Blizzard gave Necromancer a solid bonus for Season 11 that leans into stronger minions, clearer Fortify scaling, and a bunch of item changes. There is a mix of “revert-from-PTR” changes (Essence caps, Golem timers), straight-up damage buffs, and quality-of-life fixes that should make minion and Blood/Bone builds more reliable.
You can expect:
- Bigger, faster minions and better golems.
- Bone and Blood skills get meaningful damage increases.
- Fortify and defensive affixes are tightened and made more predictable.
Overall, Necromancer feels like it has been balanced out! Less weird scaling, more damage and minion reliability.
Book of the Dead & Golem Changes
- Iron Golem: Attack Speed +25%.
- Golem respawn timer: 20s → 10s (quicker returns).
- Golem active targeting: If Golem targets an enemy, your Skeleton Warriors/Mages will focus that target.
- Unstoppable on Golem active: 1.5s → 3s duration.
- Bone Golem combo: Bone Golem’s combo attack of two swings now counts as a single attack for the purposes of
Ring of Mendeln, rather than two separate attacks.
These changes make your Golem feel more impactful and reduce downtime, great news for main golem builds.
Skill Changes
Bone Spirit: PTR Essence cap was reverted!
Corpse Explosion: Damage 85% → 110%.- Blighted Corpse Explosion: Damage 110% → 145%.
Bone and corpse skills get a nice damage boosts that will only be beneficial to the concerned builds.
Passives & Fortify
Hellbent Commander: No longer requires controlling 7+ minions.
Rathma’s Vigor: Overpower timer 15s → 10s.
Kalan’s Edict: Now grants ~40% Attack Speed and ~40% damage to Minions (huge buff).
Necrotic Carapace / 
Drain Vitality / 
Initiate’s Hemorrhage / 
Supernatural Blood Surge: Fortify numbers reduced or rebalanced. Blood Surge now deals 65% increased damage while Fortified.
The passive changes also boost the minions and rebalance Fortify so it is more consistent.
Item Reworks
Sanguivor, Blade of Zir: Consuming a corpse now gives 3 souls to Vampiric Curse (was 1); damage per soul 20-30% (up from 15-25%).
Cruor’s Embrace: Damage 40-80% → 60-120% weapon damage.
Mutilator Plate: Blood Lance damage 10-40% → 30-60%; Fortify reduced from 1-4% → 1% and Max Life % swapped to flat Max Life.- Ring of Mendeln: Damage 520-900% → 650-1100%; Bone Golem combo counts as one hit (so it interacts better).
Kessime’s Legacy / Indira’s Memory / 
Greaves of the Empty Tomb / 
The Unmaker / others: Various DR-affix swaps to Intelligence, Cooldown Reduction, or flat Life, overall changes to reduce dead stats.
Items lean heavier into raw damage and cleaner stat lines, expect fewer weird rolls and stronger core damage from common Necromancer uniques.
Tempering & Paragon
- Weapon Attunement: Removed resource generation affixes for two-handed and shield.
- Minions chance to Fortify (Tempering): reduced 15.5-20% → 5-7%.
Gravekeeper / 
Blood-drinker / Exhumation: Fortify and damage numbers adjusted (some reduced Fortify but raised DR/duration where appropriate).
These moves trim overstated defensive throughput and make offensive/defensive tradeoffs clearer.
Legendary Aspects
Aspect of Hungry Blood: Now launches extra Blood Lance on first hit (no longer conditional on already-lanced target).- Aspect rank increases:
Aspect of the Cursed Aura and Shademist Aspect up to 21 ranks. - Other Aspects and uniques had Damage Reduction affixes removed or swapped to Intelligence/CRD.
Aspects are being tuned to be more useful for all classes, including Necromancer.
New Unique
Necromancer is getting one new unique item as well, the Gravebloom One-Handed Mace! This unique can only be obtained by defeating the Beast in Ice!
Affixes:
- Inherent: +10% Attack Speed
- +80-94 Intelligence
- +521-561 Maximum Life
- +36.5-50% chance for Golem to hit twice
- +1-2 Golem Mastery
Unique Power:
- You raise 3 smaller Golems that each deal 40-60% of normal damage and gain ~30% Attack Speed. Your Golems respawn 50% faster.
Gravebloom is basically the new Golem focus item! If you ever wanted to have an army of Golems instead of sacrificing them, this is the item you will need.
Bug Fixes & Quality-of-Life
- Fixed Golems not properly smaller in town with Gravebloom.
- Fixed
Rapid Ossification not granting CDR for >100 Essence. - Fixed Sacrificing Defenders not granting intended Elemental res.
- Fixed
Paranormal Sever occasionally failing to apply Vulnerable/Fear.
Overall, Necromancer in Season 11 gets a nice bonus, especially for minions! You get stronger minions and golems, better Fortify behavior, solid damage buffs, and a new Golem-focused Unique. It is a solid QoL and power update that should make most Necromancer builds more reliable and fun to play.
Necromancer Patch Notes
Necromancer
Book of the Dead
Iron Golem
- Attack Speed increased by 25%.
Skills
Bone Spirit
- Reverted Essence cap from PTR.
Passives
Hellbent Commander
- Removed the requirement for controlling 7 or more Minions.
Rathma’s Vigor
- Timer for Overpower reduced from 15 to 10 seconds.
Items
Aspect of Shielding Storm
- Barrier reduced from 1-8% to 1-3% of Maximum Health.
Sanguivor, Blade of Zir
- Consuming a Corpse now contributes 3 souls to Vampiric Curse, up from 1.
- Damage bonus increased from 15-25% to 20-30% per soul.
Cruor’s Embrace
- Damage increased from 40-80% to 60-120% of weapon damage.
Mutilator Plate
- Blood Lance Damage increased from 10-40% to 30-60%.
Ring of Mendeln
- Damage increased from 520-900% to 650-1100% of weapon damage.
- Bone Golem’s combo attack of two swings now counts as a single attack for the purposes of Ring of Mendeln, rather than two separate attacks.
Tempering
Weapon Attunement
- Affixes Removed:
- Resource Generation with Two-Handed Weapons.
- Resource Generation while Wielding a Shield.
Book of the Dead
Golem
- Respawn timer reduced from 20 seconds to 10 seconds.
- If the Golem’s active ability targets an enemy, your Skeletal Warriors and Mages will focus their attacks on that target.
- Unstoppable duration when using Golem’s active increased from 1.5 to 3 seconds.
Skeleton Mage, Bone
- Fortify on attack reduced from 3% to .1% of Maximum Life.
Skills
Corpse Explosion
- Damage increased from 85% to 110%.
Blighted Corpse Explosion
- Damage increased from 110% to 145%.
Bone Spirit
Now will only consume up to 500 Essence.
Passives
Kalan’s Edict
- Previous: Your Minions gain 3%[+] Attack Speed and 3%[x] increased damage for each active Minion. When one of your Minions die, your other Minions enrage, dealing 20%[x] increased damage for 3 seconds.
- Now: Your Minions gain 40%[+] Attack Speed and 40%[x] increased damage. When one of your Minions die, your other Minions enrage, dealing 20%[x] increased damage for 3 seconds.
Necrotic Carapace
- Fortify reduced from 5% to .2% of Maximum Life.
Drain Vitality
- Fortify reduced from 2.5% to .5% of Maximum Life.
Supernatural Blood Surge
- Previous: Each time an enemy is hit by Blood Surge’s nova, you are Fortified for 1% of your Maximum Life. While you have Fortify for over 50% of your Maximum Life, Blood Surge deals 50% increased damage.
- Now: While Fortified, Blood Surge deals 65% increased damage.
Initiate’s Hemorrhage
- Previous: Hemorrhage grants 1.6% of your Maximum Life as Fortify each time it hits an enemy, and has a 1.5% chance per enemy hit to Fortify you for 100% of your Maximum Life.
- Now: Hemorrhage grants 1% of your Maximum Life as Fortify, and has a 3% chance to Fortify you for 100% of your Maximum Life.
Legendary Aspects
Aspect of Hungry Blood
- Previous: Each Cast of Blood Lance will launch an additional Blood Lance at a Nearby enemy when it first hits an enemy that is already lanced, dealing 60-100% of normal damage.
- Now: Each Cast of Blood Lance will launch an additional Blood Lance at a Nearby enemy when it first hits an enemy, dealing 60-100% of normal damage.
Aspect of the Cursed Aura
- Now has 21 ranks, up from 16.
Shademist Aspect
- Now has 21 ranks, up from 16.
Unique Items
Mutilator Plate
- Fortify reduced from 1-4% to 1% of Maximum Life.
- Maximum Life % affix replaced with Maximum Life affix.
- Damage Reduction from Enemies affected by Blood Skills replaced with Intelligence affix.
Kessime’s Legacy
- Inherent Blood Wave Fortifies affix removed.
- Damage Reduction while Fortified affix replaced with Intelligence affix.
Indira’s Memory
- Previous: Blood Wave is additionally a Bone Skill. It spawns a Bone Prison at its end point and increases your Blood Skill damage by 20-40% for 8 seconds when Cast. All Bone Spears are additionally Blood Skills. Your Bone Spears consume a Corpse to launch another Bone Spear and drain 10% of your Maximum Life.
- Now: Bone Spear deals 20-40% additional damage and is a Blood Skill. Casting Bone Spear will launch another Bone Spear if it can consume a nearby Corpse and 5% of your Maximum Life.
- The Inherent affix where Bone Spear reduces Blood Wave’s cooldown has been removed.
- Damage Reduction while Injured affix replaced with Intelligence affix.
- Maximum Life % affix replaced with Life.
Greaves of the Empty Tomb
- Damage Reduction from Corrupted Enemies affix replaced with Intelligence.
The Unmaker
- Damage Reduction while you have a Barrier affix replaced with Cooldown Reduction.
Cruor’s Embrace
- Maximum Life % affix replaced with Intelligence.
Tempering
- Minions Chance to Fortify reduced from 15.5-20% to 5-7%.
Paragon
Gravekeeper Glyph
- Legendary Bonus now includes damage to Injured enemies.
Blood-drinker Glyph
- Fortify reduced from 10% to 3% of Maximum Life.
Exhumation Glyph
- Fortify reduced from 4% to 1% of Maximum Life.
- Damage Reduction increased from 4% to 6%.
- Duration increased from 4 to 8 seconds.
Bug Fixes
- Fixed an issue where Golems were not properly smaller while in town while using Gravebloom.
- Fixed an issue where Rapid Ossification passive was not granting cooldown reduction for more than 100 Essence at a time.
- Fixed an issue where Sacrificing Defenders did not provide the bonus Elemental resistances as intended.
- Fixed an issue where Paranormal Sever would occasionally fail to apply Vulnerable and Fear.
New Item
Gravebloom (Unique One-Handed Mace)
Affixes
- Inherent Affix: 10% Attack Speed
- +80-94 Intelligence
- +521-561 Maximum Life
- +36.5-50% Chance for Golem to Hit Twice
- +1-2 Golem Mastery
Unique Power
- You raise 3 smaller Golems that each deal 40-60% of normal damage and gain 30%[+] Attack Speed. Your Golems respawn 50% faster.
Associated Lair Boss
- Best in Ice
