Diablo 4 Season 11: Necromancer builds tier list

Diablo 4 Season 11’s Necromancer is frankly, in a pretty good place, so we’re looking at an endgame tier list. While not every build is good, and one or two are in an absolutely dire spot, there are enough options for you to conquer whatever in-game content you prefer to play. While the build I plan on playing (Minion) isn’t S-Tier, that won’t stop me from playing it, that’s for sure.

One Diablo 4 Season 11 Necromancer build only exists because of a new Unique, and some builds are sitting there because of some Overpower changes made in the latest patch notes. It’s worth highlight that these are my personal thoughts, and you should play whatever you prefer to play, regardless of where it is on a tier list.

What are the best Necromancer builds in Diablo 4 Season 11?

Diablo 4 Season 11 has quite a few potential builds for Necromancers, but not all of them are equal. Just because one is weaker than the other on paper, doesn't mean you shouldn't try it. It does however mean we don't recommending investing tons of time or resources into them, but the ultimate question is to ask yourself what kind of build would be fun for you, and just do that.

Tier list

S-Tier: Shadowblight, Blood Wave
A-Tier: Minion, Sever, Bone Spirit, Golem
B-Tier: Blight, Bone Spear
C-Tier: Blood Surge, Blood Lance
D-Tier: Corpse Explosion

S-Tier

S-Tier: Shadowblight, Blood Wave

Shadowblight's still going to be the king of the hill (Image via Blizzard Entertainment)

The S-Tier builds are the most powerful builds in Diablo 4 Season 11 for Necromancers, offering you safety, and most important of all, damage. These are Shadowblight, and somehow, Blood Wave.

Shadowblight doesn’t surprise me, because it’s a ridiculously powerful build. It stacks as many instances of shadow damage as possible, to trigger Shadowblight procs. It’s also easy to use, because of the simple rotation and spamming Blight/Corpse Explosion.

Blood Wave is also a Shadow build, and thanks to some Overpower changes, it’s shot right back to the top. Personally, I don’t prefer these builds because they often sacrifice minions, and that just feels weird to me. However, Blood Wave once again remains top tier, especially if you have the required Kessime’s Legacy Unique and Fastblood Aspect.

A-Tier

A-Tier: Minion, Sever, Bone Spirit, Golem

Minions are forever my favorite build for Necromancers in Diablo 4 (Image via Blizzard Entertainment)

The A-Tier options of Minion, Sever, Bone Spirit, and Golem are powerful, but just lacking a bit somewhere, compared to the S-Tier options. They usually lack in damage, or have more stringent requirements to get them moving.

Minion Necromancer is pretty much the same as it has been since the creation of Ring of Mendeln and The Hand of Naz. It’s a Skeleton Mage army that is nearly unkillable, and deal tons of damage. It’s not as fast and you’re a bit squishy, but it’s incredibly fun.

I sadly only have a little bit of experience with the Golem build, but I don’t think it’s quite as strong as the minionless S-Tier builds. I also don’t think it’s quite as good as regular Minions, but it’s quirky, and most of all, it’s fun to have 3 Golems running around.

I think Sever is always a solid build because it doesn’t require any Uniques, making it easy to get access to. It’s a solid early build for the end-game, and you can use it to shift into other, better builds. It’s simple, and smashes through enemy groups with a powerful, shadowy scythe.

I’m honestly not sure I like Bone Spirit in A, but we’ll see a few weeks into Diablo 4 Season 11. That could change, but I think it’s still a decent build, and only requires a handful of useful Uniques. I think the hardest part is getting enemies trapped, so you can smash them with Bone Splinters, that’s about it.

B-Tier

B-Tier: Blight, Bone Spear

Blight is still fun, even if it's not the most top-tier (Image via Blizzard Entertainment)

Diablo 4 Season 11’s Necromancer tier list needs a few builds that are mediocre, and that’s always going to be the case in this class. Blight and Bone Spear are decent, and sit in B-Tier. They aren’t as good as other Bone-related builds like Bone Spirit, Sever, or Shadowblight.

Bone Spear mostly drops from its heights of A-tier because you no longer have access to cool seasonal powers from Season 10. You still have Indira’s Memory, Deathless Visage, and of course, Bone Spear, but it’s not just not as much of a godkiller as it used to be.

Blight is more of a DOT build, compared to Shadowblight, which just wants as many procs as humanly possible. Just make sure you have an Ebonpiercer for it. I’m also in general, not a fan of Diablo 4 builds that sacrifice minions, but I’ve already made that clear.

C-Tier

C-Tier: Blood Surge, Blood Lance

Never really cared for Blood Lance builds, honestly (Image via Blizzard Entertainment)

Blood Surge and Blood Lance are down in C-tier, but they’re both up from where they were last season! Diablo 4 Season 11 has improved both builds for Necromancers, but I don’t know that I’d recommend them if you’re really pushing hard content.

Both of these builds have improved thanks to the Overpower changes in patch 2.5.0. Sadly, it’s not enough to make them overpowered. They’re great for pushing, but aren’t fast, and are miserable for boss killing. There’s only one build that’s really worse, though.

D-Tier

D-Tier: Corpse Explosion

Honestly, I don't think this build has been meta since like Season 3 (Image via Blizzard Entertainment)

I can’t remember the last time the Corpse Explosion/Infinimist build was something anyone was playing. It’s niche at best, and just isn’t worth playing right now. It involved using Decrepify, Bone Storm, and Blood Mist, and Reaping afterwards.

The idea is that you’d constantly use Blood Mist to stay as close to invincible as possible. Most people don’t even put it on their list, and for good reason. It really never recovered from its nerfs early in the game’s lifetime.

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Edited by Jason Parker