Diablo 4: Necromancer Leveling Build Guide

Are you a solo player who’s struggling to go through Sanctuary? Do you hate being alone when playing Diablo 4? If you answered yes, then the Necromancer class might just be for you. Many players feel that the Necromancer is one of the best classes in the current meta but even then, slogging through the first 50 levels of the game can take a while.

If you feel like you should be leveling at a faster rate, then your build might not be optimized for XP farming at all. Lucky for you, we’ll share our secrets to leveling quickly as Diablo 4’s local undead army general.

Before giving you our tips, let’s take a look at how the Necromancer works in Diablo 4 first.

Diablo 4 Necromancer Class Overview

The Necromancer is a caster/summoner class that specializes in the dark arts. Their skill tree branches out into three categories - Bone, Blood, and Darkness, all of which are vital in the build we’re about to share with you.

Necromancers have two primary resources. First is Essence, which is used to cast your skills. The second resource is the corpses you leave in your path.

The class is squishy in the early game. However, you’ll find yourself close to enemies as a Necromancer mainly because most of your skills have really short range. The Sorcerer class makes up for their low defenses with long-range skills.

Don’t worry though as while you can’t fling fireballs from afar, you’ll have a variety of undead allies along with you as a Necromancer. The unique Class Mechanic of the Necromancer is the Book of the Dead. This lets you customize your undead armies to better suit your playstyle.

For instance, you can customize your skeleton soldiers to become more tanky at the expense of doing less damage.

You’re going to be spending a lot of time tinkering with the Book of the Dead as a Necromancer. To help you out, here’s a quick look at the upgrades you can get from it.

A Necromancer starts to shine once you unlock all of the summons. At the base level, you can have 4 skeletons, 3 skeleton mages, and 1 golem accompanying you. With the right gear, you can have even more. You must run through the early levels as fast as possible because Necromancers can be very vulnerable when alone.

Diablo 4 Necromancer Quick Leveling Build

The Necromancer isn’t as squishy as the Sorcerer thanks to the amazing passives you have access to later in the game. This build focuses more on your passive abilities and how it can take advantage of the Healthy status effect.

If you’re new to the game, the Healthy status means having more than 80% health. Since you’ll be surrounded by minions most of the time, staying in the Healthy status is actually easy.

Speaking of your minions, here’s how you should set up yours.

• Skeletal Warriors - For these, you should get the Skirmishers. They are great overall thanks to their high damage. The tanking will be left in the hands of your other minions.

• Skeletal Mages - Pick the Bone mages. They can deal insane amounts of damage to groups of enemies. It’s a great way to lessen the crowd if there are too many.

• Iron Golem - The Iron Golem will serve as your best distraction. It will be easy to stay Healthy most of the time when this behemoth is taking the damage for you.

Active Abilities

Reap - As a basic skill, Reap’s best asset is that it takes out enemies in front of you in a fan-like shape. Since Necromancers rely heavily on corpses, Reaps makes it easier for you to have all of the corpses you need nearby. The Acolyte Reap upgrade makes this the base skill with the highest ability to generate corpses.

Blood Surge - On the other hand, Blood Surge will be your primary source of damage. It’s a close-range skill but it’s a reliable source of damage and it can also provide Overpower when upgraded to Paranormal Blood Surge. The more enemies that get hit by Blood Surge, the higher the chances of your triggering Overpower.

Blood Mist - Since you’re going to be vulnerable most of the time as a Necromancer, you’ll need a good defensive ability to keep you alive. Blood Mist makes you invulnerable for a short duration while dealing damage to enemies and healing you at the same time. It has a long cooldown but your Blood Surge upgrades can help mitigate this problem.

Iron Maiden - This will be your main source for generating Essence. It doesn’t deal a lot of damage but is very reliable at keeping enemies at bay early on in the game. You can swap this out for Army of the Dead when it becomes available.

Corpse Tendril - When used properly, Corpse Tendrill will help you quickly dispose of large groups of enemies. Partner it with Blood Surge and you’ve got an amazing way of dealing damage to enemies in huge groups. Thanks to its short cooldown, you can crowd-control enemies better with this skill.

Army of the Dead - Necromancers start to show their weakness when not accompanied by their army. This becomes particularly dangerous against Bosses who don’t summon mobs. Army of the Dead helps you create an enemy without corpses nearby. It can also leave behind extra corpses for later use too. It’s an amazing ability overall which can be helpful in late-game dungeons.

Passive Abilities

Rathma’s Vigor - This build will rely on Overpower a lot. Because of that, Rathma’s Vigor becomes a very crucial passive to have. It gives you guaranteed Overpower every 12 seconds as long as you’re Healthy. Even better, it gives you additional HP!

Unliving Energy - The extra Essence will do you great early in the game. Necromancers rely heavily on their primary resource so extending your Essence will always be helpful.

Imperfectly Balanced - Any passive that improves the damage of your skills is important in Diablo 4. The problem with Imperfectly Balanced is that it makes your skills cost more as well. That’s why you’re getting Unliving Energy too.

Death’s Embrace - Using Reap means you’ll have to get close to enemies most of the time. Death’s Embrace takes advantage of this and makes you capable of dealing more damage, with added survivability.

Amplify - Some of the skills you have, including Iron Maiden, will inflict Curse on enemies. Amplify will help you deal more damage to them - making it an excellent skill to have.

Coalesced Blood - When partnered with Rathma’s Vigor, Coalesced Blood makes the Necromancer even more dangerous when wielding Blood skills. Since Rathma’s Vigor basically forces you to stay Healthy, Coalesced Blood gives you even more reason to keep your HP up.

Tides of Blood - Again, this is another ability that gives you amazing bonuses when you’re Healthy. Your Blood skills can deal even more damage with this and Coalesced together.

Inspiring Leader - Your minions can benefit from your Healthy status too. The passives make you a monster when Healthy. With Inspiring Leader, your minions become even more reliable as well.

Diablo 4 Necromancer Levelling Build Skill Distribution

Early Game Tips For Necromancers In Diablo 4

1. Play With Friends

Being near a player nets you a 5% XP bonus while being in a party with a friend gives you 10% XP bonus. Needless to say, this is one of the best ways to speed up the leveling process early on in the game.

2. Do A Ton Of World Events

World Events are some of the easiest ways to level up quickly. There’s one just south of Kyovashad. This lets you in on some vital Murmuring Obols and a ton of XP from elites. Since the area is near Kyovashad, it’s easy to walk to and from it to grind for XP.

3. Don’t Waste Time On Your Equipment 

Your first hours in the game should just be focused on leveling your character to 50. It’s not wise to focus on loot farming because you’re bound to get better loot once you reach World Tier 3. For now, just focus on XP grinding and some dungeons that reward you with good Aspects for your Necromancer.

4. Craft XP Potions

Once you reach level 10, you can unlock the Alchemist feature. Focus on crafting XP potions to make leveling faster. For Necromancers, the best potion is the Weak Ironbarb Elixir. It nets you a 5% XP bonus, 100 armor, and 50 thorns for 30 minutes. To make it, you need 5 Gallowvines and 5 Biteberries.

5. Manage Corpses Properly

Don’t waste the corpses you see on the field. Some people tend to resummon new minions even if their current ones are still alive which can be a big mistake, especially during Boss and Elite fights. You’ll need to have minions with you at all times so treat corpses with care.

It’s A Corpse Party

Quick leveling with Necromancers can become difficult early on because of the lack of minions that you have. With this build, you should have no worries about keeping your Necromancer in a strong state throughout most of Diablo 4’s early game offerings.