Diablo 4 Necromancer Build – Corpse Explosion: In this Diablo 4 Beginner Necromancer Build Guide, I’ll show you how to play a Corpse Explosion Necromancer, which is a burst DPS Diablo 4 Build that focuses on wiping out multiple enemies by detonating them with Corpse Explosion. If you’ve been looking for a Diablo 4 Beginner Necromancer Build that is aimed at World Tiers 1 & 2, and one that capitalizes on Corpse Explosion by destroying targets in a matter of seconds, then this Diablo 4 Build Guide is for you!

Diablo 4 Necromancer Build – Corpse Explosion

The general strategy for this Diablo IV Beginner Build is to first kill enemies from any distance using Bone Spear and then follow through by detonating their Corpses with Corpse Explosion. Alternating back and forth between these two Skills will wipe them out quickly. Despite the damage nerf for Corpse Explosion, it continues to be lethal and therefore, highly reliable, regardless of the type of enemy you face. It’s for this reason, that you’ll continue to trigger this Skill often to deal devastating damage. 

There are two ways to consistently gain Essence, specifically through Decompose and the Grim Harvest passive. Decompose replenishes Essence when affected enemies die. What you’ll also want to obtain in relation to this Skill is the Flesh-Rending Aspect. Every time you generate a Corpse with Decompose, you end up gaining extra Essence, allowing you to activate Bone Spear more often. On the other hand, Grim Harvest allows you to gain 9 Essence at Rank 3 every time you activate Corpse Explosion. So you can replenish this resource and then fire off more Bone Spears without having to use other Skills. 

For Elites and Bosses, the best way to handle them in addition to spamming Bone Spear and Corpse Explosion is by summoning your Minions, particularly the Golem. The Golem not only taunts enemies and tanks damage but also spawns a Corpse when its Health goes down. So you’ll still be able to continue using Corpse Explosion even if you don’t initially have as many Corpses.

Diablo 4 Corpse Explosion Beginner Necromancer Build Guide (Updated) – Skill Distribution

Each Diablo 4 Necromancer Build comprises the 6 Active Skills they have equipped and changing these Skills can drastically alter the way the Necromancer Class in Diablo IV plays. In this section, we’ll take a look at what Skills you should slot for the Corpse Explosion Necromancer Diablo 4 Beginner Build. There are 25 points in total that you’ll get upon reaching Level 25. 1 point comes from earning enough Renown in Fractured Peaks. So your Skill distribution should look something like this:

LEVEL 25 NECROMANCER SKILLS
Skill	Points Spent
Decompose	1
Enhanced Decompose	1
Initiate’s Decompose	1
Bone Spear	5
Enhanced Bone Spear	1
Supernatural Bone Spear	1
Unliving Energy	1
Imperfectly Balanced	1
Corpse Explosion	5
Enhanced Corpse Explosion	1
Plagued Corpse Explosion	1
Grim Harvest	3
Blood Mist	1
Enhanced Blood Mist	1
Ghastly Blood Mist	1

The above list gives you the general order to invest in Skills, but keep in mind that you should prioritize picking up new Active Skills over investing in passives, so pick up passives later if you can get new Active Skills when you level up.

Diablo 4 Corpse Explosion Beginner Necromancer Build Guide (Updated) – How to Handle Packs of Enemies

So there are really several different strategies to employ in this Diablo IV Build for the Corpse Explosion Necromancer, and these change depending on whether or not you’re facing a large group of enemies or a Boss. Let’s start with a group of enemies first, and we’ll cover how to handle Bosses in the next section.

Decompose

Out of all the D4 Necro Build’s Basic Skills, Decompose generates a lot of Essence by default and forms a Corpse every 2.5 seconds. Coupled with the Flesh-Rending Aspect, which you get by completing the Nostrava Deepwood Dungeon in Fractured Peaks, you restore 10 extra Essence. What’s also good is you can cast this Skill from a safer distance, especially if you need breathing room between you and your enemies.

For upgrades, you’ll want to go for Enhanced Decompose and Initiate’s Decompose. Enhanced Decompose allows you to once again regain more Essence upon slaying an affected target whereas Initiate’s Decompose inflicts Slow. This will synergize well with Corpse Explosion’s Plagued Corpse Explosion upgrade, which I’ll discuss later. 

Bone Spear

Bone Spear is your bread-and-butter resource “spender” in this Diablo 4 Build for the Necromancer. Similar to Decompose, you can hit many enemies with Bone Spear from a safe distance on top of creating Corpses, which can then be detonated using Corpse Explosion. You’ll want to max out this Skill to make sure it kills enemies as well as take all the passives, including Supernatural Bone Spear, which makes the first enemy hit by it Vulnerable. This is great for Elites and Bosses who will then take considerable damage from you and your Minions.

While you’re in Fractured Peaks, be sure to finish the Black Asylum Dungeon to obtain the Aspect of Torment. This will significantly boost your Essence regeneration every time you land crits using Bone Spear. So, you’ll also want to be on the lookout for gear with the Critical Strike Chance and Critical Strike Damage Bonuses.

For passives, you’ll want to invest 1 point to Unliving Energy, which will raise your max Essence by a small amount, in order to access Imperfectly Balanced. When you reach Level 26+, you’ll want to maximize Imperfectly Balance because although you’ll spend more Essence, you’ll end up amplifying the damage of Bone Spear. Resource regeneration shouldn’t be an issue for this Diablo 4 Corpse Explosion Beginner Necromancer Build since you have several effective ways of replenishing it by investing in the right Skills.

Corpse Explosion

Once you have some Corpses and usually when you’ve run out of Essence, you’ll begin using Corpse Explosion to deal explosive AoE damage. This will allow you to finish off enemies that are already weak from your Bone Spears. Since you have the Grim Harvest passive, every time you make use of Corpse Explosion, you’ll regenerate some Essence. So you can effectively alternate between triggering Bone Spear and Corpse Explosion.

After investing all 5 points into this Skill, you’ll also want to gain access to Enhanced Corpse Explosion to further increase its AoE and Plagued Corpse Explosion. Plagued Corpse Explosion is taken instead of Blighted Corpse Explosion for this D4 Necro Build due to the synergy you’d want to maintain against Vulnerable and Slow enemies from Bone Spear and Decompose, respectively. As such, those afflicted with these status effects receive greater damage from Corpse Explosion. 

Blood Mist

Blood Mist is a Macabre Skill, which is considered your “fail safe” should situations become too tricky to handle. This functions really well because it lets you gain Immunity for a short period of time to be able to create some distance between you and your enemies. But note that you won’t be able to use the rest of your Skills and your Movement Speed will be reduced as well. 

For Blood Mist’s upgrades, you’ll be taking the Enhanced Blood Mist passive, followed by Ghastly Blood Mist to provide you with 3 additional Corpses. As such, you’ll be able to activate Corpse Explosion even when there used to be no Corpses at all in order to deal explosive damage. 

Boss Fights

In Boss fights with this Diablo 4 Corpse Explosion Beginner Necromancer Build, you’ll have fewer Corpses on hand, but you can still employ the same strategy. You’ll be alternating between Bone Spear and Corpse Explosion while activating Decompose every now and then to generate Corpses as well as to replenish your Essence. Remember to use Bone Spear until your Essence is depleted and then spam Corpse Explosion.

As early as Level 15, the Necromancer will gain access to the Book of the Dead, which will allow them to raise different types of Minions. These can be in the form of Skeletal Warriors and Skeletal Mages.

Skeletal Warriors

For Skeletal Warriors, you’ll be selecting the 2nd node of the Reapers form in Book of the Dead. Doing so will let your Minions carve flesh off of enemies in order to create a Corpse. They don’t even have to kill it, just hit it, making this the best option when it comes to generating Corpses in Boss encounters. Between them and your Golem, Decompose Skill, and Blood Mist generating 3 itself, you can still detonate about 7-10 Corpses every few seconds, which is a lot. 

Skeletal Mages

For Skeletal Mages, you’ll be picking the 2nd node of the Cold version. This allows them to apply Vulnerable provided that they attack or Freeze their targets. As a result, your Corpse Explosion will be much more effective against them due to the increased damage provided by Plagued Corpse Explosion on Vulnerable enemies.

Golem

When your D4 Necromancer reaches Level 25 and completes the Call of the Underworld Quest, you’ll gain access to the Golem Minion. For this, you’ll want to select the 1st node of the Bone form to generate a Corpse every time the Golem loses 20% of its max Health. This will happen most often in Boss fights, especially when you constantly activate the Skill itself in order to taunt these powerful enemies. Doing so will also let the Golem absorb damage on your behalf so you remain alive longer in combat. 

Lastly, remember that many of the stat bonuses from the Book of the Dead have been increased together with the recent boost in the Minion’s survivability. So these summons will be more effective for succeeding Necromancer Diablo 4 Builds.

Final Tips

While leveling up this Diablo 4 Corpse Explosion Beginner Necromancer Build, the other gear bonuses you’ll want to acquire include Intelligence to boost the damage of your Skills, Vulnerable Damage, Core Skill Damage, +1 Rank of Bone Spear, and +1 Rank of Corpse Explosion. All you really need are the ones that benefit Bone Spear and Corpse Explosion but Vulnerable Damage is also nice since it’ll help you deal with Bosses.

In terms of passives, you’ll also want to maximize Imperfectly Balanced, Fueled by Death, and Necrotic Carapace later on. We’ve discussed Imperfectly Balanced before so let’s focus on the other two. Fueled by Death further boosts the damage of Corpse Explosion while Necrotic Carapace grants Fortify to you and your Minions for each Corpse that drops. This is a great Skill to help keep you and your summons alive, especially in tough Boss fights where there is a lot of damage.

You’ll be swapping from one better gear to the next at a rapid pace to keep up with the types of enemies you face. It’s for this reason that you’ll want to save the Legendary Aspects you acquire from Legendary Items for the endgame. Once these are extracted from the Equipment and imprinted elsewhere, you won’t be able to reuse them in the future. So when it comes to these types of Legendary Aspects, the good ones to go for at higher levels are the Aspect of Explosive Mist and Blood-Soaked Aspect.

The Aspect of Explosive Mist allows you to automatically trigger Corpse Explosions as long as there are Corpses available. It’s a massive burst DPS boost since you can detonate Corpses very quickly resulting in chain reaction explosions to occur. Meanwhile, Blood-Soaked Aspect makes your Blood Mist deal more damage and also allows you to move at normal speed, making it easier to get to more Corpses before they expire. 

Lastly, there’s also the Splintering Aspect, which improves the damage of your Bone Spear Splinters while applying Vulnerable to more enemies, making them die faster. Put this on a Two-Handed Weapon to raise its power by 100%! The Splintering Aspect can be acquired when you progress in the Dry Steppes Campaign. 

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Be sure to check out our Diablo 4 Wiki for any other questions you have about the game and the Builds page if you are looking for more Diablo IV Builds, as well as our Ultimate Beginner Guide and Best Class to Play Guide if you are looking for more Diablo 4 content!