Race
There's 2 really good races for the magicka Dragonknight. But I'm going to include a third so there's at least one race in each alliance.
- Dunmer: Most of your damage will be fire so Flame Talent is the best passive for this build and for any DK DPS.
- Altmer: You will have more maximum Magicka and Magicka recovery but less fire damage. Still 4% extra.
- Breton: The Magicka cost reduction is so small it's not worth picking.
Gear
The best setup at the moment is 2-piece heavy and 5 piece light. Unlike 7 medium pieces, people with wearing cloth can really use the extra armor from 1 or 2 pieces of heavy. Preferably the chest plus legs, shoulder or head to maximize the armor rating. All light armor should be fine for normal trials and veteran dungeons but not for Serpent or veteran DSA. The best possible sets are the Valkyn Skoria set (2) + the Aether set (4) + 2 pieces of Torug's Pact for extra spell damage and Soulshine jewelry. If you don't have the Valkyn Skoria pieces like most people, you can replace it with Warlock pieces if you have the rings as well. If you don't, you can change the pieces around and pick something like Willow's Path or Magnus. Try to reach 1600 Spell Damage.
| Armor | Item | Trait | Glyph |
| Head | Valkyn Skoria’s > Warlock | Infused > Divines | Magicka |
| Shoulders | Valkyn Skoria > Warlock | Divines > Infused | Magicka |
| Chest | Torug's Pact | Infused > Divines | Magicka > Health |
| Hands | Aether | Divines > Infused | Magicka |
| Waist | Aether | Divines > Infused | Magicka |
| Legs | Aether | Infused > Divines | Magicka > Health |
| Feet | Aether | Divines > Infused | Magicka |
| Accessory | Item | Trait | Glyph |
| Amulet | Soulshine > Warlock | Arcane | Spell Damage> Spell Cost Reduction |
| Ring 1 | Soulshine > Warlock | Arcane | Spell Damage> Spell Cost Reduction |
| Ring 2 | Soulshine > Warlock | Arcane | Spell Damage> Spell Cost Reduction |
| Weapon | Item | Trait | Glyph |
| Fire Destro Staff | Torug's Pact | Precise | Absorb Magicka > Fire Damage |
| Fire Destro Staff | Torug's Pact | Precise | Absorb Magicka > Fire Damage |
Attributes
I've put 43 into Health and 19 into Magicka. This really depends on the armor enchants you use. The objective is to reach 25k Magicka and at least 20k Health in order to survive end-game PvE content. The best thing you can do is to use your VR5 blue food (+Health & + Magicka) and put on Inner Light to see where you're resources are at without attribute points. Then, respec accordingly.
SKILLS
This is basically the 1.5 Magicka DK build but without Crushing Shock and Flawless Dawnbreaker. They both became pretty useless because weapon damage isn't important for this build.
| Primary – Destro Staff (Fire) | Description | |
 |
Inner Light | A passive buff (Major Prophecy) that increases your Spell Critical by 10%. When toggled it also increased your Max Magicka by 5%. The extra Magicka stacks with the Mages Guild passive giving you an extra 2% Magicka and Magicka recovery. |
 |
Molten Whip | A skill that will act as a passive DPS increase. It increases the Ardent Flame abilities damage by a little. I suggest swapping this out for something like Extended Chains or Elemental Drain for trials. |
 |
Burning Embers | The main damage output instead of Crushing Shock. Before 1.6 this was mostly used for tanks as an extra DoT and heal. In 1.6 (PTS) it acts as the Magicka morph of Searing Strikes. The other being a Stamina morph. |
 |
Engulfing Flames | This ability pretty much stays the same. It an extra ignite that should be applied every 8-10s inbetween your Burning Embers and Light Attack weaves. |
 |
Spell Symmetry | Just incase you run out of Magicka. It's not a big damage increase but it does give you extra Max Magicka and Magicka recovery like any Mages Guild ability. |
 |
Standard of Might | I'm still convinced Standard of Might is the better morph. The extra 25% ult cost over Shifting Standard isn't worth the extra damage in my opinion. Flawless Dawnbreaker's extra weapon damage has no effect on this build. |
| Primary – Destro Staff (Fire) | Description | |
|
Inner Light | Inner light should also be put on the second bar. The passive benefits are just too important. (See above) |
 |
Draw Essence | Deals AoE damage, restores Magicka, steals Health, increases Health Recovery and Healing Received. You should use them after you've spammed some Elemental Rings. |
 |
Elemental Ring | The main AoE output. Elemental Ring is still a pretty good AoE in 1.6. It doesn't build ultimate like it did before so you're required to weave in some light attacks to gain ult during thrash pulls. |
 |
Green Dragon Blood | Acts as an emergency heal. It's a incredibly powerful self heal, restoring 33% of your missing health which means it heals more to lower health you are. The extra Health and Stamina recovery is also pretty handy for healing and blocking. |
 |
Extended Chains" | If you haven't put it on your first bar, put it on your second. Chains are important in DSA and Trials to pull extra mobs outside of the AoE. |
|
Standard of Might | (See above) |
Rotation
Primary bar: Initiate with a Heavy Attack > Burning Embers > Light Attack > Engulfing Flames > Light Attack > Burning Embers > Light Attack > ... (8-10s Engulfing Flames runes out) ...> Burning Embers > Light Attack > REPEAT
Secondary bar: Spam Elemental Ring, weave in a light attack every few seconds to gain ultimate and use draw essence when you're low on Magicka.
