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Best Diablo 4 Necromancer builds

Discover the best Necromancer builds in Diablo 4

Diablo 4 screenshot showing a close up of a Necromancer.
Image credit: Blizzard Entertainment

Looking for the best Diablo 4 Necromancer builds? If you're motivated by big damage numbers in Diablo 4, then the Necromancer is for you. Whether you're detonating corpses to obliterate large groups of demons, or slinging bone spears at bosses for millions of damage, the Necromancer makes short work of tough content such as Helltides and Nightmare Dungeons.

In this guide, we'll break down the three best Diablo 4 Necromancer builds. You'll find skill lists and Book of the Dead picks for the Corpse Explosion Necromancer, Bone Necromancer, and Blood Necromancer, and each section contains a link that you can follow for even more information on its specific build.

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Diablo 4 Corpse Explosion build

Our Corpse Explosion Necromancer build is a wonderfully simple build that allows you to spam - surprise - the Corpse Explosion skill to destroy packs of enemies with ease. Your Skeletal Minions will be on the frontlines, soaking enemy hits and dealing some light damage, while you focus on managing corpses to either blow up baddies or raise new Skeletons as they get killed in battle.

Below, you'll find the most important skills for the Diablo 4 Corpse Explosion Necromancer build:

  • Decompose (Enhanced/Acolyte's)
  • Blight (Enhanced/Paranormal)
  • Corpse Explosion (Enhanced/Blighted)
  • Corpse Tendrils (Enhanced/Plagued)
  • Army of the Dead (Prime/Supreme)
  • Raise Skeletons (Book of the Dead)
  • Skeletal Warriors (Reaper - Upgrade 2)
  • Skeletal Mages (Shadow - Upgrade 2)
  • Golem (Bone - Sacrifice)

The Necromancer's unique Book of the Dead mechanic allows you to select from various minion options, and for this build we've opted to only use the Skeletal Warriors and Mages. We use the second Reaper upgrade for Warriors, which gives them a 15% chance to generate corpses on attacking, and the second Shadow Mage upgrade, which lets them fire a second Shadow bolt every 5th attack.

For the Golem, we've opted to sacrifice the Bone Golem variant. This raises your attack speed by 10%, so that you can detonate packs of enemies even further!

If you want a more extensive breakdown, take a look at our Diablo 4 Corpse Explosion Necromancer build guide.

Diablo 4 image showing a Necromancer in the character creator screen.
Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun/Blizzard Entertainment

Diablo 4 Bone Necromancer build

Our Bone Necromancer build is a more single-target focused playstyle, and a personal favourite. It still uses Corpse Tendrils and Corpse Explosion to deal with those bigger packs or for a damage option that doesn't rely on Spirit, but it mainly uses Bone Spear to sling huge damage at Vulnerable enemies from a distance.

This build also priorities Critical Strike Chance and Critical Strike damage to get even bigger damage boosts, which pair with Vulnerable damage to destroy Elites and Bosses without breaking a sweat.

Below, you'll find the most important skills for the Diablo 4 Bone Necromancer build:

  • Bone Splinters (Enhanced/Acolyte's)
  • Bone Spear (Enhanced/Paranormal)
  • Corpse Explosion (Enhanced/Plagued)
  • Bone Spirit (Enhanced/Ghastly)
  • Corpse Tendrils (Enhanced/Plagued)
  • Bone Storm (Prime/Supreme)
  • Skeletal Warriors (Skirmishers - Sacrifice)
  • Skeletal Mages (Cold - Sacrifice)
  • Golem (Iron - Sacrifice)

For the Book of the Dead, we've opted to use no Minions and claim a range of Sacrifice bonuses instead.

For Warriors, we've opted to Sacrifice Skirmishers to get 5% increased Critical Strike Chance. For Mages, we've Sacrificed Cold Mages to gain 15% extra Vulnerable damage, which is a huge boost to one of Diablo 4's best damage multipliers! Finally, we've opted to Sacrifice the Iron Golem, which gives a massive 30% bonus to Critical Strike damage.

For more, check out our Diablo 4 Bone Necromancer build guide.

Diablo 4 screenshot showing a red-headed Necromancer in skeletal armor.
Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun/Blizzard Entertainment

Diablo 4 Blood Necromancer build

Our Diablo 4 Blood Necromancer build is a nice balance between the two previous builds, offering strong single-target and AoE damage. Regardless of whether you're clearing Nightmare Dungeons across the Diablo 4 map, fighting through Helltides, or still blitzing through the campaign, this Blood Necromancer build will deal massive damage and keep you alive.

It's also the tankiest Necromancer build, with various ways to Fortify for extra life and then deal huge Overpower damage based on your total amount Fortified.

Below, you'll find the most important skills for the Diablo 4 Blood Necromancer build:

  • Hemorrhage (Enhanced/Initiate's)
  • Blood Lance (Enhanced/Supernatural)
  • Blood Mist (Enhanced/Dreadful)
  • Blood Surge (Enhanced/Paranormal)
  • Corpse Tendrils (Enhanced/Plagued)
  • Raise Skeletons (Book of the Dead)
  • Skeletal Warriors (Reapers - Upgrade 2)
  • Skeletal Mages (Cold - Upgrade 1)
  • Golem (Blood - Sacrifice)

With this build, we are using Skeletal Warriors and Mages for some extra defense, as they can soak up hits and easily be regenerated by consuming corpses.

For Warriors, we'd recommend the second Reapers option, which grants them a 15% chance to generate a corpse when attacking an enemy. For Mages, we use the first Cold option to get extra Essence whenever your Cold Mages damage enemies.

Finally, we'v'e opted to sacrifice the Blood Golem to get 10% extra maximum Life, further increasing your tankiness and ensuring that you can survive even the most powerful attacks dealt out by demons throughout Diablo 4.

Take a look at our full Diablo 4 Blood Necromancer build guide for more information on skills, aspects, and stats that you should focus on.

That wraps up our guide on the best Diablo 4 Necromancer builds. For other playstyles, check out our Diablo 4 Barbarian builds, Druid builds, Sorcerer builds, and Rogue builds.


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About the Author
Hayden Hefford avatar

Hayden Hefford

Guides Writer

Hayden is a guides writer for RPS, having joined the team in September 2021 after a few months of freelancing for TheGamer. They're a big fan of survival games, especially those that focus on the undead. Zombies. Walkers. Shamblers. Whatever you call them, Hayden is definitely a fan.

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