DUNGEON SUBCLASS TANK BUILD

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Dungeon Subclass Tank


Last updated: Update 46 - 12th June 2025

This build focuses mainly on improving your group members' survivability while also providing decent offensive buffs. Thanks to combining Warden's Winter's Embrace and Arcanist's Soldier of Apocrypha skill lines it provides both Major and Minor Resolve for the entire group. Saxhleel's Champion allows you to provide Major Force to your group even with a defensive ultimate like Replenishing Barrier. Earthen Heart provides your group with Minor Brutality which will increase their DPS by a decent amount and also greatly improves your sustain with passives like Helping Hands and Battle Roar, and this build synergizes well with Battle Roar due to having lots of ultimate from Replenishing Barrier and Trample with the Heroism script.


SUBCLASSING


Combination

Dragonknight - Earthen Heart

Warden - Winter's Embrace

Arcanist - Soldier of the Apocrypha

Base Class

This build doesn't use any class set or class script so the base class can be either Dragonknight, Warden or Arcanist


SKILL SETUPS


Base Setup

A base setup that will work for most situations and which should be your starting point when making situational setups

Switching skills for trash packs isn't worth it unless you're a PC player using gear-swap addons, but switching skills for more difficult fights is something you should do regardless of platform

Front Bar Back Bar
Slot 1: Shield Throw Slot 1: Expansive Frost Cloak
Slot 2: Trample Slot 2: Wield Soul
Slot 3: Igneous Shield Slot 3: Elemental Susceptibility
Slot 4: Soul Burst Slot 4: Elemental Blockade
Slot 5: Polar Wind Slot 5: Runeguard of Still Waters
Ultimate: Gibbering Shelter Ultimate: Replenishing Barrier
INFO arrow_down
SITUATIONAL arrow_down

Final Setups

A few examples of final setups you could end up with after applying the situational skills to the base setup

A setup with lots of damage mitigation for bosses that hit very hard

Front Bar Back Bar
Slot 1: Shield Throw Slot 1: Expansive Frost Cloak
Slot 2: Revealing Flare Slot 2: Wield Soul
Slot 3: Igneous Shield Slot 3: Elemental Susceptibility
Slot 4: Ulfsild's Contingency Slot 4: Elemental Blockade
Slot 5: Polar Wind Slot 5: Runeguard of Still Waters
Ultimate: Gibbering Shelter Ultimate: Replenishing Barrier

EXPLANATION:


PASSIVES

  • Class
  • Weapon
  • Armor
  • Guild
  • Alliance War
  • Racial
  • Craft

Class - Earthen Heart

Eternal Mountain - Medium Priority

Battle Roar - High Priority

Mountain's Blessing - High Priority

Helping Hands - High Priority


GEAR


Base Setup

A base setup that will work for most situations and which should be your starting point when making situational setups

Switching gear for trash packs isn't worth it unless you're a PC player using gear-swap addons

Gear Slot Set Weight/Type Trait Enchantment

Head

Archdruid Devyric Medium Divines /Sturdy Tri-Stat

Shoulders

Archdruid Devyric Light Divines /Sturdy Tri-Stat

Chest

Saxhleel's Champion Heavy Reinforced Tri-Stat

Hands

Saxhleel's Champion Heavy Divines /Sturdy Tri-Stat

Belt

Saxhleel's Champion Heavy Divines /Sturdy Tri-Stat

Legs

Saxhleel's Champion Heavy Reinforced Tri-Stat

Boots

Saxhleel's Champion Heavy Reinforced Tri-Stat

Necklace

War Machine Jewelry Harmony /Infused Reduce Magicka Cost

Ring

War Machine Jewelry Harmony /Infused Reduce Magicka Cost

Ring

War Machine Jewelry Harmony /Infused Reduce Magicka Cost

Frontbar Main Hand

Armor of the Trainee Any 1-handed weapon Decisive Hardening

Frontbar Off Hand

Druid's Braid Shield Divines /Sturdy Tri-Stat

Backbar Main Hand

War Machine Ice Staff Infused Crusher
SITUATIONAL SETS arrow_down
ALTERNATIVE SETS arrow_down
TRAITS arrow_down
ENCHANTS arrow_down
ADDITIONAL INFO arrow_down

Final Setups

A few examples of final setups you could end up with after applying situational rules to the base setup

Starting setup if you only have access to crafted gear

Gear Slot Set Weight/Type Trait Enchantment

Head

Druid's Braid Medium Divines /Sturdy Tri-Stat

Shoulders

Druid's Braid Light Divines /Sturdy Tri-Stat

Chest

Wretched Vitality Heavy Reinforced Tri-Stat

Hands

Wretched Vitality Heavy Divines /Sturdy Tri-Stat

Belt

Wretched Vitality Heavy Divines /Sturdy Tri-Stat

Legs

Wretched Vitality Heavy Reinforced Tri-Stat

Boots

Wretched Vitality Heavy Reinforced Tri-Stat

Necklace

Druid's Braid Jewelry Harmony /Infused Reduce Magicka Cost

Ring

Druid's Braid Jewelry Harmony /Infused Reduce Magicka Cost

Ring

Druid's Braid Jewelry Harmony /Infused Reduce Magicka Cost

Frontbar Main Hand

Druid's Braid Any 1-handed weapon Decisive Hardening

Frontbar Off Hand

Druid's Braid Shield Divines /Sturdy Tri-Stat

Backbar Main Hand

Druid's Braid Ice Staff Infused Crusher

EXPLANATION:

  • You can use a mix of Health, Stamina and Magicka enchants instead of Tri-Stats, because Tri-Stat enchants are very expensive and this is a temporary gear that you'll outgrow very fast

CHAMPION POINTS

Use these Champion Points as default for Trash and Boss fights respectively. Further below you'll find a list of all useful CPs with explanation on when to use them instead of the defaults.

Warfare

Fitness

ADDITIONAL INFO:

All useful Champion Points to choose from


RACE

Nord is by far the best race for tanking, due to the increased armor from Rugged and ulti generation from Stalwart. You can complete any content on any race, you'll just have to work slightly harder with other races, and you'll have to adjust your build and get more armor from somewhere else (for example by using The Lady as your Mundus rather than The Atronach).


MUNDUS

The best Mundus is The Atronach which increases your Magicka Recovery by 310 and causes your armor pieces with the Divines trait to increase it by another 28.

If you're struggling with reaching the armor cap (33,000), then The Lady can also be a decent choice. It increases your Armor by 2744.


ATTRIBUTES

HEALTH

64

STAMINA

0

MAGICKA

0

Majority of the times you should put all your points into Health. However you need your Max Stamina to be higher than your Max Magicka, because the Combustion synergy restores your dominant resource and you want it to be Stamina. Because of that, you might have to put some attribute points into Stamina if you have passives (such as for example the Gift of Magnus racial) or item set bonuses (such as for example 1-piece bonus of Encratis's Behemoth) that increase your Max Magicka. Put just enough points to make your Max Stamina higher than your Max Magicka, and then put the rest into Health.


FOOD

The best food is Orzorga's Smoked Bear Haunch, however it's extremely expensive so you should use Jewels of Misrule instead, it provides only slightly lower stats than Orzorga's Smoked Bear Haunch while being significantly cheaper.

Other decent foods:

  • Orzorga's Red Frothgar - provides more Max Health and Magicka Recovery at the cost of providing no Stamina Recovery at all. Stamina Recovery doesn't work while blocking so it can be a decent option if you're permablocking
  • Bewitched Sugar Skulls - provides maximum resources instead of recoveries, can be decent for fights where you need to block for a very long time during a very specific period but the pressure is non-existent outside of that specific period so you can recuperate stamina by heavy attacking freely, for example Roksa the Warped boss in Bal Sunnar dungeon
  • Candied Jester's Coin - provides only Max Stamina and Magicka Recovery, can be decent when you want to reduce your Max Health during a specific phase of a fight. For example, in Cloudrest you can eat it right as the execute phase starts, because Maximum Health becomes a detriment due to the Baneful Mark mechanic

POTIONS

Most of the time you should use Tri-Stat potions (Restore Health, Restore Stamina, Restore Magicka). They'll greatly improve you sustain. You can craft them by combining Columbine, Bugloss and Mountain's Flower.

There are better potions but they're expensive. Heroism potions (Heroism, Restore Stamina, Restore Magicka) can provide a 100% uptime on Minor Heroism buff which generates ultimate, but they're expensive because they're crafted by combining Dragon Rheum, Dragon's Blood and Columbine.


GAMEPLAY

Logs

Veteran Hard Mode Red Petal Bastion - https://www.esologs.com/reports/Mm1LQrtv8RNGFVcx

Veteran Hard Mode Earthen Root Enclave - https://www.esologs.com/reports/4zqf8Bga32vc7CZN


THANKS FOR READING

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