Necromancer Ring of Mendeln Summoner Endgame Build (Season 2 Updated)

This is a Season 2 Ring of Mendeln Summoner endgame build for Necromancer in Diablo 4 (D4) that aims to trigger lucky hits from Ring of Mendeln to maximize our Minion damage. Read on for the complete list of Vampiric Powers, Skills, and Aspects you need and how to play the build for Season 2.

Ring of Mendeln Summoner Build Overview

Build Summary

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Summary		Skill Progression		Aspects & Affixes
Gems		Vampiric Powers		Paragon

Skills

Aspects & Uniques

Stats & Gems

Build Overview and Summary
Ring of Mendeln Summoner		Tier: Focus: PVE Playstyle: Solo and Party
Active Skills
Passive Skills

Build Overview and Summary
Ring of Mendeln Summoner		Tier: Focus: PVE Playstyle: Solo and Party
Aspects and Uniques
Howl from Below Ring of Mendeln Aspect of Disobedience Aspect of the Embalmer Blighted Aspect Aspect of Grasping Veins Aspect of Plunging Darkness Aspect of Decay Blood Getter's Aspect Viscous Aspect

Build Overview and Summary
Ring of Mendeln Summoner		Tier: Focus: PVE Playstyle: Solo and Party
Stat Priorities			Recommended Gems
・Movement Speed ・Cooldown Reduction ・Lucky Hit Chance ・Damage Reduction while Fortified ・Armor ・Maximum Life ・Dodge Chance ・Damage to Crowd Controlled Enemies ・Damage Over Time			Amethyst (Weapon) Diamond (Jewelry) Ruby (Armor)

This is a minion build that utilizes lucky hit chance, shadow DoTs, and the Ring of Mendeln to unleash a steady amount of damage as well as huge bursts of it over the course of the fight. This is a build that is minorly tweaked from P4wnyhof's and is a decent all around build for a minion based Necromancer.

Ring of Mendeln Summoner Build Breakdown

Skill Progression

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Summary		Skill Progression		Best Aspects
Gems and Hearts			Paragon

Skill		Upgrade Path
Bone Splinters (5 Points)	→	Enhanced Bone Splinters	-
Blight (5 Points)	→	Enhanced Blight	Supernatural Blight
Corpse Explosion (5 Points)	→	Enhanced Corpse Explosion	Blighted Corpse Explosion
Corpse Tendrils (Ultimate)	→	Enhanced Corpse Tendrils	Plagued Corpse Tendrils
Decrepify (1 Points)	→	Enhanced Decrepify	Abhorrent Decrepify
Blood Mist (1 Points)	→	-	-
Bone Prison (1 Points)	→	Enhanced Bone Prison	Ghastly Bone Prison

Passive Skills

Corpse Explosion Passives
Hewed Flesh (3 Points)				Grim Harvest (1 Point)				Fueled by Death (3 Points)
Skeletal Warrior Mastery (3 Points)				Skeletal Mage Mastery (3 Points)				Reaper's Pursuit (1 Point)
Gloom (3 Points)				Terror (3 Points)				Inspiring Leader (3 Points)
Amplify Damage (3 Points)				Death's Reach (3 Points)				Shadowblight (1 Point)
Necrotic Carapace (1 Point)				Terror (1 Point)				-

Skill Progression Breakdown

Recommended Skill Progression
Lv.2	Lv.3	Lv.4	Lv.5
Bone Splinters	Enhanced Bone Splinters	Blight	Enhanced Blight
Lv.6	Lv.7	Lv.8	Lv.9
Supernatural Blight	Hewed Flesh	Corpse Explosion	Bone Prison
Lv.10	Lv.11	Lv.12	Lv.13
Grim Harvest	Fueled by Death	Enhanced Bone Prison	Decrepify
Lv.14	Lv.15	Lv.16	Lv.17
Enhanced Decrepify	Abhorrent Decrepify	Ghastly Bone Prison	Enhanced Corpse Explosion
Lv.18	Lv.19	Lv.20	Lv.21
Corpse Tendrils	Enhanced Corpse Tendrils	Plagued Corpse Tendrils	Reaper's Pursuit
Lv.22	Lv.23	Lv.24	Lv.25
Gloom	Terror	Crippling Darkness	Inspiring Leader
Lv.26	Lv.27	Lv.28	Lv.29
Inspiring Leader	Inspiring Leader	Gloom	Gloom
Lv.30	Lv.31	Lv.32	Lv.33
Terror	Terror	Blighted Corpse Explosion	Necrotic Carapace
Lv.34	Lv.35	Lv.36	Lv.37
Amplify Damage	Shadowblight	Amplify Damage	Amplify Damage
Lv.38	Lv.39	Lv.40	Lv.41
Fueled by Death	Fueled by Death	Hewed Flesh	Hewed Flesh
Lv.42	Lv.43	Lv.44	Lv.45
Corpse Explosion	Corpse Explosion	Corpse Explosion	Corpse Explosion
Lv.46	Lv.47	Lv.48	Lv.49
Death's Reach	Death's Reach	Death's Reach	Skeletal Warrior Mastery
Renown Skill Points (Lv50 Onwards)
R1	R2	R3	R4
Skeletal Warrior Mastery	Skeletal Warrior Mastery	Skeletal Mage Mastery	Skeletal Mage Mastery
R5	R6	R7	R8
Skeletal Mage Mastery	Blight	Blight	Blood Mist
R9		R10
Blight		Blight

Book of the Dead

Raise Skeleton	→	Warrior (Reaper)	Upgrade 2
		Mage (Cold)	Upgrade 1
Golem	→	Iron	Sacrifice

For our Book of the Dead upgrades, we chose Reaper and Cold for corpse generation and extra essence. For the Golem, we chose to Sacrifice its Iron variant to amplify our Critical Strike damage which the build still benefits from the Ring of Mendeln procs.

Book of the Dead Guide

Aspects and Affixes

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Summary		Skill Progression		Aspects & Affixes
Gems		Vampiric Powers		Paragon

Best Weapons

Weapon	Aspects and Affixes
Wand	Aspect of Decay Each time the Shadowblight Key Passive deals damage to enemies, it increases the next Shadowblight's damage within 10 seconds by (20-40)%, stacking up to 5 times. ・+X% Lucky Hit Chance (Inherent) ・+X Intelligence ・+X% Vulnerable Damage ・+X% Critical Strike Damage ・+X% Damage to Crowd Controlled Enemies
Focus	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. ・+X% Cooldown Reduction (Inherent) ・+X Intelligence ・+X% Cooldown Reduction ・+X% Lucky Hit Chance ・+X% Critical Strike Chance

Best Armor

Equipment	Aspects and Affixes
Helmet	Blood Getter's Aspect Your maximum number of Skeletal Warriors is increased by 2. ・+X Intelligence ・+X% Cooldown Reduction ・+X% Total Armor ・+X% Max HP
Chest	Aspect of Disobedience You gain (0.25-0.50)% increased Armor for 4 seconds when you deal any form of damage, stacking up to (66)%. ・+X% Damage Reduction ・+X% Damage Reduction while Fortified ・+X% Total Armor ・+X% Maximum Minion Life
Gloves	Howl from Below Instead of detonating immediately, Corpse Explosion summons a Volatile Skeleton that charges at a random enemy and explodes. Corpse Explosion's damage is increased by (30-40)% . ・+X% Lucky Hit Chance ・+X% Attack Speed ・+X% Lucky Hit: % chance to Stun ・+X% Critical Strike Chance
Pants	Blood Moon Breeches Your Minions have a 3-7% chance to curse enemies. Enemies affected by at least 1 of your curses take 70% increased Overpower damage from you. ・While Injured, Potion Grants X% Max Life as Barrier ・+X% Maximum Life ・+Rank to all Curse Skills ・+Ranks to Amplify Damage Passive ・+X% Damage reductio from enemies affected by Curse skills
Boots	Viscous Aspect Your maximum number of Skeletal Mages is increased by 2. ・+X Max Evade Charge (Inherent) ・+X% Dodge Chance ・+X% Movement Speed ・+X Ranks Of Corpse Tendrils ・+X Intelligence

Best Jewelry

Jewelry	Aspects and Affixes
Amulet	Blighted Aspect You deal (50-120)% increased damage for 6 seconds after the Shadowblight Key Passive damages enemies 10 times. ・+X% Cooldown Reduction ・+X Ranks to Hellbent Commander Passive ・+X% Total Armor ・+X% Damage Reduction
Ring	Ring of Mendeln Lucky Hit: Up to a 10% chance to empower all of your Minions, causing the next attack from each to explode (XX) Physical damage. +X% Lucky Hit Chance +X% Minion Attack Speed +X% Minion Health +X Thorns
Ring	Aspect of Plunging Darkness Bone Prison spawns a pool of Blight that deals (75-125)% bonus damage over 6 seconds. +X% Lucky Hit Chance +X% Critical Strike Chance +X% Critical Strike Damage +X% Vulnerable Damage

Best Gems

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Summary		Skill Progression		Aspects & Affixes
Gems		Vampiric Powers		Paragon

Item Type	Effect Explanation
Royal Amethyst (Weapon)	+8.0% Damage Over Time Goes without saying that Amethyst will be our main jewelry for our weapons due to the build's focus on DoT Damage and this gem just makes it better.
Royal Ruby (Armor)	4.0% Maximum Life Ruby gives you max HP which is a more reliable source of defense than the other gem counterpart. This is much more true with the Blood Lance build as Overpower scales with HP!
Royal Diamond (Jewelry)	5.0% Resistance to All Elements Provides all resistance which makes you more durable against any non-physical attacks. Can alternatively be swapped with Skull but Diamond provides more value due to its percentage resistance.

Best Vampiric Powers

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Summary		Skill Progression		Aspects & Affixes
Gems		Vampiric Powers		Paragon

Vampiric Power Cost	Effect Explanation
Flowing Veins 2 2 2	You deal 60% increased Damage Over Time to enemies that are moving or affected by a Vampiric Curse. Your highest prioritiy among the existing Vampiric Curses. This makes DoT builds just much more efficient!
Sanguine Brace 0 1 1	When you kill an enemy, Fortify for 6% of your Base Life. While you have more Fortify than half of your Maximum Life, you gain 8% Critical Strike Chance. A good way to add fortify to your build to add some defensive stats. Being a summoner build also means there are less aggro on you which makes Sanguine Brace be able to apply its critical strike chance bonus!
Prey on the Weak 2 0 0	You deal 16% increased damage to Vulnerable enemies. Enemies are Vulnerable while affected by a Vampiric Curse from your other Vampiric Powers. Just a flat 16% damage increase in our build. We can apply Vulnerable through Corpse Tendrils or Bone Prison or even dodging through enemies using Metamorphosis!
Metamorphosis 2 2 2	When you Evade you turn into a cloud of bats, becoming Unstoppable for 4 seconds. Enemies along your path take 160% Physical damage and are inflicted with Vampiric Curse. An easy way to apply Vampiric Curse and an escape tool. Synergizes great with Prey on the Weak for vulnerable bonus damage.
Undying 0 0 1	Casting Skills heals you for 3% Life. Double this bonus while below 50% Life. A great sustain tool but can easily be flexed to a different power.
Total Pacts Required 6 | 5 | 6

List of Vampiric Powers

Paragon Board Setup

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Summary		Skill Progression		Aspects & Affixes
Gems		Vampiric Powers		Paragon

Ring of Mendeln Summoner Build Playstyle

Necromancer Ring of Mendeln Summoner Build Tips
Play Around Lucky Hits Always Keep Your Skeletal Minions Alive Blood Moon Breeches auto apply Curses

Play Around Lucky Hits

Lucky Hit is our main source of DPS thanks to Ring of Mendeln. Bone Spear is our main lucky hit trigger since it has 50% lucky hit chance which can allow Ring of Mendeln to trigger easily per cast. There are also other lucky hit triggers such as Decrepify to reduce our Cooldown so be sure to pump up our lucky hit chance as much as possible!

Always Keep Your Skeletal Minions Alive

Skeletal Minions are the main DPS source of the build and while Bone Spear can deal a decent amount of damage as is, our main source of damage still comes from Ring of Mendeln procs and its damage will multiply based on your number of minions.

Blood Moon Breeches auto apply Curses

A new unique in the game allows us to apply Curse in the form of Blood Moon Breeches. This allows us to slot off the Decrepify curse and still be able to apply it to enemies together with Iron Maiden.

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