ESO Main Tank Build

These builds are designed for generic use in 12-person trial content more specifically for veteran and hardmode trials.

When it comes to an optimised build for 12-person trials, it’s impossible to suggest one individual setup since every group will expect something different. You are also limited on what is useful to your group depending on many factors including the level of experience, your ability as a Tank and the difficulty of the trial.

When it comes to trial content there are a few generic good options for a Tank setup with some more niche options for certain situations.

See more: Off Tank Build, Beginner Tank Builds

Table of Contents

ESO Main Tank Build Information

Race

Mundus

The Atronach
Mundus Info

Potions

Race: For long term progression you need to be a Nord Tank ideally. For the newer trials you’ll receive a ton of DoT and Bleed damage, the only way to manage this is making sure you’re at the resistance cap and by being a Nord that will make it very easy without having to focus too much attention into buffing your resistances.

Mundus: The Atronach providing Magicka Recovery is essential generally. For Cloudrest you can use The Steed. If you decided to go with a difference Race then you might need to use The Lady to buff resistances.

Food: When using Harmony Jewellery you might need to use Sugar Skulls to buff your Max Stats so that the gains from the Harmony Jewellery aren’t wasted. If you want more recovery then Red Frothgar is a great food but massively lowers your Max Magicka and Stamina. If you have Stamina skills that you need to cast often and you’re experienced and know when it’s safe to drop block then Smoked Bear could be an option.

Potions: Generally use Tri-Stat potions. You might need to use Minor Heroism potions for more experienced raid groups to get your Ultimate back faster. In specific situations there are other useful potions such as Immovability and Lingering Health/Speed potions but they are very niche.

Resistances: As a Main Tank you’ll be the person in charge of almost every single fight in every trial. You’ll received the main brunt of all damage and so you’ll want to stack up your resistances as close to the cap as you can with Major & Minor Resolve, Passives and Champion Points. Using some Reinforced gear or Defending One Handed Weapon can also be beneficial.

Magicka Recovery: You need approximately 2000 Magicka Recovery as a minimum as a Main Tank to be able to sustain a 100% uptime on all of your skills, buffs and debuffs. Having more will mean you can utilise some skills more frequently such as multiple casting Igneous Shield for sustain/shield for example.

Stats and Attributes: For Trials Main Tanking you should aim for 40k Max Health which is a general comfortable number for most trials. Max Magicka and Stamina comes down to preference. You could opt for even more Health if you wanted to attempt spending less time blocking and giving a bit more safety. It’s likely as a Main Tank you’ll spend portions of time holding block meaning no Stamina Recovery so it’s good to have a decent supply of Max Stamina to allow for more prolonged block periods when necessary as a minimum around 20k but up to 30k can be useful if you block more. Max Magicka is the least important since you really stack Magicka Recovery so you have a constant resupply of that stat, but if you don’t carry enough Max Magicka you can have quick burnout phases. If you have only 10k Magicka you’ll potentially run out after 3-4 skill casts so aim for 15-18k minimum.

ESO Main Tank Build Gear

Gear Enchants: There’s no better option than the Prismatic Defense enchants that give a boost to Max Magicka, Stamina and Health. Overall they give you a total of over 2000 more Max Stats compared to a single stat enchant.

Gear Traits: Divines will buff your Magicka Recovery via your Atronach Mundus. When using Harmony Jewellery this is a little less important because every synergy you use, you’ll gain a ton of resources back already. Utilise your gear and the Reinforced Trait to get your Resistances to the 33k Armor cap for Main Tanking as a priority then consider Divines and Sturdy for sustain afterwards, just remember that Sturdy suffers from big diminishing returns the more you stack block cost reduction.

One Handed Weapon: In trial situations there’s not really much use for Charged/Shock on your One Hander to apply Minor Vulnerability because it’s likely already covered by some other sources, if not then use Charged/Shock. Otherwise it’s quite open, you could use Defending if you’re under the resistance cap, Decisive to gain more Ultimate, or Infused. Enchants that would be good are Absorb Stamina or Magicka for sustain benefits, Hardening can also be useful for a little damage shield, Weakening is good if a Healer isn’t applying it with a Staff and if you’re a Dragonknight then Charged/Poison Damage is great for sustain as it will proc the Combustion passive.

Ice Staff: You don’t need anything other than Infused/Crusher and you should maintain your Frost Blockade at all times to maintain the uptime of it. For add pulls you could switch to a Charged Staff combined with Pulsar to debuff enemies further.

Jewellery Traits: In a trial environment Harmony should be at it’s peak of usefulness. You have 11 other people and likely quite a few synergies. Harmony has the potential to provide you with godly sustain, even if you are permanently blocking so it’s just a great trait to use. If you are in any fight at all where you go off and solo Tank a boss such as Cloudrest Portals, or where your group are not behind a boss facing you such as Sunspire then switch to Infused. Places like Sunspire, you can end up with a lack of synergies unless your group actively consider sending them sideways towards you.

Jewellery Enchants: Magicka Recovery quite simply outperforms every jewellery enchant so there’s not really much reason to use anything else. The only time it’s worth considering something else is if you are a Dragonknight Tank using Stone Giant then Prismatic Cost Reduction is great, any Class that uses Stamina skills with a short cooldown will benefit but that’s literally just the DK.

  • Claw of Yolnahkriin – If your group is not using an Arcanist with Arcanist’s Domain then you’ll need to use this set, otherwise it’s not as useful anymore.
  • Crimson Oath’s Rive – With the current meta, many damage dealers will use medium armor meaning they will be under the pen cap. You can use Crimson on the Main or Off Tank, the Main Tank can use Tremorscale or a damage dealer can use Roar of Alkosh. Sorcerers and Arcanist also have pen skills that can be used so that these gear sets are less essential.
  • Turning Tide – This is another very good set, it replaces the need for Necromancers using the Colossus Ultimate. This is particularly good when either you don’t have enough Necros in your group or you want them to use an alternative Ultimate. When combined with Archdruid or Nazaray monster sets you can keep virtually a 100% Major Vulnerability uptime with one person which is a great group damage boost.
  • Pearlescent Ward – If your group has Alkosh or Tremorscale and Necromancers using Colossus then you start to run out of gear options. You can then consider Pearlescent Ward as this provides both a damage buff when your group are alive and a damage reduction buff when people are down and you don’t have to do anything at all to maintain it, it’s active 100% of the time with zero effort so its a good set for a Main Tank and perfect for a beginner especially. Might be used by an Off Tank and it doesn’t stack.
  • Saxhleel Champion – This set is only usually seen on Main Tanks in Cloudrest but it has other uses if you aren’t required to use some of the other sets. If you are progressing harder content and your group are struggling then using Sax will allow you to use a defensive ultimate such as a Barrier while still providing the Warhorn damage buff. It can also be good to extend your Major Force buff duration where you have low uptimes like Asylum Sanctorium.
  • Powerful Assault – This is typically an Off Tank set however there are specific occasions where you may need it as a Main Tank. It can be a really good Main Tank set for Cloudrest since this is a hard stacked fight and places where you might only use one Tank such as Aetherian Archive, you may be asked to use this. It requires a large amount of micro-management so typically not a good thing when you’re the Main Tank.
  • Elemental Catalyst – This is often required for a Main Tank when doing Asylum Sanctorium simply because you are glued to the boss as the Main Tank and you’re group are often at range from you so you want to apply boss debuffs more than group buffs and Turning Tide doesn’t work very well in there so it’s really one of the only options.
  • Way of Martial Knowledge – Another very uncommon Tank set but you might sometimes see it used in Sunspire. When fighting Lokkestiiz, you’re usually expected to range Tank and reflect the damage back to the boss, this usually means casting a lot of Defensive Stance which drops your Stamina low making it perfect for the use of MK.
  • Nazaray
  • Tremorscale
  • Archdruid

ESO Main Tank Build Skills

For a Trial’s Main Tank you have a variety of situational skills but the below setups will give you a base to worth with. See the ESO Trial Guides for more specific information of skills you may need for each trial.

If you are NOT using Saxhleel Champion make sure you slot Aggressive Horn on your back bar Ultimate.

ESO Main Tank Build Champion Points

Warfare

ESO Main Tank Build Videos