ESO Best DPS Subclassing Combinations – Unleash Your Ultimate Damage

by JFFK · June 1, 2025

Welcome to our ESO Best Subclassing DPS Combinations article on the most impactful subclass combinations in The Elder Scrolls Online Update 46! The introduction of the revolutionary subclassing system has fundamentally shifted the landscape of damage dealing in The Elder Scrolls Online, offering unprecedented opportunities to fuse powerful skill lines from different classes.

While dedicated single-class builds remain viable for general content, mastering subclassing is now considered crucial for those aiming to achieve the absolute highest levels of performance, especially when pushing leaderboards in challenging endgame content.

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At the forefront of the DPS meta stands the Arcanist’s Herald of the Tome skill line. Its impressive high-damage abilities, such as the formidable Fatecarver with its expansive AoE potential, combined with significant damage and penetration passives, make it an unrivaled choice. Furthermore, being an Arcanist base class grants a unique advantage thanks to the potent Arcanist Class Mastery on the Banner Bearer ultimate, which reliably generates essential Crux.

More Subclassing DPS Builds:

ESO Update 46 Meta DPS Subclass: Arcanist, Nightblade, Templar

Type: PVE Meta DPS for trials and dungeons

Arcanist –

Herald of the Tome

Nightblade –

Assassination

Templar – Aedric Spear

This combination of Arcanist, Nightblade, Templar subclasses in ESO allows you to cherry-pick some of the strongest damage-boosting passives and skills from their class lines. Choosing these skill lines leverage the strong penetration and core DPS abilities of Arcanists Herald of the Tome skill line (especially the Fatecarver Beam), the critical chance, critical damage, and passive damage boosts from Nightblades Assassination skill line, and the powerful passive effects from Templars Aedric Spear skill line that contribute direct damage with Burning Light, general offensive and defensive stats from Balanced Warrior, and crucial critical damage that can influence group buffing strategies Piercing Spear.

Related: ESO Arcanist Subclasses Build – Subclassing Optimized

Herald of the Tome (Arcanist) Skill Line Explained

The combination of Banner Bearer with Arcanist’s Class Mastery Script, and the Cephaliarch’s Flail skill increases crux generation significantly, making Arcanist the strongest choice as a base class. The Arcanist passive Fated Fortune provides 12% Crit Damage from Crux gain/spend, which is essential for reaching the Critical Damage cap of 125%.

Herald of the Tome Skills
- Fatecarver “the beam” skill is the primary damage source for arcanists. Fatecarver and it’s morphs consume crux and is now affected by sources that buff direct damage.
- Cephaliarch’s Flail skill generates crux, heals you if an enemy is damaged and applies an Abyssal Ink debuff to enemies, making them take 5% more damage from you.
Herald of the Tome Passives
- Fated Fortune Increases your Physical and Spell Penetration by 991 per Herald of the Tome ability slotted.
- Harnessed Quintessence passive. When you are restored Magicka or Stamina, increase your Weapon and Spell Damage by 284 for 10 seconds.
- Psychic Lesion passive increases damage dealt by Status Effects by 15% and Status Effect Chance by 55%.
- Splintered Secrets passive increases your Physical and Spell Penetration by 1240 per Herald of the Tome ability slotted.
Other
- Arcanist Class Mastery Script with Banner Bearer is crucial for generating crux. The other scripts depend on the group composition.

Assassination (Nightblade) Skill Line Explained

Assassination skill line offers the Hemorrhage passive, providing critical damage. The skill line generally grants beneficial penetration and critical damage passives. Players often look to drop their weakest original class skill line for Assassination due to these strong passives.

Assassination Skills
- Incapacitating Strike A strong ultimate for damage and burst
- Killer’s Blade is one of the strongest execute skills in the game.
- Relentless Focus on the backbar to gain a very high Spell Damage bonus without ever having to touch the skill.
Assassination Passives
- Hemorrhage – Boosts Critical Damage by 10%and grants Minor Savagery.
- Pressure Points – Increases Spell Critical for each Assassination skill slotted.
- Master Assassin – Increases Penetration against enemies you are flanking.

Aedric Spear (Templar) Skill Line Explained

Templars Aedric Spear is considered as the “least slot-intensive” option among potent skill lines for its passives. The Burning Light passive alone provides significant free damage simply by assigning skill points to it. The line also offers weapon/spell damage, armor, and excellent execute scaling.

Aedric Spear Passives
- Piercing Spear passive Increases Critical Damage by 10%
- Balanced Warrior passive increases your Weapon and Spell Damage by 6%.
- Burning Light deals massive extra damage.

ESO High AOE DPS Subclass Combination: Arcanist, Nightblade, Necromancer

Type: PVE AOE DPS for trials and dungeons

Arcanist –

Herald of the Tome

Nightblade –

Assassination
Necromancer –

Grave Lord

Together, the Arcanist, Nightblade, and Necromancer Subclasses form a formidable damage-dealing package. This combination brings together the essential crit chance and crit damage buffs and valuable passive damage from Nightblades Assassination skill line, the powerful area damage and key passives for penetration and crit damage fromArcanists Herald of the Tome skill line, and strong damage-over-time buffs, execute crit, utility skills like Blighted Blastbones, and the Glacial Colossus ultimate from NecromancersGrave Lord skill line. Slotting a Grave Lord skill can provide additional penetration through the Dismember passive when needed.

Herald of the Tome (Arcanist) Skill Line Explained

Herald of the Tome Skills
- Fatecarver “the beam” skill is the primary damage source for arcanists. Fatecarver and it’s morphs consume crux and is now affected by sources that buff direct damage.
- Cephaliarch’s Flail skill generates crux, heals you if an enemy is damaged and applies an Abyssal Ink debuff to enemies, making them take 5% more damage from you.
Herald of the Tome Passives
- Fated Fortune Increases your Physical and Spell Penetration by 991 per Herald of the Tome ability slotted.
- Harnessed Quintessence passive. When you are restored Magicka or Stamina, increase your Weapon and Spell Damage by 284 for 10 seconds.
- Psychic Lesion passive increases damage dealt by Status Effects by 15% and Status Effect Chance by 55%.
- Splintered Secrets passive increases your Physical and Spell Penetration by 1240 per Herald of the Tome ability slotted.
Other
- Arcanist Class Mastery Script with Banner Bearer is crucial for generating crux. The other scripts depend on the group composition.

Assassination (Nightblade) Skill Line Explained

Assassination Skills
- Incapacitating Strike A strong ultimate for damage and burst
- Killer’s Blade is one of the strongest execute skills in the game.
- Relentless Focus on the backbar to gain a very high Spell Damage bonus without ever having to touch the skill.
Assassination Passives
- Hemorrhage – Boosts Critical Damage by 10%and grants Minor Savagery.
- Pressure Points – Increases Spell Critical for each Assassination skill slotted.
- Master Assassin – Increases Penetration against enemies you are flanking.

Grave Lord (Necromancer) Skill Line Explained

The Necromancer Grave Lord skill line is a viable option for DPS, bringing significant contributions through skills like Blastbones, Boneyard, and Colossus, and valuable passives like penetration, execute crit, and dot damage buffs. Its effectiveness can depend on the specific build (beam vs dot) and content such as solo vs group, add heavy vs single target, nuke phases.

Grave Lord Ultimate
- Glacial Colossus ultimate increases group damage by applying the Major Vulnerability debuff.
Grave Lord Skills
- Blighted Blastbones is a strong damage skill
- Unnerving Boneyard skill provides AOE Major Breach and Minor Vulnerability and also offers a damage synergy for the group.
- Skeletal Archer skill could potentially be slotted to proc Grave Lord passives
Grave Lord Passives
- Reusable Parts passive When your Sacrificial Bones, Skeletal Mage, or Spirit Mender dies, the cost of your next Sacrificial Bones, Skeletal Mage, or Spirit Mender is reduced by 66%.
- Death Knell passive increases your Critical Chance by 20% against targets under 33% Health if you have a Grave Lord ability slotted.
- Dismember passive grants 1635/3271 Offensive Penetration when a Grave Lord ability is active.
- Rapid Rot increases your damage done with damage over time effects by 10%.

ESO Damage over time DPS Subclass Combination: Necromancer, Nightblade, Dragonknight

ESO Damage over time DPS Subclass Combination Necromancer, Nightblade, Dragonknight

Type: PVE DOT DPS for trials and dungeons
Necromancer –

Grave Lord

Nightblade –

Assassination

Dragonknight –

Ardent Flame

This combination of Necromancer, Nightblade, Dragonknight subclass brings together powerful Damage Over Time effects (DOTs) fromGrave Lord and Ardent Flame, exceptional passives from all three, especially Assassination for crit and Grave Lord/Ardent Flame for DOTs), strong spammable option ( Molten Whip,), potent ultimate choices ( Glacial Colossus, Standard of Might, Incapacitating Strike ), and useful debuffs like AOE Major Breach and Minor Vulnerability ( Unnerving Boneyard) and Major Vulnerability Glacial Colossus).

Grave Lord (Necromancer) Skill Line Explained

Grave Lord Ultimate
- Glacial Colossus ultimate increases group damage by applying the Major Vulnerability debuff.
Grave Lord Skills
- Blighted Blastbones is a strong damage skill
- Unnerving Boneyard skill provides AOE Major Breach and Minor Vulnerability and also offers a damage synergy for the group.
- Skeletal Archer skill could potentially be slotted to proc Grave Lord passives
Grave Lord Passives
- Reusable Parts passive When your Sacrificial Bones, Skeletal Mage, or Spirit Mender dies, the cost of your next Sacrificial Bones, Skeletal Mage, or Spirit Mender is reduced by 66%.
- Death Knell passive increases your Critical Chance by 20% against targets under 33% Health if you have a Grave Lord ability slotted.
- Dismember passive grants 1635/3271 Offensive Penetration when a Grave Lord ability is active.
- Rapid Rot increases your damage done with damage over time effects by 10%.

Assassination (Nightblade) Skill Line Explained

Assassination Skills
- Incapacitating Strike A strong ultimate for damage and burst
- Killer’s Blade is one of the strongest execute skills in the game.
- Relentless Focus on the backbar to gain a very high Spell Damage bonus without ever having to touch the skill.
Assassination Passives
- Hemorrhage – Boosts Critical Damage by 10%and grants Minor Savagery.
- Pressure Points – Increases Spell Critical for each Assassination skill slotted.
- Master Assassin – Increases Penetration against enemies you are flanking.

Ardent Flame (Dragonknight) Skill Line Explained

Dragonknights Ardent Flame skill line is used on DDs for its damage-over-time capabilities, sustain potential, and ability to synergize well in powerful subclassed combinations, particularly in non-beam setups.

Ardent Flame Ultimate
- Standard of Might ultimate deals Flame Damage and increases your damage done and reduces damage taken.
Ardent Flame Skills
- Venomous Claw skill is a powerful damage over time effect (dot) which also applies the Poisoned Status Effect.
- Engulfing Flames skill deals Flame Damage over time. Affected enemies take more damage from all Flame Damage attacks based on your Weapon or Spell Damage, and Max Magicka or Stamina, with a maximum of 6% bonus damage taken.
- Molten Whip skill can be used as a main spammable.
Ardent Flame Passives
- Combustion increases the damage from Burning and Poisoned status effects by 33% and restores 423 Magicka and Stamina when they are applied.
- Searing Heat Increases the damage over time of your Fiery Breath, Searing Strike, and Dragonknight Standard abilities by 25% and the duration by 4 seconds.
- Warmth causes direct damage from Ardent Flame abilities to increase the damage an enemy takes from your damage over time attacks by 6% and reduce their Movement Speed by 30%.
- World in Ruin Increases the damage of your Flame and Poison attacks by 5%.

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