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Necromancer: No Minions, Just Bounties—ESO’s Most Wanted Class

Madara90
Madara90
Soul Shriven
Ah yes, the Necromancer. Master of the undead. Conjurer of horrors. Summoner of… wait, one skeleton? And he’s on a union break every 20 seconds?
As someone who was genuinely excited to play a true Necromancer, I have to say—this class is a massive letdown for anyone expecting the undead summoner fantasy. When I picked this class, I had dreams of commanding an unstoppable army of the undead — legions of skeletons, zombies, maybe even a bone dragon and other undead creatures,Instead? I get... one skeleton archer who dies before even reaching the battlefield. and on top of that i get bounty for summoning him.
the Sorcerer is walking around with permanent daedric monstrosities, the Warden has loyal animal sidekicks,meanwhile I’m over here summoning the same skeleton over and over again...
And can we talk about the obsession with corpses, why does Half the abilities require a corpse? Do I need to carry a backpack full of extra bodies just in case?
Overall, the Necromancer in ESO doesn’t feel like a true summoner or master of death—it’s more like a clunky gimmick class with severe restrictions and flavor that doesn’t translate well into gameplay. even the npcs necromancers are better than the class iteself. this need an overhaul rework.
Edited by Madara90 on May 4, 2025 6:00PM
  • Cooperharley
    Cooperharley
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    ZOS wouldn’t be able to pull off an ARPG-esque necromancer for performance reasons, but I wish man
    PS5-NA. For The Queen!
  • StarOfElyon
    StarOfElyon
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    How many years will our cries for Necromancer changes fall on deaf ears?
    This is an updated version of my Necro ideas thread from 2023 (https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/633137/suggestions-for-necromancer-changes) with adjustments accounting for the Update 43 patch notes.

    Death Scythe: (both morphs)
    Deals more damage based on the enemy's missing health.
    - Hungry Scythe: should also apply life steal to all enemies hit, in addition to healing the caster over time.

    Shocking Siphon: The AOE should remain on the ground even if the tether breaks early. (Increase the radius size too)
    - Mystic Siphon: the increased Health, Magicka, and Stamina Recovery persists even if the tether breaks early.

    Flame Skull:
    - Riccochet Skull/Venom Skull:
    applies burning/poisoned status effects. (Increase travel speed)

    Bone Totem: summons an effigy of bones up to 28 meters away. After 1 second, the totem begins fearing nearby enemies every 2 seconds, causing them to cower in place for 4 seconds. (Changed to allow both morphs to be targeted)

    Restoring Tether: the effects persist on the player character even if the tether breaks early.

    Grave Grasp:
    - Empowering Grasp: Summon three patches of skeletal claws from the ground in front of you dealing 898 frost damage. Enemies in the first area are stunned for 3 seconds, immobilized in the second area for 4 seconds, and snared in the final area by 50% for 5 seconds. Each patch applies Minor Maim to enemies hit for 10 seconds, reducing their damage done by 5%. Each area applies Minor Maim to enemies, Empower to your allies, and enhances the damage and healing of your summons by 1000. Each effect lasts 10 seconds.

    - Ghostly Embrace: Summon three patches of skeletal claws from the ground in front of you, dealing 1742 Frost Damage and an additional 1635 Frost Damage over 5 seconds. The initial hit applies the Chilled status effect. The final area creates a corpse if at least one enemy was hit.

    Expunge: reduces the cost of all your abilities by 3% while slotted on either bar.

    Bitter Harvest: when slotted on either bar, reduces your damage taken by 3%.

    Boneyard increase the radius to 8 meters.

    PASSIVES:
    Corpse Consumption: When you consume a corpse, you generate 10 Ultimate. This effect can occur once every 16 seconds. You also gain Major Savagery and Prophecy for 20 seconds, increasing your Weapon and Spell Critical rating by 2629.

    Undead Confederate: While you have a Sacrificial Bones, Skeletal Mage, or Spirit Mender active, your Health, Magicka, and Stamina Recovery is increased by 200. You also gain Major Brutality and Sorcery for 20 seconds, increasing your Weapon and Spell Damage by 20%.

    ULTIMATES:
    Frozen Colossus: Unleash a decayed Flesh Colossus to pulverize enemies in the area. The Colossus smashes the ground three times over 3 seconds. Dealing damage applies Major Vulnerability to any enemy hit for 12 seconds.
    - Glacial Colossus: does frost damage and stuns enemies on the second hit instead of the third.
    - Pestilent Colossus: smashes the ground only once and does disease damage. Afflicts enemies with a pestilence that does damage over time.
    Edited by StarOfElyon on April 29, 2025 10:45AM
  • Madara90
    Madara90
    Soul Shriven
    ZOS wouldn’t be able to pull off an ARPG-esque necromancer for performance reasons, but I wish man


    the issue isn’t performance, it’s design choice.
    ZOS already allows:
    Sorcerers to run around with 2 permanent pets,Wardens to have animal companions,Companion NPCs that follow players everywhere,
    Massive open-world fights with 50+ players all spamming particle-heavy abilities in Cyrodiil or trials.
    If performance was truly the limiting factor, those systems wouldn’t exist — or they’d be way more restricted.
    Also, let’s not forget:
    NPC Necromancers already summon multiple undead at once, often with better visuals and functionality than the player version. So clearly, the game engine can handle it.
    Other games like WoW, Guild Wars 2, Grim dawn and Diablo have figured out how to support full-blown pet armies without turning into slideshows.
    If performance was the real blocker, we wouldn't be seeing skeletons all over the battlefield already — just not under our control.
    At the end of the day, it’s not a performance issue — it’s a design choice. ZOS went for a dump corpse-based playstyle instead of fulfilling the classic summoner fantasy.
  • Cooperharley
    Cooperharley
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    Madara90 wrote: »
    ZOS wouldn’t be able to pull off an ARPG-esque necromancer for performance reasons, but I wish man


    the issue isn’t performance, it’s design choice.
    ZOS already allows:
    Sorcerers to run around with 2 permanent pets,Wardens to have animal companions,Companion NPCs that follow players everywhere,
    Massive open-world fights with 50+ players all spamming particle-heavy abilities in Cyrodiil or trials.
    If performance was truly the limiting factor, those systems wouldn’t exist — or they’d be way more restricted.
    Also, let’s not forget:
    NPC Necromancers already summon multiple undead at once, often with better visuals and functionality than the player version. So clearly, the game engine can handle it.
    Other games like WoW, Guild Wars 2, Grim dawn and Diablo have figured out how to support full-blown pet armies without turning into slideshows.
    If performance was the real blocker, we wouldn't be seeing skeletons all over the battlefield already — just not under our control.
    At the end of the day, it’s not a performance issue — it’s a design choice. ZOS went for a dump corpse-based playstyle instead of fulfilling the classic summoner fantasy.

    Listen man I'm all for it lol, but ZOS almost never does stuff like this that the playerbase asks for. Usually they do the opposite or they take an egregiously long time to do it. History is evidence of this. I'd love to be proven wrong and I love the game, but we've gotten less and less quality content over time, not more.

    Im praying they do something like this, but with their recent work with blastbones, I wouldn't hold your breath, because they clearly have a WAY different vision for necro than 99% of players do plain and simple
    PS5-NA. For The Queen!
  • randconfig
    randconfig
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    ZOS wouldn’t be able to pull off an ARPG-esque necromancer for performance reasons, but I wish man

    I'd rather just have permanent pets and remove the corpse mechanic lol.

    Blastbones deals melee damage attacks, but can be detonated by activating the ability again. Skeletal Archer could do a volley of arrows when activated, and the skeletal mage could channel an aoe lightning attack or something...

    Would also be interesting if the skeleton summon's base ability was a knight skeleton, and the additional morphs were optional to make it a mage or archer skeleton.

    I'm pretty doomer now after the changes to corpses on PTS, so anything to just completely remove that system from the game would be better imo...
  • sans-culottes
    sans-culottes
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    ZOS wouldn’t be able to pull off an ARPG-esque necromancer for performance reasons, but I wish man

    They could always try for an MMORPG-style Necromancer.
  • Sabre
    Sabre
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    Can't disagree with the initial post. Wow had real pets in the world since 2004. The classes in ESO are just gimmicks...they give you a little sliver of what one would hope an actual class or type might be...but never any real thing. Without schools of magicka with progressive power spells choices, amount of followers (or a cursing Necro) are just just what was said. Rather than introducing a scythe as a weapon choice for all...it is a class skill. Imagine if there were 8-10 schools of magicka with progressive spell choice trees, combined effects etc etc. - and the classes didn't have the magicka/stamina versions of skills etc. Where there was also a martial skills tree...etc etc. More complexity - WIS, INT, DEX, etc...like in old ES games. More variables would exist for class sets, armor...etc etc.

    One thing that might be interesting is if more magicka staves were introduced that had things such as pet summoning etc. etc.
    Edited by Sabre on May 21, 2025 8:40PM
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