In Season 4 of Diablo 4, the Necromancer takes the top spot on the tier list – and this with a build that was previously considered one of the weakest.
- With Season 4, numerous changes are coming to Diablo 4. The loot system is being completely overhauled, the Hell floods will become more threatening and will already be available at World Tier 1, and the class balancing is also being adjusted.
- This particularly benefits the Necromancer – and one of his once weakest builds is taking the top spot on the tier list.
- Before the release of Diablo 4, minion builds were quite strong in a beta. Experts even said that Necromancers were overpowered. In one of the subsequent betas, the build was nerfed – and since then, minion builds for the Necromancer have been at the bottom.
Why is the Necromancer now the best class? For Season 4, the classes have been reworked and adjusted. The patch notes suggest that the survivability of the minions has massively increased. They will be more resilient and deal decent damage while doing so.
This results in a strong build where Necromancers rely on their minions and lead an army of the undead. And the best part? You can play the build for leveling and then adjust it for the endgame. Necromancers are currently top tier in everything.
Minion build suitable for leveling and endgame
What kind of build is this? It is the minion build for the Necromancer. As the name suggests, you focus on your minions – your undead companions. Your personal army of the dead accompanies you through the leveling process as well as through all endgame content. It doesn’t matter whether you are fighting with them through “The Pit” or nightmare dungeons.
You will use the following skills in the minion build:
- Army of the Dead: This calls forth an army of the dead that explodes near enemies and deals massive damage.
- Blood Wave: You drain blood from your enemies and deal damage to them.
- Corpse Vines: Vines erupt from a corpse, briefly stunning enemies and dealing damage to them.
- Withering: You curse the target area; affected enemies are slowed down and deal less damage.
- Golem: From level 25, you can choose a golem with the class mechanic, “Book of the Dead,” which protects you with its life and attacks enemies.
- Summon Skeletons: With your class mechanic, you summon skeletal warriors and skeletal mages to assist you in battle.
Once you want to switch to the endgame build, starting roughly from level 50, you use the skill Bone Prison instead of Blood Wave. With Bone Prison, you trap your opponents in bones, gathering them in one spot and blocking them.
- to the English build guide on maxroll.gg (leveling)
- to the English build guide on maxroll.gg (endgame)
What makes the build so strong? The minion build has the advantage that your undead take over a large part of the fights for you, allowing you to focus on boosting them with skills. At the same time, you use crowd control skills to slow down and trap your enemies. The corpse vines also spawn blood orbs that you can collect for healing. In short:
- The build is easy to play and strong defensively.
- You have good CC skills.
- Your minions take over a large part of the fights.
- You can easily change the leveling build to the endgame build.
Skills are stronger and clearer
What changes make the build so strong in Season 4? The update for Season 4 brings many buffs for the Necromancer’s minions. The patch notes go into detail about the changes, indicating that practically everything related to minions has been improved.
Previously, the buffs often depended on various effects, similar to the affixes on weapons. This specifically means that you only received a buff if you were “healthy” for X seconds or had a certain number of companions. And then only with a small chance. Some joke about this with affixes as “The ultimate ‘damage on Tuesday’ bonus.”
Some changes from the patch notes:
- The appearance rate of unpredictable skeletons has been increased by 50% with the skill “Army of the Dead”.
- Previously, companions received a buff to their attack speed with “Inspiring Leader” when the player was “healthy” for 2 seconds. Now both you AND your companions receive an increased critical strike chance as soon as you are “healthy”.
- With the skill “Kalans Edict,” you now receive 3% attack speed per active companion.
- Skeletal warriors now run ahead of the Necromancer more often and can start combat there.
- You deal 3% more damage with the first upgrade for each active shadow mage. Previously, shadow mages had a chance to stun enemies – but the same could not happen more than once every 5 seconds.
- The second upgrade of the defenders (skeletal warriors) no longer increases the thorns inherited from the player, but defense now reduces the damage taken by 99%.
- You can now activate your golem when you are out of control. Additionally, you become unstoppable upon activation.
At the start of Season 4, the Necromancer holds three builds at the top of the tier list. For the minion build, there is also an alternative that focuses on shadow damage over time. But the Druid is also represented with a build in the S-tier. In our tier list, you will find the strongest builds for all classes in the endgame for Season 4 of Diablo 4. We also explain what makes the strong builds so effective and what makes them so good.
