#1 ESO Dreadsail Reef Trial Tank Guide & Build

ESO Dreadsail Reef Trial

Welcome to The Tank Club: ESO Dreadsail Reef Trial Guide for Tanks.

Dreadsail Reef is a DLC 12-person trial located in High Isle. It was the eleventh trial that was introduced into The Elder Scrolls Online with the High Isle Chapter in June 2022.

In a similar fashion to the other recent trials, Dreadsail Reef has main 3 trial bosses, each with their own individual hardmode and there are 2 additional mini bosses. You also have a variety of adds and a number of different add pulls in between each boss.

This guide will focus on the Tank role and the mechanics and strategies for successfully completing this trial.

For more Tank advice please ask in the Tanking-Help channel on The Tank Club Discord.

ESO Dreadsail Reef Trial Tank Builds

Main Tanks

This is the gear you might be asked to use for this trial as the Main Tank:

Sets: Claw of Yolnahkriin, Crimson Oath’s Rive, Pearlescent Ward, Turning Tide.
Monster Sets: Archdruid Devyric, Encratis’s Behemoth, Nazaray, Tremorscale.
Other: Puncturing Remedy.
Elf Bane is a set that also gets used by Dragonknight Tanks on Boss 2: Reef Guardian, and this is used so the DK Tank can maintain Magma Shell the entire fight and simply stand still holding the boss. When doing this you need to be generating as much Ultimate as possible so you could use Baron Zaudrus along with Elemental Susceptibility for a max potential of 240 Ultimate gain per min.

Double Frost Staves are frequently used in this trial – it’s common to see a front bar Frost Staff for maintaining Frost Clench and Major Maim/Minor Maim on cooldown. When using this you might also use a mythic item such as Bloodlord’s Embrace, Death Dealer’s Fete, or anything you like.

Off Tanks

This is the gear you might be asked to use for this trial as the Off Tank:

Sets: Crimson Oath’s Rive, Pearlescent Ward, Powerful Assault, Saxhleel Champion.
Monster Sets: Archdruid Devyric, Encratis’s Behemoth.
Other: Spaulder of Ruin.

Off Tanks in Dreadsail Reef (most commonly Necromancers) have to be able to play as both a Main and Off Tank in this trial. This is due to Necro possessing very strong mitigation against Damage over Time and Bleeds.

ESO Dreadsail Reef Trial Tank Skills

In Dreadsail Reef you’ll be dealing with a lot of incoming damage, so it can be a good idea to make use of damage reduction skills providing you with Major and Minor Protection.

Frost Clench is a vital skill for this trial also, you want to maintain this as much as possible on bosses, and especially on last boss for the Major and Minor Maim, it will allow you to reduce the incoming damage for your entire group.

Race Against Time is a good skill to use for stages of this trial for the speed boost and snare removal

Useful Skills for this Trial: