Hello all, I found THIS feedback on the Reddit thread dedicated to this top and think that it should be posted here. Again, this isn't my feedback that I plan to submit, but this post from reddit has some great points.

What do you like best about tanking in ESO?

How creative and interesting role of tank can be. Tanks in eso are not simple brainless "taunt and hold block" like many people think. I like in ESO that tanks can do more than that, example crowd control, grouping monsters for easier kill, beside taunt they can position monsters so they are less threat to group and if nessesary they can resurrect people from places where noone else could;

What do you like least about tanking in ESO?

unfair anti-tank mechanics: monsters that ignore taunt, monsters that deal "arbitraily high damage" to people with health above X (for example above 30k HP), 1-shot-kills no matter how much HP you have (damage scaled to users HP);

anti-tank designs - with removed stamina regeneration while tanking, one of the basic stamina return sources are charged heavy attacks, unfortunately there are plenty of bosses which attack so fast its simply not possible to throw a charged heavy attack without sacrificing 20k HP because of being hit directly by enemy;

caps at most basic tanking stats like armor mitigation coming from physical resistance, spell mitigation coming from spell resistance (capped lowly at 50%) while at the same time there are no "caps" at things that kill like armor penetration, spell penetration, criticals and general DPS power creep; means to kill are being constantly improved while means to defend are still restricted by caps from ancient ages;

heavy armor being lackluster when compared to medium and light armor, heavy armor focus CP passive is giving exactly same amount of physical resistance as light armor focus (where heavy armor should provide more bonuses to resistances);

the fact that there are people who think "no player should be so tanky that he cant be killed" which in my opinion is wrong way of thinking, i say yes, players should be allowed to be so tanky its extremely difficult to kill them BUT at the same time those players cant kill anyone because they sacrificed everything by defence. In ESO its not possible because every time someone gets close to that or achieves it, tanking skills and stats are being nerfed with idea that "tanks should die too"

the fact that tanks are being tempted/forced to become DPS either by making new items (like Maelstorm shield or sword) give bonuses to DPS (or lack of any special tanking bonuses) or old unique items that benefited tanks (like Master Sword from VDSA that is only VR14 now) or by means of mechanics that bypass tanks or content that is impossible to do as tanks (Maelstorm Arena or achievements in new trials that are avaliable only to DPS);

What is your favorite encounter to tank?

Valkyn Skoria vCOA - its really fun boss to tank because it requires to be mobile, be aware of enviroment and what is going on but at the same time its fair for tanks, it can be taunted and dont use 1-shot-kill mechanics;

What is your least favorite encounter to tank?

Planar Inhibitor in White Gold Tower - ignores basic tool of taunt "Taunt" skill and whole encounter forces non-DPS roles to be DPS when they are choosen to have Moth Vision and are required to close portals;

Of the tools you have for tanking, which is your favorite?

Beside obvious two Taunt skills, the most favourite is Absorb Magicka because i like how it turns someone strenght against him (attacking tank with that skill instead of killing him makes him stronger); this is kind of skill i want to see more of because my dream tank build would be a "Rage"/"Berserker" kind of tank where the more people attack him the stronger he becomes (gains resources, heals from hits and enemy attacks) and the way he attacks is by turning enemy damage against him and if enemies simply dont decide to leave tank alone they will simply die because of being stubborn (like hedgehog or porcupine type of tank - animal that wont attack anyone BUT if someone will attack it, the more persistent he will be, the more he will be hurt or Armadillo kind of tank that is so tanky when he "rolls into ball" that noone can hurt it but at the same time all Armadillo can do is to wait or "roll away" - he cant attack back)

Of the tools you have for tanking, which would you like to see improved the most?

Immovable brute - extremly costly ability with extremely short effect

I play a full heavy armo Nord DK Stamina Tank and have tanked all content except the trial dungeons. I also pvp quite regularly.

1. What do you like best about tanking in ESO?
My favorite thing about being a tank is calling the fights and knowing that it's my job to protect the rest of the group. I also love standing toe-to-toe with the mobs. From a pvp side I love having the focus of a bunch of players just waylaying on me and not dieing very fast.

2. What do you like least about tanking in ESO?
Not really being able to solo ***, especially maelstrom arena. I have tweaked my build a little to put it more dos but that's more for pvp, and haven't tested vMA yet but I don't have high hopes. A huge sentiment surrounding a lot of content is that tanks are just not all that useful, while I disagree to an extent I can see where it comes from. The meta of this game is dps-centric. Support roles and hybrids just can't do things as well as just throwing more dps at it. I would love to do vMA on my tank. It sucks because to get end game gear it's a huge investment in both time and resources, so to have different gear that can handle that content and to switch my whole build and playstyle is pretty tough. So you basically have to roll another character that's more on "easy mode" for that content, which is another grind in itself. It just sucks to pay for content you can't actually use.

3. What is your favorite encounter to tank?
Believe it or not, I really like tanking Darkshade Caverns. I have ran that dungeon a lot farming that monster set and it wasn't even that easy getting a group as most people liked running it with 3 dps. It wasn't so much the encounters as it was proving my classes utility on the fights and people would always say having a tank made the run easier and smoother.

4. What is your least favorite encounter to tank?
Imperial City Prison, the second boss fight, a tank is pretty useless in that fight since the abominations need to be burned down fast and you can't tank 70k damage. Another bad encounter is the second or third fight in White Gold Tower, with the pinion. If I get thrown into the portal phase I cannot dps them down fast enough and we always get over run...it's pretty depressing to spend so much time and effort building a character to only benefit my team by being dead during that encounter...again in purchased content.

5. Of the tools you have for tanking, which is your favorite?
I play a DK, so for tanking I love the shield/reflect/talons as far as spammable abilities. A big part of playing a tank in ESO is group utility, so having those CC/buff abilities (reflect is just fun) is great and in my mind really differentiates the class instead of relying on heals. I also love the DK ultimates, between leap for quick resources, standard+talons is awesome, and corrosive armor is just god mode. Those are just general abilities not necessarily tanking specific.

6. Of the tools you have for tanking, which would you like to see improved the most?
I would like the igneous shield to have a greater radius and maybe add something like a "protect" where as the tank I'd absorb a hit for a friendly player or something. It would especially make the playstyle more useful in pvp scenarios as well. Some sort of way to utilize ourselves to make us more of a necessity. Some tank specific morphs would be great too.

Overall, I love playing a tank. I wish the content and you guys loved us more but overall it's a great class. It does seem to have a longer learning curve than most only because you really don't start to shine until end game, which is tough. You pretty much have to play a more solo friend build with 2h or something until end game, so you can get through the content.

Also, I appreciate the fact that you guys have reached out to the relatively small tanking community. There are some really impressive tanks out there and some really creative builds. Hopefully, in the near future we can be made a more viable build for all types of content. As it stands I have to play an alt if I don't have any guild mates or people on to group with, which is disappointing.

1. What do you like best about tanking in ESO?

Active blocking. I love that I can hold up my shield at will and mitigate damage. Most mmos make it a passive mechanic but in ESO I feel so much more control over what’s going on with combat. I also love that there is no AOE taunt.

2. What do you like least about tanking in ESO?

Laughably low damage and/or no room for tanks. So much content in this game does not require a tank. In fact, some group content you are better off with more DPS. I’ve even been asked to switch to DPS gear for certain bosses. When DPS can easily throw some damage shields on and beef up their survivability, but tanks can’t do much to add some more DPS, I just feel cheated. I think the problem is really with Heavy armor being a subpar armor class in ESO. I not asking for 15k single target DPS, but I would like to do more than tickle my enemies.

3. What is your favorite encounter to tank?

Flesh Atronach Trio, I like that I need to keep a close eye on each Atronach in order to know when I need to block their heavy attacks.

4. What is your least favorite encounter to tank?

The Engine Guardian – I don’t like tanking this encounter because there isn’t really any tanking done in this encounter.

5. Of the tools you have for tanking, which is your favorite?

Ferocious Leap. I love this ability and I feel so awesome every time I use it. I get a nice damage shield, some much needed resources back, do a little damage, and have a quick flight through the air smashing down on my enemy. It’s glorious.

6. Of the tools you have for tanking, which would you like to see improved the most?

Templar Tanks, I feel like my only purpose in life is to heal. So maybe so more tools for that class to tank.

I am on PC

1. What do you like best about tanking in ESO?

• The range of options for building a tank - stamina, magicka, hybrid, healing received, gear sets, etc.
• Encounters can be approached in different ways, with (generally) no *one true method* to tank any specific fight.
• Learning how to tank a difficult, seemingly impossible new dungeon. Going from "oh my god this is complete chaos" to developing the confidence to take charge of an encounter and using skills/environment to control the situation.
• While DPS creep is an issue, I do like being able to contribute to DPS/heals. Other MMOs are too rigid with roles. Simply taunting and blocking is boring. Learning how to keep taunt and stay alive while helping overall group DPS feels great.

2. What do you like least about tanking in ESO?

• The DPS creep that has made older content really trivial, so that it's faster/more efficient to burn past mechanics by having everyone in a group just pushing out the highest DPS. Every dungeon can be done with a Templar heal/tank and three DPS. There should be a mix of fights where it's possible to do this, but also other encounters where there is such a high threat level, you need to play defensive to win.

3. What is your favorite encounter to tank?

• Raid bosses where the pressure is heavy and challenge is high - the last two rounds of VDSA, Mantikora, lamia duty on the Serpent, hard mode Warrior, axes on the Mage, S'Kinrai/Vashai.
• Currently, as they are the hardest dungeons, vWGT/vICP, particularly Ibomez, the giant Watcher with the 5 summoners, the 3 Dragonknights, Molag Kena.
• A note on the Inhibitor, as it seems to be unpopular - I actually really like this fight as a tank because it means I can switch to a DPS set and do something different - it meant I had to develop and acquire an alternate DPS specced build with my tank. Making builds is something I enjoy. A corollary of this is: where are the 4-person dungeon bosses that require a 2nd tank or 2nd healer? These type of bosses shouldn't be common, but creating unusual fights that subvert traditional roles or party composition is one of ESO's strengths (just make a way to switch gear/skill loadouts without needing an add-on).

4. What is your least favorite encounter to tank?

• Nowadays, a lot of the bosses from old vet dungeons that aren't very threatening anymore.

5. Of the tools you have for tanking, which is your favorite?

• Caltrops as an ersatz initial AoE taunt, although difficult to use as a magicka tank.
• Siphoning Strikes for resource regain.
• Heroic Slash - debuff and ultimate buff in one.
• Any AoE crowd control - Mass Hysteria, templar shards, Dk talons.

6. Of the tools you have for tanking, which would you like to see improved the most?

• Like dual wield and two-handed, make the weapon you use matter in a passive. They could simply be the opposite effect of their DPS passive counterpart - axes reduce bleed/DoT damage, swords reduce overall damage, daggers reduce crit damage.
• Not really a tank-only tool, but health regen seems lacklustre and not appealing. Choosing health regen over another set bonus doesn't cut it.

A final suggestion, which may not be popular. The Inhibitor gave a glimpse of a boss fight that was really out of the box. As long as these kind of encounters are used judiciously, I'd love to see more of this. A boss fight with a DPS/survival check mixed with a totally wacky/clever mechanic that relies on group synergy, fast reflexes and puzzle solving.

Thanks for reaching out to us! (Edit: PC)

Does this kind of pretending-to-listen thread really matter? There are like thousands of tanking feedbacks already no the forum yet you now say you need tanking feedback. Why bother?

1. What do you like best about tanking in ESO?
The integration of some combat and heal abilities to hitting or blocking. - other games will have you just use a taunt and then various guard and bubble abilities. we have some of those in ESO, but we're encouraged to weave in heavy attacks to get stamina, use abilities to up our resources or to add a bit more damage to the boss. Its a bit more active than tanks in most games, and it should be built upon with more dungeon mechanics.

It's not always about staying still and blocking, sometimes tank kiting is useful. Certain fights require taunting and running around the room, which is a nice change from the standard Wow "taunt, stand here, don't move an inch or the raid wipes" BS other games play at. block, dodgeroll, and use abilities to lead the boss and mobs away

Any class can tank with proper build (and sometimes proper group mates) while a lot of folks think only DK's can tank, any class can successfully tank any dungeon or trial in the game. Though there are certain fights that require that the DPS and healers be on top of their game, most can get through it with a variety of builds. the only issue is that DPS tanking and heal tanking is popular right now, which means some tanks are less desirable.


2. What do you like least about tanking in ESO?
Armor mitigation & Spell Resistance feels worthless in PVE & PVP. Seriously, I should know this, I tank naked. I understand the reason to soft cap the armor, because the regenerations are so high that tanks in PVP can recover from any burst damage and just never die, but this has to stop at some point. lower the regenerations, raise the armor cap, give us fights where armore and spell mitigation matter. we have some pretty tanky builds we can make but they are thrown out in favor of DPS because the armor only saves you a thousand or two thousand life in a fight, and in PVP its absolute garbage with the amount of armor penetration and high DPS stackers. I can't stress enough how disappointing armor mitigation is right now

The expectation to tank & DPS or tank & Heal by some due to DPS gate fights. - most dungeons should be about mechanics, not DPSing the bosses down into oblivion to ignore the mechanics. in stead of that, we had fights added that require a lot of damage burst from all members. So instead of promoting a variety of dps, traditional, low block, high block, and other tanks, most groups now want to run exclusively with DPS tanks. there is little reason to stack into your health stat at this point, all stamina with high magicka regen to make up for the lack of stamina regen. This is also what gives the DKs the advantage when other classes can tank well, just not necessarily DPS/heal as well.

The drop of block when weapon swapping or using certsin abilities. This annoying and causes so many wipes when you think your block will hold up, but there is that slight time when something is cast or swapped you're left undefended and the animation indicators are poor to show you that.


3. What is your favorite encounter to tank?
Veteran Bandish Cells High Kinlord Rilis- this boss requires you kite adds, move your feet, and keep agro on the boss. he can be annoying at times for the hard mode challenge, but I think its a good balance between keeping threats off DPS, mitigation, and using a build.

Veteran Crypt of Hearts Nerien’eth - this one can be challenging but in a good way. the hard mode challenge requires you keep 4 ghosts up till 35%, which requires mob management and quick moving on your feet to avoid AOE. also he sounds like Vegeta, which you can't go wrong with.


4. What is your least favorite encounter to tank?
Veteran Imperial City Prison Flesh Sculptor - This fight is probably the worst in the game, as its a DPS gate that breaks groups apart and requires tanks or healers to fulfill multiple roles. if it were changed to spawn zombies only as the boss took a % of damage, low damage groups might have a chance, but the race to kill adds wipes most.

Veteran Imperial City Prison Abomination - the tells on this boss seem constantly off and this boss has a high block requirement because of it. Your armor feels nearly worthless in this fight as it is, so it can be frustrating to tanks that can't regain resources quickly.


5. Of the tools you have for tanking, which is your favorite?
Corrosive Armor / Molten armor - both of these abilities work well with the dragonknight during certain fights. its a great way to rescue a party during near wipes.

Vampire undeath - while armor mitigation sucks, this has kept me alive several times when low on health, and healers notice when you go below 50% that you live quiet a while


6. Of the tools you have for tanking, which would you like to see improved the most?
Damage shields These are problematic and can lead to deaths if not used right due to the way resistances and small damage shields calculate damage. if you have a small 500 damage shield and get hit with a 10k hit, the 9500 will be unmitigated.

Gaurd - This ability is poor for tanking in PVE and PVP. I would like this better if it were changed to be non toggleable (like magelight and flames of oblivion were)with a chance to intercept projectiles. the 2 morphs I think should be a
Vengeance guard - return damage to enemies based on damage received.
Shielding guard - put a damage shield around you and allies based on damage received


In general I would like to see an increase in the difficulty cap for tanks in dungeons to make them more viable, an increase in their ability to do challenges like vMSA, and a focus on mechanics in dungeons over stack and whack.


Also, side Idea for dungeons while we're talking about it: A chase boss inspired from the evil within (another Bethesda game) a set of rooms or halls that you have to run from the boss every so often because the boss is immune, the room is filling with poison gas, or some other mechanic.

1. What do you like best about tanking in ESO?

You're ability to make the run as easy and as smooth as possible. Along with the ability to manipulate some things here and there for a laugh. Sometimes it's an accident you got one shot girlfriend I swear....and its just horrible coincidence

2. What do you like least about tanking in ESO?

Newest content, trials and vDSA are challenging and fun to tank. Old content bosses are challenging but not enough. Some could use tweaking, but as a tank I am always doing my job as a tank and keeping my team members alive.

With alot of what other people say about the heavy armor skill, I feel like it is in a good place. Maybe a slight increase to the constitution passive. Bar Swapping makes me drop block, but I can understand why it is the way it is. I have been a victim to the one shots while swapping

About the technical parts of heavy there are alot of threads about people complaining heavy armor being lack luster but I think its fine due to heavy armor doing its inherent job of tanking and fulfilling its role in PvE and PvP with the right set up.

There are two other armor classes light and medium that are DPS roles for the most part which are for people who want to do damage. Why go to heavy armor which is a skill line which goes down a different part. You can go heavy and do some damage but it will never something significant.

Tanking may not be the most dazzling role, but you can feel the difference between a good tank and a bad tank. A tank requires awareness and management of your resources not some intricate rotation. Its fun in its own regards.

3. What is your favorite encounter to tank?

Veteran Dragonstar Arena. Fleshsculpter.

4. What is your least favorite encounter to tank?

Any encounter where I am templar tanking, because it is completely boring compared to the other classes.

5. Of the tools you have for tanking, which is your favorite?

Nightblade: Siphoning Strikes
DK: Chains, Magma Armor

6. Of the tools you have for tanking, which would you like to see improved the most?

The "Too high too low" when you try to use silver leash, summon shades, or chainZzz

Edit: Forgot to mention that I play on PC with both a Magicka Dunmer DK Tank and a Magicka Dunmer NB Tank.

1. What do you like best about tanking in ESO?
There is something truly powerful and epic about being a tank. The healer is needed to replenish health and buff their teammates. The DPS is needed to burn the opponent down as fast as possible. But the tank? The tank is there to *** the opponent off so much- that he can't focus on anything else but the tank. I love the fact that, as a tank, I can still do some damage. (I refused to tank until I figured out that I could be a punching bag that punches back!)

2. What do you like least about tanking in ESO?
If you think about it- there are TONS of skills related to DPS and TONS of skills related to healing. But, really, there's only two "boss" taunts. The close range, debuff taunt is strictly stamina based (no melee "spectral sword" for magicka tanks). The long range taunt is both magicka and stamina based... but has no debuff. That's it. No more "tanky" skills. Everyone (whether DPS or Healer) can use the sword/board skills.

3. What is your favorite encounter to tank?
I absolutely LOVE Valkyn Skoria (hard mode). It requires everything that a tank should possess in their repertoire. You've got to be mobile. You've got to take massive damage spikes. And you've got to lay down some DPS!!!

4. What is your least favorite encounter to tank?
Everyone's already said it: Planar Inhibitor. I understand the need for a "dps check"... but a tank shouldn't have to swap out his gear to become a heavy hitting DPS. There's no dungeon where the DPS have to swap to "tanky gear". There's no dungeon where everyone needs to swap to "healer gear".

5. Of the tools you have for tanking, which is your favorite?
I really appreciate skills that allow the tank to maintain resources/buffs and still do damage (otherwise, tanking is boring). Look at the skills like "Spiked Armor" (DPS and buff), "Path of Darkness" (DPS and buff), "Sun Shield" (DPS and buff), and Lightning Form (DPS and buff)

6. Of the tools you have for tanking, which would you like to see improved the most?
Heavy armor, man. Seriously. So- if you've "nerfed" some of the skills that tanks use to maintain resources or heal their opponents (looking at you, "Siphoning Strikes", "Funnel Health", and "Breath of Life")- then at least make up for it in the passives that tanks get for heavy armor. There's no need to go over all the changes that could be made to heavy armor... they're all over the forums.

Other than heavy armor: How about some more taunts? A magicka taunt that debuffs? A crowd stamina/magicka taunt (other than caltrops... for PVEers)? A PVP taunt? (It would be breakable, of course.)

1. What do you like best about tanking in ESO?
That I found a great build for magicka Tank+Healer Templar...I like it so much to do both tanking and healing...It is so much easier to create a group for a dungeon, because I can easily do veteran dungeons with 3 DPS...
2. What do you like least about tanking in ESO?
That there is no AoE taunt...Or at least mutliple-target (for example like Reflective Light which can hit up to 3 enemies)
3. What is your favorite encounter to tank?
Gronbull, the Netch boss in veteran Darkshade Caverns...I struggled so much on this boss in the past, that now I really enjoy how easy I can do it with my magicka Tank+Healer templar build...Before, I hated this boss, but now I like him...
4. What is your least favorite encounter to tank?
Maybe Planar Inhibitor in veteran White Gold Tower, because it is very hard to tank and heal through all of that damage over time on me (when I die, there is always around 300 000 damage from that DoT of the boss on the Death Recap)...However, it is not that I hate it, it is just challenging as once was Gronbull...So I hope that I will like this boss as I do Gronbull now...
5. Of the tools you have for tanking, which is your favorite?
Harness Magicka with Armor Master along with Channeled Focus are so great! I really like my regenerations, so standing in Channelled Focus is my thing!
6. Of the tools you have for tanking, which would you like to see improved the most?
I like my magicka Tank+Healer templar just the way it is...The only thing that I would like to have is AoE or multiple-target taunt...

Khajiit Stamina DK Tank

1. What do you like best about tanking in ESO?

I enjoy the fact that i can withstand high amounts of damage without worrying if i am getting that 27.7653k dps a second. I like controlling a group with talons and grouping them up with chains while nothing can kill me. Obviously, being a Khajiit has all downsides in Tanking but I make it work. I also enjoy having to know where everything is and position it carefully so it doesn't 1 shot my squishy party.

2. What do you like least about tanking in ESO?

No Stamina Regen While Blocking. I was very against it when it was announced and still am. Before IC, I could be magicka based and still keep my shield up. Now, I have to stack my stamina pool just to keep my shield up which leaves me little magicka and no regen to keep my utilites up. No Stam Regen means more points into stam which leads to less magicka and less utility skills.

3. What is your favorite encounter to tank?

My favorite and my least favorite are actually the same encounter for different reasons. The planer inhibitor. After several hours wondering how to beat this boss, i came up with an idea. Face tank until blue phase, I die, rest of party kites for blue phase, and i get back up when she goes down. This worked 1st try. I enjoy the challenge of taking the 100k heat stroke dot while my party dps's her back into oblivion.

4. What is your least favorite encounter to tank?

Also, the Planar Inhibitor. While i do enjoy tanking the orange phase and dieing during the blue phase, I shouldnt have to. That fight was not made to have a tank in it. The fact that it is 10x easier with 4 DPS means it was poorly made fight. I also dont like The Engine Guardian and Grobull for the same reason. Can't be taunted, cant be held still, no point for a tank besides the adds which is very little reason to bring a tank.

5. Of the tools you have for tanking, which is your favorite?

Chains and Talons, when I get to use them with a low magicka pool

6. Of the tools you have for tanking, which would you like to see improved the most?

Heavy Armor. This is a recurring theme in the forums and I stand by it. The passives for heavy armor arent what a tank need and the fact that medium armor is 75% of heavy is a joke. The only things you should get out of heavy armor is raw mitigation and anything to do with taking damage, and the armor for DPS can withstand 75% of what it can do?

Secondly, Armor Hard Cap. Take it out. I want to be a tank. I want to mitigate as much damage as possible. My old build had 43k physical and spell resistance buffed. BUT WAIT. 10k of that is pointless and doesn't even get calculated into my mitigation.

To sum it up, No Stamina Regen is causing us to put our shields down. The Armor Hard Cap is causing us to lower our potential mitigation as a TANK. And Steel is only 25% harder than a Cow.

ESO hands down has some of the best combat mechanics of any game I've ever played. Sure there are bugs but tanking in general is rewarding and challenging. Please no AOE taunt, ever. There is a learning curve and you do have to depend on your groups skill at times as well however tanking in ESO has been more rewarding then any other game I've played.

The two only things I'd change is the health attribute and improve heavy armor. Outside of tanking there is no magicka dps or magicka dos that use it. Health could use some type of secondary benefit to make it more attractive. Heavy armor also could use something for spell casters and stam users. Maybe have the active skill morph give a magicka or stam damage bonus.

And the no stam regen while blocking is fine. I'm surprised to see there are still complaints about this.

1. What do you like best about tanking in ESO?

• The one thing I like as tank is making a difference in the group.. The guild I am in: "Hodor", our main goal is going for #1 in the leaderboards. As tank I am always paying attention where I can make the group stronger. I have a always a few options I could go for: Go full tank and let it easier for the healers, sort a tank/buff build, so I can buff the group their dps or If i go full out tanking with medium armor dual-wield and onehand shield on the offbar.

2. What do you like least about tanking in ESO?

• Right now the least fun about tanking is: It is too easy to tank certain things, it doesn't take skill. You just hold block and hold aggro and wait for the damage dealers to burn things down.
• If you have really bad damage dealers it can frustrate good tanks, things take too long and there is no way you can do something about it. While some groups kill certain mobs/bosses in 30 seconds others take longer then 2 minutes doing it.
• In the pledge you do for undaunted you kind of don't need a full tank for anything, even for Veteran imperial prison or White gold tower. Maybe lesser groups need a tank, but certainly I hate tanking those dungeons.
• Trials, AA & HRC For AA I am just a tank in medium armor and dual wield, There is no reason to have a tank setup.. bosses die soo quick that they can barely hurt you.. on the second boss I don't even block I just do straight on full damage. on hell-ra I tank everything in medium armor but the last boss, since he hits a bit harder but the rest is just too easy to deal with as tank.
• Trials Sanctum Ophidia, It used to be very fun as tank, when you were still having a hard time killing the first boss. The first boss (Mantikora) spawned a blackhole one tank had to go down and two damage dealers and a healer. When you were down there you had to master a few things. Avoid getting one-hit by the cleave my walking on time out of it and I could sustain myself without a healer, was doable but not easy.

3. What is your favorite encounter to tank?

• My favorite encounter is the new trial: Maw of Lorkhaj. It requires great movement, positioning, communication and focus for tanks. If they don't do their thing right bad things will happen. For that tanks have a great responsibility in this trial.
• Mob packs in this trial are quite good, You have a two-hander add what can destroy your Physical armor so you you want to avoid taking the one-hand shield mob, also the archers do physical damage. So you want to stick with the two-hander and the sun eaters(mages).
• First boss, well it feels like a let down for me since it doesn't require two tanks, so perhaps if one tank had a off-dd spec they could do damage as well. Or if they will introduce a sort of mechanic that he hits harder over time, like a extra bleed attack so you have to taunt between tanks to avoid not getting killed.
• Second boss, I really enjoy tanking this boss it requires great movement communication and focus in order to execute this perfectly The tank has a great responsibility to help taunt/chain and interrupt the adds in and also its very important that the tank places the negates on the right spot so the group can walk through without any interruption of the negate.
• Third/last boss, While we still haven't completed the whole fight yet on veteran difficulty I must say it can be quite tough for the tanks. As tank you always have to pay attention what the boss is doing it matters which skills you wan to use when in order to survive his devastating hits. Also as tank you have to pay attention to the add that spawns with 5 million health, because that one can destroy your armor totally so its really important that both tanks switch that add between eachother because you want to avoid getting hit by the debuf three times your armor will be broken and you will take a lot more damage then usual. Also the placements of the boss and the add are really important if you want them dead quickly you should have them close together but not too close since the add can hit multiple targets so it could gives debufs on both tanks, and that is what you want to avoid.

4. What is your least favorite encounter to tank?

• Things where no tank is required.

5. Of the tools you have for tanking, which is your favorite?

• My favorite is the ultimate, As dragon Knight I get my resources back from the passive. If you aren't a DK or Nightblade who have at least something to get their stamina back then you are basically screwed. They need to give sorcerers and Templar more option to get their stamina back. I know sorcerer has a skill to transfer magicka to stamina so it could be possible for them.. still it can be quite frustrating for both those classes.

6. Of the tools you have for tanking, which would you like to see improved the most?

• Defensive posture, It should be doing something completely different for pve tanking. It should still keep the 8% reduction in cost and extra block cost reduction but then it should add something like 50-70% damage reduction for 5+- seconds so that you can negate some of the damage as tanks to make is less stressful for the healers. For the last boss in Vmol sometimes the boss does his attack where he is shooting a lot of purple balls. What I first did was reflective scales but now it seems that the boss heals himself by a lot while I cast that ability. But after that healer spams springs on me I spam igneous but I still die.. The skill could even have a cool-down of 30 seconds so and if you recast it earlier t hen you don't get the buff so that way you can't abuse it and it takes some skill for the tanks to reduce it.

@ZOS_Finn

While this is a PVE subforum, i think it should be also discussed how tanks perform in PVP, since taunts don't matter, good player ignore those and cc can be also done by dps and healers.
Further buffs to the guard spell (huge cost reduction is needed since the block nerf made rescourge mangement far harder) and adding even more abilites which allow to protect allies by using yourself as meatshield would be nice too.

Also about tanking in pve, the other posters already said everything i wanted to say, but i want to point again out again how effective blocking is or damage reduction in general is compared to resistance provided by armour.

1. What do you like best about tanking in ESO?[/b]

performing under certain pressure. When a tank dies in a raid there is a big chance of whiping. This makes me focus 110% when tanking in raids to not let my team down.

2. What do you like least about tanking in ESO?

In a lot of gold pledges tanks are not needed anymore. Would like to see some harder content where the importance of a tank can not be missed. For most of these things the tank is more a damage dealer. Tanking in medium armor and dual wield, running through the dungeons while AOE ing everything to death. I like to play with mechanics.

3. What is your favorite encounter to tank?

It's not happening alot anymore but i loved to tank HRC HM in the old mechanics. The tank was given priority speaker, moving the boss around to destroy the gargoyles while u told your team what to do and where to stand. for me this was fantastic just because your entire team depended on you. Sadly HRC HM has a nuking tactic now thats kinda boring for tanks.

4. What is your least favorite encounter to tank?

Guess it would be darkshade caverns gold pledge. u absolutely walk useless behind your team doing nothing.

5. Of the tools you have for tanking, which is your favorite?

I think its going to be extended chains. I think chains is a fantastic tool to help your team and yourself. pulling adds in makes it all go faster. Also in certain boss fights u can use your chains as a movement. for example. the watcher boss in ICP with the 5 mages around. He swings u away in a certain stage and mid air u can chain yourself back to the boss. Chains also give aggro for 2 secs when pulling.

6. Of the tools you have for tanking, which would you like to see improved the most?

I think im going for Defensive Stance. The damage reduction is nice when slotted but the activation of the skill is very usefull. I'm not saying it should be made an OP skill but a bit better so tanks actually cast it would be fun.

*One thing we should discuss is the way Shields (Bubbles) and Shields (Block) work together. I am not sure if it is the intention of the developers that Bubble-shields are meant to be used instead of Block, and vice versa. If that is the case I still believe they should reconsider the way spillover damage hits the target without mitigation. I personally feel that the best Shields should be on Tanks (Health) because they are giving up damage for resiliency and sustainability. The way the system is now is punitive to tanks and probably needs consideration.

In all honesty I believe the best players of this game are the ones who play good tanks. Tanking requires an understanding of damage, various forms of mitigation, and being in the right place at the right time with the right ability. Tanking is not about spamming rotations, instead it is about proper reaction to your opponent. Its the difference between being good at boxing, and being good at Aikido/Jiu-Jitsu. A person can become a really good boxer in a couple years, but being able to defend yourself with Aikido takes significantly more investment, because it relies much more heavily on building awareness. (this is why I think if someone wants to learn to defend themselves they're generally better off picking up a more straight forward martial art like boxing, muay thai, gracie jiu jitsu, krav maga etc.). Back to the point, because of the way diminishing returns work, a tank gives up an awful lot of damage output in order to be resilient enough for top end content. This ends up translating terribly in pvp. I really believe the cards are already stacked against true tanks right now, and this area of bubbles and block should be considered. Like many have suggested I think they should make block less effective, but make heavy armor more effective. They should also calculate mitigation after a shield pops and overflow damage hits. Finally, they clearly need to do something about shield stacking probably via a major/minor type of buff.