The undead hordes of Necromancers in Diablo 4 can carry players well into the late game if built properly. This sort of summoner playstyle is a lot different from how they were in previous games, but the power they provide is indisputable.
There are a number of ways to make minion builds viable in Diablo 4's endgame, and one revolving around Shadow skills is the most obvious one. Here's a level 50+ endgame build worthy of Nightmare and Torment difficulties that put the Necromancer's undead army in the spotlight.
Updated on July 23 by Marc Santos: Patch 1.1.0. for Diablo 4 brought considerable changes to the game's balance. This Endgame Shadow Summoner Necromancer build has been refined to account for the Season 1 patch's buffs and nerfs.
Diablo 4 Endgame Shadow Summoner Necromancer Build
Skill | Total Points |
Acolyte's Reap | 3 |
Supernatural Blight | 7 |
Blighted Corpse Explosion | 3 |
Supreme Bone Storm | 3 |
Book of the Dead | Upgrade |
Reapers | 1 |
Shadow Mages | 2 |
Bone Golem | 1 |
The build relies on Shadow damage with the Shadowblight Key Passive and other related passives to boost minions' damage.
Reapers are great for builds that don't rely on critical hits, as they deal more flat damage than the other Skeletal Warriors with their wind-up attack. Meanwhile, Shadow Mages can apply Shadowblight, making them the perfect choice here. Bone Golem is preferred for the AOE taunt to keep the skeletons and the player alive longer while also providing usable Corpses.
As for abilities, Blight will be the Core Skill for its ability to slow targets and buff the damage of minions. Acolyte's Reap is the preferred Basic Skill here for its ability to generate more Corpses while dealing Shadow damage.
Blighted Corpse Explosion is necessary for keeping the battlefield tainted with Shadow damage without using Essence. Spend only one point in the main Corpse Explosion skill since much of the damage here will be coming from the Blight upgrade.
Bone Storm is used to clear big packs by creating damaging fields over the player and their golem. This will be made even stronger with one of the Aspects below. It is especially useful for killing monsters with damage-reduction auras.
Passive Skills
Skill | Points |
Hewed Flesh | 3 |
Skeleton Warrior Mastery | 3 |
Grim Harvest | 1 |
Fueled by Death | 2 |
Death's Embrace | 3 |
Death's Reach | 3 |
Skeletal Mage Mastery | 3 |
Reaper's Pursuit | 1 |
Crippling Darkness | 1 |
Gloom | 3 |
Terror | 3 |
Golem Mastery | 3 |
Bonded in Essence | 3 |
Death's Defense | 3 |
Inspiring Leader | 3 |
Hellbent Commander | 3 |
Shadowblight | 1 |
All the passives here cater to minions, Darkness damage, and survivability. Take all minion mastery nodes (including the four in the Ultimate tree) as well as the Shadow passives in the second Corpse & Macabre tree for maximum effectiveness.
Hewed Flesh can spawn Corpses via Blight's DoT, making it great for every situation. It also stacks Shadowblight multiple times per cast, enabling even more damage. Skeletons will die, so having extra Corpses to get more minions is required.
Since players will be in close-range combat for most of the time with this build, Death's Embrace is necessary to keep them alive. Meanwhile, Death's Reach makes sure all Distant enemies take more damage from Blight pools.
The build may struggle against elites with AOE attacks, but as long as there are enough Corpses to spawn more skeletons, then players should have no trouble.
Gear and Aspects
Offense | Defense | Utility |
Blighted | Disobedience | Blood Getter |
Reanimation | Might | Viscous |
Frenzied Dead | Shielding Storm | |
Ultimate Shadow | ||
Rapid |
Grab Viscous and Blood Getter for more skeletons, and Reanimation and Frenzied Dead to boost their DPS. Then, find an item with the Ultimate Shadow Aspect to turn Bone Storm into a Darkness skill. Cap the offensive side of this build-off with the Blighted Aspect to gain short periods of increased damage after Shadowblight is triggered ten times.
Rapid is nice to have for faster Bone Splinter attacks, but consider swapping this out for Umbral for more Essence generation.
As for gear, players should prioritize items with bonuses to Vulnerable Damage, Damage to Affected by Shadow Over Time Enemies, and anything that boosts minion stats.
No Uniques are required for this build, though Ring of Mendeln can greatly increase the damage of minions as long as players can keep their total minion count over seven. It gives up to a 10% chance on Lucky Hit to empower skeletons and golems, causing their next attack to explode.
The Decrepit Aura Malignant Heart from Season 1 is very strong. Players don't need to spend a point in Decrepify or have the ability on the skill bar for the Heart to work. It synergizes well with Crowd Control bonuses and if players have Abhorrent Decrepify, it will reduce Bone Storm's cooldown significantly. Use it while it's available.
Paragon Boards
Cult Leader is the go-to Paragon Board for summoner builds since it contains all the necessary buffs for skeletons and golems. All of its special nodes buff minions, and players can't go wrong with taking any or all of them.
Hulking Monstrosity only buffs golems, but the stat bonuses are often large and impactful. This isn't as mandatory as Cult Leader, but it will definitely help.
As for Glyphs, Deadraiser, Control, Corporeal, and Darkness all help boost minion damage. Deadraiser takes priority here as it has the most general use case.
Diablo 4 is available now for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.