NECROMANCER HEALER BUILD

Writer: @xGAMxHQ
Role: PVE Healer
Patch: Update 44

The Undeath Necromancer Healer Build for ESO (The Elder Scrolls Online) is optimized for all players looking for the ultimate build guide on setups for Trials, Dungeons, and Arenas, whether you’re a beginner, a long-time veteran, or just returning to the game.

As the Healer role in ESO, not only are you responsible for healing the group with Area of Effect (AOE) and Healing over Time (HOT) abilities, but you are also responsible for self-sustaining, providing your group with multiple forms of Magicka and Stamina sustain, and maintaining group buffs and enemy debuffs by using your various armor sets, skills, and Ultimate abilities.

The Necromancer Healer has a dedicated healing skill line, is beginner-friendly, and is quite beneficial to have in progression groups. They revolve around creating and consuming corpses while in combat, and if you choose to put in some extra time, you will notice that you can use corpses in several beneficial ways, including improving the strength of your healing abilities and maximizing the rate at which you can generate Ultimate.

Necromancers have three unique skill lines that each provide strong skills and passives to help make the Undeath build perform its best:

The Bone Tyrant skill line focuses on defensive abilities. While Necrotic Potency doesn’t offer any strong defensive benefits at all times, it is your primary way of consuming corpses, allowing you to build Ultimate incredibly quickly. Some Necromancer skills create corpses for you when their duration runs out or are recast early.

The Grave Lord skill line focuses on offensive abilities. Glacial Colossus is your primary Ultimate ability and provides a debuff that no other class skill does. It applies the Major Vulnerability debuff to enemies in a large area, increasing their damage taken by 10%.

The Living Death skill line focuses on healing abilities. Intensive Mender provides strong healing to the lowest Health group member but is primarily used to generate corpses for you to use in combat. This allows you to easily take advantage of the Corpse Consumption passive, even in fights that have minimal add spawns, to grant yourself an additional 10 Ultimate when you consume a corpse every 16 seconds.

The Necromancer Healer Build covers everything you need to know, including recommended armor setups, skills, champion points, and many alternatives to meet various needs. Please read the entire build and bookmark the page, as it will update with each new patch.

RECENT UPDATES

NOVEMBER 13 / 2024: – UPDATE 44
• Necromancer Healer Build 2.0 Released – Almost every aspect of this build has been updated and tweaked in some way from U39 to U44.
• Added a Scribing Options section.

RACE

HIGH ELF

BRETON

ARGONIAN

High Elves offer strong raw healing power and an easy way to restore Magicka, only requiring you to cast an ability to take advantage of the passive. They also increase your Maximum Magicka by 2,000 and Weapon and Spell Damage by 258.

Bretons provide the best Magicka sustain. They increase your Maximum Magicka by 2000, Magicka Recovery by 130, and reduce the cost of your Magicka abilities by 7%. Additionally, Bretons improve your survivability by granting 2310 Spell Resistance that doubles if you’re afflicted with Burning, Chilled, or Concussed.

Argonians are an excellent choice for beginners who may want additional help with self-sustain, as they provide a more burst-oriented method of sustaining all resources. They also increase your Maximum Health, Maximum Magicka, and Maximum Stamina by 1,000, and your healing done by 6%.

Though, all races are capable of Healing, the Necromancer Healer Build utilizes the High Elf racial passives for the increased Weapon and Spell Damage, Maximum Magicka, and ability to sustain Magicka more easily. Choose a race that best suits your needs.

ATTRIBUTE POINTS

MAGICKA

HEALTH

STAMINA

All Attribute Points are distributed into Magicka regardless of your choice of race and armor setup, as Maximum Health is not critical to the Necromancer Healer build. As a Healer, you will primarily use Magicka to maintain your and your group’s Health sustain.

You should aim to have a Maximum Magicka value that exceeds your Maximum Stamina value. Doing so ensures that you always restore Magicka when you activate the Luminous Shards or Energy Orb synergy provided by another Healer.

TRIAL SETUPS

Below are two Trial Setups for the Necromancer Healer Build, each optimized for their respective role in Trial content. The Perfected versions of the Trial sets give additional stat boosts for wearing all five pieces, but they do not make or break the build.

The Group Healer often follows the group and is responsible for maintaining a consistent uptime of the Spell Power Cure set by overhealing them and proving Ultimate generation to the group with Pillager’s Profit.

The Off-Healer (also called the Kite Healer) is responsible for taking care of any out-of-group mechanics and taking mechanics that follow the farthest group member away from the group entirely. The Off-Healer doesn’t typically have much flexibility with item sets as Jorvuld’s Guidance is rarely equipped without Roaring Opportunist and vice-versa.

GROUP HEALER SETUP

	SET NAME	TRAIT	ENCHANTMENT	WEIGHT/TYPE	ACQUIRED
HEAD	Ozezan the Inferno	Divines	Maximum Magicka	Medium	Veteran Scrivener’s Hall
SHOULDERS	Ozezan the Inferno	Divines	Maximum Magicka	Light	Undaunted Enclave
CHEST	Spell Power Cure	Divines	Maximum Magicka	Light	White-Gold Tower
HANDS	(Perfected) Pillager’s Profit	Divines	Maximum Magicka	Light	(Veteran) Dreadsail Reef
WAIST	(Perfected) Pillager’s Profit	Divines	Maximum Magicka	Light	(Veteran) Dreadsail Reef
LEGS	Spell Power Cure	Divines	Maximum Magicka	Light	White-Gold Tower
FEET	Spell Power Cure	Divines	Maximum Magicka	Light	White-Gold Tower
NECKLACE	Pearls of Ehlnofey	Infused	Magical Harm	Jewelry	Scrying
RING	(Perfected) Pillager’s Profit	Infused	Magicka Recovery	Jewelry	(Veteran) Dreadsail Reef
RING	(Perfected) Pillager’s Profit	Infused	Magicka Recovery	Jewelry	(Veteran) Dreadsail Reef
FRONT BAR	Spell Power Cure	Decisive	Weapon/Spell Damage	Restoration Staff	White-Gold Tower
BACK BAR	(Perfected) Pillager’s Profit	Infused	Weaken	Ice Staff	(Veteran) Dreadsail Reef

Ozezan the Inferno increases your group’s healing received when they are not overhealed by your healing abilities. When your healing abilities overheal your group members, they have their Armor stat increased.

Spell Power Cure requires that you only overheal your group members to apply the Major Courage buff, increasing Weapon and Spell Damage by 430.

Pillager’s Profit allows you to increase your group’s Ultimate regeneration when you cast your Ultimate ability, improving group damage. Because this set caps the amount of Ultimate you can share at 20 per tick, it’s best to cast an Ultimate no later than a maximum of 400 Ultimate.
• Alternative: Saxhleel Champion allows you to grant the Major Force buff when you cast any Ultimate ability, but it is primarily used to further increase the uptime of the Major Force buff while using Aggressive Horn.

OFF-HEALER SETUP

	SET NAME	TRAIT	ENCHANTMENT	WEIGHT/TYPE	ACQUIRED
HEAD	Symphony of Blades	Divines	Maximum Magicka	Medium	Veteran Depths of Malatar
SHOULDERS	Symphony of Blades	Divines	Maximum Magicka	Light	Undaunted Enclave
CHEST	Jorvuld’s Guidance	Divines	Maximum Magicka	Light	Scalecaller Peak
HANDS	Jorvuld’s Guidance	Divines	Maximum Magicka	Light	Scalecaller Peak
WAIST	Jorvuld’s Guidance	Divines	Maximum Magicka	Light	Scalecaller Peak
LEGS	Jorvuld’s Guidance	Divines	Maximum Magicka	Light	Scalecaller Peak
FEET	Jorvuld’s Guidance	Divines	Maximum Magicka	Light	Scalecaller Peak
NECKLACE	(Perfected) Roaring Opportunist	Infused	Magical Harm	Jewelry	(Veteran) Kyne’s Aegis
RING	(Perfected) Roaring Opportunist	Infused	Magicka Recovery	Jewelry	(Veteran) Kyne’s Aegis
RING	(Perfected) Roaring Opportunist	Infused	Magicka Recovery	Jewelry	(Veteran) Kyne’s Aegis
FRONT BAR	(Perfected) Grand Rejuvenation	Decisive	Weapon/Spell Damage	Restoration Staff	(Veteran) Dragonstar Arena
BACK BAR	(Perfected) Roaring Opportunist	Infused	Weaken	Ice Staff	(Veteran) Kyne’s Aegis

Symphony of Blades significantly improves group sustain by targeting each group member independently and restoring resources rather than increasing the recovery stat, meaning Tanks can restore Stamina even while blocking.
• Alternative: The Blind is an incredible Monster Set if your group already has no issues with sustain. It grants a damage shield for 6 seconds every 6 seconds that grants the Minor Force buff while it holds and for 3 seconds after it breaks.

Jorvuld’s Guidance provides great self-sustain and increases the duration of all Major and Minor buffs, including the Major Mending buff granted by the Essence Drain passive from the Restoration Staff skill line, increasing your healing done by 16%. Jorvuld’s Guidance is primarily equipped to increase the maximum duration of the Major Slayer buff granted by Roaring Opportunist from 12 seconds to 16.8 seconds.

Roaring Opportunist allows you to grant the Major Slayer buff to all group members by simply heavy attacking, increasing damage done to Dungeon, Trial, and Arena Monsters by 10%. While in a Trial, you must heavy attack twice for it to apply to all group members.

Grand Rejuvenation improves group sustain, restoring Magicka and Stamina every 2 seconds for 6 seconds to all group members hit by the initial heal. Equip a Restoration Staff of the Powerful Assault if you don’t have this arena set yet or wish to slot Echoing Vigor on the front bar.

INTERMEDIATE SETUP

The Intermediate Setup for the Necromancer Healer Build is optimized for Healers that may not be ready for Trial content but want to replace crafted sets. Many Dungeon and Overland sets are easy to collect while effective in early to mid-game content.

If you have a surplus of Transmute Crystals and think you will be using this setup for a while, you could Transmute your jewelry from Robust to Infused.

	SET NAME	TRAIT	ENCHANTMENT	WEIGHT/TYPE	ACQUIRED
HEAD	Sentinel of Rkugamz	Divines	Maximum Magicka	Medium	Veteran Darkshade Caverns I
SHOULDERS	Sentinel of Rkugamz	Divines	Maximum Magicka	Light	Undaunted Enclave
CHEST	Spell Power Cure	Divines	Maximum Magicka	Light	White-Gold Tower
HANDS	Spell Power Cure	Divines	Maximum Magicka	Light	White-Gold Tower
WAIST	Spell Power Cure	Divines	Maximum Magicka	Light	White-Gold Tower
LEGS	Spell Power Cure	Divines	Maximum Magicka	Light	White-Gold Tower
FEET	Spell Power Cure	Divines	Maximum Magicka	Light	White-Gold Tower
NECKLACE	Powerful Assault	Robust/Infused	Magical Harm	Jewelry	Imperial Sewers or Guild Stores
RING	Powerful Assault	Robust/Infused	Magicka Recovery	Jewelry	Imperial Sewers or Guild Stores
RING	Powerful Assault	Robust/Infused	Magicka Recovery	Jewelry	Imperial Sewers or Guild Stores
FRONT BAR	Powerful Assault	Decisive	Weapon/Spell Damage	Restoration Staff	Imperial Sewers or Guild Stores
BACK BAR	Powerful Assault	Infused	Weaken	Ice Staff	Imperial Sewers or Guild Stores

Sentinel of Rkugamz is an excellent beginner Healer monster set. This set heals and restores Magicka and Stamina to your allies, meaning blocking Tanks will still benefit from the Stamina granted.

Spell Power Cure is easy to farm for beginner Healers while also being one of the best Healer sets in end-game content. It requires that you only overheal your group members to apply the Major Courage buff, increasing Weapon and Spell Damage by 430.

Powerful Assault increases the group’s Weapon and Spell Damage by 307, improving overall group damage and healing. Powerful Assault requires you to cast an ability from the Assault skill line to trigger it. Healers commonly use Echoing Vigor because it’s a strong HOT with a large radius and low cost.

BEGINNER SETUP

Your options for beginner gear are typically limited to crafted sets or something cheap in guild stores. The Beginner Setup for the Necromancer Healer Build includes only crafted sets and is optimized for freshly created characters and CP160 Healers looking for an excellent build to start farming more challenging content.

	SET NAME	TRAIT	ENCHANTMENT	WEIGHT/TYPE	ACQUIRED
HEAD	Druid’s Braid	Divines	Maximum Magicka	Medium	Crafted
SHOULDERS	Druid’s Braid	Divines	Maximum Magicka	Heavy	Crafted
CHEST	Law of Julianos	Divines	Maximum Magicka	Light	Crafted
HANDS	Law of Julianos	Divines	Maximum Magicka	Light	Crafted
WAIST	Law of Julianos	Divines	Maximum Magicka	Light	Crafted
LEGS	Law of Julianos	Divines	Maximum Magicka	Light	Crafted
FEET	Law of Julianos	Divines	Maximum Magicka	Light	Crafted
NECKLACE	Armor of the Seducer	Infused	Magical Harm	Jewelry	Crafted
RING	Armor of the Seducer	Infused	Magicka Recovery	Jewelry	Crafted
RING	Armor of the Seducer	Infused	Magicka Recovery	Jewelry	Crafted
FRONT BAR	Armor of the Seducer	Decisive	Weapon/Spell Damage	Restoration Staff	Crafted
BACK BAR	Armor of the Seducer	Infused	Weaken	Ice Staff	Crafted

Druid’s Braid is equipped until you can obtain a suitable monster set to replace it. Some great beginner options are Sentinel of Rkugamz to increase group sustain and Nightflame to give the group an additional HOT effect.

Law of Julianos increases your core stats like Critical Chance and Spell Damage which increases the effectiveness of your healing abilities.

Armor of the Seducer significantly increases your Magicka sustain by granting Magicka Recovery and reducing the cost of your Magicka abilities.

While this configuration is not required, it will provide the most optimal progression path for a beginner Healer. After obtaining a crafted gear setup, you may begin farming the other setups.

SKILLS

FRONT BAR

Illustrious Healing (Morph of Grand Healing | Skill Line: Restoration Staff)

Combat Prayer (Morph of Blessing of Protection | Skill Line: Restoration Staff)

Overflowing Altar (Morph of Altar | Skill Line: Undaunted)

Radiating Regeneration (Morph of Regeneration | Skill Line: Restoration Staff)

Braided Tether (Morph of Restoring Tether | Skill Line: Living Death)

Ultimate: Replenishing Barrier (Morph of Barrier | Skill Line: Assault)

BACK BAR

Energy Orb (Morph of Necrotic Orb | Skill Line: Undaunted)

Elemental Blockade (Morph of Wall of Elements | Skill Line: Destruction Staff)

Intensive Mender (Morph of Spirit Mender | Skill Line: Living Death)

Agony Totem (Morph of Bone Totem | Skill Line: Bone Tyrant)

Echoing Vigor (Morph of Vigor | Skill Line: Assault)

Ultimate: Glacial Colossus (Morph of Frozen Colossus | Skill Line: Grave Lord)

SCRIBING OPTIONS

Soul Burst (Warding Burst | Skill Line: Soul Magic)
• Grants you and your allies within 8m of you a damage shield, Minor Courage, and heals you over 10 seconds. To scribe this skill, combine the following scripts:
• Focus Script: Damage Shield
• Signature Script: Sage’s Remedy
• Affix Script: Courage

Torchbearer (Heroic Torch | Skill Line: Fighters Guild)
• Each sweep of the torch generates 1 Ultimate to you and allies in front of you, reduces your damage taken by 17% for 2.2 seconds, and grants Minor Heroism for 20 seconds. Heroic Torch is an excellent option to help your group build Ultimate. To scribe this skill, combine the following scripts:
• Focus Script: Generate Ultimate
• Signature Script: Gladiator’s Tenacity
• Affix Script: Heroism

Ulfsild’s Contingency (Warding Contingency | Skill Line: Mages Guild)
• Grants you and your allies a large damage shield for 6 seconds and Minor Protection for 20 seconds. Warding Contingency is a must-have skill for all Healers. To scribe this skill, combine the following scripts:
• Focus Script: Damage Shield
• Signature Script: Growing Impact
• Affix Script: Protection

ALTERNATIVE SKILLS

AGGRESSIVE HORN

Skill Line: Assault
Base Skill: War Horn
Aggressive Horn can replace Glacial Colossus to increase the group’s uptime of the Major Force buff if you already have high uptime of Major Vulnerability.

RENEWING ANIMATION

Skill Line: Living Death
Base Skill: Reanimate
Renewing Animation can replace Replenishing Barrier if you can’t yet access that skill. It allows you to instantly resurrect three allies in combat, making it an excellent choice for progression groups.

BONE SURGE

Skill Line: Undaunted
Base Skill: Bone Shield
Bone Surge can replace Overflowing Altar or Agony Totem to provide a synergy to your allies that grants a damage shield and the Major Vitality buff when activated.

ENDURING UNDEATH

Skill Line: Living Death
Base Skill: Life amid Death
Enduring Undeath can replace Overflowing Altar or Radiating Regeneration for a unique AOE HOT effect that increases in duration with how many corpses are in the area, up to 5.

RACE AGAINST TIME

Skill Line: Psijic Order
Base Skill: Accelerate
Race Against Time can replace Overflowing Altar or Echoing Vigor when you need extra Movement Speed.

RESISTANT FLESH

Skill Line: Living Death
Base Skill: Render Flesh
Resistant Flesh can replace Overflowing Altar or Braided Tether for a strong, single-target burst heal that also grants the target Physical and Spell Resistance equal to half the amount healed for 3 seconds.

UNNERVING BONEYARD

Skill Line: Grave Lord
Base Skill: Boneyard
Unnerving Boneyard can replace Overflowing Altar, Braided Tether, or Echoing Vigor during trash fights to apply the Major Breach debuff to enemies. It also provides a synergy that deals AOE damage and heals for 100% of the damage when activated.

SUMMONER'S ARMOR

Skill Line: Bone Tyrant
Base Skill: Bone Armor
Summoner’s Armor can replace Overflowing Altar or Echoing Vigor to create additional corpses for you to consume with your abilities. It also reduces the cost of your Intensive Mender skill by 15% and grants you the Major Resolve buff.

NECROTIC POTENCY

Skill Line: Bone Tyrant
Base Skill: Bitter Harvest
Necrotic Potency can replace Overflowing Altar or Braided Tether during trash fights to help you build Ultimate between boss fights. It also reduces your damage taken by 3% while slotted.

MYSTIC GUARD

Skill Line: Support
Base Skill: Guard
Mystic Guard can replace Overflowing Altar or Radiating Regeneration on the front bar and Agony Totem on the back bar to absorb a portion of your Tank’s damage taken. This skill is best used in progression groups and must be slotted on both bars.

EFFICIENT PURGE

Skill Line: Support
Base Skill: Purge
Efficient Purge can replace Overflowing Altar or Agony Totem to remove DOTs and other negative effects on you and your allies.

RING OF PRESERVATION

Skill Line: Fighters Guild
Base Skill: Circle of Protection
Ring of Preservation can replace Overflowing Altar or Radiating Regeneration to grant your group the Minor Protection buff and another HOT effect. Because this skill’s radius is so small, it can only be used in fights where your group is tightly stacked.

ELEMENTAL SUSCEPTIBILITY

Skill Line: Destruction Staff
Base Skill: Weakness to Elements
Elemental Susceptibility can replace Agony Totem if you need to apply the Major Breach debuff to targets.

HEALING SPRINGS

Skill Line: Restoration Staff
Base Skill: Grand Healing
Healing Springs can replace Illustrious Healing if you need more Magicka sustain.

CRUSHING SHOCK

Skill Line: Destruction Staff
Base Skill: Force Shock
Crushing Shock can replace Agony Totem or Echoing Vigor if you need a ranged interrupt.

PASSIVES

Most passives in the skill lines you utilize are worth investing in; however, some are more critical to the build than others.

One important thing to note is the absence of the Tri Focus passive. The Tri Focus passive significantly harms your Magicka sustain, as it causes your block ability to cost Magicka while on your Destruction Staff bar and should be avoided.

Below is a complete list of only the most essential passives to the Necromancer Healer build, which should be unlocked first if possible.

GRAVE LORD

Reusable Parts

BONE TYRANT

Death Gleaning
Last Gasp

LIVING DEATH

All Passives

DESTRUCTION STAFF

Elemental Force
Ancient Knowledge
Destruction Expert

RESTORATION STAFF

All Passives

LIGHT ARMOR

Evocation
Spell Warding
Prodigy

MEDIUM ARMOR

Dexterity
Wind Walker
Agility
Athletics

SUPPORT

Magicka Aid

UNDAUNTED

Undaunted Command
Undaunted Mettle

RACIAL

All Passives

ALCHEMY

Medicinal Use

MUNDUS STONE

THE RITUAL

EASTMARCH

ALIK'R DESERT

MALABAL TOR

The Necromancer Healer Build uses The Ritual Mundus Stone to increase your healing effectiveness by 8%. Boosting the amount of healing you output ensures you keep your allies topped up and overhealed, proccing your set bonuses like Spell Power Cure.

Each piece of Legendary Quality Divines armor increases this value by 9.1%. While wearing 7 pieces of Legendary Quality Divines armor, The Ritual Mundus Stone increases your healing effectiveness by 13%.

If you’re having trouble with your Magicka sustain, The Atronach Mundus Stone will increase your Magicka Recovery by 310. While wearing 7 pieces of Legendary Quality Divines armor pieces, this value is increased to 507.

CONSUMABLES

FOOD

CLOCKWORK CITRUS FILET

Clockwork Citrus Filet offers the best stat boosts to your Maximum Health, Maximum Magicka, and Magicka Recovery; however, it’s expensive because you need Perfect Roe. Witchmother’s Potent Brew is a cheaper alternative with a slight decrease in stats.

Bonuses:
• Increase Maximum Health by 3326.
• Increase Maximum Magicka by 3080.
• Increase Health Recovery by 406.
• Increase Magicka Recovery by 338.
• Lasts 2 hours.

Ingredients:
• Frost Mirriam (1)
• Lemon (1)
• Perfect Roe (1)
• Red Meat (1)

WITCHMOTHER'S POTENT BREW

Witchmother’s Potent Brew offers slightly decreased stat boosts to Clockwork Citrus Filet, increasing your Maximum Health, Maximum Magicka, and Magicka Recovery. This food is a much cheaper alternative and scales with your level.

Bonuses:
• Increase Maximum Health by up to 3094.
• Increase Maximum Magicka by 2856.
• Increase Magicka Recovery by 315.
• Lasts 2 hours.

Ingredients:
• Bervez Juice (1)
• Nightshade (1)
• Rice (1)
• Small Game (1)

POTIONS

SPELL POWER POTIONS

Spell Power Potions provide the Major Sorcery and Major Prophecy buffs, which are critical to all builds and significantly increase the strength of your healing abilities. The ingredients in this potion are much cheaper than those in Heroism potions.

Bonuses:
• Restore ~7582 Magicka.
• Gain Major Sorcery.
• Gain Major Prophecy.
• ~47.6-second duration.

Ingredients:
• Corn Flower (1)
• Lady’s Smock (1)
• Namira’s Rot or Water Hyacinth (1)

HEROISM POTIONS

Heroism Potions are your best option for building Ultimate; however, using these potions requires that you gain the Major Brutality, Sorcery, Savagery, and Prophecy buffs from another source. Unfortunately, each ingredient in this potion is relatively expensive.

Bonuses:
• Restore ~7582 Magicka.
• Restore ~7582 Stamina.
• Gain Major Intellect.
• Gain Major Endurance.
• Gain Minor Heroism.
• ~47.6-second duration.

Ingredients:
• Columbine (1)
• Dragon’s Blood (1)
• Dragon Rheum (1)

ESSENCE OF MAGICKA

The Essence of Magicka potion should only be used to sustain your Magicka if you cannot afford to craft your Heroism or Spell Power potions.

Bonuses:
• Restore ~7582 Magicka.
• Gain Major Intellect.
• ~47.6-second duration.

These potions are generic world-dropped potions and are not worth crafting.

CHAMPION POINTS

The Champion Point (CP) system in ESO provides many powerful benefits that allow you to customize and strengthen your build. It is unlocked at Level 50 and maxes out at 3600 points. The CP system has three unique constellations: Craft, Warfare, and Fitness. The Warfare and Fitness constellations each have three subtrees.

• The Craft constellation focuses on crafting, gold gain, movement speed, stealth, and increasing material yields.
• The Warfare constellation focuses on increasing damage, healing, and damage mitigation.
• The Fitness constellation focuses on your core stats, such as Maximum Health and various methods of recovery, and provides many defensive benefits.

The Champion Point allocation below is optimized for the Necromancer Healer Build, focusing on increasing the strength of your healing abilities, sustain, and survivability.

Follow the recommended path below while levelling up and spending your Champion Points to see strong progression.

CRAFT

Steed’s Blessing (+50) (Slot 1)
Gilded Fingers (+10)
Fortune’s Favor (+10)
Wanderer (+15)
Steadfast Enchantment (+10)
Rationer (+10) (Slot 2)
Liquid Efficiency (+75) (Slot 3)
Treasure Hunter (+50) (Slot 4)
Master Gatherer (+15)
Gifted Rider (+100) (Replace Slot 4)

Rationer (+20)

Gilded Fingers (+40)
Breakfall (+50)
Steadfast Enchantment (+40)
Soul Reservoir (+33)
Beyond this point, you can continue to unlock passives or more slottable perks based on your preference.

WARFARE

Eldritch Insight (+10)
Blessed (+10)
Soothing Tide (+50) (Slot 1)
Enlivening Overflow (+50) (Slot 2)
From the Brink (+50) (Slot 3)
Rejuvenator (+50) (Slot 4)
Quick Recovery (+10)
Preparation (+20)
Elemental Aegis (+20)
Hardy (+20)
Eldritch Insight (+10)
Precision (+20)
Piercing (+10)
Flawless Ritual (+40)
Tireless Discipline (+20)
Blessed (+10)
Beyond this point, you can continue to unlock passives or more slottable perks for group flexibility:
Hope Infusion (50) can replace Enlivening Overflow or From the Brink if another Healer already has these slotted.
Swift Renewal (50) can replace Enlivening Overflow or From the Brink if another Healer already has these slotted.

FITNESS

Rejuvenation (+50) (Slot 1)
Boundless Vitality (+50) (Slot 2)
Fortified (+50) (Slot 3)
Sprinter (+10)
Hasty (+8)
Celerity (+50) (Slot 4)
Tumbling (+15)
Mystic Tenacity (+10)
Hero’s Vigor (+20)
Defiance (+20)
Tumbling (+15)
Tireless Guardian (+10)
Fortification (+30)
Sprinter (+10)
Hasty (+8)
Beyond this point, you can continue to unlock passives or more slottable perks based on your preference:
Expert Evasion (50) can replace Fortified or Celerity to Roll Dodge for no cost once every 30 seconds.
Slippery (50) can replace Fortified or Celerity to break free for no cost once every 21 seconds.

TIPS & TRICKS

The Necromancer Healer Build does not follow a traditional rotation. Instead, you must be able to adapt to meet the needs of whatever situation you find yourself in.

Below, you will find tips on effectively fulfilling the Healer role during enemy and boss encounters. Every Dungeon, Trial, and Arena has different mechanics, and it is essential that you understand your build and why you use the recommended armor sets and skills you do. Be sure to read this build guide entirely.

BUFFING AND DEBUFFING

Pre-buffing is an essential habit to pick up as early as possible to increase your efficiency as a Healer, allowing you to use your time once in combat more effectively. Always activate skills such as Intensive Mender and Radiating Regeneration on your allies before your Tank initiates combat. Once combat has begun, it’s a matter of understanding when it makes the most sense to activate your skills.

Illustrious Healing should be placed directly on the group as soon as the Tank has chosen an area to group enemies.

Combat Prayer should be kept up at all times as it grants the Minor Berserk and Minor Resolve buffs, increasing your and your allies’ damage done by 5% and Physical and Spell Resistance by 2,974.

Braided Tether can be cast when a corpse is created within the group to provide even more healing to the group.

Energy Orb should be cast often to ensure the group has plenty of primary resources.

Echoing Vigor can be cast upon entering combat if you have Powerful Assault equipped to increase the group’s Weapon and Spell Damage by 307.

If you follow along with the armor sets above, much of your build already focuses on buffing your group members. Fulfilling the Healer role in ESO means much more than just healing your allies.

Sets like Spaulder of Ruin, Spell Power Cure, Powerful Assault, and Roaring Opportunist are all phenomenal sets that grant powerful buffs that significantly increase group damage. Sets like Symphony of Blades and Hollowfang Thirst are utility sets that increase group sustain. Sets such as Kagrenac’s Hope, Sanctuary, Wisdom of Vanus, and Healer’s Habit should be avoided, as they offer no buffs to your group and Healers should be the last ones to resurrect others.

POSITIONING AND KITING

Positioning yourself as a Healer is critical to ensuring everyone remains alive and buffed. Your Tank will almost always be on the opposite side of the enemies, directing cleave damage away from the group. The Damage Dealers (DPS) should be close to one another in most cases, and the Healer typically stands slightly behind them.

When the group positions this way, your AOE skills, such as Illustrious Springs, Combat Prayer, Braided Tether, Radiating Regeneration, Energy Orb, and Echoing Vigor easily benefits all group members.

In some cases, you may need to take on the role known as a Kite Healer. Kite Healers are responsible for making themselves the target of specific mechanics by standing a certain distance from the group, most often the furthest away. For example, in the Veteran Cloudrest Trial, during the Z’Maja fight, a mechanic called Crushing Darkness targets the most distant group member away from Z’Maja. Crushing Darkness is a small circle that follows you everywhere you go and can be a problem if it finds its way into the group of Damage Dealers.

If these kinds of mechanics are kited properly, the rest of the group should almost never have to worry about them. If you are the Kite Healer, most of your skills can remain the same without much of an issue, but skills such as Elemental Susceptibility can come in handy.

SUSTAIN

Healers primarily rely on Magicka for healing, buffing allies, and debuffing enemies, while Stamina is used for blocking, roll dodging, and breaking free. In this section, you will learn of the various ways a Necromancer Healer can stay on top of sustainability:

Your class skills and passives significantly improve your sustain:
• The Intensive Mender skill doesn’t directly increase your sustain, but while it’s active, the Undead Confederate passive increases your Health Recovery, Magicka Recovery, and Stamina Recovery by 200.
• The Death Gleaning passive restores 666 Magicka and Stamina every time an enemy that you are in combat with dies, making it very effective during add fights.
• The Reusable Parts passive reduces the cost of your next Intensive Mender by 50% when your current Intensive Mender dies.

There are also universal buffs often provided by Healers that improve sustain. The Minor Fortitude, Minor Intellect, and Minor Endurance buffs increase Health Recovery, Magicka Recovery, and Stamina Recovery by 15%.

Your potions grant the Major Intellect buff, increasing your Magicka Recovery by 30% on top of restoring a burst of Magicka, depending on the potion you use.

Heavy attacks are the best way to stay on top of your Magicka sustain as a Healer. Many of your healing abilities have long durations, meaning you have plenty of time to weave a few heavy attacks in your rotation while your HOTs are active. Doing so with a Restoration Staff equipped and the Cycle of Life passive unlocked restores an additional 30% Magicka with heavy attacks.

Two of your jewelry enchantments increase your Magicka Recovery by up to 169 each at maximum quality for a total of 338 Magicka Recovery.

The Necromancer Healer Build uses The Ritual Mundus Stone to increase your healing effectiveness; however, if you struggle with Magicka sustain, The Atronach Mundus Stone increases your Magicka Recovery by 310. Because you only have the Divines trait on your armor, this bonus increases to up to a maximum of 507 Magicka Recovery.

It is important to note the difference between “recovery” and “restore,” especially when it comes to providing sustain to your Tank. Resource recovery occurs over time, whereas resource restore typically happens all at once, though it can happen over time if the skill states as such. This is important because Stamina Recovery is locked to 0 while blocking or sprinting, meaning it continues to deplete until there’s nothing left.

ULTIMATES

The buffs granted by most Ultimate abilities do not stack, so it’s a good idea to coordinate with your group on when you should use yours. The most commonly used Ultimate abilities by support roles are Aggressive Horn and Replenishing Barrier; however, the Necromancer Healer Build most commonly uses Glacial Colossus to apply the Major Vulnerability debuff to enemies in an AOE:

Glacial Colossus is the primary offensive Ultimate ability used by the Necromancer Healer Build. It applies the Major Vulnerability debuff to enemies, increasing their damage taken by 10%. Some groups may rely entirely upon the Turning Tide set to apply this debuff, so having Aggressive Horn as an option is a good idea.

Replenishing Barrier is a powerful defensive Ultimate ability that grants massive damage shields to all nearby allies. It’s good to have in fights with phases of high-damage enemy attacks and mechanics, as it significantly increases the group’s survivability. Additionally, it restores your Magicka, generates Ultimate as the wards dissolve, and if you invest in the Magicka Aid passive from the Support skill line, increases your Magicka Recovery by up to 10% while slotted. If you’d prefer more group healing, Reviving Barrier heals your allies while they have the damage shield active on them.

As a Necromancer Healer, you have other Ultimate abilities that your group may be more interested in:

Aggressive Horn increases the group’s Maximum Magicka and Maximum Stamina by 10% for 30 seconds and grants them the Major Force buff for 10 seconds, increasing Critical Damage by 10%. Many groups will have their support roles rotate through their Aggressive Horns as the Magicka and Stamina buffs near the end of their duration to maximize uptimes; however, depending on the group composition of class, skills, sets, etc., and if Ultimate can be built up fast enough, some groups may rotate as the Major Force buff runs out to push DPS.

Renewing Animation allows you to instantly resurrect three allies in combat, making it an excellent choice for progression groups.

ARCHIVED CHANGES

JUNE 25 / 2023: – UPDATE 38 – NECROM
• Dungeon Setup:
• Changed the name of the Dungeon Setup to Intermediate Setup to more accurately convey what the setup achieves.
• Expect a dedicated end-game Dungeon Build for all classes in the future.

MARCH 06 / 2023:
• Build Published.

Necromancer Healer Build