The Arcanist is a fun and powerful class to explore in The Elder Scrolls Online. Weaving Crux to power up your spells and channeling the eldritch power of Apocrypha, the Arcanist is an indomitable magical powerhouse. In this complete Arcanist build guide, learn the Gear, Skills, and Champion Points you should slot to take your ESO Arcanist to the next level.
In this complete yet simple build guide, I’m going to show you how to get the most out of your Arcanist experience.
Released with the Necrom Chapter in 2023, the Arcanist is the newest class in ESO, and many still consider it to be the most powerful.
We aren’t going to be focusing making an absolutely overpowered meta Arcanist today, though. We’re going to keep things simple with the Tide-Born and Deadly Strike sets combined with the Oakensoul Ring.
What is the Arcanist class in ESO?
The Arcanist is an innovative class in The Elder Scrolls Online that channels the forbidden magic of Apocrypha and uses a unique resource called Crux to power up its skills.
Arcanists can generate Crux via a variety of different sources that I’ll cover throughout the guide. In general, a Magicka Arcanist like this one is great for mid-range combat.
This build in particular is a hybrid, meaning it uses both Stamina and Magicka. And its beam skill cuts through enemies in a line.
Your beam provides you with a powerful damage shield, and you’ll be healing yourself with the Reaving Blows Champion Passive.
This build does not use the Velothi Ur-Mage’s Amulet. I will be an Oakensoul user for life, and that has not changed with this build.
So, yeah, that’s the Arcanist. It’s a lot of fun, it’s kind of spooky. It’s the first class to be directly associated with a Daedric Prince — in this case, Hermaeus Mora.
This class has a great identity, great lore, great aesthetics.
What is the best race for Magicka Arcanist in ESO?
The Elder Scrolls Online players generally agree that High Elf is the best choice for a Magicka Arcanist build.
As a High Elf, you have higher Magicka by default. Your Weapon and Spell Damage is increased. You have great sustain, and the amount of damage you take while you’re using your beam is decreased.
What are the best Arcanist skills in ESO?
For a simple one-bar Arcanist, the best skills to slot are Cruxweaver Armor, Evolving Runemend, Inspired Scholarship, Cephaliarch’s Flail, and Pragmatic Fatecarver — plus the Ultimate Skill, Tide King’s Gaze.
Best Arcanist One-Bar Skills:
- Cruxweaver Armor
- Evolving Runemend
- Inspired Scholarship
- Cephaliarch’s Flail
- Pragmatic Fatecarver
- The Tide King’s Gaze
1.) Cruxweaver Armor
The first skill on your bar should be Cruxweaver Armor. While this overlaps with the Oakensoul to a degree, it also provides Minor Breach and is a source of Crux — plus, it just looks really cool. Cruxweaver Armor is a Soldier of Apocrypha ability.
2.) Evolving Runemend
Next in the bar is Evolving Runemend, which is basically your “oh crap” button. It also helps you serve as a backup healer in group content — it’s a pretty good burst heal ability. Evolving Runemend is a Curative Runeforms ability.
3.) Inspired Scholarship
The remaining skills we’re going to cover are in the Herald of the Tome skill line. Next is Inspired Scholarship, which powers up your attacks and gives you extra Crux. The Major Brutality it provides overlaps with the Oakensoul, but it’s a good damage-over-time ability.
It gives you Crux and again — it just looks really cool. Even when you put your weapon away, it stays in that form.
4.) Cephaliarch’s Flail
Next is Cephaliarch’s Flail, your main stamina ability, and also your main Crux generator. It does a significant amount of damage, immobilizes enemies, and marks them with Abyssal Ink, which increases your overall damage. It also heals you.
5.) Pragmatic Fatecarver
And then lastly for your normal abilities is Pragmatic Fatecarver. This is a channeled ability that creates a beam of energy.
It gives you a very powerful damage shield, and it gets more powerful and decreases in cost for each Crux you have. This is both a direct damage and area-of-effect ability, allowing it to double-dip in damage types, and it’s a very powerful and satisfying beam skill.
Ultimate: Tide King’s Gaze
Lastly, my Ultimate Ability is the Tide King’s Gaze. This creates tentacles that come out of the sky and follow enemies around. It does a very large amount of damage and it’s good in both PvE and PvP.
Because this is an Oakensoul build, that does it. You do not have a back bar, so you only have skills on your front bar.
What are the best Arcanist passives in ESO?
For a Magicka Arcanist build, you should invest in every single Class passive, every Destruction Staff passive, and all Light, Medium, and Heavy Armor passives.
Best Passive Skills for ESO Magicka Arcanist:
- Herald of the Tome: All
- Soldier of Apocrypha: All
- Curative Runeforms: All
- Destruction Staff: All
- Light Armor: All
- Medium Armor: All
- Heavy Armor: All
- Undaunted: Undaunted Mettle
- Racial: All
You’re going to slot at least one piece of each armor type. If you do get to Rank 9 in Undaunted, invest two points in Undaunted Mettle — again because we’re using all three weights of armor on this build.
Then, of course, you’re going to want all your Racial passives, whichever race you choose.
Which Attribute and Mundus Stone are best for Magicka Arcanist?
Since this is a Magicka build, put all 64 Attribute Points into Magicka. Choose the Thief Mundus Stone to boost your Critical Chance.
There’s no point in diluting your Attribute Points — just put them all into magicka. And, the Thief is great because it’s going to make you crit more frequently.
What are the best gear sets for Arcanist in ESO?
For a Magicka Arcanist build, an excellent combination of easily obtainable sets consists of five pieces of Tide-Born Windstalker, five pieces of Deadly Strike, the Oakensoul Mythic Ring, and one piece of Slimecraw.
Best Gear for Magicka Arcanist:
- Lightning Staff: Deadly Strike (Precise, Poison)
- Head: Tideborn (Light, Divines, Magicka)
- Chest: Tide-Born (Medium, Divines, Magicka)
- Shoulder: Slimecraw (Heavy, Divines, Magicka)
- Waist: Deadly (Divines, Magicka)
- Hands: Tide-Born (Light, Divines, Magicka)
- Legs: Tide-Born (Light, Divines, Magicka)
- Feet: Tide-Born (Light, Divines, Magicka)
- Neck: Deadly Strike (Infused, Spell Damage)
- Ring 1: Deadly Strike (Infused, Spell Damage)
- Ring 2: Oakensoul (Infused, Spell Damage)
You have Deadly Strike on your Lightning Staff. I chose the trait Precise for even more critical chance. And your Glyph is going to be Poison — simply for thematic purposes. Your weapon enchantment is hardly ever going to come into play with this build.
No back bar weapon because again, this is an Oakensoul build.
On the head, we have our first piece of Tide-Born. All the Tide-Born you’re wearing — all five pieces — are going to be Light Armor in the Divine trait with a Maximum Magicka enchantment.
Same goes for your chest, Light Tide-Born.
On your shoulders, we’re going to have Slimecraw in Heavy Armor to trigger Undaunted Mettle, but still we’re going with Magicka and Divines. I chose Slimecraw for additional Critical Chance.
On the waist, we have Deadly Strike because the waist slot being Medium Armor has the least impact. Deadly Strike is always Medium because it’s a reconstructed set, not crafted. We have Magicka and Divines on that piece as well.
Then, back to Light Tide-Born on the gloves, legs, and feet — still going with Magicka and Divines.
For the neck, we have Deadly Strike. And I chose the Infused trait for all the jewelry along with the Weapon Damage Glyph.
On your first ring, you’re also going to have Deadly Strike, and then the Oakensoul Ring for the other.
Why are Tide-Born and Deadly Strike a good combination for Magicka Arcanist?
Deadly Strike increases the damage of your Channeled attacks by 15%, making it perfect to use on a Fatecarver build. Then, Tide-Born increases your direct damage by 15% (changed from multiplicative to additive in Update 50).
Even with this quasi-nerf, Tide-Born is still going to be the best Overland set to slot. If you do Trials a lot, you might want a Trial set instead, but that’s not really what this build is geared up for.
Tide-Born and Deadly synergize nicely with the Arcanist toolkit. Slimecraw gives a big boost to Critical Chance, and Oakensoul makes everything way easier — you only have one bar to worry about, and you still get all your buffs.
What are the best Champion Abilities for Arcanist in ESO?
In the Blue Tree (Warfare), the best slottable Champion Abilities for a Magicka Arcanist are Fighting Finesse, Master-at-Arms, Biting Aura, and Reaving Blows. In the Red Tree (Fitness), slot Rejuvenation, Fortified, Boundless Vitality, and Celerity.
We’re not going to worry about the Green Tree beacuse it’s irrelevant for combat. In the Blue (Warfare) Tree, simply get all the passives whenever you have the points to get them, and slot the slottable nodes we mentioned for the following reasons:
- Fighting Finesse for increased Critical Chance.
- Master-at-Arms for 6% more direct damage
- Biting Aura for 6% more area-of-effect damage
- Reaving Blows to heal yourself while you do direct damage.
Reaving Blows is really the key here. It’s going to keep you alive in difficult forms of combat.
Then, in the Red (Fitness) Tree, you’re generally going to want the slottable nodes we mentioned above: Rejuvenation, Fortified, Boundless Vitality, and Celerity.
When you’re taking down trash mobs, you might want to swap out Celerity for Bloody Renewal, because managing your Stamina can be a little bit tricky with this build.
And then with the Red Tree passive abilities, simply get them all whenever you have the points to get them.
Having extra movement speed with Celerity is great, but when you’re clearing through trash mobs — running around Public Dungeons — you’ll definitely want Bloody Renewal so you don’t run out of Stamina.
What are the best Arcanist consumables in ESO?
The best consumable items for a PvE Arcanist in The Elder Scrolls Online are Bewitched Sugar Skulls and any Tri-Restoration Potion.
I almost always go for Sugar Skulls. It’s my favorite food. It boosts all three core stats and gives you extra health recovery. You get this from Witches Festival.
And then with potions, I keep things simple with the Crown Tri-Restoration Potion that I never seem to run out of. Any other Tri-Testoration Potion will work here, too, though.
What are the best DPS Arcanist Class Mastery Passives in ESO?
The best Class Mastery Passives to slot on a PvE Arcanist in The Elder Scrolls Online are Unbound Potential and Fate Realigned.
- Unbound Potential increases your damage done by a whopping 30% whenever you generate or consume Crux.
- Fate Realigned automatically gives you the maximum amount of Crux and provides an 300 extra Weapon and Spell Damage. This effect occurs whenever you use Crux — once every 15 seconds.
The Arcanist, like every other class, received new Class Mastery Passives with Update 50. This change made pure class builds like this one a lot more powerful, because you’re now able to choose two out of these five Class Mastery Passives to slot at a time.
Is Oakensoul good for Arcanist in ESO?
Yes, the Oakensoul Ring is a powerful and simple Mythic item to choose for the Arcanist. It offers a large number of buffs and simplifies your skill rotation.
Even though Velothi Ur-Mage’s Amulet is basically designed for the Arcanist, I still like Oakensoul because it makes the game so much simpler.
I personally hate bar swapping. It annoys me. And with Oakensoul, you don’t have to do that, but you get almost every single buff in the game.
What is the best skill rotation for a Magicka Arcanist?
Before you go into battle, always make sure Cruxweaver Armor and Inspired Scholarship are active. Then, if you still need Crux, use Cephaliarch’s Flail, and then use Pragmatic Fatecarver once you’ve reached the maximum of three Crux. Use your Ultimate Ability, Tide King’s Gaze, strategically once it’s available.
Adventurer-difficulty overland enemies are not even remotely a challenge with this build, and it can even hold its own in Vestige difficulty against World Bosses.
What are the best Arcanist cosmetics in ESO?
Some of the best Arcanist-themed cosmetics in The Elder Scrolls Online include the Scribes of Mora Outfit Style and either the Apocryphabound or Necrom Armiger Weapon Styles.
Best Arcanist Cosmetics in ESO:
- Scribes of Mora Light Armor (Medium on Shoulders)
- Hands Belt & Feet Hidden
- Hollow Void Husk Skin
- Necrom Armiger or Apocryphabound Staff
- 10-Year Anniversary Ebon Leather Dye
- Telvanni Magister Personality
Conclusion
I really hope you enjoy the build and that helps you get into the Arcanist if you haven’t explored the class yet — or that it helps you fall in love with the Arcanist all over again.
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