Introduction
Welcome to our Minion Necromancer Guide! Learn how to utilize Skeletal Mages, Warriors, and the Golem to take down any content in Diablo 4 with our Minion Necromancer Build
Pros
- Great Boss and Single Target Damage
- Great Necro Survivability
- Fulfills Necromancer fantasy.
Cons
- Minion Scaling is confusing
- Minion Survivability is challenging to maintain at high levels without perfect gear and complete paragon
- Requires Unique Ring (Ring of Mendeln)
Minion Scaling
One of the most confusing things about a Minion build is their Offensive and Defensive Scaling. Minions essentially receive 30% of ALL of the Necromancers Stats and Active Buffs. On top of this, your minions receive 100% of any Bonus that mentions minions directly (such as + % Maximum Minion Life).
Minions also benefit from Vulnerable damage at 100%.
Skill Tree and Paragon Board
Paragon Board Order
Starter > Cult Leader > Scent of Death > Blood Bath > Wither > Hulking Monstrosity
Glyph Leveling Priority
- Control
- Dead Raiser
- Mage
- Warrior
- Golem
Class Mechanic (Book of the Dead)
For our Minion Necromancer Build, we’ll choose the following options:
- Skeletal Warrior (Reaper) – Reaper Attacks against enemies who are immobilized, Slowed, Stunned, or Vulnerable reduce the cooldown of their powerful wind-up attack by 2 seconds.
- Skeletal Mages (Shadow) – Shadow Mages fire an additional shadow bolt every 4th attack
- Golem (Blood) – While Healthy, Blood Golem gets 25% damage reduction and 50% increased damage.
Legendary Aspects
Below is a list of Aspects we use and recommend for this build. The Aspects are in order starting from the most to least important.
Build Defining
- Blighted Aspect – You deal X% increased damage for X seconds after the Shadowblight Key Passive
- Viscous Aspect – Your maximum number of Skeletal Mages is increased by 2
- Blood Getter’s Aspect – Your maximum number of Skeletal Warriors is increased by 2
- Grasping Veins – Gain X%+ increased Critical Strike Chance for X seconds when you cast Corpse Tendrils. You deal X% bonus Critical Strike Damage to enemies damaged by Corpse Tendrils
Recommended
- Frenzied Dead – Each time one of your Summoning Minions damages an enemy, they gain X% Attack Speed for X seconds, up to X%
- Aspect of Decay – Each time the Shadowblight Key Passive deals damage to enemies, it increases the next Shadowblight’s damage within X seconds by X%, stacking up to X times
- Aspect of Hardened Bones – While you have 7.0 or more Minions, Your Minions gain 15-20% increased Damage Reduction
- Aspect of Disobedience – You gain X% increased Armor for X seconds when you deal any form of damage, stacking up to X%
Optional
If you’re having trouble finding one of the Unique Items, you can fill in the slots with one of the following Legendary Affixes
- Aspect of Explosive Mist (Boots)- Blood Mist triggers Corpse Explosion on surrounding Corpses. When Blood Mist detonates a Corpse, its Cooldown is reduced by X seconds
- Blood Soaked Aspect (ring) – Blood Mist leaves a trail that lasts for X seconds and deals X Shadow damage per second to enemies who stand in it. Your Movement Speed is no longer reduced while Blood Mist is active
Aspect Slots
Here is a reminder of the slot limitations for Legendary Aspects:
- Offensive – Amulets, Gloves, Ring, Weapons, Off-Hands
- Defensive – Amulets, Chest, Helm, Legs, Shield
- Mobility – Amulets, Boots
- Resource – Rings
- Utility – Amulets, Boots, Chest, Gloves, Helm, Shield
UNIQUES
Ring of Mendeln Procs deals massive amounts of damage. Coupled with the Shadowblight Passive and Blighted Aspect, you’ll be clearing content at an alarming rate. This ring makes minion damage viable and is difficult to replace when it comes to Minion DPS.
Build Defining
Recommended
Greaves of the Empty Tomb provides lucky hit procs from the Unique Trait “Desecrated Ground” and provides DR to Enemies that are affected by Shadow Damage. In patch 1.1.1, they will gain +movement speed, making them a MUST have for any Sever Build.
Season 1: Malignant Hearts
Malignant Hearts, a new addition to Diablo 4 through the first Seasonal experience, boosts your build capabilities. As a result, we recommend using the following Malignant Hearts for this build:
Recommended
- The Barber (Wrathful, Super-World Tier III): Critical Strikes and all subsequent damage within 2.0-4.0 seconds is absorbed by your target. Then, the absorbed damage erupts onto surrounding enemies. Stored damage is increased by 10% per second.
- The Sacrilegious (Vicious, Offensive): Walking near a Corpse automatically activates an equipped Corpse Skill every second, dealing 40-30% reduced damage.
- Revenge (Brutal, Defensive-World Tier III): 10-20% of incoming damage is instead suppressed. When you use a Defensive, Subterfuge or a Macabre skill, all suppressed damage is amplified by 250% and explodes, dealing up to 1360-2040 Fire damage to nearby enemies.
Alternative Choices
- The Malignant Pact (Wrathful, Super): Cycle through a Malignant bonus every 20 kills:
- Vicious: Gain 20% Attack Speed.
- Devious: Core and Basic Skills have a 15% chance to fully restore your Primary Resource.
- Brutal: Every 21 seconds, gain a Barrier absorbing 85-102 damage.
- The Picana (Vicious, Offensive): Critical Strikes electrically charge the enemy for 0.75-2.50 seconds, causing lightning to arc between them and any other charged enemies dealing 68-136 Lightning damage.
Item Affix Priority
| Item | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Helm | Total Armor | Maximum Life | Cooldown Reduction | Crown Control Duration | Intelligence |
| Chest | Total Armor | Maximum Life | Damage Reduction from Enemies by Shadow Damage | Maximum Minion Life | Damage Reduction against Close Enemies |
| Glove | Lucky Hit Chance | Attack Speed | Critical Chance | Intelligence | Critical Strike Chance against Injured Enemies |
| Pants | Total Armor | Maximum Life | Damage Reduction from Enemies by Shadow Damage | Maximum Minion Life | Damage Reduction against Close Enemies |
| Boots or Greaves of the Empty Tomb | Movement Speed | +xx Ranks to Corpse Tendrils | Intelligence | All Stats | Movement Speed After Killing an Elite |
| Amulet | Movement Speed | Minion Attack Speed | Ranks of the Hellbent Commander Passive | Deaths Defense | + X% Cooldown Reduction |
| Ring x 2 or Ring of Mendelin | Vulnerable Damage | Critical Strike Damage | Lucky Hit Chance | Crit Chance | + Maximum Life |
| Weapon 1H | Vulnerable Damage | Critical Strike Damage | Intelligence | Core Skill Damage | Damage to Affected by Shadow Damage |
| Shield | + Maximum Life | + Lucky HIt Chance | Minion Attack Speed | + % Maximum Minion Life | + X% Cooldown Reduction |
How To Play Build Name
The Minion Necromancer focuses on building around minions and dealing damage at range with sever. With the Shadowblight passive and Sever. Below is a more detailed breakdown of the build’s offensive and defensive strategies.
Offense
Since our minions will be doing most of our damage, it’s important to build around dealing damage at range and grouping up mobs for our minions to easily deal damage. Cast Sever at range and allow minions to deal damage until the first available corpse is available. Use Corpse Tendrils to group up monsters for your minions to take down, casting Corpse Explosion to set Shadow DOTs on all Targets. Once you’re at 10 Stacks of Shadowblight, Cast Sever until the back is dead.
The Minion Necromancer EXCELS at boss damage. Cast Sever on the boss to aggro minions. If it lives till 10 stacks of Shadowblight, cast sever until you’re Out of Essence! Rinse and Repeat if needed.
Defense
The Defense of the build is centered around staying at range, keeping mobs CC’d with Corpse Tendrils, and using blood mist to get out of bad CC situations. Keeping our minions alive is also important for survival and can be challenging at a high level. We have stacked a ton of Max Health, Armor, DR from enemies effected by Shadow DOTS, and % Maximum Minion Life to ensure their survival. Make Sure to Utilize the Blood Golems active ability when available to keep his health in the “healthy” status.
If our minions do die, The Sacrilegious Heart (Season 1) will help us keep our minions up passively, while allowing us to continue controlling mobs with Corpse Tendrils.
Conclusion
That Concludes our Minion Necromancer Guide. For more Necromancer builds, check out our Bone Spear and Blood Necromancer Builds