The most pressing question every player has at the beginning of a new season in Diablo IV is which class and build they should play. I’m easy, as I choose the same almost every season. But sometimes, you want to change things up, try something new, and make it to the end game! So let’s work things out for the Necromancer.
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The Bone Spear is one of the best Necromancer builds for Season 5 in Diablo 4. It’s powerful, flexible, and capable of pushing The Pit and Infernal Hordes. You’ll surpass your buddies!
Why you should play Necromancer in Season 5
The Necromancer isn’t the most powerful class in Season 5—that accolade goes to Rogue and Sorcerer this time. That said, Necromancer remains one of the most potent and viable classes to push end-game content in Diablo 4, even with its many nerfs and the changes to its Uniques.
Most will wind up selecting the Necromancer for two reasons: aesthetics and minions. While a minion build is still viable—and currently one of the more powerful builds—Bone Spear proves itself to be a potent and active playstyle that feels satisfying.
Best Active Skills for Necromancer
For Season 5, we’ll focus on crafting a Bone Necromancer, specifically wielding Bone Spear to inflict copious amounts of damage on Vulnerable enemies. You’ll note that many of the Active Skill enhancements inflict Vulnerable, which allows our build to deal additional damage. It’s all about synergy!
Bone Splinters
- Our Basic Skill, Bone Splinters, is our main Essence generator. It’s a quick-hitting basic attack meant to damage your standard mobs while building up our Essence pool so that we can cast Bone Spear. With Initiate’s Bone Splinters, it has the added benefit of inflicting Vulnerable.
Bone Spear
- Our Core Skill, Bone Spear, is the basis of the entire build. It’s our main damage-dealing attack, but requires a constant flow of Essence from Bone Splinters to cast. With various enhancements, such as Enhanced Bone Spear and Supernatural Bone Spear, we can deal additional damage with each cast.
Bone Prison
- You don’t need to max out Bone Prison to enjoy its benefits—a single point will suffice. But what you really want is its enhancement, Enhanced Bone Prison, which inflicts Vulnerable on enemies within its radius.
Bone Spirit
- With our increased pool of Essence, thanks to Passives, Bone Spirit allows us to expend the entire pool in exchange for a single-target, high-damage attack ideal for Elite and Boss enemies.
Bone Storm
- Lastly, our Ultimate is Bone Storm. It summons a gigantic storm of bone that swirls around you, dealing significant damage over a short period. It’s perfect for clearing mobs and as a starter to a Boss fight.
Passive Skills for Necromancer
You can place as many Skill Points into your Passives as you wish, though they synergize well with this build when combined with your Active Skills.
Unliving Energy
- Unliving Energy grants us a larger pool of Essence to draw from to ensure we can cast Bone Spear more frequently while also synergizing with Ossified Essence to deal additional damage.
Imperfectly Balanced
- We’ll want the additional Essence provided by Unliving Energy, as Imperfectly Balanced increases the total cost of our Core Skills, like Bone Spear, but grants additional damage as a trade-off.
Death’s Embrace
- While the Necromancer is a caster and, as such, tends to lean heavily towards ranged attacks, most enemies will close the distance. Death’s Embrace enables us to deal additional damage to close enemies while simultaneously taking less damage from them.
Death’s Approach
- When we need to create space between the Boss or a mob, Death’s Approach helps by boosting our total movement speed. It’s a simple Passive that increases survivability and allows us to clear more quickly and efficiently.
Serration
- Serration increases our Critical Strike Chance for every 30 Essence we spend, which synergizes with Bone Spear, which draws from our pool of Essence as our Core Skill.
Compound Fracture
- Synergizing with Serration, Compound Fracture allows our Bone skills to deal additional damage after landing a Critical Strike, further empowering the entire build.
Rapid Ossification
- While popping Bone Spear, you will expend your Essence frequently. To make up for the empty pool, Rapid Ossification reduces the Cooldown of your Bone Skills each time you spend 100 Essence.
Evulsion
- As many of your previous Active Skills inflict Vulnerable, Evulsion meshes well with the rest of the build to deal additional Critical Strike Damage to Vulnerable enemies.
Ossified Essence
- Our Key Passive for this build is Ossified Essence, which grants additional damage for every point of Essence you hold above 50. As you’ll spend much time casting Bone Splinters, you should always have an abundance of Essence.
How to level your Necromancer in Season 5
While you’ll find yourself immediately tempted to dive into the brand-new seasonal content, following along with the storyline to unlock the Infernal Hordes, it’s better to level your Necromancer in Helltides. They’re far more efficient.
A single Helltide lasts 55 minutes and will allow you to level from 1 to 20. After that, of course, leveling slows somewhat. But between Helltides, opening Tortured Gifts, and the Tree of Whispers, you’ll hit 100 within a few days!
Playing as a Necromancer isn’t for everyone, as minions allow a more passive gameplay style, but it’s a powerful class with much potential. Hopefully, this Bone Spear build serves you well in Sanctuary!
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