Necromancer skills guide in pvp - ESO

- Bone tyrant skill line :

 Bone totem : you want to use remote totem, the other morph are not bad but less versatile cause you need to be where you want to put it. This skill main purpose is to control key areas : block open door in castle and defende them, block the entrance of lumber/ farm/mine tower, aleswell and arius stairs...... 

You can also play this skill in a offensive way : cancel a burst of small scale/ bg (if not negated) by placing the totem in the area they want to burst (where there is a lot of playing usually) and put colossus on it to do damage (If they are not cc immunity they will take 2 hit of colossus without blocking due to totem fear. 

The one con of this skill is the fear cc : the fear apply after 2 sec (when you put the totem) then every 2 sec during the rest of the skill duration, 2 sec mean that if a player is fast enough, he can go through without being fear (that happen but not often).

Empowering grasp : usefull for defending a keep in a restrain area but you rather use totem to use others skills around it. 

Ghostly embrace : can be decent if you manage to stack the 3 aoe by puting the ennemy between you and a wall or collision zone, but really not great overall. 

Necrotic potency : really good skill that allow you to get ultimates, while getting a small heal, you also get 3% damage mitigation passively. Very good on every build but hard to find space in bar to put it. 

Deaden pain : bad skill, the heal is not enough, major protection is good but this skill will never make a difference in open world cyrodill, even with health build this skill wont shine. 

Hungry scythe : ability that deal damage (undodgable) and heal that scale of your max health. This ability work very well with health build and in goliath form. This skill is not good nor bad, he do a little of everything : aoe undodgable damage, heal, heal over time. 

Ruinous scythe : ability that can be use to setup a burst while mitigating ennemy offensive, the ability put off balance on every hit target (off balance increase the damage of your next heavy attack by 70% and stun the ennemi) 

con : Both scythe morph have unreliable hit box, they work better when the ennemi are near you and attack 

Beckoning armor : you get major and minor resolve and you can cast a consuming corpse ability on yourself, this skill give you a lot of armor and allow you to play around corpse consumer ability (blood sacrifice, enduring undeath for team play), the skill will also taunt and grab a ranged ennemy that attack you (it disturb range ennemy it can be good, except if you dont want them to be cc...) 

Summoner armor : increase the duration, good if you don't want to bother refreshing all your ability every 16 sec, the reduc cost of your summon bind to this morph is irellevant (your summon cost are so cheap anyway

A lot of necromancer build involve resolving vigor to get a quick heal over time (echoing vigor is also playable with spirit guardian) and get minor resolve, in this case you can also play mighty chudan and remove bone armor of your bar. 

Pummeling goliath : the highest skill ceiling of the game, this skill allow you to increase you bash damage that deal damage in a cone in front of you, if you are really good at weaving you can : skill, light attack, bash, skill, light attack, bash,..... 

You must bind the correct touch to get use to bash like you do light attack

The weapon that you use influence the animation of the bash so choose your weapon wisely .....

Overall a ultimates with really high potency but with a really high skill ceiling and hard to use. Can also be use like a finisher (after a stun you spam bash) or with a bash build -> just spamming bash with a mediocre result)

Ravenous goliath : working like a mortis engine, you do around 1k damage to player around you per sec during 20 sec and heal for that amount. This morph allow you to be hard to kill during 20 sec but you must play the scythe (that heal you base of your max health) if you really want to be invincible during this transformation). this ultimate allow you to make bold move with a plan (remember that your heal both goliath and scythe work if they are ennemy to hit nearby). Work well during keep attack of defenses and with totem to hold an area. 

- Grave lord skill line : 

Ricochet skull : Skill that in theory can be good but it bugged since the release of the class (what the dev doing?!), every third cast of this ability the skull will deal 50% more damage and bounce to 1 ennemy and after 1 seconde another one (with the 50% damage boost), for some reason (server issue im sure of it), the damage boost are bug and reset after playing a bit, that make the skill unplayable : the damage boost wont occur anymore and the bounce either (you just spamming a flame skull), i have tried to play the base morph of this skill too, but it buged too and the 50% damage boost wont land. Due to the bug, it unplayable. 

Venomous skull : really good skill to use, every 3 necromancer ability (while this ability is on your bar) the damage boost will apply. Work great as a finisher, can be use with intensive mender to get ur first stack then u got the second with blastbone. 

Sacrificial blastbone : Skill destroyed by zos and left like this, can be decent with a dot build (or staff ultimates), decent for a bomber build, this skill will boost the damage of your damage over time by 15% and necromancer ability (work on pummeling goliath) 

Blighed blastbone : good skill, that deal aoe damage and apply major and minor defile (really good again sorc shield and heal in general). However not reliable, the blastbone can be stunned or immobilize, delaying your burst or totaly negate him. Can also be blocked, really predictable ability. Can also work as a bodyguard : some player will miss you and land some attack on your blastbone (like engine guardian). 

Avid boneyard : ability that lack damage, you can activate your own synergy but since the nerf of harmony trait the damage are not enough even with corpsebuster set.

Unnerving boneyard : apply major breach, can be good in a melee range meta but depend on your opponent build.

Skeletal arcanist : don't deal enough damage in aoe, you can't proc set with it (it is not your damage) you use it for the dismember passive and major sorcery/brutality buff. 

Skeletal archer : same as the other morph but deal more damage in single target

Detonating siphon : hard to use, usuable with corpsebuster set if you already have it activate on yourself (with bone armor,....) but really hard to play around it. 

Shocking siphon : can be used to proc shock damage set but not great overall. 

Glacial colossus : deal damage 3 time, 1 aoe hit per second during 3 second, work well with fear cc (totem and fighter guild rune, zoal with cc potion) and with reverberating bash (shield skill line) with or without void bash set. The stun of the third hit can suprise unaware player too and build your burst around it but not reliable. You can also grab people inside the ultimates aoe (they will take 2 hit instead of 3) with fighter skill grab and beckoning armor)

Pestilent colossus : same than the other morph but deal more damage, use in bomber build. 

- Living death skill line :

Blood sacrifice : good heal, apply minor defile, can be played with pirate skeleton, really good in group play, cause you can often heal 2 player with a corpe nearby (bone armor, summon or script), you also trigger the passive : corpse consumption, usefull if you dont have corpse consumming ability on your bar

Resistant flesh : also good, half of the heal will grant you armor during 3 sec, work well with crit build and with near-death experience. 

Expunge and modify : great in a perma block invincible build, but that all

Hexproof : not great at all, you can cleanse balista dot while losing heatlh, again .... 

Enduring undeath : really really good aoe healing skill, work well with bone armor and intensive mender to always have a lot of corpse near you. Be aware that blastbone corpse stay less time than mender corpse before disappaering ! Great for holding an area an heal allies.

Renewing undeath : good but the other morph is way better and allow you to do other thing while the aoe is still on the ground. 

Intensive mender : mediocre ability but has the advantage of having a corpse nearby you on demand (after 4 sec you can cast the ability again to create a corpse, this corpse will stay longer in the ground) 

Spirit guardian : good ability but less corpse on the ground, depend on the build and skill that you have in bar, if you don't play around corpse consumption a lot you just put blood sacrifice to trigger passive and play this morph. 

Braided tether : heal over time, noT crazy but ok, heal allies

Mortal coil : same morph not much to say about this skill 

Animate blastbone : cost a lot of ultimates, you play this ultimates for reviving allies or when there are not a lot of people (5 enemy maximum), for each corpse nearby will spawn a blighted blastbone, each blastbone will target a random target so if they are stacked it better. If you use this ultimate for doing burst damage you must play a build around it (necrotic potency and a lot of corpse ability), you also need an unblockable stun (rune of the fighter guild) if you play against serious players. This ultimates is not reliable if there are a lot of spread enemy (each blastbone choose their target, but you may be lucky and someone will get targeted by all blastbone)

Renewing animation : used in ball group but really a pve ultimates. 

Overall, necromancer have some good skill and a lot of situational skills and build dependant skills. Some skills can't be picked if you have not a build and strategy around it. I have a lot of hours on my necromancer and i still manage to learn new trick after all this time, this class may not be the funniest to play but i hope this guide will make you want to play the class again and try new build. 

Emvy