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Our latest featured ESOTU player build is the Flame Listener, a Dark Elf Dragonknight that manipulates fire and the elements to simultaneously incinerate enemies and support allies. A smart combination of ranged attacks, boosted weapon and spell critical damage, snares, and plenty of fire-based damage options make the Flame Listener a dangerous adversary.
Welcome back to the Battlemaster's Corner, where we feature character builds created by you, the ESOTU community! In this article you'll meet the Flame Listener, a Dark Elf Dragonknight build that offers a balanced mix of DPS and support, with fiery finesse throughout. With bow and destruction staff at his disposal, the Flame Listener performs best just out of harm's reach. If you're looking for a well-rounded DPS/Support build for your Dragonknight, give the Flame Listener a try!
We always enjoy receiving your character builds and seeing all the creative ways you combine abilities and equipment. If you have a character build you'd like to see in a future Battlemaster's Corner, please send it to us at community@elderscrollsonline.com. Don't forget to include a handful of high-quality screenshots of your character for us to choose from!
THE FLAME LISTENER
Time has not been kind to this Dark Elf Dragonknight. Hungry and weak, he wanders the lands of Tamriel as an old hermit. Despite his old and weak body, a Dunmer never forgets the true power within—the strength to manipulate fire. The old Dark Elf was widely known for his talents, and the people of Tamriel called him the “Flame Listener" which was translated from his Dunmer name “Lacha Lahathron." Some stories herald him as a shaman to his people, others tell of a great and powerful force. But all stories tell of his great and mighty burning fire and how it spread throughout the lands, striking fear into those who bore witness to his power.
PRIMARY BAR: BOW (OFFENSE & SUPPORT)
Due to the frequent mid-battle weapon swapping needed, this build can sometimes be tricky to master. It's important to start every battle with your bow in-hand and set traps for all your enemies, while keeping a healthy distance. Open with a bow attacks, or switch to your secondary bar to add more damage—either way, you can't fail. I like to practice running circles around the enemy. Doing so helps me to gauge if I have their full aggro, and makes it harder for them to reach me when they're snared by Cinder Storm.
Ash Cloud (Cinder Storm) – This is your bread-and-butter support ability. It lasts for 15 seconds, causing Fire Damage every 0.5 seconds for the full duration. If that wasn't enough, this ability will also snare your enemies, reducing their movement speed by 70% for 2.5 seconds, even if they leave the ability's area of effect.
Volley (Scorched Earth) – This is one of the only Stamina-based abilities you need. It's very effective when paired with Cinder Storm. It also acts as an interrupt, allowing time for another ability cast.
Dark Talons (Burning Talons) – This is a very important ability if you plan to keep your enemies at bay in your storm of fiery inferno. The key thing to keep in mind is that this ability has a 4-second duration—count the 4 seconds after you cast this ability so you can quickly cast it again and keep your enemies from moving. This ability also adds more flame-based damage-over-time, and allows your group to utilize the Impale synergy which does a blast of Magic damage.
Inferno (Flames of Oblivion) – This is one of my favorite abilities—it's needed for most of the damage you'll deal to your enemies. Just be sure to keep this ability on yourself at all times. Not only does it make you look awesome, but it has no duration time and it grants you an extra 10 points of spell and weapon critical. As an added bonus, it also casts a fireball at your enemies every 5 seconds as long as it's active.
Obsidian Shield (Igneous Shield) – This is a great support ability, not just soloing but for grouping with others, too! It grants a larger shield and gives you Major Mending, which boosts your healing abilities by 30% for 7 seconds. That boost is great if you're using a Restoration Staff on your secondary bar, but even better for the healer in your group who might need a little extra help keeping everyone alive.
Ultimate: Dragonknight Standard (Standard of Might) – This is easily the best Dragonknight Ultimate ability in the game. Not only does it deal a lot of fire-based damage-over-time, but it protects you from ambushes. It works well in tandem with the other abilities in this build, especially during dungeon battles where there are a lot of enemies.
SECONDARY BAR: DESTRUCTION STAFF (OFFENSE & SUPPORT)
I've had a lot of fun playing a DPS/Support Dragonknight, and the Flame Listener is a great well-rounded build. Everything you like about your favorite tank build can be adjusted for a DPS role with this build. It also syncs well with most other tank builds, providing even more devastating fire damage when paired with a Dragonknight tank.
Weakness to Elements (Elemental Susceptibility) – This is a great ability, not only for increasing the effectiveness of your elemental and magic damage, but also for its Major Breach debuff which reduces your target's spell resistance by 8,000 for 21 seconds. If your damage output is consistent, this ability refreshes, allowing you to effectively weaken even the most tough dungeon bosses.
Wall of Elements (Unstable Wall of Elements) – This is another great ground-effect ability to add to your arsenal. It combines well with the abilities on your primary bar (Bow.) It also helps if you keep a fire staff on hand to dish out even more fire damage on your targets.
Ash Cloud (Cinder Storm) – This will be one of your main abilities—try to have it on the ground at all times. In the event that the duration runs out, you'll be relieved that you can easily distance yourself from harm and to do damage from range.
Inferno (Flames of Oblivion) – This is a very useful ability. I recommend keeping it on both your primary and secondary bar to ensure it's active at all times. Ensuring it's always up, even while weapon swapping, will maximize spell and melee critical damage and keep your overall damage numbers high.
Inhale (Draw Essence) – This ability does great damage when paired with your other fire damage abilities. You channel draconic energy to steal Health from up to 3 enemies, and after 2.5 seconds you exhale fire and deal additional fire damage to nearby enemies. You also restore 17% of the damage dealt as Magicka. That's 17% for each enemy hit, so if you hit three enemies, that's three times 17% toward your Magicka!
Ultimate: Dragonknight Standard (Standard of Might) – This is my favorite Ultimate. It really helps bolster your survivability, especially when facing off against large enemy ambushes. It creates additional fire damage on top of all the ground-effect fire you already have down. It also weakens your enemies in the process. Bonus!
ARMOR, ATTRIBUTES, & MORE
Armor: Your armor set should be comprised of the following pieces:
- 5 Medium Armor
- 1 Light Armor (belt)
- 1 Heavy armor (chest)
This allows you to get as many passives as possible in all armor traits, and make up for anything the build/class is lacking.
Attributes: Your attribute points should all go into Magicka. All abilities in this build are Magicka-based, with the exception of Scorched Earth.
Champion Points: For Champion Points, I collect and save them until I know exactly what I want to spend them in. Right now, I have the following setup and am happy with it:
- Elemental Defender (Warrior constellation, Lady) – 20 points
- Elemental Expert (Mage constellation, Apprentice) – 20 points
- Magician (Thief constellation, Tower) – 10 points
- Warlord (Thief constellation, Tower) – 10 points
Passives: This build needs all the passives you can acquire in your skill tree, so grab them all! Also, it helps to have the Atronach Mundus Stone boon active for increased Magicka recovery.
Race: Being a Dark Elf is a very important part of this build. As your character gets higher in level, your fire damage % will also increase. You will be a vampire's worst enemy, and most enemies have at least some weakness to fire, making this build very effective in both PvE and PvP.
