Best Diablo 4 Sever Necromancer build in Season 5

The Necromancer is Diablo 4’s very own Grim Reaper and that’s especially true in Season 5 with the Sever build. This is a build that allows the Necromancer to turn into Death himself. Here’s how to assemble the build as well as how effective it is for Leveling, Endgame, and PvP play.

The Sever Necromancer build involves the Necromancer summoning a shadow minion that cleaves its enemies to pieces with a deadly scythe. As the Necromancer is a top-tier class this season, knowing how to craft their best builds is essential.

Below, we’ll detail how to optimize the build for leveling, endgame, and PvP, giving you the best skills, items, Aspects, and Glyphs to target on your journey this season.

Best Sever leveling build in Diablo 4 Season 5

The Sever build is rated as B-tier this season, meaning while it’s not the best, it’s still pretty deadly.

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	Bone Splinters
2	Enhanced Bone Splinters
3	Initiate’s Bone Splinters
4	Sever
5	Sever
6	Sever
7	Enhanced Sever
8	Paranormal Sever
9	Sever
10	Sever
11	Reap
12	Enhanced Reap
13	Acolyte’s Reap
14	Corpse Explosion
15	Corpse Explosion
16	Iron Maiden
17	Enhanced Iron Maiden
18	Enhanced Corpse Explosion
19	Blighted Corpse Explosion
20	Corpse Explosion
21	Corpse Explosion
22	Corpse Explosion
23	Corpse Tendrils
24	Enhanced Corpse Tendrils
25	Plagued Corpse Tendrils
26	Fueled By Death
27	Fueled By Death
28	Fueled By Death
29	Grim Harvest
30	Grim Harvest
31	Skeletal Warrior Mastery
32	Skeletal Warrior Mastery
33	Skeletal Warrior Mastery
34	Skeletal Mage Mastery
35	Skeletal Mage Mastery
36	Skeletal Mage Mastery
37	Unliving Energy
38	Imperfectly Balanced
39	Imperfectly Balanced
40	Imperfectly Balanced
41	Hewed Flesh
42	Hewed Flesh
43	Hewed Flesh
44	Reaper’s Pursuit
45	Shadowblight
46	Fueled By Death
47	Fueled By Death
48	Fueled By Death
49	Crippling Darkness
Renown 1	Reaper’s Pursuit
Renown 2	Amplify Damage
Renown 3	Amplify Damage
Renown 4	Gloom
Renown 5	Gloom
Renown 6	Gloom
Renown 7	Terror
Renown 8	Terror
Renown 9	Terror
Renown 10	Golem Mastery

These skills will help you craft the ideal Sever Necro build for leveling. Of course, you’ll need to have unlocked the Renown points to use the extra ten.

Many of the passive skills above will boost your Corpse and Shadow skills (like Sever) and make them as powerful as possible. As every build needs active skills, we’ve provided a variety that complements the Sever build in combat.

We’ve also ensured that your passive Minion skills have been boosted while ignoring Bone and Blood skills in this build, however, this will change when we respec for the endgame version of this build.

Best Book of the Dead setup for leveling

When it comes to using the Necromancer’s unique Book of the Dead skills, we recommend selecting the following:

• Skeletal Warriors – Reapers
• Skeletal Mages – Cold
• Golems – Blood

This Book of the Dead setup is the best for this build, letting your Reaper Skeletal Warriors focus on melee combat while you and your Mages support them from a distance with Cold Magic.

This will slow enemies down while your Skeletons, Golem, and yourself strike at them while they’re vulnerable. While your minions engage the enemies, cast your spells, then batter them with Sever from a distance.

Best leveling rotation

• Summon Minions
• Iron Maiden
• Corpse Tendrils
• Sever
• Corpse Explosion
• Reap

You’ll likely already have your minions active when a battle begins, if not summon them. Then, strike a mob with Iron Maiden so that they’re likely to take more damage when the battle starts.

Next, cast Plagued Corpse Tendrils to stun enemies and increase the likelihood of producing extra corpses to re-supply your minion army. From here, hit them with your main attack, using Sever to do damage from a distance once your minions engage the mob.

Plauged Corpse Tendrils, Iron Maiden, and Sever will work well together, trapping enemies in a deadly kill box that only becomes more lethal when you start casting Corpse Explosion. This will finish off stragglers in no time. Should an enemy get too close to you slice them with Reap.

Of course, whichever rotation works for you will be the best to use, but the above is a logical, tried, and tested method to combine skills into one powerful set of attacks.

Best Legendary Aspects

While Legendary Aspects will become more useful in the endgame version of the Sever Necro build, there are some you can hunt down while progressing to level 50 or while playing through the story. Here’s where you can find them:

Aspect	Power	Dungeon	Region
Blighted	Increased Shadow Blight damage	Akkhan’s Grasp (complete A Debt Repaid quest)	Hawezar
Umbral	Restores Primary Resource when you crowd-control an enemy	Champion’s Demise (Complete the Temple of Rot Stronghold first)	Dry Steppes
Damned	Increased Shadow Damage	Uldur’s Cave	Kehjistan

There will be more Aspects to hunt down in the endgame build.

Best Sever Necro endgame build in Diablo 4 Season 5

Once you reach endgame in Season 5 by beating the story, hitting level 50, and unlocking the Paragon Board, you can then respec to the endgame version of the Sever Necro build.

However on this occasion, there are some significant changes from the leveling build. While the core skills remain similar, we now add Bone Storm to our arsenal – and say goodbye to minions.

Note the endgame Sever build is rated as C-tier in the meta. So, if you prefer to create a hybrid build you can always keep your minions – just know that this isn’t the true Sever endgame set-up.

Active Skill	Upgrades	Points allocated
Reap	Enhanced	1
Sever	Enhanced, Paranormal	5
Corpse Explosion	Enhanced, Blighted	1
Iron Maiden	Enhanced	1
Corpse Tendrils	Enhanced, Plagued	1
Bone Storm	Enhanced, Supreme	1

Here’s which passive skills you’ll need for the endgame build:

Passive Skill	Points
Unliving Energy	1
Hewed Flesh	3
Imperfectly Balanced	3
Grim Harvest	1
Fueled by Death	3
Amplify Damage	3
Death’s Embrace	3
Crippling Darkness	1
Gloom	3
Reaper’s Pursuit	3
Terror	3
Necrotic Carapace	2
Memento Mori	3
Stand Alone	3
Shadowblight	1

This version of the build still primarily focuses on Shadow skills, but you’ll also notice that minion skills have been replaced by passives that favour a solo, minionless, Necromancer.

Best endgame Book of the Dead setup

In our endgame version of this build we’re going to Sacrifice our minions to strengthen ourselves, turning our Necromancer into a deadly solo warrior who’s Sever skill is even more powerful than before.

• Skeletal Warriors – Sacrifice
• Skeletal Mages – Sacrifice
• Golems – Sacrifice

Of course, you can choose to keep your minions, just know you’ll be less powerful when fighting solo without the buff Sacrifcing them gives you. If you do choose to do this, consider changing some of your passives, like Memento Mori and Stand Alone to minion mastery skills.

Best endgame rotation

For endgame, use the following skill rotation when approaching mobs in battle:

• Iron Maiden
• Corpse Tendrils
• Bone Storm
• Sever
• Corpse Explosion
• Reap

Once again, the aim here is to trap enemies in a box while Iron Maiden, and Corpse Tendrils do their work. However, this timne we won’t have minions to fall back on, so we’ll use Bone Storm instead.

Now, hit the mob with Sever and when the bodies start to drop, use Corpse Explosion to massacre the survivors. Should anyone get to close to you, use Reap to show them that you’re death personified.

Best Legendary Aspects

Now that you’ve reached endgame, you’ll have access to many more Legendary Aspects to boost your build and add special powers to buff your primary skills. Some are the same as in the leveling build, but now there’s even more. Here’s where and how you can find them:

Aspect	Power	Dungeon	Region	Gamble Obols
Blighted	Increased Shadowblight damage damage	Akkan’s Grasp	Hawezar	–
Damned	Increased Shadow damage	Uldur’s Cave	Kehjistan	–
Umbral	Boosts resource regeneration	Champion’s Demise	Dry Steppes	–
Grasping Veins	Boosts critical when casting Corpse Tendrils	Broken Bulwark	Scosglen	–
Disobedience	Boosts defense based on your damage output	Halls of the Damned	Kehjistan	–
Shared Misery	Boosts crowd control damage	Oblivion	Hawezar	–
Sacrificial	Boosts Sacrifice bonuses	Ruins of Eridu	Hawezar	–
Hulking	Boosts Golem cooldown	Sepulcher of the Forsword	Kehjistan
Metamorphosis	Inflicts Vampiric Curse on enemies	–	–	Boots
Hardened Bones	You and your minions get damage boost	–	–	Pants
Shielding Storm	Bone Storm has a chance to cast Barrier	–	–	Pants
Cursed Aura	Decreptify added to Iron Maiden	–	–	Boots
Great Feast	Minions damage increased	–	–	Focus
Accelerating	Critical Strikes increase attack speed	–	–	Focus
Concussive Strikes	Critical Strikes have a chance to cast Daze	–	–	Boots
Exposed Flesh	Vaulrable enemies boost Essence regeneration	–	–	Rings

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

Paragon Board

Once you reach level 50 you’ll stop earning skills points and start earning Paragon points instead. This leveling system works very differently and involves you selecting updates from various boards with different themes and buffs.

Every path is different, but the good news is that by targeting different Glyphs as you move around the Paragon Board, you’ll start buffing your Sever Necro in the ways that matter most to the build.

See below to see which Glyphs you should target first.

Best Glyphs

Level 15

• ‍Abyssal
• ‍Gravekeeper
• ‍Essence
• ‍Control
• ‍Exploit
• ‍Sacrificial
• ‍Amplify

Level 21

• Essence
• ‍Control
• ‍Exploit
• ‍Gravekeeper
• ‍Amplify
• ‍Sacrificial
• ‍Abyssal

Once you reach Paragon Level 15, work your way towards the above Glyphs. You’ll also unlock more across the Paragon Board as you earn more points, but selecting these particular Glyphs in this order will keep you on the best possible path for the Sever Necro build.

Best Sever Necro endgame item build

Item	Socket	Item type	Power
Ruinic Runic Skullcap of Disobedience	Ruby for extra life	Helm	Boosts Minion damage
Runic Mail of Shared Misery	Ruby for extra life	Chest Armor	Increased Armor
Sacrifical Runic Gloves	Ruby for extra life	Gloves	Increased damage
Ghoul Anvil	Ruby for extra life	Pants	Increased crowd control damage
Wind Striker Runic Cleats	Ruby for extra life	Boots	Increased Unstoppable chance
‍Parashu of the Damned	2x Amethysts for increased damage	Main Hand	Increased Shadow damage
–	–	Offhand	–
Chain of Grasping Veins	Diamond for extra attack power	Amulet	Increased Shadowblight damage
Blighted Band	Diamond for extra attack power	Ring 1	Increased crowd control damage
Band of the Umbral	Diamond for extra attack power	Ring 2	Increased core skill damage

Sever Necromancer build for PvP

The Sever Necro isn’t recommended for PvP, and while it’s fantastic in PvE, we’d recommend using the Bone Spirit or Bone Spear build instead, sacrificing your minions and turning your Necromancer into a one-person army in some cases.

If you’re set on taking this build into battle against other players, though, we’d suggest sticking to our endgame version for the best results. Minions will only be a hindrence in PvP, you’ll be much better off using the Sacrifice option if you use the Sever build.

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