ESO Magicka Dragonknight PvP Build

This guide focuses on the best ESO Magicka Dragonknight PvP 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).

ESO Magicka Dragonknight PvP Build

The Magicka Dragonknight (Mag DK) stands as one of the strongest classes in PvP, known for its formidable damage output and exceptional survivability. However, this power comes with the necessity of using Elusive Mist for mobility; opponents can easily evade you without it. A pure magicka build lacks an execute ability but compensates with unmatched durability.

Key Considerations: Mag DK vs. Stamina DK

The debate between Mag DK and Stamina DK centers on gear sets, weapon choices, and passives. Medium armor, two-handed, and dual-wield weapons give Stamina DK an edge, particularly with an execute ability and the potential for a two-handed bomber build. In comparison, while Stamina DKs might slightly outclass their magicka counterparts in some aspects, Mag DKs shine with their powerful damage-over-time abilities, superior ultimates, and remarkable survivability. Utilizing the Mechanical Acuity loadout grants Mag DKs a formidable burst window capable of swiftly annihilating groups or solo opponents. This aggressive playstyle makes the MagDK one of ESO’s best and most enjoyable builds.

Dragonknight Class Pros

• Best Sustain: Resource management is straightforward. You ensure a steady influx of resources by activating an ultimate or using a tri-pot.
• Damage: The DK excels in single-target, area, and damage-over-time capabilities.
• Survival: Despite nerfs to Corrosive Armor, it’s still the best defensive ultimate, complemented by the class’s burst healing abilities.

Dragonknight Class Cons

• Lacks Off Healing: Unlike Wardens, DKs do not excel at off-healing in group play, although abilities like Shifting Standard, Talons, and Igneous Weapons provide some utility.
• Weak Mobility: Reliant on Elusive Mist, specific skills, or speed-enhancing gear sets for mobility.
• Hard to Escape: Once surrounded by enemies, escaping is challenging compared to classes like Nightblade or Sorcerer.

MagDK Playstyle

The Magicka Dragonknight excels in aggressive, high-damage playstyles. Its damage over time abilities and powerful ultimates, such as the meta Mechanical Acuity loadout, create significant burst windows that can decimate opponents. Players must manage their resources effectively, leveraging the DK’s superior sustain to maintain pressure on enemies. While mobility is a weakness, proper use of Elusive Mist and strategic positioning can mitigate this drawback.

ESO Magicka Dragonknight PvP Build Features and Mechanics

Below are some of the features found using the ESO Magicka Dragonknight PvP Build in the Elder Scrolls Online:

• Class – Dragonknight
• Weapon One – Dual Wield
• Weapon Two – Frost Staff
• Armor Types – 3 Heavy, 1 Medium, 3 Light
• Race – Dark Elf
• Infection – Vampire Stage 3
• Attributes – 32 Magicka, 32 Health
• Mundus Stone – Warrior
• Best Grimoires: Traveling Knife, Soul Burst

Skills

Skill Set 1 Front Bar

Front Bar Weapon Options: They are all good choices depending on your play-style and needs. Experiment with what works best.

• Dual Wield – Best overall damage via passives, but without a restoration staff or Ice staff on the back bar, it can be brutal to sustain.
• Fire staff – Range and most single target damage and pairs well with elemental users.
• Lightning Staff – Provides easy fully charged heavy attacks for resource sustain and 10% AoE damage when channeling.
• Two-handed – Has the best passives for burst.

Shattering Rocks (Morph of Petrify | Skill Line : Earthen Heart) – Single target crowd control ability that cannot be blocked or avoided. This is how you go for kill shots with 3x stacks of Seething Fury from Molten Whip being slotted. DoT target up, get 3x stacks, stun, Whip = deleted. Shattering Rock also procs the Helping Hands passive in Earthen Heart restoring stamina.

Draw Essence (Morph of Inhale | Skill Line : Draconic Power) – A massive AoE damage ability that heals and gives back magicka per enemy hit. This is ideal when fighting huge groups outnumber. Consider this a flex spot on your front bar. Claw (Venomous or Burning Embers) is a great flex spot for single-target fights.

Flames of Oblivion (Morph of Inferno | Skill Line : Ardent Flame) – Huge AoE DoT pressure. Switch morphs if you need more healing.

Molten Whip (Morph of Lava Whip | Skill Line : Ardent Flame) – This is our main spammable attack that gets stronger the more stacks of seething fury. Casting Ardent Flame skills will build up these stacks and you want to keep it at 3x if possible. You’ll also want to set this up with a stun to kill an opponent who cannot block or react.

Noxious Breath (Morph of Fiery Breath | Skill Line : Ardent Flame) – AoE damage with a built in armor debuff. Swap morphs to Engulfing if you run out of stamina frequently.

Ferocious Leap (Morph of Dragon Leap | Skill Line : Draconic Power) – Massive burst damage, AoE cc and provides a big shield. I actually don’t use this too much for damage because Corrosive provides 100% penetration for direct damage attacks while active. This does make a great offensive and defensive ability along with huge plays knocking people off ledges and so forth.

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Back Bar: Frost Staff

Back Bar Weapon Options: They are all good choices depending on your playstyle and needs. Experiment with what works best.

• Frost Staff – Can either use magicka or stamina for blocking via the tri-focus passive.  Frost also gives as much damage reduction as Sword and Shield and you can use the enchant and have some range.
• Restoration staff – The best buffs and healing. The strength of Resto is fully charged heavy attacks for major mending and magicka sustain.
• Sword and Shield – Great choice when blocking. The benefit of a sword and shield is using stamina for block mitigation when taking tons of pressure. Switch to sword and shield if you like a slower pace gameplay or if you struggle with survivability.

Volatile Armor (Morph of Spiked Armor | Skill Line : Draconic Power) – This provides armor buff and AoE damage when cast used for getting targets out of stealth. The DoT damage is extremely hard hitting especially combined with Engulfing Flame for huge AoE DoT pressure. Also with the Draconic Power passive Burning Heart you’ll have 12% increased healing received while active so always make sure it’s active.

Igneous Weapons (Morph of Molten Weapons | Skill Line : Earthen Heart) – This buff gives us our weapon damage buffs, both minor and major and it last for a very long time. It also procs earthen heart passives like ult generation and stamina return plus it has great group utility.

Elusive Mist (Morph of Mist Form | Skill Line : Vampire) – Update 37 radically redesigns this skill to give mobility, expedition, and 300 weapon and spell damage when leaving. The downside, you need to play stage three vampire for optimal success. If you don’t want vampire, consider flexing this skill out for Chains of Deveastaion for more mobility. Consider this your flex spot. Use Race Against Time if you don’t like Vampire or Elemental Susceptibility if you like using Vateshran Ice Staff. Used for single target armor debuff and status effects which includes burning that will feed your resource sustain.

Resolving Vigor (Morph of Vigor | Skill Line : Assault) – Great self healing that doesn’t require a resto staff thus back bar Frost or Sword and Shield mitigation.

Coagulating Blood (Morph of Dragon Blood | Skill Line : Draconic Power) – Your main spammable burst heal that is based off your missing health. Meaning, if you’re at 75% I wouldn’t cast this because it won’t do much for you. Instead relay on Cauterize for heal over times and this for an “oh crap” spammable when below 50%.

Corrosive Armor (Morph of Magma Armor | Skill Line : Earthen Heart) – Insanely powerful ultimate that makes you very hard to kill for 12 seconds and 100% spell pen for direct damage attacks. This is what I use most of the time because it’s so good both defensively and offensively.

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Scribing Grimoires & Skills – ESO Magicka Dragonknight PvP Build

Traveling Knife and Soul Burst are the two best Grimoires (skills) for a Magicka Dragonknight PvP build. Traveling Knife gives you a ranged bleed attack that acts like Rending Slashes but doesn’t require Master Duel Wield to be effective. Moreover, Traveling Knife can be given a stun in the focus script for classes lacking a ranged stun. Soul Burst is a helpful crowd control and buff skill. You can immobilize, pull, or snare targets and get your favorite minor buffs. Below are the suggested combination of Grimoires, focus, signature, and affix scripts:

• Traveling Knife – Bleed or Stun (focus script), Lingering Torment or Assassin’s Misery (signature script), Berserk or Vulnerability (Affix Script)
• Soul Burst – Immobilize or Pull (focus script), Class Mastery or Hunter’s Snare (signature script), Courage or Expedition (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

Consider taking all of the passives in the below skill trees to increase your builds performance without slotting any skills:

• Ardent Flame (class skill line)
• Draconic Power (class skill line)
• Earthen Heart (class skill line)
• Destruction Staff (weapon skill line)
• Dual Wield (weapon skill line)
• Light, Medium, and Heavy Armor
• Fighter’s Guild
• Mage’s Guild
• Undaunted
• Psijic Guild
• Alchemy Medicinal
• Race
• Assault Alliance
• Alliance Support
• Vampire (optional stage 3)

Gear – Best in Slot

Below is the best in-slot PvP Gear for a Magicka Dragonknight in ESO:

Slot	Type	Set	Trait	Glyph
Head	Heavy	Bloodspawn	Well-fitted	Prismatic
Shoulders	Medium	Bloodspawn	Well-fitted	Magicka
Chest	Heavy	Daedric Trickery	Reinforced	Prismatic
Legs	Heavy	Armor of the Trainee	Reinforced	Prismatic
Gloves	Light	Mechanical Acuity	Well-fitted	Magicka
Boots	Light	Mechanical Acuity	Well-fitted	Magicka
Belt	Light	Mechanical Acuity	Well-fitted	Magicka
Weapon One	Axe	Mechanical Acuity	Nirnhoned	Poison
Secondary	Axe	Mechanical Acuity	Nirnhoned	Flame
Weapon Two	Ice Staff	Daedric Trickery	Powered	Weapon damage
Necklace		Sea-Serpent’s Coil	Infused	Magicka Recovery
Ring 1		Daedric Trickery	Bloodthirsty	Spell Damage
Ring 2		Daedric Trickery	Bloodthirsty	Spell Damage

Monster Helm & Mythic

Bloodspawn: Found in Spindleclutch II, Veteran Dungeon, shoulder from Maj al-Ragath, Undaunted vendor. This monster set is a great offensive and defensive set that helps with ultimate generation and offers extra resistance.

Sea-Serpent’s Coil: Obtained through Mythic System click here for lead locations. This mythic essentially provides two five-piece damage sets in one, with nearly zero drawbacks.

FLEX OPTIONS

• Maarselok: The best proc dps monster set in the game.
• Zaan: Truly god-tier dueling or single-target killer monster helm.
• Roksa the Warped: Gives great resource sustain without Engine Guardian droid.
• Markyn Ring of Majesty: Great all-around defensive and offensive mythic
• Torc of Tonal Constancy: Sustain mythic.
• Gaze of Sithis: Survivability though changes up the set up and sacrifices block mitigation.
• Death Dealer’s Fete: Max stats which equates to good damage and survivability.

Gear Sets

Mechanical Acuity: Obtained in Clockwork City, Craftable six traits. Great for huge burst damage though it has a longer cool down.

Daedric Trickery: Craftable in Vvardenfell Morrowind. Generates incredible buffs that stack on top of each other, including Major Heroism, which is the best for DK.

Armor of the Trainee: Obtained in overland starter areas or guild trader. Added stats with a one-piece item set.

FLEX OPTIONS

• Burning Spellweave: Great base game set that does good damage and procs a status effect.
• Snake in the Stars: Counters players using “heal stacking.”
• Kynmarcher’s Cruelty: An overland set that gives massive AoE debuff.
• Order’s Wrath: Craftable set that gives great damage overall and is easy to obtain.
• Mara’s Balm: A great defensive set that purges negative effects and heals you.
• Powerful Assault: Great set to add damage to you and your group and the buff stacks with Rallying Cry.
• Rallying Cry: Great group utility setup but lacks ultimate generation.
• Robes of the Hist: Great back bar healing set alternate to Mara’s Balm.

Gear 2 – Burning Spell Weave

This setup is a bit easier to use and more survivable.

Slot	Type	Set	Trait	Glyph
Head	Heavy	Roksa the Warped	Well-fitted	Prismatic
Shoulders	Medium	Roksa the Warped	Well-fitted	Magicka
Chest	Heavy	Daedric Trickery	Reinforced	Prismatic
Legs	Heavy	Armor of the Trainee	Reinforced	Prismatic
Gloves	Light	Burning Spell Weave	Well-fitted	Magicka
Boots	Light	Burning Spell Weave	Well-fitted	Magicka
Belt	Light	Burning Spell Weave	Well-fitted	Magicka
Weapon One	Mace	Burning Spell Weave	Nirnhoned	Flame
Secondary	Axe	Burning Spell Weave	Charged	Poison
Weapon Two	Frost Staff	Daedric Trickery	Powered	Weapon Damage
Necklace		Daedric Trickery	Swift	Spell Damage
Ring 1		Markyn Ring of Majesty	Swift	Spell Damage
Ring 2		Daedric Trickery	Swift	Spell Damage

• Roksa the Warped: Best in slot resource sustain when playing a vampire.
• Daedric Trickery: Generates incredible buffs that stack on top of each other including Major Heroism which is the best for DK.
• Burning Spellweave: Great base game set that does good damage and procs a status effect.
• Markyn Ring of Majesty: Great all-around defensive and offensive mythic also doesn’t snare you.

Gear 3 – Bomber

Play this for huge multi-kills in large-scale fights:

Slot	Type	Set	Trait	Glyph
Head	Heavy	Gaze of Sithis	Divines	Prismatic
Shoulders	Light	Magma Incarnate	Divines	Magicka
Chest	Heavy	Armor of the Trainee	Divines	Prismatic
Legs	Medium	Plaguebreak	Divines	Prismatic
Gloves	Light	Rallying Cry	Divines	Magicka
Boots	Light	Rallying Cry	Divines	Magicka
Belt	Light	Rallying Cry	Divines	Magicka
Weapon One	Dagger	Plaguebreak	Precise	Damage Health
Secondary	Dagger	Plaguebreak	Precise	Damage Health
Weapon Two	Restoration Staff	Rallying Cry	Powered	Weapon Damage
Necklace		Rallying Cry	Bloodthirsty	Spell Damage
Ring 1		Plaguebreak	Bloodthirsty	Spell Damage
Ring 2		Plaguebreak	Bloodthirsty	Spell Damage

• Plaguebreak: Applies debuff and explodes targets if they die.
• Rallying Cry: Back bar set that gives you a big boost to weapon and spell damage
• Gaze of Sithis: Massive survivability mythic and you need to wear light armor and do not block. Switch to Restoration staff and Rapid Regeneration in replacement of Vigor.
• Magma Incarnate: Great sustain for a one-piece item set.

Gear 4 – No Proc

Meant for specific rule sets

Slot	Type	Set	Trait	Glyph
Head	Light	Magma Incarnate	Well-fitted	Prismatic
Shoulders	Medium	Order’s Wrath	Well-fitted	Magicka
Chest	Heavy	Mark of the Pariah	Reinforced	Prismatic
Legs	Heavy	Mark of the Pariah	Well-fitted	Prismatic
Gloves	Heavy	Mark of the Pariah	Well-fitted	Magicka
Boots	Light	Order’s Wrath	Well-fitted	Magicka
Belt	Light	Order’s Wrath	Well-fitted	Magicka
Weapon One	Mace	Order’s Wrath	Nirnhoned	Flame
Secondary	Axe	Order’s Wrath	Charged	Poison
Weapon Two	Ice Staff	Blessing of Potentates	Powered	Weapon Damage
Necklace		Torc of Tonal Constancy	Infused	Spell Damage
Ring 1		Mark of the Pariah	Infused	Spell Damage
Ring 2		Mark of the Pariah	Infused	Spell Damage

• Magma Incarnate: Monster Set – helmet obtained from Veteran Dread Cellar dungeon (Blackwood zone), Waking Flame DLC. Shoulders obtained from Vendor: Urgarlag Chief-bane (Undaunted Pledge Master). Great sustain for a one-piece item set.
• Mark of the Pariah: Obtained from Wrothgar overland, Orsinium DLC or bought from traders. Most tankiness from a 5pc in no proc PvP.
• Blessing of Potentates: Obtained in Cyrodiil Vlastarus Elite Gear Vendor or bought from traders. Great damage reduction two-piece.
• Torc of Tonal Constancy: Sustain mythic and works in no proc PvP.
• Order’s Wrath: Craftable set that gives great damage overall and is easy to obtain.

Race – ESO Magicka Dragonknight PvP Build

The best racial choice for the Mag DK PvP build 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. 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%.
3. 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.

Attributes

You should aim to reach 32,000 health; therefore, we recommend 32 health and 32 magicka attribute split.

Mundus Stone

The best mundus stone is the Warrior for increased weapon damage. Weapon damage is better due to the earthen heart passive.

Champion Points – ESO Magicka Dragonknight PvP Build

Craft	Warfare	Fitness
War Mount	Focused Mending	Celerity
Gifted Rider	Ironclad	Survival Instincts
Gifted Rider	Duelist’s Rebuff	Pain’s Refuge
Steed’s Blessing	Master-at-Arms	Bracing Anchor

Warfare 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 four slottable selections, all maxed out. If you have more CP, consider taking more in the passives for optimal performance.

1. Precision 10
2. Extended might sub-constellation – Piercing 10
3. Masters-at-arms (slottable) 50
4. Master Curation sub-constellation – Blessed 10
5. Focus mending  (slottable) 50
6. Eldritch Insight 10
7. Staving Death – sub-constellation – Quick Recovery 10
8. Staving Death – sub-constellation – Ironclad 50
9. Duelist’s rebuff 50

This would be the bare minimum setup, spending 250 CP (750 total required). The next step is to max out passives that do not require a slottable but increase performance.

1. Precision 10
2. Eldritch Insight 10
3. Tireless Discipline 20
4. Blessed 10
5. Quick recovery 10
6. Piercing 10
7. Flawless ritual 40
8. War mage 30
9. Battle mastery 40
10. Mighty 30
11. Elemental Ageis 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 Champion Points

Below are recommended Fitness Tree selections for the ESO Magicka Dragonknight PvP Build:

1. Tumbling – 15
2. Survivor’s spite sub-constellation – mystic tenacity 10
3. Survivor’s spite sub-constellation – Pain’s Refuge ( slottable) 50
4. Survival instincts (slottable) 50
5. Hero’s Vigor 10
6. Wind Chaser sub-constellation – hasty 8
7. Wind chaser sub-constellation – Celerity (slottable) 50
8. Tireless Guardian – 10
9. Walking fortress sub-constellation – Nimble Protector 3
10. Walking fortress sub-constellation – bracing Anchor (slottable) 50

This would be the minimum setup, spending 251 CP (753 total required). The next step is to max out passives that do not require a slottable but increase performance. 

1. Tumbling 15
2. Hero’s Vigor 10
3. Sprinter 20
4. Defiance 20
5. Hasty 8
6. Tireless guardian 20
7. Fortification 30
8. Nimble protector 3
9. Mystic Tenacity 40
10. Tempered soul 50
11. Piercing Gaze 30
12. Savage  defense 30
13. Bashing brutality 20

Craft Champion Points

Below are recommended Craft Tree selections for the ESO Magicka Dragonknight PvP Build:

1. Steed’s blessing 50
2. Breakfall 10
3. Wanderer 15
4. Steadfast 10
5. Rationer(slottable) 30
6. Treasure hunter 50
7. Master gatherer 15
8. Gifted rider (slottable) 100
9. War mount (slottable) 120

This would be the minimum setup, spending 400CP (1200 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 10
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 843 cp spent 2,529.

Consumables

The best consumables for the Magicka Dragonknight PvP build are Bewitched Sugar Skulls food and Essence of Health tri-stat potions. Bewitched Sugar Skulls give a massive boost to overall stats but sacrifices recovery. If you struggle with recovery, use Orzorga’s Smoked Bear Haunch or cheaper Jewels of Misrule. The essence of health or Tri-stat potions is the best to passively give you a flood of resources and tri-recovery with alchemy medicinal use. Immovability potions are also helpful. Below are our recommended food and potion choices:

• Bewitched Sugar Skulls: Increase Max Health by 4620, Max Stamina and Max Magicka by 4250, and Health Recovery by 462 for 2 hours. Ingredients: Scrib Jelly (2), Flour (5), Columbine (2), Bervez Juice (2), Honey (5).
  • Orzorga’s Smoked Bear Haunch (recovery): Increase Max Health by 4312, Health Recovery by 406 and Stamina and Magicka Recovery by 369 (effects are scaled based on your level) Ingredients: Red Meat (1), Tomato (1), White Cap (1), Frost Mirriam (1), Perfect Roe (1).
  • Jewels of Misrule (cheap): Increase Stamina and Magicka Recovery by 357 and Max Health by 3927 for 2 hours. (effects are scaled based on your level) Ingredients: Rose (1), Mint (1), Lotus(1), Columbine (1), Bervez Juice (1)
• Essence of Health (tri-stat): Restore 7329 Health, 6618 Magicka, and 6618 Stamina immediately. Grants Major Fortitude, Major Intellect, and Major Endurance, which increase your Health Recovery, Magicka Recovery, and Stamina Recovery by 20% for 31.7 seconds. (effects are scaled based on your level) Ingredients: Bugloss, Columbine, Mountain Flower.
  • Essecene of Immovability: Restores health and stamina and is immune to knockback effects. Ingredients: Namria’s Rot, Columbine, and Mountain Flower.

Build Summary – ESO Magicka Dragonknight PvP Build

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