The Blight Necromancer is an extremely safe and efficient leveling build. The plethora of Crowd Control effects, and continuous damage over time, allows it to excel in every early-game activity. Blight naturally synergizes with every Darkness Passive Skill option, unlocking a ton of easy power and utility.
While this build does not depend on any Legendary Aspects, it can benefit greatly from a few. The Codex of Power has a decent share of power-boosting Aspects that easily slot onto this Necromancer. Blighted Aspect from Akkhan's Grasp is crazy strong, massively increasing your damage in crucial moments. If you are lucky enough to find the drop only Aspect of the Void and Aspect of Decay, they are great sources of powerful Crowd Control and damage! Exactly what you are looking for.
The Blight Necromancer also taps into your powerful Undead horde for even more quality of life. Skeletal Warriors - Reapers and Skeletal Mages - Cold help to automate Essence generation, stack on chip damage and produce additional Corpses for Corpse Explosion!
When it comes to crowd control, Corpse Tendrils perfectly sets up enemies for a Blight, Corpse Explosion combo.
This build guide takes you through the Campaign and Early Game up to Level 50. Check out Endgame Guides in our Necromancer Guides section!
- Fantastic AoE
- Great CC Options
- Strong Minion Army
- Low Mobility
- Frustrating Minion AI
- Slower Paced Gameplay
Season 4 - Loot Reborn
Skill Showcase
Bone Splinters / Reap / Iron Maiden
While Bone Splinters is your starter Generator, Reap provides you with a reliable way to generate Corpses once you unlock Corpse Tendrils. Reap is also a great source of Damage Reduction and Attack Speed, both crucial stats for this build.
This is replaced by Enhanced Iron Maiden for an on demand Essence generation tool that can completely fill your Essence globe when used on a pack of monsters. Make sure to recast it every ten seconds to maintain max Essence generation per second.
Skill Tree & Gameplay
Generators
First use Bone Splinters to recover Essence early on since it's the best Generator Skill. You respec to Reap for more utility and Corpse generation, later on. Grim Harvest and Skeletal Mages - Cold help to passively regain Essence mid-combat.
Blight
Cast Blight as often as possible to stack multiple damage pools on top of enemies and maximize its damage output. Bare minimum, make sure to cast it every 6 seconds to maintain the 15% damage multiplier it provides. There's no such thing as too much Blight!
Corpse Skills
Corpse Tendrils becomes your opener for every fight. The Vulnerable status is applied, increasing all of your damage, including your minion's! Recast it as soon as its off cooldown to keep everything in one spot, to maximize your overlapping DoT effects.
Use the slider on the bottom to see the Skill progression
Key Passive and Ultimate
Unlocking the Shadowblight Key Passive massively increases your damage overall on this build, taking full advantage of all Shadow Damage sources. It has a few key features.
- On every 10th application of any Shadow Damage to a target affected by Shadowblight, it deals 22% weapon damage for free. This damage can Critically Strike for even more damage.
- Stacking Shadowblight procs as fast as possible also activates your biggest damage multiplier, Blighted Aspect. Remember Imprint this onto your new 2-Handed weapon whenever possible, to maximize its bonus.
This Leveling Build does not use an Ultimate Skill, because the utility and damage output from your Summons scales well into World Tier 4. After that, they tend to lose efficiency, and you replace them for Bone Storm and Blood Mist.
Check out our Renown Guide to unlock all your additional rewards efficiently.
Book of the Dead
The Blight Necromancer starts off heavily reliant on Skeletons and Golem, for damage. Your Minions assist with supplemental damage, essential Crowd Control, Essence Generation and Corpse production.
Unlocking the Book of the Dead
You're able to summon Skeletons as early as level one, with the ability to customize your Skeletal Skirmishers starting at level 5, when the Book Menu unlocks. From there, you unlock more types of Skeletal Warriors, Skeletal Mages and eventually Golems as you gain levels. The Golem requires you to complete a Quest, which is detailed in this resource post. You must put Raise Skeleton and Golem on your skill bar to summon them.
Learn more details in our full Book of the Dead Guide.
Gear Progression & Stat Priorities
Ultimately, the best weapon for a leveling Blight Necromancer is a Two-Handed Sword for as much damage as possible. Always go for higher DPS over the rest of a weapon's stats during leveling.
If you have multiple weapons with the same DPS prioritize the one with these stats:
- Intelligence
- Resource Cost Reduction
- Damage Over Time
- Essence on Kill
- Attack Speed
Hint: Press SHIFT over an item to compare it to what you're wearing!
Armor
Armor typically grants us Defense and Utility stats, except the Gloves, which offer a multitude of Offensive options. Here are the important stats to look for:
- Helm:
- Intelligence
- Essence per Second
- Armor
- Maximum Life
- Cooldown Reduction
- Chest Armor:
- Maximum Life
- Essence per Second
- Armor
- Intelligence
- Corpse Explosion Ranks
- Gloves:
- Blight Ranks
- Attack Speed
- Damage Over Time
- Lucky Hit Chance
- Maximum Life
- Pants:
- Maximum Life
- Armor
- Resistance to all Elements
- Intelligence
- Individual Resistance
- Boots:
- Movement Speed
- Corpse Skills Ranks
- Essence per Second
- Intelligence
Jewelry
Jewelry provides powerful Offensive and Defensive stats that help us on our leveling journey. Pay close attention to the rolls as higher leveled pieces aren't always better:
- Amulet:
- Movement Speed
- Gloom Ranks
- Cooldown Reduction
- Attack Speed
- Rings:
- Attack Speed
- Damage Over Time
- Intelligence
- Maximum Life
Read more about itemization in our Damage Explained, Defense Explained, and Stats Explained articles.
Legendary Aspects
The Codex of Power is a collection of Legendary Aspects you can imprint onto Rare or Legendary items at the Occultist. They unlock after completing specific Dungeons located around Sanctuary. For leveling, there are a few Aspects that are particularly impactful on this build and should be obtained as soon as possible:
Top Codex Legendary Aspects
- Blighted - Akkhan's Grasp - Hawezar (Complete A Debt Repaid to unlock access)
- Umbral - Champion's Demise - Dry Steppes (Complete the Temple of Rot Stronghold to unlock access)
- Finding higher rolls of this Aspect is CRUCIAL to fully activating this build. Continue to upgrade your aspect as you get higher rolls.
- Damned - Uldur's Cave - Kehjistan
Learn everything about the Codex of Power here.
Helpful Legendary Aspects
Here are all helpful Legendary Aspects for the Blight Necromancer that can either be found in the Codex of Power or Extracted from an item drop. Note that all Legendary Aspects can be found from item drops, and that these can roll better and often significantly better than ones sourced from the Codex of Power.
- Hardened Bones - Gamble Pants
- Occult Dominion - Gamble Pants
- Slaughter - Gamble Boots
How To Level
In Diablo 4 you level by completing the Campaign, collecting Grim Favors for the Tree of Whispers, completing Helltide activities, grinding Dungeons, or interacting with the Seasonal mechanics. While there are many ways to level up in Diablo 4, not all of them are made equal.
Campaign Leveling
- For your first character in Diablo 4, completing the Campaign provides the best gameplay experience and gives you access to key unlocks like your Mount.
- If you don't have your Mount, you MUST progress the Campaign until you complete the quest Donan's Favor at the start of Act 4.
- After obtaining your Mount you can skip the remainder of the campaign at any time.
- The Campaign is the slowest way to level, but it's worth experiencing the Campaign and Diablo 4's storyline at least once.
- To play Seasonal Content you need to have completed or skipped the Campaign.
Seasonal / Alt Leveling
- Complete the Seasonal questline, progress your Seasonal Journey to unlock Legendary Aspects and work on your Seasonal powers.
- If your account is below Rank 5 Renown in each zone, focus on completing your Renown.
- This only needs to be done once per realm (Softcore / Hardcore).
- Complete the Dungeons needed for any Legendary Aspects from your Codex of Power.
- From level 1-50 you should focus on getting experience in Helltides by combining Helltide activities with Grim Favors for the Tree of Whispers or complete Gathering Legion Events.
- After level 50 you need to balance leveling up, Glyph Experience and participating in Endgame activities like Helltide, Tree of Whispers and Bosses. The fastest experience possible after reaching World Tier 3 is completing Nightmare dungeons with monsters exactly 10 levels above your current level. Check out our Nightmare Dungeon Tier List for the best Nightmare Dungeon layouts!
- Around level 30-45 you should move to World Tier 3.
- Around level 50-65 you should move to World Tier 4.
- Alternatively: Get boosted by a friend to World Tier 4 then leech experience/loot and Glyph exp (post 50), in Nightmare dungeons.
- Find the most efficient way of leveling your character in detail in our Speed Leveling Guide.
Leveling Tips and Tricks
Let's look at some tips and tricks to remember when leveling up!
- Level Up Your Potion. You need to farm materials to upgrade your character's potion.
- Make sure you collect all materials as you explore Sanctuary, especially Gallowvine which is used in many Elixir recipes!
- Compare your Items... Literally. Press Shift over an item in your inventory to compare it to what you're wearing.
- This makes it easy to determine what is and isn't an upgrade.
- Don't Imprint Your Best Aspect Onto Your Weapon. The most critical piece of gear while leveling up is your weapon, which gets replaced constantly.
- It is a better idea to put your best Offensive Aspect on your Amulet, which can be used for a long time.
- Sacred is just better. Between level 30 and 50 you're able to beat the Capstone Dungeon and enter World Tier 3, you gain access to powerful Sacred items which have higher item power and better stats. Getting a Sacred weapon significantly improves your farming speed.
- The same happens with World Tier 4 and Ancestral gear.
Video Guide
Summary
- The Blight Necromancer makes full use of your skeleton army, Corpses, and enormous Shadow Damage to challenge the forces of Lillith.
- Start combat by engaging with Reap to create a corpse. Cast Corpse Tendrils to pull monsters in while your Minions get to work. Spam as many Blights as you can until the enemies are dead, or you run out of Essence. When things get scary, use Golem Taunt to buy yourself some breathing room and spam Corpse Explosion for even more damage.
- Maintain your Skeleton Army. Cast Raise Skeleton on Corpses to heal them over time, and empower them even further.
- Generating Corpses is pivotal to your success! Use Skeletal Warriors - Reapers (Book of the Dead), Hewed Flesh (Passive Node), Acolyte's Reap, and Golems - Bone (Book of the Dead).
- Look out for helpful Legendary Powers in the Codex of Power, especially those that increase your damage, Essence generation, and survivability! Getting lucky and finding/gambling Void pushes the build even further!
- In Bocca al Lupo!
Credits
Written by Macrobioboi.
Reviewed by Chronikz.