Category: Best ESO Builds, Best Dragonknight Builds, DPS Builds
The Dragonknight is one of the most useful classes that you can play for your group in the Elder Scrolls Online. Especially in real raid situations, the DKs’ strong Single Target damage combined with its unique AOE toolkit makes it remarkably competitive with current meta classes, despite the slightly weaker numbers it seems to pull on the dummy. There are a ton of nuisances to be aware of regarding this class that separate it from any other, and here, you’ll learn all of the tools that you need to know in order to maximize your damage with the Dragonknight on the dummy and in content!
Dragonknight Class Overview
The Dragonknight Class is an extremely powerful way to play in The Elder Scrolls Online. Dragonknights have many similarities with other classes in ESO such as dedicated Class Skill lines for DPS, for Healing, and for Tanking. Dragonknights are known for their sturdy nature as melee combat specialists but also have many powerful magic abilities. For a more detailed guide be sure to review our ESO Dragonknight Class Guide.
Primary Sets
The DK is one of few classes that get to utilize the improved Runecarver setup, a build that is deceivingly single-target oriented. The main cause of this is the need to have Runecarver active on both bars, requiring the use of a Medium Armor Trial set on a Mag Spec. The trial set we choose for Single Target is Perfected Arms of Relequen, a Medium Armor set from the Trial Cloudrest. This is just straight up the strongest Single Target option in the game, and we obviously pair this with Runecarver, a Light Armor set from the Dungeon Scrivenner’s Hall!
Runecarver does some very strong AOE damage, but since it has to be active on both bars, we can’t pair it with sets like Coral Riptide or Ansuul, as those are also sets that need to be active on both bars to get good value out of. For this reason, if you’re in an AOE fight, you can usually opt to replace Rele with Sul Xan, a Medium Armor set from the Trial Rockgrove. Otherwise, you’ll drop Runecarver and go with a more traditional Azureblight/Whorl combo in these situations. We’ll choose to pair these sets with one piece Slimecraw, a Monster Helm found in Veteran Wayrest 1, as well as the Harpooner’s Wading Kilt Mythic, and the Maelstrom Greatsword. Again, in AOE situations, you can opt to replace the Kilt with the Velothi Ur-Mage’s Amulet, and the Maelstrom Greatsword with the Maelstrom Inferno!
Runecarver’s Blaze
LVL 50 – CP 160
SET BONUS
(2 items) Adds 129 Weapon and Spell Damage
(3 items) Adds 129 Weapon and Spell Damage
(4 items) Adds 1487 Offensive Penetration
(5 items) Your damage over time effects deal an additional 368 Flame Damage on the third damage tick. This damage scales off your Weapon or Spell Damage and always applies the Burning status effect.
Perfected Arms Of Relequen
LVL 50 – CP 160
SET BONUS
(2 items) Adds 657 Critical Chance
(3 items) Gain Minor Slayer at all times, increasing your damage done to Dungeon, Trial, and Arena Monsters by 5%.
(4 items) Adds 657 Critical Chance
(5 items) Adds 1096 Maximum Stamina, Your Light and Heavy attacks apply a stack of harmful winds to your target for 5 seconds. Harmful winds deal 52 Physical Damage per stack every 1 second. This effect can stack once every half second, up to 10 times and scales off the higher of your Weapon or Spell Damage.
Harpooner’s Wading Kilt
LVL 50 – CP 160
SET BONUS
(1 item) Dealing direct damage grants you a stack of Hunter’s Focus for 20 seconds, up to 10 stacks max. You can only gain 1 stack of Hunter’s Focus per second. Each stack of Hunter’s Focus increases your Critical Chance by 110 and your Critical Damage by 1%. Taking direct damage removes 5 stacks of Hunter’s Focus, up to once per second. Removing Harpooner’s Wading Kilt removes all stacks of Hunter’s Focus.
Slimecraw
LVL 50 – CP 160
SET BONUS
(1 item) Adds 657 Critical Chance
(2 items) Adds 113 Critical Chance, Gain Minor Berserk at all times, increasing your damage done by 5%
Merciless Charge
LVL 50 – CP 160
SET BONUS
(2 items) Dealing damage with Critical Charge causes enemies to bleed for 1054 Bleed Damage over 10 seconds. This effect scales off the higher of your Weapon or Spell Damage.
Alternate Sets
Since this build does include some trial set options, I feel it worth mentioning, the difference between Perfected and Unperfected gear is very small. I wouldn’t stress about getting perfected gear, and if that means getting into these trials on normal to farm them out, it’s totally worth doing so! If you aren’t quite ready for trials, you can replace Rele with Order’s Wrath in the mean time, a Craftable set found in the High Isle zone, and one that is easily the best bang for your buck in terms of Damage Output compared to Ease of Acquisition. The rest of the sets should be pretty easy to get, requiring you to farm out some normal dungeons and/or arenas, or simply farm some leads for the Mythics!
Order’s Wrath
LVL 50 – CP 160
SET BONUS
(2 items) Adds 657 Critical Chance
(3 items) Adds 129 Weapon and Spell Damage
(4 items) Adds 657 Critical Chance
(5 items) Adds 943 Critical Chance, Increases your Critical Damage and Critical Healing by 8%.
Trash Sets
If you’re looking to get a little sweaty in 12 man content, you can change around this entire setup to use in Trash Pulls, to maximize your AOE burst damage in these short encounters! Time spent in Trash makes up the majority of any Trial, so optimizing for these if you have the ability to do so is a great idea! The most common trash set up for a Mag spec includes running Sul Xan on the Body and Burning Spell Weave on the Backbar. Both of these sets allow for incredibly strong and easy to control burst damage. Burning Spell Weave, from the Dungeon City of Ash, is one of the most underrated burst sets in the game, offering nearly 500 Weapon and Spell damage whenever you deal flame damage, a proc condition that is incredibly easy to achieve, especially when running an Inferno Staff. An Inferno Staff will always be preferable in trash, so that we have access to the very large and high damage dealing Wall of Elements, as well as the incredibly bursty Destro Ult.
Primary Set Load Out
| Weapon/Armor | Set | Trait | Weight | Glyph |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Main Hand | (Perfected) Arms of Relequen | Charged | Dagger | Poison |
| Off Hand | (Perfected) Arms of Relequen | Charged | Dagger | Absorb Stamina |
| Backup | (Perfected) Merciless Charge | Infused | Greatsword | Weapon Damage |
| Head | Slimecraw | Divines | Medium | Max Magicka |
| Shoulder | Runecarver’s Blaze | Divines | Light | Max Magicka |
| Chest | Runecarver’s Blaze | Divines | Light | Max Magicka |
| Waist | (Perfected) Arms of Relequen | Divines | Medium | Max Magicka |
| Gloves | (Perfected) Arms of Relequen | Divines | Medium | Max Magicka |
| Legs | Harpooner’s Wading Kilt | Divines | Medium | Max Magicka |
| Feet | (Perfected) Arms of Relequen | Divines | Medium | Max Magicka |
| Necklace | Runecarver’s Blaze | Bloodthirsty | NA | Spell Damage |
| Ring 1 | Runecarver’s Blaze | Bloodthirsty | NA | Spell Damage |
| Ring 2 | Runecarver’s Blaze | Bloodthirsty | NA | Spell Damage |
Alternate Set Load Out
| Weapon/Armor | Set | Trait | Weight | Glyph |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Main Hand | Order’s Wrath | Charged | Dagger | Poison |
| Off Hand | Order’s Wrath | Charged | Dagger | Absorb Stamina |
| Backup | (Perfected) Merciless Charge | Infused | Greatsword | Weapon Damage |
| Head | Slimecraw | Divines | Medium | Max Magicka |
| Shoulder | Runecarver’s Blaze | Divines | Light | Max Magicka |
| Chest | Runecarver’s Blaze | Divines | Light | Max Magicka |
| Waist | Order’s Wrath | Divines | Medium | Max Magicka |
| Gloves | Order’s Wrath | Divines | Medium | Max Magicka |
| Legs | Harpooner’s Wading Kilt | Divines | Medium | Max Magicka |
| Feet | Order’s Wrath | Divines | Medium | Max Magicka |
| Necklace | Runecarver’s Blaze | Bloodthirsty | NA | Spell Damage |
| Ring 1 | Runecarver’s Blaze | Bloodthirsty | NA | Spell Damage |
| Ring 2 | Runecarver’s Blaze | Bloodthirsty | NA | Spell Damage |
Trash Pull Load Out
| Weapon/Armor | Set | Trait | Weight | Glyph |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Main Hand | Burning Spell Weave | Precise | Dagger | Shock Damage |
| Off Hand | Burning Spell Weave | Charged | Dagger | Flame Damage |
| Backup | (Perfected) Crushing Wall | Infused | Inferno | Weapon Damage |
| Head | Slimecraw | Divines | Medium | Max Magicka |
| Shoulder | Burning Spell Weave | Divines | Light | Max Magicka |
| Chest | (Perfected) Sul-Xan’s Torment | Divines | Medium | Max Magicka |
| Waist | (Perfected) Sul-Xan’s Torment | Divines | Medium | Max Magicka |
| Gloves | (Perfected) Sul-Xan’s Torment | Divines | Medium | Max Magicka |
| Legs | (Perfected) Sul-Xan’s Torment | Divines | Medium | Max Magicka |
| Feet | (Perfected) Sul-Xan’s Torment | Divines | Medium | Max Magicka |
| Necklace | Velothi Ur-Mage’s Amulet | Bloodthirsty | NA | Spell Damage |
| Ring 1 | Burning Spell Weave | Bloodthirsty | NA | Spell Damage |
| Ring 2 | Burning Spell Weave | Bloodthirsty | NA | Spell Damage |
Consumables, Race, Mundus
Race
High Elf: High Elf is our go to option on any Mag Spec! This race offers 2K Max Mag, 258 Weapon and Spell Damage, and an incredibly strong passive for sustain that restores either 625 Mag or Stam depending on which resource is lower, whenever you cast an ability, which can occur once every 6 seconds. This passive alleviates some of the pressures associated with sustain, helping both of our resource pools.
Dark Elf: Dark Elf gives us the next best stat increase we can get from our Race, offering 1.9K Max Stam and Mag, as well as 258 Weapon and Spell Damage. One niche benefit to this race is that Dark Elf is also fantastic for Stam Specs as well, as it is tied in Max Spell and Weapon Damage compared to High Elf and offers 2K Max Stam! If you want to have the flexibility to switch between Mag and Stam Specs, this is your go to!
Khajiit: In solo, four man, or even unorganized 12 man content, Khajiit performs well in situations that leave you below the Crit Damage Cap, offering 12% increased Critical damage and 1,000 Max Stam. Crit Damage is a stat far more important than Weapon and Spell Damage, but only to a certain point. You can’t benefit from having any more than 125% Crit Damage, and this is a value that tanks and healers in 12 man content can get you to pretty easily, but this is a really strong race to choose for the sake of solo, duo, or 4 man content.
For more details on all ESO Races and passive bonuses be sure to check out our Full ESO Race Guide.
Mundus
The Thief
Increases the Critical Strike rating by 1333
With 7 Divines armor pieces
Increases the Critical Strike rating by 2167
Food/Drink Buff
Green Max Mag Food (Firsthold Fruit and Cheese Plate, Thrice Baked Gorapple Pie, Tomato Garlic Chutney): Most potential Damage. These food options provide the highest increase that we can have to our Mag pool, giving us the most potential Damage. This is the food we use on the Dummy.
Artaeum Pickled Fish Bowl/Blue Bi Stat (Melon Baked Parmesan Pork/Mistral Banana Bunny Hash/Solitude Salmon Millet Soup): Bi Stat Food that offers Max Health and Mag. This is slightly less Damage than Max Mag foods BUT these options offer a TON of survivability at a very small damage loss. This food is most often used in content.
Ghastly Eye Bowl: When you’re having sustain issues in content, this should be your go to, as it provides the most Mag (and therefore damage) and the most recovery out of any alternative food options after the ones already mentioned. It does sacrifice health, and therefore, a considerable amount of survivability however.
Clockwork Citrus Filet: If you can’t survive with Ghastly, but have to solve a sustain problem, this will be the next best option, giving less mag than any of the previous options, but offering some health and Mag Recov, creating a happy medium.
Potions
Heroism Pots: This is typically the go-to option on the DK. It’s important to know however, that these will only be the strongest option as long as you know that running heroism pots in a fight will give you a full extra ultimate that you wouldn’t be able to have otherwise. A few major drawbacks however, these potions don’t give any weapon/spell damage or crit buffs, so you have to source Prophecy/Savagery by running Flames of Oblivion, as well as source your Sorcery/Brutality buffs by having a DK support run Igneous Weapons, or by running Degeneration. These potions are also very expensive as they require Dragon Rheum, Dragon’s Blood, and Columbine to make.
Tri Stat Potions: If Heroism Potions are too expensive, you may find that Tri Pots will be the next best option for you. The DK uses a fair amount of Mag and Stam skills, so it’s helpful to have a way to restore Stamina. Much like the Heroism Potions, you would be missing your Major Spell Damage and Crit Chance Buffs, so you would have to source those via Flames of Oblivion on your bar and Igneous Weapons on the tank. You can craft these by combining Columbine, Bugloss, and Mountain Flower.
Spell Damage Potions: If you can’t source the Weapon/Spell Damage or Weapon/Spell Crit buffs for whatever reason, you have to run the Alliance Spell/Essence of Spell Power potions to ensure that you have these buffs active. It is more important to have these buffs sourced somewhere than to not have them at all for the sake of your overall damage. You can craft these by combining Corn Flower, Lady’s Smock, and Water Hyacinth, or you can purchase the Alliance Spell Power Potions from Cyrodiil.
Skills
Main Weapon: DUAL WIELD – Click on a Skill Name to learn more
Backup Weapon: TWO HANDER – Click on a Skill Name to learn more
Skills Discussion & Rotation
Rotation
Static Rotation:
- Pre Prebuff (Optional): Walk up to a separate dummy, build kilt and seething fury stacks, then throw degen/FOO and reset dummies. Go to your well, use Dawnbreaker, hit the well again.
- Prebuff: FOO – Trap
- Opening: Stampede – Eruption – Carve – Claw – Degen – Breath – Standard – Claw – Whip x4 –– Carve – Talons – FOO – Stampede – Whip x2 – Talons – Whip x 4
- Rotation: Talons – FOO – Stampede – Eruption – Trap – Claw – Degen – Breath – Carve – Talons – Whip x4 – Talons – Whip x2 – Foo – Stampede – Talons – Whip x4 – Repeat
- Only ever use Standard after the Talon’s cast before the first series of whips. This will ensure that you get the damage boost for as many spammables phases as possible.
Dynamic Rotation
- Pre Prebuff (Optional): Walk up to a separate dummy, build kilt and seething fury stacks, then throw degen/FOO and reset dummies. Go to your well, use Dawnbreaker, hit the well again.
- Prebuff: FOO – Trap
- Opening: Stampede – Eruption – Whip – Breath – Claw – Talons – Degen – Carve – Standard
- Priority: Carve – Talons – Stampede – FOO – Trap – Claw – Eruption – Degen
Notes
- Talons: These rotations are built around our Talons Casts. Every Class in the game has one extremely important skill with a very short timer. Talons is that for the DK, much like Daedric Prey on a Sorc, Power of the Light on a Plar, or Shalks on the Warden. Ensuring that we are casting Talons one in every 5 skills is essential to maximizing our DPS output on the DK. Casting this skill too early doesn’t have a huge damage penalty, as the Burst damage ends up doing about just as much damage as the DOT, and only slightly less damage than our Whip, but does severely penalize our sustain. Overcasting Talons will result in severe mag sustain problems. Cast Talons one in 5 skills, no more, no less.
- Seething Fury: One of the only unique elements to doing damage on a DK outside of simple timer management is seething fury. This is a HUGE damage bonus, giving us a ton of Weapon and Spell Damage, as well as increasing the damage of the extremely strong Molten Whip skill. Ensuring that you are casting a seething Fury ability once every 15 seconds is essential to maximizing damage on this class. The only skills that we can maintain this buff with are Claw and Flames of Oblivion.
- Flames of Oblivion: Flames of Oblivion is a bit of a unique skill on the DK. FOO presents itself as a spammable, that does its damage without you having to cast it. If you spam Flames of Oblivion, it will react like any other spammables, shooting out Fireballs every time you click the button. If you let the skill act as a DOT however, it will proc its damage once every three seconds, including a final tick on its expiration. Reapplying this skill early, means that you cancel that final tick of damage, and proc one immediately on expiration instead. This ends up being a decent damage loss if done too many times. However, if you let the skill fully expire and tick, then immediately reapply FOO, you’ll get 2 ticks of damage in a 2 second window, rather than only 1 in a 3 second window! For this reason, we want to ensure that we let FOO fully expire, with the only exception being Seething Fury.
Passive Skills
Class Passives
- Combustion
- Warmth
- Searing Heat
- World In Ruin
- Iron Skin
- Burning Heart
- Elder Dragon
- Scaled Armor
- Eternal Mountain
- Battle Roar
- Mountain’s Blessing
- Helping Hands
Weapon Passives
- Slaughter
- Dual Wield Expert
- Controlled Fury
- Ruffian
- Twin Blade And Blunt
- Forceful
- Heavy Weapons
- Balanced Blade
- Follow Up
- Battle Rush
Armor Passives
Guild Passives
Racial
Other
Champion Points
Below you will find the recommended Active and Passive Champion Point Stars for this build, broken down into 300, 600, 900, and 1200 CP ranges.
For more information on Champion Points click on a Star name below or browse our detailed Champion Points Guides.
Constellation Descriptions:
Craft TREE
The Green Craft Constellation is focused on crafting and utility-centered upgrades.
Warfare TREE
The Blue Warfare Constellation focuses primarily on increasing player damage, healing and defenses
Fitness TREE
The Red Fitness Constellation is focused on character survival and sustain.
– 300 Champion Points –
GREEN
BLUE
RED
– 600 Champion Points –
GREEN
- 50 Steed’s Blessing (Slot)
- 50 Gilded Fingers
- 10 Fortune’s Favor
- 15 Wanderer
- 40 Steadfast Enchantment
- 30 Rationer (Slot)
BLUE
- 50 Deadly Aim (Slot)
- 50 Thaumaturge (Slot)
- 50 Wrathful Strikes (Slot)
- 25 Master at Arms (Slot) *Note that Exploiter will be better in organized groups
- 10 Precision
- 10 War Mage
RED
- 50 Boundless Vitality (Slot)
- 50 Rejuvenation (Slot)
- 50 Fortified (Slot)
- 20 Sprinter
- 16 Hasty
- 20 Hero’s Vigor
– 900 Champion Points –
GREEN
- 50 Steed’s Blessing (Slot)
- 50 Gilded Fingers
- 10 Fortune’s Favor
- 15 Wanderer
- 40 Steadfast Enchantment
- 30 Rationer (Slot)
- 50 Breakfall
- 50 Treasure Hunter (Slot)
BLUE
- 50 Deadly Aim (Slot)
- 50 Thaumaturge (Slot)
- 50 Wrathful Strikes (Slot)
- 25 Master at Arms (Slot) *Note that Exploiter will be better in organized groups
- 20 Precision
- 20 War Mage
- 20 Flawless Ritual
- 10 Quick Recovery
- 10 Elemental Aegis
- 10 Preparation
- 10 Hardy
RED
- 50 Boundless Vitality (Slot)
- 50 Rejuvenation (Slot)
- 50 Fortified (Slot)
- 20 Sprinter
- 16 Hasty
- 20 Hero’s Vigor
- 50 Celerity (Slot)
- 30 Tumbling
- 20 Defiance
– 1200 Champion Points –
GREEN
- 50 Steed’s Blessing (Slot)
- 50 Gilded Fingers
- 30 Fortune’s Favor
- 15 Wanderer
- 50 Steadfast Enchantment
- 30 Rationer (Slot)
- 50 Breakfall
- 50 Treasure Hunter (Slot)
- 75 Liquid Efficiency (Slot)
BLUE
- 50 Deadly Aim (Slot)
- 50 Thaumaturge (Slot)
- 50 Wrathful Strikes (Slot)
- 50 Master at Arms (Slot) *Note that Exploiter will be better in organized groups
- 40 Precision
- 30 War Mage
- 20 Flawless Ritual
- 20 Quick Recovery
- 20 Elemental Aegis
- 20 Preparation
- 20 Hardy
RED
- 50 Boundless Vitality (Slot)
- 50 Rejuvenation (Slot)
- 50 Fortified (Slot)
- 20 Sprinter
- 16 Hasty
- 20 Hero’s Vigor
- 50 Celerity (Slot)
- 30 Tumbling
- 20 Defiance
- 20 Tireless Guardian
- 30 Fortification
How To Create Powerful ESO Builds
Crafting the Perfect Build for you in The Elder Scrolls Online can be frustrating. Which skills are best for each class? What about passives? The best race? The best armor type and weapons? The best trait and glyphs? There are literally THOUSANDS of different options!
This is why we created the ESO Zero To Hero Build Academy – A Simple, yet Powerful build system that teaches the fundamentals of ESO Theorycrafting, step-by-step.
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Our Guides are designed with New and Intermediate players in mind! Stop wasting hours searching the internet for the best ESO build information – get what you need NOW to succeed!
More Dragonknight Builds For ESO
Want more Dragonknight Builds? Check out our dedicated Dragonknight Builds overview page for even more great options!
About Eigh1 Puppies
Eigh1 Puppies is an ESO Stream Team Member, Twitch Partner, and ESO YouTuber. Eight Puppies has ample experience as an end-game raider in ESO, accomplishing every Trial Trifecta on Tank, Healer, and Damage Dealer and holding current Records in Trials on Console from the Damage Dealing role.
For in-depth build guides, trial guides, and Trifecta POVs for every role, visit Eight Puppies on YouTube. To see trial progression content live, check out Eight Puppies on Twitch. For any questions that you might have about any area of ESO endgame, join Eight Puppies Discord, to get in contact with him directly!
