Of all the classes in Sanctuary, the Necromancer stands apart as a master of the macabre, a commander of the dead. While other builds focus on the direct, visceral power of bone or the debilitating curse of shadow, the Army Strength Build, often called the "Minionmancer," returns to the class's iconic fantasy: raising a vast, unstoppable legion to do your bidding. This guide will delve into creating a powerful end-game Minion Build for Diablo IV, focusing on the Book of the Dead, key skills, paragon boards, and essential gear to make your undead army truly formidable.
The Core Philosophy: Commander, Not Brawler
The first mindset shift for a successful Minionmancer is understanding your role. You are not the primary damage dealer; you are a force multiplier, a strategist, and a buffer. Your survival is paramount because if you fall, your army dissipates. Your positioning is key—stay behind your wall of skeletons, issue commands with your curses and skills, and eliminate high-priority targets that threaten your forces.
The Heart of the Build: The Book of the Dead
Your army's composition is customized through the Book of the Dead, the Necromancer's class mechanic. Your choices here are the foundation of the build.
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Skeletal Warriors: The Defenders of your ranks. For this build, the Defender skeletons are the optimal choice. Their increased health pool is invaluable for survival in high-tier Nightmare Dungeons and against world bosses. The upgrade path is crucial: sacrifice them for Thorns, but do not. Instead, choose the second upgrade: Your Defenders gain 15% maximum life and generate 2% of their maximum life as Thorns. This makes them incredibly durable, turning them into a spiky, immovable wall.
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Skeletal Mages: The primary damage dealers of your army. The best type for a pure minion build is the Cold Skeletal Mages. Their base attack chills enemies, providing crowd control. The upgrade path is critical: choose the second option, "Your Cold Mages have a 15% chance to cast a blast of wind that Freezes enemies for 2 seconds." This passive Freeze is an immense source of crowd control, locking down elites and dangerous mobs automatically.
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Golem: The elite tank and damage sponge. The Iron Golem is the undisputed champion for the Army Build. Its active ability, a powerful slam that stuns enemies, is excellent for interrupting deadly attacks. More importantly, its upgrade path offers a phenomenal bonus: "Every 5th Iron Golem attack causes a shockwave, dealing damage to the primary target and all enemies behind them." This provides valuable AoE (Area of Effect) cleave that your single-target skeletons sometimes lack. Never sacrifice your Golem in this build.
Skill Selection: Buffing Your Legion
Your skill bar is dedicated to enhancing, healing, and commanding your minions.
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Basic Skill: Bone Splinters is a reliable generator that also increases the damage your minions deal to the targeted enemy via the Blighted aspect (see Gear section).
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Core Skill: We forgo a traditional spender. Instead, Hemorrhage can be used for its utility as a potent healing tool for your minions, especially when enhanced.
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Corpse Skills: This is your engine.
- Raise Skeleton: Your fundamental ability. Always keep your army at full capacity.
- Army of the Dead (Ultimate): This is your "oh no" button and a powerful offensive cooldown. It instantly respawns all fallen minions and deals massive damage. The Prime upgrade makes them Unstoppable and damage immune during the effect, which can completely turn the tide of a losing battle.
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Curses:
- Decrepify is non-negotiable. This curse slows enemies and, most importantly, has a lucky hit chance to reduce the cooldown of your other skills, including Army of the Dead. The Abyssal upgrade makes cursed enemies vulnerable, significantly increasing your army's damage output.
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Key Passives:
- Kalan's Edict: This is the capstone for the minion build. As long as you have 7 or more minions active (easy to do), you gain 10% Damage Reduction and your minions gain 20% increased attack speed. This is a massive double bonus that defines the build's power.
Paragon Boards: The End-Game Amplifier
The Paragon system is where your minions transform from strong to devastating.
- Starter Board: Focus on nodes that grant bonus stats to Willpower and Intelligence, scaling your minion's damage through your own stats.
- Cult Leader Board (Legendary Node): This is your most important board. The legendary node, Cult Leader, states: "For each active Minion, you gain 1.5% bonus damage to your Minions' attacks. For every 5% of your Life you have missing, your Minions gain 2% Damage Reduction." This provides an enormous, scaling damage boost and survivability for your army.
- Wither Board: A great secondary board. Its legendary node, Wither, deals shadow damage over time to enemies when your minions hit them. This synergizes well with other shadow damage bonuses and provides consistent passive damage.
- Glyphs like Flesh-Eater (increasing minion damage after consuming a corpse) and Scourge (increasing shadow damage) are excellent choices. Always prioritize placing glyphs in radius ranges that maximize their bonus stat requirements.
Gear and Aspects: Making the Pieces Fit
Your gear is not for you; it's for your army. Prioritize stats like:
- +Rank to Raise Skeleton / Skeletal Mastery
- +Attack Speed
- +Minion Attack Speed
- +Minion Life
Essential Legendary Aspects:
- Aspect of the Void (Helm): Decrepify now pulls in enemies around the target. Incredible for grouping mobs for your minions to cleave down.
- Blighted Aspect (Amulet): Instead of its normal fire, Army of the Dead now summons blight puddles that deal heavy damage over time and reduce enemy damage. A huge upgrade to your ultimate.
- Aspect of Reanimation (Ring): Your skeletons gain increased damage, but take more damage, for each active skeleton. A straight damage multiplier.
- Aspect of Hardened Bones (Ring): While you have 7 or more minions, your minions gain a significant amount of damage reduction. Pure survival.
- Aspect of the Custodian (Gloves): After picking up a Blood Orb, your next Blood Mist costs no essence and has its cooldown reduced. Great for mobility and survival.
Unique Items:
- Ring of Mendeln: The holy grail for Minionmancers. While you have 7 or more minions, your minions have a chance to deal a massive burst of physical damage. This aspect single-handedly solves the build's single-target damage issues against bosses, making it not just viable but top-tier.
Playstyle and Conclusion
The playstyle is a dance of management. Keep Decrepify on large packs and elite enemies. Use your Iron Golem's active skill to stun dangerous foes. Position yourself safely, using Corpses to heal your minions with the Necrotic aspect or to raise new ones. Save Army of the Dead for emergencies or to burst down a boss's health bar.
The Diablo IV Necromancer Army Strength Build is a rewarding, strategic, and powerfully thematic way to experience the game. It requires careful gear and paragon optimization but pays you back with an loyal, unstoppable legion that will carve a path through the darkness of Sanctuary for you. Command wisely, and let nothing stand before your army.
