Templar Tank Build - ESO Guide
Templar Tank build for ESO, a pure class setup with a lot of group healing.
Extended Ritual provides a purge synergy for your team, and since
Soul Burst is your main self-heal you'll be healing the group a lot just by keeping yourself alive.
Extended Ritual and
Restoring Focus also heal you a lot if you can stand still.
Sacred Ground gives decent block mitigation passively.
Weaker than the Subclass Tank overall, but if you want to play pure class Templar Tank, this is the best option in ESO Update 49.
Skill Setups
Base Setup
A base setup that will work for most situations and which should be your starting point when making situational setups. It prioritizes survivability over group damage.
| Front Bar | Back Bar |
|---|---|
| Slot 1: Shield Throw | Slot 1: Restoring Focus |
| Slot 2: Trample | Slot 2: Wield Soul |
| Slot 3: Radiant Ward | Slot 3: Elemental Susceptibility |
| Slot 4: Extended Ritual | Slot 4: Elemental Blockade |
| Slot 5: Soul Burst | Slot 5: Ulfsild's Contingency |
| Ultimate: Reviving Barrier | Ultimate: Reviving Barrier |
Shield Throw (
Taunt,
Sage's Remedy,
Maim) - ranged taunt which will heal you and apply the Major Maim debuff for 10 seconds, which decreases enemies' damage done by 10%
Trample (
Magic,
Thief's Swiftness,
Heroism) - a 1.5 second channel that will grant you Major Heroism for 10 seconds which translates to roughly 20 Ultimate per cast. If you're using
Baron Zaudrus, use
Assassin's Misery instead to proc it more
Radiant Ward - a damage shield that scales off 30% of your Max Health and grows 20% stronger for each nearby enemy. Using it grants Minor Protection for 6 seconds, reducing damage taken by 5%, through the
Spear Wall passive
Extended Ritual - a ground AoE that heals you and your allies and provides the Purify synergy, which purges all negative effects. Unlike most synergies, every teammate standing in it can use Purify independently. Thanks to being such a massive AoE it also helps you keep up the
Sacred Ground passive
Soul Burst (
Healing,
Anchorite's Potency,
Courage) - an AoE heal that also grants up to 6 allies Minor Courage for 20 seconds, increasing Weapon and Spell Damage by 215. Consumes a Soul Gem to grant 3 Ultimate to you and your teammates up to once every 5 seconds
Reviving Barrier - an Ultimate that grants you and your allies a massive shield and applies a HoT. Use it when your group needs help with survival. Slotted on both bars for the
Magicka Aid passive which grants 10% Magicka Recovery. Make sure to only cast it from backbar if you have an Ultimate set there
Restoring Focus - a 25 second ground effect that grants you Major Resolve (increasing armor by 5948), restores Stamina and heals you for 2% of your Max Health every second. Standing inside the rune increases the heal to 6% of your Max Health
Wield Soul (
Pull,
Druid's Resurgence,
Cowardice) - a chain ability for stacking smaller adds that also restores 600 Stamina. It should also be used on unchainable enemies to apply the Major Cowardice debuff which reduces enemies' Weapon and Spell Damage by 430
Elemental Susceptibility - a free ability that applies the crucial Major Breach debuff which reduces enemies' armor by 5948 and applies Burning, Concussed and Chilled status effects every 7.5 seconds. Concussed applies Minor Vulnerability for 4 seconds which increases enemies' damage taken by 5% and can trigger Off Balance when paired with Lightning
Elemental Blockade from your Healer. Chilled applies Minor Maim for 4 seconds which reduces enemies' damage done by 5%. If you were holding an Ice Staff at the moment Chilled procced, it will also apply Minor Brittle for 4 seconds which increases enemies' Critical Damage taken by 10%
Elemental Blockade - this ability will constantly apply the enchant of your backbar weapon, which in our case will be
Crusher. It will also apply Minor Breach debuff to enemies who are Chilled which reduces enemies' armor by 2974, and they'll always be Chilled thanks to
Elemental Susceptibility. It will also grant projectile-only damage shields to you and your teammates
Ulfsild's Contingency (
Damage Shield,
Gladiator's Tenacity,
Resolve) - a damage shield for yourself and your teammates that also provides 8% damage mitigation for 8 seconds and Minor Resolve for 22 seconds, increasing armor by 2974
If you need to slot something situational, replace
Trample if it's a difficult fight,
Soul Burst if you don't need the heal and someone else provides Minor Courage, or
Extended Ritual if the fight doesn't need the cleanse
Inner Rage - a replacement for
Shield Throw for easier fights. You're giving up the 10% damage reduction and the heal from
Shield Throw but you're providing an extremely strong synergy for your group. Also your default taunt when running double Ice Staff setup. It can also be used if you're struggling with Stamina, as it costs Magicka unlike
Shield Throw
Destructive Clench - use it if you're running double Ice Staff setup but still need Major Maim. It only lasts 5 seconds compared to 10 from
Shield Throw, so only slot it over
Inner Rage if you know your team needs the Maim (for example in Kyne's Aegis where you need to apply Major Maim before Instability goes off, and if you time it correctly the 5 seconds is enough)
Living Dark - use it if nobody in your group has Dawn's Wrath or Draconic Power slotted to provide Minor Sorcery or Minor Brutality. It procs the
Illuminate passive which grants Minor Sorcery to your group
Radiant Aura - use it if your team needs more sustain
Repentance - a great sustain tool if you're struggling with Stamina in trash packs or boss fights with lots of adds
Revealing Flare - slot it for more difficult fights where you need more damage mitigation. It passively grants Major Protection, reducing your damage taken by 10%. It will also trigger the
Magicka Aid passive, which increases Magicka Recovery by 10%
Resolving Vigor - extremely strong HoT that can help you survive more difficult fights, which also provides Minor Resolve. It can be used to proc
Powerful Assault set
Echoing Vigor - alternative to
Resolving Vigor which heals for a similar amount but over 16 seconds instead of 5. It now heals 6 allies (including you) instead of just you and doesn't provide Minor Resolve anymore. Use it to help your teammates survive in fights which are easy for you to survive. It can be used to proc
Powerful Assault set
Defensive Stance - an ability which grants you a damage shield and allows you to reflect the next projectile within 6 seconds. It also passively reduces your block cost and increases block mitigation by 10%. Use it in fights where you're blocking a lot or in fights where you can do a lot of damage by reflecting projectiles
Immovable - use it in fights where you need lots of block mitigation or CC immunity
Crushing Shock - use it in fights where you need to interrupt an enemy who's standing far away from you
Razor Caltrops - source of AoE Major Breach for trash fights or boss fights with lots of adds
Pulsar - a skill that combined with Charged Ice Staff provides almost guaranteed AoE Chilled procs. Use it in trash packs
Power Slam - a skill for proccing the
Void Bash item set if you're switching to that in trash packs
Race Against Time - use it in fights where you need snare removal. It also triggers the
Concentrated Barrier passive
Charging Maneuver - provides your entire group with a total of 45% bonus movement speed. Very useful in trash packs, but it consumes a lot of Stamina
Exhilarating Drain - an extremely strong Ultimate generating ability which is locked behind being a Vampire, which will increase costs of all of your skills and increase your Flame damage taken even at the lowest stage. It can also be risky to cast in more difficult fights, since it's a channeled ability. Use it if you want to support your team even more and you can handle the drawbacks
Aggressive Horn - an Ultimate which grants a 30 second buff which increases Max Stamina and Max Magicka by 10%, and 10 seconds of Major Force to your entire group. Use it if you want to focus more on group damage. It's especially useful when not using
Saxhleel's Champion, since they both provide Major Force
Why no Inner Rage in the Regular setup?
The synergy from
Inner Rage taunt is extremely strong but because of the way it works it always turns out extremely weak in Group Finder runs. The way it works is, instead of granting the synergy to 11 people and disappearing once 3 people use it, it first selects 3 people and only those 3 people have the option to use the synergy at all. And if one of those 3 people don't use it, it will never pass onto the remaining players, no matter how many times you recast your
Inner Rage. Which is why, 3 clueless players not pressing their synergy in a Group Finder run are enough to completely "clog" your
Inner Rage. Which is why I decided to go with
Shield Throw taunt as a default option.
Final Setups
A few examples of final setups you could end up with after applying the situational skills to the base setup
A setup for trash packs in Dungeons
| Front Bar | Back Bar |
|---|---|
| Slot 1: Inner Rage | Slot 1: Razor Caltrops |
| Slot 2: Power Slam | Slot 2: Wield Soul |
| Slot 3: Radiant Ward | Slot 3: Pulsar |
| Slot 4: Restoring Focus | Slot 4: Elemental Blockade |
| Slot 5: Soul Burst | Slot 5: Ulfsild's Contingency |
| Ultimate: Reviving Barrier | Ultimate: Reviving Barrier |
WHAT CHANGES
Inner Rage replaces
Shield Throw. Trash mobs in dungeons don't hit hard so the synergy from
Inner Rage is much more useful than the Major Maim from
Shield Throw
Power Slam replaces
Trample. This will allow us to proc the
Void Bash item set which will stack up smaller enemies
Restoring Focus replaces
Extended Ritual
Razor Caltrops replaces
Restoring Focus on backbar
Pulsar replaces
Elemental Susceptibility. It'll apply Chilled status effect in an AoE which will apply Minor Brittle which increases Critical Damage taken by 10%. Chilled enemies inside of your
Elemental Blockade will also get debuffed with Minor Breach, reducing their armor by 2974
A setup for trash packs in Trials
| Front Bar | Back Bar |
|---|---|
| Slot 1: Shield Throw | Slot 1: Razor Caltrops |
| Slot 2: Ulfsild's Contingency | Slot 2: Wield Soul |
| Slot 3: Radiant Ward | Slot 3: Pulsar |
| Slot 4: Restoring Focus | Slot 4: Elemental Blockade |
| Slot 5: Soul Burst | Slot 5: Charging Maneuver |
| Ultimate: Reviving Barrier | Ultimate: Reviving Barrier |
WHAT CHANGES
Charging Maneuver replaces
Trample and then swaps places with
Ulfsild's Contingency
Restoring Focus replaces
Extended Ritual
Razor Caltrops replaces
Restoring Focus on backbar
Pulsar replaces
Elemental Susceptibility. It'll apply Chilled status effect in an AoE which will apply Minor Brittle which increases Critical Damage taken by 10%. Chilled enemies inside of your
Elemental Blockade will also get debuffed with Minor Breach, reducing their armor by 2974
A setup which focuses on your own survivability
| Front Bar | Back Bar |
|---|---|
| Slot 1: Shield Throw | Slot 1: Restoring Focus |
| Slot 2: Revealing Flare | Slot 2: Wield Soul |
| Slot 3: Radiant Ward | Slot 3: Elemental Susceptibility |
| Slot 4: Extended Ritual | Slot 4: Elemental Blockade |
| Slot 5: Resolving Vigor | Slot 5: Ulfsild's Contingency |
| Ultimate: Reviving Barrier | Ultimate: Reviving Barrier |
WHAT CHANGES
Revealing Flare replaces
Trample. Passively grants Major Protection, reducing damage taken by 10%
Resolving Vigor replaces
Soul Burst
ADDITIONAL INFO
- Since
Resolving Vigor already grants you Minor Resolve, you can change the Affix script on
Ulfsild's Contingency to
Intellect and Endurance
Passives
The only passive you specifically have to skip is
Tri Focus
Some trees are only needed when using situational skills, for example Psijic Order provides nothing without
Race Against Time
Class - Aedric Spear
Piercing Spear - Medium Priority
Spear Wall - High Priority
Burning Light - Low Priority
Balanced Warrior - High Priority
Class - Dawn's Wrath
Enduring Rays - Medium Priority
Prism - High Priority
Illuminate - High Priority
Restoring Spirit - High Priority
Class - Restoring Light
Mending - High Priority
Sacred Ground - High Priority
Light Weaver - Medium Priority
Master Ritualist - Medium Priority
Weapon - One Hand and Shield
Fortress - High Priority
Sword and Board - High Priority
Deadly Bash - Medium Priority
Deflect Bolts - High Priority
Battlefield Mobility - Medium Priority
Weapon - Destruction Staff
Tri Focus - Do Not Unlock
Penetrating Magic - Low Priority
Elemental Force - High Priority
Ancient Knowledge - High Priority
Destruction Expert - Low Priority
Armor - Light Armor
Grace - Low Priority
Evocation - High Priority
Spell Warding - Medium Priority
Prodigy - Medium Priority
Concentration - Low Priority
Armor - Medium Armor
Dexterity - Low Priority
Wind Walker - High Priority
Improved Sneak - Not needed
Agility - Medium Priority
Athletics - High Priority
Armor - Heavy Armor
Resolve - High Priority
Constitution - Medium Priority
Juggernaut - High Priority
Revitalize - High Priority
Rapid Mending - High Priority
Guild - Mages Guild
Persuasive Will - Not needed
Mage Adept - High Priority
Everlasting Magic - High Priority
Magicka Controller - Medium Priority
Might of the Guild - Low Priority
Guild - Psijic Order
Clairvoyance - Not Needed
Spell Orb - Not Needed
Concentrated Barrier - Medium Priority
Deliberation - Not Needed
Alliance War - Support
Magicka Aid - High Priority
Combat Medic - Not needed
Battle Resurrection - Not needed
Race - Your Race
Get all of your racials, no matter which race you are
Craft - Alchemy
Solvent Proficiency - Not needed
Keen Eye: Reagents - Not needed
Medicinal Use - High Priority
Chemistry - Not needed
Laboratory Use - Not needed
Snakeblood - Not needed
Gear
Base Setup
A base setup - the item sets shown are intended for Dungeons specifically, but the weights, traits and enchants are meant for any boss fight
Most support sets provide a similar group DPS increase. The most important thing is making sure your sets don't overlap with other Tank's and Healers' sets, though you can overlap sets which provide imperfect uptimes like
Saxhleel's Champion or
Archdruid Devyric
Switching gear for trash packs isn't worth it unless you're using gear-swap addons
| Gear Slot | Set | Weight/Type | Trait | Enchantment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Head |
Medium | |||
Shoulders |
Light | |||
Chest |
Heavy | |||
Hands |
Heavy | |||
Belt |
Heavy | |||
Legs |
Heavy | |||
Boots |
Heavy | |||
Necklace |
Jewelry | |||
Ring |
Jewelry | |||
Ring |
Jewelry | |||
Frontbar Main Hand |
Any 1-handed weapon | |||
Frontbar Off Hand |
Shield | |||
Backbar Main Hand |
Ice Staff |
Gear that can be better than the setup from the table in specific situations
Vestments of Olorime - replacement for
War Machine when playing without a Healer
Baron Zaudrus - replacement for
Archdruid Devyric if an ally uses
Glacial Colossus or provides Major Vulnerability in any way. The extra Ultimate generation lets you cast your Ultimates more frequently. Applying
Elemental Susceptibility to multiple targets will generate a lot of Ultimate from this set. Use
Assassin's Misery on
Trample to proc it more
Alternative gear that can also be used and might be easier to obtain
It lists all useful gear, even sets that are already in the gear table and Situational tab
Crafted
All of these are tradable and can be bought from other players
Overland
All of these are tradable and can be bought from other players
PvP
All of these are tradable and can be bought from other players
Dungeons
Trials
Monster Sets
Body
Sturdy and
Divines - both are very good options, which one is better depends on the specific encounter
Reinforced - depending on your race and many other aspects you might be over the armor cap, in which case you can change
Reinforced pieces to
Sturdy /
Divines
Jewelry
Harmony and
Infused -
Harmony is stronger whenever you have at least 2 different synergies available to you, which means that
Harmony will be better in the vast majority of situations, but
Infused can be better when playing with randoms or if the specific encounter makes it really difficult for your teammates to provide you synergies
Swift - extremely useful for trash packs
Weapons
Charged - an option for the backbar Ice Staff for trash packs. It will cause
Pulsar to be almost guaranteed to proc Chilled status effect
Infused - an option for the frontbar One Handed weapon when playing without a Healer. You can then combine it with the
Weakening enchant to reduce enemies' damage done
- You can double-bar
War Machine if you want to be able to provide Major Slayer also with your frontbar Ultimate - If you want to provide Minor Brittle, you can replace your frontbar Sword and Shield with an Ice Staff. Use
Charged trait with a
Glyph of Frost enchant. The frontbar Ice Staff should usually be
Armor of the Trainee, but you can also move your backbar set to frontbar and put
Crushing Wall on backbar. You can also frontbar
Destructive Impact when using
Destructive Clench
Other Setups
Starting setup if you only have access to crafted gear
| Gear Slot | Set | Weight/Type | Trait | Enchantment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Head |
Medium | |||
Shoulders |
Light | |||
Chest |
Heavy | |||
Hands |
Heavy | |||
Belt |
Heavy | |||
Legs |
Heavy | |||
Boots |
Heavy | |||
Necklace |
Jewelry | |||
Ring |
Jewelry | |||
Ring |
Jewelry | |||
Frontbar Main Hand |
Any 1-handed weapon | |||
Frontbar Off Hand |
Shield | |||
Backbar Main Hand |
Ice Staff |
Setup if you don't have access to Trial gear
| Gear Slot | Set | Weight/Type | Trait | Enchantment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Head |
Medium | |||
Shoulders |
Light | |||
Chest |
Heavy | |||
Hands |
Heavy | |||
Belt |
Heavy | |||
Legs |
Heavy | |||
Boots |
Heavy | |||
Necklace |
Jewelry | |||
Ring |
Jewelry | |||
Ring |
Jewelry | |||
Frontbar Main Hand |
Any 1-handed weapon | |||
Frontbar Off Hand |
Shield | |||
Backbar Main Hand |
Ice Staff |
Additional Info
Powerful Assault is another good set that doesn't come from a Trial, but it would require you to include
Resolving Vigor or
Echoing Vigor in your boss skill setup
Setup for trash packs, the item sets shown are intended for Dungeons specifically, but the weights, traits and enchants shown are meant for any trash
Dungeon Trash
| Gear Slot | Set | Weight/Type | Trait | Enchantment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Head |
Medium | |||
Shoulders |
Light | |||
Chest |
Heavy | |||
Hands |
Heavy | |||
Belt |
Heavy | |||
Legs |
Heavy | |||
Boots |
Heavy | |||
Necklace |
Jewelry | |||
Ring |
Jewelry | |||
Ring |
Jewelry | |||
Frontbar Main Hand |
Any 1-handed weapon | |||
Frontbar Off Hand |
Shield | |||
Backbar Main Hand |
Ice Staff |
Explanation
Archdruid Devyric changes to
Spaulder of Ruin because
Archdruid Devyric is extremely buggy and has issues hitting moving targets
Saxhleel's Champion changes to
Turning Tide because you don't want to spend your Ultimate in trash
War Machine changes to
Powerful Assault because you don't want to spend your Ultimate in trash and because you can proc it with
Razor Caltrops. Swap your
Razor Caltrops around with
Expansive Frost Cloak when using
Powerful Assault. If you're playing without a Healer keep using
Vestments of Olorime
Void Bash is extremely good for stacking enemies in dungeon trash packs- Backbar Ice Staff trait changes to
Charged so that
Pulsar becomes almost guaranteed to proc Chilled status effect - Jewelry traits change to
Swift as movement speed is extremely useful while running through trash
Trial Trash
A Trash setup for Trials could look like this. Unlike Dungeon trash setup, it doesn't switch away from Ultimate sets because Trial trash packs can be difficult so it's worth spending Ultimate on them. The table shows it with
Pearlescent Ward +
Saxhleel's Champion (Trial Setup 1), but the same changes apply if you're using
Lucent Echoes +
Powerful Assault (Trial Setup 2). If you're using
Powerful Assault, swap
Razor Caltrops with
Expansive Frost Cloak so Caltrops is on your back bar to proc the set, just like in Dungeon Trash setup
| Gear Slot | Set | Weight/Type | Trait | Enchantment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Head |
Medium | |||
Shoulders |
Light | |||
Chest |
Heavy | |||
Hands |
Heavy | |||
Belt |
Heavy | |||
Legs |
Heavy | |||
Boots |
Heavy | |||
Necklace |
Jewelry | |||
Ring |
Jewelry | |||
Ring |
Jewelry | |||
Frontbar Main Hand |
Any 1-handed weapon | |||
Frontbar Off Hand |
Shield | |||
Backbar Main Hand |
Ice Staff |
Setups for tanking Trials
These are just 2 examples of setups the 2 Tanks could use in a PUG Trial run. If you're in a more organized team, the gear your Raid Lead wants you to wear takes priority
Setup 1
| Gear Slot | Set | Weight/Type | Trait | Enchantment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Head |
Medium | |||
Shoulders |
Light | |||
Chest |
Heavy | |||
Hands |
Heavy | |||
Belt |
Heavy | |||
Legs |
Heavy | |||
Boots |
Heavy | |||
Necklace |
Jewelry | |||
Ring |
Jewelry | |||
Ring |
Jewelry | |||
Frontbar Main Hand |
Any 1-handed weapon | |||
Frontbar Off Hand |
Shield | |||
Backbar Main Hand |
Ice Staff |
Setup 2
| Gear Slot | Set | Weight/Type | Trait | Enchantment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Head |
Medium | |||
Shoulders |
Light | |||
Chest |
Heavy | |||
Hands |
Heavy | |||
Belt |
Heavy | |||
Legs |
Heavy | |||
Boots |
Heavy | |||
Necklace |
Jewelry | |||
Ring |
Jewelry | |||
Ring |
Jewelry | |||
Frontbar Main Hand |
Any 1-handed weapon | |||
Frontbar Off Hand |
Shield | |||
Backbar Main Hand |
Ice Staff |
Additional Info
- This setup requires you to fit either
Resolving Vigor or
Echoing Vigor on your backbar
Champion Points
Use these Champion Points as default for Boss and Trash fights respectively. Further below you'll find a list of all useful CPs with explanations on when to use them.
All Useful Champion Points
A full list of useful Champion Points with explanations on when to slot them.
Ironclad - reduces damage taken from direct damage attacks by 6%
Enduring Resolve - reduces damage taken from damage over time attacks by 6%
Duelist's Rebuff - reduces damage taken from single target attacks by 6%
Unassailable - reduces damage taken from area of effect attacks by 6%
Bulwark - increases your armor by 1900 while you have a shield or frost staff equipped, which should be at all times anyway
Focused Mending - increases your single target healing by 10%. Boosts your
Soul Burst,
Resolving Vigor and
Shield Throw's
Sage's Remedy
Race
Mundus
Attributes
Put all 64 points into Health. However, your Max Stamina must be higher than your Max Magicka, because the
Combustion synergy restores your dominant resource and you want it to be Stamina. If you have passives (such as
Gift of Magnus) or item set bonuses that increase Max Magicka, put just enough points into Stamina to keep it higher than your Max Magicka, then put the rest into Health.
Food
Use
Jewels of Misrule as your default.
Orzorga's Smoked Bear Haunch provides slightly higher stats but is expensive.
Potions
Most of the time you should use Tri-Stat potions. They'll greatly improve your sustain.
Heroism potions can provide 100% uptime on Minor Heroism which generates ultimate, but they're expensive.
FAQ
Templar Tank has a lot of group healing built in.
Extended Ritual provides a purge synergy for your team and
Restoring Focus is a strong sustain tool.
Sacred Ground gives you decent block mitigation passively. The main weakness compared to a Subclass Tank is less group utility overall. It handles all Veteran Dungeon and Trial content though.
Nord is the best race for tanking in ESO. The
Rugged racial passive grants 2600 armor which translates to roughly 7% damage reduction near armor cap, and
Stalwart gives you ultimate generation. You can complete any content on any race, but non-Nords will have to adjust their build to compensate - see the Race section for more details.
THANKS FOR READING
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Head
Shoulders
Chest
Hands
Belt
Legs
Boots
Necklace
Ring
Frontbar Main Hand
Frontbar Off Hand