Bone Spirit Endgame Necromancer Build for Diablo 4 (Season 4)

Build Introduction

Bone Spirit Necromancer is among the best, if not exclusively the most efficient boss-killing, Necromancer build available in the current patch! With lots of Crowd Control, the ability to generate insane amounts of Essence, and doing respectable damage for the sake of clearing, this build just takes you to a whole new level of playing the class.

This build is a variant of the Bone Spear Endgame Necromancer. To access the original version of the build, click the button below:

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Strengths and Weaknesses

To see how this build compares to the other builds on our site, you can check out our build tier lists.

Build Requirements

This build does not have any mandatory unique items, it’s preferred not to use any unique for the best experience playing the build. However, it does require you to have proper modifiers on your gear or it will feel very lackluster. Luckily it is very similar in terms of both gearing and aspect powers to the classic Bone Spear Necromancer allowing you to play that one till you have the correct modifiers on your gear to play this beast of a build!

The goal is to be able to cast Bone Spirit on demand without worrying about your Essence pool. It is not recommended to play this without the correct aspect powers and modifiers on your gear listed in this guide.

Skill Bar and Skill Tree Points

Recommended

Suggested Skill Bar

Bone Spirit Bone Prison Blood Mist Decrepify Corpse Tendrils Bone Storm

Follow the points allocated in the Skill Tree above for the complete 58-point build. The additional 10 skill points are completed using the Renown system.

Book of the Dead

Since we are focusing entirely on dealing brutal damage with our Bone skills, we have no interest in bothering our minions, so they will all be sacrificed in the name of Lilith.

• Melee Skeletons; Skirmishers are the sacrificial choice here, providing extra Critical Strike Chance.
• Mage Skeletons; Cold Mages sacrificed provides extra damage against targets that are Vulnerable.
• Golem; Iron Golem sacrificed provides tons of extra Critical Strike Damage.

Paragon Board

The Paragon progression system unlocks at Level 50 and provides a vast amount of character power. On the Paragon Board, bonuses range from minor stats on Magic Nodes to more powerful Rare Glyphs and Legendary Nodes.

As you path towards Glyph Sockets and Legendary Nodes, you should prioritize Damage, Intelligence, Resistance, and Life for Normal and Magic Nodes. Glyph radius increases as you level them up. Therefore, if you cannot fulfill Additional Bonus requirements early on, skip allocating extra Nodes for now. It’s also important to point out that you might not have the Glyph you want when you reach your first socket; if that is the case, simply slot in any Glyph providing any beneficial stats for you until you get the correct one.

Listed below are images of the pathing you should take along with the locations of the Glyphs and order you should choose your Paragon Boards past the initial Starting Board.

1. Starting Board

For the Starter Board, we will path along the right side to get the Sacrificial Glyph to scale damage against Vulnerable enemies. If you are able to collect enough Intelligence within radius, depending on the level of your Glyph, you should. Once done with the board, we will head on north and attach Bone Graft.

2. Bone Graft

Bone Graft should be rotated to have the Legendary Node easily accessible on the left-hand side. We begin the route by rushing that Node and picking up both Rare and Magic Nodes, as we do a diagonal push to the top right corner moving in to the socket slot. Optimally we want the Amplify Glyph slotted in here, and only pick up extra Intelligence Nodes within radius if the Glyph level has enough within radius. The next step from here is to path to the left for our third board, Bloodbath. We will come back to this board to path to the right side once the third board is finished.

3. Bloodbath

Bloodbath will need to be rotated so you have the Legendary Node located as close to your starting point as possible as we will be rushing it before we pick up any and all Rare and Magic Nodes. Finally, finish the pathing with the socket slot in which we will use the Essence Glyph. Similar to previous boards, we will only be going out of our way to pick up extra attributes enabling the bonus modifier if we can, based of the Glyph level. Once done we’ll grab all Rare and Magic Nodes on our way to the 4th board up north; Hulking Monstrosity.

4. Hulking Monstrosity

Hulking Monstrosity will be positioned so the Socket Node is again located as close to our starting point as possible. The socket slot here is what we want and it will be used for the Scourge Glyph. You should take the extra surrounding intelligence nodes to reach the bonus modifier from this when you can. This board is exclusively here to give us another Glyph to play with. Let’s head to the right for our 5th board being Scent of Death.

5. Scent of Death

Scent of Death will be rotated so we can grab the Legendary node quickly then rush over to the Socket node before taking any extra nodes. In here we’ll use the Territorial and as the previous Glyphs, we’ll take the needed attributes to enable the bonus modifier as soon as possible. Now we’ll head back to our 2nd board to head out on the right side of it to grab our last one!

6. Flesh-Eater

Flesh-Eater is our final board and we are only looking to get the Socket node and slot in the Corporeal in combination with the surrounding Magic and Rare nodes.

Paragon board images courtesy of d4builds.gg.

Gear, Gems, Elixirs, and Stats

The Season of Loot Reborn brings us an incredible shift in how gear and itemization are done. It is a major and will affect the game beyond Season 4’s confines. For further details, make sure to read our Tempering and Masterworking section below.

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!

Gear Slot	Gems	Aspect / Unique	Legendary Aspect / Unique Power
Helm	Royal Ruby	Aspect of the Void	Blight’s defiled area, when spawned, pulls in enemies around the affected area.
Chest	Royal Ruby	Aspect of Hardened Bones	You and your Minions gain 15-20% increased Damage Reduction.
Gloves	n/a	Aspect of Swelling Curse	Bone Spirit’s Critical Strike Chance is increased by 10-25%. Your Maximum Essence is increased by 2 for each enemy hit for 15 seconds.
Pants	Royal Ruby	Aspect of Shielding Storm	Each time that Bone Storm damages an enemy, gain a Barrier equal to 2-5% of your Base Life for 10 seconds.
Boots	n/a	Aspect of Slaughter	You gain 20% Movement Speed, Lose this bonus for 2-5 – 5 seconds after taking damage.
Weapon 2H Scythe	Royal Emerald	Aspect of Serration	The Ossified Essence Key Passive also increases the Critical Strike Damage of your Bone Skills by x1% per Essence above 50, up to x80%.
Amulet (50% Scaling)	Any Resistance Jewel	Aspect of Grasping Veins	Gain x% increased Critical Strike Chance for 6 seconds when you cast Corpse Tendrils. You deal 30-75% bonus Critical Strike Damage to enemies damaged by Corpse Tendrils.
Ring	Any Resistance Jewel	Shattered Spirit’s Aspect	Casting Bone Spirit also launches 18 Bone Splinters in all directions dealing 200-500% increased damage and generating 6 Essence per enemy hit.
Ring	Any Resistance Jewel	Aspect of Plunging Darkness	Bone Prison spawns a pool of Blight that deals 80-125% bonus damage over 6 seconds.

Gems

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
Royal Emerald For Crit Damage.	Royal Ruby For increased Maximum Life.	Royal AmethystRoyal SapphireRoyal Ruby

Which Elixirs Should You Use?

Visit the Alchemist and craft an Elixir providing any Resistance you need most, or the Elixir of Precision to increase Attack Speed. Some Elixirs cannot be crafted and only drop from things like Helltides or Nightmare Dungeons. Additionally, make sure to keep your health potion upgraded!

Stat Priority and Tempering Affixes

Affixes on the same line are considered to be equally important. Bolded affixes are the most important targets for Masterworking upgrades.

Keep in mind that the maximum Resistance is 70% by default for each element and can be increased to 85% by various sources.

Rotation and Playstyle

You’ll want to always make sure that the enemies are cursed with Decrepify and that you have Bone Storm up and running. After this you’ll utilize Bone Prison which triggers Blight via your aspect powers that will pull enemies in to the prison upon which you can unload crazy damage via Bone Spirit. You also have the option to help pull enemies together with Corpse Tendrils which will also increase your chances of critting and deal more damage. The Blood Mist is our panic button should it be needed.

Make sure to check out the advanced Build Mechanics section for a more in-depth description of how the build works, what synergies exist, and what to look out for.

Uniques and Uber Uniques

Below you will find information on Uniques and Uber Uniques that are useful for this build. Moreover, if you are interested in target farming Uber Uniques, check out our How to Farm Uber Uniques guide.

Uniques

Listed below are the recommended and optional Unique Items for this build. This build thrives of the legendary aspect powers so we would prefer not to involve any uniques to have the build function the best. This doesn’t mean you can’t play around with some changes and test it out yourself though!

• The Grandfather is an insane item for the build and it would replace Aspect of Plunging Darkness if you are lucky enough to drop it!

Season 4: Loot Reborn

The following list details the changes in the Season 4 Update (Patch 1.4.0) that may pertain to the Summoner Necromancer build. Check the Changelog for all the other guide updates. As you can see only 1 change affected the build directly and its a good one!

• The introduction of Shattered Spirit’s Aspect is what makes this way of playing Bone Spirit possible!
• A slight damage buff to the Bone Spirit skill itself was also seen in the patch notes.

Advanced Information

Below, you will find every additional piece of information you need to know for a more in-depth look at this build.

Build Mechanics

By having multiple tools to pull enemies together in to a condensed pack of them makes the damage application of Bone Spirit function extremely well. The newly implemented Shattered Spirit’s Aspect is what makes this build function, it is important that you have this aspect and proper modifiers on your gear as listed in this guide to fully be able to cast Bone Spirits on demand without worrying about your Essence pool. This is solved with maximum resource modifiers on gear as well as recovering Essence when casting Macabre skills.

Defenses

Consistent crowd-control via Corpse Tendrils and Bone Prison combined with a barrier generated from our Bone Storm thanks to our aspects is how the build provides heavy layers of defenses.

Offenses

Proper set-up play-style with extreme bursts of damage is the offensive toolkit this build brings to the table. Pull them with Corpse Tendrils and/or Bone Prison thanks to the Void aspect/Blight then unload Bone Spirits and watch the enemies crumble.

Paragon

The recommended Paragon boards for this build are listed above, and further down below, you can find a more thorough route for allocating the Paragon points, as well as some notes on why specific nodes were chosen and why they are essential for this build.

Glyphs & Legendary Nodes	Effect
Sacrificial	– Grants +150% bonus to all Magic nodes within range. – Additional Bonus is unlocked with 40 Intelligence in radius, you deal x10% increased damage while you have no active minions.
Amplify	– Grants +150% bonus to all Magic Nodes within range. – Additional Bonus is unlocked with 40 intelligence in radius making enemies affected by your Curses take an additional x10% increased damage from you and your minions.
Essence	– For every 5 Dexterity purchased within range, you deal +20% increased Critical Strike Damage. – Additional Bonus is unlocked with 25 Dexterity in radius, Critical Strikes deal x22% increased damage to enemies that are not Healthy.
Scourge	– For every 5 Intelligence purchased within range, you deal x% increased Shadow damage over time. – Additional Bonus is unlocked with 40 Intelligence in radius, you and your minions deal x10% increased damage to enemies affected by Shadow damage over time effects.
Territorial	– For every 5 Dexterity purchased within range, you deal 10% increased damage to Close targets. – Additional Bonus is unlocked with 25 Dexterity in radius, you gain 15% damage reduction against Close targets.
Corporeal	– Grants +150% bonus to all Magic Nodes within range. – Additional Bonus is unlocked with 40 Intelligence in radius, you and your minions deal x10% increased Physical damage and you gain 1% movement speed for each active minion.
Bone Graft	Hitting enemies with Bone Skills increases your damage byx1% and your Maximum Essence by 2 for 8 seconds, stacks up to x8% increased damage and 16 Maximum Essence.
Scent of Death	With at least 2 Corpses Nearby, you gain 15% Damage Reduction. With no Corpses Nearby, you deal x15% increased damage.

Let’s take it one step further and break down each of the beneficial nodes we spend our Paragon Points on.

Starting Board

1. Progression here should be to rush the Socket node for the Sacrificial.
2. The defensive nodes on the left side can be skipped during early progression and picked up later when you need more resistances.

Bone Graft

1. Socket node should be rushed to slot in Amplify.
2. Ignore the left side from here and rush to the top-right-corner for the legendary node Bone Graft
3. Now we’ll take the remaining magic and rare nodes before heading out to the left.

Bloodbath

1. Continue with the strategy of rushing the socket node, in here we grab Essence.
2. Pick up the rare and magic nodes south of the socket node before heading out north

Hulking Monstrosity

1. Simple board where we only rush the socket node for Scourge

Scent of Death

1. Start by taking the Legendary node Scent of Death.
2. Ignore the Magic and Rare nodes in the start of this board and move to the Socket for Territorial
3. Now we can pick up the remaining Magic and Rare nodes on the board before heading back to Bone Graft to get our last board on the right side.

Flesh-Eater

1. Similar to our Hulking board we rush the socket for Corporeal and only grab the remaining Magic and Rare nodes in radius when the Glyph is covering it with its radius.

Tempering and Masterworking

The Season 4 update (Patch 1.4.0) introduces a rework for itemization. Tempering and Masterworking bring the biggest change to itemization since the release of Diablo 4, so make sure you understand the new systems explained in this section.

The amount of affixes on items has been changed to reflect its rarity: Normal Items have no affixes, Magic Items have 1 affix, Rare Items have 2 affixes, Legendary Items have 3 affixes, and Unique Items have 4 affixes. Upgrading a Rare Item to a Legendary Item by imprinting a Legendary Aspect from the Codex of Power will not add a third affix. Therefore, Legendary Items are superior to lower rarity items for a min-maxed character.

Greater Affixes are a newly added mechanic that increases the value of an affix by 50%. Ancestral Legendary Items and Unique Items can now drop with up to 4 Greater Affixes! Search for items with your preferred Greater Affixes to upgrade with Tempering and Masterworking.

Tempering and Masterworking is an important system, even mandatory in the endgame, for character progression. You are able to add 2 additional affixes on any Rare Item or Legendary Item, exclusive to the Tempering System. An Ancestral Legendary Item can have up to 5 total affixes! Unfortunately, Unique Items cannot be tempered to add affixes.

Masterworking uses new crafting materials found in The Pit to further enhance the stats of an item. These upgrades can be applied on an Ancestral Legendary Item that has its Tempering Slots filled out. Unique Items can be upgraded with Masterworking right away, as tempering does not apply to them. Each item has 12 upgrade slots. On upgrade Ranks 4, 8, and 12, a random affix is increased in value by 25%. Every other upgrade Rank applies a 5% increase to all affixes on an item. Attempt to apply the bonus 25% upgrade to your preferred affix multiple times by resetting the Masterworking Ranks to repeat the process.

Obol Gambling

Obol gambling is a great way to potentially find item upgrades or items missing from your build. Check out the new tool from Icy Veins for gambling Obols in the link below:

Changelog

• May 16th, 2024: Gem updates.
• May 10th, 2024: Guide updated for Season 4 Loot Reborn.
• January 22nd, 2024: Guide updated for Season 3 Season of the Construct.
• October 15th, 2023: Guide updated for 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.