Diablo 4: How Do Skeletal Priests Work for Necromancer Minion Builds?
If you're running a Necromancer minion build in Diablo 4, the Skeletal Priest is one of Diablo 4 Items your most important tools for keeping your army alive and deadly. Whether your Skeletons are your primary damage source or you're just using them for utility, understanding how Skeletal Priests work and use Diablo 4 Items can massively boost your build's performance.
Here's everything you need to know about Skeletal Priests in Diablo 4, how to summon them, and why they matter so much for any Necromancer who commands the dead.
What Are Skeletal Priests in Diablo 4?
Skeletal Priests are temporary summoned units that appear when you press the "Summon Skeleton" button (default key: S or your rebind) while already at your maximum number of Skeletons. To summon a Skeletal Priest, there also needs to be a Corpse on the ground nearby.
Unlike standard skeletons, you can't keep multiple Skeletal Priests active at once-they're time-limited and vanish after their effect duration expires.
How Skeletal Priests Work
Once summoned, a Skeletal Priest does two major things:
Heals all of your Skeletons over time
Grants a temporary damage buff to all of your Skeletons
Grants a temporary damage buff to all of your Skeletons
This applies to both Skeletal Warriors and Skeletal Mages, meaning that if you're leaning into a full minion build, Skeletal Priests are essential to your sustain and burst.
You can recognize a Skeletal Priest in battle by its distinctive bluish aura and arms raised in a channeling pose. It doesn't attack enemies directly, but its passive healing and empowering effects provide strong battlefield utility.
How Long Do Skeletal Priests Last?
Their duration scales with your level and gear, and buy D4 materials. Most last around 15 to 20 seconds, enough to provide strong uptime across most elite or boss encounters. You can re-summon them frequently as long as you have Corpses available, so don't hesitate to use the Summon Skeleton button-even if your minions are already alive.
You No Longer Need to Spec Into Skeletal Priests
In the past, you had to take the Bonded in Essence passive to unlock Skeletal Priest healing, but that requirement is gone in the current Diablo 4 meta. Skeletal Priests are now a baseline feature of the Necromancer's Raise Skeleton functionality.
This means every Necromancer with minions can use Skeletal Priests-no skill tree investment required.
Legendary Aspects That Affect Skeletal Priests
Though you don't need talents to buy Diablo 4 Items unlock them, there are two Legendary Aspects that enhance what Skeletal Priests can do: