Powerful SOLO Stamina Dragonknight Build for ESO (Elder Scrolls Online)

Table of Contents

• Solo Setup
  • Gear
  • Skills
  • Champion Points
  • Important Info (Food, Mundus, Race, Potions, Passives, Attributes)
• Resource Management
• Rotation
• Bad Habits
• Vateshran Hollows & Maelstrom Arena Setup
• Endless Archive Setup
• Build Video
• Echoing vs Resolving Vigor
• Update Log

Welcome to the Solo Stamina Dragonknight Build for 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 to the game I would also recommend checking out a few other guides:

Other Stamina Dragonknight Guides:

• Stamina Dragonknight Beginner Guide (Read first if you are a new player)
• Stamina Dragonknight Beginner 160CP Build (Made for new players)
• Stamina Dragonknight Dual Wield Build
• Stamina Dragonknight Bow Build
• Stamina Dragonknight Two Hander Build

Dragonknights have a good kit to play solo, abilities such as Volatile Armor and Cauterize both increase damage mitigation and healing by a lot. Dragonknights have powerful passives such as Battle Roar, Helping Hands, World in Ruin, and Combustion that boost our sustain tremendously. Passives such as Scaled Armor and Iron Skin increase damage mitigation further.

Damage is also easily covered due to the Noxious Breath spammable applying Major Fracture, reducing the enemy physical resistance by a lot and we have plenty of damage over time effects that deal good damage such as Venomous Claw, Consuming Trap and Endless Hail, more on these skills in the skill section.

• Two Hander & Bow setup
• Powerful Damage
• Good Sustain
• Powerful Healing
• Big Shields
• Solo Dungeons, Overland
• Maelstrom & Vateshran Hollows Arena

Setup – Solo Stamina Dragonknight

5x Tzogvin, 5x Briarheart, 1x Bloodspawn, 1x Pale Order on a Dark Elf with Lava Foot Soup and Saltrice buff food.

• Unbuffed: Out of combat, buff food active.
• Buffed: In combat, Buff food, Briarheart, Tzogvin, Molten Armaments, Volatile Armor, Weapon Damage Enchantment and Potion active.

Gear – Solo Stamina Dragonknight

You will find 3 different setups here. Setup 1 is the preferred setup. For people who do not have all the gear yet can use Setup 2 which is easier to obtain and beginners can use Setup 3.

• Setup 1 – Best Setup
• Setup 2 – Advanced Gear
• Setup 3 – Beginner Gear

Gear Setup 1

• Which sets you put in which slot is not that important, the only thing that matters is that you get two full five-piece sets and a Monster Set.
• One Piece Heavy Armor gives us some extra resistance and health.

Gear Setup 2

Gear Setup 3 Beginner

Where can I get the gear for the Solo Stamina Dragonknight Build?

Briarheart: Wrothgar, Guildstores
Tzogvin’s Warband: Frostvault
Ancient Dragonguard: Craftable
Bloodspawn: vSpindleclutch II, Maj Undaunted Chest
Hunding’s Rage: Craftable
Selene: vSelene’s Web, Glirion Undaunted Chest
Thunderous Volley: vMaelstrom Arena
Ring of the Pale Order: Antiquities System
Vicious Serpent: Aetherian Archive, Sanctum Ophidia, Hel Ra Citadel

Skills – Solo Stamina Dragonknight

Skills explanation:

• Brawler: Your most important survival ability. Use this on a single or several enemies to gain a huge shield that will bolster your health on top of the nice damage it does.
• Venomous Claw: Powerful Single Target damage over time effect that you can place on the enemy (Flexspot, you could swap this out with something else).
• Noxious Breath: This is your main spammable. It deals good upfront damage and also applies Major Fracture, reducing the enemies physical resistance by 5280, increasing your overall damage by a lot on the enemy.
• Reverse Slice: Your execute ability that also deals nice splash damage.
• Echoing Vigor: Strong heal over time that lasts for 10 seconds. We prefer this morph because the heal is already strong enough and the 10 seconds is more beneficial, more time to deal damage! Compared to the other morph which only lasts for a very short duration. If you drop low on health make sure to activate this and also use Brawler to gain a shield to bolster your health.
• Take Flight: Powerful burst damage Ultimate and also low cost.
• Endless Hail: This is your DoT that you need to constantly keep up on the enemies. Very powerful both in Single Target and AoE.
• Molten Armaments: This ability gives you major Brutality, increasing your Weapon Damage by 20% and your Heavy Attacks deal more damage too. Also procs the Helping Hands and Mountain’s Blessing passive giving you sustain and another 10% extra Weapon Damage.
• Consuming Trap: Strong Single Target damage over time effect that also returns a lot of resources once an enemy is killed. Place this on a weak mob to regain resources fast.
• Volatile Armor: Applies Major Resolve, increasing both your resistances by a lot. Also keeps the Burning Heart passive active.
• Cauterize: Powerful heal over time, you can also activate it again even if it is already running to get an instant burst heal.
• Standard of Might: Your main Ultimate, increases all your damage by 15% and also decreases incoming damage by 15%.

Champion Points – Solo Stamina Dragonknight

Below you can find the Champion Points setup for this build. Work your way from top to bottom in your allocation. For more information on Champion Points, please visit the Champion Points Overview Page on ESO-Hub.com.

Hovering over each perk will give you insights on what it does. Presets are also provided for each of the allocations below.

Click the tab below to open the allocation.

Important Info for Solo Dragonknight Build

Buff-food

It is very important that you use the Lava Foot Soup-and-Saltrice Buff-food. This will enhance our Max Stamina and Stamina Recovery by a huge margin. You can buy the food in the guild stores for a very cheap price, or craft it yourself if you have the recipe. For more information on all buff food and drinks I recommend visiting the Buff Food and Drink Overview Page.

Lava Foot Soup-and-Saltrice
(Max Stamina, Stamina Recovery)

Mundus Stone

The Lover Mundus Stone provides us with extra penetration, which increases our damage. For more information on Mundus Stones please visit the Mundus Stone Overview Page.

The Lover Mundus Stone (Increased Penetration)

Race

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

Dark Elf
Khajiit
Orc
Redguard
Imperial
Wood Elf
Nord
Argonian
High Elf

Potions

We are using Essence of Weapon Crit Potions with this setup, most important are the Major Savagery 12% Weapon Crit buff and the Major Endurance 20% Stamina Recovery buff + 7582 Stamina return from these potions, the Health boost is just a nice extra.

We don’t need the Major Brutality buff from the potion because we already get that through the skill Molten Armaments.

Essence of Weapon Crit
(Health, Stamina, Weapon Crit)
(Dragonthorn, Columbine, Water Hyacinth)

You can also use normal potions that drop from monsters. However, you might want to get the Major Savagery buff from somewhere else then. For example you could replace Venomous Claw with Camouflaged Hunter to gain the Major Savagery buff and an extra 5% overall damage.

Poisons

We are using Poisons to increase our damage output. If you don’t have poisons, you can just use another enchantment on your weapon.

Damage Health Poison
(Damage Poison, Damage Poison)
(Fleshfly Larva, Nightshade, Nirnroot)

Passives

• Ardent Flame: Combustion, Searing Heat, World in Ruin
• Draconic Power: Iron Skin, Burning Heart, Elder Dragon, Scaled Armor
• Earthen Heart: Eternal Mountain, Battle Roar, Mountain’s Blessing, Helping Hands
• Two Handed: Forceful, Heavy Weapons, Balanced Blade, Follow Up, Battle Rush
• Bow: Long Shots, Accuracy, Ranger, Hawk Eye, Hasty Retreat
• Medium Armor: Dexterity, Wind Walker, Improved Sneak, Agility, Athletics
• Undaunted: Undaunted Mettle
• Racial: All
• Alchemy: Medicinal Use
• Assault: (Optional, mount speed buff) Continuous Attack

Attributes

0 Health, 64 Stamina, 0 Magicka

Resource Management

Our setup has a lot of resource management options, some already directly built in via Stamina Recovery and some more options that you can use whenever you need it.

Stamina Recovery

Lava Foot Soup-and-Saltrice buff-food is key to our sustain. The buff-food gives you Max Stamina and Stamina Recovery, a lot of it. You have to make sure to use this specific buff-food. You can buy it in the guild stores for a very cheap price or craft it yourself, if you have the recipe.

The Battle Rush passive from the Two Hander skill-line gives you another 30% Stamina Recovery for 10 seconds while you have a Two Handed weapon slotted.

Potions are another very important part of resource management. We are preferably using Essence of Weapon Crit potions to gain another 30% Stamina Recovery boost, 12% Weapon Critical and a Health boost. This both increases our sustain and also damage, I highly recommend using these potions. The ingredients are listed in the potion section of the build.

Passives

Dragonknights have a few very unique passives that help them with sustain.

The passive World in Ruin helps reduce the cost of our poison abilities, such as Venomous Claw or Noxious Breath.

The passive Battle Roar gives us a big boost in resources every time we activate an Ultimate.

The passive Helping Hands returns resources every time we activate Molten Armaments.

The passive Combustion returns stamina whenever the poison status effect procs from stuff like Venomous Claw, Noxious Breath or Poisons.

Rotation

Before we start with the rotation, you always have to make sure to weave Light Attacks between each ability. This is important because the Light Attacks deal very good damage and proc your Weapon Enchantments and Poisons. You can find a guide here on that subject: “Weaving Beginner Guide”.

Your first priority has to always be to stay alive. Therefore healing, shielding, and dodging have to be prioritized over damage.

1. Brawler is your survival skill, every time you hit one or several enemies you will gain a shield. Most of the times that is already enough to stay alive.
2. Echoing Vigor is your main healing ability that lasts 10 seconds alongside Cauterize which also functions as a burst heal if needed. The Briarheart set is usually enough to keep you alive as long as it is active and you keep your DoTs up.
3. Keep up your most important skills: Cauterize, Volatile Armor, and Molten Armaments.
4. Keep up all your DoTs on the enemy such as Endless Hail, Consuming Trap, and Venomous Claw.
5. Once that is taken care of, you want to use your spammable on the front bar such as Noxious Breath and Reverse Slice.

Heavy Attacking is a good option on this build because your Heavy Attacks get boosted by the Molten Armaments skill.

Bad Habits – Solo Stamina Dragonknight

1. Not keeping up your healing abilities such as Cauterize, Echoing Vigor and defense abilities such as Volatile Armor is the main reason why you die on this setup.
2. Not keeping up your damage over time effects on the backbar will result in a huge loss in overall damage.
3. Not using Brawler enough to bolster your health with the huge shield that the skill gives. Always before you swap to the backbar you should use Brawler first to gain a shield that will help you while you are on the backbar.
4. Not using the right buff-food as listed will also result in sustain issues.

Vateshran Hollows & Maelstrom Arena Setup

Stamina Dragonknight Vateshran Hollows & Maelstrom Build Setup.

• For specific tips and tricks please check out the Vateshran Hollows Guide or 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

Gear	Set	Weight	Trait	Enchantment
Chest	Vicious Serpent	Medium	Divine	Health
Belt	Vicious Serpent	Medium	Divine	Stamina
Shoes	Vicious Serpent	Medium	Divine	Stamina
Pants	Vicious Serpent	Medium	Divine	Stamina
Hands	Vicious Serpent	Medium	Divine	Stamina
Head	Bloodspawn	Medium	Divine	Health
Shoulder	Briarheart	Medium	Divine	Stamina
Necklace	Briarheart	Jewelry	Bloodthirsty	Weapon Damage
Ring	Briarheart	Jewelry	Bloodthirsty	Weapon Damage
Ring	Ring of the Pale Order	Jewelry	Bloodthirsty	Weapon Damage
Weapon 1	Briarheart	2H Sword	Precise	Damage Health Poisons IX
Weapon 2	Thunderous Volley	Bow	Infused	Weapon Damage Enchantment

Skills

Buff-Food

I recommend using the Artaeum Takeaway Broth or Dubious Camoran Throne buff-food if you have too much sustain with Lava Foot Soup and Saltrice.

Endless Archive Setup for Solo Stamina Dragonknight

Here you can find a setup that works well inside ESO’s Endless Archive when you play solo with the Solo Stamina Dragonknight 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

Of course you can also try the Endless Archive with any of the above setups and see how they perform. We like to go in with Briarheart on the front bar and Pillar of Nirn on the back bar. These are both sets that have a simple proc condition and they work automatically. Additionally, we also have the Stormfist set that also deals proc damage. Basically, all sets do work without you having to think about how to activate them.

For the Endless Archive, it is recommended to go with 1x Ring of the Pale Order, 2x Stormfist, 5x Briarheart (frontbar), 5x Pillar of Nirn (backbar) and 1x Druid’s Braid. This setup will provide us with enough healing and damage.  You can also use any other Monster Set if you don’t like Stormfist.

Note: Two-handed weapons count as two pieces for a set.

Where can I get the gear?

Briarheart: Wrothgar, Guildstores
Pillar of Nirn: nFalkreath Hold Dungeon
Ring of the Pale Order: Antiquities System
Stormfist: vTempest Island Dungeon
Druids Braid: Guildstores, Craftable set in the High Isle and Amenos zone

Skills

Buff-Food

If you are having sustain issues it is recommended to use the Lava Foot Soup and Saltrice buff food, just keep in mind your health will be lower. If you have enough sustain you can use the Artaeum Takeaway Broth or Dubious Camoran Throne buff-food that gives good sustain and extra health.

Build Video  – Solo Stamina Dragonknight

This is an older video, it won’t be completely up to date but it still holds value because it explains a lot of important points for the build.

Echoing vs Resolving Vigor

Quick video talking about why I use Echoing Vigor over Resolving Vigor for my Solo PvE Stamina Builds.

Update Log – Solo Stamina Dragonknight