The Necromancer class in The Elder Scrolls Online is multi-faceted, able to take on damage, support, and tank roles in a party setting. It's one of two downloadable classes, the other being the Warden, which wasn't included in the original game.

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The Necromancer is unique for its death-related abilities and its tendency to get the player arrested – summoning and defiling corpses in the middle of a city isn't the smartest idea, after all. The Grave Lord, Bone Tyrant, and Living Death skill trees are each oriented around one of the three classic RPG archetypes.

The Grave Lord skill tree is the Necromancer's go-to damage skill tree. The Flame Skull and Blastbones abilities are indicative of how this skill tree generally works; the base ability deals decent damage in some way, but morphs tend to power them up immensely.

It's the first tree that Necromancers are likely to develop in a playthrough thanks to its DPS-focused abilities. Don't forget about the other two trees, though, as a Necromancer can't survive without self-heals and buffs.

The Ultimate ability for the Grave Lord skill tree in The Elder Scrolls Online is the Frozen Colossus ability. It's a criminal act that summons a grotesque colossus that deals massive enemy damage and causes foes to take more damage on hit.

The morph Glacial Colossus turns the final hit into a stunning attack, which lasts for four seconds. It's on a delay, so it's not an instant stun, but it's nonetheless the most useful Ultimate morph that unlocks at Frozen Colossus Rank IV.

The Rapid Rot passive simply increases damage cause by damage-over-time effects by 7% or 15% , depending on the rank. The passive applies to a variety of abilities in the Grave Lord tree as well as to other Necromancer abilities.

It unlocks at Gravelord Rank 39, which is relatively late into max level progression but nonetheless provides a huge damage boost to the class' favourite damage type.

The Shocking Syphon ability drains life from a nearby corpse to deal a massive amount of damage to enemies between the player and the target corpse. It also naturally increases player damage by a flat 3% across the board, but its damaging effect isn't enough.

The Mystic Syphon ability makes Shocking Syphon restore Magicka to the player while being cast, making it a great one to mix into a regular spell rotation. It unlocks at Shocking Syphon Rank IV.

The Bone Tyrant skill tree is as close to a pure tanking tree as the Necromancer has available. It's built around the concept of, well, building a new body around the player's existing one to enhance defensive capabilities.

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Death Scythe and Bone Armor are a player's first two choices in this tree, which restore health through damage and provide a flat defensive boost, respectively. The skill tree has a lot of tanking-specific abilities, like pulling enemies and interrupts, as well as a powerful tanking Ultimate.

The Necromancer's Ultimate ability in the Bone Tyrant tree is the Bone Goliath Transformation skill. This Ultimate turns the Necromancer into a Bone Goliath, restoring a huge amount of health and restoring health with each melee hit in the transformed state.

The Ravenous Goliath adds a powerful addendum to this: a damaging aura that heals the player for 100% of damage. It unlocks at Bone Goliath Rank IV, and it's much more useful than the AoE bash provided by the Pummeling Goliath morph.

The Health Advance passive ability is a straightforward one that becomes extremely useful in party situations. For each Bone Tyrant ability the player has slotted in their action bar, they will receive a flat small bonus to their healing received.

It unlocks at Bone Tyrant Rank 22, and it's a must-have for Necromancers looking to do group content for the majority of their time in The Elder Scrolls Online.

The Grave Grasp ability ensnares, immobilizes, and stuns enemies depending on their placement in three areas of effect. It reduces their damage done, too, but overall isn't too effective without a Morph. Both morphs for this ability are decent, but the Ghostly Embrace morph is just more powerful.

Empowering Grasp, which unlocks at Grave Grasp Rank IV, gives allies the Empower buff and gives the player's Skeletal Mage and Spirit Mender a huge boost too.

The Living Death skill tree is focused on keeping the Necromancer and their party alive, through direct heals and supporting buffs alike. Solo players can benefit from its powerful self-healing abilities, but it mostly serves its best use in dungeons and group content.

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The Living Death skill tree is the only non-PvP tree to feature a mass revive in the form of Reanimate. Its first two introductory abilities, Render Flesh and Expunge, heal allies at the cost of one's own health and remove debuffs from allies, respectively.

The Ultimate ability for the Living Death skill tree is, of course, Reanimate, which lets the player instantly resurrect up to three allies at a target location without having to use up soul gems. The Renewing Animation ability makes this a more powerful mid-combat revive.

The morph, which unlocks at Reanimate Rank IV, gives the player Magicka and Stamina for each ally resurrected. When the entire party is right about to wipe, pop off a Renewing Animation and get straight back to that dirty work of killing bosses.

The Undead Confederate passive sounds more like an early Xbox title than a Necromancer ability. Nevertheless, this passive is incredibly beneficial for a Necromancer as it increases Magicka and Stamina recovery whenever a summon is active.

Casting lots of spells is the name of the Necromancer's game, and being able to do that more reliably is always a good idea. This passive unlocks at Living Death Rank 39.

The Restoring Tether ability is a late-progression ability for Necromancers that gives healing to the player and allies between them and a target corpse. It increases healing by a flat 3%, and is most easily comparable to the Mystic Syphon ability from the Grave Lord tree.

The Braided Tether morph, though, also provides a healing effect to allies who are nearby the player, not just between them and their target corpse. It makes the ability apply much more easily to the party, and unlocks at Restoring Tether Rank IV.

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