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The Best Class In ESO? Solo PvE Tier List

Deltia
Deltia
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Welcome to the ESO Solo PvE Tier List 2022. Update 33 launched, and it took me over two weeks to run all six classes through Veteran Vateshran arena, both magicka and stamina.  I used a simple setup for each magicka and stamina without mythics or trials gear which carries your survivability, damage and resource sustain. That way when you strip the class down to its bare bones something the average player would experience, how do these classes really perform paired next to each other?

Written Guide: https://deltiasgaming.com/eso-solo-pve-tier-list-2022/

I rated these classes in four categories
  • Raw Damage
  • Survivability
  • Ease of Play
  • Resource Sustain

Video Guide
https://youtu.be/k1dVDyQWs9g


Gear Setup Used
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S Tier Classes
  • Magicka Templar S+
  • Magicka Nightblade S
  • Stamina Sorcerer S-
A Tier Classes
  • Magicka Sorcerer A+
  • Stamina Nightblade A+
  • Stamina Templar A
  • Magicka Dragonknight A
  • Stamina Dragonknight A-
B Tier Classes
  • Magicka Warden B+
  • Stamina Warden B-
C Tier Classes
  • Stamina Necromancer C
  • Magicka Necromancer C-

#12 Magicka Necromancer | C-
The strength of the magcrow is very high raw damage, and in group play, the sough after ultimate Colossus.  But in a solo context, you must sacrifice your one strength to survive and sustain.  For instance, with a fully optimized magcro bars for damage, you’ll be doing nothing but rotating damage over times, buffs and babysitting blastbones.  Within 10 seconds you’ll be out of magicka with no one running skills and gear sets that increase your resource sustain like you would receive in a group. Naturally, you’ll then swap in two resource sustaining skills like elemental drain from destruction staff and consuming trap from the soul magic skill line BUT you’ll need to drop two abilities which are usually damage or survivability.

Great now your magcrow have resource sustain but now you’ll either hit like a noodle or die quick as a mosquito.  But it gets worse, far worse.

Magcrow was the worst in terms of ease of play.  Compared to a magplar that can press one button and no death Vateshran (yes I did this seem my previous video), I’m spending my entire time managing a million timers that don’t sync up, feel impactful or fun like a dragonknight.  I’m constantly recasting 2.5 second blast bones and the result was multiple deaths and frustration because it was over the top clunky.  I couldn’t take my eyes off my timers and there were so many things to manage I felt I was running a daycare with 10 two-year-old’s running around screaming.

Survivability falls into the same category as sustain.  The moment you start to add survivability or resource sustain skills, you lower damage significantly.  In group play, the magcrow will rock, but the more you adjust in order to survive and sustain, the weaker the class gets.
It’s funny because the magcro is my favorite PvP class to play in Cyrodiil, but in solo PvE, you end up with an over the top clunky, hot mess express frustrating dumpster fire.

#11 Stamina Necromancer | C
The next C Tier class, well you guessed it the stamcro.  Remember all the things above I said about the magcro? Well just stack stamina and you get the exact same scenario.

Mind numbing raw damage, but playing solo, without pale order, vicious ophidian or someone holding your hand healing for you tanking for you and giving you butterfly kisses before bedtime, you’re left with clunky two handed carve/heavy attack combing mess.
What made stamcro better than magcro then?  The fact that mortal coil was such a strong heal and 2h Carve skill has a built in shield, damage, and long lasting DoT as a main spammable.

Just because something is new doesn’t make it great, and the necromancer solo is an utter disaster without the carry gear sets.  Is this the same in a group? Absolutely not, where the necro shines with colossus ultimate and huge damage with other party members providing resource sustain and healing.  Then the class shines.  But solo, you couldn’t pay to make me play one.  Never mind, yeah you could (show randy moss straight cash homie). Moving onto the B Tier list and it’s the necro’s twin and my least favorite class overall in ESO and that’s….wait for it, the Warden

#10 Stamina Warden | B-
In the 10th spot we have the stamden and our first B Tier class.  The warden has the exact same issue the necro does, in the right situation, the amount of damage these two classes can produce is astonishing.  The problem is, you need specific gear sets like Dro’Zakar’s Claw from Moongrave Fane to unleash the full potential.  Not to mention a super complex bar setup stacking as much bleeds as possible with screaming cliff racer.

Playing solo without Pale Order?  Good luck getting one or two cast off before you have to back pedal post up and heal yourself relentlessly thus lowering your damage output and anything else you can bring to the table.

Sure you can add abilities like Lotus Blossom for improved healing, but you’re going to hit the same issue the necro has, striping and adjusting your damage bar results in a noodle damage or garbo sustain.

The survivability of the stamden is improved over the necro in my opinion due to the passive bond with nature giving you 1260 health when anytime your animal companion skill ends.  You can sustain some passive healing while offensive, but it’s nothing in comparisons to the sorc, nightblade and praise talos the all mighty Templar.

Overall the stamden is fun, looks cool, does a lot of damage in group PvE in the right hands and has slightly better survivability but the abysmal resource sustain makes it B tier solo for me and something I don’t enjoy without a specific gear loadout carrying my sustain.

#9 Magicka Warden | B+
And now we have the magden, which is in a much better spot due to the hybridization of skills.  Now you can use stamina-based skills which scale in effectiveness off whatever’s highest allowing us to change morphs of deep fissure to subterrain assault, freeing up magicka sustain and increasing our damage and ease of play.

The magden can use stamina off stat more efficiently for damage and use a skill like elemental drain for major breach and further optimize resource sustain, damage and survivability.

Now you have a hard-hitting class, with good resource sustain survivability but the downside is, magden lacks any sense of identity. Is it a frost class?  Is it melee?  Is it ranged? With multiple ranged spammable options and a hard-hitting semi melee skills like subterrain assault you’re placed in this odd sort of hybrid range setup lack of identity that no one class experiences.
The magden is average in a lot of departments and feels like it took advantage of the hybridization and moved up my ranking.  Next up is the A tier classes and one that made MASSIVE improvement due to the hybridization is the Dragonknight.

#8 Stamina Dragonknight | A-
Previously, the DK lacked any form of survivability without pale order, but one change fundamentally altered the DK was burning embers, a magicka based morph now healing per second rather than at the end of the skill duration.  This allows for about 2,000 heals per second with a single class-based skill.  Combine Burning Embers with another class skill like Cinderstorm, and now you’re looking at 4,000-5,000 heals per second giving a massive boost the survivability and the main hang-up off the class.
Unlike the necromancer, the DK damage over time, seem fluid and easily to maintain without the need for babysitting a 2.5 second ability like Blastbones.  And unlike the Warden the DK can rely on Battleroar for resource sustain using ultimates.  And furthermore, the charged trait and combustion passive combustion means if you front bar the charge trait with poison glyph your stamina sustain and DoT pressure is through the roof.

So why isn’t DK #1?  In solo play long lasting DoTs aren’t as useful as pure burst damage.  Your ultimate Standard of Might lacks mobility and you don’t have near the survivability as other classes though its improved.  StamDK comes in just a little bit behind the other classes ahead.

#7 Magicka Dragonknight | A 
What the magicka dragonknight does better than stamina dragonknight is resource sustain and healing.  You can use skills like draw essence to do not only big time aoe damage but huge, massive healing.  You can use elemental drain for major breach and minor magicka steal, thus allowing magdk to play more aggressive without sacrificing damage for sustain and healing.  This is the ultimate strength of magicka builds in comparison to stamina.

Sure, stamina can sit there, and spam carve for survivability, but in with magicka class, you can continue your rotation while passively getting healed giving it an inherit advantage.

The MagDK has mind numbing AoE, DoTs and sustained damage, but it lacks in simplistic and easy of play.  Moreover, it doesn’t have the healing the other classes due even though it’s improved dramatically.

#6 Stamina Templar | A
Next up is the stamina templar which epitomizes ease of play.  Unlike the previous stamina classes, I was able to survive without the use of carve spam.  Making the Stamplar jump ahead the other classes, partly because of the restoring focus and orc passive.  Giving you strong 2,000 heals per second in your rune and 2125 health ever 4 seconds via the unflinching rage passives.  The stamplar survivability wasn’t #1 for stam classes but it was up there for these reasons.

The ease of play is where the class really shines, it’s the opposite of the necromancer.  Put up one or more damage over time effects and just hit biting jabs repeatedly.

I didn’t even use an execute because jabs spam was so strong it can out preform my execute and frees up a bar slot for something like camo hunter giving me major brutality and major savage buffs without potions.

Sustain is also up there with skills like repentance, restoring focus and magicka based abilities like ritual of retribution magicka based but does massive AoE damage.  You can even swap mores of power of the light to purifying light to get even more healing allowing the class to do well without the need for exotic gear.

So, what’s the downside?  The Stamplar still doesn’t have the survivability of the other classes, nor does it have the raw damage.
This is a super strong class that doesn’t need pale order or vicious ophidian to run through the hardest content in the game.

#5 Stamina Nightblade | A+ 
The stamina nightblade is the single target raw damage killer with unmatched damage.
In terms of raw single target damage, nearly nothing matches it with skills like Incapacitating strikes and Relentless Focus. Your passives give you extra critical damage, penetration from the flank and more critical for slotting abilities. Thus, you end up with the absolute single target killer in solo content.

The other strength of the stamina nightblade is mind numbing resource sustain.  You have Incapacitating strike rewarding light attack resources, leaching strikes, and execution passive.  You also have two super hard hitting magicka based abilities like twisting path and Dark Shade, so you’re not limited to casting just stamina abilities for damage. Moreover, healthy offering is a solid choice for burst heals, magicka based freeing up your stamina for damage rather than survivability and buffs.

The downside? It’s not that simple.  You have a bit more complex rotation, ultimate usage, managing your potions and survivability just isn’t the same as the other tiers. You also don’t have the AoE of a dragonknight, the healing of a templar nor the simplistic of the mag sorc.
Stamblade remains my favorite solo stamina class in ESO, and it was hard not putting it into S tier.  Without pale order there were just other classes that had easier survivability, resource sustain and simplicity and one of which was the Sorcerer.

#4 Magicka Sorcerer | A+ 
It’s very hard not to put the magicka sorcerer in S tier and if there’s any argument to be made that my tier list is hot garbage this is it.  In a solo context, the sorcerer does everything well.

Resource sustain is a breeze with passives like capacitor increasing magicka recovery by 10%, power stone reduces the cost of your ultimate by 15% and rebate giving you back stamina or magicka when your Daedric summoning abilities end. Combine this with Elemental Drain from the destruction staff and it’s very easy.

In terms of raw damage, single target sorcerers absolutely melt especially with base class skills like greater storm atro.  The single target pressure it provides will dominate any boss, and it’s longer duration of 28 seconds with lower ultimate cost from power stone mean you can have very high up time.

And survivability, that’s an absolute breeze with S Tier skill like critical surge giving you health when critically striking. Basically, a mini pale order.  But if that weren’t enough you have Blood Magic passive giving you even more health back when hitting a dark magic ability like crystal fragments.

Ease of play is also good with a couple of different loadouts.  No pet, 1 pet or two pet.  Giving you management buffs and debuffs and using the pets for healing, decoys and damage.

Well why isn’t sorcerer number one?  It lacks in sheer AoE and doesn’t excel in this department and feels like to a single target nuke.
It doesn’t have the god tier ultimate generation of magblade nor the mind-numbing healing of a templar.  With mythics, trials gear, and a sweaty playing the magsorc, it might be #1, but the average player I still think it’s a bit behind its sibling and that’s the Stam Sorc.

#3 Stamina Sorcerer | S-
SHOCKER, I rated stamina sorcerer higher.  All the above applies with the mag sorcerer, ease of play, insane survivability, resource sustain, but one big improvement and that’s AoE damage.  With skills like Hurricane, Caltrops, Carve, you just melt massive groups where the mag sorc just cannot.

Now with hybrid changes, the stam sorc gets access to curse, fury and the pets.  Giving them off stat high burst single target or AoE skills.
When I ran both mag sorc and stam sorc, the truth was the stamina sorcerer effortlessly mowed through entire groups of mobs. Sure, the stamina sorc did better in single target, but the entirety of Vateshran was easier on a stam sorc.  AoE pulls, deleted, single target with storm atro, melted.  Survivability when 20 mobs beating on me, Carve, critical surge was insane.  I’d highly recommend this class if someone wants s tier survivability, aoe, easy of play and a very unique solo experience.  Moving onto our top two, and it’s very hard to rank the next class number 2, but that’s the magicka nightblade

#2 Magicka Nightblade | S
Deep breath, no it’s not number one.  Let me start by saying what the magblade does well, and that’s everything.
You can do mind numbing single target and aoe damage with sap essence and swallow soul healing you while dealing damage.  You have in class execute with 28-meter range keeping you at a safe distance and a huge advantage for most players.

You have great resource sustain with skills elemental drain and siphoning spell combining damage, healing and sustain.
You have the most ultimate generation possible with soul harvest giving you back ultimate upon kills which stacks with the fighter’s guild passive banished the wicked giving even more back if you slot an ability on you front bar.  Allowing you roll utlimates back to back.
The downside? The magplar does effortless dps while healing and outperformed every single class in survivability, ease of play, and resource sustain.  It was number 1 in three categories and I couldn’t ignore it.

#1 Magicka Templar | S+
Shocker, the best is the magplar with AoE puncturing sweeps, healing you for damage done, purifying light a hard-hitting abiliity that heals you while standing in the aftereffects, channeled focus healing you and giving you resource sustain.  You can expect about 10,000 heals a second while doing damage.  Not to mention you can use living dark and tank the entirety of craglorn without your health bar moving.  Outside of a heavy attack one shot mechanics, magplar is invincible.

The resource sustain was also better than any other class with just elemental drain and channeled focus allowing you to run two DoTs like blazing spear and unstable wall.  Two front bar dots like barb trap or degeneration and purifying light.  You end up with a super simplistic, hard hitting, aoe melting, indomitable force.  I thought of every reason to not rank Templar #1 but even chat was dumb founded at the damage and healing.

When 5 people watching asked if this is Veteran mode Vateshran, you know the class is dominating and there’s not much more to say about the templar than that.

Thanks for reading!  Come watch me live.https://twitch.tv/deltiasgaming
In-game @deltiasgaming | deltiasgaming.com for Elder Scrolls Online [ESO / TESO] Guides
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