When The Elder Scrolls Online: Elsweyr DLC releases in June, players will get a brand new class to try out in-game; the Necromancer. High on many fans’ wish-lists for years, the Necromancer brings a very unique style of play to the MMORPG. In the second video of their ‘Necromancer Week,’ which began with a new trailer, ZeniMax developers give a deep dive into the design of the Elder Scrolls: Online Necromancer class.
The Design of the Upcoming Elder Scrolls: Online Necromancer Class
“There were three main development goals for the Necromancer,” says Creative Director Rich Lambert; “One, we wanted to ensure that it felt like it was faithful to both the lore and the player fantasy of what necromancy was in Elder Scrolls. Two, we wanted to ensure that the Necromancer had unique mechanics, it couldn’t just be a Sorcerer with undead pets or a Dragon Knight with undead-themed abilities. It had to stand on its own, and third, we wanted to make sure that the Necromancer kept its identity…”
The design certainly hits the third goal clearly with the Justice system tweaks. Indeed, just as players would expect, practising necromancy is a criminal act. As such, using certain Necromancer abilities in front of NPCs may cause players to gain a criminal bounty. When it comes to element usage, necromancers can make use of practically every element, depending on the abilities which a player invests in; a rarity among ESO’s classes.
Those abilities are divided among several skill lines so that they can have various different themes. The first is Grave Lord, which focuses on damaging abilities. Bone Tyrant is a tanking defensive line, while Living Death deals with healing abilities. One of the interesting class abilities shown in the video is the ability to tether a player to a corpse; this allows them to share damage or healing between them and the remains. You can do this with any corpse, including the corpses of your summoned pets. In fact, you can even tether to the remains left by your bone armour ability. Indeed, all three skill lines have some way to create corpses for this feature.