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Elementalist DPS Build - ESO Guide

DPS Two Bar Magicka Subclass Dragonknight Warden Sorcerer
Up to date for: Update 46 - 29th July 2025
Last changed: Update 46 - 29th July 2025
This is a roleplay build where I'm not always choosing the most optimal option

Elementalist DPS build which combines Fire, Ice and Lightning themes to deal a lot of damage. It is intended for Group content, not Solo.

This build also provides group support at all times, it increases everyone's chance to inflict Status Effects by 100% thanks to the Status Knife and it increases enemies' Flame damage taken by 6%. I will also include a gear setup using Alkosh and Zen's Redress, if you want to fulfill the Zenkosh support role.

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Subclassing

Ardent Flame
Dragonknight
Winter's Embrace
Warden
Storm Calling
Sorcerer

This build can use either Dragonknight, Warden or Sorcerer as your base class.

Skill Setups

Base Setup

A base setup that will work for most situations and which should be your starting point when making situational setups

Molten Whip Burning Embers Hurricane Traveling Knife Barbed Trap Power Overload
Flames of Oblivion Arctic Blast Engulfing Flames Stampede Winters Revenge Standard of Might
Front Bar Back Bar
Slot 1: Molten Whip Slot 1: Flames of Oblivion
Slot 2: Burning Embers Slot 2: Arctic Blast
Slot 3: Hurricane Slot 3: Engulfing Flames
Slot 4: Traveling Knife Slot 4: Stampede
Slot 5: Barbed Trap Slot 5: Winter's Revenge
Ultimate: Power Overload Ultimate: Standard of Might
  • Molten Whip - a strong spammable that will deal more damage after using other Ardent Flame skills (in this skill setup it's going to be Burning Embers, Flames of Oblivion, Engulfing Flames and Standard of Might) and will also grant you 300 Weapon and Spell Damage
  • Burning Embers - a single target DoT which heals you for 100% of the damage it causes
  • Hurricane - a skill that deals a lot of damage per cast and triggers the Expert Mage passive, increasing your Weapon and Spell Damage by 108
  • Traveling Knife - a skill that increases enemies' chance to get affected by Status Effects by 100% which is a decent DPS boost for you and your entire group. It will also grant you Major Brutality and Sorcery, increasing your Weapon and Spell Damage by 20%.
  • Barbed Trap - a DoT that will also apply Hemorrhage status effect at the start and grant you Minor Force buff, increasing your Critical Damage by 10%. It will also trigger the Slayer passive
  • Power Overload - an ultimate we won't be using most of the time, but we'll keep slotted on frontbar for the passive 108 Weapon and Spell Damage from Expert Mage passive. When starting a fight with a lot of Ultimate stored up you can use Power Overload light attacks until you're at 250 Ultimate and only then cast Standard of Might
  • Flames of Oblivion - an ability that deals lots of damage per cast and passively grants you crucial Major Savagery buff, which increases your Critical Chance by 12%. It will also empower your Molten Whip
  • Arctic Blast - an ability with a higher chance to proc the Chilled status effect, which deals increased damage thanks to the Glacial Presence passive
  • Engulfing Flames - an AoE DoT that will empower your Molten Whip and increase enemies' Flame damage taken by 6%
  • Stampede - a gap closer which leaves a ground DoT under your target which will constantly proc your Weapon Damage enchantment and increase your Direct Damage done thanks to Merciless Charge set
  • Winter's Revenge - a ground DoT that deals massive damage when you count in the Chilled procs, triggered thanks to this skill's increased innate chance to proc status effects
  • Standard of Might - an extremely strong ultimate that will deal AoE damage, increase all of your damage done and decrease your damage taken. Try to stack up your DoTs before using it

Burning Embers is the first skill that has to go when you need to slot something situational, unless the situational skill specifically says that it's replacing something else, or unless you need the heal from Burning Embers. Winter's Revenge is the second skill that has to go

  • Elemental Susceptibility - use it as your source of Major Breach whenever you're assigned to mechanics that separate you from your group, like for example portal in the Nahviintaas fight, Reef Hearts in the Reef Guardian fight, bridge in the Taleria fight, etc.
  • Resolving Vigor - a more reliable self heal for fights where you can't heal with Burning Embers (because enemies become periodically immune) or with Arctic Blast (because you're constantly surrounded by enemies)
  • Critical Surge - a very strong self-heal which is also a source of Major Brutality and Sorcery
  • Proximity Detonation - extremely good ability for trash packs, you can pre-cast it as you're running into them
  • Ulfsild's Contingency - decent AoE spammable which will deal high damage thanks to the Piercing Cold passive
  • Northern Storm - an Ultimate you should use in trash packs. It's weaker than Standard of Might when you can utilize its full duration but this will almost never happen in trash packs which usually die way faster
  • Whirling Blades - a Stamina-costing AoE spammable which also executes low Health enemies. Very useful because this build struggles with Magicka sustain, especially in trash packs

Priority List

This is just a list of priorities. Simply recast abilities when they run out and follow this list of priorities when there are multiple things to refresh.

Pre-buff

These abilities can be pre-cast before entering combat

Final Setups

A few examples of final setups you could end up with after applying the situational skills to the base setup

A setup for trash packs

Molten Whip Engulfing Flames Hurricane Ulfsilds Contingency Whirling Blades Power Overload
Flames of Oblivion Arctic Blast Proximity Detonation Stampede Winters Revenge Northern Storm
Front Bar Back Bar
Slot 1: Molten Whip Slot 1: Flames of Oblivion
Slot 2: Engulfing Flames Slot 2: Arctic Blast
Slot 3: Hurricane Slot 3: Proximity Detonation
Slot 4: Ulfsild's Contingency Slot 4: Stampede
Slot 5: Whirling Blades Slot 5: Winter's Revenge
Ultimate: Power Overload Ultimate: Northern Storm

What Changes

Changes compared to the Base Setup

Passives

There are no passives you need to skip with this build.

Class

Weapon

Armor

Guild

Racial

Craft

Class - Ardent Flame

CombustionCombustion - High Priority

WarmthWarmth - High Priority

Searing HeatSearing Heat - High Priority

World in RuinWorld in Ruin - High Priority

Gear

Base Setup

A base setup that will work for most situations and which should be your starting point when making situational setups

Switching gear for trash packs isn't worth it unless you're using gear-swap addons.

Default setup

When choosing different situational sets you should usually replace Slivers of Null Arca and Zaan. Runecarver’s Blaze is very strong in both Single Target and AoE fights so most of the times there's no point in replacing it.

The base setup uses 2 Medium and 5 Light armor pieces. You can gain more DPS from using more Medium armor but it'll cause sustain issues so you'll have to get additional sustain from for example changing food. You might also already have bonus sustain from certain racials, like for example from being a Breton

For example, a default setup for trash packs would replace Slivers of Null Arca with Sul-Xan's Torment and Zaan with Velothi Ur-Mage's Amulet

Gear that can be stronger than the setup from the table in specific situations or when specific circumstances are present

  • Ansuul’s Torment - the most reliable set which works well both in Single Target and AoE fights. It has a penetration line which allows you to use more Medium Armor
  • Velothi Ur-Mage's Amulet - the best option for trash packs and AoE fights where your Light Attacks weren't contributing much to the total DPS anyway
  • Sul-Xan's Torment - the best set for trash packs and for bosses that regularly spawn smaller adds
  • Highland Sentinel - the strongest set if you are able to stand still in a certain encounter
  • Roar of Alkosh - a support set that allows you to provide 6000 penetration for your team, as long as they provide you with at least 1 synergy every 10 seconds. It's extremely beneficial to have at least 1 Alkosh user in groups.
  • Ze’n’s Redress - a support set which increases enemies damage taken by up to 5% based on your amount of DoTs. This build has enough DoTs to always get the 5% bonus without any changes to the skill setup.

Gear that is easier to obtain and can be used while you work towards the best gear

Crafted:

All of these are tradable and can be bought from other players

No Overland, Dungeon or Trial gear is listed as the Crafted options are superior.

Final Setups

A few examples of final setups you could end up with after applying situational rules to the base setup

This is the crafted gear setup you can start with

What Changes

Changes compared to the Base Setup

  • Use Training traits if you're still leveling. If you're already max level and have enough Champion Points you can instead use Divines
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Champion Points

WarfareWarfare
Deadly Aim
6% Single Target Damage
Master-at-Arms
6% Direct Damage
Wrathful Strikes
205 Weapon and Spell Damage
Fighting Finesse
8% Critical Damage and Healing
AoE Fights
Replace Deadly Aim with Biting Aura in AoE fights.
Adds
In fights with lots of adds Siphoning Spells and Bloody Renewal can be stronger than Rejuvenation and Sustained by Suffering.
FitnessFitness
Boundless Vitality
1400 Max Health
Fortified
1731 Armor
Sustained by Suffering
150 Health, Stamina and Magicka Recovery when debuffed
Rejuvenation
90 Health, Stamina and Magicka Recovery
CraftCraft
Steed's Blessing
20% Movement Speed out of combat
Extremely useful utility
Quality of Life
Green Champion Points don't affect Combat, choose whatever Quality of Life you prefer

Race

The difference between best and worst race is about 5% of DPS and there is no content in the entire game that you'd be blocked from completing because of choosing a bad race.

High Elf
Best for 12-Man
High Elf
Why pick this
Provides Max Magicka and Weapon/Spell Damage. In Trials that's usually stronger than Khajiit's Critical Damage racial, because with 4 supports your team will (usually) provide enough Critical Damage buffs for you to reach the cap regardless
Spell Recharge Spell Recharge ≈104 lower resource per second, 5% less damage taken while channeling
Syrabane's Boon Syrabane's Boon 2000 Max Magicka
Elemental Talent Elemental Talent 258 Weapon & Spell Damage
Dark Elf
Best for 12-Man
Dark Elf
Why pick this
Provides Max Magicka and Weapon/Spell Damage. In Trials that's usually stronger than Khajiit's Critical Damage racial, because with 4 supports your team will (usually) provide enough Critical Damage buffs for you to reach the cap regardless
Dynamic Dynamic 1910 Max Stamina & Magicka
Resist Flame Resist Flame 4620 Flame Resistance
Ruination Ruination 258 Weapon & Spell Damage
Khajiit
Best for 4-Man
Khajiit
Why pick this
Khajiit's Critical Damage is more valuable than High Elf/Dark Elf's Weapon/Spell Damage in 4-man content, because it's unlikely your two supports (or in many cases a single support) will be able to provide enough Critical Damage buffs for you to reach the 125% Critical Damage cap
Feline Ambush Feline Ambush 12% Critical Damage
Lunar Blessings Lunar Blessings 915 Max Health, Stamina and Magicka
Robustness Robustness 90 Health, Stamina, Magicka Recovery

Other decent options

Orc
Orc
Brawny Brawny 1000 Max Stamina
Unflinching Rage Unflinching Rage 1000 Max Health, ≈531 Healing per Second
Swift Warrior Swift Warrior 258 Weapon & Spell Damage, -12% Sprint Cost, +10% Sprint Speed
Breton
Breton
Gift of Magnus Gift of Magnus 2000 Max Magicka
Spell Attunement Spell Attunement 2310 Spell Resistance (doubled when Burning, Concussed or Chilled), 130 Magicka Recovery
Magicka Mastery Magicka Mastery -7% Magicka Cost

Mundus

The Thief
Default
The Thief
5.53% Critical Chance (9.04% with 7 Divines)
When to use
Use most of the time

Attributes

You should always put all 64 attribute points into Magicka.

Health
0
Stamina
0
Magicka
64
All points into Magicka

Food

Max HealthMax Magicka
Use for most content. Solitude Salmon-Millet Soup is a cheaper alternative.
Max HealthMax MagickaMagicka Recovery
Use when you need more sustain. Witchmother's Potent Brew is a cheaper alternative.
Tomato Garlic Chutney
Full Damage
Max Magicka
Max Magicka only. Use for parsing or content where you can get away without Max Health.
Max MagickaMagicka Recovery
Use when you need Magicka Recovery without Max Health.

Potions

Tri-Stat Potion
Default Tri-Stat Potion
Restore HealthRestore StaminaRestore Magicka

Most of the time you should use Tri-Stat potions for the extra resources and healing.

Heroism Potion
Full Damage Heroism Potion
Minor HeroismRestore StaminaRestore Magicka

Heroism potions are an expensive damage option because they generate Ultimate.

Parses

Runecarver
125k DPS
Highland
132.3k DPS
Zenkosh
107.7k DPS
Runecarver
125kDPS
Patch
Update 46
Armor
2 Medium / 5 Light
Gear Setup
Runecarver
Skill Setup
Regular
Potion
Essence of Magicka
Mundus
The Thief
Race
Dark Elf
Combat Metrics screenshot of the 125k parse
CMX Parse
CMX Screenshot
CMX Setup
CMX Screenshot
Highland
132.3kDPS
Patch
Update 46
Armor
5 Medium / 2 Light
Gear Setup
Highland Sentinel
Skill Setup
Regular
Potion
Essence of Magicka
Mundus
The Thief
Race
Dark Elf
CMX Parse
CMX Screenshot
CMX Setup
CMX Screenshot
Recording of a 132k parse with Highland
Parse recording
Zenkosh
107.7kDPS
Patch
Update 46
Armor
6 Medium / 1 Light
Gear Setup
Zenkosh
Skill Setup
Regular
Potion
Essence of Magicka
Mundus
The Thief
Race
Dark Elf
CMX Parse
CMX Screenshot
CMX Setup
CMX Screenshot

Gameplay

Lucent Citadel
Trial
Kyne's Aegis and Lucent Citadel
Trial
Lucent Citadel
Trial Veteran
Kyne's Aegis and Lucent Citadel
Trial Veteran


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