Necromancer Class Overview in Diablo 4

"Necromancers are cunning summoners that conjure vengeful hordes of the undead. Their Essence flows into three powerful bastions of Bone, Blood, or Shadow to bring low their enemies."

Necromancers two different resources: Essence and Corpses.

Essence is the main resource and is comparable to the primary resource of other classes; it refills slowly over time, but can also be replenished through the use of some Basic Skills and talents. Essence is used to cast some of your most powerful skills.

The secondary Necromancer resource is Corpses. Corpses come from fallen enemies and can be raised as minions or simply detonated.

The Necromancers unique class mechanic is called The Book of the Dead. This book allows Necromancers to customise their army to their liking. For example, which minions they want to summon and how they behave in combat.

There are 3 customisable minions: Skeletal Warriors, Skeletal Mages, and Golems.

Skeletal Warriors can be given one of three specialisation: Skirmishers, Defenders, or Reapers.

Skirmishers are standard warriors that deal 30% increased damage, but have 15% reduced Life. Defenders wear shields and have 15% increased Life. Reapers Slow attackers with wide area of effect frontal scythe attacks and have a powerful wind-up skill that deals heavy damage every 10 seconds.

Skeletal Mages come in three varieties: Shadow Skeletal Mages, Cold Skeletal Mages, and Bone Skeletal Mages.

Cold Skeletal Mages Chill and Freeze enemies. Shadow Skeletal Mages deal additional Shadow damage. As far as we know, Bone Skeletal Mages launch their own bones as to deal heavy Physical damage at the cost of some of their Life.

Necromancers can select one of three different types of Golems: Bone Golems, Blood Golems, and Iron Golems.

Bone Golems Taunt enemies in a wide area. Blood Golems drain Life from enemies around them. Iron Golems charge into enemies to slam the ground and Stun.

In this section, we will cover the small differences that make the Necromancer special and go into some of the skills that are unique to them.

Necromancers can sacrifice their minions in order to become stronger for a short period of time. For example, sacrificing a Blood Golem increase the Necromancer's maximum Life for a short time. During that time, however, it is impossible to summon any more Golems.

Necromancers can cast Curses upon their enemies through skills like Iron Maiden and Decrepify, which inflict powerful but temporary debuffs with unique effects.

Reaper's Scythe are a unique weapon type only available to the Necromancer class. However, if you cannot get your hands on a Scythe right away, Swords, Daggers, and Wands, as well as an offhand Focus and Shield, are all available to Necromancers.

This section provides an overview of the main skill categories for the Necromancer class.

For a more detailed and in-depth list of all Necromancer skills and talents, refer to the dedicated pages below.

All classes have Basic, Core, and Ultimate Skills as categories. Necromancers also have Macabre, Corruption, and Summoning Skills.

Basic Skills are spammable skills whose primary purpose is to regenerate Essence. Basic Skills are not very powerful, but good to finish off small enemies or as a filler while waiting for more powerful skills to be available.

The Basic Skills for the Necromancer are:

• Decompose, Reap, Hemorrhage, and Bone Splinters

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.

The Core Skills for the Necromancer are:

• Blight, Sever, Blood Surge, Blood Lance, and Bone Spear

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

The Macabre Skills for the Necromancer are:

• Corpse Explosion, Blood Mist, and Bone Prison

The Corruption 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.

The Corruption Skills for the Necromancer are:

• Iron Maiden and Decrepify

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

The Summoning Skills for the Necromancer are:

• Corpse Tendrils and Bone Spirit

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.

The Ultimate Skills for the Necromancer are:

• Army of the Dead, Blood Wave, and Bone Storm

In addition to the categories discussed in the sections above, each Necromancer skill also has at least one of the following tags: Blood, Bone, Summon, Shadow, Curse.

It is presumed that tags will also be used by other systems, such as items and Legendary Aspects, to improve specific subsets of skills and promote specialised builds.

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.

There are four primary attributes in Diablo 4, and every stat has additional effects depending on the class. The primary attribute as well as the secondary effects of each are have not yet been revealed for the Necromancer.

Furthermore, the secondary defensive effects of each attribute are the same for most classes.

Strength increases Armor by 1 per point. Armor is an important defensive attribute that reduces damage taken.

All Resistance is increased by 0.05% for each point of Intelligence (5% per 100).

Overpower Damage is increased by 0.25% per 1 Willpower (25% per 100), and Healing Received is increased by 0.1% per 1 Willpower (10% per 100).

Chance to Dodge attacks is increased by 0.025% per point of Dexterity (2.5% per 100).

Legendary Aspects stand for Legendary Powers that can be imprinted onto items to enhance them with strong and distinctive effects. While certain Legendary Aspects are exclusive to a single class, some are available to all classes.

Legendary Aspects can be imprinted on Rare and Legendary items at the Occultist. After imprinting:

• Rare (yellow) items turn into Legendaries with the affixes (stats) that were previously on that item, plus the newly added Legendary Power.
• If the item was already Legendary, their existing Legendary Power is simply overwritten by the new one.

Applied Codex of Power Aspects remain in the Codex indefinitely, and extracted Legendary Aspects are consumed when they are imprinted onto an item.

The following section lists the known Legendary Aspects that are specific to the Necromancer, arranged by category.

Defensive Legendary Aspects can only be imprinted onto the following item types: Helm, Chest Armor, Pants, and Amulet.

Legendary Aspect Name	Legendary Aspect Power	Drop Location
Aspect of Grasping Veins	Enemies who are Stunned by Corpse Tendrils are also made Vulnerable. If they die while Stunned, they have a 15% chance to spawn a Blood Orb.	Kehjistan

Offensive Legendary Aspects can only be imprinted onto the following item types: Gloves, Focus, Ring, Amulet, One-Handed Weapon, and Two-Handed Weapon.

Legendary Aspect Name	Legendary Aspect Power	Drop Location
Blighted Aspect	The Shadowblight Passive deals x15% increased damage against Slowed or Chilled enemies, and x30% increased damage against Stunned enemies instead.	Hawezar
Blood-bathed Aspect	Blood Surge's nova echoes again after a short delay, dealing x60% less damage.	Hoarfrost Demise, Fractured Peaks
Blood Seeker's Aspect	Blood Lance deals x15% increased damage to its primary target per lanced target.	Fractured Peaks
Aspect of Bursting Bones	When a segment of Bone Prison is destroyed or expired, it deals damage in an area around itself.	Dry Steppes
Aspect of the Damned	You deal x30% increased Shadow Damage to enemies afflicted by both Decrepify and Iron Maiden.	Kehjistan
Aspect of Empowering Reaper	Each target hit along Sever's path increases the scythe's damage by x6%, up to x30%.	Scosglen
Aspect of Possessed Blood	When you pick up 5 Blood Orbs, a free Bone Spirit is spawned, dealing bonus damage based on your current Life percent.	Dry Steppes
Aspect of Reanimation	Your Skeletons gain increased damage while alive, up to x20% after 10 seconds.	Scosglen
Sacrificial Aspect	Your Sacrifice bonuses are increased by 15%.	Hawezar
Aspect of Swelling Curse	Bone Spirit deals increased damage based on distance traveled, up to x15%.	Scosglen
Unyielding Commander's Aspect	While Army of the Dead is active, your Minions gain 70% Attack Speed and take 90% reduced damage.	Hawezar

Resource Legendary Aspects can only be imprinted onto the following item types: Helm, Ring, and Amulet.

Legendary Aspect Name	Legendary Aspect Power	Drop Location
Fastblood Aspect	Blood Orbs reduce your Ultimate Cooldown by 0.5 seconds.	Hawezar
Flesh-Rending Aspect	After Decompose spawns a Corpse, gain 10 Essence.	Fractured Peaks
Hulking Aspect	Each time your Golem damages an enemy, its active Cooldown is reduced by 1 seconds.	Kehjistan
Aspect of Potent Blood	While at full Life, Blood Orbs grant 10 Essence.	Dry Steppes
Requiem Aspect	You gain 3.0 maximum Essence per active Minion.	Scosglen

Utility Legendary Aspects can only be imprinted onto the following item types: Helm, Chest Armor, Boots, Gloves, and Amulet.

Legendary Aspect Name	Legendary Aspect Power	Drop Location
Aspect of Torment	Critical Strikes with Bone Skills increase your Essence Regeneration by x20% for 4 seconds.	Black Asylum, Fractured Peaks
Torturous Aspect	Enemies afflicted by your Iron Maiden have a 15% chance to be Stunned for 1 second when they deal direct damage.	Kehjistan
Aspect of the Void	Blight's defiled area, when spawned, Pulls in enemies around the affected area.	Rimescar Cavern, Fractured Peaks

Mobility Legendary Aspects can only be imprinted onto the following item types: Boots and Amulet.

At this time the Codex does not include any Necromancer-specific Aspects.

Unique items are the highest tier of items that can be found in Diablo 4. They are very rare and therefore harder to get, but will most likely be part of the best-in-slot gear for each class.

As of yet however, there are no known Uniques for the Necromancer class. This guide will be updated once they are discovered.

Despite the level limit of 25 for the upcoming Diablo 4 beta, we will take advantage of the opportunity to showcase our best Necromancer leveling builds in preparation for the full release of the game.

Additionally, we will provide some theoretical late-game build ideas to fill in the lull between the beta and launch. So stay tuned.