Lord of Hatred's Skill Tree Update has a clear winner

The skill tree update i Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred has paved the way for more diversity in meta builds, and more than just the new Paladin and Warlock classes are affected. All Diablo 4 classes have had their skill trees reworked to remove passive nodes and add more modifiers for active skills. While most classes can reap the benefits of these changes, there is one class that has the most to gain.

The last few seasons have the two worst classes in Diablo 4 were Rogue and Necromancer. Now with Diablo 4: Lord of Hatreds reworked Skill Trees, these classes become much more viable for tackling the game's toughest endgame content. However, between the two, Necromancer gets a more significant buff with significant changes to some of the core mechanics of the class that should completely change how players approach Necromancer builds Diablo 4 Season 13.

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If you haven't played Diablo 4 in a while, here's what you should know about Lord of Hatred

Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred changes the game drastically, meaning returning players jumping back in after a hiatus may have some catching up to do.

Necromancer is the big winner from Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred's Skill Tree Rework

Core game mechanics Diablo 4's Necromancer revolves around summoning skeleton minions through his Book of the Dead. Prior to Season 13, the Necromancer had all of these skills tied directly to the Book of the Dead, with options to summon Skeleton Warriors, Skeleton Mage, and a Golem. Necromancers can also augment these summons to alter their behavior, or even sacrifice them and remove the ability to summon them entirely to gain useful effects as a trade-off.

Minions are now tied to the Necromancer's Skill Tree

diablo-4-lord-of-hat-necromancer-skill-tree-rework — The Necromancer's new skill tree from Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred.

With the changes to Diablo 4s Skill Tree in the Lord of Hatred update, the Necromancer's minion summoning skills have been moved from the Book of the Dead directly into the Skill Tree itself. This change means that the Skeletal Warrior, Skeletal Mage and Golem skills can benefit from the new upgrade system that affects all skills. With the ability to stack modifiers on these minions, Diablo 4's Necromancer takes one step closer to having a true Summoner Necromancer in the meta.

Skeletal mages are summoned with Essence, but Skeletal Warriors are now passively summoned from Corpses created by the Necromancer.

For example, one of the upgrades for Skeletal Mages is the option to spend all remaining Essence to summon a large Mage that lasts proportionally to how much Essence was spent to summon it. Another change includes moving Skeletal Priests into an upgrade for Skeletal Warriors via the Litany of Death upgrade. The result of these changes should allow Diablo 4 Necromancer builds to flourish with more diversity and actually useful summons beyond Diablo 4s smoothing grinding.

Necromancers no longer have to worry about sacrificing their minions

The Book of the Dead still controls the type of Skeletal Warriors, Mages, and Golems the player can summon.
Sacrifices no longer prevent Necromancers from summoning their minions.
Sacrifice bonuses have been reworked accordingly.

Now that the Necromancer's minions are largely governed by the class skill tree, the Book of the Dead has also seen some changes. While Book of the Dead still lets players choose what form their Skeletal Warriors, Mages, and Golems take, upgrading these summons falls to the nodes of the skill tree. What's more, sacrificing minions has undergone a complete overhaul, to the point that choosing to sacrifice a minion type no longer prevents the Necromancer from summoning them at all. As a result, the bonuses offered by sacrificing minions in the Book of the Dead have changed in turn.

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Scratch & Peek

Identify the wrapper while scraping off as little foil as possible.

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With these huge changes to how the Necromancer plays comes the hope that the class can live up to its full potential as both a summoner and caster hybrid. The addition of Warlock in Lord of Hatred, which fits a similar archetype, could create competition with Necromancer in terms of meta usage. However, the Necromancer's improved minions should give it a renewed utility that fans of the class will want to experience for themselves.