Diablo 4 Blood Necromancer build: Best Blood Necromancer skills
Discover the best Blood Necromancer build in Diablo 4
Looking for the best Blood Necromancer build in Diablo 4? Diablo 4's first Season is now well underway, offering up the opportunity for many to experience new mechanics by rolling a fresh character on the Seasonal Realm. If you're after a strong mix of single-target and AoE damage that can push through high-tier Nightmare Dungeons with ease, then the Blood Necromancer is for you!
In this guide, we break down how to make the best Blood Necromancer build in Diablo 4, covering the Skills, Minions, Aspects, Stats, Gems, and Malignant Hearts that you'll need. It's updated to reflect the changes from Patch 1.1.0, but we'll continue to update it as future patches and hotfixes arrive.
Check out our Diablo 4 Corpse Explosion Necromancer build or our Bone Necromancer build, if you'd like to try some different playstyles!
Best Diablo 4 Blood Necromancer build
Our Diablo 4 Blood Necromancer build is a perfect balance between AoE and single-target damage, offering the best of both worlds and making it incredibly versatile. This power comes from Blood Surge and Blood Lance, respectively, and both see frequent power spikes thanks to guaranteed Overpower hits.
The Blood Necromancer is also surprisingly tanky, thanks to its consistent ability to Fortify with Hemorrhage, Blood Mist, and the Drain Vitality passive. That's on top of your Skeletal Minions, of course, which will also soak up some damage and draw enemy aggression away from you.
Best Diablo 4 Blood Necromancer build skills
Below, you'll find a full list of all skills that you should get for our Diablo 4 Blood Necromancer build, in order:
| Level | Skill | Cluster |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | Hemorrhage level 1 | 1 (Basic) |
| 3 | Enhanced Hemorrhage | 1 (Basic) |
| 4 | Initiate's Hemorrhage | 1 (Basic) |
| 5 | Blood Lance level 1 | 2 (Core) |
| 6 | Enhanced Blood Lance | 2 (Core) |
| 7 | Supernatural Blood Lance | 2 (Core) |
| 8 | Blood Mist level 1 | 3 (Macabre) |
| 9 | Enhanced Blood Mist | 3 (Macabre) |
| 10 | Dreadful Blood Mist | 3 (Macabre) |
| 11 | Blood Surge level 1 | 2 (Core) |
| 12 | Enhanced Blood Surge | 2 (Core) |
| 13 | Paranormal Blood Surge | 2 (Core) |
| 14 | Blood Lance level 2 | 2 (Core) |
| 15 | Blood Lance level 3 | 2 (Core) |
| 16 | Blood Lance level 4 | 2 (Core) |
| 17 | Blood Lance level 5 | 2 (Core) |
| 18 | Corpse Tendrils level 1 | 5 (Summoning) |
| 19 | Enhanced Corpse Tendrils | 5 (Summoning) |
| 20 | Plagued Corpse Tendrils | 5 (Summoning) |
| 21 | Blood Surge level 2 | 2 (Core) |
| 22 | Blood Surge level 3 | 2 (Core) |
| 23 | Blood Surge level 4 | 2 (Core) |
| 24 | Blood Surge level 5 | 2 (Core) |
| 25 | Gruesome Mending level 1 | 5 (Summoning) |
| 26 | Gruesome Mending level 2 | 5 (Summoning) |
| 27 | Gruesome Mending level 3 | 5 (Summoning) |
| 28 | Coalesced Blood level 1 | 5 (Summoning) |
| 29 | Coalesced Blood level 2 | 5 (Summoning) |
| 30 | Coalesced Blood level 3 | 5 (Summoning) |
| 31 | Tides of Blood level 1 | 5 (Summoning) |
| 32 | Tides of Blood level 2 | 5 (Summoning) |
| 33 | Tides of Blood level 3 | 5 (Summoning) |
| 34 | Transfusion level 1 | 5 (Summoning) |
| 35 | Rathma's Vigor | 7 (Key Passive) |
| 36 | Transfusion level 2 | 5 (Summoning) |
| 37 | Transfusion level 3 | 5 (Summoning) |
| 38 | Drain Vitality level 1 | 5 (Summoning) |
| 39 | Drain Vitality level 2 | 5 (Summoning) |
| 40 | Drain Vitality level 3 | 5 (Summoning) |
| 41 | Grim Harvest level 1 | 3 (Macabre) |
| 42 | Grim Harvest level 2 | 3 (Macabre) |
| 43 | Grim Harvest level 3 | 3 (Macabre) |
| 44 | Skeletal Warrior Mastery level 1 | 3 (Macabre) |
| 45 | Skeletal Warrior Mastery level 2 | 3 (Macabre) |
| 46 | Skeletal Warrior Mastery level 3 | 3 (Macabre) |
| 47 | Skeletal Mage Mastery level 1 | 4 (Corruption) |
| 48 | Skeletal Mage Mastery level 2 | 4 (Corruption) |
| 49 | Skeletal Mage Mastery level 3 | 4 (Corruption) |
| Renown Point 1 | Inspiring Leader level 1 | 6 (Ultimate) |
| Renown Point 2 | Inspiring Leader level 2 | 6 (Ultimate) |
| Renown Point 3 | Inspiring Leader level 3 | 6 (Ultimate) |
| Renown Point 4 | Hellbent Commander level 1 | 6 (Ultimate) |
| Renown Point 5 | Hellbent Commander level 2 | 6 (Ultimate) |
| Renown Point 6 | Hellbent Commander level 3 | 6 (Ultimate) |
| Renown Point 7 | Unliving Energy level 1 | 2 (Core) |
| Renown Point 8 | Imperfectly Balanced level 1 | 2 (Core) |
| Renown Point 9 | Imperfectly Balanced level 2 | 2 (Core) |
| Renown Point 10 | Imperfectly Balanced level 3 | 2 (Core) |
Hemorrhage
Hemorrhage is your basic Essence Generator, but it has quite a lot of utility for a basic skill. The base skill has a 20% chance to form a Blood Orb, which you can consume to heal yourself and your Minions, and the Initiate's Hemorrhage upgrade will also make it Fortify you for 1.6% of your base Life with each hit.
There's also a very slim 1.5% chance per enemy hit to instantly Fortify you for 100% base Life, which is an exciting, if infrequent, boost!
As you reach late-game content and hopefully find yourself able to easily Generate Essence by consuming corpses and with the help of passive abilities, consider dropping Hemorrhage to instead take Corpse Explosion. This will give you even more use for those corpses, and give you another powerful AoE ability that you can spam while waiting for enough Essence to use Blood Surge.
Blood Lance
Blood Lance is your first Core skill, and the one you'll use when focusing on single-target enemies. Blood Lance deals huge damage with each hit, and the Supernatural Blood Lance upgrade also guarantees an Overpower hit after casting it eight times.
While it is best against a single target, the Enhanced upgrade also lets Blood Lance pierce enemies, making it a quick, cheap way to clear packs of enemies.
Blood Surge
Blood Surge is your big AoE Core skill, unleashing a blood nova explosion that draws blood from enemies to deal huge damage. Even better, the more enemies that have their blood drained, the more damage it deals, up to a max of 50% extra damage!
Like Blood Lance, Blood Surge also has a way to guarantee Overpower hits with the Paranormal upgrade. This makes every 6th Blood Surge deal Overpower damage, meaning you can spam it a few times and then unleash a bomb that'll destroy almost any enemy with ease.
On top of that huge damage potential, the Enhanced upgrade also makes Blood Surge heal you each time it drains an enemies blood, helping keep you alive while spamming it in a crowd!
Blood Mist
Blood Mist is the Necromancer's best defensive skill, turning you into a little cloud of blood that is Immune to all damage and status effects for 3 seconds. This allows you to quickly get away from enemies so that you don't die, and it'll also deal some damage and slowly heal you up while active.
Corpse Tendrils
Corpse Tendrils is a highly important utility skill, pulling enemies towards a singular corpse, Stunning them for three seconds, and dealing some damage. With upgrades, enemies will also be Slowed and become Vulnerable, allowing you to take advantage of some damage modifiers with huge potential.
If you're unsure how to use these skills effectively, follow the attack pattern below:
- Use Blood Lance for single targets, or to pick off small packs of weak enemies.
- When you see a large group, use Corpse Tendrils to inflict Stun, Slow, and Vulnerable.
- Make your way into the group and spam Blood Surge.
- Use Hemorrhage or consume corpses with Raise Skeletons to regenerate Essence.
- Keep spamming Blood Lance or Blood Surge (depending on the amount of targets).
- Use Blood Mist when you're almost dead to escape combat and heal up.
Diablo 4 Blood Necromancer build: Best Minions
The Necromancer has access to the unique Book of the Dead class mechanic in Diablo 4, which lets you raise skeletal Minions and a Golem to do your bidding. They're powerful combat companions, and will prove essential for drawing enemy aggression in particularly tough fights.
Below, you'll find the best Minions for our Diablo 4 Blood Necromancer build:
- Skeletal Warrior - Reapers (Upgrade 2): Reapers have a 15% chance to carve the flesh off enemies, forming a Corpse.
- Skeletal Mages - Cold (Upgrade 1): Each time your Cold Mages damage enemies with their primary attack, you gain 2 Essence.
- Golem - Blood (Sacrifice): Your maximum Life is increased by 10%, but you lose the ability to summon a Golem.
As you can see, we recommend sacrificing the ability to use Golems in this build, as it would otherwise take up an extra skill slot that we can't spare. If you're absolutely insistent on using a Golem, consider dropping Corpse Tendrils. You'll lose some Utility, but the Golem will hopefully more than make up for that. Of course, if you do drop Corpse Tendrils, move the skill points over to the Golem Mastery passive in the sixth (Ultimate) cluster on your skill tree.
Diablo 4 Blood Necromancer build: Best Aspects
In Diablo 4, you get Legendary Aspects by collecting Legendary Gear or completing Side Dungeons. Legendary Aspects are what offer the powerful effects that you get on Legendaries, and finding those that synergise with your build will grant a huge power boost.
Below, you'll find the Aspects that we'd recommend using for this Diablo 4 Blood Necromancer build:
- Viscous Aspect (Legendary - random drop): Your maximum number of Skeletal Mages is increased by 2.
- Aspect of Explosive Mist (Legendary - random drop): Blood Mist triggers Corpse Explosion on surrounding corpses. When Blood Mist detonates a corpse, its cooldown is reduced by 0.2-0.5 seconds.
- Aspect of Rathma's Chosen (Legendary - random drop): Whenever your Blood skills Overpower, you gain 20-50% attack speed for 4 seconds.
- Aspect of the Embalmer (Legendary - random drop): Consuming a corpse has a 20-30% chance to spawn a Blood Orb.
- Coldbringer's Aspect (Legendary - random drop): Every 10 seconds, your Cold Skeletal Mages cast a blizzard that deals Cold damage and continuously Chills enemies for 8% over 6 seconds.
- Blood Seeker's Aspect (Mercy's Reach - Fractured Peaks): Blood Lance deals 15-25% increased damage to its primary target per lanced enemy.
- Blood-Bathed Aspect (Hoarfrost Demise - Fractured Peaks): Blood Surge's nova echoes again after a short delay, dealing 60-70% less damage.
- Deathspeaker's Pendant (Unique Amulet - random drop): Blood Surge casts a mini nova on your Minions. Damage is increased by 10% per target drained by the initial cast, up to 50%.
- Aspect of Potent Blood (Betrayer's Row - Dry Steppes): While at full Life, Blood Orbs grant 10-20 Essence.
- Aspect of Hungry Blood (Legendary - random drop): When Blood Lance hits an enemy that is already lanced, it has a 10-20% chance to fire a Blood Lance at a nearby enemy.
Diablo 4 Blood Necromancer build: Best Stats
Gear will also get random stat bonuses, known as Affixes, that provide important buffs to various passive traits. Like Aspects, hunting for Gear with stats that will complement your build can drastically improve its efficacy in late-game content.
Below, you'll find the Stats that you should hunt for with this Diablo 4 Blood Necromancer build:
- Overpower damage
- Damage Reduction while Fortified
- Fortify
- Willpower (increases Essence Generation and Overpower damage)
- Intelligence (increases skill damage)
Don't forget that you can reroll Affixes on your Gear after reaching World Tier 3! To do so, you'll need to enter Helltides and hunt for Fiend Roses, and then head to the Occultist at any of the major towns.
Diablo 4 Blood Necromancer build: Best Gems
For even more passive bonuses, you can put Gems into Gem Sockets on your Gear. Rather than the randomly-rolled Affixes, though, Gems offer set bonuses depending on the type of Gear into which they are placed.
In Weapons, you should use Rubies to increase your Overpower damage. This Blood Necromancer build heavily focuses on the huge damage boosts offered by guaranteed Overpower hits, so maximising that potential will simply make the build far stronger.
In Armor, we'd recommend using Sapphires to increase your Damage Reduction while Fortified. With Hemorrhage, Blood Mist, and the Drain Vitality passive offering various ways to Fortify, you should find that you're able to consistently benefit from the Damage Reduction while Fortified that's offered by Sapphires.
For Jewelry, ywe'd usually recommend using Skulls to boost your Armor stat. However, the new Seasonal mechanic, Malignant Hearts, can only be placed in Infested Jewelry Sockets, which replace the usual Gem Sockets into which you'd place the Skulls. You can learn more about Malignant Hearts in the following section.
Diablo 4 Blood Necromancer build: Best Malignant Hearts
During Season 1, we have access to new items called Malignant Hearts. These new items act kind of like Legendary Aspects, but they must be placed into Infested Sockets on your Jewelry items to gain their powers. Malignant Hearts offer big power boosts that'll prove important if you want to clear the toughest endgame content during the Season of the Malignant.
Below, we'll list the best Malignant Hearts for the Blood Necromancer:
- The Sacrilegious: Walking near a Corpse automatically activates an equipped Corpse Skill every second, dealing 40-30% reduced damage.
- The Decrepit Aura: When at least 5 enemies are near you, gain an aura that automatically curses surrounding enemies with Decrepify for 5-15 seconds.
- Revenge: 10-20% of incoming damage is instead suppressed. When you use a Defensive, Subterfuge, or a Macabre skill, all suppressed damage is amplified by 250% and explodes, dealing up to 1360-2040 Fire damage to nearby enemies.
That wraps up our Diablo 4 Blood Necromancer build guide. If you want to try out other classes, take a look at our Diablo 4 Twisting Blades Rogue build, Whirlwind Barbarian build, Bleed Barbarian build, Pulverize Druid build, Storm Druid build, Lightning Sorcerer build, and Fire Sorcerer build guides.
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