Elder Scrolls Online Best Builds

Welcome to our ESO best builds guide — now with Subclassing. This isn’t just another “best class” list. This is about full builds — the good stuff: classes, gear, skill lines, and now, with Update 46, subclassing. Whether you want to burn down dungeons, solo world bosses, or top the meters in trials, this guide focuses on complete builds that work — not just flavor-of-the-month class picks.

With the addition of subclasses, ESO now lets you replace up to two of your class skill lines with ones from other classes. That means you can run things like a Templar with Necromancer DPS skills, or a Sorcerer with Warden support. The options just exploded — and that’s why this guide exists.

We’ve handpicked the best build for each class in ESO 2025, each leveraging subclassing to its full potential. The format is tight and useful — just the info you actually need:

1. How the build works
2. What gear it uses
3. Which skills and subclass lines are essential
4. Key passives and Champion Points

No filler, no fluff. Just seven builds, all killer. And if you want a custom build for your class, you’re welcome to explore ESO Builds Boosting services at SkyCoach. It’s the fastest way to skip the grind and jump straight into high-performance gameplay — fully geared, fully ready.

Read our other ESO guides:

• Best Subclasses
• Best Companions
• Best Addons
• Gold Farming Guide
• Class Tier List
• Leveling Guide
• Scribing System Guide

 

 

Dragonknight – The Unbreakable Wyrm

The Unbreakable Wyrm is one of the ESO best PvE builds 2025. A tank build designed to thrive in endgame dungeons and trials. Built around the Dragonknight’s core tanking tools and supported by subclassing with Arcanist and Warden skill lines, this setup maximizes survivability, sustain, and group support. You’ll absorb hits, control adds, and keep your team alive through sheer durability and efficient utility.

The build uses Earthen Heart (Dragonknight) for tanking tools and sustain, Soldier of Apocrypha (Arcanist) for resistances and debuffs, and Winter’s Embrace (Warden) for team-wide mitigation and defensive buffs.

BiS Gear

This build uses a combination of defensive and group-support sets that synergize with Dragonknight’s natural sustain and mitigation tools. The focus is on group damage amplification, damage reduction, and resource return.

This setup is flexible, allowing you to swap a mythic piece in or out based on your group’s needs.

Skills and Skill Lines for Subclassing

This build uses a combination of Dragonknight, Arcanist, and Warden skills to maximize defensive utility and sustain.

Skill Lines:

• Earthen Heart (Dragonknight) – Shields, sustain passives, and Igneous Shield for group healing.
• Soldier of Apocrypha (Arcanist) – Runic Sunder for ranged taunt, Impervious Runeward for shielding, and passives that boost resistances.
• Winter’s Embrace (Warden) – Expansive Frost Cloak for group-wide Major Resolve and Piercing Cold for extra mitigation.

As for the skill bars:

This rotation provides strong crowd control, consistent buffs and debuffs, and layered survivability.

Passives

Your performance hinges on grabbing all essential passives from your core class and weapon lines.

Take these passives:

1. Dragonknight – Earthen Heart: Battle Roar, Helping Hands, Mountain’s Blessing
2. Arcanist – Soldier of Apocrypha: Circumvented Fate, Aegis of the Unseen, Wellspring of the Abyss
3. Warden – Winter’s Embrace: Piercing Cold, Frozen Armor, Icy Aura
4. 1H & Shield: Sword & Board, Fortress, Deadly Bash
5. Destruction Staff: Elemental Force, Ancient Knowledge (avoid Tri Focus)
6. Armor (Heavy): Constitution, Juggernaut, Revitalize
7. Undaunted: Undaunted Mettle, Undaunted Command
8. Race (Nord): Rugged, Stalwart
9. Alchemy: Medicinal Use

Them passives is what this build needs. BLOG20

Champion Points

Make sure you’re running the right CP stars. These bonuses offer immense passive power for tanking.

Tip: Ensure your max stamina is slightly higher than magicka to benefit from orb synergies and block uptime.

The Unbreakable Wyrm is a no-nonsense tanking build. It’s perfect for players who want to anchor their group and feel genuinely unkillable. With the subclass system, you gain powerful defensive layering that few other builds can match. If you're ready to stand your ground in the toughest content ESO has to offer, this is your build.

Nightblade DPS Build

Want to make some of the best DPS builds ESO 2025? Try this Nightblade build. It excels at sustained single-target DPS with an emphasis on direct damage through beam mechanics. Combining Nightblade’s burst potential with the Arcanist’s high-output Crux skills and Templar’s powerful passives, this build turns you into a relentless force on the battlefield. It works best in group PvE content, but with mythic item adjustments, it becomes viable for solo play as well.

BiS Gear

This setup focuses on stacking direct damage, critical chance, and proc-based effects using meta gear and a potent mythic:

This gear combination prioritizes burst with high uptime on procs and direct damage bonuses. Velothi is the preferred Mythic here, enabling massive boss damage at the cost of light/heavy attacks, which are not central to this rotation.

Skills & Skill-Lines for Subclassing

This build pulls from three complementary skill lines:

1. Nightblade – Assassination: Powerful execute and crit passives.
2. Arcanist – Herald of the Tome: Core beam and Crux generation.
3. Templar – Aedric Spear: Passive damage from Burning Light and increased weapon/spell damage.

Arcanist and Templar are the two subclass choices that put this build together.

You’ll open fights on the backbar to establish your DoTs, buffs, and Crux generation. Swap to frontbar for beam channeling and execution. Cephaliarch’s Flail is essential to keep up for the 5% direct damage bonus. Ice Comet is used for your opener; afterward, you rotate Incapacitating Strike for its damage boost.

Passives

It's also important to pick the right passives from those 3 subclasses:

• Nightblade: Master Assassin, Pressure Points, Hemorrhage
• Arcanist: Fated Fortune, Harnessed Quintessence, Psychic Lesion
• Templar: Burning Light, Balanced Warrior
• Weapon:
  • Dual Wield: Slaughter, Ruffian, Twin Blade and Blunt
  • Two-Hander: Forceful, Follow Up, Battle Rush
  • Armor (Medium): Dexterity, Wind Walker, Athletics
  • Guilds: Slayer, Banish the Wicked (Fighters), Undaunted Mettle
  • Racial: All
  • Alchemy: Medicinal Use

Some of these passives are optional. The choice of race doesn't have much impact in this build, which is great if you ever wanted to roleplay.

Champion Points

These Champion Point selections strike a balance between raw power, sustain, and mobility—ideal for high-end PvE content. In the Warfare tree, points are invested into stars that directly boost damage output, ensuring your attacks hit harder and perform more efficiently in both group and solo content. The Fitness tree focuses on survivability and sustain, enhancing your health pool, armor, and recovery to keep you in the fight longer without sacrificing utility. Meanwhile, the Craft tree leans into quality-of-life improvements like faster travel and optional utility, giving you flexibility depending on your activity.

Champion Points prioritize direct and AoE damage output in Warfare. Fitness focuses on speed and survivability. Steed’s Blessing ensures faster movement between pulls in PvE content.

This Nightblade Subclassing build plays fast and aggressively, leaning into raw direct damage and mobility. The synergy between the beam mechanic and strong passives creates a deadly damage rotation once mastered. Whether you're parsing or pushing vet content, this loadout delivers top-tier performance with satisfying execution.

Templar Healer Build

The Templar’s powerful burst potential and access to strong subclass synergies make it one of the top ESO DPS builds 2025, ideal for players who want versatility, survivability, and group support in endgame content. It’s built on the foundation of powerful healing tools from the Templar’s Restoring Light skill line and enhanced with Warden and Necromancer subclassing for added healing strength and ultimate regeneration. This combination makes the build a go-to for trials, dungeons, and coordinated group play.

BiS Gear 

This Best-in-Slot setup emphasizes healing throughput, buffing allies, and resource return.

This setup prioritizes Spell Power Cure to provide Major Courage, while Symphony of Blades and Grand Rejuvenation offer resource return. Powerful Assault adds a unique buff to further boost ally damage.

Skills + Skill-Lines for Subclassing

This build draws from:

1. Templar – Restoring Light: Primary healing tools
2. Warden – Green Balance: Healing boost and group-wide Minor Toughness
3. Necromancer – Bone Tyrant: Strong passive and ultimate generation

Necro and Warden are exactly the kind of subclasses that have the skills to make your survival build much more efficient.

Maintain HoTs and buffs while rotating ult generation from Necrotic Potency. Use Enchanted Forest to top off heals during emergencies and Aggressive Horn for team damage bursts.

Passives

To make the most of this build, you'll want to invest in the right passive skills. These provide essential bonuses to healing power, sustain, survivability, and group utility. Below is a breakdown of the most important passives by skill line:

• Restoring Light: Mending, Sacred Ground, Light Weaver, Master Ritualist
• Green Balance: Accelerated Growth, Nature’s Gift, Maturation
• Bone Tyrant: Necrotic Potency, Last Gasp, Disdain Harm
• Weapons:
  
  • Restoration: Essence Drain, Cycle of Life, Restoration Master
  • Destruction: Elemental Force, Destruction Expert
• Armor: Grace, Evocation, Spell Warding, Concentration (Light); all Heavy passives if points allow
• Guild: Undaunted Mettle, Undaunted Command
• Racial: All passives
• Alchemy: Medicinal Use

Having these passives unlocked will significantly enhance your build’s effectiveness, especially in challenging group content where healing, sustain, and defense matter most.

Champion Points

Champion Points are tuned for healing output and survival. Prioritize AoE healing and HoT performance while maintaining good mobility and resistance.

Additional Considerations

• Attributes: 64 Magicka
• Mundus: The Ritual (healing effectiveness) or Atronach (Magicka regen)
• Race: Breton (sustain), Argonian (healing), Khajiit (crit healing)
• Food: Clockwork Citrus Filet or Witchmother’s Potent Brew
• Potions: Essence of Spell Power for sustain and healing bonuses

The Templar Healer Subclassing build offers top-tier group utility with high healing uptime, excellent sustain, and major group buffs. It’s ideal for content where survival and support are key to success. Whether you’re pushing high-end trials or helping newer players survive dungeons, this build stands as one of the best healing options in ESO.

 

Sorcerer – Arcane Overload

The Sorcerer – Arcane Overload is a one-bar Heavy Attack Magicka DPS build focused on simplicity, survivability, and raw critical damage. By pairing Sorcerer's Daedric Summoning and Storm Calling with Nightblade's Assassination passives, this build capitalizes on passive boosts, pet synergy, and high sustain, making it ideal for all levels of content from solo overland to veteran dungeons.

BiS Gear

With its high sustain, powerful shields, and subclass flexibility, this Sorcerer setup stands firmly in the ESO builds meta 2025, offering a reliable and explosive choice for damage-focused players.

Mythic Options:

• Oakensoul Ring – For simplified one-bar play with built-in buffs.
• Ring of the Pale Order – For passive healing during solo play.
• Rakkhat’s Voidmantle – For maximizing damage in group PvE content.

Subclass Skill-Lines

1. Daedric Summoning – Pet summons and defensive utility.
2. Storm Calling – Critical boosts, magicka regen, and AoE pressure.
3. Assassination (Nightblade) – Critical damage passives and penetration bonuses.

Nightblade is chosen as a subclass for its passive critical synergy:

• Hemorrhage – Increases Critical Damage and grants Minor Savagery.
• Pressure Points – Boosts Spell Crit with Assassination skills slotted.
• Master Assassin – Grants bonus Penetration when flanking enemies.

The skill setup is very simple:

Front Bar – Destruction Staff

1. Scalding Rune
2. Hardened Ward
3. Critical Surge
4. Summon Volatile Familiar
5. Summon Twilight Matriarch
6. Ultimate: Power Overload

Use heavy attacks as your primary source of damage. Scalding Rune provides Empower via the Mages Guild passive, while Critical Surge offers self-healing. The pets attack automatically, and Hardened Ward gives you a strong defensive shield.

Champion Points

To fully optimize your performance in combat, it's important to assign the correct Champion Point stars. These choices offer critical bonuses for damage, survivability, and mobility across all types of PvE content. Below is the recommended setup for this build:

This setup focuses on boosting your overall DPS output while enhancing your sustain and durability in battle. You can fill in the "Free choice" slots based on your preferred utility or crafting needs. BLOG20

• Attributes: 64 Magicka
• Mundus Stone: The Thief (Increased Critical Chance)

Passives

• Sorcerer: Rebate, Power Stone, Daedric Protection, Expert Summoner, Capacitor, Energized, Amplitude, Expert Mage
• Nightblade: Hemorrhage, Pressure Points, Master Assassin, Executioner
• Destruction Staff: Tri Focus, Elemental Force, Ancient Knowledge, Penetrating Magic
• Armor: Light – Grace, Evocation, Prodigy, Spell Warding, Concentration. Medium – Dexterity, Wind Walker
• Guilds: Mages Guild (Might of the Guild, Magicka Controller), Undaunted (Command, Mettle)
• Crafting: Alchemy – Medicinal Use

This build thrives on simplicity without sacrificing damage. With empowered heavy attacks, pet pressure, and subclass passives doing the heavy lifting, it delivers elite performance in all PvE settings. Whether you're a new player or seasoned veteran, the Arcane Overload build is a reliable and efficient way to blast through Tamriel’s toughest content.

Warden – Lifewoven Harmony

This Warden build is a standout pick in the ESO best solo builds by class 2025, thanks to its strong self-healing, crowd control, and survivability in solo PvE content. It focuses on sustained healing, group utility, and ultimate regeneration through an optimized combination of subclassing and gear. By weaving together skills from Warden’s Green Balance, Templar’s Restoring Light, and Nightblade’s Siphoning lines, this setup supports groups with powerful heals, buffs, and ultigen, making it an ideal choice for group PvE content like trials and dungeons.

BiS Gear

The BIS gear maximizes group sustain, healing power, and utility buffs. This setup supports effective healing rotation while providing resource return and powerful group buffs like Major Courage.

Now, onto the subclasses and skills.

Skills & Subclass Skill Lines

This skill loadout balances healing over time, burst healing, utility buffs, and sustain tools. It ensures coverage across all group needs while triggering set bonuses efficiently.

Let's breakdown the subclasses and why we picked them.

Subclass Choices

1. Warden – Green Balance: Core healing skills, including Budding Seeds and Enchanted Forest. The Maturation passive grants Minor Toughness, boosting group max health.
2. Templar – Restoring Light: Grants Extended Ritual for cleansing and healing, as well as powerful resurrection and healing passives.
3. Nightblade – Siphoning: The Catalyst passive boosts ultimate generation significantly, and Siphoning Attacks improves sustain.

Passives

To get the most out of this Warden healer build, investing in the right passive skills is essential. These passives improve healing power, resource management, and group utility—ensuring you can maintain uptime on crucial buffs and keep your team alive during challenging encounters.

• Green Balance: Accelerated Growth, Nature’s Gift, Emerald Moss, Maturation
• Restoring Light: Mending, Sacred Ground, Light Weaver, Master Ritualist
• Siphoning: Catalyst, Magicka Flood, Soul Siphoner, Transfer
• Restoration Staff: Essence Drain, Cycle of Life, Absorb, Restoration Master
• Destruction Staff: Elemental Force, Ancient Knowledge, Penetrating Magic
• Armor: Light Armor passives, optional Heavy passives if slotted
• Undaunted: Undaunted Mettle, Undaunted Command
• Alchemy: Medicinal Use

These passives support every aspect of healing, from raw output to ultimate generation and sustain. Make sure to allocate your skill points here before venturing into any group content.

Champion Points

In terms of attributes, you’ll want to allocate all 64 points into Magicka for maximum healing power and sustain. As for Mundus Stones, both The Atronach (for Magicka Recovery) and The Ritual (for increased healing) are excellent picks depending on your sustain needs.

For consumables, the best food choice is Clockwork Citrus Filet for a mix of Max Health, Magicka, and Recovery. A cheaper but effective alternative is Witchmother’s Potent Brew. Potions should ideally be Essence of Spell Power for Major Sorcery, Major Prophecy, and Magicka recovery, though Essence of Magicka or Crown Tri-Restoration Potions are decent alternatives when needed.

Necromancer – Deathforged Sentinel

The Deathforged Sentinel is a stalwart PvE tank build for endgame dungeons and trials. Anchored in the Necromancer class, it gains formidable defensive layering through subclassing with Dragonknight and Arcanist. This build excels at managing aggro, shielding allies, and regenerating resources through corpses and ultimates. With reliable crowd control, strong group support, and unmatched durability, it's an ideal choice for high-pressure tanking.

The build draws from Bone Tyrant (Necromancer) for corpse utility and sustain, Soldier of Apocrypha (Arcanist) for mitigation and shielding, and Earthen Heart (Dragonknight) for stamina sustain and buffing.

BiS Gear

This gear loadout prioritizes survivability, ultimate generation, and group-wide damage buffs.

You're getting high uptime on group buffs, solid resource recovery, and excellent defensive stats.

Skills and Skill Lines for Subclassing

This build combines tank-focused skills from multiple class lines for maximum effectiveness.

1. Bone Tyrant (Necromancer) – Provides corpse utility, self-healing, and armor buffs.
2. Soldier of Apocrypha (Arcanist) – Shields, Minor Protection, and strong sustain passives.
3. Earthen Heart (Dragonknight) – Enables stamina sustain, Igneous Shield, and ultimate-driven passives.

So, your skill bars will look something like that:

This skill setup provides excellent crowd control, consistent buffs, and rapid ultimate generation.

Passives

To get the most out of this build, invest in the following passives:

• Bone Tyrant – Death Gleaning, Disdain Harm, Health Avarice, Last Gasp
• Soldier of Apocrypha – Circumvented Fate, Implacable Outcome, Aegis of the Unseen, Wellspring of the Abyss
• Earthen Heart – Eternal Mountain, Battle Roar, Helping Hands, Mountain’s Blessing
• 1H & Shield – Fortress, Sword and Board, Deadly Bash, Deflect Bolts
• Destruction Staff – Elemental Force, Ancient Knowledge, Destruction Expert (skip Tri Focus)
• Heavy Armor – Resolve, Constitution, Juggernaut, Revitalize, Rapid Mending
• Undaunted – Undaunted Command, Undaunted Mettle
• Racial (Nord recommended) – Rugged, Stalwart, Resist Frost
• Alchemy – Medicinal Use

Now, let's work on your champion points.

Champion Points

Slottables are chosen to maximize tank durability, shield effectiveness, and mobility.

Tip: Always keep your maximum stamina slightly higher than your magicka to take full advantage of orb synergies and sustain your block uptime.

The Deathforged Sentinel is built to endure. It gives you all the tools to manage adds, reduce group damage taken, and stabilize chaotic fights. With smart use of corpses, ultimates, and layered defenses, this build shines in any PvE group scenario. If you want a tank that thrives where others falter, this is your go-to setup.

Arcanist – The Fatecarver Ascendant

The Fatecarver Ascendant is one of ESO’s top-tier PvE DPS builds for 2025. Designed for players looking to push damage ceilings in group content, this build utilizes the Arcanist’s beam-focused combat with high-impact subclass synergy. By subclassing into Nightblade and Templar, you gain access to some of the strongest passives and executes in the game—resulting in relentless single-target pressure and optimized sustain.

Built around the Herald of the Tome (Arcanist), Assassination (Nightblade), and Aedric Spear (Templar) lines, the build delivers a lethal combination of raw burst, execute potential, and passive power scaling.

BiS Gear

This setup focuses on maximizing direct damage and proc uptime for beam-based rotations. It’s a perfect blend of front-loaded burst and execute scaling, with room to flex based on group composition.

This setup front-loads massive direct damage while keeping rotation fluid. If needed, swap Velothi for Ring of the Pale Order in solo content.

Skills and Skill Lines for Subclassing

This build blends three class skill lines for maximum passive synergy and optimized skill rotation.

Skill Lines:

• Herald of the Tome (Arcanist) – Beam and DoTs for core DPS, Crux generation
• Assassination (Nightblade) – Relentless Focus for free spell damage, Killer’s Blade for execute
• Aedric Spear (Templar) – Burning Light passive for extra proc damage, Balanced Warrior for flat DPS increase

These skills are structured for maximum damage in endgame content. Your front bar channels Fatecarver pressure, while your back bar loads DoTs and buffs.

*Note: Shocking Banner (Scribing) replaces Camouflaged Hunter. Offers Major Savagery/Prophecy + direct damage boost.

This rotation starts with DoTs (Stampede > Rune > Flail > Inspired), then transitions into a Fatecarver channel. Keep Cephaliarch’s Flail on cooldown to maintain the ink debuff. Use Killer’s Blade under 25% health. Ice Comet opens fights, and Incapacitating Strike becomes your main burst ult.

Passives

Your performance hinges on grabbing all essential passives from your core class and weapon lines. These enhance direct damage, increase sustain, boost crit, and improve execute potential.

Take these passives:

• Arcanist – Herald of the Tome:
  Fated Fortune, Harnessed Quintessence, Psychic Lesion, Splintered Secrets
• Nightblade – Assassination:
  Hemorrhage, Pressure Points, Master Assassin, Executioner
• Templar – Aedric Spear:
  Burning Light, Balanced Warrior
• Dual Wield:
  Slaughter, Dual Wield Expert, Controlled Fury, Ruffian, Twin Blade and Blunt
• Two-Handed:
  Forceful, Heavy Weapons, Balanced Blade, Follow Up, Battle Rush
• Armor (Medium):
  Dexterity, Wind Walker, Improved Sneak, Agility, Athletics
• Fighters Guild:
  Slayer, Banish the Wicked, Intimidating Presence, Skilled Tracker
• Undaunted:
  Undaunted Mettle, Undaunted Command
• Race (Dark Elf):
  Dynamic, Flame Talent, Ambidexterity
• Alchemy:
  Medicinal Use BLOG20

These passives are what enable the high damage ceiling of this build. If you skip any, you’ll reduce your uptime on buffs, crits, and resource sustain.

 Champion Points

Make sure you’re running the right CP stars. These passive bonuses dramatically boost beam output, crit pressure, and sustain.

*Note: Swap Exploiter for Endless Endurance in solo content where Off Balance isn’t guaranteed.
These stars boost your direct and AoE damage, while keeping you fast and mobile. Steed’s Blessing is a great quality-of-life bonus for travel and farming.

The Fatecarver Ascendant is a high-powered, no-compromise DPS build for endgame players. It rewards precision, punishes mistakes, and delivers massive damage when played right. With subclass passives enhancing your rotation from every angle, it’s the perfect setup for Arcanist mains ready to dominate dungeons and trials alike.

Conclusion

Subclassing has completely redefined what’s possible for buildcraft in The Elder Scrolls Online. By combining skill lines across classes, each build in this guide is designed to push your character further—whether you're tanking world bosses, healing in vet trials, or crushing dungeons solo. Each setup is focused, efficient, and easy to modify as your needs evolve.

Explore, tweak, and experiment. And if you want a custom build tailored specifically for your class and playstyle, check out the ESO Builds Boosting services at SkyCoach—a shortcut to fully optimized performance without the grind.

F.A.Q.