TheNecromancerremains a powerful class inDiablo 4, and if you want to start as one in Season 8, then you’ll want a build that can clear quickly and take advantage of the boss powers that the season has to offer. This sounds simple enough, but with the many options available to Necromancers, making a build that can do both can be tricky.

The following is a leveling build meant to take new Necromancers all the way tothe endgame inDiablo 4. It uses a mixture of both Blood and Minion skills, and it doesn’t require much in terms of items or Legendary Aspects, making it very accessible for fresh starters.

Diablo 4 Season 8 Blood Surge Necromancer

Diablo 4 Season 8: Blood Surge Necromancer Leveling Build

This build mainly uses Blood Surge and skeletal minions as its main sources of damage. This combo is very good for leveling as it answers both your AoE and single-target needs. However, Blood Surge requires a lot of Essence, which is why we’ll be using the following skills:

Basic Essence Generator that’s good for all situations. Use sparingly.

ParanormalBlood Surge

Your bread-and-butter damage skill. The Paranormal upgrade gives it guaranteed Overpower procs after every 5 hits.

Raise Skeleton

Skeletons will compensate for Blood Surge’s low single-target DPS.Use Skirmishers with the additional Skeleton upgrade and Ice Mages with the Essence Generation upgrade.

GhastlyBone Prison

Cast Bone Prison on elites and bosses to make them Vulnerable. The Ghastly upgrade turns it into a decent Essence Generator for crucial moments.

HorridIron Maiden

Makes enemies take damage over time and when they attack you or your minions. The Horrid upgrade lets Iron Maiden restore Essence when it curses targets.

Supreme Soulrift

Excellent AoE damage effect that grants a steady stream of Essence while making enemies Vulnerable. Grants near-infinite uses of Blood Surge while active.

The build is very easy to use:just walk up to enemies, spam Blood Surge, and use your Essence-generating skills so you’re able to spam Blood Surge some more. Use Soulrift when fighting a big pack of elites or a boss, then just keep using Blood Surge until you’re out of Essence.

Diablo 4 Season 8 Boss Power Ashava

Level up Blood Surge to 5 as soon as possible. you may also level up Soulrift if you want it to deal more damage, though the extra points may be better spent on passives.

Passives

Your most important passives are the following:

All of these combinedresult in a general damage boostthat works with every part of your kit. The only things you need to pay attention to here are the Blood skill passives.

Coalesced Blood, Tides of Blood, Transfusion, Drain Vitality, and Rathma’s Vigor all work together to give you a massive damage bonus. All you need to do to make sure they work is tostay Healthy and Fortified, and make sure to pick up Blood orbsproduced by Hemorrhage and Blood Surge (via the Transfusion passive).

Diablo 4 Tag Page Cover Art

Use any remaining skill points on passives you deem fit.

Boss Powers

Season 8’s main mechanic is the ability to use Boss Powers. When you defeat world bosses,ladder bosses, or bosses from the seasonal event, you’ll unlock their powers. Main Powers grant you specific effects attributed to that boss, while Modifiers grant you powerful stat buffs.

You don’t exactly need Boss Powers for this build to work, but since you’ll be using them anyway, attempt to get the following:

Aspects and Equipment

All this build needs isBlood-bathed Aspect, which makes Blood Surge cast two novas (slot this in your Amulet). You likely won’t have many Aspects to work with if you’re using this build as a fresh starter, so it’s fine even if you use only this one. However, you’ll want to keep an eye out for the following if you want to make the most out of this build:

As for item stats, the most important one to get isEssence Per Second.This will make spamming Blood Surge much easier whenever Soulrift isn’t active, and it’ll save you plenty of time in general. With a high Essence Per Second stat, you can remove Hemorrhage and replace with a skill likeCorpse TendrilsorBlood Mist.

For the rest of your gear stats, focus on damage and survivability. Gear that adds ranks to your abilities and passives are also very good.

Runewords

you’re able to play this build without using anyrunewords inDiablo 4, but if you want to use some, here are a few good combos: