ESO Off 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: Main Tank Build, Beginner Tank Builds

Table of Contents

ESO Off Tank Information

Mundus

The Atronach
Mundus Info

Food

Orzorga’s Red Frothgar
Bewitched Sugar Skulls
Orzorga’s Smoked Bear Haunch

Potions

Potion Info

Race: For long term progression a Nord will be useful for when you get onto trials such as Dreadsail Reef and Rockgrove, it’s not as vital up until that point but it will make a big difference by being a Nord for the newer trials mostly because of the increased resistances.

Mundus: The Atronach providing Magicka Recovery is essential generally. For Cloudrest and Asylum Sanctorium 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: As an Off Tank you have more room to play around with your food. For many of the ESO Trials you only Tank intermittently so using recovery foods so you can maintain your buffs and debuffs is usually the most essential thing.

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: For an Off Tank resistances are more vital in some situations more than others. For newer trials where you have to Tank adds with incredibly high damage such as Rockgrove and Dreadsail Reef, you’d need 33k. When doing older trials like Maw of Lorkhaj and Craglorn trials, the incoming damage is so little especially for an Off Tank that you can focus more on sustain and damage output compared to defence.

Magicka Recovery: You need approximately 2500 Magicka Recovery as a minimum as a Off Tank to be able to sustain a 100% uptime on all of your skills, buffs and debuffs. Having more will help to maintain more spammable skills that offer additional benefit.

Stats and Attributes: For Trials Off Tanking you should have around 38k+ Max Health, but you can manage with less for older trials and more for newer trials. Stats are largely up to you.

ESO Off Tank Gear

Piece Set Weight Trait Enchantment
Head Magma Incarnate Medium Divines Prismatic Defence
Shoulder Spaulder of Ruin Light Divines Prismatic Defence
Chest Pearlescent Ward Heavy Divines Prismatic Defence
Hands Pearlescent Ward Heavy Divines Prismatic Defence
Waist Pearlescent Ward Heavy Divines Prismatic Defence
Legs Pearlescent Ward Heavy Divines Prismatic Defence
Feet Pearlescent Ward Heavy Divines Prismatic Defence
Necklace Powerful Assault Jewellery Infused Prismatic Cost Reduction
Ring Powerful Assault Jewellery Infused Prismatic Cost Reduction
Ring Powerful Assault Jewellery Infused Prismatic Cost Reduction
Main Hand Puncturing Remedy Any 1H Charged Shock
Off Hand Puncturing Remedy Shield Divines Prismatic Defence
Main Hand Backup Powerful Assault Ice Staff Infused Crusher
Piece Set Weight Trait Enchantment
Head Nazaray Heavy Divines Prismatic Defence
Shoulder Nazaray Heavy Divines Prismatic Defence
Chest Saxhleel Champion Heavy Reinforced Prismatic Defence
Hands Armor of the Trainee Light Divines Prismatic Defence
Waist Powerful Assault Medium Divines Prismatic Defence
Legs Saxhleel Champion Heavy Divines Prismatic Defence
Feet Saxhleel Champion Heavy Divines Prismatic Defence
Necklace Powerful Assault Jewellery Harmony Magicka Recovery
Ring Death Dealer’s Fete Jewellery Harmony Magicka Recovery
Ring Powerful Assault Jewellery Harmony Magicka Recovery
Main Hand Powerful Assault Any 1H Charged Absorb Stamina
Main Hand Backup Saxhleel Champion Ice Staff Infused Frost Damage

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: This is quite an open choice for an Off Tank. Divines will be really good for most situations because you need a lot of sustain to maintain all of your uptimes. When doing the really hard content where you have to Tank enemies then Reinforced is going to be needed also. You might situationally consider Well Fitted, for trials such as vAS+2 where you have to sprint a lot to stack bosses, or for something like vCR where you are killing the Gryphons.

One Handed Weapon: Charged/Shock is good on your One Hander to apply Minor Vulnerability, but likely not essential in a Trial because it’s likely already covered by some other sources. Otherwise it’s quite open, you could use Decisive to gain more Ultimate, Defending if you’re under the resistance cap and need to reach it, or Infused to buff your enchant. 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. If using a Double staff setup then one staff with Charged is useful for higher Chilled uptimes combined with a Frost enchant.

Jewellery Traits: For an Off Tank it’s likely the best option to use Infused Jewellery, this is so the Main Tank and/or the Alkosh user can benefit from using the majority of synergies. When you are in a heavy block/damage situation for example Bahsai Hardmode in Rockgrove then Harmony will help since your group spend a lot of time facing you and you’ll be in a much more crititcal situation where resources might be needed. Think of it as when you have to physically Tank a boss or enemy and the damage is high then take Harmony but otherwise use Infused.

Jewellery Enchants: Magicka Recovery quite simply outperforms every jewellery enchant, but as an Off Tank in a lot of trials you’ll spend the majority of time maintain buff and debuff uptimes. One of those uptimes will likely be Powerful Assault and it’s maintained with Caltrops or Vigor. As an Off Tank you often have more Stamina skills to maintain compared to a Main Tank and so using Prismatic Cost Reduction enchants will give you the most benefit.

  • Powerful Assault – This is the most essential Off Tank set, it provides a large group buff but it does require you to cast an Assault skill twice every 15 seconds so it can be quite resource intensive.
  • Pearlescent Ward – Can be stacked alongside PA to give even more Weapon and Spell Damage to a group, it requires no micromanagement so a great set for all Tanks.
  • Saxhleel Champion – This is commonly used by an Off Tank to extend the duration of Major Force but also to combine it with additional benefits such as the Colossus from a Necromancer.
  • 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, but this is very good for add pulls and AoE situations.
  • 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.

Archdruid Devyric – If you don’t have enough Necromancer’s or Colossus Ultimates in group then this might be needed to provide Major Vulnerability.

Encratis’s Behemoth – This is a good group set if your team are using Flame Enchants, Staves and Skills, especially with Dragonknight Damage Dealers in group. It’s also very useful for fights that have a lot of Fire Damage such as Dreadsail Reef 1st boss and vHoF Triplets.

Nazaray – A good set to use if it’s not being used already, it will extended the duration of negative effects applied to bosses which can be really strong especially when it extends the duration of short duration debuffs such as Minor Brittle or helps to maintain a very high uptime on Major and Minor Vulnerability.

Nunatak – This can be used when someone in the group is also using Nazaray, when combining the two sets you can get a huge Major Brittle uptime which you should be able to maintain almost 100%. This means you can drop Saxhleel Champion since you can cover the loss of Major Force with this, Major Force is a group buff to Crit where as this works as the opposite where its a enemy debuff effecting increasing Crit received.

Baron Zaudrus – If you need more Ultimate this is the set to use, you have the potential to gain 240 Ultimate per minute with this set since you can proc it every 1 second by using Elemental Susceptibility.

Spaulder of Ruin – Spaulder is the most common Mythic used by an Off Tank as it provides a group buff but it’s only for 6 people so it can be used by two people per trial group in an attempt to give the benefits to a whole group. It’s usually combined with a Magma Incarnate or Baron Thirsk Helmet to recover some of the losses of recovery.

Ring of the Wild Hunt – This can be used in a number of places including add pulls but mostly for Trials such as Asylum Sanctorum +2 where the Off Tank runs around the room stacking the mini bosses.

Bloodlord’s Embrace – An optional Mythic that might be used when running a double Frost staff setup to help with some extra sustain.

Death Dealer’s Fete – Another optional Mythic that you might use to buff up your Max Stats when you’re in high damage trials and needing to use a double Frost staff.

ESO Off Tank Champion Points

Warfare

Fitness