Guide [ESO] A Tanking Primer Guide

[Odin047]

A Tanking Primer for ESO

By Phazius

Hi everyone, Phazius here with an article that is intended to be a primer for tanking mechanics in The Elder Scrolls Online, covering everything from mechanics and stats to gearing and core skills. I get a lot of requests to make a guide for this so, here it is! First though, I would like to point out that the ZeniMax article “Inside ESO Dungeons” is remarkably accurate on how things still work, despite the fact that it is one of the older news pieces on the official site.

Core Mechanics

There are a ton of things going on with each pull in the instanced dungeons, where pack sizes range between 8-10 enemies at a time. This may be overwhelming for an average tank, coming from other MMOs where they are expected to grab everything and hold aggro. ESO’s mechanics don’t support this and will probably get you killed, however there are ways of dealing with large groups. Lets start with a break down of a pull.

 

 

Here is the first pull of Veteran Banished Cells. There are 6 skeletons that are a mix of bow and melee, and that Flame Atronach in the back. How I approach this pack is to apply some AoE CC to the center group of skeletons, and move on to taunt the Atronach, which I view as the largest threat here. This is one of the core things that is different about Tanking in ESO, and is probably one the first things that will seperate the good from the bad; identifying the threats of each pack. Lets take a look at 2 other great examples from Banished Cells.

 

 

This hallway is a good example of how packs can be split to give you a bit of extra time before everything engages, it all pulls eventually but you can stagger them. The big threats in this pack is the Atronach in the back but you do need to keep an eye on the 3 Dremora with staffs, they are casters that need to be bashed if they start casting. As an added bonus, after this pack is cleared, a large Clannfear comes charging in. I’m not sure if he is on a timer or part of the pack because we usually clear it pretty fast.

 

 

Another 7 mob pack and, again, there is a Flame Atronach here but he is not the largest threat, so I hit it and move on. The largest threat is the guy with the large axe in the very back by that crystal, and the 3 staff users just in-front of him which you should keep an eye on for bashing.

 

Ok Phaz, large targets are cool and all but what about the rest of the pack? Well, you can influence them through good positioning and CC. Something interesting I noticed is that just by standing next to an enemy, you generate some threat on it. How you can get the most out of this is by standing next to enemies that don’t have anyone hitting them, which makes you a threat. In addition to taking as little damage as possible, it is very much our job to bring CC to deal everything else, this is especially true when doing speed clears. AoE roots are probably the most powerful tool available, but not every class has one. CC also causes high amounts of threat, but I am currently unsure if CC skills will cause additional threat to enemies that are immune to CC like bosses, flying creatures or very large enemies.

 

If you are not a class that has an AoE root, you have a few reliable options looking outside class lines and weapon lines. This really leaves us with very few options. Well one, really, which is the Volcanic Rune morph of Fire Rune in the Mages Guild; a placed AoE that cause an AoE stun for 4 seconds, which is probably my go-to equivalent.

 

Ok, but what about bosses? Luckily, they made holding aggro on a boss fairly easy; you just need to keep a Taunt effect active, which frees up our attention span to deal with the action timer and mechanics. What is the Action Timer? It’s what I call the global timer on which bosses take actions. This generally is between 2-4 seconds, and unique boss actions also have their own timers, which means every 2 seconds a boss will take an action, which could be a basic attack, or a mechanic like a fire breath or something. How can we take advantage of this? You can pre-block “light attacks”, be ready for “heavy attacks” (some bosses only use heavy attacks) and always be prepared to react whenever something is happening, like a frontal cone or other effect. Another benefit of pre-blocking is that you can easily move into a bash, if needed.

Stats and Action Costs

Base Stats

• Health: 150+20 per level gained (1130 at 50)+10 per VR gained (1220 at VR10)
• Magicka: 100+20 per level gained (1080 at 50)+10 per VR gained (1170 at VR10)
• Stamina: 100+20 per level gained (1080 at 50)+10 per VR gained (1170 at VR10)
• Spell Resistance: 120+20 per level gained (1100 at 50)

Gain per point spent (49 total)

• Health +15
• Magicka +10
• Stamina +10

Regeneration ticks every 2 seconds in combat

• Health 35
• Magicka 59
• Stamina 59

Combat action costs

• Dodge Roll: 420 Stamina (there is no additional cost for rolling out of a root.)
• Blocking: 216 Stamina base cost
• Blocking Damage Reduction: 50% base reduction
• Bash: 216 Stamina base
• Break Free: 560 Stamina
• Sprint Cast: 55 Stamina per second*
• Stealthing Cost: 11 Stamina per second while moving*

* Not affected by Cost Reduction effects.

Veteran Rank 10 Caps (Soft and Hard)

• Max Health starts at 2550
• Max Magicka starts at 1950
• Max Stamina assuming starts at 1950
• Mana Regen starts at 80
• Stamina Regen starts at 80
• Health Regens starts at 50
• Armor starts at 1870 (35%) and DRs very very hard up to 2600 (50%) as a hard cap.
• Assuming Spell Resistance is the same, it starts soft capping at the same point (1870).
• Weapon Damage starts at 185
• Crit chance does NOT soft cap

Ability Scaling

• Stamina Skills scale with Stamina
• Magicka Skills scale with Magicka
• Weapon Skills only use weapon damage, they do not benefit from spell power
• Everything else benefits from spell power
• If it is a melee spell, like Searing Strike or Assassin’s Blade, it uses Melee crit, and mostly check against armor for some reason…
• Bow uses Melee crit but does not count as a melee hit.
• Melee and Bow light/heavy scale with Stamina.
• Staves light/heavy scale with Stamina (evidence here https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7003/13320719244_39c1457ef0_o.png)
• Light vs Heavy per weapon please reference this thread (http://tamrielfoundry.com/topic/light-attacks-vs-heavy-and-igneous-weapons)

Gear and Equipment

I know its fun to mess around with different armor combinations and I know Light Armor tanking works, but it is not optimal. In terms of what a tank wants, Heavy Armor gives us the most; additional armor, health regen, healing recieved and most importantly reduced block cost. However, because a lot of encounters have mixed damage, it is best complemented by 2 Light Armor, resulting in the largest increase to our spell resistance and most builds rely heavily on magicka skills because our stamina is mostly taken up by blocking/bashing/Puncture. Something I haven’t played with is 2 Medium for the stamina regen and dodge cost reduction, which is something that could be considered, on top of Medium pieces just having more armor than light. In short, no less than 5 pieces of heavy and then 2 more of whatever is good for your build or the fight is the best way to go.

On top of what type of armor you are using, your enchants are also a key part of your gear. Whether you are stacking magicka or stamina, you need to make sure you always have enough stamina recovery to keep blocking. This can be done by using Block and Bash cost reducing glyphs on your jewelery. The other important consideration is set bonuses. I have included the ones that I know of that are good for tanking.

Crafted

• Twilights Embrace – (3pc) 10% healing recieved
• Hist Bark – (3pc) 200 Disease Resistanace,  (5pc) 20% dodge while blocking
• Alessia’s Bulwark – (3pc) Adds 100 Armor, (5pc) Reduce being damaged by a melee attack has a 10% chance to reduce attacker’s power by 10% (needs testing)
• Song of Lamae – (3 items) Adds 11 Health Recovery, (5 items) When Health drops below 30% deal 8 Magic Damage to the attacker and recover health equal to the damage dealt. 30 second cooldown.

Dropped

• Dragon Guard – (3pc) Reduce Ultimate costs by 20% (Only comes on helmet, Chest, Sword, Shield VR1)
• Warlock – (3pc) Once per minute, gain 33% of your maximum magicka, when you are below 33% of your magicka (Only comes on Helmet, Chest, Ring, Neck VR1)
• Unassailable –  (3pc) 13 Health Recovery (5pc) While blocking, increase armor and spell resistance by 10% (Only comes in Helmet, Chest, Ring, Neck, Shield. Any VR)
• Ebon Armory (3pc) Adds 75 Max Health (4pc) Adds 10 Healing Taken (5pc) Increases your group’s max health by 100. (I am unsure what pieces it comes in but presumably Helmet, Chest, Pants, Shoulders, Boots. VR5 or VR10)

Skill Progression (Leveling)

I was asked to include a guide on what to do while leveling as a Tank. My best suggestion, really, is to always make sure you are using 1 class skill from each line. You probably want to be wearing 5 pieces of Heavy, 1 piece of Light and 1 piece of Medium just to level up those skill lines. This leaves you with 1-2 slots to rank up extra skills that you will or may want once you are max level.

 

 

http://tamrielfoundry.com/2014/03/tanking-primer/