The Ultimate ESO Beginner Tank Build 2023

ESO Beginner Tank Build

Updated: Firesong (January 2023)

ESO Beginner Tank Build Information

Welcome to The Tank Club: ESO Beginner Tank Build for The Elder Scrolls Online!

This is a beginner Tank setup for players who are new to The Elder Scrolls Online.

This is a very good, affordable build to get into Tanking dungeons and content, with the main objective being to use easy to obtain, useful Tank gear that will help you on the road while you learn how to Tank.

This builds focus entirely on the Tank and has minimal group benefit or support. This is absolutely fine when you are a beginner going into content for the first time. It’s much more important that you are alive, have enemies taunted, and have sustain to perform your Tank duties.

This build would be used so you can begin farming other useful Tank sets from dungeons and start doing daily pledges for Undaunted Keys. This setup is capable of doing Normal Dungeons, Normal Trials and none-DLC Vet Dungeons.

The strengths of this build is sustain and survival, both are vital components to Tanking. Sets like Leeching Plate have not been included here since we believe they hinder your ability to develop as a Tank so we have opted for gear sets that don’t completely carry you through content and give you the opportunity to develop as a Tank and learn all of the fundamentals required for Tank progression.

#1 Beginner Tank Build for High Isle | Elder Scrolls Online

Watch this video on YouTube

Easy Tank Build: Beginner & Progression Build | Elder Scrolls Online | Firesong

Watch this video on YouTube

Once you have developed some experience within the content you are doing you’ll want to collect the important gear listed in the Tank Gear and Monster Set pages and combine them for more useful builds such as the Dungeon Tank Build.

As a Tank it is your responsibility to assist your group by using group buff and enemy debuff gear but you need to obtain the required experience before you need to worry about that!

Check out our Beginner Tank Guide and YouTube channel for information on how to start out with Tanking in the Elder Scrolls Online.

Race

Redguard
Nord
Imperial

Mundus

The Atronach

Attributes

64 Health

Food

Longfin Pasty with Melon Sauce
Bewitched Sugar Skulls

Potions

Essence of Health Potion
More Info

ESO Beginner Tank Gear

New ESO Player

Piece	Set	Weight	Trait	Enchantment
Head	Druid’s Braid	Medium	Sturdy	Stamina
Shoulder	Druid’s Braid	Light	Sturdy	Magicka
Chest	Druid’s Braid	Heavy	Sturdy	Stamina
Hands	Druid’s Braid	Heavy	Sturdy	Magicka
Waist	Druid’s Braid	Heavy	Sturdy	Magicka
Legs	Druid’s Braid	Heavy	Sturdy	Stamina
Feet	Druid’s Braid	Heavy	Sturdy	Magicka
Necklace	Armor of the Seducer	Jewellery	Robust	Magicka Recovery
Ring	Armor of the Seducer	Jewellery	Robust	Magicka Recovery
Ring	Armor of the Seducer	Jewellery	Robust	Magicka Recovery
Main Hand	Armor of the Seducer	Any 1H	Charged	Poison
Off Hand	Armor of the Seducer	Shield	Sturdy	Health
Main Hand Backup	Armor of the Seducer	Ice Staff	Infused	Crusher

Comments

This is a beginner Tank setup for High Isle for players who are also new to The Elder Scrolls Online.

This is a very good, affordable way into Tanking dungeons and content. This would be a build you use to begin farming other useful Tank sets from dungeons, and also doing your daily pledges for Undaunted Keys for more monster set shoulders. This setup is capable of doing Normal Dungeons, Normal Trials and none-DLC Vet Dungeons.

The strengths of this build are sustain and survival, both are vital components to Tanking.

Magicka Recovery is an extremely important stat for a Tank, since we really need a high Health pool to be able to absorb lots of damage we rely on Magicka Recovery over Max Magicka to help us to sustain our casting of abilities. Magicka is needed for most Tank skills but mostly for our self-healing, our self-armor buff and our self-sustain abilities. Using Armor of the Seducer also reduces the cost of all of our Magicka abilities by 10% meaning we can cast even more because we will have good Magicka Recovery and cheaper Magicka based abilities.

Armor of the Seducer Crafted: 3 Traits research needed.

Druid’s Braid Crafted: 7 Traits research needed.

Alternative Gear Options:

Engine Guardian Looted: Veteran Darkshade Caverns II – Helmet. Shoulder buy with Undaunted Keys via Maj.

Crest of Cyrodiil Looted: Cyrodiil, Buy from Vlastarus Elite Gear Vendor or Guild Traders.

Torug’s Pact Crafted: 3 Traits research needed.

Beginner Tank

Piece	Set	Weight	Trait	Enchantment
Head	Engine Guardian	Medium	Sturdy	Stamina
Shoulder	Engine Guardian	Light	Sturdy	Health
Chest	Torug’s Pact	Heavy	Sturdy	Stamina
Hands	Torug’s Pact	Heavy	Sturdy	Health
Waist	Torug’s Pact	Heavy	Sturdy	Health
Legs	Torug’s Pact	Heavy	Sturdy	Stamina
Feet	Torug’s Pact	Heavy	Sturdy	Health
Necklace	The Worm’s Raiment	Jewellery	Arcane	Magicka Recovery
Ring	The Worm’s Raiment	Jewellery	Arcane	Magicka Recovery
Ring	The Worm’s Raiment	Jewellery	Arcane	Magicka Recovery
Main Hand	The Worm’s Raiment	Any 1H	Charged	Poison
Off Hand	The Worm’s Raiment	Shield	Sturdy	Health
Main Hand Backup	The Worm’s Raiment	Any Staff	Infused	Crusher

Comments

This is a nice build for anyone new to Tanking who might have some gear collected already.

Worm Cult might look like a strange “Tank” set initially but as it was mentioned already in the dungeon build, Magicka recovery is extremely important for Tanks to sustain their casting, self-healing, self-armor buffs and self-sustain skills. This set once again is applied just by being in the same area as group members and they will all benefit from additional Magicka Recovery. The reason we have to use this set on the Jewellery and Weapons is because it is a Light Armor set so we cannot use it on the body as a Tank.

Torug’s Pact is an easy to obtain crafted set which is a decent gap filler until you can pick up your trial sets.

With sticking to the “Group Buffing” mentality here you can use the Bloodspawn, Lord Warden or Sentinel of Rkugamz monster sets. The 2 BEST monster sets are Encratis’s Behemoth for Magicka groups and Tremorscale if you have Stamina damage dealers. You do not have to use these sets at this stage, you could also use Engine Guardian if you need extra self-sustain.

You can use a number of sets rather than Worm Cult for normal trials however other sets won’t buff your groups as easily and will require you to actively cast and monitor when the buff is active and when to reapply so it doesn’t run out. Other sets could include: Yolnahkriin, Crimson Oath’s Rive, Powerful Assault.

Engine Guardian Looted: Helmet from Darkshade II & Shoulder buy with Undaunted Keys from Maj.

Torug’s Pact Crafted: 3 traits research needed.

Ebon Looted: Crypt of Hearts I & II.

Worm Looted: Vaults of Madness.

Progressive Tank

Piece	Set	Weight	Trait	Enchantment
Head	Engine Guardian	Medium	Sturdy	Stamina
Shoulder	Engine Guardian	Light	Sturdy	Magicka
Chest	Pearlescent Ward / Claw of Yolnahkriin	Heavy	Sturdy	Stamina
Hands	Pearlescent Ward / Claw of Yolnahkriin	Heavy	Sturdy	Magicka
Waist	Pearlescent Ward / Claw of Yolnahkriin	Heavy	Sturdy	Magicka
Legs	Pearlescent Ward / Claw of Yolnahkriin	Heavy	Sturdy	Stamina
Feet	Pearlescent Ward / Claw of Yolnahkriin	Heavy	Sturdy	Magicka
Necklace	Saxhleel Champion	Jewellery	Healthy	Magicka Recovery
Ring	Saxhleel Champion	Jewellery	Healthy	Magicka Recovery
Ring	Saxhleel Champion	Jewellery	Healthy	Magicka Recovery
Main Hand	Puncturing Remedy (Masters)	Any 1H	Charged	Poison
Off Hand	Puncturing Remedy (Masters)	Shield	Sturdy	Stamina
Main Hand Backup	Saxhleel Champion	Any Staff	Infused	Crusher

Comments

If you have farmed a lot of Tank gear already but just looking to start Tanking then this is the build for you. It offers good buffs while also being an incredibly easy to use build which also adds a ton of additional group safety.

Saxhleel Champion Looted: Rockgrove Trial

Pearlescent Ward Looted: Dreadsail Reef Trial

Claw of Yolnahkriin Looted: Sunspire Trial

Puncturing Remedy (Masters) Looted: Dragonstar Arena

Engine Guardian Looted: Veteran Darkshade Caverns II – Helmet. Shoulder buy with Undaunted Keys via Maj.