Diablo 4 Season 2 introduces a new questline to hunt down the Shadow Vampire forces of Lord Zir across Sanctuary. With Lilith's blood still residing within our bodies, the infliction put upon us is harnessed throughout our leveling, granting access to new Vampiric Powers. Completing the seasonal questline, partaking in the seasonal Blood Harvest event and collecting Potent Blood are the main ways of obtaining and empowering these abilities. Check out the full Season 2 Guide from Chewingnom to learn more!

With this in mind, let's look at the top 5 best Vampiric Powers and how they impact this build:

Blood Surge seems benign to start. The initial pulse damage hits the entire screen and drains a bit of Life to keep you topped off. The second, smaller pulse, does much more damage to enemies in closer range. But once you fully unlock its potential, you are consistently dealing Overpower damage on every screen.

Stop wasting those precious Demon bodies on summoning spindly little skeletons, those bodies are fodder for the great Corpse Explosion domino machine! Your rotation becomes quite simple. Blood Surge to pepper on some damage and drop some Corpses, Hemorrhage if you need to form another Corpse and then hold down the Corpse Explosion button until the entire screen is covered in the blood of your enemies!

Now let's grab the last tools we need, Corpse Tendrils and Reap. The first pulls monsters into a single space so all of our Skills can be used to their maximum efficiency! It's great for survivability, DPS output and a massive tool in group play for others as well. The second lets us start every fight with the Corpse Tendrils opener by generating a Corpse every time we Reap, once every 5 seconds.

You can feel free to switch up this build order if you want Blood Mist earlier, but you shouldn't need it. You should prioritize scaling your damage and Corpse generation, but if you're struggling with survivability or playing on Hardcore, start with Blood Mist at Level 22 instead. Sacrifice your Bone Golem whenever you skill into Blood Mist to make room on your skill bar. Our priority here is to keep our Blood Surge damage relevant, while creating as many Corpses as possible and scaling our damage whenever we consume a Corpse.

The Key Passive gives a powerful boost to our survivability and damage output. Blood Surge already Overpowers every 6 casts, so increases our Maximum Life helps increase that damage output, while giving us a free Overpower every 15 seconds.

We're picking up a LOT of passives here to help keep us alive, while also empowering our Minions, which are probably becoming a bit of a hassle to keep alive at this point.

After gathering all Renown in Diablo 4 you have 10 extra Skill Points to spend on every character. Your first priority is to spend them toward the leveling progression we've shown above. Once you've reached the end of leveling on Blood Surge Necromancer, put them into these nodes to build toward the Blood Surge Necromancer Build Guide:

The Book of the Dead gives us access to Raise Skeleton and Golem skills, which let us summon our hordes of undead Minions to fight by our side. We can also elect to sacrifice these Minions, gaining a unique passive bonus for each type we choose to sacrifice. You're able to mix and match which ones to summon vs sacrifice, with any combination being viable for different builds.

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 the Raise Skeleton and Golem skills on your skill bar to summon them.

The Blood Surge Necromancer starts off pretty weak and reliant on its Skeletons for single target damage. Eventually swapping them to more utility options and ultimately sacrificing them for their bonuses. The same goes for our Golem. Which Skeletons and Golem to choose and ultimately when to sacrifice them is detailed below:

Leveling up in Diablo 4 is similar to most other ARPGs and MMOs - we're at the mercy of what drops. For the most part this means replacing Rares with better Rares all the way up to 50. If you're lucky enough to find some Legendaries or Uniques they can provide a significant power boost (discussed in the next sections). Assuming you don't find any of those, let's look at some key stats to look for along the way:

The Blood Surge Necromancer has many options for weapons and off-hands. The best weapon choice for the leveling section is the Two-Handed Sword. Prioritize the affixes below when selecting upgrades for your gear.

Socket your Weapon with Rubies and Upgrade at the Blacksmith at least 1-2 times whenever you find an upgrade.

Do not upgrade most Armor pieces or Jewelry while leveling. You SHOULD upgrade your Boots if you find Movement Speed, to increase its bonus. Socket Armor with Rubies and Jewelry with Diamonds.

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 can significantly help us if we have the funds to imprint them:

Warning: DO NOT imprint your Weapons as they will be constantly replaced as you level. Put Offensive Aspects on your Amulet and Gloves instead.

Video Coming Soon!

Written by Macrobioboi.
Reviewed by Echohack.