Top 10 Subclassing Builds for ESO Update 46

The subclassing system in The Elder Scrolls Online represents a fundamental shift in character building philosophy, allowing unprecedented flexibility in combining class passives. With thousands of viable combinations emerging in Update 46, players can now create truly hybrid characters that transcend traditional class boundaries. After extensive gameplay testing and theorycrafting, we’ve identified the most powerful and enjoyable subclassing configurations that cater to every playstyle from solo adventuring to competitive PvP.

Strategic Insight: When planning your subclassing build, focus on passive synergies rather than active skill combinations. The most successful builds leverage complementary passives that enhance your primary playstyle without creating conflicting ability requirements.

Contrary to common misconception, werewolf forms gain substantial benefits from class passive combinations, creating surprisingly versatile hybrid characters. The key lies in selecting passives that enhance your transformed capabilities without relying on class-specific active abilities.

Class Passives

Storm Calling (Sorcerer)

The Capacitor passive delivers comprehensive resource recovery improvements across health, magicka, and stamina pools. Energized specifically amplifies physical damage output, while Amplitude creates an execution-style effect that scales with enemy health depletion.

Aedric Spear (Templar)

Burning Light generates additional damage procs, and Balanced Warrior provides a flat 6% increase to both offensive and defensive capabilities.

Grave Lord (Necromancer)

Rapid Rot provides a 10% damage boost to all damage-over-time effects. This synergizes exceptionally well with werewolf DoT abilities like Claws of Life and Brutal Pounce, creating sustained damage pressure that many players underestimate.

Gear Optimization

Tide-Born Wildstalker delivers specialized monster-hunting capabilities with its 12% direct damage enhancement.

Order’s Wrath improves critical performance metrics through enhanced chance and multiplier values. Oakensoul Ring consolidates multiple buff effects into a single item, while Slimecraw’s single-piece bonus further elevates critical strike potential.

Common Mistake: Many players overlook the importance of penetration in werewolf builds. Ensure you maintain at least 7,000 penetration against standard PvE enemies for optimal damage output.

This pet-focused build creates a veritable army of summoned companions that handle multiple combat roles simultaneously. The visual spectacle of commanding numerous creatures makes this one of the most entertaining builds in the current meta.

Minion Management

Daedric Summoning (Sorcerer)

Summon Unstable Clannfear serves as your primary tank, reliably drawing enemy attention while you position strategically.

Summon Twilight Tormentor delivers consistent damage pressure, while the Twilight Matriarch morph provides substantial emergency healing capabilities.

Animal Companions (Warden)

Eternal Guardian ultimate provides a resilient bear companion that automatically revives upon defeat.

Grave Lord (Necromancer)

Death Knell passive creates a powerful execution mechanic with 20% critical chance against low-health targets.

Dismember contributes significant penetration values exceeding 3,000, dramatically improving solo content performance.

Solo Capabilities

Deep Fissure applies both major and minor breach effects, cumulatively reducing enemy armor by approximately 10,000 resistance points.

Advanced Tip: Position your Skeletal Arcanist to maximize its area-of-effect coverage while maintaining safe positioning for yourself.

Gear Sets

Maw of the Infernal introduces an additional fire-breathing pet to your growing army.

Sergeant’s Mail significantly amplifies heavy attack damage sequences, particularly effective when weaving between skill activations.

The Oakensoul Ring eliminates bar-swapping complexity while delivering comprehensive buff coverage that enhances all your summoned companions.

This optimized subclassing variation transforms the traditional one-bar heavy attack sorcerer into an even more potent damage-dealing machine.

Heavy Attack Focus

Storm Calling (Sorcerer)

Critical Surge provides consistent passive healing that scales with your damage output, creating exceptional survivability for solo engagements.

Energized passive specifically enhances shock damage output, directly benefiting lightning staff heavy attack channels.

Assassination (Nightblade)

Relentless Focus stacks up to 10 times, delivering a substantial 400 weapon and spell damage bonus at maximum stacks.

Grave Lord (Necromancer)

Unnerving Boneyard delivers area control with major breach and minor vulnerability applications.

Crit Optimization

Soul Harvest ultimate increases damage against marked targets by 20% while refunding 10 ultimate on successful eliminations.

Practical Strategy: Maintain Relentless Focus stacks by regularly activating the spectral arrow, which also provides burst healing when needed.

Master Assassin provides additional critical chance while flanking enemy positions.

Executioner passive enhances sustain metrics, while Pressure Points and Hemorrhage collectively push critical chance values beyond 70% even with basic gear sets.

Gear Sets

The Oakensoul Ring consolidates essential major and minor buff effects into a single equipment slot.

Sergeant’s Mail specifically amplifies heavy attack damage output through its specialized set bonuses.

Storm Master offers superior critical performance for players prioritizing maximum damage output.

Slimecraw’s single-piece effect further complements critical metrics.

This PvP-focused subclassing build specializes in precisely timed area-of-effect burst damage sequences combined with debilitating enemy debuffs.

Timed Combos

Draconic Power (Dragonknight)

Dragon Leap ultimate delivers explosive burst damage combined with mobility enhancement and crowd control effects.

Animal Companions (Warden)

Deep Fissure applies armor reduction effects that set up devastating follow-up attacks.

Grave Lord (Necromancer)

Blighted Blastbones contributes additional area damage while applying major defile to reduce enemy healing capabilities.

Battlefield Control

Pestilent Colossus ultimate creates massive damage spikes when coordinated with other ability activations.

Execution Technique: Synchronize Deep Fissure, Blighted Blastbones, and Dragon Leap to create catastrophic mid-air detonations that can eliminate multiple opponents simultaneously.

Common Mistake: Players often activate their ultimate abilities independently rather than combining them for maximum impact.

Gear Sets

Balorgh enhances damage and penetration metrics following ultimate usage, making it exceptionally effective in PvP scenarios where burst windows are critical.

Dagon’s Dominion amplifies your damage spikes through its area damage enhancement properties.

Wretched Vitality compensates for sustain limitations when not utilizing the Dragonknight’s Earthen Heart skill line and its Battle Roar passive benefits.

Subclassing enables healers to combine the most powerful restoration and support abilities from multiple class kits, creating unprecedented group utility potential.

Group Utility

Green Balance (Warden)

Maturation passive provides the entire group with minor toughness, increasing maximum health pools by 10%.

Siphoning (Nightblade)

This skill line dramatically accelerates ultimate generation rates, significantly enhancing the build’s overall effectiveness in demanding endgame content.

Restoring Light (Templar)

Extended Ritual delivers essential area purge capabilities for removing detrimental effects in challenging encounters.

Sustain Management

Catalyst passive generates 30 ultimate whenever you consume a potion, creating exceptional resource management flexibility.

Magicka Flood passive provides additional 6% magicka and stamina reserves.

Soul Siphoner passive increases all healing output for each siphoning ability you have active on your skill bars.

Critical Reminder: Always maintain at least one Siphoning skill on each ability bar to fully leverage the comprehensive passive benefits.

Gear Sets

Spell Power Cure provides major courage through overhealing mechanics, which this build generates abundantly through passive and over-time healing effects.

Master Architect can be strategically slotted on your back bar alongside Aggressive Horn to provide your group with consistent major slayer access.

Nazaray extends debuff durations on enemy targets.

Symphony of Blades ensures consistent group sustain through its specialized resource regeneration properties.

Ozezan The Inferno offers supplemental armor and healing enhancements.

Modern tank builds achieve remarkable versatility through subclassing combinations, with the Dragonknight serving as an excellent foundation while remaining flexible enough to incorporate alternative class options.

Group Protection

Earthen Heart (Dragonknight)

Battle Roar passive delivers exceptional sustain benefits when utilizing ultimate abilities.

Soldier of the Apocrypha (Arcanist)

Cruxweaver Armor grants major resolve while debuffing enemies with minor breach effects and generating crux resources simultaneously.

Siphoning (Nightblade)

Siphoning Attacks represents arguably the most powerful sustain skill currently available in the game.

Ultimate Generation

Mountain’s Blessing passive enhances group damage output through additional weapon damage contributions.

Stone Giant optimizes group damage potential by increasing the damage enemies receive when multiple debuff effects are stacked effectively.

Advanced Technique: Use Runic Sunder as both melee and ranged taunt mechanism, effectively conserving valuable skill bar real estate for other essential abilities.

Gibbering Shelter ultimate provides substantial protective shielding that extends to benefit allied characters within range.

Circumvented Fate passive provides minor evasion benefits to your entire group.

Implacable Outcome passive generates additional ultimate whenever you consume crux resources.

Gear Sets

Saxhleel Champion maximizes major force uptime through efficient ultimate generation, which this build accomplishes exceptionally well.

Powerful Assault provides viable alternative configuration options that can be easily maintained on your back bar using Razor Caltrops from the Assault skill line.

Archdruid Devyric stands out as one of the most powerful choices due to its on-demand major vulnerability application capabilities.

Subclassing unlocks exceptional damage potential for DPS builds, particularly when leveraging the Arcanist class foundation with carefully selected complementary passives.

Crux Management

Herald of the Tome (Arcanist)

Fatecarver consumes all accumulated crux, increasing damage output by 33% per crux consumed, creating massive damage spikes when properly managed.

Assassination (Nightblade)

Relentless Focus provides passive 400 weapon and spell damage stacking without requiring active ability usage.

Damage Optimization

Master Assassin passive grants an additional 6.6% critical chance while attacking from flanking positions.

Dawn’s Wrath (Templar)

Radiant Glory excels in single-target engagements, potentially outperforming Fatecarver in specific encounter scenarios.

Solar Barrage enhances all class skill damage by 5%, not limited exclusively to Templar abilities, making it exceptionally valuable for subclassing configurations.

Prism passive contributes to ultimate generation efficiency.

Illuminate passive provides minor sorcery benefits.

Restoring Spirit passive reduces skill and ultimate costs across your entire ability toolkit.

Strategic Insight: Starting as an Arcanist enables faster crux generation through the class-specific mechanics.

Gear Sets

Tide-Born Wildstalker excels at enhancing direct damage against monster-type enemies, directly benefiting Fatecarver and Radiant Glory damage outputs.

Silver of the Null Arca represents another powerful DPS option for players with trial access seeking maximum build optimization potential.

Velothi Ur-Mages Amulet provides consistent 15% damage enhancement at all times through its mythic item properties.

This specialized build focuses on mastering the three primary magical elements—fire, shock, and frost—through strategic subclassing combinations that create comprehensive elemental mastery capabilities.

Fire/Shock/Frost Elements

Ardent Flame (Dragonknight) – Fire Element

This skill line establishes a cohesive fire magic thematic foundation while delivering versatile damage and healing capabilities particularly effective for solo gameplay scenarios.

Storm Calling (Sorcerer) – Shock Element

Boundless Storm delivers area shock damage while providing defensive armor and movement speed enhancements.

Elemental Synergies

Grave Lord (Necromancer) – Frost Element

Grave Lord’s Sacrifice enhances all damage-over-time effect performance across your entire ability toolkit.

Advanced Strategy: Rotate between elemental types based on encounter requirements—fire for sustained damage, shock for area control, and frost for crowd management applications.

Unnerving Boneyard provides frost-damage area effects with major breach applications.

Glacial Colossus ultimate applies area major vulnerability to enhance group damage output against affected targets.

Rapid Rot passive increases DoT damage output by 10%, creating sustained pressure against enemy health pools.

Dismember passive contributes additional penetration values that improve damage performance against armored opponents.

Gear Sets

Deadly Strike specifically amplifies damage-over-time effects and the channeled portions of shock staff attacks.

Runecarver’s Blaze adds bonus fire damage to every DoT effect you apply, resulting in substantial cumulative damage enhancement over extended engagement durations.

Zaan enhances fire damage output through its specialized set properties.

Sea-Serpent’s Coil improves damage reduction metrics while providing access to major berserk and major courage effects, both exceptionally valuable for solo content performance optimization.

For players seeking a truly unique gameplay experience, the Ultimate Frost Mage build delivers specialized cold-based magical capabilities primarily designed for solo adventuring while maintaining straightforward adaptation capabilities for group content scenarios.

Crowd Control

Herald of the Tome (Arcanist)

Tentacular Dread not only deals frost damage in a frontal cone area but also roots enemies in place while causing them to receive up to 11% increased damage when maintaining three crux stacks.

Winter’s Embrace (Warden)

Ice Fortress provides comprehensive armor buffing capabilities.

Solo Adaptation

Northern Storm/Permafrost ultimate provides defensive capabilities particularly valuable for solo gameplay where self-sufficiency is paramount.

Grave Lord (Necromancer)

Glacial Colossus ultimate applies area major vulnerability to affected enemies.

Death Knell passive grants bonus critical chance against low-health targets.

Dismember passive contributes additional penetration values that enhance damage performance against armored opponents.

Rapid Rot passive enhances all damage-over-time effect performance across your ability toolkit.

Gear Sets

Frostbite set boosts frost damage ability performance by 8%.

Order’s Wrath increases critical chance and critical damage metrics simultaneously.

Iceheart complements the frost-themed build concept effectively.

Ring of Pale Order provides exceptional self-healing capabilities that dramatically improve solo content performance metrics.

Technical Note: Chilling Contingency from the Mages Guild Scribing system enables creation of ice-based spammable abilities using specialized scripting configurations.

Survivability Focus

Aedric Spear (Templar)

Puncturing Sweep serves as your primary damage source while providing supplemental healing through its damage-dealing mechanics.

Animal Companions (Warden)

Deep Fissure applies major and minor breach effects to enemy targets.

Assassination (Nightblade)

Merciless Resolve grants bonus damage output and burst healing capabilities.

Magic Damage Enhancement

Piercing Spear passive grants 25% bonus critical damage enhancement.

Spear Wall passive provides minor berserk and minor protection benefits simultaneously.

Burning Light passive enhances magical damage output across your ability toolkit.

Balanced Warrior passive provides comprehensive damage and armor enhancement effects.

Soul Harvest excels in single-target damage scenarios where focused elimination is required.

Master Assassin passive grants additional critical chance benefits while attacking from flanking positions against enemy targets.

Gear Sets

Tide-Born Wildstalker represents one of the optimal choices for Templar builds since Biting Jabs deals direct damage type effects.

Critical Distinction: War Maiden specifically enhances “magic damage” type effects rather than elemental damage categories like shock, frost, or fire damage types.

The Oakensoul Ring simplifies gameplay mechanics through its one-bar configuration benefits while maintaining comprehensive buff coverage capabilities.

Slimecraw’s single-piece effect further enhances critical chance metrics.

The subclassing system fundamentally transforms character building possibilities in The Elder Scrolls Online, enabling creative combinations that transcend traditional class limitations. These top 10 builds represent starting points for your own customization journey rather than rigid templates requiring exact replication.

Build Customization

Experiment with alternative class combinations based on your preferred playstyle and available skill lines. The most successful subclassing builds often emerge from personal experimentation rather than strict adherence to established meta configurations.

Future Updates

As the ESO meta continues evolving with subsequent updates and balance changes, these builds provide solid foundations that can be adapted to future gameplay developments and balance adjustments.

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