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130K Subclassed Arcanist Build for ESO Update 48

Introduction

For a long time now, the Arcanist has been the go-to class for maximum easy DPS. With the recent nerf to Mericless Resolve, all Arcanists took a dive in DPS from the mid 130s to around 120-125K DPS at best, with many falling to sub 110K. This build utilises the Templar Aedric Spear passives along with passives from the Nightblade assassination line to maximise the potential of the Fatecarver beam.

Here is the Superstar layout for the build, showing everything you need to know to make this powerful Arcanist DPS character in ESO as of November 2025

Build Discussion

Sets

The two main sets for this build to work are Slivers of the Null Arca from Lucent Citadel and Tide-Born, which is a crafted set. Essential is the Velothi Ur-Mage Amulet, and desirable is the Slimecraw helmet. Most of the pieces I use are Medium, with a heavy Slimecraw and a light Tide-Born sash to give the maximum Undaunted bonus for using the three weights. You can swap out Mora's Scribe for Null Arca for more AoE damage and higher overall Crit, but for main boss damage, stick with Null Arca. Finally, the Maelstrom Greatsword is a must for its massive increase in damage.

Lucent Citadel is not a difficult trial to gain pieces from on normal difficulty, even veteran is doable with a reasonable guild group.

Slivers of the Null Arca

Slivers of the Null Arca is a medium armour set in the Elder Scrolls Online that can be obtained in Lucent Citadel. It is part of the Gold Road DLC pack. Every 4 seconds, this set fires a crystal at the enemy that does physical damage. Note: The perfected version of this set will add a little more weapon and spell damage (129) and should therefore see a slight increase in damage, I would estimate about 2-3K.

Tide-Born

This is a Crafted set, so you can craft it in any weight you like. It adds a massive 12 % direct damage to monsters. This is what we want as the Fatecarver is now direct damage.

Slimecraw One Piece

From Wayrest sewers is the Slimecraw mask, use heavy weight to gain the full effect from the Undaunted Mettle passive, boosting your stamina by 6% as you will have some pieces of each weight equipped. This used to be the #1 choice, as before update 46, it had the highest crit of any one piece. It has been nerfed somewhat, but is still a good choice.

Velothi Ur-Mage Amulet

This mythic is absolutely vital for this build. With a whopping 15% increase in damage to monsters (note, this means it's useless in PvP) and adding minor force for increased crit damage, this mythic is in every Arcanist's tool set. It does mean your light attacks are useless but that doesn't matter as we only weave in light attacks for generating ultimate.

Maelstrom Greatsword

Available from the Maelstrom Arena, this sword utilises the Merciless Charge mechanic, boosting ALL your damage by a massive 12% after activating the Stampede skill. Maelstrom arena on normal is all you need, the perfected set adds a line of penetration which is not needed in this build with pen already at 7K

130K parse Run on Combat Metrics

I can hit this 125K + every time, and I am not good at parsing; someone with a better and possibly younger brain than mine can probably add 5K to this. I will continue practising and update this if I get higher.

Buffed Stats, food and Potions

Aim for around 35K stamina, more if possible. I use Lava Foot Soup because it is the largest buff to stamina and offers the highest possible stamina regeneration. Potions can be weapon power or tri-stats as you gain Prophecy, Savagery, Brutality and Sorcery from your slotted skills. Tri-stats are probably best, as they give you some health back as well as Major Fortitude for health recovery.

Below is my latest parse against the Conjured Axe Veteran Boss from Veteran Aetherian Archive. Here you can see a full breakdown of the results from the fight with a total of 122k against the boss. Now it has to be said that this is the perfect vet boss for a DPS test, and indeed it is reasonable to assume you could achieve the same results against this boss if you use this build, possibly much higher if you avoid getting stunned as many times as I did. You can click on this image to open it in a popup.

Skills

Rotation and how to play

For the dummy parse, charge the crux first on a different dummy, and make sure your banner is up and ultimate full.

Note: Soul Harvest is on Bar 1 with the Fatecarver

The rotation is not too difficult. First, you buff the quick cloak (not close enough to the atronach to start the fight), then switch and hit the Treatise, stampede, Tide King's Gaze, switch back and one flail (to caot the target for an extra 5% damage) followed by Fatecarver. Then it's as follows:

Flail - Flail - LA- Fatecarver - LA - Cloak - LA - Treatise - Stampede - Flail -Flail - LA - Fatecarver. Alway hit Soul Harvest when available. At 15%, switch to killer's blade and keep stamede up, for the final 5K of damage.

That's how I do it; there may be a better way, but that usually works out regarding the timings.

In Trial Combat

Obviously, in the trial environment, things are very different. There are mechanics, other players, AoE on you, debuffs on you and so on. Often, you won't have time to do a full buff for the Fatecarver, so either just flail twice and beam, or if the enemy is low, you can stampede and use Killer's Blade, which has a nice execute.

The other Ultimate

This is Tide-Kings Gaze from Herald of the Tome. I only use this if there are a large number of ads all over the place and at the start of a parse run. The other morph does more damage but doesn't move, and it's too cumbersome to move yourself, so hit TKG and forget it whilst beaming a larger target.

Heals are provided from the healers, your potion and your flail. The build is fast, you are using Celerity and other buffs for major expedition, such as Quick Cloak, you can move around the area quickly, so remember to dodge roll when necessary. Having said that, don't sprint all the time and drain your stamina; you're gonna need that. Stamina regen is on the edge of being tricky to maintain. If you want an easier time, you could put Stam Regen on the amulet, which will certainly sort out any issues you have, but if you don't waste your stamina, you should be ok as it is.

Build Notes:

Version: 5.1
Updates:

Removed Rune, added Sunshield for extra critical damage from the Aedric Spear passive Piercing Spear.
Moved the banner position so that if I accidentally hit the wrong key, I would fire off the spectral arrows instead of removing the banner. This last point will depend on the keys you use.
Added max weapon and spell damage to the Amulet, removing stam regen as it wasn't needed, giving 174 more weapon damage.
Determined that 15% is the best HP level of the atronach to start using Killer's blade, this is when KB does more damage than the Fatecarver.
Added banner scribing details to this guide

Next Updates: I noticed the Slimcraw Visage does not have a legendary enchantment so is missing 66 stamina. Future updates will likely depend on new sets or mythics, or possibly adding perfected sets.

Date: Updated: 30 November 2025
Race: Dark Elf hits hardest, next is High Elf or Khajiit

Anything you can't see - it's there, check the Superstars screenshot carefully
Is this the best arcanist build in the game? - Nope, it's my arcanist build, it's pretty good but there will be improvements to make, perfected gear would help, maybe a different rotation, possibly a different set, but for now this is as good as I can do.

Finally, I hope you find this build guide useful and enjoyable. I had a lot of fun putting it together and even more fun watching monsters melt!