[ARCHIVED] Magicka Dragonknight PvP Build ESO – Firestorm

[ARCHIVED]: This build has been archived, which means it is no longer being updated. However, this web-page will be left up for those who still would like to refer to it.

Build Written By: Dottz Gaming – PC NA

Role: Damage Dealer

Patch: Lost Depths

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Setup
   1. Gear
   2. Attributes
   3. Skills
   4. Vampire vs. Mortal
   5. Champion Points
   6. Other Important Info (Food, Mundus, Race, Potions, Passives)
3. Tips & Misc
4. Contact Info
5. Update Log & Disclaimer/Credits

Introduction

Welcome to DottzGaming.com’s Magicka Dragon Knight DPS PvP Build, Firestorm, 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 without any changes to the build!

The Lost Depths patch has been a very strange patch for the Magicka Dragonknight in PvP. Damage over time skills across the board were nerfed, our DoTs were nerfed further due to a nerf to the Searing Heat passive, Molten Whip was nerfed and given a hybrid cost. With the changes to DoTs in ESO having a much longer duration (making refreshing Seething Fury stacks for Molten Whip a bit more clunky) as well as Burning Embers being a shadow of it’s former self, the Molten Whip playstyle has felt a bit weird to me this patch. I’ve wanted to make Flame Lash work for a long time, but it just felt like it hasnt had a place on the MagDK’s bars in PvP due to the strength of Molten Whip – until now. The Molten Whip playstyle has become fully focused around 1 shotting someone, which is completely viable in the current meta, but I wanted to see if I could make an old-school style pressure build work with the newly buffed Burning Talons and Flame Lash, and I was able to get something to work. This build is something I’ve been trying to get work for a long time, and it wasnt until ZOS buffed Burning Talons (significantly reduced the skill’s cost) that this playstyle has become viable for solo small-scale. If you’re looking to play a pressure build in this current meta, this is the build for you. During your peak offensive windows, you’re consistent pressure is VERY high, with your DoTs whittling your opponents HP down while you just smack away at them with Power Lash.

The build has fantastic damage, tankiness, mobility, sustain, and it honestly feels very well balanced.

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

Gear Explanation

• Bloodspawn: This is an all-time favorite MagDK monster set of mine and I’m very happy to have it back on my DK once again. This set gives us stamina recovery (which is very welcome with us using 2 stamina skills), as well as a great proc when we receive damage that gives us a boost to ultimate (which is essentially sustain) and resistances.
• Burning Spellweave: BSW is one of my favorite magicka DK sets and it has been for a very long time. This set gives a fantastic spell damage proc whenever we deal flame damage. The best part about this proc is that it basically is a buff that goes onto your character when it procs. What that means for us is that if we proc BSW and then need to play defensive on our back bar, even though the 5 piece is technically not active, we still have the BSW buff on us which means that the spell damage transfers over to the heals on our back bar. When this procs burning, we also get 1000 magicka back from combustion, which just means more sustain for us!
• Powerful Assault: An offensive back-barrable set is the key to making the Flame Lash playstyle work in my opinion. We need to have a nice window of opportunity where our damage is very high, allowing us to really pressure opponents down – and this is where Powerful Assault comes in. When you use Resolving Vigor on your backbar, you get a nice boost to your damage, giving you a window of offensive opportunity to push the damage on your opponents in conjunction with your BSW. If you cant get this set, I highly recommend using Clever Alchemist instead.
• 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 is 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: 13
Magicka: 51

Skills

Main Bar – Dual Wield: Flame Lash, Burning Talons, Shattering Rocks, Noxious Breath, Flames of Oblivion, Ferocious Leap

Back Bar – Destruction Staff: Degeneration, Resolving Vigor, Coagulating Blood, Volatile Armor, Race Against Time, Temporal Guard

Vampire vs. Mortal

Unfortunately I’ve needed to drop Vampire this patch and play as a mortal. We are no longer capable of sustaining stage 3 vampire for undeath, and while I love stage 1 and using mist form, you just need to squeeze every bit of damage possible out of builds this patch because of how tanky everyone is (unless you just want to stalemate all the time). So this patch, we use Race Against Time for minor force. While I’ve traditionally disliked RaT in the past, it was primarily due to the snare/root immunity and minor force durations being too short. However, their durations were increased in Lost Depths, making the ability much easier to use.

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)
• Exploiter – 50 (Slotted)
• Quick Recovery – 20
• Elemental Aegis – 20
• Hardy – 20
• Resilience – 50 (Slotted)
• Ironclad – 50 (Slotted)
• Blessed – 20
• Tireless Discipline – 20
• Flawless Ritual – 40
• War Mage – 30
• Precision – 20
• 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

• Breton – Definitely the best race for this build. With the nerfs to combustion, I find the Breton cost reduction to be extremely useful to give us some sustain we really need. On top of that, we also get extra magicka recovery, a big boost to our magicka and a ton of extra resistances.
• Imperial – This is personally the other race I’d run for this setup. Imperials get an awesome boost to health and stamina, while also getting a 6% cost reduction to everything: skills, ultimate costs and core combat skills. If you choose to run imperial, run less prismatics on the body and instead run extra magicka glyphs.

Potions/Poisons

• Magicka Potions (Minor Heroism, Stamina Restoration, Magicka Restoration): Dragon Rheum, Dragon’s Blood, and Columbine
  • BiS Option, most expensive.
• Essence of Health (Restore Magicka, Health and Stamina): Bugloss, Columbine and Mountain Flower
  • 2nd Best option, considerably cheaper

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)

Tips & Misc.

• Maintain your buffs & debuffs/DoTs to maximize the amount of tankiness and damage potential that the build offers.
• When you root someone with burning talons, try to stand behind them so they cant hit you.
• Your goal offensive combo is (with all buffs/debuffs applied), to pop your clever alchemist on your backbar when you know you have an off-balance power lash window available, swap to your front bar, root your opponents and then start power lashing them. As your off-balance expires, you can then stun them and hit them with leap. This will be a TON of damage and opponents will have to play very defensive during this offensive window.
• Keep in mind that in this build your offense is also your defense. You can CC your opponent with Burning Talons and hit them with Flame Lash in order to get the heal from the Power Lash proc during your off-balance window!
• 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.
• Stunning someone before you use an ultimate will cause them to take the full brunt of your assault, so use Shattering Rocks in those key moments (and it also makes for a nice heal too).
• 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!

Contact

If you have any questions about the build, join our discord server and ask @Dottz about the build!

Update Log

11/3/2021 – Build created.
8/30/2022- build brought out of archives and overhauled

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