Diablo 4: Ultimate Blood Wave Necromancer endgame build guide

Diablo 4’s Blood Wave Necromancer is still hanging in there as an incredibly powerful endgame build for Blizzard’s masters of undeath. Not many builds have the survivability and raw damage that Blood Wave offers. However, this isn’t a build you’re going to want to start with. It has gear and Legendary Aspect requirements that are going to make it a poor leveling build. Instead, Minion Necromancer might be the way to go.

Blood Wave Necromancer was one of the more powerful Season 7 builds in Diablo 4, and that remains the same here. If you’re looking to drown your foes in massive Blood Waves.

How Blood Wave Necromancer works in Diablo 4’s endgame

Blood Wave Necromancer is such a safe, powerful build in Diablo 4’s endgame. It might require a lot in terms of gearing, but it offers incredible damage thanks to the Blood Wave Ultimate ability.

There are plenty of ways to run Blood Wave that result in billions of damage (Image via Blizzard Entertainment/@LordxSaura)

This is a Shadow and Blood build, pulling enemies in nice and close, so the repeated Blood Waves smash them to pieces. Then, you grab the Blood Orbs to reset/lower cooldowns, and keep the carnage going. Though Blood Waves’ damage was nerfed/capped, it’s still going to perform amazingly well.

Build requirements to play Blood Wave Necromancer in Diablo 4

There are a few ways to approach Blood Wave Necromancer in Diablo 4, as well. Corpse Tendrils or Corpse Explosion, either one is a solid idea, but Corpse Tendrils works best I think, to pull enemies closer together for the Blood Wave casts. Decompose helps you get corpses for that, and then you have Blight and Reap as attacks though are seldom needed. Blood Wave is the main damage, and Blood Mist to get out of trouble.

Skills to use on hotbar

Blight
Decompose
Blood Might
Blood Wave
Corpse Tendrils
Reap

Below you’ll also see the skill points you need to invest in with this build. Thankfully, it’s easy to respec in Diablo 4, so when you feel you’re ready to swap to this build at Level 60, you’ll want to use the passives and skills in the list below:

Decompose x 1
Reap x 1 (Enhanced)
Blight x 1 (Enhanced, Supernatural)
Blood Mist x 1 (Enhanced, Dreadful)
Necrotic Fortitude x 3
Titan’s Fall x 3
Spiked Armor x 3
Grim Harvest x 1
Fueled by Death x 3
Death’s Embrace x 3
Amplify Damage x 3
Decrepify x 1 (Enhanced, Abhorrent)
Coalesced Blood x 3
Tides of Blood x 3
Drain Vitality x 2
Corpse Tendrils x 1 (Enhanced, Blighted)
Reaper’s Pursuit x 3
Gloom x 3
Terror x 3
Blood Wave x 5 (Prime, Supreme)
Finality x 3
Memento Mori x 3
Stand Alone x 3
Inspiring Leader x 3
Rathma’s Vigor

The only reason, on a personal level, I’m less thrilled to play as a Blood Wave Necromancer in Diablo 4 Season 8, is that it sacrifices its minions. I feel more comfortable having them there, but that’s not going to be the case for this build. Below, you can see which ones we’ve sacrificed, to increase our Resistances, Overpower damage, and Critical Strike Damage.

Book of the Dead Picks

Skeletons: Defender (Sacrificed)
Mages: Bone Mage (Sacrificed)
Golem: Iron Golem (Sacrificed)

Kessime’s Legacy was a must-have for Blood Wave in Diablo 4’s Season of Witchcraft, and that isn’t going to be changing anytime soon. It’s a Unique that was built for Blood Wave builds. We also recommend Shroud of False Death and Heir of Perdition as powerful Mythic Uniques, but they aren’t required to make the build go.

Required Uniques

Kessime’s Legacy

Skill Rotation for Diablo 4’s Blood Wave Necromancer

The Skill Rotation for Diablo 4’s Blood Wave Necromancer is a really easy one. Corpse Tendrils sets up Blood Wave, and that’s really all there is to it. You may want to use Decompose if you need a corpse to begin pulling people together, but it’s not a hard requirement. The Shadow Skills on the hotbar are to increase your damage, via Reaper’s Pursuit — but that doesn’t mean you can’t use them to throw Blight down, or to add corpses to the field.

The Skill Rotation

Decompose if needed
Corpse Tendrils
Blood Wave

Ideal Boss Powers for Blood Wave Necromancer in Diablo 4 Season 8

Boss Powers are brand-new effects in Diablo 4 Season 8, and of course, some work great for Blood Wave Necromancers. Now, I know you might be looking at Belial’s Eye Beams in particular as a frustrating one. That does require you to beat the Pinnacle Boss, after all. Instead, for the time being, consider Sinerat’s Flames perhaps, or Harbinger of Hatred’s Volley.

Main Boss Power

Urivar’s Lobbed Bombs (More damage, Cooldown Reduction)

Main Modifier Powers

Belial’s Eye Beams (Stealth, increased Overpower Damage while Stealthed)
Wandering Death’s Chest Beam (Executes non-Boss enemies with X% life, more Resources)
Hatred’s Embrace’s Haste (Critical Strike chance based on Shadow Resistance from bonuses)

Mercenary picks for Blood Wave Necromancer in Diablo 4 Season 8

Raheir remains the top-tier pick for Necromancers going into Season 8 (Image via Blizzard Entertainment)

As long as you have the D4 expansion, Vessel of Hatred, you have access to the Mercenary system. While all of the mercenaries are great, if you’re running a Blood Wave Necromancer, I recommend Raheir as the main Mercenary, and Aldkin for reinforcement. This is mainly due to the tankiness of Raheir, and Field of Languish, which is a powerful AOE slow from Aldkin.

Raheir Choices

Ground Slam
Raheir’s Aegis
Bastion
Inspiration

Aldkin Choice

Field of Languish (Connected to Blood Wave)

Ideal gear, Runewords, and Legendary Aspects for Diablo 4 Season 8

Gear Slot	Ideal Affixes	Aspect
Helm	Cooldown Reduction, Intelligence, Maximum Life	Cursed Aura
Chest	Maximum Life, Intelligence, Resistances	Hardened Boners
Gloves	Critical Strike Chance, Maximum Life, Intelligence	Vehement Brawler's
Pants	N/A (Unique)	Kessime's Legacy
Boots	Movement Speed, Maximum Life, Armor	Metamorphosis
Amulet	Ranks of Tides of Blood, Intelligence, Ranks of Coalesced Blood	Fastblood
Ring 1	Maximum Life, Lucky Hit: Chance to make enemies Vulnerable, Intelligence	Ultimate Shadow
Ring 2	Maximum Life, Intelligence, Critical Strike Chance	Damned
Weapon	Lucky Hit: Chance to Restore Essence, Maximum Life, Intelligence	Tidal

Thankfully, the Diablo 4 Blood Wave Necromancer only needs one specific Unique, and that’s Kessime’s Legacy. There are a pair of Rune Words you want to equip as well. The first is Bac+Gar on your Helmet, for more Critical Strike Chance.

The second will go on your weapon, ideally a Two-Handed Mace, and that’s Cir+Vex, which offers +1 to all Skills for 10s. As far as Gems go, you want Topaz (Grand/Royal), and Resistance Gems of your choice on your jewelry slots. Whatever you need at the time is what belongs here. Another great option, instead of Bac+Gar is Ahu+Qax to do devastating damage, thanks to the might of Blood Wave.

It’s worth noting that if you do wind up with Heir of Perdition, you’ll need to move the Cursed Aura somewhere else on your gear. I recommend putting it on your boots.

Paragon and Glyphs for Diablo 4’s Blood Wave Necromancer

This is your baseline board, and what it will look like completely filled in (Image via D4Builds)

Paragon Boards can be incredibly frustrating in D4, in terms of trying to get every single position correct. Below, we’ve covered what your first board will look like with around 230 points used, and then what a full board could look like.

Start: Sacrificial
Board #2: Bloodbath (Abyssal Rare Glyph)
Board #3 Scent of Death (Essence Rare Glyph)
Board #4: Blood Begets Blood (Amplify Rare Essence)
Board #5: Frailty (Dominate Rare Glyph, add Preservation Rare Glyph)

Check out our other Diablo 4 guides and features

About the author

Jason is an Esports and Gaming journalist at Sportskeeda holding an amazing 11 years of experience under his belt. Having put out 4000-plus articles and amassing over 12 million reads for Sportskeeda, he is among the company’s most experienced writers. Jason holds a Bachelor's degree in English from UNC Pembroke and was inspired to become a gaming journalist very early on in life after reading Nintendo Power.

Jason is a jack of all trades when it comes to gaming journalism. He’s a key writer in Sportskeeda's MMO department, but he also likes to help out in other categories, like streamers, RPG, card games, and whatever else is needed. A solo gamer at heart, Jason's favorite titles include Earthbound and Dragon Warrior.

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Edited by Jason Parker