Season 3 Necromancer Leveling Build

This is a Season 3 leveling build for Necromancer that utilizes Blood Surge and its capability to deal insane Overpower damage (D4). Read on to learn all the Gear, Skills, Aspects, and Stones that you will need, and how to play the build to level from 1 to 50 for Season 3 (Version 1.3.0).

Blood Surge Leveling Build Summary

Blood Surge Summary

Blood Surge Leveling Build Pros and Cons
Deals an Insane Amount of AoE Damage Easy to Build and Use Short Range Lacking in Single Target Damage

The Blood Surge Leveling Build is a beginner-friendly build for players since it excels in both offense and defense while being fairly easy-to-use. Simply put, you only need to spam Blood Surge to deal high damage, especially with Overpower procs. All your other skills are either used for Crowd Control, damage amplification, or Essence generation.

The beauty of this build is that you can acquire all the aspects you need in the Codex to make it powerful enough to reach endgame.

Season 3 Leveling Guide

Blood Surge Playstyle

1	Cast Hemorrhage or Blood Surge in hopes of spawning a Corpse by killing it or through the activation of the Hewed Flesh Passive.
2	Use Corpse Tendrils if you managed to spawn a Corpse, then cast Corpse Explosion to deal and increase your damage through the Fueled by Death Passive.
3	Use Decrepify once the enemies are grouped up with Corpse Tendrils to amplify your damage against them.
4	Spam Blood Surge. Alternate with Hemorrhage as needed for Essence generation. You may alternate with Corpse Explosion instead and trigger the Grim Harvest Passive if you have multiple Corpses around you.
5	Cast Bone Storm whenever you come across Elites to amplify your survivability and damage.

This rotation is applicable for both multiple and single targets. The only difference is that you'll be using more of your basic attack, Hemorrhage, during one-on-one fights since you'll most likely run out of Essence and Corpses during the fight.

Also keep an eye on Blood Orbs that spawn in the ground and make sure to get them for healing, Rathma's Vigor activation, and Essence generation through the Aspect of Potent Blood.

Seneschal Construct Setup

Governing Stone	Tuning Stone
Flash of Adrenaline	Duration Support	Tactical Support	Safeguard Support
Focus Fire	Voluminous Support	Arcing Support	Efficiency Support

Since this is a leveling build, most of the suggested Governing and Tuning Stones will be early game rares. Flash of Adrenaline is a great Seneschal supporting skill that will significantly increase your damage for a period of time. Amplify this skill with Duration and Tactical to have more uptime and Safeguard Support to provide defense.

Focus Fire with Efficiency Support will not only provide damage but also allow you to have higher chances of Critical Strike against affected enemies. Further improve this with Voluminous and Arcing Support to hit more enemies.

How to Level Governing and Tuning Stones

Skill Progression

Noted: Since this is a leveling build, we'll be aiming to fill up the Active Skills bar as quickly as possible in order to get a feel for the build's general skill rotations. By Level 27, you should have everything needed to fill your Active Skills bar.

Recommended Skill Progression
Lv.2	Lv.3	Lv.4	Lv.5
Hemorrhage	Enhanced Hemorrhage	Blood Surge	Enhanced Blood Surge
Lv.6	Lv.7	Lv.8	Lv.9
Paranormal Blood Surge	Acolyte's Hemorrhage	Corpse Explosion	Enhanced Corpse Explosion
Lv.10	Lv.11	Lv.12	Lv.13
Plagued Corpse Explosion	Grim Harvest	Grim Harvest	Grim Harvest
Lv.14	Lv.15	Lv.16	Lv.17
Blood Surge	Decrepify	Amplify Damage	Amplify Damage
Lv.18	Lv.19	Lv.20	Lv.21
Amplify Damage	Blood Surge	Corpse Tendrils	Enhanced Corpse Tendrils
Lv.22	Lv.23	Lv.24	Lv.25
Plagued Corpse Tendrils	Gruesome Mending	Coalesced Blood	Coalesced Blood
Lv.26	Lv.27	Lv.28	Lv.29
Coalesced Blood	Bone Storm	Prime Bone Storm	Supreme Bone Storm
Lv.30	Lv.31	Lv.32	Lv.33
Blood Surge	Blood Surge	Hewed Flesh	Hewed Flesh
Lv.34	Lv.35	Lv.36	Lv.37
Hewed Flesh	Enhanced Decrepify	Abhorrent Decrepify	Rathma's Vigor
Lv.38	Lv.39	Lv.40	Lv.41
Fueled by Death	Fueled by Death	Fueled by Death	Death's Embrace
Lv.42	Lv.43	Lv.44	Lv.45
Death's Embrace	Death's Embrace	Tides of Blood	Tides of Blood
Lv.46	Lv.47	Lv.48	Lv.49
Tides of Blood	Transfusion	Transfusion	Transfusion
Renown Skill Points (+10)
R1	R2	R3	R4
Stand Alone	Stand Alone	Stand Alone	Memento Mori
R5	R6	R7	R8
Memento Mori	Memento Mori	Unliving Energy	Imperfectly Balanced
R9		R10
Imperfectly Balanced		Imperfectly Balanced

Legendary Aspects

Aspects Available in the Codex

Aspect	Effect and How to Get
Aspect of Disobedience (Defensive)	How to Get: Halls of the Damned (Dungeon Clear) You gain (0.25-0.50)% increased Armor for 4 seconds when you deal any form of damage, stacking up to (66)%.
Aspect of Grasping Veins (Offensive)	How to Get: Corrupted Grotto (Dungeon Clear) Gain (10-20)% increased Critical Strike Chance for 6 seconds when you cast Corpse Tendrils. You deal (20-40)% bonus Critical Strike Damage to enemies damaged by Corpse Tendrils.
Aspect of Potent Blood (Resource)	How to Get: Betrayer's Row (Dungeon Clear) While Healthy, Blood Orbs grant (XX) Essence.
Blood-bathed Aspect (Offensive)	How to Get: Hoarfrost Demise (Dungeon Clear) Blood Surge's nova echoes again after a short delay, dealing (60-50)% less damage.
Eluding Aspect (Utility)	How to Get: Caldera Gate (Dungeon Clear) Becoming Injured while Crowd Controlled grants you Unstoppable for 4 seconds. This effect has a (XX) second Cooldown.
Fastblood Aspect (Resource)	How to Get: Iron Hold (Dungeon Clear) Blood Orbs reduce your Ultimate Cooldown by (XX) seconds.

These are the build's Aspects that you should aim to unlock in the Codex of Power. Offensively, the most crucial ones are the Blood-bathed Aspect and the Aspect of Grasping Veins, which will significantly raise your overall damage.

The other Aspects contribute to the smoothness of your rotations through cooldown reduction and Essence generation, while some are great for your survivability.

Other Aspects to Farm

Aspect	Effect and How to Get
Aspect of Shielding Storm (Defensive)	Each time that Bone Storm damages an enemy, gain a Barrier equal to (2-5)% of your Base Life for 10 seconds.
Aspect of the Embalmer (Defensive)	Consuming a Corpse has a (20-30)% chance to spawn a Blood Orb.
Aspect of Untimely Death (Offensive)	Each percent of your Maximum Life you Heal beyond 100% grants you 0.5% bonus Overpower damage on your next Overpowering attack, up to a (20.0-60.0)% bonus.

These are the other Aspects that cannot be unlocked in the Codex and can only be obtained through Legendary drops. These are not necessary to obtain; however, they can take your build to a whole other level if you manage to get your hands on them.

Legendary Farming Guide

Stats and Affixes

Best Weapons

Recommended Weapon Stats and Affixes
Two-Handed Sword	・+ All Stats ・+ Intelligence ・+% Overpower Damage

During leveling, we recommend that you change weapons everytime you get your hands on one that has a stronger Item Power. At the early levels, Affixes are just secondary priorities that are a great addition to your overall damage. We recommend equipping Two-Handed Sword for this build for maximum damage output.

Best Armor

Recommended Stats and Affixes
Gloves	Most Important Gear Slot while Leveling ・+ Ranks of Hammer of the Anciensts ・+% Attack Speed ・+% Critical Strike Chance
Helm	・+ Maximum Life ・+% Total Armor ・+% Cooldown Reduction
Chest	・+ Maximum Life ・+% Total Armor ・+% Elemental Resistance
Pants	・+ Maximum Life ・+% Total Armor ・+% Elemental Resistance
Boots	・+% Movement Speed ・+% Essence Cost Reduction ・+% Elemental Resistance

While leveling, it's best to replace your armor pieces whenever you find one that provides higher Armor and Maximum Life. We recommended only fixating on the stats and affixes of your Gloves slot during the 1-50 grind, since this will provide notable offensive stats.

Once you find a decent pair of Gloves with + Ranks to Blood Surge, keep them and only replace them once you get a better rare or a legendary. All other armor pieces will focus on stacking defensive affixes.

Best Gems

Gem Type	Effect Explanation
Flawless Ruby (Weapon)	+21.0% Overpower Damaege Provides additional Overpower damage, which is your main source of high burst damage.
Flawless Ruby (Armor)	3.5% Maximum Life Not only increases your survivability through more HP, but also increases your Overpower damage since it scales off Maximum Life.
Flawless Diamond (Jewelry)	4.0% Resistance to All Elements Increases your Elemental Resistances, which is extremely valuable when facing enemies with Elemental affixes.

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