The God-Tier Necro Plarden rebuilt from the ground up for the Update 49 burst meta. Breton Templar with Living Death and Green Balance subclasses, now running Rallying Cry for group crit resistance, Death Dealer's Fete for stacking health, and Ozezan the Inferno for proactive armor and Minor Vitality. Includes a bonus one-bar Oakensoul version that doesn't require any Psijic skills.

Overview

The God-Tier Necro Plarden is back, completely rebuilt for the Update 49 burst meta. The original version ran Spell Power Cure, Earthgore, and Trial by Fire — a setup built around buffing group damage with Major Courage and reacting to burst with Earthgore procs. That worked when burst was manageable, but with DK combos hitting as hard as they do right now, reactive healing isn't enough. By the time Earthgore procs, your teammate is already dead. This U49 refresh flips the entire philosophy. Instead of buffing damage and reacting to burst, this build prevents the burst from killing anyone in the first place. We're stacking health, layering armor, and giving everyone crit resistance before the damage even lands. The core hasn't changed — Breton Templar subclassed with Living Death from Necromancer and Green Balance from Warden — but everything around it has been overhauled.

Gear Philosophy

The biggest single upgrade is swapping Spell Power Cure for Rallying Cry. When your healing critically strikes while Battle Spirit is active, you and your group within twelve meters gain crit resistance and weapon and spell damage for twenty seconds on a fifteen-second cooldown — basically permanent uptime. In a meta where burst damage relies on crits, giving your entire group crit resistance is a game-changer. We also shifted from three light, one medium, three heavy to one light, three medium, three heavy for more armor across the board. Death Dealer's Fete replaces the old mythic, stacking up to 2,640 extra max health, magicka, and stamina in combat. In Cyrodiil where you're always fighting, you're at full stacks almost immediately. Trial by Fire stays on the back bar — the Wrothgar craftable gives 8,500 armor while under any elemental status effect, which is basically always active in Cyrodiil. And Ozezan the Inferno replaces Earthgore as the monster set: overhealing an ally grants them armor, and any heal grants Minor Vitality for six percent increased healing received. Proactive defense instead of reactive.

Skills and Bar Setup

Front bar is the Resto Staff with Powered trait — the active healing bar. Resistant Flesh is the burst heal from the Necromancer line, and the morph grants the target physical and spell resistance equal to half the amount healed for three seconds. Every burst heal also layers on a resistance buff. Blessing of Restoration provides solid targeted healing. Radiating Regeneration is the bread-and-butter HoT that keeps Ozezan's armor and Minor Vitality proccing on multiple allies. Budding Seeds from Green Balance gives a ground-based area heal with a burst heal synergy. Race Against Time from the Psijic Order provides Major Expedition for mobility and Minor Force for extra crit damage on heals. Front bar ultimate is Reviving Barrier for massive emergency group shields. Back bar runs one-hand and shield with a Defending trait. Green Lotus gives Major Prophecy and Savagery for higher crit chance — important because Rallying Cry procs off critical heals. Channeled Focus drops the rune for Major Resolve and magicka sustain. Extended Ritual provides a purge and HoT. Spirit Guardian passively heals and transfers ten percent of damage taken to the spirit. Energy Orb is the ranged group heal and synergy provider. Back bar ultimate is Renewing Animation from Living Death for combat resurrection.

How It Plays

This build is about proactive defense. You're not scrambling to save people after they get burst — the crit resistance and armor are already there before the damage lands. Keep your HoTs rolling, use Resistant Flesh reactively when someone spikes, and trust that Rallying Cry is making your entire group harder to kill by default. You lose Major Courage from Spell Power Cure, which means your group's raw damage output is slightly lower. But Rallying Cry still provides weapon and spell damage, so the gap isn't as big as you'd think. The real trade-off is that everyone stays alive, which means more sustained damage over the course of a fight instead of getting wiped in the opening burst. The survivability compared to the old version is night and day. If you're running with a coordinated group in Cyrodiil and you want a healer that can stand in the fire and keep everyone up, this is it.

Bonus: One-Bar Version (No Psijic Required)

For players who want the simplicity of one bar or don't want to grind the Psijic Order skill line, here's the one-bar adaptation. We swap Death Dealer's Fete for Oakensoul Ring, which locks us into one bar but provides a massive suite of buffs: Major Resolve, Major Prophecy and Savagery, Minor Force, Minor Protection, and Minor Mending. That covers everything we were getting from Channeled Focus, Green Lotus, and Race Against Time on the two-bar version. The key swap is Deceptive Predator instead of Race Against Time. That's Warden wings from the Animal Companions line — no Psijic grind required. You still get Major Expedition and snare immunity, actually for two seconds longer than Race Against Time. You also get Minor Evasion passively while it's slotted, reducing area damage by ten percent. We go heavier on armor — five heavy, one medium, one light — with all health enchants. Rallying Cry's five-piece stays, so your group still gets crit resistance and weapon damage. What you lose is Ozezan's two-piece overheal armor and Minor Vitality, since we're only running the one-piece for recovery. Oakensoul's buff suite and the extra armor weight compensate for personal survivability. It's simpler, it's tanky, and it's effective.