Necromancer

PvE DPS GUIDE

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Necromancer is an AOE damage powerhouse. Even when optimised for single target encounters, almost everything it does deals big splash damage. Other defining features include the iconic Blastbones ability, a unique boost to DOTs, Major Vulnerability on demand, great sustain and extra survivability. This makes for a pretty competitive toolkit which rewards you for using class abilities, stacking DOTs, staying in melee range where possible and putting those corpses to work.

KEY PASSIVES

10% is a big boost, and an overwhelming incentive to stack DOTs wherever possible. This passive defines and restricts the optimal rotation of a Necromancer and should not be ignored.

This provides a significant damage boost in execute, even with just 2 or 3 Grave Lord abilities slotted. Do not build your entire setup around it, but it take advantage of it wherever possible.

An extra 1500 Penetration is not always needed, but it allows us to wear more Medium Armor pieces to boost our damage and becomes a big advantage if certain debuffs are missing.

20% stronger than the typical class passives for ultimate generation, this one also works out of combat. This is a big advantage, so try to trigger it on cooldown if you can.

Recent Changes

    • Colossus cost reduced by 22%. Damage per hit increased by 11%.

    • Pestilent Colossus changed to guarantee Diseased status effect on every hit.

    • Glacial Colossus duration of Major Vulnerability extended from 12s to 17s.

    • Deaden Pain changed to increase its duration by 4s per corpse, up from 2s.

    • Weapon passives changed to shrink the gap between different weapon types.

      • Long Shots renamed Vinedusk Training, changed to a universal damage bonus.

      • Bonuses from Twin Blade & Blunt and Heavy Weapons reduced slightly.

      • Ancient Knowledge changed to boost damage types based on type of staff equipped.

      • Tri Focus restricted to the final tick of fully charged Lightning Heavy Attacks, rather than any tick.

    • Merciless Charge changed to increase all direct damage for 18s after casting Critical Charge.

    • 0.5s cooldown and 30% ramping damage per target added to Azureblight, base damage reduced.

    • Warchief, Battlereeve and General monster sets added to Cyrodiil.

    • Sourcing of Craglorn trial sets adjusted to fix curation.

    • Improved death notifications added to PvP areas.

    • Hundreds of bug fixes for quests, sets, items, companions etc.

    • Flame Skull third cast bonus damage increased from 20% to 50% seconds.

    • Arcanist class added.

    • Velothi Ur-Mage’s Amulet set added.

    • Default melee attack range increased from 5 to 7 meters.

    • Spectral Cloak changed to activate only when in combat.

    • Plaguebreak changed to apply only to enemy players.

    • Empower bonus reduced to 70% from 80%.

    • Graverobber synergy damage reduced by 34%.

    • Resources restored from Death Gleaning increased by 233%.Major Berserk added to Wrecking Blow.

    • Jewelry damage glyphs hybridised. Stamina/Magicka Recovery added.

    • Runecarver’s Blaze and Ozezan the Inferno sets added.

    • Light Attack scaling increased, but base damage capped at 3,850 for melee, 3,465 for ranged.

    • Taunt added to single target pull abilities and procs when target is not already taunted.

    • Taunt immunity changed to activate only after 5 taunts from 2 players.

    • Pearls of Ehlnofey ultimate gain reduced from 5 to 3. Resource threshold raised from 30% to 50%.

    • Elemental Susceptibility fixed so Major Breach no longer overrides the ability.

    • Harmony trait changed to restore resources rather than boost synergies.

    • Syrabane’s Ward and Back-Alley Gourmand sets added.

    • Target marker system added.

    • Elemental Drain duration increased from 23 to 60 seconds.

    • Elemental Susceptibility changed to apply Burning, Chilled and Concussed every 6s. Duration reduced to 30s.

    • Volley fixed to scale dynamically and not solely with Weapon Critical.

    • Healing from Vigor reduced by 10%.

    • Occult Overload damage reduced by 60%, now applies a random status effect.

Magicka

No setup is perfect everywhere. Check your tooltips regularly and tweak your setups depending on the group and the content.

Single Target

Relequen + Runecarver + Slimecraw + Kilt

SLOT ITEM TRAIT ENCHANTMENT
Head Slimecraw's Mask Divines Magicka
Shoulders Relequen's Arm Cops Divines Magicka
Chest Relequen's Jack Divines Magicka
Hands Runecarver's Blaze Gloves Divines Magicka
Waist Runecarver's Blaze Sash Divines Magicka
Legs Harpooner's Wading Kilt Divines Magicka
Feet Relequen's Boots Divines Magicka
Necklace Runecarver's Necklace Bloodthirsty Damage
Ring Runecarver's Ring Bloodthirsty Damage
Ring Runecarver's Ring Bloodthirsty Damage
Front Bar Main Hand Relequen's Dagger Charged Absorb Stamina
Front Bar Off Hand Relequen's Dagger Charged Poison
Back Bar Main Hand The Maelstrom's Greatsword Infused Weapon Damage
Back Bar Off Hand - - -

  • Perfected gear is NOT needed. The bonuses are nice to have, but small.

  • 2 x Light is recommended. It depends on your sustain, penetration and Critical Damage.

  • The Kilt is a good default, but not suitable everywhere. Swap in other Mythics depending on the situation.

  • Staves can be made to work, especially on the back bar. But on the front bar it’s a significant damage loss with little to no upside.

CHAMPION POINTS

Deadly Aim - Exploiter - Master-at-Arms - Wrathful Strikes

These are for when Off-Balance, Brittle, Catalyst, Alkosh/Crimson and all necessary buffs/debuffs are provided.

Outside of these conditions, use Backstabber and/or Fighting Finesse to reach the 125% Critical Damage cap, and Force of Nature to meet the 18,200 penetration cap (adjusting Medium-to-Light Armor ratio also helps). If Off-Balance is not being triggered on cooldown, drop Exploiter and slot Thaumaturge to boost your DOTs instead.

FOOD & POTIONS

Firsthold Fruit & Cheese Plate
or
Thrice-Baked Gorapple Pie
or
Tomato Garlic Chutney

Increase Max Magicka by 6048 for 35 minutes.

Food > Fruit
Jazbay Grapes, Cheese
Apples, Saltrice
Tomato, Garlic

Essence of Weapon Power

Grants Major Brutality which increases your Weapon Damage by 20% for 47.6 seconds.

Grants Major Savagery which gives you 2629 Weapon Critical Rating for 47.6 seconds.

Restore 7582 Stamina immediately.
Grants you Major Endurance which increases your Stamina Recovery by 30% for 47.6 seconds (45s cooldown).

Blessed Thistle
Dragonthorn
Water Hyacinth / Wormwood

+

These are recommended for practice and easy content. Other options include:

Max-level Savoury recipes for Health + Magicka
Ghastly Eye Bowl for Magicka + Magicka Recovery
Witchmother’s Potent Brew for Health + Magicka + Magicka Recovery

Bewitched Sugar Skulls for Health + Magicka + Stamina
Crunchy Spider Skewer for Magicka + Stamina Recovery

Tri Restoration Potion for Major Intellect + Endurance + Fortitude
Essence of Weapon Power for Major Brutality + Savagery + Endurance

Essence of Heroism for Major Intellect + Endurance and Minor Heroism
(very expensive and very rarely needed)

ABILITIES

ROTATION
129k DPS

Blastbones + DOTs still offers the highest damage rotation for Magicka Necromancers, and we are still dependent on Runecarver for much of our power (thankfully the set works pretty much everywhere). In shorter fights you may get better results with a spammable, but for long trial fights this DOT rotation is superb.

Blastbones every 3s is the highest priority. Recast DOTs on cooldown and overcast Siphon/Rune to fill gaps where no DOTs are expiring. It’s also smart to recast DOTs a little early at the end of a sequence, to avoid downtime during the first 4s of the next.

Open with Archer, Cloak, Blastbones, Rune, Star and Trap.

The rotation is easier than it looks, and uptimes need not be perfect to get great results. With a bit of practice your muscle memory will start predicting which DOTs to refresh. If in doubt, just recast Siphon/Rune again while you figure out what’s coming next.

Try to drop Star the instant it is ready. Recast Carve at the end of the opening rotation, then every ~30s as shown (do not let the stacks expire). Trap can be recast statically as shown, or dynamically for a bit more damage - do whatever works for you.

Nothing changes in execute. Just use Dawnbreaker in the last 20s if necessary, and when the target has only 4-5s left, cast one last Blastbones, Rune and Siphon, then spam Carve/Siphon until the target is dead. Enjoy!

SLOT ITEM TRAIT ENCHANTMENT
Head Thierric’s Mask Divines Magicka
Shoulders Thierric’s Epaulets Divines Magicka
Chest Jack of Sul-Xan’s Torment Divines Magicka
Hands Burning Spellweave Gloves Divines Magicka
Waist Burning Spellweave Sash Divines Magicka
Legs Guards of Sul-Xan’s Torment Divines Magicka
Feet Burning Spellweave Shoes Divines Magicka
Necklace Velothi Ur-Mage's Amulet Bloodthirsty Damage
Ring Ring of Sul-Xan’s Torment Bloodthirsty Damage
Ring Ring of Sul-Xan’s Torment Bloodthirsty Damage
Front Bar Main Hand Inferno Staff of Sul-Xan’s Torment Nirn/Precise Absorb Stamina
Front Bar Off Hand - - -
Back Bar Main Hand Burning Spellweave Inferno Staff Infused Weapon Damage
Back Bar Off Hand - - -

CHAMPION POINTS

Biting Aura - Exploiter - Master-at-Arms - Wrathful Strikes

The best choices depend on your group and how long the fight lasts. Use Backstabber if you are below the crit cap (or Fighting Finesse if you cannot flank). Drop Exploiter if no one in your group is triggering Off-Balance consistently. And if trash pulls are lasting longer, DOTs will provide a higher proportion of your damage and Thaumaturge may be worth slotting.

ABILITIES

Stamina

No setup is perfect everywhere. Check your tooltips regularly and tweak your setups depending on the group and the content.

Single Target

Relequen + Runecarver + Slimecraw + Kilt

SLOT ITEM TRAIT ENCHANTMENT
Head Slimecraw's Mask Divines Stamina
Shoulders Relequen's Arm Cops Divines Stamina
Chest Relequen's Jack Divines Stamina
Hands Runecarver's Blaze Gloves Divines Stamina
Waist Runecarver's Blaze Sash Divines Stamina
Legs Harpooner's Wading Kilt Divines Stamina
Feet Relequen's Boots Divines Stamina
Necklace Runecarver's Necklace Bloodthirsty Damage
Ring Runecarver's Ring Bloodthirsty Damage
Ring Runecarver's Ring Bloodthirsty Damage
Front Bar Main Hand Relequen's Dagger Charged Absorb Stamina
Front Bar Off Hand Relequen's Dagger Charged Poison
Back Bar Main Hand The Maelstrom's Greatsword Infused Weapon Damage
Back Bar Off Hand - - -

  • Perfected gear is NOT needed. The bonuses are nice to have, but small.

  • 2 x Light is recommended. It depends on your sustain, penetration and Critical Damage.

  • The Kilt is a good default, but not suitable everywhere. Swap in other Mythics depending on the situation.

CHAMPION POINTS

Deadly Aim - Exploiter - Master-at-Arms - Wrathful Strikes

These are for when Off-Balance, Brittle, Catalyst, Alkosh/Crimson and all necessary buffs/debuffs are provided.

Outside of these conditions, use Backstabber and/or Fighting Finesse to reach the 125% Critical Damage cap, and Force of Nature to meet the 18,200 penetration cap (adjusting Medium-to-Light Armor ratio also helps). If Off-Balance is not being triggered on cooldown, drop Exploiter and slot Thaumaturge to boost your DOTs instead.

FOOD & POTIONS

Bravil's Best Beet Risotto
or
Hearty Garlic Corn Chowder
or
Tenmar Millet-Carrot Couscous

Increase Max Stamina by 6048 for 35 minutes.

Food > Vegetable
Beets, Saltrice
Corn, Garlic
Carrots, Millet

Essence of Weapon Power

Grants Major Brutality which increases your Weapon Damage by 20% for 47.6 seconds.

Grants Major Savagery which gives you 2629 Weapon Critical Rating for 47.6 seconds.

Restore 7582 Stamina immediately.
Grants you Major Endurance which increases your Stamina Recovery by 30% for 47.6 seconds (45s cooldown).

Blessed Thistle
Dragonthorn
Water Hyacinth / Wormwood

+

These are recommended for practice and easy content. Other options include:

Max-level Ragout recipes for Health + Stamina
Lava Foot Soup-and-Saltrice for Stamina + Stamina Recovery
Dubious Camoran Throne for Health + Stamina + Stamina Recovery

Candied Jester’s Coins for Stamina + Magicka Recovery
Bewitched Sugar Skulls for Health + Magicka + Stamina

Tri Restoration Potion for Major Intellect + Endurance + Fortitude
Essence of Spell Power for Major Sorcery + Prophecy + Intellect

Essence of Heroism for Major Intellect + Endurance and Minor Heroism
(very expensive and very rarely needed)

ABILITIES

ROTATION
130k DPS

Stamina Necromancer has great options at the moment. For maximum cleave and superb sustain we can copy the Magicka rotation shown above, or can add more single target pressure by using a spammable (AOE damage is still crazy good).

Rapid Strikes lets us sustain Max Stamina food to boost our stats, but Venom Skull is only 1-2k DPS behind with the same food. Plus Skull is ranged, instant-cast and easier to use, so use whichever you prefer. Whatever the rotation, we are dependent on Runecarver for much of our power, so equip the set wherever possible and make sure you keep all your fast-ticking DOTs rolling to get the most out of it.

As always, Blastbones every 3s is our highest priority. Try to recast all your DOTs on cooldown and if you’re using Rapid Strikes, use instant-cast abilities to swap smoothly to the back bar. Open with Archer, Cloak, Blastbones, Star and Trap.

If multiple DOTs expire simultaneously, prioritise Stampede, Trap and Boneyard. Siphon and Trap have upfront hits so you can recast these early if you see a pinch point coming up. Fill every remaining cast by spamming Strikes or Skull.

Uptimes need not be perfect to get great results. You can keep things static and simple as shown, or push for a bit more DPS by recasting Boneyard and Siphon dynamically. Try to drop your ultimate the instant it is ready. Recast Carve at the end of the opening rotation, then every ~30s as shown and do not let the stacks expire. If stacks are running out between recasts, you must either speed up your weaving speed or recast Carve dynamically.

Nothing changes in execute. Just use Dawnbreaker in the last 20s if necessary, let your DOTs expire in the last 8s or so, and in the last 3-4s cast one last Blastbones and spam away until the target is dead. Enjoy!

SLOT ITEM TRAIT ENCHANTMENT
Head Slimecraw’s Guise Divines Stamina
Shoulders Burning Spellweave Epaulets Divines Stamina
Chest Jack of Sul-Xan’s Torment Divines Stamina
Hands Bracers of Sul-Xan’s Torment Divines Stamina
Waist Belt of Sul-Xan’s Torment Divines Stamina
Legs Guards of Sul-Xan’s Torment Divines Stamina
Feet Boots of of Sul-Xan’s Torment Divines Stamina
Necklace Velothi Ur-Mage's Amulet Bloodthirsty Damage
Ring Burning Spellweave Ring Bloodthirsty Damage
Ring Burning Spellweave Ring Bloodthirsty Damage
Front Bar Main Hand The Master’s Greatsword Nirnhoned Absorb Stamina
Front Bar Off Hand - - -
Back Bar Main Hand Burning Spellweave Inferno Staff Infused Weapon Damage
Back Bar Off Hand - - -

  • Perfected gear is NOT needed. The bonuses are nice to have, but small.

  • 2-3 x Light is recommended. It depends on your sustain, penetration and Critical Damage.

  • You can swap Slimecraw for a Stormfist, Kra’gh or Skoria 1-piece, depending on what you need.

  • It’s important to reach the penetration cap of 18,200 against priority targets. Using a Sharpened Master’s Maul on the front bar, upgrading to the Perfected version, dropping Unnerving Boneyard on adds and wearing more Light pieces are some of the things you can do to get there.

CHAMPION POINTS

Biting Aura - Exploiter - Master-at-Arms - Wrathful Strikes

The best choices depend on your group and how long the fight lasts. Use Backstabber if you are below the crit cap (or Fighting Finesse if you cannot flank). Drop Exploiter if no one in your group is triggering Off-Balance consistently. And if trash pulls are lasting longer, DOTs will provide a higher proportion of your damage and Thaumaturge may be worth slotting.

ABILITIES

Recent Changes

Update 44

  • Banner Bearer Grimoire introduced.

  • Azureblight Reaper set reworked. Base damage reduced, scaling damage per target massively increased.

  • Critical strike chance removed from Pyrebrand set. Damage adjusted.

  • Golden Pursuits and 2-sided Battlegrounds introduced.

  • Imperial City Keys and Vaults system replaced with Imperial Fragments and merchants.

Necromancer

  • Chilled, Frost DOT and corpse generation added to Ghostly Embrace.

Update 43

  • Spattering Disjunction, Pyrebrand, Corpseburster, Umbral Edge, Beacon of Oblivion, Aetheric Lance & Aerie’s Cry sets added.

  • Curation added to dungeon-specific Undaunted Monster set shoulder coffers.

  • Undeath passive damage reduction lowered to 15% from 30%.

  • New arenas, bosses, Verses and Visions added to Infinite Archive.

  • Various Scribing tooltips tweaked, Affix Script compatibility increased.

  • Home Tours introduced.

Necromancer

  • In-combat condition removed from Grave Lord's Sacrifice.

  • In-combat condition added to corpse generation.

  • Damage component added to Grave Grasp.

  • Major Brutality & Sorcery added to Skeletal Mage and its morphs.

  • Major Prophecy & Savagery added to Shocking Siphon and its morphs.

  • Minor Vulnerability added to Boneyard and its morphs.

Gold Road (Update 42)

  • Scribing and Skill Styling systems introduced

  • Lucent Echoes and Highland Sentinel sets added.

  • Gradual Ravage Health potions fixed to not trigger item sets.

  • Various damage reduction effects fixed to be multiplicative rather than additive.

  • Mages Guild passive Everlasting Magic duration increased changed from 20% to 2s.

  • Delay added to Rush of Agony proc, range increased from 10m to 12m.

  • Various Werewolf abilities tweaked to increase its general effectives in PvE.

Necromancer

  • Damage of Shocking Siphon (and morphs) increased by ~33% per tick.

  • Healing of Restoring Tether (and morphs) increased by ~14% per tick.

Scions of Ithelia (Update 41)

  • Status Effects system overhauled, bringing them closer together in power.

    • Burning damage reduced by 6%.

    • Chilled damage increased by 106%.

    • Concussed damage increased by 106%, plus 15% extra to recently Concussed enemies.

    • Diseased damage increased by 88%, AOE damage added.

    • Hemorrhaging damage reduced by 20%, stacking added, Mangle removed.

    • Overcharged damage increased by 106%, Magicka restore added.

    • Poisoned damage reduced by 30%, duration reduced, ramping execute added.

    • Sundered damage increased by 106%, bonus Weapon & Spell Damage added.

  • Charged trait reduced from 365% to 235% increased status effect chance.

  • Barbed Trap changed to apply Hemorrhaging only on the initial hit.

  • Guaranteed Sundered status effect added to Snipe.

  • Guaranteed Hemorrhaging status effect added to every tick of Lacerate.

  • Executioner changed from Physical to Bleed Damage.

  • Runecarver’s Blaze fixed to apply Burning more often; a significant damage increase.

  • Mantle of Siroria perfected bonus changed from Max Magicka to Weapon & Spell Damage.

  • Vitality and Defile changed to affect damage shield strength as well as healing.

  • Inner Rage cost reduced by 40%, damage reduced by 10%, multi-synergy added.

  • Inner Beast damage increased by 80%, Minor Vulnerability & Minor Maim added

  • Torc of the Last Ayleid King Mythic introduced.

  • Rewards system updated for XP, gold and Undaunted Keys

  • Buff/debuff tray updated to track taunt stacks.

  • Unified repair kits and stackable siege weaponry introduced

  • Role Play and Story playstyle options added to the Group Finder.

Necromancer