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With all the different DPS options available, we ranked the top 10 best DPS sets in the Elder Scrolls Online to show you which sets you need.
This build has been updated for the Updated 42, the Gold Road Chapter of the Elder Scrolls Online (ESO).
Elder Scrolls Online is unique because there isn’t one set that’s best everywhere for the given patch. Instead, each fight has an individual best-in-slot list. To maximize DPS, you could switch the sets you run for every fight. Still, certain sets generally perform better than others.
This list tries to rank the top 10 best DPS sets in the Elder Scrolls Online. Admittedly, some of the general ordering here is a little subjective. Still, we broadly tried to rank based on a combination of the set’s impact on the game right now, the damage each set does, and how broadly usable each set is in different types of content.
The Top 10 Best DPS Sets in ESO
The best DPS sets in ESO are Azureblight Reaper, Coral Riptide, and Whorl of the Depths. Azureblight tops our list despite only being usable in specific trial fights. Azure makes so many fights possible, even for less organized groups, due to its astronomical AOE damage.
Coral Riptide and Whorl of the Depths come close behind in second and third, even though they’re widely usable in a lot more content than Azure. They don’t have as large of an impact on PvE content in ESO.
Below are the 10 DPS sets ranked from worst to best:
10. Sul-Xan’s Torment DPS Set in ESO
Bonuses and location of Sul-Xan’s Torment in ESO:
- (2 items) Adds 129 Weapon and Spell Damage
- (3 items) Gain Minor Slayer at all times, increasing your damage done to Dungeon, Trial, and Arena Monsters by 5%.
- (4 items) Adds 657 Critical Chance
- (5 items) Adds 657 Critical Chance, When an enemy you recently damaged dies, they leave behind a vengeful soul for 6 seconds. You can only create one vengeful soul at a time. Touching the soul increases your Critical Chance by 2160 and your Critical Damage by 12% for 30 seconds.
- Set Obtainable From: Rockgrove (Trial)
Sul-Xan’s Torment squeezes into this 10 best DPS sets in the Elder Scrolls Online list because of it’s strength in trash packs and dungeons.
The thing is, Sul-Xan does work in a lot of content, but it needs an enemy to die every 30 seconds to keep the buff up. When you do have the Sul-Xan buff active, this set boasts some of the highest stats offered in a single 5-piece set bonus. Especially in content where you’re not at crit damage cap, Sul-Xan is incredible.
The drawback is it is one of the more difficult sets to maintain. It requires enemies dying every 30 seconds, and you must go seek out that blue soul in content. This set definitely takes a little practice to use, and you have to look for those souls in content.
9. Sergeant’s Mail ESO DPS Set
Bonuses and Location of Sergeant’s Mail in ESO:
- (2 items) Adds 1206 Maximum Health
(3 items) Adds 129 Health Recovery
(4 items) Adds 129 Weapon and Spell Damage
(5 items) When you deal damage with a Heavy Attack, you gain a stack of Sergeant’s Focus for 5 seconds, increasing the damage of your Heavy Attacks by 645 per stack. This effect can occur once every second and stacks up to 4 times. - Set Obtainable From: Wayrest Sewers (Dungeon)
If you’re running a heavy-attack build, this is the best set on this list, hands down.
This works because it increases your heavy attack damage by a flat value per stack. It might not seem like much, but that value is boosting the base damage, before any damage effects it boosts you have. For heavy-attack builds, this equates to such a bigger DPS increase than any other set and this is essentially a requirement.
Unfortunately, this set is heavy armor and you’d usually run it with the Oakensoul Ring. That means you usually have to rock this as your lightning staff, an amulet, a ring, and one armor piece. Because chest pieces offer the highest armor bonus, wearing them as chest pieces is technically better, but the defensive bonus is small. Normally it isn’t that large of a DPS increase, but because of how this set scales, you would want to gold out your Sergeant set.
8. Pillar of Nirn Set in the Elder Scrolls Online
Bonuses and Location of Pillar of Nirn in ESO:
- (2 items) Adds 657 Critical Chance
(3 items) Adds 657 Critical Chance
(4 items) Adds 129 Weapon and Spell Damage
(5 items) When you deal damage, you create a fissure underneath the enemy after 1 second, dealing 803 Bleed Damage to all enemies within 2.5 meters and causing them to bleed for an additional 2405 Bleed Damage over 10 seconds. This effect can occur once every 10 seconds and scales off the higher of your Weapon or Spell Damage. - Set Obtainable From: Falkreath Hold (Dungeon)
Pillar is pushed to 8th on this list, not because it’s a low-damage set but because there are better alternatives. Yes, Pillar does much damage, but it’s essentially a single target set. The proc radius is so small that it usually only hits the target it procs on. While it’s very strong on the target dummy, in content, many better options will result in higher DPS overall, landing this much higher on the list than you might expect.
Still, the Pillar procs on any damage done, making good uptimes really easy to hit. It’s a solid dps set, even if it’s fallen off compared to other options in the most recent patches.
7. Arms of Relequen in Elder Scrolls Online
Bonuses and Location of Arms of Relequen in ESO:
- (2 items) Adds 657 Critical Chance
(3 items) Gain Minor Slayer at all times, increasing your damage done to Dungeon, Trial, and Arena Monsters by 5%.
(4 items) Adds 657 Critical Chance
(5 items) Adds 1096 Maximum Stamina, Your Light and Heavy attacks apply a stack of harmful winds to your target for 5 seconds. Harmful winds deal 52 Physical Damage per stack every 1 second. This effect can stack once every half second, up to 10 times and scales off the higher of your Weapon or Spell Damage. - Set Obtainable From: Cloudrest (Trial)
Rele is a fan-favorite among the 10 best DPS set in the Elder Scrolls Online. It’s also usually considered the highest dps single target set. The problem is there’s just not a lot of content that needs pure single-target dps.
Furthermore, Arcanists can’t run Relequen, which most groups are stacking as their primary damage dealers in the current meta. Rele needs consistent light attacks in order to stack its damage on your target, so if you’re letting any Rele stacks drop throughout the fight, Rele will begin to drastically underperform. In the places it works well, it works really well, but it’s just not as versatile as some of the other sets on this list that outperform it in a lot of content.
6. Aegis Caller ESO Set
Bonuses and Location of Aegis Caller in ESO:
- (2 items) Adds 129 Weapon and Spell Damage
(3 items) Adds 657 Critical Chance
(4 items) Adds 129 Weapon and Spell Damage
(5 items) When you deal critical damage with a Martial melee attack, summon a Lesser Aegis for 11 seconds. After 2.5 seconds, the Lesser Aegis spins its blades, dealing 478 Bleed Damage every 1 second. This effect can occur once every 12 seconds and scales off the higher of your Weapon or Spell Damage. - Set Obtainable From: Unhallowed Grave (Dungeon)
With the Pillar nerfs a couple of patches ago, Aegis Caller started dealing almost the same damage as Pillar, just in a large area of effect.
The main downside to Aegis is that it requires semi-stationary fights. It works in most places, but in fights that need quick movement, it really starts to fall behind on damage. Aegis is often the go-to damage set for support damage dealers who drop their support sets for exceptionally short fights. It’s pretty common in organized groups to move a set like Martial Knowledge or Elemental Catalyst over to a healer or tank to get a little more group damage on short fights. In those cases, the support dds usually put on Aegis Caller instead of their support set.
However, Arcanists still don’t run Aegis Caller since it does proc on Martial Melee damage. This results in worse uptimes since Arcanists are using Fatecarver for so long. You usually want to proc this set from your front bar with daggers or a 2h.
5. Deadly Strike
Bonuses and Location of Deadly Strike in ESO:
- (2 items) Adds 129 Weapon and Spell Damage
(3 items) Adds 657 Critical Chance
(4 items) Adds 129 Weapon and Spell Damage
(5 items) Increase the damage your damage over time and channeled attacks do by 15%. - Set Obtainable From: Cyrodiil, or from guild traders
Deadly has always been a great set on the Templar, but Arcanists almost always use it now too. Templars and Arcanists deal a lot of channeled damage, and Deadly buffs all of your DoTs as well. If you’re playing either of these classes, you need this set. It’s the perfect “set and forget” set too, since you just rock the 5 piece and don’t have to think about proccing anything.
Like a set coming up later in this list, Deadly buffs all of your channeled and damage over time, not just on a single target. That makes a skill like Fatecarver really push this damage boost through the roof on all enemies in the line of fire.
4. Ansuul’s Torment
Bonuses and Location of Ansuul’s Torment in ESO:
- (2 items) Adds 657 Critical Chance
(3 items) Gain Minor Slayer at all times, increasing your damage done to Dungeon, Trial, and Arena Monsters by 5%.
(4 items) Adds 1487 Offensive Penetration
(5 items) Adds 657 Critical Chance, Increases your damage done against monsters by 7%. When you interrupt an enemy, you increase your damage done against monsters by an additional 7% for 10 seconds. - Set Obtainable From: Sanity’s Edge (Trial) in Necrom zone
Ansuul is an incredible “set and forget” DPS armor in the Elder Scrolls Online. While it doesn’t put out quite as much dps as some of the better sets on this list, it gets pretty close without having to manage any resources or proc the set. If you can proc Ansuul on an interrupt, however, it’s a huge boost in damage for the duration of the buff.
As a medium armor trial set, most builds will body Ansuul with another set on the weapons that doesn’t provide Minor Slayer. You usually only want one set with Minor Slayer, since the buff doesn’t stack. Ansuul has replaced Rele in much content since Sanity’s Edge came out. For the weaknesses we already mentioned about Rele, Ansuul often results in a larger dps increase in many fights without managing the set.
3. Whorl of the Depths DPS Set
Bonuses and Location of Whorl of the Depths in ESO:
- (2 items) Adds 129 Weapon and Spell Damage
(3 items) Gain Minor Slayer at all times, increasing your damage done to Dungeon, Trial, and Arena Monsters by 5%.
(4 items) Adds 129 Weapon and Spell Damage
(5 items) Adds 657 Critical Chance, When you deal damage with a Light Attack, you apply Whorl of the Depths to the target, dealing 988 Frost Damage over 8 seconds. When this effect ends, a 5 meter whirlpool is created under the target for 6 seconds and deals 743 Frost Damage every 1 second. This effect can occur once every 18 seconds and scales off the higher of your Weapon or Spell Damage. - Set Obtainable From: Dreadsail Reef (Trial) in High Isle Zone
Whorl hits like a truck in more stationary fights. It’s an easy-to-proc light Minor Slayer set. That means you can pair it with a non-slayer medium armor in a lot of content or rock Whorl on the body if you’re far under penetration cap in content.
While Aegis Caller isn’t run on Arcanists as much because of the proc condition, Whorl runs more often because of the longer cooldown on the set. 18 seconds lines up much better with Fatecarver in your rotation, so there isn’t much downtime on Whorl on an Arcanist. Whorl is just an all-around solid, high-damage set with a large AoE proc. It’s technically not as good during highly mobile fights, but the whirlpool lasts only 6 seconds. Even during fights that need movement, you can still get a lot of damage from Whorl due to the short duration.
2. Coral Riptide DPS Set
Bonuses and Location of Coral Riptide in ESO:
- (2 items) Adds 657 Critical Chance
(3 items) Gain Minor Slayer at all times, increasing your damage done to Dungeon, Trial, and Arena Monsters by 5%.
(4 items) Adds 129 Weapon and Spell Damage
(5 items) Adds 657 Critical Chance, Increase your Weapon and Spell Damage by up to 740 based on your missing Stamina, reaching the maximum at 33% Stamina. - Set Obtainable From: Dreadsail Reef (Trial) in High Isle Zone
Coral is the foundation of many DPS builds, though it takes some extra resource management. If you can get that resource management down, a maximized Coral Riptide will blast most of these sets out of the water. It’s also a Minor Slayer trial set, so many builds body Coral and fine-tune resource management. If you can dial in resource management, you barely have to consider keeping your stamina low.
With hybridization, you can swap out some stamina or magicka costing skills to dial in your stamina gain and ensure you stay low stamina during a fight without running out of it. That does take some practice, but if you get good at keeping your stamina low, Coral is as much a single-target DPS as Rele without being a single target.
1. Azureblight Reaper Best DPS Set in ESO
Bonuses and Location of Azureblight Reaper in ESO:
- (2 items) Adds 657 Critical Chance
(3 items) Adds 1096 Maximum Stamina
(4 items) Adds 129 Stamina Recovery
(5 items) When you deal damage with a damage over time effect, you apply a stack of Blight Seed to your target for 5 seconds. At 20 stacks, Blight Seed explodes, dealing 1565 Disease Damage to the target and nearby enemies, plus an additional 30% per enemy hit, up to 180%, scaling off the higher of your Weapon or Spell Damage. You can only trigger one explosion every 0.5 seconds. An enemy can only have one instance of Blight Seed at a time. - Set Obtainable From: Lair of Maarselok (Dungeon)
The best DPS sets from our top 10 list in the Elder Scrolls Online is Azureblight Reaper due to its proc and massive radius. Azure escaped another round of nerfs in this patch, making it still the best DPs set in the game, with a couple of disclaimers.
It only works in trial content where the enemies are high health enough to get procs off. Dungeon monsters often die before you can build stacks high enough to proc Azure. You also need multiple targets to get enough damage out of Azure in content. In this type of content though, Azure has made it so much more accessible to clear end-game content for groups. It got even better with the release of Arcanist, with Fatecarver and Languid Eye building stacks so quickly.
In fights where Azure is good, it will be the group’s highest DPS source by a mile, even in single-target situations. Azure procs on every target damaged, so the bursts from other enemies damage everything around it in a huge radius. That usually means higher single-target damage on the boss when stacks are tight. It’s opened up so much content, elevating aoe damage and allowing groups to clear content they previously couldn’t. Some more difficult trifectas like Swashbuckler Supreme, Planesbreaker, and Mindmender are a lot more accessible for groups now due to Azure and the Arcanist. Thus, we recommend this set for anyone looking to increase their DPS and our Top 10 Best DPS Sets in ESO ranking.
Changes in Update 42 Gold Road Chapter DLC
Patch 10.0.5 brought ten new item sets, three new mythics, and the Scribing feature. There were minor balance changes due to introducing 11 new skills via Scribing called Grimoires. The new gear sets don’t appear to shift the meta drastically in PvE for most builds.
Here is a brief summary of the biggest changes from Update 42:
- Scribing – the new system gives you access to 11 new, unique, customizable skills you can use!
- Grimoires – 11 new skills that can be changed via Scripts with stuns, immobilization, pulls, and knockbacks.
- Class Balance – the main changes are to the Templar blazing spear with minor changes.
- Skill Styling – select new color variations on popular existing skills from the Weapon, Guild, and World Skill Lines.
- New Zone West Weald – Located just west of Cyrodiil and east of the Gold Coast, West Weald remains a stronghold of Imperial prosperity.
- Lucent Citadel New Trial – 12-player trial with the portal located in northern West Weald, with new gear and achievements.
- New Gear Sets – overland, crafting, trials, and mythics.
- HDR Support – Windows HDR Color Settings adjust various brightness settings.
- Mail Improvements – many changes to player, system, and system alert mail functions.
- New Achievements – many new achievements were added to the chapter and base game Update 42.
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