Necromancer Build - Bloodmancer - Intended for Hardcore, Solo, Self-found Playthrough

G’day ya legends!

So I have been fiddling around with a build I want to take into Sanctuary since the first Beta, and I am liking it quite a bit, wanted to know what y’all would think about it? Now keep in mind the following;

  • Intended for Hardcore (Solo, Self-found)
  • Needs to focus on Healing and Defense as primary requirements
  • I haven’t worked out what Aspects/Unique’s I want/need but current consideration is; Harliquinn Crest, Blood Artisan’s Cuirass, Deathspeaker’s Pendant, Aspect of Explosive Mist, Aspect of Explosive Mist and Black River.

The build;

d4builds.gg/builds/636c60b0-d51a-458a-a2b2-a8e2e646f251/

What are your thoughts? I do prefer Blood Lance, but I honestly feel the extra Heal/Fort from Surge is better and provides more Synygy towards to main aim on this build.

Personally with Blood Surge I don’t know if I would bother with Corpse Explosion. Blood Surge is the one core skill that really doesn’t need it since it already is a strong AOE. Only time you might want to is if you pick up Grim Harvest and use CE to replenish your essence.
Maybe consider taking Iron Maiden instead. If you do decide to go Blood Lance definitely go with Corpse Explosion as a backup. Personally I felt like it was really helpful to clear large groups.

Here’s my Blood Surge Necro:

(https://d4builds.gg/builds/56155433-5614-42d5-9c1f-d4f7e42879e3/)

Notable stuff:

  • If you’re on HC you probably want Decrepify, 20% damage reduction is very strong.
  • Iron Maiden is also great for clearing because it can give huge bursts of essence casting on a pack which you can cycle into Blood Surge. Big QoL.
  • If you get the explosive mist aspect you don’t need corpse explosion on your bar because you can detonate your corpses with blood mist to regen essence + get corpse explosion benefits.
  • You definitely want ruby in weapon for overpower damage.
  • It’s not really clear how overpower scales with stats other than overpower damage, it might be quite bad late.
  • You can get the blood surge aspect that gives an echo ASAP from a dungeon in fractured peaks, put it on a 2h weapon so it’s only 30% less damage on the echo. Keep crafting it from codex when you get good weapon upgrades.
  • Also get the shield on being hit by elite aspect from the bottom left dungeon.
  • Blood wave ultimate is super meh.
  • I do like the golem idea over skeleton warriors, the warriors are more aimed towards corpse gen for explosive mist.
  • Distant enemy damage node is useless.
1 Like

Firstly, cheers for the reply!

You are correct. The Corpse Explosion is there purely because I wasn’t sure about what to use, I don’t like the Curses personally, tho they are a consideration. Corpse Explosion is also there for those “Oh %#@&” situations, you know? A massive burst of damage, but yeah, it is the one Skill that I am not really attached too, with Explosive Mist I don’t really need it either.

Dont forget that you can spec into gaining essence on corpse use.

Honestly I didn’t like them either and didn’t use them in the first beta. I did in the second and they are actually pretty good.

Yeah Grim Harvest is actually a really great quality of life node. I don’t know if every build will need it at end game but in the beta it was nice.

Mate, cheers for the reply!

I will answer some of your points.

If you’re on HC you probably want Decrepify, 20% damage reduction is very strong.

You are correct here, my only Skill I am not attached to is Corpse Explosion, but the burst DPS without having to throw my Mist on CD I feel will help, with Hardcore I need as many safety nets as possible.

Iron Maiden is also great for clearing because it can give huge bursts of essence casting on a pack which you can cycle into Blood Surge. Big QoL.

This is a solid point, but I never super liked Curses, I also don’t like abilties that require me to take damage to do damage. So I would be looking at Decrepify if anything.

If you get the explosive mist aspect you don’t need corpse explosion on your bar because you can detonate your corpses with blood mist to regen essence + get corpse explosion benefits.

So I am kinda hoping if I get the Black River Unique it works with the Explosive Mist ability, but yes, you are correct, like I said above, Corpse Explosion is the one spell I am not super attached too.

You definitely want ruby in weapon for overpower damage.

I disagree with this, I already have over 270% Overpower Damage, the extra 24% I am not entirely sure would be worth more then a straight 20% increase for something that will always be getting used then something once every 15 Seconds or on a 3% Chance. Don’t you think? This isn’t even including gear bonuses.

It’s not really clear how overpower scales with stats other than overpower damage, it might be quite bad late.

I feel like it will remain similar to Criticals, but time will tell, for now, I don’t believe the devs would make the entire Blood tree revolve around Overpower and then make it not work at late tiers.

You can get the blood surge aspect that gives an echo ASAP from a dungeon in fractured peaks, put it on a 2h weapon so it’s only 30% less damage on the echo. Keep crafting it from codex when you get good weapon upgrades.

I accidently copied Mist twice, this was indeed the other Aspect I want, but I would want it on Gloves or Off-hand, I am aiming and praying to get my hands on a Black River, so 1 Handed weapons as I level.

Also get the shield on being hit by elite aspect from the bottom left dungeon.

This is good advice, thank you!

Blood wave ultimate is super meh.

I really do disagree here, I agree its damage is meh, but on a pure Blood build, this is basically your only CC, on top of that, with Aspect, its 3 Waves, with a Slow effect, also making 9 Blood Globes, with so much of my build revolving around that, I feel like that brings it up quite a few tiers, I would agree with you in most other cases with this skill tho.

I do like the golem idea over skeleton warriors, the warriors are more aimed towards corpse gen for explosive mist.

Golems have incredible staying power and damage output even after the original nerfs and then buffs, they also offer Synergy with Option 1 of in the BotD, taking some of the Damage from the Necro, which I really like.

Distant enemy damage node is useless.

Disagree here, Distant is everything not in Melee, everything, so anything while I am moving around, anything not swinging at me, bosses that I am kiting, all of it.