Mastering the art of Necromancy in Diablo 4 demands strategic planning, informed decisions, and a deep understanding of game mechanics. If you’re aiming to build a formidable Bone Necromancer D4, this comprehensive guide is your essential roadmap. From optimizing your Paragon Board pathways, selecting ideal gear, capitalizing on Legendary Aspects, identifying beneficial item affixes, to choosing the right gems, we’ve got you covered. Dive in to enrich your gaming journey and pave the path to unbridled power in the realm of Sanctuary. Let’s unravel the mysteries of the Bone Necromancer together.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Bone Spear Build: A Quick Overview
This build centers on the strategic use of bone magic, primarily focusing on the potent Bone Spear, the generation of corpses as a significant resource, and implementing formidable spells like Bone Splinters and Bone Prison. In essence, this Diablo 4 Necromancer build enables you to channel the power of bone magic, augmenting your Bone Spear with substantial buffs and controlling the battlefield with your solitary Golem companion.
The choices made while advancing into the endgame prove crucial, specifically while facing significant challenges such as rare elites. These choices will heavily influence the efficacy of your Bone Spear, the main damage dealer of this build. But let’s delve into that later. For now, let’s explore the Bone Necromancer’s strengths and weaknesses.
And here’s the list of all strengths and weaknesses of the Bone Spear Necromancer:
| Strengths | Weaknesses |
|---|---|
|
|
As outlined, this build excels in heavy damage output, strategic gameplay, and maintaining a solid defense with your Golem. However, it also comes with drawbacks; one significant issue is when you encounter bosses with swift minion-killing abilities. This build can prove challenging when immediate counter-attacks are required. Hence, these factors must be considered when opting for the Bone Necromancer build.
How to Play Bone Spear Necromancer
The gameplay strategy of the Bone Necromancer revolves around the efficient use of Bone Spear at high essence. To get the optimal output, a sequence of Bone Splinters casting is recommended, kick-starting the passive bone abilities. This build, evident in its talent tree, is endowed with numerous passive nodes, which get activated by the Bone Splinters. Once these buffs are set into motion, the stage is ready for the unleashing of a powerful Bone Spear to obliterate the enemies.
The typical rotation involves casting 3 to 5 Bone Splinters, priming the battlefield for the Bone Spear. For the maximum burst damage, a series of Bone Splinters followed by Bone Prison, which renders the enemy vulnerable, should be the sequence of choice. The final stroke of devastation is the release of the Bone Spear.
Diving deeper into the rotation specifics of the Bone Necromancer, the goal is to set the critical strike and damage buffs in motion, inflict vulnerability on the enemies, and then, let loose a crushing Bone Spear. Below are the pivotal spells in this process:
Bone Splinters: Best used as a shotgun spell. This quickly triggers Acolyte’s Bone Splinters, leading to an additional critical strike buff.
Bone Prison: Post the accumulation of damage buffs, Bone Prison is promptly cast on the target, applying vulnerability.
Bone Spear: The finale is a powerful Bone Spear, which consumes all buffs and inflicts high burst damage. For best results, try to align a group of enemies for multikills. When engaging bosses, fights near walls are suggested. The Bone Spear, upon hitting a wall, reflects back as three shards, dealing additional damage. Hence, positioning the boss’s back close to a wall provides a strategic advantage.
Bone Storm: The Bone Storm ultimate ability is employed to increase damage, boost critical strike chances, and enhance defensive capabilities.
The Best Leveling Skills for Bone Spearr Necromancer
This section of the guide focuses on the essential aspects of the build – the skills that you need to prioritize and develop as you approach level 50. These skill recommendations are based on a combination of testing and theorycrafting, and they will undergo further testing as we move into the full version of the game.
Bone Splinters (1/
Modifiers:
- Enhanced Bone Splinters
- Acolyte’s Bone Splinters
When considering our options, Bone Splinters stands out with its impressive base damage and the ability to generate essence. To further augment its capabilities, we opt for Enhanced Bone Splinters, transforming the spell into a shotgun-like effect. Additionally, we choose Acolyte’s Bone Splinters to accumulate a critical strike buff, creating a synergistic relationship with Bone Spear and/or Bone Spirit.
Points Recommendation: It is recommended to invest 1 point in Bone Splinters to unlock the skill and acquire both modifiers. If desired, additional points can be allocated for a 58-point build version.
Bone Spear (5/5)
Modifiers:
- Enhanced Bone Spear
- Paranormal Bone Spear
Bone Spear proves to be an exceptional long-range damage ability, particularly when combined with skill points and legendary items. Its piercing nature makes it equally effective against both single targets and in scenarios requiring area-of-effect damage. We choose to invest in Enhanced Bone Spear, causing it to fracture into three shards and rebound off walls. This mechanic proves particularly advantageous in narrow corridors, as the Bone Spear can pierce enemies, collide with a wall, and then scatter into three shards that strike foes from unexpected angles.
Additionally, Paranormal Bone Spear enhances this unique feature by granting an increased critical strike chance and augmenting the number of shards upon destruction.
Points Recommendation: Allocate 5 points into Bone Spear and invest an additional 2 points to unlock both modifiers, maximizing its potential.
Hewed Flesh (3/3)
Hewed Flesh, a passive ability, plays a crucial role in our corpse generation. The automatic generation of corpses proves invaluable, especially when utilizing the Explosive Mist legendary item alongside Blood Mist. With Hewed Flesh, we gain the ability to reset the cooldown of Blood Mist, ensuring nearly constant immunity when necessary.
Points Recommendation: It is advisable to allocate 1 point to Hewed Flesh in the early stages. However, as you progress and reach level 25, it is highly recommended to invest an additional 2 points to fully maximize its potential.
Unliving Energy (1/
Unliving energy allows us to reach Imperfectly Balanced.
Points Recommendation: Invest 1 Point.
Imperfectly Balanced (3/
Imperfectly Balanced adds 15% more damage to our Bone Spear while increasing its essence cost.
Points Recommendation: Invest 1 Point in early phase. Invest 3 points after mid game phase.
Blood Mist (1/
Modifiers:
Blood Mist proves to be an exceptional addition to the Bone Necromancer build, showcasing its defensive prowess and remarkable synergy with the Explosive Mist legendary item. This skill adds versatility to the build as, when combined with the Explosive Mist legendary aspect, Blood Mist automatically triggers Corpse Explosion, providing substantial area-of-effect damage even after recent adjustments. Additionally, it serves as a defensive tool, granting temporary immunity against incoming damage.
In our build, the Bone Necromancer effortlessly generates corpses without the need for manually consuming them. Hence, we integrate Blood Mist with the Explosive Mist legendary item to effectively reduce its cooldown every time an automatic corpse explosion occurs. By investing in Enhanced Blood Mist, we further diminish the cooldown duration, while Ghastly Blood Mist enhances corpse generation, thereby accelerating the ability’s cooldown reduction. This synergy significantly amplifies both the area-of-effect damage and defensive capabilities of the build.
Points Recommendation: It is recommended to invest 1 point into Blood Mist during the early stages of the game. As you progress into the mid-game, allocating an additional 2 points will unlock the modifiers, unleashing the full potential of this skill.
Corpse Explosion (1/
Modifiers:
Corpse Explosion is not actively utilized in our build and therefore does not occupy a slot on our action bar. However, when we acquire the Explosive Mist legendary item, Blood Mist automatically casts its level 1 Corpse Explosion, regardless of the number of points invested in Corpse Explosion. To avoid unnecessary allocation, we invest 1 point into Corpse Explosion solely to unlock the Enhanced Corpse Explosion modifier.
While Blood Mist triggers its level 1 Corpse Explosion independently, the Enhanced Corpse Explosion modifier specifically enhances the automatic corpse explosion triggered by Blood Mist. This modifier effectively increases the radius of the automatic corpse explosion by 15%.
Points Recommendation: Investing 1 point in Corpse Explosion is recommended to unlock the Enhanced Corpse Explosion modifier, providing improved area-of-effect clarity during the early game. However, Corpse Explosion is no longer actively used after obtaining the Explosive Mist legendary power.
Bone Prison (1/
Modifiers:
Bone Prison proves to be an excellent choice for the Bone Necromancer build, offering three distinct benefits when Enhanced Bone Prison and Ghastly Bone Prison upgrades are selected:
- Crowd Control: Bone Prison provides exceptional crowd control capabilities, allowing you to immobilize multiple enemies effectively.
- Essence Generation: By utilizing Bone Prison, you also benefit from increased essence generation, ensuring a steady resource pool for your other skills.
- Vulnerability Effect: Bone Prison offers the added advantage of inflicting the Vulnerability effect on enemies when upgraded with the Ghastly Bone Prison modifier. Vulnerable enemies become more susceptible to damage, taking an additional 20% off all attacks. This effect can be further enhanced by utilizing specific legendary items such as the Aspect of the Protector, which applies barriers to maintain the integrity of the Bone Prison. This ensures enemies remain trapped within the prison for 6 seconds, maximizing damage output. The increased damage becomes particularly valuable when facing bosses and elite enemies, allowing for quicker eliminations.
Points Recommendation: It is recommended to invest 1 point into Bone Prison and allocate 2 points to unlock the modifiers, allowing you to fully capitalize on its crowd control, essence generation, and vulnerability effects.
Death’s Embrace (3/
Death’s Embrace is a great passive node for increasing our close range damage and provides damage reduction.
Points Recommendation: Invest 1 point early game. Max points after mid game.
Death’s Reach (3/
Death’s Reach adds damage to our long range abilities. Great for further increasing our Bone Spear damage when hitting long range targets.
Points Recommendation: Invest 1 point early game. Max points after mid game.
Serration (3/
Serration is a great passive node for further increasing our Bone skill critical chance.
Points Recommendation: Invest 1 or 2 points early game. Max points after mid game.
Compound Fracture (3/
Compound Fracture is a great passive node which further synergizes our critical strikes and damage increase.
Points Recommendation: Invest 1 or 2 points early game. Max points after mid game.
Evulsion (3/
Evulsion is another passive node which further increases our damage when we apply vulnerability through Bone Prison.
Points Recommendation: Invest 1 or 2 points early game. Max points after mid game.
Stand Alone (3/
Since we will sacrifice all of our minions except our Golem, Stand Alone makes us even tankier against formidable foes.
Points Recommendation: Invest 1 or 2 points early game. Max points after mid game.
Memento Mori (3/
Memento Mori further increases our critical strike chance and damage against vulnerable enemies because we will sacrifice Skeletal Skirmishers and Skeletal Frost Mages.
Points Recommendation: Invest 1 or 2 points early game. Max points after mid game.
Golem Mastery (3/
We will be using a Blood Golem to permanently grant us 15% damage absorption. We want our Golem to be tanky therefore, we invest points into Golem Mastery.
Points Recommendation: Invest 1 or 2 points early game. Max points after mid game.
Bone Storm (1/
Modifiers:
Bone Storm is a formidable ultimate ability, offering offensive and defensive capabilities. Bone Storm emanates from the Necromancer and their Golem, unleashing its devastating power when activated. Beyond its inherent damage, Bone Storm provides additional benefits, including a 15% damage reduction and a 20% increased critical strike chance. These bonuses prove highly advantageous for the Bone Necromancer, bolstering survivability and damage output.
Points Recommendation: It is recommended to invest 1 point into Bone Storm to unlock and access its modifiers, Prime Bone Storm and Supreme Bone Storm. These modifiers enhance the potency of the ultimate ability, further augmenting its effectiveness in combat.
Ossified Essence (1/
Ossified Essence is another ability that further increases our Bone damage.
Points Recommendation: Invest 1 point whenever accessible.
Grim Harvest (1/3)
The reason why you need to add one point to it is that this node gives you access to Fueled by Death. Nevertheless, it can be useful as you constantly use Raise Skeleton, and it provides you with yet another resource needed for Essence. Thus, you can cast more Blight.
Additional 10 Points for Bone Spear Necromancer Build
The final touches on the Bone Necromancer build include strategically allocating the last 10 skill points. Under the umbrella of “nice-to-have” additions, these points enrich your build in the later stages. You may have these points before reaching level 50 based on your dedication to zone Renown.
Here’s the breakdown of these enhancements:
- Serration: Allocate an additional point to reach 3/3.
- Compound Fracture: Invest two more points to attain 3/3.
- Evulsion: Add two points to maximize at 3/3.
- Rapid Ossification: Assign three points to complete the 3/3 allocation.
- Bone Splinters: Put in two more points, raising the total to 3/5.
In conclusion, these nuanced augmentations offer a more refined, potent approach to the Bone Necromancer’s build. While they may not be the immediate focus of your early game, integrating these elements later significantly enhances your performance. Your path with these points is fundamentally tied to your gameplay strategy, so choose wisely. As you reach the latter stages of your journey, these seemingly minor adjustments could make the difference between victory and defeat.
The Book of the Dead: Best Choices for Bone Spear Necromancer
Navigating the Book of the Dead as a Bone Necromancer involves making strategic sacrifices of your minions, each contributing to augmenting your battlefield prowess. Here’s the best way to optimize your sacrifices for maximum benefits:
- Melee Skeletons: In your quest for more powerful Critical Strikes, your Skirmishers should be the primary target for sacrifice. Doing so’ll amplify your chances of landing those devastating Critical Strikes, enhancing your overall strategy.
- Mage Skeletons: The sacrifice strategy here depends on your character’s level. For those under level 75, it’s advisable to sacrifice your Cold Mages, thereby increasing your damage output against vulnerable foes. Once you hit level 75, however, the game changes. Now, the sacrifice of your Shadow Mages becomes the most beneficial, netting you an additional 15 Essence (and significantly more with the Memento Mori talent), which is crucial since your damage is directly tied to your essence count.
- Golem: With your main objective to unleash powerful bursts of Bone Spear damage, it’s paramount to avoid sacrificing your Iron Golem. By keeping this companion, you optimize your ability to maximize Critical Strikes and bolster the damage they inflict. This decision ultimately increases both your Critical Strike chance and Critical Strike Damage.
The key to mastering the Bone Necromancer lies in your command over these strategic sacrifices. By understanding each choice’s impact on your gameplay, you’ll unlock your character’s full potential, making your Necromancer a force to be reckoned with.
The Best Paragon Choices for Levels 50-75
Starting at level 50, you can earn 1 Paragon point for each quarter level, providing 100 Paragon points by level 75. By level 100, zone Renown can boost your total to 220 Paragon points.
The Starter Board: Key Nodes and Glyphs
Upon reaching level 50, the Starter board becomes available. Here, you should focus on securing the following Rare nodes:
- Prime: Enhances Damage and Life. Bonus: Increases Damage if requirements are met.
- Knowledge: Boosts Damage and Intelligence. Bonus: Provides an additional 10% Damage if requirements are met.
As Glyphs are drops, your initial collection is dependent on luck. When choices become available, we recommend the following Glyphs for the Bone Necromancer:
- Exploit (Rare Glyph). This glyph increases damage to Vulnerable targets by 1.0% for every 5 Dexterity purchased within range. It also has an additional bonus that increases your damage by 1% for 6 seconds, up to 10%, if you meet the requirements.
- Essence (Rare Glyph). With this glyph, Core Skills deal 2.0% increased Critical Strike Damage for every 5 Dexterity purchased within range. The additional bonus increases Critical Strike damage by 22% to enemies that are not Healthy if requirements are met.
- Territorial (Rare Glyph). This glyph increases damage to Close targets by 2.0% for every 5 Dexterity purchased within range. It also grants 10% Damage Reduction against Close enemies if requirements are met.
The Bone Graft Board: Your Next Step
Upon reaching the Board Attachment Gate at the top of your Starter Paragon board, we recommend progressing to the Bone Graft board. Ensure to identify the positions of your Legendary and Glyph slots and any Rare key choices.
For the Bone Necromancer, rotate the Bone Graft Board for quick access to the Legendary Node Bone Graft. This node increases the damage and maximum essence when hitting enemies with your Bone Skills. Other key Rare nodes on this board are:
- Entomb – +2.0% Critical Strike Chance with Bone Skills +4.0% Potion Healing. Bonus: Another +2.0% Critical Strike Chance with Bone Skills if requirements met.
- Calcified – +15.0% Critical Strike Damage with Bone Skills +10.0% Bone Skill Damage. Bonus: Another +15.0% Critical Strike Damage with Bone Skills if requirements met.
- Shaper of Bone – +10.0% Bone Skill Damage +10 Intelligence. Bonus: Another +10.0% Bone Skill Damage if requirements met.
If you want to unlock a third Paragon Board before reaching level 75, we recommend the Hulking Monstrosity board. While the Flesh-eater and Scent of Death boards may seem more appealing initially, the Hulking Monstrosity board houses a powerful Rare node, Borrowed Strength, which remains active as long as your Golem is alive.
Best Leveling Gear Recommendation
While Diablo 4’s loot system relies heavily on RNG (Random Number Generation), this doesn’t undermine your ability to make strategic decisions. Each piece of gear presents unique attributes that can serve your character well if used correctly.
Here’s what you should look for:
- +Bone Spear skills: As a Bone Necromancer, any items that enhance your primary skill, Bone Spear, should be your top priority.
- +%Core Skill Damage: Look for items that increase the damage output of your core skills.
- +Critical Strike: Critical Strike stats can significantly boost damage, making them highly valuable for any Bone Necromancer.
Top Legendary Aspects from Dungeons for Bone Spear Necromancer
In Diablo 4, Legendary Aspects are powerful items that can significantly enhance your Bone Necromancer character. While they don’t always drop when you want them, there are alternative ways to find these potent artifacts, including dungeon exploration. Here’s a look at some of the best Legendary Aspects you can obtain early on from dungeons in Fractured Peaks, Dry Steppes, and Scosglen.
Pro-Tip for Early Dungeon Exploration
While you’re adventuring through the Fractured Peaks, Dry Steppes, and Scosglen zones, keep in mind that these areas offer an excellent opportunity to farm Legendary Aspects at the outset. Certain Aspects found in these zones are especially beneficial for the Bone Necromancer build.
Top Legendary Aspects From Dungeons
The table below lists some of the best Legendary Aspects for a Bone Necromancer. Items with a star (*) are considered a top priority for this build.
| Legendary Aspect | Zone | Dungeon |
|---|---|---|
|
Dry Steppes |
Guulrahn Slums |
|
|
Scosglen |
Oldstones |
|
|
Scosglen |
Underroot |
|
|
Fractured Peaks |
Lost Archives |
The Splintering Aspect found in Guulrahn Slums of Dry Steppes enhances Bone Spear’s primary attack, making it inflict Vulnerability status on enemies hit beyond the first for a duration of 1.5 seconds. Additionally, Bone Shards deal bonus damage to Vulnerable enemies and pierce them.
Edgemaster’s Aspect from Oldstones in Scosglen enhances your skills to deal increased damage based on your available Primary Resource. The boost reaches its peak when you have a full Primary Resource.
When in Underroot, Scosglen, look for the Aspect of the Expectant. This Aspect boosts the damage of your next Core Skill cast by 5% every time you attack enemies with a Basic Skill, stacking up to 30%.
Finally, Aspect of the Protector, found in Lost Archives of Fractured Peaks, grants you a damage-absorbing Barrier every time you damage an Elite enemy. This barrier, absorbing up to 630 damage, lasts 10 seconds and has a 30-second cooldown.
All-starred Legendary Aspects substantially enhance your filler spender rotation, allowing for more powerful Bone Splinter and Bone Spear casts. Pairing the Aspect of the Protector with Conceited Aspect further enhances this synergy.
A significant addition to your Legendary collection would be the Aspect of Explosive Mist. Though this item drops randomly, obtaining it can significantly improve your defensive and offensive abilities. Be on the lookout for this game-changing Aspect.
Optimal Weapon Choices for Bone Spear Necromancer
For Bone Necromancers, it’s advisable to focus on high damage weapons. A combination of a one-handed weapon and an offhand item typically results in faster casts and an extra slot for a legendary power. However, there are specific instances where a two-handed sword can deliver superior damage output despite its slower speed.
A prime example of this is the application of Edgemaster’s Aspect on a two-handed sword. To ensure optimal damage output, always compare your weapon DPS (Damage Per Second) and select the combination with the highest DPS.
Remember, the effectiveness of your Necromancer heavily relies on your weapon choice. Thus, a strategic selection and constant updates can substantially boost your damage output, enabling you to overcome more challenging adversaries in the game.
Choosing the Best Bone Spear Item Affixes
Choosing the right item affixes significantly impacts a Bone Necromancer’s gameplay in Diablo 4. Here are the top item affixes that you should prioritize in your gear:
Primary Magic Properties:
- +% Core Skill Damage
- +X Ranks to Bone Spear
- +% Critical Strike Chance
- +% Critical Strike Damage
- +X All Stats
- +X Intelligence
These primary magic properties are crucial for enhancing your Bone Necromancer’s abilities, allowing you to maximize damage output and increase your overall survival chances.
Secondary Magic Properties:
- +X Ranks of All Macabre Skills
- +X Ranks of All Corpse Skills
- +% Vulnerable Damage
- +% Attack speed
While secondary magic properties may not be as critical as the primary ones, they can still enhance your gameplay experience if you manage to find them.
In the early game stages, you might not have a wide array of choices and will need to make do with what you can find. However, as the game progresses, these properties should become your primary targets when selecting gear.
Furthermore, if you have an item with an unwanted affix, you can leverage Enchanting at the Occultist. This process has a random element, and we generally don’t recommend it for most leveling gear since you’ll likely replace many items as you progress. However, if you have an exceptional piece of Jewelry you won’t replace often, it might be worthwhile to consider.
Best Gems for Bone Spear Necromancer
The selection of gems in Diablo 4 can considerably augment a Bone Necromancer’s powers. Gems can be fitted into gear sockets, offering various bonuses depending on whether they’re placed in Armor, Weapons, or Jewelry.
Beginning at level 20, players can combine gems to enhance them to higher qualities, thereby boosting their bonuses.
It’s worth noting that while Jewelry gems primarily offer Resistance, Armor, and direct Damage Mitigation are more effective in decreasing non-Physical damage at this stage of the game.
Below, we’ve outlined the optimal gems for a Bone Necromancer:
| Slot | Gem Type | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Weapon | Emerald | +XXX% Critical Strike damage to Vulnerable Enemies |
| Armor | Ruby | +X to Life |
| Jewelry | Skull | +X Armor |
Utilizing these gems in the designated slots can substantially improve your Bone Necromancer’s overall performance, allowing for a more robust, powerful, and resilient character.
The importance of gems in Diablo 4 can’t be overstated — the right combination not only boosts your character’s stats but also significantly impacts your gameplay, enabling you to dominate your foes in Sanctuary.
Wrapping Up
Leveling your Bone Necromancer Diablo 4 can be an exhilarating ride. With effective utilization of Paragon Boards, carefully curated gear, calculated application of Legendary Aspects, and the right choices of item affixes and gems, your Bone Necromancer can rise to unprecedented heights of power.
Of course, the journey might appear overwhelming at times. Hunting down a rare Legendary Aspect or finding the perfect gem for your weapon could be daunting tasks. But don’t fret! Resources like LFCarry.com are there to help you sail through these challenges. With its comprehensive guides and tips, LFCarry.com can be your companion in this thrilling journey, enhancing your gameplay and strategizing.
So, as you step into the world of Diablo 4 with your Bone Necromancer, remember, you’re not alone. Armed with this guide, your personal gaming experience, and LFCarry.com, you’re all set to carve out a legend in the history of Sanctuary. Let the adventures begin!
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