Diablo 4’s Bone Spirit Wave Necromancer builds flood the world in blood and bone. It creates waves of viscera that decimate anything it comes in contact with. When it comes to powerful Necromancer builds, it doesn’t get much stronger than this for the Season of Hatred. It’s a relatively easy build to play—it’s a Necromancer build after all—and it’s fun, on top of that! However, this is an endgame build, so it needs some pretty decent gear.
There are multiple ways to build a Bone Spirit Wave Necromancer in Diablo 4, this is just the way we prefer to play it as we go through Season 6. From skills, mercenaries, rune combos, and the best gear, here's our guide on setting up a Bone Spirit Wave Necromancer.
Note: This article is subjective and based on the author's opinion.
How to play Bone Spirit Wave Necromancer in Diablo 4
If you want to play a Necromancer in Diablo 4 Season 6, Bone Spirit Wave builds are the way to go. It does incredible single-target and AoE damage, works well with others, and generally just feels ridiculously powerful. Once you’re geared up and have all the skill points you need, this build is just madness.
In combat, you use Decrepify first to slow down enemies and help you manage cooldowns. Use Blood Wave to start getting Blood Orbs into play, and damage enemies. This should also start putting Corpses into play—use Corpse Tendrils when you can to gather up your foes. Throw Blight down next, and keep using it off cooldown.
Now you’re ready to mop up, use Blood Lance to use the Blood Orbs on screen. This all works because of one of the required Uniques—Blood Artisan’s Cuirass. It spawns a free Bone Spirit when you pick up a certain number of Blood Orbs. You get lots of free spirits, so more free damage. Combine this with more Blood Waves, and enemies perish in short order. Below is the list of skills/talents you need to have in this build:
You also want to have the correct talents picked in your Book of the Dead for your Bone Spirit Wave build as a Necromancer. You want Skeletal Warriors—Skirmishers, Skeletal Mages—Cold, and Golems—Iron for more Critical Strike Chance, Vulnerable Damage, and Critical Strike Damage, respectively. To do this, you get no summons! But that's okay, you still obliterate enemies with the greatest of ease.
Best Runes for Bone Spirit Wave Necromancer in Diablo 4
Since we can repeatedly, easily cast Blood Wave as a Bone Spirit Wave Necromancer in Diablo 4, Zan+Ohm is one of the best Rune combinations we can possibly create. This gives you Offering for using Ultimates, which uses Barbarian’s War Cry. We can keep this up easily, adding a 15% damage multiplier at almost all times.
Next is Lith+Xal because you spend a lot of time standing in one place as a Necromancer. This rewards you for standing in place by giving you 20% Maximum Life for four seconds; the more Offering you have, the longer it stays active.
Ideal Mercenary for Bone Spirit Wave Necromancer in Diablo 4
The best Mercenary for Diablo 4’s Bone Spirit Wave Necromancer is Raheir. His tankiness is amazing as it reduces your incoming damage, heals with Ground Slam, and uses Bastion to redirect damage to him. If you take Inspiration, that will also make sure you gain more damage while he’s using Bastion.
You’re going to want to take Varyana as your Reinforcements in D4. Her Ancient Harpoons connected to Blood Wave will make sure your targets don’t get knocked back too far, so enemies die in a nice, happy clump.
BiS gear and Legendary Aspects for the Bone Spirit Wave Necromancer in Diablo 4
The above sheet has the important gear, stats, and Legendary Aspects you need. If you see an asterisk, those are stats you’ll try to add via Tempering. This build does want a few incredibly powerful pieces of gear, such as Harlequin Crest, Blood Artisan’s Cuirass, and the Ring of Starless Skies.
Check out our other Diablo 4 guides and features
- Diablo 4 Vessel of Hatred Mercenary system, explained
- Diablo 4 Vessel of Hatred: Tenets of Depravity guide
- Diablo 4 Vessel of Hatred: How to unlock the Undercity