ESO features seven classes: Dragonknight, Sorcerer, Nightblade, Templar, Warden, Necromancer, and Arcanist. Every class can fill every role (tank, healer, damage dealer) thanks to ESO's flexible skill system. Your equipped weapon and armor choices define your role as much as your class does. Two-handed and dual-wield weapons favor damage dealers, sword-and-shield suits tanks, and restoration staff is the healer's primary tool.
Dragonknights excel as tanks with powerful damage shields and crowd control, though they also make strong melee DPS. Sorcerers summon Daedric pets and wield lightning magic, offering excellent ranged damage and strong solo survivability with their Critical Surge heal. Nightblades are stealthy assassins with burst damage and self-healing through siphoning abilities, making them the best class for solo content.
Templars are the most straightforward healers with Restoring Light abilities that provide powerful area heals and damage mitigation. They also function well as melee DPS with their Aedric Spear line. Wardens command nature magic with animal companions, frost spells, and healing flora — they're versatile across all roles. Necromancers raise undead and corpses, providing unique group utility and strong damage. Arcanists channel Apocryphal magic through tomes and beams, with a resource management system based on Crux stacking.
Builds in ESO use two weapon bars that you swap between during combat, each with five slotted abilities and one ultimate. A typical DPS rotation applies damage-over-time effects on one bar and spams a spammable skill on the other, weaving light attacks between every ability. This light-attack weaving is the core combat mechanic that distinguishes good players. Resource management between Magicka and Stamina determines which morphs of abilities you choose, though the game has moved toward a more hybrid-friendly approach in recent updates.