ESO: Ultimate Tanking Build Guide for all Classes 

Thanks Clucker, I appreciate all the support.

Argonians are cool! My Templar Tank and my Sorc Tank are Argonians. My Necro Tank is a Nord, and so is my Warden Tank. My DKs are Orc and Imperial. My NB Tank is a Redguard. My Arcanist is also an Imperial. I still want to do a Khajiit Tank - but not sure what to build here. Any ideas?

@@pikewerfer I’d recommend building a khajiit tank. End of the day, just do what you want, play how you want, and know that you’ll never be as awesome as an Argonian 🤓

Um, not really a lot that screams khajit as far as ranking classes. I would say nightblade and you could also have a really good stealing video but argonian nightblades are also really good. Lol. So I’m torn.

Thanks Porter, glad I could help! I’m also a psi-if nerd but my wife is only into fantasy. Lol. So I get where you are coming from.

Thanks Seek, I appreciate it. And yeah, it can be a good idea, if you can manage to get them to communicate. Can be a tough sell sometimes.

I agree completely, it’s just that the amount is so small that it’s really not a consideration for anyone not trying to score push or Purma magma shell. It’s a question of how many people in all of eso are in those categories? Maybe a couple hundred? Even if it’s a thousand that’s 0.00025% of monthly users. What I typically try to do is offer advice that’s geared towards the 99.99975% and then point towards the sweaty stuff for the small percent that are interested. I know some end game players think everyone should just do what they do, but I don’t find that to make a lot of sense. And it’s easy enough to correct in the very rare situation that it becomes useful for someone.

Hope it meets your expectations!

@@Nightharrow absolutely amazing! 💙

Magma shell is amazing if you need it. For someone like you though, I would reserve it for situations where you need to help carry a less experienced group or when you’ve been trying and dying for a bit, and just want to move on. It’s completely broken (in a good way) though and definitely worth using.

It’s a good idea, I just don’t know when I will be able to get around to it. If you want some help with it though, come by the discord! We have channels to get feedback if you want it.

For most cases with tanking, 4 reinforced with 3 divines is actually the way to go. Hor, Hex, and many who do a lot of end game tanking have all calculated the same thing because you only block the big hits which doesn't cost much to do so block reduction isn't really needed as much as ppl think. You can tell who's not a vet tank when they spec everything into block and sturdy. Great for beginners but actually it builds really bad habits

Yeah, would be nice if the traits got a buff. 900 mag every 20 seconds isn’t exactly game changing. Basically one extra heal every 40 seconds. Many phases in sweaty groups don’t even last that long, so you don’t need any sustain really in those fights.

Hey Rousski, thanks for mentioning this, it looks like I missed it! I’ll add it to the spreadsheet in just a bit.

@@Nightharrow no problem, just wanted to signal it for you.

Haha good to see it’s universal.

What class are you running? Void bash can also be use in very hard content to apply major maim, but most people don’t know or understand why that could be good. Puncturing remedy is great for a lot of things. I mention it in the video linked below. Defensive Position is good for sustain but fairly complicated to use imo. There are also mythical you can use as well. Bloodlords embrace, pearls, Spaulder, etc… I’m considering doing a video on it, but it will be a bit. Come by the discord, we have channels to theory craft and talk about this kind of thing.

​@@Nightharrow I run a sorcerer tank. The style I generally play is I use Bound Aegis to boost my blocking damage mitigation against the strongest attacks. My style revolves around Bound Aegis, so I block a lot. I feel I really over block and am trying to learn to block less. I recently joined a new guild and one of the other sorc tank players has been giving me some advice on a different style of play. Along with Hardened Ward being buffed, I've been trying to use damage shields more and switch from using BA. I did try going with Defensive Stance as that was what he advised. It's a departure of what I was used to. In the past, I did use the Defensive Position set for sustain. I had a setup where I use Defensive Stance to convert stam to mag. Then Dark Deal to convert mag to stam. As of late, I personally have not used Dark Deal much and rather use a HA to get stam back. A HA takes just a little longer than Dark Deal and I don't need to use a skill slot. On a sorc, skill slots are even tighter because my self heal is my pet which I must double bar. As of late, I've been using mag recovery glyphs on my infused jewellery for mag recovery. I've been able to HA to recover my stam well enough now. With my current setup, I am able to manage my resources better than before, so I don't need the Dark Deal/Defensive Position tricks to recover resources. I find it interesting that you did not put Yol on one of your sets. I guess the arcanist now with Arcanist's Domain can provide that buff. When using Yolnahkriin, I can back bar it to provide Minor Courage and use a front bar arena weapon. The issue with using a front bar arena set is that I need to find a set that can be back barred effectively. Yolnahkriin is the easiest. Crimson Oath's Rive is another as my back bar skill procs it. I can also put Saxhleel on the back bar only, but will lose Major Force if using my front bar Barrier. If I go Sax/TT/Tremor, I'd be inclined to use Atro as my ultimate. I don't tank that often as it is my tertiary role. I mostly DPS and occasionally heal. I feel have the ability to do so as I've completed a few hard mode DLC dungeons. It's mostly the lack of reps in content. I'm just a better DPS or healer, so those are the roster spots I have been placed in.

Thanks Sort, I appreciate it! So I have class ones for several of the classes, and I’ll be renewing those and finishing out the rest over the next few months. NB, Templar, and warden I think are all fairly new. Cro and dk are so old I may have taken them down. Not sure if that’s part of what you mean? I think a lot of the stuff, besides class specific, is nuanced and what I try to cover in the videos, so idk about a second page? Is there particular info you would want or are looking for?

What part do you feel is highly misunderstood?

Yeah, my point was that all the armor options are kind of bad and don’t really do much. Especially when compared to how good divines is for dps. But it’s better than nothing I suppose.

Haha that’s hilarious and sounds like something I would do. If 900 mag every 20 seconds (from running 3 divines) is as game changing as people make it out to be, I bet the high elf with twice that was amazing. Actually I think I did that on a tanking video a while back and when I brought up the racial traits to talk about them realized I hadn’t used the token. I hadn’t gone and done several tris though, that’s just hilarious.

Hey oversturm! I think arcanists are great, it was just a coincidence if I didn’t mention them. I’ve actually been playing a decent amount with mine recently. I often find I struggle with stamina sustain on them when doing hard modes or solo tanking, but it’s an easy fix with either a block enchantment or stamina drain on your weapon. I also have a tanking video on them from when they first came out. Will update in over the next couple of months.

I would appreciate it, I am quite interested. Since the tanks, the heal, depending on what you use them for, if they are not useful it is better to know, they are all good for fun of course.@@Nightharrow

Always nice to have a guide, I’m sure they appreciate it.

Haha the 6% is for imperial. Redguards get back 1k stam per 5 seconds for doing melee damage. And most skills you cast will still be plenty expensive to get the benefit of red diamond (imperial cost reduction).

Thanks for dropping by man.

I literally did my first RU-vid video on it. People laughed. Now they recommend it. 🤷‍♂️ idk lol. Probably could have added it here but idk. Lots of info to cover. Thanks for bringing it up, I’ll keep it in mind for next time.

It's good on paper but not that good in practice where matters. We actually tried bloodlords in my team when it was released. Problem is that you have to get hit every second or two with blockable attacks for it to be good and many bosses like to RP so you actually block attacks not that often. For example dragons in Sunspire spend alot of time spawning the atros and opening the cages or portals. Taleria in DSR also RPs alot. So actual bosses that are scary enough to need that extra sustain do not light attack often and many of them do heavies that should be rolled because they hit so hard you end up with 800 hp from 50k. So you'd be better off with some other selfish option, death dealers is cool on Taleria, Torc is pretty good for a DK cuz it converts mag to stam very easily. Even atros on twins DSR do not light or heavy you that often, its just when they do it hurts ALOT. Basicly it's to do with how PvE enemies are programmed in practice rather than the efficacy of the mythic itself.

Definitely the necro. Just made a class specific guide on it actually.

There is not, but in eso you mostly need to worry about the elite mobs, which are almost always the larger ones. So larger = higher priority. With the smaller ones you generally try to cc them and they will die or their damage will be out healed. But yeah, a lot different than those other mmos. I’m also partial to a to a threat meter myself.

@@Nightharrow Yea it just doesn't feel right as a tank when you don't aggro everything on the screen lol.

Haha I feel you. Will be some new cc abilities with update 42.

Nope, none at all. You will find that you may need more mag recovery/reduced mag cost than others, but you should have extra stam.

It’s one of the most survivable tanks still because of their dot mitigation, but yeah, I agree, most classes could use more of a reason to run them. Typically classes without shields have better heals, so there is some balance there as well. But poor NB, Templar, sorc, etc… also are in a similar boat. Not a whole lot to recommend them. Particularly when you consider how difficult some bosses are with some of the classes when compared to a dk. Also, necro Rez for most groups makes it good enough that you want to bring it. You can literally carry a group with it. But of course at the high end it’s not needed.

I still love Necro tank in 4-man content. Saxhleel and War Machine keep Colo relevant.

Don’t forget I recommend sturdy. 900 mag every 20 seconds is apparently game changing and will carry you through trifectas.

@@Nightharrow Yeah, I know. I too would rather have great sustain than some extra armor. Hyper has cooled down a bit now, but when he started YouTubing he kept "calling out" other RU-vidrs not going with his perceived meta.. Thanks for your work and your videos, they are great!