Golem Necromancer Guide
Last Updated:April 11, 2025|Changelog
Possessed by the dark and forbidden knowledge of the dead, this sadistic Necromancer raises and commands a single Summon Bone Golem. This mountain of flesh and bone is a terrifying sight to behold. Its body is made entirely of bones, with sharp spines that fly out of its body impaling anything around it.
Punish your own Minion by spamming Rip Blood on itself to proc its Bone Nova nonstop; a powerful Minion Spell the build is based around. Use Dread Shade and Bone Curse to buff your Golem's Damage tremendously and to guarantee its Bone Nova always Crits. The build also has great mobility and utility thanks to Transplant.
This setup doesn't require any Unique to function. However Items like Death Rattle, Ribbons of Blood, Mad Alchemist's Ladle and Twisted Heart of Uhkeiros take the build to the next level.
Overall this twisted Necromancer is an amazing build capable of crushing all the content in the game, even in Hardcore. If you are looking for a dark summoner that destroys enemies while being able to easily survive the hardest encounters, this build is perfect for you!
This article assumes you have a Level 70 Character.
Reach Level 70 with our Necromancer Leveling Guide.
If you are looking for a different playstyle, check all our Build Guides!
Skills
Summon Bone Golem
This is a single Summon Bone Golem build. Thanks to the Betrayal Node, this setup can reliably proc Bone Shatters by spamming Rip Blood on the Golem. Take Bone Hail and Amalgam of Mages to buff the Bone Shatter's Damage. Hunger provides crucial Health sustain for the player.
- Consider grabbing Amalgam of Rogues and Unnatural Speed inside Summon Bone Golem while mapping to increase the Golem's Movement Speed.
- If you struggle with enemy aggro, take a few Points in Tower of Bones instead of maxing out Amalgam of Sentinels.
- For higher DPS but less sustain, grab Charred Bones instead of Hunger inside Summon Bone Golem.
Passives
Passives provide powerful effects that dictate the playstyle of a Class and its Masteries. Remember that you can allocate Passives on the first half of all Masteries regardless of the one you chose.
- Take Nodes with Intelligence, Health, Vitality and Ward Retention.
- Investing in Forbidden Knowledge and Unnatural Preservation helps you cap your Resistances.
- Combine Grave Thorns with Level of Summon Bone Golem to increase the Golem's survivability.
- Aegisfall boosts your Golem's DPS substantially.
- Frantic Summons provides a good amount of Cast Speed.
- The Leech from River of Bones has great synergy with Dread Shade's Egoism Node.
- Moonlight Pyre provides a great amount of base Damage.
- Spec Mortal Tether instead of Reclamation of Souls before getting Twisted Heart of Uhkeiros.
Make sure to complete the Campaign to get all your Passive Points.
Gameplay
This Necromancer wants to position itself far away from danger while spamming Rip Blood on its Summon Bone Golem to make it proc as many Bone Shatters as possible. Make sure you are familiar with enemy mechanics to know when to use your Support Skills to stay alive. Pay attention to the telegraphed attacks of your enemies and stay out of their range.
Skill Usage/Rotation
- Summon your Summon Bone Golem.
- Buff your Golem with Dread Shade.
- Use Transplant to juke, move or refresh the buffs it provides.
- Command and direct your Summon Bone Golem into battle with the "A" key.
- When the Summon Bone Golem is close to enemies, use Bone Curse on it to buff its Damage.
- Spam Rip Blood directly on your Summon Bone Golem to proc its Bone Shatters.
- Refresh Dread Shade and Bone Curse whenever they expire.
- Once you get Twisted Heart of Uhkeiros, generate tons of Ward by spamming Rip Blood on the Golem.
Mapping
- Transplant on Cooldown towards the objective.
- Use the "A" key to ensure your Golem is always ahead of you, aggroing enemies.
- Let the Summon Bone Golem kill enemies as you cruise through the Echoes.
- Maximize the Haste provided by Transplant.
- Let enemies surround your Summon Bone Golem before you stop to attack.
- Once you get Experimental Minions Transported with Traversal Skills use Transplant to reposition your Golem next to enemies.
Bossing
- Take advantage of all your buffs and keep them active as much as possible.
- Hit Bosses with the Blood Splatters from Rip Blood to apply Ailments to them.
- Save Transplant for dangerous telegraphed Boss attacks.
- Once you get Twisted Heart of Uhkeiros, use it to generate tons of Ward before fighting Bosses.
- Transplant is a blink that can be used to go over certain gaps and terrain.
- Cast Transplant close to your Summon Bone Golem to refresh Bone Curse on it.
- Position yourself behind your Summon Bone Golem so it can block most dangerous homing projectiles aimed at you. Be careful though, some attacks can pierce and still hit you.
- Rip Blood's Blood Splatters can apply the Chance To Fear On Hit from Large Immortal Idol. You can use this mechanic to CC enemies around your Golem.
Learn more about how to maximize your gameplay in the Build Scaling section of this guide.
Gear
Gearing in Last Epoch revolves around finding Items and then using the powerful Crafting System to enhance them. As long as an Item has Forging Potential left, players can upgrade or modify their Affixes up to Tier 5. However, the powerful Exalted Tier Affixes are drop only and can't be modified by players.
Using the correct Item Bases allows you to make use of their amazing Implicits, this is fundamental for gearing efficiently. Combine Implicits, Passives, Idols and Blessings to cap your Resistances and stack other defensive layers into your gear as efficiently as possible. Plan ahead for your next upgrades and consider the final Blessings of your build while gearing. Finish up by farming Uniques with Legendary Potential and Sealing Affixes into Exalted Items to unleash all of your build's power!
Here are the Stat Goals for this build:
- Capped Resistances
- Capped Less Damage Taken From Crits
- 2500 - 3500+ Health
- 40% - 60%+ Armour
- 60 - 100+ Intelligence
- 80% + 150% Cast Speed
- 5000 - 10000+ Ward
- 300%+ Minion Critical Strike Multiplier
Gear Progression
Milestone 1
Aim for good Item Bases with four valuable T5 Affixes. The Defensive rolls on T5 Suffixes are very important at this stage as they can easily cap all your Resistances when combined with Item Implicits, Idols, Blessings or Passives.
Milestone 2
Make sure your Critical Strike Avoidance or Less Damage Taken From Crits is capped. Remember that Woven Flesh is always an option early on. It can be farmed by killing the Abomination in the Fall of the Outcast Monolith Timeline.
Milestone 3
Fit as much Health into your gear as possible. Hybrid Health and Health are extremely valuable, but can be hard to find early on. Use regular flat Health until you find them.
Milestone 4
Aim for T5 Level of Summon Bone Golem on your Helmet to invest more Points into its Skill Tree.
Milestone 5
Get T1 Experimental Minions Transported with Traversal Skills on your Boots. This Experimental Affix is extremely valuable for speed; as the Golem can be quite slow while clearing Monolith Echoes by default.
Milestone 6
While you look for this basic set of gear, start farming your Empowered Blessings and look for any Idols that can help you cap all your Resistances momentarily or increase your Damage output. Try to find a Large Immortal Idol with Minion Chance To Apply Mark For Death On Hit to increase the Damage enemies take.
Milestone 1
Upgrade your T20 set up with Exalted items, high value Sealed Affixes or ideally both. Obtain the Affixes included in the Planner, but prioritize the indicated Item Bases for their Implicits. Make sure to Seal highly efficient low tier Affixes.
Milestone 2
When all your core Defenses are covered, start working on scaling Summon Bone Golem with Intelligence and Minion Health.
Milestone 3
Get Mad Alchemist's Ladle for the Cast Speed and Chance to Apply Frailty on Hit to decrease the Damage enemies deal to you. Mad Alchemist's Ladle scales amazingly with Intelligence, your main stat.
Milestone 4
Farm Twisted Heart of Uhkeiros killing the Emperor of Corpses in the Reign of Dragons Monolith Timeline. The Ward generation greatly increases the survivability of the build.
Milestone 5
Get a Death Rattle to increase your Summon Bone Golem's DPS. This Amulet is quite common and easy to get just by targeting the Unique Amulet Echo Rewards in the Age of Winter Monolith Timeline.
Milestone 6
Remember, the Nemesis encounters in Echoes can give your regular Uniques Legendary Potential thanks to the Egg of the Forgotten. This build can be very Unique heavy, so it's good to include them as soon as possible.
Milestone 7
As you finish up your Empowered Blessings keep a decent Health pool, capped Resistances, Endurance and Critical Strike Avoidance. Keep an eye for Large Immortal Idols with %Health Prefix and useful Suffixes.
Milestone 1
Upgrade your gear with T7 Exalted items, high value Sealed Affixes or ideally both. Obtain the Affixes included in the Planner, but prioritize the indicated Item Bases for their Implicits. Make sure to Seal highly efficient low tier Affixes. T7 Level of Summon Bone Golem greatly upgrades the Golem's survivavility needed for high Corruption.
Milestone 2
Get Ribbons of Blood with Legendary Potential straight up. Farm it by killing the Abomination in the Fall of the Outcast Monolith Timeline. Aim for the Affixes shown in the Planner for the Legendary Potential slots. This item is not mandatory for the build but the raw HP it provides is very valuable.
Milestone 3
Keep farming Death Rattle, Mad Alchemist's Ladle and Twisted Heart of Uhkeiros with the max Legendary Potential you can find. Aim for the indicated Affixes in the Planner for each slot. Legendary Twisted Heart of Uhkeiros might require you to grind hard.
Milestone 4
Focus on finishing your Large Immortal Idols with %Health Prefix and Minion Chance To Apply Mark For Death On Hit, Health, Ward Retention or Chance To Fear On Hit Suffixes. You also want Stout Lagonian Idols with %Health Prefix and Resistance or Health Suffixes.
Milestone 1
Keep upgrading your gear with Exalted Items with high tier Sealed Affixes. Get every stat in the right place and on the correct Item Base. Min/Maxing your gear in Last Epoch can be pushed to the extreme as Items with multiple Exalted Affixes and Legendary Potential are technically possible.
Milestone 2
Get as close to perfect rolls for all your Empowered Blessings and find all your desired Idols with the best in slot Prefixes and Suffixes.
Milestone 3
Continue farming Death Rattle, Ribbons of Blood, Mad Alchemist's Ladle and Twisted Heart of Uhkeiros with high Legendary Potential you can find. Remember that some of these Items are extremely hard to get with high Legendary Potential. Good luck with the chase!
Milestone 4
Feel free to experiment with any crazy Unique, Legendary or Experimental Items that you might craft, trade or find! The possibilities are endless!
Learn the basics for crafting gear with our Beginner Crafting Guide.
Check our Unique Item & Set Farming Guide and learn how to get them!
Want to know more about Legendary Items? Check our Legendary Guide!
Blessings
Completing a Timeline in the Monolith of Fate lets you choose one of several randomized Blessings from its unique pool. Their benefits are permanent and persist even outside of the Monolith of Fate.
Empowered Blessings are a fundamental part of all builds, so getting the correct ones for each is key.
The sooner you reach Empowered Monolith, the faster you can start farming your desired Blessings!
Normal Blessings are not important as they are eventually replaced by Empowered Blessings. However they can still be a great source of Resistances, Critical Strike Avoidance or Life Leech for your build early on.
Pick up these Normal Blessings on your way to Empowered:
- Echo of Solarum
- Memory of Light
- Bastion of Divinity
- Survival of Might
- Resolve of Humanity
- Persistance of Will
- Bulwark of the Tundra
- Protection of Heorot
- Resolve of Grael
- Heart of the Caldera
- Embers of Immortality
- Body of Obsidian
Note: Don't target farm Normal Blessings. Get to Empowered Monolith as fast as you can.
Reaching Empowered Monolith unlocks all the level 100 Timelines and the ability to farm Empowered Blessings. Unlike Normal Blessings, these need to be farmed until you get the desired ones for your build. It is extremely important to get this set up as fast as possible to free up affix slots on your gear. Remember, the more value you get from your Blessings, the easier it is to craft efficient gear!
These are the core Combat Empowered Blessings for this build:
- Work on Grand Bastion of Divinity and Grand Echo of Solarum for their Resistances.
- Get Grand Resolve of Humanity for more Resistances.
- Finish up by farming Grand Bulwark of the Tundra and Grand Body of Obsidian for a huge survivability boost.
These Empowered Blessings are flexible and depend on your current needs and goals.
These are valuable Empowered Drop Rate Blessings for this build:
- Grand Sight of the Outcasts is very valuable to help you find Large Immortal Idols with %Health Prefix and Minion Chance To Apply Mark For Death On Hit, Health, Ward Retention or Chance To Fear On Hit Suffixes.. Once you find all your Idols, you can switch to the Grand Winds of Fortune and focus on Uniques instead.
- Take Grand Slumber of Morditas to find more Relics. Alternatively, you can get Grand Vision of the Aurora to find more Amulets.
- Lastly, farm Grand Cruelty of Formosus to find more Wands.
Learn how to farm Blessings fast with our Advanced Monolith Strategies.
Idols
Idols grant your character bonuses when equipped in the dedicated Idol Container. Unlock all the slots of your Idol Container by completing the Campaign and some of its Side Quests. Remember that some Idols are Class specific and you won't be able to equip them with other non-compatible Classes.
These are the Idols recommended for this build:
- Get 4 Large Immortal Idols with %Health Prefix. For the Suffixes you need at least 1 Minion Chance To Apply Mark For Death On Hit. The rest of the Suffixes are more flexible; Health, Ward Retention or Chance To Fear On Hit are all valuable. The Fear can keep enemies off your Golem.
- You also want 4 Stout Lagonian Idols with %Health Prefix and Resistances or Health Suffixes. Acolytes can get an absurd amount of Health just from Idols.
- You might need extra Resistances out of your Idols early on, so keep an eye for anything useful until you get your final setup.
- Health
- %Health
- Vitality
- Armour
- Elemental Resistance
- Lightning Resistance
- Fire Resistance
- Cold Resistance
- Void Resistance
- Physical Resistance
- Poison Resistance
- Armor granted by Bone Armor
- Increased Cooldown Recovery Speed With Transplant
Make sure to complete the Campaign to get all your Idol Slots.
Learn how to be efficient with Idols with our Advanced Idols Setups Guide.
Build Scaling
This Necromancer spams Rip Blood on its Summon Bone Golem to make it proc as many Bone Shatters as possible; a powerful Minion Spell that always Crits thanks to the Dread Shade buff. This build also has great survivability thanks to the multiple defensive layers it can take advantage of.
- Rip Blood: Must be spammed to trigger as many Bone Shatters as possible. Use Blood Infusion to buff the Golem and to apply Ailments to enemies hit by the Blood Splatters.
- Minion Power: Your minions gain Minion Power based on your Character Level. By level 100, they deal 45% More Damage and take 45% Less Damage (Multiplicative with other modifiers).
- Minion Melee Flat Damage: You want to get as much Flat Damage for your Summon Bone Golem as possible, since the build has tons of Damage Multipliers provided by its Skill Tree, Dread Shade and Bone Curse.
- Cast Speed: The faster you cast Rip Blood on your Summon Bone Golem the more Bone Shatters procs.
- Intelligence: Summon Bone Golem gains 4% Damage per point of Intelligence. Additionally, each point of Intelligence provides 4% Ward Retention.
- Minion % Spell Damage: Anything that increases Minion Spell Damage is welcomed.
- Minion Spell Critical Strike Chance: Dread Shade's Egoism Node grants 100% Crit Chance to your Golem while it's active.
- Minion Critical Strike Multiplier: Increases the Damage your minions Crits deal. Get as much as you can! Death Rattle provides tons on its own.
- Bone Curse: Thanks to the Merciless Node, you can also apply this Curse to your Minions. Spiked Bones and Barbed Construct are great enhance this buff.
- Level of Summon Bone Golem: Get this Prefix on your Helmet to invest extra Points into its Tree.
- Chance To Shred Armour on Hit: Each stack of this Ailment reduces enemy Armour by 100 for 4 seconds and stacks infinitely. Enemies have 0 Armour by default and it can go into the negatives. At -1000 Armour a target takes 23.7% increased Physical Damage, while at -4000 Armour it takes 57.2%. With the amount of hits the build has, the stacks ramp up quickly.
- Mark for Death: This Ailment that reduces All Enemy Resistances by 25%, causing them to take extra Damage. Get it from a Large Immortal Idols with Minion Chance To Apply Mark For Death On Hit.
- Bone Armor: Transplant provides this buff. It grants Flat Armour and Damage Reduction.
- Armour Mitigation: This build can get decent Armour. Just with the implicit Armour from your gear, Grand Body of Obsidian and Grand Bulwark of the Tundra Blessings you reach 40%+ Mitigation.
- Ward: A shield above your Health that is generated by certain effects, rapidly decays over time and is protected by Armour Mitigation. Your Ward is generated thanks to Twisted Heart of Uhkeiros. The build can reach more than 15k Ward with investment.
- Ward Retention: Reduces the rate of Ward decay.
- Intelligence: Each point of Intelligence provides 4% Ward Retention.
- Vitality: Each point of Vitality grants 6 Flat Health, 1% Poison Resistance and 1% Necrotic Resistance. Additionally, Dread Shade's Martyrdom grants Flat Armour per point of Vitality to your Golem.
- Health: This build can stack an insanely high Health pool that is very effective when combined with all the other defensive layers the build has. Acolytes have access to Large Immortal Idols with %Health; not all Classes have access to these amazing Idols! The more Health you have, the more Ward that can generate Twisted Heart of Uhkeiros.
- Endurance: A defensive mechanic that allows you to take up to 60% less Damage while below a certain Health threshold. Due to the Ward nature of the build, endurance is not as valuable as it is for pure Health setups. Your base Endurance Threshold is 20% of your total Health by default.
- Healing: Rip Blood's Quenching and Hematology Nodes and Summon Bone Golem's Hunger Node provide insane Healing for the build. This is especially important to Heal up all the Health consumed by Twisted Heart of Uhkeiros to generate even more Ward.
- Chill and Slow: Are Ailments that greatly reduce the Action and Movement Speed of your enemies. They are must haves on most builds, especially once you reach hard content with insane speed modifiers.
- Frailty: This Ailment reduces the Damage dealt by enemies by 6% for 4 seconds. Stacks 3 times. Apply it with Rip Blood's Blood Splatters.
- Ward and Ailment Cleansing on Potion Use: Cleanse all Ailments on Potion use.
- Chance To Fear On Hit: The Fear provided by the Large Immortal Idols helps keep enemies far away. Apply it with Rip Blood's Blood Splatters.
Our Damage Explained Article covers all you need to know to scale Damage.
Learn all you need to know to scale Defense with our Defense Explained Article.
Loot Filter
Loot Filters are critical in Last Epoch. Making sure you highlight all the related valuable Item Bases, Affixes, Uniques and Idols is crucial to ensure your character's progression. Click on the Generate Loot Filter button down below then use the Paste Clipboard Contents button in-game to import it!
Here is the Endgame Loot Filter for this build:
Learn how to load and make Filters with our Loot Filter Guide.
Video Guide
Summary
This Necromancer spams Rip Blood on its Summon Bone Golem to make it proc as many Bone Shatters as possible. It has good AoE, amazing single target DPS and great survivability thanks to its multiple defensive layers.
- This is a single Summon Bone Golem build.
- Thanks to the Betrayal Node, this setup can reliably proc Bone Shatters by spamming Rip Blood on the Golem.
- Buff your Golem with Dread Shade and Bone Curse.
- Use Transplant to juke, move or refresh the buffs it provides.
- This setup doesn't require any Unique to function. However Items like Death Rattle, Ribbons of Blood and Twisted Heart of Uhkeiros take the build to the next level.
- Generate Ward with Twisted Heart of Uhkeiros to easily survive the hardest encounters!
Credits
Written by Lizard_IRL
Reviewed by McFluffin, Facefoot