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)

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.