The Blood Surge Necromancer is dominating the meta this season in Diablo 4. Here’s your guide to mastering it in Season 6.
Forget summoning minions – this build is all about unleashing Overpower to crush your enemies in no time flat.We’ll walk you through optimizing your skills, items, Aspects, and Glyphs to get the most out of your Blood Surge abilities.
And if you’re eyeing PvP, we’ll let you know whether this high-damage, high-survivability build can keep you on top in player battles in Season 6.
Best Blood Surge Necromancer skills
To assemble the Minion Necromancer build, allocate this many points on these active skills:
| Active Skill | Upgrades | Points allocated |
|---|---|---|
| Reap | – | 1 |
| Decompose | – | 1 |
| Blood Surge | Enhanced, Paranormal | 5 |
| Blood Mist | – | 1 |
| Bone Prison | Enhanced | 1 |
| Abhorrent Decrepify | Enhanced, Abhorrent | 5 |
| Corpse Tendrils | – | 1 |
| Bone Storm | Prime, Supreme | 1 |
Here’s which Passive Skills you should choose:
Passive Skills
| Passive Skill | Points |
|---|---|
| Unliving Energy | 1 |
| Imperfectly Balanced | 3 |
| Hewed Flesh | 3 |
| Grim Harvest | 1 |
| Fueled by Death | 2 |
| Death’s Embrace | 3 |
| Amplify Damage | 3 |
| Gruesome Mending | 1 |
| Coalesced Blood | 3 |
| Drain Vitality | 2 |
| Tides of Blood | 3 |
| Serration | 1 |
| Rapid Ossification | 3 |
| Stand Alone | 3 |
| Memento Mori | 3 |
| Inspiring Leader | 3 |
| Rathma’s Vigor | 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 set up
In the Blood Surge 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 – Sacrifice
- Skeletal Mages – Sacrifice
- Golems – Sacrifice
This sacrifice strategy ensures you maximize your damage output, making your Overpower hits and crits even deadlier.
Of course, it means you won’t be able to use your minions as allies, but you’ll be buffed from their death, making you a one-Necromancer army.
Best Blood Surge Necromancer skill rotation
Use the following skill rotation when approaching mobs and elites in battle:
- Decrepify
- Bone Prison
- Corpse Tendrils
- Blood Surge
- Bone Storm
- Blood Mist
Kick things off by cursing enemies with Decrepify to slow them down. Next, throw up a Bone Prison to trap them in place and slap on that Vulnerable status. Pull them all together with Corpse Tendrils for a tidy little AoE target.
Then, unleash Blood Surge to melt everything in sight. If you’re surrounded, activate Bone Storm to crank up your damage and tankiness. And when things get tough, activate Blood Mist to become untouchable and reposition yourself.
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 on the front line.
We’d recommend bringing Varyana as your support merc. As you don’t have minions, she will lend some much-needed melee support and will complement Raheir nicely. Together, they’ll defend you and do lots of damage to mobs or elites.
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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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grasping Veins | Increases Critical Strike Chance and damage against enemies pulled by Corpse Tendrils. | Corrupted Grotto | Kehjistan | – |
| Blood-bathed | Blood Surge’s nova echoes and deal less damage. | Hoarfrost Demise | Fractured Peaks | – |
| Disobedience | Grants stacking armor when dealing any form of damage. | Halls of the Damned | Kehjistan | – |
| Sacrificial | Increases bonus for each sacrificed minion. | Ruins of Eridu | Hawezar | – |
| Juggernaut’s | You gain armor but evade has a decreased Cooldown. | – | – | Pants |
| Hardened Bones | Increases the damage reduction provided by your minions. | – | – | Boots |
| Shielding Storm | Grants a barrier when you deal damage with Bone Storm Skills. | – | – | Focus |
| Slaughter | Increases Movement Speed. | – | – | Focus |
Remember, you can also strip these Aspects from their original item and apply them to an item of your choosing.
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.
Here are the best Glyphs for a Blood Surge Necromancer build in Diablo 4:
Level 15
- Corporeal
- Exploit
- Dominate
- Essence
- Sacrificial
- Amplify
Level 21
- Essence
- Dominate
- Exploit
- Corporeal
- Amplify
- Sacrificial
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 Blood Surge build.
Best endgame weapons, armor & socket
Here’s the best gear you should hunt down for the Blood Surge Necromancer build, including the best socket to use:
| Item | Socket | Item type | Power |
|---|---|---|---|
| Runic Skullcap of Hardened Bones | Ruby | Helm | You and your minions gain increased Damage Reduction. |
| Runic Mail of Shielding Storm | 2 Rubies | Chest | Each time Bone Storm damages an enemy, you gain a barrier. |
| Sacrificial Runic Gloves | – | Gloves | Your Sacrifice bonuses are increased. |
| Runic Leggings of Concussive Strikes | 2 Rubies | Pants | Damaging an enemy has a chance to Daze them. |
| Runic Cleats of Metamorphosis | – | Gloves | When you Evade, you turn into a cloud of bats and become Unstoppable. |
| Skullsplitter of Rathma’s Chosen | Ruby | Right Hand | When your Blood Skills Overpower, you gain attack speed. |
| Choker of the Great Feast | Skull | Amulet | Your Minions deal increase damage. |
| Starlight Ring | Skull | Ring | Gain Primary Resource for life healed. |
| Blood-bathed Ring | Skull | Ring | Blood Surge’s nova echoes again and deals less damage. |
| Serpent Stone of Grasping Vein | Ruby | Left Hand | Get increased Critical Strike Chance when you cast Corpse Tendrils. |
It’ll take time to track down this exact set, but once you do this will make up your endgame gear.
Of course, it’s up to you which gear you equip and you may want to mix it up, but this setup will give you a decided advantage.
Necromancer Blood Surge build for PvP
You can get through most PvP encounters with a the endgame Blood Surge Necro build. With the endgame Blood Surge Necromancer’s focus on Overpower, you can end fights quickly. It deals massive damage that opponents won’t see coming.
And when things get dicey, just slip into Blood Mist to become untouchable and reposition yourself. It’s a killer combo of offense and defense that makes sure you’re always in control of the battlefield.
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. There’s also our Diablo 4 Class tier list so you can see where this build fits in the current meta.
