ESO General Tank Skills
This page is all about Elder Scrolls Online Tank Skills.
Sometimes you will need to use some of the general skills that are available rather than class specific skills and there are some really important passives and skills you can use on your Tank build that are available no matter what class you chose to play,
See more: Tank Class Overviews for class specific skills and passives.
Weapon Skill Lines
For more information on which weapons to use as a Tank and why, please see the Tank Weapons page.
Two Handed
There is no real use for using a 2 Handed Weapon as a Tank other than for solo overland content.
Executioner → Morph of Reverse Slice
(Unnecessary)
Could be used by the Off Tank with a Decisive Perfected Asylum 2H for very high Ultigen in some particular situations.
Rally → Morph of Momentum
(Unnecessary)
Major Brutality, Minor Endurance and a Heal over Time for when you’re using Executioner.
Balanced Blade
(Unnecessary)
Reduce cost of your abilities, needed if using any Two Handed abilities.
One Hand and Shield
Spell Wall → Morph of Shield Wall
(Optional)
This is cheap cost Ultimate that auto-blocks for you. This might be used for Solo Tanking situations, critical situations where your teammates have died and you need to auto-block and resurrect, or as a beginner or low level Tank in situations where you need to auto-block so you can heavy attack to regain resources.
Shield Discipline → Morph of Shield Wall
(Optional)
This morph adds an extra layer of sustain as you can recast your One Hand and Shield abilities for free for a brief period.
Ransack → Morph of Puncture
(Unnecessary)
This is a melee Taunt and an easy source of Minor Protection and Major Breach. Some classes such as Nightblades and Templars have Minor Protection built into their class already so this would not be needed, on other class Tanks you could just slot Temporal Guard.
Pierce Armor → Morph of Puncture
(Vital)
This again is a melee Taunt but it does not offer Minor Protection, instead you gain the addition of Minor Breech along with the Major Breech. This is a large increase to group DPS.
Heroic Slash → Morph of Low Slash
(Useful)
This debuffs enemies so they do less damage which is useful in high damage environments, but most importantly is the Ultimate gain which is the main reason to maintain this skill during combat.
Defensive Stance → Morph of Defensive Posture
(Optional)
This is a skill that can be slotted for the additional block mitigation and damage shield, although it’s not really worth it for the block mitigation nowadays. This ability will also reflect one projectile back at an enemy, when doing so you don’t need to be blocking. The best combat situations for this are where you are Tanking at range and the enemy has a reflect-able projectile such as Lokkestiiz in Sunspire, you can simply cast this and return the damage back at the boss. Not all boss projectiles can be reflected so you need to be careful. Things such as Dark Barrage by Rakkhat in Maw of Lorkhaj cannot be reflected and it will heal the boss if you reflect it and if you use it in Lair of Maarselok you’ll make more adds spawn.
Absorb Missile → Morph of Defensive Posture
(Situational)
This skill will absorb projectiles and heal you for a portion of the amount you absorbed. You will have to block when using this skill and it won’t save you from a heavy projectile if not blocking since it will not always absorb a whole projectile only a certain amount of the damage. This is sometimes a good option as it will work against projectiles that Defensive Stance does not work with. You can use this to help dealing with the Heavy Attack from Z’Maja in Cloudrest and for surviving the Dark Barrage from Rakkhat in Maw of Lorkhaj.
Shield Charge
(Situational)
A skill you might use for very certain mechanics in fights where you get knocked back or need to close the gap quickly on the enemy. Something like Halls of Fabrications last boss, you get punched to the middle of the room and need to get back to the boss fast and this would be a method of doing so.
Power Bash
(Situational)
If you are using the Vateshran One Hand and Shield, then you will need this skill. This skill is also used in the Dungeon Tank Build.
All One Hand and Shield Passives are vital for Tanking.
Dual Wield
There is no real use for using Dual Wield Weapons as a Tank other than for solo overland content.
Quick Cloak → Morph of Blade Cloak
(Situational)
There are not many situations where you will use Dual Wield as a Tank, if you do however then you would need to use this skill. The main reason to use this is because in a similar way to Elemental Blockade and Endless Hail, this skill will keep your Weapon Glyphs active on the enemy. If you are using an Infused/Crusher on a 1 Handed Weapon you will only have half of the value that you would of had with any 2 Handed Weapon. You would also benefit from Major Evasion with this skill which would help for Tanking.
Shrouded Daggers → Morph of Hidden Blade
(Situational)
This skill could be used on all classes other than a DK if you need some method to do an AoE Interrupt. DKs have Deep Breath but other classes do not have a skill that Interrupts multiple enemies with 1 skill so this could be used. The most common place you might see this used is on an Off Tank in Sunspire Hardmode Last Boss when dealing with multiple statues.