ESO Class Mastery Passives Guide - All 7 Classes (Update 50)

ESO Class Mastery Passives are a new set of bonuses coming in Update 50 (June 2026) for players who keep all three of their class's own skill lines instead of subclassing other skill lines.

As a "pure class", you unlock five exclusive passives and can slot two at a time (they don't use skill points).

ZOS showed all 35 work in progress passives across all seven classes during the March 2026 dev stream.

Everything on this page is work in progress. Names, numbers and mechanics will change before Update 50 goes live.

Class Mastery in ESO is a set of bonus passives you unlock by staying pure class. Pure class means using all three of your class's own skill lines (for example, Ardent Flame, Draconic Power and Earthen Heart on a Dragonknight). If you swap one of those for a skill line from another class, that's subclassing and you lose access to Class Mastery.

How to unlock:

Not to be confused with the Scribing Class Mastery, which are part of ESO Scribing and a completely different system.

Since subclassing launched, pure class builds have been at a disadvantage in high-end content like veteran dungeons and trials. Players who wanted to stay pure class often felt weaker than those who swapped in a skill line from another class, especially when one combination dominated the meta.

Class Mastery is ZOS's answer to that gap. Senior Combat Designer Alec Verish described it as a stop-gap measure between the ongoing class reworks. ZOS is refreshing each class over time. Dragonknight is already done, Warden is next. Class Mastery passives will be adjusted as each class gets its full refresh.

The goal from the dev stream slide:

Verish summed up the team's approach: "We'll do what needs to be done, and we'll have a lot of fun while we're doing it too."

Templars Class Mastery Passives in ESO are built around Sacred Ground. Multiple passives trigger when Sacred Ground is active and work off each other, stacking benefits for blocking, healing and shielding. DPS options boost Burning Light and Illuminate.

Verish highlighted the interactions between passives as a key design choice. Unlike normal passives or item sets that typically avoid synergy for balance reasons, Templar's Class Mastery passives are intentionally built to work together. A Templar who activates Sacred Ground through blocking can trigger healing and shielding at the same time.

For current Templar skills and builds, see the ESO Templar page.

Sorcerer Class Mastery Passives in ESO are focused on better sustain, stronger shields and a returning execute passive. The old Implosion passive is back in a balanced form. One passive gets weaker for each permanent pet you have active.

Implosion was removed from the game years ago because it was unhealthy for balance. Verish said the team found a way to bring it back at a much healthier power level. The pet penalty on Implosion is worth noting for Sorcerer players who run permanent pets, as it directly reduces the proc chance.

For current Sorcerer skills and builds, see the ESO Sorcerer page.

Dragonknights Class Mastery Passives in ESO reinforce "the longer you fight, the stronger you get" identity. Builds on the Landslide mechanic from the recent class refresh. Tanks get blocking bonuses, DPS gets stacking flame damage from DoTs and Storm Voice can become a group buff tool. Verish noted these help make up for the old Helping Hands passive being removed.

The attrition theme ties directly into the Dragonknight identity that was reinforced in the Update 49 refresh. Landslide already rewards sustained combat, and these passives extend that further. The group support option through Storm Voice is also notable since it gives DK a stronger reason to exist in group content beyond its existing toolkit.

For current Dragonknight skills and builds, see the ESO Dragonknight page.

Nightblades Class Mastery Passives in ESO focus on burst damage and execute focus. One passive raises the Critical Damage cap higher than any other class. Another increases your damage based on how low your target's health is while also making you harder to kill. Additional options for group support and Ultimate generation through crits.

The Critical Damage cap increase is new tech that ZOS built specifically for this system. Currently all classes share the same cap. With Class Mastery, pure Nightblades can push past it. Combined with the missing-health scaling on damage and survivability, pure Nightblades are positioned to dominate single-target damage again, which is where the class was originally strongest before the Arcanist Fatecarver meta took over.

For current Nightblade skills and builds, see the ESO Nightblade page.

Wardens Class Mastery Passives in ESO were kept broad on purpose since the Warden class refresh is next. One passive adds Major Brittle, a strong debuff with very few sources in ESO right now. Others reward applying multiple status effects and improve healing across skill lines.

Verish explained that because the Warden refresh is actively being discussed, the team didn't want to create passives that would need an immediate rework. The current set leans into status effects and nature themes. Once the Warden refresh lands, these passives will likely be updated to hook into whatever new mechanics the refresh introduces.

The Major Brittle source is significant for group play. Outside of the Nunatak set, there are very few ways to apply this debuff in ESO.

For current Warden skills and builds, see the ESO Warden page.

Necromancers Class Mastery Passives in ESO now take the Corpse mechanics even further. You can now mark living enemies as corpses, letting you use corpse abilities in fights where no corpses exist. New tech lets buff stacks drop off one at a time instead of all at once. Tank, healer and execute options round out the set.

The living-corpse mechanic is the biggest change here. One of Necromancer's oldest problems is that corpse-consuming abilities are useless when there are no corpses on the ground. Class Mastery gives pure Necromancers a way around that. Verish mentioned this opened up combinations with class sets that make corpses explode on consumption, and that internal playtesting produced results strong enough that tuning will be needed.

The stack-decay tech is also new. Previously in ESO, stacking buffs with a duration would drop all stacks at once when the timer expired. This new tech lets them fall off one at a time, which makes the experience less punishing.

For current Necromancer skills and builds, see the ESO Necromancer page.

Arcanist Class Mastery Passives in ESO are all about Crux. One passive was cut during early Arcanist development for being too powerful and is now back as a pure-class reward. Opens up ability combos that were not possible before due to Crux limits. Healers can generate Crux from healing with no cooldown.

Verish gave specific context here. During early Arcanist design, the team tested whether using an Arcanist ultimate should automatically give you full Crux. It was too strong for the base class and they cut it. Now that pure-class Arcanists need extra power to compete with subclassed builds, that mechanic has been reintroduced through Class Mastery.

The Crux flow changes also open up ability combinations that no subclassed Arcanist can access. For example, running both Tentacular Dread (a Crux consumer) and Fatecarver (also a Crux consumer) becomes possible, where previously you had to choose one or the other.

For current Arcanist skills and builds, see the ESO Arcanist page.