One Bar Heavy Attack Solo Build
ESO Guide
One Bar Heavy Attack Solo Build for ESO, using Storm Calling, Assassination and Grave Lord through subclassing. The strongest One Bar Heavy Attack build and one of the strongest One Bar Solo builds in ESO Update 49.
The base class can be Sorcerer, Nightblade or Necromancer. There's also a more defensive Daedric Summoning setup for harder content if you're a Sorcerer.
Soloed Veteran Hard Mode Scalecaller Peak, Veteran Oathsworn Pit and Veteran Frostvault. Parses 51.4k in the Regular setup, 55.5k with Oakensoul and 47.3k with Daedric Summoning.
Subclassing
Combination
This build doesn't use any class set or class script so the base class can be either Sorcerer, Nightblade or Necromancer
Defensive Combination
This combination does less damage but provides more survivability, thanks to having access to
Hardened Ward and being able to backbar
Bound Aegis for passive bonuses. However it can only be used if your base class is Sorcerer
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: Concealed Weapon |
| Slot 2: Grave Lord's Sacrifice | |
| Slot 3: Hurricane | |
| Slot 4: Elemental Blockade | |
| Slot 5: Elemental Susceptibility | |
| Ultimate: Soul Harvest |
Ulfsild's Contingency (
Shock,
Lingering Torment,
Force) - your source of crucial Empower buff, which increases damage done by Heavy Attack by 70%. Since
Ulfsild's Contingency is a Mages Guild skill, it will trigger the
Might of the Guild passive, which grants you Empower for 10 seconds. It also deals decent damage in an AoE and grants you Minor Force 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 Empower you gain from it will start working just in time to boost the final tick of that Heavy Attack you just finished
Grave Lord's Sacrifice - this ability will provide a 15% bonus to the channeled part of your Heavy Attack and trigger
Death Knell and
Dismember passives
Hurricane - your source of Major Resolve which is a crucial defensive buff. It also deals decent damage and grants Weapon and Spell Damage through the
Expert Mage passive.
Elemental Blockade - a 15 second ground DoT. Concussed enemies standing inside of your Lightning
Elemental Blockade will get debuffed with Off Balance which causes them to take 70% more damage from Heavy Attacks. Off Balance lasts 7 seconds and then the enemy receives 15 seconds of Off Balance immunity
Elemental Susceptibility - an ability which debuffs the enemy with Major Breach for 30 seconds, reducing their armor by 5948. It also procs Burning, Concussed and Chilled status effects every 7.5 seconds, which deal decent damage. Concussed is also required to proc Off Balance with your
Elemental Blockade and it inherently provides 4 seconds of Minor Vulnerability when it procs, increasing enemies' damage taken by 5%. Chilled inherently provides 4 seconds of Minor Maim which reduces enemies' damage done by 5%.
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.
Concealed Weapon - This skill will passively grant you Minor Expedition while slotted on your backbar, which is a buff you're already getting from
Hurricane, but
Concealed Weapon can help fill the gaps when
Hurricane runs out. It's mostly irrelevant but also free.
All skills of the base setup are crucial so slotting situational skills will always come with a massive trade-off. The skill that has to be replaced if you need situational skills is
Hurricane. It means you'll be losing a very important Major Resolve buff, but it's the only way as removing any of the other skills makes the damage of this build fall apart.
Resolving Vigor - a burst heal which you'll need in fights with invulnerability phases where you can't heal with
Ring of the Pale Order,
Reaving Blows or
Critical Surge
Ulfsild's Contingency (
Shock,
Gladiator's Tenacity,
Force) - a different combination which uses
Gladiator's Tenacity script instead of
Lingering Torment, which trades the DoT for an 8% damage reduction. Use it in more difficult fights.
Silver Leash - a chain ability that you can slot in trash packs to stack enemies and get through them faster
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. Whenever you have to slot this Ultimate you can also backbar
Soul Harvest so you can still benefit from its passive part which grants you Ultimate when killing enemies
Ball of Lightning - an ability that teleports you forward. Use it in fights where you need more mobility or in fights where this teleport allows you to invalidate some mechanic
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
- 1.
Ulfsild's Contingency if you have no Empower or it has less than 2 seconds remaining - 2.
Elemental Susceptibility - 3.
Elemental Blockade if Off Balance is ready - 4.
Soul Harvest - 5.
Hurricane - 6.
Elemental Blockade if Off Balance is on cooldown - 7.
Grave Lord's Sacrifice (you can recast this one when it's at 4 seconds remaining) - 8.
Ulfsild's Contingency spammable
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 you should use when using the
Oakensoul Ring
| Front Bar | Back Bar |
|---|---|
| Slot 1: Merciless Resolve | |
| Slot 2: Grave Lord's Sacrifice | |
| Slot 3: Critical Surge | |
| Slot 4: Unstable Wall of Elements | |
| Slot 5: Elemental Susceptibility | |
| Ultimate: Soul Harvest |
What Changes
Changes compared to the Base Setup
Merciless Resolve replaces
Ulfsild's Contingency
Critical Surge replaces
Hurricane
Elemental Blockade changes morph to
Unstable Wall of Elements so you can use it as spammable in place of
Ulfsild's Contingency- You can't backbar
Concealed Weapon anymore
Additional Info
- In this setup, the skill that gets replaced by situational skills is either
Merciless Resolve or
Critical Surge in very easy fights
A more defensive setup which replaces Grave Lord with Daedric Summoning
| Front Bar | Back Bar |
|---|---|
| Slot 1: Ulfsild's Contingency | Slot 1: Concealed Weapon |
| Slot 2: Hardened Ward | Slot 2: Bound Aegis |
| Slot 3: Hurricane | |
| Slot 4: Elemental Blockade | |
| Slot 5: Elemental Susceptibility | |
| Ultimate: Soul Harvest |
What Changes
Changes compared to the Base Setup
Hardened Ward replaces
Grave Lord's Sacrifice
Bound Aegis gets added to backbar
Additional Info
A setup used when fighting Zaan the Scalecaller boss in Scalecaller Peak dungeon
| Front Bar | Back Bar |
|---|---|
| Slot 1: Ulfsild's Contingency | Slot 1: Concealed Weapon |
| Slot 2: Grave Lord's Sacrifice | |
| Slot 3: Hurricane | |
| Slot 4: Elemental Blockade | |
| Slot 5: Elemental Susceptibility | |
| Ultimate: Precognition | Ultimate: Soul Harvest |
What Changes
Changes compared to the Base Setup
Precognition replaces
Soul Harvest so you can get out of the Inferno's Hold mechanic
Soul Harvest moves to backbar so you can still benefit from the passive Ultimate generation on kills
Passives
Some trees are only needed when using situational skills, for example Fighters Guild provides nothing without
Silver Leash and Psijic Order provides nothing without
Precognition
It lists more than 3 Class Skill lines because there are different options to choose in Subclassing, but you obviously only need to look at passives from the Skill Lines you chose
Class - Storm Calling
Capacitor - High Priority
Energized - High Priority
Amplitude - High Priority
Expert Mage - High Priority
Class - Assassination
Master Assassin - High Priority
Executioner - High Priority
Pressure Points - High Priority
Hemorrhage - High Priority
Class - Grave Lord
Reusable Parts - Low Priority
Death Knell - High Priority
Dismember - High Priority
Rapid Rot - High Priority
Class - Daedric Summoning
Rebate - Medium Priority
Power Stone - High Priority
Daedric Protection - High Priority
Expert Summoner - High Priority
Weapon - Destruction Staff
Tri Focus - High Priority
Penetrating Magic - High Priority
Elemental Force - Medium Priority
Ancient Knowledge - High 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 - Low Priority
Slayer - Low Priority
Banish the Wicked - Low Priority
Skilled Tracker - Low 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 - High Priority
Guild - Psijic Order
Clairvoyance - Low Priority
Spell Orb - Not needed
Concentrated Barrier - Low Priority
Deliberation - 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
| Gear Slot | Set | Weight/Type | Trait | Enchantment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Head |
Medium | |||
Shoulders |
Medium | |||
Chest |
Heavy | |||
Hands |
Medium | |||
Belt |
Light | |||
Legs |
Medium | |||
Boots |
Medium | |||
Necklace |
Jewelry | |||
Ring |
Jewelry | |||
Ring |
Jewelry | |||
Frontbar Main Hand |
Lightning Staff |
Gear that can be stronger than the setup from the table in specific situations or when specific circumstances are present
Noble Duelist - a set with a stronger 5-piece bonus than
Order's Wrath. The only reason
Order's Wrath ends up being stronger for Overland is because it can be crafted in any weight, while
Noble Duelist is forced into Light.
Noble Duelist becomes stronger than
Order's Wrath in Instanced content where enemies have more armor and thus the penetration from Light armor isn't wasted
Oakensoul Ring - alternative to
Ring of the Pale Order. Does slightly more damage but has much worse survivability. It can be more convenient for most fights because it removes the need to prebuff most skills, but don't use it against difficult World Bosses and anything above their level
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
Only listing a single alternative because one of the sets from Base Setup,
Order's Wrath, is also a crafted set
No Overland, Dungeon or Trial gear is listed as the Crafted options are superior.
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 |
Medium | |||
Shoulders |
Medium | |||
Chest |
Heavy | |||
Hands |
Medium | |||
Belt |
Light | |||
Legs |
Medium | |||
Boots |
Medium | |||
Necklace |
Jewelry | |||
Ring |
Jewelry | |||
Ring |
Jewelry | |||
Frontbar Main Hand |
Lightning Staff |
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 |
Medium | |||
Shoulders |
Light | |||
Chest |
Heavy | |||
Hands |
Light | |||
Belt |
Light | |||
Legs |
Light | |||
Boots |
Light | |||
Necklace |
Jewelry | |||
Ring |
Jewelry | |||
Ring |
Jewelry | |||
Frontbar Main Hand |
Lightning Staff |
Noble Duelist - replaces
Order's Wrath, because you'll need Light armor to get enough penetration through
Concentration passive, and with the same armor weight
Noble Duelist is simply stronger than
Order's Wrath
This is the setup with
Oakensoul Ring
| Gear Slot | Set | Weight/Type | Trait | Enchantment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Head |
Medium | |||
Shoulders |
Medium | |||
Chest |
Heavy | |||
Hands |
Medium | |||
Belt |
Light | |||
Legs |
Medium | |||
Boots |
Medium | |||
Necklace |
Jewelry | |||
Ring |
Jewelry | |||
Ring |
Jewelry | |||
Frontbar Main Hand |
Lightning Staff |
- If you intend to use this setup in Instanced content you should apply the same changes as the ones shown in the Instanced setup
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.
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
Potions
Use the Spell Power potions (Increase Spell Power, Spell Critical, Restore Magicka). They'll provide Major Sorcery buff which is crucial.
When using
Oakensoul Ring, you should instead use the Armor potions, which will increase your armor by 5280.
Parses
All parses are recorded on the 6 million Target Dummy
Patch: Update 48
Using Regular setup
Patch: Update 48
A setup with
Ring of the Pale Order changed to
Oakensoul and
Wrathful Strikes changed to
Reaving Blows
Patch: Update 48
Using the Daedric Summoning defensive setup
Gameplay
Here you can see this build tackling Veteran dungeons
FAQ
A heavy attack build uses Heavy Attacks as its main source of damage instead of spammable abilities. Heavy Attacks restore resources when they hit, so these builds have very good sustain.
It's both. A Heavy Attack has 2 channeled ticks which are considered Damage over Time and 1 final tick which is considered Direct Damage.
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.
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.
Ring of the Pale Order is better for difficult content because of the healing it provides.
Oakensoul Ring does more damage but has much worse survivability.
THANKS FOR READING
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Head
Shoulders
Chest
Hands
Belt
Legs
Boots
Necklace
Ring
Frontbar Main Hand