[Scalebreaker] Necromancer Tank Build

Vermethys

Hi everyone,


We finally got the the long-hyped Necromancer class with Elsweyr's release and I have to say, this class has some of the nicest passives in any class or skill line in this game. Most class passives synergize very well with whatever spec you choose to play your Necro as. In addition, it has a unique aesthetic and playstyle. From what I've experienced so far, the passives and active abilities are some of the best for tanking. In PvE, I've always been a tank main, and I just simply had to fiddle around with a Necro tank... and so far, it has not disappointed in the slightest. Rather, it has been fantastic. I've played DK, Warden, and Sorc tanks extensively in veteran dungeons and veteran DLC dungeons, and I would rate Necro tank high on that list; a very close second to DK tank in my opinion.

Without further ado, I wanted to share the build I've been testing and enjoying. It's both beginner and veteran friendly, and I'll be listing any optional sets and abilities to consider. This build is mainly intended for all veteran dungeons, but it can work for trials with some minor changes.



(TL;DR -- UESP Build Link: https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildData?id=151246 -- Contains all details)

(1) Race:
-Imperial (Well-rounded race with nice sustain and great max stats).
-Nord (Great ultigen and nice max stats).
-Argonian (Great sustain, though I can't say the same about the race's other passives. BiS for swimming).

*Sub-optimal races that can work:
-Breton.
-Redguard.
-Orc.

(2) Gear:
*Primary Load-out: 2x[Lord Warden], 5x[Ebon Armory], 5x[Roar of Alkosh].
5 Heavy, 1 Medium, 1 Light to get the most out of the Undaunted passives.
-Traits: Sturdy on all pieces, except Reinforced on cuirass. 3 Healthy traits on jewelry, or 2 Healthy and 1 Infused (plenty of flexibility). Decisive sword and Infused Ice Staff (or Lightning Staff).
-Enchantments: Tri-Stat glyphs on all pieces. Weakening glyph on sword and Crushing glyph on Ice Staff.

*Other Load-outs:
{1} 2x[Lord Warden], 5x[Ebon Armory], 5x[(Perfected) Claw of Yolnahkriin].
Comment: Similar to my standard set-up, but I'd only see this used if the player isn't comfortable with Alkosh or if they're in a pug group with barely any synergies.

{2} 2x[Lord Warden], 5x[(Perfected) Claw of Yolnahkriin], 5x[Roar of Alkosh].
Comment: Fantastic set-up if your DDs have good survivability or if you have a Warden healer reliably providing Minor Toughness (ie. Best in a coordinated dungeon group).

*Beginner Load-out: 1x[Shadowrend]+1x[Pirate Skeleton], 5x[Ebon Armory], 5x[Torug's Pact].
Comment: Easy to obtain, basic set-up without trial gear or DLC gear.

~
Do note that if you are playing a Nord, you might want to replace Lord Warden with 2x[Bloodspawn] for more ultigen or 1x[Shadowrend]+1x[Pirate Skeleton]. Or you can use Lord Warden and replace the Reinforced trait on the chest piece with either Sturdy or Infused.
~

*Other situationally useful sets:
Plague Doctor.
Battalion Defender.
Akaviri Dragonguard.
Brands of Imperium.
Leeching Plate.

Fully buffed stats:


(3) Skills:

Front-Bar:
{1} Hungry Scythe; Your "Oh crap!" self-healing ability as a Necromancer tank -- very similar in function to DK's Green Dragon Blood or Sorc's Unstable Clannfear. If you keep up your Spirit Guardian and Mortal Coil, you shouldn't be using this ability all that much.
{2} Heroic Slash; A pretty basic ability to have on your bar at all times. Applies Minor Maim to the target and grants you Minor Heroism, which synergizes well with the Decisive trait on the sword.
{3} Mortal Coil; Free to use and returns some Health and Stamina to you over 12 seconds.
{4} Pierce Armor; Pretty self-explanatory ability.
{5} Summoner's Armor; I prefer this morph because it reduces the cost of Spirit Guardian and I don't find a need for the pull effect from the other morph
{Ult} Reviving Barrier; I use this ability mainly for the 10% Magicka Recovery increase from the "Magicka Aid" passive. It grants you and your allies a nice shield and HoT. Other ultimates you can use on the front-bar are Shield Wall or Ravenous Goliath.

Back-Bar:
{1} Spirit Guardian; Heals for a bit over 3k every two seconds and grants you a unique 10% damage reduction.
{2} Agony Totem; Hard CC that grants your group Minor Protection (8% damage reduction) and a synergy that applies Minor Vulnerability.
{3} Blockade of Frost; Mainly used to aggro and snare trash packs, and apply the Crusher enchantment on bosses.
{4} Silver Leash; Unrelenting Grip in Stamina form. Used to gather mobs and make your teammates' lives easier. Try to use this ability conservatively.
{5} Inner Rage; Ranged taunt, very handy to have for all content in my opinion.
{Ult} Aggressive Warhorn; Undisputed no.1 ultimate ability.

(4) Champion Points:
[The Lord]
14 Heavy Armor Focus, 32 Quick Recovery.
[The Lady]
48 Thick Skinned, 49 Hardy, 49 Elemental Defender.
[The Steed]
66 Iron Clad, 12 Spell Shield.

[The Ritual]
30 Precise Strikes, 7 Piercing.
[The Atronach]
42 Physical Weapon Expert, 34 Master-at-Arms.
[The Apprentice]
81 Elfborn, 76 Blessed.

[The Shadow]
81 Shadow Ward, 37 Tumbling.
[The Lover]
32 Arcanist, 56 Tenacity.
[The Tower]
36 Bashing Focus, 28 Warlord.

(5) Consumables:
Food: Longfin Pasty with Melon Sauce
Potion: Tristat Potions (ie. Essence of Health: Bugloss + Columbine + Mountain Flower)

(6) Attributes:
17 Magicka, 20 Health, 27 Stamina.

(7) Mundus:
The Atronach.

~
Note that the allocation of your attributes depends on your race, jewelry traits, and enchantments. Tweak them based on your build until you reach a good balance. I personally prefer having 20k max Magicka, 36k+ Health, and 24k Stamina
~

I hope you enjoy it! Feel free to leave any feedback or ask any questions

Iskiab

I have a question about tanking on a necro. I’m using a 2 hander on my back bar because I leveled it in pvp. Is back bar destro staff required if you use boneyard or one of the other aoe abilities? I’m only planning on tanking vets including DLC, currrently using plague doctor and ebon.

jypcy

Looks like a solid build overall OP, highly similar to the one I’m using myself.

Iskiab wrote: »

I have a question about tanking on a necro. I’m using a 2 hander on my back bar because I leveled it in pvp. Is back bar destro staff required if you use boneyard or one of the other aoe abilities? I’m only planning on tanking vets including DLC, currrently using plague doctor and ebon.

Answer-questions for your question: for tanking, what do you get out of running 2h? What do you gain/lose for tanking by running destro staff instead? 2h abilities tend to be very selfish (not necessarily negative) in terms of tanking, either increasing your own damage output or survivability with little-to-no debuffs/cc to impose on enemies or buffs to offer allies. If that’s what you want for your tank, then 2h could be a good tool to backbar. The asylum 2h is obviously a very potent ulti gen tool, however, which can translate into more group buff/enemy debuff ultimates. However, it’s situational and more or less a one trick pony. Again, not necessarily a bad thing if that’s what you want for your build.

I’m not sure I understand the logic for why certain aoe abilities you have slotted might require you to run a destro. Without knowing more details, I can’t think of any reason why it would.

Possibly most important thing to note is you probably want to run a 2-slot weapon of some sort on the backbar so you get a full-potency crusher enchant. There’s talk of healers running this instead in the current meta, for now anyway, I think the general expectation is still for the tank to supply this debuff.

Vermethys

Iskiab wrote: »

I have a question about tanking on a necro. I’m using a 2 hander on my back bar because I leveled it in pvp. Is back bar destro staff required if you use boneyard or one of the other aoe abilities? I’m only planning on tanking vets including DLC, currrently using plague doctor and ebon.

Destruction staff on the back bar is not required for using any AoE abilities other than Elemental Blockade, which is (in my opinion) a very crucial part of tanking since it reliably applies the Crusher debuff twice for only around 3k Magicka. Although I don't recommend it, you can tank veteran dungeons with a two-hander on your back bar, but it is not optimal -- it doesn't provide nearly as much utility as Destruction Staff with Elemental Blockade or even Bow with Endless Hail.

MashmalloMan

@Vermethys How do you handle stamina sustain while blocking as a Nord for example?

Vermethys

Marshall1289 wrote: »

@Vermethys How do you handle stamina sustain while blocking as a Nord for example?

Good question. For fights that are block intensive like the Earthgore Amalgam in vBF, I'd replace Necrotic Potency with Mortal Coil and use it on the corpses left behind by Summoner's Armor and Spirit Guardian. I feel that this ability could do with a slight buff, but it definitely helps your stamina sustain while blocking (about 240 stamina returned per second).

Of course, if you find that you really need the stamina sustain during a fight, activate all synergies (Conduit, Purify, Shackle, etc.) as soon as you can and ignore your uptime of Alkosh. Each synergy should restore about 1k stamina if you have taken the Undaunted Command passive.

Other options include using more Infused traits on your rings instead of Healthy and using the Shield Wall ultimate on cooldown.

I hope that answers your question

Iskiab

Vermethys wrote: »

show previous quotes

Iskiab wrote: »

I have a question about tanking on a necro. I’m using a 2 hander on my back bar because I leveled it in pvp. Is back bar destro staff required if you use boneyard or one of the other aoe abilities? I’m only planning on tanking vets including DLC, currrently using plague doctor and ebon.

Destruction staff on the back bar is not required for using any AoE abilities other than Elemental Blockade, which is (in my opinion) a very crucial part of tanking since it reliably applies the Crusher debuff twice for only around 3k Magicka. Although I don't recommend it, you can tank veteran dungeons with a two-hander on your back bar, but it is not optimal -- it doesn't provide nearly as much utility as Destruction Staff with Elemental Blockade or even Bow with Endless Hail.

Sorry, I’m a pve tank noobie so just a couple of follow up questions.
1. Can’t the magicka based ground effects apply crusher, or just not as well?
2. When you say apply crusher twice. is crusher a stackable effect?

BejaProphet

No, he means that when the crusher effect runs out, wall of elements will still be running and therefore will refresh the crusher without you needing to reapply. It will continue to reapply the crusher buff on cool down as long as the ground aoe is there.

Donny_Vito

The only issue with Wall of Elements is that you can't control which target gets the crusher debuff. When you're face-tanking a boss, this isn't much of an issue. When there are other adds in the area around the boss, you run the chance that the boss won't get the debuff. I believe this is why you are seeing more tanks using Bow now....with Endless Hail it'll do more damage as well as the debuff will happen toward the center of the AOE and therefore you have more control on what gets the crusher debuff. Just some thoughts.

jypcy

Iskiab wrote: »

show previous quotes

Vermethys wrote: »

Iskiab wrote: »

I have a question about tanking on a necro. I’m using a 2 hander on my back bar because I leveled it in pvp. Is back bar destro staff required if you use boneyard or one of the other aoe abilities? I’m only planning on tanking vets including DLC, currrently using plague doctor and ebon.

Destruction staff on the back bar is not required for using any AoE abilities other than Elemental Blockade, which is (in my opinion) a very crucial part of tanking since it reliably applies the Crusher debuff twice for only around 3k Magicka. Although I don't recommend it, you can tank veteran dungeons with a two-hander on your back bar, but it is not optimal -- it doesn't provide nearly as much utility as Destruction Staff with Elemental Blockade or even Bow with Endless Hail.

Sorry, I’m a pve tank noobie so just a couple of follow up questions.
1. Can’t the magicka based ground effects apply crusher, or just not as well?
2. When you say apply crusher twice. is crusher a stackable effect?

Weapon enchants are applied only through damage done with a weapon attack or a non-ST-DoT weapon skill afaik (e.g., force pulse, a ST non-DoT skill, and blockade of elements, a non-ST DoT skill, can both apply crusher if it’s not on cooldown. Destructive reach’s initial hit can as well I believe, but the ST DoT it leaves behind cannot).

As for the “twice” comment, basically this:

BejaProphet wrote: »

No, he means that when the crusher effect runs out, wall of elements will still be running and therefore will refresh the crusher without you needing to reapply. It will continue to reapply the crusher buff on cool down as long as the ground aoe is there.

But with the implicit expectation that you’re running an infused weapon, both for the increased potency for crusher and to ensure that it can proc on cooldown. Otherwise, blockade will proc crusher once but the crusher effect would still be on cooldown before that same cast of blockade could proc it again.

Lightspeedflashb14_ESO

Thanks for the post but your bars have me confused.

Mortal coil and necrotic potency have passive effects when on your 3% healing done and 3% damage reduction, front baring these makes the most sense. And mortal coil is the only way to get Stam back while blocking, so you need it.

Then there is the fact you have a the armor buff front bar. 17 second is fine for a back bar skill. Then there is the morph you have, while yes it will save you magic, the other morph will save you stamina, which is more important to a tank? Up to you.

I also like the ravenous Goliath on my front bar, as it is a great oh crap ulti and will keep you alive enough to res everyone. And gives you more healing received, makes you easier to keep up for the healer and your own heals better.

I also don't keep the range taunt on my bar, unless a boss fight needs it.

I wish hungry scythe healed for something without a Target as well. a few times now I have died because I don't have a Target and need a burst heal without a healer. Not much else to slot but that skill so.


also, i wish that the Agony Totem had a corpse mechanic, the other 2 ground aoes that necros have do, Boneyard does more damage and Life amid Death heals for more, maybe have it give wither minor or major vitality for the duration or have it double in length? something would be nice.

Vermethys

@Lightspeedflashb14_ESO Thanks for the feedback! I personally prefer having the Spirit Guardian on the front because I value the Near-Death Experience passive more than 3% healing received or 3% damage reduction (there's already plenty of damage reduction from Minor Protection and the Spirit Guardian in my opinion). I found Mortal Coil and Necrotic Potency to be interchangeable abilities, as in I didn't feel the need to have both at the same time -- Necrotic Potency for trash packs and Mortal Coil for bosses. I'd say the Death Gleaning passive handles your stamina well during trash fights, so you don't always need to slot Mortal Coil.

The placement of the armor buff is purely dependent on the player. I prefer having it on the front in case it ever runs out during parts of a fight when I can't swap to my back-bar (or when it's risky to swap) -- like when getting Voltaic Overload in vCR or while blocking the Vault Protector's spin attack in vFV. In general, I prefer keeping my important self buffs on my front (S&B) bar. Regarding the morph, I feel that Beckoning Armor's morph effect has no value in most boss fights. Whereas Summoner's Armor helps your magicka sustain by a bit and can make it slightly easier to keep up your buffs or get a few more hits with Hungry Scythe when things get messy. I can see Beckoning Armor being incredibly useful in vBRP.

mocap

tank without strong self-heal without target, without mambo-jambo dancing around ("do this, do that, and then do a bit more... to heal yourself for amazing 2000 health!") - is a very healer dependend tank.

A real tank is when you just press a button and restore 20k+ health.

Vermethys

@mocap Hungry Scythe should be a self-heal without a target, I agree with you. It could then be amplified for each target hit. But how often do you need a 15k-20k burst heal when you aren't within 7 meters of a boss or mob? In dungeons, the only fight that comes to mind is Thurvokun in vFL, when you are kiting the scarabs or running to the yellow shield-wall, but that is just about it. Even so, Necromancer has plenty of damage reduction compared to other tanks.

Besides, the only tanks to have a single-button 20k burst heal are DK and Sorc. A Warden tank's self-healing is not stronger than Necromancer and is harder to sustain, yet it's widely considered one of the better tanking classes.

mocap

Vermethys wrote: »

But how often do you need a 15k-20k burst heal when you aren't within 7 meters of a boss or mob?

everytime healer is bad or don't have burst heal
everytime healer is out of range
everytime healer is down
everytime 3 dd run

Vermethys

07/09/19: Updated for the Scalebreaker patch