Revamping Necro Summons

The_Isatope8 · December 2025

Necromancer's summons have always been somewhat contentious in ESO. One of the most common complaints I've heard from people is that the Necro's current summons don't fulfil the class fantasy of summoning armies of the dead to do their bidding. This argument is fair considering that Necro only really has access to 2 proper summons (I don't consider blastbones to be a summon due to its very short duration) and both can feel very underwhelming at times when compared to Sorcerer and Warden's Summons. Even Nightblades Summon Shade ability feels better to use than what Necro has to work with. As such, I have come up with some ideas that I think will make necro more engaging to play, build and align them more with their class fantasy in regards to their summons.

As opposed to Sorcerer and Warden, I believe that Necro should lean into being a horde summoner. The Undead Avatar Lich transformation verse in the infinite archive allows players to summon some skeletons with the "Call the Dead" synergy. This feels amazing to play as a necro since it really gives you the feeling that you are actually summoning a horde of undead minions. So to make Necro feel more like a proper horde summoner, I think that they should be given the ability to have multiple small minions as temporary summons. The idea is that some of their aoe skills (Grave Grasp, Boneyard and Life Amid Death) can summon up to 4 skeletal minions similar to the aforementioned 'Call the Dead' synergy. These minions would deal a little bit of damage as they defend your character and could potentially be used for corpse consuming abilities if there are no other corpses nearby to essentially bring the corpses with you. There would naturally be a limit on how many minions a player could have active at a time, I think that 4 should be fair. The way such skills can be reworked to allow the summoning of minions are as follows:

Grave Grasp

Grave Grasp
Summon skeletal claws of the dead from the ground in front of you, dealing 898 Frost Damage and applying Minor Maim for 12 seconds, reducing damage done by 5%. Enemies in the area are immobilized for 4 seconds before having their movement speed reduced by 30% for 5 seconds. If at least one enemy is hit you summon up to 4 skeletal minions for 20 seconds after 2 seconds, creating a horde. Skeletal minions defend you, attacking the nearest target every 2 seconds.

*This skill is really clunky to use due to it creating several zones that each have their own distance from the player and produce their own effects. This version of the skill simply creates a single zone that applies all of its effects gradually instead of having the player aim and space themselves for the desired effect. The reason why the minions are only summoned if an enemy is hit is so that the animation can feature skeletal minions essentially dragging themselves out of the dirt using the enemies hit as an anchor point; which I think is cool and adds to Necro's flavor

Boneyard

Boneyard
Call forth the restless dead at the target location, dealing 3080 Frost Damage over 10 seconds to enemies inside the area and applying Minor Vulnerability, increasing their damage taken by 5%. After 2 seconds, you summon up to 4 skeletal minions for 20 seconds, creating a horde. Skeletal minions defend you, attacking the nearest target every 2 seconds. Consumes a corpse on cast to grant an ally in the area the Grave Robber synergy, dealing 2249 Frost Damage to enemies and healing for the damage done when activated.

*The extra 30% damage for consuming a corpse on cast would likely have to be removed from this ability to counterbalance the extra damage provided by the skeletal minions. I think it fits well thematically to have a synergy called 'Grave Robber' become available when a corpse is consumed on cast instead of the 30% extra damage to still keep this ability as a corpse consumer.

Life Amid Death

Life Amid Death
Release residual fragments of fallen souls at the target location, healing you and your allies for 2323 Health and summoning up to 4 skeletal minions for 20 seconds after 2 seconds, creating a horde. Skeletal minions defend you, attacking the nearest target every 2 seconds. Consumes a corpse on cast to continue healing you and allies in the area for an additional 2310 Health over 5 seconds.

I have also had an idea regarding Necro's main summons, Skeletal Mage and Spirit Mender. The skeletal minions that are summoned from the skills reworked before this paragraph are meant to be expendable grunts that provide a bit of utility, but Necro's main summons should should be a bit more complex and unique. In the lore of the TES universe (and in game), we know that necromancers are capable of creating undead thralls and binding them to their service permanently. I think an interesting way to incorporate this is to give the Necromancer class the choice of having their main summon abilities be permanent or timed.

Basically, give these skills an additional function that if they are slotted on both bars, the summons will become bound (permanent) and have access to an essentially new skill when in this state. this new ability is now what is cast when the skill is activated since activating the skill no longer re-summons the skeletal mage or spirit mender. An example of how this might look can be found in the spoilers below:

Skeletal Mage

Skeletal Mage
Unearth a skeletal mage from the dirt to fight by your side for 20 seconds, while granting you Major Brutality and Sorcery, increasing your Weapon and Spell Damage by 20%. The mage attacks the closest enemy every 2 seconds, dealing 462 Shock Damage. Creates a corpse on death if you are in combat.

While slotted on both bars, you bind the mage to your service, summoning it permanently. While bound, activating this ability causes the mage to blast enemies with a fireball, dealing 1799 Flame damage to all enemies in a 6 meter radius and an additional 2980 Flame damage to them over 20 seconds. You can cast a corpse consuming ability on a bound skeletal mage up to once every 10 seconds if there are no other corpses nearby.

Morphs

Skeletal Arcanist
Unearth a skeletal mage from the dirt to fight by your side for 20 seconds, while granting you Major Brutality and Sorcery, increasing your Weapon and Spell Damage by 20%. The mage attacks the closest enemy every 2 seconds, dealing 478 Shock Damage to them and all other enemies nearby. Creates a corpse on death if you are in combat.

While slotted on both bars, you bind the arcanist to your service, summoning it permanently. While bound, activating this ability causes the arcanist to blast enemies with a fireball, dealing 1799 Flame damage to all enemies in a 6 meter radius and an additional 2980 Flame damage to them over 20 seconds. You can cast a corpse consuming ability on a bound skeletal arcanist up to once every 10 seconds if there are no other corpses nearby.
Skeletal Archer
Unearth a skeletal archer from the dirt to fight by your side for 20 seconds, while granting you Major Brutality and Sorcery, increasing your Weapon and Spell Damage by 20%. The archer attacks the closest enemy every 2 seconds, dealing 463 Physical Damage. Each time the archer deals damage, it deals 15% more damage than the previous attack. Creates a corpse on death if you are in combat.

While slotted on both bars, you bind the archer to your service, summoning it permanently. While bound, activating this ability causes the archer to fire a volley of putrid arrows, dealing 1799 Disease damage to all enemies in a 6 meter radius and an additional 2980 Disease damage to them over 20 seconds. You can cast a corpse consuming ability on a bound skeletal archer up to once every 10 seconds if there are no other corpses nearby.

Spirit Mender

Spirit Mender
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 695 Health. Creates a corpse on death if you are in combat.

While slotted on both bars, you bind the ghostly spirit to your service, summoning it permanently. While bound, activating this ability causes the spirit to heal you and nearby allies for 2700 Health. You can cast a corpse consuming ability on a bound spirit mender up to once every 10 seconds if there are no other corpses nearby.

Morphs

Intensive Mender
Conjure a ghostly spirit to do your bidding and stay by your side for 8 seconds. The spirit heals you or the lowest Health ally around you every 2 seconds, restoring 1438 Health to the target and 2 allies nearby them. Creates a corpse on death if you are in combat.

While slotted on both bars, you bind the ghostly spirit to your service, summoning it permanently. While bound, activating this ability causes the spirit to heal you and nearby allies for 2700 Health. You can cast a corpse consuming ability on a bound spirit mender up to once every 10 seconds if there are no other corpses nearby.

*Even though the cost of the ability is halved, the cost of activating the burst heal while the spirit is bound should remain the same
Spirit Guardian
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 718 Health. While active 10% of the damage you take is transferred to the spirit instead. Creates a corpse on death if you are in combat.

While slotted on both bars, you bind the ghostly spirit to your service, summoning it permanently. While bound, activating this ability causes the spirit to heal you and nearby allies for 2700 Health. You can cast a corpse consuming ability on a bound spirit mender up to once every 10 seconds if there are no other corpses nearby.

I think that changes such as these could go a long way to make Necro feel like a proper necromancer in game and fulfill the class fantasy a bit better. The devs have stated in their recent deep dive about the upcoming class identity refresh that they want Necro's power fantasy to include becoming stronger "with each corpse they command". Being able to summon your own little horde sounds like it would work for something along those lines. In addition to new ways to play and build a Necro character, The clunkiness of their corpse mechanic would be alleviated somewhat as well, considering that you can just bring those ever so important corpses with you instead of being bogged down with poor placement and buggy terrain issues. I have seen a recent uptick in the forums about people being displeased with the state of Necro again and I genuinely believe that revamping their summons will improve the class greatly. These ideas would naturally require many changes and tweaks to get them to work in game though, these are just some of my rough ideas on the matter.

Turtle_Bot · December 2025

Interesting reworks. Sounds a lot like my suggestion a few months ago where I suggested that the Necro summons be allowed to be used as corpses for corpse consuming abilities (or at least for abilities like the tethers).

Honestly, I would love it if Sorcerers summons also worked the way mender/mage have been described here (being duration effects/abilities if slotted on 1 bar (like a partial/temporary pact), but worked more like (current) permanent versions if slotted on both bars). Would have solved a lot of the issues Sorcerer has and many issues ZOS faces when trying to balance Sorcerer.

This is one thing I have loved about vengeance was that the Sorc pets were regular abilities (scamp was a DoT, twilight was a group heal), not summons, and felt like regular abilities to use/interact with, not this clunky summon that ends up more of a hindrance than help.

MindOfTheSwarm · 7:48PM

The problem is these all stacked with multiple players. It would fill up the screen with far too much. Also, with subclassing it would be even worse. Necromancer already has summon skills that could be modified or adjusted.

The wraith could have its morphs merged into one and then a new morph added that causes it to deal frost damage over time to a target, while healing you and nearby allies for a percentage of the damage.

The skeletal mage is fine as is.

As for a third potential, I would change the Magicka morph of blastbones and replace it with a skeletal warrior that can taunt enemies if reactivated.