ESO Arcanist Tank Guide

📗Arcanist Tank Build & Guide | E...

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

The Unblinking Eye
(Unnecessary)
This skill is not required for tanking but might be used in solo content.

Runeblades
(Unnecessary)
Could be used for solo situation or additional Crux generation but generally not needed.

Fatecarver
(Unnecessary)
Damage skill that’s not needed for a Tank.

Abyssal Impact
(Unnecessary)
This skill offers an Immobilisation but only in front of you and with a very short duration, there is a better option in the Soldier of Apocrypha skills.

Recuperative Treatise → Morph of Tome-Bearer’s Inspiration
(Situational)
This skill restores a decent amount of resources when it’s active and you use Arcanist Class skills. You might find the Stamina sustain a little challenging if blocking a lot so this skill can be helpful on Boss fights especially.

Rune of DisplacementMorph of The Imperfect Ring
(Unnecessary)
This seems like it could be a good skill, it acts like a vacuum where you apply it to an enemy and it will pull all other enemies with 8m right on top of it. The problem generally is it’s just nowhere near as good as Void Bash because you can end up with a stack of enemies in the wrong place and the radius isn’t that great either.

Fated Fortune – Increased crit healing, works really well in combination with the heal from Runespite Ward.

Harnessed Quintessence

Psychic Lesion

Splintered Secrets

(All Optional)
All of these passives are fully damage focussed and so they are optional for Tanking.

Soldier of Apocrypha

Gibbering Shield
(Unnecessary)
This is a shield skill which seems more beneficial for PvP rather than PvE Tanking. Even the morph that provides a group shield isn’t great since it’s not as good as Barrier. Slotting Gibbering Shield will give you additional recovery via the Wellspring of the Abyss passive, you’ll get less Magicka Recovery compared to slotting Barrier but you gain additional Stamina and Health Recovery.

Runic SunderMorph of Runic Jolt
(Vital)
This is one of the Arcanist’s unique benefits. You apply this to an enemy and it will taunt and apply a armor pen debuff of 2200. The reason why this is used is when combined with Tremorscale it can potentially replace the need for Crimson Oath’s Rive and Alkosh in Trial groups. In dungeons it also helps a lot because it’s likely your dungeon Damage Dealers won’t be at the pen cap. You would ideally replace Pierce Armor with this skill however, you’ll need an additional source of Major Breach.

Impervious Runeward Morph of Runespite Ward
(Vital)
This is a huge damage shield and one of the most vial Arcanist survival tools since it also heals. This is my preferred morph and it acts in a reactional way where you gain a bigger shield for the first second that it’s active then an additional smaller shield afterwards. I take this morph over the other because the other will consume Crux to reduce the cost of the shield and I can virtually spam this without the cost reduction thanks to the Arcanist’s huge recovery potential. By using this morph you will heal for more depending on how many Crux you have saved, this is the only Crux spender that I use and this is so

Cruxweaver ArmorMorph of Fatewoven Armor
(Vital)
This is my preferred morph of this skill because it has a longer duration and creates Crux. You gain Major Resolve but you also apply Minor Breach to enemies when they hit you. This makes this skill really useful in dungeons and it’s a easy application of Minor Breach. It also means that dropping Pierce Armor to use Runic Sunder isn’t much of a problem because we’ve already covered the loss of Minor Breach by using this skill, we just have to find a way to apply Major Breach.

Unbreakable Fate Morph of Fatewoven Armor
(Optional)
This is the alternative morph which gives you additional Block Mitigation but it consumes Crux to do so. I limit my Crux consuming skills to just one so I can control it better and an additional 5% Block Mitigation isn’t really very much. If you are struggling to survive Single Target or AoE damage then you could use this morph but you’ll need to make sure you’re actually building up Crux before you use it to gain the benefit.

Runeguard of FreedomMorph of Runic Defense
(Optional)
This is typically the better morph for Trials as it gives you additional resistances and CC immunity when you are low health and the heal procs, so this can be useful on boss fights in Trials.

Runeguard of Still WatersMorph of Runic Defense
(Vital)
This is the generally better morph especially for dungeons and add pulls as it causes an 360 degree immobilisation. Overall this is a vital skill due to the group buff it provides of Minor Resolve which might be needed in some situations. It also gives you Minor Protection which reduces the damage you take. Additionally it’s a auto-heal skill, the heal scales on your Max Health and it will just heal

Rune of Uncanny AdorationMorph of Rune of Eldritch Horror
(Vital)
The Arcanist doesn’t posses a pull skill but it does have this which is a Charm skill. We haven’t seen much in the way of Charm in ESO before but it’s actually a very effective way to pull in and stack enemies. When you cast this on a ranged enemy, they will run to you and follow you for 8 seconds. I prefer using this to Silver Leash because it’s a Magicka skill so it’s extremely easy to sustain using it. You can’t stun/immobilise an enemy then use this and it also doesn’t work on Elite enemies, but it is possible to use it and then Immobilise enemies afterwards. This will be essential for dungeons, you’ll stack enemies by using Void Bash typically but then any enemies that don’t get pulled by that can be Charmed into the stack using this skill.

Rune of the Colorless Pool Morph of Rune of Eldritch Horror
(Vital)
This is a very important and useful skill especially for Trials. You could use it in dungeons if you use Silver Leash but I prefer the other morph for dungeon content. This is so good for Trial Bosses because you gain a long duration Minor Brittle and Minor Vulnerability and you also don’t need to use an Ice Staff to gain the Brittle which is new. This will give you an easy application and sustainable way to maintain a great uptime on Brittle for your group which increases group DPS.

Aegis of the Unseen
(Vital)
Free armor, you should always have a Solider of Apocrypha skill active so this is a reliable addition to your resistances.

Wellspring of the Abyss
(Vital)
Absolutely unbelievable passive. For each Solider skill you have slotted you gain 129 of all recoveries, this stacks per skill so you can gain a ton of recovery. Virtually every Solider of Apocrypha skill is useful for a Tank so that’s a base gain of 645 recovery (774 with Gibbering Shield) which will end up being more when % modifiers are added.

Circumvented Fate
(Vital)
Group buff of Minor Evasion. It’s slightly disappointing as a group buff compared to some other classes but it does give a small survival benefit when dealing with Area of Effect damage.

Implacable Outcome
(Vital)
Additional Ultimate gain when you use Crux, any Ultimate gain is always really useful.

Curative Runeforms

Resonating Glyphic → Morph of Vitalizing Glyphic
(Optional)
This could be something you use combined with Saxhleel Champion to provide additional Weapon and Spell Damage, especially if you’re in a 3 Damage Dealer, 1 Tank Dungeon group. When you use this it places a Glyphic in mid-air, and you can damage it, ideally you’ll place it next to a boss so it can receive some cleave damage which in return buff your group members Weapon and Spell damage while also healing them. The more damage done, the stronger the buff that this Ult provides.

Glyphic of the Tides → Morph of Vitalizing Glyphic
(Optional)
This could be something you use combined with Saxhleel Champion to provide additional Weapon and Spell Damage especially in Trials. If offers additional group Major Protection but you do need to heal this morph rather than damage it so it would work well in a Trial situation where you have 2 Healers but possibly not so good for Dungeons.

Runemend
(Unnecessary)
This skill uses the resource which is highest, in the case of a Tank this is Stamina so it’s not ideal to use it and the healing provided isn’t as good as the other options available.

Remedy Cascade
(Unnecessary)
This skill uses the resource which is highest, in the case of a Tank this is Stamina so it’s not ideal to use it combined with the fact that it’s a channel skill which means you cannot block while using it.

Chakram Shields
(Unnecessary)
This could have been a fairly useful Tank skill if it didn’t once again use your highest resource pool which would usually be Stamina. It’s a group shield skill, not quite as good as the DK Igneous Shield skill but this skill is a slightly bigger shield and can offer a bit of healing as well.

Zenas’ Empowering Disc → Morph of Arcanist’s Domain
(Vital)
Good bye Claw of Yolnahkriin! This skill provides a group buff of Minor Courage and all Minor Recoveries, it’s an AoE skill which is pretty big so it will be useful for dungeons as an additional buff. In some trial situations it might be more difficult to make use of it but this is why you use this morph. The AoE lasts for 20 seconds plus the buffs will last an additional 10 seconds after people leave the AoE or if you don’t recast it. This is a very reliable way to gain Minor Courage as a buff but use additional gear sets which will provide even more group benefit.

Apocryphal Gate
(Unnecessary)
There are probably a few places you could use this but generally you’d be far better off using a gap closer such as Shield Charge.

Healing Tides
(Vital)
Increases the healing you do based on how many Crux you have active. As mentioned already I only use 1 Crux spender which is Impervious Runeward, this is a Shield and Heal skill and I bank my Crux to use them on this skill so this will buff the heal by 9% if I have 3 Crux active which is a decent buff.

Hideous Clarity
(Vital)
Additional resource gain sometimes by doing absolutely nothing. Since it’s usually your Stamina that is higher you’ll gain Stamina return each time you gain Crux and since there is very few useful Crux spenders but a decent amount of Crux earners you should proc this quite often.

Erudition
(Vital)
For a Tank this passive is absolutely unbelievable. We gain a ton of recovery already from Wellspring of the Abyss then this just buffs that recovery to the moon due to the fact it’s a huge 18% buff, if you have Magicka (and even Stamina) recovery issues on an Arcanist then something is seriously wrong.

Intricate Runeforms
(Vital)
Buffs your damage shields and reduces the cost by 10%. You need a Curative Runeform ability slotted on the same bar as your shield to gain the benefit. Slot Zenas’ Empowering Disc on the same bar as Impervious Runeward for an even bigger damage shield.

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

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.

ESO Arcanist Tank Videos