Diablo 4 Necromancer Build – Fate Lancer (LvL 70+): In this Diablo 4 Necromancer Build, I’ll show you how to play a LvL 70+ Fate Lancer Necromancer that’s aimed at World Tier 4. If you’re looking for a Build that focuses on the use of the Blood Lance Ability, then this Diablo 4 Fate Lancer Necromancer Build Guide is for you!

Diablo 4 Blood Necromancer Build – Fate Lancer (LvL 70+)

So just a quick recap on Blood Lance in case you didn’t see the other Diablo IV Builds. This is a Blood Skill that throws at range and sticks into an enemy. And then for every subsequent target you use Blood Lance on, deals damage to the original enemy hit and any others that you attack with it. So you’re able to chain targets together, hitting a wider range of groups. Although, you only have  3 seconds from the time you hit the first enemy with Blood Lance for all the other targets that you attack in order to deal additional damage to that first target.

Because of this, Attack Speed becomes important so that you can get those Blood Lances into enemies quickly. In combination with the Supernatural Blood Lance upgrade, you Overpower on every 6th cast of this Core Skill. And since Patch 1.0.3, you’re able to trigger it 25% more often from the 8th to the 6th cast. What’s really great about Attack Speed is it allows you to get that Overpower Attack fast, letting you get a lot of Overpowers with this Fate Lancer Diablo 4 Necromancer Build. 

Another way to activate this is through the Key Passive known as Rathma’s Vigor, which was also buffed in the latest patch. You’re now going to get a guaranteed Overpower Attack every 12 seconds that you remain Healthy instead of every 15 seconds. Chaining enemies together while dealing huge Overpower Damage against them is what you’re aiming for here. However, Overpower doesn’t take advantage of your Critical Strike Damage. It has a Critical Strike Multiplier of 0% natively, no matter what your Critical Strike is, and Vulnerable Damage doesn’t seem to be applied either. This means that both damage types aren’t particularly useful when you Overpower.

But remember that you’re not Overpowering on every attack so when you don’t, then you’ll benefit from dealing Critical Strike Damage and Vulnerable Damage. So there’s a balance between these damage types based on what your gear is. If you don’t have high Attack Speed or all the aspects for this D4 Necro Build, then landing crits and dealing more Vulnerable Damage are both going to play a larger role to compensate for your Overpower Damage.

Diablo 4 Blood Necromancer Build – Fate Lancer (LvL 70+)

Once you hit Tier IV you’ll want to start thinking about min/maxing to get the most out of your Build, and that starts with Skills. Thanks to Paragon Boards and to the increased Equipment affixes, you’ll be able to bypass most of the restrictions you previously faced while leveling up. I also won’t get too deep into Skills, as you most probably know how they work by now.

Book of the Dead

• Skeletal Warriors – Sacrificed Skirmisher to increase Critical Strike Chance.
• Skeletal Mages – Sacrificed Bone to raise Overpower Damage.
• Golems – Sacrificed Bone to gain increased Attack Speed.

Diablo 4 Blood Necromancer Build: Equipment, Gems, and Aspects

Equipment is the most important part of any Endgame Build, and It’s important to understand that it’s a long-term goal. You won’t have all Paragon Boards available right away, and getting all uniques will probably take a lot of farming, so try to use Legendary Aspects to adjust to your needs while you farm levels and better gear.

Legendary Aspects and Unique Powers

I’ll divide the Equipment into different slots, so it’s easier to understand what you should be using and what affixes you should be looking for. Remember that unique equipment has fixed affixes and powers, so if you are using one, you might need to re-slot a Legendary Aspect into a different piece.

Another important thing to notice is that, when looking for stats, you’ll want to make sure you are fulfilling your Paragon Rare Node requirements. Some rare nodes have very high requirements, and equipment is what allows you to fulfill them. These bonuses often double the rare node effect so, for example, getting an Equipment piece with +100 Dexterity might unlock one or more Node bonuses, giving you a massive bonus as a result.

Helm

Legendary Aspect

Aspect of the Protector: This gives you a damage shield upon facing an Elite or Boss. The Aspect of the Protector is a standard Defensive Aspect.

Affixes

• +Maximum Essence
• +All Stats
• +Maximum Life
• +Total Armor

It’ll also be good to get Cooldown Reduction here instead of All Stats.

Chest Armor

Legendary Aspect

Aspect of Explosive Mist: This makes it so that Blood Mist triggers Corpse Explosion on surrounding Corpses, thereby dealing damage and giving your resources back via Grim Harvest. It also reduces the cooldown of Blood Mist, which is nice. The Aspect of Explosive Mist is a lot better if you’re using Black River because you can detonate up to 5 Corpses with each Corpse Explosion dealing a lot more damage. Plus, you’ll improve your resource gain.

Affixes

• +Maximum Life
• +Blood Skill Damage
• Damage Reduction while Fortified
• Damage Reduction from Distant Enemies

If you have a lot of Damage Reduction on your Chest Armor, you could probably use the Temerity Unique Item on your Legs. 

Gloves

Legendary Aspect

Blood Seeker’s Aspect: This increases your damage to the original target by up to 25% for each additional enemy. And so the damage on your first target really ramps up.

Affixes

• +Lucky Hit: Up to a 5% Chance to Heal X Life
• +Lucky Hit: Up to a 5% Chance to Restore X Primary Resource
• +Lucky Hit: Up to an X Chance to Immobilize
• +Lucky Hit: Up to an X Chance to Daze

The other affixes you can look out for when wearing custom Gloves include Ranks of Blood Lance, Attack Speed, and Critical Strike Chance.

Unique Equipment

Fists of Fate: This is a good Unique Item to have because of its Lucky Hit affixes. By remaining Healthier, you boost your damage, plus, your Essence will be topped up. You also have Lucky Hit to Immobilize and Daze enemies so they won’t be able to attack you and Damage to CCed targets apply to both of these. But the best part of Fists of Fate is its core ability where your attacks randomly deal 1% to 300% of your normal damage when you attack so this is great if you have a high roll of 290%+. And since Blood Lance throws rapidly, you’re going to be all over the place. Some hits will be low but some of them will be high so you’ll most likely come out ahead more often than not. When Fists of Fate triggers on an Overpower, it’s going to wipe out everything on the screen.

OR

Frostburn: What I like about Frostburn is it has Critical Strike Chance, and its Lucky Hit triggers on Freezing enemies. When you hit chained targets, the damage will be dealt to each and every one of them before giving you a Lucky Hit Chance to Freeze them as well. This damage can be boosted particularly if you’re using the Control Glyph, which we have for this Fate Lancer D4 Necromancer Build. 

Pants

Legendary Aspect

Aspect of Disobedience: This increases your Armor for every damage you deal, stacking up to 50%. The Aspect of Disobedience is pretty rough for this Fate Lancer Diablo IV Necro Build because you don’t spread damage around as much unless you’re using Black River and Corpse Explosive to hit 10 things at once. However, it’s still good for protecting you. 

Affixes

• +Maximum Life
• +Ranks of Corpse Explosion
• Damage Reduction while Fortified
• Damage Reduction from Distant Enemies

If you’re not using Black River, you should consider getting Ranks of Blood Mist instead of Corpse Explosion to make Blood Mist have a faster cooldown.

Unique Equipment

Temerity: This gives you a Barrier from all the overhealing you get.

Boots

Legendary Aspect

Aspect of Shared Misery: Upon attacking a CCed enemy, you have a Lucky Hit with up to a 50% chance to make impair another unaffected target. The Aspect of Shared Misery is really good, especially if you’re using Frostburn because you’ll Freeze everything. 

Affixes

• +Movement Speed
• +Movement Speed for 4 Seconds After Killing an Elite
• Essence Cost Reduction
• +Strength

Movement Speed is good here since you don’t move quickly as a Necromancer.

One-Handed Weapon

Legendary Aspect

Accelerating Aspect: This makes it so that Critical Strikes with Core Skills, in this case, Blood Lance, increase your Attack Speed by up to 25%. Again, Attack Speed is essential for this Fate Lancer D4 Necromancer Build. 

Affixes

• +Damage to Slowed Enemies
• +Vulnerable Damage
• +Intelligence
• +Overpower Damage

For your One-Handed Weapon, you’re better off using a Scythe to gain the Life On Kill affix as it lets you tank through a lot of enemies while you’re just sitting there flinging Blood Lances and you end up topping up your Health.  

Unique Equipment

Black River: If you have this Weapon, you can replace the Aspect of Potent Blood with the Accelerating Aspect. Black River detonates many Corpses at the same time, allowing you to factor Corpse Explosion more into this Diablo IV Necro Build. 

Offhand Weapon

Legendary Aspect

Aspect of Grasping Veins: It boosts your Critical Strike Chance by up to 20% when you use Corpse Tendrils for 6 seconds. You might be wondering why this Stat is good when I mentioned earlier that it’s not particularly ideal for Overpower Attacks. But that’s because you also gain up to 60% bonus Critical Strike Damage to enemies damaged by Corpse Tendrils. And for whatever reason, the game actually adds this bonus damage to Overpower. So when you Overpower enemies that are also damaged by Corpse Tendrils, you’re going to get the extra Crit Damage boost, which is massive since this is an Overpower Crit. As such, you might also want to consider imprinting the Aspect of Grasping Veins to your Amulet as an alternative. 

Affixes

• Cooldown Reduction
• +Critical Strike Chance
• +Lucky Hit: Up to a 5% Chance to Heal X Life
• +Life On Kill

I’ve chosen a Focus as my Offhand Weapon instead of a Shield so that I can slot another Offensive Aspect, which I won’t be able to do if I were to equip a Two-Handed Weapon. Also, Cooldown Reduction is nice for Corpse Tendrils, Blood Mist, and Bone Prison. Now if you have a 40% Critical Strike Chance and you use Corpse Tendrils, you get 20% from the Aspect of Grasping Veins, making it so that you’re 60% more likely to crit. Additionally, anything that gives you Resource Generation, Lucky Hit to provide you with more Essence, and Overpower Damage are also good choices here. 

Amulet

Legendary Aspect

Aspect of Hungry Blood: This makes it so that when Blood Lance hits an enemy that’s already been lanced, it has up to a 30% chance to fire another Blood Lance at a nearby enemy since it’s imprinted on an Amulet. But normally, the chance would be 20%. The Aspect of Hungry Blood is very important because it’s going to get you 1 out of every 3 casts or free lances into other targets. As such, the damage will spread around and you’ll end up increasing the damage you deal to that original target due to the higher number of enemies you’ll hit. 

Affixes

• Essence Cost Reduction
• +Blood Skill Damage
• +Ranks of the Death’s Reach Passive
• Cooldown Reduction

Essence Cost Reduction is probably the most important affix on your Amulet because you need to reduce the cost of Blood Lance since you fling it so fast with this Diablo IV Necromancer Build – Fate Lancer. Ideally, you’re going to tear through your Essence so if you don’t lower the cost of Blood Lance by 3-5 resources, you’re going to run out of it very quickly. Meanwhile, the Death’s Reach passive increases your damage to distant enemies. 

First Ring

Legendary Aspect

Aspect of Rathma’s Chosen: This makes it so that when your Blood Skills Overpower, you gain up to a 50% Attack Speed Bonus for 4 seconds and this raises the speed at which you cast Corpse Explosion and fling your Blood Lances. For instance, if you throw your first lance into an Elite and then all your lances into other enemies, it’s going to ramp up your damage really quickly. Doing so will give you the extra Overpower for every 6 casts.

Affixes

• +Vulnerable Damage
• +Fortify Generation
• +Critical Strike Chance
• +Maximum Life

Ideally though, Vulnerable Damage probably wouldn’t be on this Ring if you’re talking about optimization because you don’t really want to focus on this damage type. Fortified Generation is fantastic though as you deal more Overpowered Damage while Fortified. Maximum Life keeps you alive while also improving your Overpower Damage. 

Second Ring

Legendary Aspect

Aspect of Potent Blood: While you’re at full Life, Blood Orbs give you up to 20 extra Essence. What I find good about this is that you tend to be out of Essence at the end of a battle but there will be Blood Orbs left behind. You can just collect them real quick to top you off instead of having to sit there and spam Corpse Explosion. And while you’re in combat, you’ll simply have to move around to gain more Essence. 

OR

Aspect of the Umbral: This is a good alternative to gaining Essence since this Diablo IV Necro Build – Fate Lancer does quite a bit of crowd control. 

Affixes

• +Vulnerable Damage
• +Critical Strike Chance
• +Maximum Life
• +Damage to Stunned Enemies

Gems

For gems, you’ll want to slot:

• Weapon: Rubies to deal additional Overpower Damage.
• Armor: Rubies to boost your Maximum Life and deal more Overpower Damage.
• Jewelry: Skulls to boost your Defense value.

Paragon and Glyphs for the Necromancer Build

When it comes to Paragon Boards, we are mainly going to aim for Rare Nodes that increase our damage output, as well as Glyphs that synergize with our Build. Please note that the order in which I get the Nodes is just a general guideline, and you can adjust it to your current needs.

First Paragon Board – Base

For your first Paragon Board, you’ll want to slot the Essence Glyph to increase your overall Critical Strike Damage. If you meet the requirements, you deal additional Critical Strike Damage to enemies that aren’t Healthy. Again, if you don’t have all the Overpower Damage, aspects, and tons of Paragon points, then Essence is a good Glyph to start out with but you’ll probably replace this later on.

Second Paragon Board – Bloodbath

For your second Paragon Board, you’re going to take Bloodbath and there are a couple of reasons for that. First are the good Rare Nodes that are available to you, and one of them is Powerhouse. This increases your damage while Healthy while also raising your Overpower Damage. There are a lot of clusters around it that further boost your Overpower Damage. Next, you have Thick Hide and Hardened to give you more damage while Fortified, which is great because you’ll constantly be Fortified with this Fate Lancer Diablo 4 Necromancer Build. It’ll also provide you with Maximum Life to keep you alive and boost your Overpower Damage further.

Lastly, you’re going to want to slot the Blood-drinker Glyph to give you a bonus to all Magic Nodes within range. This is ok but not very good for this D4 Necro Build but what you’re really after is the additional bonus, which makes it so that Blood Orbs Fortify you for 7% of your Maximum Life. When you have tons of Maximum Life, you’ll become Fortified quickly, allowing you to deal more Overpower Damage. You’ll also gain damage reduction from your Armor.

Third Paragon Board – Blood Begets Blood

There are a few good nodes for the Blood Begets Blood Tree like Invigorated and Aggression. Invigorated gives you +20% damage for 8 seconds after picking up a Blood Orb and it raises your damage while Healthy. Meanwhile, Aggression gives you 60% Overpower Damage. Now if you meet the bonus requirement, you gain an additional 10% damage, and it even has a lot of extra Overpower Damage nodes around it. 

For the Glyph, you’re going to use Dominate to amplify your Overpower Damage for each 5 Willpower you have so you want to make sure to get more of this attribute as possible. When you Overpower against an enemy, all damage they take from you is increased for 5 seconds so you’ll be able to deal more damage. 

Fourth Paragon Board – Bone Graft

What you’ll mainly want for the Bone Graft Board is the Rare Node cluster around Reinvigorate to give you Maximum Essence and Essence On Kill. So when you kill enemies with Blood Lance, you can get half the cost of your Blood Lance back if you’ve also managed to get some Essence Cost Reduction.

We’ve also taken the glyph socket here to place the Control Glyph. If you’re using Frostburn or Fists of Fate as well as Corpse Tendrils, you’ll CC enemies quite regularly. 

Final Tips

The other 2 Glyphs that are really good for this Diablo 4 Necromancer Build – Fate Lancer that I’ll probably swap in are Imbiber and Undaunted. Imbiber makes it so that for every 5 Willpower purchase, you have increased damage while Healthy, and you’re constantly Healthy. This is over 80% Health because you have so much healing and damage reduction. And so, you’re going to receive a flat upgrade to your damage. Imbiber is probably better than Control because of the similar damage potential and you won’t have to worry if the target is CCed or not. But remember that Bone Graft doesn’t have a lot of Willpower near the glyph socket. What’s more, is that you gain 30% increased Potion Healing as part of the bonus requirements.

On the other hand, Undaunted increases your damage and damage reduction while Fortified. If you meet the bonus requirement, you’re Fortified constantly with this Diablo IV Necro Build. We have so many passives that affect the way you gain Fortify. Willpower is rough to select and any other board than the one we have the Dominate Glyph in so Intelligence unfortunately works better at the moment.

So that wraps up my Fate Lancer Diablo 4 Necromancer Build. Once you set it up and understand the mechanics of Overpower a bit more, you’ll be able to figure out where to get the damage from. There are several options, particularly if you like Freezing enemies. 

Stay tuned for more Diablo 4 Builds in World Tier 4 as we continue our 70+ Build Guides. Be sure to check out our Diablo 4 Wiki for any other questions you have about the game and the Builds page if you are looking for more Diablo IV Builds, as well as our Ultimate Beginner Guide and All Classes Overview if you are looking for more Diablo 4 content!

The post Diablo 4 Blood Necromancer Build – Fate Lancer (LvL 70+) appeared first on Fextralife.

Diablo 4 Druid Build – Howling Tempest (LvL 70+): In this Diablo 4 Druid Build, I’ll show you how to play a LvL 70+ Howling Tempest Druid that’s aimed at World Tier 4. If you’re looking for a Build that combines the Tempest and Howl Storm Builds that I did for World Tier 3, then this Diablo 4 Howling Tempest Druid Build Guide is for you!

Diablo 4 Druid Build – Howling Tempest (LvL 70+)

Both the Tempest and Howl Storm Builds focused on the use of Lightning Storm to deal damage. Now in the Howl Storm Diablo 4 Druid Build, I not only set Poison on enemies in order to gain increased Critical Strike Damage but also to help take damage off of them. Here, we’ve sort of altered away from that in favor of other strategies, but the general concept is the same. 

We’re still going to spam Lightning Storm to annihilate everything that’s on the screen, especially since it got buffed in the last Patch 1.0.3. So the duration in which the amount of Lightning Bolts that come out has been increased from 4 to 6 seconds. This gives you a 6-second winder in between casts to get the maximum bolts out. Additionally, on the Primal Lightning Storm upgrade, the Immobilize chance has been raised from 8 to 12%, which is fantastic because you do increased damage to Immobilized targets due to a lot of passive that Lightning Druids have.

Another obviously notable passives is the Perfect Storm Key Passive. This makes is so that storm skills grant one spirit and even deal increased damage against Vulnerable, Immobilized, or slowed enemies. Bad Omen is also another great pick, since on Lucky Hit you have up to a 30% chance to deal even more lightning damage to these crowd-controlled enemies. 

The Electric Shock passive will help trigger immobilize whenever you deal lightning damage. If a target is already immobilized when this procs, then it will deal even more damage to that target. Our second Paragon Board, Constricting Tendrils, features a Legendary Node that further gives all Nature Magic skills a chance to entangle enemies in vines, effectively immobilizing them for two seconds and dealing poison damage. Lastly, the Poison Creeper can be activated to manually immobilize and poison enemies. As we’re taking the Packleader Spirit Boon, any critical hits we do will also have a chance to reset any Companion Skill cooldowns, giving us more opportunities to reapply Poison Creeper’s immobilize. 

We also make use of Blood Howl and Innate Blood Howl to help manage our Life and Spirit resources. You can potentially enhance this ability by making use of the Nighthowler’s Aspect which we will discuss later on. Last is Debilitating Roar, which we only make use of in conjunction with the Aspect of the Dark Howl which immobilizes poisoned enemies.

Diablo 4 Druid Build – Howling Tempest (LvL 70+)

Once you hit Tier IV you’ll want to start thinking about min/maxing to get the most out of your Build, and that starts with Skills. Thanks to Paragon Boards and to the increased Equipment affixes, you’ll be able to bypass most of the restrictions you previously faced while leveling up. I also won’t get too deep into Skills, as you most probably know how they work by now.

Spirit Boons

• Wariness – Take 10% reduced damage from Elites.
• Packleader – Lucky Hit: Critical Strikes have up to a 20% chance to reset the Cooldowns of your Companion Skills.
• Overload – Lucky Hit: Dealing Lightning damage has up to a 20% chance to cause the target to emit a static discharge, dealing X Lightning damage to surrounding enemies.

Diablo 4 Druid Build: Equipment, Gems, and Aspects

Equipment is the most important part of any Endgame Build, and It’s important to understand that it’s a long-term goal. You won’t have all Paragon Boards available right away, and getting all uniques will probably take a lot of farming, so try to use Legendary Aspects to adjust to your needs while you farm levels and better gear.

Legendary Aspects and Unique Powers

I’ll divide the Equipment into different slots, so it’s easier to understand what you should be using and what affixes you should be looking for. Remember that unique equipment has fixed affixes and powers, so if you are using one, you might need to re-slot a Legendary Aspect into a different piece.

Another important thing to notice is that, when looking for stats, you’ll want to make sure you are fulfilling your Paragon Rare Node requirements. Some rare nodes have very high requirements, and equipment is what allows you to fulfill them. These bonuses often double the rare node effect so, for example, getting an Equipment piece with +100 Dexterity might unlock one or more Node bonuses, giving you a massive bonus as a result.

Helm

Legendary Aspect

Aspect of Disobedience: We take this Aspect to further increase the armor we have to make us much tankier.

Affixes

• Cooldown Reduction
• +Ranks of Poison Creeper
• +Maximum Life
• +Total Armor

Chest Armor

Legendary Aspect

Aspect of Shared Misery: This makes it so when you crowd control an enemy, you have up to a 50% Lucky Hit chance to spread the debuff to another enemy that’s unaffected by crowd control. Essentially, this will mean that you immobilize more enemies, which increases your damage against them and increases your resource gain. 

Affixes

• +Intelligence
• Damage Reduction from Distant Enemies
• +Ranks of Blood Howl
• Damage Reduction from Enemies That Are Poisoned

Gloves

Legendary Aspect

Runework’s Conduit Aspect: This makes it so that critical strikes with Storm Skills make the air around you charged up, which casts damaging lightning bolts periodically. Just like the Lightning Dancer’s Aspect below, you’ll want to keep upgrading this Aspect for its damage. The duration on it isn’t super important, because you can keep extending it with Critical Strikes. Because Lightning Storm hits so many enemies, and because of our high Critical Strike Chance, you’re going to be able to keep extending this indefinitely. 

– OR – 

Nighthowler’s Aspect: This is an alternative aspect that we can use if you don’t want to equip the Runework’s Conduit. It makes Blood Howl increase Critical Strike Chance in addition to its effects. The skill also affects nearby Companions and Players. 

Affixes

• Lucky Hit: Up to a 5% Chance to Heal X Life
• +Attack Speed
• Storm Skill Cooldown Reduction
• +Critical Strike Chance

Pants

Legendary Aspect

Protecting Aspect: This summons a bubble whenever you get hit when not Healthy once every 90 seconds. This is great because you get to stand inside that bubble, take no damage and can freely cast spells.  You don’t need to worry about anything such as dodging hazards. 

Affixes

• +Dodge Chance Against Close Enemies
• +Total Armor
• +Maximum Life
• Damage Reduction from Close Enemies

Boots

Legendary Aspect

Aspect of the Dark Howl: This converts Debilitating Roar into a Werewolf Skill and gives it a secondary effect that immobilizes poisoned enemies for up to four seconds. The aspect is great because of Poison Creeper. Once that skill’s immobilization wears off, you can retrigger another round of immobilize with Debilitating Roar. 

Affixes

• +Dodge Chance
• Spirit Cost Reduction
• +Dexterity
• +Lightning Resistance

Two-Handed Weapon

Legendary Aspect

Lightning Dancer’s Aspect: This the most important Legendary Aspect of the build, and should be placed on a Two Handed Weapon, specifically a Staff which adds damage to crowd controlled enemies, to maximize its effect. This makes it so that any Critical Strikes from Lightning Storm will spawn 3 smaller dancing bolts that will seek out enemies and deal even more Lightning Damage. However, this is one of those Aspects that you will need to keep upgrading throughout your journey. As your level goes higher, and you pass through Sacred and Ancestral quality aspects, the damage from Lightning Dancer will keep increasing.

Affixes

• +All Stats
• +Vulnerable Damage
• +Core Skill Damage
• +Willpower

Amulet

Legendary Aspect

Accelerating Aspect: This is just a means to further increase your attack speed. Critically Striking with your Core Skill, Lightning Storm, will be extremely reliable. The faster you can cast Lightning Storm, the faster things die, and this will be greatly enhanced with this Aspect’s Attack Speed bonus.

Affixes

• Damage Reduction from Distant Enemies
• +Ranks of the Envenom Passive
• +Damage while in Human Form
• Damage Reduction from Close Enemies

First Ring

Legendary Aspect

Smiting Aspect: Both of the components of this aspect are really important. First, you get increased Critical Strike Chance against enemies below 35% health, making finishing them off much, much easier. The second part of this skill makes it so that you have 40% increased Crowd Control Duration whenever you are Healthy. Doing so will keep enemies Immobilized longer, meaning you damage them more and more. 

Affixes

• +Damage to Crowd Controlled Enemies
• +Vulnerable Damage
• +Overpower Damage
• +Critical Strike Chance

Second Ring

Legendary Aspect

Aspect of the Umbral: This works extremely well with the number of sources of Crowd Control you have at your disposal. Aspect of the Umbral restores a small portion of your Spirit whenever you Immobilize a target, which we will do so regularly, whether via Poison Creeper, or just by dealing Lightning Damage. This is one of the best ways to alleviate the Druid’s Spirit management problems. 

Affixes

• +Vulnerable Damage
• +Damage to Crowd Controlled Enemies
• +Critical Strike Damage
• +Lucky Hit Chance

Gems

For gems, you’ll want to slot:

• Weapon: Emeralds to increase Critical Strike Damage against Vulnerable enemies.
• Armor: Topaz to reduce the damage taken when CCed and Rubies to boost your Maximum Life.
• Jewelry: Skulls to boost your Defense value.

Paragon and Glyphs for the Druid Build

When it comes to Paragon Boards, we are mainly going to aim for Rare Nodes that increase our damage output, as well as Glyphs that synergize with our Build. Please note that the order in which I get the Nodes is just a general guideline, and you can adjust it to your current needs.

First Paragon Board – Base

The first Glyph you’ll want to slot on your Base Board here is the Exploit Glyph. This makes it so that whenever you damage enemies, they become Vulnerable for three seconds. It also increases your Vulnerable Damage. Exploit gives a huge boost to this build’s damage, because Lightning Storm constantly makes things on the entire screen Vulnerable.

Second Paragon Board – Constricting Tendrils

For your Second Paragon Board, you’re going to take Constricting Tendrils as mentioned earlier. This makes it so that all of your Nature Magic Skills have a chance to immobilize targets and poison them as well. Since we’re also using the Envenom passive, all Critical Strike Damage against poisoned enemies will be greatly enhanced. 

The Glyph we’ll be placing here is Spirit, which further boosts the Critical Strike Damage of our Core Skill, Lightning Storm. Its secondary effect also gives Critical Strikes a ramping debuff that makes enemies take up to 12% increased damage from us for 20 seconds. 

Last on the Second Board are two really good rare nodes. You will want to get Devastation and Nature’s Will as soon as possible as both drastically increase our Nature Magic Skill Damage. Devastation, in particular, also increases our Damage to Elites. 

Third Paragon Board – Ancestral Guidance

So then you’ll move on to Ancestral Guidance for our third Paragon Board. The Legendary Node on this board makes it so that after spending 75 Spirit, you deal 30% increased damage for 5 seconds. While the Node by itself is already extremely powerful, we are actually after the rare Reclamation node and the magic nodes around it. Reclamation and the nodes directly around it increase your Maximum Spirit and also grant you Spirit on Kill. These two are huge for this build, as they really help you generate a lot of Spirit. I would even go as far as recommend that you take Ancestral Guidance for your second Paragon Board in case you don’t have enough points to get to these nodes. 

The next Glyph we’re using is Human. This increases the damage you do while in Human form, but also decreases the damage you take while in this form. While you do change into a Werewolf briefly to use two skills, you immediately shift back to Human form to cast your Lightning Storm. 

Final Tips

This build absolutely destroys. It is extremely strong and satisfying, particularly when there are lots of enemies on the screen and there’s lightning bolts going everywhere. It is tons and tons of fun to play, and for those of you that would look great looking for an upgrade to The Tempest build, here you go.

Be sure to check out our Diablo 4 Wiki for any other questions you have about the game and the Builds page if you are looking for more Diablo IV Builds, as well as our Ultimate Beginner Guide and All Classes Overview if you are looking for more Diablo 4 content!

The post Diablo 4 Druid Build – Howling Tempest (LvL 70+) appeared first on Fextralife.

Diablo 4 Solo Necromancer Build – Grim Reaper: In this Diablo 4 Necromancer Build, I’ll show you how to play a LvL 70+ Grim Reaper Necromancer that’s aimed at World Tier 4, and is an evolution of our Reaper Build from World Tier 3. If you’re looking for a Build that absolutely demolishes enemies with Shadow Damage, then this Diablo 4 Grim Reaper Necromancer Build Guide is for you!

Diablo 4 Solo Necromancer Build – Grim Reaper

So the general strategy with this Diablo IV Build is to continue to use the Blighted Corpse Explosion upgrade to put Shadow Damage Over Time (DoT) on enemies. This will then be stacked to trigger the Shadowblight Key Passive to deal a ton of damage that will hit like a truck. For your Core Skill, you’ll make use of Sever to deal damage to a target as well as the others who get caught in the path of your Scythe as you throw it out. And for every 4th cast, this applies Vulnerable on them.

There are a few reasons why Sever is the better Core Skill over Blight. Blight does Shadow Damage and Shadow DoT, and you can even get the Aspect of the Void to pull enemies in. However, there are some things that Sever does for you that Blight doesn’t. First, you get burst damage. Blight is pretty much DoT or alternating with Corpse Explosion. And when you’re talking about clear speed, you want things to die quickly so getting burst in there is really nice. Second, it has an exceptional range and attacks faster. As such, you can clip through multiple targets, especially those who are buffing the other enemies to make them damage resistant. 

What’s more, is the Vulnerable Damage that Sever does. Ideally, you would have this Stat on both of your Rings and Weapon if you’re not using Black River for this D4 Necro Build to make the most of the applied Vulnerability. And at some point, you’ll be using the Exploit Glyph to further boost your Vulnerable Damage.

The general strategy for most fights is to walk in and use Reap, particularly taking advantage of the Acolyte’s Reap modifier, in order to drop a Corpse. And then you’re going to hit Corpse Tendrils to pull enemies, Stun them, and apply the Vulnerable effect. When they’re all grouped up, you’re going to attack them with Sever until they start dying. Once Corpses are on the ground, you’ll use Corpse Explosion to put more DoTs on those who are still alive while reapplying Vulnerable while they’re standing in those AoE puddles.  

Finally, I’m using Blood Mist for this Diablo 4 Solo Necromancer Build. Not only does it give you a way to get out of bad situations by making the Grim Reaper Immune, but you can also use it to kite enemies. 

Diablo 4 Solo Necromancer Build – Grim Reaper

Once you hit Tier IV you’ll want to start thinking about min/maxing to get the most out of your Build, and that starts with Skills. Thanks to Paragon Boards and to the increased Equipment affixes, you’ll be able to bypass most of the restrictions you previously faced while leveling up. I also won’t get too deep into Skills, as you most probably know how they work by now.

Book of the Dead / Unique Specialization

• Skeletal Warriors – Sacrificed Reaper for more Shadow Damage.
• Skeletal Mages – Sacrificed Cold for additional Vulnerable Damage.
• Golems – Sacrificed Iron for more Critical Strike Damage.

Diablo 4 Solo Necromancer Build: Equipment, Gems, and Aspects

Equipment is the most important part of any Endgame Build, and It’s important to understand that it’s a long-term goal. You won’t have all Paragon Boards available right away, and getting all uniques will probably take a lot of farming, so try to use Legendary Aspects to adjust to your needs while you farm levels and better gear.

Legendary Aspects and Unique Powers

I’ll divide the Equipment into different slots, so it’s easier to understand what you should be using and what affixes you should be looking for. Remember that unique equipment has fixed affixes and powers, so if you are using one, you might need to re-slot a Legendary Aspect into a different piece.

Another important thing to notice is that, when looking for stats, you’ll want to make sure you are fulfilling your Paragon Rare Node requirements. Some rare nodes have very high requirements, and equipment is what allows you to fulfill them. These bonuses often double the rare node effect so, for example, getting an Equipment piece with +100 Dexterity might unlock one or more Node bonuses, giving you a massive bonus as a result.

Helm

Legendary Aspect

Aspect of the Protector: This gives the D4 Solo Necro Build – Grim Reaper a damage shield upon damaging Elites and Bosses, and provides you with a good option to protect yourself.

Affixes

• +Maximum Essence
• +All Stats
• +Maximum Life
• +Total Armor

You can also get Cooldown Reduction here if you can find it in order to further reduce the cooldown of your Corpse Tendrils, Blood Mist, and Bone Storm.

Chest Armor

Legendary Aspect

Aspect of Disobedience: This increases your Armor by up to 50% upon dealing damage and since you deal a ton of damage, you’re going to be tankier. 

Affixes

• +Total Armor
• Damage Reduction from Enemies That Are Affected By Shadow Damage Over Time
• +Damage
• +Darkness Skill Damage

Gloves

Legendary Aspect

Aspect of Decay: This makes it so that each time the Shadowblight Key Passive deals damage to an enemy, it increases the next Shadowblight Damage within 10 seconds by up to 40%, stacking up to 5x. So this would be up to 200% each time you deal Shadow Damage to an enemy 10x. You’ll even notice it during a Boss fight when their Health just suddenly disappears, meaning, that your Key Passive is popping. But the effect of the Aspect of Decay won’t be as noticeable against regular mobs.

Affixes

• +Critical Strike Chance
• +Dexterity
• +Attack Speed
• +Ranks of Sever

You’ll also want to have Intelligence here if possible.

Pants

Legendary Aspect

Aspect of Shielding Storm: This allows you to gain a huge Barrier every time you damage an enemy with Bone Storm. So the Aspect of Shielding Storm makes you super tanky. Remember to pop in Bone Storm when going into a dangerous situation or if things aren’t looking too dicey, pop in Blood Mist, followed by this Ultimate Skill if the circumstance is still bad. 

Affixes

• Damage Reduction from Enemies That Are Affected By Shadow Damage Over Time
• Damage Reduction from Close Enemies
• +Damage for 4 Seconds After Killing an Elite
• +Dodge Chance

Now, Dodge Chance is really good for this Grim Reaper Diablo IV Necromancer Build because the other way to keep your Essence topped up besides triggering Corpse Explosion and using Black River is through the Assimilation Aspect. This increases your Dodge Chance versus enemies affected by Shadow DoT so when you dodge, you gain 10 of your primary resource back. So you’ll want it to stack. And if you keep your Shadow DoTs on targets, then you’re going to have a higher Dodge Chance against them to receive more Essence. 

Boots

Legendary Aspect

Aspect of Explosive Mist: This makes it so that you automatically consume Corpses while moving around when Blood Mist is active, which is fantastic because it’ll put Shadow Damage all over the ground. For every detonated Corpse, the cooldown of Blood Mist is reduced by up to 5 seconds. And one of the nice things here is that the Aspect of Explosive Mist synergizes very well with Black River as it lets you consume up to 4 Corpses at a time.

Affixes

• Essence Cost Reduction
• +Cold Resistance
• +Dodge Chance
• +Ranks of Corpse Tendrils

Unique Equipment

Greaves of the Empty Tomb: This is a great Unique if you happen to get it. What Greaves of the Empty Tomb does is provide you with Max Evade Charges, Intelligence, Essence Cost Reduction, Lucky Hit applies Shadow DoT, which reduces the damage taken from affected enemies. But more importantly, it creates a desecrated ground underneath your Sever specters as they travel. So when you throw out your blade, it’s going to place these DoT pools to create DoT on targets and helps you trigger Shadowblight more.

One-Handed Weapon

Legendary Aspect

Cadaverous Aspect: This makes it so that for each consumed Corpse, you’re going to increase the damage of your next Core Skill. It lets you concentrate on using Sever and Corpse Explosion, and then back to Sever to deal a lot more damage.

Affixes

• +Intelligence
• +Damage to Distant Enemies
• +Damage to Healthy Enemies
• +Rank of the Fueled by Death Passive

If you’re not using Black River, then I recommend using another One-Handed Scythe because of Life On Kill. When you stand there and destroy enemies as you’re taking damage, you’re also replenishing your Health simultaneously to remain alive in the middle of combat. You sometimes don’t even realize you’re gaining Life since you stay topped up constantly. 

Unique Equipment

Black River: This makes Corpse Explosion deal way more damage, consumes up to 4 additional Corpses, and expands the AoE. Black River allows you to efficiently ramp up the damage you deal. 

Offhand Weapon

Legendary Aspect

Blood-Soaked Aspect: This makes it so that you deal Shadow Damage as you move through enemies while increasing your speed. The Blood-Soaked Aspect is optional though compared to the Aspect of Explosive Mist since you want Blood Mist to come off cooldown quicker and deal damage while you’re moving around to consume Corpses, which also replenishes Essence. 

OR

Aspect of Ultimate Shadow: This makes enemies take massive Shadow DoT with Bone Storm. In fact, the Shadow DoT is kind of overkill at this point so you’ll probably swap between the Blood-Soaked Aspect and the Aspect of Ultimate Shadow as you go higher in the Nightmare Dungeon tiers since you’ll probably need Bone Storm against most Elites. Additionally, Bone Storm is great because it increases this Diablo IV Solo Necromancer Build – Grim Reaper’s Critical Strike Damage while hitting everything around you to also help build Shadowblight. This Ultimate also reduces the damage you take. As such, enemies will periodically explode for damage.

Affixes

• +Resource Generation
• +All Stats
• Essence Cost Reduction
• +Strength

I’m using a Focus here instead of a Shield due to the native Cooldown Reduction on top of the additional Offensive Aspect you can slot instead of a Defensive one when wielding a Shield. 

Amulet

Legendary Aspect

Blighted Aspect: This increases your total damage by 6 seconds after Shadowblight triggers 10x so it can be huge. You can even max roll it at 180%! That’s an insane amount of damage, especially when you’re up against big groups with numerous enemies.

Affixes

• +Ranks of All Macabre Skills
• Damage Reduction
• +Ranks of Fueled by Death Passive
• +Darkness Skill Damage

You should also consider increasing the Ranks of your other Corpse Skills. 

First Ring

Legendary Aspect

Aspect of Grasping Veins: This is going to boost your Critical Strike Chance for 6 seconds as well as your Critical Strike Damage against targets. The Aspect of Grasping Veins is great at amplifying your damage a lot, particularly if you drop Corpse Explosion afterward.

Affixes

• +Vulnerable Damage
• +Critical Strike Chance
• +Maximum Life
• +Damage to Stunned Enemies

You’ll also want to look for Shadow Damage and Critical Strike Damage if possible. 

Second Ring

Legendary Aspect

Assimilation Aspect: This makes it so that you have increased Dodge Chance against enemies affected by DoT effects, which in this case, is Shadow DoT. When you dodge, you gain a portion of your Essence.

Affixes

• +Critical Strike Damage
• +Vulnerable Damage
• +Damage to Slowed Enemies
• +Critical Strike Chance

Gems

For gems, you’ll want to slot:

• Weapon: Amethysts to increase your Damage Over Time.
• Armor: Rubies to boost your Maximum Life.
• Jewelry: Skulls to boost your Defense value.

Paragon and Glyphs for the Necromancer Build

When it comes to Paragon Boards, we are mainly going to aim for Rare Nodes that increase our damage output, as well as Glyphs that synergize with our Build. Please note that the order in which I get the Nodes is just a general guideline, and you can adjust it to your current needs.

First Paragon Board – Base

The first Glyph you’ll want to slot on your Base Board here is the Essence Glyph, which raises your Critical Strike Damage with your Core Skill. This also makes it so that Critical Strikes still deal 22% increased damage to enemies that are below 80% Health, and is great for getting burst damage with Sever. One of the drawbacks of Shadow D4 Necromancer Builds is they usually don’t have burst so this solves that problem. 

Second Paragon Board – Wither

For your Second Paragon Board, you’re going to take Wither. What it does is it gives you a 5% chance to deal 50% bonus damage with your Shadow DoT. Now this chance increases by 1% and the bonus damage increases by 2.5% for every 50 Willpower you have, which you should since there are a lot of other nodes that require this attribute. There’s really no other Shadow Board so Wither is the way to go to amplify your Shadow Damage.

You’ll also gain access to a lot of good Rare Nodes here but you need to focus on those that deal Shadow Damage first because it not only boosts the damage of Sever but also enhances the damage of Corpse Explosion and Shadow DoT. You’ll then supplement it with Shadow DoT later on.

Next, you’ll want to drop the Darkness Glyph and level it up to further improve Shadow Damage, which applies to all sources of this damage type, versus Scourge, which only applies to Shadow DoT. However, I’ve swapped to Scourge here because I’m using Darkness on my third Paragon Board, and I can get more nodes like Malediction to improve Shadow Damage. Meanwhile, Lingering Shadows improves both Shadow Damage and Shadow DoT. 

Gnawing Darkness is also fantastic because it raises your damage to enemies affected by Shadow DoT as well as damage to Elites. 

Third Paragon Board – Scent of Death

So then you’ll move on to the Scent of Death, which has an average Legendary Node. But what you’ll really focus on are the Rare Nodes like Corrective. Corrective will give you increased Critical Strike Damage to boost Sever’s damage even though DoTs cannot crit and more Potion Healing. Also, Ruin is fantastic because it allows you to deal extra damage and Critical Strike Damage against Healthy enemies. 

Also, Deathbringer and Deathmark will enhance your damage to Injured targets whose Health is below 35%. This might not seem helpful because they’re probably going to die in a couple of hits anyway but when your DoT is doing a lot of your damage as with this Diablo IV Necromancer Build – Grim Reaper, it can make that 35% go by really fast so they’ll just drop to serve as Corpses. You can then use these to generate more Essence and deal greater damage.

Fourth Paragon Board – Bone Graft

Lastly, you’ll take Bone Graft for the Reinvigorate Node Cluster, which gives Maximum Essence and Essence On Kill. And here, you can get up to 4 Essence On Kill if you take some of the nearby Magic Nodes, helping with your sustain in addition to Corpse Explosion, the Grim Harvest passive, Black River, and the Assimilation Aspect. You won’t encounter many Essence management problems. 

Final Tips

In the next 17 levels or so, you’ll want to invest in the rest of the Magic Nodes you’ve missed in these 3 Paragon Boards to further boost your Shadow Damage and Shadow DoT. Some even let you reduce the damage you take. And then if you have more leftover points, then you might want to check out another board.

So that wraps up the Grim Reaper Diablo 4 Solo Necromancer Build, which also allows you to not only solo The Butcher in 10 seconds but also melt Bosses with large packs of enemies.

Stay tuned for more Diablo 4 Build Guides as we continue our way through World Tier 3 Builds. Be sure to check out our Diablo 4 Wiki for any other questions you have about the game and the Builds page if you are looking for more Diablo IV Builds, as well as our Ultimate Beginner Guide and All Classes Overview if you are looking for more Diablo 4 content!

The post Diablo 4 Solo Necromancer Build – Grim Reaper (LvL 70+) appeared first on Fextralife.

Diablo 4 Rogue Build – Marksman: In this Diablo 4 Rogue Build, I’ll show you how to play a LvL 70+ Marksman Rogue that’s aimed at World Tier 4. If you are looking for a Build that focuses on the use of Rapid Fire and is an evolution of the Freezing Rain and Cold Archer Rapid Fire Builds, then this Diablo 4 Marksman Rogue Build Guide is for you!

Diablo 4 Rogue Build – Marksman (Lvl 70+)

So generally, what’s changed from the previous version of this Diablo IV Build is that even though I’m still using Cold, you’re free to use whichever element you want, whether it be Poison or Shadow. The focus here is really more on Critical Strike Damage and Vulnerable Damage as well as how to get a lot of damage out of Rapid Fire. And then your chosen element is the icing on the cake. 

Every time you attack an enemy, you’re going to apply Vulnerable for 3 seconds. What’s great about this is you’ll be gaining access to the Improved Rapid Fire upgrade in order to gain 15 Energy back every time you hit a Vulnerable target. As such, you won’t need to use any Basic Skill on this Build plus, you won’t encounter Energy management issues. You also don’t have to make use of any Equipment to further boost your Energy regeneration as a result. So you’re free to fire at will with Rapid Fire. 

Another good way to amplify your Vulnerable Damage is by using a Crossbow because this damage type comes with it by default. If you’re using a Bow, like myself though, make sure to get this Stat on it. Additionally, you’ll also want to look for Critical Strike Damage, Core Skill Damage, and ideally, Dexterity. When it comes to your Melee Weapons, Swords are preferable over Daggers to give you that Critical Strike Damage multiplier, Damage to Distant Enemies, and more Dexterity. On your Jewelry, at least on your Rings, you can have Critical Strike Chance to help boost your damage together with Critical Strike Damage and Vulnerable Damage.

Should your Vulnerability be down if you didn’t kill enemies within the 3-second timeframe, you can hit Concealment. You’ll be swapping to the Countering Concealment upgrade as it gives you a guaranteed Critical Strike when you come out of Concealment. So if you can’t finish off an Elite in time, pop this Skill to not only grant more Energy but also to make you invisible for a couple of seconds. And then follow through with your Imbuement Skill to go to town and finish them off with 6 more seconds of Vulnerability. If they’re not yet dead, you can activate Rain of Arrows with Concealment to reactivate the cycle of applying Vulnerable on these stronger targets.

Diablo 4 Rogue Build – Marksman

Once you hit Tier IV you’ll want to start thinking about min/maxing to get the most out of your Build, and that starts with Skills. Thanks to Paragon Boards and to the increased Equipment affixes, you’ll be able to bypass most of the restrictions you previously faced while leveling up. I also won’t get too deep into Skills, as you most probably know how they work by now.

Specialization

For the Diablo 4 Rogue Build – Marksman, you’re going to select Preparation as the Specialization. This makes it so that every 100 Energy you spend reduces your Ultimate’s cooldown by 4 seconds, and using that same Ultimate resets the cooldowns of the rest of your Skills.

Diablo 4 Rogue Build: Equipment, Gems, and Aspects

Equipment is the most important part of any Endgame Build, and It’s important to understand that it’s a long-term goal. You won’t have all Paragon Boards available right away, and getting all uniques will probably take a lot of farming, so try to use Legendary Aspects to adjust to your needs while you farm levels and better gear.

Legendary Aspects and Unique Powers

I’ll divide the Equipment into different slots, so it’s easier to understand what you should be using and what affixes you should be looking for. Remember that unique equipment has fixed affixes and powers, so if you are using one, you might need to re-slot a Legendary Aspect into a different piece.

Another important thing to notice is that, when looking for stats, you’ll want to make sure you are fulfilling your Paragon Rare Node requirements. Some rare nodes have very high requirements, and equipment is what allows you to fulfill them. These bonuses often double the rare node effect so, for example, getting an Equipment piece with +100 Dexterity might unlock one or more Node bonuses, giving you a massive bonus as a result.

Helm

Affixes

• +Dexterity
• Cooldown Reduction
• +Crowd Control Duration
• +Maximum Energy

Unique Equipment

Cowl of the Nameless: This gives you Maximum Energy so you don’t run out as easily together with the Lucky Hit Chance against CCed enemies. If you’re not playing a Cold Archer, this can be replaced with another Helm that gives bonuses to Skills, Maximum Energy, Cooldown Reduction, and other Stats. 

Chest Armor

Legendary Aspect

Aspect of Siphoned Victuals: This makes it so that damaging Vulnerable enemies with a Core Skill has up to a 20% chance to give you a healing potion, which happens all the time.

OR

Aspect of the Protector: This is useful if you want to get some more damage protection.

Affixes

• +Marksman Skill Damage
• +Total Armor
• +Physical Damage
• Damage Reduction from Close Enemies

These affixes are great for the Marksman Diablo 4 Rogue Build because you don’t use Imbued Skills all the time. 

Gloves

Affixes

• +Attack Speed
• +Vulnerable Damage
• +Shadow Clone Damage
• +Ranks of All Core Skills

Unique Equipment

Grasp of Shadow: This makes it so that your Shadow Clone Damage is increased, which helps sometimes because of the proc of Shadow Clone but otherwise, we’re not really using it. And the Grasp of Shadow provides you with +3 Ranks to Core Skills, specifically Rapid Fire. The ability on Grash of Shadow is that upon damaging a Vulnerable enemy with a Marksman or Cutthroat Skill, you have a chance to summon a Shadow Clone that mimics your attack. This is really good for this D4 Rogue Build since you damage Vulnerable targets all the time. 

Pants

Legendary Aspect

Aspect of Disobedience: This basically increases your Armor. 

Affixes

• +Dodge Chance Against Close Enemies
• Damage Reduction while Injured
• Imbuement Skill Cooldown Reduction
• +Total Armor

Boots

Legendary Aspect

Frostbitten Aspect: This makes it so that Chilled enemies that get hit by my Smoke Grenade have a chance to be Frozen. Also, you deal up to 25% Critical Strike Damage against Frozen targets so it’s great for this Cold Marksman Diablo IV Rogue Build. 

Affixes

• +All Stats
• +Ranks of Caltrops
• +Movement Speed for 4 Seconds After Killing an Elite
• +Dodge Chance Against Distant Enemies

Unique Equipment

Penitent Greaves: This makes it so that you basically create a Frost trail when you walk to Chill targets and increase your damage against them. The Penitent Greaves alternative allows you to CC them easily.

Two-Handed Weapon

Legendary Aspect

Aspect of Repeating: This makes it so that when you use Rapid Fire, it has a 90% chance to ricochet, meaning that you’re going to get 5 ricochets if you fire it. 

OR

Rapid Aspect: This boosts the Attack Speed of your Basic Skills.

Affixes

• +Dexterity
• +Damage to Frozen Enemies
• +Damage to Crowd Controlled Enemies
• +Vulnerable Damage

Unique Equipment

Windforce: This makes it so that Lucky Hit: Hits with this weapon have up to a 10-20% chance to deal double damage and Knock Back the target. Windforce is an alternative here so you’ll want to put your Aspect of Repeating on the Amulet if you get this. It’ll have a lower ricochet rate though. However, if you have Word of Hakan like I do, then it’s best to imprint the Aspect of Repeating on a Ring. 

OR

Skyhunter: This makes it so that the first direct damage you deal to an enemy is a guaranteed Critical Strike. If you have maximum stacks of the Precision Key Passive when you cast the Skill, you gain 15-25 Energy once per cast. The problem with Windforce or Skyhunter is that the Vulnerable Damage of your Crossbow will most likely outperform it. Although, Skyhunter has Critical Strike Damage at least but you need to experiment with these to see how much damage they actually do.

First One-Handed Weapon

Legendary Aspect

Vengeful Aspect: Making an enemy Vulnerable has up to a 50% chance to grant a 3% Critical Strike Chance up to 9%. This happens all the time so you’ll at least get a 9% Critical Strike Chance.

Affixes

• +Vulnerable Damage
• +Core Skill Damage
• +Damage to Chilled Enemies
• +Damage to Crowd Controlled Enemies

Second One-Handed Weapon

Legendary Aspect

Accelerating Aspect: This gives your Diablo 4 Rogue Build – Marksman 25% increased Attack Speed when you critically strike so you’ll be able to fire Rapid Shots faster. 

Affixes

• +Core Skill Damage
• +Damage to Slowed Enemies
• +Vulnerable Damage
• +Dexterity

Amulet

Affixes

• +Non-Physical Damage
• +Ultimate Skill Damage
• +Critical Strike Damage with Imbued Skills
• +Ranks of All Imbuements

Unique Equipment

Word of Hakan: You basically have all Imbuements when using Rain of Arrows. But if you’re using Shadow Clone, you can replace it with something else.

First Ring

Legendary Aspect

Smiting Aspect: This makes it so that you have up to a 20% Critical Strike Chance against enemies below 35% Health. Also, while you’re over 80% Health, your Crowd Control Duration is up to 40%, which is great for this Frost Marksman D4 Rogue Build. 

OR

Aspect of Corruption: If you’re not playing a Frost Build, I recommend replacing the Smiting Aspect with the Aspect of Corruption. This makes it so that your Imbuement Skill Effects have up to 40% increased potency against Vulnerable enemies. So if you’re using Shadow, this is going to him them harder and if you’re using Poison, you’ll be able to deal more damage on Poisoned targets.

Affixes

• +Cold Damage
• +Maximum Life
• +Critical Strike Chance
• +Vulnerable Damage

Second Ring

Legendary Aspect

Edgemaster’s Aspect: This makes it so that when you have higher resources, you’re going to deal more damage, which happens all the time. 

OR

Aspect of Inner Calm: This gives you up to a 30% damage increase the longer you stand still so it’s a great way to boost your damage.

Affixes

• +Vulnerable Damage
• +Damage to Injured Enemies
• +Critical Strike Chance
• +Damage to Frozen Enemies

Gems

For gems, you’ll want to slot:

• Weapon: Emeralds to increase Critical Strike Damage against Vulnerable enemies.
• Armor: Rubies to boost your Maximum Life.
• Jewelry: Skulls to boost your Defense value.

Paragon and Glyphs for the Rogue Build

When it comes to Paragon Boards, we are mainly going to aim for Rare Nodes that increase our damage output, as well as Glyphs that synergize with our Build. Please note that the order in which I get the Nodes is just a general guideline, and you can adjust it to your current needs.

First Paragon Board – Base

So you’re going to employ a similar strategy that you’ve done in the World Tier 3 version of this D4 Rogue Build by taking the Exploit Glyph, which has been moved to the first Paragon Board. Additionally, you’ll be unlocking every single Strength Node to further boost your Vulnerable Damage together with Damage to Injured Enemies, which are those with below 35% Health.

Second Paragon Board – Exploit Weakness

On your Second Paragon Board, you’ll take Exploit Weakness, which makes it so that when you deal damage to a Vulnerable enemy, they take increased damage from you. Apart from this Legendary Node, what you’ll really want are the Rare Node Passives like Artifice. This lets you have increased Vulnerable Damage, and if you have 270 Strength, you’re going to get additional 20% Vulnerable Damage. It also gives 10 Dexterity, which is fantastic.

Hunter Killer is also really good as it raises your damage to Elites as well as your Movement Speed after killing them. If you have up to 345 Dexterity, you’ll gain an extra 16% damage against them. 

The Glyph you’re going to place on your Second Paragon Board is determined by the Imbuement you’ve selected. For instance, if you’ve chosen Cold like I have then slotting the Control Glyph is what you should do. I get up to 110% damage against CCed enemies at Level 15 when I Freeze them. And then you’ll be able to deal increased damage thanks to the Frigid Finesse passive. 

If you’re going with Poison or Shadow Imbuement, then I suggest getting the Combat Glyph to considerably amplify your Critical Strike Damage with your Core Skill. But you’ll need to get this up to Level 15 to take advantage of its bonus effect. 

Third Paragon Board – Tricks of the Trade

For the next board, you’re going to take Tricks of Trade. I don’t want this Legendary Node but there are a lot of good Rare Node clusters here. First is Havoc, which increases your Critical Strike Damage and Physical Damage, which means all the shots you fire that aren’t Imbued. And you use Rapid Fire frequently imbued because you’re just applying Vulnerable while killing enemies really quickly. 

Additionally, there’s the Focused Node that grants more damage against Elites, and if you meet the secondary requirement, it’s up to 32% damage! So that’s 64% damage between this and the other nodes from the previous tree. Brawler isn’t also a bad node since a lot of times when you’re playing solo, you need to deal damage to close targets you just can’t get far enough away from. It even has Damage Reduction to Close Enemies to help keep you alive. And then up in the corner, there’s Ranger, which raises your Damage to Distant Enemies while lowering the damage you take from them. This is great because anything outside of the melee range is considered distant. 

For the glyph socket, this is going to be determined by your playstyle. So since I’m playing Cold, then I’ll place the Combat Glyph there because I have Control on my second board. However, if you have the Shadow Imbuement, you’d probably want to take Infusion, which makes it so that Imbued Skills deal increased damage. Because this is Shadow Damage, you really need to get it as high as you can with Shadow Attacks in order to cause those explosions and cause chain reactions. 

Alternatively, for Poison Imbuement, you’ll have to slot Bane, which makes it so that you deal increased Poison Damage and have a chance to deal double the amount of Poison Damage. 

Final Tips

Remember that attacking enemies and then applying Vulnerable will only give you a 3-second window so you want to try to burst them down as quickly as possible. This means that if you start hitting a target, be sure to focus on it. You don’t want to try and hit everything, otherwise, you’ll only end up weakening them. What will happen here is the Vulnerable effect will wear off so you’ll have a hard time killing enemies. 

So that wraps up the Diablo 4 Rogue Build – Marksman. I hope I showed examples of how you can change the Build. 

Stay tuned for more Diablo 4 Guides as we continue our 70+ Builds. Be sure to check out our Diablo 4 Wiki for any other questions you have about the game and the Builds page if you are looking for more Diablo IV Builds, as well as our Ultimate Beginner Guide and All Classes Overview if you are looking for more Diablo 4 content!

The post Diablo 4 Rogue Build – Marksman (Lvl 70+) appeared first on Fextralife.

In this Final Fantasy XVI Beginner Guide, I’m going to show you 10 tips that are essential to your journey as you step into the shoes of Clive Rosfield. Whether you are new or accustomed to the elements of APRGs, these tips should give you a better understanding of the game’s mechanics.

Final Fantasy XVI Beginner Guide Table of Contents

• FF XVI Beginner Guide: What Are Timely Accessories
• FF XVI Beginner Guide: Side Quests Are Important
• FF XVI Beginner Guide: How to Quickly Stagger Enemies
• FF XVI Beginner Guide: How to Chain Combos
• FF XVI Beginner Guide: Practice in the Hall of Virtue
• FF XVI Beginner Guide: Early Best Eikons and Abilities
• FF XVI Beginner Guide: How to Respec Abilities
• FF XVI Beginner Guide: How to Farm EXP, GIL, AP, and Renown
• FF XVI Beginner Guide: Save Materials Over Gil
• FF XVI Beginner Guide: Always Explore Areas

Final Fantasy XVI Beginner Guide

This Final Fantasy XVI Beginner Guide covers different Tips & Tricks for the game such as recommended side activities that you should be doing, how to efficiently farm resources, an overview of the combat system, and more. Before we start, we recommend you go through the Prologue to understand the basic combat mechanics and check the “Tutorial Messages” of the game to view all of the previously unlocked guides in the System menu.

FF XVI Getting Started Guide: What Are Timely Accessories?

When you start FF 16, you will be given the option to choose your difficulty between Story and Action Focused. Regardless of the mode you play, you will have access to using Timely Accessories which you can find under Gear & Eikons. Timely Accessories are a unique set of trinkets that allow the player to adjust the difficulty in combat by providing Clive with “Auto Effects”. If you are new to action games or require assistance in some aspects of combat, then we highly recommend using these accessories.

Equipping Accessories is the only way to create a soft build for Clive and it heavily ties in with what Eikon and Abilities you are using, however, you are limited to only using up to three of them. At the beginning of the game, it’s okay to equip all three Timely Accessories if you’re still getting used to the combat but for the time being, as you progress, we recommend equipping at least one and reserving the two slots for other useful accessories.

There are different “Auto Effects” such as Healing, Dodging, Parrying, Blocking, Commanding Torgal, and even Attacking to chaining combos. One important note though is that some of these accessories have limits. For example, the Ring of Timely Evasion will only work as long as Clive can evade some attacks so remember to choose wisely.

FF XVI Tips & Tricks: Side Quests Are Important

Side Quests are critical in Final Fantasy XVI. Not only do they provide you with additional lore and rewards, but they unlock some features such as being able to ride a Chocobo. These become available during story progression, specifically as you reach The Hideaway and are marked with a green icon on the world or area map. Side Quests gradually become available as you progress through the story, so always open the map or keep an eye on the Notice HUD. Also, make sure to speak to Gaute to check the Alliant Reports or your mail in Clive’s chambers to view more of them.

The two types of Side Quests in FFXVI are generic and important ones. Generic Side Quests are marked with a green exclamation point, and they normally provide you with basic objectives and different rewards. On the other hand, important Side Quests are what you want to keep an eye on, and these are marked with a green + sign.

If you see one, make sure to complete it in order to unlock certain features and upgrades such as improving the potency of consumables, Chocobo riding, increasing the Limit Break bars, and more. In the latter section of Final Fantasy XVI, you will start to gain Renown points. By earning a certain number of Renown, Clive can collect donations such as GIL, Items, and even AP. You can do this by visiting Desiree at the Patron’s Whisper.

FF XVI Best Tips: How to Quickly Stagger Enemies

Staggering is the most important mechanic of the game when it comes to combat, you will find it extremely useful against large enemies and bosses. To identify the stagger meter of a target which is divided into two segments, you can refer to a yellow bar underneath its health bar. By breaking its first segment, the target becomes shaken for a brief moment, while successfully bursting the second segment will have them completely fall to the ground, allowing you to follow up with chains of attacks and combos before they can even recover. If they do recover, the bar refills and it’s a matter of repeating the process of shattering their stagger meter once again.

Your weapon and abilities play an important role here as the value of the weapon or the number of stars for an ability will determine how fast you can stagger an enemy. You will want to prioritize Stagger over Damage because when you do, it just breaks the game in a way that you can’t give your target the chance to attack you. So always look at the values of your weapon before you buy or craft one.

As for Eikon Abilities, you will find the Scarlet Cyclone, Garuda’s Gouge, and Aerial Blast as the must-haves together with Titan’s Abilities. One example here is the unique Block Ability, which deals a significant amount of Stagger Damage. Additionally, some accessories can alter the effects of your abilities such as increasing their damage or reducing the cooldown.

FF XVI Beginner Guide: How to Chain Combos

In combat, you have two basic attacks. You have a four-hit combo by pressing Square and a ranged magical attack by pressing Triangle. Your basic combo is a mixture of melee and magic where you press Square and Triangle, respectively, finishing it off with a magical blast that throws light targets off their feet. To complete it, you can close the gap with Phoenix Shift by pressing Circle and then Square to execute a mortal blow.

It does take timing and you cannot just press the buttons in quick motions. When you press Square, there is a window or a delay as Clive swings his sword, then you can follow up with magic, then back to another melee hit, and finally, another magic attack. You can also transition into using an Eikonic Ability if you want to. After two to three melee hits, quickly press R2 and Triangle or Square to trigger the ability. If you launch enemies in the air, you can teleport to your target and continue with an air combo upon activating Phoenix Shift.

When it comes to continuously chaining combos, this is where Torgal comes in. Torgal has two basic attacks, specifically, Sic, which is a ground-based melee attack, and Ravage, which launches the enemy into the air. There are many ways you can use Torgal and his attacks change depending on your combos. If you execute the four-melee attack, by pressing Up on the D-pad just as Clive lands the fourth swing, Torgal’s Sic becomes a spinning attack and leaves the target in the air for about a second. This lets Clive follow up by jumping into the air for an aerial combo or by using Garuda’s Deadly Embrace that pulls the target close to him allowing for more ground combos. Luckily, there is a training room that you can use to hone his skills.

FF XVI Beginner Guide: Practice in the Hall of Virtue

The Hall of Virtue, which becomes available through story progression, is a training room that can be accessed by using the Arete Stone in The Hideaway. Here, you can play with the different combat parameters and choose what enemy you want to fight against. This is very helpful since it allowed me to experiment with the abilities that work well together, and it gave me a better understanding of how to properly utilize Torgal’s attacks. By pressing the DualSense’s Touch Pad, you can view the Training Options such as adding Torgal, Input Display, Burst Timing, enemy behaviors, and a list of targets to fight against.

If you want to put everything into action without worrying about dying during the main campaign, you can always run the Arcade Mode or Stage Replay where you can revisit previously cleared areas.

FF XVI Beginner Guide: Early Best Eikons and Abilities

Since this is a Final Fantasy XVI Beginner Guide, I will focus on listing down the best Eikons and Abilities to use early on. For Basic Abilities, you’ll want to unlock the following to give you an advantage in combat:

1. Charged Magic allows Clive to charge his magic attack by holding down Triangle and releasing it.
2. Swift Recovery immediately lets him recover when knocked back or downed by an enemy.
3. Burning Blade adds an attack that imbues Clive’s sword with flames and releases a powerful knockback.
4. Lunge and Downthrust provide more moves for aerial and grounded attacks.

All of these are very helpful during a combo and you can use them in various situations.

As for Eikons, you will start off with the Blessing of the Phoenix. By default, you have access to Rising Flames and Scarlet Cyclone. When you start, after unlocking the Basic Abilities mentioned above, I recommend saving enough AP in order to unlock Flames of Rebirth. This skill is an AOE attack that continuously damages enemies while restoring your HP. But only use it when necessary since it has a long cooldown.

I also found that Scarlet Cyclone is an OP Ability. Not only does it attack enemies around you but it has high Stagger Damage, knocks back enemies, and has a short cooldown. As you may have noticed, Abilities that have AoE capabilities are very useful here since most of the time, you will be fighting them in groups.

Once you have progressed, you will be able to channel the abilities of Garuda. The wind Eikon specializes in targeting a single unit but it does a considerable amount of Stagger Damage, making it the most used Eikon you will use until you unlock more. Make sure to have Gouge equipped since it has high Stagger Damage and it hits multiple targets if you are lucky to have two or more enemies in front of you. Garuda’s Unique Ability is Deadly Embrace, which can be used to pull enemies to you or if you break the first segment of their stagger bar, pull them down and follow up with more attacks. You may also want to save enough AP to unlock Aerial Blast, which summons a tornado that lifts light targets in the air and deals a significant amount of Stagger Damage to large enemies and bosses.

When it comes to combos, I like to punish targets by using Scarlet Cyclone and hitting them with basic attacks. Once I break the first segment of their stagger bar, I switch to Garuda and press Circle to use Deadly Embrace. During the animation, you want to switch back to Phoenix and use Phoenix Shift to close the gap, then switch back to Garuda, Gouge, and finish off the combo with either Flames of Rebirth or Aerial Blast. You can even use both as long as they are not on cooldown. When you gain access to more Eikons, the possibilities of mixing different Eikon Abilities are endless plus, you can always try out the many combinations at the Hall of Virtue.

Lastly, Abilities can be improved by Upgrading and Mastering them in exchange for more AP. Upgrading improves the effects of the Ability while Mastering allows the player to assign the Ability to any Eikon. You can learn more about these details by pressing Triangle on the skill itself.

FF XVI Beginner Guide: How to Respec Abilities

To piggyback off of Abilities, your next question might be “Can I respec Abilities in the game?“ And the answer is yes. It is quite simple to do, if you decide to swap to another and prefer to spend your AP on something else. You can go to the Ability that you want, then press and hold the Square Button to refund the spent AP.

If you have not upgraded it, the AP you will receive is the basic number for unlocking it, otherwise, you will acquire the total number of AP you have spent. There is no catch here or negative outcome since you can freely respec abilities and spend them on whatever you want. So respec freely and responsibly.

FF XVI Beginner Guide: How to Farm EXP, GIL, AP, and Renown

The basic method of farming EXP, GIL, AP, and eventually Renown points is by fighting enemies and completing Main Quests. As soon as you unlock Side Quests and the Hunting Board, I highly recommend doing these activities since they are the easiest way to acquire different resources, and might I say, a generous amount of it.

The Hunting Board only becomes available through story progression, and it shows you a list of Elite monsters that you need to eliminate in exchange for hefty rewards. But going against them are quite challenging. Depending on their rank, these marked Elites have high health, are deadly in battle, and usually have high levels. So be sure you are ready and stocked with healing items before you hunt them down. To find a marked Elite, you must visit the Hunting Board and read the description where it has been sighted, and then from there, you need to travel to the nearest location and start searching the area.

We have already touched on Side Quests, and as mentioned, when you see an available quest, especially Important Side Quests, take the task and complete it. Alternatively, replaying a previously cleared stage in the Arete Stone’s Stage Replay rewards the player with a minimum number of resources, including random consumables and materials.

With enough Renown Points, you can also collect different rewards from donators. This is only unlocked through story progression, and you can check these by talking to Desiree at the Patron’s Whisper in The Hideaway.

FF XVI Beginner Guide: Save Materials Over Gil

Materials are quite hard to find and are scarce in Final Fantasy XVI. Rare materials exclusively drop from the Elites you hunt, others are obtained by completing certain quests, while generic materials are generously rewarded from Side Quests and commonly found as loot. When you plan on acquiring a stronger weapon or accessory that is available to be forged, make sure to check the general merchant in The Hideaway. Alternatively, in other locations, they usually have the base weapon or accessory available for purchase. This way, you can save your materials and use them instead for reforging, which upgrades the level and stats of Clive’s equipment.

As for rare materials, especially unique weapons that are crafted with the likeness of the Eikons, you are free to build these as you wish since they can only be crafted once and cannot be upgraded. The rarity of the material is grouped into colors – White is common, Green is uncommon, Blue is rare, and Purple refers to epic resources.

Managing your resources during your first playthrough is very important since consumables are expensive and sometimes you might be tempted to even buy the music scrolls and other materials that you can find out in the field. Luckily, you have Torgal who can heal you in combat and the Limit Break recovers your HP over time. Spend your Gil on healing potions and other consumables if needed and review the different weapons and accessories that are the best before using them at the forge.

Final Fantasy XVI Beginner Guide: Always Explore Areas

The different locations in Final Fantasy XVI unlock through story progression and each of them gradually increases the space you can explore. Village settlements, the forest, ruins, and even desert areas are hard to search since these are large locations and it can be confusing to walk around in the absence of a mini map.

Make it a habit to open the area map by pressing the touch pad and using the marker to set a pin. This way you can easily keep track of sections you have not explored yet. For each location you visit, before reaching the goal, always explore and check every corner to find loot and small wooden or stone chests.

These small chests can sometimes be frustrating to find since they blend so well with the surroundings, so be sure to keep your eyes peeled for them. If you do find one or if you are near a chest, a small indicator with the X button will appear on it.

That wraps up our Final Fantasy XVI Beginner Guide, hopefully, it gives clarity to some aspects of the game and it guides you with your journey in Valisthea. Be sure to check out our Final Fantasy XVI Review for our thoughts on the game, or you can watch here on YouTube.

If you have any other questions, do let us know in the comment below. You can also check out our website and wikis for more guides. Don’t forget to subscribe to our channel to keep you updated with new content and for everything RPG, you can count on Fextralife. 

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Diablo 4 Werewolf Druid Build – Dire Wolf: In this Diablo 4 Druid Build, I’ll show you how to play a LvL 70+ Dire Wolf Druid that’s aimed at World Tier 4. If you are looking for a Build that focuses on shifting into a Werewolf and using the Shred Ability, which is also a continuation of the Shredder Build, then this Diablo 4 Druid Build – Dire Wolf is for you!

Diablo 4 Werewolf Druid Build – Dire Wolf

So to recap, this Diablo IV Build focuses on using Shred with the help of 2 aspects, namely the Stormclaw’s Aspect and Aspect of the Blurred Beast. The Stormclaw’s Aspect lets you deal huge damage upon landing crits with Shred while the Aspect of the Blurred Beast allows you to use Poison Creeper to absolutely obliterate them. But the problem is it takes some setup since Poison Creeper has a long cooldown. Additionally, you have to let Rabies spread around so your clear speed will take a hit. As such, we also use the Stormclaw’s Aspect to jump right into enemies and deal huge damage whether they’re Poisoned or not. 

Every Druid has issues managing their Spirit, especially early on. First is by getting the Spirit Cost Reduction Stat, around 16-17% off your Amulet and 7.5-8% off Boots minimally. This significantly lowers the cost of Shred to spam it a lot more easily. Second is by taking the Energized Spirit Boon, which makes it so Lucky Hit dealing damage has up to a 15% chance to restore 10 Spirit. This is a good amount of resources and it’s going to trigger sometimes even without you knowing it. 

The third is by using the Aspect of the Umbral, which makes it so that when you crowd control an enemy, you get up to 4 Spirit. This is done with Poison Creeper and also from any Poison you do because of the Neurotoxin Passive to Slow down enemies. So any time you Poison them, they’re effectively CCed. Alternatively, the Starlight Aspect would be better since it restores a huge chunk of Spirit when you heal yourself, which happens often while you’re attacking targets.

Diablo 4 Werewolf Druid Build – Dire Wolf

Once you hit Tier IV you’ll want to start thinking about min/maxing to get the most out of your Build, and that starts with Skills. Thanks to Paragon Boards and to the increased Equipment affixes, you’ll be able to bypass most of the restrictions you previously faced while leveling up. I also won’t get too deep into Skills, as you most probably know how they work by now.

Spirit Boons

• Wariness – Take 10% reduced damage from Elites.
• Scythe Talons – Gain 5% increased Critical Strike Chance.
• Avian Wrath – Gain 30% Critical Strike Damage.
• Energize – Lucky Hit: Dealing damage has up to a 15% chance to restore 10 Spirit.
• Masochistic – Critical Strikes with Shapeshifting Skills Heal you for 3% Maximum Life (150).

Diablo 4 Druid Build: Equipment, Gems, and Aspects

Equipment is the most important part of any Endgame Build, and It’s important to understand that it’s a long-term goal. You won’t have all Paragon Boards available right away, and getting all uniques will probably take a lot of farming, so try to use Legendary Aspects to adjust to your needs while you farm levels and better gear.

Legendary Aspects and Unique Powers

I’ll divide the Equipment into different slots, so it’s easier to understand what you should be using and what affixes you should be looking for. Remember that unique equipment has fixed affixes and powers, so if you are using one, you might need to re-slot a Legendary Aspect into a different piece.

Another important thing to notice is that, when looking for stats, you’ll want to make sure you are fulfilling your Paragon Rare Node requirements. Some rare nodes have very high requirements, and equipment is what allows you to fulfill them. These bonuses often double the rare node effect so, for example, getting an Equipment piece with +100 Dexterity might unlock one or more Node bonuses, giving you a massive bonus as a result.

Helm

Legendary Aspect

Vigorous Aspect: This makes it so that you gain up to 15% Damage Reduction while Shapeshifted, which is 99% of the time. As a result, the Vigorous Aspect considerably improves the Dire Wolf D4 Druid Build’s survivability.

Affixes

• Cooldown Reduction
• +Ranks of Poison Creeper
• +Maximum Life
• +Total Armor

Chest Armor

Affixes

• +Physical Damage
• +Poison Damage
• Damage Reduction from Enemies That Are Poisoned
• +Movement Speed
• Ranks of Werewolf Skills

Unique Equipment

Mad Wolf’s Glee: This gives +2 Ranks of Werewolf Skills as well as Damage Reduction from Enemies That Are Poisoned, which can reach as high as 20%+. That’s a huge amount of Damage Reduction so make sure to Poison targets. This is one of the reasons why you’ll use the Raging Shred upgrade to apply Poison rather than Primal Shred, which increases your Critical Strike Damage. Additionally, Claw helps keep them Poisoned, thereby allowing you to stay alive in combat. 

Gloves

Legendary Aspect

Aspect of the Blurred Beast: This makes it so that when you Dash and attack with Shred, and actually teleport to a target, nearby Poisoned enemies instantly take Poison Damage, which is up to 90%. If this is slotted on an Amulet or Two-Handed Weapon, the damage would be up to 135% or 180%, respectively. 

Affixes

• +Rank of Shred
• +Attack Speed
• +Lucky Hit Chance
• +Critical Strike Chance

Pants

Legendary Aspect

Aspect of the Protector: This gives a Barrier when fighting Elites and Bosses.

OR

Aspect of Disobedience: This raises your Total Armor every time you deal damage.

Affixes

• +Maximum Life
• Damage Reduction while Injured
• +Total Armor
• +Dodge Chance

Boots

Legendary Aspect

Stormshifter’s Aspect: This makes it so that while Hurricane is active, you gain +2 to Shapeshifting Skills like Claw. Hurricane is another amazing Skill that further reduces the damage you take by 20% when you gain access to the Savage Hurricane modifier, allowing you to run into a group of enemies, essentially unscathed.

Affixes

• +Dodge Chance
• +Movement Speed
• Spirit Cost Reduction
• +Movement Speed for 4 Seconds After Killing an Elite

Two-Handed Weapon

Legendary Aspect

Stormclaw’s Aspect: This lets you deal up to 30% damage when you Critically Strike as Lightning Damage to the target and surrounding enemies. When imprinted on a Two-Handed Weapon, it can be up to 60%, which is a huge amount of damage upon landing a crit, especially if you have a high Critical Strike Chance. 

Affixes

• +All Stats
• +Vulnerable Damage
• +Core Skill Damage
• +Willpower

Unique Equipment

Waxing Gibbous: This is a good alternative for this Diablo 4 Werewolf Druid Build as it provides you with increased Critical Strike Damage, Life on Kill, and Ranks of Shred. So if you have the Waxing Gibbous equipped, then you’ll want to place the Stormclaw’s Aspect on your Amulet to still considerably raise the damage you deal by 45%. 

Amulet

Legendary Aspect

Accelerating Aspect: This allows you to shred enemies very fast.

Affixes

• Damage Reduction from Distant Enemies
• +Ranks of Envenom Passive
• +Damage while in Human Form
• Damage Reduction from Close Enemies

First Ring

Legendary Aspect

Dire Wolf’s Aspect: This allows you to turn into a Dire Werewolf when you activate the Grizzly Rage Ultimate, which is normally a Werebear Skill. As such, your Movement Speed is improved while the Spirit cost of your abilities is reduced. The Dire Wolf’s Aspect also heals you for 10% of your Maximum Life upon killing enemies. And this synergizes very well with Starlight’s Aspect. Going back to Grizzly Rage, you have Unstoppable while it’s active, meaning you can stand in CC without this affecting you. This, combined with your Damage Reduction from Skills and gear add up to make you extremely tanky. 

Affixes

• +Physical Damage
• +Damage to Crowd Controlled Enemies
• +Critical Strike Chance
• +Vulnerable Damage

Second Ring

Legendary Aspect

Aspect of the Umbral: Every time you CC an enemy, you gain X amount of Spirit. But it’s not that great since you’re just flying around without getting a hefty resources from each enemy, plus you need to CC a lot of them to make the Aspect of the Umbral worth it.

OR

Starlight Aspect: This makes it so that you gain up to 20 Spirit for every 25% of your Health you heal. And constantly, you’re going to heal with this Diablo 4 Werewolf Druid Build because of Blood Howl and Shred. You’ll jump into enemies, attack, and heal via attacks. Additionally, the Masochistic Spirit Boon restores HP every time you land crits with a Shapeshifting Skill. If you can obtain a max roll on Starlight Aspect, you’ll receive way more Spirit as compared to the Aspect of the Umbral.

Affixes

• +Physical Damage
• +Damage to Crowd Controlled Enemies
• +Damage to Close Enemies
• +Critical Strike Chance

Gems

For gems, you’ll want to slot:

• Weapon: Emeralds to increase Critical Strike Damage against Vulnerable enemies.
• Armor: Rubies to boost your Maximum Life.
• Jewelry: Skulls to boost your Defense value.

Paragon and Glyphs for the Druid Build

When it comes to Paragon Boards, we are mainly going to aim for Rare Nodes that increase our damage output, as well as Glyphs that synergize with our Build. Please note that the order in which I get the Nodes is just a general guideline, and you can adjust it to your current needs.

First Paragon Board – Base

The first glyph you’ll be taking for this Dire Wolf Diablo IV Druid Build is Exploit. This makes it so that when you damage an enemy, they become Vulnerable for 3 seconds. Vulnerable is a huge way to deal damage so you should have it for every Build. So when you teleport to a group of enemies with Shred and then use Poison Creeper, they’ll all become instantly Vulnerable.

Second Paragon Board – Lust for Carnage

Moving over to your second Paragon Board is Lust for Carnage. This makes it so that when you critically strike with Werewolf Skills, you restore Spirit, allowing you to mitigate the resource issues for this Diablo 4 Werewolf Druid Build – Dire Wolf, especially since Shred is very expensive. Wild’s Call is a good Rare Node in this tree that provides you with increased Attack Speed and Maximum Spirit. You, therefore, have a bigger pool to drain. There are also other nodes that amplify your Werewolf Damage and Critical Damage so make sure to invest in those. 

For my second socket, I have the Fang and Claw Glyph so that enemies take 12% increased damage from you since you might struggle to deal damage with this D4 Druid Build sometimes. Next, this glyph boosts the Magic Nodes around it, particularly Werewolf Skill Damage, Healing Received, and additional Dexterity and Intelligence after expanding it to Level 15. Both attributes are needed to gain the extra bonuses from your Rare Nodes. There are probably other boards out there where your Dexterity-based sockets will fit but you essentially need Lust for Carnage to manage your Spirit well. 

Third Paragon Board – Ancestral Guidance

Ancestral Guidance makes it so that after spending 75 Spirit, you deal 30% increased damage for 5 seconds. That’s a huge amount of damage but more importantly, there are a couple of Rare Nodes that you really need. First is Reclamation to gain Maximum Spirit and more of this resource on kill. It follows that the nearby Magic Nodes give additional Spirit on Kill so, between Lust for Carnage, Reclamation, and the node clusters around it, you’re going to receive a lot of resources from attacking and killing enemies, helping you offset the Spirit problems of this Diablo IV Druid Build – Dire Wolf.

Furthermore, you’re also going to take Natural Attunement to receive Maximum Spirit and Maximum Life. You can always top yourself off before rushing into a fight to be able to trigger Shred frequently. What’s more, is that there are other nodes in the Ancestral Guidance Tree that provide you with additional Core Skill Damage as well as another glyph socket. 

Final Tips

A great alternative to the Accelerating Aspect is the Aspect of the Rampaging Werebeast, which makes it so that you extend the duration of Grizzly Rage by up to 5 seconds. Now if you have this on your Amulet, it’ll be 7.5 seconds. And if you have Cooldown Reduction on any of your Equipment, you’ll be able to activate Grizzly Rage more often, probably every 20 seconds. 

So that wraps up our Diablo 4 Werewolf Druid Build – Direwolf, which I enjoyed playing. This and the Rapid Fire Archer Rogue Build are probably my two favorites since I’m able to zip around the screen while dealing huge burst damage and having good survivability. You’re very tanky, especially when you pop in Direwolf. 

Stay tuned for more Diablo 4 Build Guides and General Guides. Be sure to check out our Diablo 4 Wiki for any other questions you have about the game and the Builds page if you are looking for more Diablo IV Builds, as well as our Ultimate Beginner Guide and All Classes Overview if you are looking for more Diablo 4 content!

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Final Fantasy XVI Review:  In this Final Fantasy XVI Review, we’ll be taking a look at the latest entry to the Final Fantasy series which is developed by Creative Business Unit III and published by Square Enix. What does this game have to offer, what makes it stand out among the other Final Fantasy games, what is the gameplay, and what are the things you can do for both side and post-game content? We’ll answer these and cover your other questions in this Final Fantasy XVI Review.

Final Fantasy XVI Review: An Action-Packed Upgrade for a Beloved Franchise

• Genre: Action Role-Playing Game, Adventure
• Developed by: Creative Business Unit III, Square Enix
• Published by: Square Enix
• Release Date: June 22, 2023
• Platform/s: PlayStation 5
• Reviewed on: PlayStation 5
• Price at the time of Review: USD 69.99 ~ 99.99

Final Fantasy XVI Review: Story and Setting

Storytelling and the fictional world of Final Fantasy XVI are well-realized, breathtaking, and compelling. As a player who finds story-driven games attractive, the game does its job of reeling me into the unfolding plot, making me fall in love with the characters, and imprinting itself in my mind even when I’m not playing it, leaving me wanting to come back for more. That is what Final Fantasy games are known for. Delivering a solid story with a cohesive world. Final Fantasy XVI is no exception, and Creative Business Unit III and Square Enix have nailed it.

Final Fantasy XVI is set in a medieval period within Valisthea, divided into two continents, Ash and Storm. The land is scattered with Mothercrystals that provide people with magic and energy, driving civilization through the Aether’s power. In the present day, the nation is divided into six kingdoms that are fighting to gain control of their respective Mothercrystals, each with different goals of maintaining the alliance, conquering, and surviving the Blight’s corruption that continues to threaten and destroy Valisthea.

The key components of the story heavily revolve around the political aspects of the different kingdoms, their military, leaders, and the Dominants: humans who have been chosen as hosts to the different elemental Eikons. These Dominants can use magic without the crystals and can transform into their respective Eikons, making them the ultimate weapons used in war. However, excessive use of their gifts can lead to serious implications for their lives and ultimately result in death.

The game follows the story of the protagonist, Clive Rosfield, the firstborn son of the archduke of The Grand Duchy of Rosaria. He is also the dedicated “Shield” to his younger brother and successor to the throne, Joshua Rosfield who happens to be the Dominant of the Fire Eikon, Phoenix. As we witness Clive’s life in his teenage years, a series of unfortunate events unfold. The Grand Duchy of Rosaria falls, a battle between two Eikons emerges, and a tragedy befalls the Rosfield brothers, setting Clive on a path of vengeance.

Throughout your journey as Clive, you’ll experience the different phases of his life and learn more about the game’s lore through story progression, interactions with different NPCs, side quests, and the game’s unique feature, the ATL or Active Time Lore. We won’t spoil too much in this review since we want everyone to enjoy the story and the revelations that unfold.

Final Fantasy XVI has a darker tone, and we appreciate it. It may not be how we are accustomed to a traditional Final Fantasy game, but for this installment, the Game of Thrones inspiration and grittier vibe seemingly work. Video games, in general, are another form of storytelling, and overall, the story and setting of this game are among its strongest features. When combined with superb voice acting and a well-written script, it definitely leaves both new and veteran fans of the Final Fantasy series in shock and awe. One tip: you might want to keep a box of tissues beside you.

Final Fantasy XVI Review: Gameplay

As I sat down to play for this review, I was worried that the pacing would slow me down and eventually bore me since there are a lot of cutscenes and dialogue, especially in the prologue. However, with patience and the fact that the game starts off with a bang, I was unaware of the amount of time I’d spent playing and how drawn I was as the tension of the story started to build. More gameplay mechanics eventually became accessible to me as I progressed. Yes, it can be slow during the prologue, but it immediately opens more once you start in the present day, and there is a generous amount of content when it comes to the key features and combat mechanics of the game. Let’s talk more about it.

Exploration

Let me start by clarifying that Final Fantasy XVI is not an open-world game, and this could divide players since the open-world setting was already done in Final Fantasy XV. So why not make it possible here? Honestly, it doesn’t need to be for this installment. It reminds me of classic Final Fantasy games, and it feels like the developers decided to “go back to their roots,” which works for this game. In Final Fantasy XVI, locations to explore become available through the story progression. You’ll gain access to the World Map, and from there, you do have some freedom to travel to different areas, provided they are unlocked and can be accessed during certain parts of the main story. 

The locations you explore are divided into sections and are mostly linear, starting from Point A and ultimately reaching Point B, which is your objective. As you traverse these areas such as forests, ruins, village settlements, the desert, and more, you’ll encounter enemies that vary from beasts to humans, including flora and fauna. You’ll discover different loot and fight against bosses. Some areas may feel large in terms of space, but they can easily be cleared out by consulting the location’s map.

While tackling Main Quests, you are not obligated to go directly to the location where the objective of the main quest takes place. Instead, you can always go back to other explored areas and the main hub of the game to engage in side quests, bounty hunting, equipment upgrades, training, or simply exploration. Yes, it might feel underwhelming for some due to the limited space available for exploration, but I still admired the design of each location and interacting with the different characters. Personally, I didn’t feel overwhelmed or distracted by larger spaces.

In areas that require more exploration, sections can be easily traversed by discovering obelisks. These allow the player to easily fast travel from one obelisk to another, as long as it is active. The world and characters change through story progression, so it’s important to revisit pivotal locations like the hub to discover new items in shops, unlock new crafting recipes, find additional side quests, engage in more NPC interactions, and more.

Overall, the exploration aspect of the game, searching areas as I progressed while fighting enemies and bosses, including interactions with the environment and characters, left me satisfied. I appreciated how easy it is to use both the world and area maps, as well as the convenient and simplified features for fast traveling.

Combat Systems

Final Fantasy XVI excels in three areas: the story, visuals and sounds, and combat. When you start the game, the pacing of combat might be slow for some, but this won’t matter since more options become available as you progress through the main story. Be patient, learn the basic maneuvers, and experience Clive’s journey as he unlocks his full potential as a skilled warrior.

Clive has the capability of wielding different Eikonic powers, as heavily featured in trailers, and this is where the combat shines. Without a doubt, the combat reminded me of a combination of games such as Stranger of Paradise and Devil May Cry. You can execute different combos that involve melee attacks and abilities, as well as switch Eikons on the fly to unleash unique elemental skills. The fluidity of combat enhances the experience, allowing me to instruct Torgal to jump in and attack, heal, and launch enemies in the air while simultaneously using combos of melee and magic, ultimately finishing them off with a cheeky little mortal blow finisher.

During minor and major boss battles, I found myself in awe of the smooth transitions between fighting and cinematic moments that involve Quick Time Events (QTEs). The exhilarating experience of Eikon vs. Eikon combat, reminiscent of Kaiju battles, left me picking up my jaw from the floor. The action role-playing game (ARPG) elements in this installment fit perfectly, and it felt rewarding whenever I perfectly dodged, parried, staggered, and executed combos using different combinations of Eikonic Abilities.

Eikon combat in Final Fantasy XVI plays a pivotal role in the game due to its breathtaking and majestic sequences. As you embody an Eikon, you’ll have access to their unique controls and mechanics. For example, Ifrit is capable of lunging toward the target, delivering heavy blows, and throwing fireballs from a ranged distance, while Phoenix is agile, flying in the air, evading attacks, and shooting a barrage of flames. However, summoning or embodying an Eikon does not work like in traditional Final Fantasy games, where you can summon these powerful creatures at any given time in battle. Instead, it only happens during pivotal moments in the game.

As mentioned, you’ll need to progress the story to unlock Clive’s full combat capabilities. But early in the game, players have access to a set of basic combat skills and the Eikonic Abilities of the Phoenix. Abilities in Final Fantasy XVI are unlocked by spending Ability Points (AP), acquired by defeating enemies and completing quests. You can learn these abilities and improve their effects or potency by “Upgrading” and “Mastering” them in exchange for more AP. For each equipped Eikonic power, Clive can choose two abilities mapped to the Square or Triangle buttons. Pressing R2 with Square or Triangle unleashes the Eikon’s Ability. These abilities have cooldowns and will refill over time.

While the combat sounds exciting, it’s important to note that you’ll need to get used to using combos effectively. Yes, it is an ARPG, but it doesn’t mean you can just keep mashing buttons and hope for the best. I had to learn through the training mode and constant battles that chaining combos while giving commands to Torgal and switching between Eikons requires timing and situational awareness. The number of combos you can perform on the ground and in the air is exciting, and it’s refreshing to see in a Final Fantasy game. The game also features a recommended string of combos, which you can view in the ability details by pressing Triangle, making it easier to try a variety of moves and abilities.

Like any other Final Fantasy game, Clive has access to equipment such as weapons, armor, and accessories that improve his offensive and defensive stats. Once you unlock the forge, you can ask Blackthorne to craft new weapons or reinforce existing ones to increase their level and stats in exchange for materials. Alternatively, you can purchase equipment and items from general merchants like Charon’s Toll. While I do wish they added some cosmetic items like costumes to change Clive’s or the party members’ clothing, I’ll let it pass since there’s still a touch of customization where each weapon available for Clive has a unique appearance, which is a staple in Final Fantasy games.

Regarding party members, you only get to control Clive, and throughout the story, you are joined by different characters who act as AI companions in battle. These companions cannot be controlled directly, nor can you switch between them; they act of their own free will. AI companions do not have health bars, which means they won’t die, but they can get hit with attacks that interrupt their actions.

However, you do have some control over the greatest companion in the game, Torgal. Torgal is a hound who is your trusty companion most of the time. He has access to three moves: Sic, a basic attack that can be used to extend combos; Heal, which recovers Clive’s HP; and Ravage, which launches small enemies into the air. If Torgal accompanies Clive during battle, his Pedigree level improves, increasing the potency of his attacks and effectiveness in combat.

My only gripe is that these AI companions sometimes react slowly when I need them to follow up with attacking a staggered enemy or even help with healing the party. I also wish I could customize their equipment to improve their effectiveness in combat. However, this is a minor issue that doesn’t significantly affect my overall experience. I hope future patches or updates will allow us to control and customize other party members, similar to Final Fantasy XV and Final Fantasy VII Remake.

Side & Post-Game Content

In addition to the main campaign, Final Fantasy XVI offers a considerable amount of side and post-game content. While we can’t disclose the exact number of side quests available in this review, there is a generous number of them. There is also an “Arcade” mode, bounty hunts, collectibles to find, and a New Game Plus mode that introduces further challenges. Let’s delve into the different side and post-game content:

• Side Quests: As you progress through the game, side quests become available and are marked with a green exclamation point on the area map. These side quests are important for your journey as they provide additional lore, unlock features or upgrades, and offer useful rewards. Certain side quests may become temporarily locked during specific points in the game and will only be available after progressing through the main story.
• Collectibles: The lore of Final Fantasy XVI is compelling, and you’ll want to stay updated on the events. As Clive progresses, he can interact with Loresman Hapcrates to find a comprehensive compendium of Valisthean lore. The compendium covers basic information, persons, geography, history, and past ATL entries. By sharing stories of Clive’s adventures with Hapcrates, the Thousand Tomes gets updated, and more topics become accessible as the Loresman’s level increases. The hideaway also includes an Orchestrion that provides background music for the hub. The tracklist expands as you acquire more orchestrion rolls from completing quests, purchasing them from merchants, or finding them as loot.
• Bounty Hunts: As you progress through the main campaign, you’ll unlock the Hunter Board, where you can select from a group of elite enemies that need to be slain in exchange for hefty rewards. These unique enemies can be challenging to fight, depending on their rank, so make sure you are prepared before taking on the hunt.
• Arete Stone: The Arete Stone is unlocked as you progress and offers replayable elements to hone your combat skills. The Hall of Virtue serves as a training mode where you can adjust parameters and try out different combos. Arcade Mode allows you to replay any previously cleared stage and awards a score based on performance. Stage Replay, like Arcade Mode, lets you replay a cleared stage at the current level to gain experience points (EXP) and obtain random loot.
• New Game Plus: Upon completing the game, you’ll have the option to start a New Game Plus (NG+) playthrough. In NG+, you can carry over certain progress and items from your previous playthrough, allowing you to experience the game again with added challenges and benefits.

It’s worth noting that side quests and post-game content provide opportunities to gain additional experience points, AP, and items, which can be beneficial for tackling more challenging battles, optimizing your character’s abilities, and unlocking achievements.

Final Fantasy XVI Review: Design, Audio, and Visuals

The design of Final Fantasy XVI is undeniably beautiful and well-suited to its medieval setting. As I explored different locations, each one felt unique and I found myself admiring the lush green forests with dangerous fauna, towering medieval castles and ruins with impeccable details, bustling cities surrounded by market stalls, and small, quiet towns where citizens lived their lives. Even areas that were once vibrant had been consumed by the blight, turning lifeless.

The characters, including NPCs, are well-crafted and each has their own unique wardrobe. The Dominants are dressed to reflect their personalities and Eikons. For example, Jill, the dominant of Shiva, wears a conservative battle robe with hints of blue, while Benedikta wears a more provocative outfit with feather accents to represent the wind Eikon, Garuda. The representation of different magical elements is stunning, with vibrant colors that pop when magic is cast, making combat visually satisfying.

The audio in the game is exceptional, thanks to the work of music composer Masayoshi Soken. The orchestral score he created enhances the adrenaline during combat and suits the different locations you explore. The intense drums, violins, brass instruments, and angelic choir voices adapt and build tension according to your gameplay, immersing you in the experience.

Voice acting in the game is available in multiple languages, including English, Japanese, French, German, Italian, and Spanish (Latin America). I initially played with Japanese voices but found it distracting that the words didn’t match the characters’ mouth movements. Switching to English felt more natural, but both Japanese and English voice acting were delightful to listen to. The actors delivered splendid performances, fully realizing their characters.

Final Fantasy XVI is currently exclusive to the PlayStation 5 and offers the choice between Frame Rate or Graphics Mode. I predominantly played in Frame Rate Mode for the fast-paced action and over-the-top scenes and effects, aiming for a smooth 60 FPS experience. Graphics Mode, on the other hand, enhances visual clarity with higher quality at the expense of a lower 30 FPS frame rate, which can affect fluidity in battle sequences and input responses.

The game transitions seamlessly between combat, cutscenes, and cinematic quick-time events. Loading times are virtually non-existent, and fast traveling is nearly instant. Overall, the game performs exceptionally well, with the only minor issue being a few seconds of frame drops during a specific cutscene in one of the early chapters. However, I believe this can be addressed through post-launch patch updates.

Final Fantasy XVI Review: Replayability & Price Point

According to game director Hiroshi Takai, completing the story of Final Fantasy XVI will take around 35 hours, and including all side and post-game content could extend the playtime to 70-80 hours. In my opinion, starting New Game Plus (NG+) in the harder mode could potentially add another 90 hours, as it adjusts enemy and boss behaviors and increases combat difficulty.

After finishing the main story for the first time, you’ll unlock New Game Plus, which introduces Final Fantasy Mode (Hard Mode) and other game modes accessible through the Arete Stone, such as gauntlets where players can upload scores and climb online leaderboards.

In Final Fantasy Mode, enemies become tougher, their placements are adjusted, combat difficulty is increased, and better rewards are available for gear upgrades. Completionists will likely benefit from experiencing NG+ features, while most players may choose to end their journey after completing the game once.

The physical and digital Standard Edition of Final Fantasy XVI is priced at $69.99 USD, while the physical Deluxe Edition costs $99.99 USD and includes pre-order DLCs, a cloth world map of Valisthea, and a steel book case. The Digital Deluxe Edition on the PS Store is priced at $89.99 USD and offers digital bonuses such as an art book and soundtrack.

Considering the exceptional quality of gameplay, storytelling, audio, and visuals, the $69.99 USD price point is reasonable for Final Fantasy XVI. If you have been eagerly anticipating this game, were convinced by the demo, or are simply a fan of the Final Fantasy franchise, I believe it’s a fair price. However, if you’re still unsure, you can download the demo on the PS5 to experience and gain a better understanding of what the game has to offer.

Final Thoughts

Initially, I had reservations about Final Fantasy XVI due to my preference for traditional turn-based combat mechanics and my mixed feelings towards previous entries like Final Fantasy XV, which leaned towards an action RPG approach. However, after playing the demo and experiencing the full game, my perspective changed. I accepted and embraced the new direction Square Enix has taken to appeal to a wider audience.

Whether you’re a new or veteran fan of Final Fantasy, I highly recommend this game. Final Fantasy XVI combines new features with the core elements of the franchise. It boasts a refreshing, grittier, and darker tone, with storytelling that consistently builds tension and reveals intriguing revelations. The gameplay is satisfying, featuring different types of action sequences and fluid combat mechanics, fully utilizing the power of the PlayStation 5. Final Fantasy XVI has become one of my favorite entries in the series, winning me over with its well-crafted story and breathtaking gameplay.

The post Final Fantasy XVI Review: An Action-Packed Upgrade for a Beloved Franchise appeared first on Fextralife.

In this Diablo 4 Necromancer Build, I’ll show you how to play a LvL 70+ White Walker Necromancer that’s aimed at World Tier 4. If you are looking for a Build that uses Minions and the Frost element in order to not only boost your damage but also Freeze enemies, then this Diablo 4 White Walker Necromancer Build Guide is for you!

Diablo 4 Summoner Necromancer Build – White Walker

A lot of people have been asking me to make an endgame Minion Build that can keep Minions alive where they can actually do something in combat. So my primary objective with this Diablo IV Build is to incorporate them but it’s worth noting that they don’t deal a ton of damage in this game even after acquiring all of the summon nodes. However, these Minions are able to provide Corpses and Freeze enemies, making it easier for you to kill them while providing decent Essence. What’s more, is that they act as meat shields, and once you get the Ring of Mendeln Unique Ring, they’ll be able to deal a lot more damage upon exploding on enemies, making them viable than before.

So the first thing to consider with this Diablo 4 White Walker Necromancer Build is how you get your Minions to survive. It took a while to balance survivability with damage but you can tweak this around a little as you see fit depending on the Equipment you have. So in terms of the Paragon Boards, which I’ll discuss in detail later on, I’ve taken the Cult Leader to focus on boosting Minion Damage and protection. 

Next, I have Maximum Minion Life on a lot of my gear to give them Health to avoid dying quickly. There’s still the maxed-out Bonded in Essence, which makes it so that your Skeletal Priest heals for 60% more of your Maximum Minion Life. You’ll also notice that there’s no more Death’s Defense, and that’s simply because your summons usually doesn’t take up to 30% of the Health in one hit anymore. 

As such, I’ve opted to put my points into Inspiring Leader, which makes it so that after you’ve been Healthy for 4 seconds, your Minions gain 12% Attack Speed. Attack Speed is beneficial because when Cold Mages deal damage, they give back Essence on top of Chilling and Freezing enemies. So the faster they attack, the more often that’s going to happen. In effect, there will be more opportunities to create Corpses to activate Corpse Explosion or to heal your Minions.

Diablo 4 Summoner Necromancer Build – White Walker

Once you hit Tier IV you’ll want to start thinking about min/maxing to get the most out of your Build, and that starts with Skills. Thanks to Paragon Boards and to the increased Equipment affixes, you’ll be able to bypass most of the restrictions you previously faced while leveling up. I also won’t get too deep into Skills, as you most probably know how they work by now.

Book of the Dead / Unique Specialization

• Skeletal Warriors – 2nd Node of the Reaper
• Skeletal Mages – 1st Node of the Cold
• Golems – Sacrificed Iron

Diablo 4 Necromancer Build: Equipment, Gems, and Aspects

Equipment is the most important part of any Endgame Build, and It’s important to understand that it’s a long-term goal. You won’t have all Paragon Boards available right away, and getting all uniques will probably take a lot of farming, so try to use Legendary Aspects to adjust to your needs while you farm levels and better gear.

Legendary Aspects and Unique Powers

I’ll divide the Equipment into different slots, so it’s easier to understand what you should be using and what affixes you should be looking for. Remember that unique equipment has fixed affixes and powers, so if you are using one, you might need to re-slot a Legendary Aspect into a different piece.

Another important thing to notice is that, when looking for stats, you’ll want to make sure you are fulfilling your Paragon Rare Node requirements. Some rare nodes have very high requirements, and equipment is what allows you to fulfill them. These bonuses often double the rare node effect so, for example, getting an Equipment piece with +100 Dexterity might unlock one or more Node bonuses, giving you a massive bonus as a result.

Helm

Legendary Aspect

Blood Getter’s Aspect: This is an alternative if you don’t acquire the Deathless Visage Unique Helm, allowing you to increase the number of Skeletal Warriors you summon.

OR

Aspect of the Protector: This gives more protection by letting you conjure a damage shield upon hitting Elites or Bosses.

Affixes

• +Total Armor
• +Physical Damage
• +Critical Strike Damage with Bone Skills
• +Maximum Essence

Unique Equipment

Deathless Visage: This makes Bone Spear even more deadly. When you send it through a pack of enemies, the explosions trail behind it to wipe everything out. 

Chest Armor

Legendary Aspect

Viscous Aspect: This increases the number of Skeletal Mages you have by 2, giving you 5 of them.

Affixes

• Damage Reduction from Distant Enemies
• +Damage
• +Physical Damage
• +Intelligence

Unique Equipment

No unique Equipment is recommended for this category.

Gloves

Legendary Aspect

No Legendary Aspect is recommended for this category.

Affixes

• +Critical Strike Chance
• +Cold Damage
• +Freeze Duration
• +Lucky Hit: Up to a 5% Chance to Restore X Primary Resource

If you don’t have Frostburn yet, you’re going to want Gloves that give Critical Strike Chance and Ranks of Bone Spear. 

Unique Equipment

Frostburn: This makes it so that you have a Lucky Hit Chance to Freeze enemies for 2 seconds, which follows the frost theme portion of our Diablo 4 Necromancer Build. You have the Blizzard Skill from your Skeletal Mages as well as their cold attacks from the Book of the Dead. And now, with Frostburn, you yourself are able to Freeze targets as well. So this prevents them from dealing damage to you and from doing a lot of things while boosting your damage against CCed enemies because of the Control Glyph.

Pants

Legendary Aspect

Aspect of Disobedience: This increases your Armor by up to 50% if you have a max roll, for 4 seconds when you deal any form of damage.

OR

Aspect of the Protector: This gives more protection by letting you conjure a damage shield upon hitting Elites or Bosses.

Affixes

• +Maximum Minion Life
• Damage Reduction
• +Damage for 4 Seconds After Killing an Elite
• +Dodge Chance

Unique Equipment

No unique Equipment is recommended for this category.

Boots

Legendary Aspect

Coldbringer’s Aspect: Every 10 seconds, your Cold Skeletal Mages may cast Blizzard to deal Cold Damage and continuously Chill targets for 8% for 6 seconds. This is fantastic in terms of dealing damage and keeping them alive, especially if you have Damage vs Crowd Controlled Enemies. However, because I already have the Coldbringer’s Aspect for my Boots, I don’t have room for extra Skeletal Warriors, which you may want, so that’s the tradeoff here. 

You can have more Skeletal Warriors but I simply find that the Skeletal Mages are more beneficial to this Diablo IV White Walker Necromancer Build to enhance your Crowd Control Damage. This is especially true since you’re going to make use of the Control Glyph to increase your damage and that of your Minions against Chilled and Frozen enemies.

Affixes

• +All Stats
• +Ranks of Corpse Tendrils
• +Movement Speed

Unique Equipment

No unique Equipment is recommended for this category.

One-Handed Weapon

Legendary Aspect

No Legendary Aspect is recommended for this category.

Affixes

• +Intelligence
• +Damage to Distant Enemies
• +Damage to Healthy Enemies
• +Rank of Fueled by Death Passive

If you don’t have Black River yet, I suggest using any One-Handed Weapon that has Critical Damage, Vulnerable Damage, Core Skill Damage, or Damage to Distant Enemies. Or perhaps All Stats to boost your damage via Paragon Boards. 

Unique Equipment

Black River: This considerably boosts your Attack Speed, which is where your Minions’ Attack Speed is based on. It also enhances your damage to distant enemies as well as a rank to Fueled by Death Passive, thereby boosting damage upon consuming a Corpse. More importantly, Corpse Explosion consumes up to 4 additional Corpses and widens its explosion radius. At higher levels, this Skill starts to fall off since you need to constantly detonate a ton of Corpses. This is why a lot of people move to the Shadow version of it to enhance their damage even if it’s slower.

Now because of Black River, Corpse Explosion becomes meta again while ramping up your Essence regeneration because if you use it once and there are 5 Corpses on the ground, you’ll get back 30 Essence, which makes Bone Spear stronger.

The reason why Bone Spear is stronger when you have Maximum Essence is because of the Ossified Essence Key Passive. This makes Bone Skills deal 1% increased damage for each point of Essence you have above 50 upon cast. So try to cast Bone Spear when you’re at Maximum Essence, and keeping yourself topped up in between casts will make this Skill deal greater damage. And since you don’t need to fling these spears at a lightning rate with this Diablo 4 White Walker Necro Build, you would be fine to alternate it with Corpse Explosion.

Offhand Weapon

Legendary Aspect

Aspect of Reanimation: This increases your Skeleton Damage after they have been alive for 10 seconds up to 30%. Since I had a max roll on the Aspect of Reanimation, I decided to keep it.

OR

Aspect of Frenzied Dead: However, since Minions don’t deal a ton of damage, you can make use of this aspect to increase their Attack Speed for 3 seconds after damaging an enemy, stacking up to 3x. As a result, they’ll be able to Freeze things faster while getting back your Essence quicker. It’s also going to create more Corpses from your Reapers that can be detonated with Corpse Explosion. So even though it’s not necessarily boosting their damage, the situation will be better. 

Affixes

• +Maximum Minion Life
• +Resource Generation
• Cooldown Reduction
• +Critical Strike Chance Against Injured Enemies

Unique Equipment

No unique Equipment is recommended for this category.

Amulet

Legendary Aspect

Splintering Aspect: For this White Walker D4 Necromancer Build, you’re going to use Bone Spear to help support your Minions at range as well as Corpse Explosion without spending Essence. Because of Bone Spear, you’ll want to imprint the Splintering Aspect, which makes it so that enemies hit beyond the first Vulnerable are also Vulnerable for a certain amount of seconds, and that bone shards that splinter from Bone Spear deal increased damage to them. I’ve placed the Splintering Aspect on my Amulet to get more damage out of it. 

Affixes

• +Willpower
• Cooldown Reduction
• +Ranks of Compound Fracture Passive
• Essence Cost Reduction

Unique Equipment

No unique Equipment is recommended for this category.

First Ring

Legendary Aspect

No Legendary Aspect is recommended for this category.

Affixes

• +Lucky Hit Chance
• +Minion Attack Speed
• +Maximum Minion Life

Unique Equipment

Ring of Mendeln: All of its affixes are great for this D4 White Walker Necro Build except for Thorns. But if you’re playing a Thorns Minion Build with Razor Plate, it would be good. Now the Ring of Mendeln makes it so that while you have 7+ Minions, you gain Lucky Hit up to a 10% chance to empower them, causing their next attacks to explode for X amount of Physical Damage. This is fantastic because periodically, your Minions will just hit for huge damage against mobs. They don’t deal a ton of damage natively so having the Ring of Mendeln bypasses that problem.

Another thing that seems to happen with this Ring, although it needs more testing, is its synergy with the Army of the Dead Ultimate Skill. It seems to cause insane damage, allowing them to wipe out packs of enemies in a second. I’m not sure if that’s because they’re detonating or if it’s due to the high Lucky Hit Chance. But it makes Army of the Dead absolutely lethal. 

Second Ring

Legendary Aspect

Aspect of Grasping Veins: This is one that should probably be in just about every Necromancer Diablo IV Build and it makes it so that you have up to a 20% increased Critical Strike Chance for 6 seconds after using Corpse Tendrils and you gain up to 60% Critical Strike Damage to enemies damaged by this Skill. The Aspect of Grasping Veins is another good candidate for your Amulet. Corpse Tendrils allow you to pull targets together, allowing you to Stun them and apply the Vulnerability effect. As such, this considerably raises your damage. And it lets you group them up nicely to then activate Bone Spear and Corpse Explosion. 

OR

Requiem Aspect: This provides a lot of Essence per active Minion, and since you have 9, that’s 45 Maximum Essence, which is a huge amount. This lets you further boost Bone Spear’s Damage by 45% if you cast at Maximum Essence. So the Requiem Aspect is worth getting as long as you get 4 or the max roll for it.

Affixes

• +Vulnerable Damage
• +Critical Strike Chance
• +Maximum Life
• +Damage to Stunned Enemies

Unique Equipment

No unique Equipment is recommended for this category.

Gems

For gems, you’ll want to slot:

• Weapon: Emeralds to increase Critical Strike Damage against Vulnerable enemies.
• Armor: Rubies to boost your Maximum Life.
• Jewelry: Skulls to boost your Defense value.

Paragon and Glyphs for the Necromancer Build

When it comes to Paragon Boards, we are mainly going to aim for Rare Nodes that increase our damage output, as well as Glyphs that synergize with our Build. Please note that the order in which I get the Nodes is just a general guideline, and you can adjust it to your current needs.

Second Paragon Board – Cult Leader

As mentioned earlier, the Cult Leader Paragon Board is focused on Minion Damage and protection so it doesn’t boost your D4 White Walker Necromancer Build’s damage in any way. There are a couple of really good Rare and Magic Nodes in this tree. First is Custody, which significantly reduces the damage your Minions take. Once you meet the Dexterity requirement, they’ll take lesser damage. Second is Overlord, which increases Minion Damage.

And what’s really great is a glyph socket positioned perfectly between these two clusters. Here, I recommend slotting the Deadraiser Glyph. This makes it so that Paragon Nodes within range gain plus a percentage bonus to your Minion Damage and Minion Damage Reduction modifiers. So Custody and Overlord are going to get affected as well as the Magic Nodes around them. Once you upgrade this to Level 15, its radius will expand to incorporate all Magic Nodes to further improve their performance in combat. 

Up until you have this Deadraiser Glyph, you probably need to use the Aspect of Hardened Bones to give your Minions enough damage reduction to stay alive. When this glyph reach Level 15, I was able to remove my Legendary Aspect. I find that healing them regularly improves their survivability. However, if you need more protection for them, then there’s a Rare Node in the upper left-hand corner called the Armor-Clad to provide your Minions with more Armor and Maximum Life.

Third Paragon Board – Bone Graft

From the Cult Leader Tree, I got the Skeletal Mages Nodes but had to sacrifice the Skeletal Warrior ones on the left to gain access to the Bone Graft Paragon Board. I then picked up some passives like Essence on Kill to keep my resources topped up as well as the Bone Graft Legendary Node to enhance both my damage and Maximum Essence the more Bone Skills I use. 

You’ll also unlock a third glyph socket to slot in Control and be able to deal more damage to Chilled, Frozen, and CCed enemies. 

Final Tips

With regard to node clusters, you’ll notice that there are several unused Magic Nodes on the way to the third glyph socket. The priority is to level up the Control Glyph to maximize the damage to CCed enemies while boosting your Minion Damage as well. So I intended to gain access to it first before going back to pick up these nodes. Also, you’ll need a bit more Dexterity there. My thought process will be to spend the next 20-30 Paragon points to flesh out this Bone Graft Tree with the things I missed, and then perhaps unlock more stuff in the Cult Leader Board, especially if I need more Minion survivability or want to get more Skeletal Warrior Damage.  

So that wraps up our Diablo 4 White Walker Necromancer Build. Even though Minions aren’t as strong as compared to sacrificing them, they continue to be viable in the endgame. They’re also fun to play with and contribute in other ways besides damage-dealing like Freezing enemies and providing Corpses for Corpse Explosion. 

Stay tuned for more Diablo IV Builds. We have another Druid and Barbarian Build coming along so you can look forward to those. Be sure to check out our Diablo 4 Wiki for any other questions you have about the game and the Builds page if you are looking for more Diablo IV Builds, as well as our Ultimate Beginner Guide and All Classes Overview if you are looking for more Diablo 4 content!

The post Diablo 4 Summoner Necromancer Build – White Walker appeared first on Fextralife.

Diablo 4 Paragon System Guide: In this Diablo 4 article, I’m going to explore the Paragon System. There are a lot of things that go into choosing which Paragon Boards and Glyphs to use regardless of what Class you are. If you’re looking for a comprehensive discussion to figure out what to do with your Paragon Boards for your Builds, then this guide is for you!

Diablo 4 Paragon System Guide

So once you reach Level 50 and unlock the Paragon Board, which is different for every Class, you’re going to only be able to head upward and toward your first glyph socket. As you keep playing from Level 50 onward, having unlocked the Paragon System, Glyphs will drop until you have acquired all of them such that there won’t ever be duplicates. You’ll always get a new one every time it drops, allowing you to slot them in a socket. 

Diablo 4 Paragon System Guide: How Glyphs Work

Now each Class has its own set of Glyphs even though some of them are named similarly and share the same bonuses. So the first thing you’ll want to do is to figure out a Glyph that benefits your playstyle. I have the Necromancer Paragon Board here with the Essence Glyph at the beginning. Essence is going to give me Critical Strike Damage with Core Skills for each Dexterity Node that I select inside the red radius. So the more Dexterity Nodes I unlock, the more Critical Strike Damage I’m going to gain. Additionally, if the amount of Dexterity adds up to at least 25, I’ll receive a secondary bonus that increases Critical Strike Damage against enemies who aren’t Healthy, so below 80% Health.

There are two parts to this. First is picking a Glyph that actually benefits me, and as a Blood Necromancer, there aren’t too many that affect Blood Skills specifically, except for Critical Strike Damage with Core Skills. And the second one is making sure that I can unlock the secondary bonus and that there are a good number of Dexterity Nodes around it in order to get as much Critical Strike Damage as I can. Had I slotted 2 more, if they were available, I would’ve further boosted my Critical Strike Damage with Core Skills.

Diablo 4 Paragon System Guide: Second Paragon Board

Once you’ve slotted the Glyph that best suits your playstyle while unlocking its additional bonus, and you don’t have Stats you can assign anymore, you should continue moving up the board. Here, I highly recommend prioritizing damage. Usually, one side of a board focuses on damage whereas the other is all about defense so you can do both if you like. Now once you get to the top, you’re going to attach and select another Paragon Board. You’ll be able to look through these and see what their Legendary and Rare Nodes do. 

A lot of new players make the mistake of selecting their next Paragon Board solely based on the Legendary Node available because the Rare Nodes inside often outshine this Legendary Node in many, many cases. What I suggest doing is previewing each and every board and looking through these Rare Nodes in terms of what they do and the magic clusters around each one to determine the bonuses they grant. Doing so will give you a really good picture of what you’re in for and if it matches your Build. As such, I highly recommend selecting a board that has 3-4 good node clusters. Four is better, of course, and then rotate the board to unlock the best nodes first. This will then be followed by mapping your route. 

You’ll essentially move from one Rare Node cluster to the next, picking up Magic Nodes around it, maybe dipping over and selecting up the Legendary Node if it’s not too far off. Avoid the ones you don’t want and head over to those you do as quickly as possible. As you’re gaining access to these Rare Nodes, one of the things you should pay attention to is the additional bonuses they provide as long as you meet their attribute requirements. Every single Rare Node in Diablo 4 has an additional secondary bonus that once you meet the Stat requirement, you unlock.

For instance, if it says 340 Willpower and your character already has this amount, you’ll gain the corresponding bonuses so you ought to be familiar with what they are to be able to target these attributes on your gear. A lot of times, you’ll unlock 2-3 bonuses at the same time because they have similar requirements. 

Now I really want to emphasize how important it is to pick a good Second Board because once you move on to your Third Board in any direction, those will cost more Stats to unlock secondary bonuses. This means that if there are bonuses you really like, you’ll want to double down and obtain them on your Second Board. It’s also worth noting that these choices will be less relevant as you progress further in Diablo IV but at the beginning, you need to pay close attention to focus on min-maxing your gear. 

Diablo 4 Paragon System Guide: Second Glyph

Next, I urge you to experiment with different Paragon Boards to see what works best for you. You don’t have to pick one and stick with it if it’s not working like with Skills. And it’s also because the Second Board is really going to be the backbone of your Diablo IV Build. So at some point, you’re going to come across another socket where you’ll place your next Glyph, meaning you need to move toward it. 

The Glyph you want to put here will based on the available Stats near it together with the additional bonus you gain that you couldn’t put on your First Board. When these Glyphs hit Level 15, and even though you’re b-lining from one node cluster to the next, you may consider changing your route to take advantage of your Glyphs’ expanded radius. Because remember that if you’re getting 6 or 7 Critical Strike Damage per Dexterity, and all of a sudden, the range has expanded, you can take more Dexterity Nodes to further amplify your Critical Strike Damage rather than unlocking the ones you don’t need. 

Other Boards

There’s also a lot of nuance that comes with picking your Third and Fourth Boards. For instance, on my Build here, I’ve dipped over into the Bone Graft Tree, which is not particularly applicable to a Blood Necromancer Build. However, it has one node cluster that I really like, which gives Maximum Essence and Essence on Kill. So I’ve taken this because my Blood D4 Necro has trouble with Essence management and one of the ways to rectify it is by making sure I have more when combat starts. I even regain some of it upon killing enemies. So you want to be on the lookout for little clusters like these, particularly if you’re encountering Essence, Spirit, or Energy management problems. 

However, here’s where things get tricky because I don’t need anything else from the Third Board. And so, I went back to the top of my Second Board to gain access to my Fourth Board. But those nodes are going to be more expensive Stat-wise to unlock the additional bonuses I want. Once I have enough Paragon points to reach the Rare Node on this Fourth Board, I’d actually be better off pulling all the node points out, detaching the board entirely, and instead, making it my Third Board. Doing so will turn my Bone Graft Tree into my Fourth Board since I’m only using one node cluster here. And this is exactly why you won’t want to do something like what I did because you would’ve made all the nodes and the Third Board more expensive. 

Final Tips

Make sure that you have the attributes around the glyph socket you’re using in order to get the secondary bonus. Once this expands, keep increasing the respective Stats to get more bonuses from it. And remember that the Second Board you pick is your primary board Stat-wise and early on in the Paragon levels. 

Now as you go higher and higher in the level scale of D4 from Level 80 to 90, it’s not going to matter much the order of Boards you pick. But if you’re between Level 50 to 75, it’ll be very important for your Build. Again, don’t choose your Second and Third Boards based on the Legendary Nodes but remember to look at the Rare and Magic Nodes as well to greatly benefit you.

So this wraps up our Paragon System Guide, I hope you found it useful. It’s not that complicated but there are a lot of different things you can do. You really have to pay attention though. I also don’t recommend sitting there trying to math it all out while you’re making your Build. Just pick a tree and see if it works. If it does, continue the route, otherwise, change the board and pick different nodes. 

If you have further questions about the Paragon System, please let me know. Be sure to check out our Diablo 4 Wiki for any other questions you have about the game and the Builds page if you are looking for more Diablo IV Builds, as well as our Ultimate Beginner Guide and All Classes Overview if you are looking for more Diablo 4 content!

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Diablo 4 Bloodshadow Necromancer Build (LvL 70+): In this Diablo 4 Necromancer Build, I’ll show you how to play a LvL 70+ Bloodshadow Necromancer. This is a continuation of the previous Vampire Build that you can use as soon as you hit World Tier IV. If you are looking for a Build to both get you from the beginning of Tier IV up to the very late game and one that uses the Blood Surge Ability then this Diablo 4 Bloodshadow Necromancer Build Guide is for you!

Diablo 4 Bloodshadow Necromancer Build

So this Diablo IV Build still has a huge focus on Overpowering, and there are 2 ways we get Overpower. The first is from casting Blood Surge a 6th time, and the second is for every 15 seconds you remain Healthy thanks to the Rathma’s Vigor Key Passive. Your next blood attack can either be Blood Surge or Blood Mist depending on what’s happening on the screen. Don’t count out Blood Mist because this actually hits like a truck when you Overpower with it, allowing you to move through enemies and wipe out entire packs without having to use Blood Surge even once. 

The general way this Bloodshadow Necromancer Diablo 4 Build works is that you’re going to activate Blood Mist into a group of enemies, and if you’re Overpowering, it’s going to hit them like a truck. If they’re weak, they’ll probably all die, or at least almost all of them. Blood Surge can then clean them up. But if it’s a strong pack, this going to drop Corpses on the ground that will explode and deal Shadow Damage as it’s left on the floor. And you’ll also deal damage as you move through them. 

Doing so should get you into the center of a pack where you want to be, and then you’re going to trigger Corpse Tendrils. Since there will be Corpses on the ground, Corpse Tendrils will grab targets, pull them together, apply the Vulnerable effect, and Stun them, which is perfect for you. And then you’ll spam Blood Surge to decimate these enemies before they can even come out of being Stunned.

One of the great things about this D4 Bloodshadow Necromancer Build is it has incredible survivability because you’re going to heal yourself and apply overhealing, which provides you with Fortify. You’ll also constantly conjure Barriers, letting you go into these big crowds of enemies and survive where other Diablo IV Builds can’t. And remember that every time you Overpower, Blood Mist’s cooldown will get reduced. You’ll go in with Blood Mist, attack with Corpse Tendrils, and spam Blood Surge before moving out. If they’re not yet dead, repeat this cycle over and over until you clean up everything on the battlefield.

Diablo 4 Bloodshadow Necromancer Build (LvL 70+): Skill Distribution

Once you hit Tier IV you’ll want to start thinking about min/maxing to get the most out of your Build, and that starts with Skills. Thanks to Paragon Boards and to the increased Equipment affixes, you’ll be able to bypass most of the restrictions you previously faced while leveling up.

I also won’t get too deep into Skills, as you most probably know how they work by now. 

Book of the Dead

• Skeletal Warriors – Sacrificed Skirmisher
• Skeletal Mages – Sacrificed Bone
• Golems – Sacrificed Iron

Diablo 4 Bloodshadow Necromancer Build: Equipment, Gems, and Aspects

Equipment is the most important part of any Endgame Build, and It’s important to understand that it’s a long-term goal. You won’t have all Paragon Boards available right away, and getting all uniques will probably take a lot of farming, so try to use Legendary Aspects to adjust to your needs while you farm levels and better gear.

Legendary Aspects and Unique Powers

I’ll divide the Equipment into different slots, so it’s easier to understand what you should be using and what affixes you should be looking for. Remember that unique equipment has fixed affixes and powers, so if you are using one, you might need to re-slot a Legendary Aspect into a different piece.

Another important thing to notice is that, when looking for stats, you’ll want to make sure you are fulfilling your Paragon Rare Node requirements. Some rare nodes have very high requirements, and equipment is what allows you to fulfill them. These bonuses often double the rare node effect so, for example, getting an Equipment piece with +100 Dexterity might unlock one or more Node bonuses, giving you a massive bonus as a result.

Helm

Legendary Aspect

Aspect of the Protector: This provides you with a Barrier when you fight Elites and Bosses. It’s pretty much a staple for any Diablo 4 Build because having that Barrier, especially if you roll really high, will allow you to take several hits when you first enter combat against a large group of Elites. Otherwise, your Health will plummet, and your damage will go down. Remember that you deal increased damage when you’re Healthy and Fortified with this Diablo 4 Bloodshadow Necromancer Build (Lvl 70+).

Affixes

• +Healing Received
• Cooldown Reduction

An affix to look out for on your Helmet is Cooldown Reduction to be able to use Blood Mist, Corpse Tendrils, and Bone Storm more frequently. Otherwise, you’ll want a boost in Damage Reduction to live longer. Maximum Life is also really good since it lets you get more damage with Overpower the higher your Health is. 

Unique Equipment

No unique Equipment is recommended for this category.

Chest Armor

Legendary Aspect

Aspect of Explosive Mist: Ideally, you’ll want this aspect on your Boots if it’s possible, otherwise, having it on your Chest Armor won’t be the end of the world. The Aspect of Explosive Mist makes it so that Blood Mist detonates Corpses as you move through enemies, which causes Shadow Damage all over the ground. And as such, it’ll replenish Essence because of this automatic triggering of Corpse Explosion while reducing the cooldown of Blood Mist, letting you use it quickly. 

Aspect of Shielding Storm: Now if the Aspect of Explosive Mist can be placed on your Boots, then you’re able to opt for the Aspect of Shielding Storm, which makes it so that each time Bone Storm damages an enemy, you gain a Barrier equal to 5 up to 5% of your Base Life. This is another huge damage shield when you stack it with the Barrier from the Aspect of the Protector together with the other Damage Reduction and overhealing from this D4 Bloodshadow Necro Build. So these factors make you extremely tanky to be able to move into a large pack of enemies without dying.

Affixes

• +Total Armor
• +Cold Damage
• Damage Reduction from Close Enemies

The affixes you’ll need on your Chest Armor are those related to Damage Reduction or anything to gain more Life. 

Unique Equipment

No unique Equipment is recommended for this category.

Gloves

Legendary Aspect

Blood-Soaked Aspect: This makes it so that Blood Mist leaves a trail of Shadow Damage as you move through enemies. But more importantly, it removes the Movement Speed penalty from this Skill, allowing you to surge to the center of fights more easily. So you can essentially spread that trail around more or get out of harm’s way quickly.

Affixes

• +Critical Strike Chance
• +Dexterity
• +Shadow Damage Over Time
• +Willpower

Unique Equipment

No unique Equipment is recommended for this category.

Pants

Legendary Aspect

Aspect of the Embalmer: If you don’t have the Temerity Unique Item, I would suggest imprinting the Aspect of the Embalmer on your Pants. This makes it so that consuming a Corpse has a 20-30% chance of spawning a Blood Orb to heal you more. It’s also going to overheal you, thereby helping boost your damage.

Affixes

• +All Stats
• Lucky Hit: Up to a 5% Chance to Heal X Life
• +Healing Received
• +Potion Charges
• +Potion Drop Rate

Unique Equipment

Temerity: This makes it so that certain effects, which heal you beyond 100% of your Life such as Blood Orbs or potions, grant you a Barrier of up to 80% of your Maximum Life. So if you pop a potion before going into combat then you have an extra damage shield together with the ones from the Aspect of the Protector and the Aspect of the Shielding Storm. 

Theoretically, if you have all 3 of them stacked on top of each other, it’ll be very good for your Diablo 4 Bloodshadow Necro Build (LvL 70+). Additionally, Temerity increases your Potion Drop Rate, provides you with a Lucky Hit chance to heal, and raises your Healing Received. Although it’s not a must for this Build, you’ll want to have Temerity if you can in order to make you tankier.

Boots

Legendary Aspect

Aspect of Explosive Mist: This is also a good item to imprint the aspect on.

Affixes

• +Movement Speed
• +Crowd Control Duration
• +Slow Duration Reduction

Unique Equipment

Penitent Greaves: This makes it so that you leave a frost trail behind and around you to Chill enemies and increase your damage against them. Penitent Greaves is really great for this Bloodshadow Necromancer Build because it’ll inflict crowd control on targets and since you move through them with Blood Mist, you’ll be able to Chill them constantly. Additionally, you have affixes that increase your Movement Speed and Crowd Control Duration.

Note that Penitent Greaves works with one of the Glyphs we’re using, specifically the Control Glyph, which raises your damage against Chilled, Frozen, and CCed enemies in general. 

One-Handed Weapon

Legendary Aspect

Blood-Bathed Aspect: This makes it so that Blood Surge’s nova echoes again to deal up to 60% less damage. So you basically get a second blood nova, which will also Overpower even if it’s for less damage. 

Affixes

• +Critical Strike Damage
• +Intelligence
• +Damage to Slowed Enemies
• +All Stats

I have a One-Handed Weapon equipped for faster Attack Speed to be able to trigger Blood Surge more quickly while gaining the advantage of using more Legendary Aspects. If you use the Sword, you gain increased Critical Strike Damage, which is also nice. You also want to look out for Core Skill Damage, Damage to Close or Distant Enemies, and Damage to Stunned Enemies since you tend to hit those that have been constantly Stunned by Corpse Tendrils.

Unique Equipment

Black River: This is a Unique One-Handed Scythe that comes with Intelligence, Life on Kill, Damage to Healthy Enemies, and Ranks of Fueled by Death and Corpse Explosion. But more importantly, it makes Corpse Explosion consume up to 4 additional Corpses around the original Corpse, thereby dealing amplified damage and affecting more enemies due to having a larger radius. 

When used with Blood Mist, you have a pile of Corpses on the ground so you end up gaining a ton of Essence and dealing way more damage. So if you do get the Black River, I recommend imprinting the Blood-Bathed Aspect on your Gloves instead to replace the one that’s currently being used there.

Offhand Weapon

Legendary Aspect

Aspect of Untimely Death: This makes it so that each percent of your Maximum Life you heal beyond 100% gives you extra Overpower Damage on your next attack. Since you constantly overheal with this D4 Bloodshadow Necro Build (LvL 70+) via Blood Orbs, potions, and Life on Kill, it’ll be easy to trigger. And so the extra damage will apply to your next Overpower regularly.

Affixes

• +Resource Generation
• Cooldown Reduction
• Lucky Hit: Up to a 5% Chance to Restore X Primary Resource
• Damage Reduction while Fortified

You’ll then want to equip a Focus to reduce the cooldown of Blood Mist, Corpse Tendrils, and Bone Storm. A Shield is no longer an option since you already have a lot of Barriers to make you tanky. The other bonuses to look out for are more reductions of any kind, Critical Strike Chance, and basically, anything that’s going to lower the damage you take.

Unique Equipment

No unique Equipment is recommended for this category.

Amulet

Legendary Aspect

Aspect of Grasping Veins: This makes it so that you have up to 30% increased Critical Strike Chance for 6 seconds when casting Corpse Tendrils. And you also deal up to 90% Critical Strike Damage Bonus against those damaged by this Skill. So when you pull them all together and they’re Stunned and Vulnerable, you’re going to hit for 90% more Critical Strike Damage, which is incredible if you have this maxed out. The Aspect of Grasping Veins is single-handedly one of the best aspects that any Necromancer can use because it makes Corpse Tendrils a killing machine.

Affixes

• Damage Reduction from Close Enemies
• +Movement Speed for 4 Seconds After Killing an Elite
• Damage Reduction from Distant Enemies

The other bonuses to look out for is any sort of Damage Reduction or Essence Cost Reduction. 

Unique Equipment

No unique Equipment is recommended for this category.

First Ring

Legendary Aspect

Aspect of Rathma’s Chosen: This makes it so that whenever one of your Blood Skills Overpowers, you gain up to 50% Attack Speed for 4 seconds. This is huge because it’s going to allow you to spam your Blood Surge much faster to crank up your damage.

Affixes

• +Critical Strike Chance
• +Vulnerable Damage
• +Maximum Essence
• +Damage for 4 Seconds After Picking Up a Blood Orb

On the Ring, you also want to look out for Damage to Close Enemies, increased Blood Skill Damage, or even Critical Strike Damage.

Unique Equipment

No unique Equipment is recommended for this category.

Second Ring

Legendary Aspect

Aspect of the Umbral: This makes it so that whenever you CC an enemy, you gain up to 4 of your primary resource back. So every time you use Corpse Tendrils, you regenerate a ton of Essence. Meanwhile, Corpse Explosion or Bone Splinters is primarily used after encounters to receive more resources, especially in long fights. But you’ll want to try and end them quickly and these Skills help you do just that.

Affixes

• +Damage to Injured Enemies
• +Damage to Crowd Controlled Enemies
• +Damage to Close Enemies
• +Critical Strike Chance

Unique Equipment

No unique Equipment is recommended for this category.

Gems

For gems, you’ll want to slot:

• Weapon: Emeralds to increase Critical Strike Damage against Vulnerable enemies.
• Armor: Rubies to boost your Maximum Life.
• Jewelry: Skulls to boost your Defense value.

Paragon and Glyphs for the Bloodshadow Necromancer Build

When it comes to Paragon Boards, we are mainly going to aim for Rare Nodes that increase our damage output, as well as Glyphs that synergize with our Build. Please note that the order in which I get the Nodes is just a general guideline, and you can adjust it to your current needs.

First Paragon Board – Base

The first thing to do here is to go up the Base Board on the right-hand side and take the glyph socket to slot Essence. This increases your Critical Strike Chance with Blood Surge making it so that Critical Strikes deal even more damage to enemies that are below 80% Health, helping you finish them off more quickly. 

With this Diablo 4 Bloodshadow Necromancer Build (LvL 70+), there’s a huge focus on Critical Strikes. Specifically, you have a 40% Critical Strike Chance by default and then Corpse Tendrils gives an extra 30% together with an active Bone Storm will provide you with an extra 20%. In total, you’ll have 90% Critical Strike Chance, which means that with a couple of better rolls and upgrades, you can bump this to 100%!

Second Paragon Board – Bloodbath

For the next board, be sure to take Bloodbath since it has a couple of really good Rare Nodes. The first one is Guarded Advance, which makes it so that you increase your damage while Fortified on top of increasing your Fortify generation. This is going to protect you from taking damage while raising the damage you deal so you’ll want to unlock Guarded Advance and those around it. 

You’ll then head up and take the Bloodbath Legendary Node, which makes it so that guaranteed Overpower Attacks deal 50% more Overpower Damage. Next is the Powerhouse Rare Node to increase your damage and Overpower Damage further while Healthy. And then take those around it before heading to the right side and up. 

It’s important to make your way up to the Second Glyph Socket where you’ll slot the Control Glyph, which increases your damage to CCed enemies as well as Slowed and Chilled targets if you have 40 Intelligence around it. You also gain 20% increased damage against Stunned and Frozen enemies. 

Additionally, make sure to pick up the Hardened Rare Node to deal more damage while Fortified, more Intelligence, and damage versus CCed targets. And then finally, Remedy will raise your Healing Received and further raise your damage against the same type of enemies.

Third Paragon Board – Bone Graft

For the 3rd Paragon Board, you’ll pick up Bone Graft, which you’ll turn so that the Reinvigorate Rare Node is positioned to the bottom right of where you are to be able to unlock it as well as the nearby Nodes. Doing so will raise your Maximum Essence and give Essence back on kill. This makes it so that you won’t have as many resource generation issues. 

Next, you’re going to drop the Blood-drinker Glyph into the socket. With this, Blood Orbs Fortify you for 7% of your Maximum Life, and it’s really good for your Bloodshadow Necromancer D4 Build due to the numerous Nodes that give you damage while Fortified. The faster and longer you remain Fortified, the more damage you’re going to deal while remaining protected. 

By having 40 Intelligence around it, you gain a bonus to all Magic Nodes within range. This means you’ll probably have to take the Shaper of Bone Rare Node, which gives additional Bone Skill Damage and Intelligence. Bone Skill Damage isn’t super helpful but you do use Bone Storm and Bone Splinters so it’ll help amplify your damage when activating these Skill.

Fourth Paragon Board – Blood Begets Blood

For the last Paragon Board, you’ll take Blood Begets Blood, which you’ll want to rotate so that the first Rare Node close to you is Invigorated. What this is going to do is increase your damage while Healthy, and also give extra damage after picking up a Blood Orb. There are also a lot of Nodes around it to further raise your effectiveness in general. 

The other Rare Node near it is Aggression, which increases your Overpower Damage and overall damage as long as you meet the 605 Intelligence requirement. You’ll then want to go in the direction of bumping up your Overpower Damage until you eventually make your way up to unlock the Recuperate Passive. This raises your Potion Healing while allowing you to regenerate when you haven’t taken hits recently. Basically, staying Healthy, having high Health, and keeping your Health topped up are a huge part of this Bloodshadow Diablo IV Necromancer Build. 

Final Tips

Remember to use your Skill rotation in order by starting off with Blood Mist as you’re going toward enemies, followed by Corpse Tendrils. And then once everything’s done, try and drop your Blood Surge but wait for that Stun if possible particularly when your Essence is low. If you start spamming this Skill early and you run out of resources, you’re going to be in trouble. Or maybe you’re Overpowered but even then, your targets won’t be Vulnerable nor Stunned yet so try and hold Blood Surge if you can.

It’s also important to pay attention to how much time is left until your next Overpower with this Skill. Don’t Overpower a random enemy and then run into combat, otherwise, you won’t be able to trigger this at the right time. What happens is I tend to run by stragglers and instead, seek out large groups, round them up, and then attack because it’s a waste of time to spend the same amount to kill just a single target since you’ll be able to annihilate 20 of them with this Diablo 4 Bloodshadow Necromancer Build (LvL 70+). 

Another thing to take note of is to not be afraid to run away until your cooldowns come back up or for these to go into a pulse. If your corresponding Skills are not yet ready or you don’t have them set up yet, you can die really easily. So make sure to get into the rhythm first.

So that wraps up our Bloodshadow Diablo IV Necromancer Build. It’s a ton of fun if you love an AoE-centric Build where you go into Helltides and Nightmare Dungeons, just mowing down packs of enemies in seconds.

Be sure to check out our Diablo 4 Wiki for any other questions you have about the game and the Builds page if you are looking for more Diablo IV Builds, as well as our Ultimate Beginner Guide and All Classes Overview if you are looking for more Diablo 4 content!

The post Diablo 4 Bloodshadow Necromancer Build (LvL 70+) appeared first on Fextralife.