The Necromancer’s Bone Spirit skill inDiablo 4requires a lot of setup to work properly. However, once players do get the right gear and effects going, this ability becomes the single strongest nuke the class has to offer.
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The following is a popular Bone Spirit build that features maxed-out critical hit stats, high survivability, good Crowd Control, and a ton of Corpse consumption. It won’t be for everyone, but it’s great forDiablo 4players who want a strong ability that can one-shot almost everything in the game outside of bosses.
As of Jun 20, 2025, Blizzard has implementedPatch 1.0.3forDiablo 4, making some slight gameplay adjustments here and there. However, ourBone Spirit Necromancer Buildis still good to go and is accurate even with the changes.
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Book of the Dead
Iron Golem
Sacrificed
Bone Spirit consumes all the Necromancer’s Essence to increase its own damage based on the total points it uses. The challenge here is generating enough Essence to fuel the spirit up once it goes off cooldown.
Reapisthe best generator in the Necromancer’s kitin AOE situations since it grants Essence based on the number of enemies it hits. However, this skill will primarily be used to generate a Corpse for the build’s true Essence generator: Corpse Tendrils.
Corpse Tendrilsslows, pulls, and stuns enemies over a wide area. With Aspect of the Umbral equipped, players can refill their Essence bar with a single cast of this skill. Its upgrade also makes targets Vulnerable, making them prime targets for a very angry Bone Spirit.
Bone Stormis used as more of a utility skill here—it’s needed to reach max Critical Strike Chance and generate Barrier with Aspect of Shielding Storm. It’ll keep players alive while also granting more Bone Spirit damage.
Blighted Corpse Explosionis an excellent damage tool and so far, it is the only skill that eats Corpses outside of Corpse Tendrils and Raise Skeleton. Use it for AOE damage whenever Bone Spirit is on cooldown and to trigger Grim Harvest and Fueled by Death.
Ossified Essence
TakeUnliving Energyto boost Bone Spirit’s damage andHewed Fleshfor constant Corpse generation with Blighted Corpse Explosion. All Corpse skills and passives rely on Hewed Flesh since Reap can only generate Corpses once every five seconds.
Pour points into all the Bone passives in the second Macabre skill tree to max out Bone Spirit’s damage output, then take theOssified EssenceKey Passiveto further boost its damage when cast at 50 Essence or more.
The build will not use minions. Instead, Defenders, Shadow Mages, and Iron Golem will be sacrificed for their bonuses to survivability, max Essence, and Critical Strike Damage respectively.
Shielding Storm
Grasping Veins
Before anything else, it’s important for players to get as much Critical Strike Chance as possible from their items. If Bone Spirit fails to kill a monster pack, then players will be left with few offensive options.
Swelling Cursestraight-up buffs Bone Spirit’s damage output by making it scale according to the distance it travels. Meanwhile,Grasping Veinshelps players reach max Critical Strike Chance while simultaneously buffing damage against targets affected by Corpse Tendrils.
Aspect ofSerrationgives Bone Spirit a massive Critical Strike Damage multiplier when cast at full Essence. Make sure to stay topped-off with Corpse Tendrils and Reap to get the most benefitout of all damaging aspects.
Paragon Boards
TakeBone Graftand head straight for theReinvigoratenode for the Essence-related bonuses before going to the Legendary node itself. UseExploit on the Glyph Socketonce it’s unlocked for more overall damage without having to rely on Corpse Tendrils' Vulnerable application.
Flesh Eateris another good Paragon Board for Bone Spirit builds (or anything else that eats Corpses) thanks to its damage buffs. It also has theTargetednode, which boosts damage against elites. The board’s Glyph socket is close to a number of Dexterity nodes, which is good for Glyphs like Exploit and Gravekeeper.
Diablo 4is available now on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, and PS5.
