Shadow Summoner – Necromancer Build for Diablo 4

Build Introduction

The beloved playstyle of having an army of Skeletal Minions destroying everything for you is the main focus of this build guide. The build will require certain Legendary Powers to be a performing character, which is covered in this guide. Outside of having Minions as the main source of damage, we will be Cursing enemies with Decrepify and Slowing them down on top of consistent cooldown recovery, allowing for high up-time of Soulrift. This is combined with the Golem, creating a build dealing tons of damage. This specific version of the Summoner build is referred to as a Shadow Minion build, and since we are using both Skeletons and Golems, Zoomancer is often a common name for the build!

You are able to level with this build however, if you are new to the game, we would strongly recommend checking out the Necromancer Leveling guide for the smoothest experience going through the campaign before switching to this build.

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Strengths and Weaknesses

To see how this build compares to the other builds on our site, you can check out our build tier lists.

Build Requirements

This build has no mandatory items or Aspects to function, meaning you can play it right from the start! However, both Heir of Perdition and Tibault’s Will are extremely potent for the build.

Build Variants

A build variant is a modified version of an existing build that changes some aspects of it, such as the damage type, specific skills or passives, and even certain items like different Unique or Legendary Aspects.

Below, you will find any variant that relates to the Shadow Summoner / Zoomancer Necromancer.

Skill Bar and Skill Tree Points

Recommended

Suggested Skill Bar

SoulriftDecrepifyRaise SkeletonBlightCorpse TendrilsGolem (Blood)

Follow the points allocated in the Skill Tree above for the complete 71-point build. The additional 12 skill points are completed using the Renown system.

Book of the Dead

Since we are focusing on dealing damage with our minions, we will be keeping all our minions alive for this build, and not sacrificing any of them.

• Melee Skeletons: Reaper – Grab the corpse generating upgrade here.
• Mage Skeletons: Shadow – Having more multiplicative damage per active Shadow Mage will directly scale our minions damage output.
• Golem: Blood – The second option lets the Golem deal significantly more damage as well as extra defensive mitigation.

Mercenary

Aldkin is a great choice with crowd-controlling features but the comfortability of using Subo, who brings the ability of revealing enemies and materials in the area, makes him a natural preferential decision. The mercenaries are a nice addition to the game and whichever you chose to run is up to you. The recommendation for this build will be to run Subo.

Skill-tree wise we’ll grab the left-hand side first for Wire Trap to provide stuns with the following node is up to you. Trip Mines is the next big notable to grab, taken for safety reasons. We finish that tree with Mastermind.

For the reinforcement, stick with Raheir, utilizing his Bastion skill being cast when the player becomes injured.

Paragon

Below you’ll find the entire end-game paragon board set-up for this build in detail!

Gear, Gems, Elixirs, and Stats

The following sections cover the important systems that are essential to improving the power of your character in the endgame of Diablo 4.

Legendary Aspects

Each aspect is listed with its matching gear slot. Do your best to keep each aspect in the assigned slot. Additionally, if you are trying to farm a specific item, we recommend using your Obols to target farm them!

Gear Slot	Gems	Aspect / Unique	Legendary Aspect / Unique Power
Helm	Lith + Ceh	Heir of Perdition	Succumb to hatred and earn Mother’s Favor, increasing your damage deal by x60%. Briefly steal Mother’s Favor from Nearby allies by slaughtering enemies.
Chest	Grand Topaz	Aspect of Hardened Bones	You and your Minions gain 15-20% increased Damage Reduction.
Gloves	N/A	Aspect of Reanimation	Your Minions gain increased damage while alive, up to 30-40% after 10 seconds.
Pants	Yul + Ohm	Tibault’s Will	You deal 10-20% increased damage while unstoppable and for 5 seconds after. When you become Unstoppable, gain 50 of your Primary Resource.
Boots	N/A	Blood Getter’s Aspect	Your Skeletal Priests also empower you at 55-75% effectiveness.
Weapon 2H (Scythe)	Royal Emerald	Aspect of the Great Feast	Your Minions deal 30-45% increased damage, but each one drains 1 Essence from you per second.
Amulet (50% Scaling)	Any Resistance Gem	Aspect of Occult Dominion	Your maximum number of Skeletal Warriors and Skeletal Mages is increased by 2.
Ring	Any Resistance Gem	Conceited Aspect	Deal 10-30% increased damage while you have a Barrier active.
Ring	Any Resistance Gem	Aspect of Frenzied Dead	Each time one of your Minions damages an enemy, they gain 10-18% Attack Speed for 3 seconds, up to 30-54%

Once you’re able to sustain Soulrift you can replace Frenzied Dead Aspect for Conceited Aspect.

Gems and Runewords

See below for a more detailed explanation of the best Gems to socket into your gear for each category.

Weapon Gems	Armor Gems	Jewelry Gems
Royal Emerald For Crit Damage.	Grand Topaz For increased Intelligence.	Royal Amethyst Royal Sapphire Royal Ruby Royal Skull

The following Runewords are recommend to be used for this build.

Runeword Combination	Effect
Yul + Ohm	Gain 50 Offering when casting a skill with a cooldown 500 Offering will trigger the Barbarians Enhanced War Cry increasing your movement speed and damage dealt.
Lith + Ceh	Standing still gives you 25 Offering every 0.3 seconds 100 Offering will summon multiple wolves which will attack enemies for 8 seconds.

Which Elixirs Should You Use?

Visit the Alchemist and craft an Elixir providing any Resistance you need most, or the Elixir of Advantage to increase Attack Speed. Some Elixirs cannot be crafted and only drop from things like Helltides or Nightmare Dungeons. Additionally, make sure to keep your health potion upgraded!

Stat Priority and Tempering Affixes

Below are the affixes to prioritize on gear. Each line of affixes is listed in order of importance. Tempering Manuals and their recommended affixes are provided in the second column, and the bolded affixes are the most important targets for Masterworking upgrades. Be sure to check our Tempering and Masterworking guides for more details about these topics.

Slot	Targeted Gear Affixes	Tempering Affixes
Chest	1. Armor 2. Maximum Life 3. Intelligence	Profane Cage Ranks to Crippling Darkness Profane Innovation: x% Corpse Tendrils Size
Gloves	1. Intelligence 2. Maximum Life 3. Critical Strike Damage	Natural Schemes #% Crowd Control Duration Profane Finesse: x% Damage against Cursed Enemies
Boots	1. Maximum Life 2. Movement Speed 3. Intelligence	Natural Motion: Movement Speed Natural Schemes #% Crowd Control Duration
Amulet	1. Ranks to Hellbent Commander 2. Movement Speed 3. Cooldown Reduction	Necromancer Efficiency: x% Ultimate Cooldown Reduction Profane Finesse: x% Damage against Cursed Enemies
Ring	1. Critical Strike Chance 2. Attack Speed 3. Intelligence	Necromancer Efficiency: x% Ultimate Cooldown Reduction Profane Finesse: x% Damage against Cursed Enemies
Ring	1. Lucky Hit: Chance to Make Enemies Vulnerable for 2 seconds. 2. Critical Strike Chance 3. Intelligence	Necromancer Efficiency: x% Ultimate Cooldown Reduction Profane Finesse: x% Damage against Cursed Enemies
2H-Weapon	1. Critical Strike Damage 2. Intelligence 3. Maximum Life	Summoning Augments: x% for Golem to Hit Twice. Profane Finesse: x% Damage against Cursed Enemies

Keep in mind that the maximum Resistance is 70% by default for each element and can be increased to 85% by various sources.

Rotation and Playstyle

This builds main priority is to make sure all of the minions are alive and well. Ensure to use the Raise Skeleton skill every 5 seconds, keeping the damage buff active and heal your minions Minions. Outside of this, it’s important you keep enemies Cursed with Decrepify and spam your Golem skill for damage output. Using the Golem skill will render us Unstoppable and commands the Golem to taunt nearby enemies to keep us safe.

Make sure to check out the advanced Build Mechanics section for a more in-depth description of how the build works, what synergies exist, and what to look out for.

Uniques and Mythic Uniques

Below you will find information on Uniques and Mythic Uniques that are useful for this build. Moreover, if you are interested in target farming Mythic Uniques, check out our How to Farm Uber Uniques guide.

Uniques & Mythic Uniques

Both Tibault’s Will and Heir of Perdition are extremely potent for this build and should not be replaced. Aspect of Hardened Bones could be replaced by Tyrael’s Might for higher end-game content.

Season 6: Vessel of Hatred

The following list details the changes in the Season 6 Update that may pertain to the Shadow Summoner Necromancer build. Check the Changelog for all the other guide updates.

• Wolves from the Runeword got significantly buffed in both damage and AI performance.

Advanced Information

Below, you will find every additional piece of information you need to know for a more in-depth look at this build.

Build Mechanics

Needless to say, your minions are doing most of the heavy lifting. Ultimately, you’re looking at staying behind your minion army, filling the screen with destructive powers of shadow.

Defenses

Your Golem will not just taunt nearby enemies, but also make you Unstoppable, preventing you from be effected by crowd-control. Besides that and the army of skeletons protecting you, the build itself features extremely good defensive layers in the form of damage reduction, resistance caps, and armor.

Offenses

The damage output is all about your Golem; the other minions will be doing damage as well, but nothing like what the Golem puts out! The sheer amount of minions will scale the performance of the builds damage output.

Obol Gambling

Obol gambling is a great way to potentially find item upgrades or items missing from your build. Check out the new tool from Icy Veins for gambling Obols in the link below:

Changelog

• October 12th, 2024: Added Detailed Paragon Boards
• October 2nd, 2024: Guide updated for Season 6.
• August 5th, 2024: Guide updated for Season 5, Infernal Hordes.
• May 20th, 2024: 1 Aspect change, note for endgame added below that list + gear modifier priority changed.
• May 16th, 2024: Gem updates.
• May 15th, 2024: Guide finalized with Season 4 gear changes!
• May 14th, 2024: Minor tweaks on aspects and skill-tree.
• May 10th, 2024: Guide updated for 1.4.
• March 5th, 2024: Guide updated for 1.3.3.
• January 22nd, 2024: Guide updated for Season 3 Season of the Construct.
• October 28th, 2023: Improved the entire Paragon Board.
• October 22nd, 2023: Minor Skill-Tree Adjustments.
• October 15th, 2023: Guide updated for Season 2 Season of Blood, Patch 1.2.
• August 7th, 2023: Guide updated for Patch 1.1.1.
• July 19th, 2023: Guide updated for Season 1 including Malignant Hearts.