ESO Arcanist Tank Guide
Table of Contents
ESO Arcanist Tank Guide Introduction
Welcome to our ESO Arcanist Tank Guide. On this page we’ll be taking a deep dive into everything you need to know about the Arcanist Tank, everything about the skills, passives, strengths and weaknesses.
The Arcanist Tank is a good option for Main Tanking in Trials due to being able to offer up to 11 group buffs combined with it’s unique class buff being tied into a taunt skill. Due to having so many buffs and debuffs they would also be really useful in dungeons.
See more: Tank Class Overviews, Skills, Passives & Information
ESO Arcanist Tank Class Skills & Passives
Herald of the Tome
Soldier of Apocrypha
Curative Runeforms
ESO Arcanist Tank Class Overview
Arcanists are a brand new and useful Tank class in The Elder Scrolls Online Necrom.
We got chance to test the Arcanist class in a private playtest session and at that time this class was fairly underwhelming with the first impression of playing it. However on the live PTS, the class has really grown to become possibly one of the most useful Tank Classes in The Elder Scrolls Online.
CRUX
This is a brand new combat system added with the Arcanist. It’s fairly simply, you have some skills and passives that generate Crux and some that use Crux to give you additional benefits. I call these Crux Earners and Spenders. Ideally you don’t want too main Crux Spenders because it will become hard to manage them and control when you use them. I personally use multiple Crux Earners and only 1 Crux Spender, this way I can always gain a large benefit upon using my Spender skill.
When it comes to dungeon Tanking, the Arcanist has probably the best potential offering of group buffs and enemy debuffs which you can fully build your group around them to gain a ton of benefits when combined with the right gear sets.
In Trial content you might not need an Arcanist but if you do use one it will need to be as a Main Tank, since their main unique group benefit is the 2200 group pen. This is attached to a Taunt which is clever by the Dev’s because this simply forces the need of an Arcanist Main Tank for trials if you want that group benefit. If this had been attached to any other skill you would potentially have just used an Arcanist Healer or Damage Dealer to provide all the utility of an Arcanist but that’s not possible with it being linked to a Taunt skill.
Unlike many of ESO’s Tank Classes, the Arcanist has access to some useful crowd control skills that are also sustainable since they are Magicka costing. You have a group buff skill Runic Defense which has an Immobilisation morph and it’s 360 degree making it really good for crowd control, this skill also auto-heals and gives you Minor Protection so all round useful. Then you have Rune of Uncanny Adoration which Charms enemies. This is quite a different method of “pulling” an enemy because they simply run to you and follow you for 8 seconds. It’s not as quick as something like Unrelenting Grip but it works well enough to use it for dungeon situations. It doesn’t taunt enemies like Silver Leash and Unrelenting Grip but it’s basically the same thing with the enemies following you for 8 seconds, it’s almost the same as having them taunted.
Survival on an Arcanist initially seems a bit different to other classes, and for some might take a little getting use to. Arcanist’s are intended to be a reactive Tank class and one of the most beneficial ways to play them is by maintaining Runeguard of Still Waters, this skill provides a self-buff but also will auto-heal when you’re low on Health. The heal scales based on Max Health but still seems quite low as a 12k or so heal. However maintaining good use of Impervious Runeward either right before a heavy attack or big mechanic or immediately after really helps. On first cast you gain a huge damage shield then a secondary shield afterwards, if you save all Crux just for this skill because it’s another heal and that heal is increased per Crux spent, it can easily heal for an additional 12k+. So on a build with 45k Health you’d get a 28k Damage Shield which is a 17k Shield after 1s and 2 heals that heal for a total of 24k+. By slotting Arcanist’s Domain on the same bar as Runeward, you’ll also buff that shield by an additional 10%.
Sustain on an Arcanist is unbelievable. Every Soldier of Apocrypha skill is useful and for each skill you have slotted you gain 129 of all recoveries. Combine this with Erudition passive for an extra 18% recovery and you can easily get to 3-4k+ Magicka Recovery. If you block infrequently you’ll also get the extra benefit of somewhere in the region of 1.5k Stamina recovery. You also have the Hideous Clarity passive which will return Stamina when you generate Crux which will proc a lot due to the fact we have a lot of Crux generating skills.
When it comes to buffing the group, there are so many buffs as listed below. Now a lot of these things can be obtained by other sources so not all of them are always going to be useful but things like Arcanist’s Domain, it’s a brilliant skill because it replaces a whole 5-piece gear set with 1 skill and also adds additional recovery. Rune of the Colorless Pool is vital for Boss fights, you’ll now have the ability to supply a long duration of Minor Brittle and Minor Vulnerability without using a Frost Staff and without needing to spam cast it like you might do with Frost Clench. Runic Sunder means you can combine it with Tremorscale to replace the need for an Alkosh user in your trial group and you also won’t need Crimson Oath’s Rive so you can add even more additional gear set buffs to your group. You also provide group Minor Evasion but this has limited usage although it’s not a buff you can obtain very easily so it’s a nice addition to AoE fights.
ESO Arcanist Tank Strengths, Weaknesses & Group Buffs
Strengths
- A lot of group utility
- Huge amounts of recovery
- Good survival with two heals and a massive damage shield
- Many long duration abilities
- Easy to reach resistance cap
Weaknesses
- Many of the group benefits are things that overlap
- The main unique group buff is tied to a Taunt forcing you to play as a Main Tank
- Some potentially useful skills scale with Stamina so you can’t use them as a Tank without having sustain issues
Group Buffs
- Runic Sunder – 2200 Armor Pen
- Fatewoven Armor – AoE Minor Breach
- Runic Defense – Group Minor Resolve
- Rune of the Colorless Pool – Minor Brittle & Minor Vulnerability
- Circumvented Fate – Group Minor Evasion
- Arcanist’s Domain – Minor Courage, Minor Fortitude, Minor Intellect & Minor Endurance
- Vitalizing Glyphic – Group Heal & 200 Weapon + Spell Damage
- Glyphic of the Tides – Group Major Protection
ESO Arcanist Tank Conclusion
The Arcanist is a useful Tank Class for a number of reasons. For optimised dungeons the Arcanist will generally offer the most group benefits both offensively and defensively so it’s worth considering using one for those.
For Trial situations you can consider replacing Roar of Alkosh, Crimson Oath’s Rive and Claw of Yolnahkriin by simply using an Arcanist Main Tank. They have the ability to provide group benefits with skills that replace whole 5-piece gear sets so you have to really consider using one in your Trial composition if you can and add in that easy long duration Minor Brittle and you also don’t need a Damage Dealer who is focussed entirely on Minor Brittle.