So I jumped back into Diablo 4 last night aiming to blast my Necro to max level fast. Everyone’s yelling about Bone Spear being king, right? Figured I’d try the pure Bone route people keep pushing for leveling. Gotta say, starting out felt rough.
The Early Struggle is Real
First dozen levels were kinda slow. Felt weak, ya know?
- Level 1-10: Started with the basic Reap skill just to get corpses popping. Felt mandatory but not flashy. Used Bone Splinters as my generator because, well, Bone build demands it.
- The Corpse Problem: Oh man, generating enough corpses early was a pain. Needed ’em for everything! Corpse Explosion was okay for clearing trash, but bosses? Stared at my empty floor tiles wishing for just one body.
- First Big Choice: Hit level 15, unlocked my Book of the Dead. Grabbed Skeletal Warriors first – Skeleton Defenders with the Reaper upgrade. Thought they might help tank while I struggled. Kept the basic Golem too for another meat shield.
Around level 25, things finally started clicking. The Bone Spear skill itself started feeling less like a peashooter.
Hitting the Bone Sweet Spot
Key powers started dropping around level 30-40. This is where the build screams.
- Hitting Crucial Nodes: Spent points like crazy. Serration in the Bone Tree for crit damage? Compound Fracture for Vulnerable chance? Absolute must-haves. Grabbed Imperfectly Balanced too for more juice – mana cost sucks but damage is worth it.
- Essence, Essence, Essence: Felt starved all the time. Became desperate for items with “+ Max Essence” and “+ Resource Generation”. Even minor increases felt huge. Used Hewed Flesh passive religiously for that chance to get lucky.
- Book of the Dead Min-Maxing: Ditched the Reapers finally. Went full Skeleton Cold Mages – the extra essence they siphon helps SO MUCH keeping Bone Spears flying. Sacrificed the Golem too for pure damage boost.
Bone Storm came online around level 40. Used it purely for the damage bubble early on. The survivability felt nice, but the cooldown was annoying.
Gearing Up Like a Bone Maniac
Wasn’t just farming mobs, constantly scanned yellows for specific boosts:
- Gloves: Attack Speed like a man possessed. Faster Spears equal more corpses, more deaths.
- Weapon/Skulls: Anything boosting Vulnerable Damage or Critical Strike Damage was glued to my gear.
- Rare Gems: Slapped the biggest Emeralds into weapons for that sweet critical damage. Armor got Rubies for health.
Amulet/Rings: Screamed for “+ Max Essence”. Needed it like water in the desert.
Smashed Through the Rest
Once the core pieces locked in post-level 50, mobs started evaporating.
- Paragon Board Start: Snatched the Bone Graft board first, obviously. Pushed hard for those Legendary Nodes boosting Bone damage.
- Legendary Aspects: Lucked out and found one reducing Bone Storm cooldown per corpse spent (Grasping Veins?). Suddenly I had almost constant Bone Storm. The damage shield + extra crit felt insane.
- The Final Setup: Skills stuck: Bone Splinters, Bone Spear, Bone Storm, Corpse Tendrils, Corpse Explosion (Blighted for curses), Decrepify. Book setup: Cold Mages, no warriors, sacrifice Golem.
The speed was unreal. Pull huge packs, Corpse Tendrils to suck ’em in and make ’em Vulnerable, pop Bone Storm, then machine-gun Bone Spears straight into the blender. Rares? Elites? Barely slowed down. Hit mid-60s way faster than any Blood or Minion setup I’d tried before. It gets clunky if you run dry on Essence mid-fight, but once geared? Pure domination. Just stack that damage and watch stuff vanish.