The Necromancer is one of the top classes to play as in Season 6 of Diablo 4 with the Blight build also making the meta. Here’s how to assemble the build as well as how effective it is this season.
The Blight Necro build involves the Necromancer manipulating corpses and using them as a deadly weapon against the forces of hell. As the Necromancer is a top-tier class this season, knowing how to craft their best builds is essential. The Blight Necro is rated as C-Tier in Season 6, but the fact that the build is on the meta means it’s still worth trying.
Below, we’ll detail how to optimize the build, giving you the best skills, items, Aspects, and Glyphs to target on your journey this season.
Best Blight Necromancer skills
To assemble the Blood Lance Necromancer build, allocate this many points on these active skills:
| Active Skill | Upgrades | Points allocated |
|---|---|---|
| Reap | Enhanced | 1 |
| Blight | Enhanced, Supernatural | 5 |
| Corpse Explosion | Enhanced, Blighted | 2 |
| Iron Maiden | Enhanced | 2 |
| Corpse Tendrils | Enhanced, Plagued | 2 |
Here’s which Passive Skills you should choose:
| Passive Skill | Points |
|---|---|
| Unliving Energy | 1 |
| Hewed Flesh | 3 |
| Imperfectly Balanced | 3 |
| Grim Harvest | 1 |
| Fueled by Death | 3 |
| Amplify Damage | 3 |
| Death’s Embrace | 3 |
| Reaper’s Pursuit | 3 |
| Crippling Darkness | 1 |
| Gloom | 3 |
| Necrotic Carapace | 1 |
| Terror | 3 |
| Hellbent Commander | 3 |
| Inspiring Leader | 3 |
| Shadowblight | 1 |
When you start a new character, if you’re a returning player, you’ll likely have lots of skill points ready to assign from your Renown or by being boosted to level 60 from the start.
But if you’re a new player, you’ll need to start from scratch. The good news is you’ll be able to hit level 60 very quickly in the post-Season 6 version of Diablo 4.
Below, we’ve detailed how many skill points you’ll need to assign to each passive and active skill using your leveling and Renown points.
You may find yourself needing to select other skills to progress across the skill tree. That’s okay, just respec to the ones included in the build once you’re able. Who knows, you may create a custom build that suits your needs better.
Best Book of the Dead setup
In the Blight Necromancer build, you have three types of minions to summon or sacrifice through the Book of the Dead. For this build, you sacrifice them all in this order:
- Skeletal Warriors – Reapers
- Skeletal Mages – Cold
- Golems – Blood
This set up will help your Skeletal Warriors support you in the thick of combat, rushing to enemies and allowing you to cast Blight from a distance.
Your Mages can then use cold damage to slow mobs while your Blood Golem heals you, ensuring you remain as close to full health as possible.
Best Blight Necromancer skill rotation
Use the following skill rotation when approaching mobs and elites in battle:
- Summon Minions
- Iron Maiden
- Corpse Tendrils
- Blight
- Corpse Explosion
- Reap (in close combat)
For this rotation, first, we’re going to ensure our minions are active, then cast Iron Maiden and Corpse Tendrills to slow, poison, and damage enemies. Then we’re going to complete the deadly trinity with Blight, a projectile-based attack that leaves a pool of Blight damage on the ground for several seconds.
This will stack with Iron Maiden and Corpse Tendrils so that the mob is being hit by all 3 attacks at once. From here, we can either keep casting Blight, or we can run into battle and slice at enemies with Reap, taking advantage of its Executioner upgrade to kill weekend enemies.
Or, we can sit back and cast Corpse Explosion which will finish off survivors without us needing to lift a finger.
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Best Legendary Aspects
Legendary Aspects can boost your build and add special powers to buff your primary skills. Here are the ones you need and where to find them:
| Aspect | Power | Dungeon | Region | Gamble Obols |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blighted | Increased Shadowblight damage damage | Akkan’s Grasp | Hawezar | – |
| Damned | Increased Shadow damage | Uldur’s Cave | Kehjistan | – |
| Umbral | Boosts resource regeneration | Champion’s Demise | Dry Steppes | – |
| Ghostwalker | Become unstoppable when movement speed is boosted | Broken Bulwark | Scosglen | – |
| Disobedience | Boosts defense based on your damage output | Halls of the Damned | Kehjistan | – |
| Shared Misery | Boosts crowd control damage | Oblivion | Hawezar | – |
| Sacrificial | Boosts Sacrifice bonuses | Ruins of Eridu | Hawezar | – |
| Hulking | Boosts Golem cooldown | Sepulcher of the Forsword | Kehjistan | |
| Void | Blight pulls in enemies | – | – | Pants |
| Hardened Bones | You and your minions get damage reduction | – | – | Pants |
| Shielding Storm | Bone Storm can lead to casting Barrier | – | – | Pants |
| Slaughter | Boosts movements speed by 20% | – | – | Boots |
Remember, you can also strip these Aspects from their original item and apply them to an item of your choosing.
Best Mercenaries
Select Raheir as your Primary merc. His defensive buffs will help keep you alive should you get caught by a mob. He can also do decent damage to enemies and support you and your minions on the front line.
We’d recommend bringing Subo as your support merc. He’ll be able to fire into combat or throw jars into mobs that will serve as a fourth attack for those trapped by your Blight and other moves.
Best Paragon Glyphs
Once you reach level 60 you’ll stop earning skills points and start earning Paragon points instead. This leveling system works very differently and involves you selecting updates from various boards with different themes and buffs.
Every path is different, but the good news is that by targeting different Glyphs as you move around the Paragon Board, you’ll start buffing your Necro in the ways that matter most to the build.
See below to see which Glyphs you should target first.
Level 15
- Darkness
- Control
- Scourge
- Sacrificial
- Abyssal
- Exploit
- Amplify
- Gravekeeper
Level 21
- Control
- Scourge
- Exploit
- Sacrificial
- Amplify
- Abyssal
- Gravekeeper
Once you reach Paragon Level 15, work your way towards the above Glyphs. You’ll also unlock more across the Paragon Board as you earn more points, but selecting these particular Glyphs in this order will keep you on the best possible path for the Blight Necro build.
Best endgame weapons, armor & socket
Here’s the best gear you should hunt down for the Blight Necromancer build, including the best socket to use:
| Item | Socket | Item type | Power |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hulking Runic Skullcap | Ruby for extra life | Helm | Boosts Minion damage |
| Runic Mail of Disobedience | Ruby for extra life | Chest Armor | Increased Armor |
| Runic Gloves of Innder Calm | Ruby for extra life | Gloves | Increased damage |
| Runic Leggings of Shared Misery | Ruby for extra life | Pants | Increased crowd control damage |
| Ghostwalker Runic Cleats | Ruby for extra life | Boots | Increased Unstoppable chance |
| Parashu of the Damned | 2x Amethysts for increased damage | Main Hand | Increased Shadow damage |
| – | – | Offhand | – |
| Blighted Chain | Diamond for extra attack power | Amulet | Increased Shadowblight damage |
| Band of the Umbral | Diamond for extra attack power | Ring 1 | Increased crowd control damage |
| Band of Voracious Rage | Diamond for extra attack power | Ring 2 | Increased core skill damage |
Blight Necromancer build for PvP
The Blight Necro isn’t recommended for PvP, and while it’s fantastic in PvE, we’d recommend using the Bone Spirit or Bone Spear build instead, sacrificing your minions and turning your Necromancer into a one-person army in some cases.
If you’re set on taking this build into battle against other players, though, we’d suggest sticking to our endgame version for the best results.
Your minions will be weak to other players, you tap your PvP opponents in your kill box (see rotation) then move in for the kill with Reap. It may be worth upgrading Reap by taking some of the points away from your minions if you choose to use this build for PvP. Now that you know how to craft this top-tier Necromancer build, make sure to check out our guides for the Druid, Sorcerer, Rogue, Barbarian, and Spirtiborn.
