ESO PVP Builds

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Class Tier List

Updated for Firesong

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 or leave a comment in this YouTube video.

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6. Sorcerer

Sorcerer mainly takes its stronger toolkit from the stamina side of things. Usually classes have some decent healing in their skillines, but Sorcerer does not, so it has to rely a lot on mobility and the limited healing from Vigor, Dark Conversion and Surge. A pure Magicka Sorcerer commonly uses shields, but those too have become weak reflections of what they once were. In a nutshell, they cost more than regular heals, cannot crit and provide no secondary effects like other burst heals.

Its damage can be decent, but is again very reliant on stamina non-class skills and sometimes proc sets. The damage skills from the class itself are simple, without auxiliary buff or debuff effects that are strong enough to make a difference. Pets are good for pressure over time in duels, but die quickly in open world or even Battlegrounds, which robs the Sorcerer of reliable healing and damage. In conclusion, the class mostly provides good utility skills rather than basic combat skills like a good burst heal or shield or a good spammable. Sorcerers mostly run hybrid builds.

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5. Templar

Templars are rather difficult to place in a tierlist, with some finding it very good and others finding it lackluster after the nerfs it recieved recently. From this tier onwards, the classes do provide a good healing and damage toolkit. It also has good heals over time, although they are mostly ground-based, meaning that this class often focuses on securing an area to stand and fight in. It has no mobility skills, which further reimburses this playstyle, although any class can make use of Race Against Time to get some mobility. Its damage was the focus of nerfs, but it remains decent and Templars still have by far the best finisher in the game: Radiant Oppression. Contrary to Sorcerer, Templars mostly rely on their own class toolkit for healing and damage. This means only magplars are common, and stamplars have been reduced to a side spec that offers no benefits over magplar.

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4. Dragonknight

This class has been up and down tier lists a lot during the game’s history, and now find themselves in a good overall spot. Noticeably, this class offers one of the few remaining good pure stamina specs, with stamdk builds offering a unique feeling that is still effective. In the end though, adding magicka skills to a Dragonknight build brings improvements in damage and healing, meaning that hybrid specs are the best here as well. Dragonknight has great single target pressure, healing over time and all three of its ultimates are worth using. Many skills offer both damage and healing at once, which means that Dragonknights will attempt to maximize pressure on the enemy to get the most healing as well. Its only occasional struggle can be its sustain, but with Champion Points sustain can never really be an issue, causing this to be more of a minor issue.

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3. Necromancer

Necromancers are either above or at the same level as Dragonknights. This class also has a really good magicka toolkit, but can add in stamina skills to make a very strong overall build. The class includes one of the best burst heals in the game, excellent passive survivability through its heals over time and passives and a good aoe burst skill that can even give some line of sight. Blastbones is the better version of the Sorcerer’s Haunting Curse. Like the previous classes it has no mobility skills, but to be fair you do not really need any either with this amount of survivability. Honorable mention goes out to the Bombing Necromancer builds, which can wipe out big enemy groups in an instant.

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2. Warden

Starting here in this tierlist, the top two classes offer everything you could wish for. Wardens are similar to Necromancers, but have an edge in how strong their healing and burst skills are. On top of that, unlike Necromancer this class also has multiple good Crowd Control skills available. No matter whether you choose to go with a stamina setup with Two-Handed or Dual Wield skills or magicka setup with for example a frost build, Wardens got you covered. On top of that, this class also has a good mobility skill that offers a passive increase in damage as well.

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1. Nightblade

The uncontested best class right now is Nightblade. It has so many benefits to it that its main issue becomes choosing on which of its good playstyles and which of the many good skills to use. This makes build creation and theorycrafting here feel like entering a candy store. Defensively, not only does this class have some of the best burst heals and heals over time, but also one of the best mobility toolkits with Shadowy Disguise and Shadow Image. Offensively, this class offers a cheap single target burst ultimate, a strong AoE burst ult, the strongest hitting burst skill and arguably the best melee spammable in the game.