Diablo 4 Blood Necromancer build and best skills

Discover the best Blood Necromancer build in Diablo 4

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Blizzard Entertainment

Looking for the best Blood Necromancer build in Diablo 4? Diablo 4 ’s first Season is now well underway, offering up the opportunity for many to experience new mechanics by rolling a fresh character on the Seasonal Realm. If you’re after a strong mix of single-target and AoE damage that can push through high-tier Nightmare Dungeons with ease, then the Blood Necromancer is for you!

In this guide, we break down how to make the best Blood Necromancer build in Diablo 4 , covering the Skills, Minions, Aspects, Stats, Gems, and Malignant Hearts that you’ll need. It’s updated to reflect the changes from Patch 1.1.0 , but we’ll continue to update it as future patches and hotfixes arrive.

Check out our Diablo 4 Corpse Explosion Necromancer build or our Bone Necromancer build , if you’d like to try some different playstyles!

What is the best class in Diablo 4? Watch this video to find out.Watch on YouTube

Best Diablo 4 Blood Necromancer build

Our Diablo 4 Blood Necromancer build is a perfect balance between AoE and single-target damage, offering the best of both worlds and making it incredibly versatile. This power comes from Blood Surge and Blood Lance, respectively, and both see frequent power spikes thanks to guaranteed Overpower hits.

The Blood Necromancer is also surprisingly tanky, thanks to its consistent ability to Fortify with Hemorrhage, Blood Mist, and the Drain Vitality passive. That’s on top of your Skeletal Minions, of course, which will also soak up some damage and draw enemy aggression away from you.

Best Diablo 4 Blood Necromancer build skills

Below, you’ll find a full list of all skills that you should get for our Diablo 4 Blood Necromancer build, in order:

Hemorrhage

Hemorrhage is your basic Essence Generator, but it has quite a lot of utility for a basic skill. The base skill has a 20% chance to form a Blood Orb, which you can consume to heal yourself and your Minions, and the Initiate’s Hemorrhage upgrade will also make it Fortify you for 1.6% of your base Life with each hit.

There’s also a very slim 1.5% chance per enemy hit to instantly Fortify you for 100% base Life, which is an exciting, if infrequent, boost!

As you reach late-game content and hopefully find yourself able to easily Generate Essence by consuming corpses and with the help of passive abilities, consider dropping Hemorrhage to instead take Corpse Explosion. This will give you even more use for those corpses, and give you another powerful AoE ability that you can spam while waiting for enough Essence to use Blood Surge.

Blood Lance

Blood Lance is your first Core skill, and the one you’ll use when focusing on single-target enemies. Blood Lance deals huge damage with each hit, and the Supernatural Blood Lance upgrade also guarantees an Overpower hit after casting it eight times.

While it is best against a single target, the Enhanced upgrade also lets Blood Lance pierce enemies, making it a quick, cheap way to clear packs of enemies.

Blood Surge

Blood Surge is your big AoE Core skill, unleashing a blood nova explosion that draws blood from enemies to deal huge damage. Even better, the more enemies that have their blood drained, the more damage it deals, up to a max of 50% extra damage!

Like Blood Lance, Blood Surge also has a way to guarantee Overpower hits with the Paranormal upgrade. This makes every 6th Blood Surge deal Overpower damage, meaning you can spam it a few times and then unleash a bomb that’ll destroy almost any enemy with ease.

On top of that huge damage potential, the Enhanced upgrade also makes Blood Surge heal you each time it drains an enemies blood, helping keep you alive while spamming it in a crowd!

Blood Mist

Blood Mist is the Necromancer’s best defensive skill, turning you into a little cloud of blood that is Immune to all damage and status effects for 3 seconds. This allows you to quickly get away from enemies so that you don’t die, and it’ll also deal some damage and slowly heal you up while active.

Corpse Tendrils

Corpse Tendrils is a highly important utility skill, pulling enemies towards a singular corpse, Stunning them for three seconds, and dealing some damage. With upgrades, enemies will also be Slowed and become Vulnerable, allowing you to take advantage of some damage modifiers with huge potential.

If you’re unsure how to use these skills effectively, follow the attack pattern below:

1. Use Blood Lance for single targets, or to pick off small packs of weak enemies.
2. When you see a large group, use Corpse Tendrils to inflict Stun, Slow, and Vulnerable.
3. Make your way into the group and spam Blood Surge.
4. Use Hemorrhage or consume corpses with Raise Skeletons to regenerate Essence.
5. Keep spamming Blood Lance or Blood Surge (depending on the amount of targets).
6. Use Blood Mist when you’re almost dead to escape combat and heal up.

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Blizzard Entertainment

Diablo 4 Blood Necromancer build: Best Minions

The Necromancer has access to the unique Book of the Dead class mechanic in Diablo 4, which lets you raise skeletal Minions and a Golem to do your bidding. They’re powerful combat companions, and will prove essential for drawing enemy aggression in particularly tough fights.

Below, you’ll find the best Minions for our Diablo 4 Blood Necromancer build:

• Skeletal Warrior - Reapers (Upgrade 2) : Reapers have a 15% chance to carve the flesh off enemies, forming a Corpse.
• Skeletal Mages - Cold (Upgrade 1) : Each time your Cold Mages damage enemies with their primary attack, you gain 2 Essence.
• Golem - Blood (Sacrifice) : Your maximum Life is increased by 10%, but you lose the ability to summon a Golem.

As you can see, we recommend sacrificing the ability to use Golems in this build, as it would otherwise take up an extra skill slot that we can’t spare. If you’re absolutely insistent on using a Golem, consider dropping Corpse Tendrils. You’ll lose some Utility, but the Golem will hopefully more than make up for that. Of course, if you do drop Corpse Tendrils, move the skill points over to the Golem Mastery passive in the sixth (Ultimate) cluster on your skill tree.

Diablo 4 Blood Necromancer build: Best Aspects

In Diablo 4, you get Legendary Aspects by collecting Legendary Gear or completing Side Dungeons. Legendary Aspects are what offer the powerful effects that you get on Legendaries, and finding those that synergise with your build will grant a huge power boost.

Below, you’ll find the Aspects that we’d recommend using for this Diablo 4 Blood Necromancer build:

• Viscous Aspect (Legendary - random drop): Your maximum number of Skeletal Mages is increased by 2.
• Aspect of Explosive Mist (Legendary - random drop): Blood Mist triggers Corpse Explosion on surrounding corpses. When Blood Mist detonates a corpse, its cooldown is reduced by 0.2-0.5 seconds.
• Aspect of Rathma’s Chosen (Legendary - random drop): Whenever your Blood skills Overpower, you gain 20-50% attack speed for 4 seconds.
• Aspect of the Embalmer (Legendary - random drop): Consuming a corpse has a 20-30% chance to spawn a Blood Orb.
• Coldbringer’s Aspect (Legendary - random drop): Every 10 seconds, your Cold Skeletal Mages cast a blizzard that deals Cold damage and continuously Chills enemies for 8% over 6 seconds.
• Blood Seeker’s Aspect (Mercy’s Reach - Fractured Peaks): Blood Lance deals 15-25% increased damage to its primary target per lanced enemy.
• Blood-Bathed Aspect (Hoarfrost Demise - Fractured Peaks): Blood Surge’s nova echoes again after a short delay, dealing 60-70% less damage.
• Deathspeaker’s Pendant (Unique Amulet - random drop): Blood Surge casts a mini nova on your Minions. Damage is increased by 10% per target drained by the initial cast, up to 50%.
• Aspect of Potent Blood (Betrayer’s Row - Dry Steppes): While at full Life, Blood Orbs grant 10-20 Essence.
• Aspect of Hungry Blood (Legendary - random drop): When Blood Lance hits an enemy that is already lanced, it has a 10-20% chance to fire a Blood Lance at a nearby enemy.

Diablo 4 Blood Necromancer build: Best Stats

Gear will also get random stat bonuses, known as Affixes, that provide important buffs to various passive traits. Like Aspects, hunting for Gear with stats that will complement your build can drastically improve its efficacy in late-game content.

Below, you’ll find the Stats that you should hunt for with this Diablo 4 Blood Necromancer build:

• Overpower damage
• Damage Reduction while Fortified
• Fortify
• Willpower (increases Essence Generation and Overpower damage)
• Intelligence (increases skill damage)

Don’t forget that you can reroll Affixes on your Gear after reaching World Tier 3! To do so, you’ll need to enter Helltides and hunt for Fiend Roses, and then head to the Occultist at any of the major towns.

Image credit:Blizzard Entertainment

Diablo 4 Blood Necromancer build: Best Gems

For even more passive bonuses, you can put Gems into Gem Sockets on your Gear. Rather than the randomly-rolled Affixes, though, Gems offer set bonuses depending on the type of Gear into which they are placed.

In Weapons, you should use Rubies to increase your Overpower damage. This Blood Necromancer build heavily focuses on the huge damage boosts offered by guaranteed Overpower hits, so maximising that potential will simply make the build far stronger.

In Armor, we’d recommend using Sapphires to increase your Damage Reduction while Fortified. With Hemorrhage, Blood Mist, and the Drain Vitality passive offering various ways to Fortify, you should find that you’re able to consistently benefit from the Damage Reduction while Fortified that’s offered by Sapphires.

Diablo 4 Blood Necromancer build: Best Malignant Hearts

During Season 1, we have access to new items called Malignant Hearts . These new items act kind of like Legendary Aspects, but they must be placed into Infested Sockets on your Jewelry items to gain their powers. Malignant Hearts offer big power boosts that’ll prove important if you want to clear the toughest endgame content during the Season of the Malignant.

Below, we’ll list the best Malignant Hearts for the Blood Necromancer:

• The Sacrilegious : Walking near a Corpse automatically activates an equipped Corpse Skill every second, dealing 40-30% reduced damage.
• The Decrepit Aura : When at least 5 enemies are near you, gain an aura that automatically curses surrounding enemies with Decrepify for 5-15 seconds.
• Revenge : 10-20% of incoming damage is instead suppressed. When you use a Defensive, Subterfuge, or a Macabre skill, all suppressed damage is amplified by 250% and explodes, dealing up to 1360-2040 Fire damage to nearby enemies.

That wraps up our Diablo 4 Blood Necromancer build guide. If you want to try out other classes, take a look at our Diablo 4 Twisting Blades Rogue build , Whirlwind Barbarian build , Bleed Barbarian build , Pulverize Druid build , Storm Druid build , Lightning Sorcerer build , and Fire Sorcerer build guides.

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All 75 Arc Raiders Blueprints and where to get them

These areas have the highest chance of giving you Blueprints

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Looking for more Arc Raiders Blueprints? It’s a special day when you find a Blueprint, as they’re among the most valuable items in Arc Raiders. If you find a Blueprint that you haven’t already found, then you must make sure you hold onto it at all costs, because Blueprints are the key to one of the most important and powerful systems of meta-progression in the game.

This guide aims to be the very best guide on Blueprints you can find, starting with a primer on what exactly they are and how they work in Arc Raiders, before delving into exactly where to get Blueprints and the very best farming spots for you to take in your search.

We’ll also go over how to get Blueprints from other unlikely activities, such as destroying Surveyors and completing specific quests. And you’ll also find the full list of all 75 Blueprints in Arc Raiders on this page (including the newest Blueprints added with the Cold Snap update , such as the Deadline Blueprint and Firework Box Blueprint), giving you all the information you need to expand your own crafting repertoire.

In this guide:

• What are Blueprints in Arc Raiders?
• Full Blueprint list: All crafting recipes
• Where to find Blueprints in Arc Raiders Blueprints obtained from quests Blueprints obtained from Trials Best Blueprint farming locations

What are Blueprints in Arc Raiders?

Blueprints in Arc Raiders are special items which, if you manage to extract with them, you can expend to permanently unlock a new crafting recipe in your Workshop. If you manage to extract from a raid with an Anvil Blueprint, for example, you can unlock the ability to craft your very own Anvil Pistol, as many times as you like (as long as you have the crafting materials).

To use a Blueprint, simply open your Inventory while in the lobby, then right-click on the Blueprint and click “Learn And Consume” . This will permanently unlock the recipe for that item in your Workshop. As of the Stella Montis update, there are allegedly 75 different Blueprints to unlock - although only 68 are confirmed to be in the game so far. You can see all the Blueprints you’ve found and unlocked by going to the Workshop menu, and hitting “R” to bring up the Blueprint screen.

It’s possible to find duplicates of past Blueprints you’ve already unlocked. If you find these, then you can either sell them, or - if you like to play with friends - you can take it into a match and gift it to your friend so they can unlock that recipe for themselves. Another option is to keep hold of them until the time comes to donate them to the Expedition.

Full Blueprint list: All crafting recipes

Below is the full list of all the Blueprints that are currently available to find in Arc Raiders, and the crafting recipe required for each item:

Note: The missing Blueprints in this list likely have not actually been added to the game at the time of writing, because none of the playerbase has managed to find any of them. As they are added to the game, I will update this page with the most relevant information so you know exactly how to get all 75 Arc Raiders Blueprints.

Where to find Blueprints in Arc Raiders

Below is a list of all containers, modifiers, and events which maximise your chances of finding Blueprints:

• Certain quests reward you with specific Blueprints .
• Completing Trials has a high chance of offering Blueprints as rewards.
• Surveyors have a decent chance of dropping Blueprints on death.
• High loot value areas tend to have a greater chance of spawning Blueprints.
• Night Raids and Storms may increase rare Blueprint spawn chances in containers.
• Containers with higher numbers of items may have a higher tendency to spawn Blueprints. As a result, Blue Gate (which has many “large” containers containing multiple items) may give you a higher chance of spawning Blueprints.
• Raider containers (Raider Caches, Weapon Boxes, Medical Bags, Grenade Tubes) have increased Blueprint drop rates. As a result, the Uncovered Caches event gives you a high chance of finding Blueprints.
• Security Lockers have a higher than average chance of containing Blueprints.
• Certain Blueprints only seem to spawn under specific circumstances: Tempest Blueprint only spawns during Night Raid events. Vulcano Blueprint only spawns during Hidden Bunker events. Jupiter and Equaliser Blueprints only spawn during Harvester events.

Raider Caches, Weapon Boxes, and other raider-oriented container types have a good chance of offering Blueprints. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Blueprints have a very low chance of spawning in any container in Arc Raiders, around 1-2% on average. However, there is a higher chance of finding Blueprints in particular container types. Specifically, you can find more Blueprints in Raider containers and security lockers.

Beyond this, if you’re looking for Blueprints you should focus on regions of the map which are marked as having particularly high-value loot. Areas such as the Control Tower in Dam Battlegrounds, the Arrival and Departure Buildings in Spaceport, and Pilgrim’s Peak in Blue Gate all have a better-than-average chance of spawning Blueprints somewhere amongst all their containers. Night Raids and Electromagnetic Storm events also increase the drop chances of certain Blueprints .

In addition to these containers, you can often loot Blueprints from destroyed Surveyors - the largest of the rolling ball ARC. Surveyors are more commonly found on the later maps - Spaceport and Blue Gate - and if one spawns in your match, you’ll likely see it by the blue laser beam that it casts into the sky while “surveying”.

Surveyors are quite well-armoured and will very speedily run away from you once it notices you, but if you can take one down then make sure you loot all its parts for a chance of obtaining certain unusual Blueprints.

Blueprints obtained from quests

One way in which you can get Blueprints is by completing certain quests for the vendors in Speranza. Some quests will reward you with a specific item Blueprint upon completion, so as long as you work through all the quests in Arc Raiders, you are guaranteed those Blueprints.

Here is the full list of all Blueprints you can get from quest rewards:

• Trigger Nade Blueprint: Rewarded after completing “Sparks Fly”.
• Lure Grenade Blueprint: Rewarded after completing “Greasing Her Palms”.
• Burletta Blueprint: Rewarded after completing “Industrial Espionage”.
• Hullcracker Blueprint (and Launcher Ammo Blueprint): Rewarded after completing “The Major’s Footlocker”.

Alas, that’s only 4 Blueprints out of a total of 75 to unlock, so for the vast majority you will need to find them yourself during a raid. If you’re intent on farming Blueprints, then it’s best to equip yourself with cheap gear in case you lose it, but don’t use a free loadout because then you won’t get a safe pocket to stash any new Blueprint you find. No pain in Arc Raiders is sharper than failing to extract with a new Blueprint you’ve been after for a dozen hours already.

One of the best ways to get Blueprints is by hitting three stars on all five Trials every week. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Blueprints obtained from Trials

One of the very best ways to get Blueprints is as rewards for completing Trials in Arc Raiders. Trials are unlocked from Level 15 onwards, and allow you to earn rewards by focusing on certain tasks over the course of several raids. For example, one Trial might task you with dealing damage to Hornets, while another might challenge you to loot Supply Drops.

Trials refresh on a weekly basis, with a new week bringing five new Trials. Each Trial can offer up to three rewards after passing certain score milestones, and it’s possible to receive very high level loot from these reward crates - including Blueprints. So if you want to unlock as many Blueprints as possible, you should make a point of completing as many Trials as possible each week.

Best Blueprint farming locations

The very best way to get Blueprints is to frequent specific areas of the maps which combine high-tier loot pools with the right types of containers to search. Here are my recommendations for where to find Blueprints on every map, so you can always keep the search going for new crafting recipes to unlock.

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Dam Battlegrounds

The best places to farm Blueprints on Dam Battlegrounds are the Control Tower, Power Generation Complex, Ruby Residence, and Pale Apartments . The first two regions, despite only being marked on the map as mid-tier loot, contain a phenomenal number of containers to loot. The Control Tower can also contain a couple of high-tier Security Lockers - though of course, you’ll need to have unlocked the Security Breach skill at the end of the Survival tree.

There’s also a lot of reporting amongst the playerbase that the Residential areas in the top-left of the map - Pale Apartments and Ruby Residence - give you a comparatively strong chance of finding Blueprints. Considering their size, there’s a high density of containers to loot in both locations, and they also have the benefit of being fairly out of the way. So you’re more likely to have all the containers to yourself.

Buried City

The best Blueprint farming locations on Buried City are the Santa Maria Houses, Grandioso Apartments, Town Hall, and the various buildings of the New District . Grandioso Apartments has a lower number of containers than the rest, but a high chance of spawning weapon cases - which have good Blueprint drop rates. The others are high-tier loot areas, with plenty of lootable containers - including Security Lockers.

Spaceport

The best places to find Blueprints on Spaceport are the Arrival and Departure Buildings, as well as Control Tower A6 and the Launch Towers . All these areas are labelled as high-value loot regions, and many of them are also very handily connected to one another by the Spaceport wall, which you can use to quickly run from one area to the next. At the tops of most of these buildings you’ll find at least one Security Locker, so this is an excellent farming route for players looking to find Blueprints.

The downside to looting Blueprints on Spaceport is that all these areas are hotly contested, particularly in Duos and Squads. You’ll need to be very focused and fast in order to complete the full farming route.

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Blue Gate

Blue Gate tends to have a good chance of dropping Blueprints, potentially because it generally has a high number of containers which can hold lots of items; so there’s a higher chance of a Blueprint spawning in each container. In my experience, the best Blueprint farming spots on Blue Gate are Pilgrim’s Peak, Raider’s Refuge, the Ancient Fort, and the Underground Complex beneath the Warehouse .

All of these areas contain a wealth of containers to loot. Raider’s Refuge has less to loot, but the majority of the containers in and around the Refuge are raider containers, which have a high chance of containing Blueprints - particularly during major events.

Stella Montis

On the whole, Stella Montis seems to have a very low drop rate for Blueprints (though a high chance of dropping other high-tier loot). If you do want to try farming Blueprints on this map, the best places to find Blueprints in Stella Montis are Medical Research, Assembly Workshop, and the Business Center . These areas have the highest density of containers to loot on the map.

In addition to this, the Western Tunnel has a few different Security Lockers to loot, so while there’s very little to loot elsewhere in this area of the map, it’s worth hitting those Security Lockers if you spawn there at the start of a match.

That wraps up this primer on how to get all the Blueprints in Arc Raiders as quickly as possible. With the Expedition system constantly resetting a large number of players’ Blueprints, it’s more important than ever to have the most up-to-date information on where to find all these Blueprints.

While you’re here, be sure to check out our Arc Raiders best guns tier list , as well as our primers on the best skills to unlock and all the different Field Depot locations on every map.

ARC Raiders

PS5 , Xbox Series X/S , PC

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