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Templar Tank Build - ESO Guide

Tank Two Bar Pure Class Templar
Up to date for: Update 49 - 10th April 2026
Last changed: Update 49 - 10th April 2026

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.

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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.

Shield Throw Trample Radiant Ward Ulfsild's Contingency Soul Burst Reviving Barrier
Restoring Focus Soul Burst Elemental Susceptibility Elemental Blockade Extended Ritual Reviving Barrier
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: Ulfsild's Contingency Slot 4: Elemental Blockade
Slot 5: Soul Burst Slot 5: Extended Ritual
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
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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

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
InnerRageIcon

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

Inner Rage Power Slam Radiant Ward Ulfsild's Contingency Soul Burst Reviving Barrier
Restoring Focus Soul Burst Pulsar Elemental Blockade Razor Caltrops Reviving Barrier
Front Bar Back Bar
Slot 1: Inner Rage Slot 1: Restoring Focus
Slot 2: Power Slam Slot 2: Wield Soul
Slot 3: Radiant Ward Slot 3: Pulsar
Slot 4: Ulfsild's Contingency Slot 4: Elemental Blockade
Slot 5: Soul Burst Slot 5: Razor Caltrops
Ultimate: Reviving Barrier Ultimate: Reviving Barrier

WHAT CHANGES

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

Weapon

Armor

Guild

Alliance War

Racial

Craft

Class - Aedric Spear

Piercing SpearPiercing Spear - Low Priority

Spear WallSpear Wall - High Priority

Burning LightBurning Light - Low Priority

Balanced WarriorBalanced Warrior - High Priority

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 that can be better than the setup from the table in specific situations

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

Body

Weapons

  • Weakening - an option for the frontbar One Handed weapon when playing without a Healer. You can then combine it with the Infused trait to reduce enemies' damage done

Other Setups

Starting setup if you only have access to crafted gear

Gear Slot Set Weight/Type Trait Enchantment
Head Head Druid's Braid Medium Divines / Sturdy Tri-Stat
Shoulders Shoulders Druid's Braid Light Divines / Sturdy Tri-Stat
Chest Chest Wretched Vitality Heavy Reinforced Tri-Stat
Hands Hands Wretched Vitality Heavy Divines / Sturdy Tri-Stat
Belt Belt Wretched Vitality Heavy Divines / Sturdy Tri-Stat
Legs Legs Wretched Vitality Heavy Reinforced Tri-Stat
Feet Boots Wretched Vitality Heavy Reinforced Tri-Stat
Neck Necklace Druid's Braid Jewelry Harmony / Infused Reduce Magicka Cost
Ring Ring Druid's Braid Jewelry Harmony / Infused Reduce Magicka Cost
Ring Ring Druid's Braid Jewelry Harmony / Infused Reduce Magicka Cost
Mainhand Frontbar Main Hand Druid's Braid Any 1-handed weapon Decisive Hardening
Offhand Frontbar Off Hand Druid's Braid Shield Divines / Sturdy Tri-Stat
Mainhand 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
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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.

WarfareWarfare
Ironclad
6% Direct Damage Reduction
Reduces damage taken from direct damage attacks
Duelist's Rebuff
6% ST Damage Reduction
Reduces damage taken from single target attacks
Bulwark
1900 Armor
Increases your armor while you have a shield or frost staff equipped, which should be at all times anyway
Enduring Resolve
6% DoT Damage Reduction
Reduces damage taken from damage over time attacks
If you're already at the armor cap
Replace Bulwark with Unassailable
FitnessFitness
Boundless Vitality
1400 Max Health
Great for survivability in fights without max HP based damage
Fortified
1731 Armor
Can help you reach the armor cap if you're missing it in other parts of the build
Bastion
15% stronger damage shields
Boosts your Radiant Ward, Ulfsild's Contingency and Reviving Barrier
Bracing Anchor
20% Block Mitigation, -16% Movement Speed
Great for boss fights with constant direct blockable damage. Don't combine with Immovable as the combined movement speed penalties will reduce your movement speed to 0, which also prevents you from dodge rolling
If you're already at the armor cap
Replace Fortified with Shield Master
Craft Craft
Steed's Blessing
20% Movement Speed out of combat
Extremely useful utility
Quality of Life
Green Champion Points don't affect Combat, choose whatever Quality of Life you prefer

All Useful Champion Points

A full list of useful Champion Points with explanations on when to slot them.



Race

Nord
Best for Tanking
Nord
Why Nord
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 adjust your build to compensate.
Rugged Rugged 2600 Armor
Stalwart Stalwart 1500 Max Stamina, 0.5 Ultimate per second
Reveler Reveler 1000 Max Health, 4620 Frost Resistance


Mundus

The Atronach
Default
The Atronach
310 Magicka Recovery (507 with Divines)
When to use
The best Mundus for tanking. The Magicka Recovery helps sustain your skills throughout a fight.
The Lady
Armor Cap
The Lady
2744 Armor (4489 with 7 Divines)
When to use
Use if you're struggling to reach the armor cap (33,000). It increases your Armor by 2744, or 4489 with Divines trait on your armor pieces.


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.

Health
64
Stamina
0
Magicka
0
All points into Health. Use this if your Max Stamina is already naturally higher than your Max Magicka
Health
≈45
Stamina
≈19
Magicka
0
Put just enough points into Stamina to make Max Stamina higher than Max Magicka, then put the rest into Health. The exact split depends on your gear and passives

Food

Use Jewels of Misrule as your default. Orzorga's Smoked Bear Haunch provides slightly higher stats but is expensive.

Max Health Stamina Recovery Magicka Recovery
Provides slightly lower stats than Orzorga's Smoked Bear Haunch but is significantly cheaper, making it the recommended practical choice.
Max Health Stamina Recovery Magicka Recovery
The best food for tanking. Provides Max Health, Stamina Recovery and Magicka Recovery. Extremely expensive.
Orzorga's Red Frothgar
Permablocking
Max Health Magicka Recovery
Provides more Max Health and Magicka Recovery but no Stamina Recovery. Stamina Recovery doesn't work while blocking, so this can be a decent option if you're permablocking.
Bewitched Sugar Skulls
Specific Fights
Max Health Max Stamina Max Magicka
Provides maximum resources instead of recoveries. Decent for fights where you need to block for a very long time during a specific period but the pressure is non-existent outside of it, so you can recuperate Stamina by heavy attacking freely - for example the 1st boss in Lucent Citadel or Roksa the Warped in Bal Sunnar.
Candied Jester's Coin
Specific Fights
Max Stamina Magicka Recovery
Provides only Max Stamina and Magicka Recovery with no Max Health. Useful 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

Tri-Stat Potion
Default Tri-Stat Potion
Restore Health Restore Stamina Restore Magicka

Most of the time you should use Tri-Stat potions. They'll greatly improve your sustain.

Heroism Potion
Situational Heroism Potion
Minor Heroism Restore Stamina Restore Magicka

Heroism potions can provide 100% uptime on Minor Heroism which generates ultimate, but they're expensive.

Gameplay

Unhallowed Grave
Dungeon
Rockgrove
Trial
Sanity's Edge
Trial
Lucent Citadel
Trial
Unhallowed Grave
Dungeon Veteran Hard Mode
Rockgrove
Trial Veteran
Sanity's Edge
Trial Veteran
Lucent Citadel
Trial Veteran

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.



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