Diablo 4 – Necromancer Skills Guide (Season 4)

The Necromancer class in Diablo 4 has access to 19 different skills in six categories. Additionally, most skills have an enhancement and two upgrades that improve them in a variety of ways.

The following section provides an overview of all Necromancer skills, enhancements, and upgrades. For a detailed list of Necromancer passives, refer to our Necromancer Passive Talents page.

For more general information about the class, refer to our Necromancer Guide.

Basic Skills

Basic Skills are spammable skills whose primary purpose is to regenerate Essence in order to be able to use more powerful skills from other categories.

Decompose

Essence Generation	10 per second
Lucky Hit Chance	40%
Damage Type	Shadow
Description	Tear the flesh from an enemy, dealing {#}% damage per second and forming a usable Corpse with the flesh every 1 second.
Enhanced Decompose	Decompose now causes a small explosion [40% weapon damage] when creating a corpse or when the enemy dies, and you gain 10 Essence.
Acolyte’s Decompose	Decompose explosions make enemies Vulnerable for 4 seconds.
Initiate’s Decompose	Decompose Slows enemies by 50%. When Decompose explodes, you gain 30%[+] Movement Speed for 8 seconds.

Reap

Essence Generation	4 per enemy hit
Lucky Hit Chance	17%
Damage Type	Shadow
Description	Sweep an ethereal scythe in front of you, dealing {#}% damage. Hitting an enemy with Reap increases your Damage Reduction by 15% for 2 seconds.
Enhanced Reap	If an enemy hit by Reap dies within 2 seconds, you gain 30% Attack Speed for 3 seconds.
Acolyte’s Reap	Reap forms a Corpse under the first enemy hit. Can only occur every 4 seconds.
Initiate’s Reap	Reap instantly executes non-Bosses below 5% Life.

Hemorrhage

Essence Generation	9
Lucky Hit Chance	35%
Damage Type	Physical
Description	Burst an enemy’s blood, dealing {#}% damage. Hemorrhage has a 20%% chance to form a Blood Orb.
Enhanced Hemorrhage	After picking up a Blood Orb, your next Hemorrhage also deals damage to enemies around your target and grants 2 additional Essence per enemy hit.
Acolyte’s Hemorrhage	Hemorrhage gains an additional 20% Attack Speed while Healthy.
Initiate’s Hemorrhage	Hemorrhage grants 1.6% Maximum Life as Fortify each time it hits an enemy, and has a 1.5% chance per enemy hit to Fortify you for 100% Maximum Life.

Bone Splinters

Essence Generation	7
Lucky Hit Chance	17%
Damage Type	Physical
Description	Fire three Bone Splinters, dealing {#}% damage each. Each subsequent time an enemy is hit by the same cast of Bone Splinters, you gain 1 Essence.
Enhanced Bone Splinters	Bone Splinters has a 25% chance to fire 2 additional projectiles if cast while you have 50 or more Essence.
Acolyte’s Bone Splinters	Hitting the same enemy at least 3 times with the same cast of Bone Splinters grants 8% Critical Strike Chance for 4 seconds.
Initiate’s Bone Splinters	Bone Splinters has a 20% chance per hit to make enemies Vulnerable for 2 seconds.

Core Skills

These are some of the most used Necromancer skills in any build. However, while Core Skills have no cooldown, their biggest drawback is their Essence cost.

Blight

Essence Cost	25
Lucky Hit Chance	40%
Damage Type	Shadow
Description	Unleash concentrated blight that deals {#}% damage and leaves behind a defiled area, dealing {#}% damage over 6 seconds.
Enhanced Blight	Blight Slows enemies by 25%.
Paranormal Blight	Blight has a 30% chance to Immobilize enemies for 2.5 seconds on impact.
Supernatural Blight	You and your Minions deal x20% increased damage to enemies within Blight.

Sever

Essence Cost	20
Lucky Hit Chance	20%
Damage Type	Shadow
Description	A specter of you charges forward and attacks with its scythe for {#}% damage then returns to you and attacks again for {#}% damage.
Enhanced Sever	Sever damages enemies along its path for 75% of its initial damage.
Paranormal Sever	Every 3rd cast of Sever makes enemies Vulnerable for 3 seconds.
Supernatural Sever	Sever deals x2% increased damage for each Minion you have upon cast.

Blood Surge

Essence Cost	30
Lucky Hit Chance	12%
Damage Type	Physical
Description	Draw blood from enemies, dealing {#}% damage, and expel a blood nova, dealing {#}% damage. Blood Surge’s nova damage is increased by x5% per enemy drained, up to x50%.
Enhanced Blood Surge	Blood Surge heals you for 3% of your maximum Life when drawing blood from enemies. If 4 or more enemies are drawn from, then heal for an additional 2.5% of your maximum Life.
Paranormal Blood Surge	If an enemy is damaged by Blood Surge‘s nova while you are Healthy, then gain 1 stack of Overwhelming Blood. When you have 5 stacks of Overwhelming Blood, your next Blood Surge Overpowers.
Supernatural Blood Surge	Each time an enemy is hit by Blood Surge’s nova, you are Fortified for 1% Maximum Life. While you are Fortified for over 50% of your Maximum Life, Blood Surge deals x30% increased damage.

Blood Lance

Essence Cost	15
Lucky Hit Chance	33%
Damage Type	Physical
Description	Throw a blood lance that lingers in an enemy for 3 seconds, dealing {#}% damage to the enemy and all other lanced enemies.
Enhanced Blood Lance	Blood Lance Pierces through enemies who are currently lanced, dealing 10% reduced damage to subsequent enemies after the first.
Paranormal Blood Lance	While at least 2 enemies or a Boss are affected by Blood Lance, you gain 15% Attack Speed and Blood Lance‘s Essence cost is reduced by 3.
Supernatural Blood Lance	After casting Blood Lance 6 times, your next cast of Blood Lance is guaranteed to Overpower and spawns a Blood Orb under the first enemy hit.

Bone Spear

Essence Cost	25
Lucky Hit Chance	50%
Damage Type	Physical
Description	Conjure a bone spear from the ground, dealing {#}% damage and Piercing through enemies.
Enhanced Bone Spear	Bone Spear breaks into 3 shards when it is destroyed, dealing 25% damage each.
Paranormal Bone Spear	Bone Spear has a 5% increased Critical Strike Chance. If Bone Spear’s primary projectile Critically Strikes, it fires 2 additional bone shards upon being destroyed.
Supernatural Bone Spear	Bone Spear makes the first enemy hit Vulnerable for 3 seconds.

Macabre Skills

Macabre Skills help to boost the defensive capabilities of the Necromancer, as well as providing powerful offensive options.

Corpse Explosion

Lucky Hit Chance	25%
Damage Type	Physical
Description	Detonate a Corpse, dealing {#}% damage to surrounding enemies.
Enhanced Corpse Explosion	Corpse Explosion‘s radius is increased by 15%.
Blighted Corpse Explosion	Corpse Explosion becomes a Darkness Skill and, Instead of exploding, Corpse Explosion releases a vile miasma dealing 95% Shadow Damage over 6 seconds.
Plagued Corpse Explosion	Corpse Explosion deals x10% increased damage to enemies that are Slowed, Stunned, or Vulnerable. These damage bonuses can stack.

Blood Mist

Cooldown	24 seconds
Lucky Hit Chance	9%
Damage Type	Physical
Description	Disperse into a bloody mist, becoming Immune for 3 seconds. Your periodically deal 2% damage to enemies, healing for {#}% of your Maximum Life.
Enhanced Blood Mist	Casting a Skill that Overpowers reduces the cooldown of Blood Mist by 2 seconds.
Ghastly Blood Mist	Blood Mist leaves behind a Corpse every 1 second.
Dreadful Blood Mist	You gain +10% Critical Strike Chance for 4 seconds after Blood Mist ends.

Bone Prison

Cooldown	18 seconds
Description	Unearth a prison of bone with {#} Life that surrounds the target area for 6 seconds. Friendly players and Minions can freely pass through Bone Prison walls.
Enhanced Bone Prison	Enemies inside of Bone Prison when cast are Vulnerable for 8 seconds.
Ghastly Bone Prison	If an enemy is trapped by Bone Prison, gain 25 Essence, plus an additional 5 per enemy trapped.
Dreadful Bone Prison	Reduce your active cooldowns by 0,5 seconds for each enemy trapped by Bone Prison, up to 3 seconds.

Curse Skills

The Curse Skill category includes all Necromancer skills that inflict Curses upon enemies. Curses help with dealing damage over time and increase the damage dealt to Cursed enemies.

Iron Maiden

Essence Cost	10
Damage Type	Physical
Description	Curse the target area. Enemies afflicted by Iron Maiden take {#}% damage each time they deal direct damage. Lasts 10 seconds.
Enhanced Iron Maiden	Iron Maiden no longer costs Essence. Instead, gain 5 Essence for each enemy Cursed. Does not work with enemies who are already cursed with Iron Maiden.
Horrid Iron Maiden	When at least 3 enemies are afflicted by Iron Maiden, its damage is increased by x30%.
Abhorrent Iron Maiden	Heal for 7% of your maximum Life when an enemy dies while afflicted with Iron Maiden.

Decrepify

Essence Cost	10
Description	Curse the target area. Enemies afflicted by Decrepify are Slowed by {#}% and deal {#}% less damage for 10 seconds.
Enhanced Decrepify	Lucky Hit: Enemies hit while afflicted with Decrepify have up to a 10% chance to be Stunned for 2 seconds.
Horrid Decrepify	When you or your Minions hit an enemy afflicted with Decrepify below 10% Life, they are instantly killed. Does not work on Bosses.
Abhorrent Decrepify	Lucky Hit: Enemies hit while afflicted with Decrepify have up to a 15% chance to reduce your active cooldowns by 1 seconds.

Corpse and Macabre Skills

With these skills, Necromancers can boost their own damage while summoning additional horrors to deal even more combined destruction.

Corpse Tendrils

Cooldown	11 seconds
Lucky Hit Chance	20%
Damage Type	Physical
Description	Veins burst out of a Corpse, pulling in enemies, Stunning them for 3 seconds, and dealing {#}% damage to them. Does not consume the Corpse.
Enhanced Corpse Tendrils	Enemies who are in range of Corpse Tendrils are Slowed by 50% before being pulled.
Plagued Corpse Tendrils	Enemies damaged by Corpse Tendrils are made Vulnerable for 3 seconds.
Blighted Corpse Tendrils	Corpse Tendrils has a 35% chance when damaging enemies to drop a Blood Orb.

Bone Spirit

Cooldown	12 seconds
Essence Cost	All Remaining Essence
Lucky Hit Chance	33%
Damage Type	Physical
Description	Consume all of your Essence to conjure a spirit of bone that seeks enemies. Upon reaching an enemy, the spirit explodes, dealing {#}% damage to the target and all surrounding enemies. Damage is increased by x4% for each point of Essence spent casting Bone Spirit.
Enhanced Bone Spirit	If Bone Spirit Critically Strikes, its cooldown is reduced by 7 seconds. This effect can only happen once per cast.
Ghastly Bone Spirit	Bone Spirit has an additional 10%[+] Critical Strike Chance.
Dreadful Bone Spirit	After Bone Spirit hits an enemy, you generate 30% of your Maximum Essence over the next 4 seconds.

Ultimate Skills

Ultimate Skills are powerful skills that have a long cooldown. Ultimate Skills must be built around in order to be effective, and only one can be chosen at a time.

Army of the Dead

Cooldown	70 seconds
Lucky Hit Chance	64%
Damage Type	Physical
Description	Call forth the deep buried dead. Volatile undead emerge over the next 7 seconds that explode when around enemies, dealing 45% damage.
Prime Army of the Dead	When Army of the Dead‘s Skeletons explode, they have a 100% chance to leave behind a Corpse.
Supreme Army of the Dead	Army of the Dead also raises your Skeletal Warriors and Skeletal Mages.

Blood Wave

Cooldown	50 seconds
Lucky Hit Chance	20%
Damage Type	Physical
Description	Conjure a tidal wave of blood that deals 150% damage and knocks enemies back.
Prime Blood Wave	Blood Wave Slows enemies by 50% for 4 seconds.
Supreme Blood Wave	Blood Wave leaves behind three Blood Orbs as it travels.

Bone Storm

Cooldown	60 seconds
Lucky Hit Chance	40%
Damage Type	Physical
Description	A swirling storm of bones appears around you and your Golem, dealing 180% to surrounding enemies over 10 seconds.
Prime Bone Storm	Your Damage Reduction is increased by 15% while Bone Storm is active.
Supreme Bone Storm	Your Critical Strike Chance is increased by 20%[+] while Bone Storm is active.

Dismount Skill

While mounted, the Necromancer class has access to a unique Dismount Skill which causes them to jump off the mount, slam the ground, and create a frontal cone of magic bones, damaging enemies in the way. Players that are struck by an enemy are automatically dismounted and are unable to use their Dismount Skill.