
Magicka Dragonknight PvP Build ESO – Inferno
Build Written By: Dottz Gaming – PC NA
Role: Damage Dealer
Patch: Scribes of Fate
Table of Contents
Introduction
Welcome to DottzGaming.com’s Magicka Dragon Knight DPS PvP Build, Inferno, for the Elder Scrolls Online! This build is intended for PvP of all kinds: battlegrounds, Cyrodiil, dueling, and Imperial City. This build can be played in CP Cyrodiil, Imperial City and battlegrounds!
Magicka Dragonknight has moved in a very weird direction over the last couple of patches. Gone are the days where we were a tanky DoT brawler due to the MagDK DoT kit being nerfed to a shadow of its former self. Instead, we have moved into a more burst oriented setup, focused on dealing a large amount of damage in a concentrated window. We look to deal massive crit damage with several damage modifiers and crit modifiers to output a ton of damage. While not as strong as it’s been previously, MagDK is definitely still feeling very solid! This setup still has fantastic damage, tankiness, mobility, sustain, and can perform very well in a variety of PvP environments. It will definitely take some practice learning to line up all of your buffs with the burst window, but when you can do that, the build can output a shocking amount of damage.
Keep in mind that PvP builds are very personal. This is what worked for ME. If you don’t like something about it, change it to fit your playstyle.
Setup
Gear
Magicka Dragonknight PvP Build | |||||
Gear Slot | Set | Weight | Trait | Enchant | Acquisition |
Head | Bloodspawn | Medium | Impenetrable | Prismatic | Vet Spindleclutch 2 |
Shoulders | Bloodspawn | Heavy | Impenetrable | Prismatic | Undaunted Chest |
Gloves | Mechanical Acuity | Light | Impenetrable | Prismatic | Crafted |
Legs | Daedric Trickery | Heavy | Impenetrable | Prismatic | Crafted |
Chest | Daedric Trickery | Heavy | Reinforced | Prismatic | Crafted |
Belt | Mechanical Acuity | Light | Impenetrable | Prismatic | Crafted |
Boots | Daedric Trickery | Light | Impenetrable | Prismatic | Crafted |
Necklace | Mechanical Acuity | Jewelry | Arcane | Magical Harm | Crafted |
Ring | Armor of the Trainee | Jewelry | Infused | Magical Harm | Any starting zone or Guild Trader |
Ring | Markyn Ring of Majesty | Jewelry | Infused | Reduce Spell Cost | Antiquities |
Weapon 1 | Mechanical Acuity | 1h Axe | Nirnhoned | Flame | Crafted |
Offhand 1 | Mechanical Acuity | 1h Mace | Charged | Absorb Magicka | Crafted |
Weapon 2 | Daedric Trickery | Ice Staff | Defending | Berserker | Crafted |
Gear Explanation
- Bloodspawn: This is a tried and true Dragonknight monster set. When we take damage, it has a chance to give us an increase to our resistances and ultimate, which for the DK is essentially sustain. Combined with our potions and our backbar set, the ultimate generation that this build has is extremely high.
- Mechanical Acuity: This is the first time I’ve ever used this set on my dragonknight, but I absolutely love it this patch. Crit feels insanely strong right now, not just due to the offensive burst potential it offers, but also due to the increase to healing it gives us (allowing our heals to crit more often). This entire build is focused around making the most out of the mechanical acuity window, and when you get everything lined up, this build puts out an absurd amount of burst.
- Daedric Trickery: This set is a favorite of mine on MagDK. It gives us a random major buff between Expedition, Mending, Vitality, Heroism or Protection every 9 seconds that last for 21 seconds! What this means is that we can have up to 3 different major buffs from this set active on us at one time! All of these major buffs are great too (minus expedition), making this an extremely strong set to have!
- Trainee: With the way we have our gear setup, we have an extra gear slot which Trainee fits perfectly, giving us a big boost to our health!
- Markyn Ring of Majesty: This is a mythic that came out in the Deadlands patch and has become one of my favorite mythics in the game! It gives a very well-balanced stat profile of damage and resistance, making this a great way to help pad our stats!
Attributes
Health: 2
Magicka: 62
Skills
Main Bar – Dual Wield: Molten Whip, Chains of Devastation, Shattering Rocks, Noxious Breath, Flames of Oblivion, Ferocious Leap
Back Bar – Ice Staff: Igneous Weapons, Resolving Vigor, Coagulating Blood, Volatile Armor, Race Against Time, Temporal Guard
NOTE: Corrosive Armor is also a viable back bar ultimate choice.
Vampire vs. Mortal
For this build you play as stage 3 vampire to gain access to the undeath passive. This passive is needed to achieve a level of tankiness that the build needs to brawl it out and stay in combat as long as possible.
Champion Points
The list below showcases the order in which champion points should be acquired, the number of points you need to place into that perk and whether or not it needs to be slotted in the CP bar. The Warfare CP perks increase your damage and mitigation and are the most important, the Fitness tree has some miscellaneous sustain and defensive perks and the Craft tree has crafting and non-combat bonuses. The Craft CP points are entirely customizable to however you want, or you can follow the list below.
CHAMPION POINT SETUP
WARFARE (BLUE)
- Eldritch Insight – 20
- Piercing – 20
- Master-at-Arms – 50 (Slotted)
- Deadly Aim – 50 (Slotted)
- Precision – 20
- Fighting Finesse – 50 (Slotted)
- Quick Recovery – 20
- Elemental Aegis – 20
- Hardy – 20
- Ironclad – 50 (Slotted)
- Blessed – 20
- Tireless Discipline – 20
- Flawless Ritual – 40
- War Mage – 30
- Preparation – 20
FITNESS (RED)
- Boundless Vitality – 50 (Slotted)
- Tumbling – 30
- Mystic Tenacity – 10
- Sustained by Suffering – 50 (Slotted)
- Pain’s Refuge – 50 (Slotted)
- Survival Instincts – 50 (Slotted)
- Hero’s Vigor – 20
- Defiance – 20
- Tireless Guardian – 20
- Fortification – 30
- Nimble Protector – 6
- Savage Defense – 30
- Mystic Tenacity – 40
- Bashing Brutality – 20
- Hasty – 16
- Sprinter – 20
- Piercing Gaze – 30
CRAFT (GREEN)
- Steed’s Blessing – 50 (Slotted)
- Breakfall – 50
- Wanderer – 15
- Steadfast Enchantment – 50
- Rationer – 30 (Slotted)
- Liquid Efficiency – 75 (Slotted)
- Treasure Hunter – 50 (Slotted)
- Fortune’s Favor – 50
- Gilded Fingers – 50
- Soul Reservoir – 33
Other Important Info
Buff Food
Bewitched Sugar Skulls: Maximum Health, Health Recovery, Magicka and Stamina
Mundus
Atronach – Increased Magicka Recovery
Race
Khajiit: This is the first time my DK has ever been a Khajiit, but it is by far the best race for this build. Since we are crit focused, we want as many crit damage augmentations as we can get, and Khajiit offers us a massive 12% increase to our crit damage and healing (which rivals some 5 piece set bonuses).
Potions
Magicka Potions (Minor Heroism, Stamina Restoration, Magicka Restoration)
Dragon Rheum, Dragon’s Blood, and Columbine
These potions are VERY expensive. If you cant afford these, regular Tri-Stat potions will work just fine.
Passives
Class (all), Light Armor (all), Heavy Armor (all), Medium Armor (all), Destruction Staff (all except tri-focus), Dual Wield (all except Controlled Fury), Undaunted (all), Racial (all), Alchemy (Medicinal Use), Assault (all), Support (all except the first), Psijic Order (Clairvoyance and Concentrated barrier), Vampire (all except the last passive)
Tips & Misc.
- Maintain your buffs & debuffs/DoTs to maximize the amount of tankiness and damage potential that the build offers.
- Your Coagulating Blood is your bread and butter burst heal; use it when you’re taking massive amounts of pressure. However, you also want to utilize Resolving Vigor for if you need a small amount of healing and to augment your burst heal, allowing you to top your HP off.
- Chains of Devastation should be used to not only stick to your opponents, but when you have 2 stacks on your Molten Whip so that your 3 stack whip can take advantage of Major Berserk.
- Stunning someone before you use your 3 stack Molten Whip will cause them to take the full brunt of your assault, so use Shattering Rocks or Leap in those key moments.
- Use Race Against Time to remove snares from yourself to be able to move to LoS. Additionally, using it prior to your burst will give you minor force, allowing you to hit for maximum critical damage!
- Try to get Molten Whip to 3 stacks before you use it. Typically you wont have an issue getting to 3 stacks with how we have our front bar setup. Flames of Oblivion is essentially your “spammable” to get you to 2 stacks (assuming you dont need to use Noxious), and then use Chains before you hit the 3 stack whip.
- The key to this build is making sure that during your Mechanical Acuity window, you have a 3 stack whip, leap ready, Major Berserk on you from chains, and Minor Force from race against time. If you do that, this build hits insanely hard. I recommend using an addon to track your mechanical acuity cooldown so you know when it’s best to utilize your whip and leap.
Contact
If you have any questions about the build, join our discord server and ask @Dottz about the build!
Update Log
2/24/2020 – Build created (used old build name)
2/27/2020 – Build totally changed after testing
11/16/2021 – build brought out of archives and updated for deadlands
1/6/2022- updated the build to reflect what I’m currently wearing
3/14/2022- changed enchants from spell damage to weapon damage
6/9/2022- changed skills, weapons, monster helm, vamp stage and enchants
8/24/2022 – changed armor weights, skills, weapons and enchants
11/9/2022 – no changes for firesong
3/27/2023- build overhauled for scribes of fate