Build Introduction
This guide is a collaboration between GhazzyTV and community member Garm Z. The Reap Skeletal Warrior Summoner Necromancer build is based on exploiting the combination of 
Grim Reapers and 
Unstable Power Chaos Perks from Season 10. This makes our Skeletal Warriors Critical Hit and Overpower with 
Reap constantly.
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To see how this build compares to the other builds on our site, you can check out our build tier lists.
Strengths and Weaknesses
- Comes online early, even during leveling.
- Consistently powerful during all progression stages of the game.
- Requires Unique item for efficient clear-speed.
Build Requirements
Shard of Verathiel
Paingorger’s Gauntlets
Aspect of Occult Dominion
Blood Moon BreechesQuick Navigation
Skill Tree Points and Skill Bar
Blight
Corpse Tendrils
Blood Mist
Raise Skeleton
Bone Prison
Bone StormFollow the points allocated in the Skill Tree above for the complete 71-point build. The additional 12 skill points are completed using the Renown system.
Necromancer Class Mechanic – Book of the Dead
This build is all about having our Skeletal Warriors hit enemies with Reap thanks to the Grim Reapers. Therefore we’ll be sacrificing the other minions to further scale that approach.
- Melee Skeletons: Skirmisher [Upgrade #1] – Provides +1 Skeleton Warrior to our army, this also helps reach the 7 minion limit for
Hellbent Commander. You can also use Defenders [Upgrade #2] with massive damage reduction to help keep them alive, until your defenses are sorted out. Do keep in mind that this will not let you reach the 7 minions for Hellbent Commander. - Mage Skeletons: Bone [Sacrifice] – Increased Overpower Damage.
- Golem: Iron [Sacrifice] – Increased Critical Strike Damage.
Gear, Stats, Gems, and Runes
The following sections cover the important systems that are essential to improving the power of your character in the endgame of Diablo 4.
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! Other recommendations for Legendary Aspect farming would be to do the Seasonal mechanic and to some extent you can farm them in Helltides as well.
| Gear Slot | Gems | Aspect / Unique | Legendary Aspect / Unique Power |
|---|---|---|---|
| Helm |  Feo +  Neror  Igni +  Wat | Aspect of the Cursed AuraorBlood Getter’s Aspect | 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.or Your Skeletal Priests now also empower you at 75% [55 – 75]% effectiveness. (Necromancer Only) |
| Chest |  Royal Topaz |  Aspect of Hardened Bones | You gain 15-20% increased Damage Reduction. |
| Gloves | N/A | Paingorger’s Gauntlets | Damaging enemies with a Non-Basic Skill cast marks them for 3 seconds. When a Basic Skill first hits a marked enemy, the Basic Skill’s damage is echoed to all marked enemies, dealing 125%[x] [75 – 125]% increased damage. |
| Pants |  Yul +  Qax | Blood Moon Breeches | Extra critical strike damage and makes your minions apply curses. |
| Boots | N/A | Aspect of Occult Dominion | Your maximum number of Skeletal Warriors and Skeletal Mages is increased by 2. |
| Weapon 1H Sword | Royal Topaz | Shard of Verathiel | Basic Skills deal 150%[x] [50 – 150]% increased damage but additionally cost 25 Primary Resource. |
| Amulet (50% Scaling) |  Royal Skull |  Aspect of Adaptability | Basic Skills generate 5 additional Primary Resource, once per Skill. Basic Skills deal 0.90%[x] [0.60 – 0.90]% increased damage for each point of Primary Resource you have, up to 500 Resource. |
| Ring | Royal Skull |  Aspect of the Moonrise | Damaging an enemy with a Basic Skill grants you 4% Attack Speed for 10 seconds, stacking up to 5 times. Upon reaching maximum stacks, you enter a Vampiric Bloodrage, gaining 60%[x] [40 – 60]% Basic Skill damage and 15% Movement Speed for 10 seconds. |
| Ring | Royal Skull | Aspect of the Damned | You deal 55%[x] [35 – 55]% increased Shadow damage to enemies afflicted by any Curse. (Necromancer Only) |
In Season 10, we’ll have access to Chaos Armor to further push the limits of the build!
Curious how this build compares to other endgame options? Take a look at our Endgame Build Tier List.
Stat Priority and Tempering Affixes
Below are the affixes to prioritize on gear. Each line of affixes is listed in order of importance. Tempering Manuals and their recommended affixes are provided in the second column, and the bolded affixes are the most important targets for Masterworking upgrades. The main priority for Greater Affixes are marked with a “*”, secondary would be anything providing Intelligence or Life. Be sure to check our Tempering and Masterworking guides for more details about these topics.
| Slot | Targeted Gear Affixes | Tempering Affixes |
|---|---|---|
| Helmet | * 1. + Ranks to Skeletal Warrior Mastery 2. Maximum Resources 3. Intelligence |  Worldly Endurance #% Total ArmorProfane Innovation #% Corpse Tendril Size |
| Chest | * 1. Intelligence 2. Maximum Life 3. Essence per Second | Worldly Endurance #% Total ArmorBone Innovation #% Bone Storm Duration |
| Gloves | Paingorger’s Gauntlets * 1. + Ranks to Basic Skills 2. Attack Speed | n/a |
| Pants | Blood Moon Breeches * 1. + Ranks to Hellbent Commander | n/a |
| Boots | * 1. + Ranks to Skeletal Warrior Mastery 2. Movement Speed 3. Intelligence 4. Maximum Life | Natural Motion #% Movement SpeedProfane Innovation #% Corpse Tendril Size |
| Amulet | * 1. Ranks to Hellbent Commander 2. #% Intelligence 3. + Ranks to Gloom (Or Ranks to Terror/Coalesced Blood/Amplify) Note: If you don’t have 2 passive skill amulet you can replace one of the modifiers with Attack Speed | Worldly Finesse #% Overpower DamageNecromancer Wall #% Damage Reduction to your Summons |
| Ring | * 1. Attack Speed 2. Intelligence 3. Maximum Life | Worldly Finesse #% Overpower DamageWorldly Stability #% Resource Generation |
| Ring | * 1. Attack Speed 2. Intelligence 3. Chance to make enemies Vulnerable on hit | Worldly Finesse #% Overpower DamageWorldly Stability #% Resource Generation |
| 1h Weapon (Sword) | Shard of Verathiel * 1. + Ranks to Basic Skills 2. Maximum Resource | n/a |
| Focus | * 1. Maximum Resource 2. Intelligence 3. Maximum Life | Shadow Augments — Execution #% Chance for Reap to hit TwiceWorldly Finesse #% Overpower Damage |
Keep in mind that the maximum Resistance is 70% by default for each element and can be increased to 85% by various sources.
Make sure to achieve and maintain armor cap of 1,000 as soon as possible! For that purpose, helm or chest temporary tempering can be Total Armor %.
Uniques and Mythic 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
- Blood Moon Breeches – Incredibly effective pants to optimize the performance of the build as it scales damage very well. This item can be target farmed from all Lair bosses.
- Shard of Verathiel – Provides huge damage multiplier as well as maximum resources to boost Aspect of Adaptability.
- Paingorger’s Gauntlets – Improves area of effect clearing greatly on top of great damage scaling.
Mythic Uniques
Shroud of False Death – Straight up replaces your current body armor for better scaling. Greater Affix and Masterworking priority on this item will be All Stats then Maximum Life.
Gems and Runewords
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Recommended Runewords listed below. | Recommended Runewords then Royal Topaz For increased Intelligence. | Royal Skull For increased Armor.  Royal Diamond Can be used to help resistance if your armor has reached the cap. |
- Make sure to convert not used gem-fragments to Skull fragments to obtain 3xRoyal Skull as early as possible.
Below, you’ll see the recommended list of Runewords for this build.
| Runeword Combination | Effect |
| Feo + Ner – With Aspect of the Cursed Aura | Gain: 1000 Offering. Become Injured or Crowd Controlled. Cooldown: 10 seconds. Requires: 600 Offering. (Overflow: Increased Duration). Cooldown: 6 seconds. Invoke the Rogue’s  Countering Concealment gaining Dodge Chance, Movement Speed, Unstoppable, and Stealth. |
| Igni + Wat – Without Aspect of the Cursed Aura | Gain: 25 Offering. Stores offering every 0.3 seconds. Cast a non-Basic Skill to gain the stored offering. Requires: 100 Offering. (Overflow: Increase Duration). Cooldown: 1 seconds. Invoke the Necromancer’s Horrid Decrepify, Slowing enemies, reducing their damage, and letting you Execute them. |
| Yul + Qax | Gain: 50 Offering. Cast a Skill with a Cooldown. Requires: 400 Offering. (Overflow: Further Increased Damage). Cooldown: 1 seconds. Casting a Skill other than a Basic or Defensive spends all your Primary Resource to increase your damage up to 100% for 1 second. |
Paragon Board
Below you’ll find the entire end-game paragon board set-up for this build in detail!
Season of Infernal Chaos (Season 10)
In Season 10, we get access to Chaos Perks as well as Chaos Armor. Below, you’ll find a list of our recommended items to look out for.
Chaos Perks
| Power | Description |
 A Beast Cornered | For every 10% Life you are missing, you gain x20% increased damage and 5% Damage Reduction. Spending Resources also drains a percentage of your Life equal to 30% the Resources spent, refunding those Resources. This cannot reduce you to below 10% Life. |
| Grim Reapers | Your Skeleton Warriors’ attacks have a 25% chance to use Reap dealing 150% of normal damage instead of their regular attack. |
 Crazy Brew | Your Healing Potion is infused with the power of Chaos, granting you 100% Resource Cost Reduction, +80% increased Attack Speed and +80% increased Movement Speed for 5 seconds. Your Healing Potion has a 15 second Cooldown and you can drink it at full Life. Cooldown is affected by Cooldown Reduction. |
| Unstable Power | Chaotic magics erupt from your Basic Skills, making them guaranteed to Critically Strike and Overpower for 100%[x] increased damage, but the power is unstable, giving them a 3 second Cooldown. |
Chaos Armor
Chaos Armor is seasonal corrupted unique gear that can take the form and slots of other armor pieces. An amulet can become boots or a helmet, a shield can become gloves, and so on. Chaos pieces carry their original implicit affixes, like All Resistances from Jewelry or weapon damage multiplier from the shield, regardless of the form they take. They always have increased AND top roll unique aspect value.
Lidless Wall – (High Priority) Any slot but preferably on gloves/pants/boots. Big base weapon damage multiplier and cooldown reduction.
Fists of Fate – (Low Priority) Any slot or preferably on chest to be replaced by 
Shroud of False Death. Good baseline stats and a huge damage multiplier.
Banished Lord’s Talisman – (Low Priority) Any slot or preferably on chest to be replaced by Shroud of False Death. Good baseline stats and a huge damage multiplier.
Bloodless Scream – (High Priority) Gloves/Pants/Boots. Huge damage multiplier and crowd control.- Paingorger’s Gauntlets – (High Priority) Gloves/Pants/Boots. Improved clearing speed for an already mandatory unique.
Mercenaries
During the Vessel of Hatred campaign, you will unlock Mercenaries to assist you. While you can choose freely early on, we recommend Raheir as your main merc, and Varyana as a Reinforcement once you reach endgame.
For the reinforcement, stick with Aldkin, utilizing his Flame Surge skill being cast when the player casts Blight.
Build Mechanics
The build is designed to focus entirely on the combination of Grim Reapers and Unstable Power to let our Skeletal Warriors use guaranteed Critical Hit and Overpower Reap.
Rotation and Playstyle
We keep Bone Storm and Raise Skeleton buff up as much as possible. Group enemies together with Corpse Tendrils. Apply Bone Prison followed by Blight for more damage scaling. Then we wait for the skeletons to Reap the grouped enemies! Blight can be used to hit enemies not grouped up to let the Paingorger’s Gauntlets trigger damage to distant targets.Blood Mist is used as a panic button to get out of harms way or can be used offensively to increase Critical Strike Chance and Damage for 5 seconds after the Mist ends.
Make sure to use your healing potion to activate Crazy Brew for increased attack speed.
Which Elixirs Should You Use?
Visit the Alchemist and craft an Elixir providing any Resistance you need most, or the 
Elixir of Advantage II to increase Attack Speed. Some Elixirs cannot be crafted and only drop from activities like Helltides or Nightmare Dungeons. Additionally, make sure to keep your health potion upgraded!
Season 10 Updates
For a complete overview of Season 10, mechanics and theme, new leveling activity, and other changes coming, please take a look at our comprehensive season hub here.
- Build made possible thanks to Season 10 mechanics
Obol Gambling
Obol gambling is a great way to potentially find item upgrades or items missing from your build. Check out the new tool guide from Icy Veins for gambling Obols in the link below.
Changelog
- October 5th, 2025: Guide added.
