ESO Magicka Nightblade PvE Build

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

This build has been updated for the Update 42 patch of the Elder Scrolls Online.

Why Should You Play the ESO Magicka Nightblade PvE Build?

With the introduction of Scribing in the Gold Road, the ESO Magicka Nightblade PvE Build returns to something worth playing. The main problem with the Magicka Nightblade last patch was the nerf to Concealed Weapon, leaving the Magblade without a good PvE magicka based spammable.

Now, there’s some great utility built into the class with a magicka spammable again. It has great ultimate generation, resource sustain, and more. This build and class can be surprisingly simple to use though advanced setups will reward you with much higher dps numbers. If you really don’t want to play the Stamina counterpart, this is the magicka build for you.

ESO Magicka Nightblade PvE Features and Mechanics

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

• Class – Nightblade
• Weapon One – Dual Wield
• Weapon Two – Flame Staff
• Armor Types: 6 Medium, 1 Light
• Race: Dark Elf
• Mythic: Velothi Ur-Mage’s Amulet
• Attributes: 64 Magicka
• Mundus Stone: Thief
• Best Grimoires: Ulfsild’s Contingency, Traveling Knife

The ESO Magicka Nightblade PvE Build Playstyle

Use the following rotation as the starter point. After, apply your buffs and cast the DoT skills on cooldown for the best, highest DPS. The Damage over Time skills (DoTs) do more damage than your main spammable. Thus, they need to be cast less often and are easier to maintain, for example, The Degeneration from Mages Guild or the Barb Trap from Fighters Guild. Maintain DoTs and use your spammable skill as filler until you need to reapply the DoTS.

Replace your spammable with your in-class or weapon execute at certain percentages if you have one in this build. Executes are the skills that deal more damage the lower the opponent’s health. Ideally, these are meant to replace your main spammable skill at anywhere between 35% (Radiant Oppression) all the way to 20% (Mages’ Fury). At a high level, execute skills become so strong that the lower the enemy’s health, the fewer DoTs you maintain because it does so much damage.

Use the healing skill when your health drops below 50% or the shield skill when you anticipate damage. Also, always use the suggested food and potions as they significantly increase your damage, survivability, and resource sustain.

If you run out of resources, do a heavy attack and return to your rotation. Remember that a heavy attack on off-balance enemies will return double the resources. Additionally, if you are a beginner or struggle with sustain, you can flex in the Consuming Trap skill instead of a DoT skill. The Consuming Trap floods both resources when a target dies.

Skills

Front Bar – Dual Wield

Front Bar Weapon Style Choices:

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

Elemental Weapon (Morph of Imbue Weapon | Skill Line : Psijic Order) – Magicka morph that causes your next Light Attack to deal additional damage and apply a random status effect. Swallow Soul is a better skill for survivabilty.

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

Grim Focus (Skill Line : Assassination) – When slotted Light and Heavy attacks build stacks of Grim Focus which can be discharged to deal magic 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 – Fire Staff

Back bar options:

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

Blockade of Fire (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) – Buffs you and allies with increased speed, and deals damage.

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

Debilitate (Morph of Cripple | Skill Line : Siphoning) – Deals DoT and decreases enemy movement speed.

Siphoning Attacks (Morph of Siphoning Strikes | Skill Line : Siphoning) – After casting, your light and heavy attacks heal you, and give you back magicka resources

Incapacitating Strike (Morph of Death Stroke | Skill Line : Assassination) – Double barring Incapacitating Strike will provide higher damage, but you can swap to Shooting Star for trash mob pulls or Soul Tether for survivability.

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Scribing Skills – ESO PvE Magicka Nightblade Build

The best grimoires for a Magicka Nightblade PvE build are Ulfsild’s Contingency and Traveling Knife. Contingency gives you a large radius burst of damage as well as a long DoT. Setting Contingency up with Flame damage modifiers gives you the greatest dps increase for aoe fights, but this skill isn’t really worth using in more single target encounters. Traveling Knife is another great grimoire for the Nightblade that really is the reason this class is viable again as a dps this patch. Below are the suggested combination of Grimoires, focus, signature, and affix scripts:

• Ulfsild’s Contingency: Fire Damage (Focus Script), Lingering Torment (Signature Script), Minor Vulnerability (Affix Script)
• Traveling Knife: Magic Knife (Focus Script), Warrior’s Opportunity (Signature Script), Major Savagery/Prophecy (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). If you wish to know more about Scribing, check out our full guide here.

Rotation and Parse

Unfortunately, Magicka Nightblade is probably the weakest class in this patch. With the changes to Concealed Weapon, there’s not a tremendous magicka-based spammable for the class. With the changes to Concealed Weapon, there’s almost no reason to run it in PvE encounters, so the Nightblade is left without a real magicka spammable. Swallow Soul can work, but the damage isn’t excellent. Elemental Weapon is probably the highest DPS, but the skill doesn’t feel great. If you wanted to get creative, you could run a Lightning Staff on your front bar with Force Pulse as a spammable and a fully ranged setup, but these choices will suffer in DPS.

Rotation Explained

Still, this setup can work if you’re set on running a Magicka Nightblade. You’ll want to pre-buff with Dark Shade>Elemental Weapon, then engage with Elemental Blockade>Bar Swap>Power Extraction>Bar Swap>Debilitate>Twisting Path>Bar Swap>Incapacitating Strike>Grim Focus>Elemental Weapon> then reapply your DoTs as they fall off. Around 25%, you will stop casting Elemental Weapon and start spamming Impale to execute the target. Around 5%-10%, you’ll stop casting any other ability and just Impale until your target dies. In heavy aoe scenarios like trash packs, you can also spam Power Extraction as an aoe spammable. It isn’t very strong, but it will do much more damage that elemental weapon will with a lot of targets.

One way you might be able to boost the damage is because of the Changes made to Siphoning Attacks. Now, you don’t have to activate the ability unless you need a burst of resources, and you always receive the extra resources on damage dealt. If you run Crunchy Spider Skewer for the stamina regeneration, you can probably sustain a stamina-based spammable like Whirling Blades or Surprise Attack. However, you might swap to the Stamina Nightblade for the extra damage at that point. It will feel much better overall, you can choose food that gives you extra health for more survivability, and your execute damage will shoot up.

Passives Skills

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

• Assassination (class skill line)
• Shadow (class skill line)
• Siphoning (class skill line)
• Dual Wield (weapon skill line)
• Destruction Staff (weapon skill line)
• Light Armor
• Medium Armor
• Undaunted
• Fighters Guild
• Mages Guild
• Racial
• Alliance War Support
• Alliance War Assault
• Crafting, Alchemy Medicinal Use

Gear – Best in Slot

Below is the best in slot gear for the Elder Scrolls Online (ESO) Magicka Nightblade PvE Build:

Slot	Type	Set	Trait	Glyph
Head	Medium	Aegis Caller	Divines	Magicka
Shoulders	Light	Slimecraw	Divines	Magicka
Chest	Medium	Perfected Ansuul’s Torment	Divines	Magicka
Legs	Medium	Perfected Ansuul’s Torment	Divines	Magicka
Gloves	Medium	Perfected Ansuul’s Torment	Divines	Magicka
Boots	Medium	Perfected Ansuul’s Torment	Divines	Magicka
Belt	Medium	Perfected Ansuul’s Torment	Divines	Magicka
Weapon One	Dagger	Aegis Caller	Charged	Fire
Secondary	Dagger	Aegis Caller	Charged	Poison
Weapon Two	Flame Staff	Perfected Crushing Wall	Infused	Weapon Damage
Necklace		Velothi Ur-Mage’s Amulet	Bloodthirsty	Weapon/Spell Damage
Ring 1		Aegis Caller	Bloodthirsty	Weapon/Spell Damage
Ring 2		Aegis Caller	Bloodthirsty	Weapon/Spell Damage

Magicka and stamina builds will run similar gear setups, including medium armor. Medium is more robust in trials due to the passive bonuses. If you don’t play with a coordinated trials team, you can swap to Light. However, it will suffer overall damage loss.

Monster Helms and Mythic

Velothi Ur-Mages Amulet: Mythic item requiring the Antiquies system and Necrom Chapter. Requires five leads; find them here. There is extreme passive damage in the current meta.

Slimecraw: Obtained in Wayrest Sewers I Veteran Dungeon and Maj Undaunted Vendor. Gives us the highest critical chance for a one-piece item.

FLEX OPTIONS

1. Harpooner’s Wading Kilt Set = Great mythic if avoiding damage and can keep the stacks up.
2. Mora’s Whisper = This provides up to 10% critical chance but requires collections of Mages Guild Books on your specific character.
3. Death Dealer’s Fete = Is a great option because it boosts max stats with zero downsides.

Gear Sets

Aegis Caller: Dungeon set that drops in Unhallowed Grave, Harrowstorm DLC. Passive Bleed damage and good bonuses for martial melee build.

Perfected Ansuul’s Torment: Obtained in Sanity’s Edge, Necrom Chapter Trial. It is the best overall damage-dealing set that comes in medium armor. If you struggle with resources, you can swap to a light armor setup but it will be less 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

1. Pillar of Nirn: Obtained in Falkreath Hold dungeon, Horns of the Reach DLC.
2. Perfect Whorl of the Depths: The trial set can be found in the Dreadsail Reef, High Isle chapter.
3. Kinra’s Wrath = Dungeon set that drops in Black Drake Villa, Flames of Ambition DLC.
4. Perfected Arms of Relequen = the bust pure damage set in the game.
5. Perfected Coral Riptide = god tier damage if you run low stamina (dodge roll a bit before pull)
6. Order’s Wrath = great craftable option, though watch for too much critical damage (125% cap)
7. Leviathan = easy base game dungeon set with high critical

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Gear – Beginner

Meant for the average player who can complete overland content and or craft basic gear

Slot	Type	Set	Trait	Glyph
Head	light	Withered Hand	Divines	Magicka
Shoulders	light	Withered Hand	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	Dagger	Willpower	Precise or Sharpened	Flame
Secondary	Dagger	Willpower	Charged	Poison
Weapon Two	Inferno Staff	Willpower	Infused	Weapon Damage
Necklace		Withered Hand	Arcane	Magicka Recovery
Ring 1		Withered Hand	Arcane	Spell Power
Ring 2		Withered Hand	Arcane	Spell Power

• Withered Hand: obtained in Alik’r Desert overland or from guild traders (delves, dolmans, world bosses, chest). WHY? If you’re a new player, have low champion points, and lack trial gear, this gives excellent sustain and healing when killing mobs and is ideal for a newer player.
• Mother’s Sorrow: obtained in overland zone Deshaan or from guild traders (delves, dolmans, world bosses, chest). WHY? easy to obtain and works well at every stage of the game including end game trials!
• Willpower: obtained in Imperial City keys or dungeon finder rewards or on guild traders. Great two-piece bonus.

Race

The best racial choice for the ESO Magicka Nightblade PvE 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

The best choice for slotting Attribute points is 64 magicka, which increases damage, healing, and shields.

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 Magicka Nightblade PvE Build

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 Magicka Nightblade PvE:

1. Precision 10
2. Wrathful strikes (slottable) 50
3. Fighting Finesse (slottable) 50
4. Extended might – sub con – piercing 10
5. Masters at arms (slottable) 50
6. Deadly  aim (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 Magicka Nightblade PvE:

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 1,626 total spent.

Craft Constellation Champion Points

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

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 efficiency (slottable) 75

This would be the bare 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 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 683 cp spent 2,049 total spent.

Consumables

The best consumables for the Magicka Nightblade build are Clockwork Citrus Filet and Essence of Health tri-stat potions. Clockwork Citrus Filet gives a lot of health, magicka, and sustain, giving you a little bit of everything. Nightblade sustain can be tricky, so while the Mistral Banana-Bunny Hash food gives more health and magicka, you’ll often want the sustain from Clockwork in content. If you still struggle with magicka sustain, you could switch to Ghastly Eye Bowl, but you really want that health in content, if possible.

For your potions, both of your major weapon/spell damage and critical chance buffs are sourced through the build, so you can run tri-pots. This gives you a large burst of resources when you need them. You can of course switch these out for heroism potions, but with Update 42, many groups can source Minor Heroism through group scribing skills instead.

• Clockwork Citrus Filet: Increase Max Health by 3326, Health Recovery by 406, Max Magicka by 3080, and Magicka Recovery by 338 for 2 hours. Ingredients: Frost Mirriam (1), Lemon (1), Perfect Roe (1), Red Meat (1).
  • Mistral Banana-Bunny Hash: Increase Max Health by 5395 and Max Magicka by 4936 for 1.5 Hours. Ingredients: Bananas (1), Seasoning (1), Small Game (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.

Build Summary – ESO Magicka Nightblade PvE Build

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