Shadowblight – Necromancer Build for Diablo 4 (Season 11)

Build Introduction

The Shadowblight build is the pinnacle of what Shadow Damage can offer. It excels in any content with common gear, most of which can be easily repurposed. Fairly easy to navigate and master, this build floods the area with Blight and Blighted Corpse Explosions. It is one of the best, both for starter and endgame setups.

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Curious how this build fares in various content types? Take a look at our build tier lists.

Strengths and Weaknesses

Build Requirements

Required Aspects

Blighted Aspect

Aspect of Decay

Blood Moon Breeches are not required, but strongly recommended as Best in Slot option by far.

Quick Navigation

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Skill Tree Points and Skill Bar

Recommended

Suggested Skill Bar

Corpse TendrilsBlightBlood MistCorpse ExplosionReapSoulrift

Follow the points allocated in the Skill Tree above for the complete 71-point build. 12 skill points are locked behind the Season Rank System.

Lowest priority skills to skip, until extra skill points acquired:

• Titan’s Fall
• Amplify Damage
• Finality
• Fueled by Death

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Class Mechanic – Book of the Dead

This build is sacrificing all minions for Stand Alone and Book of the Dead buffs.

• If total Critical Strike Chance < 75% with Aspect of Grasping Veins
  • then Skeletal Warriors: Skirmishers [Sacrifice] – Increased Critical Strike Chance.
  • else Skeletal Warriors: Reapers [Sacrifice] – Increased Shadow Damage.
• Skeletal Mages: Cold [Sacrifice] – Increased damage to Vulnerable.
• Golem: Iron [Sacrifice] – Increased Critical Strike Damage.

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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. Aspects placement is planned with potential Unique and Mythic Unique gear upgrades in mind for easiest and cheapest transition. Obol gambling is a great way to try to obtain specific slot Legendary Aspects and even Uniques early. For exact Runewords suggestions, see here.

Gear Slot	Gems	Aspect / Unique	Legendary Aspect / Unique Power
Helm		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 X seconds and last 4 seconds outside the aura.
Chest		Aspect of Hardened Bones	You gain 30% [10 – 30]% increased Damage Reduction. (Necromancer Only)
Gloves	n/a	Aspect of Grasping Veins	Gain 25%[+] [5 – 25]% increased Critical Strike Chance for 6 seconds when you cast Corpse Tendrils. You deal 50%[x] [10 – 50]% bonus Critical Strike Damage to enemies for 6 seconds after they are damaged by Corpse Tendrils. (Necromancer Only)
Pants		Aspect of Might	Basic Skills grant 20.0% Damage Reduction for 10.0 seconds.
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 (Sword)		Blighted Aspect	Consecutive hits with the Shadowblight Key Passive deal x#% increased damage for each hit, resetting after 6 seconds of the first.
Amulet (50% Scaling)		Aspect of Decay	Each time the Shadowblight Key Passive deals damage to enemies, it increases the next Shadowblight‘s damage within 10 seconds by x#%, stacking up to 5 times.
Ring		Aspect of the Damned	You deal x [35 – 55%] increased Shadow damage to enemies afflicted by any Curse.
Ring		Sacrificial Aspect	Your Sacrifice bonuses are increased by 55% [35 – 55]%. (Necromancer Only)

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Affixes and Tempering Priority

• Affixes on gear are sorted in priority descending order.
• Bolded affixes are the most important targets for Masterworking upgrade. If multiple affixes marked – any selected is acceptable for case by case gear.
• Affixes marked by multiple “*” – indicate desirability of obtaining them as Greater Affix originally or with lucky Tempering.

Be sure to check our Tempering and Masterworking guides for more details about these topics.

Slot	Affixes	Tempering Affixes
Helmet Heir of Perdition	* 1. Critical Strike Chance * 2. Lucky Hit Chance	n/a
Helmet	* 1. Maximum Life * 2. Intelligence 3. Cooldown Reduction 4. Armor / Resistance to All Elements 5. Essence per Second (once)	Decay Innovation #% Soulrift Duration Worldly Endurance # Maximum Life
Chest Shroud of False Death	* 1. All Stats * 2. Maximum Life	n/a
Chest	** 1. Maximum Life * 2. Intelligence 3. Armor / Resistance to All Elements 4. Essence per Second (once)	Decay Innovation #% Soulrift Duration Profane Innovation #% Corpse Tendrils Size
Gloves	** 1. Attack Speed 2. Critical Strike Chance * 3. Intelligence * 4. Maximum Life	Elemental Finesse – Night #% Shadow Damage Worldly Finesse #% Vulnerable Damage
Pants Blood Moon Breeches	* 1. Critical Strike Chance	n/a
Pants	* 1. Maximum Life * 2. Intelligence 3. Armor / Resistance to All Elements 4. Essence per Second (once)	Decay Innovation #% Soulrift Duration Worldly Endurance # Maximum Life
Boots	* 1. Movement Speed * 2. Maximum Life * 3. Intelligence 4. Armor / Resistance to All Elements 5. Essence per Second (once)	Profane Innovation #% Corpse Tendrils Size Natural Motion #% Evade Cooldown Reduction
Amulet	*** 1. +Ranks to Gloom *** 2. +Ranks to Coalesced Blood ** 3. Critical Strike Chance ** 4. Attack Speed * 5. +Ranks to Amplify Damage * 6. +Ranks to Terror 7. Intelligence	Elemental Finesse – Night #% Shadow Damage Worldly Finesse #% Vulnerable Damage
Ring	** 1. Attack Speed 2. Critical Strike Chance * 3. Intelligence * 4. Maximum Life 5. Vulnerable Damage 6. Critical Strike Damage	Elemental Finesse – Night #% Shadow Damage Worldly Finesse #% Vulnerable Damage
Weapon 2H (Sword)	* 1. Maximum Life * 2. Intelligence 3. Vulnerable Damage 4. Critical Strike Damage 5. Lucky Hit: Up to a 15% Chance to Restore +X Primary Resource	** Dreadful Augments # to Titan’s Fall

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Recommended Early Endgame Stats

Below you’ll find expected character stats to start engaging endgame content:

• Attack Speed higher than 70% (total in character stats sheet)
• Critical Strike Chance near or at 100% with Corpse Tendrils Aspect of Grasping Veins.
• Movement Speed: 30% or more.
• Maximum Life: At least 5000.
• Resistances / Armor: 65% (in Toughness tooltip)

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Ancestral and Mythic Uniques

See below for information on useful Uniques and how to integrate them into this build:

Unique	Category	Synergy	Source
Blood Moon Breeches	Best in Slot	– Extra large Critical Strike Chance affix – Sizeable damage multiplier from Unique Aspect	Duriel or Andariel Lair Bosses
Heir of Perdition	Mythic Best in Slot	– Extra large Critical Strike Chance affix – Extra large Lucky Hit affix – Sizeable damage multiplier from Unique Aspect see below for equipping instructions	How to Farm Mythic Uniques guide
Shroud of False Death	Mythic Best in Slot	– +1 All Passives equates to large damage multiplier – Extra large All Stats affix helps with Paragon Rare Node requirements on last boards – Extra large Maximum Health affix – Movement speed bonus	How to Farm Mythic Uniques guide

Heir of Perdition leads to loss of Aspect of the Cursed Aura on Helmet slot. This can be compensated by Igni Wat runeword to keep build’s access to Curses, see here how. As an alternative, high priority Aspect of the Cursed Aura can just be applied to Boots slots over Aspect of Metamorphosis. Missing aspect would be forfeited until Sanctified version of one of two aspects acquired, so second one would be applied back to Boots slot.

Other listed Uniques are straightforward slot replacement without any extra actions.

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Gems and Runewords

See below for a more detailed explanation of the best Gems and Runewords to socket into your gear.

Weapon Gems	Armor Gems	Jewelry Gems
Runeword	Runeword	Royal Diamond
Royal Emerald	Royal Diamond	Royal Topaz
–	Royal Topaz	Royal Ruby
Increased damage.	Increased All Stats or Intelligence.	Resistances against buffed Lightning and Fire Elite Affixes.

Runeword Combination	Effect
Ahu Qax	Gain: 15 Offering. Lucky Hit: Up to a 100% chance against non-Healthy enemies Requires: 400 Offering. 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. (Overflow: Further Increased Damage).
	Occasionaly consumes all essence to double the damage against non-Healthy enemies
Igni Thul	Gain: 25 Offering. Stores Offering every 0.3 seconds. Cast a Non-Basic Skill to gain the stored Offering. (Up to 500 Offering). Requires: 300 Offering. Invoke the Sorcerer’s Mystical Frost Nova Skill, inflicting Freeze and Vulnerable onto enemies. (Overflow: Up to 100% Increased Size)
	Provides occasional damage multiplier, Crowd Control and Vulnerable application.
Igni Wat	Gain: 25 Offering. Stores Offering every 0.3 seconds. Cast a Non-Basic Skill to gain the stored Offering. (Up to 500 Offering). Requires: 100 Offering. Invoke the Necromancer’s Horrid Decrepify Skill, Slowing enemies, reducing their damage, and letting you Execute them. (Overflow: Increase duration).
[Optional]	Replacing Igni Thul and acts as substitute for Aspect of the Cursed Aura, allowing to apply curse more reliably.

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Paragon Board

Below, you’ll find the entire end-game paragon board set-up for this build in detail!

It is imperative to level up all Glyphs to level 15 first and then to level 46 to increase activation radius second time and unlock secondary damage multiplier. More about paragon glyphs and how to level them, here.

Some paragon points are locked behind the Season Rank System.

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Season of Divine Intervention (Season 11)

Season 11 of Divine Intervention introduces very few very limited borrowed powers, but allows you to adjust the difficulty-to-reward ratio of certain content types and introduces new crafting mechanic, Sanctification.

Sanctification

Sanctification results are too unpredictable to be planned around, but this particular build benefits most from following:

• #%[x] Shadow Damage
• 50/25 bonus Quality on Weapon
• #% Intelligence
• +# Intelligence, All Stats
• Critical Strike Chance, Attack Speed
• Offensive Aspect with damage multiplier
• Aspect of Hardened Bones
• Aspect of Disobedience
• Aspect of the Cursed Aura
• Aspect of Metamorphosis

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Divine Gifts

Corrupted gift slots grant increased specific content rewards, but increases difficulty of associated content – therefore should be activated only for target farming, when character can handle it.

Recommended Purified Divine Gifts for the build:

• Essence of Shadows – Briefly become Unstoppable when Crowd Controlled every 12 seconds.
• Essence of Screams – Gain 20%[+] increased Resistance.
• Essence of Sin – Gain 20%[+] increased Armor.
• Essence of Pain – Briefly gain maximum Barrier after becoming Injured, every 20 seconds.

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Mercenaries

During the Vessel of Hatred campaign, you will unlock Mercenaries to assist you. While you can choose freely early on, we recommend Aldkin as your main merc to deal even more Shadow damage instances:

• Haunt
• Terrify
• Field of Languish
• Paranoia

For the reinforcement, stick with Varyana, utilizing her Bloodthirst skill when the player casts Soulrift.

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Rotation and Build Mechanics

This build’s purpose is to inflict as many Shadow Damage instances to the enemy, in the shortest period of time possible, in order to trigger Shadowblight damage. This is achieved by grouping enemy into packs and stacking Damage over Time AoE abilities on top of them.

Rotation and Playstyle

1. If you are in danger, use Blood Mist and move out of the danger. All negative effects from yourself will be removed and you will become Unstoppable for 3 seconds. Blood Mist can be ended early by pressing same button again.
2. Approach the pack to trigger Aspect of the Cursed Aura or Igni Wat runeword.
3. Activate Soulrift when possible.
4. Produce Corpse with Acolyte’s Reap if none available.
5. Use Corpse Tendrils and throw a few Blights into the pulled enemies.
6. Cast Corpse Explosions non stop on freshy formed Corpses, while re-grouping enemies with Corpse Tendrils between casts.
7. Keep renewing Enhanced Reap, Blight, Soulrift inbetween.

Shadowblight Triggers

Below is the list of main shadow damage contributors towards Shadowblight counter.

• Blighted Corpse Explosion (stacking damage over time)
• Blight (stacking damage over time)
• Soulrift (fast damage over time)
• Aldkin mercenary Haunt & Field of Languish (damage over time)

Which Elixirs Should You Use?

Visit the Alchemist and craft an Elixir providing any Resistance you need most, Elixir of Precision II, if you lack Critical Strike Chance, or the Elixir of Advantage II for increased Attack Speed. Recommended incenses are Reddamine Buzz, Soothing Spices, Sage’s Whisper. Make sure to keep your Health Potion upgraded! 

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Season 11 Updates

For a complete overview of Season 11, mechanics and theme, new leveling activity, and other changes coming, please take a look at our comprehensive season hub here.

• Main Shadowblight triggers are reverted from Season 10 mechanic Soulrift to Season 9 setup of Blighted Corpse Explosion and Blight.

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Obol Gambling

Obol gambling is a great way to potentially find specific Legendary Aspects or specific slots Uniques missing from your build. Check out the new tool guide from Icy Veins for gambling Obols in the link below.

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Changelog

• December 13th, 2025: Added Blood Mist to the build after difficulty testing. Visual fixes.
• December 8th, 2025: Guide updated for Season 11, Divine Intervention
• September 18th, 2025: Guide updated for Season 10. The Build is completely reworked from the ground up due to seasonal mechanics!
• 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.