The Dragonknight class in The Elder Scrolls Online is typically played as a melee brawler wielding heavy weapons and donning heavy armor. ESO encourages freedom in class builds, though, which means Dragonknights aren't restricted to tanking, and in fact have a swathe of abilities that use Magicka that can even heal.
The Dragonknight has three class-specific skill trees available: damage over time through Ardent Flame, area-of-effect abilities through Draconic Power, and defensive and supportive abilities through Earthen Heart. While abilities in The Elder Scrolls Online are relatively balanced across the board, some are definitely more of a priority.
Updated January 29, 2022 by Erik Petrovich: Dragonknights in ESO are typically played as melee bruisers, but they have lots of innate class abilities that open up their options to be great Tanks and even Supports. When it comes to morphs, there are some that are just more useful than others for almost all builds. Take, for instance, Empowering Chains. The other option for the Fiery Grip skill refunds Magicka if the ability doesn't connect, while Empowering Chains fundamentally changes how the ability works and even gives a small buff. When making choices for the abilities and passives to go for when playing a Dragonknight, consider your preferred playstyle before anything else. It just doesn't make sense for a Tank Dragonknight to pick up Fiery Grip while DPS Dragonknights will see their damage tick up thanks to the buff.
Ardent Flame Skill Tree
The Ardent Flame skill tree is based on DPS through damage over time effects and control of the battle. The standard abilities Lava Whip and Searing Strike are the first skills one can pick up in the tree, but they are just the start of this skill tree's capabilities.
It's a good skill tree to focus on if you want to maximize your damage output as a Dragonknight and support allies without being a tank. Ardent Flame Dragonknights tend to don medium armor and use a shield in close combat.
Shifting Standard - Ultimate
The Ultimate ability for the Ardent Flame skill tree is the Dragonknight Standard, which deals damage in an area every second and reduces their healing by 16%. The major downside to this ability, though, is that it stays in one place.
The Shifting Standard morph is unlocked at Dragonknight Standard Rank IV and lets the player move the Standard reactivating the ability. It's especially useful for fast-paced boss fights.
World in Ruin - Passive
The World in Ruin Dragonknight passive ability is a simple yet effective passive. It increases the damage of Flame and Poison AoE abilities slightly and decreases the cost of Poison abilities by 12% to 25%, depending on the rank.
If you're speccing into Ardent Flame, poison-based abilities are plentiful. World in Ruin increases damage output significantly and is unlocked at Ardent Flame Rank 39.
Empowering Chains - Morph
The Fiery Grip skill is affectionately described by many players as the Scorpion ability, as in Scorpion from Mortal Kombat. This ability causes the Dragonknight to lash out a chain to pull a target closer to the player and increase their movement speed as well. Unrelenting Grip, one of the morphs, refunds the Magicka cost if the enemy can't be targeted, which doesn't happen often.
Empowering Chains, on the other hand, reverses the effect and grants the Empower buff for a few seconds. Players pull themselves towards an enemy instead, deal a small amount of damage, and have 40% increased damage for Light and Heavy attacks for 3 seconds. It's great for taking other PvP players unawares, rapidly killing world mobs, or zooming from critter to critter as a means of traveling faster throughout Tamriel. Unlock Fiery Grip at Ardent Flame Rank 30, which can then be morphed into Empowering Chains at Rank 4.
Draconic Power Skill Tree
The Draconic Power skill tree is all about taking damage and dealing it back out in a large area. The first two abilities available in the tree are Spiked Armor and Dark Talon, which increase defensive abilities and stun enemies respectively.
The Draconic Power skill tree provides a number of useful abilities that greatly increase the odds of a Dragonknight's survival – especially in dungeons and when facing off against a lot of enemies.
Ferocious Leap - Ultimate
The Ultimate ability for the Draconic Power skill tree is Dragon Leap, which launches the player at the target, deals damage in an area, and knocks enemies back for a few seconds. The ability can be dangerous, especially if there are enemies that the player didn't see.
Ferocious Leap changes the damage to Fire damage and gives the Dragonknight a shield equal to their health for a few seconds upon landing. It's much more useful for large encounters as it essentially negates the first few enemy attacks, and it's unlocked at Dragon Leap Rank 4.
Elder Dragon - Passive
The Elder Dragon passive ability is extremely useful for a Dragonknight going for a tanking build. It increases health recovery by a small amount for each Dragonic Power ability that's slotted into the player's action bar and also increases the range of melee attacks.
Having high health recovery is essential to getting through barely winnable fights. By fully speccing into the Draconic Power tree, this ability can significantly increase that stat. Elder Dragon is unlocked at Draconic Power Rank 22.
Protective Plate - Morph
On its own, the Protective Scale ability isn't one of the Dragonknight's most powerful abilities. It only affects projectile-based attacks, which is great when facing down Mages and Archers, but it wastes a slot when going up against melee attackers. The morph Protective Plate gives this lackluster skill a much-needed (but far from overpowered) improvement.
With this morph, Dragonknights will both shrug off 50% of all projectile-based damage and become immune to snares and immobilization for 2 seconds. This makes closing the distance between you and a ranged opponent much easier, as they won't be able to slow you down as they deal half the damage they're used to. Protective Scale unlocks at Rank 30 of the Draconic Power skill tree, and can be morphed into Protective Plate at Rank 4.
Earthen Heart Skill Tree
The Earthen Heart skill tree is all about damage mitigation, healing, and other improvements. The skill tree is introduced through Magma Armor and Stonefist, a defense boost and close-range AoE attack, but later introduces a weapon enhancement and a party-wide shield.
It's a natural complement to the Draconic Power skill tree for tanking Dragonknights, but it's also home to abilities that solo players will find useful.
Magma Shell - Ultimate
The Earthen Heart Ultimate ability is Magma Armor, which heals the player for 3% of their health every second and deals damage to nearby enemies for 10 seconds. The ability does not mitigate damage, though, and only heals.
The Magma Shell morph gives the player and their allies a shield equal to their health total for 10 seconds too. It's the perfect Ultimate morph to pop in anticipation of high damage, and it's unlocked at Magma Armor Rank 4.
Battle Roar - Passive
The Earthen Heart skill tree has some great self-sustain abilities that turn Dragonknights into one of the best Tanking classes in Elder Scrolls Online. No matter how good the group healer is, though, sometimes a Tank has to take care of themselves to keep the fight going. Battle Roar is one of the most useful passives in a Dragonknight's arsenal for this reason.
Whenever the player uses their Ultimate ability (which doesn't have to be from the Earthen Heart skill tree), they heal for 23 Health and restore 23 Magicka and Stamina for every Ultimate point spent. At Rank 2, this is increased to 46 Health and 46 Stamina and Magicka. Rank 1 of Battle Roar unlocks at Earthen Heart Rank 14, and Rank 2 unlocks at Rank 27.
Cinder Storm - Morph
The Ash Cloud ability for Dragonknights slows down enemies significantly and heals allies who are within the ability's area of effect. The Cinder Storm morph for this ability is a simple, but effective, upgrade: healing is increased by 50%.
It might not seem like much, but base healing every second for 15 seconds is not bad. It'll reduce the strain for the healer of your group if you're tanking, but it is a pretty effective team-wide heal on its own, too. Ash Cloud unlocks at Earthen Heart Rank 42 and can be morphed when it reaches Rank 4 itself.
The Elder Scrolls Online is available for PC, PlayStation 4 and 5, and Xbox One and Series X|S.