[ARCHIVED] Magicka Dragonknight PvP Build ESO – Frostburn

[ARCHIVED]: This build has been archived, which means it is no longer being updated.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: Waking Flame

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

Introduction

Welcome to DottzGaming.com’s Magicka Dragon Knight DPS PvP Build, Frostburn, 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 both CP and no-CP pvp without any changes to the build!

Magicka Dragonknight has been in a rough spot in ESO’s PvP meta for quite some time. However, with the Waking Flame patch, some the changes to the game have benefited the magDK. While there werent any direct changes to the class, the increased damage reduction on battlespirit combined with some of the new CP passives makes the class feel tankier than it did last patch, while sacrificing nothing for that extra defense. On top of that, one of the new Rewards of the Worthy sets added to the game – Hrothgar’s Chill – synchronizes with our kit extremely well, making this a strong set for us to use! I have this build structured nearly the same as my Overburn build, except I just replaced BSW/Pariah with 2 new sets – the rest of the build (enchants, traits, race, mundus, etc) is exactly the same. I put this build through its paces – duels, battlegrounds, Cyrodiil, etc. – and it works fantastically in all environments. 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

• Valkyn Skoria: Since this build uses a Mythic item, you end up having 1 spare piece on your armor that you’ll typicall fill with a 1 piece monster set or a piece of Trainee, and for this build I chose Valkyn Skoria. Throughout my testing, I felt that the build lacked some penetration, and the second I threw on this one piece that problem was instantly fixed. Penetration is the most effective offensive stat in the game, and with the 1 piece Skoria, this build sits at about 12k penetration, allowing us to shred through our opponents defensive capabilities.
• Buffer of the Swift: I decided to go with Buffer of the Swift as the main defensive set on this build for two primary reasons. The first reason is that we are using Hrothgar’s Chill as our main offensive set and it is a heavy set; this meant I needed my 2nd 5 piece set to be capable of being a light armor set. The second reason is that because Hrothgar’s Chill is such a potent set in the meta right now, going for more percent mitigation instead of flat resistances on the magicka dragonknight helps minimize how much Hrothgar damage we will be taking from others.
• Hrothgar’s Chill: This was one of the new sets added in the Waking Flame patch and it is insanely strong. It adds a proc to our stuns that deals damage in an AoE based on how much resistances your opponent has. This makes it so that if you Fossilize or Leap the tankiest target in a group of players you’re fighting, you’ll burst down the whole group with a ton of damage! Since this set deals frost damage and we also have a charged front bar staff, we’ll also be getting AoE minor maim, reduced how much damage our targets can deal to us! The best part of this set? The cooldown is the same timer as CC immunity, which means it will be up every stun!
• Critical Riposte: This 2 piece on the back-bar is one of the biggest things that contributes to this builds success. Damage is extremely high, and without a respectable amount of critical resistance you’ll get bursted down very quickly. Critical Riposte’s critical resistance value gives us about an additional 6% mitigation against critical hits.  Because this set offers a substantial amount of critical resistance, we are able to forego running the critical resistance CP star, and instead opt for more damage!
• Malacath’s Band of Brutality: Malacath works well on builds that have low critical hit chance (which this build does) as a way to boost our damage up! It may cost some of our offensive critical hit damage, but with how few and far between we actually crit, it isn’t a huge drawback.

Attributes

All points into Magicka.

Skills

Main Bar – Destruction Staff: Flame Lash, Burning Embers, Fossilize, Elemental Drain, Engulfing Flames, Ferocious Leap

Back Bar – 1h and Shield: Degeneration, Cauterize, Coagulating Blood, Volatile Armor, Elusive Mist, Corrosive Armor

Vampire vs. Mortal

For this build I am playing as a stage 1 vampire. With the nerfing of health recovery in PvP that happened in Blackwood, one of the biggest drawbacks to vampire is no longer a concern. In my opinion, as a magicka dragonknight you need 1 of 2 things for your defense: Race Against Time & Wings or Elusive Mist. The reason I feel this way is due to the potency of ranged damage and procs – without a form of mitigation for ranged damage while you’re kiting, you’ll just get quickly wittled down to nothing. On top of that, we need the speed to actually get to line of sight so we can heal ourselves up (stamina characters have natural speed to do this, we need to get this from skills). Due to this, I feel that Elusive Mist is just the better of the two options to accomplish that goal and a much more efficient skill slot.

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)
• Quick Recovery – 20
• Elemental Aegis – 20
• Hardy – 20
• Duelist’s Rebuff – 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 magicka dragonknight in PvP. Magicka Dragonknight does not have the best sustain, and playing as a Breton prevents us from needing to run a sustain set on our build due to the 7% cost reduction and extra magicka recovery. Besides the great regen, we also get a big boost to our magicka and a ton of extra resistances.
• Imperial – This is personally the only other race I’d recommend for MagDK. 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, dont run the single prismatic on the chest piece and run a flat magicka glyph there.

Potions/Poisons

Essence of Health (Restore Magicka, Health and Stamina)
(Bugloss, Columbine and Mountain Flower)

Passives

Class (all), Light Armor (all), Heavy Armor (all), Medium Armor (all), 1h & Shield (all), Destruction Staff (all), Mages Guild (all), Undaunted (all), Racial (all), Alchemy (Medicinal Use), Assault (all), Support (all except the first)

Tips & Misc.

• Maintain your buffs & debuffs/DoTs to maximize the amount of tankiness and damage potential that the build offers.
• Your offense is also your defense. If you need a BIG heal in a pinch and don’t have an ultimate or a potion up, re-apply Burning Embers. The re-application of burning embers will cause you to be healed since the original DoT “ended”, and you’ll be maintaining the damage pressure on your opponent. You could also CC your opponent with Fossilize and hit them with Flame Lash in order to get the heal from the Power Lash proc!
• Elemental Drain maintenance is very important for damage and sustain. Always make sure this ability is up on your opponent.
• Your Coagulating Blood is your bread and butter burst heal; use it when you’re taking massive amounts of pressure.
• Cauterize is a solid, cheap heal combined with Coagulating Blood. Remember though that although this is our psuedo “heal over time”, it only procs its heal every 5 seconds. Keep this in mind while you watch the buff timer.
• Stunning someone before you use an ultimate will cause them to take the full brunt of your assault, so use Fossilize in those key moments.
• Use Elusive Mist to defend against ranged attacks and remove snares from yourself to be able to move to LoS. Elusive Mist is also an effective tool to dampen an opponent’s burst since it gives you 75% damage mitigation.

Contact

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

Update Log

8/30/2021 – Build created