Summoner – Necromancer Leveling Build for Diablo 4 (Season 10)

Build Introduction

This guide is a collaboration between GhazzyTV and community member Garm Z. The Summoner Necromancer leveling build is the absolute best-performing Necromancer leveling build this season! Not only are your minions going to be tanking all the enemies, but they will completely obliterate them in the process.

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Quick Navigation

Want to skip ahead? Use the table below to jump to the selections you are looking for.

Gear, Gems, and Runes	Skill Tree
Rotation and Playstyle	Season Updates

Allocation of Skill Points

Order	Skill	Cluster
1	Reap	Basic Skill
2	Enhanced Reap	Basic Skill
3	Blood Surge	Core Skill
4	Enhanced Blood Surge	Core Skill
5	Supernatural Blood Surge	Core Skill
6	Blood Surge Rank 2	Core Skill
7	Skeletal Warrior Mastery	Corpse & Macabre Passive
8	Skeletal Warrior Mastery Rank 2	Corpse & Macabre Passive
9	Skeletal Warrior Mastery Rank 3	Corpse & Macabre Passive
10	Blood Mist	Corpse & Macabre Skill
11	Acolyte’s Reap	Basic Skill
12	Iron Maiden	Curse Skill
13	Enhanced Iron Maiden	Curse Skill
14	Reap Rank 2	Basic Skill
15	Reap Rank 3	Basic Skill
16	Reap Rank 4	Basic Skill
17	Reap Rank 5	Basic Skill
18	Corpse Tendrils	Corpse & Macabre Skill
19	Enhanced Corpse Tendrils	Corpse & Macabre Skill
20	Blighted Corpse Tendrils	Corpse & Macabre Skill

At this point, it’s optimal to replace 4 points invested in Blood Surge and take Blight Rank 1, Enhanced Blight and Supernatural Blight, the last point goes to Necrotic Carapace.

Order	Skill	Cluster
21	Death’s Approach	Curse Passive
22	Death’s Approach Rank 2	Curse Passive
23	Death’s Approach Rank 3	Curse Passive
24	Inspiring Leader	Ultimate Passive
25	Hellbent Commander	Ultimate Passive
26	Hellbent Commander Rank 2	Ultimate Passive
27	Hellbent Commander Rank 3	Ultimate Passive
28	Soulrift	Ultimate Skill
29	Prime Soulrift	Ultimate Skill
30	Supreme Soulrift	Ultimate Skill
31	Soulrift Rank 2	Ultimate Skill
32	Soulrift Rank 3	Ultimate Skill
33	Soulrift Rank 4	Ultimate Skill
34	Rathma’s Vigor	Key Passive
35	Soulrift Rank 5	Ultimate Skill
36	Death’s Embrace	Curse Passive
37	Death’s Embrace Rank 2	Curse Passive
38	Death’s Embrace Rank 3	Curse Passive
39	Amplify Damage	Curse Passive
40	Amplify Damage Rank 2	Curse Passive
41	Amplify Damage Rank 3	Curse Passive
42	Titan’s Fall	Corpse & Macabre Passive
43	Titan’s Fall Rank 2	Corpse & Macabre Passive
44	Titan’s Fall Rank 3	Corpse & Macabre Passive
45	Coalesced Blood	Corpse & Macabre Passive
46	Coalesced Blood Rank 2	Corpse & Macabre Passive
47	Coalesced Blood Rank 3	Corpse & Macabre Passive
48	Reaper’s Pursuit	Corpse & Macabre Passive
49	Terror	Corpse & Macabre Passive
50	Terror Rank 2	Corpse & Macabre Passive
51	Terror Rank 3	Corpse & Macabre Passive
52	Decrepify	Curse Skill
53	Enhanced Decrepify	Curse Skill
54	Abhorrent Decrepify	Curse Skill
55	Gloom	Corpse & Macabre Passive
56	Gloom Rank 2	Corpse & Macabre Passive
57	Gloom Rank 3	Corpse & Macabre Passive
58	Finality	Ultimate Passive
59	Finality Rank 2	Ultimate Passive
60	Finality Rank 3	Ultimate Passive
61	Grim Harvest	Corpse & Macabre Passive
62	Fueled by Death	Corpse & Macabre Passive
63	Fueled by Death Rank 2	Corpse & Macabre Passive
64	Fueled by Death Rank 3	Corpse & Macabre Passive
65	Hewed Flesh	Core Passive
66	Hewed Flesh Rank 2	Core Passive
67	Spiked Armor	Corpse & Macabre Passive
68	Spiked Armor Rank 2	Corpse & Macabre Passive
69	Necrotic Fortitude	Corpse & Macabre Passive
70	Necrotic Fortitude Rank 2	Corpse & Macabre Passive
71	Necrotic Fortitude Rank 3	Corpse & Macabre Passive

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Skill Tree and Skill Tree Points

The above skill-bar should be used till you get Aspect of the Cursed Aura upon which you’ll replace Iron Maiden with Reap. The Aspect of the Cursed Aura will automate your Decrepify as well as Iron Maiden we never put this on the bar.

To prepare yourself for what happens after level 60 when you get access to your Paragon Board, head over to our Necromancer Builds page and choose your weapon!

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Necromancer Class Mechanic – Book of the Dead

Necromancer’s class-specific ability is the Book of the Dead, which provides three different types of minions that unlock by leveling up. This build is designed around using your minions from this system.

Melee Skeletons: Defenders [Upgrade #2] – This makes our melee minions insanely resilient; their damage is coming entirely from your Chaos Perks.
Mage Skeletons: Bone [Sacrifice] – Increased Overpower damage.
Golem: Iron [Sacrifice] – Increased Critical Strike Damage.

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Gear, Stats, Gems, and Runes

Prioritize a higher total damage output when it comes to your weapon, as the higher it is, the better. Important to point out that we always want to be wielding a 2H weapon with this build. Make sure you check the aspects listed below to have a smooth leveling experience.

In Season 10, we’ll have access to Chaos Armor to further push the limits of the build!

Legendary Item Aspects

To unlock Aspects for your build, you will either need to complete specific Dungeons (which add the Aspect to your Codex of Power) or get them as random drops. Once unlocked, visit the Occultist to imprint an Aspect onto your gear. Codex Aspects can be reused, and you should often refresh the one on your weapon. You will also want to farm Veiled Crystals from Helltides and by salvaging items, since these are required for upgrading gear and applying Aspects.

Changing Aspect costs Veiled Crystal, which is easily farmed in Helltides. The order of priority for what aspect to have on your weapon is listed below:

For your amulet, the order of priority is the following:

We have a dedicated in-depth Aspect and Codex of Power guide that you can check out for more information.

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Stat Priority and Tempering Affixes

Keep in mind that this is only possible if you’ve found tempering manuals as you progress through this leveling guide. There are really not many modifiers worth bothering with during the leveling stage, but the recommendation is the same as our stat priority listed above for defenses such as Life and armor. For offensive scaling, you’re only looking for summoning damage or specific minion damage, such as Skeletal Mage damage.

When it comes to modifiers on your gear as you progress this build, you’ll be looking for the following stats:

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Gems and Runewords

Listed below are the best Gems and Runes to socket into gear for each item type.

Gems

Listed below are the best Gems and Runes to socket into gear for each item type.

Weapon: We don’t recommend socketing anything in the weapon due to material cost and the fact that you’ll be switching your weapon so frequently during your level progression. If a socket exists on the item, you could slot in a Sapphire for increased Vulnerable damage.
Armor: Topaz for increased Intelligence.
Jewelry: Skull to help reach the armor cap.

Runewords

When it comes to Runewords, there are a couple of very early/commonly found ones this build could utilize well. The most attractive combination is described below:

Feo + Ner – If you become Injured or Crowd Controlled you invoke the Rogue’s Countering Concealment gaining Dodge Chance, Movement Speed, Unstoppable, and Stealth. Other options are useful as well.
Poc + Qua – By spending your Essence, you gain increased Movement Speed.

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Season of Infernal Chaos (Season 10)

In Season 10, we get access to Chaos Perks as well as Chaos Armor. Below you’ll find a list of our recommended items to look out for.

Chaos Perks

Chaos Armor

Chaos Armor is seasonal corrupted unique gear that can take the form and slots of other armor pieces. An amulet can become boots or a helmet, a shield can become gloves, and so on. Chaos pieces carry their original implicit affixes, like All Resistances from Jewelry or weapon damage multiplier from the shield, regardless of the form they take. They always have increased AND top roll unique aspect value.

Below you’ll find a list of unique items that would do very well for this build as a Chaos Armor:

Bloodless Scream – Huge multiplier for darkness skills and AoE crowd control.
Lidless Wall – Massive base damage multiplier, which even works for 2 handed weapons.
Ring of the Sacrilegious Soul – Helps with Essence sustain and auto-casts Corpse Tendrils as well as providing movement speed.
Ring of Mendeln – Big damage effect and frees up a ring slot for offensive aspects.

Mercenaries

Raheir is a great choice with increased resistances for you. The mercenaries are a nice addition to the game, and whichever one you choose to run is up to you. The recommendation for this build will be to run Raheir. We also recommend using the Reinforcement slot to level up all your Mercenary to get access to the caches for extra loot.

Below you’ll find the recommended skill set-up for Raheir:

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Build Mechanics

Rotation and Playstyle

We group enemies with Corpse Tendrils and apply Blight for more damage output. Make sure enemies are cursed by casting it unless you have Aspect of the Cursed Aura, which automates it. Soulrift should be kept up during combat as much as possible.

Make sure you position yourself out of harm’s way whilst your minions are doing the heavy lifting!

Our panic button to get out of harm’s way is Blood Mist.

Don’t forget to use your Raise Skeleton even when you have maximum number of minions! This will heal them, make them stronger, and provide you with some Essence.

Which Elixirs Should You Use?

To gain an edge in your adventures, head to the Alchemist in any major town, and craft Elixirs that enhance your stats and experience gain for 30 minutes. Remember to gather the necessary crafting materials by foraging plants. Select any Elixir as that provides extra experience gain, or if you have Elixir of Advantage to help with attack speed. Elixir of Iron Barbs can help early game with reaching the 1000 armor cap as well.

Return to the Alchemist again around every 10 levels to upgrade your potion. The extra healing is essential to survival.

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Season 10 Updates

For a complete overview of Season 10, mechanics and theme, new leveling activity, and other changes coming, please take a look at our comprehensive season hub here.

Minions will now resurrect with you if you died. Aspect of the Great Feast will completely drain your Essence, but it is still well worth using.

Difficulty and Endgame

This guide is designed to get you to level 60 in a smooth and enjoyable way. Once there, you’ll want to look at a proper endgame-designed build guide. Make sure you pick one of our recommended ones!

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Changelog

October 5th, 2025: General visual improvements on the guide.
September 27th, 2025: Reworked leveling build in to current Season 10 meta leveling using Chaos perks.
September 23rd, 2025: Adjust seasonal powers and Book of the Dead for optimal speed.
September 18th, 2025: Guide updated for Season 10.
July 3rd, 2025: Optimized minor tweaks in the guide.
June 29th, 2025: Guide updated for Season 9.
May 5th, 2025: Optimized and updated post launch for Season 8.
April 21st, 2025: Guide updated for Season 8.
January 20th, 2025: Added recommended Runewords.
January 18th, 2025: Updated for Season 7.
October 12th, 2024: Updated Gems.
October 7th, 2024: Paragon board added.
October 2nd, 2024: Guide updated for Season 6.
August 5th, 2024: Guide updated for Season 5.
May 12th, 2024: Guide added.

Aspect Name	Legendary Aspect Power	Source
Aspect of Occult Dominion (Utility)	Your maximum number of Skeletal Warriors and Skeletal Mages is increased by 2.	Random Drop
Aspect of Hardened Bones (Defensive)	You and your Minions gain 10-30% increased Damage Reduction	Random Drop
Aspect of Slaughter (Mobility) or Aspect of Creeping Cadaver	You gain 20% Movement speed. Lose this bonus for 5-2 seconds after taking damage from a Close Enemy. or Consuming a Corpse increases your Movement Speed by + [20 – 40%] for 8 seconds.	Random Drop
Aspect of the Cursed Aura (Utility)	A dark aura surrounds you, inflicting Decrepify and Iron Maiden on enemies who touch it. Curses inflicted this way spread to surrounding targets every x seconds and last 4 seconds outside the aura.	Random Drop
Aspect of Frenzied Dead (Offensive)	Each time one of your Minions damages an enemy, they gain % Attack Speed for 3 seconds up to X%.	Random Drop
Aspect of the Great Feast (Offensive)	While you have active Minions, your Summons deal x [35 – 50%] increased damage, but each Minion Drains 2 Essence from you per second. While you have no active Minions, you deal x [35 – 50%] increased damage, but 14 Essence Drains per second. Note: You will be completely drained of Essence but the power scaling from this Aspect is well worth not being able to cast anything.	Random Drop
Aspect of Grasping Veins	Gain #% Increased Critical Strike Chance for 6 seconds when you cast Corpse Tendrils. You deal x#% bonus Critical Strike Damage to enemies damaged by Corpse Tendrils for 6 seconds.	Corrupted Grotto in Kehjistan
Aspect of the Moonrise	Damaging an enemy with a Basic Skill grants you +4% Attack Speed for 10 seconds, stacking up to 5 times. Upon reaching maximum stacks, you enter a Vampiric Bloodrage, gaining x [40 – 60%] Basic Skill damage and 15% Movement Speed for 10 seconds.	Random Drop
Juggernaut’s Aspect	Gain [X] Armor, but your Evade has 100% increased Cooldown.	Random Drop
Aspect of the Damned	You deal x [35 – 55%] increased Shadow damage to enemies afflicted by any Curse.	Uldur’s Cave in Kehjistan

Slot	Gear Affixes	Tempering Affixes
2H Weapon (Scythe or Mace preferably)	1. Overpower Damage, Critical Strike Damage 2. Maximum Life, Intelligence	Shadow Augments — Execution #% Reap to hit Twice Worldly Finesse #% Overpower Damage or Critical Strike Damage
Helm	1. + Ranks to Skeletal Warrior Mastery 2. Resistance to all Elements 3. Maximum Life, Armor, Essence per Second	Worldly Endurance #% Total Armor Profane Innovation #% Corpse Tendril Size
Chest	1. Essence per Second 2. Resistance to all Elements 3. Maximum Life, Armor	Necromancer Wall #% Damage Reduction for Summons Profane Innovation #% Corpse Tendril Size
Gloves	1. Overpower Damage, Critical Strike Damage 2. Attack Speed 3. Maximum Life, Armor, Resistance to All Elements	Worldly Finesse #% Overpower Damage or Critical Strike Damage Decay Innovation #% Soulrift Duration
Pants	1. + Ranks to Reap or Basic Skills 2. Essence per Second 3. Resistance to all Elements 4. Maximum Life, Armor	Worldly Endurance #% Total Armor Decay Innovation #% Soulrift Duration
Boots	1. + Ranks to Skeletal Warrior Mastery 2. Movement Speed 3. Essence per Second 4. Resistance to all Elements 5. Maximum Life, Armor	Necromancer Motion #% Movement Speed Decay Innovation #% Soulrift Duration
Amulet	1. + Ranks to Terror, Gloom, Coalesced Blood or Amplify 2. Movement Speed, + Ranks to Hellbent Commander 3. Critical Strike Chance, Resistance to All Elements, Maximum Life, Attack Speed	Worldly Finesse #% Overpower Damage or #% Critical Strike Damage Necromancer Efficiency #% Ultimate Cooldown Reduction
Rings	1. Attack Speed 2. Critical Strike Damage or Overpower Damage 3. Maximum Life, Resistance to All Elements, Critical Strike Chance, Chance to make Enemies Vulnerable on hit	Worldly Finesse #% Overpower Damage or #% Critical Strike Damage Necromancer Efficiency #% Ultimate Cooldown Reduction

Power	Description
Unstable Power	Chaotic magics erupt from your Basic Skills, making them guaranteed to Critically Strike and Overpower for 100% increased damage, but the power is unstable, giving them a 3 second Cooldown.
Grim Reapers	Your Skeleton Warriors’ attacks have a 25% chance to use Reap dealing 150% of normal damage instead of their regular attacks.
Accelerating Chaos	Lucky Hit: Damaging an enemy has up to a 10% chance to trigger a Chaotic Burst on the enemy, dealing 400% damage.