Powerful 2H Stamina Arcanist Build for ESO (Elder Scrolls Online)

Table of Contents

• Group Setup
  • Gear
  • Skills
  • Champion Points
  • Important Info (Food, Mundus, Race, Potions, Passives, Attributes)
• Resource Management
• Rotation
• AoE Setup
• Related Content
• Update Log

Welcome to the 2H Stamina Arcanist Build for ESO (Elder Scrolls Online). This build is optimized for group content such as dungeons, trials & arenas and has a very glass-cannon approach. The 2H Stamina Arcanist build is optimized for maximum damage. The build works best in a group but with some minor adjustments can also be played as a solo setup if necessary.

The Arcanist class works well with a Two-Handed setup with a mix of direct damage and damage over time abilities. For this particular setup we are using a Two Hander and Dual Wield weapon setup. The Arcanist also has great passives that boost his effectiveness in combat.

• Two Hander & Bow Setup
• Insane Single Target (ST) Damage
• Insane Area of Effect (AoE) Damage
• Crazy Splash Damage
• Dungeon, Trial & Arena Build

You can find more Arcanist Builds in the Arcanist category of the website.

2H Stamina Arcanist Setup

Please view the information below to see how the Two-Handed Stamina Arcanist Build is set up. You can also find several gear setups, some are easier to obtain than others in ESO.

5x Relequen, 5x Pillar of Nirn, 1x Slimecraw, 1x Harpooner’s Wading Kilt, on a Dark Elf with Lava Foot Soup-and-Saltrice food.

• Unbuffed: Out of combat, buff food active
• Buffed: In Combat, buff food, Raid Target Dummy buffs, Weapon damage enchantment, Weapon Power Potion active

Gear

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

• Setup 1 is with Trial Gear
• Setup 2 is without Trial Gear
• Setup 3 is for Beginners

There are a lot of good Stamina Sets available, you can find more viable stamina dps sets in this Stamina DPS Sets Article. I also elaborate on specific sets that are often used in this article to give you a bit more insight as to why they are used.

Gear Setup 1

Perfected vs Imperfect Gear: Both perfected and imperfect gear is viable for the build. The perfected versions are a lot harder to obtain though. So if you don’t have any aim for the normal version first.

Gear Setup 2

Gear Setup 3 Beginner

This setup is for new players. You want to craft or ask someone to craft 5x Hunding’s Rage and 4x Night Mother’s Gaze. 3x Agility jewelry can be bought in the guildstores for little money.

Where can I get the gear?

Perfected Arms of Relequen: vCloudrest
Arms of Relequen: Cloudrest
Pillar of Nirn: Falkreath Hold Dungeon
Perfected Spectral Cloak (Maelstrom 2H): vBlackrose Prison Arena
Spectral Cloak: nBlackrose Prison Arena
Slimecraw: vWayrest Sewers 1, Undaunted Enclave
Harpooner’s Wading Kilt (Mythic): Antiquities

Hunding’s Rage: Craftable
Agility: Guildstore
Night Mother’s Gaze: Craftable
Leviathan. Crypts of Hearts 1 & 2
Stormfist: vTempest Island Dungeon, Undaunted Chest Reward

Skills

You can adjust skills to your needs if you want. For example if you don’t want Wrecking Blow you can swap it out with the Arcanist class spammable Escalating Runeblades.

• Carve: Strong damage over time effect that causes enemies to bleed.
• Stampede: Strong damage over time area effect.
• Wrecking Blow: Your main spammable, deals great damage and adds Major Berserk buff to you.
• Reverse Slice: Your Execute, use this below 25% health instead of your main spammable.
• Cephaliarch’s Flail: Deals good damage and gives you a 5% damage boost.
• Flawless Dawnbreaker: Only use this when multiple mobs can be hit. For Single Target use the backbar ultimate.
• Deadly Cloak: Strong area of effect damage and also boosts your defense. If combined with Blackrose Spectral Cloak dagger you also get even more defense and offense power.
• Fulminating Rune: Strong damage over time area effect that sticks to the enemy.
• Barbed Trap: Deals great damage and applies bleed to the enemy. Also gives Minor Force, increasing your Critical Damage.
• Inspired Scholarship: Long buff that adds extra damage.
• Resolving Vigor: This is your heal, you can replace this with something else if you don’t need it.
• The Languid Eye: Your main single-target ultimate. Deals great damage.

Champion Points – 2H Stamina Arcanist Build

Click the tab below to open the allocation.

Important Info for 2H Stamina Arcanist Build

Buff-food

Any of the three foods below works well with the build. For a list of all buff food and drink consumables please visit the Buff Food and Drinks Overview Page.

Lava Foot Soup and Saltrice
(Saltrice, Flour, Potato, Scrib Jelly)

Artaeum Takeaway Broth
(Max Health+Max Stamina+Stamina Recovery+Health Recovery)

Dubious Camoran Throne
(2nd option if Artaeum is too expensive)

Mundus Stone

The Thief Mundus Stone increases our overall Weapon Critical Rating which boosts our damage. For more information on Mundus Stones please visit the Mundus Stone Overview Page.

The Thief Mundus Stone (Increased Weapon Critical)

Race

Any race with stamina based perks works for this setup. If you want a complete overview of all races and racial passives, then I recommend checking out the ESO Races Overview page.

Orc
Khajiit
Dark Elf
Nord
Redguard
Wood Elf
Imperial
High Elf

Potions

Potions are an important part of the 2H Stamina Arcanist build, they apply very powerful buffs and extra resources to your character. Potions benefit from the Alchemy passive Medicinal Use, make sure to always have that passive active.

Weapon Crit Potions 
(Weap dmg, Weap Crit, Stamina)
(Blessed Thistle, Dragonthorn, Wormwood)

Passives

• Herald of Tome: Fated Fortune, Harnessed Quintessence, Psychic Lesion, Splintered Secrets
• Curative Runeforms: Hideous Clarity, Erudition, Intricate Runeforms
• Soldier of Apocrypha: Circumvented Fate, Implacable Outcome
• 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
• Fighters Guild: Intimidating Presence, Slayer, Banish the Wicked, Skilled Tracker
• Psijic Order (AoE Setup): Clairvoyance, Concentrated Barrier, Deliberation
• Undaunted: Undaunted Mettle, Undaunted Command
• Racial: All
• Alchemy: Medicinal Use

Attributes

All into Stamina

Resource Management

The Hideous Clarity and Erudition passive both help with sustain on the Arcanist.

During the fight healers or tanks will throw Energy Orb that you can synergize to get back resources, these are very important!

Other than that you have to use potions on cooldown to give you a huge amount of stramina back and you can always perform some heavy attacks throughout the fight to restore stamina. If you have all these things you should be fine with sustain, just don’t forget to do heavy attacks when you drop low on stamina.

• Hideous Clarity Passive
• Erudition Passive
• Orbs or Spears from Healers
• Heavy Attacks resource return (optional)
• Potions

Rotation

In case you don’t know what weaving light attacks is, make sure to check out the “Weaving Beginner Guide” which explains how to weave light attacks between abilities, aka animation canceling. Proc sets will auto fire, you don’t have to worry about these.

• Your main spammable is Wrecking Blow. Use Reverse Slice after boss health is lower than 25%.
• Activate Inspired Scholarship whenever it runs out
• Also keep Cephaliarch’s Flail active on enemies to benefit from the damage boost
• Keep up your damage over time effects: Stampede, Carve, Deadly Cloak, Barbed Trap, Fulminating Rune.
• Activate the ultimate The Languid Eye whenever it is ready

Make sure to activate Ability Bar Tracking ingame via Settings > Combat > Ability Bar. More info in the Ability bar Timers Guide

---

AoE Setup – 2H Stamina Arcanist Build

The AoE setup of the 2H Stamina Arcanist Build is more straightforward. Trash packs don’t live for a very long time, anything that provides us with extra burst damage is useful, therefore we use sets like Mechanical Acuity and Pillar of Nirn as well as the very powerful Perfected Titanic Cleave.

Gear	Set	Weight	Trait	Enchantment
Chest	Mechanical Acuity	Medium	Divine	Stamina
Belt	Mechanical Acuity	Medium	Divine	Stamina
Shoes	Mechanical Acuity	Medium	Divine	Stamina
Pants	Mechanical Acuity	Medium	Divine	Stamina
Hands	Mechanical Acuity	Medium	Divine	Stamina
Head	Pillar of Nirn	Medium	Divine	Stamina
Shoulder	Pillar of Nirn	Medium	Divine	Stamina
Necklace	Pillar of Nirn	Jewelry	Infused	Weapon Damage
Ring	Pillar of Nirn	Jewelry	Infused	Weapon Damage
Ring	Pillar of Nirn	Jewelry	Infused	Weapon Damage
Weapon 1	Perfected Titanic Cleave	2H Sword	Precise	Absorb Stamina Enchant
Weapon 2	Perfected Spectral Cloak	Dagger	Infused	Poison Damage Enchant
Weapon 2	Perfected Spectral Cloak	Dagger	Infused	Weapon Damage Enchantment

 

Skills