TWO HANDED DEATH KNIGHT SUBCLASS SOLO GUIDE

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Two Handed Death Knight Subclass


Last updated: Update 46 - 9th August 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.


SUBCLASSING


Combination

Necromancer - Grave Lord

Warden - Winter's Embrace

Nightblade - Assassination

This build uses Necromancer’s Grave Lord, Warden's Winter’s Embrace and Nightblade's Assassination skill lines. Your base class does not matter.

Necromancer’s Grave Lord is basically the backbone of the Death Knight theme, but it’s also an extremely strong skill line for Solo play, because it grants us 3271 penetration through the Dismember passive and 20% Crit Chance against low health enemies thanks to Death Knell passive.

Winter’s Embrace fulfils the “Frost” part of Death Knight theme, although from a purely gameplay perspective this skill line is rather weak and we’re nerfing ourselves by using it.

Nightblade’s Assassination is extremely strong and it does kind of fit into the Death Knight theme because of the Soul Harvest ultimate which allows us to drain slain enemies’ souls and get Ultimate out of it.


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: Wrecking Blow Slot 1: Ice Fortress
Slot 2: Skeletal Archer Slot 2: Arctic Blast
Slot 3: Relentless Focus Slot 3: Elemental Susceptibility
Slot 4: Camouflaged Hunter Slot 4: Elemental Blockade
Slot 5: Smash Slot 5: Ulfsild's Contingency
Ultimate: Soul Harvest Ultimate: Northern Storm
INFO arrow_down
SITUATIONAL arrow_down
ROTATION arrow_down

Final Setups

A few examples of final setups you could end up with after applying the situational skills to the base setup

A setup with lots of damage mitigation for bosses that hit very hard

Front Bar Back Bar
Slot 1: Wrecking Blow Slot 1: Ice Fortress
Slot 2: Skeletal Archer Slot 2: Arctic Blast
Slot 3: Relentless Focus Slot 3: Elemental Susceptibility
Slot 4: Camouflaged Hunter Slot 4: Elemental Blockade
Slot 5: Revealing Flare Slot 5: Ulfsild's Contingency
Ultimate: Soul Harvest Ultimate: Northern Storm

EXPLANATION:


PASSIVES

  • Class
  • Weapon
  • Armor
  • Guild
  • Alliance War
  • Racial
  • Craft

Class - Assassination

Master Assassin - High Priority

Executioner - High Priority

Pressure Points - High Priority

Hemorrhage - High Priority


GEAR


Base Setup

A base setup that will work for most situations and which 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

Default setup

Gear Slot Set Weight/Type Trait Enchantment

Head

Slimecraw Light Divines Stamina

Shoulders

Ansuul's Torment Medium Divines Stamina

Chest

Ansuul's Torment Medium Divines Stamina

Hands

Ansuul's Torment Medium Divines Stamina

Belt

Essence Thief Medium Divines Stamina

Legs

Ansuul's Torment Medium Divines Stamina

Boots

Ansuul's Torment Medium Divines Stamina

Necklace

Essence Thief Jewelry Bloodthirsty Increase Physical Harm

Ring

Essence Thief Jewelry Bloodthirsty Increase Physical Harm

Ring

Ring of the Pale Order Jewelry Bloodthirsty Increase Physical Harm

Frontbar Main Hand

Essence Thief Greatsword Precise Poison

Backbar Main Hand

Crushing Wall Ice Staff Infused Weapon Damage

If you want to switch to a situational set it's best to replace Ansuul’s Torment if the situational set you're getting has a Minor Slayer line, and replace Essence Thief otherwise. Remember that in order to sustain without Essence Thief you'll need to change your food to one with more sustain and re-morph Relentless Focus to Merciless Resolve

SITUATIONAL arrow_down
ALTERNATIVE arrow_down

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

Tide-Born Wildstalker Medium Training/ Divines Stamina

Shoulders

Tide-Born Wildstalker Medium Training/ Divines Stamina

Chest

Order's Wrath Heavy / Medium Training/ Reinforced Stamina

Hands

Order's Wrath Medium Training/ Divines Stamina

Belt

Order's Wrath Light Training/ Divines Stamina

Legs

Order's Wrath Medium Training/ Divines Stamina

Boots

Order's Wrath Medium Training/ Divines Stamina

Necklace

Tide-Born Wildstalker Jewelry Bloodthirsty Increase Physical Harm

Ring

Tide-Born Wildstalker Jewelry Bloodthirsty Increase Physical Harm

Ring

Tide-Born Wildstalker Jewelry Bloodthirsty Increase Physical Harm

Frontbar Main Hand

Assassin's Guile Greatsword Precise Poison

Backbar Main Hand

Assassin's Guile Ice Staff Infused Weapon Damage

The weight distribution of the setup from the table is 1 Heavy 5 Medium 1 Light so that you can start leveling up all your armor skill lines. Once you transition to Regular setup you'll be using 6 Medium 1 Light most of the time, switching to 1 Heavy 5 Medium 1 Light only against more difficult fights

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

If you want to Solo some difficult content without Ring of the Pale Order you'll have to add Reaving Blows to your CP setup

ADDITIONAL INFO:


CHAMPION POINTS

Warfare

Fitness

ADDITIONAL INFO:


RACE

When it comes to solo PvE, you need both damage and survivability so pretty much all races have useful racials.

The best race for dealing damage is Khajiit. While the Critical Damage from Feline Ambush can sometimes be wasted due to Critical Damage being capped at 125%, it will never happen in solo content, because there will be no tanks or healers providing you with the Major Force buff.

The best race for survivability is Nord. The Rugged racial will provide around 6% damage mitigation.


MUNDUS

You should use The Shadow Mundus which increases Critical Damage.

For extremely difficult dungeons you should consider switching to The Lady Mundus, which increases your Armor.


ATTRIBUTES

HEALTH

0

STAMINA

64

MAGICKA

0

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 can vary greatly because it's impacted by your armor weight composition, your race, whether you're wearing Essence Thief 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

  • Garlic Cod with Potato Crust - Max Health, Max Stamina. The default option
  • Orzorga's Smoked Bear Haunch - Maximum Health, Stamina Recovery and Magicka Recovery. Use it when you're giving up Essence Thief and switching Relentless Focus to Merciless Resolve. You'll need its Magicka Recovery to sustain Merciless Resolve. Jewels of Misrule is a cheaper alternative
  • Orzorga's Tripe Trifle Pocket - Max Health, Stamina Recovery. Use it when you need even more Stamina Recovery (for example for more blocking/dodge rolling) while keeping Relentless Focus and Essence Thief

POTIONS

Most of the time you should use Tri-Stat potions (Restore Health, Restore Stamina, Restore Magicka). They'll greatly improve you sustain. You can craft them by combiningColumbine,Bugloss andMountain's Flower.

There are better potions but they're expensive. Heroism potions (Heroism, Restore Stamina, Restore Magicka) can provide a 100% uptime on Minor Heroism buff which generates ultimate, but they're extremely expensive because they're crafted by combiningDragon Rheum,Dragon's Blood andColumbine.


PARSE

60.9k on the 6mil dummy using Regular setup

Recording of the 60.9k parse

OTHER PARSES

Crafted - 56k DPS


GAMEPLAY

Here you can see this build tackling Veteran dungeons

Solo Veteran Castle Thorn

Log - https://www.esologs.com/reports/DKfLGJxZgk2NpM6v


THANKS FOR READING

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