Hi all! I'm by no means an expert (or even journeyman) of game mechanics, but I couldn't find an up-to-date reference on unarmed combat in Elder Scrolls Online, so I tested some things out on the PTS and am posting them to share with the two or three other people who might be interested in.

This is not an idea thread or a request for an unarmed skill line. This is a resource for players who, like me, wish to play an unarmed monk-type character in spite of the fact that they're not very good.

So, in short, here are the things that I tested and what the results were:

Stamina
With recent balance changes to how light/heavy attack damage is calculated, Stamina now plays a significant roll in how hard your unarmed strikes will hit.

Weapon Damage
Weapon damage also still increases unarmed attack damage.

Proc Sets
I tested a small sampling of random proc sets, and they generally behaved as you'd expect. Unarmed attacks can proc melee, physical damage, and light/heavy attack-based procs. This is extremely useful, of course, since proc damage doesn't scale with player weapon damage at all.

I'd also like to note that the oft-overlooked Undaunted Unweaver/Infiltrator 5-piece bonus increases unarmed attack damage. While these sets aren't very good for general use, they might be helpful in some niche unarmed builds.

Weapon Swapping
Since Wolfhunter, you are now able to swap between two unarmed skill bars, or from an equipped bar to an unarmed bar. Woo-hoo!

Off-hand Weapons/Shields
Since Wolfhunter, equipping a weapon or shield in your off-hand will trigger a glitch in which your light and heavy attacks have no animation. You can still fight, but it's like you're punching the enemies with your mind.

Unfortunately, if you actually want the aesthetic of an unarmed brawler, it means going without any weapon or shield stats at all.

Physical Weapon Expert Champion Perk
Unarmed strikes do not get any benefit from this perk. Monks, spend your champion points elsewhere.


Imbue Weapon
The damage from Imbue Weapon does proc from unarmed light/heavy attacks. (This seems obvious, but you never know what weird exceptions you might encounter!)


Enchantments/Poisons
Enchantments and poisons still do not proc if you are fighting unarmed.


I'm sure I'm forgetting to include some of my test results here, as I quite cleverly forgot to write anything down. Feel free to ask if you have any questions.