
ESO Necromancer Leveling Build
Build Written By: Dottz Gaming – PC NA
Role: Damage Dealer, Tank, and/or Healer
Patch: Update 40
Table of Contents
Introduction
Welcome to DottzGaming.com’s Necromancer Leveling Build for the Elder Scrolls Online! This build is intended to act as a framework for someone to follow while leveling a Necromancer, whether it be a magicka damage dealer, a stamina damage dealer, a tank or a healer. This is not a traditional “leveling build”, but rather a framework that shows you some of the most commonly used setups for each role. This enables you to pick and choose from a list and mix and match how you like, thus preventing you from feeling like you have a static leveling progression! You will be able to experiment with different abilities as you level up, and come end game, you’ll not only have a lot (if not all) of the most commonly used abilities leveled up and morphed, but you’ll know which of these you like the most and works best for you.
Necromancers are the newest class added in the Elsweyr chapter! Necromancers are the masters of death, using the corpses of their allies and enemies in battle to increase their own damage, tankiness and healing. Magicka focused necromancers utilize all of the elements to their advantage in battle, stamina necromancers utilize poison and disease against their enemies, tanks become death itself when fighting foes and healers utilize the fallen to heal their allies. Necromancy though is still shunned by some in Tamriel, so be careful when using certain skills around Justice NPCs or you’ll receive a bounty and become attack on site (the abilities that will cause this to happen are marked in their tooltip). When built correctly, easy and effective builds can be made which will make the leveling process even easier.
Once you are level 50, you become CP 10 and will be able to use the Champion Point system. For basics on the CP system, click here.
For the some extra explanation on the guide’s format, please check the above video.
Setup
Magicka DPS
RACE
- High Elf
- Breton
- Dark Elf
- Khajiit
GEAR
- 5 light
- 1 medium
- 1 heavy
- Destruction Staff (Front & Back Bar) OR Destro/Resto (for PvP)
- Note: The gear weight spread is a recommendation, not a strict rule for leveling. If you get better pieces as you level, feel free to replace them (just try to have more of the main gear weigh than the others)!
ATTRIBUTES
All in magicka
VAMPIRE vs WEREWOLF vs MORTAL
Mortal: Remain a mortal. Neither vampire nor werewolf will give you anything you need as you’re leveling.
MUNDUS
Thief
POTIONS AND FOOD
Potions: Magicka
Food: Not mandatory, but if you can find some, try to get stuff that increases either your health, magicka, and/or magicka recovery.
ABILITIES
You want to do your best to have 1 ability from each class tree on both your front and back bar. When you gain experience, whether it be from killing monsters or quests, the abilities on your active bar are the ones that gain experience as well as their respective skill lines. Another cool trick is if you have abilities on a skill bar you want to level up, you can switch to that bar when handing in a quest or completing a dungeon to give them and their skill lines a surge of experience. You’re going to notice i frequently recommend the first skill of a skill tree as a choice, just to obviously help you start getting that skill line leveled. If you want to level another weapon or skill tree without using that weapon or skill, simply placing a skill from that tree on your ability bar helps it gain experience when you gain experience on that bar. You dont have to use it!
Abilities – PVE
- Bone Tyrant -> Death Scythe -> Hungry Scythe
- Grave Lord -> Flame Skull -> Ricochet Skull
- Grave Lord -> Blastbones -> Stalking Blastbones
- Grave Lord -> Boneyard -> Avid Boneyard
- Grave Lord -> Skeletal Mage -> Skeletal Arcanist
- Grave Lord -> Shocking Siphon -> Mystic Siphon
- Living Death -> Render Flesh -> Resistant Flesh
- Mage’s Guild -> Entropy -> Degeneration
- Fighter’s Guild -> Trap Beast -> Barbed Trap
- Light Armor -> Annulment -> Harness Magicka
- Destruction Staff -> Force Shock -> Force Pulse
- Destruction Staff -> Wall of Elements -> Elemental Blockade
- Destruction Staff -> Weakness to Elements -> Elemental Drain
- Psijic Order -> Accelerate -> Channeled Acceleration (Race Against Time if you PvP)
- Additional abilities for PVP Include:
- Living Death -> Expunge -> Hexproof
- Living Death -> Spirit Mender -> Either Morph
- Living Death -> Restoring Tether -> Mortal Coil
- Bone Tyrant -> Bone Armor -> Summoner’s Armor
- Bone Tyrant -> Bitter Harvest -> Either Morph
- Restoration Staff -> Regeneration -> Rapid Regeneration
- Destruction Staff -> Destructive Touch -> Destructive Clench
Ultimates
- Grave Lord -> Frozen Colossus -> Glacial Colossus
- Mage’s Guild -> Meteor -> Shooting Star
- Restoration Staff -> Panacea -> Either Morph
- 1h and Shield -> Shield Wall -> Spell Wall
- Living Death -> Reanimate -> Animate Blastbones
PASSIVES
- Bone Tyrant
- Grave Lord
- Living Death
- Racial
- Light Armor
- Destruction Staff
- Optional: Restoration Staff or 1h and Shield passives for pvp
- Alchemy – Medicinal Use
- Mages Guild
- Fighter’s Guild
- Undaunted
- Psijic Order
- The other armor type passives
ROTATION
- Try to use any abilities that give you a buff first so they make any abilities you use afterwards stronger or help you stay alive longer.
- You optimally want to use any dots in your build first, so use each dot you have on your enemies weaving a light attack in between each of them
- You should have 1 spammable ability in your build to use when all your dots are up and you dont need to buff yourself. If you don’t want a spammable skill, heavy attacks will be your spammable.
- Use any CC, shields and heals as needed. You want to optimally make sure you have a few of these at your disposal when making a build for general playing.
SETS
While making gear for leveling is not mandatory, some people like to make gear for alts or have gear made when created a new character! These are some good crafted options you can create (I recommend the “Training” trait for all pieces):
Stamina DPS
RACE
- Redguard
- Khajiit
- Wood Elf
- Orc
- Dark Elf
GEAR
- 1 light
- 5 medium
- 1 heavy
- Dual Wield / Bow
- If your main focus is to PvP eventually, you can use a 2h instead of dual wielding, and even have the option to try 1h/shield.
- You may want to use a 5 heavy, 1 med, 1 light setup if you plan to PvP. Heavy allows you to be tankier at the sacrifice of some damage, while medium pumps out higher damage at the cost of survivability.
- Note: The gear weight spread is a recommendation, not a strict rule for leveling. If you get better pieces as you level, feel free to replace them (just try to have more of the main gear weigh than the others)!
ATTRIBUTES
All in stamina
VAMPIRE vs WEREWOLF vs MORTAL
- Werewolf: Worth choosing if you’re going to be making a PvP focused werewolf build, or if your PvP build only needs 1 ultimate (you can then backbar the ult for the extra stamina recovery).
- Vampirism: Doesnt give that much benefit for stamina DPS outside of niche situations.
- Mortal: Choose this if you don’t want to be a werewolf.
MUNDUS
Thief
POTIONS AND FOOD
Potions: Stamina
Food: Not mandatory, but if you can find some, try to get stuff that increases either your health, stamina, and/or stamina recovery.
ABILITIES
You want to do your best to have 1 ability from each class tree on both your front and back bar. When you gain experience, whether it be from killing monsters or quests, the abilities on your active bar are the ones that gain experience as well as their respective skill lines. Another cool trick is if you have abilities on a skill bar you want to level up, you can switch to that bar when handing in a quest or completing a dungeon to give them and their skill lines a surge of experience. You’re going to notice i frequently recommend the first skill of a skill tree as a choice, just to obviously help you start getting that skill line leveled. If you want to level another weapon or skill tree without using that weapon or skill, simply placing a skill from that tree on your ability bar helps it gain experience when you gain experience on that bar. You dont have to use it!
Abilities
- Bone Tyrant -> Death Scythe -> Ruinous Scythe
- Bone Tyrant -> Bitter Harvest -> Either Morph
- Grave Lord -> Flame Skull -> Venom Skull
- Grave Lord -> Blastbones -> Blighted Blastbones
- Grave Lord -> Skeletal Mage -> Skeletal Archer
- Grave Lord -> Shocking Siphon -> Detonating Siphon
- Living Death -> Render Flesh -> Resistant Flesh
- Fighter’s Guild -> Trap Beast -> Rearming Trap
- Medium Armor -> Evasion -> Either Morph
- Bow -> Poison Arrow -> Poison Injection
- Bow -> Volley -> Endless Hail
- Dual Wield -> Twin Slashes -> Either Morph
- Dual Wield -> Whirlwind -> Either Morph
- Dual Wield -> Blade Cloak -> Either Morph
- Assault -> Vigor -> Resolving Vigor
- Additional abilities for PVP include:
- Living Death -> Expunge -> Hexproof
- Bone Tyrant -> Bone Armor -> Summoner’s Armor
- Two Handed -> Uppercut -> Dizzying Swing
- Two Handed -> Reverse Slash -> Executioner
- Two Handed -> Momentum -> Either Morph
Ultimates
- Fighter’s Guild -> Dawnbreaker -> Either Morph
- Bow -> Rapid Fire -> Ballista
- Grave Lord -> Frozen Colossus -> Pestilent Colossus
- Living Death -> Reanimate -> Animate Blastbones
- Two Handed -> Berserker Strike -> Onslaught
- Bone Tyrant -> Bone Goliath Transformation -> Ravenous Colossus
PASSIVES
- Bone Tyrant
- Grave Lord
- Living Death
- Racial
- Medium Armor
- Dual Wield
- Or 2h and/or 1h/shield if you plan on going the pvp route
- Bow
- Alchemy – Medicinal Use
- Fighters Guild
- Undaunted
- Psijic Order
- The other armor type passives
ROTATION
- Try to use any abilities that give you a buff first so they make any abilities you use afterwards stronger or help you stay alive longer.
- You optimally want to use any dots or aoe in your build first, so use each dot you have on your enemies weaving a light attack in between each of them
- You should have 1 spammable ability in your build to use when all your dots are up and you dont need to buff yourself. If you don’t want a spammable skill, heavy attacks will be your spammable.
- Use any CC, shields and heals as needed. You want to optimally make sure you have a few of these at your disposal when making a build for general playing.
SETS
While making gear for leveling is not mandatory, some people like to make gear for alts or have gear made when created a new character! These are some good crafted options you can create (I recommend the “Training” trait for all pieces):
Tank
RACE
- Argonian
- Imperial
- Nord
GEAR
- 1 light
- 1 medium
- 5 heavy
- 1h/shield (both bars) OR 1h shield/Destruction Staff (lightning/ice)
- Note: The gear weight spread is a recommendation, not a strict rule for leveling. If you get better pieces as you level, feel free to replace them (just try to have more of the main gear weigh than the others)!
ATTRIBUTES
Magicka: 15
Health: 28
Stamina: 21
VAMPIRE vs WEREWOLF vs MORTAL
Mortal: Vampire/Werewolf dont give us a whole lot of benefits for this role, so we just remain mortal.
MUNDUS
Lord or Atronach
POTIONS AND FOOD
Potions: Health, Magicka, or Stamina
Food: Not mandatory, but if you can find some, try to get stuff that increases either your attributes or give you recovery
ABILITIES
You want to do your best to have 1 ability from each class tree on both your front and back bar. When you gain experience, whether it be from killing monsters or quests, the abilities on your active bar are the ones that gain experience as well as their respective skill lines. Another cool trick is if you have abilities on a skill bar you want to level up, you can switch to that bar when handing in a quest or completing a dungeon to give them and their skill lines a surge of experience. You’re going to notice i frequently recommend the first skill of a skill tree as a choice, just to obviously help you start getting that skill line leveled. If you want to level another weapon or skill tree without using that weapon or skill, simply placing a skill from that tree on your ability bar helps it gain experience when you gain experience on that bar. You dont have to use it!
Abilities
- Bone Tyrant -> Death Scythe -> Hungry Scythe
- Bone Tyrant -> Bone Armor -> Beckoning Armor
- Bone Tyrant -> Bitter Harvest -> Necrotic Potency
- Bone Tyrant -> Bone Totem -> Agony Totem
- Bone Tyrant -> Grave Grasp -> Ghostly Embrace
- Grave Lord -> Flame Skull -> Either Morph
- Living Death -> Render Flesh -> Either Morph
- Living Death -> Expunge -> Expunge and Modify
- Living Death -> Spirit Mender -> Spirit Guardian
- Living Death -> Restoring Tether -> Mortal Coil
- 1h/Shield -> Puncture -> Pierce Armor
- 1h/Shield -> Low Slash -> Heroic Slash
- 1h/Shield -> Defensive Posture -> Absorb Magic
- 1h/Shield -> Shield Charge -> Shielded Assault
- Destruction Staff -> Force Shock -> Crushing Shock
- Destruction Staff -> Wall of Elements -> Elemental Blockade
- Undaunted -> Inner Fire -> Inner Rage
- Undaunted -> Bone Shield -> Bone Surge
- Undaunted -> Blood Altar -> Overflowing Altar
- Assault -> Vigor -> Resolving Vigor
- Support -> Purge -> Efficient Purge
- Psijic Order -> Meditate -> Deep Thoughts
- Fighter’s Guild -> Silver Bolts -> Silver Leash
- Mage’s Guild -> Equilibrium -> Balance
Ultimates
- 1h/Shield -> Shield Wall -> Shield Discipline
- Assault -> War Horn -> Aggressive Horn
- Living Death -> Reanimate -> Renewing Animation
- Bone Tyrant -> Bone Goliath Transformation -> Pummeling Goliath
- Grave Lord -> Frozen Colossus -> Glacial Colossus
PASSIVES
- Bone Tyrant
- Grave Lord
- Living Death
- Racial
- Heavy Armor
- 1h/Shield
- Optional: Destruction Staff
- Alchemy – Medicinal Use
- Fighter’s Guild
- Undaunted
- The other armor type passives
ROTATION
Tanks dont have set rotations like DPS, use things in your kit as you need them.
SETS
While making gear for leveling is not mandatory, some people like to make gear for alts or have gear made when created a new character! These are some good crafted options you can create (I recommend the “Training” trait for all pieces):
Healer
RACE
- Breton
- Argonian
- Khajiit
GEAR
- 5 light
- 1 medium
- 1 heavy
- Destruction Staff (Shock) and Restoration Staff
- Note: The gear weight spread is a recommendation, not a strict rule for leveling. If you get better pieces as you level, feel free to replace them (just try to have more of the main gear weigh than the others)!
ATTRIBUTES
All in magicka
VAMPIRE vs WEREWOLF vs MORTAL
Mortal: Vampire/Werewolf dont give us a whole lot of benefits for this role, so we just remain mortal.
MUNDUS
Atronach
POTIONS AND FOOD
Potions: Magicka
Food: Not mandatory, but if you can find some, try to get stuff that increases either your health, magicka, and/or magicka recovery.
ABILITIES
You want to do your best to have 1 ability from each class tree on both your front and back bar. When you gain experience, whether it be from killing monsters or quests, the abilities on your active bar are the ones that gain experience as well as their respective skill lines. Another cool trick is if you have abilities on a skill bar you want to level up, you can switch to that bar when handing in a quest or completing a dungeon to give them and their skill lines a surge of experience. You’re going to notice i frequently recommend the first skill of a skill tree as a choice, just to obviously help you start getting that skill line leveled. If you want to level another weapon or skill tree without using that weapon or skill, simply placing a skill from that tree on your ability bar helps it gain experience when you gain experience on that bar. You dont have to use it!
Abilities
- Bone Tyrant -> Death Scythe -> Hungry Scythe
- Bone Tyrant -> Bitter Harvest -> Necrotic Potency
- Grave Lord -> Flame Skull -> Ricochet Skull
- Living Death -> Render Flesh -> Blood Sacrifice
- Living Death -> Life Amid Death -> Enduring Death
- Living Death -> Spirit Mender -> Intensive Mender
- Living Death -> Restoring Tehther -> Braided Tether
- Mages Guild -> Magelight -> Inner Light
- Destruction Staff -> Wall of Elements -> Elemental Blockade
- Destruction Staff-> Weakness to Elements -> Elemental Drain
- Restoration Staff -> Grand Healing -> Healing Springs
- Restoration Staff -> Regeneration -> Radiating Regeneration
- Restoration Staff -> Blessing of Protection -> Combat Prayer
- Restoration Staff -> Steadfast Ward -> Healing Ward
- Support -> Purge -> Efficient Purge
- Light Armor -> Annulment -> Harness Magicka
- Undaunted -> Necrotic Orb -> Energy Orb
- Undaunted -> Blood Altar -> Overflowing Altar
Ultimates
- Assault -> War Horn -> Aggressive Warhorn
- Restoration Staff -> Panacea -> Light’s Champion
- Living Death -> Reanimate -> Renewing Animation
- Grave Lord -> Frozen Colossus -> Glacial Colossus
PASSIVES
- Bone Tyrant
- Grave Lord
- Living Death
- Racial
- Light Armor
- Destruction Staff
- Restoration Staff
- Alchemy – Medicinal Use
- Mages Guild
- Fighter’s Guild
- Support (if Purge is slotted)
- Undaunted
- The other armor type passives
ROTATION
Healers dont have set rotations like DPS, use things in your kit as you need them.
SETS
While making gear for leveling is not mandatory, some people like to make gear for alts or have gear made when created a new character! These are some good crafted options you can create (I recommend the “Training” trait for all pieces):
Contact
If you have any questions about the build, join our discord server and ask @Dottz about the build!