ESO Aetherian Archive Main Tank Build
Information
Welcome to The Tank Club: ESO Aetherian Archive Main Tank Build.
We have a few different builds for this Trial; we have a conventional Tank build, we have an experienced Hybrid Tank build, and we have a very important Last Boss build. Aetherian Archive is one of the very first Veteran Trials you are likely to encounter and one of the first to be created. The mechanics are very simple and this is typically an easy trial for a Tank until they reach the last boss.
The biggest challenge here for a Main Tank is sustaining on the last boss fight when you have to keep hold of multiple Axes, our tried and tested last boss setup will resolve that problem for you and hopefully bring you and your team success in Veteran Aetherian Archive!
Tank Guides for this Trial will be available soon in the Tank Guide section and on our YouTube channel.
Race
Orc
Redguard
Imperial
Mundus
Tank – The Atronach
Hybrid – The Shadow
Attributes
Tank – 64 Health
Hybrid – 24 Health, 40 Stamina
Food
Bewitched Sugar Skulls
Potions
Essence of Health Potion Essence of Weapon Power Essence of Immovability More Info
Equipment
Piece | Set | Weight | Trait | Enchantment |
---|---|---|---|---|
Head | Encratis's Behemoth | Heavy | Sturdy | Prismatic Defence |
Shoulder | Encratis's Behemoth | Heavy | Sturdy | Prismatic Defence |
Chest | Claw of Yolnahkriin | Heavy | Sturdy | Prismatic Defence |
Hands | Claw of Yolnahkriin | Heavy | Sturdy | Prismatic Defence |
Waist | Claw of Yolnahkriin | Heavy | Sturdy | Prismatic Defence |
Legs | Claw of Yolnahkriin | Heavy | Sturdy | Prismatic Defence |
Feet | Claw of Yolnahkriin | Heavy | Sturdy | Prismatic Defence |
Necklace | Powerful Assault | Jewellery | Triune | Bracing |
Ring | Powerful Assault | Jewellery | Triune | Magicka Recovery |
Ring | Powerful Assault | Jewellery | Triune | Magicka Recovery |
Main Hand | Powerful Assault | Any 1H | Infused | Flame |
Off Hand | Powerful Assault | Shield | Sturdy | Prismatic Defence |
Main Hand Backup | Crushing Wall | Ice Staff | Infused | Crusher |
Piece | Set | Weight | Trait | Enchantment |
---|---|---|---|---|
Head | Engine Guardian | Heavy | Sturdy | Prismatic Defence |
Shoulder | Engine Guardian | Heavy | Sturdy | Prismatic Defence |
Chest | Claw of Yolnahkriin | Heavy | Sturdy | Prismatic Defence |
Hands | Claw of Yolnahkriin | Heavy | Sturdy | Prismatic Defence |
Waist | Claw of Yolnahkriin | Heavy | Sturdy | Prismatic Defence |
Legs | Claw of Yolnahkriin | Heavy | Sturdy | Prismatic Defence |
Feet | Claw of Yolnahkriin | Heavy | Sturdy | Prismatic Defence |
Necklace | Aegis of Galenwe | Jewellery | Infused | Bracing |
Ring | Aegis of Galenwe | Jewellery | Infused | Magicka Recovery |
Ring | Aegis of Galenwe | Jewellery | Infused | Magicka Recovery |
Main Hand | Aegis of Galenwe | Any 1H | Infused | Absorb Stamina |
Off Hand | Aegis of Galenwe | Shield | Sturdy | Prismatic Defence |
Main Hand Backup | Aegis of Galenwe | Ice Staff | Infused | Crusher |
Piece | Set | Weight | Trait | Enchantment |
---|---|---|---|---|
Head | Encratis's Behemoth | Heavy | Sturdy | Prismatic Defence |
Shoulder | Encratis's Behemoth | Heavy | Sturdy | Prismatic Defence |
Chest | Roar of Alkosh | Medium | Sturdy | Prismatic Defence |
Hands | Roar of Alkosh | Medium | Sturdy | Prismatic Defence |
Waist | Roar of Alkosh | Medium | Sturdy | Prismatic Defence |
Legs | Roar of Alkosh | Medium | Sturdy | Prismatic Defence |
Feet | Roar of Alkosh | Medium | Sturdy | Prismatic Defence |
Necklace | Powerful Assault | Jewellery | Triune | Bracing |
Ring | Powerful Assault | Jewellery | Triune | Magicka Recovery |
Ring | Powerful Assault | Jewellery | Triune | Magicka Recovery |
Main Hand | Powerful Assault | Any 1H | Infused | Flame |
Off Hand | Powerful Assault | Shield | Sturdy | Prismatic Defence |
Main Hand Backup | Powerful Assault | Ice Staff | Infused | Crusher |
Piece | Set | Weight | Trait | Enchantment |
---|---|---|---|---|
Head | Encratis's Behemoth | Heavy | Sturdy | Prismatic Defence |
Shoulder | Encratis's Behemoth | Heavy | Sturdy | Prismatic Defence |
Chest | Claw of Yolnahkriin | Heavy | Sturdy | Prismatic Defence |
Hands | Claw of Yolnahkriin | Heavy | Sturdy | Prismatic Defence |
Waist | Claw of Yolnahkriin | Heavy | Sturdy | Prismatic Defence |
Legs | Claw of Yolnahkriin | Heavy | Sturdy | Prismatic Defence |
Feet | Claw of Yolnahkriin | Heavy | Sturdy | Prismatic Defence |
Necklace | Powerful Assault | Jewellery | Infused | Potion Boost |
Ring | Powerful Assault | Jewellery | Infused | Potion Boost |
Ring | Powerful Assault | Jewellery | Infused | Potion Boost |
Main Hand | Powerful Assault | Any 1H | Infused | Flame |
Off Hand | Powerful Assault | Shield | Sturdy | Prismatic Defence |
Main Hand Backup | Crushing Wall | Ice Staff | Infused | Crusher |
Piece | Set | Weight | Trait | Enchantment |
---|---|---|---|---|
Head | Encratis's Behemoth | Heavy | Divines | Stamina |
Shoulder | Encratis's Behemoth | Medium | Divines | Stamina |
Chest | Powerful Assault | Medium | Divines | Stamina |
Hands | Powerful Assault | Medium | Divines | Stamina |
Waist | Powerful Assault | Medium | Divines | Stamina |
Legs | Powerful Assault | Medium | Divines | Stamina |
Feet | Powerful Assault | Medium | Divines | Stamina |
Necklace | Perfected Claw of Yolnahkriin | Jewellery | Infused | Magicka Recovery |
Ring | Perfected Claw of Yolnahkriin | Jewellery | Infused | Weapon Damage |
Ring | Perfected Claw of Yolnahkriin | Jewellery | Infused | Weapon Damage |
Main Hand | Perfected Claw of Yolnahkriin | Dagger | Infused | Flame |
Off Hand | Perfected Claw of Yolnahkriin | Dagger | Charged | Shock |
Main Hand Backup | Perfected Thunderous Volley | Bow | Infused | Crusher |
Abilities
Dragonknight
Static
Necromancer
Static
Nightblade
Static
Sorcerer
Static
Templar
Static
Warden
Static
Tank Guides
Build Video
For more guides please see our Tank Guide section and our YouTube channel.
Coming Soon
Notes
Main Tank Gear
Console/Static: This is the standard Tank setup. These bosses have no cleave attacks so you can stand in the group and activate Powerful Assault easily. Encratis is a must have set for Magicka Groups and then Yolnahkriin provides a great DPS boost also. PA only needs to be on one bar, you can use whatever you like on the back bar but the Maelstrom Staff will give you a little DPS.
Last Boss Gear: The only real difference between the Standard Tanking gear and last boss is the jewellery. By using this jewellery setup along with Immovable potions, using the potions on cooldown would mean every 32.7 seconds out of 45 you cannot get stunned. You should Tank the axes next to the main boss so you can stay inside healing and have access to sustain and synergies. If you keep taunting the main boss you won’t lose aggro of the axes, and since you cannot be stunned it means you won’t lose the taunt of the axes even when you don’t have any of them taunted.
With this setup you are safe to heavy attack, drop block, bar swap, use skills that drop block such as Stone Giant and Dark Deal. You do need to be aware of your potions with this setup, for the last 12 seconds of your potion timer you CAN be stunned so try to perform all actions you need to during the 32 seconds of Immovable and then hold block until your potion is ready again.
Hybrid Tank Gear: vAA has very little damage until the last boss. This means you can setup as a DD/Tank Hybrid and easily pull 40k+ DPS if setup correctly and with the ability to perform a good rotation. While doing this you also maintain all your Tank debuffs and buffs. When you reach the last boss its a good idea to switch to the Last Boss setup.
Since you’ll be missing Pierce Armor while using this setup, you could use Alkosh. If you have a Templar applying Power of the Light this might not be necessary, in which case use Powerful Assault. Yolnahkriin is still needed for the group buff so we use this on the Weapons and Jewellery so we can benefit from the additional damage from Medium Armor sets like Alkosh and PA.
Class
The class you choose in this trial makes no real difference and this trial can be tanked comfortably with all classes.
Race
The best Races for this trial would be Orc if you are a Hybrid as this will give you more damage. Redguard for extra DPS and sustain or Imperial for sustain.
Mundus
Pretty simple choices here, you go with The Atronach as a general Tank for more Magicka Recovery.
If you are a Hybrid Main Tank then use The Shadow for extra DPS.
Attributes
For this trial 64 Health works fine for general Tanking.
For Hybrid Tanking 24 Health and 40 Stamina should put you at just under 30k Health but will a good Stamina pool for DPSing with.
Food
Whether you are a standard Tank or a Hybrid Tank, you should use Bewitched Sugar Skulls for the food. You always need all 3 resources, in this trial you still need to be able to use the occasional Magicka ability even as a Hybrid Tank so it’s safer to use this food.
Potions
Standard Tri-Stat potions for all bosses and adds other than the final boss. Final boss Immovable Potions are extremely good to use to prevent being stunned by the Axes, especially with this build. If you are a Hybrid Main Tank then Weapon Power Potions should be used.