Necromancer Beginner Guide
Necromancer is the Class of Death and Elemental Damage in The Elder Scrolls Online. A strong class that can also summon Pets(Minions) to assist in fight. Necromancer’s minions are not permanent, so you will have to re-summon them often. This makes the class harder to use for new players and adds a high level of micromanagement in gameplay.
The class of Necromancer is not available with the base game, so players will have to purchase it if they want to experience ESO with it. Necromancers make good Stamina Damage dealers in PVE or PVP and can fulfill every role in the game.
Table of Contents
- Why Choose Necromancer
- Important Skills
- Mundus Stones
- Champion Points
- Vampire or Werewolf
- Build Examples
- More Beginner Guides
Why Choose Necromancer
Necromancer has access to several offensive, defensive and support skills, which allow to fulfill all roles in the game with success. They make great Damage Dealers characters as well as Healers and Tanks. Their minions can help with DPS, Healing and drawing aggro, offering valuable assistance in combat.
The class however is not very beginner friendly and requires a lot of practice to learn how to play it properly. The main reason for this is the constant re-summoning of minions but also the fact that some of their skills(Blastbones, Shocking Siphon) are “clanky” and harder to use.
Necromancers are great for Solo PVE gameplay because of the many, defensive and healing options they have, Stamina Necromancers shine in PVP and PVE gameplay while Magicka Necromancers can be very strong at the hands of experienced players.
As a healer, the Necromancer class can keep your group alive but also revive your fallen friends immediately. They make strong Tanks as well, that can complete almost all content in ESO.
Overall, Necromancers can fulfill every role in the game with success and help you enjoy ESO. Their main drawback is the fact that minions need to be re-summoned often and that some skills are not working always as intended.
Important Skills
Before we go through the most important Necromancer skills, you have to decide what kind of Necromancer you wish to create! A Magicka based or Stamina based one. This will determine the type of gameplay and the morphs of skills you should choose as you level up.
To create a Magicka based Necromancer(DD or Healer) allocate all your available attribute points to Magicka. To create a Stamina one, allocate your points to Stamina. You can also mix them up if you wish to make a Tank character.
Leveling a Necromancer and its skills is similar to leveling any other class in the game. There are several methods you can follow to level up fast and efficiently, like grinding XP at specific locations, clearing Dolmens and completing group content. You can find a lot more info on how to level up a character fast and efficiently in my ESO Leveling Guide.
There are several important skills you should unlock and level up as soon as possible. Class, Weapons and Guild Skills that will help you create the build of your dreams! To level up skills and skill-lines, always have one or more of their skills in your active bar, even if you are not using them. More info on unlocking and leveling up skills and their lines here.
So let’s start with the most important Necromancer Class skills.
Class Skills
The Necromancer has three unique skill lines with abilities suitable for every role in the game. Both Magicka and Stamina Necromancers have to re-summon their minions often to be effective as Damage Dealers.
The Necromancer Skill lines are:
- Grave Lord, with offensive skills and minions for Magicka and Stamina Builds
- Bone Tyrant, with Tank and Defense oriented skills
- Living Death, focusing on healing
Grave Lord
The main offensive skill line of the Necromancer Class with morphs for Stamina and Magicka based Necromancers. Frozen Colossus offers two powerful Ultimates, Pestilent Colossus and Glacial Colossus, for both Magicka and Stamina Necromancers. This Ultimate applies the Vulnerability debuff to enemies, boosting the overall DPS of your party.
Flame Skull is the class’ spammable with a Magicka and Stamina morph. Important skill for every Necromancer. Blastbones is again a very important skill for the class, that boosts the damage of Magicka and Stamina Builds. Blighted and Stalking Blastbones will increase your DPS and deal significant damage to NPC and Player enemies. When they work as intended!
Boneyard is a pure Magicka based skill, that offers a great Solo and a Group Morph. Unnerving Boneyard debuffs enemies while Avid Boneyard allows the caster to use its own synergy(great for solo).
Skeletal Archer and Skeletal Arcanist(Skeletal Mage morphs) are great minions that follow you around and assist in combat, depending on your main attribute. Shocking Siphon finally requires corpses to work and thus synergizes well with most skills from this line. Detonating Siphon(Stamina morph) deals extra disease damage while Mystic Siphon(Magicka morph) deals shock damage but also restores Magicka.
The more Grave Lord abilities you have placed on your main bar, the better your overall damage and DPS will be. This is why this skill line is very important for DPS Necromancers.
Bone Tyrant
This line is focusing more on defense and Tanking. Bone Goliath Transformation offers two powerful Goliath Transformations that can assist in PVP but also Tanking in PVE. Death Scythe and its morphs, deal damage while draining health from enemies. Decent skills for solo PVE gameplay. Bone Armor is a vital skill for solo PVE, Tanking and PVP gameplay.
Beckoning Armor pulls enemies toward you, which makes it excellent for Tanks. Summoning Armor reduces the cost of your other minions and assists with sustain.
Bitter Harvest and its morphs boost your defense and survivability while Bone Totem, Grave Grasp and their morphs are great to crowd control enemies and offer support to your group in PVE or PVP.
Living Death
This line is focusing on healing and support. Reanimate and morphs can be very powerful when used at the right moment. They allow you to resurrect fallen group members and can be useful in both PVP or PVE content.
Render Flesh and its morphs is the class’ main healing spell, Expunge and morphs reduce the cost of abilities while offering additional benefits. Life Amid Death and morphs offer more Healing.
Spirit Mender is another important minion Necromancers can use. This one though will heal and keep you alive. Spirit Guardian is vital for Solo PVE but also PVP gameplay, since it reduces damage taken while healing you. Intensive Mender offers greater healing but is not offering anything else.
Finally Restoring Tether and morphs increase your healing done when slotted which makes them a must have skill for Necromancer Healers.
Weapon Skills
Both Magicka and Stamina Necromancers rely a lot on their Grave Lord skills to create strong DPS Builds. There are of course a few Weapon Skills they can also utilize.
From the Destruction Staff line the Wall of Elements and its morphs are important for AOE attacks for Magicka Necromancers while Elemental Drain(Weakness to Elements morph) will assist in solo gameplay. Finally the Elemental Storm Ultimate and its two morphs are strong enough to use in PVE or PVP.
For Stamina Necromancer some weapon skills can be useful as well. Depending on you favorite Weapon, Dual Wield, Two Handed or Bow, you can use a few of their skills as a spammable or to further boost your damage.
One Hand and Shield is your weapon of choice if you wish to play a Tank role and Restoration Staff for Healers.
Dizzying Swing for PVP and Wrecking Blow for PVE can work as spammables if you are using a Two Handed Weapon. Cleave and its morphs are great for dealing with lots of enemies while Reverse Slash and its morphs are an amazing execute ability. Stampede is another excellent skill you can use in PVE or PVP.
Rapid Strikes or Whirling Blades can again work as spammables if you are using Dual Wield. Deadly Cloak and Shrouded Daggers will also assist you if you wish to focus more on the Dual Wield play style.
Finally Endless Hail(Volley’s Morph) from Bow is important for every build that is using the bow as a support weapon along with Poison Injection(Poison Arrow Morph).
If you wish to play as a Tank, then you will also need the Pierce Armor Taunt skill(Puncture Morph) to draw aggro and Heroic Slash( Low Slash Morph) to boost your Ultimate generation.
For Healers, Grand Healing, Regeneration, Blessing of Protection and their morphs are very important to fulfill their role successfully. The Light’s Champion Ultimate(Panacea Morph) from this line can also be helpful when healing in PVE or PVP gameplay.
Guilds Skills
There are also several Guild lines in the game that offer strong and important abilities. Fighters Guild, Mages Guild, Undaunted and Psijic Order skills can be quite helpful.
Barbed Trap(Trap Beast Morph) is the skill you must unlock as soon as possible from the Fighters Guild, for your Necromancer, Stamina or Magicka. The reason for this is because it provides the Minor Force buff, increasing your Critical Damage done. It is mostly a PVE skill. The alternative to this would be Accelerate and its Morphs from the Psijic Order line but this is harder to get and unlock.
Dawnbreaker is a powerful Ultimate with morphs for PVE and PVP gameplay while Camouflaged Hunter is helpful for Stamina DPS. Silver Leash(Silver Bolts Morph) is rather important for Tank Builds, since it can pull enemies to you.
The Mages Guild offers a few potent skills for Magicka Necromancer, including a powerful Ultimate, Meteor. Inner Light can boost Spell Critical and Max Magicka while Entropy and Fire Rune offer great offensive spells with their morphs.
The Undaunted skill line offers mostly support spells for all roles but also two powerful passives. The two passives should be your priority from this line. Inner Fire offers two ranged aggro abilities that are a must have for Tanks.
Finally the Psijic Order has the best Spammable in the game for Magicka Characters in general, the Elemental Weapon(Imbue Weapon Morph) ability, which is strictly a PVE skill.
Alliance War Skills
Vigor and Morphs are great healing abilities for Stamina characters while Razor Caltrops(Caltrops Morph) can debuff enemies when solo and make it easier to kill them. The Continuous Attack passive will provide Major Gallop when mounted, making travel easier and faster.
Skills Priority
Unlocking and leveling up your Class active skills and passives, should be your number one priority. This will unlock the potential of your Class and allow you to combine them for better results. Weapon and Guild Skills should follow after. Of course everything depends on your goals and preferred play style.
Getting a strong spammable and a good AOE ability early will allow you to level up faster and more efficiently.
Regarding Passives, i always recommend getting everything from skill lines you are using. Again Class Passives, along with Racial ones, should come first, followed by Weapon and Guild ones.
Mundus Stones
Mundus Stones offer strong buffs to your character that can help you complete content faster. They are located all around Tamriel and based on their offered buff are more suitable for PVE or PVP gameplay.
When you are leveling up you should get the Atronach Mundus that boosts Magicka Recovery or the Serpent Mundus that boosts Stamina Recovery. This will assist you with sustain and will allow you to use your skills for longer.
As you are getting more experienced and can sustain better, switch to the Lover Mundus. The Lover boosts your Physical and Spell Penetration, making it easier to kill enemies. A great option for early gameplay but also Solo content.
For group PVE you want to switch to the Thief (better Critical Chance) or the Shadow(better Critical Damage). For PVP get the Warrior(more Weapon Damage) or the Apprentice(more Spell Damage).
Tank characters can benefit from the Atronach Mundus while Healers can use the Atronach, the Apprentice or even the Ritual(better Healing).
Champion Points
After level 50 you will start earning Champion Points. These allow you to unlock Passive and Slottable Stars in the Champion Points tab, that can further empower your character. You can earn Champion Points by simply playing the game and leveling up.
In total there are three constellations in the Elder Scrolls Online:
- Warfare
- Fitness
- Craft
Each constellation offers different Stars that can help with different roles and activities. Warfare is the constellation that is focusing more on combat and provides bonuses to Damage Dealers, Tanks and Healers. Allocating your Champion Points appropriately and unlocking the right Stars for the role you wish to fulfill is rather important.
You can find more info on Champion Points and the right Passive and Slottable Stars for every Role in my Champion Points Guide.
Vampire or Werewolf
Being a Vampire or Werewolf is not necessary to fully enjoy your Necromancer. You can find a lot more info on Vampires and Werewolves in my ESO Vampire vs Werewolf Guide.
Build Examples
There are more than one ways you can setup your Magicka or Stamina Necromancer. It all depends on your favorite play style and the content you wish to complete. Some setups are better for Solo PVE, other for Group Trials content and other for Battlegrounds or Open World PVP. Here are some Builds you can use, depending on gameplay.
Magicka Necromancer PVE Build – Hades
Stamina Necromancer PVE Build(Dual Wield) – Harbinger
Stamina Necromancer PVE Build(Two Handed) – Devourer
Stamina Necromancer PVE Build(Bow) – Barrage
Magicka Necromancer Solo PVE Build – Charon
Stamina Necromancer Solo PVE Build – Setup
Necromancer Tank Build – Goliath
Necromancer Healer Build – Shaman
Magicka Necromancer PVP Build – Undertaker
Stamina Necromancer PVP Build – Plaguecaller