Build Introduction
This guide is a collaboration between GhazzyTV and community member Garm Z. This build will turn your 
Bone Spear in to a Shadow Skill which we double down on in terms of scaling from all sources such as Paragon Board, Skill-Tree and Legendary Aspects.
Have questions or feedback on this guide? Join the livestream and ask me!
Strengths and Weaknesses
- Fast and comfortable with proper gear
- High survivability with massive barrier generation
- Average damage output compared to other Necromancer builds
- Limited AoE options
Build Requirements
Blood Moon Breeches
Deathless Visage
Path of Trag’OulQuick 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
Corpse Tendrils
Bone PrisonBone Spear
Reap
SoulriftFollow the points allocated in the Skill Tree above for the complete 71-point build. The additional skill points are completed using the Renown system.
Necromancer Class Mechanic – Book of the Dead
We will be sacrificing all our minions. Below you’ll find the details covering all aspects of how we utilize the Book of the Dead for the Bone Spear Necromancer.
- Melee Skeletons: Skirmisher [Sacrifice] – Increased Critical Strike Chance. If you’re over 100% Critical Strike Chance then sacrifice Reapers instead for increased Shadow Damage.
- Mage Skeletons: Cold [Sacrifice] – Increased Vulnerable 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.
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! Other recommendations for Legendary Aspect farming would be to do the Seasonal mechanic and to some extent you can farm them in Helltides as well.
| Gear Slot | Gems | Aspect / Unique | Legendary Aspect / Unique Power |
|---|---|---|---|
| Helm |  Igni +  Wat | Deathless Visage | Bone Spears deal x% more Critical Strike Damage and forms echoes that bursts for X Physical Damage, increased by x5% for every 25% of your total Critical Strike Damage bonus. |
| Chest |  Royal Topaz |  Aspect of Hardened Bones | You gain 15-20% increased Damage Reduction. |
| Gloves | n/a |  Sacrificial Aspect | Your Sacrifice bonuses are increased by #%. |
| Pants | Royal Topaz | Blood Moon Breeches | You deal 20-50% increased Critical Strike Damage to enemies affected by your Curses. |
| Boots | n/a | Path of Trag’Oul | Makes your Bone Prison trap enemies in a larger area and fires X Bone Splinters at enemies trapped within. It also increase your Maximum Essence by 2 for 10 seconds each time these Bone Splinters hit an enemy. |
| Weapon 2H (Mace) |  Ahu +  Qax | Aspect of the Damned | You deal x#% increased Shadow damage to enemies afflicted by any Curse. |
| Amulet (50% Scaling) |  Idol From Below | Aspect of the Great Feast | While you have no active Minions, you deal x#% increased damage, but 7 Essence drains per second. |
| Ring | Scornful Light | Aspect of Decaying Humerus | Your Bone Skills now deal Shadow damage instead of Physical. Enemies take x#% increased Shadow damage after being hit with a Bone Skill. |
| Ring |  Horadric Crest | Accelerating Aspect | Critical Strikes with Core Skills increase your Attack Speed by +x#% for 5 seconds. |
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Helmet | Deathless Visage * 1. + Ranks to Bone Spear | n/a |
| Chest | 1. Essence per Second * 2. Maximum Life 3. Intelligence |  Decay Innovation #% Soulrift DurationNecromancer Wall + Ranks to Necrotic Carapace |
| Gloves | * 1. Ranks to Bone Spear 2. Critical Strike Chance 3. Attack Speed | Elemental Finesse – Night #% Shadow DamageProfane Innovation #% Corpse Tendril Size |
| Pants | Blood Moon Breeches * 1. Critical Strike Chance | n/a |
| Boots | Path of Trag’Oul * 1. + Ranks to Bone Skills | n/a |
| Amulet | * 1. + Ranks to Gloom 2. Intelligence 3. Critical Strike Chance Note: In higher end-game gear you can replace Critical Strike Chance with + Ranks to Coalesced Blood or Terror. | Elemental Finesse – Night #% Shadow DamageDecay Innovation #% Soulrift Duration |
| Ring (2x) | * 1. Attack Speed 2. Critical Strike Chance 3. Intelligence | Elemental Finesse – Night #% Shadow DamageNecromancer Efficiency + Ranks to Rapid Ossification |
| 2H-Weapon (Mace) | * 1. Maximum Life 2. Intelligence 3. Lucky Hit: Up to a 15% Chance to Restore +#% Primary Resource | Bone Augments #% Chance for Bone Spear Projectiles to Cast TwiceElemental Finesse – Night #% 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.
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 %.
Uniques and Uber Uniques
Below you will find information on Uniques and Uber Uniques that are useful for this build. Moreover, if you are interested in target farming Uber Uniques, check out our How to Farm Uber Uniques guide.
Uniques
- Deathless Visage – Provides better Critical Strike Damage and echoes your Bone Spears to deal extra damage. You can target farm this from Lord Varshan.
- Blood Moon Breeches – Great Crit Damage scaling against cursed targets. You can target farm this from both Duriel and Andariel!
- Path of Trag’Oul – Turns our Bone Prison into an powerhouse of scaling by dealing extra damage and increases our Max Essence for even more damage output. You can target farm this from Grigoire’s Lair.
Mythic Uniques
Shroud of False Death – This can straight up replace your current body armor and would scale your damage significantly. Greater Affix and Masterworking priority on this item will be All Stats.
Ring of Starless Skies – Can replace your Accelerating Aspect ring straight up. Greater Affix and Masterworking priority on this item will be Attack Speed.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Recommended Runewords listed below. | Recommended Runewords then Royal Topaz For increased Intelligence. | Horadric Jewels as listed further below. |
The following Runewords are recommended to be used for this build.
| Runeword Combination | Effect |
| Igni + Wat | Gain 25 Offering. Stores offering every 0.3 seconds. Cast a non-Basic Skill to gain the stored offering. For 100 Offering you can Overflow increasing duration with a 1 second cooldown to invoke the Necromancer’s Horrid Decrepify, Slowing enemies, reducing their damage, and letting you Execute them. |
| Ahu + Qax | Gain 15 Offering. Lucky Hit: up to a 100% chance against non-Healthy enemies. For 400 Offering. (Overflow: Further increased Damage). Cooldown: 1 second. Casting a Skill other than a Basic or Defensive spends all your Primary Resource to increase your damage up to 100% for 1 second. |
Cir + 
Lum can be very helpful early game to help with resource management.
Paragon board
Below, you’ll find the entire end-game paragon board set-up for this build in detail!
Horadric Spells and Jewels (Season 9)
In Season 9, we will have access to Horadric Jewels and Horadric Spells, granting some absolutely crazy abilities that we’ll utilize to enhance our build’s power. Below, you’ll find a list of the recommended powers we use for this build.
Horadric Spell
| Type | Power | Description |
| Catalyst |  Disintegrate (pair with Bone Spear) | Form an Arcane Conductor that emits a persistent beam between itself and you, dealing a steady blitz of x damage over 8 seconds. Enemies within the beam are Slowed by 50%. |
| Infusion |  Nebulous Extract | Your Spell Catalyst now deals Shadow and or Corrupting damage. Enemies hit by it deal x% reduced damage for 7 seconds. While equipped, your Shadow Damage Bonus is equal to that of your highest Damage Type Bonus. At Rank 5 it will deactivate enemy monster summoner effects for 5 seconds. |
| Arcana |  Bloody Charm | Your Catalyst gains a specialized Execute effect for non-Boss enemies with 20% or less Life. Bloody Charm will also execute non-boss enemies with Cosmic Anomaly implosions. Successful executions increase your Attack Speed by 20% for 8 seconds. |
| Arcana |  Tranquil Stone | Invoking your Catalyst grants Unstoppable for 5 seconds whenever it activates. |
| Arcana |  Fractured Core | Your Catalyst deactivates monster Damage Resistance Aura effects for 5 seconds, but you take 15% more stacking damage for the same time. |
Horadric Jewels
Use these Jewels over regular gems in your jewelry slots to further enhance the build:
Mercenaries
During the Vessel of Hatred campaign, you will unlock Mercenaries to assist you. While you can choose freely early on, we recommend Raheir as your main merc, and Varyana as a Reinforcement once you reach endgame.
For the reinforcement, stick with Varyana, utilizing her Bloodthirst skill being cast when the player casts Bone Spear.
Build Mechanics
Rotation and Playstyle
We want enemies within a Bone Prison for more damage. Make sure you throw a Blight inside your Bone Prison to further increase damage output. Outside of that we utilize Bone Spear for general damage output and Soulrift for higher damage scaling! Corpse Tendrils will help group enemies together as well.
Which Elixirs Should You Use?
Visit the Alchemist and craft an Elixir providing any Resistance you need most, or the 
Elixir of Advantage II for more attack speed. If you are struggling with Essence you can always use 
Elixir of Resourcefulness II to help. 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 9 Updates
For a full overview of what is new in Season 9, please take a look at our comprehensive season hub. Additionally, Season 9 isn’t changing anything notably for the build outside of providing the new Horadric powers.
- Heavy nerfs to Overpower, making this build step away from it entirely.
- New changes make us able to turn Bone Spear into a Shadow Skill, which we are doubling down on.
Obol Gambling
Obol gambling is a great way to potentially find item upgrades or items missing from your build. Check out the new tool guide from Icy Veins for gambling Obols in the link below:
Changelog
- June 29th, 2025: Guide updated for Season 9.
- May 18th, 2025: Glove aspect changed.
- May 5th, 2025: Optimized and updated post launch Season 8.
- April 26th, 2025: Guide updated for Season 8.
- February 12th, 2025: Minor adjustments and clarifications.
- January 19th, 2025: Guide updated for Season 7.
- October 12th, 2024: New Paragon tool added.
- October 7th, 2024: Paragon board added.
- October 2nd, 2024: Guide updated for Season 6.
- August 5th, 2024: Guide updated for Season 5, Infernal Hordes.
- May 23rd, 2024: Finalized tempering modifiers.
- 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 15th, 2023: Updated guide for the 1.2 patch.
- August 7th, 2023: Minor updates for the 1.1.1 patch.
- August 5th, 2023: Guide updated for patch 1.1.1 (launches on August 8th).
- July 26th, 2023: Optimized gear affix list.
- July 19th, 2023: Guide updated for Season 1 including Malignant Hearts.
