Build Introduction
The Blood Surge Necromancer build, also known as the “Bloodmancer”, provides a sturdy, resilient and high damage dealing character for you to start your adventures in Diablo 4. Thanks to the massive amount of Life and Fortify we have on this build, the damage dealt by Overpower on our skills skyrockets.
This build is entirely designed around 
Blood Surge, both for clearing packs of enemies and single-target. Our defensive layers come in the form of Fortifying our massive Life pool, stealing health from enemies, and having access to Blood Orbs which will heal us. Enemies should be cursed by 
Decrepify to lower their damage dealt, and through the use of 
Hemorrhage we can recover Essence very smoothly during generic clearing of Nightmare Dungeons.
You are able to level with this build, however, we would strongly recommend checking out the Necromancer Leveling guide for the smoothest experience going through the campaign before switching to this build.
Build Variants
A build variant is a modified version of an existing build that changes some aspects of it, such as the damage type, specific skills or passives, and even certain items like different Uniques or Legendary Aspects.
Below you will find any variant that relates to the 
Blood Surge Endgame Necromancer.
Strengths and Weaknesses
- Very tanky
- Super high Overpower damage numbers
- Consistent performance
- Slightly lower single-target damage compared to Blood Lance
- Early game requires a lot of usage from your basic skill
- Struggling with super high end-game Pit tiers due to lack of damage
To see how this build compares to the other builds on our site, you can check out our build tier list.
Build Requirements
Blood Moon Breeches
Cruor’s EmbraceSkill Tree Points
Blood Surge Hemorrhage 
Blood Mist Decrepify 
Corpse Tendrils 
Bone Storm Follow the points allocated in the Skill Tree above for the complete 58-point build. The additional 10 skill points are completed using the Renown system.
Book of the Dead
The Blood Surge Necromancer is designed to be able to take hits from enemies consistently. Using minions with this playstyle is a waste and can cause problems when you want to use Blood Surge if enemies are scattered across your screen, hitting your minions rather than moving towards you. Therefore, we will be sacrificing all of them.
- Melee Skeletons; sacrifice the Skirmishers, as this provides us with increased critical strike chance.
- Mage Skeletons; Bone Mages will be sacrificed in the name of Lilith to provide a huge increase to Overpower Damage.
- Golem; Iron Golem will also be sacrificed, this scales our Critical Strike Damage.
Paragon Board
The Paragon progression system unlocks at Level 50 and provides a vast amount of character power. On the Paragon Board, bonuses range from minor stats on Magic Nodes to more powerful Rare Glyphs and Legendary Nodes.
As you path towards Glyph Sockets and Legendary Nodes, you should prioritize Damage, Intelligence, Resistance, and Life for Normal and Magic Nodes. Glyph radius increases as you level them up. Therefore, if you cannot fulfill Additional Bonus requirements early on, skip allocating extra nodes for now. It’s also important to point out that you might not have the Glyph you want when you reach your first socket; if that’s the case, simply slot in any Glyph providing any beneficial stats for you until you get the correct one.
Listed below are images of the pathing you should take along with the locations of the Glyphs and order you should choose your Paragon Boards past the initial Starting Board. Note that each Rare Glyph’s information and radius listed below is for the Level 21 version.
1. Starting Board
We will be focusing on picking up a lot of Rare and Magic Nodes that provide Life. Start with rushing the socket on this initial board, in which we will place the 
Corporeal Glyph. Only take the extra attributes within range of the Glyph which will increase when you level the Glyph up via Nightmare Dungeons. Once done, we’ll grab the Rare and Magic Nodes, then move out north to our second board, Bone Graft.
2. Bloodbath
No rotations is needed for this board. Bloodbath board is mainly here to give us the extra life modifiers on the left and the Socket node. We’ll start by rushing the left-hand side of the board and grab the socket node for the Control Glyph. Similar to our starting board, we only take the attributes within radius if the Glyph level allows us to enable the bonus modifier from it. Don’t forget the Legendary node 
Bloodbath! We’ll circle back to this board at the very end but first we head out on the right-hand side for our third board, Bone Graft.
3. Bone Graft
1 Rotation of this board is required to fit the image. Start by rushing to the Glyph socket in which we’ll use the 
Essence Glyph. Don’t forget the Rare and Magic Nodes on the way out up north to the next board; Blood Begets Blood.
4. Blood Begets Blood
No rotations required here either. This is a straight forward board. Rush the socket node and use the Amplify Glyph. Yet again, we will only take the extra Nodes within radius if the level of the Glyph allows. We also want to take the left-hand Rare and Magic Nodes as shown on the image before we leave this one. Once done we will exit on the left for the 5th board: Cult Leader.
5. Cult Leader
No rotation of this board is needed. Therefore, we will rush the Glyph Socket and use 
Dominate Glyph here. Again, only take extra attributes to help enable the bonus modifier if the level of the Glyph has increased the radius enough to allow for it. Exit up north for the 6th Board Scent of Death.
6. Scent of Death
No rotation is needed here either! This board is a straight forward board where we get first get the Legendary node 
Scent of Death then the Socket node and use the Territorial Glyph, and the surrounding Rare and Magic as shown in the image. Now we circle back to our 2nd board and head out on the left for our 7th board!
7. Flesh-Eater
You’ll need to rotate the board once for this one. Rush the Legendary node 
Flesh-eater then the Socket node for the Sacrificial Glyph and the surrounding nodes are picked up for the sake of enabling the Glyphs bonus modifier.
Paragon Board images courtesy of d4builds.gg.
Gear, Gems, Elixirs, and Stats
Season 5 has brought a lot of cool itemization changes which is reflected in this guide as seen down below.
Legendary Aspects
Each aspect is listed with its matching gear slot. Do your best to keep each aspect in the assigned slot. Additionally, if you are trying to farm a specific item, we recommend using your Obols to target farm them!
| Gear Slot | Gems | Aspect / Unique | Legendary Aspect / Unique Power |
|---|---|---|---|
| Helm |  Royal Ruby |  Aspect of the Cursed Aura | You automatically Curse enemies around you with Decrepify and Iron Maiden. Curses inflicted this way spread to surrounding targets every x seconds and last 4 seconds outside of the aura. |
| Chest | Royal Ruby |  Aspect of Hardened Bones | You and your Minions gain 15-20% increased Damage Reduction. |
| Gloves | N/A | Cruor’s Embrace | Pushes the whole focus of the build to the Blood Surge efficiency. |
| Pants | Royal Ruby | Blood Moon Breeches | Enemies affected by at least 1 of your curses take x70% increased Overpower damage from you. |
| Boots | n/a |  Aspect of Metamorphosis | When you Evade you turn into a cloud of bats, becoming Unstoppable for 2.5 seconds. Enemies along your path take x Physical damage and are inflicted with Vampiric Curse. Evades cooldown is increased by 5-10 seconds. |
| Weapon 1H | Royal Ruby |  Aspect of Grasping Veins | Gain 10-20% increased Critical Strike Chance for 6 seconds when you cast Corpse Tendrils. You deal 20-40% bonus Critical Strike Damage to enemies damaged by Corpse Tendrils. |
| Off-hand (Focus) | Royal Ruby | Sacrificial Aspect | Your Sacrifice bonuses are increased by 10-25% |
| Amulet (50% Scaling) | Any Resistance Jewel | Aspect of the Great Feast | Each minion drains 1 Essence per second but deals x% bonus damage. With no minions, this bonus applies to you and drains 5 Essence per second. |
| Ring | Any Resistance Jewel | Blood-bathed Aspect | Blood Surge’s nova echoes again after a short delay, dealing x% less damage. |
| Ring | Any Resistance Jewel | Aspect of Rathma’s Chosen | Whenever your Blood Skills Overpower you gain 35-50% Attack Speed for 4 seconds. |
Gems
See below for a more detailed explanation of the best Gems to socket into your gear for each category.
| Weapon Gems | Armor Gems | Jewelry Gems |
|---|---|---|
 Royal EmeraldFor increased Critical Strike Damage. | Royal Ruby For increased Maximum Life. |  Royal Amethyst Royal SapphireRoyal Ruby  Royal Skull |
Which Elixirs Should You Use?
Visit the Alchemist and craft an Elixir providing any Resistance you need most, or the 
Elixir of Advantage to increase Attack Speed. Some Elixirs cannot be crafted and only drop from things like Helltides or Nightmare Dungeons. Additionally, make sure to keep your health potion upgraded!
Stat Priority and Tempering Affixes
Below are the affixes to prioritize on gear. Each line of affixes is listed in order of importance. Tempering Manuals and their recommended affixes are provided in the second column, and the bolded affixes are the most important targets for Masterworking upgrades. To masterwork, you will need rare materials that only drop from The Pit. Be sure to check our Tempering guide, our Masterworking guide, as well as our guide about The Pit for more details about these topics.
| Slot | Targeted Gear Affixes | Tempering Affixes |
|---|---|---|
| Helm | 1. Maximum Life 2. Essence per Second 3. Ranks to Decrepify | Necromancer Wall – Ranks to Drain Vitality Profane Innovation – #% Curse Size |
| Chest | 1. Essence per Second 2. Maximum Life 3. Armor | Profane Innovation – #% Curse Size Worldly Endurance #% Total Armor |
| Boots | 1. Maximum Life 2. Movement Speed 3. Essence per Second | Necromancer Motion #% Movement SpeedProfane Innovation #% Corpse Tendrils Size |
| Amulet | 1. Ranks to Coalesced Blood 2. Critical Strike Chance 3. Attack Speed | Blood Finesse #% Blood Attack SpeedManual: Worldly Stability #% Resource Cost Reduction |
| Ring | 1. Maximum Life 2. Critical Strike Chance 3. Intelligence | Blood Finesse #% Blood Attack SpeedManual: Worldly Stability #% Resource Cost Reduction |
| Ring | 1. Maximum Life 2. Critical Strike Chance 3. Intelligence | Blood Finesse #% Blood Attack SpeedManual: Worldly Stability #% Resource Cost Reduction |
| 1H-Weapon | 1. Resource cost Reduction 2. Intelligence 3. Maximum Life | Blood Finesse #% Blood Attack SpeedBlood Augments #% Blood Surge Nova Size |
| Off-hand (Focus) | 1. Maximum Life 2. Intelligence 3. Critical Strike Chance | Blood Finesse #% Blood Attack SpeedBlood Augments #% Blood Surge Nova Size |
Keep in mind that the maximum Resistance is 70% by default for each element and can be increased to 85% by various sources. Furthermore, Unique items cannot be tempered, only masterworked!
Rotation and Playstyle
The first and most important detail is to make sure all enemies are cursed by 
Decrepify. We follow this up by casting Blood Surge till there is a corpse on the ground which allows us to use 
Corpse Tendrils. Do make sure that you try to stay close to the enemies to avoid having your Blood Surges miss their targets!
To sustain the Essence pool we will weave in casts of 
Hemorrhage to generate both Essence and Blood Orbs which will hit enemies in an AoE due to having consumed Blood Orbs recently.
In case of dangerous situations we have 2 solutions. If you are not crowd controlled we’ll simply pop our 
Bone Storm to help us against the pack. However, if you are crowd controlled you’ll simply use 
Blood Mist to get out of harms way and this will generate a corpse on the ground so you can follow it up with a Corpse Tendrils to regain control over the situation!
Uniques and Mythic Uniques
Below you will find information on Uniques and Mythic Uniques that are useful for this build. Moreover, if you are interested in target farming Mythic Uniques, check out our How to Farm Mythic Uniques guide.
Uniques
The build has 1 specific unique items and to include more would cause too much harm on the loss of legendary aspect powers. So we will simply stick to Blood Moon Breeches!
Mythic Uniques
There are some Mythic unique items you can fit in the build, though all of them will require a lot of changes in the build ranging from shifting slots for your aspect powers to solving attribute issues in other cases. Do as you will with that information and below you’ll find a list of potential Mythic unique items you can use for this build but they do come with the trade that you have to sacrifice a legendary power to equip one!
Season 5: Infernal Hordes
The following list details the changes in the Season 5 Update (Patch 1.5.0) that may pertain to the Summoner Necromancer build. Check the Changelog for all the other guide updates. As you can see only 1 change affected the build directly and its a good one!
- Lucky Hit Chance change for Blood Surge: from 12% to 20%.
- Generic yet big buffs to items such as Cruor’s Embrace
Advanced Information
Below, you will find every additional piece of information you need to know for a more in-depth look at this build.
Build Mechanics
Build relies on stacking maximum life to extreme values. To mitigate insufficient damage scaling multipliers with additive damage to overpower and allowing indefinite sustain to tank any threat. High attack speed Hemorrhage used as primary means for Fortify management, Might aspect trigger and partially essence gain is how this build functions.
Defenses
Huge life pool up to 200k buffed with perfectly min maxed build wielding a Doombringer! With very high EHP the build maximizes efficiency of any max life % based healing (Blood surge, Undying, % portion of potions, Blood orbs, Crowded sage) allowing to recover hundreds of thousands EHP within seconds
On top of that the build utilizes a high level of Decrepify that significantly boosts overall damage resistance, extremely lucrative survivability mechanic, due to the reductions applying to raw damage before damage reduction calculation for your character. Also increased slow from scaled Decrepify provides excellent means of active damage mitigation – significantly slowing enemies, allowing kiting even at close range and noticeably staggering bosses.
Offenses
Relies on mostly overpower procs of Blood Surge, but damage is normalized as much as possible. Additive Overpower% from projected life pool reaches approximately 1500 Overpower% per 60k max life! The Legendary power Blood-bathed Aspect echoes the Nova to make the nova hit more than once as well!
Paragon
The recommended Paragon boards for this build are listed above, and further down below, you can find a more thorough route for allocating the Paragon points, as well as some notes on why specific nodes were chosen and why they are essential for this build.
| Glyphs & Legendary Nodes | Effect |
|---|---|
| Corporeal | – Grants +150% bonus to all Magic nodes within range. – Additional Bonus is unlocked with 40 Intelligence in radius, you and your minions deal x10% increased Physical damage and you gain 1% Movement Speed for each active Minion. |
| Control | – For every 5 Intelligence purchased within range, you deal +10% increased damage to Crowd Controlled targets. – Additional Bonus is unlocked with 40 Intelligence in radius, you deal x10% increased damage to Slowed or Chilled enemies or, instead, x20% increased damage to Stunned or Frozen enemies. |
| Essence | – For every 5 Dexterity purchased within range, you deal +20% increased Critical Strike Damage. – Additional Bonus is unlocked with 25 Dexterity in radius, Critical Strikes deal x22% increased damage to enemies that are not Healthy. |
| Amplify | – Grants +150% bonus to all Magic Nodes within range. – Additional Bonus is unlocked with 40 intelligence in radius making enemies affected by your Curses take an additional x10% increased damage from you and your minions. |
| Dominate | – For every 5 Willpower purchased within range, you deal +39,45% increased Overpower damage. – Additional Bonus is unlocked with 25 Willpower in radius, making it so when you Overpower an enemy, all damage they take from you and your minions is increased by x12% for 5 seconds. |
| Territorial | – For every 5 Dexterity purchased within range, you deal 10% increased damage to Close targets. – Additional Bonus is unlocked with 25 Dexterity in radius giving you 15% Damage Reduction against Close enemies. |
| Sacrificial | – Grants +150% bonus to all Magic nodes within range. – Additional Bonus is unlocked with 40 Intelligence in radius, you deal x10% increased damage while you have no active minions. |
| Flesh-eater | Consuming 5 Corpses grants x40% increased damage for 6 seconds. |
| Bloodbath | Deal x35% increased Overpower damage. |
 Scent of Death | With at least 2 Corpses Nearby, you gain 15% Damage Reduction. With no Corpses Nearby, you deal x15% increased damage. |
Let’s take it one step further and break down each of the beneficial nodes we spend our Paragon Points on
Starting Board
- Corporeal is utilized here due to the ease of access to enable the bonus modifier.
- Make sure you take the life providing Magic and Rare nodes on the left before you exit this board.
Bloodbath
- Control is taken here first.
- Don’t forget the Legendary node Bloodbath or the Magic and Rare nodes on the left side before you move out from this board!
Bone Graft
- Essence is of massive benefit to the build and should be focused on first.
- Before heading out north, pick up the magic and rare nodes on the right side!
Blood Begets Blood
- Amplify is the only purpose of this board in combination with the magic and rare nodes in range as seen in the image.
Cult Leader
- Rush the socket node before leaving to the next board up north and use the Dominate.
Blood Begets Blood
- Amplify is utilized for its bonus modifier here.
- Grab any remaining Magic and Rare nodes before you go out on the left side.
Cult Leader
- Gravekeeper is only used for the bonus modifier before we exit down south.
Scent of Death
- Grab the Legendary node Scent of Death.
- Rush the socket and use Territorial.
- Head back to our 2nd board then head out to the left for our last board.
Flesh-Eater
- Rush the Legendary node Flesh-eater.
- Next up is the socket node for the Sacrificial.
Obol Gambling
Obol gambling is a great way to potentially find item upgrades or items missing from your build. Check out the new tool from Icy Veins for gambling Obols in the link below:
Obol Gambling Optimization ToolChangelog
- August 6th, 2024: Guide updated for Season 5, Infernal Hordes.
- May 12th, 2024: Guide updated for Season 4 Loot Reborn.
- January 22nd, 2024: Guide updated for Season 3 Season of the Construct.
- November 3rd, 2023: Optimized Paragon Board and added end-game version.
- October 15th, 2023: Guide updated for Season 2 Season of Blood, Patch 1.2.
- August 7th, 2023: Minor updates for Patch 1.1.1.
- August 5th, 2023: Guide updated for Patch 1.1.1 (launches August 8th, 2023)
- July 26th, 2023: Optimized Paragon board pathing and Glyph choices.
- July 19th, 2023: Guide updated for Season 1 including Malignant Hearts.
