The undead hordes of Necromancers inDiablo 4can 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.
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There are a number of ways to make minion builds viable inDiablo 4’sendgame, 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 October 19 by Marc Santos:Patch 1.2.0. for Diablo 4 brought considerable buffs to the Necromancer’s minions. This guide has been updated to reflect those changes.
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Book of the Dead
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Iron Golem
The build relies on Shadow damage with the Shadowblight Key Passive and other related passives to boost minions' damage.
Reapers are great for builds thatdon’t rely on critical hits, and they help generate more Corpses for players to use. Meanwhile, Shadow Mages can apply Shadowblight, making them the perfect choice here. Iron Golem is preferred for the AOE stun and Vulnerable application.
As for abilities,Blightwill be the Core Skill for its ability to slow targets and buff the damage of minions.Acolyte’s Reapis the preferred Basic Skill here for its ability to generate more Corpses while dealing Shadow damage.
Blighted Corpse Explosionis 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 Stormis 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, especially when using Iron Golem’s active skill that makes all enemies hitVulnerable.
Shadowblight
Keystone
All the passives here cater to minions, Darkness damage, and survivability. Take all minion mastery nodes (except Hellbent Commander) as well as the Shadow passives in the second Corpse & Macabre tree for maximum effectiveness.
Hewed Fleshcan 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 won’t bein close-range combatfor most of the time with this build, Death’s Reach is preferred over Death’s Embrace.Imperfectly Balancedwill fill in for the damage that Death’s Embrace would otherwise provide.
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.
Ultimate Shadow
Decay
GrabViscousandBlood Getterfor more skeletons, and Reanimation and Frenzied Dead to boost their DPS. Then, find an item with theUltimate ShadowAspect to turn Bone Storm into aDarknessskill. Cap the offensive side of this build-off with theBlightedAspect to gain short periods of increased damage after Shadowblight is triggered ten times.
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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. As of Patch 1.2.0, Shadowblight now scales with the player’s Shadow Damage Over Time modifier, making this stat more valuable for this build.
No Uniques are required for this build, thoughRing of Mendelncan 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.
Paragon Boards
Cult Leaderis 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 Monstrosityonly 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 4is available now for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
