Make the character
Two clicks, then you're playing.
- Pick Necromancer.
- Tick Seasonal Realm — that's where Season 15 content, the seasonal questline and the good loot are.
- Difficulty: start on Normal, or Hard if you've played before. Either way the rule is the same: go up when packs die quickly, and come back down if fights get noticeably longer.
The plan in one line
You level in two halves. Minions and Corpse Explosion carry you to the mid-teens, then you refund your points and rebuild around Blood Lance. After that you do the killing yourself, and the only minions left are Skeleton Warriors that make Blood Orbs for you.
Your first skill bar
The cards below are the bar you hold from the respec to 70. Before the respec your bar is Decompose, Skeleton Mage, Skeleton Warrior, Corpse Explosion, Golem and Sever. If you would rather keep the army all the way to 70, a pure minion build levels well too, but this page follows Blood Lance. You get 83 skill points in total: 69 from levels and 14 from Season Rank (Renown on the eternal realm).
Your damage after the respec. Throw it at the toughest enemy nearby. With Gore Quills, every third cast drops a Blood Orb, and casting near an orb fires an extra lance.
Main damageA curse. Cast it a few times to cover the pack. Its upgrades make cursed enemies Vulnerable and make it cost no Essence.
Curse — cast firstThe one minion you keep. As Defenders they have a chance to form a Blood Orb when they deal damage. Leave them alone to attack.
Blood Orb makersWith the Inexorable Reaper upgrade it becomes a dash. It also Slows enemies and forms a Corpse.
MovementYour basic skill. It gives 13 Essence a cast and can form Blood Orbs, more often on Frozen enemies.
GeneratorYour ultimate, on a 50-second cooldown. Drains souls from nearby enemies for damage, and a Barrier with its upgrade. Use it on dangerous packs.
UltimateHow you actually play
Before the respec: send the Golem into the pack with its active ability, which sheds corpses there. Command the Skeleton Warriors onto the enemies. Spam Corpse Explosion until the corpses run out, then channel Decompose to make more and refill Essence. After the respec: cast Iron Maiden a few times to curse the pack, but not on top of Blood Orbs. If the pack is dangerous or the fight will last more than about ten seconds, cast Soulrift and Sever in. Throw Blood Lance at the tankiest nearby enemy. When Essence runs low, use Hemorrhage, ideally on Frozen enemies. Leave the skeletons to it.
Where your skill points go
Spend them top to bottom — finish one line before starting the next. Don't spread them around.
| Order | Skill | Why | Target |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | The opening minion kit | Decompose to rank 2, then one point each in Skeleton Mage, Skeleton Warrior, Corpse Explosion, Golem and Sever, plus their upgrades as they unlock. Skeleton Warrior and Sever survive the respec; everything else is refunded. | Rank 1 each |
| 2nd | Blood Lance | First buy at the respec, with Gore Quills, Ricochet and Cost Reduction. Take Gore Quills over Blood Seeker, because it uses the Blood Orbs the build makes. Once the rest of the bar has its upgrades, this is the first skill taken to full rank. | Rank 15 |
| 3rd | Hemorrhage | One point, then Blood Runs Cold (it Freezes), the Blood Orb upgrade and the Overpower upgrade. It only exists to refill Essence and make orbs. | Rank 1 |
| 4th | Iron Maiden | One point, then its Vulnerable upgrade and the one that removes its Essence cost and pays you 5 Essence per newly cursed enemy. The Blood Maiden upgrade needs level 38; take it then. | Rank 1 |
| 5th | Skeleton Warrior | Keep its Healing, Vulnerable and Master of Puppets upgrades through the respec. Fill its ranks second, after Blood Lance. | Rank 15 |
| 6th | Soulrift | One point at the Ultimate cluster, then Barrier, Ferocity and Soul Vortex. Fill its ranks third. | Rank 15 |
| 7th | Decrepify | One point, then Cooldown Reduction, Resolve and Life Tap, and its ranks last. It is not on the bar: the Igni + Wat runeword casts it for you. Spend these points last, once you own those runes. | Rank 15 |
Made a mess of it?
Respeccing is cheap at low level. Open the skill tree, refund the lot, and spend again in this order. It costs a few gold, not a new character.
Level 5 onwards: the Book of the Dead
The Necromancer's class mechanic opens early, not at 15. The Book of the Dead lets you choose a variant and one of two upgrades for each minion type (Skeletal Warriors, Skeletal Mages and the Golem), or Sacrifice that minion for a permanent bonus to yourself. The menu opens at level 5 and you can change your choices at any time. The Bone Golem should be available at level 8. If the game won't let you summon one, pick up the quest Necromancer: Call of the Underworld from Maltorius at the Shrine of Rathma, north-west of Kyovashad, which unlocks it.
Set it up early, then change all of it at the respec
Level 5: Warriors as Skirmishers, upgrade 1, for two extra skeletons free. Mages as Shadow, upgrade 2, for Barrier. Level 8: Bone Golem, upgrade 1. Activating it sheds corpses, which is the fuel for Corpse Explosion. At the respec: switch Warriors to Defenders with the Blood Orb option, a 10% chance to form a Blood Orb when they deal damage. Pick the upgrade that mentions Blood Orbs, not the Thorns and Taunt one. Then Sacrifice Cold Mages for 20% more damage to Vulnerable enemies, and Sacrifice the Bone Golem for 10% Attack Speed. If Cold Mages aren't offered yet when you respec, come back at level 18.
Before the change, the Golem, the skeletons and Corpse Explosion do the killing. After it, you do. Only the Skeleton Warriors stay, as Blood Orb makers, and you don't need to control them. A Sacrifice doesn't delete the minion: it halves how many skeletons you can raise, or halves the Golem's damage. At 70 the Blood Wave build changes the Book again.
The road to 70
What changes, and when. Skill unlock levels can shift by a level between patches, so treat them as close rather than exact.
Make a seasonal character and skip the campaign if you can. If you've finished the campaign before, you get a mount at level 1, which matters because the Necromancer is the slowest class on foot. Start on Normal, or on Hard if you've played before.
Only Basic skills are open at first, so start with Decompose. The Core cluster opens at level 3 and the Corpse cluster at 4: Skeleton Mage, Skeleton Warrior, Corpse Explosion. Visit Temis early to start a War Plan (favour Helltide activities), pick a mercenary, activate your pet and follow the seasonal intro quest.
Set Skirmishers and Shadow Mages at 5, then the Bone Golem at 8. Once the Golem is shedding corpses on command, the Corpse Explosion loop is running. When the seasonal questline offers a Splinter of Evil, take Diablo's Splinter of Terror first, because Helltide is the most common early activity.
Curses unlock at 13, which is the earliest a full refund works. Gore Quills and Inexorable Reaper unlock at 15. There are two ways to time it. Switch at 15, as soon as Blood Lance with Gore Quills is available, and the new bar starts thin. Or wait until 17 or 18, when you have the points to fill it out at once. Switch at 15 if the minion kit is slowing down; otherwise wait. Change the Book of the Dead at the same time.
Iron Maiden's no-cost Essence upgrade and Decrepify's Cooldown Reduction at 18, Soulrift at 19, Iron Maiden's Vulnerable upgrade at 21, then Soulrift's Barrier (22), Life Tap (23), Ferocity (24) and Soul Vortex (25). The bar is functionally complete by about 25. Try Hard from 15 if packs die quickly. The Undercity appears in War Plans at 25, so choose it or Helltide farming as your route.
The first Capstone Dungeon, reached through Season Rank, falls somewhere between 30 and 40. It gives extra skill points. If you can't clear it, leave, level and come back. Iron Maiden's Blood Maiden upgrade needs level 38.
From 50 it's worth adding sockets and gems. The second Capstone Dungeon falls around here; check your Season Rank for when the Pit unlocks. Clear every Stronghold at around 60 for a big experience boost.
Paragon opens. Start on Penitent and clear Pit Tier 10 to unlock Torment 1, then move across to Blood Wave. It needs one unique, Kessime's Legacy, before it works, and an incomplete endgame setup can be slower than a working levelling build, so don't rush the swap. If the army from your first fifteen levels was the part you enjoyed, the Minion Necromancer build brings it back and works at 70 with no uniques at all.
Gear rules for beginners
You don't need to understand affixes yet. These rules cover it.
- Upgrade your weapon first. Its damage is the base for every other damage calculation. Use a two-handed weapon. Weapons are replaced most often, so don't put aspects or runes in them.
- Look for: Essence per Second on helm, chest, pants and boots. Vulnerable Damage and Attack Speed on gloves, amulet and rings. Maximum Life everywhere, and Movement Speed on boots. Intelligence is your main attribute.
- Temper cheaply and often. Early on it costs only 5 Veiled Crystals. Use Attack Speed on the weapon, Maximum Life on helm, chest and pants, Vulnerable Damage on gloves, amulet and rings, and Movement Speed on boots. Get the best Maximum Life recipe you can early, because the gap between rarities is large.
- The aspects that matter most: Rathma's Chosen, Thickened Blood, Coalesced Blood, Amplified Damage, Potent Blood and Transfusion. Imprint them when you find them in your Codex.
- Your best aspect goes on the amulet. It gets 150% of the effect there and you rarely replace it. There are two ways to handle imprinting. Holding off until you're about to pass Penitent saves Baleful Fragments, at 10 an imprint. Imprinting as you go makes every level faster. Imprint the amulet as you go, and save the rest for gear you expect to keep.
- Salvage everything you don't wear, even if you already have a better roll of that aspect. Check vendors on every town visit, since they now sell level-relevant gear and sometimes Legendaries. Gamble spare Murmuring Obols at the Purveyor of Curiosities.
- If Red Blessing drops, wear it. It's an amulet that can drop from level 1. It has a huge damage multiplier for Blood skills, fits this build perfectly, and you'll want it again for Blood Wave at 70.
- Gems and runes: don't add sockets before 50. If an item already has one, put a Skull in the weapon, and a Ruby or Topaz in jewellery. Runewords go in helm, chest or pants, and the runes come back when you salvage. Igni + Wat casts Decrepify for you every 1.2 seconds; Cir + Ceh brings Spirit Wolves that apply Vulnerable and Chill.
- Soul Splinters and Leoric's Crown: the Crown is a new Unique helm for every class that counts as jewellery and doubles what's socketed in it. It can drop from any boss. Put Black Soulstone or Anguish in jewellery, and Hellfire or Lies in the Crown. You can hold three Soul Splinters at most.
Mercenary
Hire Varyana for this build, because her Bloodthirst speeds up your skill rotation. Mercenaries are useful but not crucial. The others: Aldkin for Crit Chance, Subo for revealing enemies and materials on the minimap, Raheir for protection through Valiance and Bastion. Use the reinforcement slot to level every mercenary, and build Rapport early so you can barter for Aspect Caches.
Words the game doesn't explain
| Term | What it means |
|---|---|
| Essence | The bar your skills spend. Most skills cost it, and it refills extremely slowly by itself. You get it back from Basic skills such as Hemorrhage, from Essence per Second on gear, and from Lucky Hit effects. |
| Corpses | A second thing to manage. Dead enemies leave them, and Sever, Decompose and the Bone Golem can create them. You use them to raise skeletons or detonate them with Corpse Explosion. |
| Blood Orbs | Healing globes made by Blood skills and some aspects. Picking one up heals you and your minions for 15% of maximum Life. In this build Gore Quills and Blood Maiden also turn them into damage. |
| Book of the Dead | The Necromancer's class mechanic. For Warriors, Mages and the Golem you choose a variant and an upgrade, or sacrifice them. |
| Sacrifice | Trade a minion type's strength for a permanent bonus to yourself. Sacrificed skeletons can only be raised in half their usual number, and a sacrificed Golem deals 50% less damage. |
| Skirmishers / Defenders / Reapers | The three Skeleton Warrior variants. Skirmishers are the damage option, Defenders are tanky and can make Blood Orbs, and Reapers are slow, heavy hitters. |
| Curse | An area debuff skill. Iron Maiden makes enemies take damage over time and whenever they hit. Decrepify leaves them Weakened and Slowed by 40% for 30 seconds. |
| Lanced | Blood Lance marks the enemies it hits for 3 seconds. Each new hit also damages every other lanced enemy. |
| Soul Splinters | Season 15 gems for jewellery. Each gives a big bonus with a heavy fixed drawback, and you can use three at most. |
| Codex of Power | Your library of aspects, filled by salvaging Legendaries. The Occultist imprints an aspect from it onto a Rare or Legendary item. |
Mistakes new Necromancers make
- Starting on too high a difficulty. The extra experience doesn't make up for slower kills, and gear doesn't improve noticeably on Expert or Penitent until you're near the level cap.
- Imprinting aspects too early, or onto weapons. Each imprint costs 10 Baleful Fragments and you replace levelling gear constantly, weapons most of all. Use the amulet.
- Socketing gems before level 50. The materials are wasted on gear you'll replace.
- Casting Iron Maiden on top of Blood Orbs. The cast picks them up, and they're wasted for Gore Quills.
- Micromanaging the skeletons after the respec. Interrupting them reduces the Blood Orbs they make. Let them attack.
- Using the wrong Soul Splinters. Avoid Pain (30% less movement speed), the Mother (it stuns you) and Skarn (it raises Monster Power).
- Switching to the endgame build too early. An incomplete endgame setup can be slower than the levelling build that's already working.
At 70 you're done levelling — move across to an endgame build: Blood Wave · Bone Spirit · Minion Necromancer.