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 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.
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 |
|
Iron Golem |
2 |
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, 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, 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, especially when using Iron Golem's active skill that makes all enemies hit Vulnerable.
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Passive Skills
|
Skill |
Points |
|
Hewed Flesh |
3 |
|
Unliving Energy |
1 |
|
Imperfectly Balanced |
3 |
|
Skeleton Warrior Mastery |
3 |
|
Grim Harvest |
1 |
|
Fueled by Death |
3 |
|
Death's Reach |
3 |
|
Skeletal Mage Mastery |
3 |
|
Reaper's Pursuit |
1 |
|
Gloom |
3 |
|
Terror |
3 |
|
Golem Mastery |
3 |
|
Bonded in Essence |
3 |
|
Inspiring Leader |
3 |
|
Death's Defense |
3 |
|
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 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 won't be in close-range combat for most of the time with this build, Death's Reach is preferred over Death's Embrace. Imperfectly Balanced will 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.
Gear and Aspects
|
Offense |
Defense |
Utility |
|
Blighted |
Disobedience |
Blood Getter |
|
Reanimation |
Might |
Viscous |
|
Frenzied Dead |
Shielding Storm |
|
|
Ultimate Shadow |
||
|
Decay |
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.
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, 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.
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.