Flexibility in Gear
As a tank, having multiple sets of gear is crucial for flexibility in providing self-buffs, group buffs, and general trial viability. Your strength comes from class passives, Champion Points, skills, gear traits, and enchants. Many tank sets are underwhelming, emphasizing the need for sets that offer group benefits.

Importance of Group Synergy
In group content, tanks play a vital role in debuffing enemies and buffing group members. Faster enemy kills make tanking easier, reducing the need for prolonged survival and sustain. Prioritize sets that enhance group performance to make fights quicker and more manageable.

Starting Gear for Beginners
When first tanking content, use gear that enhances your sustain or survival. This helps you learn enemy mechanics, positioning, and overall survivability. As you gain experience, switch to sets that offer significant group benefits, helping your team complete content more efficiently.

Choosing the Right Sets
Each gear set has strengths and weaknesses. For example, Leeching Plate is useful in fights with many enemies but ineffective in boss fights with few targets. Start with comfortable gear and optimize your build over time.

Gear Weights
Be mindful of gear weights when selecting sets. For example:

• Powerful Assault: This strong group buff set is Medium Armor, so it should be used on weapons and jewelry to maintain Heavy Armor benefits on your body pieces.
• Saxhleel Champion: Activates when you use your ultimate, so it only needs to be equipped on your Ice Staff and jewelry or three other gear pieces. It does not need to be active at all times.

Monster Sets
Monster sets are obtained by completing Veteran Dungeons for Helmets and daily Undaunted Pledges for Shoulders. Each set is useful in different situations. For beginners, Engine Guardian is highly recommended for its sustain. It provides resources, helping maintain blocking and overall survivability. Long term this needs to be replaced with a more beneficial group set.

Summary

• Multiple Sets: Essential for flexibility in self and group buffs.
• Group Synergy: Focus on sets that benefit the group for quicker fights.
• Beginner Gear: Start with gear that enhances sustain and survival.
• Optimize Over Time: Switch to group-beneficial sets as you gain experience.
• Mind Gear Weights: Combine different weights to maintain benefits.
• Monster Sets: Engine Guardian is great for beginners due to its sustain.

Useful links:

• ESO Tank Gear Guide 2024
• ESO Tank Gear Sets
• ESO Tank Monster Sets
• ESO Tank Mythic Items
• ESO Tank Weapon Sets

Scribing is a new system introduced with the Gold Road chapter, playing a crucial role in enhancing tanking abilities by providing easily accessible effects such as immobilizations, magicka pulls, and damage shields. It also offers buffs and debuffs like Major Cowardice, Major Vitality, Minor Resolve, Minor Vulnerability, and Minor Brittle, along with class-specific buffs and improved sustain.

Key Points:

• Versatility: Scribing allows for customizable enhancements to your tank, varying with each class.
• Requirements: You need to own the Gold Road chapter and complete the Scribing quest to access everything.
• Components: Obtain Grimoires (base spells), Scripts (spell effects), and Ink (crafting material) to create powerful tank spells.

Scribing offers a customizable way to enhance your tanking capabilities, making it an essential tool for improving performance and adapting to different scenarios.

Focus Script: Pull
Deals ? Magic Damage to an enemy, pulls them to you, and taunts them for 15 seconds if they are not already taunted.

Signature Script: Druid’s Resurgence
Restores 1000 Magicka and 1000 Stamina.

Affix Script: Vitality
Grants Major Vitality for 10 seconds, increasing healing received and damage shield strength by 12%.

A Magicka-costing skill that pulls enemies, taunts them, and returns resources, replacing the need for Silver Leash. This skill is beneficial for all classes, as it allows tanks to use Magicka to cast the skill, which then returns Stamina, aiding in overall sustain. Additionally, it provides a Major buff or debuff; you can choose one that suits your build’s needs. Two excellent options are Major Vitality for increased healing received and Major Cowardice to reduce enemy damage output.

Focus Script: Immobilize
Immobilizes enemies for 3 seconds

Signature Script: ?

Affix Script: ?

An accessible potential immobilization skill which is available for all classes. The primary focus is on its AoE, 360-degree immobilization, opening up new crowd control opportunities for classes that previously lacked this option. The other scripts used on this skill can vary depending on what your build is missing, allowing you to customize it to fit your specific needs.

Focus Script: Immobilize
Immobilizes enemies for 3 seconds.

Signature Script: Gladiator’s Tenacity
Reduces damage taken by 8% for 8 seconds.

Affix Script: Minor Breach
Afflicts Minor Breach for 22 seconds, reducing Physical and Spell Resistance by 2974.

Another accessible potential immobilization skill which is available for all classes. The primary focus is on its AoE, 360-degree immobilization, but can also provide some useful damage reduction plus another effect.

In ESO, tanks can be categorized into several types based on their roles and the content they focus on:

General Tank:
Focuses on 4-player content, arenas, and general activities like pledges and daily content.

Main Tank:
Takes on the primary role in 12-player trials, maintaining aggro on the main boss and handling the primary threats.

Off Tank:
Assists the Main Tank in trials, taunting additional enemies, stacking add pulls, and providing additional group support. They may trade taunts with the Main Tank or handle separate bosses in multi-boss trials.

Hybrid Tank:
Capable of tanking enemies while also dealing damage. Commonly used in overland content, questing, delves, and sometimes as an Off Tank in older trials or dungeons with minimal damage and mechanics.

Each tank type has its unique responsibilities and is essential for different aspects of the game. Understanding these roles helps optimize your tanking strategy in various ESO activities.

Taunting is the primary focus of tanks in The Elder Scrolls Online and the main method of forcing enemies to target and attack you, also known as having “Aggro.”

Key Points About Taunting:

• Skills: Achieved using specific skills that trigger a taunt on an enemy.
• Duration: Taunts last for 15 seconds, requiring regular refreshing to maintain aggro.
• Individual Taunts: Each enemy needs to be taunted individually. Area taunting or taunting multiple enemies with one skill or button press is not possible.
• Simplicity: Unlike many other MMORPGs, ESO tanks don’t have to manage threat levels. Simply taunting and refreshing the taunt every 15 seconds keeps enemies focused on you.
• Consequences: Losing the taunt means enemies will target other group members until re-taunted.

Taunting is the most important tank responsibility, so understanding and mastering it is crucial before getting started.

Determining Taunt Priority
One of the tricky parts of tanking is figuring out which enemies to taunt first. The health bars help identify priority targets, with stronger enemies indicated by specific health bar features.

Regular Enemies

• No Taunt Needed: Regular enemies often don’t need to be taunted. They can usually be controlled with crowd control (CC) abilities, and your group can kill them with area damage.
• Crowd Control: Use CC on regular enemies instead of wasting taunts. Only taunt them if necessary after handling higher-priority targets.

Elite Enemies

• Visual Indicators: Elite enemies have extra markers on their health bars, indicating they are stronger.
• High Priority: These are your main taunt priority as they can easily kill group members. They are often mixed with regular enemies and can be found in the middle of larger pulls. Taunt them as soon as possible.

Bosses

• Boss Indicators: Bosses have an Elite-style health bar and an additional health bar on the compass at the top of your screen.
• Highest Priority: Maintaining aggro on bosses is crucial as they can cause significant damage to unprepared group members. Always prioritize taunting bosses.

General Taunt Rule
Follow this priority order when deciding which enemies to taunt:

1. Bosses
2. Elite Enemies
3. Melee 2-Handed Regular Enemies
4. Other Regular Melee Enemies
5. Regular Ranged Enemies

By adhering to this priority, you ensure that the most dangerous threats are controlled, keeping your group safe and effective in combat.

Blocking is one of the most crucial survival tools in ESO, but many tanks struggle to fully understand how to block effectively. Here’s a detailed guide to help you master this essential skill:

Key Points About Blocking:

1. Stamina Cost: Blocking costs Stamina. While blocking, you cannot gain Stamina via regeneration, as it is turned off.
   • Exception: Using an Ice Staff with the Tri-Focus passive allows you to block with Magicka, but this turns off Magicka recovery, which is problematic since most tank skills cost Magicka. Therefore, using Tri-Focus is not recommended.
2. Block Mitigation: When blocking, you instantly reduce incoming damage by 50%. You also gain the benefit of Block Mitigation, which can be stacked up to a maximum of 90%. At this cap, you only receive 10% of the incoming damage.
   • Bar Swapping: You can safely maintain block while bar swapping, making it easier to maintain skill uptime and manage damage.
3. Avoid Over-Blocking: One common mistake, especially for beginners, is blocking too much. Perma-blocking leads to sustain issues, as you will eventually run out of Stamina and be unable to block when needed.
4. Block Cost: Aim for a block cost of around 1000 Stamina per hit. Lowering this further is possible but not significantly beneficial beyond 900, as it requires more effort and sacrifices within your build.
   • Reduction Methods: Use 1 or 2 Bracing enchants on your jewellery to reduce block cost until you are comfortable with blocking. Be aware of diminishing returns when stacking block cost reduction.
5. Damage Over Time: Damage Over Time and Bleed Damage cannot be blocked, so blocking and block mitigation do nothing to reduce the incoming damage of either of these effects.

Sustaining Blocking:

1. Selective Blocking: You do not need to block every single hit. Focus on blocking heavy attacks and mechanic attacks. Other damage can be mitigated through resistances, healing, damage shields, and debuffing enemies.
2. Intermittent Blocking: For tanks accustomed to perma-blocking, try dropping block intentionally for a few seconds and then re-blocking. This method reduces Stamina loss and maintains a sense of safety.
3. Stamina Regeneration Methods:
   • Potions and Passives: Use potions and class passives to regenerate Stamina.
   • Synergies: Activate synergies to return resources. Using Harmony jewellery increases the benefits.
   • Skills: Certain skills, like Dragonknight’s Igneous Shield, can return Stamina when cast. All classes can also use the scribing system to regain Stamina.

Best Practices for Blocking:

• Learn Fight Mechanics: Understand when to block big attacks and when it’s safe to drop block.
• Build Optimization: Include high resistances, self-buffs, and enemy debuffs in your build to reduce incoming damage and sustain blocking.
• Utilize Skills and Synergies: Make use of available skills, potions, and synergies to manage resources effectively.

Positioning enemies is an integral part of ESO tanking, but there isn’t a common method that applies to all situations. However, a few simple rules can help guide your positioning.

Add Pulls: Add pulls are usually positioned slightly in front of their starting location. As you approach the adds, let them move a bit towards you so the ranged enemies come within range of your chain skills and Void Bash proc (if using it). If you are using Void Bash, do not activate it immediately when entering an add pull. Instead, place Elemental Blockade to start the enemies moving, drop Razor Caltrops in front to slow them, circle around the first enemy, and then proc Void Bash. This ensures that almost all enemies within 12 meters are pulled in. The goal in add pulls is to gather all enemies into a stack and hold them still for your damage dealers to quickly eliminate with AoE attacks. Turn enemies away from your group to prevent cleave attacks from hitting them.

Boss Fights: For bosses, positioning depends on the type of boss and the mechanics involved:

• Stationary Bosses: Hold them where they are.
• Teleporting Bosses: Follow them around the room.
• Positioning: Generally, tank bosses either at the edge of the room or in the center.
  • Center Positioning: Used when the area is open and mechanics or adds spawn throughout the fight.
  • Edge Positioning: Used when bosses drop AoEs or fill the room with effects, moving to the edge provides more space for your group.

As a general rule, taunt the boss, keep it in the middle of the room, and turn it away from the group. This strategy works for most bosses in ESO.

Turning Enemies Away: Turning enemies away from the group is crucial because bosses often perform cleave attacks that hit the area in front of them or drop AoEs and damage under the tank. Damage dealers should stand behind the boss or away from the tank to avoid these effects. Avoid moving bosses unnecessarily, as it causes significant damage losses. Many damage dealer abilities and ultimates are ground-based, so moving the boss can pull them out of these effects, slowing down the kill and worsening sustain for your damage dealers as they have to recast their abilities and potentially waste ultimates.

In The Elder Scrolls Online, AoE Taunting isn’t an option, so the main focus during add pulls is on Crowd Controlling rather than taunting. Understanding how different effects interact is crucial for effective add management. Add pulls typically consist of regular enemies that can be pulled or chained together and then controlled with snares and immobilizations. Using the Void Bash Set (Vateshran One Hand & Shield) can significantly improve this process, pulling enemies within 12 meters with one button press, leaving only a few to be manually chained.

Key Points:

• Chaining and Pulling: Skills like chains or pulls gather enemies into one spot.
• Snaring: Reduces enemy movement speed.
• Immobilizing: Holds enemies in place for a period.
• Stun and Fear: Ineffective on recently chained/pulled enemies.
• Scribing System: Provides immobilization for classes without built-in options.

The primary advantage of this method is its universality: it works for every class, though some may need specific skills or the scribing system for immobilization.

General Add Pull Rotation:

1. Scan for Elite Enemies: Identify any Elite enemies that need immediate taunting (especially 2-handed enemies).
2. Initiate Combat: Start with Elemental Blockade to cause enemies to run towards you.
3. Place Razor Caltrops: Place this on the ground in front of the enemies, in the path they will walk towards the group. This snares the enemies, slowing them down and debuffing them with Major Breach.
4. Use Power Slam to Proc Void Bash or Chain/Pull Enemies: Gather enemies in a stack on top of the Caltrops/Blockade, Void Bash also applies Major Maim.
5. Immobilize Enemies: Use your immobilization skill to keep enemies rooted in the stack.
6. Apply Debuffs: Use Pulsar (Frost Staff) twice while enemies are inside the Blockade to apply Minor Breach, Minor Maim, Minor Brittle, Minor Protection, and Minor Mangle.
7. Taunt Remaining Enemies: Taunt anything that isn’t dead.

By following this rotation, you can effectively control and manage add pulls, making it easier for damage dealers to quickly eliminate grouped enemies while applying strong debuffs to them. This strategy enhances the overall efficiency and survivability of your group and can be executed by any class with the correct skills and scribing abilities..

To test and improve your tanking skills, consider the following methods:

Buff Maintenance Practice:

• Asylum Sanctorum Trial: Travel to the Asylum Sanctorum trial (Normal or Veteran). Head to the main boss, Saint Olms, and press the two buttons on the left and right to activate AS+2.
• Tip: Bring a friend to stand behind you to kite the lightning pools spat by Olms. Without a friend, the pools will land on you.
• Benefit: This setup allows you to practice maintaining your buffs and debuffs while dealing with boss mechanics in a challenging environment.

Sustain and Survival Practice:

• Trial Entrance: Run into any trial entrance with a lot of adds and enemies. Alternatively, try Blackrose Prison for a comprehensive challenge.
• Blackrose Prison: This environment requires various aspects of tanking, providing a good test of your sustain and survival abilities.

General Tips:

• Understand Fundamentals: Grasp the core principles of tanking, including aggro management, positioning, sustain, and survival.
• Learn Content Mechanics: Familiarize yourself with the mechanics of the content you’re tanking.
• Experience and Practice: Learn from your deaths and mistakes. Repeatedly running content helps build experience and understanding, making you a better tank over time.

By practicing in these environments and continuously improving your skills, you can enhance your tanking capabilities and become more effective in various challenging situations.

With all the fundamental information provided, you now have the basics of tanking down. It’s time to dive into actual content and put your skills to the test. We’ve compiled a list of content for you to practice tanking, helping you build confidence and experience before tackling more challenging encounters.

With all the fundamental information provided, you now have the basics of tanking down. It’s time to dive into actual content and put your skills to the test. We’ve compiled a list of content for you to practice tanking, helping you build confidence and experience before tackling more challenging encounters.

Normal Dungeons / Random Normal Dungeons (Any level)

Start with normal dungeons, as these are easy enough to be completed without a dedicated tank. This makes them ideal for familiarizing yourself with dungeon layouts, your character, and basic tanking mechanics. While you won’t get the full tanking experience, use this opportunity to farm useful tank gear, focusing on the sets listed in our Tank Gear Guide.

After mastering normal dungeons, you can move on to veteran dungeons, starting with the non-DLC ones. These dungeons are more challenging than their normal counterparts but still manageable, allowing you to practice proper tanking techniques and apply many concepts from this guide. The difficulty is slightly higher, providing a better tanking experience, and you will need to begin understanding and following mechanics, especially in boss fights. This helps build good habits and improves your tanking skills. There is plenty of room for error and recovery, offering a forgiving environment to learn. Completing veteran dungeons allows you to earn extra keys from the Undaunted Pledges, important for obtaining Shoulder pieces for Monster Sets. Additionally, you’ll earn useful Monster Helmets by completing veteran dungeons, essential for your tank build. Progressing through these veteran dungeons will enhance your tanking skills and prepare you for more challenging content.

Dragonstar Arena (DSA) is a 4-player arena that, while incredibly easy on normal mode, is quite long. It’s worth completing to farm a valuable weapon set that enhances healing and survival, making it a great investment for many builds. Ideally, aim for the drop from the veteran version of the arena, as it provides additional benefits. If you’ve been successfully tanking veteran dungeons, you should be capable of handling veteran DSA.

Important Loot:

Puncturing Remedy Set / Master’s One Hand and Shield

Before tackling Veteran DLC Dungeons and harder content, it’s wise to collect the important Void Bash set from Vateshran Hollows. The downside is that this is a solo arena requiring you to do some damage, but the plus side is you can utilize the Armory, a free housing item from the Crown Store. Place the Armory in your house to switch your entire build to a damage-focused setup, allowing you to complete Vateshran Hollows on Normal. You need about 10k DPS to do this successfully. If you’re an Arcanist or Dragonknight, use our Hybrid Tank Builds for this content. The Void Bash set is one of the best for dungeon tanking, enabling you to pull in a whole stack of adds with one button while also debuffing them. This makes add pulls faster, easier, and more sustainable, benefiting both you and your group.

Important Loot:

Void Bash / Vateshran Hollows One Hand and Shield

At this stage, your priority is to apply the fundamentals you have learned in trial settings. Starting with normal trials is generally fine, though newer trials can be more challenging due to complex mechanics. Many mechanics in normal trials can be ignored without severe consequences, unlike in veteran trials. This makes normal trials an excellent learning opportunity, in addition to reading guides or watching clips.

Joining guild runs is ideal for learning as they offer a supportive environment where you can ask questions and gather feedback without facing potential toxicity. Look for guilds that regularly organize trial runs. Guild runs provide a structured setting where you can gain valuable insights and advice from experienced players, which is crucial for your development as a tank.

If you opt for random trial runs, you can find groups by traveling to Craglorn, using text chat, or the social menu grouping tool. Be aware that random runs can be volatile and critical, with mistakes often met with criticism rather than support, as these runs are typically focused on gear farming. However, if you have some trial experience and knowledge, random runs can be a viable option. They can offer a variety of experiences and help you adapt to different group dynamics.

Not all trials require two tanks, but joining those that do can help you understand how to split the workload with another tank, reducing the risk to the group if you make a mistake. Learning to coordinate with another tank is essential for handling more complex mechanics and ensuring smooth progression. Pay attention to trial mechanics and try to pick up as much information as possible, as this is crucial for transitioning to veteran trials where ignoring mechanics can lead to failure.

There is no rush to reach the endgame of ESO. This content represents the hardest challenges in the game, often requiring weeks or months of progression and practice to complete. It can also take time to find a team willing to commit to these rigorous trials.

Endgame Content:

• Veteran Hardmode DLC Dungeons
• Veteran Trials
• Hardmode Trials
• Trifectas: Veteran dungeons and trials completed with No Death, Hardmode enabled, and within speed run time.

Reaching this level involves a long journey where you’ll need to complete each dungeon and trial initially on veteran mode, learning all the mechanics along the way. Ideally, you should do this with friends or guild members for better coordination and support.

Dungeon Content: Dungeon content is more accessible since it’s easier to find three other players interested in hardmodes and trifectas. Some DLC Dungeon Hardmodes are extremely challenging with high damage and multiple mechanics, making them excellent preparation for Veteran Hardmode Trials.

Veteran Hardmode Trials: When you are fully aware of all mechanics, comfortable with tanking, and have all the required gear and skills, you can start searching for groups recruiting a Tank for Hardmodes. Learning these mechanics in a supportive environment with a raid leader guiding you through tasks and differences helps you progress. Multiple attempts will likely be needed, providing valuable knowledge and practice.

Trifecta Tanking: Once you gain hardmode completions and experience, you can move onto Trifecta Tanking, where you are expected to know everything the Hardmode throws at you and execute it perfectly.

Advanced Requirements: Endgame content requires advanced knowledge and often necessitates carrying multiple gear sets, swapping gear and skills between fights, and fully optimizing your setup for specific trials, dungeons, and even specific bosses. You may also need to use alternative classes to fill any gaps the group needs to be optimal.

This level of content is challenging but extremely rewarding, requiring a lot of time, patience, and knowledge to master.

Thank you for taking the time to read through this ESO Beginner Tank Guide.

Just remember that the Tank role is a difficult and pressured role to play. We all progress at a different speed, and you need to just develop as you gain experience and try your best. Play the game, play your class, learn the role, learn from your mistakes and gain as much experience as you can.

Learning fights and mechanics will make things so much easier and you can only do this by getting many hours of experience and talking and playing alongside other Tanks.

Enjoy the game, as stressful as Tanking can be you need to have fun and Tanking can become very fun and enjoyable!

~ TC Lee