Psijic Pages

Necromancer Tank

A corpse-fuelled bulwark built around Glacial Colossus. It brings Major Vulnerability, Minor Vulnerability and Major Breach from class skills alone, plus very high Ultimate generation.

Update 51PvE · TankPure classIntermediateLast reviewed 2026-10-19

Good to know

Written for Update 51. Tooltips summarise each skill and set; follow the UESP or ESO-Hub link in any preview for exact numbers, which shift between patches.

Overview

The Necromancer tank is built around Glacial Colossus. Update 51 made it cheaper, and its 17 seconds of Major Vulnerability stretch to about 25 with the Veil's Forfeit mastery. Cast it from the War Machine bar and every Colossus also gives the group Major Slayer.

Defensively you stack layers: Beckoning Armor for Major and Minor Resolve, Spirit Guardian to redirect 10% of incoming damage, and Temporal Guard for Minor Protection. Necrotic Potency turns every corpse on the floor into Ultimate.

Strengths

  • Major Vulnerability, Minor Vulnerability and Major Breach straight from the class kit.
  • Plenty of passive mitigation. One of the sturdiest pure-class tanks this patch.
  • Huge Ultimate generation from corpses means frequent Colossus and War Machine casts.

Weaknesses

  • Corpse management and ground-targeted skills punish sloppy positioning.
  • Colossus tuning is in flux: Update 52 is due to swap the Update 51 buff for a bigger, PvE-only version.
  • Beckoning Armor pulls ranged attackers to you, which can drag adds around if you're careless.

Group support

Major VulnerabilityMinor VulnerabilityMajor BreachMinor BrittleMajor SlayerMajor Maim

At a glance

Race

Nord

Health, Armor and Ultimate when hit.

Argonian

Extra healing done and potion sustain.

Mundus stone

The Atronach

Magicka Recovery. The Lady for harder content.

Attributes

64 Health

Food

Orzorga's Red Frothgar

Max Health with Magicka Recovery.

Potion

Essence of Health

Tri-stat restore.

Skills

Grave Lord

Necromancer

Boneyard debuffs and the Glacial Colossus Ultimate.

Bone Tyrant

Necromancer

Beckoning Armor, Hungry Scythe and Necrotic Potency.

Living Death

Necromancer

Spirit Guardian and a self-cleanse.

Skill bars

Hover (or tap) any slot for the tooltip; click through to UESP or ESO-Hub for full numbers.

Front bar

One hand & shield · Void Bash

Pierce Armor1
Unnerving Boneyard2
Hungry Scythe3
Necrotic Potency4
Expunge and Modify5
Temporal GuardR

Back bar

Ice staff · War Machine

Beckoning Armor1
Spirit Guardian2
Elemental Blockade3
Echoing Vigor4
Inner Rage5
Glacial ColossusR
SlotSkill
Front 1Pierce Armor

One Hand and Shield

Main taunt and Major Breach.

Front 2Unnerving Boneyard

Grave Lord

Major Breach, Minor Vulnerability and a Grave Robber synergy for DPS.

Front 3Hungry Scythe

Bone Tyrant

Burst self-heal that scales with Max Health. Face the boss.

Front 4Necrotic Potency

Bone Tyrant

Eats corpses for a big chunk of Ultimate.

Front 5Expunge and Modify

Living Death

Cleanses DoTs and refunds resources.

Front RTemporal Guard

Psijic Order

Minor Protection while slotted; rewind in emergencies.

Back 1Beckoning Armor

Bone Tyrant

Major and Minor Resolve, and it leaves a corpse.

Back 2Spirit Guardian

Living Death

Takes 10% of the damage meant for you.

Back 3Elemental Blockade

Destruction Staff

Chilled for Minor Brittle, plus steady damage.

Back 4Echoing Vigor

Assault

Group heal over time.

Back 5Inner Rage

Undaunted

Back-bar ranged taunt with the Radiate synergy.

Back RGlacial Colossus

Grave Lord

Major Vulnerability and a stun. Cast from this bar for War Machine's Major Slayer.

Flex skills

Swap these in when the content or your group composition calls for it.

  • Deaden Pain

    Swap for Necrotic Potency when you need Major Protection more than Ultimate.

  • Agony Totem

    AoE fear for trash control, plus an ally synergy.

  • Renewing Animation

    Group resurrect on the front bar during progression.

  • Pummeling Goliath

    Defensive transformation; Update 51 buffed its Bash.

  • Shield Throw

    Scribed ranged taunt if you want Pierce Armor's slot back.

Gear

SlotSetTrait
HeadArchdruid Devyric

Heavy (monster)

Sturdy
ShouldersArchdruid Devyric

Heavy (monster)

Sturdy
ChestLucent Echoes

Heavy

Sturdy / Reinforced
HandsLucent Echoes

Heavy

Sturdy
WaistLucent Echoes

Heavy

Sturdy
LegsLucent Echoes

Heavy

Sturdy / Reinforced
FeetLucent Echoes

Heavy

Sturdy
NeckWar Machine

Jewellery

Infused
Ring 1War Machine

Jewellery

Infused
Ring 2War Machine

Jewellery

Infused
Front: main handVoid Bash

One-handed sword

Infused
Front: off handVoid Bash

Shield

Sturdy
Back barWar Machine

Ice staff (two-handed)

Infused

Traits and enchants

Sturdy and Divines are interchangeable on armour; Divines buffs your mundus stone, Sturdy lowers block cost. Tri-Stat glyphs on jewellery and Prismatic Defense on armour are fine substitutes if you need more resources.

Set breakdown

Archdruid DevyricMonster

2 pieces · Earthen Root Enclave (veteran) + Undaunted chest

  • (1 item)Adds Offensive Penetration.
  • (2 items)A damaging Heavy Attack releases a line of Shock damage 1.2s later that hits up to 6 enemies and applies Major Vulnerability for 7 seconds. Once every 15 seconds.
Lucent EchoesTrial

5 pieces · Lucent Citadel (Gold Road); perfected on veteran

  • (5 items)Above 50% Health, group members within 28m who aren't wearing the set gain about 11% Critical Damage and Critical Healing. At 50% Health or below, you take 20% less damage from monsters.
War MachineTrial

3 front / 5 back · Halls of Fabrication (Morrowind)

  • (5 items)Casting an Ultimate in combat gives you and nearby group members Major Slayer for 1 second per 10 Ultimate spent.
Void BashArena

2 pieces · front bar · Vateshran Hollows (Markarth); perfected on veteran

  • (2 items)Dealing damage with a Power Bash grants Call of the Void, pulling enemies within 12m to you. When it ends, nearby enemies get Major Maim for 10 seconds. 13 second cooldown.

Alternative sets

Champion Points

Slottable stars only. Spend passive points in each tree along the path to these stars.

Warfare
  1. Ironclad

    Less damage from direct attacks, which covers most boss mechanics.

  2. Duelist's Rebuff

    Less damage from single-target hits.

  3. Bulwark

    Free Armor with a shield or frost staff. Swap for Enduring Resolve at the armour cap.

  4. Unassailable

    Less AoE damage taken. Best on trash pulls.

Fitness
  1. Boundless Vitality

    Max Health is the base of every heal and shield you have.

  2. Fortified

    Armor until you hit the cap.

  3. Rejuvenation

    Recovery for all three resources.

  4. Bastion

    Stronger shields from skills and sets.

Craft
  1. Steed's Blessing

    Run between pulls faster.

  2. Gifted Rider

    Faster mount.

Class Mastery

Pure-class characters with all three class lines at rank 50 can slot two Class Mastery passives (added in Update 50).

  • Veil's Forfeit

    Your Major Vulnerability lasts 50% longer, so Colossus covers about 25s.

  • Pound of Flesh

    Taking damage can heal you and restore Stamina.

Tip

For organised trials, swap Pound of Flesh for Malevolent Promise for even more Ultimate.

How to play

  1. 1Pre-buff with Beckoning Armor and Spirit Guardian. Both leave corpses for later.
  2. 2Taunt with Pierce Armor, drop Unnerving Boneyard under the boss, and keep the taunt up. Use Inner Rage while on the back bar.
  3. 3Always cast Glacial Colossus from the back bar so War Machine's Major Slayer lines up with the Vulnerability window. Call it for the burn.
  4. 4Use Necrotic Potency on every cluster of corpses to cycle Ultimate quickly.
  5. 5Hungry Scythe has to hit an enemy to heal, so face your target.
  6. 6Power Bash (Void Bash) to group trash and apply Major Maim. Block heavy attacks.
  7. 7Watch Beckoning Armor's ranged pull so you don't drag casters into the group by accident.