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Bone Spear Necromancer Guide

Season 8C

Last Updated:August 10, 2024|Change Log

The Bone Spear Necromancer Guide covers everything you need to know to devastate the demons of Sanctuary with overwhelming magical might. Combining the Magic Damage of bonespear and the ability to lock down almost every monster with boneprison, you have no trouble farming any content your heart desires.
Additionally, this build has access to corpseexplosion which brings large Area of Effect (AoE) Fire and Physical Damage to supplement your kit. Having three different Damage types gives us tools to deal with any monsters the game can throw at us.

What really makes this build so strong is the fact that most monsters in the game have very little Magic Damage Reduction, and only a handful are actually Immune. This means bonespear and teeth's damage are more effective on most monsters than the majority of other Skills.

Ideal Standard Variant
Ideal Standard Variant


Bonespear


teeth


Corpseexplosion


boneprison

This build guide assumes you have a Character at Level 75 before transitioning to it. It follows the progression of our Necromancer Leveling Guide and our General Leveling Strategies to reach Level 75.

Incredible Survivability ✔
Beginner Friendly Playstyle ✔
Access To Three Damage Types ✔

❌ High Average APM
❌ Low Top End Potential
❌ Key Gear Pieces are Rare

Sunder Charm Setup

Patch 2.5 introduces a new way of breaking Immunities: Sunder Charms. Any enemy that would be Immune to your damage type is reduced to 95% Resistance instead, before any other Resistance reductions apply. (e.g. Conviction, Lower Resist) The Charm also reduces YOUR Resistance against the sundered damage type! Check out our post on Sunder Charms to learn more about these new Charms. The following setup optimizes the use of Flame Rift, allowing you to farm anywhere you want.

Sunder Charm Setup
Sunder Charm Setup

Gear Changes

The Bone Spear Necro doesn't gain anything from Black Cleft since we don't have any further ways to decrease Monster's Magic Resistance. BUT we use Bonebreak since amplifydamage works at 100% efficiency against Sundered monsters, drastically increasing our corpseexplosion damage. The reduction in Physical Damage Reduction is of little concern on this Build!

Terror Zones

The new Terror Zone mechanic in combination with the Sunder Charms open up a wide range of areas for you to farm. The following list highlights the best and worst Terror Zones for this build on the Starter or Budget setup. With the Sunder Charm Setup, more Terror Zones become accessible on this build. Learn more about Terror Zones in our resource post and see how they stack up in our Terror Zone Tier List.

Best

The Secret Cow Level - High Density, No Immunities
Flayer Jungle ONLY - High Density, No Immunities
Jail - High Density, No Immunities
Pit - High Density, No Immunities
Frigid Highlands - Quick Access, Eldritch ONLY

Worst

Tal Rasha's Tombs - Trash Mobility, Immunities, Slow Access
Chaos Sanctuary - Slow Access, Tanky Enemies
Arreat Plateau - Low Density, Trash Mobility, Few Elite Groups
Kurast Bazaar + Ruined Temple + Disused Fane - Low Density, Trash Mobility, Immunities
Crystalline Passage + Frozen River - Trash Mobility, High Physical Damage, High Elemental Damage, Tanky Enemies

Skills

Put 1 Skill Point into each of the following Skills:
1. claygolem
2. decrepify
3. lifetap

Max out the following Skills in order of priority:
1. bonespear
2. boneprison
3. bonewall
4. bonespirit
5. teeth

Use the Scroll Bar to see Skill Point Progression
Use the Scroll Bar to see Skill Point Progression

Damage

Utility

Attributes

Note: This section provides you with the standard Stat Point allocation. Build Variants can require a different allocation!

Strength

Allocate enough Stat Points into Strength to equip all of your gear. Take into account how much Strength your gear provides when equipped.

Dexterity

Allocate enough Stat Points into Dexterity to equip all of your gear. Take into account how much Dexterity your gear provides when equipped.

Vitality

Allocate any remaining Stat Points into Vitality after meeting Strength, Dexterity and Energy requirements.

Energy

Don't allocate any Stat Points into Energy. This build gets enough Mana from gear, buffs, Charms, and Mana Potions.

Essentials

Gear Options

Farming Spots

Mercenary

Playstyle

Breakpoints

Hardcore

Build Variants

Starter
Standard
Hardcore

Setup

This set of gear represents the minimum you need to effectively play the Bone Spear Necromancer build. With +5 to all Skills in total, and the 75% Faster Cast Rate Breakpoint, you can easily farm all the areas tagged with "Starter" from the Farming Spots section. You are also overcapped on Resistances at this point thanks to ancient'spledge, as well as the Charms which are representative of a larger collection of weaker Charms that you would have accrued throughout the 1-75 leveling process. You also have a Staff of Teleport on your secondary weapon slot for mobility. Note: When swapped, your Resistances and Faster Hit Recovery will be greatly diminished so stomp wisely. As you become accustomed to the build and your gear improves, feel free to explore all farming locations.

Mercenary

At this point your Mercenary is a tank and Meditation source. The talrasha'shoradriccrest and treachery provides great survivability and a decent increase to Mercenary DPS.

Skills

Put 1 Point into each of the following Skills:
1. claygolem
2. decrepify
3. lifetap

Max out the following Skills in order of priority:
1. bonespear
2. boneprison
3. bonewall
4. bonespirit
5. teeth

Attributes

Invest enough points into Strength to equip your gear and invest the remainder into Vitality.

Setup

This Variant is using the best possible piece of gear in every slot. You will reach the 125% Faster Cast Rate Breakpoint and have the largest +x to All Skills for your bonespear. This also gives you access to teleport without swapping, which opens up your swap for calltoarms to prebuff. This setup carries a good amount of Magic Find with a prioritization on clear speed. Your Resistances are all overcapped about 120%. This will counteract any conviction Aura you encounter.

When using bonebreak, harlequincrest can help to offset the Physical Damage Reduction loss, but it is not a priority.

Mercenary

Your Mercenary is a tank and Meditation source. The andariel'svisage and treachery provides a great amount of survivability as well as a boost to Mercenary DPS.

When using Flame Rift Grand Charm swap the Mercenary to Infinity Giant Thresher to maximize your damage output!

Skills

Put 1 Point into each of the following Skills:
1. claygolem
2. decrepify
3. lifetap

Max out the following Skills in order of priority:
1. bonespear
2. boneprison
3. bonewall
4. bonespirit
5. teeth

Use the Scroll Bar to see Skill Point Progression
Use the Scroll Bar to see Skill Point Progression

Attributes

Allocate enough Strength to wear all of your gear. This lets us add all of our Stat points to Vitality.

Setup

For Hardcore gameplay we prioritize having high overcapped Resistances to maintain maximum Resistances when affected by conviction Aura. We achieve 75% Block Chance, 7 frame Block Rate, 7 frame Hit Recovery, 50% Damage Reduction, while maintaining the 75% Faster Cast Rate Breakpoint and high +xx to All Skills on gear. This along with BoneArmor and BonePrison give an amazing amount of survivability and Crowd Control. We also prioritize having Shimmering Small Charm of Vita over the Shimmering Small Charm of Good Luck.

When using Flame Rift Grand Charm swap to Aldur's Advance to offset the loss of Fire Resistance and Life.

Mercenary

Your Mercenary is a tank and Meditation source. The andariel'svisage and treachery provides a great amount of survivability as well as a boost to Mercenary DPS.

When using Flame Rift Grand Charm swap the Mercenary to Infinity Giant Thresher to maximize your damage output!

Skills

Put 1 Point into each of the following Skills:
1. claygolem
2. decrepify
3. lifetap

Max out the following Skills in order of priority:
1. bonespear
2. boneprison
3. bonewall
4. bonespirit
5. teeth

Use the Scroll Bar to see Skill Point Progression
Use the Scroll Bar to see Skill Point Progression

Attributes

To reach the maximum Chance to Block of 75% we need to invest 171 Dexterity points at Level 99. This requires less Dexterity at lower Levels. Put the rest of the Stat points into Vitality.

Mechanics

Teleport

bonespear

teeth

boneprison

Amplifydamage

corpseexplosion

Summary

  • bonespear is your bread and butter, learn how to maximize the number of monsters hit per Spear to maximize DPS potential.
  • bonespear works best in corridors or funnels, so use boneprison to artificially create these scenarios if the farming area does not have any.
  • Filling the screen with boneprison when all else fails, typically gives you the time you need to make decisions. Watch out for Ghosts and monsters whose projectiles are not stopped by Bone Prison.
  • Getting stuck in a boneprison can be a death sentence. Make sure to have a source of teleport before you start making brash decisions.
  • teeth and corpseexplosion bring more diversity to your damage kit and can help smooth out certain farming situations.

After you master the direct damage style of bonespear, and the Crowd Control of boneprison, there are no places the Bone Spear Necromancer can't go! Have fun smashing the legions of Diablo with Magic, the best damage type in the game!

Good luck! In bocca al lupo!

Credits

Written by MacroBioBoi
Reviewed by Teo1904

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