Minion or pet builds for the necromancer in Diablo 4 are considered weak. MeinMMO editor Maik didn’t want to let that sit and spent dozens of hours working on a strong minion build in his notebook.
I was so excited before the release: I breezed through the campaign on world level 2 without any problems with my necromancer during the preview session and felt like I could tear apart everything with the minion build.
Wrong. After the release, I tried the Bone Spear build and first noticed how much more powerful this playstyle is. Not to mention all the reports about how bad minion builds are. That really bothered me.
I played the Bone Spear until about level 70, but took every free minute I had in the game to work on my minion build. I might have taken it a bit too far: At level 88, I now have over 250 hours clocked.
But I can recommend you a minion build for the necromancer that is fun, stops and weakens enemies, and where the minions actually play an important role. More strong builds can be found in our tier list:
What kind of build is this? You will find the complete skill tree, all aspects, and gear values here:
Here you can find 5 minutes of dungeon gameplay from my fiancée and me. Together with a penetration-shoot hunter, co-op really kicks off:
Basically, the build is similar to the strong “Infinimist” build. You fully rely on shadow damage over time and poison the battlefield with your corpse explosions.
Your minions act as both tanks and supporters. The minions distract enemies and keep them off your back. Additionally, they create corpses in parts of the battlefield that are not yet affected by the swelling miasma of corpse explosions.
Really annoying for your enemies in this build is the interaction between the active skill “Corpse Vines” and the central passive skill “Shadow Plague”. Because normally, damage over time effects don’t hit critically – with “Shadow Plague” that’s different, this effect can hit critically.
“Corpse Vines” make enemies vulnerable, pull them together at one point, and through the “Aspect of Grasping Veins” you boost your critical hits. The curse “Decay” also ensures that the cooldown of “Corpse Vines” is so low that you can use the skill repeatedly.
- Rotation
- A corpse for the start is necessary
- Pull enemies together with “Corpse Vines” and make them “vulnerable”
- Let the vine-corpse explode with “Corpse Explosion”
- Cast curses “Decay” and “Iron Maiden”
- Buff/heal skeletons with a corpse
- Hold down the button for “Corpse Explosion”
- Escape with “Blood Mist” when in danger
So far, I have been able to complete nightmare dungeons that were 20 levels above my level. However, I still lack important gear pieces because I started collecting so late. Really annoying: I don’t even have the unique Mendeln’s Ring.
Where are the issues? Solo, I have problems with dungeons that are very tight. The more space you have, the better the area damage can unfold. Also, “unstoppable” enemies can be annoying.
In co-op mode, you are rarely in danger because you can keep a comforting distance from the fight.
I also think that I can rely less on cooldown reduction since the curse “Decay” already significantly reduces cooldowns.
If you have comments or questions, just drop them in the comments. More strong necromancer builds can be found here: Diablo 4: The 3 Best Builds for the Necromancer at a Glance
