ESO Solo Nightblade Magicka Build for PvE

This guide explains how to use the best Elder Scrolls Online (ESO) Solo Nightblade Magicka PvE Build, skills, gear, champion points, and more!

This build has been updated for the Updated 42, the Gold Road Chapter of the Elder Scrolls Online (ESO).

Why Should You Play ESO Solo Nightblade Magicka Build for PvE?

The ESO Solo Nightblade Magicka Build for PVE is for players who want a high DPS class with good survivability and sustain. It has the unmatched ultimate generation, a strong main spammable that heals you, speed, resource sustain, and more. This build and class can be surprisingly simple to use, though advanced setups will reward you with massive damage. In ESO, the Magicka Nightblade is perfect for everyone looking for a simple-rotation survival class with a complete set of tools for solo PvE gameplay.

Nightblade Class Pros

• Passive Healing: the Siphoning Strikes changes are incredible for resource management and constant passive healing.
• Class Execute: Assassin’s Blade will shred a target once you get to execute.
• AOE Minor Cowardice: Power Extraction is one of the game’s only sources of Minor Cowardice. It also provides Major Brutality, sorcery, and Minor Courage.

Nightblade Class Cons

• Major Resolve Uptime: The Nightblade has to cast a Shadow ability to proc Major Resolve and weak spammable for magicka.
• Flank Damage Conditionals: Surprise Attack is a great stamina spammable, but it requires attacking from the flank to proc Off-Balance.
• Lower AOE Damage: This is always the Nightblade’s pitfall; their AOE damage just doesn’t compare to that of other classes in PvE content.

ESO Solo Nightblade Magicka Build for PvE Playstyle

You always want to have Dark Shade, Siphoning Attacks, and Mirage up on your back bar before engaging. From there, you cast Blockade of Storms, run in, and Power Extraction the pack of enemies. Lay down the rest of your Damage Over Time abilities (DoTs), and spam your main spammable, only stopping to recast DoTs when they expire or when Merciless Resolve procs. With this build, you can Soul Tether for large packs of mobs or cast Incapacitation Strike when you’re fighting a single target.

The only other thing you need to be aware of is that you should swap to Impale when the boss’s health is under 25%. This skill is an execute, meaning it does more damage based on how low the target’s health is. You want to replace your spammable at around 25%, then stop casting your DoTs entirely around 10%.

Survivability

Siphoning Strikes gives you a lot of sustain through health and resources, but you still might need a little more on the Nightblade. Because of that, we’re rocking Ring of the Pale Order on this build, giving you health return based on the amount of damage you do. Be aware though, this doesn’t work for group content, where you’ll want to swap in Velothi Ur-Mage’s Amulet. You can still rock the amulet as well when you find you really don’t need the extra healing.

You can also heavy attack to return resources, if you find yourself running out of magicka or stamina. Heavy attacking with your daggers will return stamina, while heavy attacking with your lightning staff will return magicka.

ESO Solo Nightblade Magicka PvE Build Features and Mechanics

Below are some of the features found using the PvE Solo Nightblade Magicka in the Elder Scrolls Online:

• Class – Nightblade
• Weapon One – Flame Staff
• Weapon Two – Lightning Staff
• Armor Types – 5 Medium, 2 Light
• Mythic – Pale Order
• Race: Dark Elf
• Attributes – 64 Magicka
• Mundus Stone – Thief
• Best Grimoires – Ulfsild’s Contingency, Traveling Knife

Skills

Front Bar – Flame Staff

Front Bar Weapon Style Choices:

1. Flame Staff
2. Lighting Staff
3. Dual Wield

Swallow Soul (Morph of Strife | Skill Line : Siphoning) – Great for single target damage and healing. This isn’t the damage producing spammable, but it can be used at ranged with a fire staff.

Impale (Morph of Assassin’s Blade | Skill Line : Assassination) – Replaces our main spammable at around 25%, switch to this until kill.

Relentless Focus (Morph of Grim Focus | Skill Line : Assassination) – When slotted Light and Heavy attacks build stacks of Relentless Focus which can be discharged to deal Disease damage and heal.

Power Extraction (Morph of Drain Power | Skill Line : Siphoning) – Becomes a Stamina ability that now deals Disease Damage. Gain Major Brutality and debuff enemy on hit.

Camouflaged Hunter (Morph of Expert Hunter | Skill Line : Fighters Guild) – Use for critical damage buff and minor berserker.

Incapacitating Strike (Morph of Death Stroke | Skill Line : Assassination) – Low cost ultimate that gives us a small burst window and extra resource sustain for slotting.

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Back Bar – Lightning Staff

Back bar options:

1. Lighting Staff
2. Inferno Staff
3. Two Handed

Blockade of Storms (Morph of Wall of Elements | Skill Line : Destruction Staff) – AoE deals magic damage plus additional effect depending on type of staff

Twisting Path (Morph of Path of Darkness | Skill Line : Shadow) – An AOE damage ability that deals magic damage to enemies and grants you and your allies major expedition

Dark Shade (Morph of Summon Shade | Skill Line : Shadow) – Hard hitting single target damage over time ability.

Mirage (Morph of Blur | Skill Line : Assassination) – Gain Major Evasion and Minor Resolve. Also taking direct damage reduces the cost of your next dodge roll.

Siphoning Attacks (Morph of Siphoning Strikes | Skill Line : Siphoning) – Convert health into stamina. Additionally, while slotted all damage you deal heals you and restores some stamina.

Soul Tether (Morph of Soul Shred | Skill Line : Siphoning) – Cause AoE damage inside a rune and heal for half the damage done. Also stuns for four seconds. Additionally, siphon health from tethered enemies for up to 8 seconds.

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Scribing Skills & Grimoires

Ulfsild’s Contingency and Traveling Knife are the best Grimoires (skills) for a solo Magicka Nightblade PvE build—contingency grants powerful area-based damage and buffs. Traveling Knife gives you a ranged attack that does damage on the return. As soon as you can, you’ll want to replace Swallow Soul with Traveling Knife, as Swallow Soul just isn’t a very strong spammable. You can still stay at range though, and you gain a lot of aoe damage in a line.

Below are the suggested combination of Grimoires, focus, signature, and affix scripts:

• Ulfsild’s Contingency (Mage Guild) – Flame Damage (focus script), Lingering Torment (signature script), Vulnerability (Affix Script)
• Traveling Knife – Magic (focus script), Class Mastery (signature script), Berserk (Affix Script)

The Scribing System utilizes one of 11 new skills from the Gold Road Chapter called Grimoires. With Grimoires, you can customize spells via Scripts.  The scribing feature requires the purchase of the Gold Road Chapter (sponsored link). To learn more about scribing, check out our full guide here.

Passives Skills

Below are the passive skills lines that add power without requiring a skill slot while playing the ESO Solo Nightblade Magicka Build for PvE. Consider taking all the skill passives in the skill tree listed below:

• ‎Siphoning (class skill line)
• ‎Shadow (class skill line)
• Assassination (class skill line)
• Destruction Staff (weapon skill line)
• Light Armor
• Medium Armor
• Undaunted
• Mage’s Guild
• Racial
• Alliance War Support
• Alliance War Assault
• Crafting, Alchemy Medicinal Use

Gear – Best in Slot

The gear chart below represents the best gear for ESO Solo Nightblade Magicka Build for PvE:

Slot	Type	Set	Trait	Glyph
Head	Light	Perfected Whorl of the Depths	Divines	Magicka
Shoulders	Light	Valkyn Skoria	Divines	Magicka
Chest	Medium	Tzogvin’s Warband	Divines	Magicka
Legs	Medium	Tzogvin’s Warband	Divines	Magicka
Gloves	Medium	Tzogvin’s Warband	Divines	Magicka
Boots	Medium	Tzogvin’s Warband	Divines	Magicka
Belt	Medium	Tzogvin’s Warband	Divines	Magicka
Weapon One	Flame Staff	Perfected Whorl of the Depths	Charged	Flame
Weapon Two	Lightning Staff	Perfected Crushing Wall	Infused	Berserk
Necklace		Perfected Whorl of the Depths	Bloodthirsty	Weapon Damage
Ring 1	Mythic	Pale Order	Bloodthirsty	Weapon Damage
Ring 2		Perfected Whorl of the Depths	Bloodthirsty	Weapon Damage

In PvE, high-end DPS builds, magicka, and stamina builds run similar gear setups, including medium armor. Medium is more robust due to not reaching the penetration cap of light armor. However, Light armor can provide a shield with greater sustain. Below are various options.

Monster Helms and Mythic

Valkyn Skoria: obtained in City of Ash II veteran. Gives a mighty one-piece bonus for penetration. Alternative: Slimecraw.

Ring of the Pale Order: Mythic obtained by collecting five pieces. This gives great healing for doing damage and allows you to focus on pure damage.

FLEX OPTIONS (if you switch to monster setup, drop the mythic)

• Stormfist – always works, easy to obtain and AoE DPS set.
• Kra’gh – one piece is great for a pen, two-piece does good single-target damage
• Iceheart = is great for survivability.
• Velothi Ur-Mage’s Amulet: new mythic that is incredible damage if you have good survivability and don’t require Pale Order.
• Mora’s Whisper = set and forget high critical mythic but requires a collection of Mages Guild books.
• Death Dealer’s Fete = high max stats and requires no effect but in combat.

Gear Sets

Perfected Whorl of the Depths: Found in Dreadsail Reef trial, part of High Isle chapter. Light attack and create AoE summon once every 18 seconds.

Tzogvin’s Warband: Dungeon set that drops in Frostvault, part of Wrathstone DLC. Boosts Critical chance and critical damage.

Perfected Crushing Wall: from Veteran Maelstrom Arena in Orsinium. Increase your overall DPS due to the ability of the wall of elements and more damage.

FLEX OPTIONS

• Perfected False Gods Devotion = is best for resource sustainability.
• Order’s Wrath = Best overall crafting damage option.
• Pillar of Nirn = Great overall proc set damage.

Gear – Beginner

This setup is for someone who just started and doesn’t have access to Monsters, Mythics, Trials Gear

Slot	Type	Set	Trait	Glyph
Head	light	Back-Alley Gourmand	Divines	Magicka
Shoulders	light	Back-Alley Gourmand	Divines	Magicka
Chest	light	Mother’s Sorrow	Divines	Magicka
Legs	light	Mother’s Sorrow	Divines	Magicka
Gloves	light	Mother’s Sorrow	Divines	Magicka
Boots	light	Mother’s Sorrow	Divines	Magicka
Belt	light	Mother’s Sorrow	Divines	Magicka
Weapon One	Inferno Staff	Back-Alley Gourmand	Precise	Flame
Weapon Two	Lightning Staff	Back-Alley Gourmand	Infused	Berserker
Necklace		Back-Alley Gourmand	Arcane	Spell Damage
Ring 1		Willpower	Arcane	Spell Damage
Ring 2		Willpower	Arcane	Spell Damage

Race

The best racial choice for the Magicka Nightblade is below:

1. Dark Elf: Gain max magicka, stamina, and weapon and spell damage. The flame resistance is also helpful and considered the strongest overall PVE DPS race.
2. High Elf: Gain resource sustain passive, max magicka, and weapon and spell damage. The downside of High Elf is a lack of stamina or flame resistance.
3. Khajiit: This race gets recovery, max stats, and critical damage and healing. Consider the Khajiit a great option if you aren’t over the critical cap of 125%.

Attributes

The best choice is 64 magicka, which increases damage, healing, and DoTs.

Mundus Stone

The Thief is the best Mundus Stone for PvE Builds because it gives Increases Weapon and Spell Critical Strike a chance.

Champion Points – ESO Solo Nightblade Magicka Build for PvE

Craft	Warfare	Fitness
Treasure Hunter	Fighting Finesse	Siphoning Spells
Liquid Efficiency	Deadly Aim	Boundless Vitality
Rationer	Master-at-Arms	Rejuvenation
Steed’s Blessing	Wrathful Strikes	Fortified

Warfare Constellation Champion Points

Below is a step-by-step method for slotting your champion points in the Warfare tree (blue).  We have used the minimum possible to reach 4 slottable selections all maxed out.  If you have more CP, consider taking more in the passives for optimal performance.

Below are recommended Warfare Champion Point selections for the ESO Solo Nightblade Magicka PvE Build:

1. Precision 10
2. Wrathful Strikes (slottable) 50
3. Fighting Finesse (slottable) 50
4. Extended Might – sub constellation – piercing 10
5. Deadly Aim (slottable) 50
6. Master – at- Arms (slottable) 50

This would be the bare minimum setup, spending 220 CP (660 total required). The next step is to max out passives, that do not require a slottable but increase performance.

1. Precision 10
2. Piercing 10
3. Tireless discipline 20
4. Eldritch insight 20
5. Blessed 20
6. Quick recovery 20
7. Flawless ritual 40
8. War mage 30
9. Battle mastery 40
10. Mighty 30
11. Elemental aegis 20
12. Hardy 20
13. Preparation 20

This would max out the Warfare tree with all active and passive champion points at 520 spent 1,560 total spent.

Fitness Constellation Champion Points

Below are recommended Fitness Champion Point selections for the ESO Solo Nightblade Magicka PvE Build:

1. Fortified (slottable) 50
2. Boundless vitality (slottable) 50
3. Rejuvenation (slottable) 50
4. Sprinter 10
5. Winder chaser – sub con – hasty 8
6. Hero’s Vigor 10
7. Siphoning Spells (slottable) 50

This would be the bare minimum setup, spending 228 CP (684 total required). The next step is to max out passives, that do not require a slottable but increase performance. 

1. Hero’s Vigor 10
2. Tumbling 30
3. Sprinter 10
4. Defiance 20
5. Hasty 8
6. Tireless guardian 20
7. Fortification 30
8. Nimble 6
9. Mystic tenacity 50
10. Tempered soul 50
11. Piercing gaze 30
12. Savage defense  30
13. Bashing brutality 20

This would max out the fitness tree with all active passive champion points at 542 cp spent and 1,626 total spent.

Craft Constellation Champion Points

Below are recommended Craft Champion Point selections for the ESO Solo Nightblade Magicka PvE Build:

1. Steed’s blessing (slottable) – 50
2. Breakfall 10 
3. Wanderer 15
4. Steadfast 10
5. Treasure hunter 50 (slottable)
6. rationer (slottable) 30
7. liquid effiency (slottable) 75

This would be the minimum setup, spending 240CP (720 total required). The next step is to max out passives that do not require a slottable but increase performance.

1. Steadfast enchantment 40cp
2. Breakfall 40 cp
3. Wanderer 60
4. Fortunes favor 50
5. Friends in low places 25
6. Out of sight 30
7. Fleet of Phantom 40
8. Soul’s Reservoir 33
9. Gilded fingers 50
10. Fortunes favor 40
11. Inspiration boost 45
12. Infamous 30

This would max out the crafting tree with all active, passive champion points at 723 cp spent, 2,169 total spent.

Consumables

The best consumables for the solo Magicka Nightblade PvE build are Mistral Banana-Bunny Hash food and Heroism potions. Mistral Bananan-Bunny Hash gives the most damage possible, though Clockwork Citrus Filet is good for resource sustain if you struggle. A third balanced option for more hybrid resource pools is Bewitched Sugar Skulls. The best potions if you have spell critical and spell power buff is Heriosm (the essence of magicka). Another option is Spell Power potions if you lack the buffs or tri-stat Essence of Health. Below are our recommended food and potion choices:

Mistral Banana-Bunny Hash (best damage no sustain) – Increases max health and max magicka. Crafted with Provisioning ingredients of Small Game, Bananas, and Seasoning.

• Clockwork Citrus Filet – Increases max health, health recovery, max magicka, and magicka recovery. Crafted with Provisioning ingredients of Red Meat, Lemon, Frost Mirriam, and Perfect Roe.
• Witchmother’s Potent Brew – Increases max magicka, max health, and magicka recovery. Crafted with Provisioning ingredients of Nightshade, Bervez Juice, Rice, and Small Game.
• Bewitched Sugar Skulls (tri-max stats) – increases max health, stamina, magicka, and health recovery. Crafted with provisioning from ingredients of Scrib Jelly, Flour, Columbine, Bervez Juice, and Honey.

Heroism Potion – Restores stamina and magicka and grants minor heroism for a time. Crafted with alchemy from ingredients of columbine, dragon’s blood, and dragon rheum,

• Essence of Spell Power – grants major critical, major spell power buff, and magicka recovery. Crafted with alchemy from ingredients such as Corn Flower, Lady’s Smock, and Luminous Russula (other combinations).
• Tri-Pots – grants immediate health, stamina and magicka, along with tri-recovery. Crafted with Alchemy from ingredients of Bugloss, Columbine, and Mountain Flower.

Build Summary – ESO Solo Nightblade Magicka PvE Build

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