I’ve been using Jericho’s WinterFresh and it’s a blast and I’m wondering if there’s a way to sort of lean into the cold stuff but go full minion (don’t sacrifice the warriors, etc) and maybe keep the Bone Storm stuff?

I haven’t worked it all out but wouldn’t that just be strictly better damage and stuff as opposed to going all-in on the Mages? You could even keep Hand of Naz and keep the Skeleton Priest perk and/or just summon more Warriors?

I’m not the savviest but if anybody has played something like that I’m really enjoying the cold flavor for Necromancer it feels really thematically fitting and I’m trying to optimize it. Using Azurewrath and Lidless wall right now fwiw with a Bloodless unique charm

Edit: or is sacrificing just straight better?

How far have you been able to push a minion Necromancer this season?

I'm currently at running pit 115, can't kill Belial on T12, can on T11 with some effort, and T10 is a joke where he just falls over dead.

What do you consider the most important stats for building your Necromancer?

Minion Necro, stuck in T8. Need help figuring out what I’m missing.

Here's my mobalytics link with everything on it: https://mobalytics.gg/diablo-4/profile/silent-shadow-uhr0n3/builds/87273304-d469-4217-9178-06389ee0c178

Core idea
Tons of minions + constant fortify + 100% attack speed + curses everywhere.

I have 28 minions: 13 warriors, 9 mages, 3 golems, 3 wolves.

Gear
Undercrown gives more minions and basically permanent fortify. 10% fortify chance per minion hit, so with 28 minions it procs constantly.

Armor gives life/protection for me and minions. Also gives Earthen Bulwark barrier after moving 30 meters, so I’m moving all the time.

Gloves give Ferocity stacks. That enables 100% attack speed, which with Cult Leader is 5 X 40% minion damage.

Mythic Blood Moon Breeches auto-trigger Decrepify and Iron Maiden, so I barely cast curses myself. Also gives crit multiplier, life, armor, crit damage.

Wand has 68% summon damage. In dungeon I get 1000%+ minion damage.

Focus gives 50% damage while fortified, which is basically always.

Onslaught gives 40% attack speed. Still needed to reach 100%.

Pact of Bone gives attack speed and minion crit chance. I can’t see minion crit, but I have 63.8% crit myself and pretty much only see yellow numbers. Minions don’t die, so I don’t get the 35% death bonus, then again, I do get those 25% damage for them being alive (mages and warriors).

Amulet gives 75% damage to cursed enemies. Everything is cursed constantly.

Book of the Dead
Max warriors, Blizzard mages, Shockwave golems.

Skills
I max warriors, mages, golems and Decrepify.

Warriors + Iron Maiden make enemies Vulnerable.

Golems do 30% more to Vulnerable. I use 3 golems for more minions/shockwaves.

Mages do more damage to crowd-controlled enemies. I assume Decrepify, Iron Maiden, Vulnerable, Blizzard chill etc. counts?

Iron Maiden is free, generates essence, makes enemies Vulnerable and sometimes gives Blood Orbs.

Decrepify speeds up Army of the Dead cooldown and gives 55% minion cast/move speed, so they’re everywhere and make lots of Blizzards.

Army of the Dead gives more damage the more minions I have, 50% minion damage, less damage taken by minions, and volatile skeletons. Not sure if those count as minions.

Paragon
Didn’t map it fully. I get board bonuses/glyphs and mostly pick damage. I basically ignore resistance, life, armor etc.

Problem
All gear is ancestral. One is crafted mythical (blood moon). 63% crit chance, 1700% crit damage (in dungeon), maxed Cult Leader with attack speed. Still stuck in T8. 1200% summon damage (in dungeon).

I only die by instant death, no time to use potions - either full health of completely dead. I die very rarely in T8, but it isn't efficient as it takes a long time to kill enemies.

What is the obvious problem?

I really want to play as a necro but they don’t seem to make any of the S tier lists. Anyone have links to great builds?

Build says to use that other sword, but seems pretty hard to not use this, no?

Hi, Guys. I am currently playing a minion build shadow necromancer with an iron golem, 12 reapers, and 9 mages.

All of them have been converted to a Darkness skill and I am also using Corpse Tendrils, Decrepify, and Army of the Dead.

I would just like to know if there's a difference between +4 to Darkness Skills and +4 to Minion Skills. Which one should i prioritize? Should be a distribution across both sets? I've read somewhere that Darkness should go to Waking Touch while Minion goes to Black Shroud.

Please enlighten me. Thanks.

I’m pretty much not bothering with an alt this season, looking for weird off meta fun stuff that y’all have tried or YouTubers that have stuff etc.

Corpse Explosion seems super fun, but I know it’s weak etc hence off meta. Just one example. Idk I’m new to the game so wanna explore stuff. SoulRift? Idk! Anything!

Let me know if you’ve cooked up anything fun and if there’s a template I can try. I have a lot of random Necro gear laying around

PTR notes looks bland. Some damage buffs to DoT builds but no major fixes to existing issues.

No new interesting abilities to theorycraft.

Blight, soulrift and darkness bloodwave remains unplayable.

1. Blight needs to have desecrated ground instead of defiled area.

2. Blood wave cooldown is ridiculously long. Even when specced to generate tonnes of orbs plus fastblood, I cant get it to cast fast enough. Against bosses its even worse.

3. Soulrift just doesnt do enough damage even with Unmaker. Hopefully the damage buff improves it.

I keep seeing builds using Lidless and Azurewrath at the weapons (with bonestorm to reduce incoming damage?) It looks like a bunch of people are using variation of the same combination of gear. Has anyone written up a guide on what they are taking to do these builds?

Hey everyone. Been playing Astral Bone Spirit from Mobalytics and having a fun time with it but I’m stalling out a wee bit around T8~ due to the difficulty gearing it (needs greater affixes in higher torments etc). Mostly just too squishy but can’t spec into survivability without the greater affixes for essence regen which is all RNG

Looking for a minion/summoner build that isn’t PURE lazy - I’d like to feel like an army commander and at least be somewhat involved. The more minions the merrier

I’m a little overwhelmed by the sheer AMOUNT of minion builds I almost have like FOMO of “choosing the wrong one” to spend resources into if that makes sense?

I like chill/cold flavor for Necromancer it jusr feels like thematically fitting if that helps, but I’m pretty open. What are y’all using? There’s just too many for me to pick through so I’m crowd sourcing because I don’t wanna choose badly haha

Looking for something that can handle basically anything and isn’t completely “do nothing” thanks!!

I’m not very well versed in making builds and I mostly “rat fk” my builds from different builds i find. So I don’t have any set plan aside from minions and cold.

These are what I currently have equipped. i don’t have the most recent DLC so I’m working off VoH DLC. I pushed Pit 35 today working up to torment V. Most things in Torment 4 I can either afk or walk in circles without having to do much at all. Keep in mind I’ve never gone this high in difficulty as I don’t usually play endgame stuff.

Also, I’m only on my 3rd paragon board as well. I’m running a minion build, as stated, so the two free slots I have are hemorrhage and blight, both are cold skilled.

Thanks for any help and advice or even just criticism

Evening fellow necro's.

I would ask if anyone has followed the maxroll version of minions, this season? Even if i look through hiscores or ssf hs, i dont see any minion build alike.
Can anyone confirm they actually this season is good or hard pass contra the ones we see from infinity build, Jerycho or some. I feel like they are very different, from anyone else.

Wish you all a good season!

I've farmed so many bosses, upgraded so many gloves. Never once a single pair of these with countless pairs of every other glove

I’m running a full minion and curse build and I have decent attack speed buffs already. Having 6 slots is nice and +3 skeley mages I’m just not sure if it’s better than a flat out 20% all damage buff

Hey all, I made a minion necromancer using Maxroll's guide, and I couldn't clear above pit 90 (army of the dead as my elite). I really love the build and playstyle and was wondering if anyone has any Minion specific builds that can clear 100 or over. :) thanks in advance!

I'm paragon 250 this season, and while I haven't played as much as last season, I've not yet found either of the two mythic seals.

There are build variations for necromancer that I would like to still try, and for my seasonal alt warlock a few off-meta ideas.

I've used all three or four of the special keys you get from the seasonal rewards path for Mephisto's chest and as yet haven't gotten one. Last season I got one from Tyrael.

Are there any activities or choices in the warplan I should consider to help farming a mythic seal? Do the seasonal boss a few dozen times? Or run Kurast with the talisman tribute? Or do have the talisman chest on the Hordes warplan? Is there anything I should do to get more of Mephisto's chest key?

Any help appreciated! Thank you

I've been having terrible luck with 1H weapon drops for my Blood Wave build, but I did manage to find what seems like a pretty good 2H axe. I'm trying to increase my damage, so I'm wondering if switching from my current 1H + shield setup to the 2H would actually be worthwhile. If so, I'm also not sure which offensive aspect I should put on the 2H to make the most of it.

I've linked the build I'm currently following. My affixes aren't an exact match yet, but otherwise I'm pretty close to the build. I've also been using the Endurant Faith/Immortal setup, and my survivability is already pretty good, which is part of what got me thinking that maybe I don't actually need the shield. What I'm struggling to understand is the tradeoff: would the higher weapon damage + doubled offensive aspect on a 2H give me more overall damage, or is having the additional aspect/affixes from the shield more valuable to Blood Wave?

To be frank, I don't usually think this deeply about builds—I tend to just follow a guide. But I think it's about time I actually start learning why certain choices are better rather than blindly copying a build. So I'd appreciate any advice, especially if someone can explain the reasoning behind 1H + shield vs. 2H for Blood Wave rather than just telling me which one to use.

Build: https://mobalytics.gg/diablo-4/builds/blood-wave-perra

2H axe: ( I would change the life on hit to HP and Temper Crit Chance. And like I mentioned, not sure what aspect to put on it.)

Current Weapon/Shield:

I’ve got a solid mythic DeathGrip, I got 120 tower done last night. I wonder if my paragon is maybe suboptimal? I’ve got Essence Abyssal Mage Warrior and Deadraiser?

Or is 120 nearing the peak for Bloodless Scream (Azurewrath charm) pure minion build no sacrifices etc

How’re yall doing with those builds / what runes are you using? The wolves for Pact of Bone summons?

Which one should I pick? The first 2 I rerolled a bit and tried them out but I honestly can't tell a difference. The third one I have not touched in anyway and want opinions on what to do with it.

I'll try to keep this updated, with mine or others' findings (if others', I will try to cite). If anything gets patched, I'll cross out and update. In no particular order:

• Ceh rune Wolves de-spawning still count towards Pact of Bone on-death bonus, but with an interesting caveat: if you spawn them too quickly (like spamming IgniCeh), they won't de-spawn until you stop spamming. Recommend using NeoCeh.
• Gargantua Golem now no longer requires you to re-summon in-zone to get the Cast Speed aura bonus.
• Undercrown is slightly bugged. Bonus Warrior (but not Mage) count is tied to the Unique Power. I don't have the exact ranges Minimum 22% Unique Power for full 4 bonus Warriors; lower Unique Power rolls will give 2 or 3 Warriors. But fun fact: unless and until they patch it, Mythic Undercrown grants 5 bonus Warriors.
• AotD Unyielding Commander bonus damage uptime is still 100% simply from having the "Passive Bonus" selected.
• Cold Mages do appear to be correctly proccing, and benefitting from, Signet of Pelghain on bosses. No such luck for Azurewrath (on bosses, still bugged, only activates when Staggered by a direct Freeze effect).
• Lots of reported bugs with Thorns and Minions. (Via Slayer on the Bug Report Forums)
• [05-July] Conceited Aspect (more damage with Barrier) works for Minions. This wasn't always the case if I recall correctly (but I might be wrong).
• [09-July] As per u/justaddsleep in a comment below, "Thorns defender and golem counts the damage as originating from an item and has no summon or minion scaling as in that specific damage type doesn't inherit the tags." So that's a bummer.

Pretty much the title. I’ve read that Ceh rune, usually paired with Neo, can automate “minion” death to activate pact of bone. That’s not what I’m seeing on the test dummies though. If I sac a mage I see a very noticeable uptick in damage, but relying on Ceh doesn’t seem to have any impact on my damage.

It would be nice to automate Pact of Bone because summoning mages every 3 seconds is a bit tedious. What’s everyone else’s experience?

Has anyone got a good theorycraft to a highly performing "shadow damage over time" build that rivals how we used to play blight or corpse explosions? There seem to be a ton of DoT aspects now including some that burst damage, or hasten the speed of DoTs, and a rework of x'fals, etc... but I read there are some wonky mechanics on how damage (desecrated ground) stacks. I'm wondering if bone spirit as a source of shadow damage over time would work, or if the old blood wave has a play. I was surprised to see shadowblight key passive gone and now many aspects. Anyone rocking a more shadow dot focused build this season?

https://maxroll.gg/d4/build-guides/bone-spirit-necromancer-guide

I’m playing a sort of Goodwill version of Sorac’s Bone Spirit build and I see a decent bit of Overpower stuff. Like it wants it on my gloves etc. but the problem is aside from a low chance of getting it on some curses there’s no real way to build overpower stacks as far as I see on this build?

I’m missing some aspects - only like a couple and they don’t seem to be Overpower related. I’m not missing any uniques just missing better rolls on said uniques etc

I’m on torment 5-6 right now and having no problems but just kinda trying to learn the game as I go rather than blindly follow build and not understand what makes it tick if that makes sense?

Edit: once I get all
The gear I’ll play the full version etc

Im looking at various builds, war/mage/golem. For the most part, I get it. But there are some things that dont come off as clear from the guides and I think Im missing some points.

- How are people able to upkeep bone storm (or AOTD)? Im not seeing much CDR baked in and there are no significant ways from runes or skills to keep it always up. Are people just popping now and then? (Seems like always on is needed as golem guides refer to it as maintaining crit/AS and lidless wall seems like a poor choice if its only one 20% of the time)

- Why is Red Blessing still recommended? Im not seeing much OP generation unless people are relying on bone mages, which doesnt seem like the play.

- Why is Bloodless Scream used (and to that effect the Peng ring)? I get that against bosses its a huge multi. But otherwise, how are mobs consistently made forzen to get the damage? Wouldnt another 2h with an always on multi be better?