Best Diablo 4 Bone Spirit Necromancer build in Season 5

The Necromancer is at the top of the meta in Season 5 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 5

As you level while playing through either the campaign or the new Season 5 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 5

Once you reach endgame in Season 5 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:

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, and Barbarian.