Hyperioxes
Hyperioxes

Breath Dragonknight Solo Build - ESO Guide

Solo Two Bar Magicka Pure Class Dragonknight
Up to date for: Update 51 - 11th October 2026
Last changed: Update 51 - 11th October 2026

Breath Dragonknight Solo Build for ESO, built around , a channeled fire breath that ramps up in damage over 4.8 seconds and synergizes with the ultimate.

It has less DPS and survivability than regular Magicka Dragonknight and Stamina Dragonknight, but has better AoE damage, is much easier to play, and is still a good option in ESO Update 51.

Capable of soloing every Veteran dungeon that doesn't have a mechanic requiring multiple people, including Veteran Hard Mode Falkreath Hold and Veteran Castle Thorn. It parses 69.6k DPS on the 6 million dummy.

Looking for something simpler? Check out the One Bar Breath Dragonknight Solo Build which can also solo Veteran Hard Mode dungeons with a single skill bar.

The video is from an older patch - the written guide below is more up to date.

Simulated DPS is up by 1.8% compared to U50.

Skills

  • now costs 3510 Magicka instead of 3780 Magicka and reduces damage taken by 15% while channeling
  • now costs 3240 Magicka instead of being free
  • now grants only , which provides both Weapon and Spell Critical Chance
  • now grants only , which provides both Weapon and Spell Damage

Dragonknight

  • now stacks up to 12 times instead of 10, generates a stack every 4 seconds instead of 5 at maximum rank, and loses a stack after 6 seconds without generating another
  • also uses the higher stack cap and new decay behavior
  • grants , which now increases both Weapon and Spell Damage

Gear

  • now works in Overland

Consumables

  • now uses the Essence of Spell Protection name and updated icon
  • and potions replace Heroism potions
Article ESO Update 51 PTS Patch Notes & Changes ESO Update 51 PTS patch notes covering buff hybridization, class and weapon changes, Werewolf, item sets, Solo Dungeons, and undocumented changes.

Simulated Parse Tables

I built a simulator that takes the current setup from the guide and plays it through the listed rotation. It uses the listed gear, skills, Champion Points, race, Mundus, food, potions, target armor and target health. It tracks skill casts, light attacks, DoT ticks, cooldowns, execute scaling, crits and status effect rolls. It assumes 100% of light attacks hit and a 0.025 second weave average.

Every comparison table in this guide is the average of 10 deterministic sims, with the dummy's health spread between 5.55 and 6.45 million HP. A single sim can be off by up to 1.5%, because the result depends on when the killing hit lands. The Base Setup with the Instanced gear is treated as the default.

For comparison tables I keep the setup identical and change one thing at a time. That makes the tables better for comparing options than random dummy parses, where one run can get better crits, different status effects or a better execute window.

Base Setup

Run DPS
Deterministic sim (5.55-6.45m average)
70.4k DPS
Real 6m CMX parse
69.6k DPS
100 random 6m sims
Lowest 68.6k DPS
Highest 74.4k DPS
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Class Mastery

Class Masteries are a system where each class picks 2 of 5 passive bonuses (Class Mastery Points, not Skill Points). Activating subclassing disables Class Mastery, so it's a tradeoff between keeping your native skill lines or subclassing.

Situational

Dragonknight Class Mastery

Resolute Defense

You are as unyielding as a mountain.

Each second you remain Bracing, you increase the amount of damage you block by 6%, up to 5 times.

Blocking damage has a 20% chance to restore 500 Stamina. This effect can occur once every block cost.

Notes

Replaces in fights where you have to block a lot.

Not worth it

Dragonknight Class Mastery

Booming Voice

Let your voice echo across the peaks.

Activating rank 2 of now also grants 5 Health, Magicka, and Stamina Recovery for every Ultimate spent for 10 seconds after a delay of 15 seconds.

Notes

Not useful for this setup.

Dragonknight Class Mastery

Lead From the Front

Let others be swept along in the wake of your flame.

Activating rank 2 of grants you and group members within 28 meters of you and for 1 second per 15 Ultimate spent, increasing damage done and reducing damage taken by 10%.

Notes

Not useful for this setup.

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: Quick Cloak Slot 3: Elemental Susceptibility
Slot 4: Ulfsild's Contingency Slot 4: Elemental Blockade
Slot 5: Soul of Flame Slot 5: Igneous Weapons
Ultimate: Take Flight Ultimate: Flawless Dawnbreaker
  • - the main ability of this build, a 4.8 second channeled attack which causes you to breathe fire in front of you (0.3 second windup and then deals damage every 0.5 seconds, 10 ticks in total). While channeling, you take 15% less damage. Its damage ramps up by 5% each tick up to 50% on the last tick, but it always deals maximum damage while 's bonus is active. Unlike other channeled abilities, this one doesn't go on cooldown when you get interrupted.
  • - deals direct damage and applies a 10 second DoT which deals 10% more damage every 2 seconds. The initial hit is guaranteed to proc Burning status effect.
  • - an ability that causes AoE explosions around you every 2 seconds for 30 seconds. It will also grant you Major Evasion for the duration, reducing your AoE damage taken by 20%. It will also grant you Major Expedition for 4 seconds after casting, increasing your Movement Speed by 30%.
  • (, , ) - a 22 second DoT which will also grant you Minor Resolve, increasing your armor by 2974. Having it slotted will also increase your Max Magicka and Magicka Recovery through passive
  • - interrupts enemies around you, restores 12% missing Stamina and Magicka every 2 seconds over 4 seconds (ticks 3 times) and deals damage in an AoE at the end
  • - a cheap ultimate which gives you a 20% Damage Done against Monsters buff for 15 seconds. Your always deals maximum damage while 's buff is active.
  • - your source of Major Resolve which also applies a 20 second DoT to enemies around you and grants you a buff which adds 100 damage to all of your damage ticks
  • - an ability which releases a fiery wave around you on cast and then every 5 seconds for 15 seconds. It has increased base chance to proc Burning status effect. Having it slotted passively grants you Major Savagery.
  • - an extremely strong ability that does a multitude of things. It costs 3240 Magicka. It applies Major Breach, which reduces enemies' armor by 5948 which is a massive damage increase. It also applies Burning, Chilled and Concussed status effects at the beginning and then every 7.5 seconds. All of these Status Effects deal decent damage, but Concussed will also apply Minor Vulnerability for 4 seconds, increasing enemies' damage taken by 5%. Chilled will also apply Minor Maim for 4 seconds, reducing enemies' damage done by 5% and it will also apply Minor Brittle for 4 seconds if you were on your Ice Staff bar while the Chilled effect procced, and Ice Staff will be part of the Instanced gear setup. Minor Brittle increases Critical Damage taken by 10%. The Chilled proc will also synergise with our
  • - this ability will constantly apply your enchantment. If it's the Ice version, it will also constantly apply Minor Breach to enemies who are Chilled, and they'll be Chilled thanks to
  • - a 60 second buff which grants you Major Brutality and causes your Light Attacks to deal additional damage up to once every 2 seconds.
  • - since this build revolves around you'll want to always use as your ultimate. is slotted on backbar to passively provide some Weapon and Spell Damage through passive

is the first skill that has to go if you need to slot something situational, unless the situational skill specifically says it's replacing something else. If it's a difficult fight where you need all the mitigation you can get, then the skill that has to go is .

  • - use it for fights where there's a lot of damage happening in a short burst. The HoT from is short but very strong, so casting it at the right time can help you survive such mechanics. It can also be used in fights with invulnerability phases where you can't heal with or
  • - a chain ability that you can use to stack enemies. Use it in trash packs or in boss fights with adds that have to be chained. It also applies Major Cowardice which can be useful against hard hitting bosses. It isn't worth slotting just for the Major Cowardice alone, but if you already slotted it to deal with the adds you might as well use it on the boss
  • - a gap closer which can be useful in fights where you have to move around a lot
  • - a source of AoE Major Breach which can be used instead of in AoE fights
  • (, , ) - an 8 meter AoE pull with a 2 second delay which will debuff your enemies with Minor Breach and grant you Weapon and Spell Damage based on number of enemies hit
  • (, , ) - a different script combination which trades the DoT from for the mitigation from . Use it in fights where you need more damage mitigation
  • - slot it for more difficult fights where you need more damage mitigation. It's a skill that passively grants Major Protection, reducing your damage taken by 10%. It will also trigger the passive, which increases Magicka Recovery by 10%
  • - the other morph of which doesn't deal more damage with time, but instead heals you on cast and every time the DoT ticks. Use it if you need more healing
  • replaces . Use if you want more healing and do not need the interrupt. About a 0.4% DPS loss compared to
  • (either morph) - an extremely situational ability which can be useful in fights with lots of projectile damage
  • - snare removal which will be crucial for some fights
  • - an ultimate that breaks you out of some otherwise unavoidable stuns, you'll need it to get around some mechanics which are otherwise impossible or very difficult to solo, like for example Inferno's Hold in Zaan the Scalecaller fight
  • - an ultimate that limits any damage you take to 6% of your max HP for 10 seconds, useful in fights with infrequent hard hitting mechanics
  • - a decent damage shield which also reduces the next instance of damage you take by 10% and heals you after the shield ends. It has a similar use case to , but it costs Magicka instead of Stamina, and damage shields will perform better than healing in some fights, where you need to prepare for a bigger hit

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.

This rotation is for maximizing damage. In actual content you'll sometimes have different priorities. When under pressure you should always keep up defensive abilities like and , even if it means wasting 's buff

Inside of your window you can freely cancel to refresh DoTs. Outside of , you want to finish and refresh DoTs after it ends.

When has about 3 seconds left, cancel and cast it again, even if you just started it. makes it deal max damage anyway, so the weak start of the new cast doesn't matter, and it's already ramped up when ends.

  1. (when low on resources)

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: Soul Burst Slot 2: Incinerate
Slot 3: Quick Cloak Slot 3: Razor Caltrops
Slot 4: Chains of Dominance Slot 4: Elemental Blockade
Slot 5: Soul of Flame Slot 5: Igneous Weapons
Ultimate: Take Flight Ultimate: Flawless Dawnbreaker

What Changes

Changes compared to the Base Setup

  • replaces
  • replaces
  • replaces

Passives

The only passive you specifically have to skip is , but it's only important when using an Ice Staff

Some trees are only needed when using situational skills, for example Psijic Order provides nothing without

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

Overland (Base) is your starting point and works for most situations. Crafted is a beginner version using only craftable sets. Instanced is a swap for Arenas and Dungeons where enemies have higher armor.

Switching gear for trash packs isn't worth it unless you're using gear-swap addons

Gear Slot Set Weight/Type Trait Enchantment
HeadHead Medium
ShouldersShoulders Medium
ChestChest Heavy
HandsHands Medium
BeltBelt Light
LegsLegs Medium
FeetBoots Medium
NeckNecklace Jewelry
RingRing Jewelry
RingRing Jewelry
MainhandFrontbar Main Hand Dagger
OffhandFrontbar Off Hand Dagger
MainhandBackbar Main Hand Inferno Staff
Look here You don't need the Trial gear. The PvP set is about 2.8% less damage, while the Crafted set is about 4.8% less damage.
(PvP)
About 2.8% less damage
(Crafted)
About 4.8% less damage
Body
Pyrebrand - Class Set (Infinite Archive)

If you don't have it, use in order

  1. - PvP Set (Cyrodiil)
  2. - Dungeon Set (Frostvault)
  3. - Crafted
Weapons and Jewelry
Whorl of the Depths - Trial Set (Dreadsail Reef)

If you don't have it, use in order

  1. - PvP Set (Cyrodiil)
  2. - Dungeon Set (Frostvault)
  3. - Crafted
Monster Helm
Selene - Monster Set (Selene's Web)

Alternative (same bonus)

  1. - Crypt of Hearts II

Use the Penetration Calculator to fine-tune your penetration for different content. Overland enemies have 9,100 armor while Instanced enemies (Arenas and Dungeons) have 18,200.

Tool Penetration Calculator Check your total armor penetration in ESO and see exactly how much DPS you're losing. Find out if you've hit the penetration cap for the type of content you're doing.

Gear Set Comparisons

Damage comparison for the set options.

All of these use with the Mundus.

Belt + Weapons + Jewelry

Compares + X belt, weapons and jewelry set.

Source
Set Source Simulated Parse Damage Change
(Interrupt) Trial - Sanity's Edge
74.4k DPS
+5.5%
(Soul) Trial - Rockgrove
72.1k DPS
+2.3%
Trial - Dreadsail Reef
70.4k DPS
Baseline
Trial - Lucent Citadel
70.2k DPS
-0.3%
(No Interrupt) Trial - Sanity's Edge
68.8k DPS
-2.3%
PvP - Cyrodiil
68.7k DPS
-2.5%
Dungeon - Frostvault
68.2k DPS
-3.1%
(3 Stacks) Crafted
67.9k DPS
-3.7%
Crafted
67.7k DPS
-3.9%
Crafted
67.1k DPS
-4.7%
Dungeon - Unhallowed Grave
67.0k DPS
-4.9%
Overland - West Weald
66.9k DPS
-5.0%
(No Soul) Trial - Rockgrove
66.7k DPS
-5.3%
Dungeon - Falkreath Hold
66.2k DPS
-6.0%
Overland - Deshaan
66.2k DPS
-6.1%
Crafted
66.2k DPS
-6.1%
(0 Stacks) Crafted
65.9k DPS
-6.5%
Overland - Wrothgar
65.7k DPS
-6.7%
Crafted
65.7k DPS
-6.7%
Overland - Blackwood
65.3k DPS
-7.4%
Crafted ( + ) Crafted
64.3k DPS
-8.7%

Front Bar Weapons

Dual Wield is the default weapon.

Front Bar Weapon Simulated Parse Damage Change
Dual Wield
70.4k DPS
Baseline
Bow
69.1k DPS
-1.9%
Greatsword
69.0k DPS
-2.1%
Lightning Staff
68.6k DPS
-2.7%
Inferno Staff
68.4k DPS
-2.9%
Ice Staff
66.9k DPS
-5.0%
Restoration Staff
65.7k DPS
-6.7%
One Handed and Shield
65.6k DPS
-6.9%

Every option other than Dual Wield replaces with , because Quick Cloak is a Dual Wield skill. Dual Wield uses a Dagger and a Dagger. Every one-weapon option uses a weapon. One Handed and Shield uses a one handed weapon plus a shield.

Situational Swaps

Alternative setups for different goals and content types

  • Use in fights where you can interrupt something at least once every 30 seconds.
  • Use instead of in fights where you can kill an add every 30 seconds.
  • In fights where you have to block a lot, use instead of .

Additional Tips

  • You can change some (or all) of the enchants to ones for extremely hard hitting bosses
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Champion Points

Unlock Order

WarfareWarfare
6% Direct Damage
Because more than 60% of your damage is Direct
6% AoE Damage
Because more than 60% of your damage is AoE
205 Weapon and Spell Damage
Added to all damaging skills
8% Critical Damage and Healing
Next strongest CP damage-wise
More Mitigation
Replace + with 2 mitigation CPs: , , , or (depending on the type of damage the Boss deals to you)
More Healing
is a decent Champion Point if you need more HPS
FitnessFitness
1400 Max Health
Survivability
1731 Armor
Survivability
90 Health, Stamina and Magicka Recovery
Sustain
1500 Magicka on kills
Sustain in fights with adds
Block Mitigation
Use in fights where you block a lot
Movement
Use in fights where you need to move a lot
Situational Stamina Sustain
Use alongside in fights with lots of adds
Situational Sustain
You can use in fights with a constant debuff on you
Craft Craft
20% Movement Speed out of combat
Extremely useful utility
Quality of Life
Green Champion Points don't affect Combat, choose whatever Quality of Life you prefer

Race

For solo you need both damage and survivability, so every race brings something to the table. I use Nord because in difficult solo content the armor racial is worth the DPS trade-off. If you want to use a different race, the table shows comparison between their DPS.

Nord
Nord
The tankiest race. Nord is also what I use for soloing Veteran Hard Mode DLC Dungeons. provides around 5-7% damage mitigation depending on your current armor, making difficult content easier to survive without sacrificing much damage.
Rugged 2600 armor
Stalwart 1500 Max Stamina, 0.5 Ultimate per second
Resist Frost 1000 Max Health, 4620 Frost Resistance
Race Simulated Parse Damage Change
High Elf
73.5k DPS
+4.3%
Dark Elf
73.4k DPS
+4.2%
Khajiit
72.7k DPS
+3.2%
Orc
72.5k DPS
+2.9%
Breton
71.3k DPS
+1.3%
Wood Elf
71.0k DPS
+0.8%
Argonian
70.9k DPS
+0.7%
Nord
70.4k DPS
Baseline
Redguard
70.4k DPS
0.0%
Imperial
70.4k DPS
0.0%

Mundus

  • Default

    238 Weapon Damage(389 with 7 )
    Use in all Overland content and most situations. It increases Weapon and Spell Damage
  • Instanced

    2744 Penetration(4489 with 7 )
    Switch when using the Instanced setup. Provides penetration to compensate for the higher armor of Instanced enemies
  • Difficult Content

    2744 Armor(4489 with 7 )
    Consider for extremely difficult dungeons. If you're a Nord, you're already Armor capped with the default setup.

Attributes

For most content you should put all 64 points into Magicka. 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 Magicka, for the extremely difficult stuff you'll need 64 Health.

Health
0
Stamina
0
Magicka
64
All points into Magicka. Use it for most content
Health
32
Stamina
0
Magicka
32
Split evenly between Health and Magicka. Use this whenever you start to struggle
Health
64
Stamina
0
Magicka
0
All points into Health. Use this for very difficult fights
Attributes Simulated Parse Damage Change
64 Magicka
70.4k DPS
Baseline
32 Health / 32 Magicka
68.8k DPS
-2.3%
64 Health
67.1k DPS
-4.7%

The damage loss from changing attributes is minimal, and you gain up to 7808 Health, so change attributes whenever you struggle with some harder enemy.

Food

Your sustain is completely trivialized by , so you don't need any recoveries from your food.

  • Default

    Max Health +5,414 Max Magicka +4,938
    Slightly more Max Health and slightly better damage than .
    Cheaper alternative
    Difference Max Health +5,395 −19 Max Magicka +4,936 −2
  • Sustain

    Max Health +4,620 Max Stamina +4,250 Max Magicka +4,250 Health Recovery +462
    Use it if you run into Stamina issues in fights which require constant Dodge Rolling and Blocking. Having higher Maximum Stamina means you'll restore even more Stamina through .
Setup Simulated Parse Damage Change
70.4k DPS
Baseline
70.1k DPS
-0.5%

Potions

Armor potions are the default. Force potions are for going full damage, Tri-Stat if you're struggling with sustain, and Magicka Power when running the Trash setup.

  • Default

    Restore Health
    Armor Potions are the default because the amount of Armor they provide is huge compared to the other bonuses you can get from potions. Relative to the usual trade-off between Armor and other stats, the Armor bonus from potions is disproportionately large. They'll provide you with 5280 armor and you don't need sustain from your potions thanks to .
  • Full Damage (Cheap)

    Restore Magicka
    Magicka Force potions give you 15.7 second , so they're the cheap option if going for pure damage, but it's a decent nerf to your survivability.
  • Full Damage (Expensive)

    Restore Magicka
    Heroism Force potions give the same effects as Magicka Force potions plus 100% uptime on , so they're the best option if going for pure damage. They're expensive though.
  • Sustain

    Restore Health Restore Stamina Restore Magicka
    Tri-Stat potions greatly improve your sustain.

Parses

All parses are recorded on the 6 million Target Dummy

Regular Setup
69,591 DPS
Regular Setup
69,591DPS
6mil Skeleton Dummy
Patch
Update 51
Armor
5 Medium / 1 Light / 1 Heavy
Gear Setup
Instanced
Skill Setup
Regular
Potion
None
Food
Mundus
Race
Nord
CMX Parse
Breath Dragonknight Solo CMX parse - Regular setup
CMX Setup
Breath Dragonknight Solo CMX setup - Regular setup
Recording
Parse recording

Gameplay

Falkreath Hold
Dungeon
Castle Thorn
Dungeon
Oakenclaw
World Boss
The Prime Cataloger
World Boss
Harrowstorm
World Event
Falkreath Hold
Dungeon Veteran Hard Mode
Castle Thorn
Dungeon Veteran
Oakenclaw
World Boss
The Prime Cataloger
World Boss
Harrowstorm
World Event

FAQ

Yes. Breath Dragonknight has better AoE damage and is significantly easier to play than Magicka or Stamina Dragonknight. The tradeoff is less single target DPS and survivability. If you want a relaxed playstyle with strong AoE from , pick this. If you want maximum performance, go with one of the regular DK builds.

Every Veteran dungeon that doesn't have a mechanic requiring multiple people, including Veteran Hard Mode Falkreath Hold and Veteran Castle Thorn.

is a morph of from the Draconic Power skill line.

It's direct damage. It hits every 0.5 seconds while you channel it, but the game counts every hit as direct damage.

High Elf and Dark Elf do the most damage, around 4% more than Nord. Nord is the best race for survivability, providing around 5-7% damage mitigation through .

Yes, you can replace the Dual Wield Daggers with other weapons. Bow and Greatsword will cause the smallest DPS loss (≈2%), then Lightning Staff and Inferno Staff (≈3%), Ice Staff (≈5%), and One Handed and Shield (≈7%). is the only Dual Wield skill on the frontbar, so you'll have to replace it, for example with . Replacing the backbar weapon is a lot more troublesome, because is an extremely powerful skill for solo.

Yes, for Infinite Archive Arcs 1-4. Those arcs are still close enough to normal solo PvE content that a standard solo build works well, and you usually will not have enough important Visions yet to build around them. Some effects become more valuable in Infinite Archive, especially enemy Weapon and Spell Damage reductions, but you do not need a dedicated deep-IA build for Arcs 1-4.

For deep Infinite Archive runs, such as Arc 10+, this is not the right type of build. Deep IA setups have to change heavily around the Visions earned during that run, so they are usually built very differently from standard solo builds.

Yes, you can use this build at any Challenge Difficulty, including Vestige. Mobs hit a lot harder and you do less damage on the higher tiers, so fights take longer, but the build itself doesn't change.

No, you don't need a different setup. Use the base skills and the Instanced gear setup from this guide for both Maelstrom Arena and Vateshran Hollows.



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