ESO Necrom Chapter Guide

Discover the Dark Elves of the Telvanni Peninsula and investigate a scheme that threatens to unravel reality itself—Hermaeus Mora needs mortal assistance, but can the Prince of Knowledge truly be trusted?

The Elder Scrolls Online: Necrom is part of the Shadow Over Morrowind adventure and arrives for PC/Mac on June 5, 2023, and for Xbox and PlayStation consoles on June 20, 2023.

In this guide, we’ll cover everything you need to know about the new Necrom chapter for ESO!

ESO Necrom Chapter Features

In The Elder Scrolls Online: Necrom, you can delve deeper into the Shadow Over Morrowind adventure, explore the Telvanni Peninsula and Apocrypha zones, master an all-new class, the Arcanist, and much, much more!

New ESO Class: The Arcanist

Empowered by the secrets of Apocrypha and the forbidden knowledge of Hermaeus Mora, the Arcanist is a powerful new Class capable of destructive, restorative, or defensive magic by channeling the arcane, ancient runes and lost tomes of power.

The theme of the Arcanist class centers around the Daedric Prince Hermaeus Mora, Lord of Fate and Forbidden Knowledge with its skills incorporating Mora’s own Black Books, Runes of Power, and other-worldly Tentacles and other disgusting forms. The Arcanist, with its neon green ground effects and laser beams, certainly creates a compelling visual presence on the battlefield that makes it stand out strongly from every other class in the game.

The Arcanist class for ESO has three unique skill lines, each thematically and visually centered around the Daedric Prince Hermaeus Mora. Their names are Herald Of The Tome, Soldier Of Apocrypha, and Curative Runeforms. Each class line serves a specific playstyle purpose including one for Offense (DPS), one for Defense/Tanking, and one for Healing.

You can explore each of these powerful skill lines below.

Herald Of The Tome

The Herald Of The Tome skill line for the Arcanist Class is focused on dealing damage (DPS). Players using these skills can manipulate arcane energies to bombard their foes with damaging blasts, beams, and more.

Soldier Of Apocrypha

The Soldier Of Apocrypha skill line for the Arcanist Class is focused on defensive skills and crowd control (tanking). Players can use these skills to dominate their foes’ attention, buff themselves or their party’s defensive capabilities, and even conjure an explosive damage shield.

Curative Runeforms

The Curative Runeforms skill line for the Arcanist Class is focused on healing skills and buffs. Players can use these skills to to keep their party (or themselves) healthy, shield allies from damage, or even help them navigate the battlefield via portals.

Crux and The Arcanist Class

The Arcanist class also introduces a unique combat mechanic known as “Crux”, which works like a combo system. In this new system, some abilities build up Crux after casting while other abilities can spend Crux, ultimately giving the Arcanist some extra bonuses and augments during combat. Players can save up to three Crux to spend at once to unleash the true power of the Arcanist!

The Best Arcanist Class Builds

The Arcanist Class is an extremely powerful way to play in The Elder Scrolls Online. To help you get started we’ve created several Arcanist Build guides to showcase some potential ways to dominate your foes. Some of our most popular are listed below.

New ESO Zones: Telvanni Peninsula and Apocrypha

Home to the cunning mages of House Telvanni and the city of Necrom, the Telvanni Peninsula’s towering mushroom forests might feel familiar to those who have ventured to other parts of Morrowind. However, in addition to the city itself, this new zone contains a host of unique encounters for you to discover in your explorations. Expect to see the usual zones features familiar to ESO players including:

• Delves
• Public Dungeons
• World Bosses
• *new* Roaming Herald Bosses (more on this later)

Necrom also allows you to explore Hermaeus Mora’s realm of Apocrypha including an all-new part of Aprocypha called Chroma Incognito, a region comprised of fates that never came to pass. This new area is unlike anything you have experienced before, and has never been experienced in any previous Elder Scrolls title.

The zone of Apocrypha is outstanding and has a unique cosmic horror vibe, unlike anything in ESO. I did a zone walk-through in the video below to help you get a feel for this amazing new area of ESO.

New Item Sets for Necrom

Vivec’s Duality (Overland)

Set bonus
(2 items) Adds 1096 Maximum Magicka
(3 items) Adds 1096 Maximum Stamina
(4 items) Adds 1096 Maximum Magicka
(5 items) Your weapon charges over 15 seconds while not Weapon Swapping. Once fully charged, restore 6428 Magicka and Stamina after Weapon Swapping.

Camonna Tong (Overland)

Set bonus
(2 items) Adds 129 Weapon and Spell Damage
(3 items) Adds 129 Weapon and Spell Damage
(4 items) Adds 129 Weapon and Spell Damage
(5 items) On gaining kill XP from a monster, gain 1 Weapon and Spell Damage for every 50 XP the monster is worth for 30 seconds. This bonus can stack up to a maximum of 540 Weapon and Spell Damage. This item set is not affected by XP boosting effects.

Adamant Lurker (Overland)

Set bonus
(2 items) Adds 129 Weapon and Spell Damage
(3 items) Adds 129 Weapon and Spell Damage
(4 items) Adds 129 Weapon and Spell Damage
(5 items) On gaining kill XP from a monster, gain 1 Weapon and Spell Damage for every 50 XP the monster is worth for 30 seconds. This bonus can stack up to a maximum of 540 Weapon and Spell Damage. This item set is not affected by XP boosting effects.

Telvanni Efficiency (Crafted)

Set bonus
(2 items) Adds 1096 Max Stamina
(3 items) Adds 1206 Max Health
(4 items) Adds 1096 Max Magicka (5 items) While you have a living Companion, reduce the cooldown of their abilities by 50%. While you do not have a living Companion, reduce the cost of your Magicka, Stamina, Health, and Ultimate abilities by 8%.

Shattered Fate (Crafted)

Set bonus
(5 items) Adds 7918 Offensive Penetration
(10 items) Adds 687 Weapon and Spell Damage
(12 items) Adds 1528 Critical Chance

Seeker Synthesis (Crafted)

Set bonus
(2 items) Adds 1206 Maximum Health
(3 items) Adds 1096 Maximum Magicka
(4 items) Adds 1096 Maximum Stamina
(5 items) When you cast an ability that costs resources while in combat, you reduce your potion cooldown by 0.6 seconds. This effect can occur once every 2 seconds.

Peace and Serenity (Trial)

Set bonus
(2 items) Adds 657 Critical Chance
(3 items) Gain Minor Slayer at all times, increasing your damage done to Dungeon, Trial, and Arena Monsters by 5%.
(4 items) Adds 129 Weapon and Spell Damage
(5 items) While you are standing still, you gain 465 Weapon and Spell Damage. While you are moving, you gain 200 Health, Magicka, and Stamina Recovery.

Ansuul’s Torment (Trial)

Set bonus
(2 items) Adds 657 Critical Chance
(3 items) Gain Minor Slayer at all times, increasing your damage done to Dungeon, Trial, and Arena Monsters by 5%.
(4 items) Adds 1487 Offensive Penetration
(5 items) Increases your damage done against monsters by 7%. When you interrupt an enemy, you increase your damage done against monsters by an additional 7% for 10 seconds.

Transformative Hope (Trial)

Set bonus
(2 items) Adds 4% Healing Done
(3 items) Gain Minor Aegis at all times, reducing your damage taken from Dungeon, Trial, and Arena Monsters by 5%.
(4 items) Adds 129 Magicka Recovery
(5 items) While in combat, when you heal yourself or an ally that is below 50% Health, you ignite a Spark of Hope within them for 3 seconds. If they are above 90% Health when the effect ends, you and the ally gain Major Heroism for 15 seconds. This effect can occur once every 20 seconds per target.

Test Of Resolve (Trial)

Set bonus
(2 items) Adds 1487 Armor
(3 items) Gain Minor Aegis at all times, reducing your damage taken from Dungeon, Trial, and Arena Monsters by 5%.
(4 items) Adds 1206 Maximum Health
(5 items) When you take damage while under 50% Health, your resolve is tested. If you are also below 50% Stamina, you restore full Health, Magicka, and Stamina while also gaining Major Protection and Major Aegis for 10 seconds. If you are above 50% Stamina you become a Beacon of Hope for 20 seconds, causing your Major and Minor Buffs to also grant Major Aegis for 10 seconds. This effect can occur once every 45 seconds.

Cryptcannon Vestments (Mythic)

Set bonus
(1 item) You can no longer cast Ultimate abilities. Instead, casting an Ultimate ability transfers your Ultimate resource to your living group members, divided equally among them. Gain Minor Heroism while you are in combat.

Esoteric Environment Greaves (Mythic)

Set bonus
(1 item) While you are above 50% Stamina, reduce your direct damage taken by 50% and lose 953 Stamina whenever you take direct damage, up to once every 0.3 seconds.

Velothi Ur-Mage’s Amulet (Mythic)

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%.

New Companions: Azandar and Sharp-as-Night

The Necrom Chapter brings with it two powerful new Companions for players to unlock: Azandar, a Redguard Arcanist, and Sharp-as-Night, an Argonian Warden. Lucky for you we already have full guides on both Azandar and Sharp-as-Night, including their starting quest location, best skills, and plenty of useful Companion Builds!

You can also check out the new Companion builds for Azandar and Sharp in video form below.

Class Balance changes in Update 38

Along with the Necrom chapter comes Update 38, a free update for all ESO players. In this update are several important Class Balance changes for the game’s existing 6 classes. The most important changes are outlined below.

Nightblade

1. Death Stroke Ultimate (both morphs)

• Increased the duration of this Ultimate and morphs’ debuffs to 8 seconds, up from 6.

2. Concealed Weapon

• This morph now grants its damage done bonus for 10 seconds if Major Expedition was active while it was cast, rather than for 5 seconds when Major Expedition ends or was refreshed, to ensure the skill is used actively rather than passively. The damage bonus still operates the same for leaving sneak or invisibility.

Sorcerer

1. Dark Exchange

• This ability and the Dark Conversion morph now also grant Minor Berserk for the 20 second duration they restore resources. The Dark Deal now grants Minor Berserk and Minor Force for the 10 seconds it restores resources.

2. Summon Storm Atronach

• The synergy from this Ultimate and its morphs, Charged Lightning, now grants Major Berserk for 10 seconds, up from 8.
• Increased the amount of targets the synergy will target to 12, up from 6.

3. Summon Volatile Familiar (morph):

• This morph’s special active now only stuns on the 2nd tick, rather than the 4th and final ticks, to make the stun less volatile in nature and help reduce the passive feeling of the skill. To make up for this loss, we’re increasing the chance of applying the Charged status effect from the special active’s damage to 5% per tick, up from 1%.

Templar

1. Focused Charge

• This ability and its morphs now grant Major Protection for 4 seconds after reaching your target.
• Explosive Charge: This morph now also extends the duration of Major Protection to 10 seconds.

2. Solar Flare

• This ability and its morphs now also grant Sunsphere for 5 seconds after casting, increasing your damage done with class abilities by 5%.
• Solar Barrage (morph): This morph also extends the duration of Sunsphere to 20 seconds.

3. Rune Focus

• This ability and its morphs now heal you for 2% of your Max Health every second they are active, rather than 4.5% of your Max Health while you are standing within the rune.
• Increased this healing effect by 200% while you are standing in the rune, resulting in a 33.3% (repeating of course) increase overall while in the rune.

4. Empowered Sweep (now Everlasting Sweep)

• Increased the duration of the pulsing Damage over Time to 10 seconds at base, up from 6 seconds.
• This morph no longer grants Empower, as Solar Flare and its morphs already grant this buff. As such, the name has been adjusted to prevent confusion.

Warden

1. Arctic Blast (morph)

• The stun from this morph now fires after a 2 second delay, rather than immediately. Recasting the ability before the delay completes will reset the delay timer.
• Fixed an issue where the stun ignored line of sight rules.

New Rewards for ESO Necrom

As you quest throughout the Telvanni Peninsula and Apocrypha, you can earn rewards specific to the Necrom Chapter. These collectibles include the Shroomtender’s Garb armor style (earned by completing various Necrom achievements), the Graht-Oak Squirrel pet (earned via both of Necrom’s public dungeons), the Obsidian Dwarven Sphere pet (earned via the new Bastion Nymic world event), unique outfit styles, mementos, emotes, and much more.

Complete almost every Necrom Chapter Achievement and you receive the stunning Berylglow Nix-Ox Steed—the ideal mount for your adventures across the peninsula and Apocrypha.

I break down all the new rewards and how to earn them in the video below.

Where to go next

Don’t forget to check out our Arcanist Builds to help you get started exploring this powerful new class in ESO!