In many of the big boss fight in Diablo 4, players will be out of health and potions by the end. This appears to be the goal to keep the game challenging for most classes. With a great Blood Necromancer build, however, this particular aspect of the game will be no issue.
With the capability to make its own healing with Blood Orbs, the Necromancer will be doing fine on health while everybody else in the party is near death. Diablo 4 also offers a path for Blood builds to not just be great on health but to turn this defense into devastating offense.
Updated on June 30th, 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 |
Hewed Flesh | 3 |
Blood Lance | 5 |
Enhanced Blood Lance | 1 |
Supernatural Blood Lance | 1 |
Blood Surge | 5 |
Enhanced Blood Surge | 1 |
Supernatural Blood Surge | 1 |
Blood Mist | 5 |
Enhanced Blood Mist | 1 |
Dreadful Blood Mist | 1 |
Corpse Tendrils | 5 |
Enhanced Corpse Tendrils | 1 |
Blighted Corpse Tendrils | 1 |
Necrotic Carapace | 3 |
Gruesome Mending | 1 |
Coalesced Blood | 2 |
Tides of Blood | 3 |
Drain Vitality | 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. The magic on this build starts with the combination of Hewed Flesh and Necrotic Carapace, giving every skill a chance to Fortify the Necromancer. In conjunction with the Blood Orbs, between the healing and Foirtify, this comes off like a tank build.
But it's the guaranteed Overpower from Supernatural Blood Lance that turns this into a damage build. Since Fortify works to turn this life pool into offense when it Overpowers, Blood Lance and Rathma's Vigor will regularly take huge chunks out of boss and mob health.
Overpower will provide huge bursts with regular consistency as opposed to the best PvE Barbarian build which uses Bleed as a damage-over-time effect. Players interested in this style of play more will either want to change classes or builds.
Paragon Boards
Board | Paragon/Legendary Nodes | Glyph |
Start | Prime, Resilience, Knowledge | Blood-Drinker |
Blood Begets Blood | Aggression, Blood Begets Blood, Vampiric, Invigorated, Blood Empowered, Blooddrinker | Dominate |
Bloodbath | Thick Hide, Bloodbath, Guarded Advance, Powerhouse, Hardened | Undaunted |
Scent of Death | Shadow Resilience, Scent Of Death | Gravekeeper |
Wither | Restorative | Essence |
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.
For this build, there are only three paragon boards that make much sense at all: Blood Begets Blood, Bloodbath, and Scent of Death. Spend a great deal of the nodes on these boards and only dip into other boards for additional life and glyphs.
Overpower damage is usually intended to give tanky classes an off chance at hitting hard. The Blood Necromancer is one of few builds that can guarantee Overpower hits and can therefore reliably depend on turning Fortify and health into powerful blows.
Gear
Slot | Aspect/Piece |
Helm | Harlequin Crest |
Chest | Aspect of the Crowded Sage |
Gloves | Sacrificial Aspect |
Pants | Temerity |
Boots | Aspect of Explosive Mist |
Amulet | Aspect of Hungry Blood |
Ring | Blood Seeker's Aspect |
Ring | Fastblood Aspect |
Main Hand | Aspect of Rathma's Chosen |
Off-Hand | Aspect of Untimely Death |
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.
This build is in no shortage of amazing gear that amplifies Blood Lance's Overpower. Blood Mist can also have its cooldown reduced with Aspect of Explosive Mist despite not investing anything into the actual Corpse Explosion skill. Combined with the reduction from Enhanced Blood Mist, players can spend a great deal of time during tough fights immune to damage.
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, Book of the Dead is a simple way to keep pace with the escalating challenge. Gamers wondering what all those sacrificial nodes were about with the skills and paragon will have their question emphatically answered right here.
Blood Golem and Skeletal Skirmishers bonuses are nice but the key is Bone Mages which yield and extra 40% Overpower damage. Overpower is already a fantastic critical but with the appropriate skills and this particular Book of the Dead choice, Overpower suddenly takes massive chunks out of boss health. Remember that the Memento Mori skill will further improve these sacrifice benefits.
Diablo 4 is available now for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.