Diablo 4 Necromancer Build – Corpse Explosion – In this Diablo 4 Necromancer Class Build Guide I’ll show you how to play a Corpse Explosion Necromancer, which is a burst DPS Diablo 4 Necromancer Build that focuses on hitting multiple enemies with Corpse Explosion and triggering chain reactions that wipe out the screen in seconds. If you’ve been looking for a Diablo 4 Necromancer Build that uses Corpse Explosion to the fullest, then this Build Guide is for you!
Diablo 4 Necromancer Build – Corpse Explosion
The general strategy for this Diablo 4 Necromancer Build is to kill enemies with Bone Spear and then detonate their Corpses with Corpse Explosion wiping out many enemies at a time with both Skills, and just alternating back and forth between these Skills. The Grim Harvest passive allows you to gain 9 Essence (at Rank 3) whenever you use Corpse Explosion successfully so you can replenish your Essence when using Corpse Explosion, and then fire off more Bone Spears without ever having to use other Skills.
Corpse Explosion even works surprisingly well in Boss Fights.
Once you acquire the Aspect of Explosive Mist you can use Blood Mist to detonate Corpses for you automatically without having to cast Corpse Explosion, and they detonate at an even higher speed than you can cast Corpse Explosion. This allows you to move through enemies while Immune to damage and CC while lightning them up with explosions.
Diablo 4 Necromancer Build – Corpse Explosion Skill Distribution
Each Diablo 4 Necromancer Build is made up of the 6 Active Skills they have equipped and changing these Skills can drastically change the way the Necromancer Class in Diablo IV plays. In this section we’ll take a look at what Skills you should slot for the Corpse Explosion Diablo 4 Necromancer Build. Your Skill distribution should look something like this:
| LEVEL 25 NECROMANCER SKILLS | |
| Skill | Points Spent |
| Reap | 1 |
| Enhanced Reap | 1 |
| Acolyte’s Reap | 1 |
| Bone Spear | 5 |
| Enhanced Bone Spear | 1 |
| Supernatural Bone Spear | 1 |
| Corpse Explosion | 5 |
| Enhanced Corpse Explosion | 1 |
| Grim Harvest | 3 |
| Plagued Corpse Explosion | 1 |
| Blood Mist | 1 |
| Enhanced Blood Mist | 1 |
| Ghastly Blood Mist | 1 |
| Fueled by Death | 1 |
The above list gives you the general order to invest in Skills, but keep in mind that you should prioritize picking up new Skills over investing in passives, so pick up passives later if you can get new Skills when you level up.
How to Handle Packs of Enemies
The general strategy with with this Build is slightly different depending on whether or not you have the Aspect of Explosive Mist or not, but follows the same general principal. Let’s start with Reap, since this is where this Build begins.
Reap
Reap is a longish melee attack that once modified with Acolyte’s Reap, drops a Corpse on the first hit once every 5 seconds. This provides you an instant Corpse when you get into combat, allowing you to use Corpse Explosion instantly, which you should do if you don’t have the Aspect. This should kill some enemies and allow you to continue spamming Corpse Explosion or use Blood Mist if you do have it. NOTE: that you really only use this Skill during the early goings of the game and you will swap it out later on.
Bone Spear
Bone Spear is your bread and butter “spender” with this Diablo 4 Necromancer Build that allows you to hit many enemies at a safe distance and often creates many Corpses which can then be detonated with Corpse Explosion if no Aspect, or Blood Mist if you have it. You’ll want to max out this skill to make sure it kills enemies, and take all the passives as well, including Supernatural Bone Spear which makes the first enemy hit by it Vulnerable. This is great for Elites and Bosses which will then take more damage from you and your Minions.
Corpse Explosion
Once you have some Corpses you’ll begin using Corpse Explosion, usually when you’ve run out of Essence. This will allow you to finish off enemies that are weak from your Bone Spears, and once you have the Grim Harvest passive, will also replenish your Essence. This allows you to alternate between Bone Spear and Corpse Explosion pretty much at will, using all your Essence on Bone Spear, before replenishing it all with Corpse Explosion.
Blood Mist
Blood Mist is a great Skill alone, but once you have the Aspect of Explosive Mist it becomes a powerhouse source of burst damage. It will detonate nearby Corpses very quickly, allowing for chain reaction explosions to occur as enemies you kill with it drop more Corpses creating more explosions. Taking the Enhanced Blood Mist passive will allow the cooldown of this Skill to be shortened to the point you can nearly spam it at will, and taking the Ghastly Blood Mist upgrade will provide extra Corpses, allowing you to use this even when there are none for some explosive damage.
Boss Fights
In Boss fights with this Diablo 4 Necromancer Build you will have less Corpses to hand, but you can still employ more or less generally the same strategy, hitting with Reap every so often to generate another Corpse, and your minions will also help you. Use Bone Spear until your Essence is depleted and then pop Blood Mist or begin spamming Corpse Explosion.
Raise Skeleton
By selecting the Reaper form for your Skeleton Warriors in your Book of the Dead, you can select the passive that gives them a chance to drop a Corpse with hitting an enemy. They don’t have to kill it, just hit it, which works well for generating Corpses in boss encounters. Between them and your Golem, your Reap Skill, and Blood Mist generating 3 itself, you can still detonate about 7-10 Corpses every 5 seconds or so, which is a lot.
Golem
You won’t get your Golem until you do your Class quest at level 25, but once you have it you can use the Bone version of it and select the passive that drops a Corpse whenever it loses 20% of its max HP. This will happen most often in Boss fights, which is really where you need him to drop Corpses anyway, so this works out really well.
Final Tips
Bonuses you want to look for on your gear for this Diablo 4 Necromancer Build are: Intelligence, Vulnerable Damage, Core Skill Damage, +1 Rank of Bone Spear, and +1 Rank of Corpse Explosion. All you really need are ones that benefit Bone Spear and Corpse Explosion, but Vulnerable Damage is also nice since this will help with Bosses.
Necrotic Carapace is a great passive for this Build because it will give you and your minions Fortify for each Corpse that drops which helps to keep you and them alive, especially in tough boss fights where there is a lot of damage. I managed to keep them alive through the entire Ashava, the Pestilent Boss fight because of this skill alone!
Blood-Soaked Aspect can make your Blood Mist deal more damage and also allows you to move at normal speed, making it easier to get to more Corpses before it expires. Consider slotting this one if you find it. It’s not a must, but it still makes this build easier to play after you’ve acquired Aspect of Explosive Mist.
Splintering Aspect improves the damage of your Bone Spear Splinters and also makes more enemies Vulnerable, making the die easier. Put this on a two-handed weapon for best results.
Blood Getter’s Aspect will increase the number of Skeleton Warriors you can have by 2, allowing you to generate more Corpses with your Reapers. This is a great pick and comes in hand in Dungeons and in boss fights equally!
Be sure to check out our Diablo 4 Wiki for any other questions you have about the game and the Builds page if you are looking for more Diablo IV Builds, as well as our Getting Started Guide and Best Class to Play in the Beta Guide if you are looking for more Diablo 4 content!
