Maintenance for the week of February 23:
• NA megaservers for maintenance – February 23, 4:00AM EST (9:00 UTC) - 12:00PM EST (17:00 UTC)
• EU megaservers for maintenance – February 23, 9:00 UTC (4:00AM EST) - 17:00 UTC (12:00PM EST)
• ESO Store and Account System for maintenance – February 23, 4:00AM EST (9:00 UTC) - 12:00PM EST (17:00 UTC)
We will be performing maintenance on the PTS on Monday at 4:00AM EST (9:00 UTC).
Addressing Dragonknight Power Level on U49 PTS
As we noted in our
PTS Week 1 Summary, we know there’s a desire to see the power level for Dragonknight increased. We’ve looked at your feedback surrounding some of the reworked skills and have made adjustments that will be live on Week 3 of PTS.
Below is an early look at the upcoming adjustments for DK:
Ardent Flame
- Lava Whip: This ability and the Flame Lash morph now generate 5 stacks of their empowered forms for 20 seconds, rather than enabling the ability to cast the ability as many times as you can within 7.9s (at most, 7 casts). Increased the damage by 40% to account for less casts. Overall, this should make both versions of the ability much easier to use in a rotation, rather than feeling like you must choose between uptime of other abilities and the super sick flip whip.
- Flame Lash: This morph now also grants 12% damage done to monsters for 30s after activating if you are a Dragonknight.
- In a future PTS update this will be increased to 15% for 45s but only if all stacks are consumed – to help avoid turning it into a passive buff effect and more of a reward for using the ability to its maximum effect.
- Molten Whip: This morph now grants 5% damage done against monsters per stack, rather than 85-100 Weapon and Spell Damage. This effect only activates if you are a Dragonknight. Seething Fury no longer generates stacks if you have Engulfing Dragonfire slotted on either bar.
- Developer Comment: We’re intentionally inflating some of the damage of the Dragonknight class in the short term to help the class stand up to snuff with other current meta options, while we find more long-term solutions and continue work on other class refreshes. Expect these values/effects to be adjusted over time!
- Searing Strike: Increased the damage of this ability and its morphs’ damage over time effect by 50% per tick. This takes these to the same strength as a normal 20 second DoT, but over half the duration, making their overall DPS twice as strong, rather than 50% stronger. This change was done to account for the loss of GCD activations, as the previous iterations resulted in a very minor damage gain with perfect uptimes, making the change feel more like a horizontal shift than a gain.
- Searing Claw: Reduced the damage bonus per tick to 10%, down from 24%, to account for the base increase. This damage effect is now built into the base damage calculation, rather than as an additional damage taken modifier, which should make the increase more accurate and performant.
- Core of Flame: Fixed an issue where this ability and its morphs were missing the 15% bonus potency modifier to their damage to account for their delays.
- Soul of Flame: Fixed an issue where the Stamina restore of this morph was incorrectly based off your missing Magicka.
Draconic Power
- Dragonfire Breath: Increased the damage per tick of this ability and the Disintegrating Dragonfire morphs’ damage over time effect by 50% per tick.
- Disintegrating Dragonfire: Fixed an issue where the Major Breach from this morph was not extended by Elfbane.
- Dragon Leap: This Ultimate and its morphs now determine what type of CC will play based on the type of enemy they hit. Players are knocked back 4 meters and stunned for 2 seconds, while monsters are knocked into the air and stunned for 3 seconds. This change was done based on the discussions we saw come up - where much of the powerful feeling and benefits of knocking enemies away is lost in the context of PvE.
Earthen Heart
- Magma Armor
- Corrosive Armor: Reduced the damage limit to 12% of your Max Health, rather than 8%, to better account for the raw offensive power this Ultimate provides. The damage over time effect now only targets monsters, rather than any enemy, to offer healthier PvP balance.
- Developer Comment: We’re better differentiating some of the buffs made to this ultimate from PTS 1 in efforts to help still reach our goals of making the ability more effective in PvE, while toning down how much impact it brings in PvP by reducing the defensive capabilities further and removing the high damage over time.
- Molten Weapons
- Molten Armaments: Reduced the cooldown of the damage of this morph to 1.5s to help it function better with Heavy Attack builds that are quicker than 2s completion times, to have better pairing with the Empower this morph grants.
- Blessing at the Peak: This passive now triggers off casting OR dealing damage with Earthen Heart abilities, instead of only casting. This passive now grants 5|10% Critical Damage.
We hope you’ll find these adjustments more in line with your expectations. Please keep the feedback coming and let us know what you think when these changes arrive on the PTS on Monday, January 26.
Edited by ZOS_Amy on January 29, 2026 5:00PM