Stamina Dragonknight Solo Build - ESO Guide
Stamina Dragonknight (StamDK) Solo Build for ESO, carried by
Soul of Flame, a reworked Deep Breath that restores resources based on your missing resources. It's completely broken and lets you use armor potions and Medium armor with absolutely no sustain issues. On top of that,
Magma Fist lets the build squeeze out more damage in a full offensive setup than the Magicka Dragonknight.
Both Stamina and Magicka Dragonknight use
Soul of Flame, but Magicka Dragonknight has an easier time keeping it up since the skill costs Magicka, which makes it better for the most difficult content, but Stamina Dragonknight does more damage and is still one of the strongest solo builds in ESO Update 49.
Capable of soloing every Veteran dungeon that doesn't have a mechanic requiring multiple people, including Veteran Hard Mode Unhallowed Grave and Veteran Earthen Root Enclave. Parses 74.8k in the most offensive setup, and only drops to 68.7k in a defensive setup that hits the 33k armor cap.
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: Magma Fist | Slot 1: Shatterspike Mantle |
| Slot 2: Molten Whip | Slot 2: Ulfsild's Contingency |
| Slot 3: Disintegrating Dragonfire | Slot 3: Elemental Susceptibility |
| Slot 4: Soul of Flame | Slot 4: Elemental Blockade |
| Slot 5: Incinerate | Slot 5: Igneous Weapons |
| Ultimate: Take Flight | Ultimate: Standard of Might |
Magma Fist - a spammable which applies a stack of Heat Shock for 7 seconds which increases enemies' damage taken by 66, stacking up to 3 times. If your enemy was already at maximum stacks of Heat Shock it'll instead cause next cast of Magma Fist to do 66% more damage, up to once every 6 seconds
Molten Whip - a spammable which in this build we'll use only as a spender. It grants you a stack of Seething Fury whenever you use another Dragonknight ability. Seething Fury lasts 10 seconds, increases your damage done by 5% and increases damage of your next
Molten Whip by 33% per stack, stacking up to 3 times. The damage done buff does not disappear when you use the empowered whip.
Disintegrating Dragonfire - deals direct damage in a cone in front of you and applies a 10 second DoT to all enemies hit and debuffs them with Major Breach, reducing their armor by 5948. This is your AoE spammable.
Soul of Flame - interrupts enemies around you, restores 15% missing Stamina and Magicka every 2 seconds over 4 seconds (ticks 3 times) and deals damage in an AoE at the end
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.
Take Flight - a cheap ultimate which deals damage, stuns enemies and grants you a 20% Damage Done against Monsters buff for 15 seconds
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
Ulfsild's Contingency (
Flame,
Lingering Torment,
Resolve) - a 22 second DoT which will also grant you Minor Resolve, increasing your armor by 2974.
Elemental Susceptibility - an extremely loaded 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 increase Critical Damage taken by 10%. The Chilled proc will also synergise with our
Elemental Blockade
Elemental Blockade - this ability will constantly apply your
Weapon Damage 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
Elemental Susceptibility
Igneous Weapons - a 60 second buff which grants you Major Brutality and Sorcery and causes your Light Attacks to deal additional damage up to once every 2 seconds.
Standard of Might - an ultimate which calls down a standard which increases your Weapon and Spell Damage by 600, increases your damage done by 15% and reduces your damage taken by 25%. It's always a DPS decrease compared to
Take Flight, but it can be used to survive difficult mechanics thanks to the 25% damage reduction
Ulfsild's Contingency is the first skill that has to go if you need to slot something situational, unless the situational skill specifically says it's replacing something else. If it's a difficult fight where you need all the mitigation you can get, then the skill that has to go is
Disintegrating Dragonfire, or even
Magma Fist if you need a lot of AoE damage for that fight.
Resolving Vigor - use it for fights where there's a lot of damage happening in a short burst.
Searing Claw - a replacement for
Ulfsild's Contingency which does more damage but doesn't provide the armor buff
Silver Leash - a chain ability which you can use to stack enemies
Chains of Devastation - a gap closer which can be useful in fights where you have to move around a lot
Soul Burst (
Pull,
Class Mastery,
Breach) - an 8 meter AoE pull with a 2 second delay
Ulfsild's Contingency (
Flame,
Gladiator's Tenacity,
Resolve) - trades the DoT for mitigation, use in fights where you need more damage mitigation.
Revealing Flare - passively grants Major Protection, reducing your damage taken by 10%.
Quick Cloak - provides Major Evasion, reducing AoE damage taken by 20%.
Burning Embers - heals you on cast and every time the DoT ticks. Use if you need more healing.
Protect the Brood - useful in fights with lots of projectile damage, also provides Minor Protection for 20 seconds.
Fleetstep Wings - use in fights where you need to remove snares.
Precognition - an ultimate that breaks you out of some otherwise unavoidable stuns.
Corrosive Armor - limits any damage you take to 6% of your max HP for 10 seconds.
Volcanic Ward - a decent damage shield which also reduce 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
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.
Magma Fist if you're at 3 stacks and there's less than 2 seconds remaining - 2.
Elemental Susceptibility - 3.
Igneous Weapons - 4.
Elemental Blockade - 5.
Molten Whip if it's at 3 stacks - 6.
Take Flight - 6.
Incinerate - 7.
Shatterspike Mantle - 8.
Disintegrating Dragonfire - 9.
Ulfsild's Contingency - 10.
Magma Fist if it's not at 3 stacks - 11.
Soul of Flame - 12.
Magma Fist
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 trash packs
| Front Bar | Back Bar |
|---|---|
| Slot 1: Magma Fist | Slot 1: Shatterspike Mantle |
| Slot 2: Molten Whip | Slot 2: Incinerate |
| Slot 3: Disintegrating Dragonfire | Slot 3: Soul Burst |
| Slot 4: Soul of Flame | Slot 4: Elemental Blockade |
| Slot 5: Silver Leash | Slot 5: Igneous Weapons |
| Ultimate: Take Flight | Ultimate: Standard of Might |
What Changes
Silver Leash replaces
Ulfsild's Contingency and swaps places with
Incinerate
Soul Burst replaces
Elemental Susceptibility
A setup which trades survivability for more damage
| Front Bar | Back Bar |
|---|---|
| Slot 1: Magma Fist | Slot 1: Shatterspike Mantle |
| Slot 2: Molten Whip | Slot 2: Incinerate |
| Slot 3: Disintegrating Dragonfire | Slot 3: Elemental Susceptibility |
| Slot 4: Soul of Flame | Slot 4: Elemental Blockade |
| Slot 5: Searing Claw | Slot 5: Igneous Weapons |
| Ultimate: Take Flight | Ultimate: Standard of Might |
What Changes
Searing Claw replaces
Ulfsild's Contingency and swaps places with
Incinerate
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: Magma Fist | Slot 1: Shatterspike Mantle |
| Slot 2: Molten Whip | Slot 2: Ulfsild's Contingency |
| Slot 3: Revealing Flare | Slot 3: Elemental Susceptibility |
| Slot 4: Soul of Flame | Slot 4: Elemental Blockade |
| Slot 5: Incinerate | Slot 5: Igneous Weapons |
| Ultimate: Take Flight | Ultimate: Standard of Might |
What Changes
Revealing Flare replaces
Disintegrating Dragonfire
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 Psijic Order provides nothing without
Precognition
Class - Ardent Flame
Combustion - High Priority
Traumatic Burns - High Priority
Fan the Flames - High Priority
A Soul Ablaze - High Priority
Class - Draconic Power
Burnished Scales - High Priority
World in Ruin - High Priority
Elder Dragon - High Priority
The Storm Voice - High Priority
Class - Earthen Heart
Heart of Stone - High Priority
Landslide - High Priority
Blessing at the Peak - High Priority
Mountain Giant - High Priority
Weapon - Dual Wield
Slaughter - High Priority
Dual Wield Expert - High Priority
Controlled Fury - High Priority
Ruffian - Medium Priority
Twin Blade and Blunt - High Priority
Weapon - Destruction Staff
Tri Focus - Do Not Unlock (only when using Ice Staff)
Penetrating Magic - Low Priority
Elemental Force - Medium Priority
Ancient Knowledge - Medium 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
Guild - Fighters Guild
Intimidating Presence - Medium Priority
Slayer - Medium Priority
Banish the Wicked - Medium 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 - Low Priority
Might of the Guild - Low Priority
Guild - Psijic Order
Clairvoyance - Low Priority
Spell Orb - Not needed
Concentrated Barrier - Low Priority
Deliberation - Not needed
Alliance War - Support
Magicka Aid - Medium Priority
Combat Medic - Not needed
Battle Resurrection - 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
Switching gear for trash packs isn't worth it unless you're using gear-swap addons
| Gear Slot | Set | Weight/Type | Trait | Enchantment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Head |
Medium | |||
Shoulders |
Medium | |||
Chest |
Medium | |||
Hands |
Medium | |||
Belt |
Light | |||
Legs |
Medium | |||
Boots |
Medium | |||
Necklace |
Jewelry | |||
Ring |
Jewelry | |||
Ring |
Jewelry | |||
Frontbar Main Hand |
Dagger | |||
Frontbar Off Hand |
Dagger | |||
Backbar Main Hand |
Inferno Staff |
Gear that can be stronger than the setup from the table in specific situations or when specific circumstances are present
Sul-Xan's Torment - the best set for trash packs and for bosses that regularly spawn smaller adds
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.
Additional tips
- If your Magicka sustain is good enough you can replace
Absorb Magicka enchant with
Poison. It should be good enough if you decide to use Heroism potions instead of Armor potions, use Light Armor instead of Medium Armor or if you're getting additional Magicka sustain from your racials
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 |
Medium | |||
Hands |
Medium | |||
Belt |
Light | |||
Legs |
Medium | |||
Boots |
Medium | |||
Necklace |
Jewelry | |||
Ring |
Jewelry | |||
Ring |
Jewelry | |||
Frontbar Main Hand |
Dagger | |||
Frontbar Off Hand |
Dagger | |||
Backbar Main Hand |
Inferno 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.
Medium Armor ends up dealing less damage than Light Armor in Instanced content since Light Armor provides penetration through
Concentration, but the difference is small (2%) and Medium Armor provides more armor, improves Stamina sustain, reduces Dodge Roll cost and doesn't increase your block cost the way Light Armor does through its
penalties.
| Gear Slot | Set | Weight/Type | Trait | Enchantment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Head |
Light | |||
Shoulders |
Medium | |||
Chest |
Medium | |||
Hands |
Medium | |||
Belt |
Medium | |||
Legs |
Medium | |||
Boots |
Medium | |||
Necklace |
Jewelry | |||
Ring |
Jewelry | |||
Ring |
Jewelry | |||
Frontbar Main Hand |
Dagger | |||
Frontbar Off Hand |
Dagger | |||
Backbar Main Hand |
Ice Staff |
Explanation
Ansuul's Torment replaces
Order's Wrath, because in Instanced content you can benefit from the Minor Slayer buff, which makes it better- Inferno Staff is replaced with Ice Staff, because Ice
Elemental Blockade will improve uptime of the Minor Breach debuff
Additional Info
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.
Light Armor allows you to continue using
The Thief Mundus even in Instanced content, thanks to
Concentration passive. It ends up dealing more damage than the Medium Armor Instanced setup, but it has worse survivability.
| Gear Slot | Set | Weight/Type | Trait | Enchantment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Head |
Light | |||
Shoulders |
Light | |||
Chest |
Medium | |||
Hands |
Light | |||
Belt |
Light | |||
Legs |
Light | |||
Boots |
Light | |||
Necklace |
Jewelry | |||
Ring |
Jewelry | |||
Ring |
Jewelry | |||
Frontbar Main Hand |
Dagger | |||
Frontbar Off Hand |
Dagger | |||
Backbar Main Hand |
Ice Staff |
Explanation
Whorl of the Depths replaces
Order's Wrath, because in Instanced content you can benefit from the Minor Slayer buff, which makes it better- 1-piece
Slimecraw is replaced with 1-piece
Valkyn Skoria - Inferno Staff is replaced with Ice Staff, because Ice
Elemental Blockade will improve uptime of the Minor Breach debuff - Weight composition goes from 6 Medium 1 Light to 1 Medium 6 Light, so we can benefit a lot more from the
Concentration passive
Additional Info
- Changing Dagger to a Mace is the exact same trade-off as changing
Slimecraw to
Valkyn Skoria, due to the
Twin Blade and Blunt passive, so using
Slimecraw with 1 Mace would give the same result. Use whichever approach is more convenient for you depending on the gear you own.
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 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.
Food
Your sustain is completely trivialized by
Soul of Flame, so you don't need any recoveries from your food.
Potions
Your sustain is completely trivialized by
Soul of Flame,
so you don't need any recovery from your potions.
Use Armor Potions as your default.
Most of the time you should use Armor potions. They'll provide you with 5280 armor and you don't need sustain from your potions thanks to
Soul of Flame.
Heroism potions can provide 100% uptime on Minor Heroism, so they're the best option if going for pure damage, but it's a small DPS gain and a decent nerf to your survivability. On top of that, they're extremely expensive.
Parses
All parses are recorded on the 6 million Target Dummy
Patch: Update 49
Using Full Damage Skill Setup, Light Armor, Bi-Stat Food and Heroism Potions
Patch: Update 49
Using Regular skill setup, Medium Armor, Bewitched Sugar Skulls Food and Armor Potions. This setup is armor capped if you're a Nord
Gameplay
Showcasing the build across veteran dungeons, world bosses, and open world content.
Fashion
| Slot | Style | Dyes |
|---|---|---|
| Head |
Thalmor Black
Thalmor Black
|
|
| Shoulders |
Thalmor Black
Thalmor Black
|
|
| Chest |
Thalmor Black
Thalmor Black
Thalmor Black
|
|
| Hands |
Thalmor Black
Thalmor Black
|
|
| Belt |
Thalmor Black
|
|
| Legs |
Thalmor Black
Thalmor Black
Thalmor Black
|
|
| Feet |
Thalmor Black
Thalmor Black
|
|
| Frontbar Main Hand |
Thalmor Black
Thalmor Black
Thalmor Black
|
|
| Frontbar Off Hand |
Thalmor Black
Thalmor Black
Thalmor Black
|
|
| Backbar Main Hand |
Thalmor Black
Thalmor Black
Fire Drake's Flame
|
|
| Slot | Collectible |
|---|---|
| Personality |
FAQ
Yes, Dragonknight is one of the strongest solo classes in ESO Update 49.
Soul of Flame makes sustain a non-issue, letting you run Medium armor and armor potions while still having resources to spare. StamDK does more damage in easier fights, while MagDK is better for the most difficult content.
Khajiit is the best race for damage thanks to 12% bonus 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
Rugged.
Yes, you can replace the Dual Wield Daggers with other weapons. Inferno Staff, Lightning Staff, Greatsword and Bow will cause the smallest DPS loss (≈2%), and then support-oriented weapons (Ice Staff, One Handed and Shield) will cause a bigger DPS loss (≈7%). This build doesn't use any Dual Wield skills on the frontbar, so you won't need to change any skills when switching. Replacing the backbar weapon is a lot more troublesome, because
Elemental Susceptibility is an extremely powerful skill for solo.
No, you don't need a different setup. Use the base skills and one of the Instanced gear setups from this guide for both Maelstrom Arena and Vateshran Hollows.
THANKS FOR READING
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Head
Shoulders
Chest
Hands
Belt
Legs
Boots
Necklace
Ring
Frontbar Main Hand
Frontbar Off Hand