Tanks

Shantu

Heretofore, I've focused mainly on a DPS build but have a great admiration for good tanks that stand toe-to-toe with some of these behemoths and represent, in my mind, the core of a good dungeon group. When researching about various tank builds you get such a dizzying amount of contradictory information that it's hard to integrate it all into a cohesive plan. One of the beauties of ESO is there is no one way come up with a good build. So I've come up with my own Templar Redguard build I've been playing for about a week that I want to mold into a decent tank.

Not getting into the nitty gritty of specific armor sets, skills, rotations, buffs, etc., I was wondering if some of you with successful tank builds can offer some high level general info on how you approach the game play. For example, do you build toward max health or max stamina? Or do you go for a balance of the two? How the hell do you face these bosses, take the punishment, and survive? What is your general strategy and approach to good tanking?

VaranisArano

Hi! Its always awesome to have more tanks!

So there's a really good overview of what good tanking looks like here on the Tanking University thread: https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/377221/tanking-university/p1

But I'll try to address your specific thoughts here.

The Basics (normal and veteran dungeons)
The general way I approach the gameplay is that:
The basic job of a tank is to taunt the boss, hold boss aggro, and don't die. If you can do that, you are a tank.
A good tank taunts the boss, holds, boss aggro, doesn't die, holds the boss more or less still, debuffs the boss, buffs the group, and provides crowd control.

How a good tank does all of those things is up to the tank. Any class can be a good tank, though the skills and gear they use to do those things will vary.

Stats
You probably want about 30-35K health. Physical and Spell resistances cap at 33k or 50% damage reduction, and the harder the content the closer you'll want to be to that resistance cap. Personally, I get most of my health from my gear and enchantments, leaving my attributes free to be magicka or stamina as I like so that I can cast spells/use weapon skills. On my MagDK, I have no attributes in stam and most of my attributes in magicka, but I where some sturdy armor to reduce block cost. For your Redgaurd Templar, I'm guessing you'll go stamina focused? That means you can put as much as you want into stam, since that will be blocking and attacking for you.

The only time you need to go super high on health is if you are building a high health tank for purposes of using skills that scale off of max health. Those tank builds have 65-75K health in order to use those skills effectively. They aren't the norm, but they can be effective.

Facing the Bosses

• You go in with a solid tank set-up - 30-35k health, as much resistances as you need to feel comfortable, probably a self-heal or two just in case you find yourself taking big hits. This sets you up for success. (On normal dungeons, you can have less health/resistances, but I like to bring my full tank build to normals because sometimes your random party members wipe and its nice to have a cushion if you have to rez everyone.)
• You have a taunt - there are four taunts available. I love Pierce Armor for the Major Breach/Fracture debuff. Inner fire is a good ranged taunt and effective for certain fights. Ice staff heavy attack and charging while wearing the tormentor set are much less common.
• Grab the boss with your taunt as soon as possible. Ideally, turn the boss so he's facing away from the party and hold the boss more or less still so your DPS can cast their ground-based AOEs.
• Respect the boss mechanics. Block big hits, hold block on the big red ground based AOEs, try not to stand in stupid too much (with a solid tank build, you can stand in stupid and be okay most of the time, but it makes the healer worry). On veteran, a lot of those mechanics become oneshots if you don't block them.

So for my general approach to tanking, I like to go in with a solidly tanky build that has plenty of resistances and health. Most of my health comes from gear, so my damage/healing is run off of my magicka or stamina pool, depending on whether I'm tanking on a magicka or stamina toon. I've got a self-heal so I'm not entirely reliant on a healer to get my health up after a big boss attack, and I'm paying attention to the boss to interrupt or block big attacks.

Hope that helps! Definitely give the Tanking University thread a look, as there's a lot of great advice from various people who tank with different styles.

GreenhaloX

VaranisArano wrote: »

Hi! Its always awesome to have more tanks!

So there's a really good overview of what good tanking looks like here on the Tanking University thread: https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/377221/tanking-university/p1

But I'll try to address your specific thoughts here.

The Basics (normal and veteran dungeons)
The general way I approach the gameplay is that:
The basic job of a tank is to taunt the boss, hold boss aggro, and don't die. If you can do that, you are a tank.
A good tank taunts the boss, holds, boss aggro, doesn't die, holds the boss more or less still, debuffs the boss, buffs the group, and provides crowd control.

How a good tank does all of those things is up to the tank. Any class can be a good tank, though the skills and gear they use to do those things will vary.

Stats
You probably want about 30-35K health. Physical and Spell resistances cap at 33k or 50% damage reduction, and the harder the content the closer you'll want to be to that resistance cap. Personally, I get most of my health from my gear and enchantments, leaving my attributes free to be magicka or stamina as I like so that I can cast spells/use weapon skills. On my MagDK, I have no attributes in stam and most of my attributes in magicka, but I where some sturdy armor to reduce block cost. For your Redgaurd Templar, I'm guessing you'll go stamina focused? That means you can put as much as you want into stam, since that will be blocking and attacking for you.

The only time you need to go super high on health is if you are building a high health tank for purposes of using skills that scale off of max health. Those tank builds have 65-75K health in order to use those skills effectively. They aren't the norm, but they can be effective.

Facing the Bosses

• You go in with a solid tank set-up - 30-35k health, as much resistances as you need to feel comfortable, probably a self-heal or two just in case you find yourself taking big hits. This sets you up for success. (On normal dungeons, you can have less health/resistances, but I like to bring my full tank build to normals because sometimes your random party members wipe and its nice to have a cushion if you have to rez everyone.)
• You have a taunt - there are four taunts available. I love Pierce Armor for the Major Breach/Fracture debuff. Inner fire is a good ranged taunt and effective for certain fights. Ice staff heavy attack and charging while wearing the tormentor set are much less common.
• Grab the boss with your taunt as soon as possible. Ideally, turn the boss so he's facing away from the party and hold the boss more or less still so your DPS can cast their ground-based AOEs.
• Respect the boss mechanics. Block big hits, hold block on the big red ground based AOEs, try not to stand in stupid too much (with a solid tank build, you can stand in stupid and be okay most of the time, but it makes the healer worry). On veteran, a lot of those mechanics become oneshots if you don't block them.

So for my general approach to tanking, I like to go in with a solidly tanky build that has plenty of resistances and health. Most of my health comes from gear, so my damage/healing is run off of my magicka or stamina pool, depending on whether I'm tanking on a magicka or stamina toon. I've got a self-heal so I'm not entirely reliant on a healer to get my health up after a big boss attack, and I'm paying attention to the boss to interrupt or block big attacks.

Hope that helps! Definitely give the Tanking University thread a look, as there's a lot of great advice from various people who tank with different styles.

Hey, all good info.. Yeah, as a tank with good resistance and higher hp, you can get away with standing in red or stupid in normal group dungeons and world boss pits for a bit. However, you don't really want to make a habit of it, because you may get so used to it and stand in stupid in vet dungeons or trials. You don't want to do that. Ha ha. Well, you have to watch out as well in some DLC world boss pits. Standing in stupid too long, and you can surely wipe with a tank. Even with normal dungeons and world boss pit, I try not to stand in stupid. Even when tanking in normal contents, I'll stay in the red for a bit if a sorc has a ground aoe on the boss. I'll move, of course, if I notice my health is jeopardized, or if a stam DPS is busily dpsing away at the boss. Then, I'll pull the boss away from the red or stupid, so as, the dpsing dude doesn't stay in the red. Sometimes, as the stam dpser, you may not always notice the stupid red while dpsing away. That dps will surely wipe if he or she doesn't get out from the red.

Shantu

Great info and link, thanks!

Well, this should be interesting. Until now my magicka based DPS game play has been AOE's, DOT's, sticking, weaving, sticking, weaving, rinse and repeat. I NEVER get in the face of the boss. That's why I love a good tank, I can worry about what I do best and not spend my time running and rolling my ass of to get away. But their function is basically opposite of what I'm used to.

With the Redguard Templar my intial thoughts were to go mostly stam based for a LOT of blocking, heavy armor, as many CP's and enchantments as I can get in defense/resistance, enough HP to not wipe out with one stomp, enough magicka to self-heal when needed and cast a few spells, and enough DPS power to contribute now and then.

I'm sure I'll learn as I go as the only way to learn how to tank...is to tank. Should be fun!

raj72616a

stamplar, max stamina, use Vigor for self heal.
Extend Ritual for a cheap AoE snare and for minor mending.
as with any tank, Pierce Armor and Heroic Slash are the main skills.

get Engine Guardian set for resource regeneration since stamina don't have skills or passives to restore stam in long boss fight if there is no adds.
the other sets don't matter to much (at least for vet dungeons), pariah, whitestrake, leeching plate, defending warrior, alkosh, anything works. can even craft a heavy armor Hunding set to get a stronger Vigor heal even tho it's meant to be a dps set.