Best Diablo 4 Necromancer builds for leveling, endgame & PvP

Diablo 4‘s Necromancer class is back to raise the undead and take down minions from afar. We’ve put together the best Necromancer builds for leveling, endgame, and PvP to maximize your damage output.

The Necromancer has always been one of the most powerful classes in Diablo, and that’s no different in Diablo 4. Like all the character classes in the game, such as the Barbarians and Sorcerers, the Necromancer is one many already know and love. They can inflict damage from long-range and from up close, but the main draw of the best Necromancer builds in Diablo 4 is utilizing a horde of undead minions.

The best Necromancer builds in Diablo 4 emphasize the careful management of a troop of Skeletal Warriors, Mages, and the Golem. The Skeletons and Golem do melee damage to enemies, while the Skeletal mages pelt demons with magic from afar. The Necromancers themselves have a lot of options when it comes to how they deal damage, relying on a mixture of spells and curses, as well as some nasty melee attacks.

If you’re looking to become a custodian of the balance between life and death, here are some of the best Necromancer builds for leveling, endgame, and PvP to survive the legions of Hell in Diablo 4.

Contents

• Best Necromancer leveling build
  • Best Necromancer leveling build summary
• Best Necromancer endgame build
  • Endgame item build
• Best Necromancer PvP build
• How to use the Necromancer class

Best Necromancer build in Diablo 4

So far, the best Necromancer build in the current Diablo 4 meta is the Skeleton Army Necromancer build. This build has gained some traction since the game was released. We’ve tried it ourselves and also feel it’s currently the best build for the Necromancer in Diablo 4.

The build plays to the Necromancer’s strengths and also allows for a lot of player freedom and experimentation while making use of a powerful Skeleton army. Here’s how to assemble the best Necromancer build.

Best Necromancer leveling build summary

You’ll begin with the ability to summon four skeleton warriors when the game begins. By focusing on certain skills as early as possible, you’ll be able to make this squad of boney minions exceptionally lethal.

Once you’ve cleared the game’s opening missions, you’ll be given the opportunity to access the Necromancer’s Book of the Dead – an alternative set of skills that govern your undead minions. In this early stage, only the Skirmisher variety of Skeletal Warriors will be unlocked. However, as soon as you’re able to select the first Skirmisher upgrade, you can learn to summon a fifth Skeletal Warrior.

Once you’re able, upgrade the passive skill Skeletal Warrior Mastery to improve the health and damage output of your minions. This will take three level-up points to fully upgrade but it will make your five skeletons much more powerful.

At level 15 you’ll get the ability to summon three Skeletal Mages. Unlike the Skeletal Warriors, the Mages will hang back and shoot shadow damage at enemies from afar. You can select any upgrade from the Book of the Dead that you like, just be careful not to select the Sacrifice option. This will sacrifice your minions, buffing the Necromancer, but losing the ability to summon them. So, stay away from that, as that’s another build entirely.

You should also put three points into the Skeletal Mage Mastery to make sure your Mages are fully upgraded. Finally, you’ll be given the option to summon a Golem at level 25. You can also upgrade Golem Mastery by three points to toughen the already powerful creature.

There are other passive skills you can use to buff your minions so as soon as you can, place three points into each of the following skills to get the best from this build:

• Bonded in Essence – Mages can heal other minions
• Death’s Defense – Minions can’t be instant-killed by one attack.
• Hellbent Commander – Minion’s damage output increased by 10% when they’re close to you.
• Inspiring Leader – Buffs your minion’s attack speed when you’re at full health.
• Kalan’s Edict (Key Passive) – Improves minion’s attack speed by 15%. This doubles if more than seven minions are active at once.

This will complete your undead retinue and will allow you to take the fight to Diablo with a full squad of minions. It’s also by far the best Necromancer build in Diablo 4 at the present time.

Best Necromancer endgame build

Once you get past level 50 and have seen the ending of Diablo 4, things change as you’re launched into the endgame. This means the build you used to reach this point may no longer be sufficient, and to really make the most of the endgame content, you’ll need an endgame build.

Remember, if you want to switch from the above leveling build to the below endgame build, you’ll need to respec your skill points. Or you can simply start a new character and begin the game with the endgame build, skipping the campaign when you do. The choice is yours.

Here’s the best endgame Necromancer build in Diablo 4 currently – the Bone Spear Necromancer:

Level	Skill
2	Bone Splinters
3	Enhanced Bone Splinters
4	Bone Spear
5	Enhanced Bone Spear
6	Supernatural Bone Spear
7	Bone Spear
8	Blood Mist
9	Corpse Explosion
10	Enhanced Corpse Explosion
11	Blighted Corpse Explosion
12	Bone Spear
13	Bone Spear
14	Bone Spear
15	Grim Harvest
16	Grim Harvest
17	Grim Harvest
18	Hewed Flesh
19	Corpse Tendrils
20	Enhanced Corpse Tendrils
21	Plagued Corpse Tendrils
22	Serration
23	Serration
24	Serration
25	Compound Fracture
26	Compound Fracture
27	Compound Fracture
28	Evulsion
29	Evulsion
30	Evulsion
31	Stand Alone
32	Memento Mori
33	Memento Mori
34	Memento Mori
35	Ossified Essence
36	Bone Storm
37	Prime Bone Storm
38	Supreme Bone Storm
39	Corpse Explosion
40	Corpse Explosion
41	Corpse Explosion
42	Corpse Explosion
43	Unliving Energy
44	Imperfectly Balanced
45	Imperfectly Balanced
46	Imperfectly Balanced
47	Hewed Flesh
48	Hewed Flesh
49	Stand Alone
50	Paragon Begins
1 – Renown	Stand Alone
2 – Renown	Fueled by Death
3 – Renown	Fueled by Death
4 – Renown	Fueled by Death
5 – Renown	Unliving Energy
6 – Renown	Unliving Energy
7 – Renown	Acolytes Bone Splinters
8 – Renown	Death’s Reach
9 – Renown	Death’s Reach
10 – Renown	Death’s Reach

As this build has little need for minions and makes use of passives that buff solo Necromancers, we’d recommend sacrificing each minion for the various bonuses that provides. Of course, if you don’t want to roll solo, then the Leveling Build also works in endgame. Just be aware that the Bone Spear Necromancer is more powerful at this point.

Paragon Board

At level 50 you’ll gain access to the Paragon Board to continue building your character to level 100. Here are the boards you need to focus on to maximize the potential of the best endgame Necromancer build:

• Starting board
• Bone Graft board
• Scent of Death board
• Flesh Eater board

Glyphs

Here are the Glyphs we’d recommend activating as your work through the Paragon board:

• Blood-drinker
• Sacrificial
• Essence
• Control

Endgame item build

Here are the items you should aim to equip for your endgame Necromancer build in Diablo 4:

Item name	Item type
‍Deathless Visage	Helm
Boneweave Armor of Disobedience	Chest Armor
Splintering Boneweave Gauntlets	Gloves
Temerity	Pants
Penitent Greaves	Boots
‍Two-Handed Sword of Grasping Veins	Main Hand
Storm Swell Runic Orb	Offhand
Chain of Serration	Amulet
Ring of Umbral	Ring 1
Band of Exposed Flesh	Ring 2

Best Necromancer PvP build

Interestingly, the best PvP Necromancer build in Diablo 4 in the current meta is also the Bone Spear Necromancer. To make the best possible Necromancer for player-on-player battles in Diablo 4, craft the Endgame build above, complete with items and Paragon information.

This is likely to change during Season 1 of Diablo 4, but for now, the Bone Spear Necromancer is the best build to use in PvP.

How to use the best Necromancer build in Diablo 4

The main objective of the Necromancer class in Diablo 4 is to use death as its primary weapon and inflict damage from a range. You can summon skeletal minions and cast Bone, Blood, or Shadow skills to wear down enemies over time. As a matter of fact, Necromancer is suitable for both solo and multiplayer plays.

As for the Necromancers themselves, you can choose to hang back and play a supporting role while your minions take the fight to enemies, or you can join the fray with them. The great thing about the leveing Necromancer build is it gives the player lots of freedom when it comes to how they deal damage.

You’ll need to make sure your minions are supported, so keep an eye on their numbers and raise new Skeletons if any die during battle. You can also support them with curses, spells, and ranged attacks such as Bone Spear or Bone Splinters. Or you can get up close and personal with your Necromancer and use skills like Reap to do massive amounts of melee damage to enemies.

Curses and spells like Decreptify and Corpse Explosion also put enemies on the back foot, making them easy pickings for you and your minions.

That wraps up everything we know about the best Necromancer build in Diablo 4. If anything changes, we’ll be sure to update our build. So, do check back regularly.

There you have it — those are some of the best Necromancer builds in Diablo 4. If you want to know about more class builds and the game in general, be sure to check our other guides and content:

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