Blood Surgeis one of theNecromancer’s hardest-hitting AOE skills inDiablo 4. It maintains Death Nova’s playstyle from the previous games while having an identity of its own, allowing players to create a character that fits in nicely with the life and death theme of the class without losing out on practical power.
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Necromancers may find themselves struggling when theyuse Blood Surge in the early stagesofDiablo 4’sendgame. Its power comes with a cost, so players must find ways around it. Here’s a setup that combines effects from gear and passives to maximize Blood Surge’s potential while mitigating some of its glaring drawbacks.
Patch 1.0.3forDiablo 4 wasreleased on Jul 27, 2025, making small changes to the action RPG. Still, ourEndgame Blood Surge Build guideremains the same, even after the update. Players can still use this guide to reach their full potential with the Necromancer’s ability.
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Book of the Dead
Blood Golem
Sacrifice
The idea behind this build is to use Blood Surge asthe main mob-clearing toolwhile Blood Lance takes care of elites and bosses. Since Blood Lance doesn’t have any Legendary Aspects that increase its single-target damage, players can freely focus on stacking effects for Blood Surge, Overpower, and other related effects.
Take Paranormal Blood Surge and Supernatural Blood Lance to get guaranteed Overpower procs. This playstyle involves keeping track of cast counts for each of these abilities so Overpower damage doesn’t go to waste, so keep that in mind.
Blood Mist is primarily a defensive skill, but players can also use it offensively when Rathma’s Vigor is active. Use it to start an engagement to heavily damage every enemy on screen, then finish them off with Blood Surge.
Corpse Tendrilsis here for its Crowd Control and Vulnerable effects. Meanwhile,Corpse Explosionis used to consume Corpses for passive and Aspect effects.
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Rathma’s Vigor
Hewed Fleshis a must-have for anycorpse-consuming Necromancer build, just like howCoalesced BloodandTides of Bloodare mandatory for Blood builds. TakeDeath’s Embracefor extra protection and damage, and getMemento Morisince the build won’t be using any minions.
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The other passives here are self-explanatory—more damage, more Essence, more survivability. If Essence management becomes a problem, swapImperfectly Balancedout forDeath’s Reach.
SacrificeBone Mages for the added Overpower damage, Blood Golem for maximum Life, and either Skirmishers for critical hit chance or Defenders for Non-Physical damage resistance.
Embalmer
Eluding
The setup above still has room for improvement, but many players who are above level 50 should have easyaccess to all the Aspectson the table.
Blood Orbs play a key role in this build, so players will wantEmbalmerandPotent Bloodon their gear to take advantage of them even more. Both will feed the damage bonus fromUntimely Death, which will make every Overpower proc deal significantly more damage.
Resource management is going to be the main issue with this build. Players should get rings with Essence cost reduction to help alleviate that problem. Potent Blood alone won’t be able to maintain the Necromancer’s Essence levels, so make sure to support it with items and Paragon passives.
As for Unique items, players should use the Mother’s Embrace to Starless Skies rings so they don’t lose as much Essence when spamming their Core Skills. Feel free to swap out Aspect of Explosive Mist for one of these Unique rings.
Paragon Board
Bone Graftis an excellent board for any build that’s heavy on spellcasting. It contains nodes that restore Essence every time players get a kill, so despite being a Bone-focused board, everyone can take Bone Graft without sacrificing much power.
BloodbathandBlood Begets Bloodare both great options for Blood Surge and Blood Lance builds since they boost Overpower damage. The latter also increases the effectiveness of Blood Orbs, making it perfect for this build in particular.
As for Glyphs,Essence, Blood-drinker,andDominateare good choices. However, players will have to make sure that the Paragon Boards they choose are capable of supporting these glyphs.
Diablo 4is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
