ESO Necromancer Tank Guide
Table of Contents
ESO Necromancer Tank Introduction
Welcome to our ESO Necromancer Tank Guide. On this page we’ll be taking a deep dive into everything you need to know about the Necromancer Tank, everything about the skills, passives, strengths and weaknesses.
The Necromancer Tank is a popular choice for Off Tanking in Trials due to their super strong group utility ultimate, and their ability to generate ultimate back very quickly.
See more: Tank Class Overviews, Skills, Passives & Information
ESO Necromancer Tank Skills and Passives
Grave Lord
Bone Tyrant
Living Death
ESO Necromancer Tank Overview
In the current game the Necromancer provides virtually no unique group buffs or benefits anymore. Major Vulnerability from Colossus can be replaced now with Turning Tide or Archdruid Devyric since they provide a much more sustainable and higher uptime. The recent change to the Empower buff also made Empowering Grasp something that you no longer need. And other benefits such as Minor Protection and Minor Vulnerability can be obtained in alternative ways.
Necromancer Tanks while not offering as much group utility as they did previously are still incredibly good at generating Ultimate which now is probably one of their biggest strengths. The Necrotic Potency skill means Necro Tanks can build their Ultimate incredibly quickly and this is a factor to consider in a wide range of situations.
A Necro being able to create their own corpses with skills such as Blastbones, Skeletal Mage, Beckoning Armor and Spirit Guardian means even when in combat situations like boss fights where there are no corpses for long periods of time, a Necro can make their own and build large amounts of Ultimate on the back off their own skills.
Necromancer Tanks have two good class-based Ultimate’s with Frozen Colossus and Renewing Animation. Colossus provides Major Vulnerability, which was once a Class buff, but is now easily obtainable from other sources such as Turning Tide and Archdruid Devyric gear sets. Some groups might not use these sets however and then suddenly there is a requirement to have 3 Necromancers in a 12-person Trial group. If those sets are being used, then this Ultimate is not really needed anymore.
Renewing Animation is a great help in progression groups because sometimes it just means you don’t have to wipe a fight and start again; you can resurrect 3 people and potentially continue. This works especially good when doing random groups for dungeons or beginner Trials.
- Other groups buffs that you can provide with a Necromancer Tank include Area of Effect Minor Vulnerability which means that enemies take 5% increased damage, this can be achieved in many other ways in the game also. Using the same skill you get AoE Minor Protection for your group.
- As a Necro you can also supply your group with Empower via Empowering Grasp, but this is no longer as strong since it buffs Heavy Attacks by 80% rather than Light Attacks meaning the Necro Tank has lost a really big part of its usefulness in group content. The only time people Heavy attack is when using Oakensoul and Empower is already included with that.
When it comes to healing, the Necromancer Tank has a decent self-heal. Scythe heals based on enemies hit meaning the more enemies hit, the bigger the heal. This can be a big problem also when you are 1vs1 with a boss and it moves such as in Cloudrest, during the transitions you have no way to heal effectively. There is a heal over time with the Spirit Mender but again it’s unreliable due to the fact it can heal someone else and not you, and you get a free heal from Necrotic Potency.
Mitigation is a very strong part of Necro. You have access to the Spirit Guardian which absorbs 10% of your incoming damage and it has 30k health, this means when you receive 300k damage, 10% can be transferred to the Spirit Guardian. There is also the Disdain Harm passive which reduces your damage take from damage over time skills and a lot of the newer content is very dot heavy so reducing that by 15% is so helpful in some of the really difficult Hardmode Trials and Dungeons where incoming damage is extremely high especially from DoTs. This is one of the main reasons why Necromancer Tanks are still used for trials due to their unmatched mitigation to DoT damage.
Sustain has improved for Necro Tanks but is still not as good compared to every other Class. You have Mortal Coil which will supply you with a small number of resources every 2 seconds but that’s more or less it’s only function, so it takes up a valuable skill slot for a tiny amount of resource gain when compared to something like the Templar which has Restoring Focus which offers large amounts of healing, Major Resolve and resources every second, it’s seeming a waste to even slot it. The Death Gleaning passive is also useful but only really effective on add pulls.
ESO Necromancer Tank Strengths, Weaknesses & Group Buffs
Strengths
- Strong DPS buff if group isn’t using Major Vulnerability sets.
- Good DoT mitigation with Guardian and Disdain Passive.
- Great Ultimate regeneration with Necrotic Potency.
- Unmatched fight recovery with Reanimate if group members die.
Weaknesses
- No unique group buffs that are supplied only by a Necromancer.
- Difficult to sustain Stamina especially for beginners.
- Self-healing can be difficult in transitional fights.
Group Buffs
- Colossus – Major Vulnerability
- Empowering Grasp – Empower
- Agony Totem – AoE Minor Vulnerability, Minor Protection & Group Synergy
- Unnerving Boneyard – AoE Major Breach & Group Synergy
- Ruinous Scythe – Off Balance
- Reanimate – Resurrect 3 allies
ESO Necromancer Tank Conclusion
The Necromancer Tank was once the most requested Off Tank for trial content.
They are no longer used because they offer value to a group, they are used more so because of how good they are in the newest Trial content. This comes down purely to DoT damage mitigation and Ultimate regeneration.
From a beginner point of view, it’s harder to play compared to most other Classes for sustain and healing reasons, but they can be a lot of fun to play.