Diablo 4 Minion Necromancer Build – Blightlord – In this Diablo 4 Endgame Necromancer Build Guide, I’ll show you how to play an evolved version of the Blight Summoner Build, specifically the Blightlord. The Blightlord is a hybrid AoE Diablo 4 Build that specializes in dealing massive Shadow Damage over Time (DoT). If you’re searching for a Diablo 4 Endgame Necromancer Build that is aimed at World Tier 3, and one that controls the battlefield while commanding an army of powerful Minions, then this Diablo 4 Build Guide is for you!
Diablo 4 Minion Necromancer Build – Blightlord
The way this Diablo 4 Minion Necromancer Build – Blightlord works similarly to its previous iteration, the Blight Summoner Necromancer in terms of Skill rotation. You cast Blight to initiate encounters until Essence is down, and then alternate it with Corpse Explosion to release a miasma and deal Shadow DoT. This, together with the Shadowblight Key Passive, is a huge boost in your and your army’s damage due to the added stacking effects.
But in World Tier 3, you’re going to have to factor in Damage Reduction, Armor, and especially Barrier generation when it comes to farming for the right Equipment. Still, this Build won’t have Blood Mist to gain Immunity so you need to rely on the Aspect of the Protector to provide you with a Barrier. Remember to stay away from the center of combat to dodge the majority of incoming damage, and let your Minions do the heavy lifting up close and personal.
The aspects that would significantly help them remain effective are the Blood Getter’s Aspect and Aspect of Reanimation. Not only will you get to summon more Skeleton Warriors but they’ll also deal greater damage whether they’re fighting regular enemies or Elites and Bosses. Since you have an entire army, you won’t have issues spawning Corpses for Corpse Explosion and regenerating Essence for Blight.
Skill Distribution
Each Diablo 4 Necromancer Build comprises the 6 Active Skills they have equipped and changing these Skills can drastically alter the way the Necromancer Class in Diablo IV plays. In this section, we’ll take a look at what Skills you should slot for the Commander of Darkness Necromancer Diablo 4 Endgame Build. By the time you reach Level 50, you’ll approximately have 55 points, assuming that you’ve accumulated enough Renown from different regions to gain 6 extra points. So your Skill distribution should look something like this:
The above list gives you the general order to invest in Skills, but keep in mind that you should prioritize picking up new Active Skills over investing in passives, so pick up passives later if you can get new Active Skills when you level up.
Diablo 4 Blightlord Endgame Necromancer Build – Skills
In this section, I’ll discuss the key similarities and differences in Skills between the previous Blight Summoner Beginner Build and the current Commander of Darkness Endgame Build for the Necromancer Class. The strategies will change depending on the type of foe you’re facing whether they’re comprised of a large group of enemies or Elites and Bosses.
Blight, Decompose & Imperfectly Balanced
Blight continues to work extremely well with the strength of your Minions, particularly because of the Supernatural Blight upgrade that lets them deal increased damage. It’s an incredible Core Skill because it deals damage upfront and even larger DoT for a period of 6 seconds. Casting Blight over and over again to stack the Shadow effects really brings out its power.
The best aspects to chase are the Aspect of the Void and Cadaverous Aspect. Aspect of the Void makes it so that Blight will pull in enemies at its AoE, which is a great way to then trigger Corpse Explosion to destroy them all. Whereas the Cadaverous Aspect grants extra Core Skill Damage when you use Corpse Explosion or the Raise Skeleton Skill. Remember though that these aspects can only be obtained from Legendary Items that have them.
Since you have Decompose, you continue to generate a sufficient supply of Essence. This helps fuel the Imperfectly Balance passive, which you need to deal greater damage with Blight. Sure, it uses more Essence but every damage boost is important to clear groups of enemies faster. Another advantage of this Basic Skill is that it can be cast from afar so the Commander of Darkness Necromancer Build can still maintain a safe distance and move often to avoid taking direct damage.
Corpse Explosion & Grim Harvest
The Blight and Corpse Explosion combination synergize extremely well even at Level 50, allowing you to obliterate enemies and Bosses quickly. This is due to the added Shadow DoT brought about by the Blighted Corpse Explosion upgrade. As such, you’re going to invest 5 points each for both of them and unlock all of their corresponding modifiers.
Another great source of Essence, which is why this Diablo IV Commander of Darkness Necromancer Build has a continuous supply of it, is Grim Harvest. By maxing this passive out, you keep replenishing your resources fast every time Corpse Explosion or Raise Skeleton is activated.
Minion Passives & Book of the Dead
To increase the effectiveness of your Skeletons and Golem in terms of dealing better damage and improving their survivability on the battlefield, you’ll need to allocate 3 points each to the following passives – Skeletal Warrior Mastery, Skeletal Mage Mastery, Necrotic Carapace, Golem Mastery, Bonded in Essence, and Death’s Defense. The first four are self-explanatory so I’ll focus on Bonded in Essence and Death’s Defense.
Managing a large army of Minions won’t come easy at the start, especially since you need to make sure that they’re always alive. This is where Bonded in Essence comes in. Every time your Skeletons are all present, a Skeleton Priest buffs their damage and heals them, even more so with the passive. Next is Death’s Defense, which is essential against any enemy. No matter the damage, their Maximum Life will not be depleted beyond a certain threshold from a single hit. As such, they’ll be able to stay alive longer by surviving at most 2 massive attacks.
For Book of the Dead, you’ll unlock the 1st node of the Skirmisher to raise another Skeletal Warrior. For the Skeletal Mage, you’ll select the 2nd node of the Shadow form instead of the Cold version for your Diablo 4 Commander of Darkness Necromancer Build. This is a clear departure from the previous Build since we’d like to establish synergy between the Shadow Damage dealt by your Skeletal Mages and the Shadowblight Key Passive. Doing so will let you both deal greater Shadow Damage. And lastly, for the Golem, you’ll still choose the 1st node of Bone so he can spawn a Corpse for Corpse Explosion, especially in Boss fights.
Darkness Passives
The darkness passives are what will help improve the power of your Diablo IV Endgame Necromancer Build. These are comprised of Reaper’s Pursuit, Gloom, and Terror. Remember that you’ll be allocating 3 points here for each of them.
First is Reaper’s Pursuit, which amplifies the damage of Blight and raises your Movement Speed, allowing you to traverse better to avoid taking direct damage. Next are Gloom and Terror. These passives further boost you and your Minions’ stacking Shadow DoT upon casting Decompose and Blight, letting you eliminate them more efficiently.
Shadowblight
For the Key Passive, you’re going to choose Shadowblight. What this does is it further increases the Shadow Damage you and your summons deal due to the Shadowblight infection. So the more stacks you place with Blight and Corpse Explosion, the greater the damage received by your enemies.
A great aspect to consider here is the Aspect of Decay, which you get from Legendary Items. The damage of Shadowblight increases the next time it’s inflicted on targets, letting you kill them efficiently. If you don’t manage to acquire it due to RNG, you can opt to complete Akkhan’s Grasp Dungeon in Hawezar to obtain the Blighted Aspect. This will briefly grant an additional 50% damage when Shadowblight damages enemies several times.
Diablo 4 Blightlord Endgame Necromancer Build – Equipment, Gems & Aspects
At World Tier 3, you’ll gain access to a lot of items together with their bonuses. It can be difficult to determine the right ones to keep for your Diablo IV Necromancer Endgame Build without the proper direction. So in this section, I’ll discuss the best gear bonuses you should chase after together with the gems to place in them.
Weapon
For the Weapon, I highly recommend equipping a Two-Handed Weapon to be able to clear dungeons faster due to the increased damage you’d deal. The best aspect to use here is the Cadaverous Aspect to further amplify the damage of Blight.
The bonuses you’ll want for your Weapon are Core Skill Damage, and Critical Strike Damage, Damage to Slowed Enemies. Armor. For the gems, be sure to slot the Amethyst to improve your Shadow DoT.
Armor
For Armor, you have the Helm, Chest Armor, Gloves, Pants, and Boots. The major bonuses you’ll want here are Willpower, Dexterity to raise your Dodge Chance in moments when you inadvertently go head-to-head against your targets, Crowd Control Duration so your enemies remain Slow longer, Critical Strike Chance, +Ranks to Blight and Corpse Explosion.
The Legendary Aspect you’ll want for your Armor is the Aspect of the Protector, which is crucial to this Commander of Darkness Diablo 4 Necromancer Endgame Build. This will automatically conjure a Barrier when you hit an Elite or Boss for 10 seconds so you avoid taking direct damage. You can acquire the Aspect of the Protector from the Lost Archives Dungeon in Fractured Peaks. Additionally, you can place your Aspect of Reanimation and Aspect of the Void here.
For the gem, be sure to slot Diamonds to improve the Barrier you conjure in order to absorb greater damage and Rubies to raise your Maximum Life.
Jewelry
For Jewelry, you have the Amulet and 2 Rings. The gear bonuses you’ll need include Damage Reduction, Damage to Distant Enemies, Additional Damage to Those Affected by Shadow DoT. The gems you’ll want here are Sapphire and Skull. Since getting Frozen in World Tier 3 is painful, you should be able to improve your Cold Resistance with Sapphire to reduce the chances of this happening. You can also keep raising your Armor with the Skull gem for improved resilience.
For the Amulet, be sure to slot the Blood Getter’s Aspect to boost its power by 50%. Doing so will increase the number of Skeletal Warriors you summon to a maximum of 8! Should you get lucky and acquire the Viscous Aspect from a Legendary Item, the number of your summoned Skeletal Mages will increase as well.
Diablo 4 Blightlord Endgame Necromancer Build – Paragon
At Level 50, you unlock the basic Paragon board, which lets you gain Stats and specific bonuses to further enhance your Diablo 4 Commander of Darkness Endgame Necromancer Build. What you’ll want to focus on while you’re leveling from Level 50 to 70 is Willpower and Intelligence to considerably boost your damage.
For the Glyph Socket, you’ll primarily want the Mage Rare Glyph to further raise the damage of your Skeletal Mages. If you don’t have this yet, then you’re better off using the default Advantage or Reanimator Magic Glyphs. Advantage raises your damage against Slowed targets whereas Reanimator enhances your Minion’s overall damage.
Final Tips
For this Diablo 4 Commander of Darkness Endgame Necromancer Build, once you get used to the Skill rotation and you manage to spawn Corpses regularly, you can opt for the 1st node of the Blood Golem in the Book of the Dead. Doing so will allow them to tank more damage on your behalf. And it becomes highly relevant if you choose Army of the Dead over Blood Mist at higher levels.
When it comes to additional Legendary Aspects, the good ones to chase after are the Aspect of the Embalmer and Unyielding Commander’s Aspect. Aspect of the Embalmer grants a chance to conjure a Blood Orb every time you use Corpse Explosion so this will come in handy in tougher Boss fights. This aspect can only be obtained from a Legendary Item. Meanwhile, the Unyielding Commander’s Aspect improves your summons’ Attack Speed and durability while Army of the Dead is active. You can obtain it by finishing the Faceless Shrine Dungeon in Hawezar.
Lastly, remember to prioritize the resurrection of your Minions over Corpse Explosion the moment that 1 or 2 of them have been slain. You need your Skeletal Priest for the damage buff and Health restoration so that your Skeletons will perform better in combat. Also, make it a habit to keep casting your Golem Skill to taunt even regular enemies as they can get very pesky in World Tier 3.
Be sure to check out our Diablo 4 Wiki for any other questions you have about the game and the Builds page if you are looking for more Diablo IV Builds, as well as our Getting Started Guide and Best Class to Play in the Beta Guide if you are looking for more Diablo 4 content!
