Hemomancer 2.0 Diablo IV Necromancer Build [RDY-4-Launch]

Hemomancer 2.0 Necromancer BUILD for Diablo IV [RDY-4-Launch]

(the Hemomancer boils the blood of their foes & consumes their flesh to keep themselves Healthy & Fortified)

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Diablo IV launches on June 6th, 2023 for PC (Battle.Net), XBOX, & PlayStation with a 4 days Early Access (no wipe) for pre-orders (so kind of really launching June 2nd).

Diablo IV‘s Launch is getting closer and it’s time to make some Ready-For-Launch full Builds/Theorycrafts that should be good for both ‘fresh-into-endgame’ characters as well as late endgame. I also plan to evolve them further when the game is released & keep them updated when we get rebalance updates. This is one such build for the Necromancer Class called Hemomancer 2.0.

I’ve also made spreadsheets for those builds (see the links below) that have shortlisted the active and passive skills + legendary aspect + unique item + gems & sockets + suggested stat rolls + paragon boards that work well with the build which you can use to tinker. Alternatively, I’ve added build calculator links (mostly needed for the paragons)

This build will be updated post-launch to a new & expanded version when I have more in-game information as reference.

Video Version:

Skill Trees

Below you’ll see ONLY the Active & Passive skills that were selected for this build. For additional skills that can be taken + alternative skill options, you can check my RDY-4-Launch Builds spreadsheet on this link. This build (Hemomancer 2.0) is one of the builds on that spreadsheet.

Basic Skill (Resource Generator/Builder) (Required Points: 0 )

  • (active) Hemorrhage – Burst an enemy’s blood, dealing 25% (X-XX) damage. Hemorrhage has 20% chance to form a Blood Orb. Lucky Hit Chance: 40% Generates: 7 Essence Damage: Physical ; Tags: Basic, Blood
    • (1st upgrade) Enhanced Hemorrhage After picking up a Blood Orb, your next Hemorrhage also hits nearby enemies and grants 2 additional essence per enemy hit
    • (2nd upgrade) Initiate’s Hemorrhage Hemorrhage grants 1.6% Base Life as Fortify each time it hits an enemy, and has a 1.5% chance per enemy hit to Fortify you for 100% Base Life.

Core Skill(s) (Resource Spender) (Required Points: 2 )

  • (active) Blood Lance – Throw a blood lance that lingers in an enemy for 3 econd, dealing 45% (X-?) damage to the enemy and all other lanced enemies. Lucky Hit Chance: 40% Essence Cost: 25 Damage: Physical ; Tags: Core, Blood
    • (1st upgrade) Enhanced Blood Lance – Blood Lance Pierces through enemies who are currently lanced, dealing 15% reduced damage to subsequent enemies after the first.
    • (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Supernatural Blood Lance – After casting Blood Lance 8 times, your next cast of Blood Lance is guaranteed to Overpower and spawns a Blood Orb under the first enemy hit.
  • (passive) Hewed Flesh Lucky Hit: Your damage has up to a 4%/8%/12% chance to create a corpse at the target’s location.
  • (passive) DID NOT INVEST in other Core passives to save points

Macabre Skills (Required Points: 6 )

  • (active – ONLY put 1 point here) Blood Mist Disperse into a bloody mist, becoming Immune for 3 seconds. Your Movement Speed is reduced by 20.00% and you periodically deal 2% (X-?) damage to enemies, healing for 0.5% of your Maximum Life. Lucky Hit Chance: 9% Cooldown: 20 Seconds. Damage: Physical ; Tags: Macabre, Blood
    • (1st upgrade) Enhanced Blood Mist Casting a Skill that Overpowers reduces the cooldown of Blood Mist by 2 seconds.
    • (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Dreadful Blood Mist – Blood Mist Fortifies you for 0.5% Base Life each time it hits an enemy.
  • (passive) Grim Harvest Consuming a Corpse generates 3/6/9 Essence.
    • (upgrade) Fueled by Death You deal 4%/8%/12% (multiplicative) increased damage for 4 seconds after consuming a Corpse.
  • (passive) Skeletal Warrior Mastery – Increase the damage and Life of your Skeletal Warriors by 15%/30%/45% (multiplicative).
  • (passive) DID NOT INVEST in other Macabre passives to save points

Corruption Skills (Required Points: 11 ) Not taking an Active skill here

  • (active)
    • (1st upgrade)
    • (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2)
  • (passive) DID NOT INVEST in any Corruption passives to save points

Summoning Skills (Required Points: 16 )

  • (active – ONLY put 1 point here) Corpse Tendrils Veins burst out of a Corpse, pulling in enemies, Stunning them for 3 seconds, and dealing 20% (X-?) damage to them. Lucky Hit Chance: 20% Cooldown: 11.0 Seconds. Damage: Physical ; Tags: Corpse, Corruption
    • (1st upgrade) Enhanced Corpse Tendrils Enemies who are in range of Corpse Tendrils are Slowed by 50% before being pulled.
    • (2nd upgrade – my pick of the 2) Plagued Corpse Tendrils – Enemies damaged by Corpse Tendrils are made Vulnerable for 3 seconds.
  • (passive – ONLY put 1 point here) Gruesome Mending While below 50% Life, you receive +10%/+20%/+30% more Healing from all sources.
    • (upgrade) Coalesced Blood While Healthy your Blood Skills deal 6%/12%/18% (multiplicative) increased damage. Note: Need to invest into this node to unlock BOTH Tides of Blood & Drain Vitality
    • (upgrade – ONLY put 1 point here) Transfusion – Blood Orbs also heal your Minions for 15%/30%/45% of the amount. Note: Unlike Coalesced Blood, this node is only connected to Tides of Blood
    • (upgrade) Drain Vitality Lucky Hit: Hitting enemies with Blood Skills has up to 25% chance to Fortify you for 2%/5%/8% Base Life.
    • (upgrade) Tides of Blood Your Blood Skills deal 5%/10%/15% (multiplicative) increased Overpower damage. This bonus is doubled while you are Healthy.
  • (passive) Necrotic Carapace – When a Corpse is formed from your Skills or your Minions, Fortify for 2%/4%/6% Base Life.
  • (passive) DID NOT INVEST in other Summoning passives to save points

Ultimate Skills (Required Points: 23 )

  • (active) Blood Wave Conjure a tidal wave of blood that deals 90% (X-?) damage and knocks enemies back. Lucky Hit Chance: 30% Cooldown: 50 Seconds. Damage: Physical ; Tags: Ultimate, Blood
    • (1st upgrade) Prime Blood Wave Blood Wave Slows enemies by 50% for 4 seconds.
    • (2nd upgrade) Supreme Blood Wave Blood Wave leaves behind 3 Blood Orbs as it travels.
  • (passive) Bonded in Essence – Every 5 seconds, your Skeletal Priest’s Healing will Heal your skeletons for 20%/40%/60% of their Maximum Life.
    • (upgrade) Death’s Defense – Your Minions can’t lose more than 75%/50%/25% of their maximum Life from a single damage instance.
    • (upgrade) Inspiring Leader – After you have been Healthy for at least 4 seconds, you and your Minions gain +4%/+8%/+12% Attack Speed. (seems to need a point in Death’s Defence to unlock this)
      • (upgrade) Hellbent Commander – Your Minions deal 10%/20%/30% (multiplicative) increased damage while you are near them.
  • (passive) DID NOT INVEST in any other Ultimate passives to save points

Specializations (Required Points: 33 )

  • (passive) Rathma’s Vigor Increase your maximum Life by 10%. After being Healthy for 15 seconds, your next Blood Skill Overpowers.

Book of the Dead (Class Mechanic):

This build is all about creating as many corpses as possible and getting Fortify for each corpse generated. On top of that we can keep spamming Blood Lance as long as we keep consuming the corpses as that gives us Essence. For that reason we take the Corpse generation & Fortify bonuses for our Minions.

I’d advise taking one Minion Type for this build & Sacrificing the other. I prefer using the Skeletal Warriors & Skeletal Mages, while scrapping the & Golem. The types + sacrifices are:

  • Skeletal Reapers: Upgrade 2for that extra Corpse generation
    • Description: Reapers have a 10% chance to carve the flesh off enemies, forming a corpse. This cannot happen on the same enemy more than once every 5 seconds.
  • Bone Mages: Upgrade 2 is amazing to keep granting us Fortify
    • Description: Each time a Bone Mage dies from its own attack, they leave behind a corpse and Fortify you for X.
  • Iron Golem: Sacrifice so that we get extra Crit Damage
    • Description: You deal 30% (multiplicative) increased critical strike damage, but you lose the ability to summon a Golem.

Unique Item

In Diablo IV apparently (I have multiple sources that confirmed this) we can equip more than one unique item at the same time (not so ‘unique’ if we can get decked out in full uniques I guess). It seems that the one unique per build idea that Unique inherited from the Mythical gear they supposedly replaced was scrapped even before the closed beta tests. My top pick will be the following one but check the notes under the Aspects list for some additional picks:

Ring of Starless Skies (Ring)

[6 – 35]% Lightning Resistance
[6 – 35]% Shadow Resistance

Each consecutive Core Skill cast reduces the Resource cost of your next Core Skill by [5 – 10]%, up to a maximum of 30%.

[10 – 18] All Stats
+[4 – 10]% Lucky Hit Chance
+[9.5 – 16.5]% Damage to Crowd Controlled Enemies
+[12.5 – 19.5]% Core Skill Damage

“Yours is the power to pluck the stars from the heavens with the ease of a child gathering fruit from the bough.” – Unknown

Sockets & Gems

There are various possible good/viable choices for the gem slots. I’ve shortlisted what works by slot. I’d recommend picking one of those:

Weps: Weps: Emerald, Saphire, Ruby, Diamond, or Skull.
Armor: Ruby, Skull, or Saphire.
Jewelry: Diamond unless you need specific resistance more than all.

XYZ Diamond (Requires Level XY)

• Weapon: +N% Ultimate Skill Damage
• Armor: +N% Barrier Generation
• Jewelry: N% Resistance to All Elements

+5%/+5%/5 for chipped (the 2nd grade at lvl 20)

XYZ Skull (Requires Level XY)

• Weapon: +N Life On Kill
• Armor: +N% Healing Received
• Jewelry: +N Armor

+13/+5%/+170 for chipped (the 2nd grade at lvl 20)

XYZ Ruby (Requires Level XY)

• Weapon: +N% Overpower Damage
• Armor: +N% Maximum Life
• Jewelry: N% Fire Resistance

+15%/+5.5%/14.3% for chipped (the 2nd grade at lvl 20)

XYZ Emerald (Requires Level XY)

• Weapon: +N% Critical Strike Damage to Vulnerable Enemies
• Armor: +N Thorns
• Jewelry: N% Poison Resistance

+7.5%/39/14.3% for chipped (the 2nd grade at lvl 20)

XYZ Saphire (Requires Level XY)

• Weapon: +N% Critical Strike Damage to Crowd-Controlled Enemies
• Armor: N% Damage Reduction While Fortified
• Jewelry: N% Cold Resistance

+7.5%/5%/14.3% for chipped (the 2nd grade at lvl 20)

Legendary Aspects / Powers

I will only list the Legendary Aspects that have been selected for the build and the slots in which I advise putting those. For in-depth information you can check my RDY-4-Launch Builds spreadsheet on this link. This build (Hemomancer 2.0) is one of the builds on that spreadsheet.

  • Helm:Aspect of Might / Harlequin Crest (see notes below)
  • Amulet: Smiting Aspect / Melted Heart of Selig (see notes below)
  • Chest: Viscous Aspect
  • Pants: Aspect of the Embalmer / Temerity (see notes below)
  • Gloves: Aspect of Rathma’s Chosen
  • Boots: Exploiter’s Aspect
  • Ring 1: Aspect of Grasping Veins
  • Ring 2: Blood Seeker’s Aspect / Ring of Starless Skies (see notes below)
  • 1H Weapon: Aspect of Hungry Blood
  • Off-hand: Cadaverous Aspect
  • 2-H Weapon (if you decide to use one): Aspect of Hungry Blood
NOTE 1: Blood Seeker's Aspect goes in the Ring slot ONLY until you get the Ring of Starless Skies Unique Ring.
There are three other alternative picks for Uniques you could use if you get those first: Melted Heart of Selig (Amulet), Harlequin Crest (Helm), & Temerity (Pants)
See the notes below for more info:

NOTE 2: How to re-arrange if using any of the alternative Uniques:
- For Melted Heart of Selig (Amulet): Smiting Aspect gets removed from the Amulet slot to make room for the Unique Amulet
- For Harlequin Crest (Helm): Aspect of Might gets removed from the Helm slot to make room for the Unique Helm.
- For Temerity (Pants): Aspect of the Embalmer gets removed from the Ring 2 slot to make room for the Unique Pants.

Paragon Boards:

Use the links below to check the paragon boards selected and the nodes I’ve taken. One link is for what the boards will look like at lvl 89 without any paragon points from renown (so more paragon points will be obtained on the way to 100 as well as from renown). The other link will be what the boards will look like when fully maxed out on paragon points.

Suggested Gear Rolls to look out for (NOT in complete order of priority):

I’ve shortlisted 44 different affixes that work well with the build of almost 300 total. I’ll highlight in Orange the ones I think should get higher priority

Bonus to All Damage
Critical Strike Chance / Critical Damage Bonus
Critical Chance / Critical Damage with Blood/Physical Skills
Critical Chance / Critical Damage with Core/Macabre/Corpse/Corruption/Basic/Ultimate Skills
Damage with Core/Macabre/Corpse/Corruption/Basic/Ultimate Skills
Lucky Hit Chance
+ X Ranks to Blood Lance/Hemorrhage/Blood Wave/Blood Mist/Corpse Tendrils
+ X Ranks to Core/Macabre/Corpse/Corruption/Basic Skills
Lucky Hit Chance with Blood/Physical Damage
Blood/Physical Damage Bonus
+ % Critical Chance / Critical Damage with Blood/Physical Damage
Resistance to All Elements
+ % Blood/Physical Damage to Elites
+ % Critical Strike Chance with Blood/Physical Damage Against Elites
+ % Damage for X Seconds After Killing an Elite
Damage Reduction for X Seconds After Killing an Elite
Damage Reduction from Elites
Damage to Close Enemies
Critical Chance / Critical Damage Against Close Enemies
Damage to Crowd Controlled Enemies
Critical Chance / Critical Damage Against Crowd Controlled Enemies
Vulnerable Damage
Critical Chance / Critical Damage Against Vulnerable Enemies
Fortify Generation
Damage while Fortified
Chance When Struck to Fortify for X Life
Overpower Chance
Overpower Damage with Blood Lance/Hemorrhage/Blood Wave/Blood Mist/Bone Storm
Overpower Damage with Core/Blood/Macabre/Corpse/Corruption/Basic/Ultimate Skills
Damage to Slowed/Stunned/Immobilized Enemies
Critical Strike Chance Against Slowed/Stunned/Immobilized Enemies
Lucky Hit: Critical Strikes From Your Minions Have up to a 5% Chance to Reduce Enemy Damage Dealt by X% for N Seconds
Higher Priority
+ All Stats
Damage while Healthy
Damage vs Healthy Enemies
Damage vs Injured Enemies
Weapon Damage (not sure if there are any bonuses to that as rolls)
Essence Generation
Essence Regeneration
Essence On Kill
Movement Speed
Attack Speed
Intelligence
Resource Cost Reduction
Lower Priority

Useful Links (Spreadsheets & more):

For all of my Diablo IV RDY-4-Launch Theorycrafts/Builds: This Spreadsheet

For my Diablo IV Pre-Launch Class Skill Trees (can be used as mini-calculator): This Spreadsheet

For all of my Diablo IV Pre-Launch Theorycrafts/Builds: This Spreadsheet

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This concludes the Hemomancer 2.0 Necromancer Build for Diablo IV. If you’re interested in the game below are links to the various platforms where one can buy it (you can just click the links to open a new tab):

PC (Battle.Net)

XBOX

PlayStation

Official Website