Behold the Skeleton Disco Party! It absolutely flattened the campaign.
Despite using a ton of minions, this is an easy build to play. In early Act 1, use
Unearth to deal damage and summon bone constructs to support your
Skeletal Warrior and
Skeletal Sniper minions. Once you unlock
Skeletal Arsonist minions later on in Act 1, you can use them to detonate the bone constructs from
Unearth to deal loads of damage.
Once you get to Act 2 and ascend to Disciple of Varashta, you use
Kelari's Deception and Kelari's Brutality to clear packs and nuke bosses. These two skills apply a massive Critical Weakness debuff to bosses, allowing you and your minions to burn their health pools down quickly.
Once you ascend a second time in Act 3, you can also use
Ruzhan's Trap to help with clear and bosses.
Skills granted by Disciple of Varashta all scale with minion damage bonuses from gear and the passive skill tree, allowing you to deal enormous amounts of damage on a limited budget.
The support gem Muster grants 7% more damage for each different type of minion that you have active, so our goal is to have one of everything. With 8 possible Skeletal minions and a Spectre, Muster grants 63% more damage. It can also be used on all of our minions, including the two granted by Disciple of Varashta! Giving an entire build a 63% more damage multiplier is absurd!
Disciple of Verastha also provides powerful defensive bonuses in
The Fourth Teaching and
Sacred Rituals, which massively increase the power of stacking Energy Shield.
Spectre
Powered Zealot Spectres are available in the Interlude 3 area Etched Ravine. There are a few versions of Powered Zealots in that area, you want the version that casts Spark. It is by far the strongest available spectre option for clearing maps quickly.
Gearing
Minion builds gear differently from most others. Normal damage stats, like spell damage, do very little to increase your overall damage.
Summoning minions costs Spirit per minion, and you can manually control how many of each minion you have active. Your best weapon option is a
Rattling Sceptre, because it allows you to summon two
Skeletal Warrior minions for 0 spirit cost, and it will grant a minimum of 100 Spirit to use on other summons as you see fit. Increasing the gem level of your minion skills reduces their reservation cost, so upgrading gem levels is extremely powerful for minion builds. Your minions get stronger, and you're able to have more of them active at once!
Here's a quick breakdown of the stats you want most as a minion build in the campaign:
- + to Level of All Minion Skills (available on sceptres, amulets, and helms)
- + to Spirit
- Allies in your Presence Deal % Increased Damage
- Allies in your Presence Deal X Added Attack Physical Damage
- Resistances
- Attributes
- Life
- Energy Shield
Useful Uniques
Enfolding Dawn is extremely cheap and grants 100 Spirit, which allows you to summon several extra minions from the start of the campaign. This unique is a great option for minion builds from Act 1 through Act 4.
The Everlasting Gaze solves mana during Act 1.
Luminous Pace grant move speed from the start of Act 1.
Wanderlust grant 20% movement speed from late Act 1 and can be used until you find 20% movement speed rare boots late in the campaign.
Ventor's Gamble is the only ring in the game that can provide Spirit, and it even offers resistances and item rarity!
Darkness Enthroned allows you to socket two additional helm-slot idols, including
Idol of Ralakesh and
Idol of Egrin.
Act Bonuses
- Act 2: Charm Charges Gained
- Act 3: Stun Threshold
- Act 4: Mana Flask
- Act 4: +5 All Attributes
- Intermissions: +5 All Attributes

















