The recent Diablo 4 1.4.0 PTR patch notes revealed a staggering amount of changes coming to the game with Season 4. After months of anticipation, the itemization rework was finally revealed, and it was definitely worth the wait. Not only will players have an easier time going through all the loot they pick up, but they will also be able to interact with it thanks to the addition of two new crafting systems. The Public Test Realm will also be active in a few weeks, which will have a positive impact on the game as players can provide direct feedback on all the new systems.
The Necromancer class is receiving some of the most significant changes in patch 1.4.0, with a full rework coming to the Book of the Dead feature. The Diablo 4 team continues to buff minions, and this update is no different. Here are all of the Necromancer changes coming to the Diablo 4 Public Testing Realm for the upcoming Season 4 update of the game.
| Table of Contents | ||
| Miscellaneous | Skills | Passives |
| Book of the Dead | Legendary Aspects | Unique Items |
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Diablo 4 Patch 1.4.0 PTR - All Necromancer Changes
The main highlights of the Necromancer updates that are coming with patch 1.4.0 are definitely the changes to the Book of the Dead feature. The lack of competitive minion builds has been a hot topic in the Diablo 4 community for the past few months, and the developers are continuing to buff them in this update. Tons of other balance adjustments to core skills, passives, and Paragon points are also coming with this patch.
Miscellaneous
Necromancer, Barbarian, Druid, and Sorcerer Companions now receive 100% of the player's attributes.
- Skill tags have been updated everywhere to allow more Aspects and other effects to affect more skills and abilities. Examples:
- Applicable "Shout" skills for Druid and Barbarian are now tagged as Shouts.
- New Chain tag for abilities like Chain Lightning and Rabies.
- New Mobility tag for abilities that move and or teleport the player, such as Caltrops or Teleport.
- More skills are now tagged as Core skills, such as Sorcerer Mastery Skills and other skills which use resources like Bone Spirit.
- Additionally, various Aspects have been updated to account for these changes.
Skills
- The Tooltip now correctly references the defiled area for the Slow effect.
- Removed the movement speed reduction.
- This ability can now be activated while crowd controlled. Activating this ability makes the player Unstoppable.
- Reworded description to be more consistent with the use of Corpses.
- Interval reduced from 1.5 seconds to 1 second.
- Increased channeling Essence generation from 8 to 10 per second.
- Upgrades now activate when spawning corpses instead of channeling for 1 second.
- Enhanced Decompose
- Decompose now causes an explosion [40% weapon damage] when creating a corpse or when the target dies.
- Now also generates 10 Essence when creating a corpse.
- Acolyte's Decompose
- Initiate's Decompose
- Movement Speed bonus is now on Decompose explosions instead of channeling.
- Increased spawn rate of Volatile Skeletons by 50%.
- Supreme Army of the Dead spawn rate adjusted to match Volatile Skeletons.
- Is now categorized as a Summoning skill.
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Passive
- Previous - After you have been Healthy for at least 2 seconds, you and your Minions gain 4/8/12%[+] Attack Speed.
- Now - While you are Healthy, you gain 4/8/12%[+] increased critical chance and your Minions gain 6/12/18%[+] increased Critical Strike Chance.
- Previous - After you have not taken damage in the last 2 seconds, your Minions gain 15% Attack Speed. This bonus is doubled while you have at least 7 Minions.
- Now - Your Minions gain 3% Attack Speed for each active Minion.
Book of the Dead
- Skeletal Warriors will now run ahead of the Necromancer more often, and can initiate combat.
- Skirmishers – Removed 3 second limit from the second upgrade.
- Reapers
- First Upgrade
- Previous - Reaper attacks against enemies who are Immobilized, Slowed, Stunned, or Vulnerable reduce the cooldown of their powerful wind-up attack by 2 seconds.
- Now - Wind-up attacks now reduce one of your active Cooldowns by 3 seconds.
- First Upgrade
- Defenders
- Now Taunts in an area around them, instead of negating damage every 6 seconds from the first upgrade.
- Changed functionality from Thorns upgrade instead to take 99% reduced damage from the second upgrade.
- Shadow Mages
- Attacks now pierce.
- First upgrade
- Previous - Shadow Mage attacks have a 10% chance to Stun for 2 seconds. This cannot happen toon the same enemy more than once every 5 seconds.
- Now - You deal 3%[x] increased damage for each active Shadow Mage.
- Additional Shadow Bolt now occurs every 2nd attack after the second upgrade.
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- Cold Mages
- Attacks now gain 3 Essence from the first upgrade.
- Attacks now apply Vulnerable without condition.
- Bone Mages
- First Upgrade
- Previous - Reduce the Life cost of your Bone Mages' Attack from 15% to 10%. After being alive for 5 seconds, Bone mages deal 40%[x] increased damage.
- Now - Bone Mages have a 25% chance to cast Bone Splinters or Bone Spear if it is on your equipped Skills.
- Second Upgrade
- Previous - Each time a Bone Mage dies from its own attack they leave behind a corpse and Fortify you for 20% of your Maximum Life.
- Now - Bone Mages drop a corpse when they die. Bone Mage attacks will grant 3% of Maximum Life Fortify.
- First Upgrade
- Blood Golem
- Golem now absorbs 30%, up from 15%, from the first upgrade.
- The second upgrade active ability from Golem also heals the player for 5% of Maximum Life for each enemy drained.
- Bone Golem
- First Upgrade
- Previous - Each time your Bone Golem takes up to 20% of its Maximum Life as damage, it sheds a corpse.
- Now - Spawn 5 corpses around the Golem where its ability is used.
- Second Upgrade
- Previous - Your Bone golem gains 10% Maximum Life and the amount of Thorns it inherits from you is increased from 30% to 50%.
- Now - Your Bone Golem unleashes Bone Spikes when taking damage.
- First Upgrade
- Iron Golem
- First upgrade
- Now casts the Shockwave every 2 attacks instead of 4.
- Shockwave damage increased from 40% to 154%.
- Second upgrade
- Now also pulls enemies in instead of applying Vulnerable.
- First upgrade
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Legendary Aspects
- Previous - Your movement speed is no longer reduced while Blood Mist is active.
- Now - While in Blood Mist form, increases movement speed by 20%.
- Previous - While Army of the Dead is active, your Minions gain 70-84% Attack Speed and take 90% reduced damage.
- Now - While Army of the Dead is active, your Minions deal 70-84% increased damage and take 90% reduced damage.
- Also increases the max number of Skeletal Warriors by 2.
- Previous - Your Maximum number of Skeletal Warriors is increased by 2.
- Now - Your Skeletal Priests also empower you at 55-70% effectiveness.
- Previous - When Decompose spawns a Corpse, gain 25-40 Essence.
- After: When Decompose explodes, gain 25-40 Essence.
- Previous - Decompose can chain and burst up to 2 additional targets. When Decompose spawns a Corpse, it has a 50-100% chance to spawn a Corpse under all afflicted targets.
- After: Decompose can chain and burst up to 2 additional targets. Explosions from Decompose deals 15-30%[x] increased damage.
- Previous - You deal 40-50%[x] increased Shadow damage to enemies afflicted by both Decrepify and Iron Maiden.
- After: You deal 40-50%[x] increased Shadow damage to enemies afflicted by any Curse.
- Previous - Each percent of your Maximum Life you Heal beyond 100% grants you 0.5%[x] bonus Overpower damage on your next Overpowering attack, up to a 30-60%[x] bonus.
- After: Each percent of your Maximum Life you Heal beyond 100% grants you 0.5%[x] bonus Critical Strike Damage on your next Critical Strike, up to a 30-60%[x] bonus.
- Previous - While Healthy, Blood Orbs grant 10-25 Essence.
- After: Blood Orbs grant 10-25 Essence.
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Unique Items
- Previous - Lucky Hit: Up to a 10% chance to empower all of your Minions, causing the next attack from each to explode for X Physical damage.
- Now - Every 6th attack from each Minion is empowered, exploding for X Physical damage.
Paragon
- Previous - Additional Bonus: You and your Minions deal 10%[X] increased damage to Slowed or Chilled enemies or, instead, 20%[X] increased damage to Stunned or Frozen enemies.
- Now - Additional Bonus: You and your Minions deal 20%[X] increased damage to Crowd Controlled targets.
- Additional Bonus maximum bonus buffed to 15%[X].
- Previous - Your Minions deal 15%[X] increased damage for each 20%[X] of Attack Speed Bonus they have.
- Now - Your Minions deal 30%[X] increased damage for each 20%[X] of Attack Speed Bonus they have, up to a maximum of 100% Attack Speed Bonus.
Those were all of the Necromancer changes that are coming to Diablo 4 alongside the patch 1.4.0 PTR update. All of these adjustments, combined with the itemization rework, are hopefully going to allow Necromancer players to experiment with some brand new builds. For more Diablo 4 news and guides, make sure to check out the rest of our website!
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