The Dragon-heart

Armor Types

Gear and Item Set Info

With this build it is ideal to run five pieces of light armor for the magicka oriented perks, like cost reduction, critical rating, etc. I go with head, shoulders, arms, waist and feet crafted in 'Death's Wind' set. Because you are wearing light armor, it is difficult to remain in the thick of combat without losing a lot of health, this set provides physical resistance, two increases to max health, and the final ability states that if you fall below 35% health, a magic damage wind will expand in an AOE attack, repelling and stunning all enemies within eight meters. The stun is a useful set up for one of our skill combos.

The two medium armor pieces are chest and legs, for maximum protection. I craft these in 'Varen's Legacy', giving a boost to max health and stamina, and a bonus of 4% healing while on bar one, assuming you craft your weapons, (Two handed, and sword and shield) in this set.

A good alternative is 'Nobel's Conquest' though it is tough to get, being in the Imperial city.

Light armor I craft with the infused trait to increase the enchantments, three of the seven are magicka. Medium I craft with reinforced for more protection and enchant two pieces with health, and the remaining two light armor pieces with stamina.

The shield with chysolite for healing increase, and magicka enchantment. The one handed sword with fire opal for phys and spell penetration, and enchanted with fire damage. The two handed sword, same deal.

General Info

This build has very little armor skills and relies mostly on self healing to stay alive. With group bosses, this can get a little hairy, but with everything else, it is simplicity itself to remain topped off. The biggest draw back on this build, is stamina recovery. You will find yourself running out very quickly. This is why I take cost reduction passives in weapon classes and in medium armor. This is why I use a melee weapon on both bars, to get stamina back on the heavy attacks I weave in. Keep in mind that as a dark elf, your race passives benefit magicka and fire damage.

You're biggest health generators are the flame lash ability, which synergizes with a lot of skills, burning embers, and coagulating blood. Flame lash states that if you target a stunned enemy, you set them off balance, and if you target an off balance enemy, the skill converts to power lash. Power lash stuns the enemy (may even knock it down), deals more flame damage and gives you health back.

Burning embers is a single target flame DOT. (I do not use any poison morphs, because the Dunmer gets a race bonus to fire damage) When it ends, you are healed for 70% of the damage caused. Simply reapplying the ability will cause it to end and the health gain to trigger.

Coagulating blood heals up to twice as much as the base ability (based on your max magicka). It also increases your health recovery by 20%. If you take the Draconic power passive; burning heart, your healing is increased by 12% while a draconic power ability is active. You have two of these. I suggest using volatile armor first, so that blood can take advantage of that passive. Then blood stays active far longer, so your other abilities will heal you for more.

A basic combat example is to cast igneous weapons for 20% bonus to spell and weapon damage, charge in with shielded assault to stun an enemy. You can quickly sneak in a pierce armor to lower phys and spell resistance on that enemy (Note: Do not do that on a group boss, as a side effect of this ability is taunt) then follow up with a flame lash, then power lash combo to heal the damage of what the other enemies may have done. Use deep slash on the highest health enemy to lower their damage output, and apply burning embers to all enemies. You can then execute them at your discretion with reverse slice.

Bosses are susceptible to this same principle, while challenges such as group bosses and dolmens, will require you to think more defensively. This is where deep breath comes into play. With multiple enemies targeting you with abilities, you can cat this to interrupt them, then take advantage by using power lash, then the second hit of the former ability triggers after two seconds, covering them in an exhalation of flame damage that heals you for 100% of the damage caused. World in ruin is a good paring passive.

When things get really bad, drop a standard of might. Deals AOE flame DOT, amplifies your damage output by 14%, while negating 14% of incoming damage. You can use your taunt to keep enemies within the field of effect. 

By switching around some abilities, like investing in reflective scales, this can become more viable for PVP, but as it stands, is a more PVE oriented build.

Champion Point Tips

Obviously, put your points into things that will protect you and provide more armor out of the warrior trees, more spell and elemental damage and heals out of the mage, and stamina cost reduction out of the thief trees. Bastion is viable, as shielded assault is a damage absorbing shield.

Build Rating