Diablo 4 Season 5 will be officially released on August 6, 2024, and players may need to return to the fiery depths and fight Uber Bosses again. If you are preparing for the new season and trying to defeat Lilith as soon as possible when entering the endgame, there are many ways to build your character to achieve this goal.
Of all the classes, Necromancer allows players to build an Army of the Dead and use dark magic to fight hordes of enemies.
There are many ways to build a Necromancer, but building around the many Blight Golem Minions you can spawn and control can make for a pretty interesting experience. Whether you are trying Minions Necromancer for the first time or you are a seasoned veteran, following this build guide will make your Necromancer a successful boss-shredding killer.
Skill Tree
With all the options in Necromancer skill tree, some specific skills are best suited for you if you want to build an Army of the Dead.
In the first branch of options, the base skills offered by the skill tree, both Reap and Bone Splinters, are available. Enhanced Reap is usually the first choice for this type of build. Just invest one skill point into whichever skill you choose, and invest another skill point into the improvements.
Saving skill points for more powerful skills later is key to using this build to its full potential, especially since minions are so strong in the early stages of the game.
Once the core skills are unlocked, you can choose either Sever or Blight and only invest one skill point into either. Sever is strong against physical attackers, and the additional skill Paranormal Sever allows a third cast to make enemies Vulnerable. Blight is also strong as a ranged magic option, as the addition of Supernatural Blight allows your Minions to deal a lot of extra damage to Blighted targets.
If you can’t decide between the two, the bonus to minions damage from Supernatural Blight is usually the stronger choice. But be aware that abusing this ability will cause your Essence to disappear quickly, so use it with caution.
As for Corpse and Macabre skills, you just need to focus on improving the buffs they bring to your build.
Skeletal Warrior Mastery will only make your Warrior Minions more powerful, while Grim Harvest and Fueled By Death will make future synergies even more powerful. Feel free to invest as many skill points into your Harvest skills as you want, but make sure to fully upgrade Warrior Mastery.
Next, unlocking Curse Skills will give you the newest key ability: Decrepify. It slows down enemies and reduces their damage output for 10 seconds, but its Essence cost is a negligible 10.
When you max out a Curse Skill, you have a chance to gain Abhorrent Decrepify skill, which gives you a chance to reduce the cooldown of all your skills when hitting a cursed enemy. In the same branch, max out Skeletal Mage Mastery for the same reasons as Warrior Mastery.
The second branch of Corpse and Macabre skills offers Corpse Tendrils, an excellent Crowd Control ability that doesn’t consume any corpses. Invest a skill point in it and unlock Plague Corpse Tendrils to add some Vulnerable effects to your enemies. Then, max out Necrotic Carapace skill to increase your overall tankiness.
Last but not least are Ultimate Skills and Key Passives. Army of the Dead is what we desperately need, so max it out. Then max out Golem Mastery, Inspiring Leader, and Hellbent Commander to increase the power of your Minions.
Of course, you can also get Kalan’s Edict Key Passive to increase the attack speed of all your Minions. After that, you just fill out the rest of the skills to your liking to complete your skill tree.
Uber Unique Items
In addition, there are Uber Unique items that players can rarely get. Many of these Diablo 4 items are applicable to almost any gear, but Harlequin Crest Unique Helm is particularly useful for Minions gear, significantly reducing damage and improving skills.
Other good choices include Ring of Sacrilegious Soul, which automatically uses powerful Corpse skills for you without consuming Essence.
Book Of The Dead
For Necromancer, Book of the Dead is how you customize the damage output of your Minions, from Shadow to Ice or Blood damage, and it’s broken down into three sections that connect to different types of Minions: Warriors, Mages, and Golems.
Each Minion then gets to choose a damage type from three choices, and then one of three effects from each choice. For this specific Blight Golem Minions Necromancer build, the best choices are:
- Reaper Warriors with the second effect: 15% chance to form a corpse when attacking.
- Shadow Mages with the first effect: 3% more damage per Shadow Mages.
- Blood Golems with the second effect: Shared healing and more damage reduction.
Of course, there are other good choices, including Cold damage for Mages, and Iron Golems for stuns.
Paragon Board
Once you’ve completed your Skill Tree, the only thing left to focus on and customize, aside from your inventory, is how to use your Paragon Board. Understanding how to allocate your Paragon Points wisely is the best way to improve your build after level 50.
The way to incorporate Paragon Board is through the different types of Skill Trees, and the best glyphs are centered on enhancing your Golem or all of your Minions. In short, look for glyphs that benefit your Willpower, Intelligence, and Maximum Life.
Legendary Aspects
Finally, we’ll look at which Aspects are best for Minions Necromancer builds. In Diablo 4, Weapons, Armor, and Shields all have a chance to have Aspects, which are unique buffs that usually belong to a specific class.
Necromancer is no exception, and has a number of useful Aspects that can make specific builds more powerful. To obtain them, you can either collect them through random loot or by destroying gear with Aspects at Blacksmith, then adding them to items with Occultist.
If you want to see what Aspects you have available, go to the in-game menu and click on Collections. Codex of Power will list all Aspects you have unlocked. Some of the best Aspects for this build include:
- Reanimation
- Hardened Bones
- Blood Getter
- Grasping Veins
- Unyielding Commander
Each of these provides a significant boost to your gear, such as Reanimation increasing Minions damage and Unyielding Commander giving an enormous boost to your Army of the Dead ultimate.
That’s all we know about this Blight Golem Minions Necromancer Build. Follow this guide and you’ll be able to use it to its full potential and excel in Diablo 4 Season 5!
