Build Introduction
This guide is a collaboration between GhazzyTV and community member Garm Z. The Blight Shadowmancer build is a very relaxing, well-rounded and high-performing build for any content, providing many layers of defenses as your enemies die to damage over time effects.
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Strengths and Weaknesses
- Great season starter
- Safe & comfortable to play
- Doesn’t require heavy gear investment or Uniques
- Has a unique item requirement to function
- Lacks single-target damage before you get the unique item
To see how this build compares to the other builds on our site, you can check out our build tier lists.
Build Requirements
EbonpiercerQuick Navigation
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Skill Bar and Skill Tree Points
Corpse Tendrils
Reap
Blood Mist
Blight
Corpse Explosion
SoulriftFollow the points allocated in the Skill Tree above for the complete 71-point build. The additional 12 skill points are completed using the Renown system.
Necromancer Class Mechanic – Book of the Dead
Since we are focusing entirely on dealing brutal damage with our shadow skills, we have no interest in bothering our minions, so they will all be sacrificed in the name of Lilith.
- Melee Skeletons: If Resistances < 50% Defenders [Sacrifice] – Resistance to All Elements. If resistances are fine then Reapers [Sacrifice] – Increases our Shadow Damage.
- Mage Skeletons: Cold [Sacrifice] – Increased damage to Vulnerable.
- Golem: Blood [Sacrifice] – Increased Maximum Life by x#%.
Gear, Stats, Gems, and Runes
The following sections cover the important systems that are essential to improving the power of your character in the endgame of Diablo 4.
Legendary Aspects
Each aspect is listed with its matching gear slot. Do your best to keep each aspect in the assigned slot. Additionally, if you are trying to farm a specific item, we recommend using your Obols to target farm them! Other recommendations for Legendary Aspect farming would be to do the Seasonal mechanic and to some extent you can farm them in Helltides as well.
| Gear Slot | Gems | Aspect / Unique | Legendary Aspect / Unique Power |
|---|---|---|---|
| Helm |  Igni +  Ohm |  Aspect of the Void | Blight’s defiled area, when spawned, pulls in enemies around the affected area. |
| Chest |  Royal Topaz |  Aspect of Hardened Bones | You gain 10-30% increased damage reduction. |
| Gloves | N/A |  Sacrificial Aspect | Your Sacrifice bonuses are increased by x35-55%. |
| Pants | Royal Topaz | Aspect of the Cursed Aura | A dark aura surrounds you, inflicting Decrepify and Iron Maiden on enemies who touch it. Curses inflicted this way spread to surrounding targets every 2.5-0.3 seconds and last 4 seconds outside the aura. |
| Boots | N/A |  Aspect of Metamorphosis | When you Evade you turn in to a cloud of bats, becoming Unstoppable for 2.5 seconds. Enemies along your path take X Physical damage and are inflicted with Vampiric Curse. Evade’s Cooldown is increased by x seconds. |
| Weapon 2H (Axe) |  Cir +  Vex | Aspect of the Damned | You and your minions deal x35-55% increased Shadow damage to enemies afflicted by any Curse. |
| Amulet |  Royal Skull | Ebonpiercer | Blight also shoots 4 smaller projectiles that pierce enemies and deal X Shadow damage over 3 seconds. |
| Ring | Royal Skull |  Aspect of the Great Feast | While you have no active Minions, you deal x#% increased damage, but you lose 7 Essence per second. |
| Ring | Royal Skull | Aspect of Creeping Death | You deal x#% increased damage over time to enemies for each different Crowd Control effect they’re afflicted by. Unstoppable enemies and Staggered Bosses take x#% increased damage over time from you instead. |
Curious how this build compares to other endgame options? Take a look at our Endgame Build Tier List.
Stat Priority and Tempering Affixes
Below are the affixes to prioritize on gear. Each line of affixes is listed in order of importance. Tempering Manuals and their recommended affixes are provided in the second column, and the bolded affixes are the most important targets for Masterworking upgrades. The main priority for Greater Affixes are marked with a “*”, secondary would be anything providing Intelligence or Life. Be sure to check our Tempering and Masterworking guides for more details about these topics.
| Slot | Targeted Gear Affixes | Tempering Affixes |
|---|---|---|
| Helm | 1. Maximum Life * 2. Intelligence 3. Cooldown Reduction |  Decay Innovation #% Soulrift DurationWorldly Endurance # Maximum Life |
| Chest | 1. Essence per Second 2. Maximum Life * 3. Intelligence | Decay Innovation #% Soulrift DurationWorldly Endurance # Maximum Life |
| Gloves | * 1. Intelligence 2. Corruption Damage 3. Attack Speed | Shadow Finesse #% Corruption DamageDecay Innovation #% Soulrift Duration |
| Pants | 1. Intelligence * 2. Maximum Life 3. All Resistance | Worldly Endurance #% Total ArmorProfane Innovation #% Corpse Tendrils Size |
| Boots | * 1. Essence per Second 2. Movement Speed 3. Armor | Necromancer Motion #% Movement SpeedThorn Army + Ranks to Spiked Armor |
| Amulet | Ebonpiercer * 1. + Ranks to Reaper’s Pursuit | n/a |
| Rings (2x) | * 1. Intelligence 2. Corruption Damage 3. Attack Speed | Shadow Finesse #% Corruption DamageWorldly Stability Lucky Hit: 15% Chance to Restore #% Primary Resource |
| 2H Weapon (Axe) | 1. Intelligence 2. Maximum Life 3. Corruption Damage | Shadow Finesse #% Corruption DamageShadow Augments — Decay #% Chance for Blight Projectiles to Cast Twice |
Keep in mind that the maximum Resistance is 70% by default for each element and can be increased to 85% by various sources. Furthermore, Unique items cannot be tempered, only masterworked!
Make sure to reach the Armor Cap of 1,000.
Uniques and Mythic Uniques
Below you will find information on Uniques and Mythic Uniques that are useful for this build. Moreover, if you are interested in target farming Mythic Uniques, check out our How to Farm Mythic Uniques guide.
Uniques
- Ebonpiercer (Required) – Bread and butter of the build as we make our Blight shoot additional smaller projectiles that pierce enemies dealing even more corruption damage.
Mythic Uniques
Some Mythic Unique items can be absolutely insane, but comes at the cost of removing a Legendary aspect power which we are already very short on. Below is a list of Mythic Uniques you could use though:
Heir of Perdition – Simple helmet replacement. Greater Affix and Masterworking priority on this item will be the Lucky Hit modifier.
Shroud of False Death – Simple body armor replacement. Greater Affix and Masterworking priority on this item should be on the all stats or split with the Life modifier.
Ring of Starless Skies – This can replace your Creeping Death ring but would also require you to switch out your boss modifier from Beast in the Ice’s Sleet for Sinerat! Greater Affix and Masterworking priority on this item is the Attack Speed.
Gems and Runewords
See below for a more detailed explanation of the best Gems to socket into your gear for each category.
| Weapon Gems | Armor Gems | Jewelry Gems |
|---|---|---|
| Recommended Runewords listed below | Recommended Runewords otherwise Royal Topaz For increased Intelligence. | Royal Skull till your armor capped at 1000 otherwise  Royal Diamond |
The following Runewords are recommend to be used for this build.
| Runeword Combination | Effect |
| Cir + Vex | Gain: 300 offering. Cast 5 Skills then become exhausted for 3 seconds. Requires: 100 Offering (Overflow: More Skill ranks, up to 3.) 5 second cooldown. Gain +1 to Skills for 10 seconds. |
| Igni + Ohm | Gain: 25 Offering. Store offering every 0.3 seconds. Cast a non-Basic Skill to gain the stored offering. Requires: 600 Offering (Overflow: Increased Duration) 2 second cooldown. Invoker the Barbarian’s  War Cry, increasing your damage dealt by x15% for 6 seconds. |
Paragon Board
Below, you’ll find the entire end-game paragon board set-up for this build in detail!
Boss Powers (Season 8)
The newly added seasonal mechanic lets us power our builds up by using abilities from endgame bosses themselves! Below you’ll find the recommended list for this build.
Main Boss Power:
Modifier Boss Powers:
Mercenaries
During the Vessel of Hatred campaign, you will unlock Mercenaries to assist you. While you can choose freely early on, we recommend Raheir as your main merc, and Varyana as a Reinforcement once you reach endgame.
For the reinforcement, stick with Varyana, utilizing her Bloodthirst skill being cast when the player casts Blight.
Build Mechanics
Rotation and Playstyle
It’s all about spam! You want to utilize Corpse Tendrils to control enemies, followed by Blight for damage output, we further emphasize on our Corruption damage by using Corpse Explosion, this is used to maintain buffs from our Paragon Board and Skill-tree bonuses from consuming corpses. Blood Mist is our panic button should all else fail.
Enemies will be cursed by 
Decrepify if you’re close enough to them which is very important, on top of having very high uptime on Soulrift, this builds deals a ton of Shadow damage over time. Adding the damage output of both Blight and Corpse Explosion is one thing, but when we couple that with Ebonpiercer things just melt away!
Which Elixirs Should You Use?
Visit the Alchemist and craft an Elixir providing better resources via 
Elixir of Resourcefulness II or if that is fine you can go for the 
Elixir of Fortitude II for Maximum life, should you need armor you could always run 
Elixir of Iron Barbs II. Some Elixirs cannot be crafted and only drop from things like Helltides or Nightmare Dungeons. Additionally, make sure to keep your health potion upgraded!
Season 8 Updates
For a full overview of what is new in Season 8, please take a look at our comprehensive season hub.
Here is a quick overview of seasonal changes relevant to this build:
- Very little has changed outside of the addition of boss powers from the seasonal content. Minor buffs on things such as our Paragon Board legendary nodes.
Obol Gambling
Obol gambling is a great way to potentially find item upgrades or items missing from your build. Check out the new tool guide from Icy Veins for gambling Obols in the link below.
Changelog
- April 26th, 2025: Guide updated for Season 8.
- January 19th, 2025: Guide updated for Season 7.
- October 12th, 2024: New Paragon tool added.
- October 7th, 2024: Paragon board added.
- October 2nd, 2024: Guide updated for Season 6.
- August 5th, 2024: Guide updated for Season 5, Infernal Hordes.
- May 31st, 2024: Fixed a minor Paragon Board route miss.
- May 16th, 2024: Gem updates.
- May 13th, 2024: Guide updated for Season 4 Loot Reborn.
- January 22nd, 2024: Guide updated for Season 3 Season of the Construct.
- October 21st, 2023: Updated Paragon Boards.
- October 15th, 2023: Guide updated for Season 2 Season of Blood, Patch 1.2.
- August 7th, 2023: Guide updated for Patch 1.1.1.
- July 19th, 2023: Guide updated for Season 1 including Malignant Hearts.
