The Necromancer is Diablo 4’s very own Grim Reaper and that’s especially true in Season 6 with the Sever build. This is a build that allows the Necromancer to turn into Death himself.
The Sever Necromancer build involves the Necromancer summoning a shadow minion that cleaves its enemies to pieces with a deadly scythe. As the Necromancer is a top-tier class this season, knowing how to craft their best builds is essential.
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 Sever Necromancer skills
To assemble the Sever Necromancer build, allocate this many points on these active skills:
| Active Skill | Upgrades | Points allocated |
|---|---|---|
| Reap | Enhanced | 1 |
| Sever | Enhanced, Paranormal | 5 |
| Corpse Explosion | Enhanced, Blighted | 1 |
| Iron Maiden | Enhanced | 1 |
| Corpse Tendrils | Enhanced, Plagued | 1 |
| Bone Storm | Enhanced, Supreme | 1 |
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 |
| Crippling Darkness | 1 |
| Gloom | 3 |
| Reaper’s Pursuit | 3 |
| Terror | 3 |
| Necrotic Carapace | 2 |
| Memento Mori | 3 |
| Stand Alone | 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 Sever 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 Sever Necromancer rotation
Use the following skill rotation when approaching mobs and elites in battle:
- Iron Maiden
- Corpse Tendrils
- Bone Storm
- Sever
- Corpse Explosion
- Reap
Once again, the aim here is to trap enemies in a box while Iron Maiden, and Corpse Tendrils do their work. However, this timne we won’t have minions to fall back on, so we’ll use Bone Storm instead.
Now, hit the mob with Sever and when the bodies start to drop, use Corpse Explosion to massacre the survivors. Should anyone get to close to you, use Reap to show them that you’re death personified.
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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 | – |
| Grasping Veins | Boosts critical when casting Corpse Tendrils | 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 | |
| Metamorphosis | Inflicts Vampiric Curse on enemies | – | – | Boots |
| Hardened Bones | You and your minions get damage boost | – | – | Pants |
| Shielding Storm | Bone Storm has a chance to cast Barrier | – | – | Pants |
| Cursed Aura | Decreptify added to Iron Maiden | – | – | Boots |
| Great Feast | Minions damage increased | – | – | Focus |
| Accelerating | Critical Strikes increase attack speed | – | – | Focus |
| Concussive Strikes | Critical Strikes have a chance to cast Daze | – | – | Boots |
| Exposed Flesh | Vaulrable enemies boost Essence regeneration | – | – | Rings |
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 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.
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
- Abyssal
- Gravekeeper
- Essence
- Control
- Exploit
- Sacrificial
- Amplify
Level 21
- Essence
- Control
- Exploit
- Gravekeeper
- Amplify
- Sacrificial
- Abyssal
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 Sever Necro build.
Best endgame weapons, armor & socket
Here’s the best gear you should hunt down for the Sever Necromancer build, including the best socket to use:
| Item | Socket | Item type | Power |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ruinic Runic Skullcap of Disobedience | Ruby for extra life | Helm | Boosts Minion damage |
| Runic Mail of Shared Misery | Ruby for extra life | Chest Armor | Increased Armor |
| Sacrifical Runic Gloves | Ruby for extra life | Gloves | Increased damage |
| Ghoul Anvil | Ruby for extra life | Pants | Increased crowd control damage |
| Wind Striker 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 | – |
| Chain of Grasping Veins | Diamond for extra attack power | Amulet | Increased Shadowblight damage |
| Blighted Band | Diamond for extra attack power | Ring 1 | Increased crowd control damage |
| Band of the Umbral | Diamond for extra attack power | Ring 2 | Increased core skill damage |
Sever Necromancer build for PvP
The Sever 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. Minions will only be a hindrance in PvP, you’ll be much better off using the Sacrifice option if you use the Sever build.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.
