Diablo 4's Paladin has accomplished something that Necromancer has not been able to do in 11 seasons

The release of the Paladin class is highlighted Diablo 4 Season 11, injecting the game with a playstyle that has been missing since its inception. Diablo 4's Paladin finally gives players the classic “sword and board” archetype to play with, along with Paladin's iconic Aura mechanic Diablo 2. It's this Aura mechanic that forms the basis of Paladin's most popular build, achieving what the Necromancer has been trying to achieve for 11 seasons.

With the rise of Paladin Diablo 4 Season 11, the game's meta is completely upended as the new class is the most powerful in the game at this point. While other classes like Spiritborn and Barbarian can also thrive this season, Paladin still eclipses them in terms of playability. Unfortunately for the necromancer, this means that what once was Diablo 4’s most consistently powerful classes have trickled down in the meta, and its passive minion and golem builds are a far cry from where Paladin’s passive builds were in Season 11.

Diablo 4's Paladin has an S-Tier passive build before the Necromancer

As fun as it can be to learn the best skill rotation for one Diablo 4 Build, some players just want to sit back and watch their character get killed with as little input as possible. This playstyle has popularized 1-button builds like Dance of Knives Rogue, but it's possible to create a build that requires fewer inputs. Until Season 11, Minion Necromancer offered a great passive build, but the build was never the meta threat that some players had hoped for and was largely a great level build and a serviceable end game.

Paladin's Auradin build is a meta powerhouse that kills passively

The Auradin Paladin build is probably the best build Diablo 4 Season 11, and it uses the class's Aura skills to essentially get kills by existing. The key to this build is keeping the Paladin's three Aura skills as active as possible:

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Defiance Aura
Holy light aura

To fully unlock the potential of this build, players will need to acquire the Dawnfire Unqiue Gloves for Paladin. This unique serves as the main source of passive damage for the construct, as it amplifies the damage done by Holy Light Saw and converts it into fire damage that the paladin receives in the aura's range on each hit. Dawnfire Gloves are so powerful that they almost single-handedly advance this build to S-Tier.

Dawnfire Lair can be farmed from Boss Varshan.

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Necromancer's passive minion builds are not on the same level as Aura Paladin's.

While the Minion forms within the Necromancer Diablo 4 Season 11 are solid enough to deal with most endgame content, their overall strength is not comparable to Auradin Paladin. Minion Necromancer deals damage passively, but relies on the AI of its minions to get kills instead of the automatic nature of having enemies within range like Paladin's Aura. Although Necromancer has access to solid uniques like Mendeln and The Hand of Naz to power its minions, these minions aren't as reliable as Paladin's Aura and Holy Light Aura can't achieve the damage multipliers that Dawnfire can.

In Season 11, Golem Necromancer builds are finally viable, but still can't break into the top of the meta with Paladin. Generally, Minion Necromancer sacrifices all minions except Skeletal Mages and uses them as the build's primary source of damage. However, the new Gravebloom Unique was introduced in 2015 Diablo 4 Season 11 makes Golems a viable option, as it summons three smaller golems to draw the enemy's attention instead of one. Unfortunately, this skill is still a less reliable source of passive damage due to the game's minion AI, making passive Paladin a great alternative to any passive build of Necromancer in Season 11.