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Best Necromancer Magicka Build in ESO

Looking to get the most out of your Magicka-focused Necromancer? Here's our best Necromancer Magicka Build in ESO.

First Published November 6, 2023, 12:31

Necromancer is one of the most unique and powerful classes in Elder Scrolls Online. Unlike other classes, Necromancer can summon undead creatures to fight alongside them. It has excellent single-target and AOE damage output and easily deals with the most DOT among other classes. When coupled with some unique passives like Dismember and Undead Confederate, Necromancer becomes a force to be reckoned with.

Our Magicka Necromancer build guide in ESO is focused on the PvE side of things, particularly for solo play. It includes everything you need to know to put this build together, including the best active and passive abilities, champion skills, gear set, and Mundus Stones.

Best Active Abilities For The Magicka Necromancer Build In ESO
Best Passive Abilities For The Magicka Necromancer Build In ESO
Best Gear Set For The Magicka Necromancer Build In ESO
Best Champion Skills For The Magicka Necromancer In ESO
Best Races For The Magicka Necromancer Build In ESO
Best Mundus Stones For The Magicka Necromancer Build In ESO

Best Active Abilities For The Magicka Necromancer Build In ESO

Front Bar Skills

Skill	Description
Barbed Trap IV	Set a sharpened blade trap at your location, which takes 1.5 seconds to arm and lasts for 20 seconds. When triggered, the trap deals 4002 Bleed Damage, an additional 11990 Bleed Damage over 20 seconds, and grants you Minor Force, increasing your Critical Damage by 10% for the duration. The damage has a higher chance to apply the Hemorrhaging status effect. Enemies who activate the trap are immobilized for 2 seconds.
Deadly Cloak IV	Envelop yourself in a protective cloak of razors, gaining Major Evasion for 20 seconds, reducing damage from area attacks by 20%. Every 2 seconds the shrapnel will pulse, dealing 1719 Physical Damage to all enemies within 5 meters
Detonating Siphon IV	Violently drain the last spark of life from a corpse, dealing 14070 Disease Damage over 20 seconds to all enemies around the corpse and between you and the corpse. When the siphon ends it causes the corpse to explode, dealing an additional 5459 Disease Damage to all enemies around the corpse. While slotted, your damage done is increased by 3%.
Ricochet Skull I	Lob an explosive skull at an enemy, dealing 6877 Flame Damage. Every third cast of this ability deals 50% increased damage and will bounce up to 2 times to other nearby enemies.
Stalking Blastbones IV	Summon a flaming skeleton from the ground after 2.5 seconds. The skeleton runs after the target and explodes when it gets close to them, dealing 11464 Flame Damage to all enemies nearby. Every second the skeleton spends chasing its target increases the damage of the explosion by 10%, up to a maximum of 50% more damage. Creates a corpse on death.
Flawless Dawnbreaker IV	Arm yourself with Meridia's sacred sword and dispense her retribution, dealing 9688 Physical Damage to enemies in front of you and an additional 11622 Physical Damage over 6 seconds. After activating, your Weapon and Spell Damage is increased by 300 for 20 seconds.

Back Bar Abilities

Skill	Description
Harness Magicka	Convert a portion of your Magicka into a protective ward, gaining a damage shield that absorbs 7351 damage for 6 seconds. Damage shield strength capped at 50% of your Max Health. While active, whenever the shield absorbs damage, you restore 224 Magicka. Each piece of Light Armor worn increases the Magicka restored by 33%. This effect can occur up to 3 times
Unstable Wall of Elements IV (Wall of Fire)	Create an unstable elemental barrier in front of you, dealing 854 Magic Damage to enemies in the target area every 1 second before exploding for an additional 3638 Magic Damage. Unstable Wall of Fire deals additional damage to Burning enemies. Unstable Wall of Frost costs more, but snares and reduces armor against Chilled enemies and grants damage shields. Unstable Wall of Storms sets Concussed enemies Off Balance.
Unnerving Boneyard IV	Desecrate the ground at the target location, dealing 9702 Frost Damage over 10 seconds and applying Major Breach to enemies within, reducing their Physical and Spell Resistance by 5948. Consumes a corpse on cast to deal 30% more damage. An ally standing in the graveyard can activate the Grave Robber synergy, dealing 6820 Frost Damage to enemies in the area and healing for the damage done.
Spirit Guardian IV	Conjure a ghostly spirit to do your bidding and stay by your side for 16 seconds. The spirit heals you or the lowest Health ally around you every 2 seconds, restoring 2188 Health. While active 10% of the damage you take is transferred to the spirit instead. Creates a corpse on death.
Skeletal Archer IV	Unearth a skeletal archer from the dirt to fight by your side for 20 seconds. The archer attacks the closest enemy every 2 seconds, dealing 1408 Physical Damage. Each time the archer deals damage, its next attack will do 15% more damage than the previous attack. Creates a corpse on death.
Shooting Star IV	Call a comet down from the constellations to blast an enemy, dealing 12948 Flame Damage to all enemies in the area, knocking them down, and stunning them for 2 seconds. After impact, enemies in the target area take 3698 Flame Damage every 1 second for 11 seconds. You generate 12 Ultimate for each enemy hit by the initial blast.

Your Front Bar weapons will be two one-handed Daggers, whereas your Back Bar weapon will be an Inferno Staff. The goal with this build is to always have two DOT abilities active alongside constant healing and shield. Thanks to the right passives and the gear set bonuses, your max magicka and magicka recovery should be decent enough so that this won't be an issue.

Once you're on the battlefield, start by casting Deadly Cloak, Spirit Guardian, and Skeletal Archer. These will strengthen your defenses and get you ready for the encounter ahead. Next, it's time to cast Stalking Blastbones, which will be your major DPS dealer. Now, it's time to put your two DOT skills to use, which are Unstable Wall of Elements and Unnerving Boneyard.

When your DOTs are up and running, and you're constantly regenerating health, it's time to spam Ricochet Skull, whose third cast deals increased damage and bounces off to nearby enemies.

As mentioned above, you'll want to keep two DOT skills running at all times, so every time one resets, cast it immediately. Continue to spam Ricochet Skull until one of your DOTs runs out or one of your Defense skills. In between, you can cast the Shooting Star Ultimate anytime, which, depending on your resource recovery, could also be spammed. There's no need to cast Flawless Dawnbreaker, as it's mainly there for the Fighters Guild passives.

Best Passive Abilities For The Magicka Necromancer Build In ESO

Screenshot%20_1_.png — Here are the best passives you need for the Magicka Necromancer build in ESO. (Picture: Shreyansh / Zenimax Online)

Skill	Description
Reusable Parts	When your Blastbones, Skeletal Mage, or Spirit Mender dies, the cost of your next Blastbones, Skeletal Mage, or Spirit Mender is reduced by 50%.
Death Knell	Increases your Critical Strike Chance against enemies under 25% Health by 8% for each Grave Lord ability slotted.
Dismember	While a Grave Lord ability is active, your Spell and Physical Penetration are increased by 1500.
Rapid Rot	Increases your damage done with damage over time effects by 10%.
Intimidating Presence	Allows you to Intimidate NPCs in conversation. Reduces the Stamina cost of your Fighters Guild abilities by 15%.
Slayer	ncreases your Weapon and Spell Damage by 3% for each Fighters Guild ability slotted.
Banish the Wicked	You generate 3 Ultimate whenever you kill an enemy.
Skilled Tracker	Your Fighters Guild abilities deal an additional 10% damage. This bonus doubles against player Vampires and Werewolves.
Last Gasp	Increase your Max Health by 1250.
Curative Curse	While you have a negative effect on you, your healing done is increased by 8%.
Near-Death Experience	While you have a Living Death ability slotted, your Critical Strike Chance with all healing abilities is increased by up to 20% in proportion to the severity of the target's wounds.
Corpse Consumption	When you use an ability on a corpse, you generate 10 Ultimate. This effect can occur once every 16 seconds.
Undead Confederate	While you have a Blastbones, Skeletal Mage, or Spirit Mender active, your Health, Magicka, and Stamina Recovery is increased by 200.
Slaughter	Increases damage with Dual Wield abilities by 20% against enemies with under 25% Health.
Dual Wield Expert	Increases Weapon and Spell Damage by 6% of off-hand weapon's damage.
Controlled Fury	Reduces the Stamina cost of Dual Wield abilities by 15%.
Ruffian	Gives you a 15% damage bonus when attacking stunned, immobilized, disoriented, or silenced enemies.
Undaunted Command	Activating a synergy restores 4% of your Max Health, Stamina, and Magicka. Health 1134 Stamina, and 825 Magicka.
Undaunted Mettle	Increases your Max Health, Stamina, and Magicka by 2% per type of Armor (Heavy, Medium, Light) that you have equipped.
Twin Blade and Blunt (Dagger)	Grants a bonus based on the type of weapon equipped: Each axe increases your Critical Damage done by 6%. Each mace increases your Offensive Penetration by 1487. Each sword increases your Weapon and Spell Damage by 129. Each dagger increases your Critical Chance rating by 657.
Tri-Focus	Fully-charged Inferno Staff Heavy Attacks deal an additional 14320 Flame Damage over 20 seconds. Fully-charged Lightning Staff Heavy Attacks damage nearby enemies for 100% of the damage done. Fully-charged Ice Staff Heavy Attacks grant you a damage shield that absorbs 10705 damage. This effect scales off your Max Health. While an Ice Staff is equipped, blocking costs Magicka instead of Stamina.
Penetrating Magic	Your Destruction Staff abilities ignore 2974 of the enemy's Spell Resistance.
Elemental Force	Increases your chance to apply status effects by 100%.
Ancient Knowledge	Inferno Staves increases your damage done with damage over time and Status Effects by 12%. Lightning Staves increases your damage done with direct damage and channeled effects by 12%. Equipping an Ice Staff reduces the cost of blocking by 36% and increases the amount of damage you block by 20%.
Destruction Expert	When you kill an enemy with a Destruction Staff ability, you restore 3600 Magicka. When you absorb damage using a Destruction Staff Damage Shield, you restore 1800 Magicka. This effect can occur once every 10 seconds.
Light Armor Bonuses	Each piece of Light Armor does the following: Reduces damage taken from Magical attacks by 1% Reduces the cost of Roll Dodge by 3% Reduces the Movement Speed penalty of Sneak by 5% Reduces the cost of Break Free by 5% Reduces the cost of Bash by 3%
Light Armor Penalities	Each piece of Light Armor does the following: Increases damage taken from Martial attacks by 1% Increases the cost of Block by 3% Decreases damage done with Bash by 1%
Grace	Reduces the effectiveness of snares applied to you by 4% for each piece of Light Armor worn. Reduces the cost of Sprint by 3% for each piece of Light Armor worn.
Evocation	Increases your Magicka Recovery by 4% for each piece of Light Armor equipped. Reduces the Magicka cost of your abilities by 2% for each piece of Light Armor equipped.
Spell Warding	Increases your Spell Resistance by 726 for each piece of Light Armor equipped.
Prodigy	Increases your Weapon and Spell Critical rating by 219 for each piece of Light Armor equipped.
Concentration	Increases your Physical and Spell Penetration by 939 for each piece of Light Armor worn.
Continous Attack	Increases your Weapon and Spell Damage by 10% and Magicka and Stamina Recovery by 20% for 10 minutes after you capture a Lumber Mill, Farm, Mine, or Keep. Gain Major Gallop at all times, increasing your Mount Speed by 30%.
Solvent Profiency	Allows the Alchemist to use Lorkhan's Tears and Alkahest to make Champion 150 potions and poisons.
Keen Eye: Reagents	Herbs and fungi in the world will be easier to see when you are 40 meters or closer.
Medicinal Use	When using potions, resulting effects last 30% longer.
Chemistry	Produces 3 extra potions or 12 extra poisons per crafting attempt.
Laboratory	Allows the use of up to 3 reagents while mixing Potions or Poisons.
Snakeblood	Reduces duration of negative effects in potions by 100% when consumed.

Necromancer has some of the best passive abilities in ESO. Most of these are self-explanatory and should give you an idea of how they can improve the effectiveness of your primary abilities.

For this build, you may want to get all the Grave Lord passives first to increase your Spell and Physical Damage alongside Critical Chance. Don't skimp out on the Living Death ones either, as they will also contribute to increasing your Critical Chance and regenerating Ultimate.

Since we are mainly using Light Armor pieces, it's best to get all the Light Armor passives for increased movement speed and Magicka recovery.

Best Gear Set For The Magicka Necromancer Build In ESO

Weapon / Armor	Trait	Set Bonus	How To Get
Auroran’s Thunder (Chest)	Divines - Increase Mundane Stone effects by 9.1%.	N/A	Obtained from the Depths of Malatar dungeon
Auroran’s Thunder (Belt)	Divines - Increase Mundane Stone effects by 9.1%.	(2 items) Adds 1206 Maximum Health	Obtained from the Depths of Malatar dungeon
Auroran’s Thunder (Shoes)	Divines - Increase Mundane Stone effects by 9.1%.	(3 items) Adds 129 Weapon and Spell Damage	Obtained from the Depths of Malatar dungeon
Auroran’s Thunder (Hands)	Divines - Increase Mundane Stone effects by 9.1%.	(4 items) Adds 1487 Offensive Penetration	Obtained from the Depths of Malatar dungeon
Auroran’s Thunder (Pants)	Divines - Increase Mundane Stone effects by 9.1%.	(5 items) Dealing direct damage to a target within 10 meters of you summons a cone of lightning from your chest for 5 seconds, dealing 1506 Shock Damage every 1 second to enemies in the cone. This effect can occur every 10 seconds and scales off the higher of your Weapon or Spell Damage.	Obtained from the Depths of Malatar dungeon
Pillar of Nirn (Amulet)	Bloodthirsty - Increases your Weapon and Spell damage against enemies under 90% Health by up to 350.	N/A	Obtained from the Falkreath Hold dungeon.
Pillar of Nirn (Ring)	Bloodthirsty - Increases your Weapon and Spell damage against enemies under 90% Health by up to 350.	(2 items) Adds 657 Critical Chance	Obtained from the Falkreath Hold dungeon.
Pillar of Nirn (Weapons)	Nirnhoned - Increases Damage of this weapon by 7.5%. Charged - Increases chance to apply status effects by 182.5%.	(3 items) Adds 657 Critical Chance (4 items) Adds 129 Weapon and Spell Damage	Obtained from the Falkreath Hold dungeon.
Ring of the Pale Order (Mythic Ring)	Bloodthirsty - Increases your Weapon and Spell damage against enemies under 90% Health by up to 350.	(1 item) Restore 20% of the damage you deal as Health. This value is decreased by 4% per ally you are grouped with. You cannot be healed by anyone but yourself, your pets, or your Companions	Obtain its five leads.
Malestrom Inferno Staff	Infused - Increases weapon enchantment effect by 15% and reduces enchantment cooldown by 50%.	N/A	Obtained from defeating the final boss of the Malestrom Arena.

If you play solo, Ring of the Pale Order is perhaps the most important gear piece in this list, as it restores 20% of the damage you deal as health. Since we emphasize crit damage for this build, it's best to equip at least three pieces of the Pillar of Nirn set to improve your critical chance. Lastly, you would want to equip five pieces of Auroran’s Thunder to get increased health, weapon, and spell damage, and an extra lightning DOT skill that goes off randomly.

Best Champion Skills For The Magicka Necromancer In ESO

Here are all the Champion Skills you need for the best Magicka Necormancer build. (Picture: Shreyansh / Zenimax Online)

Constellation Type	Skill	Description
Warfare	Deadly Aim	Increase your damage done with single target attacks by 3% per stage.
Warfare	Master At Arms	Increase your damage done with direct damage attacks by 3% per stage.
Warfare	Fighting Finesse	Increases your Critical Damage and Critical Healing done by 4% per stage.
Warfare	Wrathful Strikes	Grants 41 Weapon and Spell damage to your damaging abilities per stage.
Fitness	Boundless Vitality	Grants 28 Max Health per stage.
Fitness	Fortified	Grants 34.6 Armor per stage.
Fitness	Rejuvenation	Grants 1.8 Health, Magicka, and Stamina Recovery per stage.
Fitness	Siphoning Spells	Restore 300 Magicka per stage, whenever you kill an enemy.
Craft	Liquid Efficiency	Whenever you use a potion or a poison you have a 10%
Craft	Rationer	Adds 10 minutes to the duration of any food or drink that increases your character's stats per stage.
Craft	Steed's Blessing	Increases your out of combat Movement Speed by .4% per stage.
Craft	Treasure Hunter	Increase the quality of items you find in treasure chests.

For Champion Skills, we focus on the ones that increase your single target damage and critical damage. Since this is a Magicka build, we recommend using Rejuvenation for better Magicka and Stamina recovery.

Best Races For The Magicka Necromancer Build In ESO

Race	Bonus
Breton	Increased Max Magicka, Magicka Recovery, Light Armor, and Spell Resistance.
Dark Elf	Increased Max Magicka, Stamina, Weapon, and Spell Damage.
High Elf	Increased Max Magicka, Spell Damage, Resource Recovery, and XP gain.
Khajit	Increased Max Magica and additional Critical Damage.

While Dark Elf and Khajit are great choices for almost any Magicka or Stamina build in ESO, we also recommend going with something like Breton because of the Light Armor buff. The buff will be pretty useful here because we are using a couple of Light Armor pieces in this build.

Best Mundus Stones For The Magicka Necromancer Build In ESO

Mundus Stone	Effect
Thief	Increased Weapon and Spell Critical Strike rating.

The Thief Mundus Stone is an easy choice because of the critical strike bonus.

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