I've never mained a necromancer in any game. Thematically they don't appeal.

I tried a necro on the PTS running around in Elsweyr but wasn't impressed. Wrote them off. Then I decided to take one into a public dungeon and suddenly I got them and have been enjoying them. A lot. Taking the time to write this - because I need to say thank you - before heading back to necro'ing my butt off. I've been playing the game on and off since launch. Waiting for spellcrafting, probably forever now. Wanting warden but not loving what was delivered; visually they're great but mag warden is super boring. Keeping a toe in and spending money but not really loving it.

Now I'm going to play ESO seriously and feel much better about all of the money I've spent on it.

Necromancy delivers a versatile magicka class packed to the gills with options. Unlike mag warden where they have a small number of key abilities and lots of gimmicky almost never actually useful ones. Every single necro ability has real value. I can see myself struggling to grow bored with necro combat because there are so many different ways I could play them. Especially the 1001 uses for a corpse. It's less and different than the long promised spellcrafting but for me it feels like a partial delivery.

For the first time ever I'm actually torn about morphs. Putting aside the stamina ones, for nearly every ability I can see both as potentially useful and wish I could have them both.

As someone who usually plays healers I'm especially grateful. With wardens 90% of their healing goodness is in a single ability - Budding Seeds. But all of the necro ones are great. Ranged single target heal for emegencies? Yes. Have used it many times to say a player's butt. They're all really useful. One time there was a player who needed healing but kept running out of my Enduring Undeath fields. Possibly because they look freaking scary instead of packed full of healing goodness. But they're all functional and things I want to use. I'm actually keen to start running dungeons. As a healer.

I won't do a blow by blow for every ability, but I'll mention a few.

I've seen a lot of complaints about both Blast Bones and Shocking Siphon but I'm madly in love with them. Siphon is particularly cool. Can be super tricky sometimes to get max value out of it but in those cases you maybe just don't use it. It's especially brilliant when other players recognise its value and draw mobs into it. That's the kind of organic combat interaction which beats the *** out of press-x-when-your-screen-tells-you-to synergies. And suddenly stam abilities I've never even bothered learning like Silver Leash, Lightweight Beast Trap, Critical Charge and Shield Charge now potentially have use.

BB can get a corpse to a distant mob. You have to wait for that. And sometimes with lots of corpses it can be tricky targeting the one you want. But for me its worth at least trying. And huge plus - variety. You're not just moving out of red circles while repeating a pre-optimised order of key presses to maximise DPS. Max DPS becomes fluid and dynamic. Something which requires you to think on your feet. Love that. So much!

Plus if you don't like or don't feel like using Siphon there are multiple other uses for corpses. Braided Tether is brilliant. Positioning - unless you're specifically targeting a distant tank - is less finicky. You can just suck any old corpse and you can become an aoe HoT. Awesome. If you feel like not bothering with all the corpse business you can just Necrotic Potency them all for extra ultimate. And there's so many ways to make a corpse. Blast Bones. Resummon a pet if it's past its half way mark. Kill something quickly - eg. burn it down with Flame Skull.

I'm actually going to do what I had originally intended to do with wardens - play the game from the beginning in order. So I have to delay playing Elsweyr which also looks great. Especially architecturally, which for me has been a big disappointment. I love bosmer pods, but not the built in bones - though now I've gone necro happy maybe those aren't so bad. Telvanni tumor towers were a huge letdown. In the single player games their mushroom towers are an all time fave. Though again having gone necro happy, a tower with flesh atronach skin might fit. And Summerset was too... pointy. Doesn't look elven to me. Auridon style is way better.

Elsweyr style - so awesome. Gorgeous. Want it. And this time you've generously given all owners a free manor just for buying the game. Which so far I've loved the look of. Very eager to see it all. Sadly I'm expecting Jode's Embrace to have a ridiculous price tag because that's what ZO does. So I don't know if I will buy it, but I will seriously think about it and even if I pass initially it's something I might hope to go on sale eventually. Meanwhile I'd still have my lunar champion hall.

Apologies in advance if I don't or am very slow responding to comments. I have to go do unspeakable things with corpses!