The Necromancer is one of the most versatile classes in Diablo 4. Necromancers can deal good damage at range while also being able to handle themselves in melee. If you’re looking for a beginner-friendly class, the Necromancer is definitely your best bet. In addition to having a number of powerful spells at their disposal, Necromancers can also summon various undead minions to fight by their side.

Related: Diablo 4: Tips & Tricks For Necromancer

Even though Necromancers can choose to take the lone wanderer route, they’ll have a much easier time overcoming Sanctuary’s many challenges while being accompanied by their own personal army of minions. To that end, this leveling guide will focus quite heavily on improving minions, but don’t worry because we’ll also go over the best spells and passives you should be picking early on.

Best Skills For Leveling

Generally speaking, you’ll only be able to earn one skill point per level while playing Diablo 4. There are ways of acquiring additional skill points that don’t involve leveling up, but you won’t be able to rely on those too much, especially in the early game. It’s a good idea to plan ahead if you want to make the most out of the limited number of skill points you’ll have at your disposal, however, it’s also worth noting that you can respec at any time by simply spending a bit of gold. Diablo 4 encourages experimentation so don’t be afraid to switch things up if a certain skill isn’t working out for you.

The Necromancer skill tree may seem a bit intimidating at first glance, but it’s actually pretty straightforward once you delve into it. Primary skills are split into seven main categories: Basic, Core, Macabre, Corpse, Curse, Ultimate, and Summoning. You’ll generally want to focus on just one or two skills from every category while leveling, You can also skip some of them entirely if you wish. Most of these skills have additional keywords attached to them, such as Blood, Bone, Corruption, or Darkness. You can (and should) play around these to create comprehensive builds when approaching the late game, but you don’t have to worry about that too much while leveling.

As mentioned earlier, you’re going to rely heavily on your minions while playing a Necromancer so Raise Skeleton and, later on, Summon Golem should always be present on your skills bar. Minions are unlocked via the Book of the Dead unique mechanic and don't require any skill points except for upgrades. As far as what types of minions you should consider bringing along, for this build we recommend going with Skeletal Reaper Warriors, Skeletal Cold Mages, and the Blood Golem.

In addition to Summons, you’ll also want to pick up one Basic skill and one Core skill, both of which get their own special slots on the bar. Meanwhile, a third slot should be reserved for your Ultimate. That only leaves one slot available that you use can use for any skill. You could add an additional Core or Basic skill, but we recommend going with a different type to have a bit more variety. This particular build uses the Corpse skill known as Corpse Explosion.

This build focuses on making minions as strong as possible via passives while also giving the Necromancer a couple of reliable ways of generating corpses for summons thanks to Decompose and Army of the Dead. Since you’ll have more than enough corpses at your disposal, you’ll also want to grab Corpse Explosion, which will act as your damage-over-time AoE spell. We’ll also get a second AoE spell in the form of Blood Surge. In addition to dealing a fair amount of damage, Blood Surge will be our primary source of healing.

This build does a healthy amount of both Physical and Shadow damage, with a bit of Cold damage thrown into the mix courtesy of our Skeletal Mages. As an added bonus, the build also provides a fair bit of Essence generation.

Related: The Paladin And Monk Need To Make A Comeback In Diablo 4

Best Gear And Stats

Necromancers can equip an assortment of different weapons, the most iconic of which are scythes. Scythes are available exclusively to the Necromancer class and come in both one-handed and two-handed versions. In addition, Necromancers can also use magic swords and magic wands. Necromancers can’t dual-wield, but they can equip other items in their off-hand like a shield or a magic focus. Using a shield is not recommended while leveling since you’ll want to focus more on offense rather than defense. That said, you should definitely still consider equipping Rare and Legendary shields that come with good Aspects or other advantages. Otherwise, you’re generally better off using either a two-handed weapon or a focus paired with a one-handed weapon.

The power of a minion is only as great as the power of its master. Since minions inherit a portion of their stats from the Necromancer, it’s a good idea to focus on stats that complement the abilities of your minions, or make up for their shortcomings. In the early game, you’ll generally want to focus as much as possible on defense, but once you unlock the Golem you can switch to offense. Even more important than the actual stats are Aspects and affixes. Affixes like “Summoning Skill Damage”, “Maximum Minion Life” and “Life on Kill” are no-brainers. Meanwhile, Necromancer-specific Aspects that improve spells like Decompose and Blood Surge, or those that increase the maximum number of minions you can summon, are absolutely invaluable.

Recommended Aspects

We have a separate article covering the best Necromancer Aspects in Diablo 4, so we’re going to keep this section brief. Suffice it to say that even though Necromancers have access to dozens of Aspects, you’re unlikely to see most of them during the early game. Most Aspects can be acquired by completing various dungeons but only some of them contain Aspects usable by the Necromancer. Fractured Peaks, the opening area, features seven of them, only two of which work well with this build. Another two of them are decent, but you can take them or leave them.

In addition to Aspects tied to specific dungeons, you can sometimes also find items with Aspects already embedded into them. Some of these Aspects are identical to the ones found in dungeons, but there are some unique ones as well. You’ll want to pay special attention to items that increase your maximum number of minions. You can use these types of items as is or have an Occultist extract them so you can then imprint them on other items. Just keep in mind that this process requires some rare resources you may or may not have access to in the early game.

Since all loot drops in Diablo 4 are based on RNG, there’s no guarantee that you’re going to find any items with built-in Aspects. To that end, the table below only includes Aspects that are guaranteed to drop, along with where to find them in the opening area.

Related: Diablo 4: How To Get Unique Items

Recommended Gems

Gems provide a variety of bonuses that improve weapons, armor, and jewelry both while leveling and during the end game. These bonuses are small at first but as you level up, you’ll be able to combine multiple gems of the same type and gradually increase the bonuses they offer. Make sure to save up all the gems you come across even if they seem worthless at the time because they’ll come in handy later on.

Any gem can be embedded into pretty much any item as long as it has a socket, but the bonuses will vary depending on the item type. Generally speaking, you’ll want to use gems that add to the affixes you’re already focusing on. The only exception are resistances. If you’re dying a lot to poison damage, for example, it’s definitely worth embedding your jewelry with a bunch of Emerald gems to gain a massive boost of poison resistance. Aside from that, though, you should primarily use gems that play to the Necromancer’s strengths.

Next: Diablo 4: Which Class Should You Pick?