The Necromancer, much like the Sorcerer, is one of the most formidable classes in Diablo 4. Not only is it capable of slinging spells or inflicting debilitating debuffs on enemies, it can also summon a small army of skeletons armed to the teeth. This is perhaps one of the easiest classes to play effectively, as you will mostly rely on your skeletons to do your bidding for you.
However, if you’re looking for a more active playstyle, you can choose to forgo using these minions, and can instead the blood and corpses of your foes against them in devastating ways. Capable of dealing serious single-target and area-of-effect damage, the Necromancer is extremely well-rounded. The only thing it lacks is any clear escape, which you’ll want to keep in mind when creating your own builds.
Image: Blizzard/Activision via Polygon
The Diablo 4 beta caps characters at level 25, which limits how many skill points you can initially receive. You can earn skill points by increasing your renown by — among other ways — tracking down the dozens of Altars of Lilith in the Fractured Peaks region. Here are the best Necromancer skills to get in Diablo 4.
Best Diablo 4 Necromancer Build — Skeleton Army:
- Bone Splinters → Enhanced Bone Splinters → Initiates Bone Splinters
- Blood Lance → Enhanced Blood Lance → Paranormal Blood Lance
- Skeletal Warrior Mastery 3/3
- Skeletal Warriors – Reaper: Reapers have a 15% chance to carve the flesh off of enemies, forming a Corpse
- Iron Maiden → Enhanced Iron Maiden → Horrid Iron Maiden
- Amplify Damage 3/3
- Skeletal Mage Mastery 3/3
- Skeletal Mages – Bone: Reduce the Life cost of your Bone Mages’ attack from 15% to 10%. After being alive for 5 seconds, Bone Mages deal 40% increased damage.
- Serration → Compound Fracture → Evulsion
- Army of the Dead
Best Diablo 4 Necromancer Build — Solo:
- Bone Splinters → Enhanced Bone Splinters → Initiates Bone Splinters
- Blood Lance → Enhanced Blood Lance → Paranormal Blood Lance
- Blood Surge → Enhanced Blood Surge → Paranormal Blood Surge
- Skeletal Warriors – Skirmishers: Your Critical Strike is increased by 5%, but you can no longer raise Skeletal Warriors
- Corpse Explosion → Enhanced Corpse Explosion → Blighted Corpse Explosion
- Iron Maiden → Enhanced Iron Maiden → Abhorrent Iron Maiden
- Decrepify → Enhanced Decrepify
- Amplify Damage 3/3
- Skeletal Mages – Bone Mages: Your Overpower damage is increased by 30%, but you can no longer raise Skeletal Mages.
- Reaper’s Pursuit → Gloom
- Army of the Dead
How to use the Necromancer in Diablo 4
Skeletons are the bread and butter of any Necromancer build. You’ll want to prioritize investing in Skeleton Warrior and Skeleton Mage Mastery . As far as basic skills go, Bone Splinters is great for inflicting enemies with Vulnerable. This will make said enemies receive 20% more damage from you and your skeletons, a benefit that speaks for itself.
Skeletons also provide a buffer for you against bosses, and depending on how you choose to specialize your skeletons, they can also tank for you against bosses if you choose to go the path alone. There are a total of three different specialized trees you can choose from for your Skeletal Warriors and Mages, each having their own benefits. Playing around with this will be integral to how you choose to tackle World Events — like the World Boss Ashava the Pestilent — in Sanctuary.
Debuffs are also extremely important to the Necromancer. Using skills like Iron Maiden to increase the amount of damage they will take from you and your army of the undead is extremely helpful. Taking this skill in tandem with Amplify Damage will make a huge difference when it comes to your overall damage output.
As mentioned previously, Necromancers can choose to go without any trusty skeletons. In this case, you’ll want to build something comparable to a Sorcerer, using debuffs such as Decrepify and Iron Maiden in tandem with Corpse Explosion. Additionally, getting Enhanced Blood Surge will help improve your survivability. While the Necromancer can take more of a beating than a Sorcerer can, it isn’t nearly as durable as a Barbarian and has fewer means of escape than a Rogue.
You can further enhance the power of your skills through the use of aspects, passive skills that are found on gear that you can remove and reapply on better gear. Here’s how that process works.
All Diablo 4 builds: | Sorcerer | Barbarian | Rogue | Druid
