Diablo 4 Necromancer best build, skills, aspects, gear and gems

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How to play as the Necromancer in Diablo 4

It’s quite easy to realise that the Necromancer class, when examined and contrasted to all the other classes, such as Sorcerer and Barbarian, is an easy one to play with and comes with many useful tools for your Diablo 4 journey. In this build, we have focused on three major aspects of the Necromancer’s kit.

First, Minions. Necromancer has the capacity of raising Skeletal Minions from corpses that can be formed after killing enemies. There are more than one type – Warriors, Mages, and Golem – and their role is to be one of your main sources of damage. Because of that, try to always keep the maximum of Minions active and don’t forget you can use the raising skill on a corpse to buff them after you reach the cap of Minions raised.

When using this build, the corpses on the ground are as important as the minions you raise from them because of the Necromancer’s skill Corpse Explosion. With it, the battlefield becomes full of landmines since you can cast this skill and explode a corpse dealing damage to enemies. Thanks to some passive and upgrades, exploding corpses buff and Fortify you.

The third aspect of this build focuses on is this class capacity of mitigating damage. In this build, we aren’t going for skills that heal you, so increasing survivability by reducing damage is an important tool.

Now that these three pillars of this build have been explained, we can start talking about the practical side of it. When running this build, you want to always have your skeletons active and use Reap to proc its passive that reduces the damage you take and forms corpses. Another skill you should always pop when is available is Decrepify.

Once you start generating Essence points, your top priority is to use Blight on enemies to buff your attacks against them. When the field begins to get filled with corpses, then, it’s time to use Corpse Explosion. Keep in mind that you should only use this skill if your Minions look healthy. Otherwise, prioritise raising a new Minion instead of exploding the corpse.

Your ultimate Army of the Dead is a great source of damage as well and should be used as soon as it’s available when facing multiple enemies or a boss.

Diablo 4 Necromancer best skills

As explained, this Diablo 4 build focuses on the Necromancer’s capacity of dealing damage as well as receiving damage buffs by consuming corpses and using certain skills. At the same time, another important aspect of this class – and consequently of this build – are the minions you can summon. For this build, it’s important that you pick the Skeletal Mages as soon as you unlock them and select the Cold stance for them, picking the first effect which is generating Essence whenever the Mages hit an enemy with their primary attack.

Now, back to the skills!

Basic Node

• Reap: As your basic attack, Reap allows you to deal a good amount of damage to single and multiple targets. In addition to that, it increases your Damage Reduction, assisting you in mitigating damage. Enhanced Reap raises briefly your Attack Speed when an enemy dies for this skill, and the Acolyte’s Reap upgrade forms a Corpse from time to time.

Core Node

• Blight: When used, you shoot a concentrated blight that deals damage and spreads around enemies and that also deals damage over time. It’s important to get the Enhanced Blight right after to add the effect of Blight slowing enemies. Your next step is to upgrade this skill to Supernatural Blight which increases the damage you and your Minions deal to enemies affected by Blight.
• Hewed Flesh: One of the passives of this node, Hewed Flesh increases the chance of creating Corpses, which is fundamental for this build.

Corpse and Macabre Node

• Corpse Explosion: To cast this skill, you need to have a Corpse formed on the ground. If so, you can explode it to deal damage to enemies surrounding it. While Enhanced Corpse Explosion increases the explosion’s radius, the Plagued Corpse Explosion upgrade buffs the explosion’s damage to enemies that are Slowed, Stunned, or Vulnerable.
• Grim Harvest: This passive prevents you from running out of Essence since it generates some points when a Corpse is consumed.
• Fueled by Death: To take advantage of the fact that you want to explode Corpses constantly, you should pick this passive which increases your damage for some time after you consume a Corpse.

Curse Node

• Decrepify: Places a curse on the ground slowing enemies in the area as well as decreasing their damage. By unlocking Enhanced Decrepify, you have the chance to stun enemies affected by the curse. The Abhorrent Decrepify upgrade gives you the chance to have your active Cooldown reduced by some seconds when enemies afflicted by the curse are hit.
• Skeletal Mage Mastery: Because we are prioritising Skeletal Mages as your minions, this passive is quite important since it increases their damage and life!

Corpse and Macabre Node

• Necrotic Carapace: This is another passive that helps you capitalise on Corpses. Whenever a Corpse is formed, whether as a result of a skill of yours or of Minions, you get Fortified for some percentage of your Base Life.

Ultimate Node

• Army of the Dead: When used, this skill summons Skeletons that explode dealing damage to enemies. With its first upgrade, Prime Army of the Dead, you increase the chance of forming Corpses. The last upgrade called Supreme Army of the Dead adds to the skill the effect of also raising your Skeletal Warriors and Skeletal Mages.
• Stand Alone: This passive increases your survivability by increasing Damage Reduction based on how many Minions are active.

Key Passives Node

• Kalan’s Edict: Considering how important your Minions are for your damage output, this passive becomes extremely important, because it increases their Attack Speed after you spent a brief time avoiding damage.

Diablo 4 Necromancer best gear

When it comes to picking the best pieces of armor, jewels, and weapons for this Necromancer build, there are a few elements you should look for in Diablo 4. Gear with Damage to Slow Enemies, Damage Over Time, and Damage to Close Enemies are extremely useful to this build, synergizing well with Reap and Blight. Next, we have less specific affixes, such as Basic Skill Damage, which is a solid option.

Now, if you’re in doubt about which main attribute you should look for in your pieces of gear, then, you should focus on Intelligence and Willpower to increase Skill Damage and Resource Generating.

Diablo 4 Necromancer best aspects

Aspects are a great system in Diablo 4 and they can improve exponentially this your damage, survivability, and crowd-control capability. Because Blight plays a key role in this Necromancer build, the Aspect of the Void is great, since it adds to the skill the effect of pulling enemies into the area affected by it. Another good aspect that synergizes well with this build is the Aspect of the Frenzied Dead that increases Minions’ Attack Speed when they damage an enemy.

A couple of solid options that work for you, in general, are the Aspect of Hardened Bones that increases Minions’ Damage Reduction, the Coldbringer’s Aspect that gives to your Skeletal Mages the capacity of casting Blizzard causing Cold damage and Chilling enemies, and the Cadaverous Aspect that increases the damage of your core skills after consuming a corpse.

If you're struggling to keep your Necromancer alive, then you might also want to consider equipping the Aspect of the Embalmer, as it adds the chance to spawn a healing Blood Orb when a corpse is consumed.