Hyperioxes
Hyperioxes

Heavy Attack Nightblade Solo Build - ESO Guide

Solo Two Bar Magicka Heavy Attack Pure Class Nightblade
Up to date for: Update 51 - 1st November 2026
Last changed: Update 51 - 1st November 2026
Proven in solo
Moon Hunter Keep 3 Misfortunes Watch the run → March of Sacrifices 3 Misfortunes Watch the run →

Pure Class Heavy Attack Nightblade Solo Build for ESO Update 51. It deals the highest damage out of all Heavy Attack builds, while still having great survivability and being very easy to play.

This setup cleared Solo Moon Hunter Keep and Solo March of Sacrifices with 3 Misfortunes, and parses 67.8k DPS on the 6 million dummy.

Works for all kinds of solo content - overland at any Challenge Difficulty up to Vestige, World Bosses, Maelstrom Arena, Vateshran Hollows, early arcs in Infinite Archive, and Veteran Dungeon soloing.

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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, heavy attacks, DoT ticks, cooldowns, execute scaling, crits and status effect rolls.

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 1.3%, because the result depends on when the killing hit lands. The Base Setup 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)
64.9k DPS
Real 6m CMX parse
67.8k DPS
100 random 6m sims
Lowest 59.6k DPS
Highest 69.4k 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.

Default

Nightblade Class Mastery

An Eye for Exploitation

Every strike, every stab, is a step towards execution.

Increases your Weapon and Spell Damage by up to 2000, based on your target's missing Health.

Reduces your damage taken by up to 20%, based on your attacker's missing Health.

Both effects are halved against targets with Battle Spirit.

Notes

Simply the best damage option that also greatly increases your survivability, especially in execute.

Nightblade Class Mastery

Above and Beyond

An assassin is only as good as their reputation.

Increases your Critical Damage and Healing by 25%. This effect is reduced to 5% against targets with Battle Spirit.

Increases your maximum Critical Damage and Healing by 30%.

Notes

Simply the best damage option.

Not worth it

Nightblade Class Mastery

Nocturnal Inspiration

The Night Mistress rewards those who strike without reservation.

Upgrades rank 2 of to have a chance to generate 2 Ultimate. This effect can occur once every 0.3 seconds and the chance is equal to your Weapon Critical chance.

Notes

Not useful for this setup.

Nightblade Class Mastery

Cutthroat's Focus

This duel will be their last. For you, it's just another dance.

Activating a Nightblade ability while bracing causes you to dodge attacks for 0.3 seconds.

Whenever you dodge an attack, your attacker's psyche suffers, increasing their damage taken by 5% for 5 seconds, increasing to 20 seconds against monsters.

Notes

Not useful for this setup.

Nightblade Class Mastery

Share the Spoils

Secrets and coin are tools as sharp as the daggers you wield.

Upgrades rank 2 of to grant group members 250 Magicka and Stamina, 2 Ultimate, and doubles the Ultimate you gain when it activates.

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: Ulfsild's ContingencyBleed Damage / Gladiator's Tenacity / Force Slot 1: MirageMorph of Blur
Slot 2: Revealing FlareBase Skill Slot 2: Power ExtractionMorph of Drain Power
Slot 3: Merciless ResolveMorph of Grim Focus Slot 3: Elemental SusceptibilityMorph of Weakness to Elements
Slot 4: Shadowy DisguiseMorph of Shadow Cloak Slot 4: Blockade of StormsMorph of Wall of Elements
Slot 5: Healthy OfferingMorph of Malevolent Offering Slot 5: Siphoning AttacksMorph of Siphoning Strikes
Ultimate: Soul HarvestMorph of Death Stroke Ultimate: Ice CometMorph of Meteor
  • (, , ) - your source of crucial buff, which increases damage done by Heavy Attacks against monsters by 150%. Since Ulfsild's Contingency is a Mages Guild skill, it will trigger the passive, which grants you for 10 seconds. It also deals decent damage in an AoE and grants you 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 you gain from it will start working just in time to boost the final tick of that Heavy Attack you just finished.
  • - a skill that passively grants , reducing your damage taken by 10%. It will also trigger the passive, which increases Magicka Recovery by 10%.
  • - an ability that grants you and causes your Light and Heavy Attacks to generate stacks. You can spend 5 stacks to fire a powerful arrow that also heals you if you're in Melee range.
  • - an ability that will increase your damage by 15% for 15 seconds after being cast. It also grants , reducing your damage taken by 5%. It will also grant you thanks to the passive. When timed correctly, you can use this ability to dodge heavy attacks.
  • - a single target heal. You need a Siphoning ability in this slot to trigger the passive. You straight up don't have time for another regular skill in the rotation, so a situational emergency heal is the best you can slot here.
  • - a cheap ultimate that increases target's damage taken from you by 20%. This is the ultimate you should use in Single Target fights. Having it slotted will also cause you to regain 10 Ultimate whenever you deal a final blow against an enemy.
  • - gives you and , and reduces the cost of your next Roll Dodge when you take direct damage.
  • - grants and . It also applies to enemies hit, reducing their Weapon and Spell Damage by 215.
  • - a very strong ability that does a lot. It applies , which reduces enemies' armor by 5948 and is a big damage increase. It also applies , and status effects at the beginning and then every 7.5 seconds. will apply for 4 seconds, increasing enemies' damage taken by 5%. will apply for 4 seconds, reducing enemies' damage done by 5%. The proc will also synergise with our .
  • - this ability will constantly apply your enchantment. It will also constantly apply to enemies who are , and they'll be thanks to . Enemies who are take 70% increased damage from Heavy Attacks.
  • - this ability will passively heal you and improve your sustain. It can also be used to trade Health for a burst of Stamina and Magicka.
  • - a 200 cost Ultimate that does a big AoE hit and then leaves a ground DoT. Use it if you start the fight with a lot of Ultimate stored up, otherwise use .

or is the first skill that has to go if you need to slot something situational, unless the situational skill specifically says that it's replacing something else.

  • - use it instead of in fights where you need more healing and don't need the .
  • - a source of AoE , which is extremely good in Infinite Archive and Solo Dungeons because enemies there have extremely little Weapon Damage.
  • - a chain ability that you can slot in trash packs to stack enemies and get through them faster.
  • - a source of AoE which can be used instead of in AoE fights.
  • - around a 2% DPS gain, but it drains 2500 Health every 2 seconds while it's on. Becoming a Vampire for it also makes your abilities cost more and increases your Flame damage taken.
  • - 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.

Bar Swap

Channel all your Heavy Attacks on the front bar. When you need to use a back bar ability, do the Heavy Attack on the front bar, bar swap at the end, cast the back bar skill and then swap to the front bar again.

If the quick swap is too hard for you, simply channel Heavy Attacks on the back bar, but that's about 10% less damage.

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.

Use when you start the fight with a lot of Ultimate stored up. Otherwise, use when it's ready.

  • 1. - if has run out or will run out before the final hit of your Heavy Attack lands
  • 2. - refresh 1 Heavy Attack early
  • 3. - refresh 1 Heavy Attack early
  • 4. - refresh 1 Heavy Attack early
  • 5. - refresh 1 Heavy Attack early
  • 6. - if you start the fight with a lot of Ultimate stored up, otherwise when it's ready
  • 7. - refresh 1 Heavy Attack early
  • 8. - when you have 5 stacks

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 dealing with trash packs.

Front Bar Back Bar
Slot 1: Ulfsild's ContingencyBleed Damage / Gladiator's Tenacity / Force Slot 1: Silver LeashMorph of Silver Bolts
Slot 2: Revealing FlareBase Skill Slot 2: Power ExtractionMorph of Drain Power
Slot 3: Merciless ResolveMorph of Grim Focus Slot 3: Razor CaltropsMorph of Caltrops
Slot 4: Shadowy DisguiseMorph of Shadow Cloak Slot 4: Blockade of StormsMorph of Wall of Elements
Slot 5: Healthy OfferingMorph of Malevolent Offering Slot 5: Siphoning AttacksMorph of Siphoning Strikes
Ultimate: Soul HarvestMorph of Death Stroke Ultimate: Ice CometMorph of Meteor

What Changes

  • replaces
  • replaces

Passives

There are no passives you need to skip with this build

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

Class

Weapon

Armor

World

Guild

Alliance War

Racial

Craft

Class - Assassination

Master Assassin - High Priority

Executioner - High Priority

Pressure Points - High Priority

Hemorrhage - High Priority

Vampirism

is worth it on this build if you want to push more damage because of . As a Heavy Attack build you don't have time to keep up as many skills as regular builds, and is a toggle, so it gives you damage without taking a spot in your rotation. It's around a 2% DPS gain.

You should stay at Stage 1 of by default. Stage 2 lets trigger , which is another 1.2% DPS gain. The downside is that you take more Flame damage (8% instead of 5%) and your abilities cost more (5% instead of 3%), so stay at Stage 1 for fights with a lot of Flame damage.

Gear

Base is your starting point and works for most situations. Crafted is a beginner version using only craftable sets.

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 Light
BeltBelt Light
LegsLegs Medium
BootsBoots Light
NecklaceNecklace Jewelry
RingRing Jewelry
RingRing Jewelry
Frontbar Main HandFrontbar Main Hand Lightning Staff
Backbar Main HandBackbar Main Hand Lightning Staff

Fallback Gear

Weapons and Jewelry
Sergeant's Mail - Dungeon Set (Wayrest Sewers I & II)

If you don't have it, use in order

  1. - Dungeon Set (Arx Corinium)
  2. - Dungeon Set (Tempest Island)
  3. - Crafted
  4. - Crafted
Body
Noble Duelist's Silks - Dungeon Set (Blessed Crucible)

If you don't have it, use in order

  1. - Dungeon Set (Arx Corinium)
  2. - Dungeon Set (Tempest Island)
  3. - Crafted
  4. - Crafted
Monster Helm
Anthelmir's Construct - Monster Set (Oathsworn Pit)

If you don't have it, use in order

  1. - Banished Cells II
  2. - Earthen Root Enclave

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.

Overland Enemy - 9,100 Armor

Weapons + Jewelry

Compares + X weapons and jewelry set.

Source
Replacement Set Source Simulated Parse Damage Change
Dungeon - Wayrest Sewers I & II
69.2k DPS
Baseline
Dungeon - Arx Corinium
64.0k DPS
-7.6%
Dungeon - Tempest Island
62.3k DPS
-10.0%
Crafted
57.8k DPS
-16.5%
Trial - Sanity's Edge
Interrupt 60.7k DPS
No Interrupt 56.8k DPS
-12.3% -17.9%
Crafted
3 Stacks 59.0k DPS
0 Stacks 56.5k DPS
-14.7% -18.4%
Crafted
56.4k DPS
-18.5%
Crafted
55.9k DPS
-19.2%
Trial - Rockgrove
Soul 63.1k DPS
No Soul 55.9k DPS
-8.8% -19.2%
Dungeon - Blackheart Haven
55.8k DPS
-19.4%
Crafted
55.7k DPS
-19.5%

Additional Tips

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

Unlock Order

Warfare
20% Light and Heavy Attack Damage
6% Single Target Damage
8% Critical Damage and Healing
205 Weapon and Spell Damage
More Mitigation
Replace + with 2 mitigation CPs: , , , or (depending on the type of damage the Boss deals to you)
More Healing
is a decent option if you need more HPS
Fitness
1400 Max Health
1731 Armor
20% Block Mitigation, -16% Movement Speed
90 Health, Magicka and Stamina Recovery
Movement Speed
Use in fights where you have to move a lot
Craft
20% Movement Speed out of combat
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.

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
Khajiit
67.8k DPS
+4.5%
High Elf
67.2k DPS
+3.5%
Dark Elf
67.2k DPS
+3.5%
Orc
66.4k DPS
+2.3%
Wood Elf
66.0k DPS
+1.6%
Breton
65.7k DPS
+1.2%
Argonian
65.3k DPS
+0.7%
Imperial
64.9k DPS
+0.0%
Nord
64.9k DPS
Baseline
Redguard
64.9k DPS
+0.0%

Mundus

  • Default

    11% Critical Damage and Healing(17% with 7 )
    Use most of the time. It increases your Critical Damage
  • Khajiit

    5.53% Critical Chance(9.04% with 7 )
    Use if you're playing Khajiit. The 12% Critical Damage from makes the Critical Chance from The Thief worth more than the extra Critical Damage from The Shadow

Attributes

Attributes are the one part of the build where the damage vs survivability trade-off heavily favors survivability. Going 64 Health instead of 64 Magicka costs you 4.2% DPS and gives you 8277 Max Health, which is a 31% increase. That's why 64 Health is the default here.

If a fight is easy enough that you don't need the extra Health, you can put everything into Magicka for up to 4.4% more damage, or split it 32/32 for something in between.

Health
64
Magicka
0
Stamina
0
Attributes Simulated Parse Damage Change
64 Magicka
67.8k DPS
+4.4%
32 Health / 32 Magicka
66.4k DPS
+2.3%
64 Health
64.9k DPS
Baseline

Food

  • Default

    Max Health +5,414 Max Magicka +4,938
    The default option. Gives Max Health and Max Magicka.
    Cheaper alternative
    Difference Max Health +5,395 −19 Max Magicka +4,936 −2
  • Situational

    Max Health +4,620 Max Stamina +4,250 Max Magicka +4,250 Health Recovery +462
    Slightly lower damage and slightly less Max Health, but it gives you Max Stamina, so you have a bigger Stamina pool if you need a few more dodge rolls.
  • Sustain

    Max Health +5,395 Stamina Recovery +493
    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

    Max Health +4,312 Health Recovery +406 Stamina Recovery +369 Magicka Recovery +369
    Provides Magicka and Stamina Recovery at the cost of Maximum Magicka, and has less Max Health and Stamina Recovery than . Only worth it if you have to spam during some phase, since most of the time heavy attacking takes care of your Magicka sustain.
    Cheaper alternative
    Difference Max Health +3,927 −385 Health Recovery — −406 Stamina Recovery +357 −12 Magicka Recovery +357 −12
Setup Simulated Parse Damage Change
64.9k DPS
Baseline
64.6k DPS
-0.5%
62.8k DPS
-3.2%
62.8k DPS
-3.2%

Potions

  • Default

    Restore Health
    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 Mountain Flower Mudcrab Chitin
  • Situational

    Restore Magicka Restore Stamina
    Bi-Stat Force potions give you 15.7 second , so they're the option if going for pure damage, but it's a decent nerf to your survivability. They also restore Stamina, which helps if you have to dodge roll a lot.
    Craft with: Fossilized Verminous Bones Columbine Lady's Smock
Setup Simulated Parse Damage Change
66.7k DPS
+2.7%
64.9k DPS
Baseline

Parses

All parses are recorded on the 6 million Target Dummy

Base Setup
67,778 DPS
Base Setup
67,778DPS
6mil Skeleton Dummy
Patch
Update 51
Armor
3 Light / 3 Medium / 1 Heavy
Gear Setup
Base
Skill Setup
Base
Potion
Food
Mundus
Race
Nord
CMX Parse
CMX Setup
Recording

Gameplay

March of Sacrifices
Solo Dungeon
Moon Hunter Keep
Solo Dungeon
March of Sacrifices
Solo Dungeon 3 Misfortunes
Moon Hunter Keep
Solo Dungeon 3 Misfortunes
March of Sacrifices 3 Misfortunes Log
Patch: Update 51
Moon Hunter Keep 3 Misfortunes
Patch: Update 51

Fashion

Outfit
Heavy Attack Nightblade fashion screenshot
Slot Style Dyes
Head Coldharbour Dominator HatColdharbour Dominator Hat
Thalmor Black
Thalmor Black
Fire Drake's Flame
Shoulders Ancient Daedric PauldronsAncient Daedric Pauldrons
Thalmor Black
Empty
Thalmor Black
Chest Coldharbour Dominator JerkinColdharbour Dominator Jerkin
Thalmor Black
Thalmor Black
Fire Drake's Flame
Hands Coldharbour Dominator GauntletsColdharbour Dominator Gauntlets
Thalmor Black
Thalmor Black
Thalmor Black
Waist Ascendant Knight GirdleAscendant Knight Girdle
Thalmor Black
Empty
Empty
Legs Ancient Daedric GuardsAncient Daedric Guards
Thalmor Black
Thalmor Black
Thalmor Black
Feet Coldharbour Dominator SabatonsColdharbour Dominator Sabatons
Thalmor Black
Thalmor Black
Fire Drake's Flame
Frontbar Staff Baron Zaudrus StaffBaron Zaudrus Staff
Thalmor Black
Thalmor Black
Fire Drake's Flame
Backbar Staff Thorn Legion StaffThorn Legion Staff
Thalmor Black
Thalmor Black
Fire Drake's Flame
Heavy Attack Nightblade fashion screenshot

FAQ

Yes. It deals the highest damage out of all Heavy Attack builds, while still having great survivability and being very easy to play. It cleared Solo Moon Hunter Keep and Solo March of Sacrifices with 3 Misfortunes.

The Base setup uses , , , and . If you're a beginner, the Crafted setup uses only craftable sets.

Khajiit does the most damage, around 4.5% more than Nord. Nord is the best race for survivability, with around 5-7% damage mitigation from .

Yes. This is a pure class setup, so it keeps Nightblade skill lines and uses Class Masteries instead of subclassing.

Yes. 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.

Yes, for Infinite Archive Arcs 1-4. Those arcs are still close enough to normal solo 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. Use the Base skill and gear setups for both Maelstrom Arena and Vateshran Hollows.

Builds ESO Solo Builds ESO solo builds proven to clear Veteran Hard Mode DLC Dungeons. Tested with recordings and logs. Covers all classes and playstyles.


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