Diablo 4 gives players well over 300 different Aspects to choose from, many of which are available exclusively to specific classes. Necromancers, for example, only gain access to 62 of them. While you can collect all these powerful upgrades regardless of which class you’re playing, you can only equip Aspects for your current class. You can start collecting Aspects shortly after starting the game, but you can only Imprint them onto items after you reach level 25 and unlock the Occultist.
The fastest way to acquire new Aspects is by completing Dungeons, especially in the early game. You can also get Aspects by extracting them from Legendary items at the Occultist, however, these count as consumable items. Once you Imprint the extracted Aspect onto a different item, it will disappear from your inventory and cannot be extracted again from the newly Imprinted item. It's worth noting that while this process works with Legendary items, it does not work with Unique items.
Updated by Shane Black on August 13th, 2023: This guide was updated to add more links to relevant guides and articles to provide more information.
20 Flesh-Rending Aspect
The Flesh-Rending Aspect is a pretty straightforward Imprint that allows the Necromancer to gain 10 Essence whenever Decompose spawns a corpse. Necromancer spells tend to be quite costly, so any Aspect that allows you to recover Essence at a faster rate should definitely not be ignored. Flesh-Rending Aspect is tied to Decompose and tends to lose its usefulness in the late game, but can be very helpful early on.
Decompose spawns a corpse every 2.5 seconds and that’s exactly how often you can also expect to get your 10 free Essence with the base version of the skill. You can increase Essence generation even further by investing a skill point into Advanced Decompose. This upgrade allows you to gain an extra 10 Essence whenever an enemy dies while being Decomposed and synergizes well with Flesh-Rending Aspect. The Flesh-Rending Aspect can be obtained by completing the Nostrava Deepwood dungeon in Fractured Peaks.
19 Fastblood Aspect
Fastblood Aspect is a valuable upgrade for Necromancer builds that focus heavily on Ultimate abilities. The Aspect reduces the cooldown of your Ultimate by 0.5 seconds whenever the Necromancer picks up a Blood Orb. A 0.5 seconds cooldown reduction may not sound like much, but keep in mind that you can get Blood Orbs to drop regularly with certain builds.
Fastblood Aspect works particularly well when paired with the Blood Wave Ultimate. Thanks to the Supreme Blood Wave upgrade, you can get the Ultimate to spawn three Blood Orbs with every cast. Meanwhile, Hemorrhage is your go-to Basic skill for generating Blood Orbs at a consistent rate, especially once you unlock the Enhanced Hemorrhage upgrade. When used in conjunction with skills that generate Blood Orbs, Fastblood Aspect ends up reducing the cooldown of Ultimates by a significant amount. The Fastblood Aspect can be obtained by completing the Iron Hold dungeon in Hawezar.
18 Aspect Of Grasping Veins
Corpse Tendrils is already a pretty powerful spell, but you can make it even better thanks to the Aspect of Grasping Veins. The Aspect grants two buffs, the first of which gives Necromancers a flat 10% increased Critical Strike Chance on all attacks whenever they cast Corpse Tendrils. The buff only lasts 6 seconds, but at max level Corpse Tendrils has a measly cooldown of only 9 seconds. In other words, you’ll be able to proc the buff pretty much all the time.
The Aspect’s second buff is even better as it grants you 30% bonus Critical Strike Damage against all enemies affected by the spell. Considering Corpse Tendrils has a pretty large radius, you can expect quite a few enemies to be caught in its grasp. To make the most out of Aspect of Grasping Vines, we recommend picking up the Plagued Corpse Tendrils upgrade. The upgrade allows Corpse Tendrils to inflict the Vulnerable status effect, which increases the damage taken by enemies by a whopping 20%. The Aspect of Grasping Veins can be obtained by completing the Corrupted Grotto dungeon in Kehjistan.
17 Aspect Of Disobedience
The Aspect of Disobedience is a defensive upgrade that can also be used by other classes besides the Necromancer. The Aspect grants 0.25% Armor for 4 seconds whenever the player deals any form of damage. That’s not very impressive by itself, however, it’s worth noting that this effect stacks up to 25%. Since this applies to any form of damage, you can rely on DoTs and even damage from minions to contribute toward the effect.
The Necromancer can be a pretty squishy class if you don’t invest heavily into things like Blood Surge, Dreadful Bone Prison, or other defensive abilities and Paragon glyphs. Of course, doing so requires investing skill points you may want to spend elsewhere. Thanks to Aspect of Disobedience, you can go for a Darkness build or a Corruption build without having to worry about spending points on Blood or Bone skills. The Aspect of Disobedience can be obtained by completing the Halls of the Damned dungeon in Kehjistan.
16 Aspect Of Inner Calm
The Aspect of Inner Calm is another Aspect that can be used by multiple classes, but it tends to be more valuable when playing a caster like the Necromancer. The Aspect increases the player’s damage by 5% every second they stand still, up to a maximum of 30%. A 30% damage increase is nothing to sneeze at, and you only need to stand still for 6 seconds in order to reap the full benefits. Admittedly, that can seem like a long time when you’re in the thick of combat, but it’s perfectly doable for a Necromancer in most instances.
Similar to a few of the other Aspects on this list, the Aspect of Inner Calm works better with some builds than others. Channeled spells like Decompose tend to work best here since they require you to stand still anyway, but you’ll also see good results when focusing on projectile spells or certain AoE spells. Equally important is the type of encounter you’re going up against. The Aspect of Inner Calm is pretty much useless when you’re fighting the Butcher or any of the other bosses that chase you all over the map. But when you’re going up against bosses that tend to stay in one place for more than a few seconds, the Aspect of Inner Calm is very powerful indeed. The Aspect of Inner Calm can be obtained by completing the Raethwind Wilds dungeon in Scosglen.
15 Rotting Aspect
Decompose is one of the better Basic skills you can use as a Necromancer since it also creates corpses in addition to generating Essence and dealing a bit of damage. The spell can be used to create a decent amount of corpses even without any enhancements, but if you’re using a build that relies heavily on them, you’ll want to pick up the Rotting Aspect. This Aspect can potentially double or even triple the rate at which Decompose spawns corpses and can be used to create some interesting synergies to boot.
The Rotting Aspect causes Decompose to chain to additional targets and has a chance to spawn corpses under each of them. Perhaps even more importantly, the Aspect causes additional targets to be afflicted by Slow if you’re using the Initiate’s Decompose upgrade or take 10% more damage if you’re using the Acolyte’s Decompose upgrade. Furthermore, the Rotting Aspect can be combined with the Flesh-Rending Aspect to significantly increase Essence generation.
14 Aspect Of Reanimation
One of the best parts of playing as a Necromancer is running around with your own personal army of undead minions. Your minions start off weak but can you turn them into an effective fighting force thanks to various skills and Aspects, including this one. The Aspect of Reanimation increases the damage of all Skeleton minions up to a substantial 20%. The only caveat is that the minions need to be alive for at least 10 seconds before you'll be able to take full advantage of the buff.
Normally, you can rely on your Skeletons to stick around for way longer than 10 seconds even in the thick of combat, however, there is one exception. Bone Mages, one of the Skeleton variants, deal an insane amount of damage but lose health every time they attack. While Aspect of Reanimation can make Bone Mages even more powerful, they’re less likely to be able to take full advantage of the buff because they tend to die a lot faster. If you’re using other Skeleton variants, Aspect of Reanimation is a no-brainer. The Aspect of Reanimation can be obtained by completing the Aldurwood dungeon in Scosglen.
13 Aspect Of Bursting Bones
The Aspect of Bursting Bones is a pretty interesting one. This Aspect affects Bone Prison and changes it from a pure crowd control skill to one that also deals damage. Once you equip the Aspect of Bursting Bones, segments of Bone Prison that expire or are destroyed will start inflicting damage in a radius around them.
As is usually the case with these things, the damage will vary depending on certain factors, such as the imprinted item’s level. The damage won’t seem very impressive based on the Aspect’s description, but keep in mind that it only shows the damage per segment. Bone Prison has six segments, so the total damage will be quite a bit higher than what the description might lead you to believe. The Aspect of Bursting Bones can be obtained by completing the Path of the Blind dungeon in Dry Steppes.
12 Sacrificial Aspect
If you’re using a build that relies on sacrificial bonuses instead of minions, you definitely don’t want to miss out on this Aspect. In fact, this is one of the first Aspects you should consider unlocking and imprinting onto an item. That’s because the Sacrificial Aspect increases the potency of your sacrificial bonuses by up to a whopping 25%. Even more importantly, this effect stacks with the sacrificial bonuses you get from the Stand Alone and Memento Mori passives.
If you’re new to Diablo 4 and are using a Necromancer leveling build, you’ll probably want to stay away from this Aspect, at least at first. Sacrificial bonuses become more valuable than minions toward the mid-to-late game, but minions are definitely better when you’re just starting out. At the very least you should consider keeping the Golem. For the most part, an active Golem is more useful than any of the bonuses you get by sacrificing it. The Sacrificial Aspect can be obtained by completing the Ruins of Eridu dungeon in Hawezar.
11 Aspect Of Plunging Darkness
Bone Prison can be a tricky spell to play around with since it has the potential to do more harm than good if you cast it in the wrong place at the wrong time. With proper timing, however, Bone Prison is a powerful spell that becomes even stronger when paired with the Aspect of Plunging Darkness. As long as you have this Aspect equipped, Bone Prison spawns a pool of Blight that deals 50% bonus damage over 6 seconds to all enemies trapped within.
Normally, Bone Prison doesn’t do any damage even when fully upgraded and must be combined with other spells to serve as more than mere crowd control. Even though you can combine it with Blight to achieve a similar result to what Aspect of Plunging Darkness offers, it’s far more cost effective to just use the Aspect instead. Using the Aspect means you’ll have more points to spend on other skills AND it allows you to conserve some of that valuable Essence in the process. The Aspect won’t deal as much damage as a fully upgraded Blight, but the advantages you’ll get from it are not to be underestimated regardless. The Aspect of Plunging Darkness can be obtained by completing the Rimescar Cavern dungeon in Fractured Peaks.
10 Requiem Aspect
New players are likely to overlook Requiem Aspect because it doesn’t do anything flashy and doesn’t seem to offer any amazing benefits. While that first part is true, the benefits are most certainly amazing. The Requiem Aspect increases the Necromancer’s maximum Essence by 3 points for each currently active minion. The reason why Requiem Aspect is so powerful is because Diablo 4 doesn’t give Necromancers a lot of ways to increase their maximum Essence. Certain spells like Decompose and Reap will allow you to regenerate Essence faster, but you’ll have a difficult time finding ways to increase your overall Essence pool unless you pick up this Aspect.
Normally, Necromancers can have four Skeleton Warriors active along with three Skeleton Mages, and one Golem. That’s already 24 extra Essence right there, and it will be massively helpful once you approach Diablo 4's endgame. But you can get even more. For instance, you can have five Skeleton Warriors instead of four if you go with the Skirmisher variant. In addition, there are certain items that increase the maximum number of minions you can have active at any one time. Having a large army of minions is already a huge benefit in and of itself, so it makes sense to try to capitalize on it even more by using Requiem Aspect to significantly increase your maximum Essence at the same time. The Reqiuem Aspect can be obtained by completing the Vault of the Forsaken dungeon in Scosglen.
9 Unyielding Commander’s Aspect
The Unyielding Commander’s Aspect gives minions a massive 70% attack speed increase and an even more impressive 90% damage reduction as long as Army of the Dead is active. If you’re going for a build that relies heavily on minions, you’ll definitely want to pick up the Unyielding Commander’s Aspect in addition to the Requiem Aspect.
Army of the Dead only lasts 7 seconds, but that still gives your minions plenty of time to wreak serious havoc on enemies while taking next to no damage in return. Hard-hitting minions benefit the most from the speed increase while tanky ones like Golems and Skeleton Defenders become pretty much invulnerable for the duration. Of course, all of this is happening while Army of the Dead bombards enemies with exploding skeletons and creates quite a spectacular sight in the process. The Unyielding Commander's Aspect can be obtained by completing the Faceless Shrine dungeon in Hawezar.
8 Blood-Soaked Aspect
This is one of several Aspects that primarily benefit Blood builds. The Blood-Soaked Aspect causes Blood Mist to leave a trail that deals damage over time to enemies who stand in it. As an added benefit, the skill no longer reduces your movement speed while active. That’s certainly a nice bonus since you’ll want to move as much as possible while Blood Mist is active in order to spread the trail. For reference, Blood Mist normally reduces movement speed by 20%.
The interesting thing about this Aspect is that it also allows Blood Mist to inflict Shadow damage. Normally, it can be quite difficult to inflict Shadow damage unless you’re straight-up going for a Darkness build. The Blood-Soaked Aspect and the Aspect of Ultimate Shadow are the only two Aspects in Diablo 4 that cause Blood skills to inflict Shadow damage, making them pretty much mandatory for hybrid builds.
7 Aspect Of Shielding Storm
Necromancers generally rely on Fortify to increase their survivability, but having a Barrier on top of that certainly wouldn’t hurt either. The Aspect of Shielding Storm is one of the few Aspects that provides Necromancers with a reliable way of generating Barriers. Barriers are objectively better than Fortify in most situations since they completely block incoming damage. Meanwhile, Fortify only provides a 10% damage reduction, although you can increase that percentage by quite a bit with certain builds.
The Aspect automatically creates a Barrier whenever Bone Storm damages an enemy, so it’s highly advisable to bring a Golem along if you want to make the most out of it. The strength of the Barrier generated by the Aspect of Shielding Storm varies depending on your Base Life. The more life you have, the stronger the Barrier. It really pays to socket Gems into your items that increase health when using this Aspect.
6 Coldbringer’s Aspect
Cold Mages are some of the best Necromancer minions in Diablo 4 thanks to their ability to Chill and occasionally even Freeze enemies. Outside very niche builds, Necromancers are restricted to either Physical or Shadow damage. Cold Mages bring an additional – and very valuable – type of damage to the table, and this is the only Aspect in Diablo 4 that allows you to get even more out of your frosty skeletal minions.
Thanks to the Coldbringer’s Aspect, Cold Mages gain the ability to cast a Blizzard that damages and Chills enemies over 6 seconds. This effect can only occur once every 10 seconds, which feels fair considering how good it is. If you’re planning on using the Coldbringer’s Aspect, consider combining it with the Viscous Aspect to gain access to more Cold Mages and, in turn, more Blizzards.
5 Tidal Aspect
Blood Wave is the only Ultimate ability in the Necromancer’s kit that provides some degree of crowd control. The Ultimate requires good timing and positioning, but can be used to great effect to knock back enemies, create space, and set up combos with other abilities like Corpse Explosion or Bone Prison. The Tidal Aspect makes the Ultimate even better by causing it to fire two additional times, giving Necromancers even more opportunities to play around with crowd control.
The great thing about the Tidal Aspect is that it works in conjunction with the Aspect of Ultimate Shadow, which transforms Blood Wave into a Darkness skill. The Prime Blood Wave upgrade won’t add extra Slow while using this Aspect, but the two additional waves will generate more Blood Orbs once you unlock the Supreme Blood Wave upgrade.
4 Aspect Of Explosive Mist
If you’re running any sort of build that incorporates Blood Mist, this Aspect is an absolute must-have. The Aspect of Explosive Mist improves the titular spell by enabling it to trigger Corpse Explosion on surrounding corpses. This removes the need to include the regular version of Corpse Explosion in your Blood builds. However, there are benefits to keeping it since the Aspect of Explosive Mist gets even better if your Corpse Explosion has extra ranks and upgrades.
As an added benefit, the Aspect of Explosive Mist also reduces the spell’s cooldown by up to 0.5 seconds for every corpse it detonates. The cooldown reduction quickly adds up when you consider that you can easily detonate a dozen corpses or more with a single cast. Combine this with the Ghastly Blood Mist upgrade and you’ll never run out of corpses to blow up. Add the Blood-Soaked Aspect into the mix as well to get even more out of Blood Mist.
3 Aspect of Ultimate Shadow
Now this is a pretty unique Aspect right here. The Aspect of Ultimate Shadow improves Bone Storm and Blood Wave by turning them both into Darkness skills that deal Shadow damage instead of the usual Physical damage. Darkness builds are generally a tad weaker than Bone and Blood builds, but with this Aspect you can even the odds and create an outstandingly powerful Shadowmancer build.
Aside from simply turning the two Ultimates into Darkness skills, the Aspect also gives each of them an additional effect. Namely, Bone Storm causes enemies to take bonus Shadow damage over 2 seconds while Blood Wave deals bonus damage over 4 seconds and desecrates the ground it travels over. If you want to take things to the next level, you can combine the Aspect of Ultimate Shadow with the Osseous Gale Aspect or the Tidal Aspect to make the two Ultimates even stronger.
2 Osseous Gale Aspect
Bone Storm is arguably the Necromancer’s best Ultimate ability at the moment. Not only does it deal the most damage, but it also applies to your Golem. It’s basically like a ‘buy one, get one free’ type of deal. The only thing that’s missing is an upgrade that can prolong its duration, which is already quite generous, mind you. Well, wouldn’t you know it, an upgrade like that just so happens to exist, and it comes in the form of the Osseous Gale Aspect.
With this Aspect equipped, Bone Storm will start consuming nearby corpses to increase its duration. At most, the Ultimate can consume up to 8 corpses with every cast. The only drawback here is that the Ultimate consumes corpses you might normally want to detonate with Corpse Explosion. With the right build, however, you can definitely generate more than enough corpses for both abilities and still have a few left over for things like Corpse Tendrils.
1 Blood-Bathed Aspect
It’s no secret that Blood Surge is one of the best Necromancer spells in Diablo 4. The AoE attack damages enemies while healing the Necromancer and has some ridiculously powerful upgrades. Not just that but it also has a ridiculously powerful Aspect as well. The Blood-Bathed Aspect allows Blood Surge to unleash an additional wave after a short delay. The wave only hits for 30% of the original’s damage but provides all the other benefits you would expect.
The fact that this Aspect enables Blood Surge to hit twice has a number of advantages. The extra damage is obviously a big one, but perhaps even more important is the extra healing. Necromancers have a few tools at their disposal for healing, but Blood Surge is by far the most reliable one. In addition to speeding up the amount of health gained, Blood-Bathed Aspect also procs the Supernatural Blood Surge upgrade, which Fortifies the Necromancer and, upon reaching a certain threshold, causes the spell to deal 20% more damage. The Blood-Bathed Aspect can be obtained by completing the Hoarfrost Demise dungeon in Fractured Peaks.