Build Introduction
This guide is a collaboration between GhazzyTV and community member Garm Z. Alter the Balance power allows us to merge the best parts of both skill tags – Ultimate and Core, resulting in absolute mayhem on a screen. Endless and fast spam of screen-wide 
Blood Waves, pulling, freezing, fearing, damaging directly and over time anything that approaches your character – makes 
Blood Surge Necromancers green with envy.
There will be plenty of required items for this build to work, as listed below in this guide in detail.
Strengths and Weaknesses
- Easy to gear
- Safe, comfortable and easy to play with 1 button
- Great for any type of content
- Slightly weaker Pit clear than it’s previous version
Build Requirements
Kessime’s Legacy
Xan rune is mandatory for the build to function. This is covered in detail in the Runeword section further down in the guide. The “Alter the Balance” unique Chaos Perk from Torment 1 or higher is mandatory for the build to function!
Quick Navigation
Want to skip ahead? Use the table below to jump to the sections you are looking for.
Skill Bar and Skill Tree Points
Blight
Sever
DecomposeBlood Wave
Corpse Explosion
ReapFollow the points allocated in the Skill Tree above for the complete 71-point build. The additional 10 skill points are completed using the Renown system.
Necromancer Class Mechanic – Book of the Dead
Since we are focusing entirely on dealing brutal damage with our Blood Wave, we have no interest in bothering our minions, so they will all be sacrificed in the name of Lilith.
- Melee Skeletons: Reaper [Sacrifice] – Increased Shadow damage.
- Mage Skeletons: Bone [Sacrifice] – Increased Overpower damage.
- Golem: Iron [Sacrifice] – Increased Critical Strike Damage.
Gear, Stats, Gems, and Runes
The following sections cover the important systems that are essential to improving the power of your character in the endgame of Diablo 4. With Season 10 we will have access to Chaos Perks and Chaos Armors that will inevitably change some desired aspects.
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! Outside of Obols to get your Legendary Aspects the recommendation is to engage with the seasonal mechanic as they are often lucrative in terms of Legendary drops and to some extend farming Helltide areas.
| Gear Slot | Gems | Aspect / Unique | Legendary Aspect / Unique Power |
|---|---|---|---|
| Helm |  Feo +  Ner |  Aspect of the Cursed Aura | A dark aura surrounds you, inflicting  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 Topaz |  Aspect of Hardened Bones | You and your Minions gain 10-30% increased damage reduction. |
| Gloves | N/A |  Aspect of Apogeic Furor | Casting an Ultimate Skill increases your Ultimate damage by 10.0%[x] [6.0 – 10.0]%, up to 100%[x] [60 – 100]%. At 10 stacks, your Cooldowns and this bonus are reset. |
| Pants | Royal Topaz | Kessime’s Legacy | Blood Wave now creates a wave on each side of you and converge at your feet pulling enemies in as well as increasing the damage they take from your Blood Wave. |
| Boots | N/A |  Aspect of Metamorphosis | When you Evade you turn in to a cloud of bats, becoming Unstoppable for 2.5 seconds. Enemies along your path take X Physical damage and are inflicted with Vampiric Curse. Evade’s Cooldown is increased by X seconds. |
| Weapon 2H (Mace) |  Zan + Xan | Aspect of the Damned | You deal 110%[x] [70 – 110]% increased Shadow damage to enemies afflicted by any Curse. |
| Amulet |  Royal Skull | Sacrificial Aspect | Your Sacrifice bonuses are increased by 83% [53 – 83]%. |
| Ring | Royal Skull | Aspect of Ultimate Shadow |  Bone Storm and Blood Wave are also Darkness Skills, deal Shadow damage, and gain additional effects:Enemies damaged by Bone Storm take 2,223 [635 – 2,223] Corrupting damage over 2 seconds. Blood Wave creates Desecrated Ground as it travels, dealing 35,571 [10,163 – 35,571] Corrupting damage over 4 seconds |
| Ring | Royal Skull | Vehement Brawler’s Aspect | Casting an Ultimate Skill increases your damage by 30%[x] [10 – 30]% for 8 seconds. Gain 2 additional Ultimate Skill Ranks. |
In Season 10, we’ll have access to Chaos Armor to further push the limits of the build!
Curious how this build compares to other endgame options? Take a look at our Endgame Build Tier List.
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. The main priority for Greater Affixes are marked with a “*”, secondary would be anything providing Intelligence or Life. Be sure to check our Tempering and Masterworking guides for more details about these topics.
| Slot | Targeted Gear Affixes | Tempering Affixes |
|---|---|---|
| Helm | * 1. intelligence 2. Maximum Life 3. Cooldown Reduction 4. Essence per Second |  Worldly Endurance # Maximum LifeProfane Innovation #% Corpse Tendril Size |
| Chest | * 1. Intelligence 2. Maximum Life 3. All Resistance 4. Essence per Second | Worldly Endurance #% ArmorProfane Innovation #% Corpse Tendril Size |
| Gloves | * 1. Attack Speed 2. + Ranks to Core Skills 3. Intelligence 4. Maximum Life | Blood Finesse #% Blood Attack SpeedWorldly Fortune #% Crowd Control Duration |
| Pants | Kessime’s Legacy * 1. #% Chance for Blood Wave to Deal Double Damage | n/a |
| Boots | 1. Movement Speed 2. Armor * 3. Intelligence 4. Maximum Life 5. Essence per Second | Necromancer Motion #% Movement SpeedWorldly Fortune #% Crowd Control Duration |
| Amulet | 1. + Ranks to Gloom * 2. % Intelligence 3. Attack Speed Note: With high endgame gear you can replace Attack Speed with + Ranks to Tides of Blood/Coalesced Blood/Terror. | Necromancer Invigoration Casting Ultimate Skills Restore # EssenceBlood Finesse #% Blood Attack Speed |
| Ring | * 1. Attack Speed 2. Intelligence 3. Lucky Hit: #% chance to make enemies vulnerable for 2 seconds. | Necromancer Invigoration Casting Ultimate Skills Restore # EssenceBlood Finesse #% Blood Attack Speed |
| Ring | * 1. Attack Speed 2. Intelligence 3. Overpower Damage 4. Maximum Life | Necromancer Invigoration Casting Ultimate Skills Restore # EssenceBlood Finesse #% Blood Attack Speed |
| 2H Weapon (Mace) | * 1. Intelligence 2. Maximum Life 3. Resource cost reduction 4. Overpower Damage | Dreadful Augments + Ranks to FinalityBlood Finesse #% Blood Attack Speed |
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!
Make sure to achieve and maintain armor cap of ~1,000 as soon as possible! For that purpose, helm or chest temporary tempering can be Total Armor % and/or Spiked Armor ranks.
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
- Kessime’s Legacy (Required) – Bread and butter of the build as it makes your Blood Wave do more damage and pull enemies in around you. You can find these pants from Lord Zir himself!
Mythic Uniques
Shroud of False Death – Scales damage by a lot! Greater Affix and Masterworking priority will be on All Stats or Maximum life. 
Heir of Perdition – To equip this you’ll need to change your Feo + Ner to 
Igni + 
Wat to make use of automated curse application. For masterworking priority you’re mainly looking for + Ranks to Core skill. This item is only ever worth to use by replacing 
Lidless Wall as a Chaos Armor.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Runeword described below. | Recommended Runewords otherwise Royal Topaz For increased Intelligence. | Royal Skull For increased Armor.  Royal Diamond Can be used to help resistance if your armor has reached the cap. |
- Make sure to convert not used gem-fragments to Skull fragments to obtain 3xRoyal Skull as early as possible.
The following Runewords are recommended for use in this build.
| Runeword Combination | Effect |
| Feo + Ner | Gain 1000 Offering when you become Injured or Crowd Controlled (Cooldown: 10 seconds). For 600 Offering (Overflow: Increased Duration). Cooldown 6 seconds. Invoke the Rogue’s  Countering Concealment gaining Dodge Chance, Movement Speed, Unstoppable, and Stealth. |
| Zan + Xan | Gain 150 Offering when you cast an Ultimate skill. For 300 Offering (Overflow: Increased Duration). Cooldown 1 second. Your next attack will cause your hits to be a guaranteed Critical Strike and Overpower for 0.35 seconds. |
Zan + 
Lum is a temporary Runeword that can help with Essence till you’re good without it. This Should be the main Runeword and once Essence is solved we replace it with whichever Runeword you get last as listed above.
Paragon Board
Below you’ll find the entire end-game paragon board set-up for this build in detail!
Season of Infernal Chaos (Season 10)
In Season 10, we get access to Chaos Perks as well as Chaos Armor. Below you’ll find a list of our recommended items to look out for.
Chaos Perks
| Power | Description |
 Alter the Balance | Your base Core Skills are now empowered as Ultimate Skills, cost no Essence, but have a 20 second Cooldown. Your base Ultimate Skills are now altered to also be Core Skills and have no Cooldown, but cost 50 Essence. |
 Accelerating Chaos | Lucky Hit: Damaging an enemy has up to a 10% chance to trigger a Chaotic Burst on the enemy, dealing 400% damage. Your Chaotic Bursts that hit an enemy reduce a random active Cooldown by 0.5 seconds. |
 Crazy Brew | Your Healing Potion is infused with the power of Chaos, granting you 100% Resource Cost Reduction, +80% increased Attack Speed and +80% increased Movement Speed for 5 seconds. Your Healing Potion has a 15 second Cooldown and you can drink it at full Life. Cooldown is affected by Cooldown Reduction. |
 Erupting Chaos | Chaotic Bursts randomly erupt around you, dealing 400% damage of your highest damage type. Your Chaotic Bursts additionally deal 100% of their initial damage over 4 seconds. |
Chaos Armor
Chaos Armor is seasonal corrupted unique gear that can take the form and slots of other armor pieces. An amulet can become boots or a helmet, a shield can become gloves, and so on. Chaos pieces carry their original implicit affixes, like All Resistances from Jewelry or weapon damage multiplier from the shield, regardless of the form they take. They always have increased AND top roll unique aspect value.
Below you’ll find a list of unique items that would do very well for this build as a Chaos Armor:
Ebonpiercer – Any slot except Chest/Pants. Massive amount of ranks to 
Reaper’s Pursuit synergizes very well with 6 Darkness skills on our action-bar. For Masterworking you’ll want to prioritize Ranks to Reaper’s Pursuit.
Lidless Wall (Chest Armor) – Massive base damage multiplier which even works for 2 handed weapons, and provides Cooldown reduction. For Masterworking you’ll want to prioritize Cooldown Reduction.
Bloodless Scream – Any slot except Chest/Pants. Big multiplier to Darkness skills and crowd control effect. For Masterworking you’ll want to prioritize + Ranks to Darkness Skills.
Banished Lord’s Talisman – Any slot except Pants. High Overpower damage multiplier, all resistance and great baseline stats. For Masterworking you’ll want to prioritize Attack Speed and potentially + Ranks to Core skills.
Fists of Fate – Any slot except Pants. High multiplier though with high volatility and great affixes for the build.
Mercenaries
Mercenaries provide a nice extra layer of power to your character and mostly comes down to preferential decision. Below you’ll see the set-up I personally would run for this build which is having Raheir as the Mercenary and for reinforcement I’d use Aldkin!
Raheir Skill Tree choices:
Aldkin Reinforcement choices:
- Opportunity Skill: Skill Cast – Whenever the player casts Blood Wave.
- Reinforcement Skill –
Field of Languish
Build Mechanics
Rotation and Playstyle
The entire playstyle is all about pressing Blood Wave and only Blood Wave. The fact that we have a bunch of Darkness skills on our action-bar is mainly there to scale damage multiplier via Reaper’s Pursuit. This is not a joke, the build is genuinely that easy to play, it’s 1 button and 1 button only. Should you find yourself bored, you could throw in a cast of Blight or a couple of Corpse Explosion for a small damage multiplier.
Make sure to use your healing potion to activate Crazy Brew for increased cast speed and free casts right before you unleash your damage!
Imbiber Glyph scales more the fewer potions you have left. Make sure to keep your potion count below half for optimal scaling.
Zan + Xan is the cornerstone of the build allowing every second cast of Blood Wave to Critical Hit and Overpower. Igni + Wat is automating curse application on enemies for a massive damage multiplier from the Aspect of the Damned.
Which Elixirs Should You Use?
Visit the Alchemist and craft an Elixir providing any Resistance you need most, or the 
Strong Assault Elixir 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!
Season 10 Updates
For a complete overview of Season 10, mechanics and theme, new leveling activity, and other changes coming, please take a look at our comprehensive season hub here.
- Seasonal powers completely change the behavior of Ultimate skills allowing for them to act as Core skills.
- Essence generating effects has been nerfed across the board.
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 guide Icy Veins for gambling Obols in the link below.
Changelog
- September 18th, 2025: Guide updated for Season 10. Build has received a massive rework from the ground up. Main change is playstyle is moving away from the set-up play-style in to a literal Blood Wave spam-machine!
- July 3rd, 2025: Minor skill-tree optimization.
- June 29th, 2025: Guide updated for Season 9.
- May 5th, 2025: Optimized and updated post launch for Season 8.
- April 26th, 2025: Guide updated for Season 8.
- January 19th, 2025: Guide posted for Season 7.
