You only need one unique to easily run this Blood Lance build deep into the end game. The only unique item I’m wearing is Temerity. Blood Lance works great for uber bosses and pushing high nightmare dungeons. Of course you can boost the damage output of this build easily with some other uniques, but it’s not required.

I’ll show you how I built this powerful Blood Lance Necromancer that is perfect for Diablo IV’s Season 2. This build is focused on dealing high damage with Blood Lance, being fortified with a barrier almost constantly, and it can easily clear both solo and group content. I’m shocked at how easy this build is to put together, even without perfect gear. It’s also a lot of fun to play and reminds me of a melee range ice spikes Sorcerer or bone spear Necromancer.

Gameplay Loop

The basic gameplay loop of the build is to use Corpse Tendrils to group the enemies up, evade through the enemy to trigger Metamorphosis vampiric power. This makes your enemies vulnerable and cursed as well as making you unstoppable. Place Iron Maiden or Decrepify on the ground. Then alternate between your basic skill Hemorrhage and your core skill Blood Lance until the enemies die. We’re boosting our Attack Speed as much as possible, so that you can pump out as many Overpower hits as possible. Then for survivability, we’ll rely on Fortify and Barrier. Using Bone Storm on cooldown when you’re in combat and if you need a quick escape, hit Blood Mist to get to a safe place or just to spawn a corpse in a boss fight.

Skill Tree

I’ll show you the base build first, some tips for leveling with necromancer, and then some options to upgrade it if you’ve found some of the unique items. First, here’s the skill tree. You can choose Iron Maiden OR Decrepify, both have pros and cons. If you’re using something that boosts damage to crowd-control or slow, pick Decrepify.

[skill-tree build-url=”https://d4builds.gg/skill-trees/necromancer/?skills=0000000011010000135101000000000000100001110000000000000300003111000333331110000000000000000000000300111330100″]

Leveling

To level my Necromancer, I started with a pure summoner build, because it’s the easiest to set up while you’re gaining XP. After getting to WT4, around level 60, I worked on getting all the gear and aspects I needed to get going with Blood Lance. I think you could level with this build, but you’d be very starved for Essence. This is the case for most core skill builds. So keep your eyes peeled for aspects that will help mitigate resource drain. You’ll probably want one of these on a ring.

• Aspect of Potent Blood – While Healthy, Blood Orbs grant [10 – 20] Essence.
• Starlight Aspect – Gain [20 – 40] of your Primary Resource for every 25% of your Life that you Heal.
• Aspect of Exposed Flesh – Lucky Hit: Up to a 10% chance to generate [30 – 50] Essence when hitting a Vulnerable enemy.
• Aspect of the Umbral – Restore [1 – 4] of your Primary Resource when you Crowd Control an enemy.

However, it’s not the end of the world if you don’t find one, just make sure you’re alternating between Blood Lance and Hemorrhage to keep your essence up.

Aspects

Offensive Aspects

• Gore Quills Aspect – Blood Lance will consume Blood Orbs to also conjure lances from them. Each additional Blood Lance deals [20 – 50%] of normal damage and prioritizes targeting un-lanced enemies.
• Blood Seeker’s Aspect – Blood Lance deals [15 – 25%] increased damage to its primary target per lanced enemy.
• Aspect of Rathma’s Chosen (on Amulet)- Whenever your Blood Skills Overpower you gain [20 – 50%] Attack Speed for 4 seconds.
• Aspect of Grasping Veins – Gain [10 – 20%] increased Critical Strike Chance for 6 seconds when you cast Corpse Tendrils. You deal [20 – 40%] bonus Critical Strike Damage to enemies damaged by Corpse Tendrils.
• Accelerating Aspect – Critical Strikes with Core Skills increase your Attack Speed by [15 – 25%] for 5 seconds.

Defense and Utility Aspects

• Aspect of Disobedience – You gain [0.6 – 1.1%] increased Armor for 4 seconds when you deal any form of damage, stacking up to [36 – 66%].
• Ghostwalker Aspect – While Unstoppable and for 4 seconds after, you gain [10 – 25%] increased Movement Speed and can move freely through enemies.
• Aspect of Shielding Storm (if not using Temerity) – Each time that Bone Storm damages an enemy, gain a Barrier equal to [2 – 5%] of your Base Life for 10 seconds.
• Aspect of Might – Basic Skills grant 20% Damage Reduction for [2.0 – 6.0] seconds.
• Aspect of Potent Blood (or another generator mentioned above) – While Healthy, Blood Orbs grant [10 – 20] Essence.

Vampiric Powers

• Hemomancy – Your attacks deal 80% of your Maximum Life as Physical damage to nearby enemies. This can only occur once every 4 seconds. You heal for 1% of your Maximum Life for each enemy damaged this way.
• Metamorphosis – When you Evade you turn into a cloud of bats, becoming Unstoppable for 4 seconds. Enemies along your path take 160% Physical damage and are inflicted with Vampiric Curse.
• Sanguine Brace – When you kill an enemy, Fortify for 6% of your Base Life. While you have more Fortify than half of your Maximum Life, you gain 8% Critical Strike Chance.
  • OR Ravenous – Lucky Hit: Up to a 20% chance to increase your Attack Speed by 40% of your Total Movement Speed for 6 seconds.
• Moonrise – Hitting an enemy with a Basic Skill grants you 4% Attack Speed for 10 seconds, stacking up to 5 times. Upon reaching maximum stacks, you enter a Vampiric Bloodrage, gaining 160% Basic Skill damage and 15% Movement Speed for 10 seconds.
• Prey on the Weak – You deal 16% increased damage to Vulnerable enemies. Enemies are Vulnerable while affected by a Vampiric Curse from your other Vampiric Powers.

Book of the Dead

For Skeletal Warriors, you want to sacrifice defenders if you DO NOT have max resistances. This will help you get to your 70% max. Once you get there, switch to sacrificing skirmishers for 5% critical chance. It may also be worth always running the defender sacrifice and putting more damage attributes on your armor. For Skeletal Mages, sacrifice bone for the increase to overpower damage. And lastly, for Golem, sacrifice Bone for the 10% increased attack speed.

Unique Gear

There are tons of unique items in Diablo 4 this season that can boost this build to insane levels. Unfortunately I wasn’t lucky early on and used Temerity pants all the way through level 90. For pushing higher level solo nightmare dungeons, Temerity is a great option for survivability. The blood orbs we collect will over heal us, giving us an almost constant barrier. If you use Temerity, you can also slot the Conceited Aspect for 25% increased damage while you have a barrier. Here are some other unique items that will work with this build.

• Blood Moon Breeches – Ignore the minion part of these unique pants but you’ll be doing 70% more overpower damage to enemies effected by iron maiden, decrepify, or vampiric curse – Your Minions have a [3 – 7%] chance to curse enemies. Enemies affected by at least 1 of your curses take x70% increased Overpower damage from you.
• Tibault’s Will – These pants are a must-use if you get them. They will solve your resource issues and allow you to do more damage after your dodge thanks to Metamorphosis Vampiric Power – You deal [20 – 40%] increased damage while Unstoppable and for 4 seconds after. When you become Unstoppable, gain 50 of your Primary Resource.
• Banished Lord’s Talisman – This amulet can boost your overpower damage and give you another way to guarantee it. But be careful that you’re not losing too much armor. After swapping to this amulet, I was dying a lot more in high nightmare dungeons because I lost a big chunk of armor on my amulet – After you spend 300 of your Primary Resource, your next Core Skill is guaranteed to Overpower. Your Critical Strikes that Overpower deal [80 – 120%] increased damage.
• Ring of Starless Skies – This is another option for resource generation if you haven’t found a proper aspect. – Each consecutive Core Skill cast reduces the Resource cost of your next Core Skill by [8 – 12%] up to a maximum of 40% .

Paragon Board

I haven’t finished my paragon board yet as I’m not level 100, but here’s what I have so far.

These are the most important legendary nodes/boards:

• Blood Begets Blood – Blood Orbs grant x5% increased damage, up to x15%, for 5 seconds.
• Bloodbath – Deal x35% increased Overpower damage.
• Flesh-eater – Consuming 5 Corpses grants x40% increased damage for 6 seconds.
• Scent of Death – With at least 2 Corpses Nearby, you gain 15% Damage Reduction. With no Corpses Nearby, you deal x15% increased damage.

The most important glyphs to level up are:

Blood-drinker – Grants + [144%] bonus to all Magic nodes within range. Additional Bonus: Blood Orbs Fortify you for 6.7% of your Maximum Life. Radius Requirements: 40 Intelligence

Dominate – For every 5 Willpower purchased within range, you deal + [37.87%] increased Overpower damage. Additional Bonus: When you Overpower an enemy, all damage they take from you and your Minions is increased by x12% for 5 seconds.

Sacrificial – Grants + [144%] bonus to all Magic nodes within range. Additional Bonus: You deal x10% increased damage while you have no active Minions. Radius Requirements: 40 Intelligence

Amplify – Grants + [144%] bonus to all Magic nodes within range. Additional Bonus: Enemies affected by Curse Skills take x10% increased damage from you and your Minions. Radius Requirements: 40 Intelligence

Essence – For every 5 Dexterity purchased within range, you deal + [19.2%] increased Critical Strike Damage. Additional Bonus: Critical Strikes deal x22% increased damage to enemies that are not Healthy.