The Lich - Magicka Necromancer PVE Build
Written guide updated for updated for The Scribes of Fate DLC: Q1 2023
Older video but still relevant.
What do we call this? Magcro? m\Mag necro? Magromancer?! Pick your poison, I’m sticking with Mag Necro, regardless of the term used to describe it, this class is INSANE!
This Magicka Necromancer build is built for HIGH single target DPS, great AOE DPS, and MASSIVE ultimate gain! This build is FUN, has great survival, has a full static rotation that never has to change, has solid sustain, and is all-round balanced for all PVE content.
Utilizing a rather fun set too making it themed on top of everything else adds to its overall appeal!
We do have a couple of pets in our arsenal but unlike the Sorcerer where the abilities have to be double-barred in order to have 100% uptime on them, the Necromancer has fire and forget pets. We raise the dead, we use them, and then dump them again.
The corpse system is extremely useful for the necromancer. The Templar can siphon energy from dead bodies of course but the Necromancer is the master of all that is dead. We can consume Ultimate, heals, minions, and even resurrect dead bodies/players.
This system DOES make the learning curve a little tricky but don’t worry, all you need to know is explained in detail in the video. The Necromancer can be fun if you are just smashing buttons, however, if you have great situational awareness and understand how to take advantage of the bodies around you, then you can become VERY powerful. Also, this is not just the bodies of players or enemies, you can physically consume the corpses of your raised pets to benefit you,
In this build consuming corpses is key! We have abilities that do damage over time, we have ground-based AOEs, we have ultimate regeneration, AND heals all from paying attention to what is dead and what is alive. Clever and planned usage of your corpse-consuming skills can completely change the tide of any battle.
In this build, you will have all of the above, however, covered FOR you. The rotation alone takes full advantage of consuming corpses, setting up some well-placed corpses with planned and timed skills to then utilize them when they are present!
As well as the corpse system, we have elements of all kinds in our damage including ice, fire, AND shock! Which makes the Magicka Necromancer the master of all magic!
And last but not least, of course, we have an ultimate in the form of a massive flesh abomination which grants major vulnerability to your group. Meaning all players hit the targets affected by 30% more damage! The Necromancer is the only class in the game with this bonus. Play smart and you can be a massive asset to any group!
Key bonuses to the setup
High damage output in both single target AND AOE!
Fire and forget abilities/pets which do NOT require double baring of the same skills (unlike the sorcerer)
Incredible ultimate gain from our Necrotic Potency IF used correctly!
Major Vulnerability (10% damage done increase to target for EVERYONE) from our Colossus Ultimate
At execute range we have a passive which greatly improves our critical chance!
High use of class skills, making it feel like a totally unique setup/class/playstyle
High health bonus JUST for being a Necromancer!
The more you understand about the class, the more powerful you are if you have the ability to take advantage of the situation at the time, ESPECIALLY if there are many many BODIES!
Fashion First!
As demonstrated in the video, our fabulous ESO fashion setup and dress choice for this character is as follows:
Head: Light Xyvkin
Shoulders: Heavy Daedra
Chest: Light Fang Lair
Legs: Light Fang Lair
Hands: Light Fang Lair
Belt: Light Fang Lair
Feet: Light Fang Lair / Light Dromathra
Front bar: Icey Coven
Back Staff: New Moon Priest
The two colors we are using are Legate Black (any black will do) and Void Pitch
Skills
Lightning Destruction Staff
1) Stalking Blastbones
2) Skeletal Arcanist
3) Detonating Siphon
4) Mystic Orb
5) Degeneration / Structured Entropy
Ultimate – Shooting Star
Flame Destruction Staff
1) Necrotic Potency / Harness Magicka / Inner Light
2) Unstable Wall Of Elements
3) Stalking Blastbones
4) Barbed Trap
5) Avid Boneyard
Ultimate – Shooting Star / Glacial Colossus
Champion Points 2.0
The NEW Champion Points 2.0 introduced in the Q1 2021 DLC: Flames Of Ambition is quite possibly the BIGGEST change/addition to The Elder Scrolls Online since One Tamriel! And these were further altered in the Blackwood Chapter, giving us a lower base for capping out some of the essentials and also adding some more slotables!
Before it was a case of “I have limited points as a CP, so HOW should I spend them”? Now that is NOT the case as SUCH! Now, it is a case of, buy ALL the things, but which SLOTABLES should you take?
Everything before was a passive bonus with huge diminished returns, awkward calculations, and was messy to all players for the most part. The new system underlines NO diminished returns, no majorly confusing passives, and the ability to buy EVERY single passive available for tanking, DPS, and healing on the SAME character with enough points to spare for buying slotables. Being able to slot 4x special slotables from each tree when there are an abundance of them means you are only limited by your CHOICES, not by your CP.
Buy all the passives, CHOOSE which slotables to take vs the situation, and the rest of the points are spare. Or are they? Well here is the crunch…Once you go over 1800ish (depending on slotable choices, some are more expensive in the Craft tree) you basically have every single passive available PLUS 4 slotables per tree…
If you JUST wanted to focus on combat alone (all red and blue passives and 4 slotables for each one) you only actually need around 1600cp to be completely maxed in those areas. And if you wanted to go FULL glass cannon, only really focusing on one damage type you can achieve your max potential for that as low as 900 or so! You won’t have any resistances or healing bonuses from the Warfare (blue) tree doing this, but you can at least cap out the hard-hitting stuff, right? And this is considering slotables too so there is no harm in actually deliberately specing for a couple of damage resistance slotables instead even at THIS stage.
For tanking it is even easier! Push for your slotables and stack your resistance passives and it is game over! The rest are just a bonus!
So what’s next? Well, if you have higher champion points you can buy more slotables and switch stuff per situation as and when needed. If you don’t, then if you want to swap it will cost you gold for respecing. So in a nutshell, 1650-1800 (depending on build) is you’re pretty much done! Anything else is convenient due to not needing to spend gold swapping things you already have access to! How cool is that?
SLOTABLES!
No matter what, THESE are the most important parts of the Champion Points 2.0 system. So this is your main FIRST goal when pushing for the build. You need to slot these even if they are not max level. However, there are swap-outs for situations as explained in the video.
BLUE (Warfare) are important for resistance, heals, and damage. Red (Fitness) are important for resources, health, and Crowd Control counters. Green (Craft) are literally quality of life! (aka your choice so not THAT important for combat).
It doesn’t matter what level you are at anymore, you can play ALL content regardless of your champion points level because during Flames of Ambition all players/characters had their base stats improved to make everyone somewhat more balanced at lower levels.
However, as mentioned above, the slotables are your main goal. Unlock the prerequisite passives to unlock access to your slotables if there are any…fill them up, and then just grab the remaining passives as you go.
300, 600, 900 champion points are not really important as checkpoints anymore for optimization. Just fill as you go, because ALL characters can have ALL passives with NO negative effects unlike before!
What should I aim for with this build?
- Master At Arms
- Fighting Finesse
- Deadly Aim
- Backstabber
Instead of Backstabber If you cannot get behind the enemy (example: Dragon in Sunspire), then Thaumaturge should replace it in those situations.If you find you are in multiple large pull situations with many adds while using Whirling Blades, you should swap to Biting Aura.
- Rationer
- Liquid Efficiency
- Treasure Hunter
- Steed’s Blessing
These really are up to you but these are most useful IN content for loot and movement if not in combat.
What you do with this tree is NOT make or break for mechanics nor combat in general just quality of life.
Some people like to steal, craft, use less potions, whatever, it’s your choice.
- Boundless Vitality
- Rejuvenation
- Fortified
- Siphoning Spells
These are designed to increase your health/armor and at the same time manage your resources.
High recovery and return for being active in combat and GETTING kills really helps you in content.
So a good balance of flat, contributing slotables are helpful as a DPS build.
The video below explains how the changes work in more detail. Of course, over time, additions will be and have already been made to the system but the main BASE of it is the same.
Rotation
Front bar: Light Attack, Stalking Blastbones, Light Attack, Mystic Orb, Light Attack, Degeneration, Light Attack, Stalking Blastbones, Light Attack, Detonating Siphon, Light Attack, Skeletal Arcanist, Light Attack, Stalking Blastbones, Light Attack, Mystic Orb, weapon swap
Back Bar: Light Attack, Avid Boneyard, Light Attack, Stalking Blast Bones, Light Attack, Rearming Trap, Light Attack, Unstable Wall Of Elements, weapon swap.
The rotation is designed so even with the bar swaps added there will always be Blast Bones, then two skills then Blast Bones again. Your Mystic Orb travels over time so the second cast fills the gap to have it ALWAYS present on the target with no downtime taking full advantage of the damage over time passive for the Necromancer.
If you can nail the rotation it will be incredibly smooth, NO damage over time OR buffs will EVER run out and everything will be continuously consistent throughout. You never need to change your rotation even at execute, just repeat the above until the enemy is dead!
Potions & Food
You can use Tristat pots for a combination of the above and some health back OR if you are really fancy and going for the squishier mode as mentioned in the video…you can make spell pots.
Food is very simple, the highest level food you can consume with 2 stats only, MAX health and MAX magicka. There are 3 variations of recipes but all are the same in the stats they give so your choice which one you use.
Tri-pots:
Columbine + Mountain Flower + Bugloss + Lorkans Tears
Spell pots:
Lady Smock + Water Hyacinth + Cornflower + Lorkhan’s Tears
Food:
Minstral Banana-Bunny Hash – Small game(1) + Bananas(2) + Seasoning(3)
Melon-Baked Parmesan Pork – White Meat(1) + Melon(2) + Cheese(3)
Solitude Salmon-Millet Soup – Fish(1) + Tomato(2) + Millet(3)
If you would like to make your own potions, I now have a fully functioning potion maker on the website. Here you can TEST any combination of potion or poison you like and check the outcome without having to know the combinations in-game! Check here for the App, working on Android and IOS – Potion Maker
Gear Setup
Below is a chart showing the overall gear set-up, noting the optimal set requirements in terms of weight, enchants & traits!
We are using the Thief Mundus stone alongside 64 Attribute points into Magicka
We are a Khajiit but other races are also usable. Dark Elf, High Elf, or Breton are good substitutes.
Optimal Setup
| Slot | Gear Set | Weight | Trait | Enchantment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Head | Zaan / Kjalnar’s Nightmare / Maw Of The Infernal | Light | Divines | Magicka |
| Shoulders | Zaan / Kjalnar’s Nightmare / Maw Of The Infernal | Light | Divines | Magicka |
| Chest | Unleashed Ritualist | Light | Divines | Magicka |
| Waist | Unleashed Ritualist | Light | Divines | Magicka |
| Hands | Unleashed Ritualist | Light | Divines | Magicka |
| Legs | Unleashed Ritualist | Light | Divines | Magicka |
| Feet | Unleashed Ritualist | Light | Divines | Magicka |
| Ring 1 | Mantle Of Sioria | Jewelry | Bloodthirsty | Spell Damage |
| Ring 2 | Mantle Of Sioria | Jewelry | Bloodthirsty | Spell Damage |
| Necklace | Mantle Of Sioria | Jewelry | Bloodthirsty | Spell Damage |
| Weapon 1 | Mantle Of Sioria | Lightning Staff | Precise | Flame |
| Weapon 2 | Maelstrom | Inferno Staff | Infused | Weapon / Spell Dmg |
Beginner Setup
| Slot | Gear Set | Weight | Trait | Enchantment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Head | Grothdarr | Medium | Divines | Magicka |
| Shoulders | Grothdarr | Heavy | Divines | Magicka |
| Chest | Caluurion’s Legacy | Light | Divines | Magicka |
| Waist | Caluurion’s Legacy | Light | Divines | Magicka |
| Hands | Caluurion’s Legacy | Light | Divines | Magicka |
| Legs | Caluurion’s Legacy | Light | Divines | Magicka |
| Feet | Caluurion’s Legacy | Light | Divines | Magicka |
| Ring 1 | Law Of Julianos / New Moon Acolyte | Jewelry | Bloodthirsty | Spell Damage |
| Ring 2 | Law Of Julianos / New Moon Acolyte | Jewelry | Infused | Spell Damage |
| Necklace | Law Of Julianos / New Moon Acolyte | Jewelry | Infused | Spell Damage |
| Weapon 1 | Law Of Julianos / New Moon Acolyte | Lightning Staff | Infused | Weapon / Spell Dmg |
| Weapon 2 | Law Of Julianos / New Moon Acolyte | Inferno Staff | Infused | Flame Damage |
Gear Locations
Zaan – Scalecaller Peak
Unleashed Ritualist – The Cauldron
Mantle Of Siroria – Cloudrest
Maelstrom Weapons – Maelstrom Arena
Maw Of The Infernal – Banished Cells II
Kjalnar’s Nightmare – Unhallowed Grave
Caluurion‘s Legacy – Fang Lair
Grothdarr – Vaults Of Madness
New Moon Acolyte – 9 Trait Crafted Set
Law Of Julianos – 6 Trait Crafted Set
Other Necromancer Builds
Harvester
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Malcolm
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