Arcanist Tank Skill Bar Overview
Arcanist tanking in ESO is built around resource control, layered mitigation, and group utility. While Arcanists offer extremely strong defensive passives and group buffs, their skill bars require more deliberate planning to avoid overloading on sustain or underutilising their unique kit.
This page breaks down how Arcanist tank skill bars are structured, which skills form the foundation of most setups, and how to adapt your bar based on content type and group needs. Rather than listing multiple rigid bars with no explanation, the goal here is to show why certain skills are used and when they should be swapped.
The skill bars shown on this page represent common, reliable Arcanist tank setups that work well across most dungeon and trial content. Treat them as a reference point, not a fixed rule. Arcanist tanks perform best when their bars are adjusted to the encounter, group damage level, and healer support available.
How to Use This Page
- Use this page as a reference alongside the Arcanist tank build.
- Adjust skill bars based on content type, group composition, and your experience as a tank.
How Arcanist Tank Skill Bars Are Built
Arcanist tank skill bars are built around a small set of core defensive and utility skills, supported by powerful passives that enhance block mitigation, recovery, and damage reduction. Around this core, you have several flexible slots that change depending on whether you need more sustain, control, or group support.
In almost all setups, an Arcanist tank bar will include:
- A reliable taunt
- A source of Major Resolve
- At least one strong sustain tool (or sustain-focused passives)
- A burst heal and/or damage shield for emergencies
- Elemental Blockade for Crusher uptime and debuff application
- Crowd control for add management
- A mix of enemy debuffs and group buffs
Everything beyond this core is situational.
Arcanist tanking rewards efficiency. Many Arcanist skills provide multiple defensive effects at once, allowing you to compress mitigation, sustain, and utility into fewer slots. Understanding which skills overlap in purpose, and which ones are redundant is more important than copying a specific bar layout.
Well-optimised Arcanist bars reduce incoming damage, stabilise sustain, and improve group damage through buffs and debuffs. This results in smoother pulls, fewer recovery moments, and greater consistency across longer encounters.
Arcanist Tank Skill Bars
The following Arcanist tank skill bars cover common dungeon, main tank, and off tank setups. These bars are designed to be adaptable, with notes and swaps explained throughout this page.
Subclassing Choices
Soldier of Apocrypha
Earthen Heart
Winters Embrace
Arcanist Skills
Arcanist Passives
- Herald of the Tome: Fated Fortune
- Solider of Apocrypha: Aegis of the Unseen, Wellspring of the Abyss, Circumvented Fate, Implacable Outcome
- Curative Runeforms: Healing Tides, Hideous Clarity, Erudition, Intricate Runeforms
- One Hand and Shield: Fortress, Sword and Board, Deadly Bash, Deflect Bolts, Battlefield Mobility
- Destruction Staff: Elemental Force, Ancient Knowledge, Destruction Expert
- Light Armor: Light Armor Bonuses, Light Armor Penalties
Grace, Evocation, Spell Warding - Medium Armor: Medium Armor Bonuses
Dexterity, Wind Walker, Athletics - Heavy Armor: Heavy Armor Bonuses, Heavy Armor Penalties
Resolve, Constitution, Juggernaut, Revitalize, Rapid Mending - Fighters Guild: Intimidating Presence
- Undaunted: Banish the Wicked, Undaunted Mettle
- Support: Magicka Aid
- Racial: All
- Alchemy: Medicinal Use
Subclassing
- Dragonknight Ardent Flame: Combustion, Warmth, Searing Heat, World in Ruin
- Dragonknight Earthen Heart: Eternal Mountain, Battle Roar, Mountain’s Blessing, Helping Hands
- Warden Winters Embrace: Glacial Presence, Frozen Armor, Icy Aura, Piercing Cold
- Templar Restoring Light: Mending, Sacred Ground, Light Weaver, Master Ritualist
- Nightblade Siphoning: Catalyst, Magicka Flood, Soul Siphoner, Transfer
Skill Information
- Goading Throw – Ranged taunt that also heals you and applies Major Maim, reducing enemy damage.
- Stone Giant – Enemy debuff that makes them receive more damage, boosting group DPS.
- Hearth and Home (Eruption) – Provides a large group heal over time, Minor Heroism for faster ultimate generation, and Major Protection for yourself.
- Warding Burst – Group damage shield that also grants Minor Courage and contributes to ultimate generation.
- Polar Wind – Strong burst heal with a self HoT that also heals an ally.
- Trample – Grants Major Heroism and applies multiple damage status effects, turning the Dragonknight into an ultimate engine when paired with Saxhleel Champion.
- Gibbering Shelter – Emergency defensive ultimate that provides strong mitigation, group shielding, and passive resource recovery.
- Leashing Soul – Pulls enemies together, restores Magicka and Stamina, and applies Major Cowardice to reduce incoming damage.
- Elemental Susceptibility – Free Major Breach with constant Burning, Chilled, and Concussion procs, enabling Minor Maim, Minor Brittle, Minor Vulnerability, Off Balance, and Minor Breach (with Blockade), while triggering Dragonknight sustain through Burning.
- Elemental Blockade – Maintains continuous infused Crusher enchant uptime, applies Minor Breach to Chilled enemies, and provides a projectile damage shield for the group.
- Expansive Frost Cloak – Grants Major Resolve to the entire group.
- Runeguard of Still Waters – Passive safety tool that grants Minor Resolve and Minor Protection, immobilises nearby enemies, and triggers a heal when under 50% Health.
- Standard of Might – Primary ultimate that provides a large, unique Spell and Weapon Damage buff to the group. When paired with Saxhleel Champion, it also grants Major Force, massively boosting group damage, while the caster gains 15% reduced damage taken for the duration.
Add Pull Skills
- Inner Rage – Ranged taunt that provides a strong group synergy, dealing Flame damage over time to the taunted enemy and additional AoE Flame damage to nearby enemies.
- Razor Caltrops – Applies AoE Major Breach to all enemies in large pulls and snares them.
- Power Slam – Used to proc Void Bash, pulling all enemies together in one cast while applying Major Maim to reduce incoming damage.
- Pulsar – Applies AoE Minor Mangle and, when used with a Charged Ice Staff, guarantees AoE Chilled, enabling Minor Maim, Minor Brittle, Minor Breach (with Blockade), and granting Minor Protection to the group.
Arcanist Skills (No Subclassing)
- Zenas’ Empowering Disc – Creates an AoE that grants the group Minor Courage, Minor Fortitude, Minor Intellect, and Minor Endurance. These buffs persist after leaving the area and the skill also reduces the cost and increases the strength of damage shields.
- Impervious Runeward – Provides a large Max Health-scaling damage shield that also heals you, with both effects strengthened by Crux.
- Cruxweaver Armor – Grants Major Resolve, applies Minor Breach to enemies when they attack you, and generates Crux.
- Runic Sunder – Applies a unique armour shred, reducing enemy armour by 2200, generates Crux, and provides 2% reduced damage taken per active Crux while slotted on the front bar.
- Replenishing Barrier – Provides a large group and self damage shield, restores Magicka, triggers Major Force when paired with Saxhleel Champion, and grants 10% increased Magicka Recovery from the Magicka Aid passive.
Soldier of Apocrypha Synergy – All Soldier of Apocrypha abilities are slotted on the same bar to benefit from Wellspring of the Abyss, granting +81 Health, Magicka, and Stamina Recovery per slotted ability.
Arcanist Subclassing and Scribing
Arcanist tanks were already exceptionally strong before the introduction of subclassing and scribing. As the newest tank-capable class in ESO, Arcanists launched with a kit that was heavily stacked with layered mitigation, sustain tools, group buffs, and enemy debuffs. They did not need additional systems to function as top-tier tanks.
With the introduction of subclassing and scribing, Arcanists didn’t simply gain more power, they became the baseline utility provider that other tank classes now borrow from. Subclassing has effectively pushed Arcanist utility outward into the wider tank ecosystem, allowing other classes to access tools that were once unique strengths of the Arcanist kit.
Because of this shift, some Arcanist-specific skills that were previously core to tank bars have been deprioritised in favour of stronger, more group-focused options accessed through subclassing. While this slightly reduces the importance of certain class skills, Arcanist passives remain among the strongest in the game, continuing to provide exceptional recovery, resistances, ultimate gain and group minor evasion buff.
Scribing further reinforces this position by allowing Arcanist tanks to compress even more value into fewer skill slots. One of the most impactful gains from scribing is access to a stronger, more reliable pull skill, significantly improving add control and chaining without relying on less efficient alternatives.
Overall, Arcanist tanks remain one of the strongest and most complete tank options in ESO. Subclassing and scribing have refined their ability to tank. The class still excels through stacked passives, efficient skill design, and unmatched baseline utility, even as some of its original tools give way to more group-oriented solutions.
Useful Dragonknight Tank Resources
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