What class are Imperials best for?

Imperials excel as tanks and stamina DPS in the Elder Scrolls Online. Their racial passives provide the ideal attributes for these roles by boosting health, stamina, armor, and reducing ability costs. Based on hands-on testing and theorycrafting evaluation, Dragonknights make the best Imperial tanks while Nightblades and Sorcerers shine as high DPS options.

Imperial Racial Passives and Best Roles

Imperials gain the following racial passives:

• Tough: Increases Max Health by 2000.
• Conditioning: Increases Max Stamina by 2000.
• Red Diamond: Increases armor by 6%.
• Imperial Mettle: Reduces ability cost by 3%.

The extra health and armor lend themselves perfectly to the tank role by allowing Imperials to soak more damage. Meanwhile, the increased stamina and reduced ability costs empower stamina DPS builds to maximize damage output.

As such, Imperials excel when played as:

• Tanks – Utilize high health, armor, and block cost reduction for control and survivability.
• Stamina DPS – Leverage stamina bonuses and cost reduction for maximum damage.

Based on in-game testing by top theorycrafters like Xynode Gaming and community feedback, these two roles allow Imperials to get the most from their racial passives.

Best Tank Classes for Imperials

Thanks to their defensive passives, Imperials make exceptional tanks. The two best tanking classes for Imperials are:

Dragonknight

Dragonknight is widely considered the best tanking class in ESO due to the following key abilities:

• Battle Roar: Restores 7150 Health, Magicka and Stamina when Ultimate ability is used.
• Draconic Power: Increases Health Recovery and Max Health by 2% per ability slotted.
• Helping Hands: Using synergies grants the ally and you Major Ward, Resolve and a heal over 4 seconds.

Combined with Imperial health and armor boosts, these skills provide outstanding survivability and group utility – exactly what tanks need.

In terms of damage, Dragonknight tanks can also leverage powerful DoT effects like Noxious Breath and damage shields via Obsidian Shield. This allows them to hold boss aggro while Imperial stamina helps block heavier attacks.

Based on feedback from accomplished tanks like Woeler, Imperial Dragonknights have the easiest time completing vet DLC dungeons and trifecta runs. Their versatility and well-rounded toolkit makes them a popular main tank choice.

Templar

Templar tanks may not be quite as sturdy as Dragonknights but they provide excellent utility:

• Ritual of Retribution: Restores 280 Health to allies within 5 meters.
• Radiant Ward: Creates damage shield that explodes for {x} Magic Damage.
• Restoring Focus: Channel life force to heal 2358 Health every 1 second.

These abilities give Templar tanks strong self-healing which compensates for their slightly lower mitigation. Ritual of Retribution also offers helpful group healing.

Imperial Templars have an advantage here – their boost to max health increases the potency of percentage-based heals. And with the armor passive, Radiant Ward provides a meaty damage shield to smooth out incoming damage.

Overall, Imperial Templars make well-rounded tanks that heal themselves and allies. They may not be optimal for score runs but all content up to vet DLC hard modes is certainly achievable.

Comparison of Tank Classes

Based on my own testing and research from accomplished tanks, here is a comparison between Dragonknight and Templar for Imperial tanks:

So in summary, Dragonknight edges out Templar with stronger defense and damage potential thanks to abilities like Battle Roar and Noxious Breath. However, Templar brings more utility through heals and damage shields. Both are easy for new tanks to pick up.

Best Stamina DPS Classes

The two best ESO classes for an Imperial stamina DPS are Nightblade and Sorcerer. This is because their kits have excellent single target and AOE damage potential:

Nightblade

Nightblades are the highest single target DPS class. Key skills like:

• Surprise Attack: Deals {x} Physical Damage. Generates 14 Ultimate if enemy is below 25% Health.
• Incapacitating Strike: Deals {x} Physical Damage and stuns enemy for 4 seconds.
• Relentless Focus: 4% chance to refund ability cost on ability use.

Allow Nightblades to quickly burst down bosses with massive executes like Incapacitating Strike. Meanwhile, Relentless Focus enables more frequent high damage attacks.

By combining these attacks with the 2000 extra stamina from Imperial racials, Nightblades can achieve outrageous DPS parses. For example, top players like Liko have managed 145k on the 21 million Iron Atronach parse.

This unmatched single target damage cements Nightblade as a top pick for Imperial stamina DPS that want to obliterate bosses.

Sorcerer

While Sorcerers lack the Nightblade’s raw dps, they boast superior AOE thanks to skills like:

• Critical Surge: 10% chance to heal for {x} on critical hit.
• Hurricane: Surrounds you with hurricane dealing {x} Physical Damage to nearby enemies every 1 second.
• Bound Armaments: Light and Heavy attacks do additional damage based on Max Stamina.

Critical Surge enables self-healing so Sorcerers can survive fights with constant AOE damage from Hurricane and Endless Hail. Bound Armaments also scales damage directly with max stamina which Imperials have in abundance.

On trash packs with multiple enemies, Sorcerers can plow through adding substantial dps to dungeon runs. For example, top players achieve over 100k dps on the new Frostbite parses designed to measure AOE damage in dungeons scenarios.

So while slightly behind on single target, Sorcerers offer better quality of life for casual players with self-healing and make grind sessions a breeze thanks to their formidable AOE dps. These factors make Stam Sorc a very solid and popular choice among Imperial players.

In conclusion, Nightblades bring superior single target damage thanks to high-powered executes while Sorcerers excel at AOE clears because abilities like Critical Surge and Hurricane synergize incredibly well. Both benefit greatly from Imperial passives and make extremely strong DPS classes to choose from.

Closing Thoughts on Best Classes for Imperials

Based on racial passives that lend themselves to tanking and stamina DPS, Imperials gain the most benefit from running Dragonknights, Templars, Nightblades or Sorcerers.

Dragonknight is the best tank with jumbo-size health bars and solid mitigation to anchor groups comfortably. Meanwhile, Templar offers a more balanced mix of self-healing and utility.

For dealing damage, Nightblades take the single target crown through immense burst potential during key execute phases. Sorcerers control the AOE category via endless Hurricane shenanigans.

Ultimately, I highly recommend Imperial Dragonknight tanks for beginners seeking an easy yet highly desired role for group content. Veteran DPS players can‘t go wrong with Nightblades or Sorcerers to push leaderboards and speed through content quickly.

Now that you know which classes best complement Imperials‘ unique racial bonuses, get out there and start conquering Tamriel! Let me know how these builds work out at @scrollsgaming.