Best Diablo 4 Blood Surge Necromancer builds for Season 5

The Blood Surge Necromancer is dominating the meta this season in Diablo 4. Here’s your guide to mastering it for leveling, endgame, and whether it’s worth your time in PvP.

Forget summoning minions – this build is all about unleashing Overpower to crush your enemies in no time flat.

For leveling, we’ll walk you through optimizing your skills, items, Aspects, and Glyphs to get the most out of your Blood Surge abilities.

And if you’re eyeing PvP, we’ll let you know whether this high-damage, high-survivability build can keep you on top in player battles in Season 5.

Best Blood Surge Necromancer leveling build in Diablo 4 Season 5

As you level while playing through either the campaign or the new Season 5 content, you’ll want to make sure that you’re selecting your skills in the following order:

Level	Skill
1	Reap
2	Decompose
3	Blood Surge
4	Blood Surge
5	Enhanced Blood Surge
6	Paranormal Blood Surge
7	Reap
8	Blood Mist
9	Blood Surge
10	Blood Surge
11	Grim Harvest
12	Iron Maiden
13	Enhanced Iron Maiden
14	Amplify Damage
15	Amplify Damage
16	Amplify Damage
17	Corpse Tendril
18	Enhanced Corpse Tendrils
19	Plagued Corpse Tendrils
20	Fueled by Death
21	Death’s Approach
22	Death’s Approach
23	Death’s Approach
24	Bone Storm
25	Prime Bone Storm
26	Supreme Bone Storm
27	Gruesome Mending
28	Coalesced Blood
29	Tides of Blood
30	Tides of Blood
31	Inspiring Leader
32	Inspiring Leader
33	Inspiring Leader
34	Rathma’s Vigor
35	Unliving Energy
36	Imperfectly Balanced
37	Imperfectly Balanced
38	Imperfectly Balanced
39	Hewed Flesh
40	Hewed Flesh
41	Hewed Flesh
42	Grim Harvest
43	Grim Harvest
44	Fueled by Death
45	Fueled by Death
46	Death’s Embrace
47	Death’s Embrace
48	Death’s Embrace
49	Skeletal Mage Mastery
Renown 1	Coalesced Blood
Renown 2	Coalesced Blood
Renown 3	Coalesced Blood
Renown 4	Drain Vitality
Renown 5	Drain Vitality
Renown 6	Drain Vitality
Renown 7	Tides of Blood
Renown 8	Necrotic Caparace
Renown 9	Necrotic Caparace
Renown 10	Necrotic Caparace

As Blood Surge Necromancer, you’ll juggle both Necromancer resource types – Essence and Corpses – keeping the screen in a perpetual state of chaos with insane DPS.

You have a trusty army of glowing skeletons. They’ll be your undead entourage for most of your leveling journey. But once you’ve got your Essence sustain and damage output dialed in, feel free to ditch them for the corpses they came from.

Starting as a Blood Surge Necromancer gives you the flexibility to easily switch to other Necromancer builds as you collect more Aspects along the way.

Don’t forget to claim your rewards from the Season 5 Battle Pass and spend your Smouldering Ashes in the EXP boost to reach level 50 in a matter of hours.

Best Book of the Dead setup for leveling

The Blood Surge Necromancer leans on the Essence generation from Skeletal Mages: Cold and Skeletal Warriors: Skirmishers, while ditching the Golems and Iron for better gains.

Once your Essence sustain is solid, you can also sacrifice the Skeletal Mages: Bone. If your Elemental Resistances start giving you trouble during leveling, consider sacrificing Skeletal Warriors: Defenders to balance things out.

Best leveling rotation

Here’s the best rotation for a leveling Blood Surge Necromancer build in Diablo 4:

• Raise Skeleton
• Iron Maiden
• Corpse Tendrils
• Blood Surge
• Bone Storm
• Blood Mist

Start by summoning your skeletons with Raise Skeleton to have your undead army ready. Then, slap a curse on enemy groups with Iron Maiden to soften them up.

Follow that by yanking them into a neat little pile using Corpse Tendrils, making them prime targets for AoE. Now, unleash Blood Surge to obliterate everything in sight.

When things get dicey, pop Bone Storm to crank up your damage and tankiness. If you’re in trouble, slip into Blood Mist to go untouchable and reposition yourself.

Best leveling Legendary Aspects

Here are the best Legendary Aspects for a leveling Blood Surge Necromancer in Diablo 4:

Aspect	Power	Dungeon	Location
Grasping Veins	Increases Critical Strike Chance and damage against enemies pulled by Corpse Tendrils.	Corrupted Grotto	Kehjistan
Blood-bathed	Blood Surge’s nova echoes and deal less damage.	Hoarfrost Demise	Fractured Peaks
Disobedience	Grants stacking armor when dealing any form of damage.	Halls of the Damned	Kehjistan

If you get the feeling that Necromancers aren’t for you by now, check out our class tier list guide to find out which class is for you.

Best Blood Surge Necromancer endgame build in Diablo 4 Season 5

Active Skills

Active Skill	Upgrades	Points allocated
Reap	–	1
Decompose	–	1
Blood Surge	Enhanced, Paranormal	5
Blood Mist	–	1
Bone Prison	Enhanced	1
Abhorrent Decrepify	Enhanced, Abhorrent	5
Corpse Tendrils	–	1
Bone Storm	Prime, Supreme	1

Passive Skills

Passive Skill	Points
Unliving Energy	1
Imperfectly Balanced	3
Hewed Flesh	3
Grim Harvest	1
Fueled by Death	2
Death’s Embrace	3
Amplify Damage	3
Gruesome Mending	1
Coalesced Blood	3
Drain Vitality	2
Tides of Blood	3
Serration	1
Rapid Ossification	3
Stand Alone	3
Memento Mori	3
Inspiring Leader	3
Rathma’s Vigor	1

The Blood Surge Necromancer is all about dishing out massive AoE damage while staying nearly unkillable. It’s a build that pumps out great DPS and continuous healing.

With passive bonuses stacking Maximum Life and Fortify, you get a tanky damage dealer without even trying.

Most of your damage comes from guaranteed Overpower hits through Blood skills, which also conveniently make you tougher with Fortify. Blood Surge turns the entire screen into a damage zone.

While the build revolves around spamming Overpower, mastering Critical Strike Chance and Vulnerable status can crank your damage up even more.

Best Book of the Dead set up for the endgame

In the Blood Surge Necromancer build, you have three types of minions to summon or sacrifice through the Book of the Dead. For this build, you sacrifice:

• Skirmishers for a boost to Critical Strike Chance.
• Bone Mages to significantly increase Overpower Damage.
• Iron Golem to gain a bonus to Critical Strike Damage.

This sacrifice strategy ensures you maximize your damage output, making your Overpower hits and crits even deadlier.

Best endgame rotation

Here’s the best rotation for the endgame Blood Surge Necromancer build in Diablo 4:

• Decrepify
• Bone Prison
• Corpse Tendrils
• Blood Surge
• Bone Storm
• Blood Mist

Kick things off by cursing enemies with Decrepify to slow them down. Next, throw up a Bone Prison to trap them in place and slap on that Vulnerable status. Pull them all together with Corpse Tendrils for a tidy little AoE target.

Then, unleash Blood Surge to melt everything in sight. If you’re surrounded, activate Bone Storm to crank up your damage and tankiness. And when things get tough, activate Blood Mist to become untouchable and reposition yourself.

Best endgame Legendary Aspects

Here are the best Legendary Aspects for the endgame Blood Surge Necromancer in Diablo 4:

Aspect	Power	Dungeon	Location
Grasping Veins	Increases Critical Strike Chance and damage against enemies pulled by Corpse Tendrils.	Corrupted Grotto	Kehjistan
Blood-bathed	Blood Surge’s nova echoes and deal less damage.	Hoarfrost Demise	Fractured Peaks
Disobedience	Grants stacking armor when dealing any form of damage.	Halls of the Damned	Kehjistan
Sacrificial	Increases bonus for each sacrificed minion.	Ruins of Eridu	Hawezar
Juggernaut’s	You gain armor but evade has a decreased Cooldown.	Gamble Pants	–
Hardened Bones	Increases the damage reduction provided by your minions.	Gamble Pants	–
Shielding Storm	Grants a barrier when you deal damage with Bone Storm Skills.	Gamble Pants	–
Slaughter	Increases Movement Speed.	Gamble Boots	–

Remember, you can also strip these Aspects from their original item and apply them to an item of your choosing.

Paragon Board

After hitting level 50, say goodbye to skill points and hello to Paragon points. This new system works a bit differently – you’ll be picking upgrades from various boards with their own themes and buffs.

Each path you choose will be unique, but the silver lining is that by focusing on specific Glyphs as you navigate the Paragon Board, you’ll be powering up your Blood Surge Necro in all the right ways.

Best Glyphs

Here are the best Glyphs for a Blood Surge Necromancer build in Diablo 4:

Level 15

• Corporeal
• ‍Exploit
• ‍Dominate
• ‍Essence
• ‍Sacrificial
• ‍Amplify

Level 21

• ‍Essence
• ‍Dominate
• ‍Exploit
• ‍Corporeal
• ‍Amplify
• ‍Sacrificial

Best endgame item build

Item	Socket	Item type	Power
Runic Skullcap of Hardened Bones	Ruby	Helm	You and your minions gain increased Damage Reduction.
Runic Mail of Shielding Storm	2 Rubies	Chest	Each time Bone Storm damages an enemy, you gain a barrier.
Sacrificial Runic Gloves	–	Gloves	Your Sacrifice bonuses are increased.
Runic Leggings of Concussive Strikes	2 Rubies	Pants	Damaging an enemy has a chance to Daze them.
Runic Cleats of Metamorphosis	–	Gloves	When you Evade, you turn into a cloud of bats and become Unstoppable.
Skullsplitter of Rathma’s Chosen	Ruby	Right Hand	When your Blood Skills Overpower, you gain attack speed.
Choker of the Great Feast	Skull	Amulet	Your Minions deal increase damage.
Starlight Ring	Skull	Ring	Gain Primary Resource for life healed.
Blood-bathed Ring	Skull	Ring	Blood Surge’s nova echoes again and deals less damage.
Serpent Stone of Grasping Vein	Ruby	Left Hand	Get increased Critical Strike Chance when you cast Corpse Tendrils.

Make sure to farm Mother’s Gifts and clear Infernal Hordes frequently to get some of the best loot this season.

Best Blood Surge Necromancer PvP build in Diablo 4 Season 5

You can get through most PvP encounters with a the endgame Blood Surge Necro build. With the endgame Blood Surge Necromancer’s focus on Overpower, you can end fights quickly. It deals massive damage that opponents won’t see coming.

And when things get dicey, just slip into Blood Mist to become untouchable and reposition yourself. It’s a killer combo of offense and defense that makes sure you’re always in control of the battlefield.

Now that you know how to craft this top-tier Necromancer build, make sure to check out our guides for the Druid, Sorcerer, Rogue, and Barbarian.