Blood Lance Necromancer Abattoir of Zir Build (Season 2)

This is a Season 2 Blood Lance endgame build for Necromancer in Diablo 4 (D4) that focuses on utilizing blood skills and Blood Orbs to trigger extra effects on your combos. Read on for the complete list of Vampiric Powers, Skills, and Aspects you need and how to play the build for Season 2 and the new Abattoir of Zir (AoZ) endgame dungeon!

Infinimist Strengths and Weaknesses

Strengths

Strong AoE Damage

The Blood Lance's damage comes from its Lance propagation mechanic where hitting a lanced enemy would cause the said lance to pierce the target which effectively doubles our DPS. This can repeat continiously until several enemies are getting hit by Blood Lances per cast.

With Aspects, this becomes easier to do which allows us to demolish mob groups easily.

Decent Sustain from Blood Orbs

Blood Lance naturally spawns Blood Orbs on the ground and our aspect will allow us to consume the said Blood Orbs without picking them up. This gives us free sustain while also using our Core Skill to attack enemies which keeps us topped up in HP without losing DPS.

Not Resource Hungry

We have several ways to restore Essence and even if we run out of crowd control to replenish our said essence using Umbral Aspect, we have an insane amount of Attack Speed that allows us to spam Hemorrhage to quickly refill our Essence to full.

Weaknesses

Suffers Against AoZ Blood Seekers

Since Blood Lance's mechanic gets stronger the more enemies are lanced due to its propagation mechanic, the opposite is also true where we actually lose out on damage the fewer enemies there are on the field. Our DPS isn't high when fighting few numbers of elites.

Slow Gameplay

Even if we can keep our HP topped up with sustain from Blood Orbs, we are still susceptible to burst damage from big mobs or sudden burst of damage from elites. Its recommended to play around your cooldowns which is why Decrepify is extremely valuable in our build to reduce Bone Storm's cooldown which can mean more uptime.

Low DPS Against Vampiric and Single Enemies

Most of our Attack Speed comes from external effects such as from the Aspect of Rathma's Chosen which requires us to overpower to give us Attack Speed as well as Ravenous which requires a lucky hit trigger. This means that our build's DPS is low when initiating fights but quickly gets higher once the said conditions are met.

Blood Lance Build Overview

Build Summary

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Summary		Skill Progression		Vampiric Powers
Aspects & Affixes		Gems		Paragon

Skills

Aspects & Uniques

Stats & Gems

Build Overview and Summary
Blood Lance		Tier: Focus: PVE Playstyle: Solo and Party
Active Skills
Passive Skills

Build Overview and Summary
Blood Lance		Tier: Focus: PVE Playstyle: Solo and Party
Aspects and Uniques
Flickerstep Banished Lord's Talisman Lidless Wall Aspect of Might Aspect of Hungry Blood Tidal Aspect Aspect of Gore Quills Fastblood Aspect Aspect of Potent Blood

Build Overview and Summary
Blood Lance		Tier: Focus: PVE Playstyle: Solo and Party
Stat Priorities			Recommended Gems
・Cooldown Reduction ・Willpower ・Intelligence ・Armor ・Maximum Life ・Energy Cost Reduction ・Damage to Distant Enemies			Ruby (Weapon & Armor) Diamond (Jewelry)

A Blood Lance-focused build that utilizes Overpower mechanics and the Blood Lance propagation methods via aspects and blood orb aspects to quickly multiply our damage! We utilize several new Uniques such as the Banished Lord's Talisman and supriringly, the Blood Artisan's Cuirass as well for unique combos using this blood orb and blood lance build!

Blood Lance Build Breakdown

Skill Progression

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Summary		Skill Progression		Vampiric Powers
Aspects & Affixes		Gems		Paragon

Active Skills

Skill		Upgrade Path
Hemorrhage (1 Point)	→	Enhanced Hemorrhage	Acolyte's Hemorrhage
Blood Lance (1 Point)	→	Enhanced Blood Lance	Supernatural Blood Lance
Blood Mist (1 Point)	→	Enhanced Blood Mist	Dreadful Blood Mist
Corpse Tendrils (5 Points)	→	Enhanced Corpse Tendrils	Blighted Corpse Tendrils
Bone Storm (Ultimate)	→	Prime Bone Storm	Supreme Bone Storm

Passive Skills

Blood Lance Passives
Unliving Energy (3 Points)	Imperfectly Balanced (3 Points)	Hewed Flesh (1 Point)
Death's Embrace (3 Points)	Gruesome Mending (1 Point)	Coalesced Blood (3 Points)
Transfusion (3 Points)	Tides of Blood (3 Points)	Drain Vitality (3 Points)
Stand Alone (3 Points)	Memento Mori (3 Points)	Inspiring Leader (3 Points)
Rathma's Vigor (1 Point)

Skill Progression Breakdown

Recommended Skill Progression
Lv.2	Lv.3	Lv.4	Lv.5
Hemorrhage	Enhanced Hemorrhage	Blood Lance	Enhanced Blood Lance
Lv.6	Lv.7	Lv.8	Lv.9
Supernatural Blood Lance	Acolyte's Hemorrhage	Blood Lance	Blood Lance
Lv.10	Lv.11	Lv.12	Lv.13
Blood Lance	Blood Lance	Blood Mist	Death's Embrace
Lv.14	Lv.15	Lv.16	Lv.17
Death's Embrace	Death's Embrace	Enhanced Blood Mist	Dreadful Blood Mist
Lv.18	Lv.19	Lv.20	Lv.21
Corpse Tendrils	Enhanced Corpse Tendrils	Plagued Corpse Tendrils	Gruesome Mending
Lv.22	Lv.23	Lv.24	Lv.25
Coalesced Blood	Coalesced Blood	Coalesced Blood	Bone Storm
Lv.26	Lv.27	Lv.28	Lv.29
Prime Bone Storm	Supreme Bone Storm	Stand Alone	Stand Alone
Lv.30	Lv.31	Lv.32	Lv.33
Stand Alone	Memento Mori	Memento Mori	Memento Mori
Lv.34	Lv.35	Lv.36	Lv.37
Tides of Blood	Rathma's Vigor	Tides of Blood	Tides of Blood
Lv.38	Lv.39	Lv.40	Lv.41
Transfusion	Transfusion	Transfusion	Drain Vitality
Lv.42	Lv.43	Lv.44	Lv.45
Drain Vitality	Drain Vitality	Inspiring Leader	Inspiring Leader
Lv.46	Lv.47	Lv.48	Lv.49
Inspiring Leader	Decrepify	Enhanced Decrepify	Abhorrent Decrepify
Renown Skill Points (Lv50 Onwards)
R1	R2	R3	R4
Amplify Damage	Amplify Damage	Amplify Damage	Unliving Energy
R5	R6	R7	R8
Unliving Energy	Unliving Energy	Imperfectly Balanced	Imperfectly Balanced
R9		R10
Imperfectly Balanced	Hewed Flesh

Note that this is an endgame build and its skill build progression is not ideal to be followed as a new character

Book of the Dead

Raise Skeleton	→	Warrior (Defenders)	Sacrifice
	→	Mage (Bone)	Sacrifice
Golem	→	Iron	Sacrifice

We sacrifice all of our Summons for this build. We chose Defenders for the Abattoir of Zir variant for the extra resistance to avoid getting killed easily. We chose Mage Bone as our next sacrifice naturally for the Overpower damage bonus and lastly. We Sacrifice the Iron Golem for the extra Critical Strike Damage.

Book of the Dead Guide

Best Vampiric Powers

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Summary		Skill Progression		Vampiric Powers
Aspects & Affixes		Gems		Paragon

Vampiric Power Cost	Effect Explanation
Sanguine Brace 0 1 1	When you kill an enemy, Fortify for 6% of your Base Life. While you have more Fortify than half of your Maximum Life, you gain 8% Critical Strike Chance. Increases our Fortify Rate due to its Fortification bonus on kill. With this build, this is basically a free 8% Critical Strike Chance bonus.
Blood Boil 0 0 6	When your Core Skills Overpower an enemy, you spawn 3 Volatile Blood Drops. Collecting a Volatile Blood Drop causes it to explode, dealing 60% Physical damage around you. Every 20 seconds, your next Skill is guaranteed to Overpower. Adds one more guaranteed Overpower Proc to our build. This means we can quickly apply an Overpower proc with Rathma's Vigor, 6 Blood Lances, and Blood Boil for three ways to Overpower!
Domination 1 0 0	You deal 24% increased damage to enemies who are Stunned, Immobilized, Frozen, or Feared. If they're also Injured and not an Elite, they're instantly killed. A straight up bonus damage when we use Corpse Tendrils.
Metamorphosis 2 2 2	When you Evade you turn into a cloud of bats, becoming Unstoppable for 4 seconds. Enemies along your path take 160% Physical damage and are inflicted with Vampiric Curse. Applies Vampiric Curse but our main goal is its secondary part of treating enemies with Vampiric Curse as vulnerable. This is our main way of applying Vulnerable in this build and it synergizes well with Flickerstep to reduce our Blood Wave cooldown as well.
Ravenous 3 0 0	Lucky Hit: Up to a 20% chance to increase your Attack Speed by 40% of your Total Movement Speed for 6 seconds. Partners well with Metamorphosis. Every enemy you dash into will now take 16% bonus damage!
Total Pacts Required 5 | 3 | 9

List of Vampiric Powers and Pacts Explained

Aspects and Affixes

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Summary		Skill Progression		Vampiric Powers
Aspects & Affixes		Gems		Paragon

Best Weapons

Weapon	Aspects and Affixes
Sword	Aspect of Rathma’s Chosen Whenever your Blood Skills Overpower you gain (20-50)% Attack Speed for 4 seconds. ・+ Critical Strike Damage (Inherent) ・+ Core Skill Damage ・+ Intelligence ・+ Overpower Damage ・+ Critical Strike Damage
Off Hand	Lidless Wall Lucky Hit - While you have an active Bone Storm, hitting an unaffected enemy has a (5-25)% chance to spawn an additonal storm at their location. Each of your active Sacrifice bonuses increases the chance by 25% and the total additional Bone Storms you can have by +1. ・+ 60% Blocked Damage Reduction (Inherent) ・+ 20% Block Chance (Inherent) ・+ 80% Mainhand Weapon Damage (Inherent) ・+ Thorns (Inherent) ・+ X% Attack Speed ・+ X% Lucky Hit: Chance to Restore Your Primary Resource ・+ X% Maximum Life ・+ X% Maximum Essence

Best Armor

Equipment	Aspects and Affixes
Helmet	Aspect of Might Basic Skills grant 20% Damage Reduction for (XX) seconds. ・+ Max Life ・+ Total Armor ・+ Damage Reduction ・+ Damage Reduction While Fortified
Chest	Aspect of Disobedience You gain (0.25-0.50)% increased Armor for 4 seconds when you deal any form of damage, stacking up to (66)%. ・+ Max Life ・+ Total Armor ・+ Damage Reduction ・+ Damage Reduction While Fortified
Gloves	Aspect of Gore Quills Blood Lance will consume Blood Orbs to also conjure lances from them. Each additional Blood Lance deals (20-50)% of normal damage and prioritizes targeting un-lanced enemies. ・+ Attack Speed ・+ Critical Strike Chance ・+ Overpower Damage ・+ Blood Lance Rank
Pants	Aspect of Shielding Storm Each time that Bone Storm damages an enemy, gain a Barrier equal to (2-5)% of your Base Life for 10 seconds. ・Potion Grants Movespeed (Inherent) ・+ Max Life ・+ Total Armor ・+ Damage Reduction ・+ Damage Reduction While Fortified
Boots	Flickerstep Each enemy you Evade through reduces your active Ultimate Cooldown by 2-4 seconds, up to 10 seconds. ・+ Attacks Reduce Evade's Cooldown (inherent) ・+ All Stats ・+ Movement Speed ・+ Ultimate Skill Damage ・+ Damage Reduction from Close Enemies

Best Jewelry

Jewelry	Aspects and Affixes
Amulet	Banished Lord's Talisman ・+ Critical Strike Chance ・+ Overpower Damage ・+ Resource Reduction ・+ Rank to All Core Skills
Ring	Aspect of the Umbral Restore (XX) of your Primary Resource when you Crowd Control an enemy. ・+ Critical Strike Chance ・+ Overpower Damage ・+ Critical Strike Damage ・+ Attack Speed
Ring	Aspect of Grasping Veins Gain (10-20)% increased Critical Strike Chance for 6 seconds when you cast Corpse Tendrils. You deal (20-40)% bonus Critical Strike Damage to enemies damaged by Corpse Tendrils. ・+ Critical Strike Chance ・+ Overpower Damage ・+ Critical Strike Damage ・+ Attack Speed

Best Gems

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Summary		Skill Progression		Vampiric Powers
Aspects & Affixes		Gems		Paragon

Item Type	Effect Explanation
Royal Ruby (Weapon)	+24.0% Overpower Damage Goes without saying that Ruby will be our main jewelry for our weapons due to the build's focus on Overpower Damage and this gem just makes it better.
Royal Ruby (Armor)	4.0% Maximum Life Ruby gives you max HP which is a more reliable source of defense than the other gem counterpart. This is much more true with the Blood Lance build as Overpower scales with HP!
Elemental Gems (Jewelry)	+30% Elemental Resistance Gems Provides 30% Elemental resistance to a chosen element. We highly recommend capping out your elemental Resistance and gems that provide elemental resistances will be the key to doing so. The gems you can use for the three jewelry slots you have are flexible and highly depends on the resistances you currently have. We also recommend supplmenting this with one armor piece (Helm, Torso, or Waist piece) to cap out all of your resistances.

How to Get Maximum Resistance

For maxing out our resistances, we immediately start at 44% Base resistance thanks to our Book of the Dead, Paragon Board, and maxed out Jewelries. We need to further supplement this by adding specific elemental jewels as we'll also be getting 12% bonus resistance to two random elements from our rings.

Paragon Board Setup

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Summary		Skill Progression		Vampiric Powers
Aspects & Affixes		Gems		Paragon

Starting Board

• Control (Glyph) - The starting board's nodes are primarily focused on Intelligence and Control is the best intelligence glyph that we can use for our build. It strengthens our damage Decrepified and/or enemies stunned by Corpse Tendrils.
• Prime (Rare) - Taken for extra damage.
• Knowledge (Rare) - Extra intelligence for our glyph and more damage.
• Preservation (Rare) - Extra intelligence for our glyph and armor for increased survivability.

Our Starting Board this time sacrifices Erudite and focuses on three Rare Nodes which are Prime, Knowledge, and Preservation to maximize our damage.

Blood Begets Blood (Tears of Blood)

Blood Begets Blood is our choice for the Tears of Blood Glyph. This is the Blood board that we can use to maximize Tears of Blood's effectivenes. For our Rare Nodes, we focus on taking all offensive Nodes to ramp up our damage to be able to handle the elites in AoZ and the defensive bonuses from this board is mainly HP that enemies can tear trough easily.

• Tears of Blood (Glyph) - Blood Begets Blood is the best board to slot in Tears of Blood as its the board with the highest overall stat for the said glyph
• Blood Begets Blood (Legendary) - This node is always maxed out due to our Blood Orb production capability from Blood Lance and our passives.
• Blood-Empowered (Rare) - Free damage multiplier due to our ease of access to Blood Orbs.
• Blood Drinker (Rare) - Extra sustain but not the most necessary node but we still use it for the Tears of Blood stat bonus.
• Invigorated (Rare) - Damage while healthy as well as bonus damage when picking up a Blood Orb are two damage multipliers that we can maximize so no reason to not take this node.
• Aggression (Rare) - Straight up damage multiplier plus damage increase to our Overpower goes a long way.

Bloodbath (Dominate)

Our main board that powers the build. We took all offensive Rare Nodes in this board to further strengthen our Blood-centric build with the exception of Suffused Resilience which we took for extra resistances for our build.

• Dominate (Glyph) - Increased Overpower damage which is great especially when partnered with the Banished Lord's Amulet.
• Bloodbath (Rare) - Similar reason to using the Dominate Glyph. Free Overpower damage comes a long way with this setup.
• Remedy (Rare) - Remedy
• Hardened (Rare) - There's minimal difficulty to reaching the Fortified status with our build so this also translates to a free DPS boost for us.
• Invigorated (Rare) - Extra healing is nice but our main aim are the Willpower nodes behind the rare node to increase Dominate's glyph effect.
• Thick Hide (Rare) - Max HP and increased damage while Fortified are two stats that are welcome for our build.
• Suffused Resilience (Rare) - We take these for the Resistance bonuses and not the DoT damage reduction so avoid those magic nodes and only take the resistance nodes.
• Guarded Advance (Rare) - Fortify Generation and faster Fortify build up makes reaching the Fortified status much easier and also makes us stronger while in the Fortified state.
• Powerhouse (Rare) - Overpower damage and damage while healthy equals more DPS.

Bone Graft (Essenece)

Our last Board is mainly taken just for the one unique Rare Node in this board which is Reinvigorate. Reinvigorate grants us 4 Essence per kill from its Rare Node and two Magic Nodes combined. This allows us to spam our Blood Lance against mob groups much easier.

For our glyph and nodes around it, we chose Essence to further amplify our critical strikes and only took Erudite as the value of Shaper of Bone is minimized as we do not use bone skills in this build.

• Essence (Glyph) - Extra critical strike damage which is essential for us due to our reliance to both Overpower and Critical strikes.
• Erudite (Rare) - Extra resistance to increase our survivability.
• Reinvigorate (Rare) - The main reason we take the board. 4 Essence per kill makes Essence management with the build a breeze. Just make sure to not over rely on it and apply Decrepify/Corpse Tendrils to trigger Umbral Aspect's effect still.

Blood Lance Build Playstyle

Necromancer Blood Lance Build Build Tips
Shoot Them With Blood Lance Use Blood Wave to Initiate Fights Corpse Tendrils is a Great Blood Orb Generator Avoid Picking Up Blood Orbs Manually

Spam Blood Lance

This is as simple as the playstyle goes to some degree. Your main goal is to keep shooting Blood Lances at enemies. Try to focus on positioning yourself so that the Blood Lance will be able to hit enemies behind it as well due to its piercing effects.

The Build's Main goal is to propagate the Blood Lance and ensure that every cast will make the Blood Lance (and Blood Orbs) to shoot Blood Lances as well which can quickly multiply the amount of DPS you can output.

Maximize Bone Storm Uptime

Bone Storm is our main source of survivability and Critical Strike Chance. We want Bone Storm to be active as much as possible so prioritize using Decrepify to lower your Bone Storm's cooldown whenever possible

Use Flickerstep to Lower Blood Wave's Cooldown

We do not recommend diving into enemies but always take Flickerstep into consideration once enemies start swarming you to get a hefty amount of Cooldown reduction for your Bone Storm.

Use Corpse Tendrils to gain Damage and More Blood Lance Pierces

Corpse Tendrils is an amazing tool for amplifying your offensive capabilities. You gain extra critical strike chance and damage from it thanks to aspect of Grasping Veins. It also groups enemies in one location which makes it easier to propagate Blood Lance to enemies which indirectly multiplies your DPS when clearing mob groups.

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