Now that Season 5 has arrived, it’s vital to know which Necromancer builds are best in Diablo 4 for leveling, endgame, and PvP.
A fan-favorite character class, the Necromancer returns in Diablo 4 to lead another army of undead minions against the forces of Hell.
The main draw of the Necromancer is in summoning a gang of skeletons and other monsters to do your dirty work while you hang back casting buffs on them and curses on your enemies through bone and blood magic.
Some builds forgo minions entirely in Diablo 4, sacrificing them to turn the Priests of Rathma into a macabre one-person army of death-dealing.
Our Diablo 4 Season 5 tier list will break down everything you need to know about the best builds to run for your death-dealing Necromancer for both PvE and PvP from early leveling to the endgame.
Best Necromancer leveling builds
Best leveling build – Minion Necro
As it did in Season 4, the Minion Necromancer remains the cream of the crop in Season 5, along the with Blood Surge Necro.
We’d recommend using the Minion Necro for leveling in Season 5, as not only is it incredibly potent, but it’s also a very fun build to use when playing through the campaign story.
As it was in Diablo 2 and 3, having an army of minions while you work through the story is still highly overpowered and the backup your troops give you is a tremendous help when leveling through to endgame.
That said, Blood Surge is a strong choice if you’d like to be a little more active in combat and not solely rely upon your minions. Just be aware that Blood Surge falls off hard late game, and that you’ll have to swap playstyles eventually to keep up in endgame content.
Best Necromancer PvP builds
Best PvP build – Bone Spirit Necro
As is the case with endgame, pick the Bone Spirit Necro build if you’re heading into PvP in Diablo 4 this season, as there’s not much difference this season between the tier lists for the Necromancer this time around. The key change is that the Minion Necro build is far less effective in PvP than it is in all forms of PvE.
This means the Bone Spirit Necro is the undisputed champion of the tier list. The Bone Spirit will hone in on your PvP opponents and is very difficult to dodge. Once it lands, the damage it does can be devastating – especially when you’re also hitting them with curses and other spells/attacks.
Blood Lance is also a worthy mention here. It’s got a significant advantage over Blood Surge since Blood Lance’s cooldown is so short, and it has a level of burst damage that’s on-par with Bone Spirit in a PvP setting. However, you have to aim your lance whereas the spirit homes in on enemies.
Running Blood Lance requires a bit more skill, but it’s worth the payoff if you’re able to land everything.
Best Necromancer endgame builds
| Tier | Endgame build |
| S | Bone Spirit Necro |
| A | Minion Necro, Blood Lance Necro, Bone Spear Necro |
| B | Blood Surge Necro |
| C | Blight Necro, Sever Necro |
Best endgame build – Bone Spirit Necro
After reigning supreme in Season 4, the Minion Necro build has been knocked off its perch by the Bone Spirit Necro build in the endgame tier list.
This isn’t surprising, as it’s been arguably the best endgame Necromancer build since the game came out – mainly due to the versatility and power of the Bone Spirit skill.
The Minion Necro build isn’t far behind it in the meta, though, so if you’re enjoying commanding your undead troops, feel free to stick with it. This build is especially effective if you like sitting back, farming, and letting your summons handle the rest. That sort of playstyle is what many choose Necromancer for, and it’s perfectly viable if you want to stick with it.
But, to maximize your potential in endgame play, switch out to the Bone Spirit Necro build to get the most out of the class.
Our tiers explained
- S: The best of the best
- A: Very good in the current meta
- B: There might be situations where these can perform well
- C: Unless you love this class, there are much better options
While Diablo 4’s meta changes every season, its movements tend not to be huge, and we often see the same tried and tested builds rising to the top.
However, as Blizzard tweaks and updates the game, there can be some surprising changes. For example, the Minion Necro was seen as a rather weak build in Seasons 2-3, but became incredibly powerful in Season 4 – and remains so in Season 5.
All Necromancer builds in Diablo 4 Season 5 explained
Minion Necro
In Season 5, the Minion Necro build is still super effective in both leveling and endgame but is less effective in PvP, where your minions just become cannon fodder for enemy players.
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The Minion Necro build is the classic summoner that’s been beloved since Diablo 2. In Diablo 4, the class has been tweaked, but it still involves summoning and buffing as many Skeleton Warriors and Skeleton Mages are you can get. It also lets you summon a powerful Golem to back up your team.
The build involves supporting your team from a distance, letting your minions be your primary offensive tool while you cast spells and only enter the fray when it’s safe to do so. It’s a build for those who like to control all the chess pieces rather than getting their own hands dirty.
For a full rundown of the best way to build the Minion Necromancer this season, check out our guide.
Bone Spear Necro
While not as effective this Season as the Bone Spirit Necro build, the Bone Spear build for Necromancers is based on the much faster skill of the same name. The cooldown of Bone Spear is also much shorter, making this an excellent Leveling build, but less effective in Endgame and PvP.
If you choose to specialize in Bone Magic this season, we’d recommend leveling to endgame with this build, then switching out to the Bone Spirit build once you reach level 50, beat the story, and unlock the Paragon board.
Bone Spirit Necro
The Bone Spirit Necro build is all about using the skill of the same name as your primary offensive move while selecting skills and gear that boost its damage output, casting speed, and cooldown time. Bone Spirt can then be used every couple of seconds to inflict massive damage on mobs or elite enemies.
It’s not so useful for leveling, as it takes time for the skill to be upgraded and buffed to a point where it becomes overpowered. However, it’s top of the tree this season when it comes to Endgame and PvP, making it the best builds in the current meta.
Blood Surge Necro
Blood Magic is one of the Necromancer’s primary talents along with Bone Magic, Minions, and Shadow abilities. However, it doesn’t make sense to be a jack-of-all-trades and a master of none.
Therefore, the Blood Surge build involves, you guessed it, using the Blood Surge skill as your primary attack and leveling your Necromancer with other passive Blood skills that buff this attack and your Blood Magic in general. While it allows for some secondary skills, this build is all about the Blood.
In Season 5, the Blood Surge Necro build is very potent for leveling but becomes rather middle of the road in Endgame and PvP. Still, if Blood magic is your vibe, there’s fun to be had – and demons to be bled.
Blood Lance Necro
The Blood Lance Necro is the second build on the meta to make use of Blood Magic and much of the information given above for Blood Surge applies here. However, Blood Lance is a much quicker skill with a faster cooldown than Blood Surge.
Due to this, the build is also far more effective in PvP and endgame play than Blood Surge. So, if you use Blood Surge to level your Necromancer, consider switching to Blood Lance once you reach level 50, beat the story, and unlock the Paragon board.
Blight Necro
The Blight Necro build is the best one for inflicting Shadow damage in Season 5 of Diablo 4. The build involves primarily casting Blight and using this, as well as other Shadow abilities, as your main form of offense. From here, you’ll also buff your Shadow skills with passive abilities to become an all-powerful Shadow Necromancer.
Blight as a skill and basis for a build isn’t particularly high on any of the leveling, endgame, and PvP metas in Season 5, and neither is Shadow damage in general – but it represents the best Shadow build you can use at the moment for the Necromancer.
What’s more, the build can also be used alongside minions while treating summoning skills as secondary.
Sever Necro
Much of what we said above for the Blight Necro build applies to the Sever Necro, but the key difference is that the latter is a more melee-focused Shadow build. It can also benefit from the use of minions, but it may be more effective to sacrifice your minions and turn your Necromancer into the Grim Reaper of Diablo 4.
While Shadow damage isn’t ranked very high in the Season 5 meta, this is still the best melee build you can craft based on this set of the Necromancer’s abilities. It’s also most effective when Leveling, but loses some of its kick in Endgame and PvP.
Now that you know which Necromancer builds are best to use this season in Diablo 4, make sure to check out our guides for the Druid, Sorcerer, Rogue, and Barbarian.
