Necromancer’s minion builds have been somewhat weak and underwhelming, thanks to nerfs over the beta periods. However, with the minions getting buffs since the launch of Diablo 4, it is becoming apparent that Minions are in a solid spot, with players now able to make some solid Summoner / Minion Necromancer Builds for Diablo 4. On this page, we are doing just that, showing you the build we recommend for the end game using Blood Magic to enhance the play style.

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Here is a look into an end-game Necromancer Minion Build. Image via Blizzard Entertainment.

Summoner / Minion Necromancer Build For Diablo 4¶

Note, this build presumes you are level 50, have all 58 Skill Points, and have two uniques. Remember that one Unique, Deathspeaker’s Pendant, is a core item to this playstyle, as you will spread so much skill damage out of all your frontline minions.

• Basic Skill: Hemorrhage > Enhanced > Initiate’s Hemorrhage
• Core Skill: Blood Surge x5 > Enhanced > Paranormal
• Skill 1: Raise Skeleton
• Skill 2: Raise Golem
• Skill 3: Blood Mist > Enhanced > Dreadful Blood Mist
• Skill 4: Army of the Dead
• Capstone: Rathma’s Vigor

The general idea is that your Blood Skills are going to be your primary method of remaining Healthy, which is an important part of your damage additive scalings for both your casts and your Minions. Therefore, you want to have the Fortify generation from Hemorrhage, followed by those scaling Overpower hits from Blood Surge. Your Blood Mist is also a great defensive skill, as it allows you to move with your undead ball, and still keep up your Healthy, Fortify Buffs and generate more Fortify, and keep you in Close Range so your minions benefit from the Hellbent Commander passives in the ultimate tree.

In addition, your Capstone allows you to keep your Overpower active on your Blood Skills, allowing you to cast Blood Surge and get that Overpower boost easily. When you get the Deathspeaker’s Pendant, which allows your minions to cast the Blood Surge explosion for a fraction of its damage, it means all your minions do Overpower explosions from Blood Surge. When a death ball of minions swarms a target, it greatly boosts Overpower procs and damage, which shall also synergize with the Minion damage buffs for even more damage scaling from those additional explosions.

Book of the Dead options for Necromancer Minion Build in Diablo 4¶

• Book of the Dead - Skeletons: You can raise an additional Skirmisher Warrior
• Book of the Dead - Mages: Either Shadow Mages fire an additional Shadow Bolt every 5 attacks, or Cold Mages Frozen Vulnerability option.
• Book of the Dead - Golem: Either Iron Golem’s Vulnerability Slam, for Boss Vuln application or Iron Golem’s 5th attack shockwave perk.

You want these because the additional minion from Warriors helps grant even more minions to proc Deathspeakers off, along with more minions to grant attack speed bonuses, healthy bones, and Fortify bonuses as part of your build spread.

As for Mage, the Cold option allows for easy Pack Vuln spread, while the Shadow one makes it even better damage boosts from your Mages, which is very good for bossing. Both are acceptable and can be based on your preference.

Meanwhile, the Iron Golem has better options. The reason why is because this build does not spread Vuln, so, having your Golem spread it to bosses, elite, and large packs is very much needed. You can take the other option for Shockwave if your Cold Mages spread Vuln for you.

Either way, you need something to spread Vuln, as that is a major source of multiplicative damage scallions, as it counts as its damage bucket, enhancing DPS by at least 20%

Skill Tree Passives¶

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Blood Surge is an important skill for your Fortify, Overpower, and minion buffs via other key parts of the build passives and gearing. Image via Blizzard Entertainment.

Below is a list of passives starting from the top of the tree, working all the way down of to the Ultimate tree. This lists all the ones you want to take, and how many points in each one. You can swap some of the points as you like, such as lowering the Corpse Fortify for an extra point in your Priest or capped minion damage. But, most of these are not up for discussion, as they are core parts of your Summoner / Minion Necromancer Build For Diablo 4, featuring Spirit generation, damage scalings, and other crucial build factors.

• Core Skill Passive: Hewed Flesh x3 - Lucky Hit: Your damage has up to a 12% chance to create a Corpse at the target’s location.
• Macabre Passive 1: Skeletal Warrior Mastery x3 - Increase the damage and Life of your Skeletal Warriors by 45%
• Macabre Passive 2: Grim Harvest x3 - Consuming a Corpse grants 6 Essence
• Macabre Passive 3: Fueled By Death x3 - You deal 9% increased damage for 6 seconds after consuming a Corpse.
• Curse Passive Skill 1: Death’s Embrace x3 - Close enemies take 6% more damage from you and deal 9% less damage to you.
• Curse Passive Skill 2: Skeletal Mage Mastery x3 - Increase the damage and Life of your Skeletal Mages by 60%.
• Summoning Passive 1: Necrotic Carapace x1 - When a Corpse is formed from your Skills or your Minions, Fortify for 2% Base Life.
• Summoning Passive 2: Gruesome Mending x1 - While below 50% Life, you receive 10% more Healing.
• Summoning Passive 3: Coalesced Blood x3 - While Healthy, your Blood Skills deal 18% increased damage.
• Summoning Passive 4: Drain Vitality x3 - Lucky Hit: Hitting enemies with Blood skills has up to a 25% chance to Fortify you for 7.5% Base Life.
• Summoning Passive 5: Tides of Blood x3 - Your Blood Skills deal 15% increased Overpower damage. This bonus is doubled while you are Healthy.
• Ultimate Passive 1: Golem Mastery x3 - Increase the damage and Life of your Golem by 75%.
• Ultimate Passive 2: Inspiring Leader x3 - After you have been Healthy for at least 4 seconds, you and your minions get 12% increased Attack Speed.
• Ultimate Passive 3: Hellbent Commander x3 - Your Minions deal 30% increased damage while you are Close to them.
• Ultimate Passive 4: Bonded in Essence x1 - Every 5 seconds, your Skeletal Priest’s healing will heal your Skeletons for an additional 20% of their Maximum Life.
• Ultimate Passive 5: Death’s Defense x2 - Your Minions cannot lose more than 50% of their Maximum Life from a single damage instance.

Summoner / Minion Necromancer Build For Diablo 4: Legendary Aspects & Unique Items¶

As for the Uniques, there are two items you want to collect for this Summoner / Minion Necromancer Build For Diablo 4. These are:

Deathspeaker’s Pendant: Blood Surge casts a mini Nova on your Minions, dealing damage. Damage is increased by 10% per target drained by the initial cast, up to 50%. The amulet also comes with Blood Skill damage, Summoning Skill damage, Overpower damage, and ranks to Coalesced Blood passive. This should bring your Coalesced Blood to 32% damage to Blood Skills, which is very strong, not to mention the Unique aspect attached to it.

You also want Ring of Mendeln, which grants: While you have 7 or more Minions, you gain: Lucky Hit - Up to a 105 chance to empower all of your Minions, causing the next attack from each to explode, dealing physical damage. It also comes with Lucky Hit chance, minion attack speed, minion life increase, and Thorns. Overall, this allows it to scale with your minion attack speed passive, and grant better Lucky Hit for corpse generation, more Fortify, and other parts of your passive.

As for Aspect and random drop Legendaries, here is a list of great Legendaries you want. Feel free to mix and match as necessary, thanks to drop rates, low roles, and other factors coming into play.

• Aspect of Frenzied Dead - Each time one of your Summoning Minions damages an enemy, they gain Attack Speed for 3 seconds, up to a set amount of attack speed.
• Unyielding Commander’s Aspect - While Army of the Dead is active, your Minions get Attack Speed and take 90% reduced damage.
• Aspect of Hardened Bones - While you have 7 Minions, your Minions gain increased damage reduction.
• Requiem Aspect: You gain a Maximum Essence increase per active minion. This means you get between 24-35 max spirit depending on the role, which can stockpile an extra Blood Surge if you roll it above 30.
• Blood-bathed Aspect - Blood Surge’s Nova echoes again after a short delay, dealing less damage than the original cast.
• Fastblood Aspect - Blood Orbs reduce your Ultimate Cooldown by 0.5-1 seconds.
• Aspect of Potent Blood - While at Full Health, Blood Orbs grant 10-20 Essence.
• Hulking Aspect - Golem has the chance to reduce its active skill by 2 seconds, and a chance to spawn Corpses on its normal attack.
• Aspect of Might - Reduce damage taken by 20% when using Basic Skill for several seconds.

1. Read more: Necromancer Unique Items & Unique Weapons

Paragon Board and Glyphs¶

At a minimum, you want to get these four boards for your Paragon Board, simply for their legendary effects:

• Cult Leader: Minions deal 15% increased damage for each Minion type. This only applies to Mage, Golem, and Warriors.
• Hulking Monstrosity: Your Golem has 40% increased Life and damage.
• Blood Begets Blood: Blood Orbs grant 5% increased damage, up to a cap for 3 seconds.
• Bloodbath: Attacks that guaranteed to Overpower deal 50% increased Overpower damage.

As for Glyphs, you want to use:

• Exploit: Additional bonus grants the ability to spread Vuln for 3 seconds on the first hit. This effect cannot occur again for 20 seconds on the target. - Place this on your starter board as it has easy access to the needed Dexterity.
• Dominate: For every 5 Willpower, increases Overpower Damage. Additional Bonus grants Minion increased damage to Overpowered enemies by 12% for 5 seconds. Hulking Monstrosity Board.
• Corporeal: Paragon Nodes in range grant bonus to their Physical damage and damage reduction modifiers, and bonus grants 10% increased physical damage to minions - AKA your Warrior and Golem. Cult Leader Board
• Blood Drinker: Grants bonus to magic nodes within range. Additional bonus grants Fortify when you consume Blood Orbs. Blood Begets Blood Board, for the Overpower damage bonuses.
• Versatility: Grants bonus to magic nodes within range. Additional bonus grants 15% increased damage not non-basic and core skills, aka, your minions and your ultimate damage. Blood Bath board.

If you make it to the 6th Board, then we recommend using the non-physical damage minion Glyph and placing it on the final board, whichever one you choose.

This concludes our Summoner / Minion Necromancer Build For Diablo 4. Good luck empowering your minions, unleashing very fast attacks, tanknyess, and blood explosions for all bosses and mobs alike!