The Best Necromancer Leveling Build for Diablo 4 Season 5

‘Diablo 4’s Season 5 has added a number of new items, game modes, and a seasonal questline to the game. As players enter the Season of Infernal Hordesmany are looking for a fun, quick leveling build that will help them reach the endgame quickly. While there are many viable leveling builds for every class, the Minion build is one of the best for Necromancers.

The Necromancer minion build has received several improvements in Season 4, and the game has added an interesting new legendary aspect to improve the build’s survivability. Read on to learn how to play the Necromancer minion on the road to 100 this season, with itemization suggestions, a skill tree walkthrough, and Book of the Dead recommendations.

The best build for leveling the Necromancer

The Necromancer’s Minions received a number of improvements in Season 4 that a servant-focused build, ideal for leveling the Necromancer. Most important among these improvements were the changes to the servants’ armor, which dramatically increased their deployment time. This, combined with some of the new items from Season 5 andLegendary aspects transforms the Minion Necromancer into a true Army of the Dead Power Fantasy.

The Servant Necromancer Skill Tree

The skill tree for the Minion Necromancer looks a little odd at lower levels, partly because nothing is expected from the first node. However, Diablo 4’s progression system requires players to invest two points into the Basic Skills node before they can move on, resulting in a semi-random investment of 2 points into Sever and/or Decompose. Otherwise, this build is very passive-heavy, focusing on providing the player with consistent corpses to use for Corpse Tendrils or Raise Skeleton.

Basic skills

These skills should only be used while there are still slots available on the player’s hotbar and should be abandoned around level 25 to 30. Players can invest two points into Sever or two into Decompose, depending on their preference for melee or ranged combat.

Core competencies

The main source of damage for this build is Blood Surge until the Necromancer’s minions level up. This build only has room for 2 points in the skill, but that shouldn’t matter since it’s not on the hotbar unless you move away from full minions in the late game (more on that later).

• Blood Gush (2/5)
  • Increased blood flow
  • Paranormal Blood Rush
• Lifeless energy (3/3)
• Imperfectly balanced (3/3)
• Cut off meat (3/3)

Corpse and macabre abilities

This is about the time when the Necromancer’s minions start crushing targets. However, in addition to picking up passive buffs, players should also go for the Necromancer’s best defensive option – Blood Mist.

• Blood Mist (1/5)
  • Enhanced Blood Mist
  • Gruesome blood mist
• Spiked Armor (2/3)
• Skeleton Warrior Mastery (3/3)
• Grim Harvest (2/3)
• Driven by Death (3/3)

Curse skills

At this level, the player invests 2 points into Iron Maiden for essence generation and additional damage, but primarily focuses on the node’s many useful passive abilities.

• Iron Maiden (1/5)
• Embrace of Death (3/3)
• Increase damage (3/3)
• Death is approaching (3/3)
• Skeleton Mage Mastery (3/3)

Corpse and Macabre Skills (2)

This is where the Minion Necromancer gets its all-important CC as well as its key defensive stats. At this point, the build should be crushing elite packs and mini-bosses with relative ease while the player watches from the back line.

• Corpse Tendrils (1/5)
  • Improved Corpse Vines
  • Tendrils of the Contaminated Corpse
• Necrotic Armor (3/3)

If players are having trouble clearing content at this point, it is most likely due to an issue with itemization. The build should be able to clear the Capstone Dungeon “The Cathedral of Light” up to level 40.

Ultimate Skills

This is where players need to keep their end goal build in mind. For a pure minion build in the late game, remove all points from Blood Surge and Imperfectly Balanced to invest them in Army of the Dead and some additional passive abilities here. However, if players want to move towards the Blood Surge build, they should not choose Army of the Dead. Here are the two options side by side.

Important passives

There is only one passive ability that benefits a necromancer, and that is Kalan’s Decree. This passive ability is especially powerful for those who want to continue a servant build, World Levels 3 and 4, as they drop items that increase the maximum number of servants.

The Book of the Dead for the Minion Necromancer

The Book of the Dead is fairly straightforward for the Minion Necromancer, as he chooses options that maximize Horde damage. The real damage dealers of this build are the Skeleton Mages, who receive the lion’s share of buffs from items.

List of Necromancer Servants

The breakdown of this build focuses on increasing damage to the player’s minions while maintaining sufficient personal survivability. Look for gear with the following:

• Weapon damage
• Damage increase (%)
• intelligence
• Maximum service life
• Critical hit chance
• Critical hit damage
• Vulnerable damage
• Movement speed

Since the Necromancer’s minions gain 100% of the player’s stats in addition to the minion-specific stats, any damage stats will slightly improve your minions.

Useful legendary aspects

Although a level build does not have the best selection of aspects since players are more limited by RNG and material resources, the following legendary aspects fit well with this build.

• Revival (Aldurwood in Scosglen)
• Grasping Veins (Corrupting Grotto in Kehjistan)
• Unyielding Commander (Faceless Shrine in Hawezar)
• Aphotic (Random Drop)
• Raging Dead (Random Drop)
• Occult Domination (Random Drop)
• Shademist (Random Drop)
• Coldbringer (Random Drop)
• Sly Steps (Random Drop)
• Hardened Bones (Random Drop)
• The Great Feast (Random Drop)

If players are lucky enough to have to choose between more of these aspects than can fit on their equipment, Prioritize Hardened Bones, Occult Dominion, Frenzied Dead, Shademist, Coldbringers, and The Great Feast.

Useful unique items

Unique items may drop earlier depending on the player’s luck. Some that are worth equipping when found are: