The Necromancer is at the top of the meta in Season 6 of Diablo 4 and the Bone Spirit build is one of the the best setups they can use. Here’s how to assemble the build for leveling and endgame and if we’d recommend it for PvP play.
The Bone Spirit Necro build involves the Necromancer using this longstanding move as their primary offensive skill while also utilizing other spells and gear that boost its effect. This Necromancer build is ranked as S-tier in the current meta, so it’s a great choice those Priests of Rathma who want to do more than just command minions.
From there, we’ll detail how to optimize the build for endgame, giving you the best skills, items, Aspects, and Glyphs to target on your journey. For the PvP players out there, we’ll also inform you if we think the Bone Spirit Necro is effective this season.
Best Bone Spirit leveling build in Diablo 4 Season 6
As you level while playing through either the campaign or the new Season 6 content, you’ll want to make sure that you’re selecting your skills in the following order:
| Level | Skill |
|---|---|
| 1 | Bone Splinters |
| 2 | Bone Splinters |
| 3 | Unliving Energy |
| 4 | Unliving Energy |
| 5 | Unliving Energy |
| 6 | Imperfectly Balanced |
| 7 | Imperfectly Balanced |
| 8 | Imperfectly Balanced |
| 9 | Hewed Flesh |
| 10 | Hewed Flesh |
| 11 | Hewed Flesh |
| 12 | Blood Mist |
| 13 | Enhanced Blood Mist |
| 14 | Ghastly Blood Mist |
| 15 | Bone Prison |
| 16 | Enhanced Bone Prison |
| 17 | Ghastly Bone Prison |
| 18 | Spiked Armor |
| 19 | Grim Harvest |
| 20 | Fueled by Death |
| 21 | Fueled by Death |
| 22 | Fueled by Death |
| 23 | Decreptify |
| 24 | Enhanced Decreptify |
| 25 | Abhorrent Decreptify |
| 26 | Death’s Embrace |
| 27 | Death’s Embrace |
| 28 | Death’s Embrace |
| 29 | Amplify Damage |
| 30 | Amplify Damage |
| 31 | Amplify Damage |
| 32 | Corpse Tendrils |
| 33 | Enhanced Corpse Tendrils |
| 34 | Plagued Corpse Tendrils |
| 35 | Bone Spirit |
| 36 | Enhanced Bone Spirit |
| 37 | Dreadful Bone Spirit |
| 38 | Bone Spirit |
| 39 | Bone Spirit |
| 40 | Bone Spirit |
| 41 | Bone Spirit |
| 42 | Compound Fracture |
| 43 | Compound Fracture |
| 44 | Compound Fracture |
| 45 | Evulsion |
| 46 | Evulsion |
| 47 | Evulsion |
| 48 | Rapid Ossification |
| 49 | Rapid Ossification |
| Renown 1 | Rapid Ossification |
| Renown 2 | Ossified Essence |
| Renown 3 | Inspiring Leader |
| Renown 4 | Inspiring Leader |
| Renown 5 | Inspiring Leader |
| Renown 6 | Serration |
| Renown 7 | Necrotic Carapace |
| Renown 8 | Necrotic Carapace |
| Renown 9 | Necrotic Carapace |
| Renown 10 | Hellbent Commander |
These skills will help you to craft the ideal Bone Spirit build. Of course, you’ll need to have unlocked the Renown points. If not, then go without the last ten upgrades until you have.
The above skill selection will help focus your abilities around Bone Spirit, making this your most powerful skill while reducing its cooldown time. Of course, you’ll be able to fall back on Bone Splinters when you run out of Essence, but this will become increasingly unlikely as you level up.
Best Book of the Dead setup for leveling
When it comes to using the Necromancer’s unique Book of the Dead skills for a Bone Spirit build, we recommend selecting the following:
- Skeletal Warriors – Skirmishers
- Skeletal Mages – Bone
- Golems – Iron
This Book of the Dead setup is the best for this build, letting your Skirmisher Skeletal Warriors focus on melee combat while your Mages support them from a distance with Bone Magic, this will essentially allow you to do more damage from bone skills from a distance.
We’ve selected the Iron Golem for this Book of the Dead setup as it’ll allow your Golem to protect your Mages and yourself from mobs and elites while you fire volleys into the fray.
Best leveling rotation
- Summon Minions – If not already active
- Decreptify
- Corpse Tendrils
- Bone Prison
- Bone Storm
- Bone Spirit – Main Skill
For this build, you’ll likely already have your minions with you, so your first attack should be to strike a mob with Decreptify curse so that they’re likely to take more damage when the battle starts.
Next, cast Corpse Tendrils to stun enemies and increase the likelihood of producing extra corpses to re-supply your minion army.
Now you can use your two most effective skills, Bone Prison and Bone Spirit. Once you’ve cast Bone Storm, fire a volley of Bone Spirit into the fray. You can fall back on Bone Splinters if the need arises.
Best Bone Spirit endgame build in Diablo 4 Season 6
Once you reach endgame in Season 6 by beating the story, hitting level 50, and unlocking the Paragon Board, you can then respec to the endgame version of the Bone Spirit Necro build. For this build, the endgame version is identical to the leveling build, but there are some new factors to consider.
You won’t need to reallocate your skills, but you will need the following:
| Active Skill | Upgrades | Points allocated |
|---|---|---|
| Bone Splinters | – | 2 |
| Bone Spirit | Enhanced, Dreadful | 5 |
| Blood Mist | Enhanced, Ghastly | 1 |
| Decrepify | Enhanced, Abhorent | 1 |
| Corpse Tendrils | Enhanced, Plagued | 1 |
| Bone Prison | Enhanced, Ghastly | 1 |
Here’s which Passive Skills you should choose:
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| Passive Skill | Points |
|---|---|
| Unliving Energy | 3 |
| Hewed Flesh | 3 |
| Spiked Armor | 1 |
| Fueled by Death | 3 |
| Imperfectly Balanced | 3 |
| Amplify Damage | 3 |
| Death’s Embrace | 3 |
| Grim Harvest | 1 |
| Serration | 1 |
| Compound Fracture | 3 |
| Necrotic Carapace | 3 |
| Evulsion | 3 |
| Inspiring Leader | 3 |
| Rapid Ossification | 3 |
| Ossified Essence | 1 |
Best endgame Book of the Dead setup
The Book of the Dead setup in endgame remains the same as it did in the leveling build:
- Skeletal Warriors – Skirmishers
- Skeletal Mages – Bone
- Golems – Iron
Of course, if you’d prefer not to use minions, feel free to Sacrifice them and empower yourself.
Best endgame rotation
For endgame, use the following skill rotation when approaching mobs in battle:
- Summon Minions – If not already active
- Decreptify
- Corpse Tendrils
- Blood Prison
- Bone Storm
- Bone Spirit – Main Skill
The rotation of attacks in endgame remains the same as it was for leveling with this build.
Best Legendary Aspects
Now that you’ve reached endgame, you’ll have access to many more Legendary Aspects to boost your build and add special powers to buff your primary skills. Some are the same as in the leveling build, but now there’s even more. Here’s where and how you can find them:
| Aspect | Power | Dungeon | Region | Gamble Obols |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Swelling Curse | Increased critical strike chance for Bone Spirit | Hive | Scosglen | – |
| Grasping Veins | Increased critical strike chance for Corpse Tendrils | Corrupted Grotto | Kehjistan | – |
| Might | 20% basic damage | Dark Ravine | Dry Steppes | – |
| Disobedience | Boosts defense based on your minion damage output | Halls of the Damned | Kehjistan | – |
| Torment | Critical Strikes with Bone Skills increases your Essence regeneration | Black Asylum | Fractured Peaks | – |
| Edgemaster’s | Skills deal 5-20% damage | Oldstones | Scosglen | – |
| Requiem | Boost to Essence | Vault of the Forsaken | Scosglen | – |
| Wind Striker | Critical Strikes improve movement speed | Shiva Ruins | Kehjistan | – |
| Occult Dominion | Increased Skeleton Warriors by 2 | – | – | Helm |
| Serration | Ossified Essence increases critical strikes | – | – | Focus |
| Concussive Strikes | Attacks have 20% chance to Daze enemies | – | – | Focus |
| Shielding Storm | Bone Storm generates Barrier | – | – | Pants |
| Hardened Bones | You and your minions get damage reduction | – | – | Pants |
| Shattered Spirit’s | Casting Bone Spirit also casts Bone Splinters | – | – | Ring |
| Imprisoned Spirit’s | Casting Bone Spirit also casts Bone Prison | – | – | Focus |
| Blood Getter’s | Skeeltoal Priests now empower you 55-70 | – | – | Helm |
| Metamorphosis | Evade triggers Unstoppable for 2.5 seconds | – | – | Boots |
Remember, you can also strip these Aspects from their original item and apply them to an item of your choosing.
Paragon Board
Once you reach level 50 you’ll stop earning skills points and start earning Paragon points instead. This leveling system works very differently and involves you selecting updates from various boards with different themes and buffs.
Every path is different, but the good news is that by targeting different Glyphs as you move around the Paragon Board, you’ll start buffing your Bone Spirit Necro in the ways that matter most to the build.
See below to see which Glyphs you should target first.
Best Glyphs
Level 15
- Gravekeeper
- Corporeal
- Control
- Essence
- Deadraiser
- Amplify
- Control
Level 21
- Essence
- Gravekeeper
- Corporeal
- Amplify
- Deadraiser
Once you reach Paragon Level 15, work your way towards the above Glyphs. You’ll also unlock more across the Paragon Board as you earn more points, but selecting these particular Glyphs in this order will keep you on the best possible path for the Necro Bone Spirit build.
Best Bone Spirit endgame item build
| Item | Socket | Item type | Power |
|---|---|---|---|
| Runic Skullcap of Might | Ruby for extra life | Helm | Bone Spear leaves behind exploring echoes |
| Runic Mail of Disobedience | Ruby for extra life | Chest Armor | Bone Storm has chance to trigger Barrier |
| Edgemaster’s Runic Gloves | Ruby for extra life | Gloves | Bone Spear makes enemies vulnerable |
| Runic Leggings of the Protector | Ruby for extra life | Pants | Increased Minion damage |
| Wind Striker Runic Cleats | Ruby for extra life | Boots | Increased Skeleton Priest damage |
| Sparr of Swelling Curse | 2x Emeralds for poison damage | Main Hand | Chance to cast Bone Spear twice |
| – | – | Offhand | – |
| Amulet of Torment | Diamond for extra attack power | Amulet | Boosts Evulsion and Compound Fracture |
| Requiem Band | Diamond for extra attack power | Ring 1 | Boosts Torment |
| Band of Grasping Veins | Diamond for extra attack power | Ring 2 | Boosts Grasping Veins |
It’ll take time to track down this exact set, but once you do this will make up your endgame gear. Of course, it’s up to you which gear you equip and you may want to mix it up, but this setup will give you a decided advantage.
Alternative to Necromancer Bone Spirit build for PvP
The good news about using the Necromancer Bone Spirit build for PvP is it’s the same exact build we’ve described above in our endgame (and even leveling) section. The build is rated A-tier for PvP this season, so while it’s not at the very top, it’s still deadly and a great choice for taking down other players.Now that you know how to craft this top-tier Necromancer build, make sure to check out our guides for the Druid, Sorcerer, Rogue, Barbarian, and Spirtiborn.