Best Tank Monster Sets in ESO

Best Tank Monster Sets

Hello everyone! In this article I'll be discussing monster sets that are useful for tanking in ESO for both dungeons and trials. I'll be categorizing them into three groups: essential, situational, and extremely situational.

Monster sets are 2-piece item sets that come from dungeons, and they’re available in all three weights - light, medium, and heavy. The headpiece of each set drops from the last boss of its dungeon, and the shoulders come from Undaunted Coffers, which can be bought for keys. You can obtain these keys by doing daily quests in one of the Undaunted Enclaves, which are located in each alliance’s main city: Elden Root, Mournhold, and Wayrest.

There are also a few monster sets that come from the Imperial City Open PvP zone instead. The headpieces drop from bosses patrolling the districts, and the shoulders come from coffers that can be bought for Tel Var in each alliance’s base in the Imperial City Sewers. Tel Var is a currency that drops from PvE enemies in Imperial City, and you lose half of it when killed by another player.

Essential Sets

Tremorscale

First on the list is Tremorscale - a monster set that drops from Volenfell dungeon located in Alik’r Desert. This is a non-DLC dungeon and as every non-DLC dungeon it’s very easy to complete. With Tremorscale, taunting an enemy will cause a Duneripper to burst out of the ground after 1 second, dealing damage within 4 meters and reducing their armor by 8% of your armor for 15 seconds. It has a cooldown of 10 seconds so you can keep up 100% uptime. When you’re at an armor cap, which is 33000, Tremorscale will provide 2640 penetration. If you’re also using the Puncturing Remedy set you’ll have additional armor after proccing it, approximately 6000, so at the moment of proccing Tremorscale you’ll have 39000 armor total, which will cause Tremorscale to provide 3120 penetration. Another thing to note is that for Tremorscale to work you need to actually taunt something and not just use a taunting ability, which means that it won’t proc when using for example Pierce Armor on an enemy that is overtaunted.

Most of the stuff said here about Tremorscale will be a repetition of what I said in the video about 5-piece item sets when talking about Crimson Oath’s Rive so here we go. Depending on many factors you’ll need that set or Crimson Oath or both. For example if your damage dealers are in full medium, which is the meta in trials, you’ll need both Tremorscale and Crimson Oath, or instead of having these 2 sets on a tank you can use Alkosh on a damage dealer which is the preferred option in optimized groups, since Alkosh on its own will provide almost the same amount of penetration as these 2 sets combined. With Alkosh you’ll be a tiny bit short of reaching pen cap, and you can fix that by having a Sorcerer use Crystal Weapon or having your DDs use a single light armor piece.

Under my previous video there was a short discussion whether penetration sets are worth running in pug groups, since a DD in full medium armor will miss out on 17% damage and I said that a half-measure of running just Tremorscale would be best in my opinion, which is different from pug setups I was recommending in my previous guides, but this discussion is pointless since you can’t optimize anything around pugs. Tremorscale will provide a bigger bonus if you happen to get grouped with medium armor players, but it’ll be completely useless for light armor players, while Archdruid, which is the option I was recommending in my previous guides, will provide a smaller bonus but it will be useful to everyone regardless of their armor type. In the end I can’t really say which is better since I don’t really have any data on which armor type is being more widely used.

Archdruid Devyric

Next we have Archdruid - a monster set that drops from Earthen Root Enclave dungeon located in High Isle. It requires you to have the Lost Depths DLC and I’d rate its difficulty as hard compared to other DLC dungeons. With Archdruid, dealing damage with a heavy (or medium attack, which is not specified in the tooltip) will summon a bear that after 1.2 seconds will deal damage in front of him applying Major Vulnerability to up to 6 enemies for 7 seconds, which increases their damage taken by 10%. It has a cooldown of 15 seconds which means that you can achieve up to 47% uptime.

In trials this set is great for example in fights with a steady influx of new adds, like for example Bahsei in Rockgrove, where this set will help you constantly debuff incoming adds, which is something you can’t do with Nazaray. It’s also great in trash if your Necromancer can’t get their Colossus ready in time. It’s great in pugs where you won’t have a raid lead managing Colossi ultimates with Nazaray.You can also alternate 2 Archdruids and completely remove the need for managing Colossi ultimates for a near 100% uptime of Major Vuln. It’s also the best Monster Set to run on a tank in dungeons. I also have to mention that this set is extremely buggy on uneven terrain, overall the hitbox is very unforgiving and if you proc it on an enemy and they move towards you even slightly, the monster set will not hit them.

Encratis's Behemoth

Encratis - a monster set that drops from Black Drake Villa dungeon located in Gold Coast. It requires you to have the Flames of Ambition DLC and I’d rate its difficulty as medium compared to other DLC dungeons. Encratis gives you a 12 meter Behemoth Aura for 12 seconds after dealing fire damage. It has a cooldown of 15 seconds, which means that you can achieve up to 80% uptime when constantly dealing fire damage. Enemies inside of that aura take 5% more flame damage, and allies inside it take 5% less flame damage. Flame damage is a very prevalent type of damage so this set will increase your group’s DPS by a decent amount. There might be some weird team comps where this set won’t do good, but it does well in all meta comps. The flame damage reduction is also a decent bonus on some fights, like for example Arkasis fight in Stone Garden dungeon.

Apart from that Arkasis fight, this set isn’t really worth running in dungeons, as there are better monster sets like Archdruid, Tremorscale or Nazaray, but it’s very good in trials. It’s very easy to proc on a Dragonknight tank for example with Burning Embers or Engulfing Flames. In trash Flames of Oblivion skill is really good for that purpose because you can activate it before engaging in combat and it’ll activate without you wasting any Global Cooldown, but in boss fights Engulfing FLames and Burning Embers are better because they tick way more frequently so they’ll proc Encratis on cooldown. On other tank classes you’ll have to use either Scalding rune or if you’re having trouble with fitting it in you can also use Elemental Blockade with an Inferno staff backbar

Spaulder of Ruin

Next, Spaulder of Ruin - now this is not actually a Monster Set, it’s a Mythic, but because it’s a shoulder piece you cannot use it combined with another 2-piece monster set, so it basically replaces a monster set. With Spaulder of Ruin equipped, Activating crouch activates and deactivates a 12 meter Aura of Pride. Up to 6 allies in the aura gain 260 Weapon and Spell Damage. It Reduces your Health, Magicka, and Stamina Recovery by 70 for every ally benefiting from your Aura of Pride.

Spaulder is a great option for both trials and dungeons, in optimized trial groups you’ll always want to bring one Spaulder, it’s so useful that if you don’t have space on your supports you’ll put it on a Damage Dealer instead. It will unfortunately gut your sustain so you shouldn’t be using it when you’re struggling with survival. It’s best to pair it with one piece Magma Incarnate as it provides 129 stamina and magicka recovery which will slightly offset Spaulder’s debuff.

To obtain the Spaulder of Ruin you’ll have to dig up 5 antiquity leads:
-Aureal Armor Glaze, which drops from Shivering Shrine world boss in Stonefalls
-Clannfear Leather Strapping, which drops from any Clannfear, so it’s best to farm it in this spot in Grahtwood called Laeloria
-Petrified Daedroth Horn, which drops from The Abomination Cradle world boss in Deadlands
-Void Alloy Lame Plates, which drops from safeboxes in Blackwood
-Void Alloy Rivets, which drop from any Dremora

Nazaray

Nazaray - a monster set that drops from Shipwright’s Regret dungeon located in Rivenspire. It requires you to have the Ascending Tides DLC and I’d rate its difficulty as medium compared to other DLC dungeons. When wearing Nazaray, using an Ultimate ability will extend the duration of all Major and Minor Debuffs on the closest 6 enemies within 12 meters by 1 second for every 20 Ultimate points spent, which means that with 500 ultimate you’ll extend the effects 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 Pearls of Ehlnofey. Its main purpose is extending the Major Vulnerability debuff which increases enemies’ damage taken by 10% and comes from Necromancer’s Colossus ultimate, Turning Tide 5-piece set and Archdruid Devyric monster set. With Nazaray you’ll only need 2 Colossi ultimates to keep up near 100% uptime on Major Vulnerability. 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 so they don’t have to cast Destructive Clench all the time. Another situational use for Nazaray is extending Major Brittle provided by the Nunatak monster set, which I’ll explain in a moment because we’re moving into the situational category, and the first item set we’ll talk about is Nunatak

Situational

Nunatak

Nunatak is a monster sets that drops from Imperial City PvP zone, the helmet drops from the Nunatak boss that has a chance to spawn in Memorial District, the shoulders can be purchased from a Tel Var equipment lockbox merchant located in the sewer headquarters of your alliance for 20,000 Tel Var Stones.

When inflicting Frost damage, a 6-meter area will be created beneath the target for 6 seconds, dealing Frost damage to enemies every second and adding a stacking 25% slow for 4 seconds. Once 4 stacks are gained, the enemy will be immobilized and suffer from Major Brittle for 4 seconds which increases critical damage taken by 20%.

So this set has a long wind-up, lasts only 4 seconds and has a 15 second cooldown. Where can it be used then? On its own, its only useful in trash packs where you absolutely cannot generate enough ultimate for a Horn in time, so you use Nunatak to get at least some critical damage, we used it in a single trash pack in Sunspire world record and that’s it, it’s extremely extremely situational, only useful in very optimized groups going for trifectas or scores who know exactly how their ultimate rotation is going to look like. However when used with Nazaray, this set can be useful in very short or phase based boss fights, like Sunspire. You first use a Horn to gain 10 seconds of Major Force, which is necessary because of Nunatak’s windup, then you proc Nunatak and extend it with Nazaray used with 500 ultimate. This will work only in short fights or phase based fights like in Sunspire, as in constant static fights you’d have gaps due to Nazaray’s cooldown. This allows you to reach the critical damage cap without using Saxhleel which is basically trading a 5 piece item set slot for a Monster set slot.

Engine Guardian

Engine Guardian - a monster set that drops from Darkshade Caverns 2 dungeon located in Deshaan. This is a non-DLC dungeon and as every non-DLC dungeon it’s very easy to complete. When you use an ability that costs resources, you have a 25% chance to summon a Dwemer automation to restore 550 Stamina or Magicka or 1955 Health to you every 0.5 seconds for 6 seconds. This effect can occur once every 10 seconds.

This set provides a lot of sustain and is one of the best selfish monster sets when you need to focus on your own survival. It unfortunately can be a bit inconsistent, but assuming average luck it will provide 601 health, 169 stamina and 169 magicka per second.

Roksa the Warped

Roksa the Warped - a monster set that drops from Bal Sunnar dungeon located in Stonefalls. It requires you to have the Scribes of Fate DLC and I’d rate its difficulty as hard compared to other DLC dungeons. Each second you are in combat, gain a stack of Darklight, up to 30 stacks max. Each stack of Darklight increases your Stamina, Magicka, and Health Recovery by 8. Each second you are out of combat, lose a stack of Darklight.

After 30 seconds this set will provide 310 of all recoveries if we count in the 1-piece bonus which provides 70 of each of them. With Major Endurance and Intellect which you should have at all times from your potion this will provide 201 of all resources per second. If you happen to also have Minor Endurance and Intellect this will be boosted up to 224 and it can also be boosted further by various class passives, such as for example Daedric Protection. This is more than what Engine Guardian provides and is way more consistent, Roksa’s only downside is that stamina recovery doesn’t work while blocking which is why Engine Guardian is a better defensive sustain set for less experienced players.

Vykosa

Vykosa - a monster set that drops from Moon Hunter Keep dungeon located in Reaper’s March. It requires you to have the Wolfhunter DLC and I’d rate its difficulty as medium compared to other DLC dungeons. When you Bash an enemy you've taunted, you apply Major Cowardice for 8 seconds, which reduces their weapon and spell damage by 430, which is approximately 11% damage reduction. It has a cooldown of 15 seconds so you can keep up to 53% uptime.

Major Cowardice can help a lot with group’s survivability so it’s very important to keep this debuff up in fights like for example Tideborn Taleria which deals massive damage to the entire group with Maelstrom ability. The reason Vykosa is only situational is because there is a much better source of Major Cowardice - Nightblade’s Aspect of Terror skill which applies Major Cowardice for 10 seconds and does it in an area instead of only against a single target. However if you simply don’t have a Nightblade support in your group Vykosa is better than nothing

Extremely Situational

Bloodspawn

Starting off with Bloodspawn - a monster set that drops from Spindleclutch II dungeon located in Glenumbra. This is a non-DLC dungeon and as every non-DLC dungeon it’s very easy to complete. When you take damage, you have a 6% chance to generate 13 Ultimate and increase your Armor by 3731 for 5 seconds. This effect can occur once every 5 seconds. The uptime on the armor buff will be way too low for you to tailor your build around, if you were to balance your armor around Bloodspawn you’d be at 29k without the buff so you’d be taking 10% more damage whenever Bloodspawn isn’t procced. But that’s not why this set landed in Extremely Situational, it’s because of the ulti gen part. If you’re using Elf Bane set with Magma Shell to get around some one-shot mechanics you can use Bloodspawn to improve your ulti-gen a bit and make it safer. If you’re more interested about how it works I made a video called “Actual Immortal Tank Build” - most of it is about completely immortal build which has no use for optimized groups, but there’s timestamp with a watered down version of it which is actually useful for example in Dreadsail Reef or Cloudrest

Baron Zaudrus

Baron Zaudrus - a monster set that drops from The Cauldron dungeon located in Deshaan. It requires you to have the Flames of Ambition DLC and I’d rate its difficulty as very easy compared to other DLC dungeons. Applying a status effect to an enemy grants you a stack of Zaudrus's Ambition for 10 seconds, up to 3 stacks max. When you gain 3 stacks, the stacks are removed and you gain 4 Ultimate. On gaining Ultimate, you cannot gain additional stacks of Zaudrus's Ambition for 1 second.

This set can be a nice boost to your ulti-gen if your job already involves applying lots of status effects, one example that I can give where this set was useful is the previous world record of Sunspire in the Nahvintaas, the previous one because in the current one I’ve used Nunatak but I decided to still mention Baron Zaudrus because not every team will have the coordination required to make use of Nunatak.

Magma Incarnate

Magma Incarnate - a monster set that drops from The Dread Cellar dungeon located in Deshaan. It requires you to have the Flames of Ambition DLC and I’d rate its difficulty as hard compared to other DLC dungeons. When you heal yourself or a group member with a single target heal ability, grant the lowest Health group member within 28 meters Minor Courage  which increases their Weapon and Spell Damage by 215 and Minor Resolve which increases their Armor by 2974 for 10 seconds. This buff will then bounce to a nearby group member within 8 meters, up to 3 times, applying Minor Courage and Minor Resolve for 10 seconds. It has a cooldown of 15 seconds so you can keep up 67% uptime. It won’t bounce twice to the same person.

This set is only useful in dungeons. It’s a decent alternative to Spaulder of Ruin or Archdruid. It provides less weapon damage than Spaulder of Ruin and with a lower uptime, but it doesn’t screw up your sustain and it also applies this buff to yourself which will improve your healing, and it also provides Minor Resolve which will provide around 6% damage mitigation to your teammates. If you as a tank were at 30k armor without this buff then it would be providing you with 8.31% damage mitigation, but the thing is that with only 67% uptime you shouldn't be balancing your armor around it and you should aim for reaching armor cap without accounting for Magma Incarnate.

You also have to be aware of other sources of Minor Courage as if any of these is present it’ll make Magma Incarnate useless. The most important source of Minor Courage is the Claw of Yolnahkriin set. In my other guides i'm recommending this set for trash packs in dungeons but I’m always taking it off for bosses and replacing it with Turning Tide. Next one is Oakensoul ring, it provides permanent Minor Courage so if your DDs are using it, your Magma Incarnate is useless. There’s also Pack Leader, werewolf’s ultimate ability, this morph is the tank morph so it’s unlikely you’ll see a DD werewolf using it, but if you’re a werewolf tank yourself you should know Magma Incarnate will be useless for you. Then there’s the Crusader which you’ll most likely only find in optimized in trial groups.Then there’s even more niche stuff like Pangrit Denmother, but it’s a tank set you just gotta know not to run it with Magma, there’s Phoenix Moth Tutelage but it’s straight up inferior to other 5-piece Minor Courage sets, because it doesn’t provide 100% and because it does not proc on overhealing. There’s also Nightblade’s Power Extraction skill but its veeery unlikely you’ll have 3 Nightblades using that

Lord Warden

And the last set for today - Lord Warden - a monster set that drops from the Imperial City Prison dungeon located in Imperial City. It requires you to have the Imperial City DLC but it’s free to claim in the crown store and I’d rate its difficulty as very easy compared to other DLC dungeons. When you take damage, you have a 50% chance to summon a shadow orb for 10 seconds that increases the armor of everyone within 8 meters by 3180. This effect can occur once every 10 seconds so you can get uptime very close to 100% if you’re constantly taking damage.

As long as the fight doesn’t involve too much movement and you’re always close to your group, this set can be great to improve your and your group’s survivability. 50% proc chance is good enough to balance your armor value around it, so it’s a great option especially for non-Nord characters who would struggle with reaching armor cap otherwise, it also provides 1.5k armor with its 1-piece bonus. The 3k armor should provide around 6% damage mitigation to your teammates.

And that's it. If you want to find more tanking content check out my YouTube channel - Hyperioxes