Magicka Nightblade Solo Build - ESO Guide
Magicka Nightblade (MagBlade) Solo Build for ESO. Nightblade deals more damage than most Pure Class solo builds, with
Swallow Soul and
Siphoning Attacks providing solid passive and on-demand healing. It's an average class for soloing, but if you want to solo on a Nightblade, this is how to do it.
Swallow Soul is used situationally in the tanky setup as a strong self-heal for harder content.
Siphoning Attacks adds passive healing and resource sustain on top of that.
Capable of soloing Veteran Hard Mode Cradle of Shadows. Parses 60.2k in the regular setup and 53.1k in the tanky setup.
Looking for something simpler? Check out the One Bar Magicka Nightblade Solo Build which can also solo Veteran Hard Mode dungeons with a single skill bar.
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: Concealed Weapon | Slot 1: Shadowy Disguise |
| Slot 2: Impale | Slot 2: Siphoning Attacks |
| Slot 3: Relentless Focus | Slot 3: Elemental Susceptibility |
| Slot 4: Traveling Knife | Slot 4: Elemental Blockade |
| Slot 5: Ulfsild's Contingency | Slot 5: Dark Shade |
| Ultimate: Soul Harvest | Ultimate: Shooting Star |
Concealed Weapon - a strong spammable which will deal increased damage after leaving invisiblity, which will get triggered by
Shadowy Disguise
Impale - an execute you should switch to when enemy is below 25% HP
Relentless Focus - an ability that will cause your Light Attacks to generate stacks. You can spend 4 stacks to fire a powerful arrow that also heals you if you're in Melee range. It also grants you Major Savagery and Prophecy
Traveling Knife (
Poison,
Lingering Torment,
Berserk) - a Stamina skill which deals decent intial damage, applies a 20 second DoT and grants you Minor Berserk, increasing your damage done by 5%. It's extremely important because it can be used as a semi-spammable which will take pressure off your Magicka pool, allowing you to sustain Bi-Stat food
Ulfsild's Contingency (
Bleed,
Lingering Torment,
Force) - 22 second DoT which also grants you Minor Force, increasing your Critical Damage by 10%. This ability is also your AoE spammable.
Soul Harvest - a cheap ultimate that increases target's damage taken from you by 20%. Having it slotted will also cause you to regain 10 Ultimate whenever you deal a final blow against an enemy
Shadowy Disguise - an ability that will increase your damage done by 10% for 10 seconds after being cast. It will also passively grant you Minor Protection which reduces your damage taken by 5%. It will also trigger the
Shadow Barrier passive which grants Major Resolve, increasing armor by 5948. When timed correctly, you can use this ability to dodge heavy attacks
Siphoning 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
Elemental Susceptibility - an extremely strong ability that does a multitude of things. It's completely free to cast so it'll help you sustain. 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 increase Critical Damage taken by 10%. The Chilled proc will also synergise with our
Elemental Blockade
Elemental Blockade - this ability will constantly apply your
Weapon Damage 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
Elemental Susceptibility
Dark Shade - an ability that deals constant AoE damage and applies Minor Maim, reducing enemies' damage done by 5%
Shooting Star - an ultimate that deals damage in an AoE, leaves a ground DoT and grants you Ultimate for each enemy hit with the initial blast
Impale and
Traveling Knife are the first skills that have to go if you need to slot situational, unless the situational skill specifically says it's replacing something else
Swallow Soul - an alternative spammable which deals less damage but heals you and is ranged. It will also trigger the
Magicka Flood passive.
Resolving Vigor - use it for fights where there's a lot of damage happening in a short burst. The HoT from
Resolving Vigor is short but very strong, so casting it at the right time can help you survive such mechanics. The Minor Resolve it provides will also reduce all of your damage taken. It can also be used in fights with invulnerability phases where you can't heal with
Ring of the Pale Order or
Swallow Soul
Silver Leash - a chain ability that you can slot in trash packs to stack enemies and get through them faster
Razor Caltrops - a source of AoE Major Breach which can be used instead of
Elemental Susceptibility in AoE fights
Ulfsild's Contingency (
Bleed,
Gladiator's Tenacity,
Force) - a different script combination which trades the DoT from
Lingering Torment for the mitigation from
Gladiator's Tenacity. Use it in fights where you need more damage mitigation.
Revealing Flare - 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
Magicka Aid passive, which increases Magicka Recovery by 10%
Race Against Time - snare removal which will be crucial for some fights. It replaces
Ulfsild's Contingency because it also provides Minor Force
Ambush - alternative to
Traveling Knife which deals less damage but is a gap closer, so it can be used in fights where you have to move around a lot
Barbed Trap - an alternative source of Minor Force which can replace
Ulfsild's Contingency. It does more damage, but without
Ulfsild you don't have an AoE spammable, so only use
Barbed Trap in single target fights
Soul Burst (
Bleed,
Lingering Torment,
Courage) - a 20 second AoE DoT which grants you Minor Courage, which increases your Weapon and Spell Damage by 215. It becomes crucial in Ranged setup, because that setup cannot use
Traveling Knife, so it needs another Stamina ability to reduce the strain on Magicka pool
Consuming Trap - a very weak DoT which replenishes your resources when the affected target dies, it can provide you with a lot of sustain in fights which constantly spawn weak adds
Precognition - 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
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
Traveling Knife more often than once every 20 seconds. It's the only way to sustain your Magicka unless you have some additional sustain, for example from a racial. If in a certain fight you're getting additional sustain (for example from using
Siphoning Spells in a fight with lots of adds or
Sustained by Suffering in a fight with constant debuffs) then you can go back to refreshing
Traveling Knife every 20 seconds.
Try to avoid refreshing DoTs while
Soul Harvest is active. If a DoT has expired at the beginning of
Soul Harvest it's usually worth it to recast it, but if it expired with 2 seconds left on
Soul Harvest it's usually better to continue using direct hits and refresh the DoT after
Soul Harvest has expired
Try to save up
Relentless Focus stacks for
Soul Harvest, but don't waste them by letting them go over 10
- 1.
Shadowy Disguise - 2.
Elemental Susceptibility - 3.
Ulfsild's Contingency - 4.
Traveling Knife - 5.
Dark Shade - 6. (if you're starting the fight with a lot of Ultimate stored up)
Shooting Star - 7.
Soul Harvest - 8.
Elemental Blockade - 9. (if enemy is below 25% Max HP)
Impale - 10.
Relentless Focus - 11.
Concealed Weapon
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: Concealed Weapon | Slot 1: Shadowy Disguise |
| Slot 2: Impale | Slot 2: Siphoning Attacks |
| Slot 3: Relentless Focus | Slot 3: Razor Caltrops |
| Slot 4: Silver Leash | Slot 4: Elemental Blockade |
| Slot 5: Ulfsild's Contingency | Slot 5: Dark Shade |
| Ultimate: Soul Harvest | Ultimate: Shooting Star |
What Changes
Silver Leash replaces
Traveling Knife
Razor Caltrops replaces
Elemental Susceptibility
A setup for ranged fights
| Front Bar | Back Bar |
|---|---|
| Slot 1: Swallow Soul | Slot 1: Soul Burst |
| Slot 2: Impale | Slot 2: Siphoning Attacks |
| Slot 3: Relentless Focus | Slot 3: Elemental Susceptibility |
| Slot 4: Shadowy Disguise | Slot 4: Elemental Blockade |
| Slot 5: Ulfsild's Contingency | Slot 5: Dark Shade |
| Ultimate: Soul Harvest | Ultimate: Shooting Star |
What Changes
Swallow Soul replaces
Concealed Weapon
Soul Burst replaces
Traveling Knife
Soul Burst and
Shadowy Disguise swap places
Additional Info
- Without being able to improve your sustain by re-casting
Traveling Knife you'll need to either change your food to one that provides some Magicka Recovery, or heavy attack every now and then. The approach with fitting in a few heavy attacks parsed higher than the approach with changing food
A setup which trades damage for more survivability. Use it against harder boss fights or if you simply want a tankier build and don't mind fights taking longer
| Front Bar | Back Bar |
|---|---|
| Slot 1: Swallow Soul | Slot 1: Shadowy Disguise |
| Slot 2: Revealing Flare | Slot 2: Siphoning Attacks |
| Slot 3: Relentless Focus | Slot 3: Elemental Susceptibility |
| Slot 4: Traveling Knife | Slot 4: Elemental Blockade |
| Slot 5: Ulfsild's Contingency | Slot 5: Dark Shade |
| Ultimate: Soul Harvest | Ultimate: Shooting Star |
What Changes
Swallow Soul replaces
Concealed Weapon
Revealing Flare replaces
Impale
Ulfsild's Contingency changes the
Lingering Torment script to
Gladiator's Tenacity
Additional Info
- If you need even more survivability you can replace
Dark Shade with
Resolving Vigor
Passives
The only passive you specifically have to skip is
Tri Focus, but it's only important when using an Ice Staff
Some trees are only needed when using situational skills, for example Fighters Guild provides nothing without
Barbed Trap or
Silver Leash and Psijic Order provides nothing without
Precognition
Class - Assassination
Master Assassin - High Priority
Executioner - High Priority
Pressure Points - High Priority
Hemorrhage - High Priority
Class - Shadow
Refreshing Shadows - High Priority
Shadow Barrier - High Priority
Dark Vigor - High Priority
Dark Veil - High Priority
Class - Siphoning
Catalyst - High Priority
Magicka Flood - High Priority
Soul Siphoner - High Priority
Transfer - High Priority
Weapon - Dual Wield
Slaughter - High Priority
Dual Wield Expert - High Priority
Controlled Fury - High Priority
Ruffian - Medium Priority
Twin Blade and Blunt - High Priority
Weapon - Destruction Staff
Tri Focus - Do Not Unlock
Penetrating Magic - Low Priority
Elemental Force - Medium Priority
Ancient Knowledge - Medium Priority
Destruction Expert - Low Priority
Armor - Light Armor
Grace - Low Priority
Evocation - High Priority
Spell Warding - High Priority
Prodigy - High Priority
Concentration - High Priority
Armor - Medium Armor
Dexterity - High Priority
Wind Walker - High Priority
Improved Sneak - Not needed
Agility - High Priority
Athletics - High Priority
Armor - Heavy Armor
Resolve - Medium Priority
Constitution - Low Priority
Juggernaut - Medium Priority
Revitalize - Low Priority
Rapid Mending - Low Priority
Guild - Fighters Guild
Intimidating Presence - Medium Priority
Slayer - High Priority
Banish the Wicked - High Priority
Skilled Tracker - Medium Priority
Bounty Hunter - Not needed
Guild - Mages Guild
Persuasive Will - Not needed
Mage Adept - High Priority
Everlasting Magic - High Priority
Magicka Controller - High Priority
Might of the Guild - Low Priority
Guild - Psijic Order
Clairvoyance - Low Priority
Spell Orb - Not needed
Concentrated Barrier - Low Priority
Deliberation - Not needed
Alliance War - Support
Magicka Aid - Medium Priority
Combat Medic - Not needed
Battle Resurrection - Not needed
Race - Your Race
Get all of your racials, no matter which race you are
Craft - Alchemy
Solvent Proficiency - Not needed
Keen Eye: Reagents - Not needed
Medicinal Use - High Priority
Chemistry - Not needed
Laboratory Use - Not needed
Snakeblood - Not needed
Gear
Base Setup
A base setup that is meant for Overland content and will work for most situations. It 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
| Gear Slot | Set | Weight/Type | Trait | Enchantment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Head |
Light | |||
Shoulders |
Light | |||
Chest |
Medium | |||
Hands |
Light | |||
Belt |
Light | |||
Legs |
Medium | |||
Boots |
Light | |||
Necklace |
Jewelry | |||
Ring |
Jewelry | |||
Ring |
Jewelry | |||
Frontbar Main Hand |
Dagger | |||
Frontbar Off Hand |
Dagger | |||
Backbar Main Hand |
Inferno Staff |
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
Whorl of the Depths - a strong proc set which pulls ahead of
Order's Wrath in Instanced content where you can utilise its 3-piece Minor Slayer bonus
Vestments of Olorime - provides 430 Weapon and Spell Damage, 5% damage reduction from Minor Aegis and can be back-barred without losing anything, allowing for much more flexibility with gear. It's the ideal set for more difficult fights
Roksa the Warped - a monster set which provides a lot of sustain. You'll only have space for it when back-barring
Vestments of Olorime
Armor of the Trainee - 1 piece bonus of this set provides 1454 max health. It also comes in any weight so we can use it on the chest piece, which combined with the
Reinforced trait will provide a lot of armor
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 |
Light | |||
Chest |
Heavy | |||
Hands |
Light | |||
Belt |
Light | |||
Legs |
Medium | |||
Boots |
Light | |||
Necklace |
Jewelry | |||
Ring |
Jewelry | |||
Ring |
Jewelry | |||
Frontbar Main Hand |
Dagger | |||
Frontbar Off Hand |
Dagger | |||
Backbar Main Hand |
Inferno Staff |
Regular setup already uses 2 crafted sets, so the Crafted setup is barely any different in this guide
The weight distribution of the setup from the table is 1 Heavy 5 Medium 1 Light so that you can start leveling up all your armor skill lines. Once you transition to Regular setup you'll be using 2 Medium 5 Light most of the time, switching to 1 Heavy 5 Medium 1 Light only against more difficult fights
This is a setup you should in Instanced content (Arenas and Dungeons). Enemies in instanced content have 18,200 armor, while Overland enemies have only 9,100, so this setup will need much more penetration.
| Gear Slot | Set | Weight/Type | Trait | Enchantment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Head |
Light | |||
Shoulders |
Light | |||
Chest |
Medium | |||
Hands |
Light | |||
Belt |
Light | |||
Legs |
Light | |||
Boots |
Light | |||
Necklace |
Jewelry | |||
Ring |
Jewelry | |||
Ring |
Jewelry | |||
Frontbar Main Hand |
Dagger | |||
Frontbar Off Hand |
Dagger | |||
Backbar Main Hand |
Ice Staff |
Explanation
Whorl of the Depths replaces
Order's Wrath, because in Instanced content you can benefit from the Minor Slayer buff, which makes it better- 1-piece
Slimecraw is replaced with 1-piece
Valkyn Skoria - Inferno Staff is replaced with Ice Staff, because Ice
Elemental Blockade will improve uptime of the Minor Breach debuff - Weight composition goes from 2 Medium 5 Light to 1 Medium 6 Light, so we can benefit a bit more from the
Concentration passive
Additional Info
- If you don't have access to Trial gear then go back to using
Order's Wrath instead of
Whorl of the Depths, just like in Regular setup - Changing Dagger to a Mace is the exact same trade-off as changing
Slimecraw to
Valkyn Skoria, due to the
Twin Blade and Blunt passive. Use whichever approach is more convenient for you depending on the gear you own.
This is my suggested setup for soloing extremely difficult fights in dungeons. Unlike the "Tanky" skill setup which can be used for both difficult and easy stuff, this "Tanky" gear setup only makes sense in Instanced content because it focuses on utilizing Minor Aegis, Minor Slayer and on getting additional sustain from
Roksa the Warped which is mostly useful only in super difficult fights where you have to dodge roll a lot
| Gear Slot | Set | Weight/Type | Trait | Enchantment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Head |
Medium | |||
Shoulders |
Light | |||
Chest |
Heavy | |||
Hands |
Light | |||
Belt |
Light | |||
Legs |
Light | |||
Boots |
Light | |||
Necklace |
Jewelry | |||
Ring |
Jewelry | |||
Ring |
Jewelry | |||
Frontbar Main Hand |
Mace | |||
Frontbar Off Hand |
Mace | |||
Backbar Main Hand |
Ice Staff |
What Changes (compared to Instanced setup, not Base)
Whorl of the Depths is now front-barred instead of being fully on body
Tide-Born Wildstalker and
Crushing Wall get replaced by back-barred
Vestments of Olorime- This creates space for adding a Monster Set -
Roksa the Warped, and 1 piece
Armor of the Trainee on your chest slot, with Heavy armor weight and
Reinforced trait
Additional Info
- You can change some (or all) of the
Magicka enchants to
Health ones for extremely hard hitting bosses
Well-Fitted is also a decent option instead of
Divines, because many difficult dungeon fights will require you to dodge roll a lot
Champion Points
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
Mundus
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.
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
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.
Parses
All parses are recorded on the 6 million Target Dummy
Patch: Update 48
Using Regular setup
Patch: Update 48
Using Tanky skill setup
Patch: Update 48
Using Ranged skill setup
Gameplay
Here you can see this build tackling Veteran dungeons and other content
Fashion
| Slot | Style | Dyes |
|---|---|---|
| Head |
Thalmor Black
Thalmor Black
Fire Drake's Flame
|
|
| Shoulders |
Thalmor Black
|
|
| Chest |
Thalmor Black
Thalmor Black
Fire Drake's Flame
|
|
| Hands |
Thalmor Black
Thalmor Black
Thalmor Black
|
|
| Belt |
Thalmor Black
|
|
| Legs |
Thalmor Black
Thalmor Black
Thalmor Black
|
|
| Feet |
Thalmor Black
Thalmor Black
Fire Drake's Flame
|
|
| Frontbar Main Hand |
Thalmor Black
Thalmor Black
Thalmor Black
|
|
| Frontbar Off Hand |
Thalmor Black
Thalmor Black
Thalmor Black
|
|
| Backbar Main Hand |
Thalmor Black
Thalmor Black
Fire Drake's Flame
|
|
FAQ
It's average for soloing compared to other classes, but it deals more damage than most pure class solo builds.
Swallow Soul and
Siphoning Attacks provide solid passive and on-demand healing. If you want to solo on a Nightblade, this build can handle Veteran Hard Mode dungeons.
The best gear for a Magicka Nightblade Solo build in ESO is
Tide-Born Wildstalker with
Order's Wrath,
Slimecraw monster set,
Ring of the Pale Order, and a
Perfected Crushing Wall backbar staff. For instanced content, swap
Order's Wrath to
Whorl of the Depths for Minor Slayer.
Khajiit is the best race for damage thanks to 12% Critical Damage from
Feline Ambush, which won't be wasted in solo content. Nord is the best race for survivability, providing around 5-7% damage mitigation through the
Rugged racial passive.
Yes, you can replace the Dual Wield Daggers with other weapons. Greatsword, Lightning Staff and Bow will cause the smallest DPS loss (≈2%), then Inferno (≈4%), and then support-oriented weapons (Ice Staff, One Handed and Shield) will cause bigger DPS loss (≈7%). You will also have to replace
Traveling Knife with some situational ability, or with an ability from one of the weapons you swapped to (for example
Smash with the same script combination when switching to Greatsword). Replacing backbar weapon is a lot more troublesome, because
Elemental Susceptibility is extremely powerful skill for Solo.
Yes, this Magicka Nightblade build can solo every Veteran Dungeon that doesn't require multiple people for a specific mechanic. It can also solo most Hard Mode Dungeons, including Veteran Hard Mode Cradle of Shadows.
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.
THANKS FOR READING
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Head
Shoulders
Chest
Hands
Belt
Legs
Boots
Necklace
Ring
Frontbar Main Hand
Frontbar Off Hand