The best Diablo 3 Necromancer build for Season 26 will allow you to wreak havoc on your enemies with deadly blood, bone, cold, and poison spells – so here’s everything you need to know to do just that.
Diablo 3’s Necromancer was released in the game back in 2017, allowing Diablo 2’s long-term fans of the same class – or those wanting to try something slightly different – to touch every corner of Sanctuary with the Priests of Rathma’s deadly power.
While the Necromancer is somewhat similar to the Witch Doctor, the class has no damage over time attacks, instead allowing you to command and control pets, as well as affecting corpses found throughout the world to do your bidding or restore Essence.
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Here’s why you should be using the Necromancer Acolyte’s build this season in Diablo 3.
Contents
- Is the Necromancer right for me?
- Is the Necromancer good this season?
- Best Necromancer Diablo 3 build
- Alternative Diablo 3 Necromancer builds
Is the Necromancer for me?
If you’re a character that loves dark magic and a gothic aesthetic, the Necromancer will make you feel right at home. Focusing on three themes: Blood & Bone, Blight, and Frost, their skills are based on deadly curses and an ever-growing horde of minions, wielding one-handed or two-handed Scythes to destroy their enemies.
- Read More: All Diablo 3 classes and characters
Able to restore their health as they’re fighting, the Necromancer is a solid choice if you’re looking to deal out dizzying amounts of damage while also providing a cushion to keep yourself alive.
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If you prefer running head-on into battle as a tank, though, we’d recommend running either Barbarian or Crusader. For a similar style of play but with a less gothic theme, we’d suggest trying out the Witch Doctor. Or, those who prefer running standard magic builds will feel right at home with the Wizard.
Is the Necromancer good in Diablo Season 26?
According to Maxroll.gg’s solo tier list, the Necromancer remains a solid choice to use in Season 26 of Diablo 3. With its most powerful builds currently ranked in the S and A-Tier, utilizing the Acolyte right now in play is nothing to scoff at.
While the seven other builds sit in the slightly underwhelming B, C, and D-tiers, you’ll be able to farm Greater Rifts without breaking too much of a sweat thanks to its other powerful options.
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Best Diablo 3 Necromancer build: Season 26
If you want to ensure that you’re putting out as much damage as possible this season with the Necromancer, make sure to run with the LoD Corpse Explosion build.
Previously reliant upon the Trag’Oul’s Avatar & Masquerade of the Burning Carnival armor sets, this build now uses a variety of pieces to turn your Necromancer into a tank-based, experience-farming machine, but suffers the cost of low mobility overall.
Active skills
Below, we’ve listed all of the skills that are included in this build, but make sure that you’re prioritizing maxing out your stats in the following order: Cooldown reduction, poison damage, area damage, critical hit chance, critical hit damage, and Corpse Explosion damage.
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Skill | Rune |
Blood Rush |
Potency |
Bone Armor | Dislocation |
Bone Spear | Blighted Marrow |
Corpse Explosion | Close Quarters |
Grim Scythe | Cursed Scythe |
Land of the Dead | Frozen Lands |
Passive skills
The passive skills you’ll want to utilize for this particular build are:
- Blood Is Power
- Eternal Torment
- Final Service
- Stand Alone
- Spreading Malediction
Item build
While your skills ultimately do the leg work, equipping the correct armor and weapons will be the difference between ensuring your Diablo 3 Necromancer build’s glass cannon damage is maximized or falling at the first hurdle:
Item Type | Name |
Helm | Leoric’s Crown |
Neck | The Flavor of Time |
Shoulders | Razeth’s Volition |
Torso | Aquila Cuirass |
Waist | Dayntee’s Binding |
Wrists | Nemesis Bracers |
Hands | Grasps of Essence |
Fingers | Convention of Elements & Krysbin’s Sentences |
Legs | Blackthorne’s Jousting Mail |
Feet | Ice Climbers |
Main hand weapon | Trag’Oul’s Corroded Fang |
Secondary weapon | Nayr’s Black Death |
Off-hand | Lost Time |
Diablo 3 Necromancer follower
Followers are a crucial part of gameplay, despite many neglecting to utilize them. Season 23’s changes brought in the option to customize their armor alongside their weapon, meaning that you will only be making things easier for you in the long run by choosing to bring one with you.
- Read More: Diablo 3 Season 26 patch notes
For the Necromancer, we’d recommend adding the only follower that provides cooldown reduction to your party: the Enchantress.
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Alternative Diablo 3 Necromancer builds
If the tanky Corpse Explosion build doesn’t take your fancy – no worries! These other two builds featured for Season 26 may not be S-Tier, but they can still make for some fun, exciting gameplay.
Poison Scythe build
Based on the Masquerade of the Burning Carnival set, the A-Tier Poison Scythe build is a fun and tanky build that is perfect for those who prefer focusing on dealing AoE damage overall.
Skill | Rune |
Bone Armor | Dislocation |
Blood Rush | Potency |
Bone Spear | Blighted Marrow |
Frailty | Early Grave |
Grim Scythe | Cursed Scythe |
Simulacrum | Blood and Bone |
The full Poison Scythe build can be obtained here.
Rathma Army of the Dead build
Based on the Bones of Rathma set, this build also currently ranks in the A-Tier. If sacrificing your own survivability for commanding and relying on minions is more your style of play, this will be an incredibly fun build to try out.
Skill | Rune |
Army of the Dead | Death Valley |
Blood Rush | Potency |
Bone Armor | Dislocation |
Command Skeletons | Frenzy |
Decrepify | Borrowed Time |
Revive | N/A |
The full Rathma Army of the Dead build can be obtained here.
So, there you have it – everything you need to know about the best Diablo 3 Necromancer build for Season 26.
For even more tips and builds to help you take down everything that Sanctuary throws at you, make sure to check out our guides:
Best Barbarian Builds | Best Crusader Builds | Best Demon Hunter Builds | Best Witch Doctor Builds | Best Wizard Builds | Diablo 3 tier list | Dawn Bow guide | How to defeat Izual | Kanai’s Cube location | Is Diablo 3 cross-platform?