Diablo 4 stays true to its roots by bringing back classic characters from previous games. One of the most iconic characters in the Diablo series is the Necromancer. First making their debut in Diablo 2 and proceeding to rip up the minions of Heaven and Hell in Diablo 3, the Necromancer makes their return in Diablo 4, bringing all their occult powers with them.
There are many skill builds that are viable on a Necromancer, but perhaps few are as powerful as the Bone Spear build. This build is probably the strongest build on a Necromancer that can go through the leveling process all the way to the endgame.
Bone Spear Necromancer Diablo 4 build
The Bone Spear Necromancer build revolves around maxing out the power of your Bone spells with a sharp focus on Bone Spear as its primary ability. While Bone Spear is the damage dealer, the other supporting skills, curses, and passives will ensure you never run out of essence while pumping out massive amounts of damage.
While the Bone Spear leveling build utilizes Corpse Explosion as a secondary source of damage, the endgame build revolves around balancing Bone Spear with casts of Bone Storm. Decrepify is the curse of choice in this build that will ensure your enemies are always crippled while you slowly chip them down.
Related: Best Necromancer build in Diablo 4
Before we get to the build itself, we will need to know how Bone Spear actually works. This skill allows the Necromancer to conjure a spear made of bone from the ground that they fire at enemies. The Bone Spear pierces all enemies it passes through, making it a great way to clear groups of enemies approaching in a line.
The key is spamming this skill is integral to your damage.
As you level up, you go through five levels of Bone Spear that will increase its damage output. There are also three different enhancements you can choose from to upgrade your Bone Spear, giving it additional properties.
- Enhanced Bone Spear: This is the mandatory upgrade to Bone Spear that is needed to unlock the higher tiers. Instead of one Bone Spear, you fire three, dealing less damage per spear but covering more area.
- Paranormal Bone Spear: One of the two optional upgrades to Bone Spear. Every spear gains an increased critical hit chance. If a spear critically strikes, it will splinter into two more spears, giving the Necromancer more area coverage.
- Supernatural Bone Spear: The second optional upgrade to Bone Spear. The first enemy hit by the Bone Spears will be left vulnerable.
Depending on what you want to get out of your Bone Spear, you can choose Paranormal or Supernatural. If more area damage is what you desire, Paranormal Bone Spear will clear waves of enemies quickly. If your focus is on taking out elite packs and bosses, making them vulnerable with Supernatural Bone Spear will take them down fast.
Skill progression
These are the six skills the build needs to function at its most optimal:
- Bone Spear: Your main skill in this build. This is the skill the build revolves around and will be used the most.
- Bone Splinters: The Necromancer’s basic skill of choice. This will help you build essence while also gaining bonuses from the Bone passive skills we will be choosing later.
As mentioned earlier, Bone Spear is your primary damage tool. Make sure to keep your essence up with Bone Splinters so you have enough to use in any situation. Bone Splinters will grant you additional essence each time an enemy is hit by the skill consecutively, so it’s best to use it often on elite enemies or bosses to gain the most essence out of it.
Upgrading your Bone Splinters will grant you additional splinters fired if your essence level is more than half. From this point, choosing the final tier upgrade of Bone Splinters works the same as Bone Spear, because one upgrade will grant you increased critical hit damage, and the other will add a vulnerable status effects.
- Corpse Tendrils: Spawn tendrils from a corpse that extend outwards. These tendrils grab all nearby enemies and pull them to the center. Great source of crowd control.
- Decrepify: Curses enemies, lowering their movement speed and damage. A good way to cripple enemies and keep them away from your Necromancer.
- Blood Mist: Transforms into a bloody cloud, rendering your Necromancer immune to all damage. A great way to disengage from targets when your Necromancer is surrounded.
Corpse Tendrils is by far the best crowd-control ability in Diablo 4 across all classes. Very few crowd control abilities can reposition a group of enemies, deal damage, and leave them vulnerable, all for no resource cost with a low cooldown. Spam this ability off cooldown to ensure enemies are clumped up together for you to spam Bone Spear.
Decrepify is the best curse to use in this build because it completely destroys the enemies’ ability to counterattack you. The slow makes it so you can reposition yourself accordingly to use Bone Spear more.
And finally, Blood Mist is your disengage ability that can be further enhanced with legendary gear to deal additional damage and cause corpses to explode for no cost.
- Bone Storm: The best ultimate ability to use in this build. Bone Storm conjured a tornado of bones around you that deal continuous damage for 10 seconds to all surrounding enemies.
Rounding off the Bone Spear build would be Bone Storm. This ability fits incredibly well in the Bone-themed build we are going for as a powerful secondary source of damage. Bone Storm also synergizes well with the build since it will benefit from all of the Bone skill passives we will be going through next.
Passive abilities
The core Bone passives used in this build are as follows.
- Rapid Ossification: Every 100 essence spent decreases the cooldown of all Bone skills.
- Serration: Your Bone skills have a higher critical hit chance based on the essence you have.
- Compound Fracture: You gain bonus damage every time your Bone skills critically strike 10 times.
- Evulsion: Your Bone skills deal increased critical hit damage to vulnerable enemies.
Apart from the Bone passives, these are the support passive abilities that enhance the build.
- Hewed Flesh: Your attacks have a chance to create corpses.
- Unliving Energy: Increases your maximum essence cap.
- Imperfectly Balanced: Core skills deal increased damage with increased essence cost.
- Grim Harvest: Consuming corpses generate essence.
- Fueled by Death: You deal increased damage after consuming a corpse.
These passives strengthen your solo playstyle and buff the damage dealt by your curse.
- Amplify Damage: You deal increased damage to cursed enemies.
- Stand Alone: Increases your damage reduction when you have no minions.
And finally, the key passive of the build.
- Ossified Essence: All your Bone skills deal increased damage for each point of essence available.
We have two more important choices to tackle before this build becomes viable.
Book of the Dead
Now you have the passives down, we will need to know the best Book of the Dead choices. In this case, since you have the Stand Alone passive, it’s best to go with minion bonuses instead of the minions themselves. Sacrifice these minions for their bonuses.
- Skirmishers: Increases your critical strike chance.
- Cold Mages: Deals bonus damage to vulnerable enemies.
- Iron Golem: Increases your critical strike damage.
Since this build works around maximizing critical strikes with your Bone Spears, these sacrifices complete the build.
Aspects
Now we choose the best aspects for your Necromancer to strengthen your Bone Spears.
- Splintering Aspect: Bone Spear hits turn every enemy vulnerable.
- Aspect of Torment: Critical strikes dealt with Bone skills increases your essence regeneration.
- Aspect of Grasping Veins: Casting Corpse Tendrils increases your critical hit chance. You also gain bonus critical hit damage to enemies caught by the tendrils.
- Aspect of Potent Blood: If your health is full, Blood Orbs will instead restore your essence.
- Wind Striker Aspect: Successful critical strikes will grant you increased movement speed.
- Aspect of Disobedience: Dealing damage grants you increased armor per attack.
- Aspect of the Umbral: You restore energy when you use crowd-controlling effects on enemies.
- Aspect of Serration: The Ossified Essence also increases the critical hit damage caused by your Bone skills.
- Aspect of Shielding Storm: When Bone Storm damages an enemy, you gain a damage-absorbing barrier that blocks a percentage of your max health in damage.
- Aspect of Exposed Flesh: When your Bone skills hit a vulnerable enemy, you gain a chance to restore some of your essence.
- Eluding Aspect: If you get injured while enemies are being crowd controlled, you become unstoppable for a short period of time.
Imbue your best Diablo 4 gear with these aspects and they should be able to carry you all through the higher difficulty levels. And that’s everything you need to run a successful Bone Spear build all the way to the endgame.
