One Bar Breath Dragonknight Solo Build - ESO Guide

• Engulfing Dragonfire - 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). Its damage ramps up by 5% each tick up to 50% on the last tick, but it always deals maximum damage while Take Flight's bonus is active. Unlike other channeled abilities, this one doesn't go on cooldown when you get interrupted.
• Incinerate - 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 and Prophecy.
• Shatterspike Mantle - 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
• Elemental Susceptibility - an extremely powerful ability. 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%.
• Ulfsild's Contingency (Flame, Lingering Torment, Resolve) - 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 Magicka Controller passive
• Take Flight - a cheap ultimate which gives you a 20% Damage Done against Monsters buff for 15 seconds. Your Engulfing Dragonfire always deals maximum damage while Take Flight's buff is active.
• Molten Whip - a spammable which we'll slot on back-bar only for its passive effect. Molten Whip gains up to 3 stacks whenever you use a Dragonknight ability which grant you 15% damage done at maximum stacks. They last 10 seconds and with this many Dragonknight abilities in your rotation you'll never have to pay attention to this timer.

If you need to slot something situational, replace Ulfsild's Contingency if you don't need survivability, or Incinerate otherwise.

• 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. It can also be used in fights with invulnerability phases where you can't heal with Ring of the Pale Order or Reaving Blows
• Igneous Weapons - a source of Major Brutality which unlike the Major Sorcery from Spell Power potions will stack with the Minor Brutality from Elder Dragon passive, which makes it the best skill if you want more damage. It also improves your Stamina sustain, since it allows you to replace Spell Power potions with either Tri-Stat or Heroism potions
• Chains of Dominance - 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
• Chains of Devastation - a gap closer which can be useful in fights where you have to move around a lot
• Razor Caltrops - a source of AoE Major Breach which can be used instead of Elemental Susceptibility in AoE fights
• Ulfsild's Contingency (Flame, Gladiator's Tenacity, Resolve) - 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%
• Quick Cloak - an ability which provides Major Evasion, which reduces your AoE damage taken by 20%. Use it in fights with lots of AoE damage.
• Soul of Flame - an ability which restores resources based on your missing resources. Use it if you can't sustain.
• Burning Embers - a 10 second DoT which heals you for a decent amount on cast and then continues to heal you whenever it ticks. Use it if you need more healing.
• Wing Buffet (either morph) - an extremely situational ability which can be useful in fights with lots of projectile damage
• Race Against Time - snare removal which will be crucial for some fights. It won't be as big of a DPS loss, because it provides Minor Force, which is absent in this build unless you're using Velothi Ur-Mage's Amulet
• 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
• Corrosive Armor - 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
• Volcanic Ward - 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 Resolving Vigor, 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 Shatterspike Mantle and Ulfsild's Contingency, even if it means wasting Take Flight's buff

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

You ideally want to start a cast of Engulfing Dragonfire when Take Flight has 2-3 seconds left, so that the initial weak phase of Engulfing Dragonfire gets bypassed by Take Flight's buff, because the later phase deals high damage regardless.

• 1. Elemental Susceptibility
• 2. (if Take Flight is active) Engulfing Dragonfire
• 3. Shatterspike Mantle
• 4. Incinerate
• 5. Ulfsild's Contingency
• 6. Take Flight
• 7. Engulfing Dragonfire

Pre-buff

These abilities can be pre-cast before entering combat

• Shatterspike Mantle
• Incinerate
• Ulfsild's Contingency