Arcanist Solo Guide & Build | ESO - Elder Scrolls Online

Table of contents

Skill Setups
Gear
Champion Points
Race
Mundus
Attributes
Food
Potions
Gameplay

Last updated: Update 44 - 18th December 2024

This build is capable of soloing every Veteran dungeon that doesn’t have a specific mechanic that requires multiple people. It’s also capable of soloing most Hard Mode dungeons, and with some adjustments even the more difficult ones, like for example Bedlam Veil or Oathsworn Pit.

In this guide I’ll be regularly using the terms Regular and Difficult. Regular refers to content that is intended to be solo-ed (such as Maelstrom Arena or Vateshran Arena) and to any overland content such as World Bosses, Dolmens, Dragons, Volcanic Vents, Harrowstorms, Mirrormoor Incursions, etc. Difficult refers to soloing 4-man content such as dungeons.

SKILL SETUPS

Front Bar	Back Bar
Slot 1: Cephaliarch's Flail	Slot 1: Cruxeaver Armor
Slot 2: Pragmatic Fatecarver	Slot 2: Runeguard of Still Waters
Slot 3: Barbed Trap	Slot 3: Elemental Susceptibility
Slot 4: Quick Cloak	Slot 4: Elemental Blockade
Slot 5: Camouflaged Hunter	Slot 5: Inspired Scholarship
Ultimate: Flawless Dawnbreaker	Ultimate: The Languid Eye

ADDITIONAL INFO:

Replace Flawless Dawnbreaker with The Languid Eye on your frontbar when doing instanced content, as instanced enemies have 18200 armor rather than 9100, so you'll benefit more from The Languid Eye proccing Splintered Secrets, rather than from Flawless Dawnbreaker proccing Slayer

Front Bar	Back Bar
Slot 1: Cephaliarch's Flail	Slot 1: Cruxeaver Armor
Slot 2: Pragmatic Fatecarver	Slot 2: Runeguard of Still Waters
Slot 3: Ulfsild's Contingency	Slot 3: Elemental Susceptibility
Slot 4: Quick Cloak	Slot 4: Elemental Blockade
Slot 5: Camouflaged Hunter	Slot 5: Recuperative Treatise
Ultimate: The Languid Eye	Ultimate: Sanctum of the Abyssal Sea

ADDITIONAL INFO:

Use the Bleed, Gladiator's Tenacity and Force combination on your Ulfsild's Contingency

GEAR

This is the crafted gear setup you can start with.

Gear Slot	Set	Weight/Type	Trait	Enchantment
Head	Claw of the Forest Wraith	Medium	Training /Divines	Stamina
Shoulders	Claw of the Forest Wraith	Medium	Training /Divines	Stamina
Chest	Order's Wrath	Heavy	Training /Reinforced	Stamina
Hands	Order's Wrath	Medium	Training /Divines	Stamina
Belt	Order's Wrath	Light	Training /Divines	Stamina
Legs	Order's Wrath	Medium	Training /Divines	Stamina
Boots	Order's Wrath	Medium	Training /Divines	Stamina
Necklace	Claw of the Forest Wraith	Jewelry	Bloodthirsty	Increase Physical Harm
Ring	Claw of the Forest Wraith	Jewelry	Bloodthirsty	Increase Physical Harm
Ring	Claw of the Forest Wraith	Jewelry	Bloodthirsty	Increase Physical Harm
Frontbar Main Hand	Assasin's Guile	Dagger	Nirnhoned	Absorb Stamina
Frontbar Off Hand	Assasin's Guile	Dagger	Charged	Poison
Backbar Main Hand	Assasin's Guile	Ice Staff	Infused	Weapon Damage

ADDITIONAL INFO:

Use Training traits if you're still leveling. If you're already max level and have enough Champion Points you can instead use Divines and Reinforced on the chest piece

This is my suggested setup for regular content, such as Solo Arenas, World Bosses, Dolmens, Dragons, Volcanic Vents, Harrowstorms, Mirrormoor Incursions. You can also use it for easier dungeons.

Gear Slot	Set	Weight/Type	Trait	Enchantment
Head	Slimecraw	Light	Divines	Stamina
Shoulders	Deadly Strike	Medium	Divines	Stamina
Chest	Ansuul's Torment	Medium	Divines	Stamina
Hands	Ansuul's Torment	Medium	Divines	Stamina
Belt	Ansuul's Torment	Medium	Divines	Stamina
Legs	Ansuul's Torment	Medium	Divines	Stamina
Boots	Ansuul's Torment	Medium	Divines	Stamina
Necklace	Deadly Strike	Jewelry	Bloodthirsty	Increase Physical Harm
Ring	Deadly Strike	Jewelry	Bloodthirsty	Increase Physical Harm
Ring	Ring of the Pale Order	Jewelry	Bloodthirsty	Increase Physical Harm
Frontbar Main Hand	Deadly Strike	Dagger	Nirnhoned	Absorb Stamina
Frontbar Off Hand	Deadly Strike	Dagger	Charged	Poison
Backbar Main Hand	Crushing Wall	Ice Staff	Infused	Weapon Damage

ADDITIONAL INFO:

Order’s Wrath is an extremely powerful set despite being crafted so it's a good replacement for Ansuul’s Torment if you don't have access to it
Azureblight Reaper is better than Ansuul’s Torment in fights with lots of enemies
Velothi Ur-Mage’s Amulet can give you much more DPS at the cost of survivability. You can use it instead of Ring of the Pale Order when doing easier content

This is my suggested setup for soloing difficult 4-man dungeons.

Gear Slot	Set	Weight/Type	Trait	Enchantment
Head	Slimecraw	Heavy	Reinforced	Stamina
Shoulders	Ansuul's Torment	Medium	Divines /Well-Fitted	Stamina
Chest	Ansuul's Torment	Medium	Divines /Well-Fitted	Stamina
Hands	Ansuul's Torment	Medium	Divines /Well-Fitted	Stamina
Belt	Vestment of Olorime	Light	Divines /Well-Fitted	Stamina
Legs	Ansuul's Torment	Medium	Divines /Well-Fitted	Stamina
Boots	Ansuul's Torment	Medium	Divines /Well-Fitted	Stamina
Necklace	Vestment of Olorime	Jewelry	Bloodthirsty	Increase Physical Harm
Ring	Vestment of Olorime	Jewelry	Bloodthirsty	Increase Physical Harm
Ring	Ring of the Pale Order	Jewelry	Bloodthirsty	Increase Physical Harm
Frontbar Main Hand	Spectral Cloak	Dagger	Nirnhoned	Absorb Stamina
Frontbar Off Hand	Spectral Cloak	Dagger	Charged	Poison
Backbar Main Hand	Vestment of Olorime	Ice Staff	Infused	Weapon Damage

ADDITIONAL INFO:

Order’s Wrath is an extremely powerful set despite being crafted so it's a good replacement for Ansuul’s Torment if you don't have access to it
Azureblight Reaper is better than Ansuul’s Torment in fights with lots of enemies
You can change some (or all) of the Stamina enchants to Health ones for extremely hard hitting bosses

CHAMPION POINTS

Warfare

Biting Aura (6% AoE Damage)
Thaumaturge (6% DoT Damage)
Fighting Finesse (8% Critical Damage and Healing)
Wrathful Strikes (205 Weapon and Spell Damage added to damaging skills)

Fitness

Boundless Vitality (1400 Max Health)
Bastion (15% stronger damage shields)
Rejuvenation (90 Health, Stamina and Magicka Recovery)
Fortified (1731 armor)

ADDITIONAL INFO:

When soloing extremely difficult dungeons you should replace Wrathful Strikes and Fighting Finesse with 2 of the 4 mitigation CPs (Ironclad, Duelist’s Rebuff, Enduring Resolve, Unassailable)
You can replace Rejuvenation with Sustained by Suffering in fights where you constantly have a debuff on yourself

RACE

When it comes to solo PvE, you need both damage and survivability so pretty much all races have useful racials.

The best race for dealing damage is Khajiit. While the Critical Damage from Feline Ambush can sometimes be wasted due to Critical Damage being capped at 125%, it will never happen in solo content, because there will be no tanks or healers providing you with the Major Force buff.

The best race for survivability is Nord. The Rugged racial will provide around 6% damage mitigation.

MUNDUS

Huge majority of the time you should use The Thief Mundus, which increases your Critical Chance.

For extremely difficult dungeons you should consider switching to The Lady Mundus, which increases your Armor.

ATTRIBUTES

HEALTH

STAMINA

MAGICKA

For most content you should put all 64 points into Stamina. For difficult content you should devote as many attribute points as necessary to Health - for some content you’ll be able to get away with 32 Health 32 Stamina, for the extremely difficult stuff you’ll need 64 Health.

FOOD

For regular content you should use the Garlic Cod with Potato Crust, which increases your Max Health and Max Stamina. For more difficult content use Artaeum Takeaway Broth, which provides smaller amount of Max Health and Max Stamina, but provides Stamina Recovery on top of that.

Other decent foods:

Orzorga's Smoked Bear Haunch is a very good alternative to Artaeum Takeaway Broth for difficult fights which force you to constantly re-apply Runeguard of Still Waters, because it provides additional Magicka Recovery, though it doesn’t provide Max Stamina so it will be a DPS loss
Jewels of Misrule is basically a much cheaper Orzorga's Smoked Bear Haunch but with slightly lower stats

POTIONS

Most of the time you should use Tri-Stat potions (Restore Health, Restore Stamina, Restore Magicka). They'll greatly improve you sustain. You can craft them by combining Columbine, Bugloss and Mountain's Flower.

There are better potions but they're extremely expensive. Heroism potions (Heroism, Restore Stamina, Restore Magicka) can provide a 100% uptime on Minor Heroism buff which generates ultimate, but they're extremely expensive because they're crafted by combining Dragon Rheum, Dragon's Blood and Columbine.

In situations where you need more damage mitigation and you can spare some sustain, you can instead use the Armor potions, which will increase your armor by 5280. You can craft them by combining Bugloss, Mountain's Flower and Mudcrab Chitin.