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Stamina Dragonknight Solo Build - ESO Guide

Solo Two Bar Stamina Pure Class Dragonknight
Up to date for: Update 50 - 4th June 2026
Last changed: Update 50 - 4th June 2026

Stamina Dragonknight (StamDK) Solo Build for ESO, carried by , 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, lets the build squeeze out more damage in a full offensive setup than the Magicka Dragonknight.

Both Stamina and Magicka Dragonknight use , 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 50.

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. It also killed an Elsweyr Dragon solo. It parses 72.4k DPS on the 6 million dummy.

Works for all kinds of solo content - overland, World Bosses, Maelstrom Arena, Vateshran Hollows, early arcs in Infinite Archive, and Veteran Dungeon soloing.

The video is from an older patch - the written guide below is more up to date.

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 0.025 second weave average.

Most comparison tables use deterministic rolls on a 15 million HP target unless the row says 6m or random. 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.

Usually this moves the DPS down, but in the case of Dragonknight, because of , , and slowly ramping up, this fake 15 million simulation is higher than the 6 million dummy. So the simulation shows higher DPS than what's achievable in-game on the 6 million dummy, but it's still better to use this for comparing different options within this guide.

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.

Run Simulated DPS Notes
15m deterministic sim
74.8k DPS
Used for most comparison tables
6m deterministic sim
70.5k DPS
Same setup on real dummy health
100 random 6m sims
Lowest 69.0k DPS
Highest 72.8k DPS
This is why random parses are unreliable when crits and status effects roll differently
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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 in any capacity disables Class Mastery, so it's a tradeoff between keeping your native skill lines or subclassing.

Situational

Dragonknight Class Mastery

Resolute Defense

You are as unyielding as a mountain.

Each second you remain Bracing, you increase the amount of damage you block by 6%, up to 5 times.

Blocking damage has a 20% chance to restore 500 Stamina. This effect can occur once every block cost.

Notes

Replaces in fights where you have to block a lot. Without Wildfire Embers, starts beating .

Not worth it

Dragonknight Class Mastery

Booming Voice

Let your voice echo across the peaks.

Activating rank 2 of now also grants 5 Health, Magicka, and Stamina Recovery for every Ultimate spent for 10 seconds after a delay of 15 seconds.

Notes

Not useful for this setup.

Dragonknight Class Mastery

Lead From the Front

Let others be swept along in the wake of your flame.

Activating rank 2 of grants you and group members within 28 meters of you and for 1 second per 15 Ultimate spent, increasing damage done and reducing damage taken by 10%.

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

Front Bar Back Bar
Slot 1: Magma FistMorph of Superheated Ward Slot 1: Shatterspike MantleMorph of Earthspike Mantle
Slot 2: Molten WhipMorph of Lava Whip Slot 2: Ulfsild's Contingency
Slot 3: Disintegrating DragonfireMorph of Dragonfire Breath Slot 3: Elemental SusceptibilityMorph of Weakness to Elements
Slot 4: Soul of FlameMorph of Core of Flame Slot 4: Elemental BlockadeMorph of Wall of Elements
Slot 5: IncinerateMorph of Inferno Slot 5: Igneous WeaponsMorph of Molten Weapons
Ultimate: Take FlightMorph of Dragon Leap Ultimate: Standard of MightMorph of Dragonknight Standard
  • - 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
  • - 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 by 33% per stack, stacking up to 3 times. The damage done buff does not disappear when you use the empowered whip.
  • - 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.
  • - 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
  • - 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.
  • - a cheap ultimate which deals damage, stuns enemies and grants you a 20% Damage Done against Monsters buff for 15 seconds
  • - 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
  • (Flame, 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 increase 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
  • - 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.
  • - 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 , but it can be used to survive difficult mechanics thanks to the 25% damage reduction

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 , or even if you need a lot of AoE damage for that fight.

  • - use it for fights where there's a lot of damage happening in a short burst.
  • - a replacement for which does more damage but doesn't provide the armor buff
  • - a chain ability which you can use to stack enemies
  • - a gap closer which can be useful in fights where you have to move around a lot
  • (Pull, Class Mastery, Breach) - an 8 meter AoE pull with a 2 second delay
  • (Flame, Gladiator's Tenacity, Resolve) - trades the DoT for mitigation, use in fights where you need more damage mitigation.
  • - passively grants Major Protection, reducing your damage taken by 10%.
  • - provides Major Evasion, reducing AoE damage taken by 20%.
  • - heals you on cast and every time the DoT ticks. Use if you need more healing.
  • - useful in fights with lots of projectile damage, also provides Minor Protection for 20 seconds.
  • - use in fights where you need to remove snares.
  • - 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.
  • - 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 , 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
Rotation Simulated Parse Damage Change
Priority List
74.8k DPS
Baseline
Static Rotation
72.3k DPS
-3.2%

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. if you're at 3 stacks and there's less than 2 seconds remaining
  • 2.
  • 3.
  • 4.
  • 5. if it's at 3 stacks
  • 6.
  • 7.
  • 8.
  • 9.
  • 10.
  • 11. if it's not at 3 stacks
  • 12.
  • 13.

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 FistMorph of Superheated Ward Slot 1: Shatterspike MantleMorph of Earthspike Mantle
Slot 2: Molten WhipMorph of Lava Whip Slot 2: IncinerateMorph of Inferno
Slot 3: Disintegrating DragonfireMorph of Dragonfire Breath Slot 3: Soul Burst
Slot 4: Soul of FlameMorph of Core of Flame Slot 4: Elemental BlockadeMorph of Wall of Elements
Slot 5: Silver LeashMorph of Silver Bolts Slot 5: Igneous WeaponsMorph of Molten Weapons
Ultimate: Take FlightMorph of Dragon Leap Ultimate: Standard of MightMorph of Dragonknight Standard

What Changes

  • replaces and swaps places with
  • replaces

Skill Setup Comparison

Setup Simulated Parse Damage vs Base
Full Damage
76.9k DPS
+2.9%
Base
74.8k DPS
Baseline
Tanky
69.8k DPS
-6.7%

Passives

The only passive you specifically have to skip is , 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

Class

Weapon

Armor

Guild

Alliance War

Racial

Craft

Class - Ardent Flame

Combustion - High Priority

Traumatic Burns - High Priority

Fan the Flames - High Priority

A Soul Ablaze - High Priority

Gear

Overland (Base) is your starting point and works for most situations. Crafted Only / Starter Gear is a beginner version using only craftable sets. Instanced is a swap for Arenas and Dungeons where enemies have higher armor, in Medium (more survivability) or Light (more damage).

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

Gear Slot Set Weight/Type Trait Enchantment
HeadHead Medium
ShouldersShoulders Medium
ChestChest Medium
HandsHands Medium
BeltBelt Light
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. Crafted is only about a 4.1% damage loss against Overland enemies compared to . from Frostvault is even closer, at 2.0%.
Body
Pyrebrand - Class Set (Infinite Archive)

If you don't have it, use in order

  1. - Dungeon Set (Frostvault)
  2. - Crafted
  3. - Crafted
Chest, Weapons and Jewelry
Sul-Xan's Torment - Trial Set (Rockgrove)

If you don't have it, use in order

  1. - Dungeon Set (Frostvault)
  2. - Crafted
  3. - Crafted
Monster Helm
Slimecraw - Monster Set (Wayrest Sewers I)

Alternative (same bonus)

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

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 . Light Armor setups use the Mundus and Medium Armor setups use the Mundus.

Weapons + Jewelry

Compares + X weapons and jewelry set in Light armor with the Mundus.

Source
Set Source Simulated Parse Damage
Trial - Sanity's Edge
Interrupt 78.9k DPS
No Interrupt 72.4k DPS
Best -8.2%
Trial - Rockgrove
Soul 76.6k DPS
No Soul 70.4k DPS
-2.9% -10.9%
Trial - Lucent Citadel
74.9k DPS
-5.1%
Trial - Dreadsail Reef
74.8k DPS
-5.3%
Dungeon - Frostvault
72.1k DPS
-8.7%
Dungeon - Unhallowed Grave
72.0k DPS
-8.8%
Crafted
3 Stacks 71.2k DPS
0 Stacks 69.2k DPS
-9.8% -12.3%
PvP - Cyrodiil
71.0k DPS
-10.1%
Crafted
70.9k DPS
-10.2%
Crafted
70.8k DPS
-10.4%
Dungeon - Falkreath Hold
70.6k DPS
-10.6%
Crafted
69.6k DPS
-11.8%
Crafted
69.0k DPS
-12.6%
Overland - Deshaan
68.9k DPS
-12.7%

Front Bar Weapons

Daggers are the default weapon. Bow is the best ranged weapon for when mechanics make melee annoying, with Inferno Staff and Lightning Staff close behind.

Front Bar Weapon Simulated Parse Damage vs Daggers
Dual Wield Daggers
74.8k DPS
Baseline
Bow
73.5k DPS
-1.6%
Inferno Staff
73.4k DPS
-1.8%
Lightning Staff
73.2k DPS
-2.1%
Greatsword
73.2k DPS
-2.1%
Ice Staff
70.6k DPS
-5.6%
Sword and Shield
70.2k DPS
-6.1%
Restoration Staff
69.4k DPS
-7.2%

Only the front bar weapon changes. Daggers use and . Every one-weapon option uses a weapon and keeps the same backbar Ice Staff. Sword and Shield uses a sword plus a shield.

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. is the strongest fallback, followed by , then , then

Additional Tips

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

Warfare
6% Direct Damage
Because more than 60% of your damage is Direct
6% Single Target Damage
Because more than 60% of your damage is Single Target
8% Critical Damage and Healing
Next strongest CP damage-wise
205 Weapon and Spell Damage
Next strongest CP damage-wise
More Mitigation
Replace + with 2 mitigation CPs: , , , or (depending on the type of damage the Boss deals to you)
More Healing
is a decent Champion Point if you need more HPS
Fitness
1400 Max Health
Survivability
1731 Armor
Survivability
10% Movement Speed
Next best thing since you don't need sustain CPs
Free Dodge Roll every 30s
Next best thing since you don't need sustain CPs
Block Mitigation
Use in fights where you block a lot and can afford to move slower
Sustain in fights with lots of adds
Use and/or if you need more sustain in fights with lots of adds
Craft
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 easier to survive 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 vs Nord
Dark Elf
77.0k DPS
+3.0%
Khajiit
77.0k DPS
+2.9%
Orc
76.6k DPS
+2.5%
High Elf
76.2k DPS
+1.9%
Wood Elf
75.0k DPS
+0.4%
Redguard
75.0k DPS
+0.4%
Imperial
75.0k DPS
+0.4%
Nord Default
74.8k DPS
Baseline
Argonian
74.7k DPS
-0.1%
Breton
74.4k DPS
-0.5%


Mundus

The Thief
Default
The Thief
5.53% Critical Chance (9.04% with 7 Divines)
When to use
Use in all Overland content and most situations. It increases Critical Chance
The Lover
Instanced
The Lover
2744 Penetration (4489 with Divines)
When to use
Switch when using the Medium Armor Instanced setup. Provides penetration to compensate for the higher armor of Instanced enemies
The Lady
Difficult Content
The Lady
2744 Armor (4489 with 7 Divines)
When to use
Consider for extremely difficult dungeons, though Nord using Medium Armor with Ulfsild's Contingency and Armor Potions is already at the armor cap

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
74.8k DPS
Baseline
32 Health / 32 Stamina
73.3k DPS
-2.0%
64 Health
71.4k DPS
-4.5%

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

Your sustain is completely trivialized by , so you don't need any recoveries from your food.

Bewitched Sugar Skulls
Default
Max Health Max Stamina Max Magicka
The default option. Having higher Maximum Magicka means you'll restore even more Magicka through , so it's a better default option despite providing less Maximum Health and Maximum Stamina.
Braised Rabbit with Spring Vegetables
Full Damage
Max Health Max Stamina
Slightly more Max Health and slightly better damage, but will cause Magicka issues unless you get it in some other way, for example through potions that restore Magicka
Setup Simulated Parse Damage Change
74.8k DPS
Baseline
75.0k DPS
+0.4%

Potions

Your sustain is completely trivialized by , so you don't need any recovery from your potions. Use Armor Potions as your default.

Armor Potion
Default Armor Potion
Restore Health +5280 Armor

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 .

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

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.

Setup Simulated Parse Damage Change
74.8k DPS
Baseline
75.8k DPS
+1.4%

Parses

Recorded on the 6 million Target Dummy

Regular Setup
72,431 DPS
Regular Setup
72,431DPS
6mil Skeleton Dummy
Patch
Update 50
Armor
6 Light / 1 Medium
Gear Setup
Instanced (Light)
Skill Setup
Regular
Potion
Food
Mundus
Race
Nord
Using the Regular skill setup, Light Armor, and .
CMX Parse
Stamina Dragonknight Solo CMX parse - Regular setup
CMX Setup
Stamina Dragonknight Solo CMX setup - Regular setup
Recording
Parse recording

Gameplay

Unhallowed Grave
Dungeon
Earthen Root Enclave
Dungeon
Oakenclaw
World Boss
Elsweyr Dragon
World Event
Unhallowed Grave
Dungeon Veteran Hard Mode
Earthen Root Enclave
Dungeon Veteran
Oakenclaw
World Boss
Elsweyr Dragon
World Event

Fashion

Outfit
Stamina Dragonknight fashion screenshot
Slot Style Dyes
Head Legion Zero Vigiles HelmetLegion Zero Vigiles Helmet
Thalmor Black
Thalmor Black
Shoulders Dragonguard PauldronsDragonguard Pauldrons
Thalmor Black
Thalmor Black
Chest Dragonguard CuirassDragonguard Cuirass
Thalmor Black
Thalmor Black
Thalmor Black
Hands Dragonguard GauntletsDragonguard Gauntlets
Thalmor Black
Thalmor Black
Belt Dragonguard GirdleDragonguard Girdle
Thalmor Black
Legs Dragonguard GreavesDragonguard Greaves
Thalmor Black
Thalmor Black
Thalmor Black
Feet Dragonguard SabatonsDragonguard Sabatons
Thalmor Black
Thalmor Black
Frontbar Main Hand Crimson Oath SwordCrimson Oath Sword
Thalmor Black
Thalmor Black
Thalmor Black
Frontbar Off Hand Crimson Oath SwordCrimson Oath Sword
Thalmor Black
Thalmor Black
Thalmor Black
Backbar Main Hand Dragonguard StaffDragonguard Staff
Thalmor Black
Thalmor Black
Fire Drake's Flame
Stamina Dragonknight fashion screenshot

FAQ

Yes, Dragonknight is one of the strongest solo classes in ESO Update 50. 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 , which won't be wasted in solo content. Nord is the best race for survivability, providing around 5-7% damage mitigation through .

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 is an extremely powerful skill for solo.

Yes, for Infinite Archive Arcs 1-4. Those arcs are still close enough to normal solo PvE content that a standard solo build works well, and you usually will not have enough important Visions yet to build around them. Some effects become more valuable in Infinite Archive, especially enemy Weapon and Spell Damage reductions, but you do not need a dedicated deep-IA build for Arcs 1-4.

For deep Infinite Archive runs, such as Arc 10+, this is not the right type of build. Deep IA setups have to change heavily around the Visions earned during that run, so they are usually built very differently from standard solo builds.

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.



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