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Werewolf In Elder Scrolls Online: Everything You Need to Know

Being a Werewolf in Elder Scrolls Online isn’t for everyone. It’s challenging, has limitations, and hardly anyone plays the part. However, you can make some extremely powerful Builds with the right information and right guidance. In this Guide I will show you everything there is to know about playing as a Werewolf. This includes: Races, Classes, Armor, Weapons, Sets and Champion Points. I won’t cover the history of this Skill Line, since there have been so many changes it would take a full article just to do that. Instead I will simply give you the updated information on how Werewolves currently work as of Update 19 Wolfhunter.

werewolf_stats_eso
One example of the stats you can get when transformed. I don’t have Major Brutality active in this photo, so Weapon Damage could be much higher.

Werewolf Basics

We’ll start with the basics of Werewolf before moving on to advanced concepts. The first thing you need to know about this Ultimate ability is that it can be acquired by being bitten by high level Werewolves in ESO, but the easiest way is to be bitten by another player at one of the game’s Werewolf Shrines. These are located in Reaper’s March, The Rift and Bangkorai, see the maps below for their exact locations. You can also purchase this Skill Line from the Crown Store if you are really desperate, but there is almost always someone willing to give a free bite.

werewolf_shrine_locations_eso
There is a shrine for each faction.

While you are in Werewolf Form you will lose access to to all current skills and abilities and gain those of the Werewolf Skill Line for the duration. The following is a brief rundown of the positives and negatives of being a Werewolf and what you can expect when in Werewolf Form:

When in Werewolf Form

  • +10,000 Physical and Spell Resistance
  • +30% Max Stamina
  • +30% Increased Movement Speed
  • +15% Stamina Recovery
  • +18% Weapon Damage
  • +100% Stamina return from Heavy Attacks
  • +25% Damage from Poison attacks (Weapon Enchants, Abilities, and Weapon Poisons)
  • +20% Damage from Fighters Guild Skills

When in Human Form

  • +15% Stamina Recovery (must be on your active bar to apply)

Applied When in Werewolf Form

  • Weapon Damage
  • Weapon Traits
  • Slotted Poisons
  • Armor (this includes Shield if you have one equipped when you transform)
  • Armor Traits
  • Armor Passives
  • Racial Passives
  • Class Passives
  • Alliance War Passives
  • Guild Passives

Not Applied When in Werewolf Form

Werewolf Races and Classes

So what can we make of all that? This is mostly good news for players looking to Werewolf as it means that they can create a Build that is also effective outside of Werewolf Form and most of it will carry over. This means that you’ll want to choose a Race and Class that benefits Werewolf because those bonuses will apply. Because Werewolves gain about ~25% Max Stamina when transformed, ideally you would choose a Race that includes Max Stamina in its bonuses, but it is not required. Below you can see the Races suggested and Classes, see for yourself which would work best:

Races

Redguard

  • +9% Stamina Recovery
  • +10% Max Stamina
  • Your melee attacks restore 792 Stamina (this effect can occur once every 5 seconds)

Orc

  • +6% Max Health
  • +6% Max Stamina
  • +20% Health Recovery
  • +5% Healing Taken
  • +4% Melee Damage
  • -12% Sprint cost reduction and +10% Sprint speed

Nord

  • +6% Max Stamina
  • +20% Health Recovery
  • +9% Max Health
  • +2079 Cold Resistance
  • +6% Damage Reduction

Wood Elf

  • +21% Stamina Recovery
  • +6% Max Stamina
  • +1485 Poison and Disease Resistance
  • Reduces your detection radius in Stealth by 3m
  • Increases damage done while in Stealth by 10%

Imperial

  • +12% Max Health
  • +10% Max Stamina
  • Your melee attacks have a 10% chance to restore 6% of your Max Health

Classes

Templar

  • +6% Weapon Damage
  • + 2640 Spell Resistance
  • -4% Stamina, Magicka and Ultimate cost
  • +20% Resurrection speed with +100% Health

Dragonknight

  • +10% Block Mitigation
  • +3300 Spell Resistance
  • Replenish 13,800 Stamina, Health and Magicka when transforming

Sorcerer

  • -5% cost on Stamina and Magicka abilities
  • -15% cost on Ultimate abilities
  • +10% Magicka Recovery
  • +5% Physical Damage

Nightblade

  • +15% Health Recovery
  • +15% Stamina Recovery
  • +15% Magicka Recovery
  • Gain 20 Ultimate after consuming a Potion.

Warden

  • -15% Snare reduction
  • +10% Max Health when healing yourself

You can see above that really any Class can play a Werewolf, so don’t be overly concerned by which Class you are.

Remaining in Werewolf Form

This biggest challenge of being a Werewolf is remaining one once transformed, so timing when to use this Ultimate is crucial. 30 seconds may not seem like a long time, but there are many ways to increase this, namely the passives in the Werewolf Skill Line:

Devour – This passive will give you additional time and Health while you are eating a corpse. Since this is now a channel it can be used more effectively. This is pretty easy to do in PvE, but not always so easy to do in PvP.

Bloodrage – This passive will effectively keep you in Werewolf Form as long as you are hitting a target with regularity and is probably the most important to maintaining Werewolf Form. You’ll want to make sure you’re in the thick of battle as often as you can because of this.

Call of the Pack – This ability will reduce the rate at which your Werewolf timer ticks depending on how many Werewolves there are in your group. This is not something that will be overly useful in PvE, but you could coordinate a group of Werewolves for PvP.

Feral Pounce – While not a passive skill, this morph of Pounce will give you an additional 4 seconds when leaping at targets more than 10 meters away so I included it here. It’s not a lot, but since you will be using Pounce quite a bit, it can help give you just enough time to get back into the action where you can get hit on.

Werewolf Champion Points

As a Werewolf there are some things you need to know about how the different stars affect certain abilities. Let’s take a look at how the different trees will affect you as a Werewolf:

tenacity_eso
Because Werewolves get 100% increase in Stamina return from Heavy Attacks, this star is a natural fit.

Tenacity – This star increases the amount of Stamina returned when using a Heavy Attack. Werewolves get +100% Stamina returned when using a Heavy Attack, and if you’re wearing 5 pieces of Heavy Armor you will get an additional 25%, so there is good synergy here.

Physical Weapon Expert – This star increases the damage of your Light and Heavy Attacks while in Werewolf Form, but not the bleed damage.

Master-At-Arms – This star increases the damage of your Pounce, Piercing Howl and the initial damage of Infectious Claws. It also increases the damage of your Light and Heavy Attacks.

Thaumaturge – This start increases the damage of your Light Attack bleed and the DoT caused by Infectious Claws.

Hardy – This star will help to offset some of the Poison Damage you take.

You can pretty much figure out how you want to spend the rest of the points, but focusing on defense is the priority.

Werewolf Sets

There are many different Sets players wishing to Werewolf can use. Since Werewolf is a Stamina-based Skill Line, you’ll either want to choose Heavy or Medium Armor. I strongly recommend Medium Armor for PvE to increase your damage, and Heavy Armor for PvP to increase your Resistances. Keep in mind that you can mix and match Heavy and Medium Sets and that Werewolves increase not only Stamina but Weapon Damage by a good percentage. Let’s take a look at some Sets players may wish to utilize when playing a Werewolf:

Medium Armor Werewolf Sets

Salvation – This is probably the most obvious choice for would be Werewolves. Not only does it have 2 Max Stamina bonuses, but it reduces the cost of Werewolf Transformation by 100 Ultimate. On top of that, it grants 154 Weapon Damage while in Werewolf Form.

Bone Pirate’s Tatters – This is another excellent choice. Not only does it have 2 Max Stamina bonuses, but the 5 piece bonus also provides another 2000 Stamina, meaning you’ll get at least another 1000 Stamina from this set when you transform, and even more when you include your Racial Passives.

Draugr Hulk – This Set is entirely Max Stamina, which is perfect for for a Werewolf! Consider mixing a Set that has some Weapon Damage if you take this one, else you won’t take advantage of the increased Weapon Damage Werewolves provide.

Quick Serpent – A tougher Set to acquire, but it has 2 Max Stamina bonuses and its cost reduction and movement speed increase are both extremely useful.

Spriggan’s Thorns – 2 Max Stamina, Weapon Damage AND Physical Penetration. An all around good Set for a Werewolf.

Shacklebreaker – Not only does this Set have Weapon Damage and Max Stamina, it also has Max Magicka and Magicka Recovery, which gives you almost another cast of Hircine’s Bounty and let’s you use it more often.

shacklebreaker_shield_eso
Hands down one of the best Sets in ESO works well here, since we need Magicka to heal.

Heavy Armor Sets

Black Rose – This Set provides Max Health, Stamina, Magicka, Spell Damage, and Weapon Damage in addition to a 35% increase in resources returned by Constitution. All of these things are useful to a Werewolf.

Reactive Armor – This Set is extremely useful in PvP and will definitely keep you alive longer than you should be. Don’t consider this one if you’re a PvE Werewolf.

Shacklebreaker – Since this Set is crafted you can make it in Heavy Armor as well.

Monster Helm Sets

Mighty Chudan – A good source for Major Ward and Major Protection while in Werewolf Form. If you’re wearing full Heavy Armor this will put you in the area of 31,000 Resistance when transformed (without a Shield equipped).

Pirate Skeleton – This Set not only gives you some Resistance, but reduces your damage by 30% every so often. It does work with Werewolf, so there are no issues there.

Sourge Harvester – A great Set to help keep you alive that makes Hircine’s Bounty heal for a LOT.

Troll King – I’d only recommend this Set if you chose either Orc or Nord as it will synergize well with their Health Recovery passives.

Velidreth – An excellent Set for some burst damage. The 1 piece bonus is Weapon Damage, so that’s a plus.

Spawn of Mephala – Trash until recently, now this Set gives Max Stamina as its 1 piece bonus and since you’ll be doing lots of fully-charged Heavy Attacks as a Werewolf this will work well. I’m curious to see if this works with Poisonous Serpent Set.

Selene – Again, a good source of burst damage against a single target.

Molag Kena – This set synergizes well with Werewolf because you will be doing a lot of Light Attacks.

molag_kena_mask_eso
Spell AND Weapon Damage!?! YES PLEASE!

Final Tips for Werewolves

The main issue Werewolves have is that they have no defensive abilities, making them hard to keep alive. You cannot bubble, or cleanse negative effects, so you will have to reduce damage and “out heal” what you take. This is one of the main reasons many players don’t play Werewolves and why they are much better in a group. If you’re PvPing, especially in a small group or alone, Heavy Armor is almost a must because you won’t be able to cleanse DoTs easily. You will also run into trouble if any form of Defile is applied to you, because you cannot rid yourself of it.

Because Werwolves regain so much Stamina from Heavy Attacks it isn’t as necessary to have high Stamina Recovery. Play around with Recovery and Damage and try to find your sweet spot for your setup. Heavy Attacks are easier to perform in PvE than PvP, so you may need more Recovery while in Cyrodiil.

You can use Potions to give yourself Major Brutality and Major Savagery while in Werewolf Form, further increasing your damage. Spend the gold or time crafting and get a few stacks, because they are absolutely worth it.

Weapon Damage and Stamina now give about the same damage when it comes to Light and Heavy Attacks. This is a huge change and it used to be each point of Weapon Damage was worth 40 Stamina. This is no longer the case, and you should take advantage of it when choosing Sets. You can get 60k Stamina with the right setup and this will make your Light and Heavy Attacks hit for a ton of damage!

Commit fully to playing a Werewolf if you want to be successful. That is to say, get all the Armor you need, get the Glyphs you need, respec your Skills and Champion Points. Don’t half-ass it and see if you like it before you decide to commit because you won’t succeed and you’ll just waste your time. Playing a Werewolf takes dedication and practice and isn’t something you will be great at immediately. Keep at it and before you know it you’ll strike “fear” into the hearts of your enemies and be a “howling” success.


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2 responses to “Werewolf In Elder Scrolls Online: Everything You Need to Know”


  1. The werewolf skills only function when in werewolf form which requires ultimate to transform. What do you do when you run out of ultimate and can’t transform into a werewolf?

  2. This is a phenomenal write up! Exactly what I was looking for this morning!

    I do have a question about a Sorcerer passive from a skill line. Reading the guide my assumption is that yes the passive will apply, but I want to be absolutely sure. Will the Implosion passive apply in WW form?

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