Subclassing has revolutionized build diversity in The Elder Scrolls Online, offering players the ability to mix and match skills and passives from different classes. With thousands of combinations available, the possibilities are endless—but where do you start? After extensive testing, Hack The Minotaur has narrowed down the top 10 subclassing builds for ESO Update 46. Whether you're a solo adventurer, PvP enthusiast, or group content specialist, these builds will inspire your next creation.
Pro Tip: When building your characters, acquiring gold coins is essential. Therefore, purchasing from a reliable ESO coin seller can be a great option to enhance your experience.
Top 10: Subclassing Werewolf
You might be thinking, "Werewolves don't get class skills," and that's true. However, they do benefit from class passives, allowing you to combine the best passives from three different classes for an optimized werewolf build.
Skill Lines
1. Storm Calling (Sorcerer)
Capacitor (passive) grants bonus health, magicka, and stamina recovery.
Energized (passive) boosts physical damage.
Amplitude (passive) increases damage based on the enemy's missing health.
2. Aedric Spear (Templar)
Burning Light (passive) deals Extra damage.
Balanced Warrior (passive) provides a 6% bonus to weapon damage, spell damage, and armor.
3. Grave Lord (Necromancer)
Rapid Rot (passive) increases your damage done with DoT effects by 10%. Because Werewolves have a surprising amount of DoT abilities, including Claws of Life (passive) and Brutal Pounce (passive), the impact of the Grave Lord passive is quite noticeable in this form.
Gear Sets
Tide-Born Wildstalker provides significant bonuses and a 12% increase in direct damage against monsters.
Order's Wrath enhances critical chance and crit damage.
Oakensoul Ring provides powerful buffs.
Slimecraw adds crit chance through its one piece effect.
Subclassing for a werewolf build is not only possible but also quite effective. With the right combination of passives and gear, you can create a powerful and versatile character.
Top 9: Zookeeper Pet Build
The Zookeeper build is a pet specialist that summons an army of minions into battle, including damage, tank, and healing-focused pets. This build can easily solo most content in the game, and it looks incredible to have so many creatures following you around!
Skill Lines
1. Daedric Summoning (Sorcerer)
Summon Unstable Clannfear effectively draws aggro from mobs and acts as a tank, ideal for soloing.
Summon Twilight Tormentor is great for damage, while you can morph it into Twilight Matriarch for significant healing.
Harden Ward is also beneficial, providing both personal shielding and additional protection for your pets.
2. Animal Companions (Warden)
Eternal Guardian (ultimate) is a powerful bear that can revive itself upon death, making it a strong addition to your pet army.
Deep Fissure is another fantastic skill for solo builds, debuffing enemies with both major and minor breach, which significantly reduces their total armor by approximately 10,000 resistance.
3. Grave Lord (Necromancer)
Death Knell (passive) grants a 20% bonus critical chance against low-health enemies.
Dismember (passive) provides over 3,000 extra penetration, enhancing your solo capabilities.
Rapid Rot (passive) boosts your damage-over-time effects by 10%, benefiting your lightning staff heavy attacks during the channeling phase.
Skeletal Arcanist can last long and deals extra AoE damage.
Gear Sets
To further enhance your pet army, consider the following gear sets:
Maw of the Infernal: This set introduces a fire-breathing pet, increasing the size of your summoned army.
Sergeant's Mail: This set boosts your damage significantly, especially when weaving in heavy attacks.
The Oakensoul Ring: This item makes the build incredibly strong and straightforward, providing powerful buffs with just one skill bar, eliminating the need for bar swapping.
The Zookeeper build is a fun and effective way to dominate the game with a diverse array of pets.
Top 8: One Bar Magicka Sorcerer
This subclassing version of one-bar Magicka Sorcerer enhances the one-bar heavy attack, making it even more powerful with a few strategic skill adjustments.
Skill Lines
1. Storm Calling (Sorcerer)
This skill line is essential for one-bar heavy attack builds.
Critical Surge is particularly valuable for solo play, providing passive healing every second, ensuring your survivability.
Energized (passive) boosts your shock damage, enhancing the effectiveness of your lightning staff heavy attacks.
2. Assassination (Nightblade)
Relentless Focus can be stacked up to 10 times for a substantial bonus of 400 weapon and spell damage. Additionally, you can unleash the spectral arrow with this skill for significant damage and a burst heal.
Soul Harvest (ultimate) increases your damage against the target by 20% and rewards you with 10 ultimate back on kills.
Master Assassin (passive) grants a bonus critical chance while flanking.
Executioner (passive) provides additional sustain.
Pressure Points (passive) increases crit chance.
Hemorrhage (passive) offers a 10% boost to crit damage and minor savagery for even more critical chance.
With these passives, it's feasible to achieve over 70% crit chance using basic crafted or overland sets.
3. Grave Lord (Necromancer)
Unnerving Boneyard provides AoE damage, major breach, and minor vulnerability.
Death Knell (passive) grants a 20% bonus critical chance against low-health enemies.
Dismember (passive) provides over 3,000 extra penetration, enhancing your solo capabilities.
Rapid Rot (passive) boosts your damage-over-time effects by 10%, benefiting your lightning staff heavy attacks during the channeling phase.
Gear Sets
The Oakensoul Ring: This ring provides essential major and minor buffs, simplifying the build's effectiveness.
Sergeant's Mail: This set boosts heavy attack damage significantly.
Storm Master: A strong choice for a high crit chance.
Slimecraw adds more benefits to the build with its one-piece effect.
Top 7: Subclassing PvP Build
This subclassing PvP build focuses on AoE timed burst damage and debuffs, allowing you to unleash a massive amount of damage and negative status effects on your enemies simultaneously.
Skill Lines
1. Draconic Power (Dragonknight)
The Dragon Leap (Ultimate) provides significant burst damage, mobility, and a stun effect.
Hardened Armor enhances defense ability.
Coagulating Blood grants a strong heal that scales with your missing health.
2. Animal Companions (Warden)
Deep Fissure debuffs enemy armor with both major and minor breach.
Bull Netch offers solid damage and sustain buffs.
3. Grave Lord (Necromancer)
Blighted Blastbones gives you additional AoE damage and applies major defile, reducing enemy healing.
Pestilent Colossus (ultimate) deals a powerful burst of damage when timed correctly.
This build excels at timing your abilities for maximum impact. You can synchronize Deep Fissure, Blighted Blastbones, and Dragon Leap to create a massive mid-air explosion. After that, finish off any remaining enemies with Reverse Slice (Two-Handed skill line) or Whirling Blades (Dual Wield skill line).
Gear Sets
Balorgh: This set provides a nice bonus to damage and penetration after using your ultimates, making it ideal for PvP.
Dagon's Dominion: This AoE damage set helps amplify your damage spikes even further.
Wretched Vitality: Pair this sustain set with the others to compensate for not using the Dragonknight's Earthen Heart skill line and its Battle Roar passive.
Overall, this build is extremely fun and effective for both solo and group PvP. Plus, it's relatively easy to set up, making it a great choice for players looking to dominate the battlefield!
Top 6: Subclassing Healer Build
Healers who utilize subclassing can be incredibly effective, combining the best heals and buffs from various class kits into a cohesive build. Although this build is using the Warden as the main healing class, you can make this build work by using any of the classes that will be mentioned, as this build doesn't rely on specific class scripts or class sets.
Skill Lines
1. Green Balance (Warden)
Maturation (passive) grants the group a minor toughness buff, increasing max health by 10%.
Budding Seeds is an excellent choice for its powerful AoE healing potential.
Lotus Flower is another viable option, providing major savagery and prophecy, along with passive healing on light and heavy attacks.
2. Siphoning (Nightblade)
This skill line significantly boosts ultimate generation, enhancing the build's effectiveness.
Catalyst (passive) grants 30 ultimate when drinking a potion.
Magicka Flood (passive) provides an additional 6% magicka and stamina.
Soul Siphoner (passive) increases all healing done for each siphoning ability slotted.
Transfer (passive) generates two ultimate every four seconds.
Funnel Health allows you to easily proc those passives mentioned, serving as a heal-over-time for multiple players.
Siphoning Attacks ensures excellent sustain.
Soul Siphon offers an instant group emergency heal and a heal-over-time effect with major vitality at a low ultimate cost.
*Make sure to have at least one Siphoning skill on each bar to make use of the passives.
3. Restoring Light (Templar)
Extended Ritual provides an AoE purge, which is essential for removing negative effects in endgame content.
Channeled Focus offers an armor buff, magicka sustain, and self-healing.
Breath of Life is a strong burst heal for up to two party members.
Mending (passive) increases all healing done across all skill lines.
Sacred Ground (passive) grants automatic access to minor mending.
Master Ritualist (passive) is invaluable for resurrecting allies.
Gear Sets
Spell Power Cure: This set provides major courage through overhealing. Given the abundant passive healing and heal-over-time effects in this build, maintaining Spell Power Cure is effortless.
Master Architect can be slotted on the back bar, paired with Aggressive Horn to give your group easy access to major slayer.
Nazaray: Extends debuffs on enemies.
Symphony of Blades: Provides sustain for your group.
Ozezan The Inferno: Offers extra armor and healing.
Top 5: Subclassing Tank
Tank builds for group content have become incredibly strong and versatile. One of the most exciting options is the Subclassing Tank. Dragonknight is the base class of this build, but you can effectively change it with any of the classes that will be mentioned, as the build doesn't rely on class-specific scripts or sets.
Skill Line
1. Earthen Heart (Dragonknight)
Battle Roar (passive) stands out as an excellent sustain option when using your ultimate.
Mountain's Blessing (passive) boosts your group's damage by providing additional weapon damage.
Helping Hands (passive) enhances sustain, although it may not be necessary for most content.
Stone Giant is optimal for group content, as it increases the damage enemies take when stacked.
Ignous Shield can proc Helping Hands for extra sustain while also providing a shield and major mending.
Ignous Weapons is beneficial for groups that require major brutality and sorcery buffs.
Magma Armor is a great emergency tool if your group faces challenges.
2. Soldier of the Apocrypha (Arcanist)
Cruxweaver Armor grants major resolve and debuffs enemies with minor breach while generating crux.
Spite Ward of the Lucid Mind is a skill that you can spend crux for a free damage shield. You can replace this skill with Ignous Shield if stamina sustain isn't needed.
Runeguard of Still Waters provides your group with minor resolve and minor protection for added defense.
Runic Sunder serves as both a melee and ranged taunt, saving you a bar slot.
Gibbering Shelter (ultimate) offers a substantial shield that benefits allies.
Circumvented Fate (passive) provides minor evasion for your group.
Implacable Outcome (passive) generates ultimate when you consume crux.
Aegis of the Unseen (passive) gives bonus armor.
3. Siphoning (Nightblade)
Siphoning Attacks is the best sustain skill currently in the game.
Power Extraction is effective for AoE damage and debuffing enemies.
Soul Tether (ultimate) is useful for trash pulls because of its AoE stun.
Catalyst provides ultimate generation
Transfer provides ultimates for the Siphoning skill used.
Magicka Flood enhances stamina and magicka.
This build is incredibly fun to play, offering solid group utility along with ample sustain and survivability.
Gear Sets
Saxhleel Champion: Ideal for maximizing uptime on major force when using your ultimates. This build generates a lot of ultimate, making it a perfect fit.
Powerful Assault is also a viable option; you can easily slot it on the back bar to maintain its proc with Razor Caltrops (Assault skill line).
Archdruid Devyric stands out as one of the strongest options due to its on-demand major vulnerability.
Top 4: Subclassing DPS
When it comes to DPS builds utilizing subclassing, there are several powerful setups, particularly with the Arcanist class.
Skill Lines
1. Herald of the Tome (Arcanist)
Fatecarver consumes all crux and increases damage done by 33% per crux spent. You can use the Pragmatic Fatecarver instead for a shield or the Exhausting Fatecarver for a longer duration.
Cephaliarch's Flail increases damage, crux generation, and healing.
Recuperative Treaties can be slotted on the back bar for sustain, crux generation, along with major sorcery and brutality.
The Languid Eye (ultimate) deals AoE damage.
2. Assassination (Nightblade)
Relentless Focus allows you to stack a passive 400 weapon and spell damage without actively using the ability.
Soul Harvest boosts your damage against a target by 20% for 8 seconds—a significant buff!
Master Assassin (passive) grants an additional 6.6% critical chance while flanking.
Executioner (passive) provides substantial sustain.
Pressure Points (passive) increases your crit chance further for each assassination ability slotted.
Hemorrhage (passive) adds 10% bonus crit damage and minor savagery for even more crit chance.
Nightblade excels in crit potential, making it a smart choice for any DPS build.
3. Dawn's Wrath (Templar)
Radiant Glory is helpful for single-target fights. Switching to this skill from Fatecarver can lead to a noticeable DPS increase.
Solar Barrage boosts all class skills' damage by 5%, not just Templar skills, making it an excellent option for subclassing.
Prism (passive) is helpful in ultimate generation.
Illuminate (passive) provides minor sorcery.
Restoring Spirit (passive) assists you in cost reduction on all skills and ultimates.
Shocking Banner is one additional skill worth mentioning. This skill makes it advantageous to start as an Arcanist, as it allows you to generate crux more quickly using the Arcanist class script. This helps you return to the Fatecarver beam faster, though it does impact your sustain, so be prepared for that.
Gear Sets
Tide-Born Wildstalker: Excels at buffing direct damage against monsters. It means this set can buff the effects of Fatecarver and Radiant Glory, which now deal direct damage.
Silver of the Null Arca: Another strong DPS set if you have access to trials and want to maximize your build's potential.
Velothi Ur-Mages Amulet: A Mythic providing an extra 15% damage done at all times.
Top 3: Elementalist Build
This Elementalist build focuses on a mage specializing in the three primary magical elements of ESO: fire, shock, and frost.
Skill Lines
1. Ardent Flame (Dragonknight) – Fire Element
This skill line solidly establishes your fire magic theme. It is particularly effective for solo play, offering a variety of damage and healing abilities.
Burning Embers provides a burst heal.
Cauterize provides a heal-over-time.
Flames of Oblivion can further enhance fire damage.
Engulfing Flames also further enhances fire damage.
World in Ruin (passive) boosts your fire damage.
2. Storm Calling (Sorcerer) – Shock Element
Boundless Storm delivers AoE shock damage while providing armor and speed.
Critical Surge significantly enhances your healing capabilities.
Energized (passive) provides bonus shock damage.
Amplitude (passive) increases damage based on the enemy's missing health.
Capacitor (passive) further improves your recovery.
3. Grave Load (Necromancer) – Frost Element
Grave Lord's Sacrifice boosts all of your DoT effects.
Unnerving Boneyard provides frost damage and AoE major breach.
Glacial Colossus (ultimate) grants AoE major vulnerability.
Rapid Rot (passive) enhances DoT damage.
Dismember (passive) increases penetration.
Death Knell (passive) improves critical chance.
Gear Sets
Deadly Strike amplifies your DoTs and the channeled portion of your shock staff.
Runecarver's Blaze adds bonus fire damage to every DoT you deal, resulting in a significant damage boost.
Zaan enhances fire damage.
Sea-Serpent's Coil improves damage reduction along with access to major berserk and major courage, both of which are beneficial for soloing.
Overall, this build is an excellent choice if you enjoy harnessing all three elemental types in a single setup, and it's incredibly fun to play!
Top 2: Ultimate Frost Mage
If you're looking to try something unique in ESO, consider the Ultimate Frost Mage build, which is primarily designed for solo play but easily adaptable for group content with a few tweaks.
Skill Lines
1. Herald of the Tome (Arcanist)
Tentacular Dread not only deals frost damage in an AoE in front of you but also roots enemies and causes them to take up to 11% more damage when you have three crux stacks.
Fulminating Rune also has a frost damage component.
Recuperative Treatise grants sustain and major brutality and sorcery.
2. Winter's Embrace (Warden)
Ice Fortress provides an armor buff.
Winter's Revenge deals AoE damage.
Arctic Blast grants AoE stun and potential burst heal.
Northern Storm/Permafrost (ultimate) serves as a defensive ultimate, which is particularly useful for soloing.
Glacial Presence (passive) increases the chances of applying the chilled status effect.
Piercing Cold (passive) boosts frost damage by 15%—a significant enhancement.
3. Grave Lord (Necromancer)
Glacial Colossus (ultimate) grants AoE major vulnerability.
Unnerving Boneyard provides frost damage and AoE major breach.
Death Knell (passive) grants bonus crit chance.
Dismember (passive) provides bonus penetration.
Rapid Rot (passive) enhances your damage-over-time effects.
Chilling Contingency (Mages Guild, Scribing) is an ice spammable ability, which you can create using Scribing. It is recommended to use the Mages Guild's Ulfsild's Contingency, taking the Frost Damage script. The Arcanist class script is used for crux generation, so you can empower Tentacular Dread. The Minor Force script is also beneficial, as it wasn't available otherwise in this build. There are many ways to approach this with Scribing, but this method is the most effective for maximizing Tentacular Dread.
Gear Sets
Frostbite set boosts your frost damage abilities by 8%.
Order's Wrath increases your crit chance and crit damage.
Iceheart complements this build.
Ring of Pale Order is very helpful for soloing.
Top 1: One Bar Solo Magicka Templar
Skill Lines
1. Aedric Spear (Templar)
Puncturing Sweep is your main damage source.
Radiant Ward is a fantastic damage shield. This shield increases in strength based on the number of enemies you hit, making it a magicka version of Brawler. Additionally, it applies minor maim to targets and deals direct damage back to them. You can even use the Reaving Blows champion point star to make this ability heal you, which is incredibly effective.
Piercing Spear (passive) grants a 25% bonus crit damage.
Spear Wall (passive) gives minor berserk and minor protection.
Burning Light (passive) enhances your magic damage.
Balanced Warrior (passive) grants bonus damage and armor.
2. Animal Companions (Warden)
Deep Fissure applies major and minor breach.
Fetcher Infection deals DoT and applies a debuff on the enemy.
Flourish (passive) grants a 20% bonus to recovery.
Advanced Species (passive) grants more crit damage.
3. Assassination (Nightblade)
Merciless Resolve grants bonus damage and burst heal.
Soul Harvest is excellent for single-target damage.
Master Assassin (passive) grants bonus critical chances while flanking.
Executioner (passive) provides additional sustain.
Pressure Points (passive) increases crit chance.
Hemorrhage (passive) offers a 10% boost to crit damage and minor savagery for even more critical chance.
Gear Sets
Tide-Born Wildstalker is one of the best options for Templars since Biting Jabs deals direct damage, and you can craft it however you like, which is ideal for soloing. For instance, you could use a heavy chest piece for increased armor.
War Maiden boosts all of your magic damage, and this applies to every damaging skill in this build. It's important to note that it specifically enhances "magic damage," not elemental damage like shock, frost, or fire. For example, check the tooltip on Puncturing Sweep; it specifies magic damage, not elemental. This means it buffs every ability in this setup, from Soul Harvest to Deep Fissure to Puncturing Sweep. Consequently, this setup outperforms other sets like Deadly Strike because it enhances everything you do.
The Oakensoul Ring is highly recommended for keeping it simple with a one-bar setup.
Slimecraw adds crit chance through its one-piece effect.
Final Thoughts
ESO's new subclassing system opens up a world of possibilities for creative builds across all playstyles. Whether you want to summon an army of pets, freeze enemies in place, or dominate PvP arenas, these top 10 builds are sure to inspire your next adventure in Tamriel!
