Do you want to become an invincible leader of minions and devastate your enemies with shadow magic? Then this Shadow Summoner Diablo 4 Necromancer build is for you. In this comprehensive guide, we cover everything you need to know to craft this mighty build – from leveling skills and Book of the Dead choices to gear and gems.
Shadow Summoner Build: A Quick Overview
This build is all about summoning Minions, casting shadow magic with Decompose and Blight from afar, generating corpses as an alternate resource and enhancing the damage dealt by Minions’ attacks. In essence, this Diablo 4 Necromancer build allows you to summon an army of dead, increasing their damage and restoring their health, use Slow (a Blight modifier) for crowd control, generate additional corpses to constantly replace the lost Minions, regenerate Essence, and use Bone Golem that drops new corpses every time it losses 20% of health.
The choices for level 20 are important for clearing Nostrava and Malnok Strongholds and solo rare elite, Sir Lynna, who drops one of the best weapons for this build. But we’ll talk about it more later. Now, let’s talk about Shadow Summoner’s advantages and disadvantages.
As was mentioned, the build is perfect for resource regeneration, Minions summoning, and increasing their damage, as well as for survivability. However, it also has weaknesses; one of the big ones is when you face a boss that kills your minions and either chases you or just walks from a Blight defiled area, as there’s not much you can do as this build isn’t great for on-the-run attacks. So, you have to take this into account when choosing this build.
And here’s the list of all strengths and weaknesses of the Shadow Summoner Necromancer:
| Strengths | Weaknesses |
|---|---|
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How to Play Shadow Summoner Necromancer
The Diablo 4 Necromancer gameplay is pretty straightforward. Start by gathering many foes together and cast Blight to slow them down. Since Slow is considered a crowd control, this will activate a damage bonus from Smiting Aspect. While enemies are slowed down, your Minions will attack them, dealing increased damage.
Then do Shadow damage to the target by casting Blight. Minions will do additional damage to it while standing on a Blight defiled area. If all of your minions are engaged in a fight, cast Raise Skeleton to raise a Skeletal Priest that will buff the damage of Skeletal Minions for 5 seconds. To deal Shadow damage to the target and generate a Corpse every 2.5 seconds, channel Decompose on the enemy. Casting Raise Skeleton on the Corpses will replace the fallen Minions.
Moreover, you can cast Blood Mist, as it will generate 3 Corpses you can use to replace more than 3 Skeletons or when you are out of Corpses.
Here’s what the common rotation looks like:
- Golem: The active portion of Summon Golem skill directs the Golem to attack a target and raises its damage by 40%. Most of the time, the Golem will provoke the foes. When the Golem’s health drops below 20%, it will drop a Corpse on the ground, giving you a greater chance of recovering any lost Skeletal Minions.
- Blight: Creates a defiled area under the target resulting in enemies standing on it to receive Shadow damage, slow them down, and enhance the Minion’s damage.
- Raise Skeleton: Cast it on Corpse when you see that all of your Minions are on the battlefield to summon a Skeletal Priest. It will increase their damage, though not for long.
- Decompose: Channel it on the target to deal Shadow damage and create Corpses every 2.5 seconds. Decomposed targets will take 10% more damage from Minions.
Now let’s talk about which skills you should focus on for this build.
The Best Leveling Skills for Shadow Summoner Necromancer
Before you reach level 50, you need to earn Skill points that help you level up from level 2 to level 49. To get these 48 points, you just need to play the game, especially the campaign. Moreover, you can earn additional 10 points through the Renown system by getting 900 Renown points from all 5 zones. These points are available for all characters on the account. To gain them, you can focus on Strongholds, Dungeons, and Side Quests. With that out of the way, let’s see what skills you should use.
Decompose (5/5)
Modifiers:
- Enhanced Decompose: If an enemy dies while being Decomposed, you gain 10 Essence.
- Acolyte’s Decompose: You and your Minions deal 10% increased damage to enemies who are being Decomposed.
The skill is essential for keeping the max number of Skeleton Minions engaged in a fight. Besides this and the base damage it provides, we use this to constantly channel it on a foe and generate a Corpse. The best strategy here is to press the corresponding button and hold it down until there’s a need to reactivate Blight or Raise Skeleton.
Enhanced Decompose will help you get Essence by defeating low-health opponents. This will allow you to cast Blight and Summon Skeleton without running out of Essence too frequently.
Acolyte’s Decompose will help to raise damage dealt by Skeletal Warriors, Skeletal Mages, and Golem while you channel Decompose on the target they’re attacking. This one can come in handy at the early stages of leveling up.
Blight (4/5)
Modifiers:
- Enhanced Blight: Blight Slows enemies by 25%.
- Supernatural Blight: You and your Minions deal 15% increased damage to enemies within Blight.
Blight is central to Shadow Summoner build, enhancing Minion damage. This Diablo Necromancer strategy requires targets to remain within Blight’s defiled area for crowd control, Minion damage buffs, and Shadow damage over time. To keep bosses within the area, use Blood Mist and dodge for evasion, ideally staying above the defiled region for the enemy to take damage from all sources. In extreme cases, use the environment to slow down the boss until Golem regains aggro. Against The Butcher, who ignores Minions, find a short wall for circular evasion while casting Blight and using Blood Mist and dodge.
For pre-Level 25 situations without Golem, a rare item with +1 Bone Prison can momentarily keep the target stationary on the defiled area.
Blight is a powerful tool in your arsenal. The Golem is effective at attracting aggro, aiding Necromancer Diablo when no one chases you.
Blight’s base function is to damage over time, but the modifiers are crucial to this build. For instance, Enhanced Blight will apply a Slow effect to targets in the Blight’s defiled area, causing increased damage from minions. Supernatural Blight boosts Minion damage to targets in the defiled area. Renew Blight on the same target your Minions attack to maintain this effect.
Hewed Flesh (3/3)
After you add a couple of points to Blight, It’s better to invest at least 1 point into Hewed Flesh, as it’s crucial to create Corpses early on. In high-stakes situations, like when facing dungeon or raid bosses, having many Corpses available to resummon Skeletal minions is essential.
Moreover, as you can see from the description, Hewed Flesh doubles the chance of Corpse creation when facing the boss. This is what makes it worth the 3 points investment eventually.
Blood Mist (1/5)
Modifiers:
- Enhanced Blood Mist: Casting a Skill that Overpowers reduces the cooldown of Blood Mist by 2 seconds.
- Ghastly Blood Mist: Blood Mist leaves behind a Corpse every 0.95second.
Use Blood Mist primarily as an evasion tactic, not as a significant damage contributor like a full-fledged build. Our aim is to unlock Ghastly Blood Mist. Thus, one skill point in Blood Mist is enough.
A plethora of corpses provides versatility, allowing Diablo 4 Necro to summon additional Skeleton Minions whether to replace fallen ones or when you’re out of Essence. Crucially, when the maximum number of minions are on the battlefield, any extra Raise Skeleton cast will result in a Skeletal Priest, enhancing the Skeleton Minions’ damage and healing them.
Blood Mist can also preemptively generate corpses, ensuring they are available when necessary.
During long solo boss encounters, it’s advantageous to fill the battlefield with Corpses before engagement. This is especially true in high-level Stronghold boss encounters, such as the Malnok Stronghold boss in Fractured Peaks. Here, your Minions are likely to die frequently due to the boss’s expansive ice detonations, so having a lot of Corpses is highly beneficial.
Skeletal Warrior Mastery (3/3)
Once you’ve assigned points to Blood Mist and its two modifiers, start to fill up your Skeletal Warrior Mastery to 3/3. This will unlock the next big node, the Curse block.
Instead of choosing a Skill in this block, you can add points to some of the smaller nodes that help your Minion army. Skeletal Warrior Mastery will enhance the damage and health of your Skeletal Minions, making enemies fall faster.
After spending 10 skill points, you can unlock the Curse block and gain access to Skeletal Mage Mastery.
It’s okay if you haven’t stacked many points in some skills. The main goal here is to prepare for Stronghold bosses, which is essential. They unlock things like new Waypoints, vendors, and dungeons. Some Stronghold dungeons even have Necromancer-only Codex of Power, useful for upgrading rare items at the Occultist vendor in Kyovashad.
Death’s Embrace (3/3)
Allocate 1 point to enhance the damage you deal to close enemies and take less damage from them. That way, you’ll further benefit from the build’s damage mitigation, leaving enemies and bosses no chance.Death’s Reach (3/3)
Just adding 1 point into this early on will increase the damage you do to distant enemies. Considering that you’ll be standing far from foes most of the time, casting Blight and channeling Decompose, this node will be quite helpful. So, don’t hesitate to max it out later.Skeletal Mage Mastery (3/3)
Reach Rank 3 of Skeletal Mage Mastery as fast as possible, as at this point, it will enhance your Skeletal Mage’s damage and health by up to 60%. This helps them survive and take down distant enemies more efficiently.
Skeletal Mages also perform well against dungeon and raid bosses as they tend to spawn away from boss attacks.
Later, you can increase your Skeletal Mage count using a Legendary Item or Aspect, like Viscous Aspect. With the right Aspect on a Legendary Item, you can have up to 6 Skeletal Mages on the battlefield at once – this number can be even higher if you imprint the Aspect on an amulet.
Unliving Energy (1/3)
It would be enough to put just 1 point into this node as thus you will get access to Imperfectly Balanced, which enhances the Blight damage. Moreover, Unliving Energy extends the Essence limit, providing an option to add more Essence resources.Imperfectly Balanced (3/3)
At the early stages of leveling, you should allocate 1 point to this node. It will increase Blight damage (as was mentioned above) at the expense of a higher Essence cost, but this is worth it.
Later, you need to max out Imperfectly Balanced as, besides providing a great benefit to this build, it will unlock the next node, which gives access to Blood Mist.
Bonded in Essence (3/3)
The choice to invest in this node instead of Ultimate might surprise many. But now you need to prioritize Minion survivability over other things. However, we will come back to the Ultimate later.
After investing around 19 skill points in the talent tree, you’re now ready for a crucial part of this build. But first, you need to unlock the major node of the Ultimate, which is currently grayed out.
To access the Bonded in Essence node, add 3 more skill points to Blight (up to Rank 4) and 1 to Decompose (up to Rank 2). Then, activate Bonded in Essence.
It lets you summon a Skeletal Priest for a brief period of time. If a Corpse is present, the Priest uses it to heal your Minions.
Keep the maximum number of Minions on the battlefield. This ensures that any extra corpse used will summon a Skeletal Priest when you aren’t able to summon a Skeletal Warrior or a Skeletal Mage. This Priest will heal your minions every 5 seconds, so try to summon a new one by casting Raise Skeleton on a corpse every 5 seconds. Remember, the Skeletal Priests only last for a short while.
Death’s Defense (3/3)
The node plays a critical role in sustaining your Minions when they face an AoE attack from a dungeon or raid boss, which could otherwise wipe them out in an instant. When your Minion is hit by AoE, it’s vital to summon your full army of Minions back to the battlefield and then summon a Skeletal Priest to restore their health.
Undoubtedly, the Death’s Defense node is an essential part of the Shadow Summoner best Necromancer build Diablo 4, primarily focusing on the survivability of the Skeletal Warrior and Skeletal Mage Minions.
If your Minions are constantly dying, you aren’t able to do squat damage because you can’t summon the Skeletal Priest, whose role is to boost your Minions’ damage.
Golem Mastery (3/3)
This mastery enhances your Golem damage and health, so it’s worth investing 3 points into this.
The Bone Golem demonstrates resilience on the battlefield, shedding more Corpses each time it loses 20% of its health.
When you unlock Paragon Boards later, be sure to choose the Hulking Monstrosity as your second board. It adds maximum life, armor, and damage to the Golem for Tier 3-4 difficulty. But for now, between levels 25-50, Golem Mastery is essential for ensuring the Golem’s survival against bosses wielding melee-range AoE damage.
Army of the Dead (1/1)
Modifiers:
- Prime Army of the Dead: When Army of the Dead’s Volatile Skeletons explode, they have a 15% chance to leave behind a Corpse.
- Supreme Army of the Dead: Army of the Dead also raises your Skeletal Warriors and Skeletal Mages.
Army of the Dead is the right Ultimate for your Shadow Summoner build.
It summons skeletons that explode near enemies, with more rising until the Ultimate expires.
This Ultimate has two modifiers, both crucial for this build. The first, Prime Army of the Dead, occasionally leaves a corpse behind. Useful in raid and dungeon boss fights, it creates extra corpses right from the start, which is helpful when your Minions die early.
With a 90-second cooldown, Army of the Dead can usually be used again before bosses become too dangerous in Tier 3-4. The second modifier allows the instant summoning of all your lost Skeletal Minions, solving issues with Minion survival.
Using Army of the Dead early on gives you a continuous supply of Corpses, working well with Decompose and Blood Mist, the main Corpse-regenerating skills.
Inspiring Leader (1/3)
Your minions, dealing shadow damage through the Bloom node and Shadowblight passive, greatly benefit from this attack speed boost.
Remember to dodge ranged attacks or use the speed boost from Reaper’s Pursuit to avoid melee attacks. If you can’t dodge, use a Health potion to restore health and activate Inspiring Leader after 4 seconds.
It’s not clear if Decompose casting or Blight’s damage per second tick is affected by the attack speed increase, but it’s possible.Put only 1 skill point into Inspiring Leader just to unlock the next node, Hellbent Commander.
Hellbent Commander (2/3)
Hellbent Commander gives your minions an extra damage boost. To maintain this, stay near your Minions, which is especially useful against bosses, including the Butcher. If the Butcher is on your tail, evade him by moving around a short wall, still within Minions’ range.
Your Skeletons and Diablo 4 Necromancer Golem might only occasionally hit the Butcher, but your Skeletal Mages will consistently damage him.
Staying near Minions can seem risky with boss melee-range AoE attacks. However, preemptively using dodge or Blood Mist based on attack cues can reduce damage. Your Vigor amulet’s shield also helps protect you when close to your Minions.
Reaper’s Pursuit (1/3)
This node gives you access to another node that’s vital to this Shadow Summoner Necromancer build, so invest just 1 point in it. However, it gives a movement speed increase for 3 seconds when you damage an enemy with Blight or Decompose, so this node can be useful as well.
When a boss casts a dangerous area-of-effect attack, the speed boost from Reaper’s Pursuit, triggered even by Blight’s ongoing damage, allows you to dodge these attacks more effectively.
This boost is also useful against challenging foes like The Butcher. Casting Blight or Decompose lets you evade attacks swiftly, complementing your dodge and Blood Mist abilities.
Gloom (1/3)
The Gloom node is crucial for a Shadow Summoner build as it makes all your Minions deal Shadow damage. However, just add one skill point here.
Any equipment that enhances +Shadow skill damage now also enhances your Minions’ damage. For instance, the Darkblade sword (about which we will talk later) will provide +2.0% Shadow Damage.
With Gloom, your minions do more Shadow damage to enemies standing on Blight. This damage is further increased if the enemy is also affected by Shadowblight.
Shadowblight (1/1)
The final node of this Diablo 4 Necromancer Skill Tree offers four sub-options. For a Shadow Summoner build, Shadowblight is the top choice.
To sum up, Gloom enhances Shadow damage for all your attacks, including those from the 6 Skeletal Warriors, 6 Skeletal Mages, Golem, as well as your own Blight and Decompose.
This means around 15 different sources can inflict Shadow damage. However, not all Minions attack the same target.
Shadowblight adds an interesting twist. Shadow damage infects enemies with Shadowblight for 2 seconds. Plus, all your Minions, including you, inflict 10% extra damage on these infected enemies.
Moreover, every 10th Shadow damage hit (from Blight, Decompose, and your minions) deals an extra 22% Shadow damage on enemies with Shadowblight, thanks to the Gloom node.
Grim Harvest (1/3)
The reason why you need to add one point to it is that this node gives you access to Fueled by Death. Nevertheless, it can be useful as you constantly use Raise Skeleton, and it provides you with yet another resource needed for Essence. Thus, you can cast more Blight.
Fueled by Death (3/3)
This node is crucial for your Shadow Summoner Diablo Necromancer build. Each time you use a Corpse, it enhances your Shadow damage for a few seconds. It’s not clear from the tooltip if the timer resets with each Corpse consumed.
Normally, you’ll summon a Skeletal Priest every 5 seconds. Therefore, Fueled by Death should be activated regularly throughout fights as you consume corpses via Raise Skeleton.
Now let’s summarize how you should invest your points. First of all you need to put 4 points in Decompose, 5 skill points in Blight, 1 skill point in Blood Mist, and 1 point in Army of the Dead.
Then you should focus on adding 3 points early to Skeletal Warrior Mastery, Skeletal Mage Mastery, and Golem Mastery. After that, invest 1 point into all non-Skill nodes, and when you’re finished with this, fill them up to Rank 3, except for the following nodes: Unliving Energy, Grim Harvest, Reaper’s Pursuit, Gloom, and Inspiring Leader. And that’s how you’ll spend 48 skill points.
Additional 10 Points for Shadow Summoner Necromancer Build
As we’ve mentioned above, you can also earn 10 points by gaining Renown points. If you invest your time in activities that bring you those points, you might have 10 of them before hitting level 50. In that case, you can spend them on the following Diablo 4 Necromancer skills, which will make your build more powerful:
- Bonded in Essence (2/3)
- Death’s Defense (2/3)
- Bonded in Essence (3/3)
- Death’s Defense (3/3)
- Hellbent Commander (2/3)
- Death’s Embrace (2/3)
- Death’s Reach (2/3)
- Death’s Embrace (3/3)
- Death’s Reach (3/3)
- Necrotic Carapace (2/3)
By maxing out Bonded in Essence and Death’s Defense, you will ensure the highest Minion survivability that you need for level 50 and World Tier 3. And the choice behind investing in Necrotic Carapace rather than maxing out Decompose is that it’ll give your Necromancer more survivability, which is crucial for World Tier 3-4. With this skill, whenever you channel Decompose and a Corpse is generated, you will acquire a bonus Fortify shield every 2.5 seconds. What else is great about Fortify is that it also provides 10% reduced damage from all sources.
The Book of the Dead: Best Choices for Shadow Summoner Necromancer
In Diablo 4, each class has Unique Class Mechanic, a system that offers you your own distinct playstyle. For Necromancer, this is Diablo 4 Book of the Dead, which gives you an opportunity to keep track of and improve your Minions or opt to give them up for a bonus. You can get your hands on this mechanic at level 5.
With that being said, here are the best the Book of the Dead choices that will greatly benefit your build:
- Skeletal Warrior: Skirmishers – Allows you to summon an extra Skirmisher Warrior.
- Skeletal Mage: Shadow – Shadow Mages can launch one additional shadow bolt every 5th attack.
- Golem: Bone – Every time Bone Golem receives damage that equals up to 20% of its Maximum health, it drops a Corpse.
The Skirmisher Skeletal Warrior option lets you add one more Skeletal Warrior. If you later apply Blood Getter’s Aspect, you can add 2 more warriors for a total of 6. With the Aspect in an Amulet, you get +1 extra warrior. Having more Skeletal Warriors is beneficial as they deal Shadow damage with the Shadowblight, Gloom, and crowd control damage bonuses.
As you now know, the Skeletal Shadow Mage adds an extra shadow bolt attack every 5th attack. If you use Viscous Aspect on your Amulet, you can have more mages on the field, leading to more 5th shadow attacks on a boss. These minions deal extra damage to enemies slowed by your Blight and also get Shadow damage boosts from different sources and modifiers.
The Bone Golem option provides another source of new Corpses. This is particularly useful in the first 20-30 levels to maintain your maximum number of Skeletal Minions on the field, which is essential for summoning a Skeletal Priest that buffs their damage and heals them. More Corpses on the ground means you can replace lost Minions faster, helping the Skeletal Priest to do its job.
The Best Paragon Choices for Levels 50-75
Quick reminder: for every quarter of a level, you will gain 1 Paragon point. Thus, for every level you reach, you will get 4 Necromancer Paragon points. As a result, you will acquire 100 points for every 25 levels, meaning by the time you hit level 100, you will have 200 Paragon points.
Moreover, you can earn additional 20 points through Renown progression for every zone on the map. Therefore, your total amount of points will equal 220.
And now, let’s proceed to nodes and Glyphs, which require a lot of research and a deep understanding of how things work, as you can’t just place the desired Glyph into any Glyph slot.
Some Glyphs need certain conditions to activate a bonus, like +40 intelligence (within radius). If there aren’t enough nodes within the radius to total 40 intelligence, the Glyph won’t work. So, make sure you have enough intelligence nodes to meet the Glyph’s requirements.
When you unlock your Starter board at level 50, you need to choose the following nodes:
- Prime – Damage, Maximum Life, Bonus: Damage if requirements met (Willpower)
- Knowledge – Damage, Intelligence, Bonus: %Damage if requirements met (Willpower)
- Preservation – Armor, Intelligence, Bonus: Armor if requirements are met (Dexterity)
Given that Glyphs are random drops, it will be hard to have a choice of what is at your disposal at first. However, once you are able to select, here are the recommended Rare Glyphs for this build that necessitate at most +40 intelligence as a requirement (within radius):
As for the Dexterity side, there’s one Glyph you can pick that requires 25 Dexterity and which radius requirements can be met. However, be aware that the following Glyh can benefit you if only you have a piece of gear that adds Vulnerable to your attacks. If you don’t have it, then you can just skip this Glyph: Exploit.
There are three Paragon Boards that are particularly useful for the Shadow Summoner Necromancer build Diablo 4. One of them is the Cult Leader board, as it increases the damage for each active Minion type: Warrior, Mage, and Golem, effectively tripling damage when all three are active. However, suppose your Golem often dies in Tier 3 difficulty. In that case, the Skeletons will likely follow, making it harder to maintain a full army of skeletal minions and summon a Shadow Priest for increased damage.
So, you could focus on strengthening your Bone Golem first by increasing its Maximum Life and Armor to keep it and your Skeleton Warriors alive longer. Or, you could follow the Cult Leader route.
Once you reach the Board Attachment Gate at the top of your Starter Paragon board, we recommend going next to the Cult Leader board. Take note of your Legendary and Glyph slots and any Rare choices you want to select. You can rotate the boards to get to your desired Rare and Legendary nodes early.
For the Shadow Summoner Necromancer, rotate your board twice clockwise so the Hulking Monstrosity node is closest to your Board Attachment Gate. This puts the Hulking Monstrosity node 11 nodes away from the gate, rather than 12, and starts you with a Willpower node.
On this board, choose the following nodes:
- Miscreation – Golem Armor, Intelligence, Bonus: Golem Armor if requirements are met (Willpower).
- Mutation – Golem Damage, 10 Intelligence, Bonus: Golem Damage if requirements are met (Dexterity).
- Infused Golem – Golem Damage, Golem Maximum Life, Bonus: Golem Damage if requirements are met (Intelligence/Willpower).
Keep the board straight up with the Willpower node next to the exit gate. If you’re planning to go for a third Paragon Board (which is achievable before level 75 as long as you progress quickly across the first two boards), the best choice is the Cult Leader board.
Yes, initially, we suggested prioritizing the Hulking Monstrosity board to increase the Golem’s Maximum Life, which will keep all Skeletal Minions alive longer. Now that the Golem survives intense boss battles at World Tier 3, it’s time to enhance the full army of Minions.
Select the Cult Leader board as your third choice. Rotate the board so that the Cult Leader node is just 12 nodes away from the gate. This position starts you with a Willpower node.
On the said board, pick up these Glyph nodes:
- Armor-clad – Minion Armor, Maximum Minion Life, Bonus: Minion Armor if requirements are met (Dexterity).
- Puppeteer – Minion Damage, Minion Attack Speed, Bonus: Minion Damage if requirements are met (Intelligence).
Custody – Damage Reduction for Your Minions, Intelligence, Bonus: Damage Reduction if requirements are met (Dexterity).
Best Leveling Gear Recommendation
There will be a lot of random drops for your gear, meaning that you will have a vast choice of what to equip. So, it’s up to you which pieces of gear you want to add to your build. You can make up your mind about certain upgrades based on different properties. Sometimes, you can even obtain a Legendary Aspect that will define your Diablo IV Necromancer build, which would differ from your own. If that happens, you may think about changing your builds as you level up, given that respec is quite cheap at this point. The most important thing is to make sure your gear choices benefit your build greatly.
Top Legendary Aspects from Dungeons for Shadow Summoner Necromancer
Besides the drops, you can obtain Legendary Aspects by completing dungeons. And luckily for you, there are those you can get quite early in the first three zones: Fractured Peaks, Dry Steppes, and Scosglen. So, here are the Legendary Aspects you should focus on from the beginning:
| Legendary Aspect | Zone | Dungeon |
|---|---|---|
|
Scosglen |
Aldurwood |
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Fractured Peaks |
Nostrava Deepwood |
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Scosglen |
Underrot |
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Fractured Peaks |
Lost Archives |
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Dry Steppes |
Dark Ravine (Campaign) |
All Diablo 4 Necromancer Aspects except for the last one are crucial for this build, so their farming should be prioritized.
You can imprint rare items of your choice that provide +X% Shadow damage, or +X% Shadow damage over time, or something that has an impact on foes with a crowd control effect, such as + 1 Blight.
Moreover, there’s the Aspect of the Void that’s acquired from the drop. It can be quite useful as it makes enemies standing on the Blight’s defiled area and affected by crowd control take more Shadow damage from Minions with the help of Gloom and Shadowblight. More foes mean more damage.
The Aspect of Reanimation is a great addition as it significantly buffs Skeleton Minions’ damage. To make it work, just make sure you use Corpses to summon the Skeletal Priest that will help your Minions to survive long enough to trigger the effect.
The Flesh-Rending Aspect allows you to gain Essence every 2.5 seconds, which helps to cast Blight without exhausting yourself.
Besides the aforementioned Aspects, there are others you want to add to your Shadow Summoner build, and these are:
The first two allow you to summon extra 2 Skeletal Warriors and 2 extra Skeletal Mages, and if you imprint one of those Aspects into an Amulet, you will get an extra Minion for your army.
Rotting Aspect is quite important, too, as it can multiply the number of Corpses that help you replace the fallen Skeletal Minions, which is great when you have 6 Skeletal Warriors and 6 Skeletal Mages on the battlefield. After all, without the maximum number of Minions engaged in a fight and enough Corpses, it’s drastically harder to summon the Skeletal Priest.
Optimal Weapon Choices for Shadow Summoner Necromancer
Since weapons are crucial in Diablo 4, it’s important to find the one that suits your build the best. Thanks to Inherent Physical Characteristics that are unique to each weapon type, you can find the one that will be perfect for you.
There are few Diablo 4 Necromancer weapons you can choose from: one-hand Scythe, two-handed Scythe, Dagger, One-hand Sword, or Wand. And Shield or Focus as an off-hand option.
However, the first weapon you should get your hands on is Darkblade, a one-hand Necromancer Sword that is obtainable from the Extremely rare elite Sir Lynna found on Kylsik Plateau in Fractured Peaks. Darkblade stands out for its +% Shadow damage and +% Shadow damage over time on a weapon, which is rare at levels 18-20. This bonus also applies to all your Minions from Gloom and Shadowblight.
You can make this weapon a Legendary Item by using a Codex of Power or an Aspect at the Occultist vendor in Kyovashad and improve its stats at the Blacksmith. Once you unlock the next Tier difficulty, consider farming Sir Lynna again and repeating the process at the Occultist and Blacksmith.
Also, if you’re lucky enough, you can obtain a Unique Item – Doombringer – which is very useful for this Shadow Summoner build.
Choosing the Best Shadow Summoner Item Affixes
Here is the list of item affixes that will benefit your build the most:
- +X Rank(s) to ALL SKILLS/SHADOW Skills
- +X% Damage to SLOWED/STUNNED/CROWD CONTROLLED Enemies
- +X% CRITICAL STRIKE chance/damage
- +X% Lucky Hit
- +X% to Maximum Life
- +X% Overpower Chance
The magic properties that are listed below are not that crucial, but still great for the build if you find them:
- +X% Attack Speed
- +X% of Damage Dealt is Converted to Life.
- +X% Resistance to All Elements.
- +X% Life on Hit
If there’s an affix you don’t want to have, you can always remove it via Enchanting at Occultist, but remember – there’s a random element present. So, the best thing to do is to not use this option with your leveling gear, as you’ll be replacing it along the way. But if you have Jewelry that you’re not going to replace any time soon, you can try Enchanting.
Moreover, in the situation when you just hate a specific affix and the Occultist offers you +X% Shadow damage or +X% Shadow damage over time, choose either of these options. Keep in mind that your Minions take Shadow damage for their physical attacks with Gloom.
Best Gems for Shadow Summoner Necromancer
Gems are placed into gear sockets and provide bonuses based on where they are: Armor, Jewelry, or Weapon. At level 20 and higher, you can start to combine Gems to upgrade them. Though Jewelry gems are great for Resistance, Armor, and direct Damage Mitigation work better for reducing non-Physical damage at this point.
So, the best gems for Shadow Summoner Necromancer are:
| Slot | Gem Type | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Weapon | Emerald | +X% Critical Strike Damage to Vulnerable Enemies |
| Armor | Ruby | +% Maximum Life |
| Jewelry | Skull | + Armor |
Conclusion
Now you know everything you need to craft the potent Shadow Summoner D4 Necromancer build and become an impeccable master of Minions that will do all the work for you. All you need to do now is to use this knowledge and start assembling and leveling the build, which, however, won’t be easy.
As you can see, it will require significant time investment and a lot of work that makes the whole experience less fun. But you can avoid all those inconveniences and get this build crafted and ready for the challenges with LFCarry.com. We’ll gladly assist you in this complex journey and ensure you have the best gaming experience.
So, if you want to uncover your Necromancer’s full potential and dominate on the battlefield, choose LFCarry and take your game to the next level!
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