Mendeln Summoner Necromancer Endgame Build Guide for Diablo 4 (Season 4)

Build Introduction

This is the Mendeln version of original Summoner Necromancer build which requires the unique Ring of Mendeln, as the entire build is designed around it! By not scaling our multipliers via Shadow damage we provide a significantly smoother play-style at the cost of high-end DPS output in the latest end-game content whilst providing better performance in the early stage of end-game!

While being able to run Tier 100 Nightmare Dungeon, as well as defeating Uber Lilith. The build is by far one of the most enjoyable Necromancer builds you can possibly play. It’s fast and brings out high damage numbers making it capable of killing Uber Lilith well before you reach level 100!

As previously mentioned, this build is a variant of the Summoner Endgame Necromancer and can be played as a variant of the Bone Spear Endgame Necromancer as well. To access the original version of the build, click the button below.

Strengths and Weaknesses

To see how this build compares to the other builds on our site, you can check out our build tier lists.

Build Requirements

Required Uniques

Ring of Mendeln

Since the build is entirely designed around Ring of Mendeln, you’ll need that Unique Ring before you can follow this guide to its full efficiency.

Skill Tree Points and Skill Bar

Recommended

Suggested Skill Bar

Summoning Skill Summoning Skill Corpse Explosion Decrepify Corpse Tendrils Bone Storm

Follow the points allocated in the Skill Tree above for the complete 58-point build. The additional 10 skill points are completed using the Renown system.

Book of the Dead

This build is all about having our minions attack fast to trigger the unique ring, this means a heavy focus of critical strike damage and attack speed.

• Melee Skeletons: Reapers – We’ll make sure these guys creates corpses on hit for us to consistently use our summoning skill to heal our minions and/or to use Corpse Tendrils.
• Mage Skeletons: Shadow Skeletons – We can get x3% multiplicative damage scaling PER Shadow Mage with the first option here.
• Golem: Bone Golem – We can generate 5 corpses on demand with the first option.

Paragon Board

The Paragon progression system unlocks at Level 50 and provides a vast amount of character power. On the Paragon Board, bonuses range from minor stats on Magic Nodes to more powerful Rare Glyphs and Legendary Nodes.

As you path towards Glyph Sockets and Legendary Nodes, you should prioritize Damage, Intelligence, Resistance, and Life for Normal and Magic Nodes. Glyph radius increases as you level them up. Therefore, if you cannot fulfill Additional Bonus requirements early on, skip allocating extra nodes for now. It’s also important to point out that you might not have the Glyph you want when you reach your first socket; if that is the case, simply slot in any Glyph providing any beneficial stats for you until you get the correct one.

Listed below are images of the pathing you should take along with the locations of the Glyphs and order you should choose your Paragon Boards past the initial Starting Board. Note that each Rare Glyph’s information and radius listed below is for the Level 21 version.

1. Starting Board

The Starting Board is very straight forward; rush the right-hand side and get the socket in which we will socket the Amplify Glyph. Remember to take the extra attributes within radius to get the bonus modifier from the Glyph if possible. The radius will increase as you level the Glyph up via Nightmare Dungeons. We’ll next head out north to our next board. Do ignore the first nodes on the left side of this board till you’ve collected all sockets from all our boards.

2. Cult Leader

For Cult-Leader you’ll need to rotate the board once. In this Board we’ll start by rushing Socket followed by the Legendary Node Cult Leader before taking the extra Magic and Rare Nodes. We’ll use the Deadraiser Glyph. As with the Starting Board, take the extra attributes within radius if possible to get the bonus modifier out of the Glyph. Once done, we’ll briefly exit on the right side to get our third Board, Hulking Monstrosity.

3. Hulking Monstrosity

With Hulking Monstrosity you’ll need to rotate it 3 times to fit the image above. We’ll then rush the socket to place the Golem Glyph. As before, take extra attributes if the radius and level of the Glyph allows for the bonus modifier to be activated. After this you’ll want to grab every single Magic and Rare Nodes on this entire board including the Legendary node Hulking Monstrosity before we head out on the right side, we’ll come back here later though!

4. Bone Graft

No need to rotate this board! Here we rush to the socket slot, you’ll grab the Magic and Rare Nodes as we make our way to the socket in which we’ll place the Exploit Glyph. Only take the extra attributes and Nodes around this Glyph if you have it leveled enough to enable the bonus modifier. Now we head back to the previous board and exit up north for the 5th one, Flesh-Eater.

5. Flesh-Eater

For Flesh-eater needs 2 rotations to fit the image above. Take all surrounding Magic and Rare as shown in the image, grabbing the socket first to place the Essence Glyph. Only take extra attributes around it to enable the bonus modifier. Once done you’ll rush to pick up the Legendary node Flesh-eater. Then head out on the left-hand side.

6. Scent of Death

Scent of Death will require 3 spins to fit the image above. Here we start by getting the Legendary Node Scent of Death followed by rushing the Socket Node in which we use the Control Glyph before taking any Magic and Rare nodes on the board followed by moving out north to our last board.

7. Wither

Wither needs to be rotated 3 times. This board is exclusively here to fit the Territorial Glyph so we rush that and grab the surrounding nodes afterwards.

Paragon board images courtesy of d4builds.gg.

Gear, Gems, Elixirs, and Stats

The Season of Loot Reborn brings us an incredible shift in how gear and itemization are done. It is a major and will affect the game beyond Season 4’s confines. For further details, make sure to read our Tempering and Masterworking section below.

Legendary Aspects

Each aspect is listed with its matching gear slot. Do your best to keep each aspect in the assigned slot. Additionally, if you are trying to farm a specific item, we recommend using your Obols to target farm them!

Gear Slot	Gems	Aspect / Unique	Legendary Aspect / Unique Power
Helm	Royal Ruby	Juggernaut’s Aspect	Gain x Armor, but your Evade has 100% increased Cooldown.
Chest	Royal Ruby	Aspect of Shielding Storm	Each time that Bone Storm damages an enemy, gain a Barrier equal to 2-5% of your Base Life for 10 seconds.
Gloves	N/A	Osseous Gale Aspect	Bone Storm consumes up to 8 Corpses to increase its duration by up to 5-10 seconds.
Pants	Royal Ruby	Aspect of Hardened Bones	You and your Minions gain 15-20% increased Damage Reduction.
Boots	N/A	Aspect of Occult Dominion	Your maximum number of Skeletal Warriors and Skeletal Mages is increased by 2.
Weapon 2H (Scythe)	Royal Emerald	Aspect of Reanimation	Your Minions gain increased damage while alive, up to 30-40% after 10 seconds.
Amulet (50% Scaling)	Any Resistance Jewel	Aspect of Frenzied Dead	Each time one of your Summoning Minions damages an enemy, they gain 10-14% Attack Speed for 3 seconds, up to 30-42%.
Ring	Any Resistance Jewel	Ring of Mendeln	Every 6th attack from each Minion is empowered, exploding for X Physical damage.
Ring	Any Resistance Jewel	Aspect of Grasping Veins	Gain 10-20% increased Critical Strike Chance for 6 seconds when you cast Corpse Tendrils. You deal 20-40% bonus Critical Strike Damage to enemies damaged by Corpse Tendrils.

Gems

See below for a more detailed explanation of the best Gems to socket into your gear for each category.

Weapon Gems	Armor Gems	Jewelry Gems
Royal Emerald For Crit Damage.	Royal Ruby For increased Maximum Life.	Royal Amethyst Royal Sapphire Royal Ruby

Which Elixirs Should You Use?

Visit the Alchemist and craft an Elixir providing any Resistance you need most, or the Elixir of Precision to increase Attack Speed. Some Elixirs cannot be crafted and only drop from things like Helltides or Nightmare Dungeons. Additionally, make sure to keep your health potion upgraded!

Stat Priority and Tempering Affixes

Affixes on the same line are considered to be equally important. Bolded affixes are the most important targets for Masterworking upgrades.

Slot	Targeted Gear Affixes	Tempering Affixes
Helmet	1. Cooldown Reduction 2. Maximum Life 3. Intelligence	Profane Cage Ranks to Crippling Darkness Profane Innovation #% Corpse Explosion Size
Chest	1. Ranks to Golem Mastery 2. Maximum Life 3. Intelligence	Profane Cage Ranks to Crippling Darkness Profane Innovation #% Corpse Tendril Size
Gloves	1. Ranks to Skeletal Mage Mastery 2. Intelligence 3. Attack Speed	Profane Finesse #% Damage to Cursed Enemies Natural Schemes #% Crowd Control Duration
Pants	1. Ranks to Skeletal Mage Mastery 2. Intelligence 3. Maximum Life	Profane Cage Ranks to Crippling Darkness Natural Schemes #% Crowd Control Duration
Boots	1. Movement Speed 2. Maximum Life 3. Intelligence	Natural Motion #% Movement Speed Natural Schemes #% Crowd Control Duration
Amulet	1. Ranks to Hellbent Commander 2. Movement Speed 3. Cooldown Reduction	Profane Finesse #% Damage to Cursed Enemies Necromancer Efficiency #% Ultimate Cooldown Reduction
Ring	1. Attack Speed 2. Lucky Hit: #% To make enemies vulnerable on hit 3. Maximum Life	Profane Finesse #% Damage to Cursed Enemies Necromancer Efficiency #% Ultimate Cooldown Reduction
2H-Weapon (Scythe)	1. Critical Strike Damage 2. Intelligence 3. Maximum Life	Summoning Augments #% Minion Attack Speed Profane Finesse #% Damage to Cursed Enemies

Keep in mind that the maximum Resistance is 70% by default for each element and can be increased to 85% by various sources.

Rotation and Playstyle

Your minions are doing all the heavy lifting, all you have to think about is making sure that enemies are cursed with Decrepify and that you have Bone Storm up. After this you’ll use Corpse Tendrils to group enemies up and increase your damage output. Corpse Explosion is utilized for crowd control and corpse consumption to enable our legendary powers from the paragon board.

Very important detail outside of the generic use of the skills is that you’ll want to consume corpses regularly. The Corpse Tendrils groups enemies up, making them easier to hit and give bonuses. Using your Summon Skeleton ability will make them stronger and heal them as well!

Uniques and Uber Uniques

Below you will find information on Uniques and Uber Uniques that are useful for this build. Moreover, if you are interested in target farming Uber Uniques, check out our How to Farm Uber Uniques guide.

Uniques

Listed below are the recommended and optional Unique Items for this build. This build thrives of the legendary aspect powers so we would prefer not to involve any uniques to have the build function the best. This doesn’t mean you can’t play around with some changes and test it out yourself though!

• Ring of Mendeln – Build requirement, without it the build will deal significantly less damage.

Season 4: Loot Reborn

The following list details the changes in the Season 4 Update (Patch 1.4.0) that may pertain to the Summoner Necromancer build. Check the Changelog for all the other guide updates. As you can see only 1 change affected the build directly and its a good one!

• Necromancer, Barbarian, Druid, and Sorcerer Companions now receive 100% of the player’s attributes.
• Skeletal Warriors will now run ahead of the Necromancer more often, and can initiate combat.

Advanced Information

Below, you will find every additional piece of information you need to know for a more in-depth look at this build.

Build Mechanics

The mechanic that separates this build from the ordinary Summoner such as the Shadow Minion build or regular lazy-style minion builds is that we will utilize our Ring of Mendeln to further scale the crazy damage output.

Every 6th attack will trigger the Mendeln and the rest of our damage is from the pure power of the minion army

Defenses

Besides the obvious resistance and armor cap being covered we gain a lot of damage reduction via aspect powers and the fact that we run a massive minion army covering you from both enemy projectiles as well as having your minions be targeted over you.

We also gain a Barrier covering the life pool thanks to our legendary aspect powers.

Offenses

Our unique ring will provide brutal damage output which is further emphasized with extreme investments in to attack speed for our minions.

Paragon

The recommended Paragon boards for this build are listed above, and further down below, you can find a more thorough route for allocating the Paragon points, as well as some notes on why specific nodes were chosen and why they are essential for this build.

Glyphs & Legendary Nodes	Effect
Amplify	– Grants +150% bonus to all Magic Nodes within range. – Additional Bonus is unlocked with 40 intelligence in radius making enemies affected by your Curses take an additional x10% increased damage from you and your minions.
Deadraiser	– Paragon nodes within range gain +100% bonus to their Minion damage and damage reduction modifiers. – Additional Bonus is unlocked with 40 Intelligence in radius, Whenever your Minions deal damage to an enemy, that enemy takes 1% increased damage from you and your Minions, up to 15% for 10 seconds.
Golem	– For every 5 Willpower purchased within range, Golems gain +19,8% increased damage. – Additional Bonus is unlocked with 25 Willpower in radius, this makes your golem deal x25% increased damage
Exploit	– For every 5 Dexterity purchased within range, you deal +8% increased damage to Vulnerable targets. – Additional Bonus is unlocked with 25 Dexterity in radius, you deal x1% for 6 seconds up to 10% increased damage against Vulnerable targets.
Essence	– For every 5 Dexterity purchased within range, you deal +20% increased Critical Strike Damage. – Additional Bonus is unlocked with 25 Dexterity in radius, Critical Strikes deal x22% increased damage to enemies that are not Healthy.
Control	– For every 5 Intelligence purchased within range, you deal +10% increased damage to Crowd Controlled targets. – Additional Bonus is unlocked with 40 Intelligence in radius, You and your minions deal x20% increased damage to Crowd Controlled targets.
Territorial	– For every 5 Dexterity purchased within range, you deal +10% increased damage to Close targets. – Additional Bonus is unlocked with 25 Dexterity in radius, making you gain 15% Damage Reduction against Close targets.
Hulking Monstrosity	Your Golem has x40% increased Maximum Life and deals x100% increased damage.
Flesh-eater	Consuming 5 Corpses grants x40% increased damage for 6 seconds.
Scent of Death	With at least 2 Corpses Nearby, you gain 15% Damage Reduction. With no Corpses Nearby, you deal x15% increased damage.
Cult Leader	Your Minions deal x30% increased damage for each x20% of Attack Speed Bonus they have, up to a maximum of 100% Attack Speed Bonus.

Let’s take it one step further and break down each of the beneficial nodes we spend our Paragon Points on.

Starting Board

1. Amplify is mainly here for the ease of access to unlock the bonus modifier.
2. The life and resistance nodes on the left can be ignored up until World Tier 4 at which point they become more and more needed to help your defensive layers

Cult Leader

1. Deadraiser super important Glyph for the higher end-game content as it is the main source of minion defensive scaling modifiers you can find.
2. Make sure you have the Magic and Rare nodes in the Glyph radius before rushing to pick up the Legendary node Cult Leader to further scale the builds efficiency!

Hulking Monstrosity

1. Socket rush Golem is crucial on this board.
2. The Legendary node Hulking Monstrosity is brutally strong for the build.

Bone Graft

1. Quick in’n’out Board to grab a solid Glyph Exploit

Flesh-Eater

1. Essence is rushed before the Legendary node
2. Flesh-eater makes perfect sense as we are reliably able to keep up the x40% damage increase by consuming corpses.

Scent of Death

1. Don’t forget the Legendary node Scent of Death on your way to the Socket!
2. Control is the Glyph for this board before you head out north.

Wither

1. Quick Socket rush board for Territorial.

Tempering and Masterworking

The Season 4 update (Patch 1.4.0) introduces a rework for itemization. Tempering and Masterworking bring the biggest change to itemization since the release of Diablo 4, so make sure you understand the new systems explained in this section.

The amount of affixes on items has been changed to reflect its rarity: Normal Items have no affixes, Magic Items have 1 affix, Rare Items have 2 affixes, Legendary Items have 3 affixes, and Unique Items have 4 affixes. Upgrading a Rare Item to a Legendary Item by imprinting a Legendary Aspect from the Codex of Power will not add a third affix. Therefore, Legendary Items are superior to lower rarity items for a min-maxed character.

Greater Affixes are a newly added mechanic that increases the value of an affix by 50%. Ancestral Legendary Items and Unique Items can now drop with up to 4 Greater Affixes! Search for items with your preferred Greater Affixes to upgrade with Tempering and Masterworking.

Tempering and Masterworking is an important system, even mandatory in the endgame, for character progression. You are able to add 2 additional affixes on any Rare Item or Legendary Item, exclusive to the Tempering System. An Ancestral Legendary Item can have up to 5 total affixes! Unfortunately, Unique Items cannot be tempered to add affixes.

Masterworking uses new crafting materials found in The Pit to further enhance the stats of an item. These upgrades can be applied on an Ancestral Legendary Item that has its Tempering Slots filled out. Unique Items can be upgraded with Masterworking right away, as tempering does not apply to them. Each item has 12 upgrade slots. On upgrade Ranks 4, 8, and 12, a random affix is increased in value by 25%. Every other upgrade Rank applies a 5% increase to all affixes on an item. Attempt to apply the bonus 25% upgrade to your preferred affix multiple times by resetting the Masterworking Ranks to repeat the process.

Obol Gambling

Obol gambling is a great way to potentially find item upgrades or items missing from your build. Check out the new tool from Icy Veins for gambling Obols in the link below:

Changelog

• May 16th, 2024: Complete rework of the guide due to undocumented changes in the patch notes demanding heavy improvements on the guide.
• May 15th, 2024: Tempering gear updates.
• May 11th, 2024: Guide updated for Season 4 Loot Reborn.
• January 22nd, 2024: Guide updated for Season 3 Season of the Construct.
• October 22nd, 2023: Minor Skill-Tree Adjustments.
• October 21st, 2023: Paragon Board updated.
• October 15th, 2023: Guide updated for Season 2 Season of Blood, Patch 1.2.
• August 7th, 2023: Guide updated for Patch 1.1.1.
• July 26th, 2023: Big rework on the structure of the guide.
  • Changes entire Paragon Board, Aspects, skill tree.
  • Finalized decision of the Season 1 Heart choices.