Naz Mages – Necromancer Build for Diablo 4 (Season 13)

Build Introduction

The Naz Mages build controls nine Shadow Arch Skeletal Mages, supported by Gargantua command aura, Litany of Death, and a pack of Ceh Spectral Wolves. We’ll be focusing a lot of our effort in scaling the Overpower damage from sources such as the Paragon Board Dominate, as well as Red Blessing.

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Curious how this build fares in various content types? Take a look at our build tier lists.

Strengths and Weaknesses

To see how this build compares to the other builds on our site, you can check out our build tier lists.

Build Requirements

Required Uniques

The Hand of Naz

Blood Moon Breeches

Quick Navigation

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Skill Bar and Skill Tree Points

Recommended

Suggested Skill Bar

SeverArmy of the DeadGolemSkeleton MageHemorrhageSkeleton Warrior

Use the Skill Tree above to complete an 83-point build. 69 skill points are gained by leveling, and 14 skill points are locked behind the Season Rank System or Renown for Seasonal or Eternal characters, respectively.

Decrepify and Iron Maiden are activated via Blood Moon Breeches and are not needed on the skill bar. Skeleton Warrior and Decrepify ranks above 1 are the lowest priority and are leveled by the last Skill Points remaining.

The new Lord of Hatred expansion Skill Tree unlocks in stages, permanently unlocking new skill clusters. For example, Necromancer Curses unlock at level 13, so from level 13 it is possible to refund all previously allocated skill points and start leveling skills starting from the Curses cluster right away (or anywhere above it).

Skill points from the Season Rank System or Renown do not affect Skill Tree progress and can be allocated to skill ranks you already unlocked.

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Class Mechanic – Book of the Dead

This build continues to use all minions, even sacrificed ones, for inter-Minion synergies.

• Skeletal Warriors: Reaper [Sacrifice] – You deal x15% increased damage, but the amount of Reapers you can Summon is reduced by 50%.
• Skeletal Mages: Shadow [Upgrade #2] – Bolts grant you and the Shadow Mage a Barrier for 3% of your Maximum Life for 4 seconds, up to 30%
• Golem: Bone [Sacrifice] – 10%[+] Attack Speed and Golem does 50%[x] less damage.

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Gear, Stats, Gems and Runes

The following sections cover the essential itemization to improve the power of your character in the endgame of Diablo 4.

For the dedicated page on Gear Systems and Itemization Overview, check the guide here.

Legendary Aspects

Each aspect is listed with its matching gear slot. Do your best to keep each aspect in the assigned slot. Aspects placement is planned with potential Unique and Mythic Unique gear upgrades in mind for the easiest and cheapest transition.

The Purveyor of Curiosities is an excellent way to obtain specific slot Legendary Aspects, and even Uniques – by gambling with Murmuring Obols you farmed in your journey.

Multiple Legendary Aspects and Uniques options are ordered in descending priority order :

Gear Slot	Sockets	Aspect / Unique	Description
Helm	Runeword	1. Heir of Perdition 2. Godslayer Crown 3. The Undercrown 4. Exploiter’s Aspect	Succum to hatred and earn Mother’s Favor, increasing your damage dealt by x#%. Slaughter enemies to briefly steal Mother’s Favor from surrounding allies.
Chest	Runeword	1. Tyrael’s Might 2. Aspect of Heavenly Strength	While at full Life, your Skills unleash a Divine barrage dealing # damage.
Gloves	n/a	The Hand of Naz	Maximum number of Skeletons is increased by 1. Arch-Mages teleport to safety when attack and their attacks occasionally shatter on impact, dealing x#% increased damage to the enemy and up to 3 additional targets.
Pants		Blood Moon Breeches	Your Summons have #% chance to randomly inflict Decrepify or Iron Maiden when they deal damage. You deal #% increased Critical Strike Damage to enemies affected by your Curses.
Boots	n/a	1. Exploiter’s Aspect 2. Aspect of the Void	You have 50% increased Crowd Control duration. While enemies are Unstoppable, you deal #% increased damage to them.
Weapon 2H (Scythe)		Aspect of Reanimation	Your Summons gain increased damage while alive, up to 135%[x] after 10 seconds.
Amulet (150% Scaling)		1. Red Blessing 2. Hellbent Commander Aspect	While Healthy, gain 4 Maximum Overpower. Blood Orbs grant 2 stacks of Overpower. You deal x#% increased damage per stack of Overpower.
Ring		1. Pact of Bone 2. Conceited Aspect	Your Minions gain #% Attack Speed and Critical Strike Chance. When one of your Minions die, your other minions enrage, dealing #% increased damage for 3 seconds.
Ring		Crushing Aspect	While Fortified, you deal #% increased damage.

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Affixes and Tempering Priority

Be sure to check our Tempering and Masterworking guides for more details about these mechanics.

For the dedicated page on Gear Systems and Itemization Overview, check the guide here.

Gear affixes are ordered by descending priority for acquiring, Greater Affix and masterworking crit desirability.

Important: Mixing Damage over Time and Critical Strike Damage multipliers is intentional and must be done in a way where you have no more than a few Critical Strike Damage Multipliers.

Slot	Affixes	Tempering Affixes
Heir of Perdition	1. Critical Strike Chance	Defensive – Maximum Life
Helm	1. Maximum Life 2. Armor 3. Resistance to All Elements 4. Essence per Second	Defensive – Maximum Life
Tyrael’s Might	1. Damage Reduction 2. Maximum Life	Defensive – Maximum Life
Chest	1. Maximum Life 2. Armor 3. Resistance to All Elements 4. Essence per Second	Defensive – Maximum Life
The Hand of Naz	1. x% Critical Strike Damage Multiplier (If Critical Strike Chance is above 90% with Pact of Bone and Litany of Death) 2. Attack Speed 3. Critical Strike Chance 4. x% Vulnerable Damage Multiplier 5. x% Shadow Damage Multiplier 6. x% All Damage Multiplier	Offensive – Shadow Damage or Damage per Overpower Stack
Blood Moon Breeches	1. + Ranks to Skeleton Mages 2. Maximum Life 3. Armor 4. Resistance to All Elements 5. Essence per Second	Defensive – Maximum Life
Boots	1. Movement Speed 2. +Maximum Evade Charges 3. Maximum Life 4. Armor 5. Resistance to All Elements 6. Essence per Second	Mobility – Movement Speed
Amulet	1. x% Critical Strike Damage Multiplier (If Critical Strike Chance is above 90% with Pact of Bone and Litany of Death) 2. Attack Speed 3. Critical Strike Chance 4. x% Vulnerable Damage Multiplier 5. x% Shadow Damage Multiplier 6. x% All Damage Multiplier	Offensive – Shadow Damage or Damage per Overpower Stack
2 x Ring	1. x% Critical Strike Damage Multiplier (If Critical Strike Chance is above 90% with Pact of Bone and Litany of Death) 2. Attack Speed 3. Critical Strike Chance 4. x% Vulnerable Damage Multiplier 5. x% Shadow Damage Multiplier 6. x% All Damage Multiplier	Offensive – Shadow Damage or Damage per Overpower Stack
Weapon 2H (Scythe)	1. Weapon Damage 2. x% Critical Strike Damage Multiplier 3. x% Shadow Damage Multiplier 4. x% All Damage Multiplier 5. Maximum Life or Intelligence	Weapons – Attack Speed

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Ancestral and Mythic Uniques

See below for information on useful Uniques and how they integrate into this build:

Unique	Category	Synergy	Source (highest chance)
The Hand of Naz	Required	– Transforms and adds additional Skeleton Mages to be consistent prime damage input for the Shadowblight mechanic	Varshan
Blood Moon Breeches	Required	– Decent damage multiplier – Ensures Decrepify and Iron Maiden application by Minions	Astaroth
Heir of Perdition	Best in Slot	– Massive damage multiplier from Unique Aspect – Extra mobility – Lucky hit chance improving Blood Orb generation	How to Farm Mythic Uniques guide
Tyrael’s Might	Best in Slot	– Massive defensive scaling after crafting	How to Farm Mythic Uniques guide
Red Blessing or Red Blessing	Best in Slot	– Amplifies Overpower damage scaling	Bloodied Butcher
Pact of Bone	Best in Slot	– Massive amounts of attack speed and critical strike chance scaling	Harbinger of Hatred

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Gems and Runewords

See below for a more detailed explanation of the best Gems and Runewords to socket into your gear.

Weapon Gems	Armor Gems	Jewelry Gems
Royal Amethyst	Runeword	Royal Diamond
–	Royal Topaz	Royal Topaz
–	–	Royal Ruby
Increased %[x] Shadow Damage.	Increased Intelligence.	Resistances against buffed Lightning and Fire Elite Affixes.

Runeword	Role	Effect
Nagu Ceh	Early Game Important	Summons packs of Spectral Wolves to tank enemies, apply Lucky Hit based procs and Vulnerable.
Nagu Que	Endgame Important	Maintains a Druid’s Earthen Bulwark barrier for extreme survivability.
Igni or Cir Gar	Early Game Important	Maintains 10% increased critical strike chance.
Cir Ceh	Endgame Important	Summons packs of Spectral Wolves to tank enemies, apply Lucky Hit based procs and Vulnerable.

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Paragon Board

Below you’ll find the entire endgame paragon board with recommended glyphs, optimal pathing, and both minimal and nearly maximum investments!

Board attachment order and pathways:

1. Frailty – Legendary Node
2. Cult Leader – Legendary Node
3. Frailty – Glyph Slot Dominate For the Red Blessing scaling it’s important this Glyph gets the highest priority of being leveled up!
4. Failty – All Willpower nodes within radius of Dominate
5. Cult-Leader Glyph Slot Deadraiser (Use Control till you reach the Scent of Death Glyph Sloth here)
6. Scent of Death – Legendary Node
7. Wither – Legendary Node
8. Scent of Death – Glyph Slot Control
9. Wither – Glyph Slot Essence

It is imperative to level up all Glyphs to level 15 first to increase their activation radius, and then to level 51 to unlock the secondary damage multiplier. For more information about Paragon Glyphs and how to level them, see here.

Some paragon points are locked behind the Season Rank System. The remaining Paragon points are used to take all Intelligence nodes you can reach and any Magic nodes you may find useful.

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Season 13 Mechanics

Season 13 does not offer specific seasonal mechanics due to the release of the Lord of Hatred expansion. Many new features are available to explore, including War Plans, Talismans, Horadric Cube, and Echoing Hatred. Additionally, several buildcrafting systems were overhauled, such as Skill Trees, Tempering, Aspects and Uniques.

For a complete overview of the current Season, its mechanics and theme, new leveling activities, and other changes, please take a look at our comprehensive season hub here.

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Talismans

The Lord of Hatred expansion introduces Talismans as a new character progression and itemization layer. Find, equip, and fill a suitable Horadric Seal with a variety of Charms. These grant everything from plain stats similar to any gear piece to powerful set effects, doubling down on and elevating Necromancer archetypes to new heights.

This build Talisman goalposts would be:

• Red Blessing is to be equipped, if Red Blessing of the desired quality is not obtained and equipped.
• Bloodless Scream or Banished Lord’s Talisman are the second most potent Unique Charm for the build.
• Legendary Seal with +1 Charm Slot affix, to unlock 6 Charm slots asap.
• Full Black Shroud Charm Set of any quality. 5-set takes priority over any other Charms except Red Blessing if it is still used.
• Charms replacements with better versions of themselves, including affixes like:
  • + to Darkness Skills
  • + to Minion Skills
  • +% Critical Strike Damage (Seal)
  • +% Movement Speed

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Mercenaries

During the Vessel of Hatred campaign, you will unlock Mercenaries to assist you. While you can choose freely early on, we recommend Varyana as your main merc.

• Cleave
• Hysteria
• Bloodthirst
• Bloodlust

For the reinforcement, stick with Raheir, utilizing Bastion when you are hit with a Control Impairing effect.

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Rotation and Build Mechanics

This builds purpose is just to stay alive, while Skeletal Arch-Mages wipes enemies away with massive damage. Hemorrhage will help freeze enemies for added safety and increased damage to Crowd Controlled enemies.

Rotation and Playstyle

1. Approach enemies using Sever and initiate the fight with Blood Runs Cold Hemorrhage to freeze enemies, and send Ceh Spirit Wolves to do the same!
2. Use Golem active ability preemptively to acquire Unstoppable status if needed.
3. If mob density or elite enemy pose a threat to your minions, or a fight may take more than 10 seconds, activate Army of the Dead to make them immortal and deal more damage.
4. Keep evading danger and recasting Sever to create more corpses for Litany of Death to summon Skeletal Priests. Continue using Blood Runs Cold to continue freezing enemies.
5. If focus fire is needed or you’re against Suppressor enemies, you can approach the enemy and start summoning Skeleton Mage under them while they’re frozen.
6. Repeat. The rest of the build mechanics are completely automated.

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Season Updates

Due to the release of the Lord of Hatred expansion and the resulting overhaul of class buildcrafting, the build concept was re-created from scratch.

Noteworthy changes:

• Built around scaling the reworked Overpower mechanic by using Red Blessing.
• Slightly altered The Hand of Naz and Blood Moon Breeches, which retained the main function, but became slightly more generic.
• New toolkit for Crowd Control and active damage mitigation.
• Mobility issues resolved with Inexorable Reaper.

For a complete overview of the current Season, its mechanics and theme, new leveling activities, and other changes, please take a look at our comprehensive season hub here.

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Changelog

• May 5th, 2026: Guide optimized to focus on Overpower.
• April 27th, 2026: Guide updated for the Lord of Hatred expansion.
• March 7th, 2026: Guide updated for Season 12.
• December 7th, 2025: Guide updated for Season 11, Divine Intervention
• September 19th, 2025: Guide updated for Season 10. Minor utility changes, main changes comes from the new seasonal mechanic.