Diablo 4 Season 11 Necromancer Rework Speculation: Shadowmist Build Aims To Boost Survivability And Damage
Necromancer class in Diablo 4 Season 11 is a fun and engaging class that many players love, but its strength is often disappointing. So let's speculate on what changes Diablo 4 will make to Necromancer to make it more powerful.
Necromancer in Diablo 4 is a beginner-friendly, safe, and easy-to-learn class. Its summoning minions in battle provides a satisfying sense of control over the entire battlefield. However, its strength in recent seasons has been disappointing.
The final patch for Diablo 4 Season 11 has not yet been announced, so let's speculate on the changes to Necromancer in the new season. If it were stronger, perhaps more people would enjoy this class.
Inspiration For The Proposal
I speculate that if Necromancer is revamped in Season 11, it will inevitably involve enhancing the class's survivability and damage output. Currently, while its summoned minions deal some damage, its self-defense is too poor; it suffers heavy losses once enemies get close.
So how exactly should this be adjusted? I'm reminded of a very strong build from the past, which long-time Diablo 4 players might remember: Infinamist. It granted Necromancer extremely high survivability, and its summoned minions dealt area-of-effect shadow damage.
Most importantly, Blood Mist summoned by this build could counter sudden, fatal attacks. Even against Abattoir of Zir, Necromancer performs well.
However, this build is no longer popular. If we improve it, retaining its area-of-effect Blood Mist mechanic while adding skills to better complement its passive ability might allow this class to regain its former glory.
Let's call it Shadowmist Necromancer for now.
Transforming Blood Mist
First, let's clarify that the new Shadowmist Necromancer's primary damage source is Shadowblight. After minions deal eight instances of shadow damage to enemies, Shadowblight will deal an additional instance of shadow damage.
We could try to increase the frequency of this extra shadow damage triggering, but simply increasing minion attack speed wouldn't bring about a significant change.
Therefore, we could add skills that deal shadow damage, such as treating the damage from Blood Mist as shadow damage as well.
We know that using Blood Mist grants a period of immunity, heals the user, and deals area damage. Converting this damage to shadow damage would synergize with Shadowblight trigger mechanism.
If combined with Ebonpiercer, Shadowblight would fire four small projectiles that deal corruption damage upon triggering, increasing the trigger rate of the next round of extra shadow damage and significantly improving Shadowblight's trigger speed.
Add Blood Mist To Skill Bar
Necromancer class has a passive skill called Reaper's Pursuit, which increases movement speed after using a Darkness skill. This is the core passive skill of Diablo 4 shadow Necromancer build.
To maximize its benefits, we generally recommend placing more Darkness skills on your skill bar. Blood Mist is neither a Darkness skill nor does it deal high damage, so common builds don't include it on the skill bar.
However, if Blood Mist is modified according to the above assumptions, it definitely deserves a place in the skill bar. As a Darkness skill, it synergize with Reaper's Pursuit. Its immunity and healing effects allow Necromancer to maintain a healthy state during combat.
Making Blood Mist Damage Higher
Now that Blood Mist has been transformed into a Darkness skill and placed on the skill bar, something seems to be missing.
In the current season, we cannot use other skills while in Blood Mist form. Although this state lasts for three seconds, it still creates a damage slump. So how do we compensate for this? Add a damage-over-time effect to Blood Mist.
During Blood Mist's duration, it deals shadow damage to enemies it touches. Combined with Ebonpiercer's projectiles, this can trigger Shadowblight's additional damage at an extremely high rate.
To further boost damage, you can also use some Diablo 4 Items, such as Bloodless Scream, which freezes enemies while increasing your shadow damage.
This is practically a mobile turret, and the incredible health regeneration after upgrading Blood Mist to level 5 makes you fearless in the face of any enemy. I can't even imagine how exhilarating it would be to farm with Shadowmist Necromancer!
As a class that accompanied many players through their early days in Diablo 4, Necromancer really needs a buff. I hope it can handle high-difficulty challenges with ease, instead of being limited to ordinary daily farming.