Looking for Advice - Dual Wield Dragonknight (Leveling)

Draleon19 · December 2022

Hello everyone! I am new to the game and I am leveling up my Dragonknight, at the moment I am over level 30 and I mainly use dual wield weapons. At this point, I inflict pretty good damage but my sustain is horrible (when I run out of stamina I can only rely on basic attacks), can you help me craft a nice build to use while I finish to level up? Just one thing to keep in mind:

- I want to use skills from the Dual Wielding tree since I love the visual effects

Thanks, guys, I really appreciate your help, the character-building is really complex and confusing.

This is my current build at the moment: https://eso-hub.com/en/builds/38c77eaf-2013-45ad-b03b-3ddebff70c29/draleon-build-dragonknight?utm_medium=website&utm_source=esohubcom&utm_campaign=share_button

Stinkyremy · December 2022

Honestly I would not bother about any sort of build atm.
There is no content you can do that you will need a build for and any gear you get you will be out levelled for soon enough.
Just put on any gear you find at the time, ideally at least 1 piece of medium, heavy and light at all times to slowly help level all 3 of the gear weight skill lines.
Don't worry about actual gear you use until you reach past 50 and use all your enlightenment and don't worry about a build at all until past 160.
The most important thing you should be looking for in gear is if it has the training trait to help you level faster.
Saying that I wouldn't actually suggest levelling fast either, the early game from 0-50 is the best time you will have in the game. When you get 50 i will assume (now) you will level to 160 in a day or 2 and that is when you will want to build a build.

Of course if you want to get there faster you can find a crafter to make you training gear with decent crafted sets.
I am on PSN EU and will make you gear for free if you needed it.

EDIT: FYI, all those trash potions you find, you should have on your quick slots, you should be using a potion as soon as you can, that is what they are there for, also with DK, using ultimate gains you loads of resources, as long as you have skill points in the passives. Dragon leap is a low cost ultimate, slot that on one bar. Both these things will massively help with sustain.

Jarl_Ironheart · December 2022

For sets, good starter ones are Hundings Rage, Night Mother's, Orders Wrath, Ancient Dragonguard. I main a Stamina Dragonknight and one thing that helps with sustain is popping your burst Ultimate(Either Dragon Leap or Dawnbreaker) as often as you can with battle roar passive. Also potions. You can also add green dragons blood into the mix if you don't wanna waste potions

Ugrak · December 2022

Draleon19 wrote: »

At this point, I inflict pretty good damage but my sustain is horrible (when I run out of stamina I can only rely on basic attacks)

Use the molten armaments morph of molten weapons, maybe on your second bar if you don't want to replace your current setup. It increases the damage of your heavy attakcs. Heavy attacks regenerate stamina for you.
You can also put the green dragon blood morph there. As it will increase stamina recovery while active.
Go find the Serpent (stamina recovery) mundus stone: https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Online:The_Serpent_(Mundus_Stone)#:~:text=The%20Serpent%20is%20a%20Mundus,of%20increased%20combat%20stamina%20regeneration.
Go to a brewer in any inn and buy stamina recovery drinks. Increasing your stamina recovery for 30 minutes or something like that. You can also level up provisioning and make better versions yourself.
Use stamina potions.

On a leveling build generally you'll want to buff up, then cast one or two damage over time abilities, then heavy-attack as your main attack.

Later on with good sets, champion points and so on you can build to sustain much more intensive skill use.

Although your resistance will be low, you can get away with using level 1 armor all the way up. This is what I do with leveling sets. Their stats get scaled down as you level away from them, but some sets just do some flat percentage based bonus which isn't affected.

Some example sets (all crafted):

I like twice born star as one of the sets. It lets you use two mundus stones. Mechanical acuity is a good combination. Whether to go for divines or training trait is a judgement call.

I also use a combination of adept rider and heartland conqueror for my more xp focused alts. In training trait obviously.

WrathOfInnos · December 2022

Sustain is terrible for any pure stamina or magicka build, you have to mix in some skills from the opposite resource or you'll lose a lot of damage building for sustain. On DK, try using Engulfing Flames and Flames of Oblivion to utilize your magicka pool and relieve your stamina. You can also add Unstable Wall of Fire if you back bar an inferno staff, or Burning Embers if you don't mind giving up Venom Claw's increased damage in exchange for a self heal. One of the whip morphs is automatically hybrid, and has a low cost of both resources.

DK sustain is particularly difficult, and relies heavily on 2 passives:

Combustion - Restores 1000 Mag every time you proc Burning on an enemy, and 1000 Stam every time you proc Poisoned. To make full use of this, put Fire and Poison enchants on your front bar daggers, and I'd recommend the charged trait on your off-hand weapon (maybe even double charged daggers until you get enough Champion points to invest in more frequent status effects).

Battle Roar - Returns 50 Magicka and Stamina per point of Ultimate spent. This means you get at least 12500 of each resource every time you use your Standard of Might.

Potions are also critical for sustain, both from the restore and the recovery buff (invest in Alchemy passives for better uptime). Also be sure to invest in light and medium armor passives to reduce skill cost and increase recovery. After you reach max level there is a red CP that gives some additional recovery.

Zodiarkslayer · December 2022

There are also other food options with stamina recovery.

Lava-foot soup is best. You can use it from lvl1.
Doubious camoran throne is next in line, if you feel you need more health. Also usable from lvl1.
Both are affordable.

As a main attack you want to use a strong AoE, not a heavy attack (that is just bad advice, that locks you into poor single target). Whirling Blades is the obvious choice here.
Ignore single target skills until you hit cp160 and stop levelling. It just makes no sense to use single target skills on a group of 5 to 10 enemies.
And look for a place with big enemy groups and fast respawns. Draw several groups in and burn them down. Ideally they are Undead, Daedra or Werewolfs, so you can level the important Fighters Guild skill line, too.
My favourite is the church in Camlorn. There are a lot more good places.

And one more thing: Light Attacks.
Using light attacks adds an invisible buff to your character. It gives 3 ultimate per second for 9 seconds. That buff can be applied once per second.
I am guessing, that you have no other source for Ultimate. So, yeah, light attack as oftten as you can. A DKs sustain depends on it.