Diablo 4 Sever Necromancer Build Guide (Season 4)

This Shadow-focused Necromancer build for Diablo IV Season 4 uses Sever alongside Skeletons for consistent DPS!

This Necromancer build guide assumes you’re at least level 50 and have completed enough of your Renown to have gained the 10 additional Skill Points available.

If you want a great leveling build to reach this point with, try our Overpowering Blood Surge Leveling Build – A Blood Surge Build that has a lot of very early power thanks to Overpower. If you want to level up as Sever Necromancer, at the end of this guide, we have a leveling section showing you how to develop a new character from level 1 with this build.

Necromancer Sever Build Overview

Skill and Passive Breakdown

In this section, we’ll be talking about each skill we use. This is the whys and hows of how the build works, and then we’ll cover the skill point distribution.

Skills

These are the main skills for the build. We’ll explain what purpose each serves and how they fit the build in this segment of the guide.

Raise Skeleton

We’ll have a huge army of skeletons with us, which benefit us both offensively and defensively. We’ll go a bit deeper into what we’re using and why in the Book of the Dead section of this guide.

Reap

Reap is a great Basic Skill, which has a weaker version of the Aspect of Might baked into it. Not only that but it can very quickly recover Essence in packs as well as create corpses.

Sever

Sever is our main damage skill, which works exceptionally well at close and long range. With the Greaves of the Empty Tomb, this will leave a Shadow DoT as it travels, in addition to its relatively high base damage.

Decrepify

Decrepify is a good defensive curse, allowing us to reduce the damage dealt by enemies. Additionally, with it being Upgraded to Abhorrent Decrepify, it’ll shorten the cooldowns of Blood Mist and Bone Storm to help keep us safe.

Blood Mist

Blood Mist is great for those moments where you’re in a bad position to avoid damage, or just need to avoid a harder boss pattern. While we shouldn’t need Unstoppable all too much, being able to ignore attacks for a short time is always helpful.

Bone Storm

Bone Storm is still easily one of the best Ultimates available to the Necromancer. With the Aspect of Shielding Storm, this grants us a Barrier in addition to the Damage Reduction it already offers. It even helps offensively as it will boost our Critical Strike Chance.

Passives

Here we’re only going to talk about the main passives we absolutely want as well as our Key passive. There are unfortunately a couple we will need to take to get access to these though.

Key Passive – Shadowblight

Shadowblight puts a stacking effect on enemies that builds up before detonating for extra damage. With almost all of our damaging skills dealing Shadow Damage, this will stack very quickly adding consistent damage to the build.

Imperfectly Balanced

This increases the Damage of Sever, at the cost of increasing the Essence it uses. Sever is already fairly inexpensive on Essence and combined with Essence Cost Reduction on gear, we won’t even feel this.

Hewed Flesh

Hewed Flesh gives our skills a chance to create Corpses when dealing damage. We mostly need this for bossing, as we can have a steady supply of corpse for when we need to inevitably resummon our skeletons.

Skeletal Warrior Mastery

This improves our Skeletal Warriors, helping them survive longer. Combined with Death’s Embrace, it’ll make them deal fairly good damage.

Fueled by Death

Since we have Raise Skeleton, we have a way to trigger this at will and gain some extra damage for Sever and our minions in the process. It lasts a fairly long time so we won’t need to cast it too often to maintain this effect.

Death’s Embrace

Death’s Embrace is great as it’ll boost the damage of our Skeletal Warriors. It’ll also increase our Close Damage as well as grant Damage Reduction from Close Enemies.

Amplify Damage

We’ll be Cursing enemies frequently, so why not take free damage for doing so? We can easily maintain 100% uptime on this as well, making a very reliable damage bonus.

Skeletal Mage Mastery

Skeletal Mages will deal the majority of our Minion Damage. This improves their overall damage and survivability.

Death’s Approach

This increases our Movement Speed, enabling us to get around faster and most easily avoid attacks. We can

Gloom

Gloom is one of the strongest damage increases we get for us and our Skeletal Mages. With the addition of the Aphotic Aspect, this will also benefit our Warriors.

Inspiring Leader

Inspiring Leader is another passive that boosts us and our minions, this time with Critical Strike Chance. Due to how our Minions work, they double dip from this passive, letting them crit very often.

Hellbent Commander

Since our Minions generally follow us, they’re almost always close. This gives them a noticeable increase in damage. Alternatively, we could just place the points spent here into Decrepify as well.

Skill Point Distribution

This is an easy-to-reference table for where we’ll be placing all of our Skill points. These are listed in the order they appear on the skill tree.

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Icon	Skill Name	Skill Tree	Points
	Reap	Basic	1
	Enhanced Reap	Basic	1
	Acolyte’s Reap	Basic	1
	Sever	Core	5
	Enhanced Sever	Core	1
	Supernatural Sever	Core	1
	Unliving Energy	Core	1
	Imperfectly Balanced	Core	3
	Hewed Flesh	Core	3
	Blood Mist	Corpse & Macabre	1
	Enhanced Blood Mist	Corpse & Macabre	1
	Ghastly Blood Mist	Corpse & Macabre	1
	Skeletal Warrior Mastery	Corpse & Macabre	3
	Grim Harvest	Corpse & Macabre	2
	Fueled By Death	Corpse & Macabre	3
	Decrepify	Curse	1
	Enhanced Decrepify	Curse	1
	Abhorrent Decrepify	Curse	1
	Death’s Embrace	Curse	3
	Death’s Reach	Curse	3
	Amplify Damage	Curse	3
	Skeletal Mage Mastery	Curse	3
	Necrotic Carapace	Corpse & Macabre	1
	Reaper’s Pursuit	Corpse & Macabre	1
	Gloom	Corpse & Macabre	3
	Bone Storm	Ultimate	1
	Prime Bone Storm	Ultimate	1
	Supreme Bone Storm	Ultimate	1
	Inspiring Leader	Ultimate	3
	Hellbent Commander	Ultimate	3
	Shadowblight	Key Passive	1

Gearing and Stats

In this section, we’ll cover all the things you’d want to keep an eye out for to enhance the final build. This includes our Recommended Weapons, Book of Dead, Aspects, and of course, Uniques.

Recommended Weapons

This build uses a Wand and Focus as its preferred weapons.

Wands increase our Lucky Hit Chance a fair bit, which allows us to trigger effects like Abhorrent Decrepify more regularly. There’s no substitute for this weapon type, especially with Critical Strike Damage being an Additive bonus.

The previous version of this build used a shield, but as of Season 4 we only require one Ultity Aspect for maximum minions. This means we use a Focus to increase our Damage potential and Cooldown Reduction.

Ideal Stats

The table below details the ideal stats for our gear, be on the lookout for gear that matches at least two of the three rolls below. We’ve also included Aspects here for easier viewing, refer to the Aspects section for additional details on why these are selected.

Affixes that are CAPITALIZED are the Ideal Affixes to get as a Greater Affix. These are not required but are a good way to push the build further. Affixes in Bold are the ideal Affixes to boost with Masterworking.

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Recommended Gems

This build uses Amethysts in our Weapons, Rubies in our Armor, and Diamonds in Jewelry.

We opt for Amethysts in our Weapons as Damage over Time is the only thing we can consistently increase. Emeralds can work as well but are slightly less consistent due to relying on Critical Strike Chance.

We use Rubies in our Armor, as scaling our Maximum Life also increases the amount of Fortify and Barrier we can have as well

We go with Diamonds for Our Jewelry for the Resistances they provide. We can also use the other Gems to fill out resistances not covered by our Gear or Paragon Board.

Book of Dead

Our Skeletal Army will consist of Skeletal Reapers and Skeletal Shadow Mages. We sadly don’t have space for a Golem, meaning we’ll sacrifice it for some bonuses.

Skeletal Reapers are mainly here to generate Corpses and by extension Fortify thanks to Necrotic Carapace. Aphotic helps ensure they deal decent damage even with minimal investment.

Skeletal Shadow Mages help us trigger Shadowblight with their ability to attack twice with every 3rd attack. This alongside bonus Minion Attack Speed will have them dealing fairly high DPS.

We Sacrifice our Bone Golem for the extra Attack Speed it provides. Part of this also carries over to our minions, so it just improves our damage as a whole. If we’re able to get enough of a bonus to Minions Inherit Critical Strike Chance, Iron Golems could also be considered, but that’d be for the very endgame.

Aspects

We’ll cover the Aspects that are recommended for maximizing the potential of the build. We’ll also suggest which gear slot you should look to place them in.

Aspect of Frenzied Dead

Frenzied Dead Gives our Skeletons ramping Attack Speed, which not only increases their DPS, but allows them to stack Shadowblight faster.

We’ll place this on our Amulet, so the effect is boosted and our Minions can attack faster and be extension stack Shadowblight faster.

Blighted Aspect

Blighted increases our damage after triggering Shadowblight 10 times. With all of our Skeletal Shadow Mages and the Apothic Aspect we’ll be able to trigger this often enough to have high uptime.

We’ll place this on one of our Rings, as we have very limited space for Offensive Aspects.

Aspect of Ultimate Shadow

Ultimate Shadow converts Bone Storm to Darkness Skill, making it deal Shadow Damage over Time. This strongly synergies with our other Aspects and Paragon Boards.

We’ll place this on our Wand or Focus, as we have very limited space for Offensive Aspects.

Osseous Gale Aspect

Osseous Gale allows our Bone Storm to consume Corpses to extend its duration. This not only improves its uptime, but also allows it to trigger Fueled by Death for additional damage.

We’ll place this on our Gloves, as we have very limited space for Offensive Aspects.

Aspect of the Damned

Damned increases our Shadow Damage against cursed enemies. With Decrepify up constantly, we’ll always have this active. Sadly this does not affect our Skeletons, but this also feels like an unintended bug that may be fixed later.

We’ll place this on our Wand or Focus, as we have very limited space for Offensive Aspects.

Aspect of the Long Shadow

Long Shadow gives our Shadow Damage over Time a chance to generate Essence, while Shadowblight always grants Essence. With Greaves of the Empty Tomb and the Aspect of Ultimate Shadow, we’ll have plenty of Shadow Damage over Time to trigger this effect with.

We’ll place this on our one of our Rings, as we have very limited space for Offensive Aspects.

Blood Getter’s Aspect

Blood Getter Allows the effects of Skeletal Priests buffs to also affect us. This means increased damage and healing over time. This is great early on, which is why we use it until we get the Greaves of the Empty Tomb.

We’ll place this in our Boots until we get Greaves of the Empty Tomb, where it will be dropped.

Aspect of Occult Dominion

Occult Dominion increases the number of Skeletal Warrior and Mages we have. Between this and Apothic Aspect, we’ll be able to very quickly stack our Shadowblight.

We’ll place this in our Pants as they’ll be the only slots that can hold Utility Aspects as we’ll have Unique Boots.

Aspect of Shielding Storm

Shielding Storm allows Bone Storm to generate a Barrier for us, giving us another defensive layer.

We’ll place this in our Chest, as we’ll always want to have this effect, even if we opt to use Blood Moon Breeches.

Apothic Aspect

Apothic empowers our Skeletal Warriors, enabling them to deal Darkness damage which helps to stack Shadowblight faster.

We’ll place this in our Helm, as it’s one of the few slots we can fit it.

Unique Items

We’re only going to talk about the few that offer the strongest effects on the build. While there are others that help, these are the ones you really want to slot into your build if you get the chance. Some of these will drop in World Tiers 1 and 2, while some may not drop starting in Tier 3 content, but decent upgrades for the build once you get them.

Greaves of the Empty Tomb

The Greaves of the Empty Tomb is a great Unique, as it has two high-priority stats on it in Movement Speed and Essence Cost Reduction. In addition they improve our Lucky Hit Chance with Shadow Damage and grant Sever a Shadow DoT that helps trigger Long Shadow more often.

Blood Moon Breeches

Blood Moon Breeches are optional, but allow our Minions to apply both Decrepify and Iron Maiden, massively increasing their utility.

With Decrepify granting a Slow and reducing damage it helps them survive, while also allowing us not have to cast it manually nearly as much. Iron Maiden allows them to restore Essence as well as making defeated enemies recover our life in addition to being a pseudo-Thorns effect.

Paragon Boards and Glyphs

These two endgame options are part of the Paragon System which is available starting at level 50.

Paragon Boards

Paragon Boards are a feature that becomes available at level 50. These boards allow us to spend the Paragon points we earn for leveling and Renown to strengthen our character. Each of these has a single Glyph Slot to place a glyph of our Choice.

Starter Board

Like all starter boards, this one offers generic damage and defenses.

As usual, we’ll path up the right side through Prime to our Glyph Node, then continue up the left side through Knowledge and head to the next board. We can come back later on to grab Preservation, Resilience, and a ton of Intelligence for our Glyph.

Cult Leader

This board not only offers a great Legendary Node for our Minions, but also a ton of Minion bonuses. We’ll be grabbing every cluster in this board eventually.

Rotate this board so that Armor-clad is in the lower left. We’ll path to Armor-Clad, then head right up the middle grabbing Cult Leader and Puppeteer on our way to the Glyph Node. After grabbing the Glyph Node, we’ll take both Overlord and Custody before connecting to the right gate. We can also branch out from Puppeteer to grab Infused Caster and Infused Warrior at any point to buff our Skeletons.

Wither

Wither is another great board for us with a lot of damage and a great Legendary Node. It’s only a couple of defensive clusters we skip out on this time.

Rotate this board so that the Glyph Node is in the lower left. We’ll head to our Glyph Node, taking the Malediction cluster along the way. From here we can head over and grab Gnawing Darkness, before returning and heading up to Lingering Shadows. From Lingering Shadows head to Dragging Shadows and then Wither before heading to the upper gate.

Scent of Death

We’re mainly using this as a path-through board, but the layout around the Glyph Node allows us to get a good amount of intelligence for our Glyph.

Rotate this board so that Ruin is in the upper right. We’ll path up the left side to our Glyph Node, pathing through Intelligence Nodes. Then we’ll grab Deathmaked and Preservation before heading to the left gate.

Bone Graft

This board is just a Glyph node for us and that’s it.

Rotate the board so that the Glyph Node is in the upper right. Path directly to the Glyph Node, grabbing the thee Dexterity Nodes along the way for our glyph. Then we’ll take the upper half of the Shaper of Bone cluster for the Dexterity.

Glyphs

Each of our Paragon Boards has a Glyph Slot, where we can socket one of our Glyphs. These Glyphs provide powerful bonuses that can be leveled up by completing Nightmare Dungeons to increase their power. Below are the Glyphs we recommend and what board to place them on.

Mage

Mage Increases the damage dealt by our Skeletal Mages for every 5 Intelligence allocated in range. With 40 Intelligence allocated in range, all of our minions gain a huge bonus to Elemental Resistance.

We’ll place this in our Starter Board, as it has a ton of Intelligence we can grab to get the most damage out of this glyph.

Deadraiser

Deadraiser boosts all Minion nodes in range, up to 100% at Level 21. With 40 Intelligence allocated in range, each time our minions deal damage they apply a stacking debuff that increases damage taken by that enemy.

We’ll place this in Cult Leader, as it can easily meet the Intelligence requirement needed as well as provide a huge boost of damage and survivability for our minions.

Desecration

Desecration Increases the damage of Desecrated Ground for every 5 Willpower in Range. With 25 Willpower allocated in range, standing on Desecrated Ground increases our Shadow Damage.

We’ll place this in Wither, as it has a good amount of accessible Willpower.

Scourge

Scourge increases our Shadow Damage over Time for every 5 Intelligence allocated in range. With 40 Intelligence allocated in Range, enemies affected by Shadow DoT will take increased damage from us and our minions.

We’ll place this in Scent of Death, as it has a lot of easily accessible Intelligence in range thanks to the very close Rare Nodes.

Darkness

Darkness increases our Shadow Damage for every 5 Intelligence allocated in range. With 40 Intelligence also allocated in range, when we and our Shadow Mages deal Shadow Damage, a stacking debuff will be placed on enemies that reduces their damage.

We’ll place this in Bone Graft, as it has enough Intelligence available to activate the bonus effect with our remaining points.

Leveling Order

If you want to play this build from level 1, the next segment of this build guide is for you. Below you will see the exact leveling order in which you should acquire your skills and passives to maximize damage and overall performance.

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Levels	Icon	Skill	Purpose
2-3		Reap	AoE basic Skill with defensive utility.
4-6		Sever	Upgrade to Supernatural to scale with Minion Count.
7-9		Hewed Flesh	Chance to create Corpses with Sever and Reap.
10-12		Blood Mist	Upgrade to Ghastly Blood Mist for Corpse generation.
13-15		Decrepify	Upgrade to Abhorrent Decrepify for chance to reduce cooldowns. Swap to Skeletal Reapers
16-18		Amplify Damage	Increases Damage when we apply Curses.
19-21		Death’s Embrace	Damage for us and our Skeletal Warriors, as well as Damage Reduction for just us.
22		Unliving Energy	Taken to reach Imperfectly Balanced.
23-25		Imperfectly Balanced	Increases Damage of Sever, but increases its Essence Cost. Sacrifice Bone Golem
26-28		Bone Storm	Fully upgrade for Damage Reduction and Critical Strike Chance.
29		Reaper’s Pursuit	Taken to reach Gloom.
30-32		Gloom	Extra damage for us and our Shadow Mages.
33-35		Death’s Reach	This grants us additional Movement Speed, helping us get around faster.
36		Shadowblight	Key Passive that adds bonus damage to us and our Shadow Mages.
37-39		Inspiring Leader	Critical Strike Chance for us and our Minions, so long as we stay Healthy.
40-42		Skeletal Mage Mastery	Increases the damage of our Shadow Mages and helps them survive.
43-45		Skeletal Warrior Mastery	Increases the damage of our Skeletal Reapers and helps them survive.
46-47		Grim Harvest	Generate Essence from casting Raise Skeleton or when Osseous Gale consumes a corpse.
48-R1		Fueled by Death	Increased Damage anytime we use Raise Skeleton or Osseous Gale consumes a corpse.
R2-R5		Sever	Fully Leveling our non-Minion Damage skill.
R6		Necrotic Carapace	Fortify when our Skeletal Reapers or Hewed Flesh creates a Corpse.
R7		Reap	Grab Acolytes Reap for extra Corpses
R8-R10		Hellbent Commander	Great damage increase for our minions.

To learn how to maximize your damage in Diablo 4, consult with our guide on that topic. Learning how to deal the highest possible damage with your build is crucial to succeeding in the Endgame and highest tiers.

This concludes our Diablo 4 Necromancer Build focusing on the Sever skill. You can find more leveling and endgame Diablo 4 builds for this season here on VULKK.com to try new things with your characters and spice up your gameplay.