BREATH DRAGONKNIGHT DPS GUIDE

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Breath Dragonknight


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


SKILL SETUPS


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
INFO arrow_down
SITUATIONAL arrow_down
ROTATION arrow_down

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

WHAT CHANGES:


PASSIVES

Some trees are only needed when using situational skills, for example Destruction Staff provides nothing without Elemental Blockade

  • Class
  • Weapon
  • Armor
  • Guild
  • Alliance War
  • Racial
  • Craft

Class - Ardent Flame

Combustion - High Priority

Traumatic Burns - High Priority

Fan the Flames - High Priority

A Soul Ablaze - High Priority


GEAR


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

Slimecraw Medium Divines Magicka

Shoulders

Whorl of the Depths Light Divines Magicka

Chest

Deadly Strike Medium Divines Magicka

Hands

Whorl of the Depths Light Divines Magicka

Belt

Whorl of the Depths Light Divines Magicka

Legs

Whorl of the Depths Light Divines Magicka

Boots

Whorl of the Depths Light Divines Magicka

Necklace

Velothi Ur-Mage's Amulet Jewelry Bloodthirsty Increase Physical Harm

Ring

Deadly Strike Jewelry Bloodthirsty Increase Physical Harm

Ring

Deadly Strike Jewelry Bloodthirsty Increase Physical Harm

Frontbar Main Hand

Deadly Strike Dagger Nirnhoned Poison

Frontbar Off Hand

Deadly Strike Dagger Charged Absorb Stamina

Backbar Main Hand

Merciless Charge Greatsword Infused Weapon Damage

This setup parsed 138.1k DPS

ALTERNATIVE arrow_down

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

Highland Sentinel Light Divines Magicka

Shoulders

Tide-Born Wildstalker Light Divines Magicka

Chest

Order's Wrath Medium Divines Magicka

Hands

Tide-Born Wildstalker Light Divines Magicka

Belt

Tide-Born Wildstalker Light Divines Magicka

Legs

Tide-Born Wildstalker Medium Divines Magicka

Boots

Tide-Born Wildstalker Light Divines Magicka

Necklace

Highland Sentinel Jewelry Bloodthirsty Increase Physical Harm

Ring

Order's Wrath Jewelry Bloodthirsty Increase Physical Harm

Ring

Order's Wrath Jewelry Bloodthirsty Increase Physical Harm

Frontbar Main Hand

Order's Wrath Dagger Nirnhoned Poison

Frontbar Off Hand

Order's Wrath Dagger Charged Absorb Stamina

Backbar Main Hand

Order's Wrath Inferno Staff Infused Weapon Damage

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

SKILL SETUP arrow_down

CHAMPION POINTS

Warfare

Fitness

ADDITIONAL INFO:


RACE

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


MUNDUS

Use The Thief Mundus, which increases your Critical Chance


ATTRIBUTES

HEALTH

0

STAMINA

0

MAGICKA

64

You should always put all 64 attribute points into Magicka


FOOD

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:


POTIONS

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 andCorn 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 andColumbine.

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 andMountain'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.


PARSE

148k on the 6mil dummy using Single Target, Medium Armor setup

Recording of the 148k parse

OTHER PARSES

Regular (Whorl), Single Target skill setup - 140.3k DPS


GAMEPLAY

Here you can see this build in action

Veteran Hard Mode Castle Thorn

Log - https://www.esologs.com/reports/Gg4jCwbt6BQ2vk3P?fight=48


THANKS FOR READING

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