The Summoner Necromancer can be built in a multitude of ways, but the best by far is with Supernatural Sever. This proactive Core Skill is super-charged by your bony Minions and benefits from incredibly powerful Shadow passives that cyclically empower your undead horde! And this Undead Commando leads from the front-lines! Stand with your Minions in combat to boost their damage even further!
While you may think auto-including every Passive and active Skill that mentions your Minions is the play, many of these options are lack-luster at best (RIP to Army of the Dead). But the shrewd theory-crafters out there see amazing potential in Shadowblight naturally increasing your damage while empowering the Blighted Offensive Aspect Codex of Power Aspect.
With enough Crowd Control from Corpse Tendrils and Crippling Darkness to keep your bony-boys alive, this Summoner can truly control the battlefield!
ild guide takes you through the Campaign and Early Game up to Level 50. Check out Endgame Guides in our Necromancer Guides section!
- Fantastic AoE
- Great CC Options
- Strong Undead Army
- Good Boss Kill Speed
- Minion Management
- Relies on Crowd Control
- Repetitive Gameplay Style
- Lack of Unstoppable Abilities
Season 3 - Season of the Construct
Recommended Stones
- Gyrate - High upfront damage with an AoE component and low cooldown.
- Poison Support - Delivers more damage to your enemies.
- Initiative Support - Lets the Seneschal Construct gap-close and keeps the downtime between Gyrate casts low.
- Mockery Support - Groups and keeps enemies at a distance for you to deliver your damage more easily.
- Tempest - Sounds like the most broken Governing Stone in the game and has insane potential on paper.
- Arcing Support - Increases the amount of enemies Tempest can damage.
- Swift Support - Decreases the time between pulses.
- Registered Damage Support - In combination with the previous Tuning Stones this really sounds like the Barber all over again from Season 1.
Alternative Stones
- Swap Poison Support for Gripping Support to have more utility in your Seneschal Construct.
- Swap Registered Damage Support for Duration Support to have your Tempest out for longer.
- Swap Swift Support for Voluminous Support to cover more area with your Tempest.
Skill Showcase
Bone Splinters
Bone Splinters is our starter Generator due to its fast animation and ability to generate Essence quickly. It also has a decent chance to apply Vulnerable for our follow-up attacks to do even more damage.
After level 22, you get access to Corpse Tendrils, for which you need extra help from Reap to generate Corpses on demand. These corpses are required to activate Corpse Tendrils, enabling you to group enemies together to maximize your AoE damage.
Skill Tree & Gameplay
Generators
You use Bone Splinters to recover Essence early on while applying Vulnerable. You eventually respec to Reap for more utility and Corpse generation. When using Reap you want to keep the Damage Reduction up whenever you are in danger or about to take a big hit.
Sever
Sever is your main source of damage which scales its damage for each active Minion you have upon cast.
Corpse Explosion & Corpse Tendrils
Corpse Explosion serves multiple purposes while not using Essence but Corpses instead. First and foremost it is used to finish off enemies and cause a domino effect. Once you begin detonating Corpses, you generate more Corpses by killing enemies, which can then be used to detonate and produce even more Corpses. Secondly it generates Essence with Grim Harvest and increases your damage with Fueled by Death. Use Corpse Explosion on your way out of the fight to finish off remaining enemies and activate Reaper's Pursuit to get to the next pack faster.
Corpse Tendrils may be the best source of Crowd Control (CC) in Diablo 4. It Slows, Stuns, applies Vulnerable or generates Blood Orbs and pulls every monster (except Bosses) into a single space so that all of your AoE damage becomes infinitely more effective. With a few of your modifiers and Passives, these statuses become great sources of damage scaling as well. NOTE: Corpse Tendrils does not consume Corpses.
Use the slider on the bottom to see the Skill progression
Key Passive
Unlocking the Shadowblight Key Passive massively increases your damage. Now every 10th time an enemy receives any Shadow damage while they are afffected by Shadowblight, they take an additional portion of Shadow damage. Additionally Shadowblight's damage scales with your Shadow Damage over Time on your gear.
Check out our Renown Guide to unlock all your additional rewards efficiently.
Book of the Dead
There are 3 different Minion types you can choose to summon or sacrifice, located in the Book of the Dead. The Summoner Necromancer chooses to utilize Skeletal Warriors - Reapers for additional Corpse generation, Skeletal Mages - Cold for additional Essence generation and Golems - Blood for maximum damage.
Unlocking the Book of the Dead
You're able to summon Skeletons as early as level one, with the ability to customize your Skeletal Skirmishers starting at level 5, when the Book Menu unlocks. From there, you unlock more types of Skeletal Warriors, Skeletal Mages and eventually Golems as you gain levels. The Golem requires you to complete a Quest, which is detailed in this resource post. You must put the Raise Skeleton and Golem skills on your skill bar to summon them.
Learn more details in our full Book of the Dead Guide.
Gear Progression & Stat Priorities
Ultimately, the best weapon for leveling a Summoner Necromancer is a Two-Handed Sword or Scythe for as much damage as possible. Always go for higher DPS (Item Level) over the rest of a weapon's stats during leveling.
If you have multiple weapons with the same DPS prioritize the one with these stats:
- Intelligence
- All Stats
- Damage to Slowed
- Vulnerable Damage
Hint: Press SHIFT over an item to compare it to what you're wearing!
Armor
Armor typically grants you Defense and Utility stats, except the Gloves, which offer a multitude of Offensive options. Here are the important stats to look for:
- Helm:
- Maximum Life
- +xx% Total Armor
- Cooldown Reduction
- Lucky Hit Chance while You Have a Barrier
- All Stats
- Intelligence
- Chest Armor:
- Maximum Life
- +xx% Total Armor
- Damage Reduction from Close
- Damage Reduction
- Maximum Minion Life
- Damage Reduction from Distant
- Gloves:
- Attack Speed
- Lucky Hit Chance
- Critical Strike Chance
- All Stats
- Intelligence
- Pants:
- Maximum Life
- +xx% Total Armor
- Damage Reduction from Close
- Damage Reduction
- Damage Reduction from Distant
- Boots:
- Movement Speed
- Elemental Resistance
- +xx Ranks to Corpse Tendrils
- All Stats
- Intelligence
Jewelry
Jewelry provides powerful Offensive and Defensive stats that help you on your leveling journey. Pay close attention to the rolls as higher leveled pieces aren't always better:
- Amulet:
- +xx Ranks of the Hellbent Commander Passive
- Movement Speed
- Minion Attack Speed
- +xx% Intelligence
- Cooldown Reduction
- Rings:
- Maximum Life
- Critical Strike Chance
- Minion Maximum Life
- Lucky Hit Chance
- Damage to Close Enemies
- Vulnerable Damage
Read more about itemization in our Damage Explained, Defense Explained, and Stats Explained articles.
Legendary Aspects
The Codex of Power is a collection of Legendary Aspects you can imprint onto Rare or Legendary items at the Occultist. They unlock after completing specific Dungeons located around Sanctuary. For leveling, there are a few Aspects that can significantly help you if you have the funds to imprint them:
Top Codex Legendary Aspects
| Aspect | Dungeon |
| 1. Blighted Offensive Aspect | Akkhans's Grasp - Hawezar |
| 2. Offensive Aspect of Grasping Veins | Corrupted Grotto - Kehjistan |
| 3. Offensive Aspect of Reanimation | Aldurwood - Scosglen |
Learn everything about the Codex of Power.
Helpful Legendary Aspects
Here are all helpful Legendary Aspects for the SummonerNecromancer that can either be found in the Codex of Power or Extracted from an item drop.
NOTE: All Legendary Aspects can be found from item drops, and that these can roll better and often significantly better than ones sourced from the Codex of Power.
- Disobedience
- Helps you out defensively by increasing your armor when you hit enemies.
- Do not gamble for this during leveling.
- Might
- Reduces the damage you take while active but forces you to press your Basic skill every two to six seconds.
- Do not gamble for this during leveling.
- the Long Shadow
- Turns your Shadow Damage Over Time effects into Essence generators on Lucky Hit.
- If you struggle with Essence you can gamble Rings for this Aspect at the Purveyor of Curiosities.
- Hulking
- Decreases the time between your Golem's active ability whenever it proccs and generates more corpses.
- Decay
- Increases your Shadowblight damage tremendously in certain timeframes.
- Slaughter
- Gives you a burst of movement speed between packs.
- Do not gamble for this during leveling.
How To Level
You level in Diablo 4 by completing the Campaign, collecting Grim Favors for the Tree of Whispers, grinding Dungeons, or interacting with Seasonal mechanics. While there are many ways to level up in Diablo 4, not all of them are made equal.
Campaign Leveling
- For your first character in Diablo 4, completing the Campaign provides the best gameplay experience and gives you access to key unlocks like your Mount.
- If you don't have your Mount, you MUST progress the Campaign until you complete the quest Donan's Favor at the start of Act 4.
- After obtaining your Mount you can skip the remainder of the campaign at any time.
- The Campaign is the slowest way to level, but it's worth experiencing the Campaign and Diablo 4's storyline at least once.
- To play Seasonal Content you need to have completed or skipped the Campaign.
Seasonal/Alt Leveling
- Complete the Season questline, progress your Seasonal Journey to unlock Legendary Aspects, and work on your Seasonal powers.
- If your account is below Rank 5 Renown in each zone, focus on completing your Renown.
- This only needs to be done once.
- Complete the Dungeons needed for any Legendary Aspects from your Codex of Power.
- From level 1-50 you should focus on getting experience, by completing dungeons with high monster density like the Domhainne Tunnels, or Sirocco Caverns.
- If you get bored of the dungeon grind, you can farm Grim Favors for the Tree of Whispers or complete Gathering Legion Events.
- After level 50 you need to balance leveling up, Glyph Experience, and participating in endgame activities like Helltide, and Bosses.
- The fastest experience possible is completing Nightmare dungeons with monsters up to 10 levels above your current level.
- Check out our Nightmare Dungeon Tier List for the best layouts!
- Around level 45-50 you should move to World Tier 3.
- Around level 60-70 you should move to World Tier 4.
- The fastest experience possible is completing Nightmare dungeons with monsters up to 10 levels above your current level.
- Alternatively: Get boosted by a friend to World Tier 4 then leech experience/loot and Glyph exp (post 50), in Nightmare dungeons.
Leveling Tips and Tricks
Let's look at some tips and tricks to remember when leveling up!
- Level Up Your Potion. You need to farm materials to upgrade your character's potion.
- Make sure you collect all materials as you explore Sanctuary, especially Gallowvine which is used in many Elixir recipes!
- Compare your Items... Literally. Press Shift over an item in your inventory to compare it to what you're wearing.
- This makes it easy to determine what is and isn't an upgrade.
- Don't Imprint Your Best Aspect Onto Your Weapon. The most critical piece of gear while leveling up is your weapon, which gets replaced constantly.
- This makes imprinting a Legendary Aspect that CANNOT be found in the Codex of Power onto your weapon a bad idea in the long run.
- While leveling, only imprint Legendary Aspects from the Codex of Power onto your weapon if any at all.
- It is a better idea to put your best Offensive Aspect on your Amulet, which can be used for a long time.
- Sacred is just better. Between level 45 and 50 you're able to beat the Capstone Dungeon and enter World Tier 3, you gain access to powerful Sacred items which have higher item power and better stats. Getting a Sacred weapon significantly improves your farming speed.
- There's little point to entering World Tier 3 before 45 because that's the minimum level where you can equip Sacred items.
- The same happens with World Tier 4 and Ancestral gear at level 60.
Next Steps
Necromancer Guides
Video Guide
Summary
- The Summoner Necromancer makes the best of a bad situation. You turn your brittle bony Minions into a powerhouse to be reckoned with by juicing them up with Shadow Damage!
- Your Golem has an activated ability that can help with initiating combat and directing your swarm effectively. Use it whenever it's off cooldown!
- Remember that Sever has multiple damage steps per Skill use. Try to target enemies in a cluster and make sure that the path from you to them is full to get the maximum damage output!
- Reap generates your Essence and extra corpses when you want to start a fight with Corpse Tendrils, or empower your Skeletal army.
- Corpse Explosion becomes an AoE Shadow Damage over time vehicle to help empower the rest of your build and keep perpetual triggers of your Shadowblight Passive.
- Look out for helpful Legendary Powers in the Codex of Power, especially those that increase your damage and survivability!
- Read the Next Steps above to continue your journey.
- Happy blasting 🚀!
Credits
Maintained by Chronikz.
Originally written by Macrobioboi.
Reviewed by Echohack.