Infinimist – Necromancer Build for Diablo 4 (Legacy)

This version of the Infinimist Necromancer is a legacy build that is not competitive for the current version of Diablo 4 and which we do not recommend using as it does not compete well in the current meta.

Build Introduction

The first build to finish Tier 100 Nightmare Dungeons in the game just got better! This build guide will take you through the optimized version of the Exploding Shadow Mist Necromancer, also known as “Infinimist” or “Shadowblight Stacker”.

Keep in mind that this build is gear-sensitive to function properly. This build requires the X’Fal’s Corroded Signet to get proper single-target damage output and a combination of Cooldown Reduction modifiers on your gear, together with % Increased Lucky Hit Chance!

Playing the build without the Unique ring is theoretically possible, but it will make you have significantly less single-target damage output. If you lack this ring or the modifiers on gear listed in this guide the recommendation is to use any of the previous versions of this build till you have the proper items!

This build is a variant of both, the Sever and Blight Shadowmancer Necromancer:

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Strengths and Weaknesses

To see how this build compares to the other builds on our site, you can check out our build tier lists.

Build Requirements

Required Uniques

X’Fal’s Corroded Signet

This build requires X’Fal’s Corroded Signet to deal proper single-target damage, without this unique it will feel a bit lackluster against bosses.

Skill Bar and Skill Tree Points

Recommended

Suggested Skill Bar

Blood MistSoulriftDecrepifyCorpse ExplosionCorpse TendrilsBlight

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

Since we are focusing entirely on dealing brutal damage with our shadow skills, we have no interest in bothering with using our minions, so they will all be sacrificed in the name of Lilith.

• Melee Skeletons: Reapers – These are sacrificed for a great amount of extra Shadow damage dealt.
• Mage Skeletons: Cold Mages – This provides increased damage against Vulnerable targets.
• Golem: Iron – Increases damage output.

Mercenary

Aldkin is a great choice with crowd-controlling features, but the comfortability of using Subo, who brings the ability of revealing enemies and materials in the area, makes him a natural preferential decision. The mercenaries are a nice addition to the game and whichever you chose to run is up to you. The recommendation for this build will be to run Subo.

Skill-tree wise we’ll grab the left-hand side first for Wire Trap to provide stuns with the following node is up to you. Trip Mines is the next big notable to grab, taken for safety reasons. We finish that tree with Mastermind.

For the reinforcement, stick with Raheir, utilizing his Bastion skill being cast when the player becomes injured.

Paragon Board

The Paragon Board for this build will be updated before the launch of Season 6 Vessel of Hatred on October 8th.

Gear, Gems, Elixirs, and Stats

The following sections cover the important systems that are essential to improving the power of your character in the endgame of Diablo 4.

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	A dark aura surrounds you, inflict Decrepify and Iron Maiden on enemies who touch it. Curses inflicted this way spread to surrounding targets every 2.5-0.3 seconds and last 4 seconds outside the aura.
Chest	Royal Ruby	Aspect of Hardened Bones	You and your Minions gain 15-20% increased Damage Reduction.
Gloves	N/A	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.
Pants	Royal Ruby	Aspect of Explosive Mist	Blood Mist triggers Corpse Explosion on surrounding corpses. When Blood mist detonates a corpse, its cooldown is reduced by 0.1-0.6 seconds.
Boots	N/A	Ghostwalker Aspect	While Unstoppable and for 4 seconds after, you gain 10-25% increased Movement Speed and can move freely through enemies.
Weapon 1H	Royal Emerald	Blighted Aspect	You deal 60-120% increased damage for 6 seconds after the Shadowblight Key Passive damages enemies 10 times.
Off-hand	Royal Emerald	Blood-soaked Aspect	Blood Mist leaves a trail of Desecrated Ground that lasts for 4 seconds and deals x Shadow damage per second. Gain 20% Movement Speed while Blood Mist is active.
Amulet (50% Scaling)	Any Resistance Gem	Aspect of the Damned	You deal x% increased Shadow damage to enemies afflicted by any Curse.
X’Fal’s Corroded Signet	Any Resistance Gem	Unique	Lucky Hit: Your damage over time effects have up to a 50% chance to erupt, dealing X damage of the same type to surrounding enemies.
Ring	Any Resistance Gem	Conceited Aspect	Deal 10-30% increased damage while you have a Barrier active.

Gems and Runewords

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 Emerald For Crit Damage.	Royal Ruby For increased Maximum Life.	Royal Amethyst Royal Sapphire Royal Ruby

The following Runewords are recommend to be used for this build.

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. Lucky Hit Chance 2. Cooldown Reduction 3. Ranks to Crippling Darkness	Profane Cage: Ranks to Crippling Darkness Profane Innovation: x% Decrepify size
Chest	1. Ranks to Blood Mist 2. Armor 3. Maximum Life	Profane Cage: Ranks to Crippling Darkness Profane Innovation: x% Corpse Tendrils Size
Gloves	1. Lucky Hit Chance 2. Critical Strike Chance 3. Intelligence	Profane Finesse: X% damage to enemies affected by Curse skills. Profane Innovation: x% Corpse Tendrils Size
Pants	1. Maximum Life 2. Armor 3. Intelligence	Profane Cage: Ranks to Crippling Darkness Worldly Fortune: Lucky Hit: x% Chance to immobilize for 2 seconds
Boots	1. Movement Speed 2. Maximum Life 3. Intelligence	Necromancer Motion: Movement Speed during Blood Mist Worldly Fortune: Lucky Hit: x% Chance to freeze for 2 seconds
Amulet	1. Ranks to Gloom 2. Ranks to Terror 3. Critical Strike Chance	Profane Finesse: X% damage to enemies affected by Curse skills. Profane Cage: Ranks to Crippling Darkness
Rings	1. Lucky Hit Chance 2. Critical Strike Chance 3. Lucky Hit: Up to X% chance to make enemies vulnerable for 2 seconds.	Necromancer Efficiency: x% Ultimate Cooldown Reduction Profane Finesse: X% damage to enemies affected by Curse skills.
1H-Weapon	1. Critical Strike Damage 2. Intelligence 3. Maximum Life	Profane Finesse: X% damage to enemies affected by Curse skills. Elemental Surge: Lucky Hit: Up to 40% chance to deal X Shadow Damage
Off-hand	1. Lucky Hit Chance 2. Critical Strike Chance 3. Cooldown Reduction	Profane Finesse: X% damage to enemies affected by Curse skills. Elemental Surge: Lucky Hit: Up to 40% chance to deal X Shadow Damage

Keep in mind that the maximum Resistance is 70% by default for each element and can be increased to 85% by various sources.

Rotation and Playstyle

The main focus is to make sure you have as much damage over time effects on the target(s) as possible. Essentially you’ll want to cast Blight, Corpse Tendrils, Corpse Explosion and keep your Bone Storm active before you jump in to Blood Mist. However, thanks to your legendary aspect powers, you create Corpse Explosions via Blood Mist. If you ever need to get out of harm’s way or feel like you’re getting swarmed, you should always skip applying your skills and just jump into Blood Mist. All of this, after you’ve applied Decrepify making sure the enemies are cursed, is fundamental for this build’s functionality!

Make sure to check out the advanced Build Mechanics section for a more in-depth description of how the build works, what synergies exist, and what to look out for.

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

Listed below are the recommended and optional Unique Items for this build. This build thrives of the legendary aspect powers so we would prefer not to involve any uniques to have the build function the best. This doesn’t mean you can’t play around with some changes and test it out yourself though!

• Black River is a solid choice for more consistent DoT play at the cost of high burst damage outputs as you’ll rather focus on pure damage output over critical strikes using this weapon. It’s ok to use but not something we recommend.
• Harlequin Crest will be a great asset to the build but will replace one of your defensive aspects to fit, make sure you feel comfortable with the defensive layers the build provides before equipping this.
• Howl from Below is a fun pair of gloves, making your corpse explosions stand up and move to the enemies before exploding! Once you have crit scaling on your character, this is not to be recommended, but before that, these gloves are a great asset!

Season 6: Vessel of Hatred

The following list details the changes in the Season 6 Update that may pertain to the Summoner Necromancer build. Check the Changelog for all the other guide updates.

• Mostly general changes such as the Paragon rework and itemization changes affecting the build.

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

The build focuses entirely on creating multiple hits with damage over time effects relying on Lucky Hits to create bursts of damage via both the Shadowblight Key Passive node and the unique ring X’Fal’s Corroded Signet. Having enemies cursed allows for an immense amount of cooldown reduction via the Abhorrent Decrepify node. This is how we make the build essentially stay in Blood Mist form for the majority of the time playing the build.

Blood Mist will trigger Corpse Explosion, and when you are not required to use Blood Mist, you can cast Corpse Tendrils and Blight for even more damage output.

Defenses

Making sure your resistances are capped and high damage reduction on top of armor via your gear and legendary aspects this build thrives on doing tons of lucky hits lowering the cooldown of your abilities. This allows you to stay inside Blood Mist form almost all the time, making you literally immortal.

Offenses

Ramping up Shadow damage with consistent hits is the name of the game. The Shadowblight Key Passive and the unique ring X’Fal’s Corroded Signet are our main sources of damage triggered by all our damage over time sources we throw on the enemies!

Paragon

Below is the former paragon glyphs we used and this will be updated before the launch of Season 6!

Glyphs & Legendary Nodes	Effect
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.
Exhumation	– For every 5 Intelligence purchased within range, your Corpse skills deal x% increased damage. – Additional Bonus is unlocked with 40 intelligence in radius, consuming a corpse fortifies you for 4% of your maximum life and grants 4% damage reduction for 4 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, you gain 15% damage reduction against Close targets.
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.
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 making you and minions deal x20% increased damage to Crowd Controlled targets.
Scourge	– For every 5 Intelligence purchased within range, you deal x% increased Shadow damage over time. – Additional Bonus is unlocked with 40 Intelligence in radius, you and your minions deal x10% increased damage to enemies affected by Shadow damage over time effects.
Wither	Your Shadow damage over time effects have x5% chance to deal x50% bonus damage each time they deal damage. This chance is increased by x1% and bonus damage is increased by x4% for each 60 Intelligence you have.
Flesh-eater	Consuming 5 Corpses grants x40% increased damage for 6 seconds.
Scent of Death	With at least 2 Corpses Nearby, you gain 15% Damage Reduction. With no Corpses Nearby, you deal x15% increased damage.

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:

Changelog

• October 2nd, 2024: Guide updated for Season 6. Added legacy disclaimer as the build is not viable in its current state.
• August 5th, 2024: Guide updated for Season 5, Infernal Hordes.
• May 16th, 2024: Gem updates.
• May 10th, 2024: Guide updated for Season 4 Loot Reborn.
• January 22nd, 2024: Guide updated for Season 3 Season of the Construct.
• October 28th, 2023: Big rework of both skill-tree, gear and paragon board to optimize performance.
• October 21st, 2023: Updated Paragon Boards.
• October 15th, 2023: Guide updated for Season 2 Season of Blood, Patch 1.2.
• August 7th, 2023: Guide updated for Patch 1.1.1.
• August 3rd, 2023: Updated Season 1 Heart list for better performance.
• July 19th, 2023: Guide updated for Season 1 including Malignant Hearts.