Beginner Build

This is a nice build for starting Normal Trials and even Off Tanking in Veteran Trials when you are experienced enough. The gear used is all dungeon gear so you should use the dungeon setup and get yourself into the dungeons to farm this gear. The sets used here are all Tank sets you are going to use at some point as a Tank in all content so it’s worth picking up as early as possible.

The reason these sets have been chosen is because they are all “aura” based sets which means that you are going to be providing your group some nice buffs but they require no effort for you to give or maintain them, they are automatically applied to you and your allies just by being in the same group. You should look at trying to get into trials such as Maw of Lorkhaj (Roar of Alkosh) and Sunspire (Claw of Yolnahkriin) as these Trials have gear that is extremely important for Tanks. Other useful sets are listed on the Important Tank Gear page.

Normal Trials are incredibly basic and you should have no major issues Tanking in this content using this gear. Mechanics can virtually be skipped and the damage is very low, the main priority for you is just holding taunt of enemies and staying alive. This build will get to started with learning

Ebon Armory is our main Tank set here. This set provides us with some nice Max Health benefits but also gives all of our nearby group members an extra 1k Health which helps the Damage Dealers to stay alive.

This set is the natural replacement of Plague Doctor which is also a Health boosting set but only for you, when entering group content you should always look to add any suitable group buffs that you can and with Ebon being so incredibly easy to apply to your group and helping the group to survive it is an excellent set to use.

The Worm's Raiment 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.

With sticking to the “Group Buffing” mentality here you can use the Bloodspawn monster set. This will help you to generate your Ultimate faster and the reason this is so important is because you want to be using the Aggressive Horn skill which makes your group do more damage. By using this monster set you will gain additional Ultimate occasionally meaning you’ll be able to do more Ultimates. You do not have to use this set, you could also use Engine Guardian if you need extra self-sustain or Earthgore if you are not being healed very well by the healers.

You can use a number of sets rather than The Worm's Raiment 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: Claw of Yolnahkriin, Roar of Alkosh, Torug's Pact, Livewire, Powerful Assault.

Bloodspawn Looted: Helmet from Spindleclutch II & Shoulder buy with Undaunted Keys from Maj.

Ebon Armory Looted: Crypt of Hearts I & II.

The Worm's Raiment Looted: Vaults of Madness.

This setup is another simple and easy setup to introduce you into your first Veteran Trial. This is a build that you could use when going into Veteran content for the very first time and potentially your first few attempts. When you are going into new, hard content for the first time, you need to prioritise staying alive over everything else.

Often groups will expect you to use certain gear sets but this can prove to be a big challenge when doing these things for the first time. The group sets you might be asked to use are often sets that require high levels of management and interaction which can be distracting when in a new environment when taking large amounts of damage and trying to learn mechanics. You will eventually need to move over to those sets but for your first couple of clears using a build like this one will help you out a lot with staying alive and doing your basic Tank duties.

Ebon Armory is our first set which is useful to us as a Tank because we get the benefit of extra Max Health. This is also actually going to give us one group buff since its easy to maintain and we just need to be in the same area as our group members to give them the Health boost also. This is a very Tank orientated set which provides a buff so its perfect when going into your first Veteran content.

If you wanted to progress on from this set the best option is Claw of Yolnahkriin. Yolnahkriin is a easy set to maintain since you just need to taunt and enemy and all your group members get a damage buff. Its a very good Tank/Buff set which is a rarity in ESO.

Crest of Cyrodiil is an extremely cheap set and a good safety option for Tanking bosses for the very first time. It is possible that if you are entering Veteran content at this level, then you will potentially have healers who are in a similar situation and learning also. We use this set to guarantee ourselves a regular heal, in this case every 4 seconds, when we block an attack we get a good heal. This will help us to maintain our Health for the most part when taking regular light damage. It will not save us in a situation where we are hit by back to back hard mechanics/attacks or by failing to perform a certain action during a mechanic. In these cases you need to be able to react quickly to deal with mechanics and with a burst heal if required.

If you do not need this particular set because you receive sufficient healing or if you use a healing monster set you could switch to something more group focussed. The first set to consider would be Torug's Pact this is a crafted set which will cause you to remove armor from enemies making them easier to kill, and since its a crafted set its the easiest one to get.

The best piece of gear for this slot is Roar of Alkosh. Alkosh is by far the best Tanking set for group content such as Trials as it pushes the Damage Dealers to the penetration cap of 18200 meaning they are hitting an enemy with no armor and are maximising their damage. Alkosh requires very active monitoring and application so it’s is a more advanced set but one that you need to learn how to use eventually.

Lord Warden is the monster set of choice here. This is both a self-buff and a group buff if you are in close combat and proximity to your group. The reason for choosing this set is because, you really want to have a high level of resistances in Veteran Trials especially if you are a beginner and not max CP and you would have lower damage mitigation so you make up for that with extra resistances.

The resistance cap is 33000 so if you find you are going above this then you really need to switch your monster set to something else. Other good monster sets would be Earthgore for a an emergancy heal, Engine Guardian for a sustain set or Shadowrend if you wanted to apply a debuff to the enemies which decreases the damage they do.