TANK ROLE: Bastian vs Isobel vs Zerith

Tariq9898

Been looking for a companion to act as a TANK. I’m torn between these three.

Who do you think is best suited for the TANK role?

frogthroat

I like Isobel due to the spear charge which procs off balance. When entering combat, she charges, procs off balance and taunts. Very handy. I get full use of Exploiter from the beginning.

CoronHR

i haven't used Bastion or Zerith (so i didn't vote), and so i don't know if the others are better than isobel, and i only use isobel in IA, but when she works, she's great. i find it tricky sometimes, especially when the marauder a cometh, to get her to taunt what i want, mainly the one-shotting heart-stopping marauder. but if i can get her to taunt it before it sends me into a roll-dodge block fest, she'll fully hold its strength and it's literally butter from then on out. (btw: she's got mostly blue gear, since purple is ridiculously overpriced and has a terribly low drop rate)

GloatingSwine

IIRC Isobel can keep better uptime on her damage reduction and heal over time skills and she'll precast them before she's in trouble which makes her less likely to get into the trouble.

aetherix8

I’ve tried different companions, but Isobel proved to be the most efficient and tanking fits well with her personality.
Bastian became my only healer, he’s just made for this role because of his character.

Zodiarkslayer

I voted Isobel, because she has really good tanking skills. Give her the right equipment plus the right skills and she is all you'll ever want from a companion tank.

Bastian is okay, I guess, but not a great tank.
I never payed for Zerith-Var, so I cannot comment on his capabilities, but I hear he is also very good.

RebornV3x

Isobel Veloise for tanking seems to work for me and I have Mirri be my healer

Crimsonwolf666

Isobel, but Zerith-Var has some great tanky stats too. I just default to her. I use Zerith-Var as a more tanky two-hander dps who has wonderful Dizzying swing CC combined with his Necromantic attacks on the ground and mine AOE's and dots, things melt. The Dizzying swing just annihilates, an excellent CC to go with him. So I have Zerith-Var as a middle ground tanky-dps build.

LalMirchi

I have all the companions and have spent a fortune gearing them up. I find Azandar to be the most survivable tank, I've tried all the others in the tank role.

Dagoth_Rac

Azandar. I put him in heavy armor for survivability, resto staff to keep his health topped off, and let him use his class taunt. Works well.

Jestir

I think after trying to use every companion as a tank Sharp-as-night has been by far my favorite for the role

BretonMage

I agree with Azandar, he's been impressive as a tank. I used Bastian and Isobel as well but prefer Azandar. Zerith I use for buffs and damage.

LootAllTheStuff

Dagoth_Rac wrote: »

Azandar. I put him in heavy armor for survivability, resto staff to keep his health topped off, and let him use his class taunt. Works well.

Interesting. I currently have him in healer role, but he does seem to survive much better than I expected.

DinoZavr

Isobel is best tank for me. She is faster and due to templar skills rather resilient.

SkaiFaith

I use Isobel, the only one I have all in purple atm. She's very good at tanking but she definitely needs you to heal her - I find her dead even in Fungal Grotto 1 vhm (but in IA she tanks through Arc 3 with no problems)

Zerith seems to me to have better healing capabilities by himself. I haven't tested him as much as Isobel but for what I've tried he seems good - he has the advantage (imo) to be versatile: can keep the same build and just swap the 5th slot between Sepulchral chill for more damage and Penance of Lorkhaj for more healing.

Bastian I prefer to use him as a buffer/healer with resto staff; when I tried him as a tank he didn't work as well as the other two, being dead quite often.

allochthons

Zerith for Major Breach. I also have him in Perigean Armor, so he pulls in ranged attackers.

whitecrow

How can you tell if someone will be a good tank? Isn't it just down to how you equip them?

All my companions die pretty easily. Its sad.

GloatingSwine

Yeah, I don't really rate Bastian as a tank. His damage shield is pretty poor and he won't use that or his 20% damage reduction until he's under 75% already, whereas Isobel's scales on health and she'll precast it (with a really short cooldown).

He's got the position control stuff of a DK tank, but a one-target chain on an 8s cooldown is no use to man or mer and he's not really going to immobilise anything useful. His actual skill setup really wants him to be a melee damage dealer but for a companion that's very often the shortcut to building a floor tank.

jaws343

I go with Isobel because I think she has held up the best as a tank in my experience. Also Laura Bailey makes her the closest to Serana we can get as a companion in ESO.

Grumpycrawler

I use zerith for tanking, mostly becuase he is my favorite companion. However even without that bias, I used both him and Isobel in IA and didn't notice a big diffrence. Both pull the agro when needen (except for one boss that just ignore any taunting skill forgot, his name) and have difficulty with the aame marouder (i think also metnioned by somebody in this thread already). But with enough panic rolling of me until the other mobs are dead, they both pick up the taunt of that one eventuallly. In dungeons my partner brings his isobel and I my zerith and also didnt notice a big diffrence. Somehow have a feeling zerith might still do a bit more dps even in his tank built, but didnt crack the numbers. So might just be a biased feeling haha. As somebody else mentioned, Azandar van also be a great tank, all tho it does feel like Isobel and zerith hold taunt better en heal themselves better.

ssewallb14_ESO

Bastian for his HA bonus, Azander because his Ult is OP.

spartaxoxo

allochthons wrote: »

Zerith for Major Breach. I also have him in Perigean Armor, so he pulls in ranged attackers.

This. I haven't used him as a tank myself but my guild mate swore by him to do to this. So, of these three, I say Zerith.

I do also want to make special mention of Azandar because IDK if they ever fixed it, but IA had a bug with companion taunts and marauders. Many of the taunts didn't work but Azandar's class taunt always did. So, I started using him as a tank in there and he works great as one. Probably one of the best companion tanks that we have.

AcadianPaladin

I run companion tanks and prefer Mirri for a couple reasons. First, all companions make decent tanks so personality rules. Secondly, companion tanks need a bit of help staying healthy. I keep a full time HoT up on them and slot a burst heal in reserve. However, if things start going south and get hectic, I find sometimes I can miss her health falling. That is why I insist on slotting either the companion medium armor skill Vanish on them or - in Mirri's case, her own similar minivanish skill. I actually prefer her minivanish skill because, like Vanish, it renders her invisible and lets her heal but has a shorter duration which means she gets back in the fight faster and quickly retaunts the boss. Also, Mirri's minivanish skill does not require 5 pieces of medium armor, meaning she is the only companion tank I can use 7 heavy armor on.

Though Mirri is my preferred companion and tank, I like Isobel and Ember as well, though they both require 5 medium armor in order to slot Vanish. Isobel's Templar skills just look and feel cool as a tank. Ember has good self-heals and a nice crowd control with her sorc shards - though Mirri can slot a fear skill for crowd control if desired

katanagirl1

Bastian is the only one I have as tank, I tried Isobel but she died too much. I haven’t finished leveling Sharp, Azandar, or Zerith-var.

Provoke
On Guard
Drake’s Blood
Kindle
Bulwark

All blue vigorous gear.

MashmalloMan

No contest. Zerith because he actually fulfils what real player tanks can do.

Aoe major breach, aoe chain pulling/taunting/major resolve. 100% uptime.

Taunting multiple targets for companions is difficult to do with the massive cooldowns they have, so he's really the only one that can do this effectively.

Ragnarok0130

I’ve found both Bastian and Isobel to be superb tanks with the proper skills and gear. I am eager to try Azandar and Zerith after reading this thread.

Evil_Rurouni

There's no single answer to this question.
It'll depend on what you want from the tank.

Raw durability if you supply them with heals?
Self healing so you can focus on other stuff?
Pulling trash?
Immobilising trash?
Ranged taunts?
Debuffs?
Tanking one big foe or lots of trash?

You might want to build 2 tanks and set them up for different jobs.

the90thmeridian

i use isobel. i run 5 pieces of telvanni efficiency and front bar whorl of the depths. with her heals, the reduced cooldowns from telvanni efficiency shes very good at keeping herself alive. there isnt much we cant solo unless the fight has some mech her ai isnt able to deal with.

AngryPenguin

I haven't noticed much difference at all between the companions to fill any particular role. The only difference I see is their ulti, and that is how I determine what role for the companion.

Just put half role specific sets on them and half quickened and go.

FYI: I have not played the two latest companions. I didn't see any point in it. We only need 3 and I generally play with 0 companions and 0 pets. I hate characters following me around like a lost puppy. Their race and everything else is irrelevant to anyone but role players, and most PvE content is so easy companions are not needed.

allochthons

I use Zerith, as mentioned before.
In as much vigorous gear as possible, then bolstered, then quickened.
My skills are: provoke, crescent scythe, perigean armor, savage instinct, sepulchrall chill, ulti.
I only rarely have to heal him, the scythe does a pretty good job of keeping him alive.

I have two taunts on, because that's the only way I've found to limit how often my companions lose taunt on the mauraders. Zerith rarely loses it, only Azander is better, because his class taunt almost always gets the maurader. But I prefer Z's breach/distance pull, so I keep him.

Getting taunt to start with is a different matter. Even with the pet/companion "attack this" command, and a heavy attack, getting the companion to engage with the marauder is often a race between my kite, the heavy attack hitting from the far side of the arena (even around what should be a line of sight block), and the effective taunt.

Since I usually only use a tank in the IA, this works for me. If I happen to use him outside the IA, I swap in whatever feels good for the second taunt.

Orbital78

all three work decent for me, at least when their AI doesn't fail or long term failures due to bugs. I mainly like Bastian and Isobel for the buffs to heavy attacks. Zerith Var has bone armor for pulls which can be nice. They aren't that useful in most content though.