Diablo 4 Season 9’s Best DPS Build Comes at a High Price

Players looking to capitalize on some of the class buffs in Diablo 4 Season 9 should look no further than the Necromancer. One of Season 9’s best builds for pure DPS when tackling Diablo 4‘s endgame bosses is the Blood Wave Necromancer, which features potentially one of the highest ceilings on damage output this season. However, not every Diablo 4 player may want to shoot for this build during the Sins of the Horadrim season, as it requires some key pieces of gear that may be hard to find until very late in the game.

Diablo 4 Season 9 shakes up the meta with the introduction of Horadric Spells that can add new synergy options to existing builds. The already top-tier Blood Wave Necromancer build in Diablo 4 can take full advantage of the new tools Season 9’s Horadric Spells offer to make its combat loop of pulling enemies in before decimating them with Blood Wave even more efficient and effective. Unfortunately, to squeeze the most damage out of this build, Diablo 4 players will need to grind for several uniques, including two Mythics that may take some time and effort to obtain.

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What to Expect From Diablo 4 Season 9: Sins of the Horadrim

Diablo 4 Season 9: Sins of the Horadrim is bringing new mechanics to Blizzard’s ARPG, including seasonal spells and even tougher Nightmare Dungeons.

Diablo 4’s Blood Wave Necromancer Gets a Major DPS Buff in Season 9, But Requires Some Rare Gear

How Blood Wave Necromancer is Improved in Diablo 4 Season 9

While Blood Wave Necromancer’s standard active skills largely remain unchanged, its Key Passive Affliction makes this build much more dangerous.

Blood Wave – Conjures a tidal wave of blood that deals 500% damage and Knocks Back enemies.
Blight – Unleashes concentrated blight that deals 40% damage and leaves a defiled area that deals 135% Corrupting damage over 6 seconds.
Decompose – Deals 150% Corruption damage per damage and forms a usable Corpse every 1 second.
Corpse Explosion – Detonates a Corpse, dealing 85% damage to surrounding enemies.
Corpse Tendrils – Tendrils burst out of a Corpse, pulling in enemies and Stunning them for 3 seconds, dealing 20% damage to them.
Reap – Deals 50% damage to enemies in an arc in front of the player. Hitting an enemy with Reap increases the player’s damage reduction by 15% for 4 seconds.

The standard combat loop of creating corpses with Decompose, using Corpse Tendrils to pull enemies in, and then hitting them with Blood Wave remains the same in Season 9. However, Affliction can ramp up the damage Necromancers do with its ability to deal a percentage of damage to enemies that are Vulnerable, Crowd Controlled, or Corrupted, creating a very high ceiling for damage potential. While Reap, Blight, and Corpse Explosion are great alternative sources of damage, the ideal way to play this build is to cast Blood Wave as often as possible for maximum damage.

Blood Wave Necromancer Gets a Boost from Season 9’s Horadric Spells

There is a combination of Catalyst and Infusion—representing two parts of Diablo 4 Season 9’s Horadric Spells—that can elevate the Blood Wave Necromancer’s combat loop to new heights.

Component	Power	Effect
Catalyst	Cosmic Anomaly	Passive: Manifest up to 5 Anomalies that emit particles which deal x% damage over 4 seconds. Active: Command these Anomalies to converge and implode, dealing x% damage per detonation. At Rank 10, while at 5 Anomalies, the player becomes Unstoppable and the next implosion will deal double damage.
Infusion	Nebulous Extract	The player’s Spell Catalyst now deals Shadow and or Corrupting damage. Enemies hit by it deal x% reduced damage for 7 seconds. While equipped, the Shadow Damage Bonus is equal to that of the player’s highest Damage Type Bonus. At Rank 5, it will deactivate enemy monster summoner effects for 5 seconds.

The combination of these Horadric Spell components synergizes with the Blood Wave Necromancer playstyle of drawing in enemies before dealing massive damage to them. The combination of Cosmic Anomaly and Blood Wave means players can exponentially increase the AoE damage they’re capable of, while the Nebulous Extract Infusion can take advantage of the Affliction Key Passive to apply Corruption damage and trigger the increase in damage taken Affliction imparts to Corrupted enemies.

Blood Wave Necromancer’s Required Gear Gives it a Hefty Price Tag

Kessime’s Legacy (Unique Pants)
Shroud of False Death (Mythic Chest Armor)
Heir of Perdition (Mythic Helm)

The cornerstone of this Blood Wave Necromancer build is its uniques, and none is more important than Kessime’s Legacy, unique pants that feature several useful affixes for improving Blood Wave’s damage potential. Most notably, it decreases Blood Wave’s cooldown time so players can cast it more often, while adding the chance to deal double damage, and the unique ability to cast a Blood Wave on either side of the Necromancer for more AoE coverage. The major drawback of this unique is that players will need to target farm Lord Zir for it, which may take a while to drop.

Additionally, players will likely want to farm for the Mythics Shroud of False Death and Heir of Perdition, both of which provide excellent general damage scaling to help boost the Blood Wave Necromancer’s DPS output to its limits. Unfortunately, these Diablo 4 Mythics are extremely rare, and players are better off tackling the endgame Tormented Bosses to find them, meaning it could be a while before this build achieves its full potential.