The Necromancer has always been known as a class that brings undead friends to the battlefield to fight against evil. In many games in the Diablo franchise, the minions start off strong but tail off. Corpse Explosion and Bone Spear become better options in the last few games. Thankfully, Diablo 4 does offer a path for the summoned units to shine even in the endgame.
Or, perhaps more accurately, especially in the endgame. Diablo 4 gives Necromancers the tools they need to beef up their units and have the players support these summoned units as they take on tank, healing, and damage roles with lethal results.
Updated on June 30th, 2023 by Hodey Johns: This guide has been updated for the huge rebalance patch in 1.0.3. Many guides have remained untouched because most skills got a simple numerical buff or nerf to bring them in line with the rest of the skills in the game. Especially with Vulnerable builds becoming so powerful, this was an appropriate rebalance. However, not every skill received a small buff or nerf. Some of these were significant enough to change builds for and this build was one of those. Some of these buffs weren't to damage but to cooldown or resource reduction which alters the skill rotation entirely. The old build might still be better than it was before but this new guide gets the absolute most out of the class.
Skill Tree
Skill | Points |
Decompose | 5 |
Enhanced Decompose | 1 |
Acolyte's Decompose | 1 |
Blight | 5 |
Enhanced Blight | 1 |
Supernatural Blight | 1 |
Hewed Flesh | 3 |
Unliving Energy | 3 |
Perfectly Balanced | 3 |
Skeletal Warrior Mastery | 3 |
Grim Harvest | 3 |
Skeletal Mage Mastery | 3 |
Decrepify | 5 |
Enhanced Decrepify | 1 |
Horrid Decrepify | 1 |
Army of the Dead | 1 |
Prime Army of the Dead | 1 |
Supreme Army of the Dead | 1 |
Bonded In Essence | 3 |
Death's Defense | 3 |
Hellbent Commander | 3 |
Golem Mastery | 3 |
Shadowblight | 1 |
At the maximum level and with all the Renown gathered, players will have 58 skill points to invest. Shadowblight and Kalan's Edict both make a strong case for the key passive but Shadowblight has slightly higher damage and does not require the Necromancer to remain untouched.
Typically the biggest downfall with the late-game Summoner Necromancer build is that the minions can and will be killed by opponents more quickly. However, this build not only beefs up how many hits they can take but provides plenty of corpses with Decompose and, if a tough boss manages to kill all the minions, Supreme Army of the Dead will bring the team back.
The Summoner Necromancer takes a backseat in damage to let the minions take over but plays a starring role in support. Blight and Decrepify will keep enemies slow and enable the minions to get in extra attacks. The Shadow damage adds up in a hurry and synergizes with the minions' own Shadow damage. Players that want the Necromancer to shine more than minions should instead consider using a fantastic Bone Spear build.
Paragon Boards
Board | Paragon/Legendary Nodes | Glyph |
Start | Prime, Knowledge | Deadraiser |
Cult Leader | Infused Warrior, Cult Leader, Puppeteer, Unfused Caster, Overlord | Control |
Hulking Monstrosity | Hulking Monstrosity, Infused Golem, Mutation, Frenzied Golem | Amplify |
Wither | Wither, Lingering Shadows, Gnawing Darkness, Malediction | Scourge |
Scent of Death | Scent of Death | Corporeal |
The paragon boards and glyphs can be a bit tough to figure out. It's a matter of adjusting the boards so that they snake properly. Few players will get to the maximum 200 paragon points but those that do will find that their powers are enhanced by enormous magnitudes.
Listing all nodes would be tedious and impossible to read, but if gamers move between the major nodes listed, it shouldn't be an issue. Make sure to purchase all relevant stat bonus nodes inside the designated glyph areas.
It's important to keep in mind that the node or glyph must state that the bonus applies to the minions, otherwise, it will not.
The Shadow skills exist to apply Slow debuffs for the minions to capitalize on. For this reason, take many nodes in the two boards that apply to minions (Cult Leader and Hulking Monstrosity) and mostly use the other boards for the extra glyphs.
Gear
Slot | Aspect/Piece |
Helm | Aspect of the Void |
Chest | Blood Getter's Aspect |
Gloves | Viscous Aspect |
Pants | Aspect of Hardened Bones |
Boots | Exploiter's Aspect |
Amulet | Unyielding Commander's Aspect |
Ring | Ring of Mendeln |
Ring | Hulking Aspect |
Main Hand | Aspect of the Frenzied Dead |
Off-Hand | Aspect of Reanimation |
With the new aspect system, gamers have a ton of freedom to take the piece of gear they find with the best stats and then add their favorite effect to it. Increasing potion efficiency helps out a bit but these aspects are game-changing. Note that some of these aspects can be swapped in and out on other pieces of gear; which piece has which aspect is not important.
Between Blood Getter's Aspect and Viscous Aspect, the gear for the Summoner Necromancer gets four more minions. When factored in with the rest of the build, it's simply too many for even the toughest world bosses to chew through.
Some gamers may find they want a bit more burst from the gear listed here than what minions provide. For a different type of Summoner Necromancer entirely, maybe think about using a smart Bone Spirit build for an explosive finish instead of this build which is designed for longer fights.
Book of the Dead
- Skeletal Skirmishers - Upgrade 1
- Shadow Mages - Upgrade 2
- Iron Golem - Upgrade 1
World Tiers can get out of control when it comes to difficulty. Thankfully, Book of the Dead is a simple way to keep pace with the escalating challenge. This build goes for damage over tanking in all three cases for the minions, favoring a rotation that can resummon fallen allies as opposed to trying to keep each one alive for as long as possible.
With the Book of the Dead organized this way, the undead friends find that the best defense is a great offense. Enemies, bosses or mobs, will die off quicker, negating the need to sacrifice damage which would need to target tanking nodes on the paragon boards and gear aspects as well. It's just not with the sacrifice for superior damage.
Death's Defense makes it so no minion can die in any fewer than four direct hits no matter how hard those hits may be. For this reason, other builds can't even consider trading minion health for damage but this build can and should when given this opportunity.
Diablo 4 is available now for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.