Build Introduction
This guide is a collaboration between GhazzyTV and community member Garm Z. The Summoner Necromancer leveling build is the absolute best-performing Necromancer leveling build this season! Not only are your minions going to be tanking all the enemies, but they will completely obliterate them in the process.
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Allocation of Skill Points
At level 20 in your character progression, it is optimal to move all your points from Blood Surge over to Blight including Supernatural Blight as now our minions will be able to carry most of your damage output.
Skill Tree and Skill Tree Points
Manually cast Iron Maiden till you have access to Bone Prison and later Aspect of the Cursed Aura will automate your curses.
To prepare yourself for what happens after level 60 when you get access to your Paragon Board head over to our Necromancer Builds page and chose your weapon!
Necromancer Class Mechanic – Book of the Dead
Necromancer’s class-specific ability is the Book of the Dead, which provides three different type of minions that unlock by leveling up. This build is designed around using all of your minions from this system.
- Melee Skeletons: Defenders [Upgrade #2] – This makes our melee minions insanely resilient.
- Mage Skeletons: Shadow [Upgrade #1] – We get x3% multiplicative damage scaling per Shadow Mage.
- Golem: Iron [Upgrade #2] – Makes our Golem provide tons of extra damage.
Gear, Stats, Gems, and Runes
Prioritize a higher total damage output when it comes to your weapon, as the higher it is, the better. Important to point out that we always want to be wielding a 2H weapon with this build. Make sure you check the aspects listed below to have a smooth leveling experience.
Legendary Item Aspects
To unlock Aspects in the Codex of Power, you must find them or complete the corresponding Dungeon where the specific Aspect drops. Visit the Occultist to imprint this Aspect onto an item. Aspects from the Codex of Power can be used often on weapons. Spending time in Helltides can be very helpful to get Veiled Crystal and Salvaging items provides more material you’ll need to upgrading and putting Aspects on items.
There’s only one available aspect power you can find in a dungeon that will scale the build, and that is the Aspect of Reanimation which you can unlock by doing Aldurwood in Scosglen. Due to this, it is not recommended to go out of your way to get this one as you progress the early levels.
A list of sought after legendary powers you need to look out for as you progress looks like this:
| Aspect Name | Legendary Aspect Power | Source |
| Aspect of Occult Dominion (Utility) | Your maximum number of Skeletal Warriors and Skeletal Mages is increased by 2. | Random Drop |
| Aspect of Hardened Bones (Defensive) | You and your Minions gain 10-30% increased Damage Reduction | Random Drop |
| Aspect of Slaughter (Mobility) | You gain 20% Movement speed. Lose this bonus for 5-2 seconds after taking damage from a Close Enemy. | Random Drop |
| Aspect of the Cursed Aura (Utility) | A dark aura surrounds you, inflicting Decrepify and Iron Maiden on enemies who touch it. Curses inflicted this way spread to surrounding targets every x seconds and last 4 seconds outside the aura. | Random Drop |
| Aspect of Frenzied Dead (Offensive) | Each time one of your Minions damages an enemy, they gain % Attack Speed for 3 seconds up to X%. | Random Drop |
| Aspect of the Great Feast (Offensive) | Gain x% Summoning damage, but each active Minion drains 1 Essence from you per second. Note: You will need Essence per Second modifiers on your gear (at least 2) to sustain your Essence using this Aspect. | Random Drop |
| Aspect of Grasping Veins (Offensive) | Gain #% Increased Critical Strike Chance for 6 seconds when you cast Corpse Tendrils. You deal x#% bonus Critical Strike Damage to enemies damaged by Corpse Tendrils for 6 seconds. | Corrupted Grotto in Kehjistan |
Changing Aspect costs Veiled Crystal which is easily farmed in Helltides. The order of priority for what aspect to have on your weapon is listed below:
For your amulet the order of priority is the following:
- Aspect of the Great Feast
- Aspect of Grasping Veins
- Aspect of Frenzied Dead
- Aspect of Occult Dominion
We have a dedicated in-depth Aspect and Codex of Power guide that you can check out for more information.
Stat Priority and Tempering Affixes
Keep in mind that this is only possible if you’ve found tempering manuals as you progress through this leveling guide. There are really not many modifiers worth bothering with during the leveling stage, but the recommendation is the same as our stat priority listed above for defenses such as Life and armor. For offensive scaling, you’re only looking for summoning damage or specific minion damage, such as Skeletal Mage damage.
When it comes to modifiers on your gear as you progress this build, you’ll be looking for the following stats:
- Life
- + Ranks to Minion Masteries
- Essence per Second
- Armor
- All resistances
- Lucky Hit: #% Chance to apply Vulnerable (at least 1 source of this modifier is recommended on Rings or Gloves)
- Attack Speed
When it comes to Tempering affixes it all depends whether or not you’ve dropped the Tempering Manual for them. Below you’ll find a list of attractive temper modifiers for this build:
- Damage to Cursed Enemies
- Maximum Life
- Total #% Armor
- Summoning Damage (Or any variant of minion damage such as skeletal or golem)
- Damage Reduction for your minions
- Chance for minion attacks to fortify you
- Corpse Tendril #% Size
- Skeletal Priest Effect Duration
- Golem active cooldown reduction
Gems and Runewords
Listed below are the best Gems and Runes to socket into gear for each item type.
Gems
- Weapon: We don’t recommend socketing anything in the weapon due to material cost and the fact that you’ll be switching your weapon so frequently during your level progression. If a socket exist on the item you could slot in a Sapphire for increased Vulnerable damage.
- Armor: Topaz for increased Intelligence.
- Jewelry: Skull to help reach the armor cap.
Runewords
When it comes to Runewords there’s a couple this build could utilize well: Gar to get increased Critical Strike Chance, Xal for maximum life or Lum to help Essence sustain, Qua Increases your movement speed. Any sort of Offering providing Runes such as Cir, Tam, Igni, Nagu or even Bac, would work well to enable these.
Make sure you place these in your Pants or Chest as you’ll want to keep your weapon slot open to be replaced should you find one with higher item power.’of this build would be to enable Gar to get increased Critical Strike Chance, Xal for maximum life or Lum to help Essence sustain. Any sort of Offering providing Runes such as Cir, Tam, Igni, Nagu or even Bac, would work well to enable these.
Make sure you place these in your Pants or Chest as you’ll want to keep your weapon slot open to be replaced should you find one with higher item power.
Boss Powers (Season 8)
In Season 8 we will have access to Boss powers granting some absolutely crazy abilities that we’ll utilize to enhance our builds power. Below, you’ll find a list of the recommended powers we use for this build. However, since these powers are coming from specific bosses they will either require you to be in the end-game content of the game or killing specific world bosses. Our recommendation during the leveling stage is to use whichever powers you come across as you progress till the end-game. Once you switch over to your desired end-game build this is where targeting specific boss powers becomes more important. Some that does stand out in case you get lucky during leveling would be to get Beastmaster’s Training, Hatred’s Embrace’s Haste, Outlaw Sharpshooter’s Eye or Sinerat’s Flames.
Mercenaries
Raheir is a great choice with increased resistances for you. The mercenaries are a nice addition to the game and whichever you choose to run is up to you. The recommendation for this build will be to run Raheir. We also recommend using the Reinforcement slot to level up all your Mercenary to get access to the caches for extra loot.
Below you’ll find the recommended skill set-up for Raheir:
Build Mechanics
Rotation and Playstyle
In the beginning, we utilize Blood Surge to one-shot enemies and restore Essence using Reap, Enhanced Iron Maiden, and eventually Ghastly Bone Prison will replace Iron Maiden for the Essence restoration. Later on we’ll replace the Surge with Blight, with the purpose of scaling our minions’ damage output. Outside of this we let our minions rip whilst we support them with utility skills such as Corpse Tendrils and Bone Prison. We also have a big damage button coming from our Golem (Iron) which should be used on cooldown.
Our panic button to get out of harms way is Blood Mist.
Don’t forget to use your Raise Skeleton even when you have maximum number of minions as this will heal them and make them stronger as well as provide you with some Essence.
Which Elixirs Should You Use?
To gain an edge in your adventures, head to the Alchemist in any major town, and craft Elixirs that enhance your stats and experience gain for 30 minutes. Remember to gather the necessary crafting materials by foraging plants. Select an Elixir that provides the resistance you need most, or try the Potent Iron Barb Elixir to boost your Armor.
Return to the Alchemist again around every 10 levels to upgrade your potion. The extra healing is essential to survival.
Season 8 Updates
For a complete overview of Season 8, mechanics and theme, new leveling activity, and other changes coming please take a look at our comprehensive season hub here.
Additionally, Season 8 isn’t changing anything notably for the build outside of providing the new Boss powers.
Difficulty and Endgame
This guide is designed to get you to level 60 in a smooth and enjoyable way. Once there, you’ll want to look at a proper endgame-designed build guide. Make sure you pick one of our recommended ones!
Changelog
- April 21st, 2025: Guide updated for Season 8.
- January 20th, 2025: Added recommended Runewords.
- January 18th, 2025: Updated for Season 7.
- October 12th, 2024: Updated Gems.
- October 7th, 2024: Paragon board added.
- October 2nd, 2024: Guide updated for Season 6.
- August 5th, 2024: Guide updated for Season 5.
- May 12th, 2024: Guide added.
