Gravebloom Golem Summoner – Necromancer Build for Diablo 4 (Season 11)

Build Introduction

This meta Necromancer build allows to control not one, but three Golems with the power of the Gravebloom unique mace. It features high survivability, mostly Unstoppable state and focused area damage from Golems (Blood) ability spam. High performance comes at the cost of slower gameplay and need for “setup” skill rotation in the endgame.

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Curious how this build fares in various content types? Take a look at our build tier lists.

Strengths and Weaknesses

Build Requirements

Gravebloom

Blood Moon Breeches are not required, but strongly recommended as Best in Slot option by far.

• Cooldown Reduction effects (the more, the better), see Gear Suggestions.
• “Cooldown Reduction engine”, see Rotation and Playstyle.

Quick Navigation

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Skill Tree Points and Skill Bar

Recommended

Suggested Skill Bar (any order)

Corpse TendrilsBone PrisonBlightGolem (Blood)ReapSoulrift

Follow the points allocated in the Skill Tree above for the complete 71-point build. 12 skill points are locked behind the Season Rank System.

Lowest priority skills to skip, until extra skill points acquired:

• Titan’s Fall
• Finality
• Stand Alone
• Fueled by Death

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Class Mechanic – Book of the Dead

This build is not using any skeletons for Hulking Monstrosity paragon, partial Stand Alone and Book of the Dead sacrifice bonuses.

• If Critical Strike Chance < 75%
  • then Skeletal Warriors: Skirmishers [Sacrifice] – Increased Critical Strike Chance.
  • else Skeletal Warriors: Defenders [Sacrifice] – Increased Resistance to All Elements.
• Skeletal Mages: Cold [Sacrifice] – Increased damage to Vulnerable.
• Golem: Blood [Upgrade #2] – While your Blood Golem is Healthy, they gain 25% Damage Reduction and 50%[x] increased damage.

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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. Aspects placement is planned with potential Unique and Mythic Unique gear upgrades in mind for easiest and cheapest transition. Obol gambling is a great way to try to obtain specific slot Legendary Aspects and even Uniques early. For exact Runewords suggestions, see here.

Gear Slot	Gems	Aspect / Unique	Legendary Aspect / Unique Power
Helm		Aspect of the Cursed Aura	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.
Chest		Aspect of Hardened Bones	You gain 30% [10 – 30]% increased Damage Reduction. (Necromancer Only)
Gloves	n/a	Aspect of Grasping Veins	Gain 25%[+] [5 – 25]% increased Critical Strike Chance for 6 seconds when you cast Corpse Tendrils. You deal 50%[x] [10 – 50]% bonus Critical Strike Damage to enemies for 6 seconds after they are damaged by Corpse Tendrils. (Necromancer Only)
Pants		Aspect of Might	Basic Skills grant 20.0% Damage Reduction for 10.0 seconds.
Boots	n/a	Aspect of the Unholy Tether	Casting Golem’s active Skill creates a bond between you for 5 seconds. While the bond is active, both of you are Unstoppable and gain 45.0% [25.0 – 45.0]% Movement Speed. (Necromancer Only)
Weapon 1H		Gravebloom	You raise 3 smaller Golems that each deal 60% [40 – 60]% of normal damage and gain 30%[+] Attack Speed.
Offhand (Focus)		Aspect of the Great Feast	While you have active Minions, your Summons deal 55%[x] [35 – 55]% increased damage, but each Minion Drains 2 [2] Essence from you per second. While you have no active Minions, you deal 55%[x] [35 – 55]% increased damage, but 14 Essence Drains per second. (Necromancer Only)
Amulet (50% Scaling)		Aspect of Reanimation	Your Minions gain increased damage while alive, up to 90%[x] [60 – 90]% after 10 seconds. (Necromancer Only)
Ring		Aspect of Fel Gluttony	Your Golem Active also causes your Golem to erupt, dealing 3,116 [1,558 – 3,116] Physical damage to surrounding enemies. Your Golem consumes Corpses to reduce its remaining Cooldown by 1 second and deals 40%[x] [20 – 40]% increased damage. (Necromancer Only)
Ring		Sacrificial Aspect	Your Sacrifice bonuses are increased by 55% [35 – 55]%. (Necromancer Only)

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Affixes and Tempering Priority

• Affixes on gear are sorted in priority descending order.
• Bolded affixes are the most important targets for Masterworking upgrade. If multiple affixes marked – any selected is acceptable for case by case gear.
• Affixes marked by multiple “*” – indicate desirability of obtaining them as Greater Affix originally or with lucky Tempering.

Be sure to check our Tempering and Masterworking guides for more details about these topics.

Slot	Affixes	Tempering Affixes
Helmet Heir of Perdition	* 1. Critical Strike Chance * 2. Lucky Hit Chance	n/a
Helmet	* 1. Maximum Life * 2. Intelligence 3. Cooldown Reduction 4. Armor / Resistance to All Elements 5. Essence per Second (once)	Decay Innovation #% Soulrift Duration Worldly Endurance # Maximum Life
Chest Shroud of False Death	** 1. All Stats * 2. Maximum Life	n/a
Chest	*** 1. +Ranks to Golem Mastery ** 2. Maximum Life * 3. Intelligence 4. Armor / Resistance to All Elements 5. Essence per Second (once)	Decay Innovation #% Soulrift Duration Profane Innovation #% Corpse Tendrils Size
Gloves Fists of Fate	*** 1. Lucky Hit Chance * 2. Critical Strike Chance * 3. Attack Speed	n/a
Gloves	** 1. Attack Speed 2. Critical Strike Chance * 3. Intelligence * 4. Maximum Life 5. Cooldown Reduction	Minion Finesse #% Golem Damage Decay Innovation #% Soulrift Duration
Pants Blood Moon Breeches	*** 1. +Ranks to Hellbent Commander *** 2. +Ranks to Golem Mastery * 3. Critical Strike Chance	n/a
Pants	* 1. Maximum Life * 2. Intelligence 3. Armor / Resistance to All Elements 4. Essence per Second (once)	Decay Innovation #% Soulrift Duration Worldly Endurance # Maximum Life
Boots	* 1. Movement Speed * 2. Maximum Life * 3. Intelligence 4. Essence per Second (once) 5. Armor / Resistance to All Elements	Profane Innovation #% Corpse Tendrils Size Natural Motion #% Movement Speed
Amulet	*** 1. +Ranks to Hellbent Commander *** 2. +Ranks to Coalesced Blood ** 3. +Ranks to Amplify Damage 4. Cooldown Reduction * 5. Attack Speed * 6. Intelligence * 7. Maximum Life	**Necromancer Efficiency #% Golem Active Cooldown Reduction
2 x Ring	** 1. Attack Speed 2. Critical Strike Chance * 3. Intelligence 4. Cooldown Reduction * 5. Maximum Life	**Necromancer Efficiency #% Golem Active Cooldown Reduction
Weapon 1H Gravebloom	** 1. Chance for Golem to Hit Twice ** 2. +Ranks to Golem Mastery * 3. Maximum Life * 4. Intelligence	n/a
Offhand (Focus)	1. Cooldown Reduction 2. Critical Strike Chance * 3. Maximum Life * 4. Intelligence 5. Lucky Hit: Up to a 15% Chance to Restore +X Primary Resource	Minion Finesse #% Golem Damage

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Recommended Early Endgame Stats

Below you’ll find expected character stats to start engaging endgame content:

• Golem Active Cooldown Reduction as much as possible
• Attack Speed slightly above 40%, 60%, 80% or 100% (not reaching +20% increments irrelevant)
• Critical Strike Chance at or near 100% with Corpse Tendrils Aspect of Grasping Veins.
• Cooldown Reduction at or above 30%
• Movement Speed above 30%
• Maximum Life at least 5000
• Resistances / Armor above 65% (in Toughness tooltip)

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Ancestral and Mythic Uniques

See below for information on useful Uniques and how to integrate them into this build:

Blood Moon Breeches [Best in Slot]

Extremely potent gear piece, contributing significant damage multiplier, two passive skills ranks and doubled Critical Strike Chance amount. Straightforward Pants slot replacement.

Obtained from Duriel or Andariel Lair Bosses.

Heir of Perdition [Best in Slot]

Best in slot Mythic Unique Helmet for most Necromancer builds. Provides significant damage multiplier, massive amount of Critical Strike Chance, Lucky Hit to improve Cooldown Reduction engine and extra mobility. Requires to switch from Aspect of the Cursed Aura to Igni Wat runeword to maintain auto-curse, see here how. Unless Sanctified Aspect of the Cursed Aura or Aspect of the Unholy Tether obtained and another one is applied to the Boots.

If you are interested in target farming Mythic Uniques, check out our How to Farm Mythic Uniques guide.

Shroud of False Death [Best in Slot]

Best in slot Mythic Unique Chest for most Necromancer builds. It provides significant effective damage multiplier and utility improvements all across the board, via +1 All Passives bonus. Sizeable All Stats affix makes Rare Paragon Node bonus requirements easier to fulfill. Straightforward Chest slot replacement.

If you are interested in target farming Mythic Uniques, check out our How to Farm Mythic Uniques guide.

Fists of Fate [Optional]

Situational Unique, which with proper Greater Affixes or lucky extra aspect / quality Sanctification – outperforms Legendary alternative. Straightforward Gloves slot replacement.

Obtained from Beast in the Ice Lair Boss.

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Gems and Runewords

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

Weapon Gems	Armor Gems	Jewelry Gems
Royal Emerald	Runeword	Royal Diamond
–	Royal Diamond	Royal Topaz
–	Royal Topaz	Royal Ruby
Increased damage.	Increased All Stats or Intelligence.	Resistances against buffed Lightning and Fire Elite Affixes.

Runeword Combination	Effect
Ahu Qax	Gain: 15 Offering. Lucky Hit: Up to a 100% chance against non-Healthy enemies Requires: 400 Offering. Cooldown 1 second. Casting a Skill other than a Basic or Defensive spends all your Primary Resource to increase your damage up to 100% for 1 second. (Overflow: Further Increased Damage).
	Occasionaly consumes all essence to double the damage against non-Healthy enemies
Yul Xan	Gain: 50 Offering. Cast a Skill with a Cooldown. Requires: 300 Offering. Your next attack will cause your hits to be a guaranteed Critical Strike and Overpower for 0.35 seconds. (Overflow: Increase Duration).
	Enables occasional Overpower procs in density.
Igni Wat	Gain: 25 Offering. Stores Offering every 0.3 seconds. Cast a Non-Basic Skill to gain the stored Offering. (Up to 500 Offering). Requires: 100 Offering. Invoke the Necromancer’s Horrid Decrepify Skill, Slowing enemies, reducing their damage, and letting you Execute them. (Overflow: Increase duration).
[Optional]	Replacing Yul Xan acts as substitute for Aspect of the Cursed Aura, allowing to keep Aspect of the Unholy Tether for extra mobility instead, at the cost of occasional Overpower procs.

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Paragon Board

Below you’ll find entire endgame paragon board with recommended glyphs, optimal pathing and both minimal and nearly maximum investments!

Board attachment order and pathways:

1. Hulking Monstrosity – Glyph Slot
2. Hulking Monstrosity
3. Cult Leader
4. Flesh-eater
5. Flesh-eater – Glyph Slot
6. Frailty
7. Frailty – Glyph Slot
8. Cult Leader – Glyph Slot

It is imperative to level up all Glyphs to level 15 first and then to level 46 to increase activation radius second time and unlock secondary damage multiplier. More about paragon glyphs and how to level them, here.

Some paragon points are locked behind the Season Rank System.

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Season of Divine Intervention (Season 11)

Season 11 of Divine Intervention introduces very few very limited borrowed powers, but allows you to adjust the difficulty-to-reward ratio of certain content types and introduces new crafting mechanic, Sanctification.

Sanctification

Sanctification results are too unpredictable to be planned around, but this particular build benefits most from following:

• #%[x] Physical Damage
• 50/25 bonus Quality on Weapon
• #% Intelligence
• Offensive Aspect with damage multiplier
• Aspect of Hardened Bones
• Aspect of Disobedience
• Aspect of the Cursed Aura

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Divine Gifts

Corrupted gift slots grant increased specific content rewards, but increases difficulty of associated content – therefore should be activated only for target farming, when character can handle it.

Recommended Purified Divine Gifts for the build:

• Essence of Shadows – Briefly become Unstoppable when Crowd Controlled every 12 seconds.
• Essence of Screams – Gain 20%[+] increased Resistance.
• Essence of Sin – Gain 20%[+] increased Armor.
• Essence of Pain – Briefly gain maximum Barrier after becoming Injured, every 20 seconds.

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Mercenaries

During the Vessel of Hatred campaign, you will unlock Mercenaries to assist you. While you can choose freely early on, we recommend Raheir as your main merc:

• Ground Slam
• Raheir’s Aegis
• Bastion
• Inspiration

For the reinforcement, stick with Aldkin, utilizing his Flame Surge to trigger Abhorrent Decrepify when Golem (Blood) Active Ability is being cast.

• Flame Surge

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Rotation and Build Mechanics

This is build is designed around chain casting Golem (Blood) ability by Golem trio, summoned by Gravebloom.

Rotation and Playstyle

1. Initiate fight by sending Golem (Blood) with Active Ability into the enemy pack, acquiring Unstoppable state from Aspect of the Unholy Tether.
2. Approach the pack to trigger Aspect of the Cursed Aura or Igni Wat runeword when Soulrift used.
3. Activate and recast Soulrift on cooldown.
4. If no Corpses available, produce one with Acolyte’s Reap.
5. Use Corpse Tendrils and lock in as many enemies as possible with Bone Prison.
6. If essence available, throw couple Blights inside Bone Prison and enemy groups to increase damage and proc Lucky Hit Abhorrent Decrepify for Cooldown Reduction Engine.
7. Make few Reap swings to get Enhanced Reap and Damage Reduction buffs
8. Focus fire enemy groups with Golem (Blood) ability non-stop, which will keep refreshing Unstoppable aswell.
9. Between Golem (Blood) casts, reactivate Soulrift, keep re-grouping enemies with Corpse Tendrils, re-applying Blight to packs for Abhorrent Decrepify and refreshing Reap for buffs and extra essence.

Cooldown Reduction Engine

Cooldown Reduction engine is a set of abilities, upgrades and buffs that reduce active cooldowns by fulfilling certain conditions. This build rely on Lucky Hit against cursed by Abhorrent Decrepify, which is automatically applied by Aspect of the Cursed Aura or Igni Wat runeword.

List and properties of Lucky Hit triggers used:

• Aldkin mercenary Flame Surge (damage over time, AoE)
• Blight (damage over time, AoE, high base Lucky Hit)
• Soulrift (damage over time, AoE, high attack speed)
• Corpse Tendrils, Golem (Blood), Reap (AoE / multi-target attacks)

Which Elixirs Should You Use?

Visit the Alchemist and craft an Elixir providing any Resistance you need most, Elixir of Precision II, if you lack Critical Strike Chance, or the Elixir of Fortitude II to increase overall Toughness. Recommended incenses are Reddamine Buzz, Soothing Spices, Sage’s Whisper. Make sure to keep your Health Potion upgraded! 

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Season 11 Updates

For a complete overview of Season 11, mechanics and theme, new leveling activity, and other changes coming, please take a look at our comprehensive season hub here.

• Gravebloom Unique introduction, allowing summoning multiple Golems.
• Hellbent Commander applies to any amount of minions.
• Abundance of Golem Active Cooldown Reduction sources.

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Obol Gambling

Obol gambling is a great way to potentially find specific Legendary Aspects or specific slots Uniques missing from your build. Check out the new tool guide from Icy Veins for gambling Obols in the link below.

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Changelog

• December 6th, 2025: Guide rewritten for Season 11, Divine Intervention.