Websites
ESO-Hub ESO-Hub Discord Bot Discord Bot ESO Server Status ESO Server Status AlcastHQ AlcastHQ Games Lantern Games Lantern
Necromancer Class in ESO - Everything you need to know! header

Necromancer Class in ESO - Everything you need to know!

Necromancer Class in ESO - Everything you need to know!

Necromancers in ESO are one of the more popular classes to play with, they shine in all roles, as damage dealers, tanks or healers due to their unique class skill lines.
Necromancer in ESO


All of Tamriel’s dead are a resource for you to manipulate and exploit, as nothing is forbidden for those who seek to master the dark arts. The Necromancer Class in ESO brings a unique style of play to The Elder Scrolls Online, allowing you to summon the undead and make use of corpses to overwhelm your enemies and empower your attacks.

The Necromancer is available with the Elsweyr Collector's Edition or Necromancer Class upgrade in the Crown Store. If you want to learn more about all classes that you can play in ESO please visit the Classes Overview Page.

Necromancer Class Introduction

Necromancers are a very popular class in-game,they can be played as damage dealers, tanks and healers. Overall, they are very common in ESO endgame content, such as harder 4-man groups or trial-groups. Below you can find a list of the pros and cons of the Necromancer class in ESO.

Pros:
  • good at everything, excelling at DPSing
  • very dynamic gameplay
  • can summon undead
  • has useful synergies
  • powerful passives
  • powerful ultimates
Cons:
  • rotation hard to master in endgame
  • pets aren't permanent

DPS Necromancer Pros and Cons


The Necromancer class is most commonly played as a Necromancer damage dealer (DPS). Necromancers in ESO have a lot of skills that need to be recast from time to time, which are called DoTs (Damage over Time). They also bring along a very unique ultimate ability called Frozen Colossus which applies a strong debuff called Major Vulnerability on the enemy, increasing damage for everyone in your group.

Pros:
  • high damage output
  • powerful ultimate Frozen Colossus
  • ranged and melee playstyle
  • magicka and stamina builds are very effective
  • good healing capabilities
  • great solo spec

Cons:
  • hard to master rotation in endgame

Healer Necromancer Pros and Cons


Necromancers are great healers. They also have a very own healer based class skill line that they can use. Necromancers also have a very powerful healer ultimate called Reanimate, which instantly resurrects up to 3 dead group members. This can be live saving in 4 player dungeons or even in 12 player trials.

Pros:

Cons:
  • high cost ultimates

Tank Necromancer Pros and Cons


Necromancers are great tanks, they are often used in 4 player dungeons or as off-tanks in 12 player trials. Necromancer tanks often use Frozen Colossus to apply Major Vulnerability, which will increase the damage of the whole group by a lot. They can also use the Reanimate ultimate to instantly resurrect dead group members. To speed up ultimate generation they have access to Necrotic Potency which drains dead bodies and returns ultimate points.

Pros:
  • good resource management
  • easy survivability
  • powerful ultimate abilities Frozen Colossus and Reanimate
  • fast ultimate regeneration
  • good support via buffs and debuffs

Cons:
  • high cost ultimates


Necromancer Class Skill Lines explained


Next we are going to take a look at the three class skill lines that the Necromancer has. Of course you can use any skill line available in the game to create your own playstyle. Most, if not all builds do use a mix between class and non class skill lines.

You can find a full list of all the Necromancer class skill lines on the Necromancer Skills Overview Page.

Grave Lord Skill Line

Grave Lord skill line for Necromancer in ESO
The Grave Lord skill line is part of the Necromancer toolkit and has a focus on damage abilities. Imbue the dead with frost, fire, and lightning to bring ruin upon your enemies. Raise the relentless undead and allow your fallen enemies to intensify your unyielding assault.

Its Ultimate ability is Frozen Colossus. It is a very strong Ultimate ability that targets all nearby enemies and deals additional DoT damage. It also applies a powerful debuff for you and all other damage dealers. Glacial Colossus is one of its morphs and makes all enemies stunned on the last hit. Pestilent Colossus deals disease damage and the Colossus deals more damage with each smash.

Skeletal Mage is an extremely useful Necromancer skill as you oftentimes need a corpse to cast skills and this creates one. Watch this video to see how it’s used.

Boney Tyrant Skill Line

Bone Tyrant skill line for Necromancer in ESO
The Bone Tyrant skill line is focused on defensive abilities. Bend and break the dead to your will and use their remains to create impenetrable barriers and extend your own life. Control the battlefield with the bones of the departed.

Its Ultimate ability is Bone Goliath Transformation. It transforms the player into a giant bone goliath and increases the Max Health by a very large amount, as well as restoring the same amount of health. Light and Heavy Attacks restore health as well, so this makes it a crucial skill in survival. Pummeling Goliath is one of its morphs and the caster gains an AoE (Area of Effect) Bash attack, bashing any enemy in proximity at once. Ravenous Goliath makes the player receive an aura that will drain all nearby enemies of their health.

Bone Armor and its morphs are an incredibly useful skill in this tree. Watch this video to see how it’s used.

Living Death Skill Line

Grave Lord skill line for Necromancer in ESO
The third and last skill line of the Necromancer-focused skill lines is called Living Death and is focused on healing. Draw from the power of life and death to replenish and restore your allies. Resurrect your defeated comrades and keep them in the fight.

Its Ultimate ability is Reanimate and an incredible strong Ultimate for any specialisation. It brings your allies back from the dead instantly, reviving up to 3 group members. Animate Blastbones is one of its morphs and instead of resurrecting your fallen comrades, you consume all corpses in the area and summon Blastbones. Renewing Animation is the other morph and helps you restore Magicka and Stamina for each ally you attempt to resurrect.

Spirit Mender is a very useful passive heal. Watch this video to see how it’s used.

Below you can find a full list of common Necromancer builds. If you are a new player we do recommend starting with the beginner guides. However, you can also go take a look at the endgame builds to see what the class can look like when you reach the endgame.

Beginner Necromancer Class Guides & Builds


The Beginner Necromancer guides and builds are meant for new players. They introduce you to the Necromancer class and give you a good starting point for your adventure in ESO.


PvE Solo Necromancer Class Builds


The PvE Solo Necromancer builds are optimized for solo gameplay. The builds below have a good balance between damage, survivability, healing and movement. Everything you need to get through ESO alone. Of course, you can also use these solo builds in a group, especially useful in random groups.


PvE Dungeon & Trial META Necromancer Class Builds


The Meta Necromancer builds listed below are meant to be played in a group. The Meta Necromancer builds have a very cookie cutter approach and rely heavily on other group members.


If you are interested in PvP, you can take a closer look at this page, as it lists a variety of PvP builds and explains them in detail.


Is the Necromancer Class Beginner Friendly?

Necromancers is a fairly beginner friendly class if you pick the right skills. They get access to a good heal right at the start called Render Flesh, this is especially important if you play solo. Necromancers get also access to their main spammable Flame Skull right at the start, giving them an edge in dealing lots of damage to enemies early on. Plus you also get access to Death Scythe which can be used for AoE (area of effect) damage and also heals you based on numbers of enemies hit.

Leveling up the class skill lines will also give you access to powerful abilities such as Blastbones, Boneyard, Skeletal Mage and Spirit Mender].

Magicka Necromancer Damage Dealer Showcase


Magicka Necromancers are powerful magicka users which benefit a lot from their class abilities and passives. They have powerful passives such as: Death Gleaning, Last Gasp, Reusable Parts, Death Knell, Dismember, Rapid Rot, Curative Curse, Corpse Consumption and Undead Confederate. Magicka Necromancers also have a lot of powerful class abilities such as: Necrotic Potency, Ricochet Skull, Stalking Blastbones, Unnerving Boneyard, Skeletal Arcanist, Mystic Siphon and Spirit Guardian.

Magicka Necromancers also always use the Glacial Colossus ultimate to deal a lot of damage and apply the very good Major Vulnerability debuff on the enemy.

The video below shows the Solo Magicka Necromancer Build in action, clearing the veteran mode Vateshran Hollows Arena.



Stamina Necromancer Damage Dealer Showcase


Stamina Necromancers in ESO are very powerful and also used in every stamina based group. Similar to the magicka version they benefit from great passives such as: Death Gleaning, Last Gasp, Reusable Parts, Death Knell, Dismember, Rapid Rot, Curative Curse, Corpse Consumption and Undead Confederate. Stamina Necromancers also have access to plenty of stamina based class abilities, which is unusual for a stamina based setup. The following abilities are very powerful: Venom Skull, Blighted Blastbones, Skeletal Archer, Detonating Siphon, Ruinous Scythe, Necrotic Potency and Spirit Guardian

Stamina Necromancers also always use the Pestilent Colossus ultimate to deal a lot of damage and apply the very good Major Vulnerability debuff on the enemy.

The video below shows the Solo Stamina Necromancer Build in action, clearing the 4-player veteran hardmode dungeon City Of Ash 2 solo.



Healer Necromancer Showcase


Necromancers are suprisingly good healers thanks to their passives and skills. They also have a full class skill line dedicated to healing which makes it even more appealing and arguably the most powerful ultimate in the game. Lets start with the ultimate called Reanimate, you can resurrect up to 3 dead group members instantly, this is the most powerful healer ultimate in the game and can prevent wipes in dungeons or even trials, kind of like a panic button.

Necromancer Healers can also use Glacial Colossus to apply the Major Vulnerability debuff if you want to play more offensively. Great class based healing/support abilities are: Resistant Flesh, Expunge and Modify, Renewing Undeath, Spirit Guardian, Braided Tether and Necrotic Potency. Useful class passives are: Curative Curse, Near-Death Experience, Corpse Consumption, Undead Confederate, Last Gasp and Death Gleaning.

Below you can find a video to see a Necromancer Healer Build in action, the video is from the VanaEvr youtube channel.




Tank Necromancer Showcase


Necromancer Tanks are very powerful thanks to a lot of useful class abilities and passives, they even have an own class skill line dedicated to tanking. Necromancer Tanks also have access to powerful ultimate abilities, you can either play offensively with Glacial Colossus to apply Major Vulnerability debuff, play defensively with the Bone Goliath Transformation to become unkillable, or use the Reanimate ultimate to resurrect dead group members instantly.

Necromancers have plenty of great tanking based class abilities, the most important are: Hungry Scythe, Beckoning Armor, Deaden Pain, Agony Totem, Empowering Grasp, Expunge and Modify and Spirit Guardian. Important class based passives are: Disdain Harm, Health Avarice, Last Gasp, Corpse Consumption and Undead Confederate.

For more information on the Necromancer Tank I do recommend checking out the Necromancer Tank Build.

Related pages

ESO Skills Library - All ESO Skills header
ESO Skills Library - All ESO Skills
All ESO Skills, full library of all the available Elder Scrolls Online skills. Learn more about Dragonknight, Nightblade, Sorcerer and many more ...
All races and classes in ESO! header
All races and classes in ESO!
This is an extensive guide to all races and classes in ESO! Whatever you want to know, you can find it here!
ESO Classes - All Elder Scrolls Online Classes header
ESO Classes - All Elder Scrolls Online Classes
ESO Classes - Everything you need to know about classes in ESO (Elder Scrolls Online). A complete overview page about all the classes: Dragonknight, Sorcerer, Nightblade, Templar, Warden and Necromancer.

Frequently asked questions

What race is best for Necromancer in ESO?

It all depends on how you want to play your character. For tanking, Nords, Argonians and Imperials are great. For healing, Bretons, Altmer and Argonians bring a lot to the table. As DPS, Orc, Khajiit, Dunmer and Altmer are really good!

Is a Breton Necromancer good?

A Breton is really good at magicka DPS or healing, as their passives support these builds the most.

Is Nord good for Necromancer?

A Nord is exceptionally good at tanking, as their passives support these kind of builds the best.

Is Imperial good for Necromancer?

An Imperial  is exceptionally good at tanking, as their passives support these kind of builds the best.

Is Altmer good for Necromancer?

An Altmer is really good at magicka DPS, as their passives support these builds the most.

Is Dunmer good for Necromancer?

Dunmer are pretty versatile and good at basically everything, even if they aren't really specialized. Especially their fire damage passive is pretty great!

Is Khajiit good for Necromancer?

Khajiit are pretty versatile and good at basically everything, even if they aren't really specialized. Their strongest capability is possibly their crit passive.

Is Argonian good for Necromancer?

Argonians have great passives when it comes to tanking and healing, so that they make great tanks and healers, even in PvP.

Is Bosmer good for Necromancer?

A Bosmer's racial passives are more targeted towards DPS, especially Stamina DPS. Which makes them not necessarily ideal for tanks or healers.

Is Redguard good for Necromancer?

Redguard's racial passives are more targeted to either tanks or Stamina DPS. Even though their skills are even better for tanking.

Is Orc good for Necromancer?

Orcs are exceptionally good at dealing damage. Their passives are especially targeted at Stamina DPS, but they can also be a good choice for Magicka DPS.

What is the best tank class in ESO?

Nords, Imperials and Argonians are really great as tanks in ESO. All of them have great racial passives that support a tanking role.

What is the best healer class in ESO?

Breton, Altmer and Argonians are really great as healers in ESO. All of them have great racial passives that support a healing role.

What is the best DPS class in ESO?

For Stamina, Orcs, Bosmer and Khajiit are the best. For Magicka, Altmer, Khajiit and Breton are really great!

Can Necromancer use magic?

Yes, every class can use magic. It is called Magicka in ESO and is a stat that every race and class has.

What weapon should a Necromancer use?

It all depends on your playstyle. Tanks usually wield a shield and one-hand weapon, whereas Stamina DPS use either daggers or axes and Magicka DPS use staves, as well as healers.

What's the best class in ESO?

It all depends on your playstyle and what you want to achieve in ESO. There's no "one class is the best" as it all depends on the build and whether you want to play it in PvE or PvP.

Is Necromancer a good class ESO?

Every class can be a good class in ESO. It all depends on your personal playstyle and whether you choose PvE or PvP. Generally speaking, it's a very good class, especially since they excel at all three things: tanking, DPSing and healing.
Reanimation should not be taken lightly. Costs, both mundane and spiritual, can be very high. Intent is everything. Too much emotion may create a creature so consumed with anger and hate its every action is perverted by its pain. Too little creates a mindless husk with little more than the ability to follow the simplest of commands. A calm mind, its thoughts well-organized and its plans well-considered, is the most necessary ingredient for animating the dead.

The soul is necessary, of course, as are many other ingredients listed at the end of this chapter. But as to the body … take caution. Any corpse may be reanimated, regardless of age or state of decay, but the most useful are those that are mostly intact (or can be made intact with little effort). A whole skeleton is better than a fresh, but mutilated, body.

As to freshness, be careful in this consideration as well. Have you ever wondered why there are so manyskeletonsamong the reanimatedundead, fewerzombies, and only a scant few revenants? The longer a body remains inanimate, the less hold its original owner has on the corpse. A spirit can stay tied to its remains for days, weeks, or even years—the shorter the time, the more likely the spiritual umbilicus exists.

A wise necromancer does not wish to fight for control of his creation with an angry spirit seeking a way back into the world. Best to be certain all of a creature's soul has departed before reanimation begins. Even should the necromancer win the battle, it is a cruel victory, tormenting a spirit on its way to rest.

Raising the dead so recent that the soul has not yet fled is ill-advised, as true resurrection is not the purview of the necromancer, but something best left to gods and priests.


Zumog Phoom, Dark Lord of the Dead


To: Lord Gharesh-ri, Speaker of the Mane
From: Khamira, Agent of the Speaker

It seems that the Usurper Queen’s inner circle grows larger with every passing day. While it has long been rumored that Euraxia Tharn employed necromancers among her Nibenese mercenaries, I have finally put a name and other details to the dark mage serving as her court wizard. They call him Zumog Phoom.

The Orc necromancer, a self-proclaimed “lord of the dark arts,” reportedly hails from the northernmost climes of Wrothgar. I have found no direct evidence for this assertion, but the wilds beyond Orsinium are unforgiving, and life among the Orc strongholds is bleak, harsh, and brutal. I could see the frozen north giving rise to a vile sorcerer such as Zumog Phoom. He presents a proud and powerful visage, totally loyal to the Usurper Queen yet completely devoted to progressing necromancy in all its forms.

Some information paints Zumog Phoom as a ranking member of the Order of the Black Worm and a former student of Mannimarco, but I cannot corroborate these reports. In any event, he has been at Euraxia’s side since her conquest of Rimmen, adding his dark magic to her own skills and abilities. She values his counsel, keeping the necromancer close and making him an integral part of her strategy and planning sessions. For his part, Zumog Phoom takes advantage of the power and prestige afforded him by Rimmen’s unlawful ruler. This, in turn, has brought a small army of lesser necromancers to Zumog Phoom’s side. Like a torch burning in the darkest dungeon, he draws other death-casters to Euraxia’s banner like moths to a flame. They fear their dark lord, but also covet the power and training he offers.

Worse, while we have faced the occasional zombie or other undead monstrosity operating as part of Euraxia’s forces, rumors of so-called “cadaver forges” have begun circulating among the Euraxian troops. These undead factories have begun churning out skeletal warriors and zombie soldiers to bolster Euraxia’s army. One Euraxian mercenary, unaware that I was spying for the Speaker of the Mane, confessed to me that fighting alongside hordes of dead people gave him nightmares that “all the wine in Rimmen couldn’t chase away.” We have yet to experience the products of these vile places, but evidence of grave robbing throughout the region has become more prominent, especially around Ashen Scar and other mass graves from the worst period of the Knahaten flu outbreak. We must make finding these cadaver forges a priority, along with all of the other priorities currently requiring our attention. Moons, who knew overthrowing an illegal tyrant would be so onerous?

While gathering information in Rimmen, I had the opportunity to listen to a couple of Zumog Phoom’s acolytes discuss their master as they gulped down bottles of Bright Moons sweet wine. It was clear to me from their conversation that they both admire and fear the chief necromancer. They spoke in hushed tones at first, but became louder and more animated as they consumed more and more of the wine. “Zumog Phoom’s Orcish visage certainly adds to his persona,” commented the first acolyte. “I love how he wears his death-enhanced powers like a shroud around his shoulders,” agreed the second. The acolytes repeatedly mentioned how they could feel the aura of death whenever they were in their master’s presence. While the sensation obviously disturbed them, they also seemed eager to acquire that level of power for themselves. Near the end of their conversation, the first acolyte (who was quite inebriated by this point) started on about how Zumog Phoom had a plan that went beyond anything Queen Euraxia could imagine. “I can’t wait to start digging up body parts,” he said. “Think how the master will reward me if I bring him ….” Before he could say more, his companion told him to be quiet. “Every tavern has ears, you know,” she warned, proving she had more tolerance to alcohol than her companion. Pity.

Speaker, we must find a means for dealing with Zumog Phoom and his followers before they provide Euraxia with an unlimited supply of soldiers. The Defense Force cannot repel an army that does not tire and can be ceaselessly replenished. Our best chance lies in locating the undead factories and destroying them before they can be turned up to full capacity.
And if we can kill Zumog Phoom, so much the better.

Discord - Privacy Policy - Manage Cookie Settings - Impressum - Terms of use - Advertise - Disclaimer

ESO-Hub is neither directly nor indirectly related to Bethesda Softworks, ZeniMax Online Studios, nor parent company ZeniMax Media, in any way, shape, or form.

The Elder Scrolls® Online developed by ZeniMax Online Studios LLC, a ZeniMax Media company. ZeniMax, The Elder Scrolls, ESO, Bethesda, Bethesda Softworks and related logos are registered trademarks or trademarks of ZeniMax Media Inc. in the US and/or other countries. All Rights Reserved.