Build Introduction
The 
Blood Lance build, for the first time in Diablo 4 history, received the opportunity to become a full-fledged leveling build due to the Skills Tree and Book of the Dead overhaul in the Lord of Hatred expansion. This particular Blood Lance build makes use of unorthodox means to generate Blood Orbs, such as Defender Skeletons, along with the usual 
Hemorrhage and new 
Decrepify 
Life Tap upgrade.
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Allocation of Skill Points
The new Lord of Hatred expansion Skill Tree unlocks in stages, permanently unlocking new skills clusters. For example, Necromancer Curses unlock at level 13, so from level 13 it is possible to refund all previously allocated skill points and start leveling skills starting from the Curses cluster right away (or anywhere above it).
Skill points from the Season Rank System or Renown do not affect Skill Tree progress and can be allocated to skills ranks you already unlocked.
Follow the points allocation listed in the table below for the complete 83-point build. 69 skill points are gained by leveling, and 14 skill points are locked behind the Season Rank System or Renown for Seasonal or Eternal characters, respectively.
Leftover skills points, once unlocked – are assigned to the last slot in table. Skills marked to be used with 
Igni 
Wat runeword can be leveled as priority after level 16, once the runeword is activated – delaying leveling order at the cost of leftover skill points pool.
Skill Bar and Skill Tree Points
Inexorable Reaper
Blood Maiden
Skeleton WarriorGore Quills
Blood Runs Cold
Frozen WastelandUse list below for the complete 83-point build. 69 skill points are gained by leveling, and 14 skill points are locked behind the Season Rank System or Renown for Seasonal or Eternal characters, respectively.
| Order | Skill (Upgrades) |
| 1 | Hemorrhage 13/15 (Blood Orb, Overpower, Blood Runs Cold) |
| 2 | Sever 1/15 (Cost Reduction, Crowd Control and Corpse Generation, Inexorable Reaper) |
| 3 | Skeleton Warrior 1/15 (Vulnerable, Healing, Master of Puppets) |
| 4 | Blood Lance 15/15 (Ricochet, Cost Reduction, Gore Quills) |
| 5 |  Iron Maiden 1/15 (Execute and Fortify, Ferocity and Overpower, Blood Maiden) |
| 6 |  Soulrift 15/15 (Damage Bonus, Vulnerable and Crowd Control, Frozen Wasteland) |
| Wat | Decrepify 1/15 (Cooldown Reduction, Resolve, Life Tap) |
| 8 | Decrepify 1+/15 : use extra skill points here or refund for runeword upgrade |
Decrepify is activated via Wat runeword and is not needed on skill bar. The Build Mechanics section helps to explain how these Skills play and interact.
Necromancer Class Mechanic – Book of the Dead
Necromancer’s class-specific ability is the Book of the Dead, which provides three different types of minions at different levels. This build is designed around sacrificing all your minions at some point.
Skeletal Warriors: Defenders [Upgrade #2] – Defenders have 10% chance to form a Blood Orb when dealing damage.- Skeletal Mages: Cold [Sacrifice] – Increased Damage to Vulnerable 20%[x].
Golem: Bone [Sacrifice] – Increased Attack Speed 10%[+].
Gear, Stats, Gems and Runes
Check the sections below for important gearing considerations to improve your character’s power while leveling.
Legendary Item Aspects
In the new Lord of Hatred expansion, Legendary Aspects became significantly more powerful, so it is a good idea to keep an eye on everything you can research from early on. We have a dedicated in-depth Aspect and Codex of Power guide that you can check out for more information on gear enchanting.
Always salvage gear you don’t use, even if you already have a better Legendary Aspect roll in the Codex of Power. Stockpiling crafting materials from early levels will pay off during the Torment World Tier push.
Always check the merchant’s stock when visiting town – not only do they sell affordable Magic and Rare gear relevant for your level, but they also sometimes sell Legendaries.
Building up Mercenary Rapport from early levels and bartering for Aspect Caches or specific Legendaries is a great way to hunt for specific slot Legendary Aspects.
The Purveyor of Curiosities is another excellent way to obtain specific slot Legendary Aspects, and even Uniques – by gambling with 
Murmuring Obols you farmed in your journey.
Imprinting Aspects costs 10 
Baleful Fragments, which can be acquired early mostly by salvaging Legendary or Unique gear, or opening Baleful Chests in PvP zones. The scarcity of useful Aspects to imprint and the high cost of imprinting – multiplied by the extremely high rate of gear turnover – makes it impractical to imprint your gear until you are about to progress past the Penitent World Tier.
The most efficient way is to maintain only a few of the most powerful Legendary Aspects on your gear. These should be strategically placed on gear pieces that you can avoid replacing for the longest possible time. Weapon slots are eliminated due to the highest gear turnover rate. The ideal spot is the Amulet, due to the 150% effect of the imprinted Aspect and the rarity of useful, high-value affixes on that slot during the early game.
These are the most impactful Legendary Aspects that can speed up the leveling process:
Aspect of Rathma’s Chosen- Aspect of Thickened Blood
- Aspect of Coalesced Blood
- Aspect of Amplified Damage
Aspect of Potent Blood
Stat Priority and Tempering Affixes
Keep in mind that Tempering Affixes are unlocked by Tempering Manuals you find as you progress. Be sure to check our Tempering guide for more details about this topic.
Try to obtain the highest 
Worldly Endurance tempering recipe available as early as possible, because of the extreme difference in Maximum Life rolls between recipe rarities.
One of the regular affixes on a gear piece can be re-rolled repeatedly until the desired outcome. This is covered in our Occultist guide for more details.
Both Tempering and Enchanting are very affordable in the early game, costing only 5 
Veiled Crystals
Generally, you will be trying for the following Best in Slot Uniques or stats in descending priority:
| Slot | Affixes | Tempering Affixes |
| 2H Weapon | 1. Weapon Damage 2. x% Physical Damage Multiplier 3. x% All Damage Multiplier 4. Maximum Life | Weapons – Worldly Destruction – Attack Speed |
| Helm | 1. Essence per Second 2. Maximum Life 3. Armor 4. Resistance to All Elements 5. Intelligence | Defensive – Worldly Endurance – Maximum Life |
| Chest | 1. Essence per Second 2. Maximum Life 3. Armor 4. Resistance to All Elements 5. Intelligence | Defensive – Worldly Endurance – Maximum Life |
| Gloves | 1. x% Vulnerable Damage Multiplier 2. x% Physical Damage Multiplier 3. Attack Speed 4. Critical Strike Chance 5. x% All Damage Multiplier 6. Maximum Life | Offensive – Worldly Finesse – Vulnerable Damage |
| Pants | 1. Essence per Second 2. Maximum Life 3. Armor 4. Resistance to All Elements 5. Intelligence | Defensive – Worldly Endurance – Maximum Life |
| Boots | 1. Movement Speed 2. Essence per Second 3. Maximum Life 4. + Evade Charges 5. Resistance to All Elements | Mobility – Natural Motion – Movement Speed |
| Amulet | 1. x% Vulnerable Damage Multiplier 2. x% Physical Damage Multiplier 3. Attack Speed 4. Critical Strike Chance 5. Movement Speed 6. x% All Damage Multiplier 7. Maximum Life | Offensive – Worldly Finesse – Vulnerable Damage |
| Rings | 1. x% Vulnerable Damage Multiplier 2. x% Physical Damage Multiplier 3. Attack Speed 4. Critical Strike Chance 5. x% All Damage Multiplier 6. Maximum Life | Offensive – Worldly Finesse – Vulnerable Damage |
Gems and Runewords
It is not recommended to socket items until level 50+ due to material cost and the fact that you’ll be replacing your gear too frequently, especially weapons.
If a socket already exists in your gear, use the following gems:
- Weapon:
Skull for Physical Damage increase. - Jewelry:
Ruby for Fire Resistance, 
Topaz for Lightning Resistance.
When it comes to Runewords, there are only a couple that this build can utilize well. The most attractive ones available early are:
Cir+ 
Ceh – Summons Spirit Wolves, applying Vulnerable, Chill and triggering your Lucky Hit procs.- Igni + Wat – Applies Decrepify automatically along with your skills once every 1.2 seconds. This allows you to switch to the Iron Maiden curse on your bar and use both for free without having Decrepify on bar. See the leveling instructions in the footnotes for the Allocation of Skill Points.
Cir + 
Que or Igni + Que – Maintains Druid’s 
Earthen Bulwark for extreme survivability.
Make sure you slot these in your Helmet, Pants or Chest, since you will be replacing your weapon very frequently. You get runes back for free when salvaging an item.
Season 13 Mechanics
Season 13 does not offer specific seasonal mechanics with the release of the Lord of Hatred expansion. Many new features are available to explore, including War Plans, Talismans, Horadric Cube, and Echoing Hatred. Additionally, several buildcrafting systems were overhauled, such as Skill Trees, Tempering, Aspects and Uniques.
For a complete overview of the current Season, its mechanics and theme, new leveling activities, and other changes, please take a look at our comprehensive season hub here.
Talismans
The Lord of Hatred expansion introduces Talismans as a new character progression and itemization layer. Find, equip, and fill a suitable Horadric Seal with a variety of Charms. These grant everything from plain stats similar to any gear piece to powerful set effects, doubling down on and elevating Necromancer archetypes to new heights.
This builds Talisman goalposts would be:
- Horadric Seal with the most Charm Slots possible
- Charms and Seals with valuable affixes, like:
- + 1 Charm Slot
- + to Core Skills
- + to Blood Skills
- +% Critical Strike Chance
- +%[x] Damage
- +%[x] Critical Strike Damage
- +% Attack Speed
- +% Movement Speed
Mercenaries
The mercenaries are useful, but not a crucial addition to the game, so whichever one you choose to run is up to you. Aldkin helps to reach meaningful Critical Strike Chance thresholds with 
Raging Violence. Varyana improves skill rotation speed with 
Bloodthirst. Subo reveals enemies and resources on the minimap for optimal routes. Raheir protects you in times of need with 
Valiance and 
Bastion.
Default recommendation for this build will be to run Varyana:
We also recommend using the Reinforcement slot to level up all your mercenaries to get access to the caches for extra loot.
Build Mechanics
This is a classic Blood Lance build that focuses on Gore Quills over Blood Seeker to make good use of the new Blood Orb generation mechanics in the Lord of Hatred expansion.
Rotation and Playstyle
Before level 15:
- Send Golem into enemies using active ability to shed corpses at the targeted spot.
- Send Skeleton Warriors to attack enemies.
- Use
Corpse Explosion until corpses created by Golem (Bone) and 
Decompose are exhausted. - Channel Decompose to create more corpses and deal some extra damage.
- Repeat.
After level 15 and Skills Reset:
- Use a few Iron Maiden casts to curse as many enemies as you can. Avoid casting it over Blood Orbs, if possible, or they will be auto-picked.
- If mob density may pose a threat, or the fight may take more than 10 seconds, activate Soulrift and use Sever blink to get in range.
- Keep attacking the tankiest and nearest enemy with Blood Lance and restore Essence with Hemorrhage, ideally on Frozen enemies for extra Blood Orbs.
- Don’t bother controlling Skeletons, just let them attack something without interruptions to generate more Blood Orbs.
- Repeat.
Season Updates
Due to the release of the Lord of Hatred expansion and the resulting overhaul of class buildcrafting, the build concept was created from scratch.
For a complete overview of the current Season, its mechanics and theme, new leveling activities, and other changes, please take a look at our comprehensive season hub here.
Difficulty and Endgame
This guide is designed to get you to level 70 in a smooth and enjoyable way. Once there, you’ll want to look at a proper endgame-designed build guide and start making required preparations. Make sure you pick one of our recommended ones!
Recommended World Tier to start: Hard
Quantity over quality is a road to success in leveling. Staying at a difficulty level where Elites and Seasonal content pose low threat and do not take any significant time to kill nets the most experience. Moving upwards through World Tiers should happen when the requirements to unlock the next level become trivial.
Preparations for endgame builds usually take time to acquire the required gear and will result in the character unlocking the Paragon Board after reaching level 70. To continue progressing and farming gear more efficiently, the selected endgame build paragon board can be followed.
Changelog
- April 26th, 2026: Guide created for the Lord of Hatred expansion.
