ESO Tank Sets Guide

Pearlescent Ward

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.

Turning Tide

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.

Powerful Assault

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.

Crimson Oath's Rive

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.

It's an acceptable option for PUG trials where you can't guarantee what builds your teammates are running. However, the players who are worth supporting the most - the ones doing the highest damage - will already be bringing enough penetration on their own. So the set only benefits the part of the group that's already doing less damage, making it less impactful than it looks on paper.

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.

Saxhleel's Champion

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%, which translates to roughly a 7.6% damage increase at 100% uptime. 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 Grave Lord and Daedric Summoning 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 Reviving Barrier, Magma Shell or Gibbering Shelter without losing that much group DPS.

Lucent Echoes

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.

Vestments of Olorime

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 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.

War Machine

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%, which translates to roughly an 8.2% damage increase at 100% uptime.

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.

Elemental Catalyst

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 Damage Dealers. Sometimes however it makes sense to use it on a tank, for example in Asylum Sanctorium the Main Tank is in a perfect position to utilize it.

Archdruid Devyric

Archdruid Devyric allows you to apply Major Vulnerability for 7 seconds shortly after you perform a heavy, which doesn't have to be fully charged. Major Vulnerability increases enemies' damage taken by 10% and the only 2 other reliable sources of it are Turning Tide 5-piece set and Necromancer's Glacial Colossus ultimate. The set has a cooldown of 15 seconds so theoretically you can provide up to 47% 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 47% we can say that Archdruid Devyric increases damage by 4.5%.

This set is extremely useful, especially if you don't have a Necromancer in your group to provide the Glacial Colossus ultimate. It performs quite poorly in trash packs because the set itself has very buggy targeting and can sometimes fly through moving targets without applying the Major Vulnerability, but it's quite good against bosses, both in dungeons and in trials.

Tremorscale

Tremorscale causes your taunts to summon a Duneripper after 1 second which applies a debuff for 15 seconds that reduces enemies' armor by 8% of your armor value. It has a cooldown of 10 seconds. If you're at armor cap it's going to provide 2640 armor penetration which translates to roughly 5.8% damage increase. If you're using the Puncturing Remedy weapon set, you're going to get bonus armor right as you proc Tremorscale so the armor penetration value will go up to 3120, which translates to roughly 6.8% damage increase.

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.

It's an acceptable option for PUG dungeons and trials where you can't guarantee what builds your teammates are running. However, the players who are worth supporting the most - the ones doing the highest damage - will already be bringing enough penetration on their own. So the set only benefits the part of the group that's already doing less damage, making it less impactful than it looks on paper.

Nazaray

Nazaray causes you to extend Major and Minor debuffs on 6 closest enemies within 12 meters by 1 second for every 20 Ultimate points spent whenever you use an ultimate, which means that with 500 ultimate you'll extend the debuffs by 25 seconds. This effect can only happen once every 30 seconds per target.

Nazaray is a solid option in basically every environment, be it 4 man content, unoptimized trials or optimized trials, though in optimized trials it's usually used on healers instead of tanks as they can generate way more ultimate with the Pearls of Ehlnofey mythic. Its main purpose is extending the Major Vulnerability debuff which increases enemies' damage taken by 10% and comes from Necromancer's Glacial Colossus ultimate, Turning Tide 5-piece set and Archdruid Devyric monster set. It'll also extend other important buffs like Minor Brittle or Major Maim, which can be kept up without Nazaray , but extending them with Nazaray will give the tank some free GCDs, but this is a side effect rather than its main purpose.

Another situational use for Nazaray is extending Major Brittle provided by the Nunatak monster set. Nunatak provides Major Brittle which increases Critical Damage taken by 20% so it can be a replacement for Major Force, but on its own it has extremely low uptime. This can be fixed by using Nazaray . It works well in phase-based fights, where you have a period of fighting the boss and then a period where a long mechanic happens during which you can generate enough ultimate for Nazaray to extend Major Brittle throughout the fighting phase when it happens again, such as for example all of the Dragon fights in the Sunspire trial.

Nunatak

Nunatak causes you to spawn a 6 meter AoE for 6 seconds whenever you deal Frost damage, with a cooldown of 15 seconds. Enemies damaged 4 or more times get afflicted with Major Brittle for 4 seconds, which increases Critical Damage taken by 20%. Since the AoE ticks 7 times we'll be getting 7 seconds of Major Brittle out of it per proc, so we can achieve up to 47% uptime, which translates to a roughly 4% damage increase, but keep in mind that with Major Brittle and Major Force at the same time you'll most likely go over the Crit Damage cap.

Because of this Nunatak isn't being used on its own. It has to be used in combination with Nazaray in order to be worth it. With that combination Nunatak can replace Saxhleel's Champion in short or phase-based fights. Nunatak has a wind up, so you'll still want to use Aggressive Horn at the beginning for its Major Force, but after the 10 second Major Force from Aggressive Horn expires you can use Nunatak's Major Brittle and extend it with Nazaray instead of using an ultimate with Saxhleel's Champion.

Encratis's Behemoth

Encratis's Behemoth grants you Behemoth's Aura for 12 seconds after you deal Flame damage, with a cooldown of 15 seconds. Allies within this aura take 5% reduced Flame damage and enemies take 5% increased Flame damage.

Dragonknight Damage Dealers will benefit the most from this set, as the huge majority of their damage is Flame type. Other classes will still benefit from it as they'll deal some Flame damage with Elemental Blockade and Burning procs, but it's going to be a very small increase. In trash fights however it can be a massive bonus for any class, as the Elemental Rage ultimate is the best option for quick AoE damage for every class.

Encratis's Behemoth can also be useful defensively for any fight with lots of Flame damage type, such as the Arkasis fight in the Stone Garden dungeon or the Flame-Herald Bahsei fight in Rockgrove trial.

You will need to deal Flame damage to proc it - weapon enchants do not count, it has to be from an ability. Scalding Rune is usually the best ability for it that's available for all classes.

Lord Warden

Lord Warden grants you a 50% chance to spawn a Shadow Orb for 10 seconds whenever you take damage which increases the armor of you and your allies by 3180. It has a cooldown of 10 seconds, so you can get an uptime very close to 100% if you're constantly taking damage.

Lord Warden can be a great option for increasing your group's survivability in fights where you can stand close to your group and there isn't much movement involved, such as the Ansuul the Tormentor fight in Sanity's Edge trial. The 3180 armor should provide around 6% damage mitigation to your teammates.

Roksa the Warped

Roksa the Warped grants you up to 310 Health, Stamina and Magicka Recoveries. Its 1-piece bonus grants 70 of all Recoveries and the 2-piece bonus causes you to gain a stack of Darklight every second while in combat, up to a maximum of 30. Each stack of Darklight grants you 8 of all Recoveries.

Roksa is the best defensive option if you're struggling with sustain in a fight, although it won't help with your stamina sustain if you're permablocking, as the Stamina Recovery is paused while blocking.

Spaulder of Ruin

Spaulder of Ruin allows you to crouch to activate a 12-meter Aura of Pride. Up to 6 allies within this aura gain 260 Weapon and Spell Damage, but your Health, Stamina and Magicka Recoveries are reduced by 70 for each target benefitting from this aura, so you will lose 420 recoveries when using it to its full potential. The 260 Weapon and Spell Damage bonus translates to roughly 3.7% damage increase.

Although Spaulder of Ruin is a Mythic, it's kind of considered a Monster Set in terms of making gear setups, because it goes on the Shoulder piece so you cannot use Spaulder of Ruin and a Monster Set at the same time.

	Lead	Source
	Aureal Armor Glaze	Aurig Mireh - Shivering Shrine World Boss in Stonefalls
	Clannfear Leather Strapping	Any Clannfear
	Petrified Daedroth Horn	Taupezu Azzida - The Abomination Cradle World Boss in Deadlands
	Void Alloy Lame Plates	Leyawiin Safeboxes, Blackwood Safeboxes
	Void Alloy Rivets	Any Dremora

Cryptcanon Vestments

Cryptcanon Vestments turns your ultimate ability into Crypt Transfer, which allows you to transfer your ultimate to all of your teammates within 28 meters, divided equally among them. It also passively grants you Minor Heroism, which grants you 1 Ultimate point every 1.5 second. This Crypt Transfer is not considered an ultimate for the sake of sets like Saxhleel's Champion or War Machine, they do not work together.

Cryptcanon is extremely good in dungeons when you intend to quickly nuke bosses, but it loses effectiveness in longer fights. Allowing your Damage Dealers to quickly use 2 ultimates is much stronger than any other buffing ultimate you could've used otherwise, such as Aggressive Horn, Glacial Colossus or Summon Charged Atronach.

In trials Cryptcanon can be useful in phase based fights and even then it's only in very specific situations. Take Chimera in Sanity's Edge for example. With the way everything in this fight lines up, the 45 Ultimate everyone gets from Cryptcanon allows your Dragonknights to get 3 Dragonknight Standards per phase, rather than only 2 (Standard has since been reworked and no longer works this way, but the principle still applies to any strong and expensive ultimate). If the fighting phase was slightly shorter you wouldn't be able to get 3 Standards even with Cryptcanon, and if it was slighly longer you would be able to get them without Cryptcanon, so Cryptcanon requires very specific circumstances that are almost impossible to predict.

	Lead	Source
	Ancestor Samite Sash	Daily Reward Coffer in the Telvanni Peninsula zone
	Ancestor Samite Stole	Uzur the All-Seeing Delve Boss in The Disquiet Study Delve
	Ancestor Samite Undershirt	Bal Sunnar dungeon final boss - Matriarch Lladi Telvanni
	Netchbeak Clasps	Treasure Chests in Telvanni Peninsula
	Scrib Chitin Padding	Corlys the Chainmaker - Clamorclap Bowl World Boss in Telvanni Peninsula

Ring of the Wild Hunt

Ring of the Wild Hunt increases your movement speed by 15% which increases to 45% out of combat.

It can be a decent option in trash fights or in fights that involve a lot of movement. In order to fit this Mythic in, you'll have to use two one-barrable sets, such as for example Saxhleel's Champion and Powerful Assault. If you front bar Saxhleel's Champion and backbar Powerful Assault, you'll have 2 free slots on your body and jewelry, in one of which you can slot the Ring of the Wild Hunt Mythic (and in the other one it's best to use one piece of Armor of the Trainee for the bonus Max Health).

	Lead	Dig Zone	Source
	Band of Water	Glenumbra	Public Dungeon Boss in Bad Man's Hallow
	Charm of the Shapeless	Murkmire	World Bosses or any Boss in Delves in Murkmire
	Face of the Serpent	Grahtwood	Canonreeve Oraneth - Last Boss in Elden Hollow I Dungeon
	Face of the Wolf Beast	Malabal Tor	Any World Boss in Malabal Tor
	Symbol of Y'ffre	Greenshade	Any World Boss in Greenshade

Markyn Ring of Majesty

Markyn Ring of Majesty grants you 100 Weapon and Spell Damage and 1157 Armor for every set you are wearing 3 or more pieces of, so you'll end up getting 200 Weapon and Spell Damage and 2314 Armor from it.

It can be a decent defensive option, especially if you're not a Nord so you're missing out on the armor racial and you're not at the armor cap. In order to fit this Mythic in, you'll have to use two one-barrable sets, such as for example Saxhleel's Champion and Powerful Assault. If you front bar Saxhleel's Champion and backbar Powerful Assault, you'll have 2 free slots on your body and jewelry, in one of which you can slot the Markyn Ring of Majesty Mythic (and in the other one it's best to use one piece of Armor of the Trainee for the bonus Max Health).

	Lead	Source
	Firescourge Band	Daily Reward Coffer in the Deadlands zone
	Mindcleaver Loop	The Unmaker - Den of the Unmaker World Boss in Deadlands
	Morpholith Shank	Treasure Chests in Coldharbour
	Ruinblood Coil	Trash mobs in The Banished Cells I and The Banished Cells II
	Searing Gem	Daedrat critters in Deadlands

Death Dealer's Fete

Death Dealer's Fete grants you 2640 Max Health, Max Stamina and Max Magicka after a 1 minute of ramping up. You gain 1 stack of Escalating Fete every 2 seconds while in combat and you lose 1 every 4 seconds while out of combat. Each stack of Escalating Fete grants you 88 Max Health, Max Stamina and Max Magicka.

Death Dealer's Fete can be a decent defensive option in any fight that does not have any mechanics that scale with Max Health. In order to fit this Mythic in, you'll have to use two one-barrable sets, such as for example Saxhleel's Champion and Powerful Assault. If you front bar Saxhleel's Champion and backbar Powerful Assault, you'll have 2 free slots on your body and jewelry, in one of which you can slot the Death Dealer's Fete Mythic (and in the other one it's best to use one piece of Armor of the Trainee for the bonus Max Health).

	Lead	Source
	Carved Signet Base	Imperial City Upstairs Bosses
	Sturdy Silver Prongs	Dragonstar Arena Final Chest
	Warm Asymmetrical Ruby	Oblivion Portal Final Chest
	Weighted Spiked Bridge	Rewards for the Worthy Mail (PVP Reward)
	Wide Barbed Shank	Anomalies in Craglorn, Nirncrux Mines

Syrabane's Ward

Syrabane's Ward grants you 30% additional block mitigation. While blocking you cannot move but your allies within 12 meters also get 30% increased block mitigation and an additional 950 Health Recovery.

It can be a decent defensive option in fights with lots of direct blockable damage that also don't require you to move while blocking. In order to fit this Mythic in, you'll have to use two one-barrable sets, such as for example Saxhleel's Champion and Powerful Assault. If you front bar Saxhleel's Champion and backbar Powerful Assault, you'll have 2 free slots on your body and jewelry, in one of which you can slot the Syrabane's Ward Mythic (and in the other one it's best to use one piece of Armor of the Trainee for the bonus Max Health).

	Lead	Source
	Frog Metal Buckle	Blacksmithing Crate from Blacksmithing Writ Dailies
	Indrik-hide Strap	Caanerin - Indrik Frolic World Boss in Summerset
	Iridescent Pearlwater Wash	Fishing in any water in Galen and High Isle
	Rune-scribed Braces	Captain Numirril - Last Boss of Shipwright's Regret Dungeon
	Silverthread Stitching	High Kinlord Rilis - Last Boss of Banished Cells II Dungeon

Puncturing Remedy

Puncturing Remedy causes your Puncture (and its morphs - Pierce Armor and Ransack) to heal you for 14% of your Max Health and grant you armor equal to the heal value for 5 seconds.

It's a great set to run whenever one of your 5-piece sets can be back-barred, so you can put Puncturing Remedy on your frontbar. The heal is decent and it's also tied to an ability you would be using anyway so it'll passively keep your health up as your doing your job - taunting.

The armor bonus only lasts 5 seconds, so don't count on it for reaching armor cap. It can still be useful for boosting Tremorscale's value though.

Since the Scribing system was introduced, most tanks use Shield Throw instead of Pierce Armor, which means this set won't proc from your main taunt. Keep that in mind.

Void Bash

Void Bash allows you to pull enemies within 12 meters after a 2 seconds delay after you use Power Bash. Pulled enemies are also afflicted with Major Maim for 10 seconds, which reduces enemies damage done by 10%.

It's the best set to use in dungeon trash packs as it makes stacking enemies much much faster. In trial trash packs it's not worth it because most of the adds there are already CC immune and they don't die as fast as dungeon adds so you'll have enough time to chain the small adds the traditional way.

Trainee + Druid's Braid

Combining 1 piece of the Armor of the Trainee set and 1 piece of the Druid's Braid set on your one handed weapon and shield can grant you additional 2660 health on your frontbar, which can be extremely useful if you're using Shield Throw instead of Pierce Armor and can't utilize the Puncturing Remedy set. It can be very good for fights that do not have any mechanics that scale with your Max Health, and it can boost the value of your Scribing damage shields allowing you to shield your teammates better.

• Armor of the Trainee - Overland in Bal Foyen, Bethnikh, Bleakrock Isle, Khenarthi's Roost and Stros M'Kai / Can be bought from other players
• Druid's Braid - Crafted in High Isle / Can be bought from other players

Defensive Position

Defensive Position grants you 2200 Magicka when you reflect or absorb a projectile with Defensive Posture or when you re-cast it while it's active. If Defensive Posture expires it instead restores 6600 Magicka instead.

Defensive Position can be great for fights with lots of Damage over Time, since Defensive Posture grants you a damage shield and combined with the Defensive Position set it can allow you to sustain spamming some other Magicka costing damage shield, such as for example Impervious Runeward, allowing you to constantly have some damage shield up.

Crushing Wall

Crushing Wall increases the damage Wall of Elements deals with each tick by 1250.

Since it's a flat amount, it doesn't get bogged down by your tank stats and can be a very decent DPS increase when you have a free slot on your backbar.