One Bar Breath Dragonknight Solo Build - ESO Guide

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: Molten Whip
Slot 2: Incinerate
Slot 3: Shatterspike Mantle
Slot 4: Elemental Susceptibility
Slot 5: Ulfsild's Contingency
Ultimate: Take Flight

Info

• 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.

Situational

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

Rotation

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

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: Molten Whip
Slot 2: Incinerate
Slot 3: Shatterspike Mantle
Slot 4: Razor Caltrops
Slot 5: Chains of Dominance
Ultimate: Take Flight

What Changes

• Razor Caltrops replaces Elemental Susceptibility, so that you can apply Major Breach in AoE
• Chains of Dominance replaces Ulfsild's Contingency

A setup that sacrifices survivability for damage

Front Bar	Back Bar
Slot 1: Engulfing Dragonfire	Slot 1: Molten Whip
Slot 2: Incinerate
Slot 3: Shatterspike Mantle
Slot 4: Elemental Susceptibility
Slot 5: Igneous Weapons
Ultimate: Take Flight

What Changes

• Igneous Weapons replaces Ulfsild's Contingency

Additional Info

• Igneous Weapons allow you to use Tri-Stat or Heroism potions instead of Spell Power potions

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: Engulfing Dragonfire	Slot 1: Molten Whip
Slot 2: Revealing Flare
Slot 3: Shatterspike Mantle
Slot 4: Elemental Susceptibility
Slot 5: Ulfsild's Contingency
Ultimate: Take Flight

What Changes

• Revealing Flare replaces Incinerate

A setup which you could use if you want to play with a Sword and Shield. It parsed ≈7% less than a similar setup with Lightning Staff and Elemental Susceptibility

Front Bar	Back Bar
Slot 1: Engulfing Dragonfire	Slot 1: Molten Whip
Slot 2: Incinerate
Slot 3: Shatterspike Mantle
Slot 4: Pierce Armor
Slot 5: Ulfsild's Contingency
Ultimate: Take Flight

What Changes

• Pierce Armor replaces Elemental Susceptibility

Additional Info

• Pierce Armor is a Taunt which won't matter since this is a Solo build. If you decide to use this build in group content (which you shouldn't do anyway) you absolutely cannot use Pierce Armor

Passives

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

Gear

Base Setup

A base setup that will work for most situations and which should be your starting point when making situational setups

Gear Slot	Set	Weight/Type	Trait	Enchantment
Head	Slimecraw	Light	Divines	Magicka
Shoulders	Tide-Born Wildstalker	Medium	Divines	Magicka
Chest	Deadly Strike	Medium	Divines	Magicka
Hands	Tide-Born Wildstalker	Light	Divines	Magicka
Belt	Tide-Born Wildstalker	Light	Divines	Magicka
Legs	Tide-Born Wildstalker	Medium	Divines	Magicka
Boots	Tide-Born Wildstalker	Medium	Divines	Magicka
Necklace	Deadly Strike	Jewelry	Bloodthirsty	Increase Magical Harm
Ring	Deadly Strike	Jewelry	Bloodthirsty	Increase Magical Harm
Ring	Ring of the Pale Order	Jewelry	Bloodthirsty	Increase Magical Harm
Frontbar Main Hand	Deadly Strike	Lightning Staff	Charged	Absorb Magicka

Situational

Gear that can be stronger than the setup from the table in specific situations or when specific circumstances are present

• Velothi Ur-Mage's Amulet - a replacement for Ring of the Pale Order if you want to sacrifice survivability for a lot more damage. You'll usually need to use Reaving Blows to survive with it
• 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 Tide-Born Wildstalker in Instanced content where you can benefit from its 3-piece Minor Slayer bonus

Alternative

Gear that is easier to obtain and can be used while you work towards the best gear

Crafted

All of these are tradable and can be bought from other players

• Order's Wrath

Only listing a single alternative because one of the sets from the Base Setup, Tide-Born Wildstalker, is also a crafted set

No Overland, Dungeon or Trial gear is listed as the Crafted options are superior.

Additional Info

Additional tips

• Use more Light Armor pieces if you can't sustain Magicka
• If you want to use a Sword and Shield, the One Handed Weapon should be Charged with Absorb Magicka and the Shield should be Divines with Magicka

Final Setups

A few examples of final setups you could end up with after applying the situational rules to the base setup

This is the crafted gear setup you can start with

Gear Slot	Set	Weight/Type	Trait	Enchantment
Head	Highland Sentinel	Light	Divines	Magicka
Shoulders	Tide-Born Wildstalker	Medium	Divines	Magicka
Chest	Order's Wrath	Medium	Divines	Magicka
Hands	Tide-Born Wildstalker	Light	Divines	Magicka
Belt	Tide-Born Wildstalker	Light	Divines	Magicka
Legs	Tide-Born Wildstalker	Medium	Divines	Magicka
Boots	Tide-Born Wildstalker	Medium	Divines	Magicka
Necklace	Order's Wrath	Jewelry	Bloodthirsty	Increase Magical Harm
Ring	Order's Wrath	Jewelry	Bloodthirsty	Increase Magical Harm
Ring	Highland Sentinel	Jewelry	Bloodthirsty	Increase Magical Harm
Frontbar Main Hand	Order's Wrath	Lightning Staff	Charged	Absorb Magicka

The setup in the table uses only crafted gear, but if you already own parts of the Regular setup like Ring of the Pale Order you can start using them immediately

This is a setup you should use 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	Slimecraw	Medium	Divines	Magicka
Shoulders	Whorl of the Depths	Light	Divines	Magicka
Chest	Deadly Strike	Medium	Divines	Magicka
Hands	Whorl of the Depths	Light	Divines	Magicka
Belt	Whorl of the Depths	Light	Divines	Magicka
Legs	Whorl of the Depths	Light	Divines	Magicka
Boots	Whorl of the Depths	Light	Divines	Magicka
Necklace	Deadly Strike	Jewelry	Bloodthirsty	Increase Magical Harm
Ring	Deadly Strike	Jewelry	Bloodthirsty	Increase Magical Harm
Ring	Ring of the Pale Order	Jewelry	Bloodthirsty	Increase Magical Harm
Frontbar Main Hand	Deadly Strike	Lightning Staff	Sharpened	Absorb Stamina

Explanation

• Whorl of the Depths replaces Tide-Born Wildstalker, because in Instanced content you can benefit from the Minor Slayer buff, which makes it better
• Weight composition goes from 4 Medium 3 Light to 2 Medium 5 Light, so that we can benefit a bit more from the Concentration passive
• Weapon trait changes from Charged to Sharpened, in order to get enough penetration
• Weapon enchant changes from Absorb Magicka to Absorb Stamina, because with more Light Armor pieces we don't need Absorb Magicka to sustain

Additional Info

• If you want to use a Sword and Shield, the One Handed Weapon should be Charged with Poison and the Shield should be Divines with Magicka. You'll also have to change Medium Slimecraw to Light Valkyn Skoria

Champion Points

Warfare

Master-at-Arms

6% Direct Damage

Because more than 60% of your damage is Direct

Biting Aura

6% AoE Damage

Because more than 60% of your damage is AoE

Wrathful Strikes

205 Weapon and Spell Damage

Added to all damaging skills

Fighting Finesse

8% Critical Damage and Healing

Next strongest CP damage-wise

More Mitigation

Replace Wrathful Strikes + Fighting Finesse with 2 mitigation CPs: Ironclad, Duelist's Rebuff, Enduring Resolve, or Unassailable (depending on the type of damage the Boss deals to you)

More Healing

Reaving Blows is a decent Champion Point if you need more HPS

Fitness

Boundless Vitality

1400 Max Health

Survivability

Fortified

1731 Armor

Survivability

Rejuvenation

90 Health, Stamina and Magicka Recovery

Sustain

Siphoning Spells

1500 Magicka on kills

Sustain in fights with adds

Block Mitigation

Use Bracing Anchor in fights where you block a lot

Movement

Use Celerity in fights where you need to move a lot

Situational Stamina Sustain

Use Bloody Renewal alongside Siphoning Spells in fights with lots of adds

Situational Sustain

You can use Sustained by Suffering in fights with a constant debuff on you

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 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

Best for Damage

Khajiit

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

Best for Survivability

Nord

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 significantly more forgiving 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

• 

  Default

  The Thief

  5.53% Critical Chance(9.04% with 7 Divines)

  Use in all Overland content and most situations. It increases Critical Chance
• 

  Difficult Content

  The Lady

  2744 Armor(4489 with 7 Divines)

  Consider for extremely difficult dungeons

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.

• 

  Default

  Artaeum Pickled Fish Bowl

  Max Health +5,414 Max Magicka +4,938

  The default option for most content. Provides Max Health and Max Magicka without any recovery.
  Cheaper alternative Solitude Salmon-Millet Soup

  Difference Max Health +5,395 −19 Max Magicka +4,936 −2
• 

  Sustain

  Orzorga's Red Frothgar

  Max Health +5,395 Magicka Recovery +493

  Switch to this if you find yourself running low on Magicka.
• 

  Sustain

  Orzorga's Smoked Bear Haunch

  Max Health +4,312 Health Recovery +406 Stamina Recovery +369 Magicka Recovery +369

  The best choice for hard content where you need both additional Stamina and Magicka sustain.
  Cheaper alternative Jewels of Misrule

  Difference Max Health +3,927 −385 Health Recovery — −406 Stamina Recovery +357 −12 Magicka Recovery +357 −12

Potions

Use Spell Power potions most of the time. Using Igneous Weapons enables you to use Tri-Stat or Heroism potions instead.

• 

  Default

  Spell Power Potion

  Restore Magicka Major Sorcery Major Prophecy

  The default option which improves your Magicka sustain and grants you Major Sorcery, which will increase your Spell Damage by 20%. It does not stack with Minor Brutality from Elder Dragon , but it still ends up being the best default option, since you wouldn't be able to sustain Weapon Power potions

  Craft with: Lady's Smock Namira's Rot Corn Flower
• 

  Situational

  Tri-Stat Potion

  Restore Health Restore Stamina Restore Magicka

  Use these if you're already getting Major Brutality/Sorcery from Igneous Weapons . Just like Spell Power potions they'll improve your Magicka sustain and they'll improve Stamina sustain on top of that

  Craft with: Columbine Bugloss Mountain Flower
• 

  Expensive

  Heroism Potion

  Restore Magicka Restore Stamina Minor Heroism

  Basically Tri-Stat potions but with Minor Heroism on top of that, which is an extremely powerful buff in this build because of our reliance on Take Flight , but they're expensive

  Craft with: Dragon Rheum Dragon's Blood Columbine

Parses

All parses are recorded on the 6 million Target Dummy

Full Damage (Velothi)

58.2k DPS

Full Damage

51.3k DPS

Regular

49.2k DPS

Tanky

45.2k DPS

Sword and Shield

45.6k DPS

Full Damage (Velothi)

58.2kDPS

6mil Skeleton Dummy

Patch

Update 49

Armor

5 Light / 2 Medium

Gear Setup

Instanced with Velothi

Skill Setup

Full Damage

Potion

Heroism Potion

Food

Artaeum Pickled Fish Bowl

Mundus

The Thief

Race

Nord

58,192 DPS using the Full Damage Skill Setup with Velothi Ur-Mage's Amulet and Heroism potions.

CMX Parse

CMX Setup

Recording of the 58.2k parse

Full Damage

51.3kDPS

6mil Skeleton Dummy

Patch

Update 49

Armor

5 Light / 2 Medium

Gear Setup

Instanced

Skill Setup

Full Damage

Potion

Heroism Potion

Food

Artaeum Pickled Fish Bowl

Mundus

The Thief

Race

Nord

51,349 DPS using the Full Damage Skill Setup and Heroism potions.

CMX Parse

CMX Setup

Regular

49.2kDPS

6mil Skeleton Dummy

Patch

Update 49

Armor

5 Light / 2 Medium

Gear Setup

Instanced

Skill Setup

Regular

Potion

Essence of Spell Power

Food

Artaeum Pickled Fish Bowl

Mundus

The Thief

Race

Nord

49,200 DPS using the Regular Skill Setup.

CMX Parse

CMX Setup

Recording of the 49.2k parse

Tanky

45.2kDPS

6mil Skeleton Dummy

Patch

Update 49

Armor

5 Light / 2 Medium

Gear Setup

Instanced

Skill Setup

Tanky

Potion

Essence of Spell Power

Food

Artaeum Pickled Fish Bowl

Mundus

The Thief

Race

Nord

45,200 DPS using the Tanky Skill Setup.

CMX Parse

CMX Setup

Sword and Shield

45.6kDPS

6mil Skeleton Dummy

Patch

Update 49

Armor

6 Light / 1 Medium

Gear Setup

Instanced with Sword and Shield

Skill Setup

Sword and Shield

Potion

Essence of Spell Power

Food

Artaeum Pickled Fish Bowl

Mundus

The Thief

Race

Nord

45,585 DPS using Sword and Shield instead of a Lightning Staff, which also changes Elemental Susceptibility to Pierce Armor.

CMX Parse

CMX Setup

Recording of the 45.6k parse

✕ Close

Gameplay

Fashion

Outfit Screenshot

Slot	Style	Dyes
Head	Fire Drake Helmet	Legate's Black Legate's Black
Shoulders	Ancient Daedric Pauldrons	Legate's Black
Chest	Scorianite Gladiator Jack	Legate's Black Legate's Black Legate's Black
Hands	Fire Drake Gauntlets	Legate's Black Legate's Black Legate's Black
Belt	Hide Waist
Legs	Fire Drake Greaves	Legate's Black Legate's Black Legate's Black
Feet	Fire Drake Sabatons	Legate's Black Legate's Black Legate's Black
Frontbar Main Hand	Fire Drake Sword	Empty Legate's Black Legate's Black
Frontbar Off Hand	Fire Drake Sword	Empty Legate's Black Legate's Black

Collectibles

Slot	Collectible
Skin	Blood-Forged
Personality	Deadlands Firewalker

FAQ