Powerful SOLO Magicka Nightblade Build PvE for ESO (Elder Scrolls Online)

• Solo Setup
  • Gear (Setup 1,2,3)
  • Skills
  • Champion Points
  • Important Info (Food, Mundus, Race, Potions, Passives, Attributes)
• Resource Management
• Rotation
• Bad Habits
• Vateshran Hollows & Maelstrom Arena Setup
• Endless Archive Setup
• Gameplay
• Update Log

Welcome to the “SOLO Magblade” Magicka Nightblade Build for PvE in ESO (Elder Scrolls Online). This build is optimized for solo play. Make sure to bookmark the link as I will keep updating the build for each new Update of ESO. If you are new I recommend checking out the Magicka Nightblade Beginner Guide and the Magicka Nightblade Beginner 160CP Build before you tackle on this setup. You can also find a META Magicka Nightblade Group Build that is made for dungeons and trials.

Other Magicka Nightblade Guides:

• Magicka Nightblade Beginner Guide (Read first if you are a new player)
• Magicka Nightblade Beginner 160CP Build (Made for new players, after you finished the Beginner Guide)
• META Magicka Nightblade Group Build (Endgame META build)

This build here is specifically designed for SOLO play. You can play this build in Overland or Dungeons (normal and veteran). I also made sure to give you a few gear choices below because it is not always easy to get the right gear in Elder Scrolls Online. Magicka Nightblades are very powerful in a Solo environment both in dealing damage and healing.

Nightblades have Swallow Soul as their single target damage ability that also heals them at the same time. Sap Essence is used as an AoE damage ability that again, also heals you for a crazy amount. With these two skills alone you already almost never have to worry about your health dropping too low.

• Solo Build for Normal & Veteran Dungeons
• Solo Build for Maelstrom & Vateshran Arena
• Solo Build for Overland
• Easy to get Gear & Advanced Setups
• Big Shield
• Crazy Self Healing
• Crazy Damage

Solo Setup Magicka Nightblade

5x Perf. False God, 5x Mother’s Sorrow, 1x Pale Order, 1x Swarm Mother on a High Elf with Clockwork Citrus Filet.

• Unbuffed: Out of combat and buff food active.
• Buffed: In combat, buff food, Major Sorcery, Major Prophecy, Merciless Resolve 5x stacks and Weapon Damage enchantment active.

Gear Solo Magicka Nightblade

If you want to see more viable gear options I recommend reading the Magicka DPS Gear Sets Article which explains all of the sets in detail. In this section we are taking a look at:

• Setup 1 Most Optimal Setup
• Setup 2 Easy to get Gear
• Setup 3 Beginner Setup

Gear Setup 1 – Solo Magicka Nightblade

• Monster Set: We are only using a one-piece Monster Set because we have the Ring of the Pale Order Mythic item equipped. The reason we use Swarm Mother is simple, it provides us with extra stats for both Magicka and Stamina. It has a double bonus compared to most other one-piece monster sets.
• False God’s Devotion: False God’s Devotion is very powerful in both the imperfect and perfect versions, I can highly recommend this set. You can farm it fairly easily in normal mode Sunspire.
• Ring of the Pale Order: The Mythic item Ring of the Pale Order provides us with a lot of extra passive healing as long as we deal damage.
• No Ring of the Pale Order? You can also keep using 2x Iceheart like before.

Gear Setup 2 – Solo Magicka Nightblade

This setup is easier to acquire and also has more defensive stats compared to the first one, which means it’s safer to play. Once again, make sure to use the Iceheart Monster Set, it really makes a huge difference in terms of defense, it procs very easily and gives you a huge shield that absorbs a lot of damage.

Julianos can be crafted and Mother’s Sorrow can be farmed in the Deshaan Overland zone or you can also buy them via the Guild Store. It would be preferable if you get the gear with the divine trait, but you can also use any other trait, you will not lose that much power. And non-divine gear pieces are usually very cheap to buy.

Setup 3 Beginner – Solo Magicka Nightblade

Ask a guildmate to craft you Julianos. Mother’s Sorrow can be obtained for a pretty cheap price in the guildstores if you do not pick the best in-slot trait. More important is that you just get the full sets together as fast as possible, even if you do not have the best traits.

Where can I get the gear?

False God’s Devotion: Sunspire
Perfected False God’s Devotion: vet Sunspire
Ring of the Pale Order Antiquities
Mother’s Sorrow: Deshaan Overland, Guildtrader
Tzogvin’s Warband: Frostvault Dungeon
Julianos: Craftable
Swarm Mother: vSpindleclutch 1
Iceheart: Head: Direfrost Keep, Shoulder: Glirion Undaunted Chest
Magnus’ Gift: Craftable in Rivenspire, Greenshade, Shadowfen

IMPORTANT: You can get a Lightning Mother’s Sorrow Staff by doing a simple quest, that way you earn the staff! You will receive the “Argonian Muck Minder of Mother’s Sorrow” from the Quest in Silent Mire, Deshaan.

Skills Solo Magicka Nightblade

Keep up your shields and deal damage, that is the theme of the build. Because your two main damage abilities both have heals attached to them, you should be fine with healing as long as you keep dealing damage.

• Remember, you can change out some of the abilities if you want or never use them. And you can also adjust the bars.

Skill explanation for the Solo Magicka Nightblade:

• Harness Magicka: Activate this if you are expecting to get a huge punch in the face (Boss Heavy Attack for example). This will bolster your health.
• Merciless Resolve: Powerful damage proc and also increases your critical damage.
• Swallow Soul: Your main spammable, deals very good damage and also heals you at the same time.
• Sap Essence: Your main AoE damage ability, deals a lot of damage and also heals you at the same time for a lot! Also grants Major Sorcery.
• Inner Light: Increases max magicka and spell critical.
• Incapacitating Strike: up to 30% damage buff on activation on the target.
• Unstable Wall of Elements: Your main AoE ability, has to be on the ground all the time.
• Dark Shade: Deals good damage and reduces enemy damage.
• Elemental Susceptibility: Apply this on big monsters and bosses, applies debuff to enemies increasing your damage and also applies status effects.
• Siphoning Attacks: This is your main sustain tool, always make sure to activate this once it runs! If you are unsure, you could put this on the front bar, that way you won’t forget it.
• Consuming Trap: Single Target DoT that you need to keep on the enemy, every time someone dies affected by this, you gain a huge amount of resources.
• Soul Tether: You can use this on trash packs, huge AoE damage ultimate that also gives you a big heal!

Champion Points for Solo Magicka Nightblade

Important Info for Solo Magicka Nightblade

Buff-food

You have the option between two different buff foods/drinks for this build. It is crucial that you use either one of these because they give very important stats, health, magick and magicka recovery. You can use the more expensive Clockwork Citrus Filet or the less expensive version Witchmother’s Potent Brew. The difference between both is very small, I only use the expensive one for very difficult content to get a tiny bit more stats. Otherwise I always use the less expensive version to save money.

Info: If you click on the URL you will get directed to a detailed page of the buff food/drink where you can see the prices too.

Clockwork Citrus Filet
(Max Health, Max Magicka, Magicka Recovery, Health Recovery)

Witchmother’s Potent Brew
(Max Health, Max Magicka, Magicka Recovery)

Mundus Stone

The Lover Mundus Stone is the best choice for this setup, it increases our overall spell penetration, which boosts our damage. You can also visit the Mundus Stone Overview Page for additional information regarding all the Mundus Stones.

The Lover Mundus Stone (Increased Spell Penetration)

Race

All Magicka-based races work with this setup. More about each race can be found on the racial overview page.

High Elf
Breton
Dark Elf
Argonian
Khajiit
Orc

Potions

Spell Power Potions will give you the best damage output. They are very expensive though, therefore for less difficult content you can also use the normal Essence of Magicka potions.

Spell-Power Potions
(Spell-crit, Spell Damage, Magicka)
(Cornflower, Ladys Smock, Water Hyacinth)

Essence of Magicka Potion
(Magicka)
(Bought in Guild Stores, fairly cheap)

Important: Make sure to get alchemy to level 50 to unlock the Medicinal Use passive. That way you can keep up the buffs of potions a 100% of the time.

Passives

• Assassination: Master Assassin, Executioner, Pressure Points, Hemorrhage
• Shadow: Refreshing Shadows, Shadow Barrier, Dark Vigor, Dark Veil
• Siphoning: Catalyst, Magicka Flood, Soul Siphoner, Transfer
• Destruction Staff: Tri Focus, Penetrating Magic, Elemental Force, Ancient Knowledge, Destruction Expert
• Light Armor: Grace, Evocation, Spell Warding, Prodigy, Concentration
• Undaunted: Undaunted Command, Undaunted Mettle
• Racial: All
• Alchemy: Medicinal Use

Attributes

All into Magicka. I recommend getting around 18-20k Health.

64 Magicka, 0 Health, 0 Stamina

Resource Management

Resource management with a solo build is slightly different compared to a group setup because you can’t really rely on your healer to give you resources back. Now that doesn’t really matter because we have other means of restoring resources. Your main tool of restoring resources is your heavy attacks, they are pretty slow but you will regain so many resources. You can also use your potions on cooldown which will return a lot of extra resources.  The ability Siphoning Attacks is another very important tool. You have to keep this up all the time during a fight.

• Heavy Attacks
• Potions
• Medicinal Use
• Siphoning Attacks

Rotation

If you want to learn more about weaving light attacks, you can check out this guide: “Weaving Beginner Guide”.

For this kind of setup, there is not a fixed rotation at all, your main goal should always be to stay alive and you do that by keeping up your shield and healing abilities.

1. Keep up your DoTs, you have 4 DoTs that should always be on the boss.
2. Unstable Wall of Elements, Dark Shade and Consuming Trap.
3. In addition to that, you also have to keep going with your debuffs and buffs that you place on enemies and you.
4. Once that is taken care of, you can start using your spammable Swallow Soul and your semi spammable Merciless Resolve.

If you want a fixed rotation for this setup then you have to do the following:

Before the fight: Activate Merciless Resolve, Dark Shade, Siphoning Attacks and Elemental Susceptibility before the fight starts.

Unstable Wall of Elements > LA > Consuming Trap > Weapon Swap

5x LA > Swallow Soul > Restart

• When the Spectral Bow procs from Merciless Resolve, activate this instead of Swallow Soul.
• If any of the long buffs run out, re-activate these instead of using Swallow Soul.
• Sap Essence is only used in fights with several enemies or if you need to keep up your Major Sorcery buff (if you don’t have Spell Power Potions).

Bad Habits

• A lot of people have a bad habit of forgetting their back bar abilities, you should really focus on always weapon swapping enough to re-apply the DoTs and buffs on your back bar.
• Keeping up your shield 24/7 is key to this build, that way your health can never really be damaged. Easy to see when you watch some of my gameplay that I keep up the shield all the time.
• Always keep moving your character around, if you just stand on the ground you take unnecessary damage from melee monsters, that damage can easily be avoided by kiting (running away backward from the enemy and still dealing damage to him.
• Not keeping up your resource management abilities causes you to lose a lot of sustain, so make sure to always keep them up!

Vateshran Hollows & Maelstrom Arena Setup

Magicka Nightblade Vateshran Hollows & Maelstrom Arena Build Setup.

• For specific tips and tricks please check out the Vateshran Hollows Guide and the Maelstrom Arena Guide which explains everything in detail.
• Ring of the Pale Order provides a lot of extra healing, I recommend getting this Mythic item, it makes the arena a lot easier.
• If you don’t have access to Mythic items, please use the gear setups above.

Gear Setup

Skills

Endless Archive Setup for Solo Magicka Nightblade Build

Here you can find a setup that works well inside ESO’s Endless Archive when you play solo with the Solo Magicka Nightblade Build. Make sure to read the ESO Endless Archive Guide to understand what is going on inside the archive.

• Endless Archive gets progressively harder
• You need to know boss mechanics, otherwise one-shots will occur often.
• Understanding how the Endless Archive works is important
• If you get stuck, change gear or skills and try again.

Gear Setup

Inside the Endless Archive, we recommend running the following setup for our Solo Magicka Nightblade Build: 5x Whorl of Depths (Frontbar), 5x Pillar of Nirn (Backbar), 1x Ring of Pale Order, 2x Iceheart. All the sets are procing automatically, therefore you won’t have to worry about keeping track of any of them. This is great, that way we can focus more on the combat and our abilities.

Skills

If you need extra healing replace Inner Light with Resolving Vigor.

Buff-Food

If you have sustain issues then it is recommended to use the Ghastly Eye Bowl buff food because it gives us a huge amount of Magicka Recovery and Max Magicka, but your Health will be lower. If you don’t have sustain issues, then it is recommended to use the Clockwork Citrus Filet or the less expensive version Witchmother’s Potent Brew.

Gameplay Solo Magicka Nightblade

Below you can find gameplay footage of the Solo Magicka Nightblade Build in action.

Solo Vateshran Hollows Arena Run

Full Vateshran Hollows Arena Run with the Solo Magicka Nightblade Build.

Solo The Dread Cellar Dungeon

You can learn more about the Dread Cellar dungeon in the Dread Cellar overview page.

Solo Castle Thorn Dungeon

You can learn more about the Castle Thorn dungeon in the Castle Thorn overview page.

Update Log Solo Magicka Nightblade

25.01.2020 Added the Solo Magicka Nightblade Build for the Harrowstorm DLC.
17.05.2020 Updated the build for the GREYMOOR CHAPTER.
22.10.2020 Updated the build for the MARKARTH DLC, Greymoor Chapter.
05.03.2021 Updated the Build for the FLAMES OF AMBITION DLC, Blackwood Chapter.
25.05.2021 Updated the Build for the BLACKWOOD CHAPTER.
09.08.2021 Updated the Build for the WAKING FLAME DLC, Blackwood Chapter.
13.10.2021 Updated the Build for the DEADLANDS DLC, Blackwood Chapter.
04.03.2022 Updated the Build for the ASCENDING TIDE DLC, High Isle Chapter.
13.05.2022 Updated the Build for the HIGH ISLE CHAPTER.
03.08.2022 Updated the Build for the LOST DEPTHS DLC, High Isle Chapter.
24.10.2022 Updated the Build for the FIRESONG DLC, High Isle Chapter.
08.03.2023 Updated the Build for the SCRIBES OF FATE DLC, Necrom Chapter.
01.06.2023 Updated the Build for the ESO NECROM CHAPTER.
23.10.2023 Updated the Build for Update 40.
06.03.2024 Updated the Build for the Scions of Ithelia DLC U41, Gold Road Chapter