Diablo 4 Season 13’s Best Builds are Better with Help from ‘Friends’

Some of the best builds in Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred and Season 13 share a common feature that hasn’t really factored into the meta in past seasons. Minion builds have suddenly shot to the top of the meta in Diablo 4 Season 13, largely thanks to the reworked Skill Tree that has improved the viability of individual summoning skills. There are three classes with meta summon builds in Diablo 4 this season, making it almost feel like the “Season of Summons” more so than the Season of Reckoning.

In the past, Diablo 4‘s premier summoner archetype was the Necromancer, but the Druid, and to a degree, the Barbarian, have also been able to call upon allies to aid them in battle. With the release of Lord of Hatred, the Warlock joins the Necromancer as a class with pure summoner build capabilities. On top of this new class, a change to some of Diablo 4‘s Uniques with the Lord of Hatred update has created a new build archetype for the Barbarian that allows it to join in on the summoning fun.

One Horadric Cube Transfiguration Has Broken the Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred Meta

The Horadric Cube has turned the Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred meta on its head with this Transfiguration that results in crazy damage output.

Minion Builds Are Top-Tier in Diablo 4 Season 13

Minion Barbarian
Minion Necromancer
Minion Warlock

While other classes like the Druid can summon minions in Diablo 4, the Barbarian, Necromancer, and Warlock have the best minion build options in the Season 13 meta. Each of these builds emphasizes summoning various types of minions as the build’s primary damage dealers while also taking some of the pressure off of the players themselves. For the most part, there are a few specific pieces of gear that are required to make these builds work, but players can also fine-tune them to fit their preferred playstyle needs.

What’s That Weapon?

Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.

What’s That Weapon?

Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.

Easy (7.5s)Medium (5.0s)Hard (2.5s)Permadeath (2.5s)

Barbarians Can Summon Ancient Minions to Smash Foes

The change to the Arreat’s Bearing Unique Barbarian Pants has allowed the class to form its own minion build archetype that focuses on summoning the Barbarian’s Ancients. Call of the Ancients is the primary way this is accomplished, but with Arreat’s Bearing, Barbarians can now summon additional Ancients when using an Ancient-summoning skill other than Call of the Ancients. With the Madawc upgrade for Rallying Cry, players can use the skill to summon two Ancients with Arreat’s Bearing, as well as use Call of the Ancients to summon three more Ancients and keep the summon pummel going.

+[251.0 – 350.0]% Ultimate Damage
+[23.5 – 32.5]% Call of the Ancients Cooldown Reduction
+[638 – 873] Maximum Life
+[26.0 – 35.0]% Resistance to All Elements

Your non-Ultimate Skills that summon Ancients will now summon an additional one. Skills that summon Ancients deal [30 – 40%] increased damage.

Barbarian

Hellbent Commander Aspect, Progenitor Aspect, and Bold Chieftain’s Aspect are all great Legendary Aspects to use on this build. Hellbent Commander and Progenitor increase the damage dealt by summons, while Bold Chieftain’s Aspect reduces the cooldowns of the Barbarian’s Shout skills, allowing them to cast Rallying Cry more often.

Minion Necromancers Can Take Full Advantage of the New Diablo 4 Skill Tree

Necromancers were the big winners of Diablo 4‘s Skill Tree update, moving their minion skills from the Book of the Dead into the Skill Tree itself and giving them more versatile upgrade options. For example, the Necromancer’s Golem can now utilize the Gargantua upgrade to increase its size and give it an aura that increases the attack and movement speed of the class’s other minions. There are also ways to drastically increase the number of summons the Necromancer can have active at a time, with Skeletal Mage’s Coven upgrade and Skeletal Warrior’s Master of Puppets upgrade bumping up their max summon counts.

600 Armor

Your maximum number of Skeleton Warriors is increased by 6. Skeleton Warriors cleave with their attacks and deal x[30 – 40%] increased damage. Commanding them onto a target increases the damage that target takes from your Skeleton Warriors by x[30 – 40%].

Necromancer

The Necromancer can also utilize both the Deathgrip and The Undercrown Uniques to further increase the max number of summons that they can have active. Additionally, the Pact of Bone Unique Ring buffs the damage of these minions and empowers them when one dies. The result is a build that can steamroll enemies through sheer overwhelming numbers of active summons.

Although the Necromancer’s minions are mostly governed by the Skill Tree now, the Book of the Dead still allows players to choose which type of each minion they can summon.

Warlocks Have an Insane Minion Build in Diablo 4

Bombardment is a powerful Warlock skill in Diablo 4 Season 13, and it can help turn the Warlock into a demon meat grinder. With Bombardment, players are constantly spamming enemies with summoned demons that explode for huge damage. With the Summon Hellwyrm upgrade for Sigil of Summons, the Warlock can essentially get a second cast of Bombardment when completing the ritual. All of these skills feed into the Legion Shard’s ability to give the Warlock a free Greater Demon summon for every 200 demons (friendly or enemy) that the Warlock kills, resulting in a summon like Fiend of Abaddon being near-constantly available.

+[94-157] Weapon Damage
+X Maximum Life
x[6-10%] All Damage Multiplier
x[15-30%] Damage Over Time Multiplier

Hitting a Lesser Demon with Bombardment explodes it for 400% of a Bombardment impact if the Demon has less than 3 second duration left. Bombardment deals x [100 – 120%] increased damage.

Warlock

Uniques like The Blade of Sight Aflame and Ae’grom’s Schism are also great additions to this build that help feed the demon meat grinder. The Blade of Sight Aflame boosts the power of Bombardment when hitting a Lesser Demon that has less than three seconds left of duration, while Ae’grom’s Schism summons a second version of the Greater Demon that will also produce Lesser Demons, which can be used for fodder. The goal of this build is to then keep the demon summon spam active and empowered by the Legion Shard to overwhelm enemies with numbers, much like the Necromancer’s minion build.

Regardless of which of these Diablo 4 classes players choose to play in Season 13, they will have an easier time reaching the highest Torment tiers if they bring along some summons. Building around minions like these builds aim to do has some downsides, such as less direct control over damage output. However, the upsides of aggro mitigation and cascading damage as summon counts increase more than make up for these deficiencies.