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Home Solo One Bar Magicka Nightblade

One Bar Magicka Nightblade Solo Build - ESO Guide

Solo One Bar Magicka Pure Class Nightblade
Up to date for: Update 44 - 1st March 2025
Last changed: Update 44 - 1st March 2025

This build is capable of soloing every Veteran dungeon that doesn't have a specific mechanic that requires multiple people. It's also capable of soloing most Hard Mode dungeons, and with some adjustments even the more difficult ones.

In this guide I'll be regularly using the terms Regular and Difficult. Regular refers to content that is intended to be solo-ed (such as Maelstrom Arena or Vateshran Arena) and to any overland content such as World Bosses, Dolmens, Dragons, Volcanic Vents, Harrowstorms, Mirrormoor Incursions, etc. Majority of dungeon fights will also fall under that category. Difficult refers to extremely difficult dungeon fights.

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Skill Setups

Base Setup

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

Concealed Weapon Impale Wield Soul Barbed Trap Shadowy Disguise Soul Harvest
Siphoning Attacks Relentless Focus
Front Bar Back Bar
Slot 1: Concealed Weapon Slot 1: Siphoning Attacks
Slot 2: Impale Slot 2: Relentless Focus
Slot 3: Wield Soul
Slot 4: Barbed Trap
Slot 5: Shadowy Disguise
Ultimate: Soul Harvest
  • Concealed Weapon - a strong spammable that will also passively increase your damage by 10% and your movement speed by 15%. Using a Shadow ability will increase the damage of your next Concealed Weapon by another 10%
  • Impale - your execute, use it in place of your spammable whenever target is below 25% Max Health
  • Wield Soul ( Physical , Lingering Torment , Breach ) - a DoT that will also apply the Major Breach debuff, which reduces enemies' armor by 5948 and is crucial for any non-overland content. Since it's a Stamina ability that has to be re-cast every 10 seconds, it's going to improve our Magicka sustain by a lot. Use Razor Caltrops instead if you don't have access to Scribing
  • Barbed Trap - a DoT that will also apply Hemorrhage status effect at the start and grant you Minor Force buff, increasing your Critical Damage by 10%. It will also trigger the Slayer passive
  • Shadowy Disguise - Shadow ability that will grant you 10% increased damage from Concealed Weapon and then increase its damage by another 10%. It will also grant you Major Savagery, but keep in mind that Major Savagery doesn't stack with Minor Savagery. You can also use it to dodge some Heavy Attacks and to proc Shadow Barrier passive, which will grant you Major Resolve
  • Soul Harvest - a cheap ultimate that increases your damage done against the target by 20% and grants you 10 Ultimate whenever you kill an enemy
  • Relentless Focus - an ability you can keep slotted on your backbar to gain its passive benefits. It will increase your Weapon and Spell Damage by 400
  • Siphoning Attacks - an ability you can keep slotted on your backbar to gain its passive benefits. It will restore Health, Stamina and Magicka whenever you deal damage once per second

These are skills you can swap in depending on the situation.

Final Setup

A more defensive setup for extremely difficult dungeon fights

Swallow Soul Revealing Flare Wield Soul Ulfsild's Contingency Shadowy Disguise Soul Harvest
Siphoning Attacks Relentless Focus Concealed Weapon
Front Bar Back Bar
Slot 1: Swallow Soul Slot 1: Siphoning Attacks
Slot 2: Revealing Flare Slot 2: Relentless Focus
Slot 3: Wield Soul Slot 3: Concealed Weapon
Slot 4: Ulfsild's Contingency
Slot 5: Shadowy Disguise
Ultimate: Soul Harvest

What Changes

Changes compared to the Base Setup

  • Swallow Soul - a spammable that will also heal you for 10% of the damage done, re-cast it at least every 10 seconds to keep the heal over time active. Having it slotted will also trigger the Magicka Flood passive
  • Revealing Flare - this skill will passively grant you Major Protection, reducing your damage taken by 10%. It will also trigger the Magicka Aid passive, which increases Magicka Recovery by 10%
  • Wield Soul ( Physical , Lingering Torment , Breach ) - a DoT that will also apply the Major Breach debuff, which reduces enemies' armor by 5948 and is crucial for any non-overland content. Since it's a Stamina ability that has to be re-cast every 10 seconds, it's going to improve our Magicka sustain by a lot. Use Razor Caltrops instead if you don't have access to Scribing
  • Ulfsild's Contingency ( Flame , Gladiator's Tenacity , Force ) - a delayed AoE damage that also grants you 8% damage reduction for 8 seconds and Minor Force for 22 seconds, which increases your Critical Damage by 10%. You should recast it every 8 seconds when under pressure and every 22 seconds otherwise. Having it slotted on your frontbar will also trigger the Magicka Controller passive which will slightly improve your damage and sustain. Use Barbed Trap instead if you don't have access to Scribing
  • Shadowy Disguise - Shadow ability that will grant you 10% increased damage from Concealed Weapon. It will also grant you Major Savagery, but keep in mind that Major Savagery doesn't stack with Minor Savagery. You can also use it to dodge some Heavy Attacks and to proc Shadow Barrier passive, which will grant you Major Resolve
  • Soul Harvest - a cheap ultimate that increases your damage done against the target by 20% and grants you 10 Ultimate whenever you kill an enemy
  • Relentless Focus - an ability you can keep slotted on your backbar to gain its passive benefits. It will increase your Weapon and Spell Damage by 400
  • Siphoning Attacks - an ability you can keep slotted on your backbar to gain its passive benefits. It will restore Health, Stamina and Magicka whenever you deal damage once per second
  • Concealed Weapon - an ability you can keep slotted on your backbar to gain its passive benefits. It will increase your movement speed by 15%

These are skills you can swap in depending on the situation.

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 and Mages Guild provides nothing without Ulfsild's Contingency

Class

Weapon

Armor

Guild

Alliance War

Racial

Craft

Class - Assassination

Master AssassinMaster Assassin - High Priority

ExecutionerExecutioner - High Priority

Pressure PointsPressure Points - High Priority

HemorrhageHemorrhage - High Priority

Vampirism

Becoming a Vampire can allow you to use Simmering Frenzy if you don't mind switching to your backbar once per fight

Gear

Base Setup

This is my suggested setup for regular content, such as Solo Arenas, World Bosses, Dolmens, Dragons, Volcanic Vents, Harrowstorms, Mirrormoor Incursions and majority of the dungeons.

Final Setup

This is the crafted gear setup you can start with.

  • Use Daggers instead of Maces if you don't plan on using this gear setup for any instanced content (Dungeons, Arenas)
  • For Ranged build, replace Maces/Daggers with a Bow of the same set with Sharpened (for instanced content) or Precise (for overland content) trait and Absorb Stamina enchant
  • Use Training traits if you're still leveling. If you're already max level and have enough Champion Points you can instead use Divines and Reinforced on the chest piece
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Champion Points

WarfareWarfare
Master-at-Arms
6% Direct Damage
Deadly Aim
6% Single Target Damage
Fighting Finesse
8% Critical Damage and Healing
Wrathful Strikes
205 Weapon and Spell Damage added to damaging skills
More Mitigation
When soloing extremely difficult dungeons you should replace Wrathful Strikes and Fighting Finesse with 2 of the 4 mitigation CPs (Ironclad, Duelist's Rebuff, Enduring Resolve, Unassailable)
FitnessFitness
Boundless Vitality
1400 Max Health
Sustained by Suffering
150 Health, Stamina and Magicka Recovery when debuffed
Rejuvenation
90 Health, Stamina and Magicka Recovery
Fortified
1731 armor
Sustain in fights with lots of adds
In fights with lots of adds Siphoning Spells and Bloody Renewal can be stronger than Rejuvenation and Sustained by Suffering
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 Ambush passive.
Feline Ambush Feline Ambush 12% Critical Damage
Lunar Blessings Lunar Blessings 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. Rugged 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
Resist Frost Resist Frost 1000 Max Health, 4620 Frost Resistance

Mundus

The Shadow
Default
The Shadow
11% Critical Damage (18% with 7 Divines)
When to use
Use most of the time. It increases your Critical Damage
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

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

Max Health Magicka Recovery
You'll have to use this in order to sustain.
Max Health Max Magicka Magicka Recovery
If your sustain is good enough you can use this food instead, which compared to Orzorga's Red Frothgar will lower your Magicka Recovery and Max Health but it will grant you additional Max Magicka which will increase your damage
Max Health Stamina Recovery Magicka Recovery
If a certain fight requires much more blocking and/or dodge rolling you can use this food instead, which compared to Orzorga's Red Frothgar will lower your Magicka Recovery and Max Health but it will grant you additional Stamina Recovery. Jewels of Misrule is a much cheaper alternative version of this food

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 greatly improve your sustain and provide Major Sorcery and Major Prophecy which are crucial.

Gameplay

Shipwright's Regret
Dungeon
Shipwright's Regret
9:22 timestamp Veteran

FAQ

No, you don't need a different setup. Use the Regular skill and gear setups from this guide for both Maelstrom Arena and Vateshran Hollows.



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