Diablo 4 Season 1 best Caged Hearts for Necromancer | Bone Spear, Blood Surge, and more

With the exciting first Season of Diablo 4, there are plenty of new features to play around with. You can now farm one of the main new Seasonal items called Caged Hearts. There are four categories and 32 different types which can attach to jewelry sockets to provide beneficial effects. Certain Caged Hearts are class-specific, while other are general. If you want to know the best Caged Hearts for the Necromancer class in Diablo 4 Season 1, continue reading.

Note: If you’re still leveling your Necromancer and want to reach level 50 quickly, check out our best Necromancer leveling builds for Diablo 4 Season 1.

What are the best Necromancer Malignant Hearts in Diablo 4 Season 1?

It can be difficult deciding which Caged Hearts to use, since you can’t un-socket and reuse them like Gems. Also, depending on which Necromancer build you choose, your preferred Caged Hearts may differ. In general, some of the best Caged Hearts for Necromancers in Diablo 4 Season 1 are Caged Heart of the Sacrilegious, Caged Heart of the Decrepit Aura, and Caged Heart of Determination.

The Sacrilegious is highly useful, as it automatically triggers my Corpse Skills for no Essence. Decrepit Aura also automatically triggers a skill, but this time it’s the Decrepify skill. Lastly, Determination will help you use less Essence, as well as lessen Resource draining effects. If you utilize at least one of these Caged Hearts as a Necromancer, you’ll find Season 1 to be a lot more enjoyable.

How you can get any of these Caged Hearts is by crafting them, or farming them. Using Malignant Ichor dropped by enemies or salvaged Caged Hearts, you can craft new Hearts, or Invokers. These Malignant Invokers tie to a specific category of Malignant Heart, which there are four of. You can farm for Vicious, Brutal, Devious, or Wrathful Malignant Hearts. Then, once you turn them into Caged Hearts, they’ll give you a random effect out of 32 options.

Screenshot by PC Invasion

Best Caged Hearts for Blood Surge Necromancer build in Diablo 4 Season 1 tier list

1. Caged Heart of the Sacrilegious
2. Caged Heart of Determination
3. Caged Heart of the Decrepit Aura
4. Caged Heart of Creeping Death

As a Blood Surge Necromancer, you’ll want most of these four Caged Hearts. The effects from these Caged Hearts can work in tandem to create amazing effects during combat. The top three on the tier list are honestly great for any Necromancer build. Caged Heart of Creeping Death, however, can work best with Caged Heart of the Sacrilegious, as I will explain below.

Best Vicious Caged Hearts for Blood Surge Necromancer build in Diablo 4 Season 1

• Caged Heart of the Sacrilegious: Walking near a Corpse automatically activates an equipped Corpse Skill every second, dealing [28-38]% reduced damage.

I honestly don’t think you need any other Vicious Caged Heart besides this one. Even as a Blood Surge Necromancer, you should have at least one Corpse Skill on tab. Personally, I use Corpse Tendrils, so Caged Heart of the Sacrilegious will trigger it without wasting a single drop of Essence. Then, once it grapples and stuns enemies into one area, I Blood Surge them for a devastating blow. It’ll occasionally get annoying when every few seconds your Corpse Skill goes off, but it’s worth it.

Best Brutal Caged Hearts for Blood Surge Necromancer build in Diablo 4 Season 1

• Caged Heart of the Decrepit Aura: When at least 5 enemies are near you, gain an aura that automatically curses surrounding enemies with Decrepify for 6-17 seconds.
• Caged Heart of Revenge: 10-20% of incoming damage is instead suppressed. When you use a Defensive, Subterfuge or a Macabre skill, all suppressed damage is amplified by 250% and explodes, dealing up to [X] Fire damage to Nearby enemies.

Luckily, unlike Sacrilegious, Decrepit Aura doesn’t require you to equip the skill. You don’t have to worry about Decrepify taking up space, and it’ll become highly useful during fights with groups of enemies.

Also, Caged Heart of Revenge is perfect when you use Blood Mist, since it’s a Macabre skill. All the suppressed damage amplifies while you’re using Blood Mist, and will deal a serious amount of Fire damage. You’ll use Blood Mist often running this build, so these Brutal Caged Hearts are a must.

Best Devious Caged Hearts for Blood Surge Necromancer build in Diablo 4 Season 1

• Caged Heart of Determination: Resource draining effects are [50-60]% less effective. In addition, gain [3-8]% increased Resource Generation.
• Caged Heart of Frozen Terror: Up to a [10-20]% chance of inflicting Fear for 2 seconds. Feared enemies are Chilled for 20% every second.

Using this build will end up draining your Essence quickly. This is why you should find yourself a Caged Heart of Determination. Not only does it increase your Essence Generation, but will drain it less as well. There’s also the Necromancer Caged Heart of Frozen Terror. This Devious Heart has a decent chance of inflicting Fear and Chilling enemies. It even helps to have other skills that make enemies Fear.

Best Wrathful Caged Hearts for Blood Surge Necromancer build in Diablo 4 Season 1

• Caged Heart of Creeping Death: Your damage over time effects are increased by [32-42]% for each different Crowd Control effect on the target. Unstoppable monsters and Staggered bosses instead take [114-134]% increased damage from your damage over time effects.
• Caged Heart of the Malignant Pact: Cycle through a Malignant bonus every 20 kills.

Caged Heart of Creeping Death is perfect to use with the Sacrilegious. Why? Well, whenever it triggers Corpse Tendrils, enemies are now Crowd Controlled. With Creeping Death, your damage over time effects increase. It’s also quite useful for Unstoppable and Staggered bosses to take more damage than usual.

Otherwise, Caged Heart of the Malignant Pact is a fun one. It won’t take long to get through 20 kills, meaning you’ll receive one of three random bonuses often. It doesn’t hurt to have this Heart on you if you received it.

Screenshot via Blizzard

Best Caged Hearts for Bone Spear Necromancer build in Diablo 4 Season 1 tier list

1. Caged Heart of Creeping Death
2. Caged Heart of the Decrepit Aura
3. Caged Heart of Determination
4. Caged Heart of the Picana

Although not as popular as Blood Surge, the Bone Spear Necromancer is still enjoyable to build. Sadly, there aren’t any Caged Hearts that specifically tie into Bone Skills, but you can still find useful Hearts otherwise. The good thing is that you’ll still be using other skills during this build that these four Caged Hearts can help out with.

Best Vicious Caged Hearts for Bone Spear Necromancer build in Diablo 4 Season 1

• Caged Heart of the Picana: Critical Strikes electrically charge the enemy for [1.25-3] seconds, causing lightning to arc between them and any other charged enemies dealing [x] Lightning damage.
• Caged Heart of Tempting Fate: You gain [40-60]% Critical Strike Damage but your Non-Critical Strikes deal [15-20]% less damage.

The best Vicious Caged Hearts for this build have to do with your Critical Strikes. You’ll be pulling these Critical Strikes off often as a Bone Spear Necromancer, which can deal some serious damage with these Caged Hearts. The former is a lot safer to play with than the latter, since Tempting Fate makes all normal attacks less damaging.

Best Brutal Caged Hearts for Bone Spear Necromancer build in Diablo 4 Season 1

• Caged Heart of the Decrepit Aura: When at least 5 enemies are near you, gain an aura that automatically curses surrounding enemies with Decrepify for 6-17 seconds.
• Caged Heart of Revenge: 10-20% of incoming damage is instead suppressed. When you use a Defensive, Subterfuge or a Macabre skill, all suppressed damage is amplified by 250% and explodes, dealing up to [X] Fire damage to Nearby enemies.

I’m recommending the same Brutal Caged Hearts for this build as the last one. They can still apply to your Bone Spear build, since you may still use Blood Mist. Also, having Decrepify trigger randomly is always a plus, so you can invest your skill points elsewhere.

Best Devious Caged Hearts for Bone Spear Necromancer build in Diablo 4 Season 1

• Caged Heart of Determination: Resource draining effects are [50-60]% less effective. In addition, gain [3-8]% increased Resource Generation.
• Caged Heart of Frozen Terror: Up to a [10-20]% chance of inflicting Fear for 2 seconds. Feared enemies are Chilled for 20% every second.

Again, these Caged Hearts are unstoppable for most Necromancer builds. You may find yourself losing your Essence fast with this build, so using a Caged Heart of Determination is best. Also, you can’t go wrong with the Caged Heart of Frozen Terror.

Best Wrathful Caged Hearts for Bone Spear Necromancer build in Diablo 4 Season 1

• Caged Heart of Creeping Death: Your damage over time effects are increased by [32-42]% for each different Crowd Control effect on the target. Unstoppable monsters and Staggered bosses instead take [114-134]% increased damage from your damage over time effects.
• Caged Heart of the Malignant Pact: Cycle through a Malignant bonus every 20 kills.

Your Corpse skills can inflict Crowd Control effects, which is perfect for Caged Heart of Creeping Death. Also, Caged Heart of the Malignant Pact is always a good Heart to have. The only issue with Wrathful Caged Hearts is the fact that they’re more rare to find than the other types. You’re lucky just to get either one of these during your Bone Spear Necromancer playthrough.

Best Caged Hearts for Summoner Necromancer build in Diablo 4 Season 1 tier list

1. Caged Heart of the Sacrilegious
2. Caged Heart of the Malignant Pact
3. Caged Heart of Determination
4. Caged Heart of the Decrepit Aura

Finally, with the Summoner Necromancer build, you’ll be focusing more on your Minions and your Shadow damage. Most of the Caged Hearts previously mentioned are still worthwhile for this specific build. These four Caged Hearts will surely make your Summoner Necromancer powered up.

Best Vicious Caged Hearts for Summoner Necromancer build in Diablo 4 Season 1

• Caged Heart of the Sacrilegious: Walking near a Corpse automatically activates an equipped Corpse Skill every second, dealing [28-38]% reduced damage.
• Caged Heart of the Dark Dance: Every 5 seconds while above 60% Life, Core Skills cost [X] Life instead of your Primary Resource. Skills that consume Life deal 10-20% increased damage.

Seeing as the only Core Skill you’ll probably rely on as a Summoner Necromancer is Sever, Dark Dance is a perfect Caged Heart. Sever can cause incredible damage with that Vicious Heart equipped. Also, as usual, Caged Heart of the Sacrilegious returns. It’s on my number one spot on most of my tier lists for a reason. Summoner Necromancers can get away with using both Corpse skills, which makes the Sacrilegious highly important.

Best Brutal Caged Hearts for Summoner Necromancer build in Diablo 4 Season 1

• Caged Heart of the Decrepit Aura: When at least 5 enemies are near you, gain an aura that automatically curses surrounding enemies with Decrepify for 6-17 seconds.
• Caged Heart of Prudent Heart: You become Immune for [2-4] seconds after you lose more than 20% Life in a single hit. This effect can only occur once every 100 seconds.

Although Caged Heart of Prudent Heart has a lengthy cooldown, it comes in handy often. As a Summoner Necromancer, you probably won’t use any defensive skills, which makes the immunity you get from Prudent Heart helpful. And of course, Decrepit Aura is a fantastic Brutal Caged Heart. You’ll find yourself surrounded by more than five enemies quite often.

Best Devious Caged Hearts for Summoner Necromancer build in Diablo 4 Season 1

• Caged Heart of Determination: Resource draining effects are [50-60]% less effective. In addition, gain [3-8]% increased Resource Generation.
• Caged Heart of Frozen Terror: Up to a [10-20]% chance of inflicting Fear for 2 seconds. Feared enemies are Chilled for 20% every second.

These two Devious Caged Hearts continuously come in handy for Necromancers. Since you’re relying heavily on Crowd Control effects as a Summoner Necromancer, you’ll find Frozen Terror to be very useful. We also see Caged Heart of Determination make a common reoccurrence, as it’s on every Necromancer build tier list.

Best Wrathful Caged Hearts for Summoner Necromancer build in Diablo 4 Season 1

• Caged Heart of the Malignant Pact: Cycle through a Malignant bonus every 20 kills.
• Caged Heart of the Great Feast: Each Minion drains [1-2] Essence per second but deals [50-75]% increased damage. With no Minions, this bonus applies to you and drains 5 Essence per second.

With your Minions being your main combat tactic, you’ll want to get yourself a Caged Heart of the Great Feast. You’ll never find yourself alone, so having each Minion deal that large amount of damage is incredible. Also, Caged Heart of the Malignant Pact is always a useful Wrathful Caged Heart.

Diablo 4 is available on Battle.net.