Diablo 4 Bone Spirit Necromancer Endgame Build Guide

The Necromancer in Diablo 4 has an array of Skills that are often overlooked because of the fact that the class can do a lot with its minions. If you try out the other spells of the Necromancer though, you might immediately jump ship and begin sacrificing your minions for their great passive bonuses instead.

Believe it or not, a lot of the Necromancer builds for the endgame don’t rely on the summoning powers of the class. In fact, a lot of players utilize the Sacrifice mechanic to build a powerful solo build that can take on any challenge in the endgame. That’s what we’re going to share today.

The Skeletal Kamikaze

This build will focus heavily on the Bone Spirit Skill of the Necromancer. When using this Skill, the Necromancer summons a skeleton that will actively seek out enemies. It will latch onto a target and then explode to deal a ton of damage. With the right build, you can decimate even the toughest bosses on Sanctuary.

Of course, you’re going to have to work hard to make this build work. That’s all going to be worth it though as the result is a devastating burst build that will make the fiends of Sanctuary shake in terror whenever they see your Bone Spirit.

Caged Hearts

For this build, make sure to get the following Caged Hearts as they can drastically improve how this build works.

1. Caged Heart of the Sacrilegious

Effect: Walking near a Corpse automatically activates an equipped Corpse Skill every second, dealing [28 - 38]%[x] reduced damage. (Necromancer Only)

This Caged Heart is going to be an amazing addition to this build because you can get an extra, no Mana cast of your Corpse Skills. Since you aren’t going to use the Corpses for summons, all of the Corpses that you create will be put into using the skills on this build.

2. Caged Heart of the Decrepit Aura

Effect: When at least 4 enemies are near you, gain an aura that automatically curses surrounding enemies with Decrepify for [6 - 17] seconds. (Necromancer Only)

Decrepify is going to be a great source of slow and damage reduction. Both bonuses give you a better chance at surviving as well. You’ll find yourself surrounded by enemies most of the time in the endgame and that free cast of Decrepify is definitely going to be useful in many of those scenarios.

3. Caged Heart of Tempting Fate

Effect: You gain [45 - 65]%[+] Critical Strike Damage but your Non-Critical Strikes deal [20 - 25]%[x] less damage.

Although it greatly weakens your Non-Critical Strike, Caged Heart of Tempting Fate provides an even greater bonus for your Critical Strike Damage. In the cases where Bone Spirit lands a Critical Strike, you can deal a heavy amount of damage to the target it latches on.

Book of the Dead

Since you aren’t going to need your minions, it’s time to sacrifice all of your Skeletons and Golem for their amazing bonuses. All Sacrifice bonuses are worth it as they help improve your Necromancer, offensively and defensively.

1. Skeletal Warriors - Sacrifice

Effect: Your Critical Strike Chance increased by 5%, but you can no longer raise Skeletal Warriors.

We’re going to be building up your Critical Strike Chance with this build. Sacrificing your Skeletal Warriors might only give you a 5% increase in the status but that’s still significant enough to make a difference.

2. Skeletal Mages - Sacrifice

Effect:  You gain 15% Physical Resistance, but you can no longer raise Skeletal Warriors.

As with most Necromancer builds, you’re going to be very vulnerable with this one since you don’t have any minions to kite enemies for you. By Sacrificing your Skeletal Mages, you’re going to get a significant damage reduction at least.

3. Golem - Sacrifice

Effect: You deal 10% increased Shadow Damage, but you can no longer raise Skeletal Warriors.

Many of the skills on this build are going to deal Shadow Damage. The 10% bonus you get from Sacrificing the Golem will go a long way when it comes to making you hit harder on the field.

Skill Point Allocation

1. Reap - 3 Skill Points

Upgrades: Enhanced Reap, Acolyte’s Reap

Reap is going to be primarily used as a utility skill rather than one for damage. You’re going to need it to generate Corpses and Essence for this build. When you’re using Reap, make sure to face the largest group of enemies available so that you can take advantage of its huge area of coverage.

2. Unliving Energy - 3 Skill Points

One of the challenges with this build is that it will require a lot of Essence. Aside from your Essence generation passives, you’re also going to want to expand your Essence pool with this passive. This greatly reduces the chances of running out of our primary resources.

3. Hewed Flesh - 3 Skill Points

Reap is a good enough source of Corpses already but that’s not going to be enough for this build. As such, we’re going to ramp up our Corpse generation with Hewed Flesh as a passive ability.

4. Blood Mist - 1 Skill Point

Upgrades: None

The sole purpose of Blood Mist is to give you the means to escape when necessary and to break free from any crowd control effects. Blood Mist is a last resource escape so make sure to use it sparingly.

5. Corpse Explosion - 3 Skill Points

Upgrades: Enhanced Corpse Explosion, Blighted Corpse Explosion

This ability will serve as your finisher just in case Bone Spirit doesn’t kill off all enemies. Aside from its quick cooldown, Corpse Explosion also requires less Essence to use so you can spam it easily.

6. Grim Harvest - 3 Skill Points

It’s not an understatement. This build is going to use a lot of Corpses on the field.  Grim Harvest will allow you to have a steady source of Essence generation while you’re out there busy on the field.

7. Fueled by Death - 3 Skill Points

Again, since Corpse consumption is very common with this build, Fueled By Death is going to be an excellent addition to your kit. You’ll engage enemies with Corpse Tendrils and you’ll be using Corpse Explosion regularly as well. As such, you can get a lot of damage bonus from Fueled by Death.

8. Death’s Embrace - 3 Skill Points

You’ll need to come close to enemies to make Bone Spirit hit more. You’ll mostly be in front of enemies on this build. Death’s Embrace is going to be an excellent passive that makes you do more damage with all of your skills.

9. Corpse Tendrils - 7 Skill Points

Upgrades: Enhanced Corpse Tendrils, Plagued Corpse Tendrils

Corpse Tendrils will be an essential skill for this build. This is going to be your main utility skill. Condensing enemies into a smaller area. That’s going to be an important thing to consider for this build because Bone Spirit damages enemies in an area. The closer they are together, the better as they can take the full brunt of the damage.

10. Bone Spirit - 7 Skill Points

Upgrades: Enhanced Bone Spirit, Dreaded Bone Spirit

Bone Spirit is one of the most underrated skills of the Necromancer. It deals with an intense amount of damage but the downside is that if you cast it wrong, it’s only going to hit only one enemy. With the upgrades to Bone Spirit, it’s going to be easy to use this skill a few times in a single instance.

11. Reaper’s Pursuit - 1 Skill Point

Only needed to gain access to the next passive ability. Still, the Movement Speed bonus is well-appreciated.

12. Crippling Darkness - 1 Skill Point

Darkness Skills aren’t a major part of this skill but we’re still going to get one point into Crippling Darkness because that mini stun is going to be very helpful when it hits enemies.

13. Serration - 3 Skill Points

Serration is going to be another source of Critical Strike Chance for this build. As long as you maintain good levels of Essence, you’ll have a good chance of making Critical Strikes because of this passive.

14. Compound Fracture - 1 Skill Point

Only needed to gain access to the next passive. However, you’re still getting a significant damage boost whenever you make a 10th Critical Strike. With this build, it will be your goal to do as many Critical Strikes as possible.

15. Evulsion - 3 Skill Points

This makes Bone Spirit deadlier against Vulnerable enemies. You have a lot of opportunities to make enemies Vulnerable with this build so you’re going to get the most out of Bone Spirit. It will be easier to kill off Elites and bosses using Bone Spirit as long as the enemies are Vulnerable.

16. Rapid Ossification - 1 Skill Point

This will help when it comes to your cooldown management. We’re only going to need one level of it as that’s more than enough to keep your Bone Skills ready. This skill is very heavy on Essense usage so expect to trigger this passive regularly.

17. Bone Storm - 3 Skill Points

Upgrades: Enhanced Bone Storm, Supreme Bone Storm

Bone Storm is a good Ultimate Skill because it gives you the damage reduction you need to last longer in heavy exchanges. More importantly, however, it gives you a huge boost in Critical Strike Chance as long as the skill is active. That would be the perfect time to spam Bone Spirit.

18. Stand Alone - 3 Skill Points

Without any minions for this build, Stand Alone is going to be an excellent passive to have. The damage bonus it provides you will make Bone Spirit more dangerous. Since you’re alone, you’re going to take the full brunt of the damage bonus without any penalties.

19. Memento Mori - 3 Skill Points

This passive will double the bonuses you get from Sacrificing your Skeletal Mages and Warriors. That’s around 22% Physical Damage Reduction and around 7% Critical Strike Chance. Both of these are very important for this build so make sure to get this.

20. Inspiring Leader - 3 Skill Points

Your main goal to survive is to have your health at decent levels all the time. You get a massive bonus to your Attack Speed whenever your Necromancer is Healthy. Take that as an opportunity to generate more Essense and Corpses with Reap.

21. Ossified Essence - 1 Skill Point

To round up this build, we’re going to use Ossified Essence. Now you’ll see why we’re building up your Essence with Unliving Energy. Bone Spirit will deal more damage depending on the amount of Essence that you have you cast this above 50 Essence. The larger your resource pool is, the better.

Gameplay

For this build, you’re going to have to initiate fights with Reap. The reason for this is that you want to start generating Corpses as early as possible which you’ll need for your skills. You don’t need to engage enemies immediately. Wait for them to pile up before you start using Reap for maximum efficiency.

Before you use Bone Spirit, you should use Corpse Tendrils first. This will compress all of the enemies into one space. If you’re too close, you should evade and then cast Bone Spirit. With a single cast, there’s a good chance that you’re going to take out most of the enemies immediately. If you land a critical hit, then there’s a good chance that everything’s dead.

If you’re dealing with multiple mobs, make sure to focus your Bone Spiriton the most important one first. Target them so that they don’t do too much damage to you. Ideally, you’d want to target your Bone Spirit to where the Elites are.

In case Bone Spirit doesn’t get the job done, you can use Corpse Explosion to deal even more damage or to finish off any low-health enemies. You can also generate a decent amount of Essence with this ability

As a last resort, use Bone Storm to kill off any remaining enemies after your first assault. It’s not very likely that a lot of them have survived at this point. Even bosses are going to immensely struggle to survive with this build.

Blood Mist will help keep you alive. Use it as an escape tool or use it as a way to remove any crowd control effects on your Necromancer. Make sure to use this ability sparingly as it’s going to keep you alive in emergency scenarios.

Aspect

What’s great about this build is that you can do a lot with it, even if you’re just going to use Codex of Power Aspects. Here’s what you should get.

• ‍Aspect of Disobedience Halls of the Damned - Kehjistan

• ‍Aspect of Gore Quills Season's Journey

• ‍Aspect of Potent Blood Betrayer's Row - Dry Steppes

• ‍Aspect of the Umbral Champion's Demise - Dry Steppes

• ‍Blood Seeker's Aspect Mercy's Reach - Fractured Peaks

• ‍Ghostwalker Aspect Broken Bulwark - Scosglen

• ‍Offensive Aspect of Grasping Veins Corrupted Grotto - Kehjistan

Although these Aspects are easy to farm as you only need to get them from Dungeons, it’s still a lot better if you get the Legendary versions of these via random loot. Those generally provide better stat rolls compared to the ones on the Codex of Power. Since this build doesn’t require a lot of farming, you may as well try going for the Legendary Aspect versions of these.

Bones Go Boom!

This amazing endgame build for the Necromancer can deal an insane amount of damage to kill off most of the toughest enemies in Diablo 4. It can be scary to use at first as you’re relying on one skill to face the challenges of the endgame but the result of this build is very effective and explosive to say the least.