ESO Arcanist Leveling Build
Build Written By: Dottz Gaming – PC NA
Role: Damage Dealer, Tank, and/or Healer
Patch: Scions of Ithelia
Table of Contents
Introduction
Welcome to DottzGaming.com’s Arcanist Leveling Build for the Elder Scrolls Online! This build is intended to act as a framework for someone to follow while leveling an Arcanist, whether it be a magicka damage dealer, a stamina damage dealer, a tank or a healer. This is not a traditional “leveling build”, but rather a framework that shows you some of the most commonly used setups for each role. This enables you to pick and choose from a list and mix and match how you like, thus preventing you from feeling like you have a static leveling progression! You will be able to experiment with different abilities as you level up, and come end game, you’ll not only have a lot (if not all) of the most commonly used abilities leveled up and morphed, but you’ll know which of these you like the most and works best for you.
The Arcanist class was released with the Necrom chapter, using runes and dark magic to damage enemies and heal allies. Arcanists can fill every role relatively well, making good healers, tanks, and damage dealers. Arcanist also has an extra mechanic, known as Crux. Certain abilities that the Arcanist has will build up Crux, and then other abilities will spend the Crux to make them more powerful.
Once you are level 50, you become CP 10 and will be able to use the Champion Point system. For basics on the CP system, click here.
For the some extra explanation on the guide’s format, please check the above video.
Setup
Magicka DPS
RACE
- High Elf
- Breton
- Dark Elf
- Khajiit
GEAR
- 5 light
- 1 medium
- 1 heavy
- Destruction Staffs (Front/Back Bar) OR Destro/Resto for PvP
- Note: The gear weight spread is a recommendation, not a strict rule for leveling. If you get better pieces as you level, feel free to replace them (just try to have more of the main gear weigh than the others)!
ATTRIBUTES
All in magicka
VAMPIRE vs WEREWOLF vs MORTAL
Mortal: Remain a mortal. Neither vampire nor werewolf will give you anything you need as you’re leveling.
MUNDUS
Thief
POTIONS AND FOOD
Potions: Magicka
Food: Not mandatory, but if you can find some, try to get stuff that increases either your health, magicka, and/or magicka recovery.
ABILITIES
You want to do your best to have 1 ability from each class tree on both your front and back bar. When you gain experience, whether it be from killing monsters or quests, the abilities on your active bar are the ones that gain experience as well as their respective skill lines. Another cool trick is if you have abilities on a skill bar you want to level up, you can switch to that bar when handing in a quest or completing a dungeon to give them and their skill lines a surge of experience. You’re going to notice i frequently recommend the first skill of a skill tree as a choice, just to obviously help you start getting that skill line leveled. If you want to level another weapon or skill tree without using that weapon or skill, simply placing a skill from that tree on your ability bar helps it gain experience when you gain experience on that bar. You dont have to use it!
Abilities
- Herald of the Tome -> Runeblades -> Escalating Runeblades
- Herald of the Tome -> Fatecarver -> Pragmatic Fatecarver
- Herald of the Tome -> Abyssal Impact -> Cephaliarch’s Flail
- Herald of the Tome -> Tome-Bearer’s Inspiration -> Inspired Scholarship
- Herald of the Tome -> The Imperfect Ring -> Fulminating Rune
- Curative Runeform -> Runemend -> Evolving Runemend
- Soldier of Apocrypha -> Runic Jolt -> Runic Embrace
- Mage’s Guild -> Entropy -> Degeneration
- Fighter’s Guild -> Trap Beast -> Barbed Trap
- Light Armor -> Annulment -> Harness Magicka
- Destruction Staff -> Force Shock -> Force Pulse
- Destruction Staff -> Wall of Elements -> Elemental Blockade
- Destruction Staff -> Weakness to Elements -> Elemental Drain
- Psijic Order -> Accelerate -> Channeled Acceleration (Race Against Time if you PvP)
- If you choose to PvP/play solo, you may also consider:
- Restoration Staff -> Steadfast Ward -> Healing Ward
- Restoration Staff -> Regeneration -> Rapid Regeneration
- Curative Runeform -> Apocryphal Gate -> Fleet-Footed gate
- Soldier of Apocrypha -> Fatewoven Armor -> Cruxweaver Armor
- Destruction Staff -> Destructive Touch -> Destructive Clench
Ultimates
- Herald of the Tome -> The Unblinking Eye -> The Tide King’s Gaze
- Destruction Staff -> Elemental Storm -> Elemental Rage
- Mage’s Guild -> Meteor -> Shooting Star
PASSIVES
- All class passives
- Racial
- Light Armor
- Destruction Staff
- Optional: Restoration Staff passives for pvp
- Alchemy – Medicinal Use
- Mages Guild
- Fighter’s Guild
- Undaunted
- Psijic Order
- The other armor type passives
ROTATION
- Try to use any abilities that give you a buff first so they make any abilities you use afterwards stronger or help you stay alive longer.
- You optimally want to use any dots in your build first, so use each dot you have on your enemies weaving a light attack in between each of them
- You should have 1 spammable ability in your build to use when all your dots are up and you dont need to buff yourself.
- Use any CC, shields and heals as needed. You want to optimally make sure you have a few of these at your disposal when making a build for general playing.
SETS
While making gear for leveling is not mandatory, some people like to make gear for alts or have gear made when created a new character! These are some good crafted options you can create (I recommend the “Training” trait for all pieces):
Stamina DPS
RACE
- Redguard
- Khajiit
- Wood Elf
- Orc
- Dark Elf
GEAR
- 1 light
- 5 medium
- 1 heavy
- Dual Wield / Bow or Bow/Bow
- If your main focus is to PvP eventually, you can use a 2h instead of dual wielding, and even have the option to try 1h/shield.
- You may want to use a 5 heavy, 1 med, 1 light setup if you plan to PvP. Heavy allows you to be tankier at the sacrifice of some damage, while medium pumps out higher damage at the cost of survivability.
- Note: The gear weight spread is a recommendation, not a strict rule for leveling. If you get better pieces as you level, feel free to replace them (just try to have more of the main gear weigh than the others)!
ATTRIBUTES
All in stamina
VAMPIRE vs WEREWOLF vs MORTAL
- Werewolf: Worth choosing if you’re going to be making a PvP focused werewolf build, or if your PvP build only needs 1 ultimate (you can then backbar the ult for the extra stamina recovery).
- Vampirism: Doesnt give that much benefit for stamina DPS outside of niche situations.
- Mortal: Choose this if you don’t want to be a werewolf.
MUNDUS
Thief
POTIONS AND FOOD
Potions: Stamina
Food: Not mandatory, but if you can find some, try to get stuff that increases either your health, stamina, and/or stamina recovery.
ABILITIES
You want to do your best to have 1 ability from each class tree on both your front and back bar. When you gain experience, whether it be from killing monsters or quests, the abilities on your active bar are the ones that gain experience as well as their respective skill lines. Another cool trick is if you have abilities on a skill bar you want to level up, you can switch to that bar when handing in a quest or completing a dungeon to give them and their skill lines a surge of experience. You’re going to notice i frequently recommend the first skill of a skill tree as a choice, just to obviously help you start getting that skill line leveled. If you want to level another weapon or skill tree without using that weapon or skill, simply placing a skill from that tree on your ability bar helps it gain experience when you gain experience on that bar. You dont have to use it!
Abilities
- Herald of the Tome -> Runeblades -> Escalating Runeblades
- Herald of the Tome -> Fatecarver -> Pragmatic Fatecarver
- Herald of the Tome -> Abyssal Impact -> Cephaliarch’s Flail
- Herald of the Tome -> Tome-Bearer’s Inspiration -> Inspired Scholarship
- Herald of the Tome -> The Imperfect Ring -> Fulminating Rune
- Curative Runeform -> Runemend -> Evolving Runemend
- Soldier of Apocrypha -> Runic Jolt -> Runic Sunder
- Fighter’s Guild -> Trap Beast -> Barbed Trap
- Medium Armor -> Evasion -> Either Morph
- Bow -> Poison Arrow -> Poison Injection
- Bow -> Volley -> Endless Hail
- Dual Wield -> Twin Slashes -> Either Morph
- Dual Wield -> Whirlwind -> Either Morph
- Dual Wield -> Blade Cloak -> Either Morph
- Assault -> Vigor -> Resolving Vigor
- Additional abilities for PVP include:
- Two Handed -> Uppercut -> Dizzying Swing
- Two Handed -> Reverse Slash -> Executioner
- Two Handed -> Momentum -> Either Morph
- Two Handed -> Berserker Strike -> Onslaught
- Curative Runeform -> Apocryphal Gate -> Fleet-Footed gate
- Soldier of Apocrypha -> Fatewoven Armor -> Cruxweaver Armor
Ultimates
- Fighter’s Guild -> Dawnbreaker -> Either Morph
- Bow -> Rapid Fire -> Ballista
- Herald of the Tome -> The Unblinking Eye -> The Tide King’s Gaze
PASSIVES
- All class passives
- Racial
- Medium Armor
- Dual Wield
- Or 2h and/or 1h/shield if you plan on going the pvp route
- Bow
- Alchemy – Medicinal Use
- Fighters Guild
- Undaunted
- Psijic Order
- The other armor type passives
ROTATION
- Try to use any abilities that give you a buff first so they make any abilities you use afterwards stronger or help you stay alive longer.
- You optimally want to use any dots or aoe in your build first, so use each dot you have on your enemies weaving a light attack in between each of them
- You should have 1 spammable ability in your build to use when all your dots are up and you dont need to buff yourself.
- Use any CC, shields and heals as needed. You want to optimally make sure you have a few of these at your disposal when making a build for general playing.
While making gear for leveling is not mandatory, some people like to make gear for alts or have gear made when created a new character! These are some good crafted options you can create (I recommend the “Training” trait for all pieces):
Tank
RACE
- Argonian
- Imperial
- Nord
GEAR
- 1 light
- 1 medium
- 5 heavy
- 1h/shield (both bars) OR 1h shield/Destruction Staff (lightning/ice)
- Note: The gear weight spread is a recommendation, not a strict rule for leveling. If you get better pieces as you level, feel free to replace them (just try to have more of the main gear weigh than the others)!
ATTRIBUTES
Magicka: 15
Health: 28
Stamina: 21
VAMPIRE vs WEREWOLF vs MORTAL
Mortal: Vampire/Werewolf dont give us a whole lot of benefits for this role, so we just remain mortal.
MUNDUS
Lord or Atronach
POTIONS AND FOOD
Potions: Health, Magicka, or Stamina
Food: Not mandatory, but if you can find some, try to get stuff that increases either your attributes or give you recovery
ABILITIES
You want to do your best to have 1 ability from each class tree on both your front and back bar. When you gain experience, whether it be from killing monsters or quests, the abilities on your active bar are the ones that gain experience as well as their respective skill lines. Another cool trick is if you have abilities on a skill bar you want to level up, you can switch to that bar when handing in a quest or completing a dungeon to give them and their skill lines a surge of experience. You’re going to notice i frequently recommend the first skill of a skill tree as a choice, just to obviously help you start getting that skill line leveled. If you want to level another weapon or skill tree without using that weapon or skill, simply placing a skill from that tree on your ability bar helps it gain experience when you gain experience on that bar. You dont have to use it!
Abilities
- Herald of the Tome -> Runeblades -> Escalating Runeblades
- Curative Runeform -> Runemend -> Evolving Runemend
- Curative Runeform -> Arcanist’s Domain -> Zenas’ Empowering Disc
- Soldier of Apocrypha -> Runic Jolt -> Runic Sunder
- Soldier of Apocrypha -> Fatewoven Armor -> Unbreakable Fate
- Soldier of Apocrypha -> Runic Defense -> Runeguard of Freedom
- Soldier of Apocrypha -> Rune of Eldritch Armor -> Rune of the Colorless Pool
- 1h/Shield -> Puncture -> Pierce Armor
- 1h/Shield -> Low Slash -> Heroic Slash
- 1h/Shield -> Defensive Posture -> Absorb Magic
- 1h/Shield -> Shield Charge -> Shielded Assault
- Destruction Staff -> Force Shock -> Crushing Shock
- Destruction Staff -> Wall of Elements -> Elemental Blockade
- Undaunted -> Inner Fire -> Inner Rage
- Undaunted -> Bone Shield -> Bone Surge
- Assault -> Vigor -> Resolving Vigor
- Support -> Purge -> Efficient Purge
- Psijic Order -> Meditate -> Deep Thoughts
Ultimates
- 1h/Shield -> Shield Wall -> Shield Discipline
- Assault -> War Horn -> Aggressive Horn
- Soldier of Apocrypha -> Gibbering Shield -> Gibbering Shelter
PASSIVES
- All class passives
- Racial
- Heavy Armor
- 1h/Shield
- Optional: Destruction Staff
- Alchemy – Medicinal Use
- Fighter’s Guild
- Undaunted
- The other armor type passives
ROTATION
Tanks dont have set rotations like DPS, use things in your kit as you need them.
SETS
While making gear for leveling is not mandatory, some people like to make gear for alts or have gear made when created a new character! These are some good crafted options you can create (I recommend the “Training” trait for all pieces):
Healer
RACE
- Breton
- Argonian
- Khajiit
GEAR
- 5 light
- 1 medium
- 1 heavy
- Destruction Staff (Shock) and Restoration Staff
- Note: The gear weight spread is a recommendation, not a strict rule for leveling. If you get better pieces as you level, feel free to replace them (just try to have more of the main gear weigh than the others)!
ATTRIBUTES
All in magicka
VAMPIRE vs WEREWOLF vs MORTAL
Mortal: Vampire/Werewolf dont give us a whole lot of benefits for this role, so we just remain mortal.
MUNDUS
Atronach
POTIONS AND FOOD
Potions: Magicka
Food: Not mandatory, but if you can find some, try to get stuff that increases either your health, magicka, and/or magicka recovery.
ABILITIES
You want to do your best to have 1 ability from each class tree on both your front and back bar. When you gain experience, whether it be from killing monsters or quests, the abilities on your active bar are the ones that gain experience as well as their respective skill lines. Another cool trick is if you have abilities on a skill bar you want to level up, you can switch to that bar when handing in a quest or completing a dungeon to give them and their skill lines a surge of experience. You’re going to notice i frequently recommend the first skill of a skill tree as a choice, just to obviously help you start getting that skill line leveled. If you want to level another weapon or skill tree without using that weapon or skill, simply placing a skill from that tree on your ability bar helps it gain experience when you gain experience on that bar. You dont have to use it!
Abilities
- Herald of the Tome -> Runeblades -> Escalating Runeblades
- Curative Runeform -> Runemend -> Audacious Runemend
- Curative Runeform -> Remedy Cascade -> Curative Surge
- Curative Runeform -> Chakram Shields -> Chakram of Destiny
- Curative Runeform -> Arcanist’s Domain -> Reconstructive Domain
- Soldier of Apocrypha -> Runic Jolt -> Runic Embrace
- Soldier of Apocrypha -> Rune of Eldritch Armor -> Rune of the Colorless Pool
- Mages Guild -> Magelight -> Inner Light
- Destruction Staff -> Force Shock -> Crushing Shock
- Destruction Staff -> Wall of Elements -> Elemental Blockade
- Destruction Staff-> Weakness to Elements -> Elemental Drain
- Restoration Staff -> Grand Healing -> Healing Springs
- Restoration Staff -> Regeneration -> Radiating Regeneration
- Restoration Staff -> Blessing of Protection -> Combat Prayer
- Restoration Staff -> Steadfast Ward -> Healing Ward
- Support -> Purge -> Efficient Purge
- Light Armor -> Annulment -> Harness Magicka
- Undaunted -> Necrotic Orb -> Energy Orb
Ultimates
- Assault -> War Horn -> Aggressive Warhorn
- Curative Runeform -> Vitalizing Gaze -> Glyphic of the Tides
PASSIVES
- All class passives
- Racial
- Light Armor
- Destruction Staff
- Restoration Staff
- Vampirism Passives (except Savage feeding and blood ritual)
- Alchemy – Medicinal Use
- Mages Guild
- Fighter’s Guild
- Support (if Purge is slotted)
- Undaunted
- The other armor type passives
ROTATION
Healers dont have set rotations like DPS, use things in your kit as you need them.
SETS
While making gear for leveling is not mandatory, some people like to make gear for alts or have gear made when created a new character! These are some good crafted options you can create (I recommend the “Training” trait for all pieces):
Contact
If you have any questions about the build, join our discord server and ask @Dottz about the build!
