Masters of the dark arts and the leaders of the undead armies, Necromancers in Diablo 4 are among the fan favorites. The necromancer class is relatively easy to master and all their builds in Diablo 4 basically play the same with blood magic at their base. This affinity for blood magic makes the blood mist necromancer one of the best classes in Diablo 4.
Despite having a large array of offensive attacks in their skill tree, the area where the Necromancer class in Diablo 4 lacks a lot is its defense. For this exact reason, we will be mainly focusing on the defense aspect of the Necromancer class in this Diablo 4 build using the Blood Mist core skill. This build also focuses on blood attacks against a single enemy or a whole group in close proximity. Blood Mist Necromancer is further strengthened with the help of their summoned minions.
Following the Necromancer builds is not a difficult task. Even if you decide to choose a different skill or end up sacrificing your summons, it won’t hurt the result. In this guide, we will be discussing every aspect of the Diablo 4 Blood Mist Necromancer build in detail and recommend players stick as closely as possible for maximum efficiency during the endgame.
- Skills and unlock order
- Book of the Dead
- Playstyle and skill rotation
- Gear, Gems and Stats priority
- Paragon Board
- Unique Items
- Legendary Aspects
- Elixir choices
Blood Mist Necromancer skills progression and unlock order
With the Blood Mist core skill as our primary focus in this build, the main goal here is to unlock skills that aid Blood Mist in Diablo 4 and overcome the shortcomings of the Necromancer class. Below is a list of all the skills we will be using in order of their skill trees.
- Hemorrhage (basic skill)
- Blood Lance (core skill)
- Blood Surge (core skill)
- Blood Mist (macabre skill)
- Corpse Tendrils (summoning skill)
- Blood Wave (ultimate skill)
Earning skill points and allocating them works a bit differently in Diablo 4. Players can only earn 48 skill points from leveling up (2-49). However, they can earn 10 additional skill points by completing Renown tasks.
Completing all Renown tasks from the 5 main zones grant 10 additional skill points making the grand total of 58. Now the main task is to allocate these points to skills in a particular order to maximize their efficiency for the Blood Mist Necromancer build in Diablo 4.
Follow the list to tee as it contains the perfect order of unlocking the required skills.
| Unlock Order | Skill Name |
| 1 | Hemorrhage (Rank 1) |
| 2 | Enhanced Hemorrhage |
| 3 | Initiate’s Hemorrhage |
| 4 | Blood Lance (Rank 1) |
| 5 | Enhanced Blood Lance |
| 6 | Supernatural Blood Lance |
| 7 | Blood Mist (Rank 1) |
| 8 | Enhanced Blood Mist |
| 9 | Dreadful Blood Mist |
| 10 | Blood Surge (Rank 1) |
| 11 | Enhanced Blood Surge |
| 12 | Paranormal Blood Surge |
| 13 | Corpse Tendrils (Rank 1) |
| 14 | Enhanced Corpse Tendrils |
| 15 | Plagued Corpse Tendrils |
| 16 | Gruesome Mending (Rank 1) |
| 17 | Coalesced Blood (Rank 1) |
| 18 | Tides of Blood (Rank 1) |
| 19 | Transfusion (Rank 1) |
| 20 | Rathma’s Vigor |
| 21 | Drain Vitality (Rank 1) |
| 22 | Grim Harvest (Rank 1) |
| 23 | Skeletal Mage Mastery (Rank 1) |
| 24 | Skeletal Warrior Mastery (Rank 1) |
| 25 | Inspiring Leader (Rank 1) |
| 26 | Hellbent Commander (Rank 1) |
| 27 | Unliving Energy (Rank 1) |
| 28 | Imperfectly Balanced (Rank 1) |
The order explained above should be followed strictly as the skills unlocked in this order will not strengthen the character, but also enhance their offensive skills by a huge margin. This will leave the players with 28 more skill points to use.
We recommend upgrading Blood Lance, Blood Surge, Blood Mist, Gruesome Mending, Tides of Blood and Drain Vitality on a priority basis. The rest is up to the players. They can upgrade the remaining skills or use those skill points to further unlock some more support skills.
Blood Mist Necromancer build is to provide the character with the maximum defense while dealing as much DPS as they can to the close enemies. Tides of Blood and Coalesced Blood increases the damage against enemies by a good margin, while Gruesome Mending helps restore more life with potions and blood orbs.
Inspiring Leader and Hellbent Commander not only fortify your minions but also grant them more attack power. With the skills selected above, it is obvious that Blood Mist Necromancer is versatile and master of all trades, leaving no room for any weakness.
Book of the Dead for Blood Mist Necromancer
Book of the Dead is a special class mechanic for the Necromancers in Diablo 4. For our Blood Mist necromancer build, we will be focusing on two summons. Skeletal Warriors and Skeletal Mages. Sacrifice the Blood Golem to increase the maximum health by 10% permanently.
For the Mage summon, we recommend selecting Cold Mages with the first upgrade unlocked. It allows the Cold Mages to generate 2 Essence with each attack.
For the Warriors summon, stick with the Reapers and unlock their second upgrade. It allows the Skeletal Warriors to convert the enemies into corpses upon killing them.
Blood Mist Necromancer Playstyle and Skill Rotation
Our Blood Mist Necromancer built revolves around fortifying the character while doing as much damage as possible to close enemies. This can be achieved by using blood skills or summons. Recovering the primary resource is at the heart of any build.
Keeping these things in mind, let us proceed with the main mechanics of this build and how to maintain them.
Essence Regeneration
Essence is the primary resource used by the Necromancer class to cast skills and raise the armies of the undead. Here are some ways to increase its generation over time to avoid getting into undesirable situations during combat.
- Unliving Energy. This skill increases the maximum essence limit by up to 9.
- Grim Harvest. This skill allows the players to generate up to 9 essence by consuming corpses.
- Enhanced Iron Maiden. This skill generates 5 essence for cursing each enemy.
Blood Orb Generation
Most of the healing from the enemies comes in the form of Blood Orbs for the Blood Mist Necromancer build. Here is a list of skills that facilitate the drop rate of Blood Orbs.
- Hemorrhage. This skill has a 20% chance to create a blood orb from the blood drained from the enemy.
- Supernatural Blood Lance. This skill when successfully cast 8 times already, spawns a Blood Orb beneath the first enemy on its 9th cast.
- Blighted Corpse Tendrils. This skill has a 30% chance to drop a blood orb while attacking enemies.
- Supreme Blood Wave. This ultimate skill generates 3 blood orbs in its wake.
Enhanced Defense
One of the reasons to choose the Blood Mist necromancer build is to have enhanced defense against enemy attacks. As Necromancers are initially vulnerable to all kinds of attacks, you need to equip the following skills to mitigate as much close damage as possible.
- Initiate’ Hemorrhage. This skill fortifies the character for a particular percentage for hitting each enemy. It stacks with each successive hit.
- Blood Mist. This skill turns the players into a mist for 3 seconds and they become immune to all sorts of damage during this time period.
- Drain Vitality. This passive skill has a 25% chance to fortify the character for up to 8% of their maximum health. However, this one is a Lucky Hit.
- Stand Alone. This passive skill increases damage reduction by up to 18%. However, it is adversely affected by the presence of minions (decrease by 2% for each minion).
More Damage Output
Only defending and evading enemies while not doing enough damage makes the whole run worthless. As necromancer class in Diablo has low DPS, we will be assigning some skills to compensate for it.
- Paranormal Blood Surge. This skill makes the next Blood surge skill overpowers at the cost of 5 overwhelming bloods, which are created by casting Blood Surge in healthy state.
- Imperfectly Balanced. This passive skill increases the damage output by up to 15% by core skills at the cost of increased essence requirements.
- Skeletal Warriors mastery. This passive skill grants up to 45% additional damage to our summoned Skeletal warriors.
- Fueled by Death. This passive skill increases damage output by up to 9% for a few seconds after consuming a corpse.
- Skeletal Mage Mastery. This skill grants up to 45% more damage output to our summoned Skeletal mages.
- Coalesced Blood. This passive skill increases damage by blood skills for up to 18%. However, the character must be in healthy state.
- Tides of Blood. The damage by overpower increases by up to 15% by using blood skills in healthy state.
- Hellbent Commander. This passive skill allows the minions to deal more damage by up to 30% if they are close to the Necromancer.
Blood Mist Necromancer Damage Rotation
This section covers the order in which skills must be used to get the upper hand in a fight. Following this order is highly recommended even against bosses, but you can always mix and match other skills for custom results.
- Blood Lance
- Corpse Tendrils
- Blood Surge
- Hemorrhage
- Raise Skeletons
- Blood Mist
Always start the fight against the group of enemies by using Blood Lance skill. It initially does a lot of damage to enemies and bosses and increases Essence generation. Summon Corpse Tendrils to pull the far enemies closer. It stuns the enemies for 2 seconds and makes them vulnerable for the next 3 seconds regardless of their tier.
Follow these skills with Blood Surge which drains the enemy and increases the damage by 10% for every next enemy it hits. Blood Surge also heals the players over a specific time period, and using this skill 5x while being healthy results in the Overpowering of Blood Surge.
Hemorrhage has a chance to make a blood orb from the enemy’s blood that heals both the players and their summons. It also fortifies them for a particular percentage of their maximum health. Follow this by creating an army of our own with the help of Raise Skeletons. This skill also raises a Skeletal Priest that grants additional health and attack power to your minions.
As Necromancers are not great against a large group of enemies, use the Blood Mist skill to become invincible and leave the area while damaging the enemies in the process. Repeat this whole process to have a guaranteed victory even over Elites and Bosses.
Gear, Gems and Stats Priority
Let’s discuss the stats first. There are four primary stats for each class in Diablo 4. Increasing the stats provide class-specific upgrades. For Blood Mist Necromancer, the following stats upgrade should be focused on in this specific order
- Intelligence
- Willpower
- Dexterity
- Strength
Each stat upgrade has two effects in Diablo 4, primary and secondary. Intelligence increases the skill damage and elemental resistance for the Necromancers by a particular percentage. This makes our Blood Mist Necromancers excel in areas of their shortcomings.
Willpower stat is directly related to increasing resource generation and Overpower damage. It also increases the amount of healing received from potions and enemies.
The Dexterity stat for the Necromancer class increases their chance for a critical strike by a particular percentage. It also improves the chance to dodge attacks.
Strength stat has no primary benefit for the Necromancer class. However, it passively increases the armor with each upgrade making our Blood Mist Necromancer sturdier.
Gems are a personal preference in Diablo 4 as each combination is equally strong and beneficial to the players. Our favorite gems to socket in your gear are:
| Type | Gemstone | Effect |
| Weapon | Ruby | This gemstone increases the overpower damage by a particular percentage. |
| Armor | Ruby | Ruby in armor socket increases maximum life by a particular percentage. |
| Jewelry | Diamond | Diamond gemstone in the jewelry items increase resistance to all elemental effects. |
And lastly, we are going to talk about endgame gear. The gear should have the affixes that complement the playstyle of Blood Mist necormancer in all capacities. Here is a list of all the gear affixes you should look for when following this build
- Increased damage with the skills to the close enemies.
- More Essence Regeneration.
- Less Essence cost for casting skills.
- Increase damage by physical attacks to close enemies.
- More health drains from close enemies.
- Fast movement speed through the enemies.
- Increased defense against close enemies.
- Low essence cost to summon the army of the dead.
- Increased damage from critical strikes to the enemies.
- Increased attack speed.
Paragon Boards
Leveling up in Diablo 4 is complex and it introduces a new mechanic once players hit level 50, the Paragon Board system. At this point, players don’t earn skill points instead they are replaced with paragon points. These points can be exchanged for various nodes and glyphs which enhance the already equipped skills and grant some additional damage.
Here is a list of all important glyphs and nodes we need to unlock for our Blood Mist Necromancer build.
- Scent of Death
- Undaunted
- Dominate
- Blood Drinker
- Essence
- Mage
- Revenge
Scent of Death combined with Undaunted increases the damage output of Blood Mist necromancer by a massive amount while increasing their defense by using Fortify. While the Undaunted rare glyph increases damage output with fortification enabled.
Earning Blood orbs from enemies fortifies the players for a particular percentage of their maximum life. Essence increases the damage by critical strikes by 19.2% when they are delivered by using the core skills only.
Skeletal Mage deals more damage and gains more elemental resistance with the help of Mage rare glyph. Revenge glyph causes the Thorns to deal increased damage to the enemies. From both the players and their minions.
Unique Items
Despite being the most powerful items, Unique Items in Diablo 4 are difficult to obtain with minuscule drop rate. For Necromancer class builds, that mainly revolve around blood skills and increasing defense, there are not many unique items that interest us. However, we have still compiled a list for the enthusiasts to try.
- Bloodless Artisan’s Cuirass. This legendary chest armor grants a bone spirit that deals a particular amount of damage to the enemies.
- Deathspeaker’s Pendant. This legendary amulet increases resistance against all elemental attacks. It also enhances damage from Blood and Summoning skills. Further bonuses include increased damage output by overpower attacks and blood surge skill.
- Ring of Mendeln. This legendary ring increases thorns, attack speed and maximum life of your minions and chance to empower your minions to deal colossal damage to the close enemies.
Legendary Aspects for Blood Mist Necromancer
We have compiled a list of the best legendary aspects for Necromancers to maximize the blood skills damage, overpower damage, improved summons and essence recovery for the Blood Mist Necromancer build.
Before proceeding further, we want to remind the readers that legendary aspects in Diablo 4 can only be obtained from two sources. Either unlock them for the Codex of Power from dungeons or loot a dropped legendary gear.
Aspects from the legendary gears can be extracted and affixed to another rare or legendary gear of your choice with the help of an Occultist.
Aspect of Hungry Blood: This legendary aspect allows the blood lance to ricochet from an already lanced enemy to cause a percentage amount of damage to the surrounding enemies.
Aspect of Explosive Mist: This legendary aspect causes the Blood Mist to explode the surrounding corpses. Each explosion reduces the cooldown of Blood Mist by up to 0.5 seconds.
Aspect of Potent Blood: Blood Orb generates essence if the players have already full health.
Aspect of Rathma’s Chosen: This legendary aspect increases the attack speed of players for a few seconds. However, it only activates once a Blood skill overpowers.
Aspect of the Embalmer: This legendary aspect increases the chance for a blood orb to spawn by consuming corpses.
Blood Bathed Aspect: This legendary aspect causes Blood Surge to cause an additional blood nova that deals significantly less damage than the primary one.
Blood Seeker’s Aspect: This legendary aspect increases the damage of Blood Lance (for the primary target only) depending on the number of enemies already lanced.
Coldbringer’s Aspect: This legendary aspect strengthens the attack power of skeletal mage and allows it to cast a blizzard which deals cold damage to enemies and chills them.
Viscous Aspect: This legendary aspect increases the number of summoned mages to 2.
Elixir and Potion Choices
Elixirs in Diablo 4 provide massive benefits for over half an hour. However, it comes at a cost. You can’t use more than one elixir at one time. Only one elixir effect can be active. Consuming a new elixir overwrites the previous effect immediately.
Elixirs can be brewed by visiting Alchemists in various towns or collected through various missions (rare ones). For potions, we recommend upgrading your potion capacity and its healing power as much as possible for the Diablo 4 Blood Mist Necromancer build.
This build doesn’t generate enough healing from the surrounding enemies, so make sure your healing potions are fully upgraded and you have the max capacity
Below are our personal favorites for the Blood Mist Necromancer build in Diablo 4
- Elixir of Fortitude. This elixir increases the maximum health of the character by 30% for the next 30 minutes.
- Iron Barb Elixir. This elixir strengthens the armor by 300 and increases the Thorns by 100 for the next 30 seconds. Shares with minions.
