Mechanically, you should be fine in all the base game dungeons with 2 people. 2 companions may help a bit, especially if you have one of them on boss tanking duty as it frees up the 2 real players to do real dps. I've found that companion tanks can hold most base game dungeon bosses fairly well, but companion dps and heals are very lackluster compared to what a player could do.

Companions are hit and miss. As a tank, Bastian deals very well with heavy-attacking melee bosses. His blocking of those attacks is basically flawless. On the other hand he is terrible for standing in red and dying quickly. Even when he doesn't, I find you have to throw him some heals above the one's he's able to do himself. I never went very far into configuring him, but went with the setup Deltia made when companions came out.

I find companions more trouble than they're worth. You can solo all base game dungeons in veteran hard mode, except where mechanics prohibit it, such as the pressure plates in Direfrost Keep. In the latter case you can duo them. If you're running dungeons on normal, you are decently geared and you know how to play, you should be well able to do them from CP160 onwards. I say CP160, because that's where the gear you're investing in will stay useable long term.

There are several YouTubers who specialize in solo builds with claims, such as "this is OP", "unkillable", "god mode" and so on. I recently reviewed one such video and tested the concept from another. Neither held up in hard content, such as for soloing veteran dungeons and arenas, although they might be fine for normal mode. Hyperbolic claims are a shame, because there are real and pronounced differences in how solo builds perform or, more specifically, in how tanky and comfortable they are to play. Let me give you some pointers:

• If you play a stamina character, use a 2-handed weapon and check out the Brawler skill (Morphed from Cleave). Hits multiple targets in front of you and gives you a damage shield every second you swing it. This is the single most comfortable soloing tool I know of. The key to successfully soloing with this is merely to build for enough stamina sustain, e.g. above 2K or as much as needed for your class and race. You need to be able to keep swinging and stay on the attack at all times, so you get the shield. The second prong is to have some gradual, ongoing healing while doing that. More on that below.
• If you can stomach farming (normal) Dragonstar Arena to get a Titanic Cleave weapon to go with using Brawler, then this is highly recommended.
• If you play a magicka templar, just spam Puncturing Sweeps. It deals damage to everything in front of you and heals you. You won't be as tanky as with Brawler, but it's the same principle. Stay on the attack for the win and, again, build for enough sustain so you can do that. Use Channeled Focus.
• If you play a magicka nightblade, you will feel squishier than a templar, but the same principle applies, except you use two skills, Swallow Soul and Sap Essence. One is single target, one is AOE. One is a heal over time (Swallow Soul), the other is a once off heal (Sap Essence). If you feel increased pressure, make sure to use both skills. Use Swallow Soul once every 10 seconds and Sap Essence otherwise. This is, again, a magicka consuming playstyle, so make sure to build for enough sustain and use Siphoning Attacks.
• If you play a sorc, use Crit Surge and build for decent crit (40%+). If you are a stamsorc, the combination of Crit Surge, Hurricane and Brawler goes a long way. You will feel tankier than a magplar. Same principle as always. Heal while doing damage.
• On any class: Get the Pale Order ring. Enough said.
• On any magicka spec, wear Hexos Ward as your front bar set (overland set, buyable in guild traders). Hexos Jack, Hexos weaponry, 2x jewelry. It gives you a shield while doing damage. Is it as good as Brawler? No. Not by a long shot actually, but that's only something you discover in really hard content, e.g. soloing veteran mode stuff. In normal mode it should feel as good as Brawler, especially combined with the better healing options that magicka classes tend to have.
• Pay attention to health regen. This is somewhat optional, but it's another way to heal you while staying on attack. Strategic Reserve CP gives you 1.5K health regen that you can stack with your built-in regen, gold food and percentage buffs from class passives, such as slotting Bound Armaments on sorc, Repentance on templar or being a nightblade. If you're relying on that, you can't use your ultimate. It's not something I recommend for most builds, but I built an outright tank that does just that.
• Pay attention to your crit % rating. Use a Precise weapon. Wear Divines gear. Either use the Serpent or Atronach mundus for sustain or the Thief mundus for crit. Slot Magelight or Camouflaged Hunter. There are all sorts of fancy armor sets in the game, but most are there to confuse you, side-track you and keep you busy (the cynical view) or to have fun (the not cynical view). If you're wearing Hexos Ward and Pale Order, pair that with another set that includes some crit and round it out with 1x Slimecraw. Wear mostly light (mag spec) or medium armor (stam spec) for the crit and sustain. If dual-wielding, go for daggers. Crit rules for PvE and sustain rules for staying on the attack. The more crit the more damage. The more damage, the more healing. You should have 50% to 60% crit with a typical Hexos Ward build. Even my patented vet hard mode tank solo build has 45% crit.

If you play other classes, warden, necro, DK, tell us and we can probably come up with something. Basically, though, the Pale Order Ring + Hexos Ward + staying on attack takes care of everything for a lot of content.

Note how I haven't mentioned healing skills or active shield skills. It's good to have one burst heal or damage shield skill in your build for emergencies. However the goal is to never use that skill. Always stay on attack and heal from being on the attack. If you find healing and shield skills useful, you're either PvPing or you're playing content that is not actually hard. Once you play harder content you will find that you need to stay on the attack. Heals and shields are expensive. Being on the attack is cheap. Casting a heal or shield is a second wasted where you are not killing things. This may sound paradoxical, but when the going gets tough you can't afford that. Offense is the best defense is never more true than in ESO.

you can solo all game dungeons (base+dlc) on normal difficulty. Including:

- Direfrost (plates -> snipe + charge door exploit on troll, then leave and re-enter the dungeon after boss)
- Wayrest 2 (first boss -> cast Healing Springs on companion who deal with boss)
- Blackheart (last boss -> 1-2k base health regen + Pale Order + any boost to light attacks)
- Imperial Prison (two levers -> NB's Shade teleport skill)
- Whitegold Tower (first boss -> use companion while unlocking the cage, in this case boss will not respawn)
- Mazzatun (last boss -> Pale Order ring will insta heal you while shooting statues since each shot does 130k damage)
- Moonhunter (first boss -> kite him after 30% hp)
- Fang Lair (skeli ghost boss -> immediately use Precognition right after last tick of chain mechanic)

@fred4 all great advice, thank you. I would add that sets like Briarheart are good options: more crit plus every crit heals you

Crimsonorion wrote: »

So I'm mainly talking the base-game Dungeons, but is it possible to duo them with companions? [2 players each with a companion]. A friend recently picked up this game and likes doing story quests, but other then joining a guild its very rare to PUG with a group thats willing to wait for story elements. Infact multiple times I've seen someone join a dungeon, say they are doing the story and people either ignored them and just blazed thru, or even tried to get them kicked.

So basically just wondering if my friend and I could 2 person the old base game dungeons?

I've done this very thing with a friend when I decided to stop being a chicken and get my clears on the base-game "II" dungeons and earlier DLC dungeons I hadn't completed. We're both well-geared and generally competent stamblades, and went with a healer Bastian and DPS Bastian. (My friend generally tanked since his DPS is higher than mine.) We successfully cleared all of the (normal) dungeons we tried, and those were among the harder dungeons in the game, so you'll probably be in fine shape doing regular base-game stuff.

We're actually planning to story-mode duo Coral Aerie and Shipwright's Regret sometime today, so we'll see how that goes.

Update: Both dungeons down, so that worked out just dandily.

Direfrost door charge still works:
Oh i forgot Fungal Grotto 2. Actually this dungeon is probably the hardest one atm lol due to upredictable teleport mechanics from 3rd to last boss (spider lady boss). You can't lure her to the bridge, it 100% doesn't work now (at least my attempts failed several times). And cave teleport mechanics is like 50/50 - she will or will not respawn. And companion always port with you.