If you like the idea of having a small army of skeleton warriors and Golems under your command and using macabre magic, the Necromancer is the class of Diablo 4 which is right for you. This dark warrior wizard can in fact summon an army of undead to his command, use spells based on blood and bones and exploit enemy corpses to his advantage to create traps.
A fun class to play but one that requires some practice whether you decide to use skeleton reanimation or not. As for builds, Diablo 4 really offers you plenty of choice and the combinations are virtually endless. Below we will suggest those that, in our opinion, are among the Better builds for the Necromancer to tackle the campaign and level up without problems, as well as as a potential starting point for the infinite endgame proposed by the game.
As we also said in our guide to the best builds for the Enchanter, the Barbarian, the Druid and the Cutthroat, the advice still remains to try to create your setup by studying the skills available for your favorite class. After all, the respec in the initial stages is fairly low and experimenting with various builds, even failing, is part of the fun.
Build Bone Spear
- Basic skills: Bonebreaker (1/5) → Reinforced Bonebreaker → Acolyte Bonebreaker
- Primary skill: Bone Spear (5/5) → Reinforced Bone Spear → Supernatural Bone Spear
- Macabre skill first branch: Blood Mist (1/5)
- Macabre skill first branch: Corpse Blast (5/5) → Reinforced Corpse Blast → Infected Corpse Blast
- Macabre skill second branch: Corpse Tentacles (1/5) → Reinforced Corpse Tentacles → Plaguing Corpse Tentacles
- Ultra Skill: Bonestorm → Master Bonestorm → Supreme Bonestorm
- Passive key: Bone Essence
- Passive primary branch: Undead Energy (3/3) - Imperfect Balance (3/3) - Torn Flesh (3/3)
- Passive macabre branch 1: Dark Harvest (3/3) - Deadly Feeding (3/3)
- Passive curse branch: Death's Grip (3/3)
- Passive macabre branch 2: Sharp Bones (3/3) - Compound Fracture (3/3)
- Passive Ultra branch: Autonomy (3/3) - Memento Mori (3/3)
- Skeleton Warriors: Skirmishers - Your critical strike chance increases by 5%, but you can no longer summon Skeleton Warriors
- Skeletal Wizards: Cold - Deal 15% additional damage to vulnerable targets, but can no longer summon Skeleton Mages
- G: Iron - Deal 30% additional critical damage, but lose the ability to summon a Golem
- Recommended Codex of Power Aspects: Sacrificial Aspect (Eridu Ruins - Hawezar), Shadow Aspect (Champion's Agony - Dry Steppes), Shattered Aspect (Dry Steppes), Grasping Veins Aspect (Corrupted Cave - Kehjistan), Torment Aspect (Black Asylum - Shattered Peaks), Windbreaker Aspect (Shivta Ruins - Kehjistan).
- Weapons: Two-handed sword, as they have bonuses to critical damage
- Gem: Emeralds for weapons, Rubies for armor, Skulls for jewelry
This build for lone wolves does not take advantage of the strength of the skeletal army available to the Necromancer, which we will actually sacrifice to obtain some really good offensive bonuses to make up for their lack. Instead, we will rely on critical hits via the Bone Spear, a ranged attack that pierces enemies in its path, then splits into three smaller hits when it hits an obstacle, dealing massive damage overall. In the "Supernatural" variant, it also makes affected targets vulnerable.
Our basic ability is Bonecrusher, a quick attack that easily generates Essence, which will be needed for Bone Spear activations. Corpse Explosion guarantees good damage output and further Essence regeneration, especially using the passive Tortured Flesh, which increases the corpses generated, and Dark Harvest, which generates essence when these are consumed.
Thanks to Plaguing Corpse Tentacles it will be easy to manage the battlefield, given that they stun, slow down and make vulnerable the unfortunate people they trap, who we can then target with our Bone Spear.
Blood Mist is our main defensive ability to counter the most powerful attacks thanks to the short window of immunity it offers. The active skills kit is completed by the Ultra Bone Storm, an ability that deals decent damage but what interests us most are the bonuses to damage resistance and the critical chance that it grants for 10 seconds.
Build based on Shadow Plague
- Basic skills: Bonebreaker (1/5) - Reinforced Bonebreaker (you will not use it, they are "sacrificed" points to unlock the next branch)
- Primary skill: Blight (1/5) - Reinforced Blight - Supernatural Blight
- Macabre skill first branch: Corpse Explosion (4/5) - Reinforced Corpse Explosion - Infected Corpse Explosion
- Macabre skill first branch: Blood Mist (1/5) - Enhanced Blood Mist - Spectral Blood Mist
- Ultra Skill: Army of the Dead - Army of the Prized Dead - Army of the Supreme Dead
- Passive Key: Shadow Morbid
- Passive primary branch: Tormented Meat (1/3)
- Passive macabre branch 1: Domain of the Skeleton Warriors (3/3) - Dark Harvest (3/3) - Deadly Feed (3/3)
- Passive curse branch: Death's Embrace (3/3) - Domain of the Skeletal Mages (3/3)
- Passive macabre branch 2: Necrotic Carapace (3/3) - Reaper's Quest (3/3) - Darkness (3/3)
- Passive ultra branch: Golem Domain (3/3) - Charismatic Leader (3/3) - Infernal Commander (3/3) - Essence Binding (3/3) - Death Defense (3/3)
- Skeleton Warriors: Reaper - Reapers have a 15% chance to tear away the target's flesh, resulting in a corpse
- Skeletal Wizards: Shadow - Shadow mages fire an additional shadow bolt every 5 attacks
- G: Blood - Your Blood Golem absorbs 15% of the damage you would take
- Recommended Codex of Power Aspects: Blighted Aspect (Akkhan's Grip - Hawezar), Reanimation Aspect (Scosglen, countryside), Aspect of the Unyielding Commander (Shrine of the Faceless - Hawezar)
- Gem: Amethyst for weapons, Rubies for armor and Skulls for jewelry
Unlike the previous build, this one takes advantage of our deadly Necromancer minions and revolves around the Shadow Plague key passive, which inflicts the eponymous altered status on affected enemies, enhancing the overall damage of the character and his invoked allies.
Consequently, the kit is characterized by darkness abilities that constantly activate its effects, while at the same time guaranteeing protection to our Necromancer thanks to his army of undead that we will enhance with a series of passives. But let's go step by step.
The combat loop with this build involves using in the early stages of Morbo d'Ombra as long as you have Essence to cast it. Once finished, it will be your turn to activate Reanimate Skeleton and Infected Corpse Explosion to recover this resource and inflict lots of damage.
In all this, Blood Mist is our lifesaving ability, which we will use to avoid taking damage from the most powerful attacks and negative statuses by taking advantage of the 3-second invulnerability it offers. However, when the going gets tough and the strongest enemies take to the field, it's time to use the ultra Supreme Army of the Dead.
Since this is a darkness-based build, passives cannot be missing Reaper's Quest and Darkness which increase the movement speed of our Necromancer and the damage suffered by enemies. To increase our resistance we have the passive Necrotic Carapace, which constantly offers Fortification, while the rest of the bonuses we have chosen for this build are dedicated to our skeletal companions, both to increase their offensive power and their survival capabilities.
