Hyperioxes
Hyperioxes
Home Solo Stamina Arcanist Solo

Stamina Arcanist Solo Build - ESO Guide

Solo Two Bar Stamina Pure Class Arcanist
Up to date for: Update 50 - 10th June 2026
Last changed: Update 50 - 10th June 2026

Stamina Arcanist (StamArc) Solo Build for ESO. is a channeled beam that deals full damage in AoE with no damage falloff and has a 22 meter range. It also grants a massive damage shield on cast. heals you every time you use it, so between the shield and the healing you barely have to think about staying alive.

One of the strongest pure class solo builds. It used to be the strongest solo build in the game before subclassing. Easy to play, though vulnerable to content with lots of stuns since they interrupt .

Soloed Veteran Hard Mode Castle Thorn, Veteran Hard Mode Bedlam Veil and Veteran Hard Mode Trifecta Cradle of Shadows. Parses 69.2k in the Instanced setup. But that's a Single Target number that undersells it since hits everything at full damage in AoE.

Looking for something simpler? Check out the One Bar Stamina Arcanist Solo Build. Or try the Heavy Attack Arcanist Solo Build for a heavy attack playstyle.

Simulated Parse Tables

I built a simulator that takes the current setup from the guide and plays it through the listed rotation. It uses the listed gear, skills, Champion Points, race, food, potions, target armor and target health. It tracks skill casts, light attacks, DoT ticks, cooldowns, execute scaling, crits and status effect rolls. It assumes 100% of light attacks hit and a 0.094 second weave average.

Most comparison tables use deterministic rolls on a 15 million HP target unless the row says 6m, random, or real CMX. There is no 15 million Target Dummy in ESO. I use that health value because the 6 million dummy dies too fast, so random crits, status effects and execute timing can move the DPS by a lot.

For comparison tables I keep the setup identical and change one thing at a time. That makes the tables better for comparing options than random dummy parses, where one run can get better crits, different status effects or a better execute window.

The baseline sim uses instead of because you can't parse with Sul-Xan on the dummy, and I wanted the simulator checked against a real parse.

Run Simulated DPS Notes
15m deterministic sim
68.9k DPS
Used for most comparison tables
6m deterministic sim
68.7k DPS
Same setup on real dummy health
Real 6m CMX parse
69.2k DPS
Recorded in game
100 random 6m sims
Lowest 67.1k DPS
Highest 72.7k DPS
This is why random parses are unreliable when crits and status effects roll differently
Advertisement

Class Mastery

Class Masteries are a new U50 system where each class picks 2 of 5 passive bonuses (Class Mastery Points, not Skill Points). Activating subclassing disables Class Mastery, so it's a tradeoff between keeping your native skill lines or subclassing.

Not worth it

Arcanist Class Mastery

Fate Realigned

Be the hand that guides the weave of fate.

Upgrades rank 2 of to generate maximum Crux, up to once every 15 seconds. After this effect triggers you gain 300 Weapon and Spell Damage for 25 seconds.

Notes

Not useful for this setup.

Arcanist Class Mastery

Abyssal Emergence

Dive deep into the abyss where power is yours to claim.

Activating an Arcanist Ultimate immediately generates maximum Crux and grants you 666 Weapon and Spell Damage for 15 seconds.

Notes

Not useful for this setup.

Arcanist Class Mastery

Erudite's Rigor

Master the archaic and forge new runes of conflict.

Upgrades to inflict on your attacker while granting to you and your group for 4 seconds. You gain 1 Ultimate for every Crux you have.

These effects can occur once every 2 seconds.

Notes

Not useful for this setup.

Skill Setups

Base Setup

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

For regular content such as Solo Arenas, World Bosses, and the majority of dungeon fights

Front Bar Back Bar
Slot 1: Cephaliarch's FlailMorph of Abyssal Impact Slot 1: Cruxweaver ArmorMorph of Fatewoven Armor
Slot 2: Pragmatic FatecarverMorph of Fatecarver Slot 2: Ulfsild's Contingency
Slot 3: Camouflaged HunterMorph of Expert Hunter Slot 3: Elemental SusceptibilityMorph of Weakness to Elements
Slot 4: Quick CloakMorph of Blade Cloak Slot 4: Elemental BlockadeMorph of Wall of Elements
Slot 5: Recuperative TreatiseMorph of Tome-Bearer's Inspiration Slot 5: Soul Burst
Ultimate: Flawless DawnbreakerMorph of Dawnbreaker Ultimate: The Languid EyeMorph of The Unblinking Eye
  • - an AoE spammable that generates Crux, heals you if you hit any enemy and increases the damage enemies take from you by 5%
  • - extremely powerful Crux spender that deals full damage in AoE, has massive range of 22 meters and grants you a big damage shield while you channel it
  • - this ability will passively grant you the Major Savagery and Major Prophecy buffs, which will increase your critical chance by 12%. It will also grant you the Minor Berserk buff which increases your damage done by 5% for 5 seconds after you deal Critical Damage from enemy's flank, which has a very wide radius and can be done by simply walking to the side. It will also trigger the passive, increasing your Weapon and Spell Damage by 3%.
  • - an ability that deals damage around you every 2 seconds for 30 seconds and grants you Major Evasion for the duration, reducing your AoE damage taken by 20%. The damage it deals will also continue to proc your weapon enchantments even while you channel , which is important because you can't Light Attack while beaming
  • - an ability that deals decent damage, ensures you'll have at least 1 Crux and improves your sustain
  • - an ultimate we'll keep slotted to activate the and passives which increase Weapon and Spell Damage by 3% and generate Ultimate on kills. You can also use it towards the end of the fight if it's obvious you won't get enough Ultimate for another
  • - your source of Major Resolve which is an extremely important defensive buff. It will also apply Minor Breach to enemies who attack you for 6 seconds and generate Crux when you get hit up to once every 5 seconds
  • (Bleed, Lingering Torment, Resolve) - a 22 second DoT which will also grant you Minor Resolve, increasing your armor by 2974
  • - an extremely strong ability that does a multitude of things. 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% and it will also apply Minor Brittle for 4 seconds if you were on your Ice Staff bar while the Chilled effect procced, and Ice Staff will be part of the Instanced gear setup. Minor Brittle increases Critical Damage taken by 10%. The Chilled proc will also synergise with our
  • - this ability will constantly apply your enchantment. If it's the Ice version, it will also constantly apply Minor Breach to enemies who are Chilled, and they'll be Chilled thanks to
  • (Bleed, Lingering Torment, Courage) - a 20 second AoE DoT which grants you Minor Courage, increasing your Weapon and Spell Damage by 215
  • - an Ultimate which deals damage in a small AoE over 6 seconds which can be moved by pressing the ability again (it's off Global Cooldown)

and are the first skills that have to go (in that order) if you need to slot situational, unless the situational skill specifically says it's replacing something else

  • - use it if you don't have , because otherwise you wouldn't have any source of .
  • - use it for fights where there's a lot of damage happening in a short burst. The HoT from is short but very strong, so casting it at the right time can help you survive such mechanics
  • - a chain ability that you can slot in trash packs to stack enemies and get through them faster
  • - a source of AoE Major Breach which can be used instead of in AoE fights
  • - an ability that places a delayed heal on you which triggers when you take damage below 50% HP. It also grants you Minor Resolve, which increases armor by 2974. It also grants you Minor Protection which is removed when the heal effect procs. It also snares enemies around you when cast
  • - does more damage than and should be used if you can sustain fine and want more damage
  • - if you're not a Nord and need more armor, you can slot it for 2200 armor, 2200 penetration and Crux generation. The extra penetration can let you remove penetration elsewhere in the build, like dropping another Herald of the Tome skill from front bar or replacing with . It's a Taunt which won't matter since this is a Solo build, but if you decide to use this build in group content (which you shouldn't do anyway) you absolutely cannot use
  • - 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 passive, which increases Magicka Recovery by 10%
  • - snare removal which will be crucial for some fights. If you don't have and are using for Minor Force, can take that slot instead because it also provides Minor Force
  • - 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
  • - a defensive ultimate that grants you a large damage shield. Use it in fights where you need a panic button
Rotation Simulated Parse Damage Change
Priority List
68.1k DPS
Baseline
Static Rotation
63.1k DPS
-7%

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.
  • 2.
  • 3.
  • 4. if it's obvious you won't get enough Ultimate for another before the fight ends
  • 5. if it's ready
  • 6.
  • 7.
  • 8.
  • 9.
  • 10. (if you're not at 3 Crux)
  • 11.

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 for dealing with trash packs

Front Bar Back Bar
Slot 1: Cephaliarch's FlailMorph of Abyssal Impact Slot 1: Cruxweaver ArmorMorph of Fatewoven Armor
Slot 2: Pragmatic FatecarverMorph of Fatecarver Slot 2: Ulfsild's Contingency
Slot 3: Camouflaged HunterMorph of Expert Hunter Slot 3: Razor CaltropsMorph of Caltrops
Slot 4: Quick CloakMorph of Blade Cloak Slot 4: Elemental BlockadeMorph of Wall of Elements
Slot 5: Recuperative TreatiseMorph of Tome-Bearer's Inspiration Slot 5: Silver LeashMorph of Silver Bolts
Ultimate: Flawless DawnbreakerMorph of Dawnbreaker Ultimate: The Languid EyeMorph of The Unblinking Eye

What Changes

  • replaces
  • replaces

Skill Setup Comparison

Setup Simulated Parse Damage Change
Instanced
68.9k DPS
Baseline
Tanky
64.7k DPS
-6%

Passives

The only passive you specifically have to skip is

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

Class

Weapon

Armor

Guild

Alliance War

Racial

Craft

Class - Herald of the Tome

Fated Fortune - High Priority

Harnessed Quintessence - High Priority

Psychic Lesion - High Priority

Splintered Secrets - High Priority

Gear

Overland (Base) is your starting point and works for most situations. Crafted is a beginner version using only craftable sets. Instanced is a swap for Arenas and Dungeons where enemies have higher armor.

Switching gear for trash packs isn't worth it unless you're using gear-swap addons

Gear Slot Set Weight/Type Trait Enchantment
HeadHead Light
ShouldersShoulders Medium
ChestChest Medium
HandsHands Medium
BeltBelt Medium
LegsLegs Medium
FeetBoots Medium
NeckNecklace Jewelry
RingRing Jewelry
RingRing Jewelry
MainhandFrontbar Main Hand Dagger
OffhandFrontbar Off Hand Dagger
MainhandBackbar Main Hand Inferno Staff
Look here You dont need the Trial gear. is only about a 2.8% damage loss against Overland enemies, while Crafted is about 4.9% compared to .
Body
Tzogvin's Warband - Dungeon Set (Frostvault)

If you don't have it, use in order

  1. - PvP Set (Cyrodiil)
  2. - Crafted
  3. - Crafted
Weapons and Jewelry
Sul-Xan's Torment - Trial Set (Rockgrove)

If you don't have it, use in order

  1. - PvP Set (Cyrodiil)
  2. - Crafted
  3. - Crafted
Monster Helm
Slimecraw - Monster Set (Wayrest Sewers I)

Alternatives

  1. - Direfrost Keep
  2. - Scalecaller Peak
  3. - Moongrave Fane
  4. - Stone Garden
  5. - Bedlam Veil
  6. - Night Market

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.

Gear Set Comparisons

Damage comparison for the set options.

All of these use .

Weapons + Jewelry

Compares + X weapons and jewelry set.

Source
Set Source Simulated Parse Damage Change
Trial - Sanity's Edge
Interrupt 71.5k DPS
No Interrupt 66.1k DPS
+2.9% -4.9%
Trial - Rockgrove
Soul 69.5k DPS
No Soul 64.1k DPS
Baseline -7.8%
Trial - Lucent Citadel
69.2k DPS
-0.4%
Trial - Dreadsail Reef
68.9k DPS
-0.9%
Crafted
3 Stacks 65.6k DPS
0 Stacks 64.1k DPS
-5.6% -7.8%
Dungeon - Unhallowed Grave
65.4k DPS
-5.9%
PvP - Cyrodiil
65.4k DPS
-5.9%
Crafted
64.9k DPS
-6.6%
Crafted
64.6k DPS
-7.1%
Dungeon - Falkreath Hold
64.3k DPS
-7.5%
Crafted
64.0k DPS
-7.9%
Overland - Deshaan
63.6k DPS
-8.5%
Crafted
63.2k DPS
-9.1%

Front Bar Weapons

Daggers are the default and the highest damage. A Greatsword with is the closest alternative if you want a two-handed playstyle.

Front Bar Weapon Additional Changes Simulated Parse Damage Change
Dual Wield Daggers none
68.9k DPS
Baseline
Greatsword ->
66.6k DPS
-3.3%
Bow ->
64.1k DPS
-6.9%
Lightning Staff ->
62.8k DPS
-8.8%
Inferno Staff ->
61.9k DPS
-10.1%
Ice Staff ->
60.9k DPS
-11.6%
Sword and Shield ->
60.5k DPS
-12.2%
Restoration Staff ->
59.3k DPS
-13.9%

Daggers run 2 . On any other weapon switch the trait to , since moving off daggers drops the critical chance. Daggers and the Greatsword run on both ultimate slots for the front-bar penetration.

The Fulminating Rune weapons can keep on the front bar, since is a Herald skill that procs .

Situational Swaps

Alternative setups for different goals and content types

  • Use in fights where you can interrupt something at least once every 30 seconds.
  • Replace in fights with no adds. Use in Instanced, and otherwise

Additional Tips

  • You can change some (or all) of the enchants to ones for extremely hard hitting bosses
Advertisement

Champion Points

WarfareWarfare
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
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 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
FitnessFitness
Boundless Vitality
1400 Max Health
Survivability
Bloody Renewal
1500 Stamina on kills
Sustain
Rejuvenation
90 Health, Magicka and Stamina Recovery
Sustain
Fortified
1731 Armor
Survivability
Constant debuffs
Replace Rejuvenation with Sustained by Suffering in fights where you constantly have a debuff on yourself
Block Mitigation
Use Bracing Anchor in fights where you block a lot and don't have to move much
Movement Speed
Use Celerity in fights where you have to move a lot
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 you need both damage and survivability, so every race brings something to the table. I use Nord because in difficult solo content the armor racial is worth the DPS trade-off. If you want to use a different race, the table shows comparison between their DPS.

Nord
Nord
The tankiest race. Nord is also what I use for soloing Veteran Hard Mode DLC Dungeons. 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
Race Simulated Parse Damage Change
Dark Elf
71.5k DPS
+3.4%
Orc
71.0k DPS
+2.7%
Khajiit
70.4k DPS
+1.8%
High Elf
70.3k DPS
+1.7%
Wood Elf
70.0k DPS
+1.3%
Redguard
69.3k DPS
+0.2%
Imperial
69.3k DPS
+0.2%
Nord
69.1k DPS
Baseline
Argonian
68.7k DPS
-0.7%
Breton
67.9k DPS
-1.8%

Mundus

The Thief
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 Lady
Difficult Content
The Lady
2744 Armor (4489 with 7 Divines)
When to use
This build already reaches the armor cap normally, so only use it if you want to run Tri-Stat Potion or Heroism Potion instead of Armor Potion
Mundus Simulated Parse Damage Change
The Thief
68.9k DPS
Baseline
The Lady
64.2k DPS
-6.8%

Attributes

For most content you should put all 64 points into Stamina. 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 Stamina, for the extremely difficult stuff you'll need 64 Health.

Health
0
Stamina
64
Magicka
0
All points into Stamina. Use it for most content
Health
32
Stamina
32
Magicka
0
Split evenly between Health and Stamina. Use this whenever you start to struggle
Health
64
Stamina
0
Magicka
0
All points into Health. Use this for very difficult fights
Attributes Simulated Parse Damage Change
64 Stamina
68.9k DPS
Baseline
32 Health / 32 Stamina
65.8k DPS
-4.4%
64 Health
64.4k DPS
-6.5%

As you can see, the damage loss from changing attributes is minimal, but you gain up to 7808 Health, so change attributes whenever you struggle with some harder enemy.

Food

Orzorga's Smoked Bear Haunch
Default
Max Health Stamina Recovery Magicka Recovery
The default option. Our don't restore resources, so the food has to cover Stamina and Magicka Recovery.
Braised Rabbit with Spring Vegetables
Full Damage
Max Health Max Stamina
Full damage option. Drops the recoveries for Max Stamina, so use it with or to cover sustain. gives the same buff.
Setup Simulated Parse Damage Change
+
68.9k DPS
Baseline
+
71.6k DPS
+4.0%
+
72.7k DPS
+5.6%

Potions

Armor Potion
Default Armor Potion
Restore Health +5280 Armor

The default option. It gives you the armor while your food covers sustain.

Tri-Stat Potion
Full Damage Tri-Stat Potion
Restore Health Restore Stamina Restore Magicka

Full damage option. The sustain from it lets you switch from to for more damage.

Heroism Potion
Full Damage Heroism Potion
Minor Heroism Restore Stamina Restore Magicka

Same idea as , but straight up better because it adds Minor Heroism on top. More damage, just much more expensive to craft.

Parses

All parses are recorded on the 6 million Target Dummy

Regular Setup
69,222 DPS
Regular Setup
69,222DPS
6mil Skeleton Dummy
Patch
U50 PTS
Armor
6 Medium / 1 Light
Gear Setup
Regular
Skill Setup
Base
Potion
Armor Potion
Mundus
The Thief
Race
Nord
CMX Parse
Stamina Arcanist Solo CMX Parse - Regular Setup - ESO
CMX Setup
Stamina Arcanist Solo CMX Setup - Regular Setup - ESO
Recording
Parse recording

Gameplay

Cradle of Shadows
Dungeon
Castle Thorn
Dungeon
Bedlam Veil
Dungeon
Cradle of Shadows
Dungeon Veteran Hard Mode Trifecta
Castle Thorn
Dungeon Veteran Hard Mode
Bedlam Veil
Dungeon Veteran Hard Mode

Fashion

Outfit
Stamina Arcanist fashion screenshot
Slot Style Dyes
Head Greymoor HelmGreymoor Helm
Silvenar Green
Silvenar Green
Silvenar Green
Shoulders Scribes of Mora PauldronsScribes of Mora Pauldrons
Glenbridge Green
Chest Evergloam Champion CuirassEvergloam Champion Cuirass
Thalmor Black
Silvenar Green
Thalmor Black
Hands Ancient Daedric GauntletsAncient Daedric Gauntlets
Silvenar Green
Thalmor Black
Belt Ancient Daedric GirdleAncient Daedric Girdle
Silvenar Green
Legs Thieves Guild GreavesThieves Guild Greaves
Silvenar Green
Thalmor Black
Thalmor Black
Feet Scorianite Gladiator BootsScorianite Gladiator Boots
Silvenar Green
Thalmor Black
Thalmor Black
Frontbar Main Hand Scribes of Mora SwordScribes of Mora Sword
Empty
Empty
Empty
Frontbar Off Hand Scribes of Mora SwordScribes of Mora Sword
Empty
Empty
Empty
Backbar Main Hand Scribes of Mora StaffScribes of Mora Staff
Empty
Empty
Empty
Stamina Arcanist fashion screenshot

FAQ

Dark Elf is the best damage race. Nord is the best survivability race.

No. Arcanist is one of the easiest solo classes because Cephaliarch's Flail heals you and Pragmatic Fatecarver gives a massive damage shield. Just watch for stuns interrupting Fatecarver.

Yes. Stamina Arcanist is one of the strongest pure class solo builds. It has soloed Veteran Hard Mode Castle Thorn, Veteran Hard Mode Bedlam Veil, and Veteran Hard Mode Trifecta Cradle of Shadows. It parses 69.2k in the Instanced setup, though that number undersells it because Fatecarver hits everything at full damage in AoE.

Yes. Greatsword, Lightning Staff, and Bow are the smallest-loss front-bar alternatives. You need to replace Quick Cloak if you leave Dual Wield, and replacing the backbar is harder because Elemental Susceptibility is very strong for solo.

No. Use the base skills and the Instanced gear setup for both Maelstrom Arena and Vateshran Hollows.



THANKS FOR READING

If you've enjoyed this guide and want to support me, you can do so through Patreon. Your support will help me produce more guides.