Necromancers have a few paths to success when it comes to PvP situations in Diablo 4. Against amateur gamers, relying on minions and casting so safe ranged attacks might work. But those who want to live on the battlefield against skilled opponents will need to do better than this.
Thankfully, the Necromancer has all the tools to succeed in Diablo 4 against expert gamers and their favorite classes. With some savvy decision-making, players can have both offensive output and survivability in spades. Lesser-geared opposition will fall prey to this build's damage and better-geared players will likely be unable to kill the Necromancer before the player can get to safety.
Updated on June 29th, 2023 by Hodey Johns: This guide has been updated for the huge rebalance patch in 1.0.3. Many guides have remained untouched because most skills got a simple numerical buff or nerf to bring them in line with the rest of the skills in the game. Especially with Vulnerable builds becoming so powerful, this was an appropriate rebalance. However, not every skill received a small buff or nerf. Some of these were significant enough to change builds for and this build was one of those. Some of these buffs weren't to damage but to cooldown or resource reduction which alters the skill rotation entirely. The old build might still be better than it was before but this new guide gets the absolute most out of the class.
Skill Tree
Skill | Points |
Hemorrhage | 5 |
Enhanced Hemorrhage | 1 |
Initiate's Hemorrhage | 1 |
Blood Lance | 5 |
Enhanced Blood Lance | 1 |
Supernatural Blood Lance | 1 |
Unliving Energy | 3 |
Imperfectly Balanced | 3 |
Blood Mist | 5 |
Enhanced Blood Mist | 1 |
Dreadful Blood Mist | 1 |
Bone Prison | 5 |
Enhanced Bone Prison | 1 |
Dreadful Bone Prison | 1 |
Decrepify | 5 |
Enhanced Decrepify | 1 |
Abhorrent Decrepify | 1 |
Amplify Damage | 3 |
Death's Embrace | 3 |
Death's Reach | 3 |
Blood Wave | 1 |
Prime Blood Wave | 1 |
Supreme Blood Wave | 1 |
Stand Alone | 1 |
Memento Mori | 3 |
Rathma's Vigor | 1 |
At the maximum level and with all the Renown gathered, players will have 58 skill points to invest. At first glance, this may appear to be something akin to a tank build which isn't entirely wrong. It will generate Blood Orbs and prevent the PvP Necromancer from dying as quickly as most typical mage classes might.
However, the inherent extra damage against players here becomes apparent in practice. The lone Bone skill, Bone Prison, traps opponents in a location, freeing the Necromancer to cast some extremely powerful Blood spells, Fortifying their own life and getting Overpower effects on the poor souls who get caught. Combined with the slow from Decrepify, there is no chance for enemies to escape.
Paragon Boards
Board | Paragon/Legendary Nodes | Glyph |
Start | Prime, Knowledge | Dominate |
Bloodbath | Hardened, Powerhouse, Bloodbath, Guarded Advance, Thick Hide | Essence |
Blood Begets Blood | Aggression, Blood Begets Blood, Invigorated, Vampiric, Blood Empowered, Blooddrinker | Blood-Drinker |
Scent of Death | Scent of Death, Ruin, Corrective | Undaunted |
Flesh-Eater | Stifle | Sacrificial |
The paragon boards and glyphs can be a bit tough to figure out. It's a matter of adjusting the boards so that they snake properly. Few players will get to the maximum 200 paragon points but those that do will find that their powers are enhanced by enormous magnitudes.
Listing all nodes would be tedious and impossible to read, but if gamers move between the major nodes listed, it shouldn't be an issue. Make sure to purchase all relevant stat bonus nodes inside the designated glyph areas.
Most class builds should spread out more evenly but this class gets nearly all of its necessary nodes from just two boards. Since this build doesn't generate corpses, the Sacrificial glyph and the Scent of Death node both act as flat increases in damage without needing to do anything special.
Gear
Slot | Aspect/Piece |
Helm | Harlequin Crest |
Chest | Aspect of Might |
Gloves | Tidal Aspect |
Pants | Temerity |
Boots | Exploiters Aspect |
Amulet | Aspect of Untimely Death |
Ring | Blood-Seeker's Aspect |
Ring | Blood-Soaked Aspect |
Main Hand | Aspect of Rathma's Chosen |
Off-Hand | Aspect of Bursting Bones |
With the new aspect system, gamers have a ton of freedom to take the piece of gear they find with the best stats and then add their favorite effect to it. Increasing potion efficiency helps out a bit but these aspects are game-changing. Note that some of these aspects can be swapped in and out on other pieces of gear; which piece has which aspect is not important.
Temerity, a unique item, is one of the best pieces for this particular build. Blood Orbs will be consistently healing the PvP Necromancer, sometimes when the character is at maximum health. Turning this bonus healing into a Barrier makes the character even more unkillable, as though Blood Mist didn't make this tough enough.
Book of the Dead
- Skeletal Skirmishers - Sacrifice
- Bone Mages - Sacrifice
- Blood Golem - Sacrifice
World Tiers can get out of control when it comes to difficulty. Thankfully, the Book of the Dead is a simple way to keep pace with the escalating challenge. Those who haven't tried out PvP yet may not understand how sacrificing all minions is advantageous but veterans on the Fields of Hatred get it.
Experts know how to abuse the game's AI for the Necromancer's minions, making them brainlessly easy to kill. Instead of constantly sending them in and watching them die, receive some free perks for never needing their services to begin with. Especially for the Bone Mages, the extra Overpower damage raises this build's ceiling nicely. Also, Memento Mori makes the sacrifice even stronger.
Diablo 4 is available now for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.