Alright squad, let’s talk about my dumb mistakes leveling a Necro in Diablo 4 yesterday. Seriously felt like banging my head against the wall sometimes. Wanted that sweet, sweet XP rush, right? So I fired up the game, rolled a fresh Necro, and thought I remembered the meta. Yeah… no.
Early Game Mess
Started off like I always do: grabbed the basic Skeleton Warriors and Mages. Felt good, classic Necro stuff. But then? Made my first big blunder. Saw Decompose as a generator and thought “Yeah, steady damage, why not?” Used it constantly, standing still like a dummy channeling it onto single targets. Big mistake. Things took forever to die, and I kept getting smacked by mobs because I was rooted. Felt slow and clunky as heck.
Okay, thought I needed more oomph. Unlocked Bone Splinters next. Figured, “Hey, faster attack!” But nah. It chewed through my Essence way too fast, left me dry constantly. So I’m there, finger glued to the mouse button, spamming Splinters, Essence gone in seconds, and then just… waiting. So frustrating.
Trying to Get Creative (And Failing)
Went for Blood Surge because hey, AoE sounds great! Used it expecting big waves of damage clearing screens. Reality check? Without the right boosts or enough Essence, it felt weaker than a wet noodle. Barely scratched groups unless I blew everything just to fuel it. Then I’d stand there empty-handed again.
Got desperate. Thought “Maybe Corpse Tendrils?” Spent precious points on it. Used it to pull mobs together… only to realize I had no good follow-up! My pathetic Bone Splinters couldn’t capitalize. Tendrils sat on a long cooldown, useless most of the time. Total waste of points early on.
The Painful Realizations
By like level 25, leveling felt like pulling teeth. Slooow. Kept dying way more than I should’ve in easy zones. Why? I made three HUGE mistakes:
- Ignored Reapers: Stuck with basic Skellies instead of swapping to Reaper Warriors ASAP. Big loss of damage and corpses.
- No Explody Corpses: Didn’t get Corpse Explosion right away? Like, what was I thinking?! That thing is pure Necro gold.
- Wrong Ultimate (Seriously?!): Went Army of the Dead thinking “big numbers!” Barely used it. Long cooldown, rarely felt impactful.
Finally Figuring It Out
Got fed up. Respec’d. Hard reset.
- Dumped Decompose and Bone Splinters. Immediately felt less Essence-starved.
- Got my Skeletal Warriors upgraded to Reapers INSTANTLY. Way better damage, and they started generating corpses.
- Grabbed Corpse Explosion (Blighted) immediately. Holy crap, the difference! Suddenly clearing groups felt easy. Pop a corpse, watch things melt.
- Switched my basic attack to Reap. Quick swing, generated corpses on hit sometimes. Perfect synergy.
- Took Bone Spear as my spender. Much better than Splinters! Solid damage, Essence cost manageable.
- Dumped Army of the Dead. Went for Bone Storm with the aspect that makes it circle me. HUGE survivability and damage boost on a shorter cooldown.
- Maxed out Skeleton Warriors and Mages for defense and offense.
The Forbidden List – Skills That Sucked for Me
Based on that painful grind, avoid these like the plague early on:
- Decompose: Stand still, channel, die. Too slow.
- Bone Splinters (early): Essence vampire. Leaves you helpless.
- Blood Surge (without support): Weak sauce AoE early game.
- Corpse Tendrils (without CE or Essence): Cool for grouping, but useless if you can’t kill the group.
- Army of the Dead (for leveling): Cooldown’s a killer, impact wasn’t worth the wait.
- Ignoring Reapers & Corpse Explosion: Just don’t. Seriously.
Stick to Reapers for minions, Reap for basics, CE for blowing stuff up, Bone Spear for single target/burst, and Bone Storm for Oh-Crap moments. Smooth sailing from there. Learn from my dumb mistakes!