Class Tier List

Updated for Update 44

Introduction

This tier list serves as a comprehensive overview of all the classes in relation to eachother for PvP. The position a class gets on the ladder is decided by looking at its healing, mobility, general survivability, burst damage, pressure over time and its utility in groups.

The classes are not separated into stamina and magicka variations and are rather looked at as a whole. This is because many builds are fully hybrid now, combining the best both sides have to offer without regards to the stamina or magicka “theme”. It is still possible to build a “pure” stamina or magicka spec for any class, but often that is not the most competitive choice. And a tier list, by its very definition, has to look at what works best.

A tier list is a controversial subject, and thus it might very well be that you disagree with a part of it or with the entire thing. If you want to discuss about it, join my Discord server.

D Tier: Necromancer

Necromancer fills the weakest spot in PvP for a long time now, although due to the amount of healing and forgiving nature of the gameplay in general these days, any class is playable given the right build. That is also why this tier list starts at D tier, representing a lower average performance, rather than the F tier, which would mean completely unplayable.

The reason Necromancer is not absolutely terrible is that it does still have decent survivability through a lot of passive damage reduction, decent sustain and healing. Its offense is rather weak and it does not have good Crowd Control abilities, which means that this part of a build needs to be compensated by the (proc) sets, scribing skills or other non-class skills.

C Tier: Arcanist

The Arcanist is the newest class added to ESO, and it performs averagely in PvP. Its defensive capabilities are very good, because it has excellent health scaling healing. This means it’s possible to build high health and still keep some of the highest healing in the game. However, the damage the arcanist offers is pretty lackluster. Although on paper it should shred (pun intended) with Fatecarver having some of the highest damage tooltips in the game, in practice this skill is quite delayed and difficult to hit enemies with. This forces many Arcanist builds to resort to non-class utilities such as proc sets or niche bash builds to carry the damage output. Alternatively, it can be played as a support spec in for example organised ballgroups.

B Tier: Templar

Like Arcanist, Templar has good defensive options especially if a player can hold his or her ground in a specific spot. This way, it’s a rather easy class to get into but it’s difficult to perform very well at. Its class spammable, Jabs or Puncturing Sweeps, deals a mediocre amount of damage that is easily dampened by Major Evasion. Other spammables such as through the scribing skills and weapon skills or Arterial Burst should be considered. Furthermore, Templar lacks a good burst option in its toolkit. Power of the Light or Purifying Light deals only weak damage and is still barely viable after a recent buff. Thus, Templars are often forced into using sets like Mechanical Acuity or Balorgh (or both) to at least get some burst through their build. The class can be played on a ranged spec and is often considered a staple for a healer build in low to mid tier PvP. The best part of its offensive toolkit is the finishing ability: Radiant Glory or Radiant Oppression.

B Tier: Dragonknight

This class has been up and down tier lists a lot during the game’s history, and now find themselves ranked as a decent class at B tier. The constant damage Dragonknight offers is some of the highest pressure the game, although it can also use its ultimates (Take Flight, Corrosive) to deal good burst damage. The latter often comes with specific builds using Mechanical Acuity. The survivability is usually supplied by its decent healing options and Daedric Trickery, Bloodspawn and/or Rallying Cry. It is played exclusively as a melee brawler setup, a rigidity which does impact its rating on a tier list.

A Tier: Warden

Warden is one of the easiest classes to survive on, with high max health builds and excellent healing skills. This way it can be extremely tanky. It also has access to one of the highest Area of Effect (AoE) burst toolkits with Deep Fissure, Northern Storm and Dawnbreaker of Smiting. It is an excellent pick for both beginners due to its straightforward healing and damage combos and for experienced players due to the high survivability and cleave burst. At first, it was more popular to play this class in a Two-Handed Stamina or Hybrid spec, but now Magicka/Frost Wardens have taken over in combat prowess. Other than that, it is also popular for healing builds and in organised ballgroups.

A Tier: Nightblade

Nightblade is a versatile, high damage class for both single target and AoE purposes. Traditionally, it relied on a playstyle with quick, unexpected bursts of damage and a quick retreat afterwards using Shadowy Disguise and Shadow Image. While it still has these tools available, the class now also benefits a lot from a strong healing toolkit and good sustain. This makes it playable in a brawler playstyle and it’s able to compete with the regular brawler classes in survivability. Another big benefit of this class is the build flexibility: it can be played as a regular solo brawler or mobile build, as a bomber or a ganker and it performs very well as a damage spec in organised ballgroups.

S Tier: Sorcerer

Sorcerer offers a fast and agile playstyle that requires good positioning and kiting for optimal performance. However, nowadays the class performs extremely well even without using these tools. For a “kite” class that can deal good ranged damage and retreat quickly, the survivability is currently too easy mostly due to the buffed Hardened Ward. The most common variation of Sorcerer is a Maximum Magicka-based spec, which invests a lot in this stat in order to maximize both damage and defense since Hardened Ward scales off either Magicka or Health.