Diablo 4 Resplendent Spark

Diablo 4 Season 11 made some adjustments to various classes, and Necromancer once again emerged as one of the best. The newly acquired unique item for Necromancer, Gravebloom, is particularly interesting; it allows you to summon three powerful golems.

If you decide to play Necromancer in Season 11, you might want to know which builds are the strongest. Below is a ranking of the strongest Necromancer builds, which are focusing on their performance in The Pit and Tower.

The Impact Of Season 11

Season 11 made several permanent changes to the crafting and defense systems, which directly impacted many builds.

Firstly, the cooldown reduction affix can now appear on jewelry. Ring of Mendeln was buffed, and Rathma's Vigor passive was changed, making some builds viable again.

On the other hand, developers increased monster damage and generally weakened character survivability, making build tankiness extremely important.

Tier D

Blood Mist Necromancer

Blood Mist Necromancer primarily relies on frequently triggering Blood Mist and Corpse Explosion, especially Blighted Corpse Explosion, to deal damage, and it's also known as Infinimist Necromancer.

It performed poorly in the season. The main reason is its over-reliance on corpse resources, while there are currently more high-damage alternatives.

C Tier

Affliction Necromancer

Affliction Necromancer is a new build in Season 11, and it involves curse skills like Iron Maiden. Some unique items allow Iron Maiden to deal shadow damage.

Affliction Necromancer is very suitable for leveling. However, its damage output has a ceiling for pushing The Pit and Tower levels, preventing it from reaching top-tier levels and placing it primarily in the mid-tier of The Pit.

Tier B

Blood Surge And Blood Lance Necromancer

Both Blood Surge and Blood Lance have received significant buffs, resulting in substantial damage increases. With the right Diablo 4 items, these builds might reach Tier A.

Corpse Explosion Necromancer

This build focuses entirely on corpse explosion damage, making it heavily reliant on Black River gear. Its survivability is decent, but its damage output may be insufficient at higher levels of The Pit.

Sever Necromancer

Sever Necromancer performs strongly in the early game, but suffers from slow movement speed and insufficient damage in the late game.

Bone Storm Necromancer

It was very strong in Season 10 due to the existence of Chaos Perks, but its ranking has dropped due to the removal of these mechanics in the new season and the nerf to Lidless Wall. It might not be as good as Blood Necromancer builds, but it's still Tier B.

Tier A

Blight Necromancer

This build focuses on Blight skill, utilizing Ebonpiercer to make Blight effective. This build is very tanky and suitable for speed farming. In Season 11, due to the significant increase in monster damage and the decrease in overall player survivability, survivability becomes extremely important, which is the main advantage of this build.

Bone Spirit Necromancer

With Season 11 allowing players to gain cooldown reduction on rings and amulets, coupled with the fix to Rapid Ossification, Bone Spirit can finally be self-sufficient and become a viable option. Its damage and survivability are decent, and if Sanctification is utilized to obtain suitable affixes, this build has the potential to reach Tier S.

Bone Spear Necromancer

Bone Spear Necromancer has very strong single-target damage, making it very effective against bosses, but it lacks AoE capabilities. The buff to Ring of Mendeln also benefits it, resulting in a slight rise in its ranking.

Skeletal Mage Necromancer

The primary beneficiary of Ring of Mendeln damage buff is Skeletal Mages Necromancer, making Necromancer's summons very reliable again. It excels for leveling and early push of The Pit, but falls slightly below Tier S for higher levels.

Blood Wave Necromancer

Overpower variant of Shadow Blood Wave struggles somewhat with triggering Blood orbs, but the changes to Rathma's Vigor (Overpower timer 15s → 10s) might give it the potential to reach Tier S.

Another DoT variant is viable; regardless of the variant, this build provides strong survivability, which is invaluable in the current season.

Tier S

Shadow Blight Necromancer

Shadow Blight Necromancer boasts extremely high damage, possibly slightly higher than the buffed Golem Necromancer. It's also incredibly tanky, offering far greater survivability than Golem Necromancer.

It relies on corpses, requiring corpse explosions, Soulrift, and Blight casts to trigger Shadow Blight effect. While the controls are somewhat cumbersome, the high damage makes survivability less of a concern in The Pit.

Golem Necromancer

Golem Necromancer received approximately a 60% damage buff compared to the PTR, and is expected to stack an additional 6 layers in The Pit. It doesn't rely on corpses, and Golem's casting provides an Unstoppable state, combining single-target and AoE damage for a more comfortable gameplay experience. However, its biggest drawback is survivability, so you'll need to be careful to dodge monster and bosses' skills.

If you prioritize stability, high damage, and high survivability, choose Shadow Blight Necromancer. If you want to challenge yourself with extreme damage, try new playstyles, and accept a fragile build, choose Golem Necromancer. These two are likely the highest-ranked Necromancer builds on The Pit and Towers leaderboards.

While classic Necromancer builds remain reliable, we highly recommend trying newer builds like Golem Necromancer and Affliction Necromancer. They're perfect for early-game leveling and endgame play, respectively, offering a fresh experience.

In the developer livestream that concluded last week, several key pieces of information regarding Diablo 4 Season 11 were announced, such as its official name, Season of Divine Intervention, several further changes based on existing content, and its release date.

Originally, everyone predicted the season would launch on December 9th, as almost every previous season update had been on a Tuesday evening, but the final date was set for Thursday, December 11th at 8:30 PM PDT.

This change might lead to many speculations, as it coincides with the timing of this year's TGA awards, and the day after is the release of a new patch 0.4.0 for Diablo 4's old rival, Path of Exile 2.

Since the news that the second DLC will be released in 2026 is no longer a secret, everyone suspects that Diablo 4 might announce information about the seventh class at TGA.

However, honestly, whatever groundbreaking news they announce, it won't be added to Season 11 immediately, so the more pressing concern is the impact from Path of Exile 2.

Next, we will analyze this upcoming new competition between these two old rivals based on the different update content from both games.

Diablo 4 Season 11 Highlights

Overall, this season follows Diablo 4's consistent update pattern: seasonal powers + new bosses and content + multiple updates. The most prominent features are the return of leaderboards and a major overhaul of the gear upgrade system.

Unfortunately, on last week's livestream, the developers stated that the leaderboards and the accompanying The Tower dungeon will be delayed until 2026, which is bad news for players who follow the leaderboards.

But don't despair, the more stable Masterworking and Tempering systems will allow for more consistent gear and affix enhancements, and you can also earn loot and seasonal power Divine Gifts through new boss battles.

Path Of Exile 2 Patch 0.4.0

This patch, officially named The Last of the Druids, will be released on Friday, December 12th at 11:00 AM PDT, just before a free weekend! Although it still follows the same regular update pattern, this patch brings the new Druid class to POE 2.

Druids in Path of Exile 2 boast two Ascendancy classes and three transformable forms, offering highly innovative features and re-playability.

In addition, other existing classes and mechanics have received varying degrees of optimization, and the launch of the new Fate of the Vaal league means you can start from scratch, exploring the secrets of Vaal Ruins through new adventures.

Which Game Has The Advantage In This Competition?

Although the first Path of Exile game launched in 2013, earlier than Diablo 4 which was released in 2023, Diablo series as a whole predates Path of Exile, and Path of Exile 2 was released at the end of 2024, and is still in early access.

Of course, release date isn't the core factor determining a game's quality; we're mentioning this simply to illustrate the long-standing competition between the two games.

As ARPGs, Diablo 4 and Path of Exile 2 have inherent differences in gameplay: the former focuses on simple and easy-to-understand combat, aiming for quick accessibility; the latter prefers to immerse you in complex mechanics for a more in-depth experience.

If you pay attention to the art styles, you'll find they are also quite different. While both have a dark aesthetic, Diablo 4 emphasizes Gothic and mythological elements, while Path of Exile 2 features a medieval, retro aesthetic.

Based on these significant differences, both games have their own loyal fan bases, but most players are more focused on the present: whichever game has more interesting new content is the one they'll play.

Comparing Season 11 and Patch 0.4.0, POE 2 seems more appealing, mainly because of the introduction of Druid. Although D4 Season 11 also has new content, the overall re-playability hasn't improved much.

More importantly, Path of Exile 2 will offer a 3-day free trial until December 15th, allowing anyone to try all content, including patch 0.4.0, regardless of whether they own the base game.

Therefore, in the short term, at least throughout December, POE 2 is likely to be more attractive. However, since TGA awards haven't started yet, it's hard to say whether Diablo 4's next move will bring a reversal.

Why Is This Competition Happening?

When multiple games release new content simultaneously, players inevitably compare them, making it easier to expose the shortcomings of games with subpar content. After all, if you only have one option, you're more likely to tolerate its flaws.

Furthermore, even if each game diligently develops new seasons or patches, simultaneous releases prevent players from focusing on a single game, leading to decreased engagement.

Therefore, although Diablo 4 and Path of Exile are old rivals, they have mostly avoided direct confrontation in the past, especially Path of Exile, which usually avoids the hype surrounding Diablo 4's new seasons.

However, whether D4S11 launches on December 9th as planned or is delayed to the 11th, it's only a few days apart from the release of POE 2 Patch 0.4.0, indicating that Path of Exile 2 is prepared to directly confront Diablo 4 this time.

From the analysis in the previous section, we can see why POE 2 developers have such confidence: the new content, represented by Druid class, is indeed very attractive and breaks away from the conventional patterns of Druids in most ARPGs.

So why did Path of Exile 2 choose to strike now? We believe it's because Diablo 4 hasn't had any truly groundbreaking innovations throughout 2025, and negative player feedback is increasing.

Meanwhile, POE 2's patches 0.2.0 and 0.3.0, while not without flaws, generally showed good effort and innovation, building a solid foundation of popularity.

Based on this, even though Diablo 4 likely has some tricks up its sleeve, Path of Exile 2 still chooses to engage in a direct confrontation as 2025 draws to a close. But for you, the player, all this competition simply means you can enjoy plenty of new game content!

The Situation After The Start Of 2026

Based on current information, POE 2 is unlikely to release any more explosive new information for the time being, but Diablo 4 has more possibilities, such as the return of leaderboards in update 2.5.2, and unknown new content to be announced at TGA.

Speculations about possible new announcements include a major trailer for the future main storyline, pre-order bonuses, and a new class, possibly Paladin, which might be released in Season 11.

To be honest, the idea of ​​a big announcement at TGA is just speculation; Diablo 4 hasn't given any clear information, but considering its rather lackluster performance this year, this timing is hard not to speculate about.

If any of these speculations come true, Diablo 4 Season 11 will have more staying power than POE 2 and will show stronger performance in 2026.

It's also worth mentioning that although most of the new content in Season 11 isn't particularly innovative, many fundamental mechanics changes have made the game better. These subtle changes are very important for the overall improvement of the game.

Summary

Neither of the new content updates has been officially released yet, so we can't easily conclude which will be better, but it's clear that Diablo 4 hasn't shown all its cards yet, and is working hard to keep you on the edge of your seat!

There are only two days left until the launch of Season 11. If you want to get ahead of others in gear upgrades in the new season, it's best to buy cheap Diablo 4 gold at IGGM, because it's one of the upgrade materials that cannot be refunded, so you need to stock up enough!