Diablo 4 Necromancer Build - Reaper
Jun. 6, 2023Diablo 4 Necromancer Build – Reaper
Diablo 4 Necromancer Build –Reaper – In this Diablo 4 EndgameNecromancerBuild Guide, I’m going to show you my Reaper Build. The Reaper is a solo Diablo 4 Build that plays without any Minions and uses Shadow Damage to destroy enemies effectively. If you’re looking for a Diablo 4 Endgame Necromancer Build that is aimed at World Tier 3, and one that executes strategic moves all on your own like the Vampire Necromancer, then this Diablo 4 Build Guide is for you!
The way thisDiablo IV Endgame Buildworks is you’ll first run into a pack of enemies and useReap, and because of theAcolyte’s Reapupgrade, casting theSkillwill automatically drop Corpses. This happens once every 5 seconds. Afterward, we’re going to activateCorpse Tendrilsin order to grab all nearby enemies. Doing so will round them up and place them on top of these Corpses. What you’ll then do is to simultaneously pressCorpse Explosionto set your first Shadow AoE and then you’re going to start attacking with theSever Skill.
I like to use Sever here until I’m out of Essence or after applying theVulnerabilityeffect on all enemies, which happens on the 4th attack. And then I’ll continue to press Corpse Explosion to detonate Corpses to finish off those who have survived my first wave of attacks.
One really great addition to this Reaper Diablo 4 Necromancer Build is theHowl from Below Sacred Unique Glovesfor your Corpse Explosion to deal more damage. So you’re able to cast this Skill faster and it makes Skeletons run out toward enemies to then explode into pools of Shadow Damage. Additionally, this will make them hit targets far away.
If there are a couple of stragglers that didn’t get grouped up for Corpse Explosion, the Skeletons from theGloveswill seek those out as well as hit and kill them for you. As such, you don’t have to try and run up to them and drop more Corpses. Instead, you can make better use of the Corpses that are already on the battlefield.
Each Diablo 4 Necromancer Build comprises the 6 Active Skills they have equipped and changing theseSkillscan drastically alter the way the Necromancer Class in Diablo IV plays. In this section, we’ll take a look at what Skills you should slot for the Reaper Necromancer Diablo 4 Endgame Build. By the time you reach Level 50, you’ll approximately have 58 points, assuming that you’ve accumulated enough Renown from different regions to gain 10 extra points. So your Skill distribution should look something like this:
The above list gives you the general order to invest in Skills, but keep in mind that you should prioritize picking up new Active Skills over investing in passives, so pick up passives later if you can get new Active Skills when you level up.
In this section, I’ll discuss how the Skills work for the current Reaper Endgame Build of the Necromancer Class. The strategies will change depending on the type of foe you’re facing whether they’re comprised of a large group of enemies orElitesandBosses.
Against tough encounters where you don’t spawn Corpses from a Boss and you have no Skeletal Reapers that are attacking them to drop extra Corpses, the trick will be similar to the one that we have for the Blightlord D4 Necro Build. So we’ll be utilizing theHewed Fleshpassive. With this, you have a 12% chance when youLucky Hitwith any damage to create a Corpse.
And because of the Shadow Damage from Corpse Explosion as well as theBlighted Corpse Explosionupgrade, it ticks over time. When this ticks, you’re going to have a chance to trigger an additional Corpse. Once you get a couple of them on the ground, this will result in more and more Corpses. So even against a Boss, if you can get 1 or 2 of them down, you’re easily going to be able to stack these into more Corpses, setting off a vicious cycle. Doing so will allow you to constantly deal significant damage, regardless if it’s a regular Boss or a World Boss.
For this Reaper Diablo IV Necromancer Build, you’re also going to make use ofIron Maiden. A lot of times when you’re fighting a large pack of enemies, you’ll run out of Essence because you’re not set up to manage this resource outside of using Corpse Explosion. But Iron Maiden will give you a quick burst of 5 Essence per cursed enemy. So if you drop this on the ground against 10 enemies, you’re going to instantly receive 50 Essence, which is really nice and it’ll also increase the damage they take.
What’s more, is that because of theAbhorrent Iron Maidenupgrade, you’ll be healed after killing these targets. So if you take a bunch of damage while standing in the melee range, Iron Maiden is going to heal you up afterward.
So for Corpse Tendrils, you can either gain access toPlagued Corpse Tendrilsto make enemies Vulnerable orBlighted Corpse Tendrils. This gives you a 30% chance to drop aBlood Orbwhen dealing damage. Blood Orbs are really good for this Reaper D4 Necro Build because they heal you while you walk over them. So you’re going to receive extra healing while fighting multiple enemies.
What works very well with Corpse Tendrils is theFastblood Aspect, which also reduces the cooldown of your Ultimate Ability every time you pick up these orbs. So getting them means that you’re going to be able to useBone Stormmore often. The Fastblood Aspect can be obtained by completing theIron Hold DungeoninHawezar.
And so this brings us to Bone Storm, which is our Ultimate Skill for this Reaper Diablo 4 Necromancer Build. What I really like about this is it reduces the damage inflicted on you while they’re standing in the middle of the storm, which is nice because if you’re alone, you’ll need to make sure that you don’t die.
AnotherLegendary Aspectthat works exceptionally well with Bone Storm is theAspect of Ultimate Shadow, which makes it so that the damage you deal with this Ultimate is converted to Shadow Damage.
Furthermore, you’ll also want to make use of theAspect of Shielding Stormto have aBarrierfor 5% of your maxHealth. So in this case, when Bone Storm ticks every second, you’re going to receive a damage shield on top of dealing massive damage to enemies. As a result, it’s going to proc Corpses to spawn via Lucky Hit, making this Ultimate Skill very strong. It also allows you to go into packs of enemies with a lot of Elites and still come out alive.
In terms of passives, you’ll first maximizeGrim Harvestas it gives you 6 Essence for each Corpse you consume. Since you consume constantly with this Reaper Build, it’s going to fill up your resources, allowing you to use Sever to help generate more Corpses that you can then use for Corpse Explosion. Sever is a great way to create more of these in addition to Reap but since it uses Essence, we have to find ways to generate this efficiently. Next isFueled by Death, which gives you increased damage after consuming a Corpse.
And then we haveDeath’s Embrace. This also reduces the damage of close enemies while increasing your damage against them, making it very beneficial for this Diablo 4 Necromancer Build since you’re a melee character.
We’ll basically take all the Shadow passives here such asReaper’s Pursuit,Gloom, andTerrorto amplify our offensive capabilities. But I’ve only allocated 1 point toCrippling Darknessbecause the duration of Stun is not as important as Stun itself. In most cases, we don’t have enough points to really fill this out, which is a shame.
Other than this, we haveStand Aloneto further reduce our damage reduction, so it helps keep us alive. And thenMemento Mori, which gives us up to a 60% increase in the passives gained from sacrificing our Skeletal Warriors and Skeletal Mages. In this case, it’s going to be a damage boost against Vulnerable enemies as well as an improvement to our Shadow Damage.
Finally, there’sShadowblight, which makes it so that we do increased damage to enemies afflicted by our Shadow Damage. Additionally, for every damage they take, they’ll eventually explode, which will deal additional Shadow Damage to those who have been left behind.
At World Tier 3, you’ll gain access to a lot of items together with their bonuses. It can be difficult to determine the right ones to keep for your Diablo IV Necromancer Endgame Build without the proper direction. So in this section, I’ll discuss the best gear bonuses you should chase after together with theGemsand aspects to place in them. Remember that you can replace unwanted affixes atThe Occultistand that you should upgrade your gear atThe Blacksmithfor the best results.
For theWeapon, I highly recommend equipping a Sacred Legendary Wand for the increasedLucky Hit Chanceand Attack Speed. So Corpse Explosions is going to be executed faster, allowing you to generate more Corpses. Meanwhile, the Sacred Legendary Shield helps block incoming damage and natively comes withThorns.Thorns is really great for this D4 Necro Build because it can spawn Corpses from enemies when they deal damage to themselves from attacking you. The other bonuses you’ll want include the following:
For the gem, you’ll want theAmethystto improve your Shadow DoT.
For your Weapon, it’s good to have theCadaverous Aspect. This makes it so that when you consume a Corpse, Sever is going to deal increased damage. As you pile up those Corpse Explosions quickly, you’re going to get more damage from your succeeding attacks. Although, you should at least try to use a couple of Corpse Explosions before using Sever to be efficient with how you manage your Essence.
For the Shield, you’ll want to imprint theEluding Aspect. This makes it so that if you becomeInjured, you’re granted theUnstoppablebuff so it’s great for preventing you from dying in situations that would normally kill you. It has a rather long cooldown but it shouldn’t matter since you won’t trigger it often. The Eluding Aspect is a fail-safe in case you get trapped in dangerous situations. You can acquire this from theCaldera Gate DungeoninFractured Peaks.
ForArmor, you have the Helm, Chest Armor, Gloves, Pants, and Boots. The major bonuses you’ll want here include the following:
Additionally, you’ll still want to slot theRubyto raise your Maximum Life and theEmeraldfor the added Thorns Damage.
In terms of aspects, you’ll want to imprint theAspect of the Protector, Aspect of Shielding Storm,Aspect of the Embalmer, and theWind Striker Aspecton your Armor. The Aspect of the Protector, which you can get by finishing theLost Archives Dungeonin Fractured Peaks, gives you a damage shield when fighting Elites and Bosses. Particularly on higherNightmare Dungeons, you’re going to receive a bit of cushion to avoid dying quickly.
And then there’s the Aspect of Shielding Storm, which I mentioned earlier. So it’s going to be helpful when you charge into a large group to double your Barriers, making you very, very hard to kill. Next is the Aspect of the Embalmer, which gives you a chance to generate a Blood Orb when casting Corpse Explosion. Additionally, these orbs will also help to shave 1 second off of Bone Storm’s cooldown.
Lastly, there’s the Wind Striker Aspect, which makes it so that when you deal Critical Strike Damage, you increase your Movement Speed. Doing so will really raise your mobility a lot faster even as a Necromancer. You can get the Wind Strike Aspect from theShivta Ruins DungeoninKehjistan.
For Jewelry, you have theAmuletand 2Rings. The gear bonuses you’ll need include the following:
The aspects you want to be imprinted on your Jewelry are the Fastblood Aspect, the Aspect of Ultimate Shadow, and theBlighted Aspect. I already talked about the Fastblood Aspect and the Aspect of Ultimate Shadow so I’ll focus on the Blighted Aspect instead. This increases your damage after Shadowblight has been triggered on 10 different enemies. It might start off slow, and then all of a sudden, your damage just ramps up. You can get the Blighted Aspect fromAkkhan’s Grasp DungeoninHawezar.
You should then slot any of the gems likeDiamondsthat will grant additional Elemental Resistances based on what you currently lack.
At Level 50, you unlock the basic Paragon board to further enhance your Diablo 4 Reaper Endgame Necromancer Build. I’m using the Territorial Glyph early on and that’s because it not only increases your damage to close enemies but also gives you damage reduction. This is probably not the best offensive glyph to have although it does give you some damage boost on top of your enhanced defense, making your Reaper Endgame Diablo 4 Necromancer Build a tanky one. So this lets you breeze through a pack of 6 Elites by yourself and then kill them all and come out without taking any damage, which is not something a lot ofDiablo 4 Buildscan do.
And then lastly, for the Necromancer Paragon Board, we’re going for Wither. This makes it so that you have a chance to deal increased damage the moment your Shadow Damage ticks. Doing so will considerably ramp up your Shadow Damage. Additionally, you should be on the lookout for other nodes that increaseWillpowerin order to get more from this while enhancing your Shadow Damage and damage over time (DoT) further.
Remember to use Elixirs to not only boost your damage but to increase your XP gain. They are not hard to craft, and you should have a bunch of materials by this point of the game. They can make yourDungeonclear speed a bit better if you know the enemy type you will be facing. You might need to enter the dungeon first to see what’s inside before using it.
When it comes to searching for other effective gear bonuses or aspects, the key is to keep a lookout for those that boost your survivability, especially since you’re a Lone Necromancer. It’ll also serve you well to increase your Shadow Damage as well as the damage of your main Skills like Sever and Corpse Explosion.
Be sure to check out ourDiablo 4 Wikifor any other questions you have about the game and theBuildspage if you are looking for more Diablo IV Builds, as well as ourUltimate Beginner GuideandAll Classes Overviewif you are looking for more Diablo 4 content!
Castielle
Senior Editor at Fextralife. I enjoy gaming, playing and watching sports, cooking yummy food, watching a good movie and hanging out with Fex.
Long time reader, first time commenter (always wanted to say something like that). What is the use of Memento Mori in this build? Will it work with the Howl from Below gloves that make skeletons? If so, these points should be allocated elsewhere until said gloves are obtained, correct? Let me know if I’m missing something. Thanks!
