ONE BAR HEAVY ATTACK SUBCLASS SORCERER PVE DPS BUILD
Last updated: Update 47 - 6th September 2025
This build focuses on amplifying Heavy Attacks with the
Sergeant’s Mail item set,
Rakkhat’s Voidmantle Mythic and the Empower buff sourced from the
Might of the Guild passive, procced by constantly using
Ulfsild's Contingency. It utilizes Subclassing to replace a mostly redundant Dark Magic skill line with much more powerful Assassination.
SUBCLASSING
Combination
Sorcerer - Storm Calling
Sorcerer - Daedric Summoning
Nightblade - Assassination
Base Class
This build uses 2 Sorcerer skill lines so the base class has to be Sorcerer.
SKILL SETUPS
Base Setup
A base setup that will work for most situations and which should be your starting point when making situational setups. It is also a very easy setup with very few active abilities, which makes it so you don't have to keep track of your Empower buff so playing it is just as easy as playing with the
Oakensoul Ring.
| Front Bar | Back Bar |
|---|---|
| Slot 1: Ulfsild's Contingency | Slot 1: Bound Aegis |
| Slot 2: Daedric Prey | Slot 2: Concealed Weapon |
| Slot 3: Summon Volatile Familiar | Slot 3: Merciless Resolve |
| Slot 4: Summon Twilight Matriarch | |
| Slot 5: Banner Bearer | |
| Ultimate: Soul Harvest |
Ulfsild's Contingency (
Shock,
Lingering Torment,
Force) - your source of crucial Empower buff, which increases damage done by Heavy Attacks by 70%. Since
Ulfsild's Contingency is a Mages Guild skill, it will trigger the
Might of the Guild passive, which grants you Empower for 10 seconds. It also deals decent damage in an AoE and grants you Minor Force buff, increasing your Critical Damage by 10%.
Ulfsild's Contingency is delayed until the next skill cast but whenever it's needed you can activate it early by bashing your enemy. If you cast this ability as you're finishing your Heavy Attack, the Empower you gain from it will start working just in time to boost the final tick of that Heavy Attack you just finished
Daedric Prey - increases damage done by your pets by 50% and deals AoE damage at the end
Summon Volatile Familiar - an ability that summons a pet, which can be reactivated to deal damage in an AoE around this pet over 20 seconds
Summon Twilight Matriarch - an ability that summons a pet, which can be reactivated to heal 2 friendly targets
Banner Bearer (
Magic,
Cavalier's Charge,
Berserk) - increases your Magical damage done by 6%, grants Weapon Damage based on your movement speed and grants Minor Berserk, increasing your damage done by 5%. You can change the
Berserk script to
Heroism if Minor Berserk is being provided by your supports
Soul Harvest - a cheap ultimate that increases target's damage taken from you by 20%. You need it on your frontbar to trigger passives of the Assassination skill line. Having it slotted will also cause you to regain 10 Ultimate whenever you deal a final blow against an enemy
Bound Aegis - an ability that will passively grant us Minor Resolve and Minor Protection, increasing our survivability
Merciless Resolve - an ability that will passively grant us Major Savagery and Prophecy
Concealed Weapon - an ability that will passively grant us 15% movement speed, which will grant us 90 Weapon and Spell Damage thanks to the
Cavalier's Charge script on
Banner Bearer
- Whenever you need to slot situational skills, replace
Daedric Prey
Elemental Blockade - your source of Off Balance if supports aren't providing it. It requires enemies to be Concussed, so you'll have to use Shock enchant to proc it or rely on your teammates for that.
Elemental Susceptibility - use it as your source of Major Breach whenever you're assigned to mechanics that separate you from your group, like for example portal in the Nahviintaas fight, Reef Hearts in the Reef Guardian fight, bridge in the Taleria fight, etc.
Summon Twilight Tormentor - this morph deals a bit more damage than the
Summon Twilight Matriarch morph but you lose the access to the heal. It is an option depending on what you're trying to achieve, use it if you don't mind sacrificing a backup heal for a bit more damage
Priority List
I don't use a static rotation so 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
- Use
Ulfsild's Contingency if your Empower is out or if it's going to run out by the end of the Heavy Attack you're channeling - Use your front-bar Ultimate (either
Soul Harvest or
Summon Charged Atronach) whenever it's ready - Use
Daedric Prey - Use
Summon Volatile Familiar - Use
Merciless Resolve if you have it slotted on frontbar and if you have at least 5 stacks - If enemy is above 50% HP, use
Summon Twilight Tormentor (only if you're using the Tormentor morph) - Use
Ulfsild's Contingency as a filler
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 which uses more active abilities, which does more damage but requires you to keep track of the Empower buff
| Front Bar | Back Bar |
|---|---|
| Slot 1: Ulfsild's Contingency | Slot 1: Bound Aegis |
| Slot 2: Daedric Prey | Slot 2: Concealed Weapon |
| Slot 3: Summon Volatile Familiar | |
| Slot 4: Summon Twilight Matriarch | |
| Slot 5: Merciless Resolve | |
| Ultimate: Summon Charged Atronach | Ultimate: Soul Harvest |
EXPLANATION:
Merciless Resolve replaces
Banner Bearer
Summon Charged Atronach replaces
Soul Harvest. It's possible because now
Merciless Resolve is proccing Assassination skill line's passives which require you to have an Assassination skill slotted
Soul Harvest is slotted as a back-bar ultimate as it triggers the passive which causes you to gain 10 Ultimate on kills
A setup you should use when your supports aren't providing the crucial Off Balance debuff
| Front Bar | Back Bar |
|---|---|
| Slot 1: Ulfsild's Contingency | Slot 1: Bound Aegis |
| Slot 2: Elemental Blockade | Slot 2: Concealed Weapon |
| Slot 3: Summon Volatile Familiar | Slot 3: Merciless Resolve |
| Slot 4: Summon Twilight Matriarch | |
| Slot 5: Banner Bearer | |
| Ultimate: Soul Harvest |
EXPLANATION:
Elemental Blockade replaces
Daedric Prey, so that you can apply Off Balance yourself
PASSIVES
There are no passives you need to skip with this build
Class
Weapon
Armor
Guild
Alliance War
Racial
Craft
Class - Daedric Summoning
Rebate - Low Priority
Power Stone - High Priority
Daedric Protection - Low Priority
Expert Summoner - Medium Priority
GEAR
Base Setup
A base setup that will work for most situations and which should be your starting point when making situational setups
Switching gear for trash packs isn't worth it unless you're using gear-swap addons
Default setup
| Gear Slot | Set | Weight/Type | Trait | Enchantment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() Head |
Light | |||
![]() Shoulders |
Medium | |||
![]() Chest |
Light | |||
![]() Hands |
Light | |||
![]() Belt |
Light | |||
![]() Legs |
Light | |||
![]() Boots |
Light | |||
![]() Necklace |
Jewelry | |||
![]() Ring |
Jewelry | |||
![]() Ring |
Jewelry | |||
![]() Frontbar Main Hand |
Lightning Staff |
When choosing different situational sets you can only replace
Infallible Mage.
Sergeant’s Mail and
Rakkhat’s Voidmantle are too strong and too crucial for this build to ever be replaced. If you want to use a Medium Armor set, you have to make sure your group is providing enough penetration
Infallible Mage parses 116.1k DPS which is only 4k lower than the top setup which is
Slivers of Null Arca, but
Slivers of Null Arca is focused on Single Target damage and it's a Medium set so when using it, you have to make sure your supports are providing you with enough penetration. Because of that,
Infallible Mage is the most practical set.
Gear that can be stronger than the setup from the table in specific situations or when specific circumstances are present
Sul-Xan’s Torment - the best set for trash packs and for bosses that regularly spawn smaller adds
Slivers of Null Arca - the best set for Single Target damage
Storm Master - extremely volatile set which parses between 119k and 109.6k DPS. Use it if you like gambling
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
Dungeons:
PvP:
All of these are tradable and can be bought from other players
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 |
Medium | |||
![]() Chest |
Light | |||
![]() Hands |
Light | |||
![]() Belt |
Light | |||
![]() Legs |
Light | |||
![]() Boots |
Light | |||
![]() Necklace |
Jewelry | |||
![]() Ring |
Jewelry | |||
![]() Ring |
Jewelry | |||
![]() Frontbar Main Hand |
Lightning Staff |
The crafted setup parses 80.6k DPS, although a huge majority of this DPS loss stems from lack of
Sergeant’s Mail
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 |
Light | |||
![]() Shoulders |
Medium | |||
![]() Chest |
Light | |||
![]() Hands |
Light | |||
![]() Belt |
Light | |||
![]() Legs |
Light | |||
![]() Boots |
Light | |||
![]() Necklace |
Jewelry | |||
![]() Ring |
Jewelry | |||
![]() Ring |
Jewelry | |||
![]() Frontbar Main Hand |
Lightning Staff |
This setup parses 113.7k DPS
ADDITIONAL INFO:
Noble Duelist replaces
Infallible Mage
This is a setup you should use if you don't have access to Rakkhat's Voidmantle Mythic
| Gear Slot | Set | Weight/Type | Trait | Enchantment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() Head |
Light | |||
![]() Shoulders |
Medium | |||
![]() Chest |
Light | |||
![]() Hands |
Light | |||
![]() Belt |
Light | |||
![]() Legs |
Light | |||
![]() Boots |
Light | |||
![]() Necklace |
Jewelry | |||
![]() Ring |
Jewelry | |||
![]() Ring |
Jewelry | |||
![]() Frontbar Main Hand |
Lightning Staff |
A setup similar to this (with
Slivers of Null Arca instead of
Infallible Mage) parsed 112.9k DPS
ADDITIONAL INFO:
Anthelmir’s Construct replaces
Rakkhat’s Voidmantle and
Slimecraw
The best setup for Single Target damage
| 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 |
Lightning Staff |
This setup parsed 120.5k with the min-max skill setup. Keep in mind you have to make sure your supports are providing enough penetration if you want to use this setup, because
Slivers of Null Arca is a Medium Armor set.
ADDITIONAL INFO:
Slivers of Null Arca replaces
Infallible Mage
CHAMPION POINTS
Warfare
Weapons Expert (20% Light and Heavy Attack Damage)
Deadly Aim (6% Single Target Damage)
Wrathful-Strikes (205 Weapon and Spell Damage)
Exploiter (10% Damage against Off Balance enemies)
Fitness
Boundless Vitality (1400 Max Health)
Fortified (1731 armor)
Celerity (10% Movement Speed)
Rejuvenation (90 Health, Stamina and Magicka Recovery)
ADDITIONAL INFO:
- Replace
Wrathful Strikes with
Fighting Finesse if you aren't at the Critical Damage cap, for example because you're using Light Armor or because your supports aren't providing enough buffs
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
ATTRIBUTES
HEALTH
0
STAMINA
0
MAGICKA
64
You should always put all 64 attribute points into Magicka
FOOD
Artaeum Pickled Fish Bowl - Max Health, Max Magicka. Use it for most of regular content.
Solitude Salmon-Millet Soup is a cheaper alternative
Tomato Garlic Chutney - Max Magicka. Use it for practice dummy parsing
POTIONS
Use the Spell Power potions (Increase Spell Power, Spell Critical, Restore Magicka). They'll provide Major Sorcery and Major Prophecy which are crucial buffs. You can craft them by combining
Lady's Smock,
Namira's Rot and
Corn Flower.
PARSE
Combat Metrics screenshot of the 120.5k parse
Recording of the 120k parse
OTHER PARSES
Not all parses use gear that's worth getting. Some parses (such as Oakensoul and Tide-Born Wildstalker) were done to debunk common misinformation, because these sets are wrongly regarded as good for Heavy Attack builds
Infallible Aether - 116.1k DPS
GAMEPLAY
Logs of Veteran Trials I've finished using this build
Cloudrest - https://www.esologs.com/reports/Hbn9QcpC8VZMW2Lg
Lucent Citadel - https://www.esologs.com/reports/BTbzKL7dPkgpFaC9?
Aetherian Archive - https://www.esologs.com/reports/7D2qyThHzv1wMdkQ
THANKS FOR READING
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