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One Bar Heavy Attack Solo Build
ESO Guide

One Bar Magicka Sorcerer Nightblade Necromancer Solo Subclass Heavy Attack
Up to date for: Update 49 - 5th April 2026
Last changed: Update 48 - 7th February 2026

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.

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Subclassing

Storm Calling skill line - ESO
Storm Calling
Sorcerer
Assassination skill line - ESO
Assassination
Nightblade
Grave Lord skill line - ESO
Grave Lord
Necromancer

This build doesn't use any class set or class script so the base class can be either Sorcerer, Nightblade or Necromancer

Storm Calling skill line - ESO
Storm Calling
Sorcerer
Daedric Summoning skill line - ESO
Daedric Summoning
Sorcerer
Assassination skill line - ESO
Assassination
Nightblade

This combination does less damage but provides more survivability, thanks to having access to Hardened WardHardened Ward and being able to backbar Bound AegisBound 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

Ulfsild's Contingency skill icon - ESO Grave Lord's Sacrifice skill icon - ESO Hurricane skill icon - ESO Elemental Blockade skill icon - ESO Elemental Susceptibility skill icon - ESO Soul Harvest skill icon - ESO
Concealed Weapon skill icon - ESO
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
INFO
  • Ulfsild's ContingencyUlfsild's Contingency (ShockShock, Lingering TormentLingering Torment, ForceForce) - your source of crucial Empower buff, which increases damage done by Heavy Attack by 70%. Since Ulfsild's ContingencyUlfsild's Contingency is a Mages Guild skill, it will trigger the Might of the GuildMight 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 ContingencyUlfsild'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 SacrificeGrave Lord's Sacrifice - this ability will provide a 15% bonus to the channeled part of your Heavy Attack and trigger Death KnellDeath Knell and DismemberDismember passives
  • HurricaneHurricane - 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 MageExpert Mage passive.
  • Elemental BlockadeElemental Blockade - a 15 second ground DoT. Concussed enemies standing inside of your Lightning Elemental BlockadeElemental 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 SusceptibilityElemental 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 BlockadeElemental 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 HarvestSoul 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 WeaponConcealed Weapon - This skill will passively grant you Minor Expedition while slotted on your backbar, which is a buff you're already getting from HurricaneHurricane, but Concealed WeaponConcealed Weapon can help fill the gaps when HurricaneHurricane runs out. It's mostly irrelevant but also free.
SITUATIONAL

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 HurricaneHurricane. 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 VigorResolving Vigor - a burst heal which you'll need in fights with invulnerability phases where you can't heal with Ring of the Pale OrderRing of the Pale Order, Reaving BlowsReaving Blows or Critical SurgeCritical Surge
  • Ulfsild's ContingencyUlfsild's Contingency (ShockShock, Gladiator's TenacityGladiator's Tenacity, ForceForce) - a different combination which uses Gladiator's TenacityGladiator's Tenacity script instead of Lingering TormentLingering Torment, which trades the DoT for an 8% damage reduction. Use it in more difficult fights.
  • Silver LeashSilver Leash - a chain ability that you can slot in trash packs to stack enemies and get through them faster
  • PrecognitionPrecognition - 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 HarvestSoul Harvest so you can still benefit from its passive part which grants you Ultimate when killing enemies
  • Ball of LightningBall 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
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

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 RingOakensoul Ring

Merciless Resolve skill icon - ESO Grave Lord's Sacrifice skill icon - ESO Critical Surge skill icon - ESO Unstable Wall of Elements skill icon - ESO Elemental Susceptibility skill icon - ESO Soul Harvest skill icon - ESO
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

Additional Info

Passives

Some trees are only needed when using situational skills, for example Fighters Guild provides nothing without Silver LeashSilver Leash and Psijic Order provides nothing without PrecognitionPrecognition

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

Weapon

Armor

Guild

Racial

Craft

Class - Storm Calling

CapacitorCapacitor - High Priority

EnergizedEnergized - High Priority

AmplitudeAmplitude - High Priority

Expert MageExpert Mage - High Priority

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

Situational

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

  • Noble DuelistNoble Duelist - a set with a stronger 5-piece bonus than Order's WrathOrder's Wrath. The only reason Order's WrathOrder's Wrath ends up being stronger for Overland is because it can be crafted in any weight, while Noble DuelistNoble Duelist is forced into Light. Noble DuelistNoble Duelist becomes stronger than Order's WrathOrder's Wrath in Instanced content where enemies have more armor and thus the penetration from Light armor isn't wasted
  • Oakensoul RingOakensoul Ring - alternative to Ring of the Pale OrderRing 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
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

Only listing a single alternative because one of the sets from Base Setup, Order's WrathOrder'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

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

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.

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Champion Points

WarfareWarfare
Weapons Expert
20% Light and Heavy Attack damage
Because this is a Heavy Attack build
Deadly Aim
6% Single Target Damage
Because more than 60% of your damage is Single Target
Fighting Finesse
8% Critical Damage and Healing
Next strongest CP damage-wise
Wrathful Strikes
205 Weapon and Spell Damage
Next strongest CP damage-wise
More Mitigation
Replace Wrathful StrikesWrathful Strikes + Fighting FinesseFighting Finesse with 2 mitigation CPs: IroncladIronclad, Duelist's RebuffDuelist's Rebuff, Enduring ResolveEnduring Resolve, or UnassailableUnassailable (depending on the type of damage the Boss deals to you)
More Healing
Reaving BlowsReaving Blows is another decent Blue CP for when you need more HPS. It should be used when using Oakensoul RingOakensoul Ring to make up for lack of Ring of the Pale OrderRing of the Pale Order, but in more difficult fights where you need even more HPS it can be used alongside Ring of the Pale OrderRing of the Pale Order
FitnessFitness
Boundless Vitality
1400 Max Health
Survivability
Rejuvenation
90 Health, Magicka and Stamina Recovery
Sustain
Fortified
1731 Armor
Survivability
Celerity
10% Movement Speed
Utility
Block Mitigation
Use Bracing AnchorBracing Anchor in fights where you block a lot and don't have to move much
Sustain in fights with lots of adds
Bloody RenewalBloody Renewal is ideal for fights which require a lot of blocking and/or dodge rolling and have a lot of adds for you to kill
Damage Shields
You can use BastionBastion whenever you switch to the Daedric Summoning setup to boost its Hardened WardHardened Ward
Craft 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 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

Khajiit
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 AmbushFeline Ambush passive.
Feline Ambush Feline Ambush 12% Critical Damage
Nimble Nimble 915 Max Health, Stamina and Magicka
Robustness Robustness 90 Health, Stamina, Magicka Recovery
Nord
Best for Survivability
Nord
Why pick this
The tankiest race. Nord is also what I use for soloing Veteran Hard Mode DLC Dungeons. RuggedRugged provides around 5-7% damage mitigation (depending on your current armor), making difficult content significantly more forgiving without sacrificing much damage.
Rugged Rugged 2600 armor
Stalwart Stalwart 1500 Max Stamina, 0.5 Ultimate per second
Reveler Reveler 1000 Max Health, 4620 Frost Resistance

Mundus

The Thief
Default
The Thief
5.53% Critical Chance (9.04% with 7 Divines)
When to use
Use most of the time. It increases your Critical Chance
The Lover
Daedric Summoning + Instanced
The Lover
2744 Penetration (4489 with 7 Divines)
When to use
When using the Daedric Summoning setup in Instanced content specifically. It increases your Penetration
The Lady
Difficult Content
The Lady
2744 Armor (4489 with 7 Divines)
When to use
Consider switching for extremely difficult dungeons. It increases your Armor

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.

Health
0
Stamina
0
Magicka
64
All points into Magicka. Use it for most content
Health
32
Stamina
0
Magicka
32
Split evenly between Health and Magicka. Use this whenever you start to struggle
Health
64
Stamina
0
Magicka
0
All points into Health. Use this for very difficult fights

Food

Max Health Max Magicka
The default food for this build. Solitude Salmon-Millet SoupSolitude Salmon-Millet Soup is a cheaper alternative with only slightly lower stats.
Max Health Max Magicka Stamina Recovery
Provides Stamina Recovery at the cost of Maximum Magicka. It will lower your damage, but its very useful for fights where you have to dodge roll a lot.

Potions

Spell Power Potion
Default Spell Power Potion
Restore Magicka Major Sorcery Major Prophecy

Use the Spell Power potions (Increase Spell Power, Spell Critical, Restore Magicka). They'll provide Major Sorcery buff which is crucial.

Armor Potion
Oakensoul Armor Potion
Restore Health +5280 Armor

When using Oakensoul RingOakensoul 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

Regular Setup
51,422DPS
Target: 6mil Skeleton Dummy
Patch: Update 48

Using Regular setup

CMX Parse
One Bar Heavy Attack Solo CMX Parse - Regular Setup - ESO
CMX Setup
One Bar Heavy Attack Solo CMX Setup - Regular Setup - ESO
Recording
Parse recording
Oakensoul
55,552DPS
Target: 6mil Skeleton Dummy
Patch: Update 48

A setup with Ring of the Pale OrderRing of the Pale Order changed to Oakensoul RingOakensoul and Wrathful StrikesWrathful Strikes changed to Reaving BlowsReaving Blows

CMX Parse
One Bar Heavy Attack Solo CMX Parse - Oakensoul Setup - ESO
CMX Setup
One Bar Heavy Attack Solo CMX Setup - Oakensoul Setup - ESO
Daedric Summoning
47,315DPS
Target: 6mil Skeleton Dummy
Patch: Update 48

Using the Daedric Summoning defensive setup

CMX Parse
One Bar Heavy Attack Solo CMX Parse - Daedric Summoning Setup - ESO
CMX Setup
One Bar Heavy Attack Solo CMX Setup - Daedric Summoning Setup - ESO

Gameplay

Here you can see this build tackling Veteran dungeons

Scalecaller Peak
Dungeon
Oathsworn Pit
Dungeon
Frostvault
Dungeon
Oakenclaw
World Boss
Harrowstorm
World Event
Scalecaller Peak
Dungeon Veteran Hard Mode
Oathsworn Pit
Dungeon Veteran
Frostvault
Dungeon Veteran
Oakenclaw
World Boss
Harrowstorm
World Event

FAQ

What is a heavy attack build in ESO?

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.

Is heavy attack direct damage or damage over time in ESO?

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.

What is the best race for a heavy attack build in ESO?

Khajiit is the best race for damage thanks to 12% Critical Damage from Feline AmbushFeline Ambush, which won't be wasted in solo content. Nord is the best race for survivability, providing around 5-7% damage mitigation through the RuggedRugged racial passive.

Do I need a different setup for Maelstrom Arena and Vateshran Hollows?

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.

Is Oakensoul or Ring of the Pale Order better for a heavy attack build?

Ring of the Pale OrderRing of the Pale Order is better for difficult content because of the healing it provides. Oakensoul RingOakensoul Ring does more damage but has much worse survivability.

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