ESO Builds for Solo Play

Most discussions of ESO builds focus on group play--how to make a DPS, or healing, or tank build. What are the best synergistic spells for a Sorcerer? That kind of thing. But some people, even in MMOs, prefer solo play. So today we'd like to take a look at some good builds for solo play in ESO.

A good solo play build needs to have a good mix of combat abilities. It needs to do enough DPS to take down enemies, enough of a tank's hardiness or healer's buffs to survive the fight.

Probably the best character class for solo play is Nightblade. ESO builds for Nightblade would be able to take advantage of high stealth abilities to sneak around enemies without aggroing them. This means that players can avoid unnecessary fights with groups of enemies too large to survive. This ability alone makes Nightblade's one of the best choices for solo play, especially when combined with their fighting abilities.

The other good class for solo play is Templar. While Templar characters down have the sneaking abilities of Nightblades, the do have an entire skill line dedicated to healing. Since they don't have the Nightblade's stealth abilities, they can use heavy armor without hurting their chances of evading enemies. Massive healing and heavy armor give the Templar a better chance than most of surviving large groups of enemies on their own, while the Templar's other skill lines give them enough damage-dealing to be effective in solo combat.

Both Nightblade and Templar ESO builds will need good weapon skills to manage in solo play. Since the classes can use any weapon,which weapon to use is largely up to the player. However, for an effective soloing character, you'll want to build up at least two weapon skills--one for ranged combat and one for melee. Ranged combat almost always means bow or crossbow. Melee has a wider array of options including short swords, long swords, paired weapons, sword and shield, staff and more. Some races have bonuses to favored weapons styles, so take that into consideration when picking the weapons skills you want to perfect.

When building a character for solo play, don't worry about synergistic skills. While these skills are awesome for ESO builds geared towards group play, they don't offer any bonus when soloing. If the basic skill, with out the synergy bonus, is something you find useful, get it. If not, don't worry about it.

Finally, for solo play you will want more of a balance between Stamina, Health and Magicka. Definitely put more points into the stat you need to power your abilities--if most of your abilities use Stamina, then Stamina should get most of your points. But make sure Magicka and Health have enough points to last through combat. You won't have teammates throwing buffs to help you refill your stats in solo play.

Of course, you don't need to choose between solo play and group play, it's possible to create an ESO build that works equally well with both play styles--but if you want to build a character specifically for solo play, this is the way to do it.