ESO Update 51 has changed the class meta in ways that are easy to underestimate. After the full Pure Class system changes were tested in real content, several classes that previously looked outdated have found new value, while some long-standing meta choices have lost their advantage in particular roles. That makes choosing the right class more important than ever, especially if you are preparing for difficult group content, score pushing, or solo challenges.

Rather than judging classes only by raw damage or healing numbers, this ranking focuses on what each class actually contributes to a team. Utility, buffs, debuffs, survivability, resource management, and the ability to perform a specific role all matter when building an optimized composition.

Healer Tier List

Healing numbers alone are not enough to determine the best healer in Update 51. Modern ESO builds already have access to enormous amounts of passive healing and defensive tools, so the more important question is what additional value a healer brings to the group.

C-Tier: Necromancer and Sorcerer

Necromancer remains an extremely capable raw healer, but its overall group utility is less impressive compared with other choices. It can provide powerful healing and useful abilities such as Boneyard and Colossus, but these skills are already likely to come from a Necromancer damage dealer in an optimized group. As a result, dedicating the healer slot to Necromancer does not always provide enough additional value.

Sorcerer has some excellent burst-healing options and can perform well when a fight contains demanding healing checks. Its ability to help with certain defensive mechanics makes it useful in specific encounters. However, many of its strongest group benefits can also be provided by Sorcerer tanks or DPS builds, which reduces the reason to choose it specifically as a healer.

B-Tier: Nightblade

Nightblade is arguably one of the strongest classes for raw healing in Update 51. It also brings several valuable defensive buffs, making it an attractive option for groups that need additional protection.

Its resource-generation potential is another major advantage. Abilities and passives such as Transfer and Catalyst allow Nightblade healers to generate Ultimate efficiently. The downside is that much of the class's unique value is defensive rather than offensive. Since optimized groups often prioritize healers that bring rare offensive buffs, Nightblade remains a strong B-tier option rather than reaching the top.

A-Tier: Warden

Warden continues to be one of the most reliable healer choices. Frost Cloak provides Major Resolve and Minor Toughness, giving the group important defensive benefits while also increasing overall survivability.

Update 51 also gives Warden impressive offensive utility. Thunderous Maw can provide Major Brittle, while Bountiful Harvest can help maintain Major Heroism. These buffs are extremely valuable for high-end groups. Although a skilled healer can maintain them, the tank role can often handle these responsibilities more naturally, which is why Warden remains A-tier rather than becoming an automatic S-tier healer.

S-Tier: Templar and Arcanist

Templar has become a surprisingly powerful support option because of its Ultimate generation. With Bastion of Light and the right group setup, a Templar can generate Ultimate at an impressive rate and repeatedly provide barriers to the group.

That becomes particularly valuable when maintaining important Ultimate-dependent effects and defensive support. Strong healing, Purify-related utility, and additional sustain tools further increase its value. Templar may require more careful optimization than some easier healer choices, but for highly coordinated groups, its potential is exceptional.

Arcanist is another standout healer in Update 51 because it combines healing, mitigation, debuffs, and group utility in one package. Curative Surge provides excellent burst healing for demanding mechanics, while its other skills can contribute useful debuffs and survivability.

Its Ultimate generation is also strong, and its class mastery can provide Major Force through healing and overhealing. This can significantly simplify buff maintenance for advanced groups and potentially free support players to use other powerful buff sets. For groups focused on maximizing performance, Arcanist is one of the most complete healer choices available.

Tank Tier List

Tank rankings follow a similar philosophy. Every class has enough defensive tools to survive difficult encounters when properly built, so the best tank is not necessarily the one with the highest personal durability. Group buffs, debuffs, positioning tools, Ultimate generation, and overall utility are equally important.

C-Tier: Templar

Templar can technically perform the tank role, but it does not make the most efficient use of its strongest support tools in this position. Bastion of Light and Divine Guardian can provide useful benefits, but the tank generally receives less value from some of these abilities than a healer would.

Its survivability is also less impressive than several competing tank classes. Because Templar can provide much more value as a healer or DPS in many optimized compositions, the tank version sits in C-tier.

B-Tier: Arcanist and Necromancer

Arcanist remains an extremely durable tank and is one of the safest options when survival is the primary concern. It can provide useful defensive effects and certain group utilities, although its offensive buff contribution is relatively limited when compared with the strongest support tanks.

Necromancer is much more versatile. It can bring Major Breach, Minor Vulnerability, Major Vulnerability, Major Cowardice, Minor Protection, and excellent Ultimate generation. Its resistance to damage-over-time effects can also be valuable in several difficult trial encounters.

The main problem is competition within its own class. Necromancer DPS is already extremely useful in many compositions, meaning that assigning Necromancer to the tank position may duplicate utility that the group already has.

A-Tier: Nightblade and Dragonknight

Nightblade tank is particularly valuable because it can maintain important offensive benefits while staying directly engaged with enemies. Its ability to maintain Cowardice effects and access Cutthroat's Focus gives the class meaningful damage support.

However, Nightblade tanking demands considerable skill. Managing survivability while maintaining buffs and maximizing uptime can be difficult, so it is not necessarily the easiest option for every group.

Dragonknight has arguably found its strongest role as a tank in Update 51. Lead from the Front provides Major Berserk when Ultimate is spent, while Standard of Might contributes additional weapon and spell damage. Dragonknight can also bring Stagger and important group tools such as Minor Brutality and Igneous Weapons.

The class requires more precise positioning and active management than some alternatives, but the amount of utility it provides can make it an excellent choice for optimized groups.

S-Tier: Sorcerer and Warden

Sorcerer may not initially look like an obvious S-tier tank, but its combination of durability, sustain, and ease of use makes it extremely valuable. Calculated Defense provides useful group support, while Sorcerer can also transition into a support-DPS style when a group needs additional damage.

Its ability to handle difficult encounters without requiring excessive maintenance makes it a strong choice for groups that want a dependable tank capable of covering multiple situations.

Warden is another top-tier option thanks to its combination of defensive and offensive utility. Frost Cloak provides Major Resolve and Minor Toughness, while Thunderous Maw can maintain Major Brittle. Bountiful Harvest also gives access to Major Heroism.

Warden becomes even more attractive in score-focused content because its class tools can improve add management and trial efficiency. When a tank can maintain important debuffs while also contributing valuable utility to the group, Warden becomes extremely difficult to replace.

DPS Tier List for Group Content

DPS rankings are based primarily on performance in organized 12-player content. Unlike tank and healer rankings, raw damage has a much larger influence here, although unique buffs and debuffs can still change the value of a class.

C-Tier: Dragonknight and Warden

Dragonknight struggles as a pure DPS option in Update 51. Its damage is significantly behind the strongest choices, and its recent changes have not been enough to push it into competitive territory.

Its saving grace is its ability to maintain important Zen-related effects. Because Dragonknight naturally applies many damage-over-time effects, it can maintain excellent uptime and provide valuable support even when its personal DPS is lower.

Warden has also fallen from its previous position. Earlier versions of the class were considerably stronger, but repeated adjustments have reduced its damage potential. Although it can still produce respectable numbers, the gap between Warden and the strongest DPS choices makes it difficult to justify using it as a pure damage dealer when its support potential is so valuable.

B-Tier: Arcanist and Sorcerer

Arcanist is an excellent choice for players who want a forgiving and versatile DPS class. It combines useful offensive passives with strong defensive abilities, making it particularly effective when completing difficult achievements or learning challenging encounters.

Its powerful AoE tools can destroy groups of enemies while also protecting the player, creating a strong balance between damage and survivability.

Sorcerer has much higher single-target potential and can perform exceptionally well under the right conditions. However, its strongest damage setups may require specific circumstances or abilities to reach their maximum potential.

Sorcerer's sustain is one of its greatest advantages. Its passive resource management allows players to maintain demanding rotations without constantly struggling to recover stamina. Its group utility also gives it a reason to remain in organized compositions even when another class can outperform it in raw raid DPS.

A-Tier: Necromancer and Templar

Necromancer remains one of the best AoE damage classes. Although the removal of its previous double-bash interaction reduced its single-target strength, the class still excels against large groups of enemies.

Its ability to provide Colossus, Boneyard, Necrotic Potency, and other useful effects also makes it valuable beyond its personal damage. Certain trials with heavy add waves can benefit greatly from having multiple Necromancer DPS players.

Templar has experienced one of the more impressive improvements in Update 51. Changes to its passives and class abilities have significantly increased its damage potential. Aetherial Lance remains an important part of its DPS setup, while improvements to Judgement's Brand and Balanced Warrior help push the class toward the competitive meta.

S-Tier: Nightblade

Nightblade is the standout DPS class in Update 51. Its combination of exceptional single-target damage, strong burst potential, and powerful execute performance makes it extremely effective in raid environments.

Swallow Soul now provides an additional damage bonus while active, further increasing Nightblade's already impressive output. The class may not have the same AoE dominance as Necromancer, but its overall damage profile remains extremely competitive.

For boss encounters where single-target performance matters most, Nightblade is one of the strongest choices available. Its burst, execute pressure, and consistent damage make it the clear S-tier DPS option for Update 51.

Best Classes for Solo Content

Group rankings do not tell the entire story. Solo activities such as Maelstrom Arena, Vateshran Hollows, Infinite Archive, and the newer solo dungeons require a different balance between damage and survivability.

C-Tier: Sorcerer

Sorcerer has strong burst damage and useful penetration tools, along with several self-buffs. However, its AoE performance is not as impressive as the leading solo classes, and its overall defensive toolkit does not completely compensate for that weakness.

For players who primarily focus on single-target encounters, Sorcerer can still be effective, but it does not rank among the best all-around solo choices.

B-Tier: Templar and Necromancer

Templar performs well in short encounters thanks to its strong burst potential. It also has useful self-buffs, critical bonuses, and healing through its offensive abilities.

Necromancer is considerably more explosive in AoE situations. It can tear through older content quickly while benefiting from strong offensive buffs and penetration. However, it can struggle in newer solo content because its defensive options are not as forgiving as those of the strongest survival-focused classes.

A-Tier: Nightblade

Nightblade remains one of the strongest damage dealers even when playing alone. Its AoE burst is excellent, and abilities such as Power Extraction and Sap Essence can provide both offensive pressure and healing.

The class also has strong critical bonuses and excellent burst through abilities such as Incapacitating Strike and Relentless Focus. Against older content, Nightblade can eliminate enemies and bosses before many mechanics even become relevant.

Its biggest weakness is mitigation. Although Nightblade has several healing tools, it does not have the same level of natural defensive protection as some other classes, which becomes more noticeable in newer and harder solo encounters.

S-Tier: Arcanist, Warden, and Dragonknight

Arcanist is one of the most complete solo classes in Update 51. It combines penetration, critical damage, powerful AoE, excellent defensive shielding, and strong Ultimate potential.

Pragmatic Fatecarver is especially effective because it can deliver tremendous damage while simultaneously providing protection. Arcanist can also generate Crux efficiently, allowing players to maintain powerful abilities for extended periods.

Warden also deserves an S-tier position for solo gameplay. Although it may not dominate optimized raid parses, it gains tremendous value from the number of buffs it can provide to itself. Netch, Shocks, and other abilities allow the class to maintain important offensive effects without depending on teammates.

Most importantly, Warden can increase survivability without sacrificing too much damage. This makes it particularly effective in difficult Infinite Archive runs and other content where staying alive becomes more important than achieving the highest possible DPS.

Dragonknight is perhaps the biggest surprise for solo players. Its personal DPS may not compete with Nightblade, but its incredible survivability, sustain, crowd control, and defensive abilities make difficult solo content much more manageable.

Its toolkit includes strong AoE options, resource recovery, crowd control, Major Resolve, and the famous Magma Shell. Instead of behaving like a fragile damage dealer, Dragonknight can continue fighting through extremely punishing encounters while maintaining its resources.

That combination makes Dragonknight an outstanding choice for players who care more about actually completing the hardest solo challenges than achieving the highest damage number on a training dummy.

The most important lesson from the Update 51 rankings is that there is no single class that dominates every role. A class that ranks S-tier as a healer may only be average as a DPS, while a class with mediocre raid damage can become one of the best options for solo progression.

Update 51 therefore rewards players who understand their class rather than simply following a single meta ranking. Once you know what each class contributes, you can create a build that matches your content, playstyle, and group requirements — and get much more value from the new Pure Class system.