Best Diablo 4 Necromancer build: Cast bones and explode corpses

These Necro setups will help you debuff enemies and blow up bodies.

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Diablo 4 Sorcerer build: Element-aryDiablo 4 Barbarian build: Stay buffedDiablo 4 Rogue build: Need for bleedDiablo 4 Druid build: Air and weres

The bestDiablo 4Necromancer buildis all about blowing up corpses. Sure, there are builds that may be more optimal in the endgame, but there’s nothing quite as fun as Corpse Explosion for Necromancer—it’s hard to beat the joy of turning your enemy’s bodies against their former comrades. The more you kill, the more corpses you create to then blow up or consume to summon fresh minions. Nice.

While Corpse Explosion isn’t quite strong enough on its own, once you enhance it with some key passives, and throw in abilities that help you apply vulnerable, increasing its damage, it can be a surprisingly strong ability, especially as it’s free, instant, and has no cooldown. This build will also help make your minions strong for extra survivability. That said, if you don’t particularly like Corpse Explosion, I’ve also included a very good Bone Spear build lower down the page.

Corpse Explosion Necromancer build

💀 You want excellent crowd control💀 You don’t want to generate essence through a basic skill💀 You appreciate the wet thunk of a detonating cadaver

TheCorpse Explosionbuild is a simple one: you make corpses and explode them, while also debuffing enemies withCorpse TendrilsandIron Golemslam to take more damage from said explosions. While all this is happening, a combo of your minions and passives lets you generate corpses, essence, and Fortify, while yourBone Stormultimate grants survivability in tough spots.

Skills

Here are the six skills you need to equip for this build:

You’ll also need to unlock a basic skill, so I recommendDecompose, which serves as a great way to create corpses and generate essence in the early game, before you unlock reapers, as well as essence and corpse generating passives.

Passives and Book of the Dead

The most important passives for this build areHewed Flesh,Grim Harvest,Fueled by Death, andNecrotic Carapace. The first gives any attack a chance at creating a corpse, the second gives you essence when you explode one, the third gives a damage bonus for exploding a corpse, and the last gives you Fortify whenever a corpse is created, which is great for early game survivability.

In terms of other passives,Skeletal Warrior Mastery,Skeletal Mage Mastery,Golem Mastery,Kalan’s Edict,Bonded in Essence,Inspiring Leader, andDeath’s Defenceare all about buffing your minions, whether in terms of health, healing, or attack speed. After all, your minions are vital for producing corpses, slamming enemies, and freezing foes in the case of your mages.

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Reaper Skeletal Warriorssecond node gives them a chance to create corpses when attacking,Cold Skeletal Magescan either produce essence or make frozen enemies vulnerable for more explosions, while yourIron Golem’s second node that makes slammed enemies vulnerable is vital.

Aspects

There are six aspects that I consider core to this build:

While I’d say those above are optimal, this build will benefit from any crowd control or stun related aspect, such asAspect of RetributionorExploiter’s Aspect. For example,Aspect of the Umbralgrants essence when you crowd control enemies, so works very well with Corpse Tendrils. I personally also loveAspect of Shared Misery; you hit a crowd controlled enemy, and there’s a chance for that debuff to spread. This works very well using Corpse Explosion on a group of enemies who have been crowd controlled by Corpse Tendrils, slammed by your golem, or chilled and frozen by your mages.

The two best aspects for this build come from Unique items, namely;Deathless Visagehelm, and theBlack Riverscythe. The first greatly enhances the power of your Bone Spears, while the second supercharges Corpse Explosion, letting it consume up to four extra corpses for more damage and radius, making it far more viable in the endgame.

💀Use Bone Spearto create a corpse or wait for your reapers to make one.

💀Activate Corpse Tendrilsto pull in a group of enemies, applying stun, slow, and vulnerable.

💀Use Corpse Explosionto kill the enemies, detonating their corpses in turn, and earning essence for each.

💀Your Iron Golem slamcan prolong the stun so you can keep exploding.

💀Hurl your Bone Spearswhen you’re at full essence to spend it.

💀Activate Bone Stormif you’re in a bad spot to give you time to raise new minions, or stun an elite pursuing you with Corpse Tendrils or Iron Golem slam.

Gems and Affix Priority

In terms of Paragon levels, I’d suggest strengthening your minions with theCult Leaderboard. TheControlGlyph is also a great addition to this build, giving you and your skeletal servants more damage against crowd controlled enemies.

Now for the nitty gritty; I’d recommend damage bonuses againstslowed,stunned,crowd controlled, andvulnerable enemies. The good thing about this build is that you’re applying so many different debuffs that no matter what you have it’s bound to give your damage a boost. I’d also suggest improved crit rate or damage forbone skills, and of course, extra ranks forcorpse skills, or specific skills like Bone Spear or Corpse Explosion are pretty valuable. It’s also good to get some extraevade chargeson the feet so you can escape dangerous situations.

In gem terms,EmeraldsorSapphiresboost crit damage against vulnerable or crowd controlled enemies, but otherwise I’d prioritise getting decent all round resistance, and the Sapphire’s damage reduction while Fortified, which due to the Necrotic Carapace passive, you should almost always have.

Bone Spear Necromancer build

💀 You want to deal big damage💀 You’re not too fussed about minions💀 You like throwing bits of bone around

Bone Spear is honestly a bit broken for Necromancers at the moment, and is one of the most powerful builds forhigh-level contentdue to its ability to throw some absurdly high damage numbers. The build itself is also pretty straightforward: you useBone SpearandCorpse Tendrilsto deal effective damage,Decrepifyto reduce ability cooldowns, while keepingBone StormandBlood Mistin your back pocket for survivability.

Skills

There are six skills to use in this build:

In the early game, you’ll be using Bone Splinters for resource generation, but once you get Aspect of Exposed Flesh and Aspect of the Umbral, you likely won’t use it as much.

Passives and Book of the Dead

The most important passives for this build centre around buffing damage and gaining benefits based on your Essence.Unliving Energyincreases your max essence, whileImperfectly Balanced,Serration,Rapid Ossification, andOssified Essenceprovide extra damage, crit chance, and cooldown for your bone skills based on your Essence.EvulsionandCompound Fractureadd a further layer to this, dealing extra damage when you crit lots and increased crit damage against vulnerable enemies.

You can further buff your overall damage withAmplify Damage,Death’s Reach, andDeath’s Embrace, plus you won’t be using minions, soStand AloneandMemento Morican buff those sacrifice-based bonuses, and give you a nice chunk of damage reduction. Lastly,Hewed Fleshwill give you a Lucky Hit chance to create corpses on hit so you can use Corpse Tendrils often.

This build has no room for summoning skills, so I suggest sacrificing all three minion types, specificallySkeletal Skirmishersfor the increased crit chance,Cold Magesfor more damage against vulnerable, andIron Golemfor more crit damage.

Aspects

There are a fair few aspects that are great with this build:

In terms of Unique items, theDeathless Visagehelmet would be a good pick since it creates mini-explosions along the path of your Bone Spear that deal extra damage, though it might not be worth it endgame-wise if you’re having to sacrifice one of the powerful aspects above.

💀 UseDecrepifyto crowd control enemies and ensure you have a chance to reduce all ability cooldown with hits

💀 HurlBone Spearto deal damage and create corpses

💀 CastCorpse Tendrilsto stun, slow, and make enemies vulnerable for increased damage

💀 UseBlood Mistperiodically to gain immune and create corpses

💀 In tough spots,Bone Stormcan create a protective barrier

Gems and Affix Priority

For your Paragon Boards,Bone Graftshould be your first priority for its bone skill buff, thenScent of Death. TheControl,Exploit, andEssenceGlyphs are all very good for this build, granting extra damage against crowd controlled and vulnerable enemies, plus extra crit damage for your Bone Spear core skill.

In terms of Affixes, I’d recommend buffingBone Skill Damage, but most importantly,Critical Strike Chance,Critical Strike Damage, andLucky Hit Chance. The performance of this build relies heavily on you getting a steady stream of crits and lucky hits in terms of increasing your damage, creating corpses, reducing ability cooldowns, and generating Essence.  If you have extra space, then more damage to Crowd Controlled enemies will provide a lot of benefit, particularly for slowed or vulnerable enemies.

With gems, you’ll wantSkullon your jewellery for extra armor, anEmeraldon your weapon for more crit damage against vulnerable enemies, and eitherDiamondorRubyon your armor for increased Barrier Generation or Maximum Life.

Sean’s first PC games were Full Throttle and Total Annihilation and his taste has stayed much the same since. When not scouring games for secrets or bashing his head against puzzles, you’ll find him revisiting old Total War campaigns, agonizing over his Destiny 2 fit, or still trying to finish the Horus Heresy. Sean has also written for EDGE, Eurogamer, PCGamesN, Wireframe, EGMNOW, and Inverse.

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