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Blood Artisan's
By: MacroBioBoi
Cuirass
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Select
+[1.0 - 14.0]% Damage for 4 Seconds
After Picking Up a Blood Orb
Bone Spirit
+[1.0 - 17.5]% Blood Orb Healing
+[1.0 - 7.3]% Total Armor

Necromancer
+[1 - 3] Ranks of Bone Spirit
(Necromancer Only)

Endgame Build
When you pick up [5 - 10] Blood
Orbs, a free Bone Spirit is spawned,

Guide
dealing bonus damage based on your
current Life percent.
Last
"TheUpdated:
infamousJune 12th 2023 Gaza-Thul's
Necromancer
mastery over blood magic was indisputable.
Many suspect that upon his death, his skin was
SHARE
used toONfashion
SOCIALthis eldritch armor." - Barrett's
Book of Implements
The Bone Spirit Necromancer is by far, the
Necromancer
strongest Build the Priests of Rathma have ever
spawned! Bone Spirit has the largest Skill damage
multiplier native to any Skill in Diablo 4. When you
prioritize reaching 100% Critical Strike Chance, the
Blood Orbs Heal you for 15% of your
damage from a single Bone Spirit can one-shot
Maximum Life when picked up.
most enemies in the game!

Since Bone Spirit deals its damage in a small

radius around it on impact, the entire build is
leveraged to pull everything together for one big
KA-BOOM! Corpse Tendrils applying
Vulnerable, Stunning and pulling everything to one
location makes picking o! entire groups of
enemies, a breeze!

If you assemble Exodia in the form of Blood

Artisan's Cuirass, you can even cast additional
Bone Spirits completely for free. While the initial
bonus damage isn't as high, it benefits from every
bu! and Rank we have for the skill itself. This is
great for Speed-Farming easy content, but su!ers
when pushing Nightmare Dungeons.

While there's a lot of flexibility in the gear options,

utility Skills and Paragon prioritization, this is
definitely an End-Game build. Make sure to have
the minimum gear for the base version before
transitioning to the Bone Spirit Necromancer.

Necromancer

Standard Bone Spirit Necromancer Endgame Gear

I've added an "Optimized Endgame" section

under Gear Progression in the Table of
Contents to educate about the pinnacle of
Skill choice and Itemization for End-game
Nightmare Dungeon Pushing.

This build guide assumes you have

a Level 50 Character and finished
the Campaign. Level up with our
Bone Spear Necromancer Leveling
Guide. If you are looking for a
di!erent Necromancer play style,
check out all of our Necromancer
Guides.

Bone Spirit Go
Boom! Low Mobility
E!ective AoE Gear
Damage Dependent
Powerful O!ense All or Nothing
and Defense Combat
Rewarding High- Needs to
Level Gameplay Reach 100% Crit

REPORT AD

Skills

Reap

Corpse Tendrils requires us to be able to generate

Corpses on demand from Reap to activate,
enabling us to group enemies together to maximize our
AoE damage. This skill only gets used to generate
Essence in DIRE situations.

Bone Spirit 58
Acolyte's Reap
1/5

3/3 3/3

Blood Mist
1/5
Blighted Corpse
1/5 Explosion

3/3 2/3

3/3

Plagued Corpse
5/5 Tendrils

Dreadful Bone Spirit

5/5

1/3 1/3 3/3 1/3 3/3 1/3

Supreme Bone Storm

3/3 3/3 3/3

Diablo 4 Bone Spirit Ne…

Book of the Dead

There are 3 di!erent Minion types you can
choose to summon or sacrifice, located in the
Book of the Dead. The Bone Spirit Necromancer
doesn't have space on its Skill Bar for more
abilities, so we choose to sacrifice all three
Minion options for their valuable bu!s.

We prioritize Resistances from Skeletal Warriors

when we reach 100% Critical Strike Chance from
gear. Maximum Essence from Skeletal Mages
outperforms increased Vulnerable Damage, and
Critical Strike Damage from Golem because...
Bone Spirit goes boom!

OR

Learn more details and how to

unlock this class specialization in
our full Book of the Dead Guide.

Gameplay
Bone Spirit Necromancer has a very simple game
plan, with complex decision-making and
challenging outcomes to master. But once you
understand the flow of the build, the world rests
in the palm of your bony hand.

Skill Usage/Rotation

Initiate the fight by hitting the closest enemy

with Reap to generate a Corpse within
range of the largest grouping of enemies.
Make sure to wait for Elite monsters to be
within range.
Cast Corpse Tendrils on the Corpse that's
available and use Evade to make space
between you and any threats while the
Tendrils pull mobs into range.
Cast Bone Spirit... they should all be dead
now.
Make sure to target a monster that is within
the same range as high-value or high-threat
targets. Focus any Damage Resistance Aura
monsters, Elites or enemies that apply
powerful Crowd Control e!ects. Neutralizing
threats in scenarios where Bone Spirit
doesn't one-shot the entire pack gives us time
to employ our other tools.
Corpse Explosion helps to generate
Essence while stacking high DoT in the area
that the remaining enemies occupy and any
future enemies path into. Keep moving
around the area of corruption to benefit from
its CC potential and maintain damage uptime.
You don't always have to wait for Corpse
Tendrils to be o! cooldown to cast your nuke.
When monsters naturally group up, or the
Elite survives the first blast, quickly pick them
o! with another Bone Spirit and move on.
Bone Storm helps to initiate on enemies
that you expect may survive a single Bone
Spirit. The additional Critical Strike Chance
minimizes room for error, while the Damage
Reduction helps to keep you standing in
prolonged fights. Prioritize having low-threat
monsters in range when paired with
Defensive Aspect of Shielding Storm.
Bone Storm also helps to proc Bone Gra",
especially on Bosses prior to casting Bone
Spirit for the biggest possible damage bu!.
Blood Mist helps to remove CC from your
Necromancer if staying stuck would lead to
your untimely demise. Make sure to use this
skill sparingly, so you have it available in truly
dire scenarios. It also completely removes
Poisons and other DoT debu!s, so it can be
used mid-fight to reduce incoming DPS. While
you can force your way through some enemy
blockades, the slower movement speed of the
skill can o"en lead to a wall of enemies
waiting at the end to bop you.

Build Scaling
Read on to learn all about how to scale the Bone
Spirit Necromancer into endgame:

DAMAGE DEFENSE

Essence: This build relies heavily on fast

Essence generation as well as Maximum
Essence to scale Bone Spirit's damage.
We should always be close to full Resource
when it comes back o! cooldown.
Critical Strike Chance: Bone Skills in
general have high Chance to Critically
Strike and the Skill Tree empowers this
further with Serration. Stacking xx%
Critical Strike Damage allows for massive
damage dumps when successful.
Prioritizing 100% Chance to Critically Strike
is priority number one.
Vulnerable: We get Vulnerable procs from
the Corpse Tendrils. While we don't
target Vulnerable Damage specifically, it is
not a bad A!ix to have on your gear.
Crowd Controls: Since all of our damage
occurs in an area, pixel pulls and grouping
of monsters becomes a direct damage
scaler. This also allows us to benefit from
every "Damage to CC'ed Enemies" a!ix in
the game when Corpse Tendrils or
Crippling Darkness procs.
Attack Speed: Increased Attack Speed
increases the rate we generate Essence, by
reducing the animation length on our
generators. It decreases the length of time
before Tendrils is on the field and how
quickly Bone Spirit spawns from our
Necro. While less important on this build,
its e!iciency gain adds up over time.

Our Damage Explained article

explains how to scale your O!ense.
Learn all you need to know to scale
Defense with our Defense Explained
Article.

Stat Priorities
There are many stats and status e!ects that
generate on gear for the Bone Spirit
Necromancer, but some are not important for
your build. See below for a general breakdown as
well as a per slot priority list in the list.

Critical Strike Chance, Critical Strike Damage,

and Damage to Crowd Controlled are huge
damage boosts, so stack them as much as
possible. While still applying Vulnerable,
Vulnerable Damage is a great overall
multiplier of your damage.
Maximum Essence: As much as you can stack
onto your build.
Damage Reduction in all of its forms. Damage
Reduction, DR from Close Enemies, DR for Far
Enemies, DR while Crowd-Controlled, DR
while Fortified. Armor and Resistance to all
Elements as well.
Core Stats: Intelligence is the best, followed
by Dexterity and Willpower. Deprioritize
Strength when possible.
+xx Ranks to Bone Spirit and +xx Ranks to
Corpse Tendrils on Boots. +xx Ranks to Corpse
Explosion on Pants. +xx Ranks to Macabre
Skills and +xx Ranks to Corpse Skills on
Amulets.

Sockets these Gems into your gear:

In Armor slots, put Royal Ruby OR

Royal Topaz.
In Jewelry slots, put Royal Skull.
In Weapon slots, put Royal Sapphire for
maximum damage.

This build benefits the most from these

consumables:

Precision Elixir and its more powerful

versions if you're >= 100% Critical Strike
Chance. Elixir of Cruelty if you're not.
Reddamine Buzz for Maximum Life,
Song of the Mountain for Damage Reduction
or Sage's Whisper for a slight damage and
survivability boost.

Refer to the table below to see the best rolls for

every slot ranked in order of importance:

SLOT ASPECT STAT PRIORITY

1. High Damage
per Second
2. Critical Strike
Damage
3. Critical Strike
Damage with
Weapo
Bone Skills
n
4. Damage to
(2- O!ensive Aspect of
Slowed Enemies
Hande Grasping Veins
5. Damage to
d-
Crowd
Sword
Controlled
Enemies
6. Intelligence
7. All Stats
Sockets
Royal Sapphire

1. Maximum
Resource
2. Maximum Life
Helm
3. Maximum Life
(Best
Harlequin Crest 4. Cooldown
in
Reduction
Slot)
Socket Royal
Ruby/ Royal
Topaz

1. Maximum
Essence
2. Maximum Life
3. Cooldown
Helm
Defensive Aspect of Reduction
(Realis
Disobedience 4. Total Armor
tic)
5. All Stats
Socket Royal
Ruby/ Royal
Topaz

1. Damage
Reduction
2. Damage
Reduction while
Defensive Aspect of Fortified
the Protector 3. Damage
OR Reduction
Blood Artisan's against Close
Chest Cuirass Enemies
(See the Gear 4. Maximum Life
Progression section 5. % Total Armor
below for more 6. Damage
information.) 7. Bone Skill
Damage
Sockets
Royal Ruby/
Royal Topaz

1. Critical Strike
Chance
2. Critical Strike
O!ensive Aspect of Damage with
Retribution Bone Skills
Gloves
OR 3. Attack Speed
Howl from Below 4. Lucky Hit
Restore Primary
Resource
5. Intelligence

Implicit: Potion
Restores Essence
1. Maximum Life
2. +xx Ranks to
Corpse Explosion
3. Damage
Reduction from
Defensive Aspect of Close Enemies
Shielding Storm 4. Intelligence
Pants
OR 5. All Stats
Temerity 6. Damage
Reduction from
Distant Enemies
7. +xx Ranks to
Blood Mist
Sockets
Royal Ruby/
Royal Topaz

Implicit:
Movement
Speed a"er
Wind Striker MobilityEvade
Aspect 1. Movement
OR Speed
Boots Eluding Utility 2. +xx Ranks to
Aspect Bone Spirit
OR 3. +xx Ranks to
Penitent Greaves Corpse Tendrils
4. Intelligence
5. Fortify
Generation

1. Movement
Speed
2. Cooldown
Reduction
3. +xx Ranks to
Macabre Skills
4. +xx Ranks to
Compound
O!ensive Aspect of Fracture
Amule Serration 5. Damage
t OR Reduction while
Melted Heart of Selig Fortified
6. Damage
Reduction from
Close Enemies
7. Damage
Reduction from
Distant Enemies
Socket Royal
Skull

1. Critical Strike
Chance
2. Maximum
Essence
3. Critical Strike
Damage
4. Critical Strike
Damage with
Bone Skills
Resource Aspect of
Ring 1 5. Physical
the Umbral
Damage
6. Damage to
Crowd
Controlled
Enemies
7. Lucky Hit
Chance
Socket Royal
Skull

1. Critical Strike
Chance
2. Maximum
Essence
3. Critical Strike
Damage
4. Critical Strike
Damage with
Bone Skills
Resource Aspect of
Ring 2 5. Physical
Exposed Flesh
Damage
6. Damage to
Crowd
Controlled
Enemies
7. Lucky Hit
Chance
Socket Royal
Skull

Gear Progression

LEVELING TO LEGENDARY OPTIMIZED BLOOD

50 ASPECT ENDGAME ARTISAN'S

PROGRESSION CUIRASS

Legendary Aspects

For a specialized late game build, the Bone Spirit

Necromancer really excels right out of the box with
many of the Codex of Power Aspects doing a lot of
heavy li"ing. In many circumstances, finding the
stronger versions of Codex Aspects is the best
upgrade available.

Codex of Power

If you don't have these Aspects already, complete

their respective Dungeons to unlock them as cra"s
in the Codex of Power. Hovering over the Aspect
below shows where the Dungeons are located:

Resource Aspect of the Umbral Champion's

Demise - Dry Steppes
O!ensive Aspect of Grasping Veins
Corrupted Grotto - Kehjistan
Wind Striker Mobility Aspect Shivta Ruins -
Kehjistan

Necromancer
 Bone Spirit Necromancer with base Aspects

Legendary Aspects

While you can almost build the standard setup

straight from the Codex of Power, you still
prefer those aspects you find from random
loot because they can roll higher values. To
target farm specific Aspects, first check to see
what item slots they can appear on. (O!ensive
occurs on Weapons, Amulets, Gloves and
Rings for example.) Farm the PvP zones for
Red Dust or outdoor Local Events for Obols to
gamble them. Pick respective caches from the
Tree of Whispers or open similar chests in the
Helltide events. There you can find several 4
other important Aspects for your build:

O!ensive Aspect of Grasping Veins: The

most important Aspect for reaching 100%
Critical Strike Chance and massive Crit
Damage.
O!ensive Aspect of Swelling Curse:
Directly scales our primary damage.
Defensive Aspect of Shielding Storm:
Provides a great source of Barrier
generation.
Smiting O!ensive Aspect: Helps with CC
application and damage ramp at the end of
a long fight.
O!ensive Aspect of Serration:
Augments our Key Passive to provide even
more damage output.
Flesh-eater / Defensive
GravekeeperAspect of the Embalmer: 3
Helps to provide more survivability and
opportunities for damage and defense
scaling from gear by consuming Blood
Orbs.

Paragon Boards

Scent of Death 225

Start / Territorial

Use the Slider to see Progression Steps

Starting with level 50 you gain 4 Paragon Points

per level up to 100 for a total of 225 points (20
from Renown, and 4 from Altars of Lilith). We
progress our Paragon boards in the following
order, generally rotating them and attaching new
boards for the shortest path between gates and
the destination. The Bone Spirit Necromancer
benefits from a lot of di!erent setups in the
Paragon Boards. Experimentation is the spice of
un-life.

1. Starting board: Path through Prime up to

the Glyph Socket, then through
Preservation and all Armor magic nodes in
the cluster, then through Knowledge then
to the Board Gate. Pickup enough Dexterity
within range to activate the Glyph. Later on,
pick up all remaining Dexterity.
Socket Territorial
2. Flesh-eater board: Rotate the board to put the
Legendary Node to the bottom. Path through
Stifle and pick up all Magic Nodes in this
cluster. Path to Flesh-eater. Path to
Targeted and pick up all Magic Node. Grab
the Glyph Socket and then Erudite. Pick
up Dexterity within range to hit the
requirement. Path to Culler and pick up
Attack Speed Magic Nodes. Leave from the
right gate.
Socket Gravekeeper
3. Bone Gra" board: Place the Legendary Node
in the top right corner. Path to Entomb
and pick up all Critical Strike Damage with
Bone Skills Nodes. Grab Bone Gra". Path
to Reinvigorate and pick up all magic
nodes in the cluster. Path to Calcified and
pick up all magic nodes in the cluster. Path to
Shaper of Bone and pick up all magic
nodes in the cluster. Path to Erudite and
pick up all magic nodes. Path to the Glyph
Socket and pick up Dexterity in range. Path
out the top of the Board.
Socket Exploit
4. Scent of Death board: Rotate the board to put
the Legendary Node to the Le" gate. Path to
Corrective and pickup all Magic nodes in
this cluster. Path to the Legendary Node. Path
to the Glyph Socket and pick up all
Intelligence in range. Path to
Deathmarked and pick up all magic nodes in
this cluster. Path to Preservation and pick
up all magic nodes in this cluster. Path to
Ruin and pick up all magic nodes in this
cluster. Path to Deathbringer and pick up
all magic nodes in this cluster.
Socket Control

Glyphs
The major feature of paragon boards are the
Glyphs, which are inserted into sockets and
provide massive bonuses that scale with the
amount of required stats within their radius. You
level up Glyphs by successfully completing
Nightmare Dungeons. Listed below are the
Glyphs used in our build in order of leveling
priority. Depending on when they drop and how
early you level them, you should rearrange the
Glyphs to use your most powerful ones until you
complete the final Paragon board setup
described above. At level 15 Glyphs increase in
radius, so make sure that you pick up extra
Attributes depending on what each Glyph needs
whenever you reach that point.

1. Territorial
Great o!ensive and defensive option since it
greats damage and damage reduction to
close enemies. Doesn't require a lot of
investment early to get a nice boost. Don't
prioritize leveling this first, because you can
reach the minimum requirements for the
bonus on the Starter Board without it.
2. Gravekeeper
Grants a MASSIVE boost to Rare Nodes in
radius and grants additional damage when
we're surrounded by Corpses, which we
should always be. Max this out first to get the
biggest ROI on stats from Rare Nodes.
3. Exploit
This gives a minor boost to our damage a"er
Corpse Tendrils applies Vulnerable to
targets. DON'T socket this if you're using the
Blood Artisan's Cuirass setup. Instead,
consider Revenge.
4. Control
This grants a good amount of damage when
our target is Crowd Controlled, which should
probably be all of the time.

Once all of your Glyphs have reached level 15,

proceed to level them to 21 in the same order.

Learn more about Paragon Boards

and Glyphs.

Check out our dedicated in-depth

guides to learn more about
Paragon Boards and Glyphs.

Endgame Activities
A"er you're done farming your aspects, focus on
completing your Renown, Altars of Lilith,
Strongholds and collecting Waypoints to set
yourself up for the late game grind.
A"erwards dive into the various endgame
activities in Diablo 4 with di!erent roles and
rewards: Open World Farming, Helltide,
Whispers, Nightmare Dungeons, World Bosses
and PvP. Make sure you are familiar with the
strengths and weaknesses of the Bone Spirit
Necromancer for each of them:

OPEN WORLD, NIGHTMARE WORLD PVP

HELLTIDE, DUNGEONS BOSSES

WHISPERS

The Open World in Diablo 4 is vast and o!ers

various activities: Exploring new parts of the
map, unlocking Strongholds, hunting Altars of
Lilith, fighting mighty foes, participating in
various Local Events or farming Whispers and
the Helltide.

The Bone Spirit Necromancer doesn't really

care what type of content it does, the results
are always the same... and devastating. It does
much better against Elite monsters and events
than it does just running from pack to pack
and clearing density. Look at for these to
prioritize killing in Helltides as well as Grim
Favors to make the most out of your time.

Tree of Whispers

Open World Goals

Your goals in the Open World di!er greatly

depending on what build you play and what
stage your character progression is at. Here
are the objectives you should aim for:

1. Reach Torment as fast as possible by

completing the Campaign and Capstone
Dungeons.
2. Complete your Renown and Altars of
Lilith as fast as possible. Prioritize quests
that take you into Dungeons, and complete
all of these first. Once you have all
Strongholds, Altars, Dungeons and
Waypoints, you should finally resort to
doing Side Quests to finish o! Renown.
3. Farm cra"ing materials for
the Blacksmith and Alchemist to upgrade
and enchant your gear. The typical way of
handling Salvage vs Sell is a 50/50 split. If
you're running low on Gold, sell more o"en.
If you're running low on materials, salvage
more o"en. Always salvage Legendaries
with Aspects you absolutely don't need,
and try to keep a few high-roll or perfect
versions of important Aspects on hand.
Don't worry about extracting them until
you have to. No need to waste the Gold
when your Stash is busy doing nothing.
4. Farm Forgotten Soul in the Helltide to
re-roll your gear at the Occultist. This
allows you to replace a single A!ix on the
gear piece with a potentially higher value
a!ix. You can continue to roll, with
increasing costs and it's cheaper to re-roll a
Rare item BEFORE you imprint it with an
Aspect. You are always starving for
Forgotten Soul in the end game so it's
recommended to prioritize the Helltide
over most other activities. Search for the
elusive Mystery Chest as these drop the
most loot when opened. They don't appear
on your overworld map, but do show up on
your Mini-map when you're close enough.
5. Farm local events and use the rewarded
Obols to gamble Weapons, Rings or
Amulets. Pick the gear slot that has the
highest chance of whatever Aspect you're
looking for. Remember that Resource
Aspects like Resource Aspect of the
Umbral can only spawn on rings.

Check out our Helltide Guide for

more detailed information.

REPORT AD

Mechanics

Blood Artisan's Cuirass

Corpse Explosion

Video Guide

Still S TIER After the Ne…

Optimized Video Guide

The Best Bone Spirit Ne…

Summary
The Bone Spirit Necromancer is the true height
of performance from the class. The tons of
Crowd Control, survivability and MASSIVE nuke
damage make for explosive finale fights against
enemies! You cast Bone Spirit and they go
boom. It's wonderfully satisfying every time it
happens!

Blood Artisan's Cuirass is a great option

for Speed-farming and can help to increase
your clear speed. Its lack of defensive stats
make it a sub-optimal option for Nightmare
Dungeon Pushing so we opt for more
defensives over it in the Optimized Endhame
Gear Progression tab.
The playstyle is very "all-in". We know we
need to Crit to win and when that doesn't
happen, you may struggle. Prioritize the
a!ixes you need to reach 100% Critical Strike
Chance above all else.
Practice makes perfect! Don't be afraid to run
slightly easier content of Nightmare
Dungeons to get the flow of the gameplay
loop.

I wish you the best on your journey through

Sanctuary in Diablo 4. In bocca al lupo!

Hungry for more Guides?

Necromancer Guides

Complete Necromancer Overview

Book of the Dead
Blood Surge Necromancer Leveling Guide
Sever Necromancer Leveling Guide
Bone Spear Necromancer Leveling Guide
Blight Corpse Necromancer Explosion
Leveling Guide

General Guides

Powering Up
Paragon Boards
Nightmare Dungeons
Legendary Items
Tree of Whispers

Credits
Written by MacroBioBoi
Reviewed by Echohack

Changelog

June 11th 2023

Updated Aspects in Stat Priorities
- Added Disobedience
- Moved Shielding Storm
- Moved Eluding
- Replaced Swelling Curse with Retribution
- Added Exposed Flesh
- Added new a!ixes with priorities
Misc:
- Added Topaz as Gem Option for Armor Gear
Sockets.
- Removed Harlequin Crest (Shako) from
Paperdoll, indicated it's Best in Slot but changed
Legendary Helmet as a Realistic option.
- Including Gameplay information about optimal
Bone Storm use against Bosses.
- Add additional information to Endgame Activites
section.

June 9th 2023

Added the "Optimized Endgame" section to Gear
Progression:
- Full updated to Gear and Aspects
- Full updated to Skill Tree
- Full updated Skill Bar and Gameplay rotation
- Full updated Paragon Boards
- Full Endgame Build Guide Video added

June 8th 2023

Added Skill demo video

June 4th 2023

Updated for patch 1.0.2d

May 30th 2023

Published for the Launch of Diablo 4

RELATED POSTS

BUILD GUIDES BUILD GUIDES

Bone Spear Necromancer Bone Spear Necroman

Endgame Build Guide Leveling Guide
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