Bone Spear Necromancer Guide (Season 3)

Season 3

Endgame

Reach higher crits with Ronarray's Bone Spear Build Guide!
Even after the changes to damage buckets in Season 2 and nerfs to Vulnerable and Critical strike Damage Bone Spear is still a force to be reckoned with.

This build combines one of the smoothest bossing experiences together with incredible clear potential and can run all content without any problems: Tier 100 Nightmare Dungeons, Uber Lilith, Duriel, Helltides, or anything else you decide to try. It is relatively sturdy, even though Bone Spear Build survivability would definitely exceed Bone Spear’s.

Critical Strikes play a major role in boosting build’s damage thanks to the number of interactions the Bone Spear Necromancer can access via items and skill tree.

Boosting attack speed works great for the build as well – a multitude of deadly Shards provided by Enhanced Bone Spear together with Deathless Visage echoes help to destroy enemies with ease in a flurry of crits.

You don't need to change any gear in the build to effectively clear everything. The gameplay should feel smooth doing all the content and will be versatile enough to face new challenges such as the upcoming Abattoir of Zir!

This Build guide mostly focuses on the endgame version of the Bone Spear Necromancer so to try it out you should have at least a 60+ character with access to Paragon.

To get more paragon points you can check out our Altar of Lilith Map.

Main Skill

• Bone Spear - The signature skill of the build and one of the strongest Necromancer skills overall. It pierces through targets and creates damaging shards whenever the Bone Spear is destroyed (usually at the end of its path) via Enhanced Bone Spear passive. It is also possible to get two more shards through the Paranormal Bone Spear which is the best pick for all Bone Spear Necromancer builds out there. Bone spear also has a pretty high lucky hit chance so should work as a great way to trigger various Lucky Hit effects.

Generator

• Bone Splinters - A bone-related basic attack. Usually picked to get a critical strike chance bonus through Acolyte's Bone Splinters which can provide additional 8% if you hit an enemy with at least 3 Splinters at once. We don’t need to spam it too much, only when we need to ramp up the critical strike change or we are out of Essence.

Defensive

• Blood Mist - Necromancer’s defensive ability that can easily save you in any situation by making the character invulnerable. It is also used to generate corpses before the fight starts or at bosses via Ghastly Blood Mist passive in the same fashion as in the other Necromancer builds.

Utility and CC

• Corpse Tendrils - Main CC ability for any Necromancer build. It helps us boost our damage with the Aspect of Grasping Veins. We can also use it as a source of Vulnerable via Plagued Corpse Tendrils which should work better for bosses.

Curse Slot

• Decrepify - Amazing option which gives us both Slow as a source of crowd control and is also making enemies deal less damage - which can be a strong tool to raise survivability of the build. Can also lower Cooldown of the Blood Mist and Ultimate via Abhorrent Decrepify passive that synergized with high Attack Speed as well.

Ultimate

• Bone Storm - Gives us Critical Strike chance via Supreme Bone Storm and additional Damage Reduction via Prime Bone Storm therefore boosting both Defensive and Offensive capabilities of the build. It can also be combined with Aspect of Shielding Storm to provide a reliable constant source of Barrier which can help us survive much better.

Alternative skill

• Corpse Explosion - Like in many other Necromancer builds Corpse Explosion could be used to proc various effects and multipliers such as Fueled By Death or Flesh Eater. It works especially great with Ring of the Sacrilegious Soul so make sure you have one on your skill panel if you prefer it. It should replace one of the following: Generator, Blood Mist, or Curse. I would suggest replacing the Generator (Basic Attack).

Notable Passives

• Ossified Essence - A core passive for the Bone Spear necromancer build. Provides additional Bone skill damage for every point of essence higher than 50 at the moment of the cast. Thanks to it we can stack the damage through maximum essence bonuses! To maximize the damage try to always stay close to the maximum essence.
• Inspiring Leader - A great way to stack 12% more of Attack Speed if you are staying healthy. You DON'T need the Minions to get the bonus.
• Death's Reach - Good passive that gives additional damage against all Distant enemies, gives 3% more damage than Death's Embrace alternative.
• Stand Alone - An easy way to permanently boost survivability.
• Memento Mori - As with any sacrificial buffs, this is a good way to get permanent bonuses, in this case critical strike chance.

For an in-depth explanation of the various stone choices, see the detailed video guide from Ronarray:

Offensive

• Splintering Aspect - the main damage source of all Bone Spear builds, provides a constant way to apply vulnerable and the way to shotgun enemies from distance.
• Aspect of Exposed Flesh - Main source of sustaining Essence, get this one as fast as possible for smoother gameplay experience. Requires higher Lucky hit chance to proc more often so we need to get it everywhere for better essence management.
• Aspect of Grasping Veins - A really strong offensive aspect for all Necromancers which gives 20% critical strike chance for 6 seconds and adds some Critical Strike Damage on top of it. Since the Bone Spear Necromancer is very Crit reliant this aspect is pretty important to reach 90-100% Crit Chance.
• Aspect of Serration - Provides a great boost to damage since we are stacking lots of extra essence for Ossified Essence and Serration passives.
• Aspect of Inner Calm - Good damage multiplier that can help with bossing if you stay at one place. Much less important for Nightmare Dungeons since we need to run around a lot.
• Edgemaster's Aspect - Since the build’s essence management is pretty good, it provides an extra source of damage.

Defensive

• Aspect of Disobedience - Still the best way to ramp up armor in tough situations for any build out there, therefore it is the most important defensive aspect due to the huge bonus it provides.
• Ghostwalker Aspect - The main way to fix the mobility problem for any Necromancer build, 25% movement speed feels great.

Alternative Aspects

Most alternate options for offensive aspects should replace Aspect of Inner Calm and Defensive aspects should replace either Tibaults Will pants or the Deathless Visage helmet.

• Aspect of Might - If you decide to spam the basic attack more you could go with this Aspect. However, keep in mind that unless you spam it regularly the damage reduction will not be consistent.
• Accelerating Aspect - A good Aspect for improving build’s attack speed and can help with triggering on-hit effects. Is especially useful for clearing Nightmare Dungeons.
• Osseous Gale Aspect - An awesome way to trigger Corpse consuming bonuses without trying too hard. Should be used with Bone Storm Ultimate.
• Sacrificial Aspect - simple way to get a very reliable but not significant damage and health bonus. Can also help with resistances early on if you get them from sacrifice instead of critical strike chance.
• Aspect of Untimely Death - Less Reliable bonus that based on the health that we can overheal with some of our passives.
• Aspect of Shielding Storm - An amazing source of Barrier that can help with survivability if you need it. Can be used at pants or Helmet replacing Tibault's Will or Deathless Visage respectively.

• Tibault’s Will - A good additional way to improve Essence management. Extra maximum essence is useful for the build as well together with damage bonus that is received every time when you use Metamorphosis.

• Deathless Visage - Can work as a good damage amplifier against enemies that stand in one place or against huge packs as an improvement to build’s clearing capabilities due to the echoes it provides.

• The Grandfather - Probably the strongest offensive option for bone Necromancer builds, should be used if your essence management is working quite well . Drop Aspect of Inner Calm and Edgemaster's Aspect to fit it in and enjoy BIG Number Crits
• Harlequin Crest (Shako) - Best In Slot helmet for most Necromancer builds. Can give us the same Damage Reduction as an Aspect of Might without additional conditions. Can also provide a significant Maximum Life increase together with Resource Generation and amazing +4 Ranks to all Skills bonuses. If you have the Harlequin Crest you definitely should use it in the Bone Spear build.
• Doombringer - Mostly provides survivability, since unlike Blood Necromancer we don’t benefit from extra health damage-wise.
• Lidless Wall - One of the most popular options for any Necromancer build. Paired with Aspect of Shielding Storm it can give a significant boost to survivability. Also has a pretty good set of stats and could be used if you don't have a good 925 Item Power Focus with at least 1-2 desired stats.
• Temerity - Another way to improve survivability by using the Barrier it provides. Works perfectly with Undying since it can provide an overheal every time when you use a skill
• Flickerstep - Awesome boots that can heavily help with the cooldown for Bone Storm and have a pretty good stat set as well that can work for any build. The main downside here is losing the 25% additional Movement speed after every Metamorphosis which could be critical in many cases.
• Ring of the Sacrilegious Soul - An interesting option which will require Corpse Explosion skill on the panel. Otherwise, can provide consistent CC together with strong damage boost through Corpse Explosion paired with Flesh Eater. Main downside is the requirement of both - corpses and additional skills on panels which can be less convenient for some builds.

Since Gems are universal across all classes and drop fairly often they should be pretty easy to acquire early in the game.

For the armor slots the best pick would be putting Royal Ruby everywhere to stack our survivability. We can have 1 in the helmet, 2 in the Chest armor and 2 in the pants for a total of 5 gems. Altogether, it can give about 20% of additional Maximum Life which is a very strong bonus - make sure you always have all 5 gems on.

For the weapons we are using Royal Emerald to stack our critical strike damage against vulnerable enemies. Since all the enemies we attack are vulnerable and our critical strike chance is very high this is a good source of damage.

In the jewelry slots, Royal Diamond x3 is the best option since our Bone Spear Necromancer build can cap resistances just with those three Gems and the paragon board bonuses.

You can also try to use different stand alone gems to boost resistances that you don't have close enough to the cap. With such an approach, the most common pick will be x1 Royal Topaz , x1 Royal Ruby , x1 Royal Sapphire .

In Season 2 the Resistance system was revamped. Now to reach best survivability you will need to cap most of them – and perfectly all to the maximum of 70%. It can be achieved via a variety of means.

For the Necromancer there is a strong option of Sacrificing your Skeletons to get resistances instead of Critical Strike Chance. However, in the proper endgame setup of the Bone Spear Necromancer build you can get enough to max all of them with just the paragon and three Royal Diamonds in the Jewelry gem slots.

Always make sure that you have at least 68%+ to stay alive in higher Nightmare Dungeons and Abattoir of Zir without any issues and have better gameplay experience overall.

For the book of the Dead we have a variety of strong options that can complement our playstyle even further. At the start of the game and until we have 90+ paragon board it is a good option to take Defenders Sacrifice to get 20% resistances bonus that will be amplified further with Memento Mori Passive rising the bonus to 32% of all resistances which is amazing.

Later on when you will have an updated gear and a full paragon board it is a great idea to swap the bonus to Skirmishes Sacrifice to receive a 5% critical strike chance bonus that will help with overall DPS and will be further amplified with Memento Mori bonus as well. All of that should help us to reach 90-100% Critical Strike Chance which is pretty important.

For second sacrifice the best option should be Cold to receive a 15% more damage to Vulnerable enemies - which is great for the Bone Spear with constant vulnerable uptime. However Shadow could be picked as well since we can heavily benefit from maximum essence as well.

The third and the last sacrifice has a few options as well. The most prominent one should be Iron for 30% Critical Strike Damage since we are reaching almost 100% Critical Strike chance anyway. However in some cases Bone could be an option to receive 10% more Attack Speed which can help with speeding up the start of the whole rotation set and would work best with such options as Grandfather when any additional attack speed is heavily valued.

In regards to the weapon choices we generally have many possible combinations that could be chosen based on the Gear that you have in your disposal.

The recommended one will be a combination of Wand and Focus to receive Lucky hit Chance from the wand itself and a set of essence related stats from the Focus itself.

The second option would be changing Focus in that set to a shield for better Survivability especially for T100 Dungeons and higher. Lidless Wall works perfectly for such purposes and should be considered as the best shield for that purpose.

This setup will lose some damage and utility but will receive more armor and could be combined with Aspect of Shielding Storm to increase Survivability tremendously.

There is also a possibility to use Two Handed Sword and in most cases this option should be taken if you have access to The Grandfather or want to emphasize some Particular aspect further.

This variant will showcase highest single hit damage possible but could struggle with both Ramp Up speed and essence generation. You also will need to get rid of both Accelerating Aspect and Aspect of Grasping Veins to properly fit it in.

The last option would be Sword + Focus to get some additional Critical Strike damage from Sword upper bonus.

This option is only recommended if you don't have a good Wand and have access only to Swords, it is also an option if you want to use Doombringer which can work pretty well in any Overpower based build due to the huge innate health bonus. In this case - Accelerating Aspect should be dropped to fit the Sword in.

With the current paragon setup we are mostly focusing on getting all the sources of Bone skill and Critical damage that are available.

Additional bonuses could also be a great source for all the stats we need considering that we don't have minions up and all our damage is physical. We are also trying to get resistances where possible mostly to avoid rolling any of them on the items too.

Glyph leveling priorities

1. Corporeal - Main way to improve resistances in the Flesh- eater board. Additional bonus is great for overall damage output.
2. Sacrificial - Unusual way to boost overpower damage together with a sweet additional bonus. Used at the starting board to get both damage and armor.
3. Essence - A really significant additive bonus with the downside in the form of critical strike only restriction which is not that important since Bone Spear Necromancer Builds push critical strike chance to 90-100% in most cases. Can be leveled to 15 quickly and then left out until everything else is complete.
4. Exploit - Interesting combination when both main bonus and additional bonus can provide a damage increase. We are making all enemies vulnerable at all times so it should work perfectly in the Bone Spear Necromancer kit.
5. Imbiber - Great source of a stable additive damage which can boost AP pretty high. Will require you to stay healthy which you will need to do for Inspiring Leader as well. In the Abattoir version, this should be replaced with Tears of Blood .
6. Tears of Blood - Strongest Glyph available that should replace Blood-drinker and be placed in Flesh-eater board. Try to get all the core stats (Intelligence, Strength, Dexterity, Willpower) around it for maximum damage bonus.

Alternative glyphs

1. Control - Since we are crowd controlling enemies with slow from the Decrepify curse it could be a great way to get both main damage bonus and additional one to hit even harder.
2. Territorial - Interesting glyph which can Provide both Damage Reduction and Damage itself, the main downside would be the necessity to stay Close to enemies at all times which can be counterintuitive.

Tears of Blood

To fit in Tears of Blood from Abattoir of Zir you will need to make a few changes. First move Corporeal to the Scent of Death board and drop Imbiber completely.

Tears of Blood on the other hand will take the place of the Corporeal in the Flesh-Eater board. This is probably the best place to use Tears of Blood to get the maximum possible damage for the Bone Spear Necromancer build.

Since you are receiving resistances from it you will also be able to use Royal Skulls for your jewelry instead when you level it high enough.

To take more stats Around Tears of Blood for maximum Damage you will need to drop a hardened and the nodes on the way from Bloodbath board, Deathbringer at Scent of Death Board and other additive Magic nodes across the board.

The Bone Spear Necromancer can attack enemies from a distance every time when he can see them, therefore we will follow an easy to understand gameplay pattern.

Most of the time you should just immediately cast Curse and then Spam bone spear when you see an enemy. Right after a first corpse is formed either from your Lucky Hit proc or because one enemy is dead you can cast corpse tendrils and continue the spam.

Use the Bone Storm for Damage Reduction and additional crit when it is needed and spam Generator if you are out of essence.

When dealing with Suppressors or tougher enemies like Fire elites you can dash forward with Metamorphosis then cast Blood Mist to spawn a corpse while staying invincible.

Then at the moment Blood Mist Ends you need to cast Corpse Tendrils on the corpse that you spawned and dash out with Metamorphosis again(stay inside the circle in case of Suppressors).

Right after that when the Tendrils proc and group/stun enemies you use your Curse at the group and spam Blood Lance until the pack is down. Repeat until all enemies are gone!

For the Speedrun experience you can just dash through enemies with Metamorphosis and start the Safe option when you are out of health or feel like it.

For single target, the build follows the same rotation - cast Blood Mist to spawn a corpse, use your Curse together with Corpse Tendrils then dash back to get some distance and spam Bone Spear from the distance for the shotgunning effect.

Regardless of the changes, Bone Spear Necromancer is still alive and kicking pretty hard!

It is an incredible build that excels in almost everything: Clear, Nightmare Dungeon pushing and of course Bossing.

A source of invulnerability grants an opportunity to turn the tide during harder encounters while the pull CC provided by Corpse Tendrils makes killing enemies much more satisfying.

And with the damage this build demonstrates even big bad bosses die in a magnificent explosion of crit damage numbers!