How the engine works
The Hematolagnia upgrade removes Blood Wave's 50-second cooldown and makes it a Core skill that costs 70 Essence, so you cast it over and over. Kessime's Legacy turns each cast into two waves, one from each side, that meet at your feet, Pull In everything nearby and explode. Blood Wave's Overpower upgrade overfills your Overpower stacks by 2 on every cast, and that is where the damage really comes from: the Tidal Aspect raises how many stacks you can hold, and Banished Lord's Talisman, Red Blessing, the Dominate glyph and the Bloodbath paragon node all pay out for holding, gaining or spending those stacks. Everything else on the bar exists to keep Essence flowing, keep you alive and keep your buffs up.
Who it's for
Anyone who wants one build for everything. It speed farms quickly, pushes Pit and Tower well and is a top boss killer. You must be happy fighting at point-blank range and willing to chase specific items.
- Rating
- S-Tier
- Difficulty
- Easy to play, hard to gear
- Key stat
- Essence per Second, about 20 or more
- Must have
- Kessime's Legacy (unique pants)
The bar
Six skills on the bar and a seventh cast for you by a runeword. Blood Wave is the only one that deals real damage. The other five feed it Essence, make Corpses, and keep you Unstoppable and healed.
The damage. Take Hematolagnia (Core skill, no cooldown, 70 Essence, 300% damage, no Knock Back), Overpower (each cast overfills your Overpower by 2) and Damage Bonus (30% more damage while Fortified). Rank 15. Only cast it with enemies in range.
Hold — constantlyYour Essence and cast speed engine. Life Imprisonment casts it around you: inside it you get 20% more Essence generation and cast speed, and it drains 5% of your Maximum Life a second. Casting it gives 50 Essence, plus 25 if a boss is trapped. Rank 15. Stand in it.
Keep it upWith Blood Rush it becomes an 8-second Mobility skill that consumes a nearby Corpse to teleport and makes you Unstoppable for 3 seconds. Consuming the Corpse switches on the Flesh-eater paragon node. Its upgrades add 5% Critical Strike Chance for 5 seconds afterwards, plus Vulnerable and a 70% Slow.
Press — on cooldownInexorable Reaper makes it a dash. It Slows by 40% for 3 seconds and forms a Corpse, which is what Blood Mist needs. Use it to close the gap, and to get out when Blood Mist is on cooldown. One point.
MovementWeakens the pack. Life Tap heals you for 10% of Maximum Life once a second while you hit cursed enemies and gives a 20% chance of a Blood Orb when they die. Its other upgrades give Resolve stacks and shave a second off a random cooldown on Lucky Hit. Rank 15, but the lowest priority button.
Press — each packYour generator, used only when the Essence bar is empty. Each swing gives 15 Essence plus 2 per enemy hit, and forms a Corpse under the first enemy. Cull The Weak makes it a Blood skill that Executes and has a 50% chance to form a Blood Orb on a kill. One point.
Press — when emptyNot on your bar. The Igni + Teb runeword casts it for you. With Blood Maiden it becomes a Blood skill that makes enemies Vulnerable, has a 5% chance to form Blood Orbs, and picks up and bursts 4 orbs each time it is cast. One point.
Automatic — runewordPassives
There is no Key Passive in this build, and no passive nodes at all. All 83 skill points (69 from levels, 14 from Season Rank and Renown) go into skills and their upgrades. Take Blood Wave, Bone Prison and Decrepify to rank 15, Blood Mist to 14, and leave Reap, Sever and Iron Maiden at one point each.
Book of the Dead
Choose the Sacrifice option for all three minion types. A Sacrifice no longer deletes the minion: it halves how many skeletons you can raise, or halves your Golem's damage, in exchange for a permanent bonus to you. That cost is irrelevant here because there is no minion skill on the bar, so you never summon anything. The Bone Mage bonus is the important one, because you always hold a stack of Overpower. If you need more resistances, Skeletal Defenders can replace the Reapers. Before you own Ring of Starless Skies, you can also try keeping Skeleton Mages with the Gift of Death upgrade purely for the Essence.
| Pick | What it gives you |
|---|---|
| Skeletal Warriors: Reapers, Sacrifice | You deal 15% more damage. The number of Reapers you can summon is halved. |
| Skeletal Mages: Bone, Sacrifice | You deal 20% more damage while you have a stack of Overpower, which is always. |
| Golem: Iron, Sacrifice | You deal 15% more Critical Strike Damage. Your Golem does 50% less damage. |
What to wear
One unique makes the build work and four more make it strong. A one-handed weapon and a shield is the standard setup. You may only equip one Mythic that you craft in the Horadric Cube with Pandemonium Fragments, so choose in the order below.
Uniques
| Item | What it does | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| Kessime's Legacy | Pants. Blood Wave forms a wave on each side of you; both converge at your feet, Pull In surrounding enemies and explode. That doubles your casts' damage and does the grouping for you. Drops from Andariel, or gamble pants with Obols. The ordinary unique is fine: this is the last item to chase as a Mythic. | Mandatory |
| Banished Lord's Talisman | Amulet. After you spend 275 Essence you gain 4 stacks of Overpower, and consuming Overpower raises your Critical Strike Damage by 130–150% for 8 seconds. It needs the Tidal Aspect transfigured onto it to work properly. Drops from any boss. Top priority for a Mythic-quality copy. | Core |
| Red Blessing | Amulet or Unique Charm. Gain 2 Maximum Overpower, Blood Orbs grant 2 stacks, and your Blood skills consume a stack to deal more damage. Because Blood Wave overfills Overpower on every cast, this is in effect a permanent 150% multiplier. Drops from The Butcher. | Core |
| Ring of Starless Skies | Ring. Spending Essence lowers the cost of your skills and raises your damage by 10% for 3 seconds, stacking up to 50%. It solves most of your Essence problems and is the first Mythic to aim for. | Mythic |
| Leoric's Crown | Helm. Counts as jewellery and doubles the effect of any gem socketed in it, which means doubled Soul Splinters. Drops from any boss. High priority for a Mythic-quality copy. | Core |
| Endurant Faith | Unique Charm. Spreads incoming damage over time. The slot to use when you need to be tougher, for early Mephisto or Echo of Lilith kills and for the one-shot mechanics of Torment 12. | Charm |
| Blood-Mad Idol | Amulet for pushing only. You are always Berserking and deal 150% more damage while Burning, but take 200% more damage as Burning over 8 seconds. The constant damage and healing also keeps Untimely Death active. It makes staying alive much harder. | Variant |
| The Grandfather or Tibault's Will | Unique Charms for the sixth slot if you want something else there. The Grandfather is a large multiplier with no drawback once your Critical Strike Chance is high. Tibault's Will is a big boost to Essence gain. | Optional |
Before they drop
Kessime's Legacy has no substitute, so get it first: gamble pants with Murmuring Obols and farm Andariel. Everything else has a stand-in. Until Ring of Starless Skies, wear the Aspect of Deluge on a ring; it is a must-have for Essence. Until Banished Lord's Talisman, use a legendary amulet with Thickened Blood and keep the Tidal Aspect on your boots. Until Leoric's Crown, wear a legendary helm with Exploiter's Aspect, or Hardened Bones if you need the toughness. Stack Maximum Life, Essence per Second and Resource Cost Reduction while you wait.
Legendary aspects
| Aspect | What it does for you |
|---|---|
| Tidal Aspect | Amulet, transfigured on with Kullean Tuning Prisms at the Horadric Cube. Raises your Maximum Overpower while you are Fortified. More stacks means more from Banished Lord's Talisman and Red Blessing. Keep it on your boots until you can imprint it. |
| Tides of Blood Aspect | Ring. Blood skills deal 25–35% more damage while you have a stack of Overpower, doubled while you are Healthy. You always have a stack. |
| Aspect of Thickened Blood | Weapon. Blood skills deal up to 60–90% more damage based on how Fortified you are. Coalesced Blood is the second choice here. |
| Aspect of Untimely Death | Shield. Every 10% of your Maximum Life healed gives 60–90% more Blood skill damage for 4 seconds. Only worth it if you can keep it active; otherwise use Coalesced Blood, which adds Blood skill damage while you are Healthy. |
| Crushing Aspect | Gloves. You deal 45–65% more damage while Fortified. |
| Embattled Aspect | Boots, once Tidal has moved to the amulet. Raises Fortify's drain rate by 100–150%, which in practice makes your Fortify healing arrive at once. |
| Aspect of Glynn's Anvil | Chest. Plus 2 maximum Resolve and 3–4% damage reduction per Resolve stack. Decrepify and Bone Prison supply the stacks; at 13 stacks it is 40% damage reduction. |
| Aspect of Deluge | Ring, until Ring of Starless Skies replaces it. Each Overpower stack raises your Maximum Essence and adds 2 Essence regeneration. |
Banished Lord's Talisman needs Tidal on it
The Talisman and Red Blessing both scale with how many Overpower stacks you can hold, and the Tidal Aspect is what raises that cap. Transfigure Tidal onto the amulet with Kullean Tuning Prisms. Until you can, keep Tidal on your boots and don't replace it with Embattled.
Stats, gems and paragon
Roll and masterwork toward these, in this order.
| # | Stat | Where you roll it |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Essence per Second | Helm, chest, pants and boots. About 20 in total before the build feels smooth. |
| 2 | Resource Cost Reduction (your Essence) | Helm, chest and rings. About 20%, and more before you own Ring of Starless Skies. |
| 3 | Critical Strike Chance | Gloves, amulet, rings and shield, plus the weapon and shield tempers. |
| 4 | Critical Strike Damage multiplier | Gloves, amulet, rings and weapon. |
| 5 | Maximum Life | Helm, chest, pants and boots, and as the temper on the first three. |
| 6 | Vulnerable damage multiplier | Gloves, amulet and rings. |
| 7 | Attack Speed | Gloves, amulet and rings. Guaranteed on Leoric's Crown. |
| 8 | Armour | Helm, chest, pants and shield, with Damage Reduction on the shield. |
Hard targets
About 20 Essence per Second, about 20% Resource Cost Reduction, and three "Lucky Hit: up to a 15% chance to restore 12+ Essence" tempers on your jewellery. Over 50% Attack Speed with Ferocity stacks; Bone Prison supplies a lot of it. Critical Strike Chance over 60% in the mid game and over 70% when finished. For pushing, 100% Block Chance. There is no other hard breakpoint for this build.
Tempering & masterworking
Temper Maximum Life on helm, chest and pants, and Movement Speed on boots. Temper the Lucky Hit chance to restore Essence on the amulet and both rings, and Critical Strike Chance on weapon and shield. On gloves, take Damage per Overpower Stack once you own Red Blessing and the Tidal Aspect, and Physical Damage before that. Masterwork Essence per Second on armour and Critical Strike Chance on gloves and jewellery first; once Essence is solved, push Weapon Damage on the weapon, Damage Reduction on the shield and Vulnerable Damage on gloves and amulet. When transfiguring, look for Gem Strength on Leoric's Crown, then damage multipliers, Critical Strike Chance and Attack Speed.
Gems, runewords & Splinters
- Runeword Igni + Teb: required. Igni stores Offering every 0.3 seconds and Teb spends 100 of it to cast Iron Maiden for you, which applies Vulnerable, makes and collects Blood Orbs and helps Essence.
- Second runeword: there are two ways to run this. Zan + Que casts the Druid's Earthen Bulwark for a steady Barrier. Poc + Wat casts Decrepify for you, which frees that bar slot. Take Que if you keep Decrepify on the bar as shown here; take Wat if you would rather press one button fewer. Poc + Gar, for up to 10% Critical Strike Chance, is a stopgap.
- Gems: Skull in the weapon, Topaz in armour for Intelligence. Swap in Rubies if Lightning and Fire Enchanted elites are killing you.
- Soul Splinters, three at most: Black Soulstone (each soul gives 5% more damage and 0.5% more damage taken, for 15 seconds) and Pain (40% damage reduction, 30% less Movement Speed) are the long-term picks, with the best one in Leoric's Crown where it is doubled. Add Anguish (35% Attack Speed and Critical Strike Chance, 30% higher costs) once Essence can afford it. Hellfire doubles your damage but removes all Critical Strike Chance, so it is only for before your crit stats are decent. Avoid the Mother.
- Talisman: a Legendary Seal with +1 Charm Slot for six slots, Critical Strike Chance first on the Seal. Fill five slots with the full Berú of the Blood Binder set at any quality before anything else, with + to Blood Skills on the charms. The sixth slot holds Red Blessing or Banished Lord's Talisman, whichever you are not wearing as your amulet. The Talisman usually has the better amulet affixes, so Red Blessing is normally the charm.
- Splinter of Evil: take Diablo's Splinter of Terror first, because Helltide is the most common early activity.
Paragon
Boards in order: Starter with the Sacrificial glyph, then Frailty for its legendary node (skip the resistance clusters for now), Blood Begets Blood, Bloodbath and Flesh-Eater, taking each board's legendary node. Then socket glyphs: Blood-drinker on Blood Begets Blood, Dominate on Frailty, Control on Flesh-Eater, go back for Frailty's resistance clusters, and finish with Essence on Bloodbath. After that, pick up every magic and rare resistance and Maximum Life cluster, Dexterity around Essence, Willpower around Dominate and Intelligence on Flesh-Eater. Level every glyph to 25 first to widen its radius, then to 51 for the second damage multiplier. There is a second layout that swaps Blood Begets Blood for Scent of Death and runs Corporeal, Gravekeeper, Essence, Imbiber and Dominate; if you use it, level Dominate first.
| Glyph | Where and why |
|---|---|
| Sacrificial | Starter board. |
| Dominate | Frailty board. Pays out when you gain Overpower, which Blood Wave does on every cast. The most important glyph. |
| Blood-drinker | Blood Begets Blood board. |
| Control | Flesh-Eater board. The Flesh-eater node itself is switched on by consuming Corpses with Blood Mist. |
| Essence | Bloodbath board, socketed last. Bloodbath's bonus runs all the time thanks to the Overpower cycle. |
Mercenary
Hire Subo through the mid game. He helps with Essence and single-target damage, and reveals the map. Once every Essence problem is solved, switch to Varyana for more damage and survivability. If you are fresh at 70 and short of crit, Aldkin is a good first hire for 15% Critical Strike Chance and early sustain. In every case the reinforcement is Raheir with Bastion, set to trigger when you become Injured.
From fresh 70 to finished
This build is weak without its items and excellent with them. This is the order it comes together in.
Wear Hardened Bones on the helm, Juggernaut's on the chest, Rathma's Chosen on gloves, Tidal on boots, Crushing on the weapon, Coalesced Blood on the shield, Tides of Blood and Deluge on the rings and Thickened Blood on the amulet. Socket Igni + Teb. Stack Maximum Life, Essence per Second and Resource Cost Reduction. Aim for 10–12 Essence per Second and 18% Resource Cost Reduction to start.
Gamble pants and farm Andariel until it drops. This is where the build's real power appears: two waves a cast, and the pull is automatic.
Three Lucky Hit restore tempers on jewellery, Deluge on a ring, then Ring of Starless Skies when you can craft or find it. Once your Essence regeneration and Resource Cost Reduction are high enough that you can hold Blood Wave down, the build starts blasting.
Farm The Butcher for Red Blessing; Banished Lord's Talisman drops from any boss. Transfigure Tidal onto the amulet, move Embattled onto the boots, and finish the Blood Binder charm set. This is the biggest single jump in damage.
The Crown doubles whatever Soul Splinter sits in it. Put your best one there and raise Critical Strike Chance past 70%.
Torment 12 is full of one-shot mechanics. Add the Endurant Faith charm and the Embattled Aspect and a fully built character feels close to immortal. For Pit and Tower pushing, stack Resolve with Glynn's Anvil and reach 100% Block Chance.
The rotation
It closes the gap and leaves a Corpse at your feet.
You teleport, become Unstoppable, gain Critical Strike Chance and switch on Flesh-eater. Use it every time it is ready. If there is no Corpse, Sever first.
Weaken, healing from Life Tap every second, Resolve stacks, and cooldown reduction for Bone Prison and Blood Mist.
Only recast when it has fully expired or you need it somewhere else. A recast cancels the one that is up.
Only while enemies are in range. Kessime's Legacy pulls them to you. Casting at nothing empties your Essence and stalls everything.
A few swings into a cluster refills the bar. Then go again.
On bosses
The same loop, tighter. Bone Prison gives an extra 25 Essence when a boss is trapped, so cast it every time it is ready rather than saving it. Keep Blood Mist on its 8-second cycle, using Reap or Sever to make the Corpse. If you sit at maximum Overpower without ever spending a stack, Bloodbath's second bonus and Dominate stop triggering: putting Blood Lance on the bar in Decrepify's place, with its Overpower upgrade, spends two stacks a cast so Blood Wave can gain them again. When pushing, open every run on a small pack. You start with no Resolve stacks and a big pull will kill you outright; it takes only a few seconds to reach 10.
Strengths, weaknesses, mistakes
What it's good at
- Extremely high damage once the items are in, both area and single target.
- Kessime's Legacy groups every pack for you, so speed farming is very fast.
- One real button. You can clear most content pressing little else.
- Strong healing and crowd control, and very tanky when finished.
Where it struggles
- Harsh Essence management. Blood Wave costs 70 Essence this season, up from 50.
- Very gear dependent. It needs Kessime's Legacy to function and leans hard on Ring of Starless Skies and Resource Cost Reduction.
- Banished Lord's Talisman is hard to find, and it needs a transfigured aspect on top.
- You have to stand on top of the enemies.
Mistakes that ruin it
- Casting Blood Wave at nothing. With no enemies in range nothing refunds the cost, and your Essence falters or stops entirely.
- Recasting Bone Prison early. A new cast cancels the active one. Wait until it fully expires.
- Treating the Overpower items as polish. Tidal, Banished Lord's Talisman, Red Blessing and the Blood Binder charms are the damage. Kessime's Legacy alone is only the start.
- Neglecting Essence per Second on boots and chest. Early on, regeneration matters more than any damage stat.
- Opening a push run on a big pack. You have no Resolve stacks yet. Start small.
- Never spending Overpower. Sitting at the cap means Bloodbath's second bonus and Dominate never re-trigger.
Not for you? The other Necromancer builds: Bone Spirit · Minion Necromancer.