Necromancer Command Skeletons Build Guide for Solo Farming and Bounties (2024)

This build is designed to fit most PvE content done by a soloingNecromancer, allowing you to crush your enemies while maintaining considerablespeed — a decisive factor in effective farming. While the build does notrely on any specific legendary powers, certain items will greatly assist itsperformance over others. It focuses on the innate summoner strengths of theNecromancer to deal the bulk of its damage, allowing for unrivaledsingle-target damage dealing, as well as competent AoE to supplement it.

If you are interested in approaching a different type of content, please seeour other Necromancer builds below.

The core skill to grasp while playing the Necromancer is playing around thestrengths of your mighty Soulfire Primary Attack, which should beinterwoven in your movement as you step ever forward to the next objective andthe next fight. This is done to load up your Hungering Soulfireultimate, which allows for brief periods of omnipotence on the battlefield asyou decimate everything with homing missiles. Try to form pulls of enemiesrather than dealing with individual stragglers by taking Soulfirepotshots at smaller groups, drawing them into a bigger clump of monsters.Then, target your Command Golem summon right in their midst, and sicyour Command Skeletons on top of the brawl. (Note that forcing theGolem to leap while it's active is only a DPS gain when you fight multipleenemies, and not single targets.) Encircle your minions with a Dark Curse to enhance their damage (via Guided by Maggots), anddive into the fray with a Flickering Warmth-enhanced Bone Armor,all the while spamming Soulfire. Rinse and repeat the process from onepull to another.

Primary Skill: Soulfire is an AoE-oriented Primary Attackthat detonates upon impact, damaging enemies in proximity to its main target.Its homing nature and splashing effect make it the preferable choice for PvEenvironments, especially for content where farming speed trumps otherconsiderations. This Primary Attack also contains the supremely powerful Hungering Soulfire Ultimate, which is quite competent for both AoEdevastation as well as burning down singular targets.

Single Target Damage Dealer: Command Skeletons have theundeniable advantage of a targeted summoner ability, allowing you a great dealof control over the behavior and enemy prioritization of your minions. Thereare several notable supporting legendaries for the skill — Coals For Eyes, Mirrorictus, and especially Crown of the Gilded Leash — but it's worth mentioning that the base,un-enhanced skeletons are excellent on their own, and are a source of massivesingle-target damage to any summoner setup.

AoE Damage Dealer: Command Golem is one of the Necromancer'smost versatile tools, with the ability to be adapted into tanking, crowdcontrol, pure damage dealing, and anything in between with the plethora ofsupporting legendaries. Don't underestimate the baked-in crowd control aspectof the skill, which can be used at range to temporarily disrupt any group ofenemies. The follow-up Taunt is just icing on the utility cake, and can makethe difference between life and death in progression content. In thisparticular build, you will be using the Golem for pure DPS through Desolatoria.

Supplementary Damage Dealer: Bone Armor provides an excellentsurvivability boost as a baseline, and its group-wide effect make you awelcome addition to any party — especially during progression-orientedcontent like Challenge Rifts or Raids, as well as nuke-prone PvP matches. Bone Armor can be further tailored to your needs, most notably withcrowd control immunity enhancement from Gravedirt's Weight, thecharge-based immunity of Parting Gift, or the DPS inversion of Flickering Warmth.

• Alternative: Another amazing option for a secondary damage dealeris Skeletal Mage. At best, they will be stationary sources of damagespread across strategic points of the battlefield, and you will use them tochain fights together and keep kill streaks going. At worst, they will getswarmed and overwhelmed before they can make a difference. Note that they arealso affected by the Guided by Maggots buff. Skeletal Mage isyour go-to option if you want to go full summoner; simply drop the Bone Armor.

Buff: Dark Curse has a somewhat underwhelming power atfirst glance, although it can be quite annoying in PvP situations even as-is.When loaded up with legendary powers however, the solitary curse of Immortal'sNecromancers becomes a fearsome tool to behold — ranging from the DoT of Mournful Destroyer, to the Corpse Explosion replica of Soulchime, to the frenzied effect of Guided by Maggots —coveted by all summoners.

Equipment is split into Primary (right side of character screen) andSecondary (left side).

Primary equipment includes the Main-hand, Off-hand, Head, Shoulders, Chest,and Legs slots of your character sheet. These slots can — and should— be filled by Legendary items, since their legendary powers and abilityto be socketed with Legendary gems vastly overpowers lower tier gear. Ofcourse, these slots will be temporarily filled with Common (Grey), then Magic(Blue), and then Rare (Yellow) gear, before graduating into Legendaries(Golden).

The suggested Legendaries for Command Skeletons Solo Necromancers are:

• Main-hand: Desolatoria — This legendary main-handdagger exchanges the base crowd control properties of Command Golem— the Stun and Taunt — for a powerful Burning DoT, turning it intoa Molten Golem of considerable strength.
• Off-hand: Baleful Trinity — This legendary off-handshield can be easily acquired by the Battle Pass. It further improves the(already considerably powerful) Soulfire Primary Attack with anadditional projectile, strengthening your damage output in the downtimeperiods of your cooldowns.
• Head: Visitant's Sign — This legendary helm increasesthe duration of Command Golem by 20%, cutting the base downtime roughlyin half. It can be further Awakened to reduce the skill's cooldown by 10%,further improving the availability of this powerful summon. An alternative forthis slot is Crown of the Gilded Leash, which provides a singular, moredurable Skeletal Captain out of your Command Skeletons.
• Shoulders: Linger-Mantle — These legendary shouldersincrease the duration of Dark Curse by 30%, cutting its base downtimeby roughly a third. It can be further Awakened to reduce the skill's cooldownby 10%, further improving the availability of this versatile and powerfulNecromancer tool.
• Chest: Flickering Warmth — This legendary chest altersthe base defensive properties of Bone Armor into a source of damagethat orbits around you, which synergizes well with the short-to-mid range ofNecromancers, as well as the overall "push forward" playstyle of generalfarming. In case you opt for a full summoner playstyle with Skeletal Mage instead, you can use any well-rolled legendary chestpiece in this slot.
• Legs: Guided by Maggots — These legendary pants offer abuild-defining power to summoners by altering the base effect of Dark Curse. The skill loses its crowd control aspects, but now grants atremendous Attack- and Movement Speed buff for minions caught within itsrange.

Secondary equipment includes the Amulet, Rings, Hands, Waist, and Feet slotsof your character sheet. These slots can — and should — be filledwith Set items, since the bonuses they form once completed vastly overpowerslower tier gear. Of course, these slots will be temporarily filled with Common(Grey), then Magic (Blue), and then Rare (Yellow) gear, before graduating intoSets (Green). Secondary equipment can only be socketed with Normal gems.

The recommended set for Command Skeletons Solo Necromancers isShepherd's Call to Wolves, which greatly increases the Damage and AttackSpeed of your summons, as well as scaling Crit Chance according to the numberof currently active minions. The set consists of:

• Shepherd and Begetter (Waist) — Farmed at KikurasRapids in difficulty Hell I and above.
• Shepherd and Leader (Feet) — Farmed at TempleofNamariin difficulty Hell I and above.
• Shepherd and Beastmaster (Hands) — Farmed atDestructionsEnd in difficulty Hell II and above.
• Shepherd and Architect (Neck) — Farmed at Tomb of Fahirin difficulty Hell II and above.
• Shepherd and Mother (Ring 1) — Farmed at Mad King'sBreach in difficulty Hell IV and above.
• Shepherd and Father (Ring 2) — Farmed at ForgottenTower in difficulty Hell IV and above.

The set bonuses of Shepherd's Call to Wolves are as follows:

• 2-piece Set Bonus: Your summons deal 15% more damage.
• 4-piece Set Bonus: Critical Hit Chance increased by 3% for each ofyour summons, up to a maximum of 18%.
• 6-piece Set Bonus: Your summons enter a frenzied state for 10seconds each time one of them critically hits. The frenzied state increasestheir damage and Attack Speed by 100%. Cannot occur more often than once every40 seconds.

Improving your attributes in Diablo Immortal generally revolvesaround increasing the total amount of Combat Rating, or CR.Every primary attribute point (Strength, Fortitude, Vitality, Willpower,and Intelligence) grants you 1 point of CR.

The priority attribute for Necromancers is Intelligence, which gives+0.3 Damage per point; given otherwise identical options, use the one withhigher Intelligence to increase your DPS. Second in the priority order isFortitude, which adds to your Armor Penetration — indirectlyincreasing damage dealt by also improving your crit chance. This attributesuffers from diminishing returns due to crit caps, but is still quitevaluable. Third in the priority order is Vitality, which simplyincreases your Life total; the longer you can stave off death, the better.

Stat priority order and stat benefits for Necromancers are as follows:

• 1. Intelligence — Grants +0.3 Damage to Necromancers, and +1to your total CR.
• 2. Fortitude — Grants +0.1 Armor Penetration, which affectsyour crit chance. It also grants +0.1 Armor; Armor increases your Blockchance, and blocking attacks mitigates 20% of the damage dealt. Moremitigation is never amiss, and even more so when dealing with riskier contentlike the Helliquary. It also adds +1 to your total CR.
• 3. Vitality — Grants +3 Life; the more you can add to yourtotal health pool, the better. With a reasonable investment in Vitality, analrady durable class like the Necromancer can become unstoppable. Thisattribute also adds +1 to your total CR.
• 4. Willpower — Grants +0.1 Potency and 0.1 Resistance.Potency increases the duration of harmful effects that you inflict on yourfoes. Resistance lowers the duration of harmful effects inflicted by yourenemies on you. This attribute also adds +1 to your total CR.
• 5. Strength — Grants +1 CR. This attribute does nothing elsefor Necromancers, and should be avoided as much as possible.

You should not put an emphasis on Special Attributes when consideringbetween gear pieces. This is due to the overpowering importance of PrimaryAttributes and your CR total. That being said, the better Special Attributesare the two Crit Stats (Critical Hit Chance and Critical Hit Damage), CooldownReduction, Beneficiary Effect Duration, and Movement Speed. You can alsoconsider Increased Damage to Players for PvP gear.

Pieces of Primary Gear that you upgrade at the Blacksmith attain upto three additional Bonus Attributes for Reforging at Ranks 6, 11, and16. These Bonus Attributes belong to "families" (outlined and rankedbelow); a Family Bonus can be unlocked if all three Bonus Attributesare from the same family. Multiple Primary Gear pieces can have the sameFamily Bonus to improve your proc chance. The process of Reforging is donewith the Reforge Stone consumable. Note that only Primary Gear piecescan be reforged; Secondary Gear pieces cannot. For Necromancers,priority Bonus Attributes are:

• 1. Ravager Stone offers summoner-oriented innate attributes thatare of great use to a minion-oriented class like the Necromancer. Its FamilyBonus requires enemies to be slain to proc, significantly diminishing itsusefulness when doing progression content like Challenge Rift bosses andHelliquary.
• 2. Wildfire Stone is mostly valuable due to its innate attributes,as it brings valuable Critical Hit Chance to the table. The Hydra summon fromthe Family Bonus is mostly an extra minion to soak up damage.
• 3. Vengeance Stone brings a single target-oriented Family Bonusthat becomes increasingly important as you push the difficulty of the contentyou are doing, i.e. Challenge Rifts. Its ability to enhance all damage dealtwith a Primary Attack proc is an excellent boon to any build.
• 4. Barrier Stone has a Family Bonus that brings some much neededmitigation to Necromancers, as they fight at a much closer range than otherranged classes. The absorption shield is paired with some excellent innateattributes like Damage Taken Decreased and Block Chance, which further reduceincoming hurt.
• 5. Jolt Stone offers situationally valuable bonuses; it hasBeneficial Effect Duration Increased as an innate attribute, which is decentfor groups, and a Cheat Death proc which is never amiss when soloing content.Its Family Bonus brings soft CC to attackers, which is decent mostly forPvP.
• 6. Tremor Stone offers some marginally useful bonuses when doingPvP, but since its (otherwise excellent) Family Bonus only functions in meleerange, it is all but lost on Necromancers.

As per tradition for Diablo games, socketed gear allows you to insertbeneficial gems according to your needs. In Diablo Immortal, gems are dividedbetween Normal Gems (socketable in Secondary Gear) and Legendary Gems(socketable in Primary Gear).

Normal Gems can only be socketed in Secondary Gear. Normal gems are dividedinto Red, Blue and Yellow sockets, and their priority is listed below.Priority-wise, gems are decent power increases to your character, but shouldnever come at the cost of Primary Attributes and your CR score. Go for Redand Blue gems over Yellow if possible, as they provide a stronger bonusoverall.

• Red Sockets: Prioritize Tourmaline as it provides a straightDamage increase. Ruby is also decent for the Life increase, but only ifyou lack Tourmalines.
• Blue Sockets: Prioritize Sapphire, which increases your ArmorPenetration, and your Critical Hit Chance stat as a result. Note that CritChance provided from Sapphires has diminishing returns, capping out at 33%;when benefits from ArPen get too insignificant, swap to Aquamarine.Aquamarine provides Armor, which is a decent source of damagemitigation.
• Yellow Sockets: Prioritize Citrine for the Potency gains,increasing the duration of harmful effects you inflict on enemies; howeversmall its benefits, they trump the Resistance effects provided fromTopaz.

Legendary Gems can only be socketed in Primary Gear. They provide unique andvery powerful bonuses on top of a robust stack of stat increases. LegendaryGems are found in Elder Rifts enhanced by the Crest consumables, as well asthrough crafting at the Jeweler in Westmarch.

Early on in Necromancer character progression, you should use common,1- and 2-Star Legendary Gems like:

• Fervent Fang — Can be obtained from the Battle Pass, savingyou some Crests. Provides a stacking damage increase against a target withsuccessive attacks; great for single target damage.
• Ca'arsen's Invigoration — Half of the Primary Attack-Ultimatecombo, this gem increases the speed and damage of Primary Attacks, getting youback quickly to spamming the supremely powerful Hungering Soulfire.
• Zod Stone — The other half of the Primary Attack-Ultimatecombo, this gem increases the duration and damage of Ultimate skills, allowingfor unparalleled uptime of Hungering Soulfire.
• Everlasting Torment — For the mere cost of a critical hit,this gem inflicts a considerable DoT and an Attack Speed increase to boot. Evenat a low quality, this gem starts off with incredible stats and fits nicelyfrom the get-go.
• Chained Death — This is a great early game gem, especiallyduring farming where you usually pull hordes of enemies to maximize your AoEskills. It amplifies your damage the more enemies you fight, encouragingchaining fights together.
• Berserker's Eye — This gem increases damage dealt at the costof an increase in damage taken. For most of the farming PvE content, this is areasonable trade-off that you can feasibly mitigate with the Necromancer'sample sources of mitigation.

When perfecting your character for endgame content, the 5-StarBest-in-Slot Legendary Gems for Necromancers include:

• Blood-Soaked Jade — With its Damage and Movement Speedincreases, it is largely considered to be the best legendary gem in the gamefor pretty much all forms of content.
• Seeping Bile — The value of this gem scales with the numberof attacks you inflict, fitting well into Rotspur-enhanced Corpse Explosion builds. With a considerable damage proc and aspreading effect, it is one of the best additions to your legendary gemlineup.
• Frozen Hearth — With percentage-based mitigation againstranged damage, this is one of the strongest defensive legendary gems you cansupport your character with.
• Echoing Shade — This gem has a percentage-based chance tospawn Shadow Clones that inherit some of your abilities and — perhapsmore importantly — will draw some of the enemy's attention away fromyou, allowing for short periods of uninterrupted slaughter of your foes.
• Howler's Call — Triggered off Primary Attacks — aconstantly spammed aspect of Necromancer builds — this legendary gemsupplements the mid-range barrage of the class with a hard-hitting,long-ranged proc.
• Chip of Stone Flesh — This is a PvP powerhouse of a gem,inflicting hard CC and increasing damage dealt on affected targets. It alsoprovides decent value for progression content.

Paragon Points are character-specific progression system that allows you toadvance in power after you reach maximum level. Each level gives you a Paragonpoint to spend into currently available nodes on the five Paragon Trees. WhileParagon Trees are specialized for certain tasks, you should always keep in mindthe tenets of character building — increasing damage and mitigation asmuch as you can. With that in mind, focus down the Vanquisher tree first, pickup the experience bonus from the Treasure Hunter tree, pick up whatever isuseful from the Gladiator tree, and finish off with the group powerhouse of theSoldier tree. Always keep in mind that the (circular) Persistent Attributesare always active once leveled, but the (square) Specialization Skills are onlyapplied when their respective Paragon Tree is active.

• Vanquisher Tree: The offense focus of this tree makes it the beststarting point for all characters. It is recommended that you start with themiddle row, maxing out Damage and picking up Zeal. Go down thebottom row, maxing out Damage and picking up Wrath. Finally, goalong the top row, maxing out Potency, putting the point inExorcism, and finishing off with Deeper Pockets and Heart ofWrath. This puts you at Paragon level 49.
• Treasure Hunter Tree: This tree unlocks at Paragon 50 and focuseson rewarding you more for your grinding efforts, making it an attractivemid-progression pickup. Go through the middle row, maxing Armor toattain Swift Learner. Then go on straight by maxing out theDamage node. This puts you at Paragon 70.
• Go back to the Vanquisher Tree. Max out the Life nodes inthe mid row that follow Zeal, and put one point in Judgment tofinish off that row. Then, go to the bottom row and put 3 points into ArmorPenetration, which puts you exactly at Paragon 99.
• Right around this point, you have a decision to make. If you focus on PvEcontent, you should divert your attention back to the Survivor Tree— the other tree unlocked by default. Start out by maxing Life,picking up a point in Unyielding and progressing downwards. Max outArmor, then through the middle row — taking Escape Artist,additional Life, and Precognition along the way. Finish off withthe coveted Damage increase. If you focus on PvP content, you shouldfocus on the Gladiator Tree instead; this tree unlocks at Paragon 100,and offers brawling-oriented bonuses. Start off with maxing ArmorPenetration, picking Uncontrollable right after it and continuingupwards. Max out Life, attain Quick Witted, and go into maxingResistance and the second Life node. Get the Cheat Deathright above the Life node. Finish with the consistently desirableDamage.
• At this point, you are hovering around the Paragon 180-185 point. Onething to consider is going back to the Vanquisher Tree to finish offthe bottom right Armor Penetration node. You can also divert to theTreasure Hunter Tree to grab Gold Find and its subsequentArmor Penetration node. Alternatively, if you group up a lot, you cantab over to the Soldier Tree. This tree unlocks at Paragon 150 and isfocused on grouping bonuses and provides tremendous utility for most modes ofplay. Take Hold Formation and head down to Resistance, then evenfurther down into Damage. Attain the full bottom row — BattleMorale into Armor Penetration into Sacrifice. Then, finishoff the middle row with Combat Veteran and Potency. Finally, gothrough the top row of Life and First Aid.

It is important to reiterate that your utmost priority is picking up all thedamage nodes you can, deviating into one tree or another only to further thatgoal. Secondary valuable pickups are found in Armor Penetration and Life nodes.Once you are done with leveling all the Damage nodes, you are free to fill outParagon trees as you see fit, as well as to activate specific Trees for theneeds of the content you are doing.

When you turn in Bestiary pages, you will receive a class-specificconsumable. For Necromancers, this item is the Shining Skull, whichsummons a Soul Keeper to recharge an empty resurrection stone. This is a veryunderwhelming consumable; still, it can be occasionally useful, so don'thesitate to use it.