Magicka Dragonknight PvP Build
Magicka Dragonknights tick all of the most valuable boxes for PvP in The Elder Scrolls Online. Strong damage over time, high burst damage, crazy survivability and potent healing all make for a juggernaut that is difficult to contend with, making Magicka Dragonknight PvP builds some of the most powerful around.
Gear Sets
Buffer of the Swift: This is an incredibly powerful survivability set that can be found in Cyrodiil from gear vendors. This gives you a big boost to resistances along with a flat 10% mitigation against all enemy players.
Heartland Conqueror: This is a great set that adds a ton of versatility to this build. On the front bar, we gain a bunch of penetration due to boosting the Sharpened trait on our weapons, and on the back bar you can go for a big boost to resistances or healing power. You can craft this set.
Magma Incarnate: We wear just one piece of this to boost both our Magicka and Stamina recovery a little. You can get this from The Dread Cellar.
Markyn Ring of Majesty: This adds a nice boost to both weapon damage and resistances, which is a nice way to balance out this build. This is a mythic item from The Deadlands.
Perfected Wrath of the Elements: We use this on the back bar frost staff to add a big source of damage and status effect pressure to the opponent. Be sure to keep this up at all times. You can get this weapon from Vateshran Hollows.
Skills
Flame Lash: This is your main spammable and primary source of damage. Using this after incapacitating an enemy with Fossilize will increase the damage dramatically, healing you in the process. If you prefer, you can use Molten Whip.
Noxious Breath: In addition to a respectable damage over time ability, this will inflict your opponent with Major Breach, reducing their resistances substantially.
Burning Embers: A great source of healing, some up-front damage, and a potent damage over time effect along with the burning status effect as well.
Flames of Oblivion: A cast-and-forget ability that also provides Major Prophecy to both bars just for being slotted. You can spam this if your target is keeping their distance.
Fossilize: Use this to both stun and immobilize your opponent, leaving them wide open to punishment from Flame Lash.
Take Flight: Your primary offensive ultimate which adds a great burst of damage, stunning enemies briefly, allowing follow-up from Flame Lash. You can use Ferocious Leap for a bit less damage, but you get a huge shield after casting.
Race Against Time: Use this to gain immunity to snares and immobilizations, ensuring that you cannot easily be pinned down.
Blood Mist: Your gap closer and an extra source of healing over time, helping your mobility and survivability a lot.
Igneous Weapons: This is your source of Major Sorcery, which is a good damage boost, so try to keep it up at all times. Due to its long duration, you shouldn't have to think about it too much.
Coagulating Blood: Your main burst heal to be used when you are getting low on health. I like to open combat with this as the visual effect on your character can make it difficult for the opponent to tell what you are doing.
Volatile Armor: This is your source of Major Resolve, and can also apply a damage over time effect to enemies nearby when you activate the skill.
Corrosive Armor: Use this as your primary defensive ultimate to become near unkillable for a short duration. However, if you are up against particularly tanky opponents, you should use this instead of Take Flight, and then apply a lot of pressure while it is active.
Champion Points
Thaumaturge: This class shines best with damage over time abilities, and Thaumaturge will help with buffing that further. For most abilities that you will be using, Thaumaturge and Biting Aura will stack.
Master at Arms: It is important on this class to deliver powerful direct damage in combination with sustained damage over time, so Master at Arms is a smart choice.
Ironclad: Since direct damage is so common, it is important to also defend against it. That is where Ironclad comes in, boosting your mitigation against this damage type.
Resilience: No matter what the meta is running, critical damage will always be a big part of what many players build around in PvP. It is important to defend against that, and Resilience will help you there in combination with Impenetrable armour pieces.
Boundless Vitality: Every bit of health makes a difference, especially in some of the tougher content that The Elder Scrolls Online has to offer. This will help you bump yours up a little more, increasing your survivability.
Slippery: In PvP, pinning your opponent down with CC before you burst them down is important. This will prevent that from happening to you so easily, making it an important addition.
Rejuvenation: Recoveries are important for every role. For healers, it is essential for keeping your group alive, for tanks, it is the source of most of your buffs and debuffs, for DPS, you can't deal damage with no fuel, and in PvP, no resources means death.
Celerity: Extra movement speed is an amazing boost in all content. In PvE, it helps massively with avoiding nasty mechanics, and in PvP, it allows you to run circles around your opponents.
Mundus Stone
The best Mundus Stone to use on this build is the Lover for significantly better Penetration. The Lover gives the best overall boost to damage output on average against players, especially since players in PvP tend to run a lot of resistance. However, if you need more recovery, consider the Atronach instead.
Food Buff
The Clockwork Citrus Filet offers an incredibly useful spread of Max Health, Max Magicka, Health Recovery and Magicka Recovery, making it perfect for Magicka-focused PvP builds. If you can't afford its hefty cost, go with the Witchmother's Potent Brew instead, offering similar stats but no Health Recovery.
Race
My preferred race to run for this build is a Breton for their superior sustain. However, if you feel that you are managing your resources well enough, then you can switch to a High Elf (Altmer) for more overall damage, or Dark Elf (Dunmer) for almost the same damage as the High Elf with a little extra stamina for survivability as well.
Potion
PvP builds generally work best when running Immovability potions, which grants a lengthy immunity to snares, immobilizations and stuns. It's good to carry some potions to reveal invisibility as well to counter Nightblades.
Mortality
Running a Vampire can be highly advantageous for a Magicka Dragonknight in PvP. They are notoriously slow and lacking in mobility, trading movement for tankiness and sustained damage. As a Vampire, you have access to more survivability through the Undeath passive along with mobility through Mist Form.
Notes
Magicka Dragonknights excel at taking a lot of punishment before unleashing devastating combos to delete your opponent in the blink of an eye. On this build, we are going with the less conventional Flame Lash ability rather than Molten Whip. This allows you to deal incredibly high damage against off-balance opponents, working perfectly with the Fossilize skill and the Exploiter champion point perk.
While fantastic on its own, at one point I ran this build as a due with a Stamina Necromancer running Ruinous Scythe, which activates off-balance against targets instantly in a cone. Flame Lash was pretty much always dealing its extremely high damage, and healing as a result, to great effect.