Diablo 4: Necromancer Build in Season 8 with Minions in Endgame – Here’s how it works

The Minion build of the Necromancer in Diablo 4 is suitable for all kinds of content. Here you can see the complete skill build, important legendary aspects, uniques, and stats for your equipment.

What kind of build is this? This is the Minion build for the Necromancer. As the name suggests, you rely on your minions – your undead companions. Your personal army of the dead accompanies you through every endgame content.

Where does the build come from? The build is based on the Minion build from maxroll.gg. There, experts take a look at the strongest builds, test everything imaginable, and keep them up to date in the guides. We have also tested the build in various variants.

Necromancer Minion Build: Gameplay

How does the build work? It’s all about:

• Loads of skeletons
• Slowing down enemies including damage mitigation
• Darkness skills
• Enormous damage to single targets

You need a spot on your skill bar for your skeletons, as you’ll need to summon and buff them from time to time – even though they rarely die nowadays. The rest you fill with the skills you use for the build, more on that shortly.

Your basic skill is “Blood Harvest”, which allows you to swing a ghostly scythe, deal damage, and simultaneously build essence. With “Blight”, you deal shadow damage over time – the same goes for your ultimate “Soul Rift”. Your skill “Corpse Tendrils” provides crowd control by pulling enemies towards you and stunning them. At the same time, they take damage, making them vulnerable.

The passive skill “Blighted Flesh” provides you with corpses needed for new skeletons and corpse tendrils, while “Grim Harvest” provides essence when you consume corpses. “Despair” and “Terror” increase your shadow damage and “Reaper’s Pursuit” enhances your movement speed – in addition to “Approach of Death”.

The build is quite easy to play and brings a lot of fun. The Necromancer casts her curses while an army of undead sweeps across the battlefield.

• You need corpses to summon skeletons.
• Your minions do a large part for you – buff them by frequently pressing the skill button.
• Pull enemies together with “Corpse Tendrils” and make them “vulnerable”.
• Use corpse explosion for massive damage.
• Use “Blight” and “Soul Rift”, infect enemies and receive a barrier through the ultimate.

It’s important that you keep your skeletons alive. This is much easier now than before, and they rarely die. Pay attention to the display of your skeletons next to the essence and consume corpses in between to buff or revive the skeletons. Keep the bar above the “Rise Skeleton” skill always green for maximum damage.

Necromancer Minion Build: Skills and Book of the Dead

Here you can find all the skills you use:

• Basic Skills
  • Improved Blood Harvest (1/5)
• Core Skills
  • Blighted Flesh (3/3)
  • Supernatural Blight (1/3)
• Corpse & Macabre Skills 1
  • Corrupted Corpse Explosion (1/5)
  • Necrotic Strength (3/3)
  • Falling Titan (3/3)
  • Spiked Armor (3/3)
  • Mastery of Skeleton Warriors (3/3)
  • Grim Harvest (1/3)
  • Powerful Death (3/3)
• Curse Skills
  • Abominable Aging (1/5)
  • Embrace of Death (3/3)
  • Enhanced Damage (3/3)
  • Approach of Death (3/3)
  • Mastery of Skeleton Warriors (3/3)
• Corpse & Macabre Skills 2
  • Corpse Tendrils (1/5)
    • sort this skill out around level 40
  • Necrotic Armor (3/3)
  • Reaper’s Pursuit (3/3)
  • Despair (3/3)
  • Terror (3/3)
• Ultimate Skills
  • Finality (3/3)
  • Mastery of Golems (3/3)
  • Supreme Soul Rift (5/5)
  • Inspirational Leader (3/3)
  • Possessed Commander (3/3)
• Central Passive Skills
  • Kalans Edict

• Skills Bar
  • Rise Skeleton
  • Blood Mist
  • Blood Harvest
  • Corpse Tendrils
  • Soul Rift
  • Blight

• Book of the Dead
  • Skeleton Warriors: Reaper (1st upgrade)
  • Skeleton Mages: Shadow (1st upgrade)
  • Golem: Blood (1st upgrade)

The specific overview of skill points for various versions of the endgame build can be found on maxroll.gg.

How to quickly level up and gather skill points, you can find out in our guide:

More on the topic

Diablo 4: Leveling Quickly in Season 8 – Leveling Guide up to Level 60

von Maik Schneider

Necromancer Minion Build: Legendaries

Here you can find all the important aspects for the build that become especially important in endgame:

• 2H Scythe
  • Aspect of the Damned
    • higher damage to cursed enemies
    • Source: Looting/ Dungeon: Uldur’s Cave in Kehjistan
• Amulet
  • Aspect of Reanimation
  • Minions receive increased damage as long as they are alive
  • Source: Looting/ Dungeon: Aldur’s Grove in Scosglen
• Ring 1
  • Aspect of the Grand Feast
  • Minions deal increased damage
  • Source: Looting
• Ring 2
  • Aspect of Raging Death
  • Minions receive increased attack speed when dealing damage
  • Source: Looting
• Headgear
  • Aphotic Aspect
  • Skeleton Priests enhance attacks of Skeleton Warriors with shadow damage
  • Source: Looting
• Chest Armor
  • Bloodthirsty Aspect
  • Skeleton Priests enhance you effectively
  • Source: Looting
• Gloves
  • Aspect of Grasping Veins
  • higher critical hit chance when you use Corpse Tendrils
  • Source: Looting/ Dungeon: Corrupted Cave in Kehjistan
• Leg Armor
  • Aspect of Hardened Bones
  • increased damage reduction
  • Source: Looting
• Boots
  • Aspect of Occult Dominion
  • your maximum number of Skeleton Warriors and Skeleton Mages increases by 2
  • Source: Looting

With our interactive map you can find all dungeons.

More important information:

When switching to the endgame build, you probably won’t have all the aspects for your items yet. To increase the most important defensive value of the armor, you can use the “Aspect of Disobedience” which you can find in the Halls of the Damned in Kehjistan. This increases your armor when you deal damage.

Here you can see a trailer for the Necromancer in Diablo 4:

Necromancer Minion Build: Affixes, Runes & Gems

Important affixes on your gear:

• 2H Scythe
  • Maximum Life
  • Critical Damage
  • Intelligence
  • Harden: Damage Skeleton Mage, chance that attacks from the Skeleton Mage hit twice
• Amulet
  • Ranks on Possessed Commander
  • Attack Speed
  • Intelligence
  • Harden: Cooldown reduction Ultimate, Damage Skeleton Mage
• Rings
  • Critical Chance/Critical Damage
  • Intelligence
  • Attack Speed
  • Harden: Cooldown reduction Ultimate, Damage Skeleton Mage
• Headgear
  • Maximum Life
  • Cooldown Reduction
  • Intelligence
  • Harden: Maximum Armor, Duration of Soul Rift
• Chest Armor
  • Maximum Life
  • Essence per second
  • Intelligence
  • Harden: Duration of Soul Rift, chance that your minions steal from you
• Gloves
  • Critical Chance
  • Attack Speed
  • Ranks for Skeleton Mastery
  • Harden: Size of Corpse Tendrils, Damage Skeleton Mage
• Leg Armor
  • Intelligence
  • Max Life
  • Ranks for Skeleton Mastery
  • Harden: Chance your minions will steal from you, Size of Blight
• Boots
  • Movement Speed
  • Essence per second
  • Intelligence
  • Harden: Movement Speed, Size of Corpse Tendrils

Tip: Use the hardening from the start as soon as you have a few of the necessary mats. Hardening costs you no gold and grants your items two additional affixes.

You can learn more about the crafting systems hardening and completion here.

These runes are suitable:

• NaguOhm: Damage multiplier of 15%, when you have minions
• TamWat: Cast Aging when you use Blight

Good alternatives:

• Moni: Collect offerings when you use mobility or macabre skills
• Xal: Increased maximum life
• Que: Calls Earthly Bastion of the Druid, grants a barrier
• Zec: Reduces the cooldown of your ultimate

An overview of all runes in Diablo 4 can be found here.

Recommendation for your gem distribution:

• Weapon: Emerald (+ critical hit damage)
• Armor: Topaz (+ Intelligence)
• Jewelry: Skull (+ Armor) or Diamond (+ Resistance to all damage types)

Necromancer Build with Minions: Mercenaries and Boss Powers

Recommendation for Mercenaries: Subo reveals all enemies and mats in an area. He also places shock traps, adds damage to enemies, increases your movement speed, and your critical hit damage. Raheir increases your defense and takes damage that you would receive.

• Hired: Subo
  • Skill Tree: Wire Trap, at hand, cover fire, fire at will

• Reinforcement: Raheir
  • Skill: Bastion, Opportunity: Blight

Recommendation for Boss Powers in Season 8:

• Ashava’s Gift
• Modifiers: Lesson of the Beastmaster, Eye of the Outlaw Sniper, Disruption of the Flesh Cutter

What’s next in the endgame? Basically, you can keep playing the build continuously. In the endgame, however, you sacrifice your Golem and use the bone prison instead. An overview of skill points for various versions of the endgame build can be found on maxroll.gg.

As a Unique, after switching, the Mendel’s Ring is recommended. If you get the coveted Mythic Uniques, you should replace your gear. The following are worthwhile:

• Legacy of Damnation (Headgear)
• Shroud of False Death (Chest Armor)

From level 60, the Paragon board is added to your skills. You need the following boards and glyphs:

• Starting board, Glyph: Gravekeeper
• 2nd board: Kultan Leader, Glyph: Dead Raiser
• 3rd board: Flesh Eater, Glyph: Amplify
• 4th board: Fragility, Glyph: Essence
• 5th board: Blood Demands Blood, Glyph: Extinguisher

This was a Minion build that takes you to the endgame and can be played in the endgame with small adjustments. A tier list of the best builds in Season 8 of Diablo 4 can be found here – including explanations of what makes the builds so strong and links to recreate: The best builds in Diablo 4: Tier List for Season 8