Category: Best ESO Builds, Best Necromancer Builds, Solo Builds, Best Subclassing Builds
The Lich Build is an incredibly strong Solo Build for the Magicka Necromancer class in The Elder Scrolls Online. Summon Skeletal Minions and power Frost Magic to decimate enemies with damage over time!
This guide has been updated for the Update 46, the Season of the Worm Cult of the Elder Scrolls Online (ESO).
- Main Sets
- Alternate Sets
- Gear
- Race
- Mundus Stone
- Food
- Potions
- Skill Lines
- Skills
- Skill Explanation
- Rotation
- Passives
- Companions
- Champion Points
Solo Magicka Necromancer Sets
The Draugrkin’s Grip set is an amazingly strong set for Damage Over Time builds, quickly stacking up DOT damage versus all enemies.
Winter’s Respite is a great set for solo builds looking for better survival against tougher enemies. This set places a passive heal over time effect on the ground that can help keep you alive.
Iceheart is an excellent monster set for this build, giving us a free damage shield, more critical chance and extra AOE ice damage which fits the lich theme nicely.
For the mythic on this build, Velothi Ur-Mage’s Amulet is the perfect option, increasing our damage versus monsters by 15% and passively granting the Minor Force buff.
With our final gear set piece, one piece of Armor Of The Trainee helps to greatly increase our maximum Health and survival.
Draugrkin’s Grip
LVL 50 – CP 160
SET BONUS
(2 items) Adds 1096 Maximum Magicka
(3 items) Adds 1487 Offensive Penetration
(4 items) Adds 129 Magicka Recovery
(5 items) Increases your damage done by 330 but reduces your healing taken by 10%.
Winter’s Respite
LVL 50 – CP 160
SET BONUS
(2 items) Adds 129 Magicka Recovery
(3 items) Adds 1096 Maximum Magicka
(4 items) Adds 1096 Maximum Magicka
(5 items) Casting abilities that leave an effect on the ground will create a circle of healing frost for 10 seconds. You and your group members restore 2358 Health every 1 second while inside the circle. This effect can occur once every 10 seconds.
Iceheart
LVL 50 – CP 160
SET BONUS
(1 item) Adds 657 Critical Chance
(2 items) When you deal Critical Damage, you have a 20% chance to gain a damage shield that absorbs 5000 damage for 6 seconds. While the damage shield holds, you deal 500 Frost Damage to all enemies within 5 meters of you every 1 second. This effect can occur once every 6 seconds.
Velothi Ur-Mages Amulet
LVL 50 – CP 160
SET BONUS
(1 item) Adds 1650 Offensive Penetration, Increase your damage done to monsters by 15%, gain Minor Force at all times, increasing your Critical Damage done by 10%, and reduce your Light and Heavy Attack damage by 99%.
Among the followers of Veloth were counted mages and spellsmiths of unparalleled skill. Their vision of overwhelming arcane might is woven, lattice after lattice, into this talisman.
Armor Of The Trainee
LVL 50 – CP 160
SET BONUS
(1 item) Adds 1454 Maximum Health
(2 items) Adds 1454 Maximum Magicka
(3 items) Adds 1454 Maximum Stamina
Velothi Ur-Mages Amulet Lead Locations
The Velothi Ur-Mages Amulet is the perfect Mythic for increasing your damage in ESO! Check out our full Velothi Ur-Mages Amulet Guide for ALL Lead Locations!
Solo Magicka Necromancer Alternate Sets
Draugrkin’s Grip can be replaced with other DOT focused sets such as Deadly Strike or Runecarver’s Blaze.
Deadly Strike
LVL 50 – CP 160
SET BONUS
(2 items) Adds 129 Weapon and Spell Damage
(3 items) Adds 657 Critical Chance
(4 items) Adds 129 Weapon and Spell Damage
(5 items) Increase the damage your Damage Over Time and Channeled Abilities do by 15%.
Runecarver’s Blaze
LVL 50 – CP 160
SET BONUS
(2 items) Adds 129 Weapon and Spell Damage
(3 items) Adds 129 Weapon and Spell Damage
(4 items) Adds 1487 Offensive Penetration
(5 items) Your damage over time effects deal an additional 368 Flame Damage on the third damage tick. This damage scales off your Weapon or Spell Damage and always applies the Burning status effect.
Subclassing Magicka Necromancer Gear
| Weapon/Armor | Set | Trait | Weight | Glyph |
| Main Hand | Draugrkin’s Grip Inferno Staff | Precise | NA | Absorb Magic |
| Backup | Winter’s Respite Frost Staff | Infused | NA | Spell Damage |
| Head | Iceheart | Divines | Medium | Magicka |
| Shoulder | Iceheart | Divines | Medium | Magicka |
| Chest | Armor Of The Trainee | Divines | Heavy | Magicka |
| Waist | Winter’s Respite | Divines | Light | Magicka |
| Gloves | Draugrkin’s Grip | Divines | Light | Magicka |
| Legs | Draugrkin’s Grip | Divines | Light | Magicka |
| Feet | Draugrkin’s Grip | Divines | Light | Magicka |
| Necklace | Velothi Ur-Mage’s Amulet | Bloodthirsty | NA | Spell Damage |
| Ring 1 | Winter’s Respite | Bloodthirsty | NA | Spell Damage |
| Ring 2 | Winter’s Respite | Bloodthirsty | NA | Spell Damage |
Subclassing Magicka Necromancer Race
In order to maximize the critical damage component of this build, Khajiit will be the best option. Other magicka-based races such as High Elf, Breton and Dark Elf will work well also. For more details on all ESO Races and passive bonuses be sure to check out our Full ESO Race Guide.
Subclassing Magicka Necromancer Mundus Stone
Increases the Critical Strike rating by 1333
With 7 Divines armor pieces
Increases the Critical Strike rating by 2167
Subclassing Magicka Necromancer Food
Clockwork Citrus Filet
Increase Max Health by 3326, Health Recovery by 406, Max Magicka by 3080 and Magicka Recovery by 338 for 2 hours.
Ingredients: Red Meat, Lemon, Frost Mirriam, Perfect Roe
Subclassing Magicka Necromancer Potions
Basic Magicka Potions
Tri-Stat Potions
Basic Increase Armor Potions
Bugloss, Mountain Flower, Mudcrab Chitin
Magicka Necromancer Subclassing Skill Lines
This build uses Subclassing for maximum effectiveness. The recommended skill lines for this build are:
Solo Magicka Necromancer Skills
Main Weapon: INFERNO STAFF – Click on a Skill Name to learn more
Backup Weapon: LIGHTNING STAFF – Click on a Skill Name to learn more
- Elemental Blockade
- Unnerving Boneyard
- Winter’s Revenge
- Beckoning Armor
- Skeletal Arcanist
- ULT: Glacial Colossus
Solo Magicka Necromancer Skill Explanation
- Grave Lord’s Sacrifice – buffs all of our DOTs and Necromancer damage skills. Easy buff to maintain.
- Arctic Blast – use this skill to deal Frost damage and stun basic enemies.
- Introspection – this is our main channeled skill, letting us float above the ground like a lich! This skill gives big healing as well as Magicka and Stamina sustain while also reducing our overall damage taken thanks to the Psijic Order passives.
- Inner Light – use this for some extra Max Magicka and bonus Critical Chance via the Major Prophecy and Major Savagery Buff.
- Revealing Flare – this skill does not need to be morphed and gives you 10% damage reduction passively thanks to the Major Protection buff.
- Elemental Blockade – procs your backbar enchant, hopefully an infused Weapon and Spell damage enchant to raise your overall damage stats.
- Unnerving Boneyard – use this to debuff groups of enemies early with Major Breach and Minor Vulnerability.
- Winter’s Revenge – this is a great AOE Frost Damage skill that can debuff enemies with the Minor Brittle effect.
- Beckoning Armor – amazing armor skill that provides both Major Resolve and Minor Resolve, resulting in nearly 10,000 bonus armor on our stat sheet. Plus, this pulls in ranged enemies close to you, forcing them into your DOTs!
- Skeletal Arcanist – this skill gives us Major Brutality and Major Sorcery, increasing our Weapon Damage and Spell Damage by 20%, plus it deals solid AOE damage as well.
- ULT: Temporal Guard – using this as a front bar ultimate gives us Minor Protection, passively reducing our damage taken.
- ULT: Glacial Colossus – this is our big damage ultimate that can clear the room, debuff bosses and stun everything left over.
Solo Magicka Necromancer Rotation
Buffs
Pop your potion and buff with Beckoning Armor and Skeletal Arcanist.
Damage
Start with Elemental Blockade -> Unnerving Boneyard -> Winter’s Revenge -> Bar Swap
Then cast Grave Lord’s Sacrifice -> Arctic Blast
Healing and Damage reduction
Once all your skills are cast, use Introspection to channel increased healing and sustain while also reducing your incoming damage.
Solo Magicka Necromancer Passives
Class Passives
- Reusable Parts
- Death Knell
- Dismember
- Rapid Rot
- Death Gleaning
- Disdain Harm
- Health Avarice
- Last Gasp
- Glacial Presence
- Frozen Armor
- Icy Aura
- Piercing Cold
Weapon Passives
Armor Passives
Guild Passives
Racial
Other
Companions
If you like playing Solo, this build can benefit greatly from using Companions! This Solo build will benefit the most from the additional healing and defensive options a tank-focused Companion can offer, so if you are going to use a Companion I would suggest a full tank build for them. I recommend Bastian Hallix for Companion on this build with the setup below. More information on Companions Builds and Skills can be found in our detailed Companion Guides section.
Recommended Gear
- All Heavy Armor – Mixed Vigorous and Quickened Traits
- One Handed Weapon and Shield
Recommended Skills
1. Provoke
3. Kindle
4. On Guard
6 ULT. Unleashed Rage
Additional Skills
The skills below may also be helpful in other situations such as trash pulls.
Full Companion Build: GUARDIAN DRAKE
The Guardian Drake is a strong option for Bastian Hallix as a Tank. Bastian is one of the new Companions available to ESO players starting in the Blackwood Chapter. The theme of this build is focused around Self-Healing and Survival, allowing Bastian to keep himself alive against many tough opponents and even bosses with very little help from others.
Champion Points
Below you will find the recommended Active and Passive Champion Point Stars for this build, broken down into 300, 600, 900, and 1200 CP ranges.
For more information on Champion Points click on a Star name below or browse our detailed Champion Points Guides.
Constellation Descriptions:
Craft TREE
The Green Craft Constellation is focused on crafting and utility-centered upgrades.
Warfare TREE
The Blue Warfare Constellation focuses primarily on increasing player damage, healing and defenses
Fitness TREE
The Red Fitness Constellation is focused on character survival and sustain.
– 300 Champion Points –
GREEN
BLUE
- 20 Precision
- 20 Piercing
- 50 Biting Aura (Slot)
RED
– 600 Champion Points –
GREEN
- 50 Steed’s Blessing (Slot)
- 50 Gilded Fingers
- 10 Fortune’s Favor
- 15 Wanderer
- 40 Steadfast Enchantment
- 30 Rationer (Slot)
BLUE
RED
- 50 Boundless Vitality (Slot)
- 50 Rejuvenation (Slot)
- 10 Sprinter
- 8 Hasty
- 20 Hero’s Vigor
- 10 Shield Master
- 50 Bastion (Slot)
– 900 Champion Points –
GREEN
- 50 Steed’s Blessing (Slot)
- 50 Gilded Fingers
- 10 Fortune’s Favor
- 15 Wanderer
- 40 Steadfast Enchantment
- 30 Rationer (Slot)
- 50 Breakfall
- 50 Treasure Hunter (Slot)
BLUE
- 20 Precision
- 20 Piercing
- 50 Biting Aura (Slot)
- 50 Fighting Finesse (Slot)
- 50 Thaumaturge (Slot)
- 50 Master-At-Arms (Slot)
- 20 Eldritch Insight
- 10 Quick Recovery
- 20 Preparation
RED
- 50 Boundless Vitality (Slot)
- 50 Rejuvenation (Slot)
- 20 Sprinter
- 16 Hasty
- 20 Hero’s Vigor
- 10 Shield Master
- 50 Bastion (Slot)
- 50 Siphoning Spells (Slot)
- 30 Tumbling
– 1200 Champion Points –
GREEN
- 50 Steed’s Blessing (Slot)
- 50 Gilded Fingers
- 30 Fortune’s Favor
- 15 Wanderer
- 50 Steadfast Enchantment
- 30 Rationer (Slot)
- 50 Breakfall
- 50 Treasure Hunter (Slot)
- 75 Liquid Efficiency (Slot)
BLUE
- 20 Precision
- 20 Piercing
- 50 Biting Aura (Slot)
- 50 Fighting Finesse (Slot)
- 50 Thaumaturge (Slot)
- 50 Master-At-Arms (Slot)
- 20 Eldritch Insight
- 10 Quick Recovery
- 20 Preparation
- 20 Hardy
- 20 Elemental Aegis
- 40 Flawless Ritual
- 30 War Mage
RED
- 50 Boundless Vitality (Slot)
- 50 Rejuvenation (Slot)
- 20 Sprinter
- 16 Hasty
- 20 Hero’s Vigor
- 10 Shield Master
- 50 Bastion (Slot)
- 50 Siphoning Spells (Slot)
- 30 Tumbling
- 20 Defiance
- 20 Tireless Guardian
- 30 Fortification
How To Create Powerful ESO Builds
Crafting the Perfect Build for you in The Elder Scrolls Online can be frustrating. Which skills are best for each class? What about passives? The best race? The best armor type and weapons? The best trait and glyphs? There are literally THOUSANDS of different options!
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Our Guides are designed with New and Intermediate players in mind! Stop wasting hours searching the internet for the best ESO build information – get what you need NOW to succeed!
More Necromancer Builds For ESO
Want more Necromancer Builds? Check out our dedicated Necromancer Builds overview page for even more great options!
