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Heavy Attack Dragonknight Solo Build - ESO Guide

Solo Two Bar Magicka Heavy Attack Pure Class Dragonknight

Up to date for: Update 44 - 4th February 2025

Last changed: Update 44 - 4th February 2025

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.

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. Majority of dungeon fights will also fall under that category. Difficult refers to extremely difficult dungeon fights.

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: Ulfsild's Contingency	Slot 1: Volatile Armor
Slot 2: Flames of Oblivion	Slot 2: Simmering Frenzy
Slot 3: Eruption	Slot 3: Elemental Susceptibility
Slot 4: Barbed Trap	Slot 4: Elemental Blockade
Slot 5: Banner Bearer	Slot 5: Banner Bearer
Ultimate: Flawless Dawnbreaker	Ultimate: Standard of Might

Use the Flame, Gladiator's Tenacity and Brutality and Sorcery combination on your Ulfsild's Contingency
Use the Magic, Class Mastery and Berserk combination on your Banner Bearer
Use Scalding Rune instead of Ulfsild's Contingency if you don't have access to Scribing
Use Degeneration (frontbar) and Engulfing Flames (backbar) instead of Banner Bearer if you don't have access to Scribing

Use Engulfing Flames or Venomous Claw instead of Simmering Frenzy if you're not a Vampire

Final Setup

A more defensive setup for extremely difficult dungeon fights

Front Bar	Back Bar
Slot 1: Ulfsild's Contingency	Slot 1: Resolving Vigor
Slot 2: Flames of Oblivion	Slot 2: Runeguard of Still Waters
Slot 3: Hardened Armor	Slot 3: Elemental Susceptibility
Slot 4: Revealing Flare	Slot 4: Elemental Blockade
Slot 5: Banner Bearer	Slot 5: Banner Bearer
Ultimate: Temporal Guard	Ultimate: Standard of Might

What Changes

Changes compared to the Base Setup

Resolving Vigor replaces Volatile Armor
Runeguard of Still Waters replaces Simmering Frenzy
Hardened Armor replaces Eruption
Revealing Flare replaces Barbed Trap
Temporal Guard replaces Flawless Dawnbreaker
Banner Bearer changes the Magic script to Mitigation

Whenever you need more bar space for a situational skill, replace frontbar Banner Bearer with Degeneration or Igneous Weapons and replace backbar Banner Bearer with the situational skill you need
Structured Entropy is a very good situational skill for some fights
You can change the Flame script on your Ulfsild's Contingency to Damage Shield for extremely difficult fights, but it's going to be a rather big damage loss

Use the Flame, Gladiator's Tenacity and Force combination on your Ulfsild's Contingency
Use the Mitigation, Class Mastery and Brutality and Sorcery combination on your Banner Bearer
Use Scalding Rune instead of Ulfsild's Contingency if you don't have access to Scribing
Use Barbed Trap (frontbar) and Degeneration (backbar) instead of Banner Bearer if you don't have access to Scribing

Vampirism

Becoming a Vampire is extremely beneficial on this build because it allows us to use Simmering Frenzy in easier fights and since it's a Heavy Attack build we can mostly ignore the increased ability cost that you get from being a Vampire.

By staying on 3rd Stage of Vampirism you'll also benefit from the Undeath passive, but you should lower or completely cleanse Vampirism when trying to solo an extremely difficult dungeon with lots of flame damage.

Gear

Base Setup

This is my suggested setup for regular content, such as Solo Arenas, World Bosses, Dolmens, Dragons, Volcanic Vents, Harrowstorms, Mirrormoor Incursions and majority of the dungeons.

Gear Slot	Set	Weight/Type	Trait	Enchantment
Head	Anthelmir's Construct	Medium	Divines	Magicka
Shoulders	Anthelmir's Construct	Medium	Divines	Magicka
Chest	Sergeant's Mail	Heavy	Reinforced	Magicka
Hands	Noble Duelist	Light	Divines	Magicka
Belt	Noble Duelist	Light	Divines	Magicka
Legs	Armor of the Trainee	Medium	Divines	Magicka
Boots	Noble Duelist	Light	Divines	Magicka
Necklace	Sergeant's Mail	Jewelry	Bloodthirsty	Increase Physical Harm
Ring	Sergeant's Mail	Jewelry	Bloodthirsty	Increase Physical Harm
Ring	Ring of the Pale Order	Jewelry	Bloodthirsty	Increase Physical Harm
Frontbar Main Hand	Sergeant's Mail	Lightning Staff	Precise	Absorb Stamina
Backbar Main Hand	Noble Duelist	Lightning Staff	Infused	Weapon Damage

Final Setups

Crafted and defensive gear setups you can use depending on what you are trying to do

This is the crafted gear setup you can start with.

Gear Slot	Set	Weight/Type	Trait	Enchantment
Head	New Moon Acolyte	Medium	Training / Divines	Magicka
Shoulders	New Moon Acolyte	Medium	Training / Divines	Magicka
Chest	Order's Wrath	Heavy	Training / Reinforced	Magicka
Hands	Order's Wrath	Light	Training / Divines	Magicka
Belt	Order's Wrath	Light	Training / Divines	Magicka
Legs	Order's Wrath	Medium	Training / Divines	Magicka
Boots	Order's Wrath	Light	Training / Divines	Magicka
Necklace	New Moon Acolyte	Jewelry	Bloodthirsty	Increase Physical Harm
Ring	New Moon Acolyte	Jewelry	Bloodthirsty	Increase Physical Harm
Ring	New Moon Acolyte	Jewelry	Bloodthirsty	Increase Physical Harm
Frontbar Main Hand	Assassin's Guile	Lightning Staff	Precise	Absorb Stamina
Backbar Main Hand	Assassin's Guile	Lightning Staff	Infused	Weapon Damage

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 soloing extremely difficult fights in dungeons.

Gear Slot	Set	Weight/Type	Trait	Enchantment
Head	Anthelmir's Construct	Medium	Divines / Well-Fitted	Magicka
Shoulders	Anthelmir's Construct	Medium	Divines / Well-Fitted	Magicka
Chest	Sergeant's Mail	Heavy	Reinforced	Magicka
Hands	Vestment of Olorime	Light	Divines / Well-Fitted	Magicka
Belt	Vestment of Olorime	Light	Divines / Well-Fitted	Magicka
Legs	Armor of the Trainee	Medium	Divines / Well-Fitted	Magicka
Boots	Vestment of Olorime	Light	Divines / Well-Fitted	Magicka
Necklace	Sergeant's Mail	Jewelry	Bloodthirsty	Increase Physical Harm
Ring	Sergeant's Mail	Jewelry	Bloodthirsty	Increase Physical Harm
Ring	Ring of the Pale Order	Jewelry	Bloodthirsty	Increase Physical Harm
Frontbar Main Hand	Sergeant's Mail	Lightning Staff	Precise	Absorb Stamina
Backbar Main Hand	Vestment of Olorime	Lightning Staff	Infused	Weapon Damage

What Changes

Changes compared to the Base Setup

Noble Duelist changes to Vestment of Olorime
Most armor pieces can use Well-Fitted instead of Divines

You can change some (or all) of the Magicka enchants to Health ones for extremely hard hitting bosses

Champion Points

Warfare

Weapons Expert

20% Light and Heavy Attack Damage

Deadly Aim

6% Single Target Damage

Fighting Finesse

8% Critical Damage and Healing

Exploiter

10% Damage against Off Balance enemies

More Mitigation

When soloing extremely difficult dungeons you should replace Exploiter and Fighting Finesse with 2 of the 4 mitigation CPs (Ironclad, Duelist's Rebuff, Enduring Resolve, Unassailable)

Fitness

Boundless Vitality

1400 Max Health

Fortified

1731 armor

Sustained by Suffering

150 Health, Stamina and Magicka Recovery when debuffed

Rejuvenation

90 Health, Stamina and Magicka Recovery

Damage Shields

Replace Sustained by Suffering with Bastion when using Hardened Armor

Craft

Steed's Blessing

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 PvE you need both damage and survivability, so every race brings something to the table, but these two stand out as the best options for damage and survivability respectively

Why pick this

The strongest race for solo damage. Critical Damage is one of the most valuable stats in Solo play and Khajiits get 12% of it from Feline Ambush passive.

Feline Ambush 12% Critical Damage

Lunar Blessings 915 Max Health, Stamina and Magicka

Robustness 90 Health, Stamina, Magicka Recovery

Why pick this

The tankiest race. Nord is also what I use for soloing Veteran Hard Mode DLC Dungeons. Rugged provides around 5-7% damage mitigation (depending on your current armor), making difficult content much easier without sacrificing much damage.

Rugged 2600 armor

Stalwart 1500 Max Stamina, 0.5 Ultimate per second

Resist Frost 1000 Max Health, 4620 Frost Resistance

Mundus

11% Critical Damage (18% with 7 Divines)

When to use

Use for overland content. It increases your Critical Damage

2744 Offensive Penetration (4489 with 7 Divines)

When to use

Use for instanced content. It increases your Penetration

2744 Armor (4489 with 7 Divines)

When to use

Consider switching for extremely difficult dungeons. It increases your Armor

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

Stamina

Magicka

All points into Magicka. Use it for most content

Health

Stamina

Magicka

Split evenly between Health and Magicka. Use this whenever you start to struggle

Health

Stamina

Magicka

All points into Health. Use this for very difficult fights

Food

Your sustain can vary greatly because it's impacted by your armor weight composition, your race and how much blocking/dodge rolling you're required to do in a certain fight. Choose the food with more recoveries if you can't sustain

Default

Artaeum Pickled Fish Bowl

Max Health Max Magicka

The default option. Solitude Salmon-Millet Soup provides only slightly lower stats.

Sustain

Orzorga's Tripe Trifle Pocket

Max Health Max Magicka Stamina Recovery

Provides Stamina Recovery at the cost of Maximum Magicka. It will lower your damage, but it's very useful for fights where you have to dodge roll a lot.

Sustain

Orzorga's Smoked Bear Haunch

Max Health Stamina Recovery Magicka Recovery

Provides Magicka and Stamina Recovery at the cost of Maximum Magicka. It will lower your damage, but it's very useful for fights where you have to both dodge roll a lot and spam your Hardened Ward.

Potions

Default Armor Potion

Restore Health +5280 Armor

Since your sustain is being taken care of by the fact that Heavy Attacks restore resources, you can instead use the Armor potions, which will increase your armor by 5280.

Craft with: Bugloss