Last updated: Update 49 on PTS - 6th March 2026
Tooltips of new abilities and passives will be wrong until 9th of March, which is when Update 49 launches
A Dragonknight DPS build focsued on dealing damage with the channeled
Engulfing Dragonfire ability
Base Setup
A base setup that will work for most situations and which should be your starting point when making situational setups
| Front Bar | Back Bar |
|---|---|
| Slot 1: Engulfing Dragonfire | Slot 1: Shatterspike Mantle |
| Slot 2: Searing Claw | Slot 2: Incinerate |
| Slot 3: Camouflaged Hunter | Slot 3: Molten Whip |
| Slot 4: Quick Cloak | Slot 4: Stampede |
| Slot 5: Banner Bearer | Slot 5: Banner Bearer |
| Ultimate: Take Flight | Ultimate: Flawless Dawnbreaker |
If you need to slot something situational, replace
Camouflaged Hunter in single target fights and
Searing Claw in AoE fights
Priority List
This is just a list of priorities. Simply recast abilities when they run out and follow this list of priorities when there are multiple things to refresh
Inside of your
Take Flight window you can freely cancel
Engulfing Dragonfire to refresh DoTs. Outside of
Take Flight, you want to finish
Engulfing Dragonfire and refresh DoTs after it ends
You ideally want to start a cast of
Engulfing Dragonfire when
Take Flight has 2-3 seconds left, so that the initial weak phase of
Engulfing gets bypassed by
Take Flight's buff, because the later phase deals high damage regardless
Pre-buff
These abilities can be pre-cast before entering combat
Final Setups
A few examples of final setups you could end up with after applying the situational skills to the base setup
A setup for trash packs
| Front Bar | Back Bar |
|---|---|
| Slot 1: Engulfing Dragonfire | Slot 1: Shatterspike Mantle |
| Slot 2: Incinerate | Slot 2: Proximity Detonation |
| Slot 3: Camouflaged Hunter | Slot 3: Molten Whip |
| Slot 4: Quick Cloak | Slot 4: Stampede |
| Slot 5: Banner Bearer | Slot 5: Banner Bearer |
| Ultimate: Take Flight | Ultimate: Flawless Dawnbreaker |
Some trees are only needed when using situational skills, for example Destruction Staff provides nothing without
Elemental Blockade
Class - Ardent Flame
Combustion - High Priority
Traumatic Burns - High Priority
Fan the Flames - High Priority
A Soul Ablaze - High Priority
Base Setup
A base setup that will work for most situations and which should be your starting point when making situational setups. It assumes your group provides Major Breach, Minor Breach, Infused Crusher and nothing more
Switching gear for trash packs isn't worth it unless you're using gear-swap addons
| Gear Slot | Set | Weight/Type | Trait | Enchantment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() Head |
Medium | |||
![]() Shoulders |
Light | |||
![]() Chest |
Medium | |||
![]() Hands |
Light | |||
![]() Belt |
Light | |||
![]() Legs |
Light | |||
![]() Boots |
Light | |||
![]() Necklace |
Jewelry | |||
![]() Ring |
Jewelry | |||
![]() Ring |
Jewelry | |||
![]() Frontbar Main Hand |
Dagger | |||
![]() Frontbar Off Hand |
Dagger | |||
![]() Backbar Main Hand |
Greatsword |
This setup parsed 138.1k DPS
Gear that is easier to obtain and can be used while you work towards the best gear
Crafted:
All of these are tradable and can be bought from other players
No Overland, Dungeon or Trial gear is listed as the Crafted options are superior.
Final Setups
A few examples of final setups you could end up with after applying situational rules to the base setup
This is the crafted gear setup you can start with
| Gear Slot | Set | Weight/Type | Trait | Enchantment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() Head |
Light | |||
![]() Shoulders |
Light | |||
![]() Chest |
Medium | |||
![]() Hands |
Light | |||
![]() Belt |
Light | |||
![]() Legs |
Medium | |||
![]() Boots |
Light | |||
![]() Necklace |
Jewelry | |||
![]() Ring |
Jewelry | |||
![]() Ring |
Jewelry | |||
![]() Frontbar Main Hand |
Dagger | |||
![]() Frontbar Off Hand |
Dagger | |||
![]() Backbar Main Hand |
Inferno Staff |
The crafted setup parses 111.1k DPS
When using it, you should also replace
Camouflaged Hunter with
Barbed Trap since this setup doesn't gete Minor Force from
Velothi Ur-Mage’s Amulet. Replacing
Stampede with
Elemental Blockade makes it easier to sustain and without
Merciless Charge there's very little difference between these two damage-wise
| Front Bar | Back Bar |
|---|---|
| Slot 1: Engulfing Dragonfire | Slot 1: Shatterspike Mantle |
| Slot 2: Searing Claw | Slot 2: Incinerate |
| Slot 3: Barbed Trap | Slot 3: Molten Whip |
| Slot 4: Quick Cloak | Slot 4: Elemental Blockade |
| Slot 5: Banner Bearer | Slot 5: Banner Bearer |
| Ultimate: Take Flight | Ultimate: Flawless Dawnbreaker |
This is a setup you should use if you don't have access to any Trial gear
| Gear Slot | Set | Weight/Type | Trait | Enchantment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() Head |
Medium | |||
![]() Shoulders |
Light | |||
![]() Chest |
Medium | |||
![]() Hands |
Light | |||
![]() Belt |
Light | |||
![]() Legs |
Medium | |||
![]() Boots |
Light | |||
![]() Necklace |
Jewelry | |||
![]() Ring |
Jewelry | |||
![]() Ring |
Jewelry | |||
![]() Frontbar Main Hand |
Dagger | |||
![]() Frontbar Off Hand |
Dagger | |||
![]() Backbar Main Hand |
Greatsword |
This setup parses 130.6k DPS
This is a setup you should use in trash packs
| Gear Slot | Set | Weight/Type | Trait | Enchantment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() Head |
Medium | |||
![]() Shoulders |
Light | |||
![]() Chest |
Medium | |||
![]() Hands |
Light | |||
![]() Belt |
Light | |||
![]() Legs |
Medium | |||
![]() Boots |
Light | |||
![]() Necklace |
Jewelry | |||
![]() Ring |
Jewelry | |||
![]() Ring |
Jewelry | |||
![]() Frontbar Main Hand |
Dagger | |||
![]() Frontbar Off Hand |
Dagger | |||
![]() Backbar Main Hand |
Greatsword |
This is a setup you can use if your team provides additional penetration
| Gear Slot | Set | Weight/Type | Trait | Enchantment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() Head |
Light | |||
![]() Shoulders |
Medium | |||
![]() Chest |
Medium | |||
![]() Hands |
Medium | |||
![]() Belt |
Medium | |||
![]() Legs |
Medium | |||
![]() Boots |
Medium | |||
![]() Necklace |
Jewelry | |||
![]() Ring |
Jewelry | |||
![]() Ring |
Jewelry | |||
![]() Frontbar Main Hand |
Dagger | |||
![]() Frontbar Off Hand |
Dagger | |||
![]() Backbar Main Hand |
Greatsword |
This setup parsed 148k DPS, though it was in a Single Target setup with
Barbed Trap. For comparison, the Regular Gear setup (with
Whorl of the Depths) did 140.3k with
Barbed Trap.
This setup can only be used if your team provides additional penetration, through for example
Roar of Alkosh
Warfare
Fitness
The difference between best and worst race is about 5% of DPS and there is no content in the entire game that you'd be blocked from completing because of choosing a bad race.
Best race for 12-man content - High Elf, Dark Elf
Best race for 4-man content - Khajiit
Other decent options: Orc, Breton
Use
The Thief Mundus, which increases your Critical Chance
HEALTH
0
STAMINA
0
MAGICKA
64
You should always put all 64 attribute points into Magicka
Your sustain can vary greatly because it's impacted by your race, the amount of synergies provided by your teammates, and by your armor type. Choose the food with more Magicka Recovery if you can't sustain
With Max HP - for most content:
Without Max HP - for parsing or content where you know you can get away with it:
Most of the time you should use the Weapon Power potions (Increase Weapon Power, Weapon Critical, Restore Stamina). They'll improve your Stamina sustain and provide Major Brutality which is crucial. You can craft them by combining
Blessed Thistle,
Dragonthorn and
Wormwood.
Spell Power potions (Increase Spell Power, Spell Critical, Restore Magicka) are very similar to Weapon Power potions, except they improve your Magicka sustain instead of Stamina sustain. The drawback is that the Major Sorcery they provide doesn't stack with your Minor Brutality from
Elder Dragon passive, so they're only equivalent to Weapon Power potions if there's someone in your team using the Dawn's Wrath skill line and providing Minor Sorcery with
Illuminate passive. You can craft them by combining
Lady's Smock,
Namira's Rot and
Corn Flower.
Heroism potions (Heroism, Restore Stamina, Restore Magicka) restore both Stamina and Magicka and can provide 100% uptime on Minor Heroism, allowing you to use a different Affix script on your
Banner Bearer, however you'll need another source of Major Brutality or Sorcery, like for example yours or a groupmate's
Igneous Weapons. You could also put
Brutality and Sorcery on your own
Banner Bearer, in which case we're back to square one in terms of buffs, but now our potions restore both Stamina and Magicka. This approach is straight up stronger but isn't recommended as part of regular setup because of how expensive Heroism potions are. They're crafted by combining
Dragon Rheum,
Dragon's Blood and
Columbine.
Tri-Stat potions (Restore Health, Restore Stamina, Restore Magicka) are basically Heroism potions without the Minor Heroism, and they're much cheaper. You can use them if you want potions which restore both Stamina and Magicka and you're already getting Major Brutality/Sorcery from somewhere else. You can craft them by combining
Columbine,
Bugloss and
Mountain's Flower.
If you want to greatly improve your survivability you can instead use Armor Potions. You'll need another source of Major Brutality/Sorcery and most likely you'll also have to slot
Soul of Flame, or get more sustain in other ways. You can craft them by combining
Bugloss,
Mountain's Flower and
Mudcrab Chitin.
148k on the 6mil dummy using Single Target, Medium Armor setup
Recording of the 148k parse
Regular (Whorl), Single Target skill setup - 140.3k DPS
Here you can see this build in action
Veteran Hard Mode Unhallowed Grave
Log - https://www.esologs.com/reports/Gg4jCwbt6BQ2vk3P?boss=2039&difficulty=10&wipes=1
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