Infinimist Shadow Necromancer Abattoir of Zir (AoZ) Build Guide for Diablo 4 (Season 2)

This build guide is specifically designed for Season 2 of Diablo 4, and may not be effective for use after the season ends.

Build Introduction

The Abattoir of Zir (AoZ) variant build for Infinimist Shadow Necromancer is a late endgame setup, focused on performance in the most difficult content in Season 2 of Diablo 4. This guide covers how this one build can handle both speed farming to obtain Sigil Powder and Glyph Experience for leveling Tears of Blood, as well as pushing up the AoZ Tiers. This is the best Necromancer build for AoZ content in Diablo 4. For more information on this endgame activity, check out our Abattoir of Zir Guide.

Climbing up high tiers of Abattoir of Zir requires enough Damage Per Second (DPS) to clear enemies before the timer runs out, as well as enough defense to survive highly damaging enemy attacks. In order to achieve these requirements, the best Legendary and Unique Items are needed from the original Infinimist Necromancer Build.

What separates this Necromancer build from the other is the consistent availability of being able to become invincible through Blood Mist. Being able to use this skill and be in Mist form at nearly 100% uptime is what makes it possible to push the tiers of AoZ.

This Abattoir of Zir build guide assumes your character is Level 100. Check the Necromancer Leveling Guide if you are starting a new character from Level 1-50, and then the Infinimist / Exploding Shadow Build from Level 50-100.

Strengths and Weaknesses

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

Overview Video and Gameplay Footage

Season of Blood

Best Vampiric Powers for Infinimist Shadow Necromancer in Abattoir of Zir
The Season 2 theme introduces Vampiric Powers that provide build-altering bonuses. Spend Potent Blood, acquired from vampiric enemies, to unlock and upgrade Vampiric Powers. Make sure your equipped Chest Armor, Pants, Gloves, Boots, and Helm contain the appropriate Pacts (Ferocity, Divinity, and Eternity) that match the activation costs listed on the powers.

A Vampiric Curse status effect has been added to complement the new powers: Killing an enemy affected by your Vampiric Curse stores their soul. Casting a Defensive, Macabre, or Corpse Skill will unleash stored souls to attack nearby enemies. You can hold up to 8 souls.

Listed below is the Vampiric Powers for Infinimist Shadow Necromancer in Abattoir of Zir, ranked by importance. Stat values displayed reflect maximum Level 3 Vampiric Powers.

1. Anticipation: Your Ultimate Skills gain 20% Cooldown Reduction. Your Ultimate Skills gain 12% increased damage for each nearby enemy affected by your Damage Over Time effects.
2. Sanguine Brace: When you kill an enemy, Fortify for 6% of your Base Life. While you have more Fortify than half of your Maximum Life, you gain 8% Critical Strike Chance.
3. Flowing Veins: You deal 60% increased Damage Over Time to enemies that are moving or affected by a Vampiric Curse.
4. Ravenous: Lucky Hit: Up to a 20% chance to increase your Attack Speed by 40% of your Total Movement Speed for 6 seconds.
5. Domination: You deal 24% increased damage to enemies who are Stunned, Immobilized, Frozen or Feared. If they’re also Injured and not an Elite, they’re instantly killed.

Skill Tree Points and Skill Bar

Recommended

Infinimist Shadow Necromancer Recommended Skill Bar (order does not matter)

Decrepify Blood Mist Bone Storm Corpse Tendrils Corpse Explosion Blight

The following table shows the full allocation of Skill Points for the Infinimist Shadow Necromancer speed farming and tier pushing Abattoir of Zir. A Level 100 character should obtain 10 Skill Points from Renown, in addition to 48 points from leveling.

Priority Skills & Skill Tree Passives	Cluster
Reap, Enhanced Reap	Basic Skill
Blight, Enhanced Blight, Supernatural Blight, Hewed Flesh Level 3	Core Skill
Blood Mist Level 5, Enhanced Blood Mist, Ghastly Blood Mist, Corpse Explosion Level 5, Enhanced Corpse Explosion, Blighted Corpse Explosion, Grim Harvest, Fueled by Death Level 3	Curse Skill
Death’s Embrace Level 3, Amplify Damage Level 3, Decrepify, Enhanced Decrepify, Abhorrent Decrepify	Summoning Skill
Corpse Tendrils, Enhanced Corpse Tendrils, Plagued Corpse Tendrils, Reaper’s Pursuit, Crippling Darkness Level 3, Gloom Level 3, Terror Level 3	Corpse & Macabre Skill
Stand Alone Level 3, Memento Mori Level 3, Bone Storm, Prime Bone Storm, Supreme Bone Storm	Ultimate Skill
Shadowblight	Key Passives

Book of the Dead

The Infinimist Shadow Necromancer is designed to sit in Blood Mist as much as possible, preferably permanently, this combined with a ton of damage over time effects we have no real need for our minions.

• Melee Skeletons: Sacrifice Reapers, as this provides us with increased Shadow Damage.
• Mage Skeletons: Cold Mages will be sacrificed in the name of Lilith to provide a massive Vulnerable Damage scaling modifier.
• Golem: Iron Golem should be sacrificed, granting extra Critical Strike Multiplier.

Paragon

The Paragon progression system unlocks after reaching Level 50, and offers a considerable boost to character power. Within the Paragon Board, there are many different bonuses, ranging from minor stat enhancements on Magic Nodes to more significant gains with Rare Glyphs and Legendary Nodes.

Important Notes:

• Additional Bonus requirements on Rare Glyphs may not be obtainable until they gain increased radius range at Level 15.
• Attach Legendary Boards in the correct order. Bonus requirements of Rare Nodes increase with their placement order.
• Make sure you select the correct Legendary Boards and rotate them into the correct orientation before attachment.

Season 2 Update (Patch 1.2.0) – The priority of Critical Strike Damage and Vulnerable Damage are lower due to them becoming additive with other damage bonuses. Separate damage multipliers from Additional Bonuses on Rare Glyphs are therefor a preferable approach.

The list below contains the most beneficial Glyphs and Boards for the Infinimist Shadow Necromancer build, sorted in the order obtained in the final Level 100 Paragon Tree. The images that follow provide a visual of each Paragon Board setup.

Name	Effect
Exhumation	* For every 5 Intelligence purchased within range, your Corpse skills deal + 13.9% increased damage. * Additional Bonus (requires 40 Intelligence in range): Consuming a Corpse Fortifies you for 4% of your Maximum Life and grants 4% Damage Reduction for 4 seconds.
Tears of Blood	* For every 5 Core Stats purchased within range, you gain x 2% increased damage. * Grants + 2% bonus to all Rare nodes within range. Bonus increases by 10% every 10 levels.
Darkness	* For every 5 Intelligence purchased within range, you deal + 10% increased Shadow damage. * Additional Bonus (requires 40 Intelligence in range): Whenever you or your Minions deal Shadow damage to an enemy, that enemy deals 2% reduced damage, up to 10%, for 5 seconds.
Control	* For every 5 Intelligence purchased within range, you deal + 10% increased damage to Crowd Controlled targets. * Additional Bonus (requires 40 Intelligence in range): You and your Minions deal x 10% increased damage to slowed or Chilled enemies or, instead, x 20% increased damage to Stunned or Frozen enemies.
Territorial	* For every 5 Dexterity purchased within range, you deal + 10% increased damage to Close targets. * Additional Bonus (requires 25 Dexterity in range): You gain 15% Damage Reduction against Close enemies.

Starting Board (Exhumation)

Flesh-Eater (Tears of Blood)

Wither (Darkness)

Bone Graft (Control)

Scent of Death (Territorial)

Paragon Board images courtesy of d4builds.gg. Click this link for the Paragon planner.

Mechanics and Playstyle for Abattoir of Zir

The playstyle for the Infinimist Shadow Necromancer is very straight forward, but does take some time to get used to. For single-target, AoE or speed farming you will utilize the same strategy using the rotational rules below:

• Decrepify – Highest priority is to always make sure the enemies are Cursed, as this will provide us with the Lucky Hits to lower cooldowns. The entire build has been built around this reduction.
• Blood Mist – This is where the rotation changes based on what’s happening around you. You will always jump into Mist form to turn invulnerable if you are in any sort of risk of dying or if the following skills below are on cooldown.
• Bone Storm – This will keep a Barrier on you as an elevated defensive layer, on top of the damage it dishes out.
• Corpse Tendrils – The main purpose of this skill is for use of the Tendrils clumping groups of enemies together. Use this to take out packs of enemies quickly with AoE damage.
• Blight – If able, you should cast a single Blight before shifting into Mist form.

The important part to remember here is that the more enemies you’re hitting that are Cursed, the faster and more reliably your Lucky Hits will proc. This allows you to jump straight back in to your Mist form to maintain immortality while at the same time dishing out high amounts of damage.

Gear Choice and Stat Priority in the Endgame

Make sure to pick up all Rare Item drops that may be upgrades while you are farming with the Infinimist Shadow Necromancer. Save Legendary Items with useful aspects in your stash to be used later for extraction and imprinting onto well rolled Rare Items.

When comparing weapons with similar item levels and modifiers, Wands are preferred over Swords and Scythes for the Lucky Hit component.

Stat Priority List

Listed below are the affixes to prioritize on gear for Infinimist Shadow Necromancer. Each line of affixes are listed in order of importance. Affixes on the same line are considered to be equally important, but their benefits may vary depending how much is stacked or other character stats. Bolded stats are the most important and sometimes vital for the build to function properly.

Season 2 Update (Patch 1.2.0) – The priority of Critical Strike Damage and Vulnerable Damage are lower due to them becoming additive with other damage bonuses. Separate damage multipliers from Additional Bonuses on Rare Glyphs have become preferable because of this.

Resistances have been reworked to be more effective in Patch 1.2.0 and they are now included in the Stat Priority List. The priority order of Resistances is Lightning > Poison > Fire > Cold > Shadow. Maximum Resistance is 70% by default for each element and can be increased to 85% by various sources.

Legendary Aspects and Unique Items for Abattoir of Zir

Listed below are all the best-in-slot Legendary Aspects and Unique Items for Infinimist Shadow Necromancer in Abattoir of Zir (AoZ).

The most important modifiers you’ll be focusing entirely on is Cooldown Reduction and Lucky Hit. After this, aim for damage modifiers besides the obvious resistance cap and armor to scale our Disobedience aspect.

Aspect of Disobedience is no longer needed once you reach the Armor cap (13200 for Tier 100 Nightmare Dungeons, 13750 for Tier 25 Abattoir of Zir) without it. This is possible with 925 Item Power Equipment, three Royal Skull in Jewelry, Armor nodes in Paragon, and finally +% Armor affixes on Helm, Chest and Amulet.

Harlequin Crest is not recommended against the high level enemies in AoZ due to it not having an Armor affix. 

Gear Slot	Legendary Aspect or Unique Item
Helm	Aspect of Shielding Storm
Chest	Aspect of Disobedience
Gloves	Aspect of Ultimate Shadow
Pants	Tibault’s Will
Boots	Flickerstep
Weapon (1h Wand)	Blighted Aspect
Off-hand (Focus)	Conceited Aspect
Amulet	Aspect of Grasping Veins
Ring	Ring of the Sacrilegious Soul
Ring	X’Fal’s Corroded Signet

Gems

Listed below are the best Gems to socket into gear for each slot type for the Infinimist Shadow Necromancer build.

• Weapon: Royal Amethyst for increased Damage Over Time.
• Armor: Royal Ruby for Maximum Life.
• Jewelry: Royal Skull to cap Armor (13200 for Tier 100 Nightmare Dungeons, 13750 for Tier 25 Abattoir of Zir) or Individual Resistance Gems for Resistances that are not already capped at 70%. The priority order of Resistances is Lightning > Poison > Fire > Cold > Shadow.

Elixirs

Listed below are the best Elixirs to consume for Abattoir of Zir (AoZ), ranked by importance. Elixirs that are not available at the Alchemist can only be found as drops. Open Splitting Steel and Mystery Chests in Helltides to farm non-craftable Elixirs.

1. Iron Skin Elixir (non-craftable): Use if Armor is not capped (13750 in Tier 25 AoZ). Alternatively, Heady Iron Barb Elixir can be crafted at the Alchemist.
2. Heady Assault Elixir (craftable): Attack Speed increases Damage Per Second (DPS).
3. Elixir of Fortitude (non-craftable): Maximum Life greatly improves survivability in AoZ.
4. Elixir of Cruelty (non-craftable): Provides the highest source of Critical Strike Chance from an Elixir. Alternatively, Heady Precision Elixir can be crafted at the Alchemist.

Changelog

• January 1st, 2024: Article created.