Last updated: Update 44 - 18th December 2024
All item sets that are useful for tanking in ESO and how to get them.
Pearlescent Ward provides a unique 180 weapon and spell damage buff to you and your allies within 28 meters when all of your group members are alive which transforms into up to 66% damage reduction as they start dying. This 180 weapon and spell damage translates into roughly a 2.4% damage increase. When 6 people are dead in a 12 man group Pearlescent is providing 90 weapon and spell damage and 33% damage reduction to you and all of your allies within 28 meters. When 11 people are dead it provides 15 weapon and spell damage and 60.5% damage reduction, which is massively helpful.
Pearlescent is extremely good because it allows you to recover from situations which would’ve been a group wipe without Pearlescent. As more people start dying, everyone gets increasing damage reduction which allows them to survive while resurrecting those dead teammates. The last person alive gets a 60.5% damage reduction which can allow them to finish the resurrection channel while being battered by the boss and all the adds.
It also continues to work if you die yourself. People within 28 meters of your corpse will continue to gain the benefits of Pearlescent Ward, which will make it easier for them to resurrect you. With all that said, Pearlescent is still worth using even if you’re going for Trifecta achievements, because the 180 weapon and spell damage bonus is unique.
Obtained from: 
Dreadsail Reef Trial - 
High Isle Chapter
Heavy Armor
Has to be double-barred
Turning Tide allows you to apply Major Vulnerability for 10 seconds to enemies in front of you after you block an attack. Major Vulnerability increases enemies’ damage taken by 10% and the only 2 other reliable sources of it are 
Archdruid Devyric monster set and Necromancer’s 
Glacial Colossus ultimate. The set has a cooldown of 15 seconds so theoretically you can provide up to 67% uptime of Major Vulnerability with just that. Major Vulnerability is additive with Minor Vulnerability so in practice it ends up being a 9.5% damage increase, so with the theoretical maximum uptime of 67% we can say that Turning Tide increases damage by 6.4%.
This set can be useful in so many places, especially if you don’t have a Necromancer in your group to provide the Glacial Colossus ultimate. It’s very good in dungeons, it’s also very convenient to use for trial trash packs, as the cooldown lines up in a way that it’s always ready for the next trash pack. A Necromancer usually won’t be able to generate enough ultimate to have Glacial Colossus ready for every trash. Archdruid on the other hand is extremely buggy and has trouble hitting moving targets, so it’s very unreliable in trash.
Turning Tide can also be used in trial boss fights, although there we have many options because we have the Turning Tide, Archdruid Devyric, Glacial Colossus and 
Nazaray to play with so a 5-piece set like Turning Tide usually gets left out. Of course it isn’t as simple as that, Turning Tide can still be useful depending on the rest of your team-comp and the nature of the fight, for example these long lasting Major Vulnerability tools like Glacial Colossus or Nazaray are perfect for static fights with a single enemy, but they aren’t ideal when a fight has a constant influx of new enemies (for example Flame-Herald Bahsei and the constantly spawning new Abominations and Behemoths), in such fights Turning Tide with its shorter duration is still the superior option because it can be applied constantly to the newly spawned enemies.
Obtained from: 
Shipwright's Regret Dungeon - 
Ascending Tide DLC
Heavy Armor
Can be one-barred, although it can be difficult to pull off, double-barring is recommended
Powerful Assault grants a unique 307 weapon and spell damage buff to 6 people within 12 meters for 15 seconds whenever you cast an Assault ability. It translates to roughly 4.6% damage increase. Most of the time you’ll be proccing it with 
Resolving Vigor, but 
Charging Maneuver and 
Aggressive Horn will also occasionally activate it. It is also sometimes being used by healers instead.
Obtained from: Tel Var merchant in Imperial City Sewers / Can be bought from other players
Medium Armor
Can be one-barred
Crimson Oath’s Rive applies a 3541 armor penetration debuff which translates to roughly 8% damage increase if all of that penetration was actually needed. PvE enemies have 18200 armor and there’s tons of different sources of armor penetration, which is why being able to tell if Crimson Oath is actually needed is quite hard.
It is never the ideal option, as in dungeons it’s more efficient to have your Damage Dealers alter their builds and bring additional penetration on their own (for example by using more Light Armor pieces to trigger the 
Concentration passive, using 1-piece Monster Sets with penetration such as 
Valkyn Skoria, or being a class with penetration passives, such as Arcanists with their 
Splintered Secrets) and in trials it’s better to have a Damage Dealer use the 
Alkosh item set.
But it’s a great option for random groups, because you can’t guarantee what builds your random teammates are going to use, and armor penetration is extremely potent when there is armor left to be penetrated, which is why I recommend using Crimson Oath in PUG trials, unless you know for sure that some Damage Dealer is going to use Alkosh.
Another interesting aspect of Crimson Oath is that it has 2 bonus armor lines, so it ends up granting us additional 2974 armor, which can be very useful, especially if you’re not a Nord.
Obtained from: 
Dread Cellar Dungeon - 
Waking Flame DLC
Heavy Armor
Can be one-barred
Saxhleel’s Champion provides Major Force to you and your teammates within 28 meters for 1 second per 15 ultimate spent whenever you use an ultimate. Major Force increases critical damage done by 20% and it can also be applied by the Aggressive Horn ultimate for 10 seconds, which is why using it in combination with Saxhleel is kind of a waste, but this doesn’t mean that you should absolutely never use them together, because sometimes it’s still worth it.
Because of that, Saxhleel works best on Necromancer and Sorcerer tanks, who can pair it with Glacial Colossus or 
Summon Charged Atronach ultimates respectively.
Saxhleel can also allow you to use defensive ultimates such as 
Replenishing Barrier, 
Magma Shell or 
Gibbering Shelter without losing that much group DPS.
Obtained from: 
Rockgrove Trial - 
Blackwood Chapter
Heavy Armor
Can be one-barred
Lucent Echoes increases the Critical Damage and Critical Healing of your group members within 28 meters by 11% while your health is above 50%. This translates to roughly a 4.2% damage increase. While your health is below 50% it instead grants you a 20% damage reduction.
Critical Damage is capped at 125% so you won’t need Lucent Echoes if there’s already a Damage Dealer in your group using the 
Elemental Catalyst item set (which provides 15% Critical Damage). And Khajiits can reach the cap without any of these sets, thanks to their 
Feline Ambush racial passive. But that was assuming the Major Force buff is up at all times, in less organized groups Major Force’s uptime will be far from 100% so Lucent Echoes could still be decent for filling in the gaps.
Lucent Echoes however greatly increases survivability of the tank wearing it, because of the 20% damage reduction below 50% health, so for more difficult fights it’s worth replacing Elemental Catalyst with it in your team composition to make the tank’s job easier.
Obtained from: 
Lucent Citadel Trial - 
Gold Road Chapter
Heavy Armor
Has to be double-barred
Olorime places a circle on the ground for 5 seconds whenever you cast a ground ability, with a cooldown of 10 seconds. Allies standing in the circle gain Major Courage for 20 seconds, which increases weapon and spell damage by 430, which is roughly a 6.5% damage increase.
It’s a very big increase that outshines other sets, but the reason it’s not in the essential category is because applying Major Courage is a healer’s job, and they’ll be doing it with either Olorime itself or 
Spell Power Cure. Because of that, Olorime is the best set to run when playing without a healer in dungeons, in a 1 Tank / 3 Damage Dealers group composition.
Obtained from: 
Cloudrest Trial - 
Summerset Chapter
Light Armor
Can be one-barred
War Machine provides Major Slayer to up to 6 allies within 28 meters (prioritizing closest allies) for 1 second per 10 ultimate spent whenever you use an ultimate. Major Slayer increases damage done to monsters inside Trials, Dungeons and Arenas by 10%.
The same buff can be applied by the 
Roaring Opportunist set which is commonly used by healers in trials, but War Machine has the potential to provide better uptime as long as your team can properly split into 2 groups and stay organized, because War Machine applies to 6 closest allies. In dungeons War Machine is straight up better.
It’s also commonly used by Damage Dealers, as they can use it without losing that much DPS, because it’s a medium set with decent stat lines.
Obtained from: 
Halls of Fabrication Trial - Base Game
Medium Armor
Can be one-barred
Elemental Catalyst applies debuffs that increase enemies’ Critical Damage taken by up to 15%. Whenever you deal Flame, Shock, or Frost Damage, you apply Flame, Shock, or Frost Weakness to the enemy for 3 seconds. Each Elemental Weakness increases their Critical Damage taken by 5%.
It’s a crucial set overall but it’s rarely used on tanks. Most of the time it’s being used by Necromancer Damage Dealers as they have the easiest access to all elemental damage types - they can keep up Shock Weakness with 
Mystic Siphon, Frost Weakness with 
Unnerving Boneyard and Flame Weakness with 
Elemental Blockade with an Inferno Staff.
Sometimes however it makes sense to use it on a tank. In Asylum Sanctorium the Main Tank is in a perfect position to utilize it while at the same time you don’t want to bring a Necromancer Damage Dealer because they’re performing badly in that fight.
Obtained from: 
Stone Garden Dungeon - 
Stonethorn DLC
Light Armor
Can be one-barred, although it can be difficult to pull off, double-barring is recommended
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TANK
DRAGONKNIGHT TANK
NECROMANCER TANK
NIGHTBLADE TANK
SORCERER TANK
TEMPLAR TANK
ARCANIST TANK
WARDEN TANK
SOLO
ARCANIST
NIGHTBLADE
SORCERER
HEAVY ATTACK SORCERER
DRAGONKNIGHT
TEMPLAR
NECROMANCER
TOOLS
PENETRATION CALCULATOR
