Weapons are an integral part of any build in Diablo 4, regardless of your class. But for Necromancers, there’s one weapon you’ll want to consider: the Black River scythe.
Like most good weapons, the Black River Scythe isn’t one you can buy from a vendor. Here’s everything you need to know about the scythe and how to get it in Diablo 4.
What does the Black River scythe do in Diablo 4? Effects, stats, and more
The Black River scythe is a versatile Unique drop, and if you’re looking for something to improve your Corpse Explosions, this might just be it. As a one-handed scythe, it has an intrinsic amount of Life on Kill, which can be handy for sustain. Like other Uniques, its enchantment is what really makes it shine, and its affixes are some extra juice. Here are the Black River’s effects as found on Wowhead, though the values may vary depending on the level of your item, its upgrades, and the rolls you’ve obtained.
- + 16 Life on Kill
- Bonus ranks of the Fueled by Death passive
- + (30-37) Intelligence
- + (9.5-13 percent) Damage to distant enemies
- + (13-20 percent) Damage to healthy enemies (above 80 percent HP)
- Unique Effect: Corpse Explosion consumes up to four additional Corpses around the initial Corpse, dealing (122-130 percent) increased damage and with a (21-25) percent larger radius per additional Corpse.
The core of the Black River’s gameplay revolves around Corpse Explosion, and that’s hardly a drawback. This ability can be valuable on all levels of gameplay (and let’s face it, there’s definitely a fun factor there). Finding this armor piece, however, can be somewhat tricky.
Diablo 4: How to get the Black River Scythe
Like other Uniques, the Black River scythe can be somewhat elusive. It has a random chance of dropping from enemies, activities, chests, and even as an end reward for Nightmare dungeons, though you have to reach at least World Tier Three for it to have a chance of dropping. Outside of that, there really isn’t a guaranteed way to get a Black River to drop.
In our experience, though, higher-end activities such as Nightmare dungeons have the best odds, especially if they have the Magic Item Find bonus. We’ve found a Temerity and a Ring of Mendeln from killing random mobs in those activities, so Black River can drop from that same source if you’re lucky.
If you haven’t unlocked World Tier Three, though, you’ll need to take on the Cathedral of Light capstone dungeon for World Tier Two, which is one of the first major challenges you’ll face after taking down the final boss of the campaign. Here’s what you need to know about it.
How to unlock World Tier Three in Diablo 4
To unlock World Tier Three, you’ll need to complete the Cathedral of Light capstone dungeon at World Tier Two, and the dungeon is located in the Cathedral in Kyovashad.
As this dungeon is vital to progressing into the later World Tiers, it is much more complex than the dungeons you’ve been doing. Because it is much more challenging, I highly recommend you stock up on potions that lessen the cons of your character.
If your character is slow, like the Necromancer, you may want to consume either a Third Eye Elixir for the increased Dodge chance or the Acrobatics Elixir to reduce your Evades Cooldown. I did this for my Necromancer, and it helped me avoid some precarious situations in the boss fight. Another example would be if you’re a Rogue, you may want to consume an Iron Bard Elixir for the increased Armor, considering how squishy Rogues tend to be.
Related: Best Rogue builds in Diablo 4
In this dungeon, you may also find yourself in dire situations where you’re out of Health potions. In this situation, you can teleport out of the dungeon and to Kyovashad, where you can use the Healer to regain health and stock up on potions. Then, return to the capstone dungeon through your portal.
As there is a time restraint regarding dungeons resetting, you have to be quick. You can also do the same quick portal run if you have lots of gear you need to sell.
Given you must wait until World Tier Three and Four to get this weapon, you may wonder if it’s worth it. And that depends on your Necromancer build.
Diablo 4: Black River Scythe stats and best for which Necromancer build
Since most Necromancer builds can make use of Corpse skills without major changes to their main tree, the Black River scythe can slot easily into most Necromancer builds as long as you’re using Corpse Explosion. This means you’re not locked into a specific playstyle, but you can still find some synergies for this scythe.
Corpse Explosion is also generally easy to use, and you can find space for it in most builds. We’ve used it to great success in all of our Necromancer builds. We’ve tinkered with Bone Spear, pure Shadow, Shadow with Minions, and even Blood Surge—and all of them had room for a Corpse Explosion to proc Grim Harvest. This potentially gives Black River enough room to shine in any Necromancer build, provided you don’t need two specific Aspects on your weapons.
If you’re running Black River, you should max out Corpse Explosion regardless. In our testing, It also synergized well with a few elements of the Necromancer skill tree:
- Hewed Flesh (Passive): Your damage has up to four/eight/12 percent chance of creating a Corpse, with doubled odds for bosses.
- Fueled by Death (Passive): Increases your damage by three/six/nine percent after consuming a Corpse. Black River also grants you extra ranks of this passive.
- Grim Harvest (Passive): Consuming a Corpse generates two/four/six Essence.
- Flesh-Eater (Paragon node): Consuming five Corpses grants you 40 percent more damage for six seconds.
- Scent of Death (Paragon node): You gain 15 percent damage reduction while near two or more Corpses and deal 15 percent increased damage while you’re not near any Corpses.
- Plagued Corpse Explosion (Corpse Explosion morph): Corpse Explosion deals eight percent more damage to enemies that are Vulnerable, Slowed, or Stunned. These bonuses can stack.
You can also use Blighted Corpse Explosion to turn Corpse Explosion into a devastating damage-over-time ability, which synergizes with these parts of the Necromancer’s Shadow damage trees.
- Blighted Corpse Explosion (Corpse Explosion morph): Transforms your Corpse Explosion into a Darkness skill that deals damage over time. Black River reportedly doesn’t increase the radius of its Shadow explosion, and it’s unclear if this is intended or not.
- Reaper’s Pursuit (Passive): Damaging enemies with Darkness skills increases your movement speed for three seconds.
- Crippling Darkness (Passive): Lucky Hit: Darkness skills have a 15 percent chance to stun for up three seconds.
- Gloom (Passive): When you damage enemies with Darkness skills, they take up to six percent increased Shadow damage from you and your Minions for two seconds, stacking up to three times.
- Terror (Passive): Darkness skills deal bonus damage to enemies that are Slowed, as well as extra damage to enemies that are Stunned or Immobilized. This bonus stacks.
- Shadowblight (Key Passive): Shadow Damage infects enemies with Shadowblight for two seconds. Every 10th time an enemy receives Shadow damage from you and your Minions while they are affected by Shadowblight, they take an additional 22 percent damage. Can potentially synergize with Blighted Corpse Explosion.
- Wither (Paragon node): Your Shadow damage over time effects have a five percent chance to deal 50 percent bonus damage each time they deal damage. This chance is increased by one percent and bonus damage is increased by 25 percent for each 50 Willpower you have.
As you can see, we’ve spotted plenty of ways to benefit Black River in our Necromancer skill tree. Outside of skill trees and Paragon Points, though, there’s another armor piece that can help you make the most of your Corpse Explosion: the Unique gauntlets known as Howl From Below.
If you’re lucky enough to get a Howl From Below to drop, we recommend using that armor piece to maximize your Corpse Explosion. Howl from Below makes your Corpse Explosions spawn seeking skeletons that chase enemies and blow up, and it also improves its ability damage by up to 40 percent. If you can get a Howl from Below, definitely pair it with Black River to get more firepower from your (sometimes hilariously inaccurate) seeking skeletons.
Another caveat you have to consider when running Black River is that it’s a one-handed scythe. Normally, this isn’t a dealbreaker, though this means you won’t get as much benefit from running a two-handed weapon such as greatswords (with extra crit damage) and two-handed scythes (with an even bigger Life on Kill effect).
Pairing Black River with a shield opens up some survivability, but combining it with a Focus improves your attack speed and consequently lets you cast your skills faster. This means you’ll have more chances to proc Hewed Flesh and also consume corpses more quickly, which can be helpful.
