Best Skill Lines for Subclass Solo Builds in ESO
The Elder Scrolls Online has introduced the new subclassing feature, allowing players to mix and match skill lines from different classes to create unique builds. This update opens up endless possibilities for solo players who want to optimize their gameplay experience. If you're unsure which skill lines to choose, Hack The Minotaur's guide breaks down the best and worst options for solo builds, ranked from B-tier to S-tier.
Tips: Resetting your skills for subclassing would cost some TESO gold coins. If you need some fast gold coins, buying them with real money is a good option.
B-Tier Skill Lines for Subclassing
12. Ardent Flame (Dragonknight)
Ardent Flame is a solid choice if you want to focus on damage over time and fire or poison damage. It also offers decent self-healing options with morphs like Burning Embers and Cauterize.
However, its passives are not particularly beneficial, and the two spammable skills are also not effective to use. For instance, Searing Heat only applies to three skills, limiting its potential with subclassing. Lava Whip can be clunky, and one of its morph skills, Molten Whip, costs both stamina and magicka, making it challenging for magicka builds. Furthermore, Lava Whip's second morph, Flame Lash, requires immobilization or off-balance, which you can't even get from this skill line.
Overall, Ardent Flame is a niche skill line that works well for fire-based builds but may not see much use in solo subclassing.
11. Winter's Embrace (Warden)
While many view Winter's Embrace as a tanking skill line, it offers good potential for solo gameplay, especially if you want to focus on frost damage.
Key skills of Winter's Embrace include Ice Fortress, which provides essential armor, and Arctic Blast, a burst heal that also deals damage and stuns—though it has the drawback of requiring you not to deal damage to heal. Winter's Revenge offers a nice DoT, and Northern Storm is a solid solo ultimate.
However, the lack of a strong direct damage source or reliable DPS skill holds this skill line back. While it can be effective for frost-themed builds, it remains somewhat niche compared to higher-ranked skill lines.
10. Daedric Summoning (Sorcerer)
Daedric Summoning focuses on summoning Daedric pets, blending damage, tanking, and healing, making it a versatile option for solo play.
For damage, you can pair the Familiar with Twilight and Daedric Prey for bonus pet damage, though it only buffs Daedric summoning pets, not all pets, which is somewhat disappointing.
The need for double-barring skill slots for sorcerer pets is also a downside, as you must allocate a pet on both the front and back bars, which is not good when it comes to subclassing. Since every skill slot is important, this effectively results in two dead slots that can't be used for other powerful subclass skills, which is unfortunate.
Defensively, Harden Ward is a strong shield option, although it lost its healing component in the recent PTS update. Bound Armor is a solid choice, especially with the Bound Aegis morph, granting minor protection and minor resolve.
The passive skills of the Daedric Summoning skill line have received a significant boost in Update 46, particularly with more consistent maximum stats from Expert Summoner.
While Daedric Summoning is flexible, its downsides keep it from reaching the top tier.
9. Animal Companions (Warden)
Animal Companions is a solid choice for solo builds, particularly if you enjoy animal or druid-themed gameplay. Overall, this skill line is well-balanced in terms of skills and passives. However, it does seem a bit outdated compared to newer classes like the Necromancer and the Arcanist.
On the positive side, one of the standout skills is Deep Fissure, which provides not one but two built-in armor debuffs, reducing enemy armor by approximately 10,000 in total. This is significant, especially for solo builds, as stripping away enemy resistances allows your abilities to deal more damage. Additionally, you have a solid damage and sustain buff available through your Netch skill.
Many of the other skills seem somewhat lackluster by comparison. For instance, while the Wild Guardian ultimate is very useful, it requires double barring, which can be a significant drawback when subclassing.
Skills like Screaming Cliff Racer, Swarm, and Bird of Prey also seem a bit outdated in terms of their mechanics. Screaming Cliff Racer, in particular, is underwhelming in solo play due to its 7-meter requirement to activate the off-balance effect. This often prevents players from fully utilizing this powerful debuff in solo scenarios.
The passives in this skill line are generally solid, with Flourish standing out for providing a 20% increase in magicka and stamina recovery. Savage Beast can generate ultimate, which used to be strong, but with the current subclassing system, passives like this—scaling per ability slotted from the class skill line—may be at a disadvantage. You might only have space for one Animal Companion skill on your bar, such as Deep Fissure.
In conclusion, Animal Companions remains a viable skill line, especially if you prefer an animal or druid-focused theme. It is definitely worth considering if it aligns with your build.
A-Tier Skill Lines for Subclassing
8. Restoring Light (Templar)
Restoring Light is an excellent support skill line that shines in healing and sustain. The standout skill here is Rune Focus, which offers major resolve for armor and healing over time, along with stamina or magicka sustain. While major resolve is hard to find in solo builds, Restoring Light combines defensive and healing options effectively.
In addition, Extended Ritual adds even more passive healing, allowing you to gradually increase your health over time. The advantage of this skill is that even if you get knocked down or stunned, you can still receive healing, which is incredibly beneficial in solo content. It significantly improves your survivability, often more than you might expect.
If you're looking for more damage, you can opt for the Retribution morph, provided you have sufficient healing.
Another excellent skill is Repentance. It offers free stamina and health restoration, along with additional passive recovery, making it one of the best skills for stamina builds.
To create a solo build that is exceptionally tanky and almost unkillable, slotting the skills above into your bar can be highly effective.
In terms of passives, there are even more healing and defensive benefits available, such as Sacred Ground, which grants minor mending, and Mending, which provides up to a 13% bonus to all healing effects.
Additionally, Light Weaver has received a new effect in update 46, which automatically blocks for 2 seconds when performing a channeled attack, like Sweep or Beam (Arcanist). This makes it another excellent reason to choose the Restoring Light skill line for added protection while playing solo.
7. Storm Calling (Sorcerer)
In the Storm Calling skill line, the best skill for solo players is undoubtedly Critical Surge, which provides passive healing as long as you deal damage. This is especially effective for classes with a lot of DoTs, as you will get healing passively even while you are stunned.
Hurricane is also excellent, offering armor, movement speed, and consistent damage. It also pairs well with Critical Surge for passive healing.
The Storm Calling skill line offers excellent passives, making it a compelling choice for subclassing and solo play. For instance, Energized provides increased shock and physical damage, with shock damage being particularly beneficial for heavy attack lightning staff builds. Additionally, you'll experience significant boosts to recovery by slotting Capacitor, which has recently been enhanced to include all three types of recovery rather than just magicka.
With the Amplitude passive, you gain increased raw damage based on enemy health. You can even get additional weapon and spell damage for each Sorcerer ability you slot, thanks to Expert Mage.
This skill line provides substantial support, so even if Storm Calling isn't your primary focus, it's definitely worth considering as a second or third skill line to enhance your solo build both offensively and defensively. It's a fantastic choice overall!
6. Siphoning (Nightblade)
While often seen as a healing skill line, Siphoning's ultimate generation, sustain capabilities, and solid damage make it a strong choice for solo builds.
Siphoning Attacks restore magicka and stamina while healing you when you deal damage. Skills like Swallow Soul and Sap Essence heal you based on damage dealt, with Sap Essence scaling healing based on the number of target hit.
The passive skills in the Siphoning skill line are surprisingly effective. For instance, Magicka Flood will now increase both stamina and magicka by 6%, rather than just magicka. Additionally, Catalyst will provide an impressive 30 ultimate when you are consuming a potion. You'll also benefit from increased healing done with Soul Siphoner and a significant amount of passive ultimate generation through Transfer.
Overall, the Siphoning skill line of the Nightblade class is a valuable asset, offering substantial ultimate and healing, making it an excellent choice for any solo build.
5. Grave Lord (Necromancer)
Grave Lord is known for its comprehensive buffs, debuffs, and passives. Skills such as Shocking Siphon provide significant sorcery and prophecy, while Skeletal Mage enhances weapon and spell damage. In addition, Unnerving Boneyard offers AoE major breach, and the Frozen Colossus ultimate provides AoE major vulnerability.
Your damage output with Grave Lord's skills is also quite impressive, featuring abilities like Blighted Blastbones for AoE damage and Shocking Siphon for damage over time.
The Grave Lord passives are particularly strong, especially Death Knell, which grants a 20% bonus crit chance when enemies are in execute range. This is significant when combined with some of the S-tier solo skill lines, as enemies will melt away rapidly.
You also gain access to Dismember, providing valuable passive penetration—an excellent advantage for solo play. Additionally, the Rapid Rot passive offers a 10% bonus to damage-over-time effects.
If you're looking to enhance your damage while also securing buffs and debuffs for solo gameplay, the Grave Lord skill line from the Necromancer is definitely worth considering.
S-Tier Skill Lines for Subclassing
These S-tier skill lines provide significant damage and utility through both skills and passives. For many builds, it's essential to incorporate at least one of these as your primary skill line, as they are exceptionally powerful.
4. Dawn's Wrath (Templar)
The Dawn's Wrath skill line features Radiant Destruction, an excellent execute skill that can heal you with the Radiant Glory morph.
You also have several other powerful damage skills, such as Vampire's Bane, which provides strong damage over time and grants access to major prophecy and savagery. Solar Barrage offers even more damage while also applying the empower buff. Additionally, Purifying Light is beneficial for solo play, as it provides healing.
The passives in this skill line are equally impressive. Illuminate grants bonus spell damage through minor sorcery, which is a significant boost. The Restoring Spirit passive offers substantial cost reduction. Furthermore, the Prism passive enhances ultimate generation.
As you can see, Dawn's Wrath presents a wealth of excellent options and strong passives, making it one of the best skill lines for soloing in ESO.
3. Aedric Spear (Templar)
Aedric Spear has the legendary DPS skill Puncturing Sweep, which heals you and deals AoE damage. This skill can serve as the foundation for an entire solo build.
Another skill that is highly recommended for solo play, which many players overlook, is the damage shield skill, Radiant Ward. With this skill, your shield becomes stronger with each enemy you hit.
Blazing Spear is also an excellent DoT option within this skill line. If you have enough space on your bar, you can even include Focused Charge for a gap closer and major protection.
However, what truly distinguishes Aedric Spear from other skill lines in ESO are its passives, many of which can be utilized without even slotting an Aedric Spear skill—making them valuable for one-bar builds.
Recently, several of Aedric Spear's passives received buffs, such as Spear Wall, which now grants minor protection and minor berserk. There's also the classic Burning Light passive, which provides a significant boost to magic damage. Additionally, Balanced Warrior has been enhanced to increase both weapon and spell damage by 6%, a substantial buff for endgame builds. Lastly, the Piercing Spear passive offers a 10% increase in critical damage when you slot an Aedric Spear ability.
Overall, this skill line is definitely worth considering for any subclassing solo build.
2. Assassination (Nightblade)
The Assassination skill line focuses on damage, particularly critical damage. Key skills include Impale or Killer's Blade for a strong single-target execute and Surprise Attack or Concealed Weapon for single-target DPS. The ultimate ability, Soul Harvest, provides massive single-target damage while generating ultimate with each kill. Additionally, Relentless Focus, recently buffed to stack up to 10 times, passively grants up to 400 weapon and spell damage—an incredible boost.
The passives from the Assassination skill line are among the best in the game right now. For instance, Master Assassin increases your critical chance by about 7% while flanking, although this may not be as beneficial for solo players unless you're using companions or pets.
Next, the Executioner passive provides significant sustain, restoring 1,000 magicka and stamina per kill, which is massive for solo play. Pressure Points grants an additional 2.5% critical chance for each Assassination skill you have slotted. Hemorrhage adds another 10% bonus critical damage, and its minor savagery effect offers around 6% extra crit chance.
As you can see, these passives are excellent for soloing and significantly boost your damage potential. You only need to equip one Assassination skill on your skill bar to activate all these benefits. Combined with the other powerful abilities and a strong ultimate available in this line, Assassination becomes a highly effective skill line for subclassing.
1. Herald of the Tome (Arcanist)
The best one for soloing is the Herald of the Tome skill line from the Arcanist class. This skill line features Pragmatic Fatecarver, which is the best AoE damage skill in the game. With its strong damage shield and recent updates allowing it to deal direct damage, it pairs perfectly with the Reaving Blows champion point star for healing.
Almost every skill in this skill line is impressive, and they synergize well with each other. Cephaliarch's Flail is another standout skill; it heals you while rooting enemies in place and also builds Crux. Recuperative Treaties enhances your damage, restores resources, and passively builds up Crux as well. Additionally, The Languid Eye is an incredible ultimate in terms of damage output with a relatively low cost.
When it comes to passives, they are all extremely powerful. Notably, Fated Fortune provides a substantial 12% critical damage buff when you spend or build Crux. Splintered Secret is also excellent for solo gameplay, as it increases your penetration for each Herald of the Tome ability you have slotted.
Overall, this skill line equips you to dominate any content in the game, making it hard to overlook for subclassing. That's why it's the No. 1 choice in this guide.
Subclassing in ESO offers incredible flexibility for creating powerful solo builds tailored to your playstyle. Whether you favor high DPS, strong sustain, or tanky survivability, there's a skill line that fits your needs.
From the versatile support of Restoring Light to the raw power of Herald of the Tome, these top-tier skill lines can elevate your gameplay experience to new heights. Which skill line will you choose? Share your thoughts in the comments below! And don't forget to check out Hack The Minotaur's YouTube channel for more ESO tips and guides.
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