Diablo 4 Necromancer Build – Reaper – In this Diablo 4 Endgame Necromancer Build Guide, I’m going to show you my Reaper Build. The Reaper is a solo Diablo 4 Build that plays without any Minions and uses Shadow Damage to destroy enemies effectively. If you’re looking for a Diablo 4 Endgame Necromancer Build that is aimed at World Tier 3, and one that executes strategic moves all on your own like the Vampire Necromancer, then this Diablo 4 Build Guide is for you!
Diablo 4 Necromancer Build – Reaper
The way this Diablo IV Endgame Build works is you’ll first run into a pack of enemies and use Reap, and because of the Acolyte’s Reap upgrade, casting the Skill will automatically drop Corpses. This happens once every 5 seconds. Afterward, we’re going to activate Corpse Tendrils in order to grab all nearby enemies. Doing so will round them up and place them on top of these Corpses. What you’ll then do is to simultaneously press Corpse Explosion to set your first Shadow AoE and then you’re going to start attacking with the Sever Skill.
I like to use Sever here until I’m out of Essence or after applying the Vulnerability effect on all enemies, which happens on the 4th attack. And then I’ll continue to press Corpse Explosion to detonate Corpses to finish off those who have survived my first wave of attacks.
One really great addition to this Reaper Diablo 4 Necromancer Build is the Howl from Below Sacred Unique Gloves for your Corpse Explosion to deal more damage. So you’re able to cast this Skill faster and it makes Skeletons run out toward enemies to then explode into pools of Shadow Damage. Additionally, this will make them hit targets far away.
If there are a couple of stragglers that didn’t get grouped up for Corpse Explosion, the Skeletons from the Gloves will seek those out as well as hit and kill them for you. As such, you don’t have to try and run up to them and drop more Corpses. Instead, you can make better use of the Corpses that are already on the battlefield.
Skill Distribution
Each Diablo 4 Necromancer Build comprises the 6 Active Skills they have equipped and changing these Skills can drastically alter 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 Reaper Necromancer Diablo 4 Endgame Build. By the time you reach Level 50, you’ll approximately have 59 points, assuming that you’ve accumulated enough Renown from different regions to gain 10 extra points. So your Skill distribution should look something like this:
The above list gives you the general order to invest in Skills, but keep in mind that you should prioritize picking up new Active Skills over investing in passives, so pick up passives later if you can get new Active Skills when you level up.
Diablo 4 Reaper Endgame Necromancer Build – Skills
In this section, I’ll discuss how the Skills work for the current Reaper Endgame Build of the Necromancer Class. The strategies will change depending on the type of foe you’re facing whether they’re comprised of a large group of enemies or Elites and Bosses.
Corpse Explosion & Hewed Flesh
Against tough encounters where you don’t spawn Corpses from a Boss and you have no Skeletal Reapers that are attacking them to drop extra Corpses, the trick will be similar to the one that we have for the Blightlord D4 Necro Build. So we’ll be utilizing the Hewed Flesh passive. With this, you have a 12% chance when you Lucky Hit with any damage to create a Corpse.
And because of the Shadow Damage from Corpse Explosion as well as the Blighted Corpse Explosion upgrade, it ticks over time. When this ticks, you’re going to have a chance to trigger an additional Corpse. Once you get a couple of them on the ground, this will result in more and more Corpses. So even against a Boss, if you can get 1 or 2 of them down, you’re easily going to be able to stack these into more Corpses, setting off a vicious cycle. Doing so will allow you to constantly deal significant damage, regardless if it’s a regular Boss or a World Boss.
Iron Maiden
For this Reaper Diablo IV Necromancer Build, you’re also going to make use of Iron Maiden. A lot of times when you’re fighting a large pack of enemies, you’ll run out of Essence because you’re not set up to manage this resource outside of using Corpse Explosion. But Iron Maiden will give you a quick burst of 5 Essence per cursed enemy. So if you drop this on the ground against 10 enemies, you’re going to instantly receive 50 Essence, which is really nice and it’ll also increase the damage they take.
What’s more, is that because of the Abhorrent Iron Maiden upgrade, you’ll be healed after killing these targets. So if you take a bunch of damage while standing in the melee range, Iron Maiden is going to heal you up afterward.
Corpse Tendrils
So for Corpse Tendrils, you can either gain access to Plagued Corpse Tendrils to make enemies Vulnerable or Blighted Corpse Tendrils. This gives you a 30% chance to drop a Blood Orb when dealing damage. Blood Orbs are really good for this Reaper D4 Necro Build because they heal you while you walk over them. So you’re going to receive extra healing while fighting multiple enemies.
What works very well with Corpse Tendrils is the Fastblood Aspect, which also reduces the cooldown of your Ultimate Ability every time you pick up these orbs. So getting them means that you’re going to be able to use Bone Storm more often. The Fastblood Aspect can be obtained by completing the Iron Hold Dungeon in Hawezar.
Bone Storm
And so this brings us to Bone Storm, which is our Ultimate Skill for this Reaper Diablo 4 Necromancer Build. What I really like about this is it reduces the damage inflicted on you while they’re standing in the middle of the storm, which is nice because if you’re alone, you’ll need to make sure that you don’t die.
Another Legendary Aspect that works exceptionally well with Bone Storm is the Aspect of Ultimate Shadow, which makes it so that the damage you deal with this Ultimate is converted to Shadow Damage.
Furthermore, you’ll also want to make use of the Aspect of Shielding Storm to have a Barrier for 5% of your max Health. So in this case, when Bone Storm ticks every second, you’re going to receive a damage shield on top of dealing massive damage to enemies. As a result, it’s going to proc Corpses to spawn via Lucky Hit, making this Ultimate Skill very strong. It also allows you to go into packs of enemies with a lot of Elites and still come out alive.
Grim Harvest, Sever & Fueled by Death
In terms of passives, you’ll first maximize Grim Harvest as it gives you 6 Essence for each Corpse you consume. Since you consume constantly with this Reaper Build, it’s going to fill up your resources, allowing you to use Sever to help generate more Corpses that you can then use for Corpse Explosion. Sever is a great way to create more of these in addition to Reap but since it uses Essence, we have to find ways to generate this efficiently. Next is Fueled by Death, which gives you increased damage after consuming a Corpse.
Other Passives
And then we have Death’s Embrace. This also reduces the damage of close enemies while increasing your damage against them, making it very beneficial for this Diablo 4 Necromancer Build since you’re a melee character.
We’ll basically take all the Shadow passives here such as Reaper’s Pursuit, Gloom, and Terror to amplify our offensive capabilities. But I’ve only allocated 1 point to Crippling Darkness because the duration of Stun is not as important as Stun itself. In most cases, we don’t have enough points to really fill this out, which is a shame.
Other than this, we have Stand Alone to further reduce our damage reduction, so it helps keep us alive. And then Memento Mori, which gives us up to a 60% increase in the passives gained from sacrificing our Skeletal Warriors and Skeletal Mages. In this case, it’s going to be a damage boost against Vulnerable enemies as well as an improvement to our Shadow Damage.
Shadowblight
Finally, there’s Shadowblight, which makes it so that we do increased damage to enemies afflicted by our Shadow Damage. Additionally, for every damage they take, they’ll eventually explode, which will deal additional Shadow Damage to those who have been left behind.
Diablo 4 Reaper Endgame Necromancer Build – Equipment, Gems & Aspects
At World Tier 3, you’ll gain access to a lot of items together with their bonuses. It can be difficult to determine the right ones to keep for your Diablo IV Necromancer Endgame Build without the proper direction. So in this section, I’ll discuss the best gear bonuses you should chase after together with the Gems and aspects to place in them. Remember that you can replace unwanted affixes at The Occultist and that you should upgrade your gear at The Blacksmith for the best results.
Weapon & Shield
For the Weapon, I highly recommend equipping a Sacred Legendary Wand for the increased Lucky Hit Chance and Attack Speed. So Corpse Explosions is going to be executed faster, allowing you to generate more Corpses. Meanwhile, the Sacred Legendary Shield helps block incoming damage and natively comes with Thorns. Thorns is really great for this D4 Necro Build because it can spawn Corpses from enemies when they deal damage to themselves from attacking you. The other bonuses you’ll want include the following:
For the gem, you’ll want the Amethyst to improve your Shadow DoT.
For your Weapon, it’s good to have the Cadaverous Aspect. This makes it so that when you consume a Corpse, Sever is going to deal increased damage. As you pile up those Corpse Explosions quickly, you’re going to get more damage from your succeeding attacks. Although, you should at least try to use a couple of Corpse Explosions before using Sever to be efficient with how you manage your Essence.
For the Shield, you’ll want to imprint the Eluding Aspect. This makes it so that if you become Injured, you’re granted the Unstoppable buff so it’s great for preventing you from dying in situations that would normally kill you. It has a rather long cooldown but it shouldn’t matter since you won’t trigger it often. The Eluding Aspect is a fail-safe in case you get trapped in dangerous situations. You can acquire this from the Caldera Gate Dungeon in Fractured Peaks.
Armor
For Armor, you have the Helm, Chest Armor, Gloves, Pants, and Boots. The major bonuses you’ll want here include the following:
- Strength
- Various Elemental Resistances
- Control Impaired Duration Reduction
- Total Armor
- Lucky Hit Chance
- Lucky Hit
- Ranks of Corpse Explosion
- Movement Speed
Additionally, you’ll still want to slot the Ruby to raise your Maximum Life and the Emerald for the added Thorns Damage.
In terms of aspects, you’ll want to imprint the Aspect of the Protector, Aspect of Shielding Storm, Aspect of the Embalmer, and the Wind Striker Aspect on your Armor. The Aspect of the Protector, which you can get by finishing the Lost Archives Dungeon in Fractured Peaks, gives you a damage shield when fighting Elites and Bosses. Particularly on higher Nightmare Dungeons, you’re going to receive a bit of cushion to avoid dying quickly.
And then there’s the Aspect of Shielding Storm, which I mentioned earlier. So it’s going to be helpful when you charge into a large group to double your Barriers, making you very, very hard to kill. Next is the Aspect of the Embalmer, which gives you a chance to generate a Blood Orb when casting Corpse Explosion. Additionally, these orbs will also help to shave 1 second off of Bone Storm’s cooldown.
Lastly, there’s the Wind Striker Aspect, which makes it so that when you deal Critical Strike Damage, you increase your Movement Speed. Doing so will really raise your mobility a lot faster even as a Necromancer. You can get the Wind Strike Aspect from the Shivta Ruins Dungeon in Kehjistan.
Jewelry
For Jewelry, you have the Amulet and 2 Rings. The gear bonuses you’ll need include the following:
- Shadow Damage
- Damage to Distant Enemies
- Critical Strike Chance
- Damage to Affected By Shadow Damage Over Time Enemies
- Damage Over Time
- Ultimate Skill Damage
- Damage Reduction from Close Enemies
The aspects you want to be imprinted on your Jewelry are the Fastblood Aspect, the Aspect of Ultimate Shadow, and the Blighted Aspect. I already talked about the Fastblood Aspect and the Aspect of Ultimate Shadow so I’ll focus on the Blighted Aspect instead. This increases your damage after Shadowblight has been triggered on 10 different enemies. It might start off slow, and then all of a sudden, your damage just ramps up. You can get the Blighted Aspect from Akkhan’s Grasp Dungeon in Hawezar.
You should then slot any of the gems like Diamonds that will grant additional Elemental Resistances based on what you currently lack.
Diablo 4 Reaper Endgame Necromancer Build – Paragon
At Level 50, you unlock the basic Paragon board to further enhance your Diablo 4 Reaper Endgame Necromancer Build. I’m using the Territorial Glyph early on and that’s because it not only increases your damage to close enemies but also gives you damage reduction. This is probably not the best offensive glyph to have although it does give you some damage boost on top of your enhanced defense, making your Reaper Endgame Diablo 4 Necromancer Build a tanky one. So this lets you breeze through a pack of 6 Elites by yourself and then kill them all and come out without taking any damage, which is not something a lot of Diablo 4 Builds can do.
And then lastly, for the Necromancer Paragon Board, we’re going for Wither. This makes it so that you have a chance to deal increased damage the moment your Shadow Damage ticks. Doing so will considerably ramp up your Shadow Damage. Additionally, you should be on the lookout for other nodes that increase Willpower in order to get more from this while enhancing your Shadow Damage and damage over time (DoT) further.
Final Tips
Remember to use Elixirs to not only boost your damage but to increase your XP gain. They are not hard to craft, and you should have a bunch of materials by this point of the game. They can make your Dungeon clear speed a bit better if you know the enemy type you will be facing. You might need to enter the dungeon first to see what’s inside before using it.
When it comes to searching for other effective gear bonuses or aspects, the key is to keep a lookout for those that boost your survivability, especially since you’re a Lone Necromancer. It’ll also serve you well to increase your Shadow Damage as well as the damage of your main Skills like Sever and Corpse Explosion.
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 Ultimate Beginner Guide and All Classes Overview if you are looking for more Diablo 4 content!
