what are some good tips for building a tank?

infinous

i got this game recently after a few dozen hours, ice reached lvl 18, and got off the starting island. ive been building myself as a tank, and so far its going well. i am curious however as to what i might do, or keen an eye for going forward to build myself as a good/ really tank.

Nestor

Hint, level as a damage dealer, you will get there faster. Then you can respec as a Tank later on. You will get scrolls to make the process free.

The only thing is wear a couple of pieces if Heavy Armor as you want that skill maxed.

Woeler and Alcast have great guides on building a tank. Google them.

Sarannah

There are many ways to tank in ESO, so as long as you can get the group through the dungeon you are doing well.

I myself am a selfish tank, meaning I only use sets to keep me alive. And trust myself to taunt quickly. Personally I found this to work best for me, even though I do not do any damage myself. But this does allow the healer to barely heal, and deal damage as well. Which so far has made almost all my dungeons very very smooth.

You could look up which skills you personally like to use, and check out all heavy armor sets in the game. To see what clicks with what you use for tanking. And for how you want to tank. And even where you want to level.

You could also look up tanking guides. There are many good guides. Personally I do not use them, as I like to play "my style"-tank, if you know what I mean. My skills, my gear, my touch on how the character works.

Unlike suggested above, I found using random dungeons the fastest way to level my tanks. Even when the daily experience bonus is already used up. But leveling works in all ways, so see what you like best.

PS: Remember not every dungeon goes well, don't let that stop you from queueing!
PPS: I have never tanked trials, so I'm not sure how much of my advice you should take going there.

fred4

Nestor wrote: »

Woeler and Alcast have great guides on building a tank. Google them.

Agree. Also Nefas QS, on YouTube, plays endgame tanks.

At level 18 I'm not sure what to recommend. If you're still into questing, then being a true tank will only slow you down. Overland content is easy and best done as a damage dealer. You can be a tanky, self-healing damage dealer, but that's different from being an actual tank, which is a group role for 4-man and 12-man endgame content.

So I guess my first question is whether you want to proceed to endgame as quickly as possible and become an actual endgame tank? That is a good ambition to have, because tanks are in demand. On the other hand the power creep in this game has been such that a lot of content can be dispatched quickly and easily by self-healing DDs, when they are fully-levelled endgame players. Only the most demanding content, veteran DLC dungeons, arenas and trials still requires tanks.

You need to get to level 50 and then CP160. At that point you can invest into gear. Before that any gear you acquire loses it's effectiveness pretty quickly as you level up. It's not hard to reach CP160, if you know what to do and you get help. On the other hand there is something to be said for experiencing content, including dungeons, as a level 18 with your friends and peers. It's more fun than steamrolling through it with endgame players who you found via the group finder and who do not at all need you in the normal dungeons you currently have access to. An endgame DD can mostly solo that stuff.

infinous

[/quote] still into questing[/quote]

yes, right now, im just questing and having fun with a friend

[/quote] So I guess my first question is whether you want to proceed to endgame as quickly as possible and become an actual endgame tank? That is a good ambition to have, because tanks are in demand.[/quote]

id like to get to endgame content yes, but im not in a hurry. ive got a friend whos a much higher level than me, and weve been doing some dungeons, and other content thats helping to boost me level.

i did hear that tanks are in demand in one of the videos i watched, and since i tend to lean that way anyway, it seemed like a natural fit.

[/quote] On the other hand there is something to be said for experiencing content, including dungeons, as a level 18 with your friends and peers.[/quote]

as i said in the start, ive got one friend thats been helping me to level up since hes been playing for a while, and weve been doing dungeons together. in that regard i am just taking my time and enjoying the game, while doing some grinders on the side.

Nestor

For sure, a tank is the most fun role I play in Dungeons and Trials. Tanks are in demand, so you can always get a run in quick order.

You have at least 8 character slots, 2 or more should be tanks. Just level them the easy way first.

fred4

Basics of tank builds go something like:

Aim for around 35K health.

Aim for around 30K buffed resistances (33K is the cap, more is not helpful).

Wear Sturdy (trait) heavy armor.

Use 1 Hand + Shield on one bar or both.

Have a stamina pool that is (slightly) higher than your magicka pool. That way certain synergies will give you stamina that you need for blocking. Both around 20K minimum.

Have a taunt, e.g. Pierce Armor from 1H+Shield or the taunt from the Undaunted skill line, preferably both - the latter is ranged, but Pierce Armor is better when in melee range.

Taunt the boss and block it's attacks.

Spec into magicka recovery for utility skills. Stamina recovery is not particularly helpful as you will be blocking a lot, which suppresses stamina recovery.

The skills that you need include:

Your class' armor buff. Hardened Armor on DK. Restoring Focus on templar. Ice Fortress on warden, and so on.

Your melee and ranged taunts, e.g. Pierce Armor and the Undaunted taunt.

Magicka skills that return stamina. Fragmented Shield on DK. Restoring Focus on templar. Repentance on templar. Bull Netch on warden.

Ultimates: Preferably Aggressive Horn (PvP skill line) to buff the group. Shield Discipline (1H+Shield ultimate) on the other bar.

Self-healing or shielding skills, preferably ones that scale with health. DK Dragon Blood (not sure how good that is these days). Warden Arctic Blast (or perhaps other morph). Templar: Blazing Shield (or perhaps other morph). Nightblade: Dark Cloak. Resolving Vigor (from PvP) ... stamina skill that still tends to scale reasonably well.

Skills that pull trash mobs together. DK chains. Vateshran 1H + Shield weapon set (down the line). Silver Leash.

Skills that may soft aggro groups of mobs: Caltrops (from PvP).

Optional support skill for the group: Energy Orb.

Enemy debuff skills, such as Heroic Slash, although too stamina expensive for my taste.

For more expert advice, refer to the sources already listed.

Mythreindeer

Assuming you're a stamina tank do one bar with two-hand weapon and the other with 1 hand & shield. This will allow you to deal damage enough to avoid having to level taking forever to kill mobs. Get your armor to 5 pieces of heavy as you go to level the armor line. Watch vids from Alcast, Hack the Minotaur (my fav) and others to get a good idea for skills you're going to want from other lines, e.g., Fighter's Guild, Undaunted and Assault lines.

Starlock

I'm more of the "learn by doing and thinking for myself" sort of person for any and all RPGs. The advantage of doing that is you'll have firsthand knowledge of how you prefer to play and find ways of making things work on your terms instead of someone else's. At most I'll use a few references to learn more about how the game mechanics work because few aRPGs make that transparent to the end user. After I know those, I can figure it out myself and experiment by understanding the game systems.

For better or worse, ESO like most aRPGs does a terrible job at explaining the game mechanics and what all the numbers mean. At no point does it tell you what the armor values actually mean in terms of percent damage reduction, much less inform you that there's a cap on how much that armor value can contribute to said damage reduction. Hell, I'm still not sure that's really real - I take it on faith from other things I've consulted that people aren't lying about there being a cap. On console, I don't exactly have access to complicated combat metrics, though I'm no score pusher so I probably couldn't be bothered to use them anyway... haha.

Beyond that, I really only have two rules for tanking advice -

Rule number one: have fun.

Rule number two: do your job the best you can and don't sweat it if things go south. Try to figure out what went wrong later and see if it goes better next time. See also, rule number one.

tenryuta

dont queue tank unless you have inner fire/ransack/pierce on either bar, and depending on your armor/traits, a defense buff and self heal(had 2 runs this weekend where the derp ignores these things, and one where the guy rushed the dung, leaving 3 of us to do one of the und daily bosses), good thing my backbar is tankish

Sangwyne

I would recommend waiting until the next patch arrives on March 8 and we get a handle on things before committing fully to being a tank; there are a lot of changes on the horizon and not all of them are promising for the future of tanks. In the meantime, try hitting level 50, grabbing a crafted set like Torug's Pact or Fortified Brass from Guild Traders to help get an idea on what your damage output and durability will be like while leveling as a tank, and then Champion 160, where gear stops scaling. Once you hit 160, I recommend getting a few "selfish" tanking sets; you'll use these for overland content and PUG dungeons where the DPS is fooling around/roleplaying/nonexistent. Some good options are Leeching Plate (Imperial City Prison), Storm Knight's (Stormhaven) and Thunderbug's Carapace (Malabal Tor). When you feel you have a solid grip on the mechanics and want to move on to tanking vet content and trials, you'll need different sets as those won't quite cut it; Plague Doctor, Warrior Poet, Brands of the Imperium are all good sets that vastly improve your durability and help with more difficult content, although in some trials you'll be expected to wear sets that help with the group's damage or survivability rather than your own. I also recommend grabbing an addon for combat indicators to help practice with blocking/interrupting attacks; I use Bandit's UI for that but you may find that another addon has what you need. Best of luck!

Athan1

It's too early to build a tank. Just level up and start crafting for now.

Bradyfjord

A couple of armor sets I used to use while learning how to tank were Gloom-grace and Warrior Poet. Both sets give health and bonus to healing received. Gloomgrace procs healing off your light/heavy attacks while Warrior Poet gives a buff to armor and a +10% to total health.

Just about anything you choose will work in normal difficulty, and that's where you should get your start. A lot of your choices regarding skills, food, potions, and equipment will depend on how you play, who you play with, and what your goals are. Whatever you choose, enjoy.

amm7sb14_ESO

Job 1: Taunt and hold aggro, don't die
*Make sure you are survivable. 1h / Shield is the standard for front bar. Back bar is a bit more flexible. There are taunts and mitigation buffs from ice staves. I personally use a resto staff for extra self healing. I've also used a 2h on the back bar.

You'll also want sets that help your survivability. Sets like Ebon Armory, Plague Doctor, Warrior Poet, Leeching Plate, Crimson Twilight, Grave Guardian, Brands Of Imperium, and monster sets like Lord Warden, or Malubeth (Scourge Harvester) are all good sets for survivability.

Job 2: Crowd control and debuff
*You need to hold the mobs in place so your DD's can go to work. You can also help your DD's with resistance debuffs that help your DD's burn. Breach / Fracture is your major debuff, and comes equipped with your 1h / Shield taunt. Classes like Necromancer also have Breach / Fracture in abilities like Unnerving Graveyard.

Job 3: Buff your party
*Whether you are buffing damage or buffing resistances or health, you should be bringing some sort of buff or help out for your group as well. Ebon is a common one, as your whole trial group will get extra life. Sets like Alkosh, Yolnakriin, Galenwe all provide buffs to your party.

I personally use a mix of some meta sets and some non-meta sets. None of my builds are full on meta, but I do aim for all of these jobs in some way or another.

Tank 1: Crimson Twilight, Grave Guardian, Lord Warden

Tank 2: Brand Of Imperium, Combat Physician, Stonekeeper

I have used many of those sets listed above as well, and as for the others, if I haven't used them, I have them in stock if I need them.

Miszou

If you're running with a friend, then just tank it up from the get go - assuming your friend is a Damage Dealer. Between the two of you, you will pretty much be a two man wrecking ball. Just get into the tank lifestyle and enjoy it. You'll figure out what works and what doesn't , what skills you need and which ones suck.

Don't worry about power-levelling and endgame and all that. You will *never* have to wait to get in a dungeon, so just take the game at your own pace and people will wait for you.

As long as you can taunt things, block other things and generally keep the crazy away from your friend and on you, you'll be fine.

Ignore all the build and gear advice above. You won't care about any of it until you're level 50 anyway. Then check back and if you're having trouble, ask again.

And remember, if it all goes pear-shaped, you can always reset your stats, skills, gear etc. at any time, so just get a feel for what you like and have fun with it. Fine tune it later.

infinous

thanks for all the replies. it has given me alot to chew on. one bit i did take away from this is, since i unlocked the back bar, ive setup 2-handed on 1 bar, and sword+shield on the other. that way ive got 2 sets of abilities i can level up. outside of that, ill just keep going like i have, and see what works.

Bradyfjord

I recomend using either bow or magic staff on back bar. Both of these skills have abilities that drop aoe dots that can proc their enchant even while you are in front bar.

Araneae6537

I’m looking again at sets for my tank (templar S&B / 2H); I had thought for sure Tormentor would be a good choice since I like to pounce on the boss and pull anything else that might be dangerous with silver leash. Now reading that these sort of abilities already do a “soft taunt,” I’m wondering if instead I should go with some combination of Knightmare, Brands of Imperium, Warrior-Poet and/or Torag’s Pact with Lord Warden monster helm.

Recommendations?

etchedpixels

infinous wrote: »

i got this game recently after a few dozen hours, ice reached lvl 18, and got off the starting island. ive been building myself as a tank, and so far its going well. i am curious however as to what i might do, or keen an eye for going forward to build myself as a good/ really tank.

I would go more hybrid than tank (or two toons) if you plan to do a fair amount of overland content and tank personally but if tanking is your thing go for it.

If you are low level without champion points you'll want to make sure you get

- some kind of self heal (for the fake healers)
- you need sword/board and the basic taunt from that
- asap get ice staff and the passives so you block with magicka on the other bar (this is really important on a low level no champion point tank)

You won't be able to hit the 33K resistances and other things people talk about at that point but you won't be doing hard or veteran content. It also means your ability to just stand in the crap is more limited.

As you level a bit you'll be able to get some of the undaunted, class or guild related skills to tank better.

Once you've got champion points and the like it's much easier to vary the recipe but without that your blocking cost is higher and especially at low level you want to be able to block with both resource pools.

Good early farmable gear from overland includes
- Green pact
- Plague doctor
- Beekeeper

There are also a bunch of craftable sets often used for tanking: fortified brass is the classic, orgnum's scales can also be good on a baby tank. If you are in a guild you should be able to find someone who can make you some of these sets. And honestly if I find myself in a dungeon with a baby tank who needs gear the least I can do at the end of the run is make them a set of fortified brass.

IMHO be wary of "training sets", they will level you fast but you won't level the skills as fast as the levels nor will you level your understanding of the game. They are great for second and later toons sure.

etchedpixels

Araneae6537 wrote: »

I’m looking again at sets for my tank (templar S&B / 2H); I had thought for sure Tormentor would be a good choice since I like to pounce on the boss and pull anything else that might be dangerous with silver leash. Now reading that these sort of abilities already do a “soft taunt,” I’m wondering if instead I should go with some combination of Knightmare, Brands of Imperium, Warrior-Poet and/or Torag’s Pact with Lord Warden monster helm.

Recommendations?

Tormentor is awesome on a templar if
- you have the right morph to proc it for aoe taunting (explosive charge)
- you have enough shields, health or other means to survive the result of pulling everything in the aoe radius in one go

It really is quite a different tanking experience but the strength is in dealing with the trash not the usual single boss.

Especially on a templar tank also don't overlook the options of running 5 heavy body, monster helm and 5 light healer/buffing pieces so you can run with 3 DDs and provide healing/buffing and DPS.

lazywhiteseal

WarriorPoet, plague doctor combination give you a massive hp bonus. if you tweak the armor stats to give more armor then you can reach a near max resist bonus. which solves your 'staying alive' problem in most dungeons.

dont collect gears if you arent level 50 160cp as anything below that is useless.
focus on leveling up first until you get to that point. do dungeon dailies and do many quest as possible. if you are lazy to do any of those and want to kill kill and kill, there are many leveling zones where many mobs are group together within their aggro zone. you can make an aoe build to kill them with ease. but do note that these places are most likely to be occupied so you might have to move fast when someone else is with you as they can melt the mobs as they move before you hit anything

also even if you have the best tank build in the game you can still die in many difficult dungeons if you dont know the mechanics.
learn the mechanics either by with your guildies or through youtube. those difficult dlc dungeons have hard to learn mechanics so its bad to learn them from pugs since there arent many nice players who are willing to teach you anything. some of them even if you know the mechanics you get a wipe.

Nestor

infinous wrote: »

thanks for all the replies. it has given me alot to chew on. one bit i did take away from this is, since i unlocked the back bar, ive setup 2-handed on 1 bar, and sword+shield on the other. that way ive got 2 sets of abilities i can level up. outside of that, ill just keep going like i have, and see what works.

This is a good plan.

Hint, when questing, be on your 2 Handed Bar for the Mobs. Then swap to the Sword and Board bar to turn in quests.

Mojmir

Bahraras curse and plague doctor. Hands down best starter tank set up imo

radiostar

Whichever sets/armors you use, you need Health enchants, maybe 1 or 2 Stamina enchants, on heavy armor. Ideal traits: Sturdy or Divines on armor, Infused or Charged on sword, Infused on shield. Use a Crusher enchant on your sword, Health enchant on your shield. Level up Undaunted for the range taunt and use it. Use blue food (health/stamina), and level up your alchemy so you can use potions (stats, regen, and resistance). Make sure you can grab, lock down, and hold enemies and take their hits. Be as much of a brick as you can. Jewels: health regen trait.

Edit: for sets Ebon, Leeching Plate, Crafted Aetherial Ascension. Anything that gives health, healing taken, and armor boost stats.

Miszou

infinous wrote: »

thanks for all the replies. it has given me alot to chew on. one bit i did take away from this is, since i unlocked the back bar, ive setup 2-handed on 1 bar, and sword+shield on the other. that way ive got 2 sets of abilities i can level up. outside of that, ill just keep going like i have, and see what works.

Good plan. 2H on the backbar is what I use. Ignore anyone that says to use a staff - those things are for frail old wizards, not frontline warriors.

geonsocal

Job 1: Taunt and hold aggro, don't die

this had me rolling - that's it right there - just don't die, or at least make sure you are the last one standing

when stuff goes wrong in a dungeon (and, at some point with certain dungeons and groups - stuff will go wrong) make absolutely sure you are the last one standing in your group - that way, even if you lost aggro on the boss, forgot to pull adds, didn't do any mob or boss de-buff and weren't particularly interested in buffing your groupmates - at least you can still sort of act, like the wipe wasn't really your fault...

look, i'm still alive - what the hell happened to the rest of you squishy fools...

and, try not to get discouraged when you go in to a dungeon with a bunch speed racers and end up one or two rooms constantly behind the group - after all, it's called "heavy" armor for a reason...

Moonsorrow

geonsocal wrote: »

Job 1: Taunt and hold aggro, don't die

this had me rolling - that's it right there - just don't die, or at least make sure you are the last one standing

when stuff goes wrong in a dungeon (and, at some point with certain dungeons and groups - stuff will go wrong) make absolutely sure you are the last one standing in your group - that way, even if you lost aggro on the boss, forgot to pull adds, didn't do any mob or boss de-buff and weren't particularly interested in buffing your groupmates - at least you can still sort of act, like the wipe wasn't really your fault...

look, i'm still alive - what the hell happened to the rest of you squishy fools...

and, try not to get discouraged when you go in to a dungeon with a bunch speed racers and end up one or two rooms constantly behind the group - after all, it's called "heavy" armor for a reason...

At that point, when others dead i usually proceed to solo the boss instead of ressing them up, (even its Vet DLC) and while it takes like 20-30 minutes with the tank damage, i show true dominance while reading the group chat of "just die and so we wipe and start over..". Buddy, i did not come there to die.

ZaroktheImmortal

I do the sword and shield on one bar lightning staff on back for my tank. Make sure to get taunts and as well as the one hand and shield taunt there's a good ranged taunt on the undaunted skill line. For mobs of enemies it's best to draw them all in together so the dps can kill them all together in one pile(if you're a dragonknight there's a chains ability to drag in the ranged ones who don't come in close even when taunted). For a boss usually the method is face them away from the rest of the group but some may have more mechanics and such. Good gear sets for tanks commonly do group buffs.

newtinmpls

I've not leveled as a magicka tank, but for my stamina tanks (of pretty much any class)

1-S&B for the taunt and eventually shield charge AND lots of health/heavy armor - you can do this right away

2-Level fighters guild to start silver shards and morph it to get a pull as soon as possible - first figher's guild skill, so you can start this pretty quickly

3-Some kind of lockdown or pseudo lockdown - this may take a tich longer, depending
-Necro has totem
-Sorc has encase and it's 'prison' morphs
-Warden has shards (eventually gripping is the better lockdown)
-Dragonknight of course has talons
-Nightblade has some fear morphs; not great but not nothing
-Or play with Webs from the undaunted line (pretty early on), slows but doesn't stop, but the 50% slow is better than a lot of comparable skills that only slow 30% - note sometimes it's good to warn the party as I've had people freak out and try to kill the "horavors" (supposed to be spiders, but that's NOT what they look like).
-Psijic order has timestop; nice lockdown but hard to get early on
-In theory the 'turn undead' morph of the Fighter's guide might work as it has a 5-second fear, but I've not played with it much.

LashanW

newtinmpls wrote: »

-In theory the 'turn undead' morph of the Fighter's guide might work as it has a 5-second fear, but I've not played with it much.

Use it. It's one of the best AoE stuns in the game imo.

Also Razor caltrops. Covers a massive area, 50% movement speed reduction for all enemies inside, and all enemies will have major resistance reducing debuff applied to them. This skill will also proc powerful assault set if you are using it.