Tanks are extremely hard to kill 1 on 1, some players can't even kill a fully speced tank at all as I have seen some Tanks take on 4 to 5 players at once.

They can be useful if they have are accompanied by a DD... Otherwise you can just use them as a target skeleton.

Didaco wrote: »

They can be useful if they have are accompanied by a DD... Otherwise you can just use them as a target skeleton.

What he said...I play a tank in PvE and go slightly more DPS'ey for PvP.
It works great as long as I've got a group with me. Otherwise I just get swarmed and killed.

Didaco wrote: »

They can be useful if they have are accompanied by a DD... Otherwise you can just use them as a target skeleton.

Yup... tanks are good only when in a group. Solo they can do dmg that is true, but this is not dmg high enough to kill other players (in most cases).

Yes! It's a very strong support role in fact. It just depends on how it's played and not very effective when played solo.

With sets like fury you can produce great burst damage too. Build fury stacks, switch bar, empower, ultimate! Well timed, it can be very powerful!

I prefer to run a mobile disabler myself! I run dual wield and sword and board! Quick cloak, shuffle, and rending slashes keeps me moving fast and slowing anyone near me. Sword and board I have, a stun, gap closer and a root!!

It's loads of fun!!!!!

just put a costume on that makes it look like you have Light Armor on and you will get targeted constantly! Lol If they had one where it looked like you have a Resto in your hand you would never NOT get targeted.

Tanks exist in PvP to protect weaker members of their team by re-positioning and applying Crowd Control enemies. Sadly, very few players who focus on dealing damage recognize this and constantly call for nerfs to the main way that a tank should contribute to teamplay. In addition, tanks are exceedingly difficult to kill. Often they occupying multiple players at once, or force enemies to remain in highly dangerous terrain.

Your strongest tools as a PvP tank would be the following:

1. Re-positioning Tools
-Unrelenting Grip
-Gapclosers (Critical Charge/Shielded Assault)
-Shadow Image
-Streak
-Ambush
-Toppling Charge
-Retreating Manuver

The most important tools as a tank are your tools to reposition yourself, or your enemy. DKs are probably the best tank/group support builds due to Unrelenting Grip alone. If you can catch a player who does not have CC-immunity up, they will often find themselves entirely out of position and forced to burn resources to avoid dying. If you chain an enemy who is CC-immune, you gain expedition and the ability is refunded.

Other tools are mostly used to initiate a fight. Get in close, then lock enemies down with snares and roots. Negate+Encase is popular for prepping a group for an AoE ultimate storm (or blocking an incoming ultimate). Streak is great for stunning enemies to prepare them for your team to burst them. Shadow Image > Ambush > Mass Hysteria / Soul Teather > Recast Shadow Image is fantastic to get an AoE CC out that ignore block, and not get immediately focused.

2. AoE Crowd Control and Mezzes
-Negate
-Encase
-Streak
-Talons
-Ash Cloud
-Dragon Leap
-Soul Tether
-Mass Hysteria
-Petrify/Fossilize
-Rune Prison
-Deep Breath
-Crushing Shock
-Frost Rage/Eye of Frost

As a tank, your job is primarily to make damage dealing players hate you. This means exploiting everything you can to force them to burn stamina, burn magicka, and want to leave your teammates alone. Slows, snares, roots, fears... the whole point is to put your enemy in a bad position and set up kills for squishy allies.

A single tank sitting at, or near, a breach can single-handedly cause his enemies to wipe by virtue of not allowing them to get past a killzone. In a seige, a tank can pull enemies off of the siege crew and force them to burn resources to fight the tank, or get away from the roots and CC that they pile on.

Deep Breath is a nice edge case, as it heals you and disrupts casting enemies in the radius. While I do not personally slot it, I've seen it put to great use.

3. Purges, Shields, Heals,
-Restoring Light Skill Line
-Efficient Purge
-Igneous Shield
-Vigor
-Sap Essence
-Retreating Manuvers

When you are not initiating, you want to bring along some other support abilities. For magicka-based tanks (especially templars) purges and offheals are a strong contenders. Couple those with blazing shield, and you have a very durable healing setup. (you will heal for less/provide less supprot than a light healer, but survive a lot longer under attack). Saptanks can do similar offhealing, though most of their support is combat-oriented. stamina tanks and DKs can provide healing support with vigor and shields. I cannot count the number of times I've directly saved someone hit by multiple flame ballistae or a coldfire by spamming shields and vigor at them long enough for a friendly healer to reach them or for the other player to move off their own seige to self-heal/shield.

Retreating maneuver is a strong stamina edge-case, as it will give whoever it is hit by root and snare immunity until their next attack, as well as cleanse such effects. Using it right before a keep breach can let an organized group blow past breach defenders and disrupt the players on oils/spamming AoE's into the chokepoint. Often allowing their allies to follow up and clean house.

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Outside of your supporting abilities as a tank, you also want to have some defensive abilities to cast. Sources of Ward and Resolve are valuable to slot, as are team buffs (Igneous Weapons. ).

As a tank, your base damage will be far lower than other players. To compensate for this, you want to look into either a proc set to bolster your low base damage with a static burst (Tremorscale is very popular for the strong hit, high chance, and snare), or run infused weapons with useful enchantments. (Crusher is popular in PvE, and still quite strong in PvP. Torug's Pact + enchants that match your class skills are also able to provide strong additional damage on hit. So lightning for sorcs, fire and poison enchantments for DKs, poison and disease enchantments for nightblades) Some form of execute is also highly recommended (I am partial to Reverse Slice on my stam toon. My saptank runs impale) to help your group or yourself while solo to secure a kill.

Tanks generally perform very well against light, burst-oriented builds. (I laugh at stamblades on my DK, and magsorcs often need to hit me with 3-5 rotations to put in a good dent. Assuming I'm not able to stay in their face for whatever reason.). Tanks will often draw against healers and other tanks. (NEither can kill the other. Seriously just /bow and walk away.) Pressure-based DPS builds are the counter to tanks (mDK, magPlar, magBlade). Other builds depend highly on the skill level of the opponent. (The few petsorcs I've fought against have went either way, depending on the ability of the petworc and my own performance.

Tylos001 wrote: »

I want to know if there are any pros that make a tank viable in PVP??

To be useful as a tank in PVP, you don't even need to be in a group. Just jump down from the wall of any keep under attack, taunt a group of enemy players and tank them as your fellow faction members kill them with siege.

I dont think anyone has invented tank in Tamriel yet.. Though rolling over few dozen zergs with a tank would be funny.

themdogesbite wrote: »

Tanks honestly dont do to much in PvP right now besides beeing annoying. Tanky Wardens however i think will be a whole other story.

Disagree

Lord_Dexter wrote: »

TX12001rwb17_ESO wrote: »

Tanks are extremely hard to kill 1 on 1, some players can't even kill a fully speced tank at all as I have seen some Tanks take on 4 to 5 players at once.

And they can not kill someone easily!

A PvP tank is a force multiplier. Anything you solo will be difficult (though tanks CAN solo enemies). However assuming you can make it difficult or impossible to ignore you... well tanking setups were some of the first 1vX and 2vX builds in the game. (Specifically, Saptanks. Due to their lifestealing)

If you look at most successful small-scale groups, you generally have on or two "bruisers"/"tanks" on the frontline who lock enemies down. Then one or two people with damage dealing and offheals. Assuming small-scale caps out at four people, 1tank, 2 burst specialists, 1 healer (healer also has decent damage output, and the tank should carry some burst/execute) is your ideal groupsize.

I'm by no means a great player, nor is my roommate. But the two of us together can readily take on 3-4 opponents together as long as we coordinate. I distract and hold them down, while he picks them off with his fragile crit-focused build. (Starting from the lowest-health opponent.) Considering both of us are a flavor of stamDK (so no class-based stealth, Vigor is our main heal, and no streak) running away in the face of overwealming numbers is VERY hard, yet against most opponents we make it work quite well.

Tanks are very useful in PvP. I can build ultimate very quickly on them.

IMHO a tank that just tanks is pretty useless aside from being annoying. You need to bring something else to the table. Namely:

Defile. Basically use Fasala's Guile and/or Durok's Bane to debuff any enemy who hits you so they take reduced healing. Really useful in a group scenario.

Blazing Shield - stack health and use blazing shield to put out decent DPS while tanking. This is becoming less effective as people smarten up and fight blazing shield tanks from range.

Raid lead - raid leaders generally need to be tankier in order to survive being at the front of the raid.

Otherwise not very useful.