Hello my fellow Necromancers.
After today’s patch, is it even worth keep playing blood? We got some buffs yes but the core problem of blood necromancer seems to still persists. 3 Seconds less on our key passive that is sadly just the same as the druids Pulverize minor passive (like Blizzard wth Druids have our key passive as a normal passive). Blood lance core problem is still the same, you need a lot of atk speed and legendaries to be able to somewhat decently spread the lance for multi dmg and you only have a 3 second window since the lance for some reason does not stay on a hit target.
Compared to a very similar build (werebear druid) it feels like we got nothing, we have a aspect that echoes the explosion of blood surge but with less dmg, druids have an aspect that on a 2H weapon creates a shockwave that deals up to 200% MORE dmg than Pulverize itself and can clear a whole room. The only Unique that blood has is a minion based one and it is just bad it has such low dmg on it and requieres you to play with as much minions as possible for more blood surge explosions (tried it out and the dmg is a joke). Legendary aspects that have to do with blood skills feel weird since the echo ones deal less dmg on the echoed skill (blood surge and blood wave). Also the Biggest problem with Blood surge builds is that we have to go melee as a class with just a singe defensive ability that has a 25 second core cooldown, so pushing NM dungeons as blood is a big no go, we have no dmg to kill adds fast enough and we cant survive long enough for out OP procs. Druid currently seems to just be 10x maybe even 20x the better OP playstyle class and it makes me sad. I dont mind that blood is not on top but that its so far behind is just frustrating.
Now i have another question since the patch and Blood Lance being a bit better than before does someone has a viable build for it that does not requier perfect gear and lvl 100? i just want to have fun with blood Necromancer but currently it even takes too long to just clear normal t4 dungeons.
The problem with blood necro’s overpower build is that you need a great many things for it to feel even somewhat viable, whereas bone spear build just kills everything with minimal effort even in “bad” gear.
Rathma’s Vigor should be rewroked altogether, The max HP part is ok, but even 12 seconds in mid to lategame is an eternity. Just make it get 1 stack when we cast a blood spell and at 3-4 stacks the next blood spell is overpowered, or something like that.
As for a build, stack willpower, max hp and spam blood surge (don’t take the talent that increases it’s cost and damage), use a wand or sword/dagger with offhand so you can spam Hemorrhage fast, stack up fortify andt then go ham. Corpse Tendrils is a great CC/vuln source. Your single target damage comes from Blood Mist (with the guaranteed proc, but make sure you have high health and fort).I used Iron Maiden/Bone Prison on packs for easy resource regen. You also want to sacrifice your minions and get the Memento Mori passive for 64% overpower dmg bonus (among others).
Oh dont worry, i already do all that. I guess i ruined Blood for me since i also made a bear druid and can just see that one does work amazingly with increadible legendaries and uniques, while Blood has literally nothing that acts as a build enabler.
The biggest offender is Pulverize passive and bear passive OP procs dont consume both if you use Pulverize with both active, while with blood Rathma’s key passive and blood surge/blood lance stack passive BOTH get consumed on using one skill and leaving us with wasting a lot of dmg. It feels like Blood Necro needs to always pay attention on stacks and passives or he does no dmg and bear can be played brain dead and performs 20x better. 
Also Blood Surge being a close range ability and us Necros having a single defensive ability feels so bad to play if there are multiple enemies stun locking us (good luck trying to push NM Dungeons as Blood and not uninstall the game out of frustration). Blood really needs a whole rework for season 1.
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Im lvl 68 and im doing nm37 40 tops and @33 35 for comfort levels, of course slower than usual and not on par with flagship builds/classes. But im having fun playing what i want and it is working.
I run blood lance, hemo, surge, bprison, mist and tendrils. Once i get an umbral im thinking of swapping hemo with decrep and replace bprison with bstorm with the barrier aspect.
Blood lance rips tendrilled elite packs and does good job even without. I believe the biggest trap is dumping everything for overpower, thats the main pylon but you need dmg outside of it.
At this point just play shadow build, if you are running without a ressorce generator. Also yea NM till around 50ish are possible but annoying while my druid with the same level can run those as the ez farm levels without even thinking of getting damaged or cced into oblivion. Also if you ignore OP dmg than just play Bone build at this point like why even bother with low scalling abilities if you dont use the stats anyway and Bone Build shreds in comparison to blood. Tbh i am prob gonna drop blood for bone build until blizzard reworks it. Sure you can play it but why play a build where you need way more gear and stats than any other build and still be 5-10x slower than them.
Its true not saying it isnt. But its not as bad as “unplayable”. I also had a lot of fun trying to find ways around its problems. I keep waiting for the wall everybody is talking about and it somehow never arrives.
I still chase overpower dont get me wrong. I just find the idea of stack health for damage intriguing although i will play shadow come season 1 and switch back to blood at endgame. Plus the spells themselves are visually satisfying (except blood wave which plays like shit, looks like shit and does shit damage) .
Druid is just much better designed not just more powerful. The proof is in how many A and B tier builds it has.
The wall is its time it needs to finish stuff. Diablo is all about how fast you can run stuff not IF you can run stuff. Ofc Blood Necro wont be able to finish NM 100 as for now because it lacks any form of legendaries that increase damage TIMES %. We have a single Lagendary that has to do with OP damage and its an +60% not an x60% so its a useless lagendary. While Bone and Shadow Build has times multipliers, blood has none that are good. So blood does not get HUGE boosts from paragon levels rare /magic nodes unlike the Builds that have times multipliers and will feel any rare and magic nodes instently.
Talking about Paragon Board. There are also very little HP increases on them making OP builds also kinda meh since thats your core dmg increase you want.
Blood in general is undercooked i totally agree and it relies on undercooked mechanics. The paragon board is ok ish but its legendary node dosent work with rathma or the 3% overpower chance. Its also mandatory to make a detour through Bone Graft board to grab the 4 essence on kill.
Its tanky though and has decent burst but not much else. I expect it to fall of eventually by sheer slowness rather than damage potential. Although it seems it will do that much later than i anticipated.
The Damage on Blood is sadly a sweet sour trick, on lower tiers and levels it feels super bursty until you realize the max OP % can be reached very early. So after that your burst will only grow very slowly and dont look up Bone crits with every bone spear usage or you will cry xD.
But i do agree Blood feels tanky, as long as the enemies dont ignore all your defenses like on higher tiers xD. Unlike other classes all we have is Decrepify that reduces damage taken and its probably one of the weaker damage reduction skills in the game, druids have a lot of less damage taken while shapeshifted or the 50% damage reduction with Debilitating Roar. Wizards have the whole damage reduction from burning enemies + 4 defensive skills that also give barrier with the passive they have.
There is a reason most people say Damage is not the problem in Diablo 4 Late game, survivability is and Necro has none thats why most ppl play the infinite mist build later on to be immune to damage for 99% of the time.
What is confusing to me is, why does Blood not have a Barrier mechanic on overheals? Blood is a melee Build yet we have nothing to really mitigate incoming damage (and no Fortify 10% damage reduction is not really a big deal since it does not safe us from CC or burst damage).