough. The sockets don't have to be linked.

Trigger Level 20 Animate Guardian's Weapon when Animated Guardian Kills an Enemy 10% chance to Trigger Level 18 Animate Guardian's Weapon when Animated Weapon Kills an Enemy (150-190)% increased Armour and Energy Shield +(60-90) to maximum Life Animated Guardian deals 5% increased Damage per Animated Weapon Animated Minions' Melee Attacks deal Splash Damage to surrounding targets Animated Minions' Melee Attacks deal 50% less Damage to surrounding targets You cannot have non-Animated Minions

(Boots) Corpsewalker - We have no time nor sockets to cast Desecrate so Corpsewalker are pretty much a must-have. Corpses are used for Offerings and to gain Life from the Disciple of Kitava.

Triggers Level 20 Corpse Walk when Equipped (80-120)% increased Evasion and Energy Shield 25% increased Movement Speed For each nearby corpse, 1% increased Movement Speed For each nearby corpse, Regenerate 8 Life per second

(Gloves) Triad Grip - You can squeeze out more Damage from Voidforge if you Convert the base Physical Damage to anything else. The sockets here don't matter, just avoid the white ones. Corrupt if for Elemental Weakness on Hit.

(80-120)% increased Armour and Energy Shield Minions convert 25% of Physical Damage to Fire Damage per Red Socket Minions convert 25% of Physical Damage to Cold Damage per Green Socket Minions convert 25% of Physical Damage to Lightning Damage per Blue Socket Minions convert 25% of Physical Damage to Chaos Damage per White Socket Minions have (5-10)% chance to Freeze, Shock and Ignite

(Gloves) Rare Gloves - If you don't mind missing out on some extra damage and are more concerned with your Survivability, use regular Gloves with Maximum Life, missing Attributes, Chaos, and Elemental Resistances.

Min. requirements: +60 to Maximum Life +60% to Elemental Resistances Chaos Resistance Optional affixes: Attributes Minions deal increased Damage

(Belt) Leash of Oblation - Use this Belt to gain all the Offerings' buffs at the same time. Your Minions could use all of them, while the Bone Offering is great on the character due to the Mistress of Sacrifice.

+(25-40) to maximum Life +(15-20) to all Attributes +(50-70) to maximum Life You can have an Offering of each type Offering Skills have 50% reduced Duration

(Amulet) Ashes of the Stars - It's the best choice as you will greatly benefit from the extra Quality of some of your Skill Gems. The Reservation Efficiency is important as well.

+(10-16) to all Attributes (5-10)% increased Experience Gain of Gems (10-20)% increased Reservation Efficiency of Skills +1 to Level of all Skill Gems +(20-30)% to Quality of all Skill Gems

(Amulet) Uul-Netol's Vow - This one is also excellent due to the extra Socket for the Ruthless Support Gem, and potentially a lot of Resistances.

Has 1 Socket Socketed Support Gems can also Support Skills from Equipped Body Armour +(-30-30)% to Fire Resistance +(-30-30)% to Cold Resistance +(-30-30)% to Lightning Resistance +(-23-23)% to Chaos Resistance

Recommended Anointments: Charisma Replenishing Remedies Champion of the Cause Decay Ward

(Ring) Rare Ring - Use Bone Rings to enhance your Minions, Unset Rings to fit in an extra Skill like Flame Dash or Convocation, or a regular Ring with the Resistances that you need the most. If you use Rare Gloves, you can gain the Elemental Weakness Curse on Hit here.

Min. requirements: +60 Maximum Life +45% to Elemental Resistances Chaos Resistance Missing Attributes Optional affixes: Minions deal increased Damage Minions have increased Maximum Life, movement Speed, or Attacks Speed Curse Enemies with Elemental Weakness on Hit (Hunter's Suffix)

(Ring) Anathema - As we plan to apply three Curses, this Ring will be important. If you don't, use a regular Rare Ring.

+(15-25) to maximum Energy Shield +(30-40) to Intelligence (10-15)% increased Cast Speed (10-20)% chance to gain a Power Charge when you Cast a Curse Spell Your Curse Limit is equal to your maximum Power Charges

(Jewel) Rare Jewels - Use Ghastly Abyss Jewels with added Physical Damage to your Minions' Attacks. Add to that some Maximum Life for your own character and whatever's missing.

Recommended affixes: Attributes Maximum Life Resistances Minions deal # additional Physical Damage Minions have #% increased Attack Speed Minions have +#% to Chaos Resistance

(Jewel) Large Cluster Jewel - Feasting Fiends and Vicious Bite would be fine for both damage and survivability of your Minions. Later on, after you can spend more Skill Points here, get a Cluster with 12 passives, each of them with 35% increased Effect. Such Jewelry is expensive.

Recommended affixes: 1 Added Passive Skill is Feasting Fiends 1 Added Passive Skill is Vicious Bite Added Small Passive Skills also grant: Minions have 3% increased Attack and Cast Speed Attributes Resistances

(Jewel) Kitava's Teachings - Your Life Recovery is horrible as you can't Leech and you have low Regeneration. Use this Jewel to Recover 5% of Life and Mana every second. It only requires a corpse.

Adds Disciple of Kitava

(Jewel) Impossible Escape - Get the variant with Supreme Ego to acquire Charisma and Replenishing Remedies for Reservation Efficiency and more Life Flask Charges.

Passive in Radius of <Keystone> can be Allocated without being connected to your tree

(Jewel) Fortress Covenant - Increases the Damage and Block Chance of your Minions. You can socket it in the Cluster Jewel Socket.

Minions deal (35-45)% increased Damage Minions have +(10-12)% Chance to Block Attack Damage Minions have +(10-12)% Chance to Block Spell Damage Notable Passive Skills in Radius are Transformed to instead grant: Minions take 20% increased Damage

(Jewel) Energised Armour - You can put it near Endurance and Overcharge Notables to then allocate Sanctum of Thought and Faith and Steel Notables. It would increase your Armour, good with Determination. It shouldn't be needed.

(15-20)% increased Armour Increases and Reductions to Energy Shield in Radius are Transformed to apply to Armour at 200% of their value

(Jewel) Watcher's Eye - Chaos Resistance while you have Purity of Elements is the only mod worth going for on a Watcher's Eye.

(4-6)% increased maximum Energy Shield (4-6)% increased maximum Life (4-6)% increased maximum Mana <Two or Three random aura modifiers>

(Flask) The Writhing Jar - It spawns enemies that you or your AG can destroy to create the first few Animated Weapons. It's the most useful in boss arenas with no enemies around. You will need two or three of these.

Instant Recovery (75-65)% reduced Amount Recovered 2 Enemy Writhing Worms escape the Flask when used Writhing Worms are destroyed when Hit (20-10)% reduced Charges per use

(Flask) Starlight Chalice - Use only if you cannot afford to spare a Gem Socket for Elemental Army in your AG setup. Exposure is important.

+200 to Ward Restores Ward on use (20-30)% increased Charge Recovery Inflict Fire, Cold and Lightning Exposure on nearby Enemies when used (20-30)% increased Effect of Non-Damaging Ailments you inflict during Effect

(Flask) Rumi's Concoction - You may want to use this one to cap your Block Chance at 75%.

+1500 to Armour +(8-12)% Chance to Block Attack Damage during Effect +(4-6)% Chance to Block Spell Damage during Effect

(Flask) Progenesis - Progenesis grants Chaos Resistance that you're probably lacking, and enhances your durability by redirecting a portion of incoming Hit damage to be taken as DoT.

+35% to Chaos Resistance (20-10)% reduced Charges per use (-35-35)% increased Duration When Hit during effect, 25% of Life loss from Damage taken occurs over 4 seconds instead

Other suggested Flasks: Quicksilver Flask with increased Movement Speed Silver Flask with reduced Mana Cost of Skills

If you have any other build requests please leave that in the comments below. We are always open to suggestions and constructive feedback.

Pictures used in this article are the intellectual property of Grinding Gear Games.