What is a good way to LEARN to tank?

Bobby_V_Rockit · January 2022

M’kay, I have a 1585cp Necromancer I’m slowly building up as a proper tank. Currently using Galenwe (I know it’s same buff and empowering grasp, humour me here), Bloodlord’s Embrace and Drake’s Rush. Skills are the generic what everyone uses for such and it goes on like that.

ANYWAY! As we all know skill is more important than gear, so what is a good way to learn how to tank well? I’ve been doing random normals (DLCs included, ignore my other posts

) and like 3 random vets (one of which got me Encratis helm) but should I be focusing purely on vets? Sometimes it seems that even in normals they need a tank, got direfrost today with three sub level 20s.

Thoughts?

ixthUA · January 2022

In non-DLC vet often you need to do damage to carry the team, so consider a 2nd bar DPS setup. In DLC vet it's better to quit the team .
Tank is most useful to farm gear sets in normal DLC dungeons due to instant queue anytime, farming sets in vet is not time-efficient.
Healer is more convenient for vet pledges, as it can do much more DPS than tank.

colossalvoids · January 2022

If you're doing pugs all I can suggest is trying to progress through content by their release order and not to hop in the latest one right away. Success of a run mostly dictated by rng of getting okayish players than your personal performance in such situation so same skill level could wield way different results each time.

If you can get a group yourself and have someone here with you who is actually pretty good at tanking it would be ideal case, at least a group that would be doing it with you without judging or doing pug things like skips, running straight to the boss or even using taunts as a DD lol.

UntilValhalla13 · January 2022

If you want to tank, it's really helpful to watch videos of content and learn the timing/animations of big attacks. Most vet base game dungeons are super easy to learn to tank. Taunt the elite adds and chain the smaller ones with silver leash. Learn how to manage your resources. Keep debuffs up when applicable, but mainly stay alive and keep aggro to start.

Once you get comfortable doing the base dungeons, move on to vet dlc dungeons. Moon hunter keep on vet is a really decent tank test. Adds hit like a truck and can one-shot you if you're not paying attention.

Just do your best to familiarize yourself with boss attacks and mechanics. I've watched probably a literal hundred hours of videos of trials and dungeons from every pov; tank, healer, and dps. It makes you a better player, overall.

Paramedicus · January 2022

Not sure what u can learn in normals. Maybe grouping trash mobs (without carrying about priority targets, so that's prolly not so good..). Anyway as soon I would get some muscle memory about my skills I would go vet.

Fennwitty · January 2022

The Tank Club has videos.

Starlight_Knight · January 2022

Problem with random normals is they are too easy. if you're learning especially on a tank give yourself a challenge but dont make it too uncomfortable for yourself, do your random daily for the exp for sure but then choose somthing to do on VET and do it a few times.
Good thing about tanking is the queue times are instant so go for something harder than you think you could do and dont be scared of givng your self the challenge.

If you just focus on random normal them im afraid to say you will become a bad tank, you will develop to many bad habits.

I play a tank and often run 3 or 5 random vets a day just to see what i get. Im very good at some of them now. Others still scare me though becuase there are still aspects of mechanics that im not familiar with but just do it.

If you're really unsure of yourself then it dosnt hurt to mention it to the group first,
" hey guys, my first time here, just shout if im doing something stupid"
And away you go.

As you get more confident you will feel more comfortable running more support sets on your tank that buff the squads dps.

Live and let live. Dont do random normals :@)

EDIT:
Just to mention, in my experience toxic people are rare in vets, fake healers are rare but fake DD's are common. Its not their fault as they are doing what you're doing, they are learning and wanting to improve. (mostly)
Communication is key, and in my personal experience is you will have a better social time in a VET than Normals.
Say Hi when you join the group if people ignore you then thats their own issue.

K9002 · January 2022

Overland is more helpful than normal dungeons when it comes to learning. Harder world bosses and the new traveling bosses in Deadlands. They dish out more damage and sometimes have more complicated and deadly mechanics than many vanilla vet dungeon bosses. I started learning how to tank when my first character was around level 20, just tackling Vvardenfell bosses with a friend who was also new to this game.

As for grouping and chaining trash mobs, the best learning experience for me was running normal dungeons solo. As DPS I had to figure out how to group things for the sake of efficiency. Start without chain/leash and you'll figure out which monsters can be grouped by just following you, and which ones really need to be chained. Before solo dungeon runs I often used leash when it wasn't needed and resource management is one of the core pillars of tanking.

Necrotech_Master · January 2022

i usually also use world bosses to test builds for survivability (some of them can be quite difficult especially if your on a moderate dmg tank)

if you need a greater challenge i suggest trying to solo a dragon in elsweyr (until others inevitably show up) as dragons can apply some heavy dmg

non-dlc WBs are usually easiest (there are a few exceptions but still less challenging than most DLC WBs)

dlc WB have a range of challenge from moderate to difficult

moderate ones would be most vvardenfell and summerset bosses
slightly harder would be some of the ones in hews bane
difficult ones would be like ri'atarishi in south elsweyr

as a note there are a few that are impossible to solo on a tank
the hunger WB in vvardenfell (you will stalemate because it has a heal you cant ccbreak from and your dmg will be too low to outpace it)
and the mirelurk WB in murkmire (that one is just awful lol)

Araneae6537 · January 2022

I’m in the process of learning to tank myself!

Normals and most vet non-DLCs aren’t helpful as I end up focusing on less important things and there’s often little reason to block. (Trying to silver leash every add in the room while the semi-boss wails ineffectually on my back is nothing that will serve in harder content!) The second edition of base dungeons and then of course DLC dungeons will have more challenges and I’ve had good experiences with PUGging and I’m grateful to all teammates who had patience with their tank-in-training and helped by pointing out if there was a specific tank mechanic, strategy, thing I was missing!

What is most instructive though, is to do challenging content with a knowledgeable tank in another role who can not only give you info beforehand but watch what you’re doing and give suggestions to improve and insight when things go wrong. I tanked my first trial (vKA! — I have an awesome guild

) and learned sooo much!

Good luck on your journey!

Fennwitty · January 2022

Bobby_V_Rockit wrote: »

M’kay, I have a 1585cp Necromancer I’m slowly building up as a proper tank. Currently using Galenwe (I know it’s same buff and empowering grasp, humour me here), Bloodlord’s Embrace and Drake’s Rush. Skills are the generic what everyone uses for such and it goes on like that.

ANYWAY! As we all know skill is more important than gear, so what is a good way to learn how to tank well? I’ve been doing random normals (DLCs included, ignore my other posts ) and like 3 random vets (one of which got me Encratis helm) but should I be focusing purely on vets? Sometimes it seems that even in normals they need a tank, got direfrost today with three sub level 20s.

Thoughts?

In the current state of the game, you won't learn much from most random normals. So many players are just there to speedrun through for their crystals and won't practice mechanics (or even let the monsters be alive long enough to start the mechanics!)

You have enough CP for all the defensive bits you need, and you're aware your gear can be improved. Yolnahkriin from the trial Sunspire is exceptionally useful, as is Saxleel Champion from the trial Rockgrove. If you've run them as a DPS or healer you may have pieces in your stickerbook already.

Aside from self research, doing vet dungeons at a slow pace with friendly guild members will be most effective I think. Especially if there are experienced tank players and they can chat with you about various things.

A ton is raw knowledge of specific mechanics -- the boss is going to do this thing, you gotta do that thing -- but experiencing them as you learn in a 'safe' environment can be very helpful.

Jaimeh · January 2022

For dungeons, you can look up the mechanics and then PUG a lot, and learn as you go ahead--random groups can be less optimized usually, so it will keep you on your toes, and generally learning the mechanics well will help you to prepare for a certain phases in a fight that might require you to buff up, or move the boss, or do a specific actions, etc. The more you run a given dungeon, the better you will also learn how to stack the adds in certain areas, where to place the boss, so that he stays in the group's AOEs, it all comes with practice. Also, it might be a good idea to have some sort of speed buff, especially in random groups where they are more disorganized and people tend to run ahead a lot, because if you arrive first in a room, the other players won't mess with the aggro, or kite adds around, so you will stack everything more easily. For trials, the best thing is to find a training guild, and let them explain the mechanics from a tank's PoV while you run the trial. When you start out, it doesn't matter so much what build you have (as long as you can survive and sustain) but learning mechanics: which attacks you need to dodge, what things to step out of, how to best round up a pack of mobs, which adds are dangerous and should absolutely be taunted, and so on. Finally, although all roles need to have raid awareness, I think tanks should especially have 'eyes on their back', and react quick so that things don't get out of hand. This will come with practice, and gets easier the more familiar you are with a fight.

Oreyn_Bearclaw · January 2022

Group finder (Vet sooner than later) or very patient friends. If you can tank a vet group finder with 20k group DPS, you can tank anything. LOL.

Best part is, you will never have to wait, even if you are choosy about the dungeons you run (as you should be). Run them on normal, then run them on vet. Work on the non-DLCs first.

Remember a tanks job. Work on them in order and start with "Selfish" gear if you need:

1. Don't Die.
2. Taunt High Threat targets.

If you do one and two, you are tank. To be a good tank:

3. Learn the mechanics of the fight. This one is always a work in progress, but the best tanks can always explain mechanics to the group. If I have a mechanic question, I just ask the best tank that is online because they will know the answer.
4. Control the battlefield by positioning enemies with chains, CC, etc.

To be a great tank:

5. Provide buffs/debuffs for your group (most important are Penetration and Ultimates). This is wear Selfless buff sets can come into play, but they arent the whole story. The more buffs your provide, the harder #1 becomes.
6. Do some damage on top. This one is bottom of the list for a reason. Too many tanks worry way too much about this one.

Bobby_V_Rockit · January 2022

Awesome tips everyone, cheers!

buttaface · January 2022

In ESO, to be an excellent tank, you learn the side games in particular content, and then learning to tank the side games flows from that knowledge with practice, then you need to quickly and clearly share with teams who have either not memorized the side games or forgotten them, because tanking for an excellent, well-experienced team in the particular content at hand is often not how things play out. I refuse to learn many of the side games, find them annoying, so that makes me a permanently mediocre, casual tank in ESO, and fine with that casual niche. That is the choice, though, that everyone wanting to tank needs to make for themselves, and there are of course degrees of that choice.

Amottica · January 2022

The best way is with friends or at least guildmates and in content that you know fairly well.

Friends and guildmates who know you are just starting to tank are likely to be more forgiving and understanding of mistakes. They are also likely to provide a much better group than what one will find if they queue solo via the GF.

Using content you are familiar with means you will have a better idea of what to expect, maybe have seen how others have tanked some bosses or groups trash successfully.

Good luck and have fun with it.

etchedpixels · January 2022

There are three approaches I'd suggest to start

1. Guild groups. Take 3 low levels in with you and keep them alive. It works really well with new guild players because they want someone who won't run it at 200mph, and you want the time and also the actual test.

2. Set your companion up as a dd, and go wander through harder overland content and keep everything off your companion

3. Run a dungeon two handed with some who has tanked a chunk more and can act as the dd/healer and guide you.

If you've run DD on a lot of dungeons you actually know most of it because you've seen the mechanics, you've been squished by the boss when the tank didn't turn it and so on.

Start just worrying about grabbing bosses and pointing them the right way, then about stacking stuff. The finer art is things like debuffing, keeping resources in long fights and then dealing with mechanics (generally on vet) where being in heavy armour and blocking is not sufficient.

Whem you start to get the hang of it tank world bosses for people (or Mirri), and then try dragons. If you can tank a dragon with a healer behind you then you are more than ready to take on normal trials.

Rudrani · January 2022

Bobby_V_Rockit wrote: »

M’kay, I have a 1585cp Necromancer I’m slowly building up as a proper tank. Currently using Galenwe (I know it’s same buff and empowering grasp, humour me here), Bloodlord’s Embrace and Drake’s Rush. Skills are the generic what everyone uses for such and it goes on like that.

ANYWAY! As we all know skill is more important than gear, so what is a good way to learn how to tank well? I’ve been doing random normals (DLCs included, ignore my other posts ) and like 3 random vets (one of which got me Encratis helm) but should I be focusing purely on vets? Sometimes it seems that even in normals they need a tank, got direfrost today with three sub level 20s.

Thoughts?

Practice in stages...

First practice not dying.

Next practice grouping all the enemies into one spot very quickly ("positioning"). Of course, while not dying.

When you are very good at that pick ONE of the important buffs you should supply by your sets or skills, and practice getting it close to 100% uptime, while you still dont die and still stack and group everything quickly and effectively.

Then add another buff... Then another... hopefully you should be able to carry four or five buffs with high uptime.

--

You can practice these things in ANY situation.

In a normal you can really practice trying to be fast with your grouping.
In a vet you can practice the NOT-dying part more, and have more time to apply and sustain the buffs you are responsible for.

---

Once you are pretty good with all three aspects, start practicing trials, where you have to COORDINATE what you are doing with another tank.

phileunderx2 · January 2022

Go to a harrow storm and gather up all the mini bosses and pull them to the side and keep them there. This will help you to keep taunt on multiple targets, test your sustain and self healing.
Of course this works best on storms that have fewer players fighting it.

BXR_Lonestar · January 2022

Bobby_V_Rockit wrote: »

M’kay, I have a 1585cp Necromancer I’m slowly building up as a proper tank. Currently using Galenwe (I know it’s same buff and empowering grasp, humour me here), Bloodlord’s Embrace and Drake’s Rush. Skills are the generic what everyone uses for such and it goes on like that.

ANYWAY! As we all know skill is more important than gear, so what is a good way to learn how to tank well? I’ve been doing random normals (DLCs included, ignore my other posts ) and like 3 random vets (one of which got me Encratis helm) but should I be focusing purely on vets? Sometimes it seems that even in normals they need a tank, got direfrost today with three sub level 20s.

Thoughts?

The only way to become a good tank IMO is to actually tank. Tanking is one of those things where you actually have to have experience to be good at. The tricky thing is to learn how to sustain (even self sustain) because although in hard content, you SHOULD have help from a healer with sustain (shards/orbs), some fights are designed where the tank will be far away from everyone else, so the more you can be self-contained in terms of providing yourself everything you need, the better.

Then from there it is just all about learning mechanics, learning what hits you can take and what hits you can't, and reacting to them appropriately. Some attacks will one-shot the tank no matter what, and those need to be roll-dodged, others can be absorbed without a block (so no need to drain your sustain), while others you WANT to block because you need the extra damage reduction to survive. You simply won't know any of this unless you try - and yes, you are sometimes going to fail. That's just part of the learning process.

And lastly, there are mechanics you will have to interrupt with a bash, and you really can't learn the tells unless you have experience and you learn the tells. You can read guides so you know what to watch for, but at the end of the day, experience is really the best way to learn.

In sum: the best way to learn to be a tank is really to just play as a tank, expose yourself to ALL kinds of content, and continue to refine your build where you think it is weak.

El_Borracho · January 2022

1) Run your tank in vet dungeons with friends who know how to tank who can teach you
2) Run a DD in vet dungeons with a tank that knows how to tank
3) Run pugs in normal DLC dungeons on your tank build

But in reality, Option #1 is the best way.

StarOfElyon · January 2022

For me, I do watch mechanic videos. But also, I will play it as a DD first to learn the mechanics then I will transition to tank. There's more pressure as a tank. Sometimes, DD don't do their part to interrupt mobs and/or res teammates. Playing each role helps you out.

Edit: I was in a rush earlier so I couldn't make my point as clearly as I wanted to. Playing DD first allows you to get used to the mechanics in a less stressful role. Then, once you transition to tank, you can also use your knowledge gained as a DD to help them do their part (like where you position the boss). I play all roles and I think doing that helps you understand what each role needs from the others.

BejaProphet · January 2022

Don’t be afraid to be crap at it. You will be bad. The ones who become great are the ones willing to embarrass themselves because they will be better next time.

Giraffon · January 2022

Just keep progressing to tougher content as you succeed. Eventually you are going to get bullied by some boss and you'll be forced to step back and see what needs to be changed. This is the part where you get better and better.

Styxius · January 2022

Not read what others say but tanking pugs is my favorite way to improve my resource management and learn pacing for different groups

Bitter_Apple21 · January 2022

@Oreyn_Bearclaw, what you said helps. Got CP780 DD Magblade and Magplar and one Warden healer, and decided to try tanking. Level 30, but not part of any guild so only access to group dungeons is after I hit 45 (or something). Common theme in practice is Overland World bosses, where I work to survive and either wait for someone to come help nail them or try to nail them myself. Your list sheds some light on things for me in a nice concise list. Thanks. RIght now at 40k health and been wondering if my attribute mix is off as I seem to burn thru magicka much more than stamina. But then....still learning.

Krayl · January 2022

Equip a sword and board and slot a taunt
join dungeon queue as tank
keep the bosses still so people can murder them

Congrats! You're on your way to being an amazing tank.

Oreyn_Bearclaw · January 2022

Bitter_Apple21 wrote: »

@Oreyn_Bearclaw, what you said helps. Got CP780 DD Magblade and Magplar and one Warden healer, and decided to try tanking. Level 30, but not part of any guild so only access to group dungeons is after I hit 45 (or something). Common theme in practice is Overland World bosses, where I work to survive and either wait for someone to come help nail them or try to nail them myself. Your list sheds some light on things for me in a nice concise list. Thanks. RIght now at 40k health and been wondering if my attribute mix is off as I seem to burn thru magicka much more than stamina. But then....still learning.

@Bitter_Apple21

Glad it is helpful. Full disclaimer, I am no expert on tanking. I have tanked most of the vet DLCs through about SCP, so any specific advice I give might be just a bit outdated.

That said, I think too many tanks focus on health, and dont focus on the rest of it. The way I traditionally built my dungeon tank (DK), was to use Tri Food for max stats, Use as many tri stat glyphs as possible (again max stats), and then when it comes to my attributes, I did the following. I begin by putting points into health to hit a threshold (make sure you have food active and all your gear how you want it). I usually shoot for about 35k, much more than that is overkill, but nothing wrong with 40k. I would then put the rest into magic and stam, with the goal of having my stamina just a hair higher than my magic. This would ensure that anything that returns my max resource is giving me stam (for example, synergizing orbs with my healer). It also ensures I have adequate pools of both resources.

I typically would look for some form of magic regen in my gear, to ensure that I have sufficient magic to cast chains and that sort of thing. My go to move was two monster pieces that gave magic regen, but there are other ways. In other words, i can regen stamina with synergies and heavy attacks, I can regen magic with good magic regeneration. A source of Major Intellect (potions or certain skills) is nice. Magic regeneration is a more important stat than a lot of people realize. Remember you can regen magic while blocking, but not stamina, so going overkill on stam regen might actually be wasted.

I think block cost reduction is hard to beat as a go to for jewelry, but as you get into more content, you will find that what is best for one fight is not best for another. Tanks and healers at end game often end up carrying a lot of gear.

In terms of sets, nothing wrong with starting with obvious tanking sets, things that give resistance, health, etc. But as you get more comfortable, you want to use sets that either directly buff your group, or buff your ability to help the group (think ultimate generation and spitting out warhorns and that sort of thing).

Bitter_Apple21 · January 2022

@Oreyn_Bearclaw , thanks. I am currently running - for ease of pickup - Warrior Poet and Torug's. The gear is not even purple, and with no CP buffs or food, the health number seemed high enough that with just blocking, I could stand there. I just checked, I do get a Minor Toughness at all times with WP (health with it is 39K, at level 30). However, I seemed to be blowing thru the magicka. I acknowledge that I am not "tanking" on the World bosses however, and using some magicka damage skills, so that might be the reason why I am blowing thru them, but it just seemed that as I level up, go to violet armor, and add CP buffs and food buffs for health(or maybe not??), the current health would be way up there. Point being I might need to spend more attributes on Mag and Stam. As you say, likely when I change to different gear, to buff the team, the health number will drop somewhat. When you say two monster pieces, do you mean two "different" pieces to focus on M regen?

Oreyn_Bearclaw · January 2022

Bitter_Apple21 wrote: »

@Oreyn_Bearclaw , thanks. I am currently running - for ease of pickup - Warrior Poet and Torug's. The gear is not even purple, and with no CP buffs or food, the health number seemed high enough that with just blocking, I could stand there. I just checked, I do get a Minor Toughness at all times with WP (health with it is 39K, at level 30). However, I seemed to be blowing thru the magicka. I acknowledge that I am not "tanking" on the World bosses however, and using some magicka damage skills, so that might be the reason why I am blowing thru them, but it just seemed that as I level up, go to violet armor, and add CP buffs and food buffs for health(or maybe not??), the current health would be way up there. Point being I might need to spend more attributes on Mag and Stam. As you say, likely when I change to different gear, to buff the team, the health number will drop somewhat. When you say two monster pieces, do you mean two "different" pieces to focus on M regen?

@Bitter_Apple21
So your traditional Monster set is for head and shoulders and it is a two piece bonus. Typically the first bonus is a stat boost of some sort and the second bonus is a unique proc type mechanic. The interesting thing about monster sets, unlike most gear (save arena weapons), is that you can get a one line bonus for wearing one piece of gear. Normally, it takes two.

Look at a set like chokethorn. The first line for one piece gives magic regen, the second line for wearing two pieces summons a strangler that heals you (thats the unique mechanic). Sure you can wear both, but nothing says you have to. So if just wear a shoulder piece of chokethorn, and say a head piece of shadowrend (also gives a one piece bonus of magic rend), you get a double bonus of magic regen and only need to wear two pieces of gear to get it. Because you have 12 gear slots, you can do that and wear another 2 5-piece sets.

Now at level 30, I wouldn't over think it two much. Spending more than an ounce of thought on your gear before level 50 and CP160 is almost certainly a waste. You probably wont have access to monster sets at that level anyways.

What I will say, engaging in any type of content in this game without food, is probably about the biggest and most basic combat mistake you can make. I don't care if you are picking flowers or running vet trials on hard mode, USE FOOD (or drink). It is so cheap and lasts for hours.

As a quick fix, if your health is really at 39k with no food, and your main issue is running out of magic, use something like Ghastly Eye Bowl (technically a drink, but doesnt matter). It will boost max magic and magic regen. If you end up with magic that is higher than you stam, use attributes to adjust. When you are battle leveled before level 50, your raw max stats are going to be pretty high anyway.

Also, the more DPS you do in addition to tanking, the faster you are going to burn through resources, so a source of regen is important.

If you are on PC/NA, shoot me a message and Ill send you a few stacks of some food/drink you can use.

Bitter_Apple21 · January 2022

@Oreyn_Bearclaw Thanks. Think I will look at my getting some armor pieces with some Mag regen on them to use. As I cannot use Monster stuff now, I do have 2 slots that have nothing to do with the 5 pcs sets. Particularly at this point where, not part of a guild, and too early for Undaunted, I am pretty much solo wherever I go. Also, I think I will spend a few more skill points on the Mag and Stam attributes for the next 5-10 levels or so. I can always respec if needed.

I realize each event is different, but any guidance on a health "range" by the time I cross lvl 50, or more precisely to run dungeons. I can work backwards from there as I am setting up the character.

Appreciate the help.