ESO Arcanist One Bar PvP Tank Build

This guide gives gear, skills, champion points, and consumables for an ESO Arcanist One Bar PvP Tank Build Guide!

This build has been updated for the Update 42 patch, the Gold Road for the Elder Scrolls Online.

Why Should You Play the ESO Arcanist One Bar PvP Tank Build?

Welcome to the ESO Arcanist One Bar PvP Tank Build for The Elder Scrolls Online. The Arcanist uses abilities to create and consume Cruxes, small triangular glyphs floating around the character (3 max). You will use specific skills to generate Cruxes and additional abilities that consume them, amplifying abilities and triggering important class passives.

Crux consumption could provide more damage, longer duration, cheaper resource cost, and more healing. Additionally, it generates and activates important passives. For example, crux consumption can give you more weapon/spell or critical damage. The more you use Cruxes, the better.

The following brief guide explains the combat with the ESO Arcanist class in builds:

1. Use one primary skill as a tank, damage dealer, or healer to generate Crux.
2. Consume that Crux with one or two skills for better damage, healing, and defenses.
3. Start building Crux again to use the other skill for another in-combat advantage.
4. In between combing Crux, maintain your buffs, healing, and damage over time skills.
5. Your build wants to find the sweet spot of constantly generating Crux and consuming it for bonuses.
6. You don’t want your build to have zero Crux or constantly three without a “dump” skill.

If you are looking for information about the Arcanist and everything we know about the class check out our The Elder Scrolls Online: Arcanist Class Guide.

ESO Arcanist One Bar PvP Tank Build Features and Mechanics

Below are some of the features found using the ESO Arcanist One Bar PvP Tank Build in the Elder Scrolls Online:

• Class – Arcanist
• Weapon One – Sword and Shield
• Armor Types: 5 Heavy, 1 Medium, 1 Light
• Mythic: Oakensoul
• Race: Imperial
• Infection: Vampire (stage 3)
• Attributes: 64 Health
• Mundus Stone: Atronach
• Scribing: Ulfsild’s Contingency, Shield Throw, Soul Burst

Skills

Bar One: Sword and Shield

• Sword and Shield Consumes stamina and has a great ultimate.
• Frost Staff, can consume magicka to block, the same mitigation, or take out tri-focus for stamina blocking. The benefit of Frost Staff is, you don’t cut your sword and shield trait in half AND you have range. For these builds, if you don’t run sword and shield abilities/ultimate, use frost.

Revealing Flare (Skill Line : Support) – Slotted for major protection.

Defensive Stance (Morph of Defensive Posture | Skill Line : One Hand and Shield) – Increases block mitigation and reduces blocking cost, while providing a shield and reflecting a projectile back at your opponent.

Evolving Runemend (Morph of Runemend | Skill Line : Curative Runeforms) – Burst heal and heal over time that also generates your crux.

Runeguard of Freedom (Morph of Runic Defense | Skill Line : Soldier of Apocrypha) – Provides a burst heal, armor, and cc immunity when dropped below 50% life and gives Minor Resolve to you and your group.

Spiteward of the Lucid Mind (Morph of Runespite Ward | Skill Line : Soldier of Apocrypha) – A huge damage shield that retaliates reflecting damage back. Consumes your crux to refund part of this ability’s cost.

Gibbering Shield (Skill Line : Soldier of Apocrypha) – A huge damage shield that reflects damage.

Scribing Skills & Grimoires – ESO One Bar PvP Tank Build

Ulfsild’s Contingency, Shield Throw, and Soul Burst are the best Grimoires (skills) for a PvP Tank build in ESO. Contingency grants damage reduction and damage shield, while Shield Throw can act as a pull or ranged taunt with Major Evasion. Soul burst is helpful for shield and ultimate generation. The key here is looking at your skills and determining what buffs are missing between your skills and Oakensoul, then choosing skills that fill those gaps. There are some options included here, but you should try the build out first, then see if you want more shield, heals, or something else, and adding scribing skills in later if you want them.

Below are some of our suggested Grimoires for PvP Tanks:

• Ulfsild’s Contingency (Mages Guild): Damage Shield (focus script), Gladiator’s Tenacity (signature script), and Protection (affix script). 
• Shield Throw (One-Hand and Shield): Pull or Taunt (focus script), Druid’s Resurgence (signature script), Major Evasion (affix script).
• Soul Burst (Soul Magic): Damage Shield (focus script), Anchorite’s Potency (signature script), and Resolve (affix script). 

The Scribing System utilizes one of 11 new skills from the Gold Road Chapter called Grimoires. With Grimoires, you can customize spells via Scripts. The scribing feature requires the purchase of the Gold Road Chapter (sponsored link). To learn more about scribing, check out our full guide here.

Passives Skills

Consider taking all of the passives in the below skill trees to increase your builds performance without slotting any skills:

• Curative Runeforms (class skill line)
• Herald of the Tome (class skill line)
• Soldier of Apocrypha (class skill line)
• Sword and Shield (weapon skill line)
• Light Armor
• Medium Armor
• Heavy Armor
• Undaunted
• Racial
• Alliance War Support
• Alliance War Assault
• Crafting, Alchemy Medicinal Use
• Infection: Vampire Stage 3 (optional)

Gear

Optimal with Mythics

Slot	Type	Set	Trait	Glyph
Head	Medium	Magma Incarnate	Sturdy	Prismatic
Shoulders	Light	Desert Rose	Sturdy	Health
Chest	Heavy	Mara’s Balm	Reinforced	Prismatic
Legs	Heavy	Mara’s Balm	Sturdy	Prismatic
Gloves	Heavy	Mara’s Balm	Sturdy	Health
Boots	Heavy	Mara’s Balm	Sturdy	Health
Belt	Heavy	Mara’s Balm	Sturdy	Health
Weapon One	Sword	Desert Rose	Decisive	Absorb Health
Secondary	Shield	Desert Rose	Sturdy	Health
Necklace		Desert Rose	Infused	Reduced Block Cost
Ring 1	Mythic	Oakensoul ring	Infused	Reduced Block Cost
Ring 2		Desert Rose	Infused	Reduced Block Cost

Monster Helm and Mythic

Magma Incarnate: Helmet obtained in Veteran dungeon The Dread Cellar, Waking Flame DLC, shoulders bought from Urgarlag Chief-bane.

• Why? 1 piece gives stamina and magical recovery helps with sustain.

FLEX OPTIONS:

• Baron Thirsk: 1pc magicka and stamina recovery.
• Chokethorn: 1pc magicka recovery.
• Shadowrend: 1pc magicka recovery.

Oakensoul: Obtained through ESO Mythics/antiquities system. You need 5 items to be able to create the Mythic item. CLICK HERE FOR LEADS

• Igneous Inlays Volcanic Vents in the High Isle and Amenos zone (High Isle)
• Larimar Gems Titanclaw boss at Mudcrab Beach (south-west) (Stormhaven)
• Petrified Oak Loop Murkmire Strongboxes (Murkmire zone)
• Sacred Resin Any Mob (Malabal Tor)
• Stone Shank Frame Blacksmithing nodes in Glenumbra (High Isle)

Flex Options for Mythic:

• Pale Order: Best heals per second solo in the game.
• Death Dealer’s Fete: High max stats and requires no effect but in combat.
• Markyn Ring of Majesty: Set and forget boost to spell damage and armor.

Gear Sets

Desert Rose: Obtained in Cyrodiil Cropsford Elite Gear Vendor.

• Why? Allows near-infinite magicka sustain.

Flex Option for Buff Set:

• Wretched Vitality: Buff magicka and stamina recovery.
• Willow’s Path: Buffs magicka, stamina, and health recovery.
• Daedric Trickery: Great with Oakensoul because buff stack.

Mara’s Balm: Obtained through PvP Rewards for the Worthy bags or sold on guild traders.

• Why? provides healing and a cleanse and the best all around defensive set.

FLEX OPTIONS for Defensive Set

• Mark of the Pariah: Good for armor keep on the body all times.
• Buffer of the Swift: Awesome damage reduction.
• Grace of Gloom: Insane survivability if you have high health.
• Trial by Fire: Great pure mitigation set.
• Battalion Defender: For balanced self-healing.

Race

The best race choices for the One Bar Arcanist PvP Tank:

1. Imperial: Great for resource sustain and survivability.
2. Argonian: Blend of survival and resource sustain.

Attributes

The best choice is 64 health, which increases your survivability.

Mundus Stone

The Atronach is the best Mundus Stone for One Bar PvP Tank Builds because it increases increases Magicka recovery.

Champion Points – ESO Arcanist One Bar PvP Tank Build

Craft	Warfare	Fitness
Liquid Efficiency	Ironclad	Boundless Vitality
Gifted Rider	Hope Infusion	Bracing Anchor
Steed’s Blessing	Cutting Defense	Pain’s Refuge
War Mount	Duelist’s Rebuff	Sustained By Suffering

Warfare Constellation Champion Points – ESO One Bar Arcanist PvP Tank

Below is a step-by-step method for slotting your champion points in the Warfare tree (blue).  We have used the minimum possible to reach 4 slottable selections all maxed out.  If you have more CP, consider taking more in the passives for optimal performance.

Below are recommended Warfare Champion Point selections for the ESO One Bar Arcanist PvP Tank:

1. Eldritch Insight – 10
2. Mastered Curation – sub constellation – Blessed – 10
3. Mastered Curation – sub constellation – Hope Infusion (slottable) 50
4. Staving death – sub constellation – quick recovery – 10
5. Staving death – sub constellation – ironclad – (slottable) 50
6. Duelist’s Rebuff – (slottable) 50
7. Unassailable – 25
8. Bulwark – 50
9. Cutting Defense – (slottable) 50

This would be the bare minimum setup, spending 305 CP (915 total required). The next step is to max out passives, that do not require a slottable but increase performance. 

1. Precision 20
2. Piercing 20
3. Tireless discipline 20
4. Eldritch insight 10
5. Blessed 10
6. Quick recovery 10
7. Battle mastery 40
8. Mighty 30
9. Flawless ritual 40
10. War mage 30
11. Elemental aegis 20
12. Hardy 20
13. Preparation 20

This would max out the Warfare tree with all active and passive champion points at 595 spent 1,785 total spent.

Fitness Constellation Champion Points

Below are recommended Fitness Champion Point selections for the ESO One Bar Arcanist PvP Tank:

1. Boundless Vitality (slottable) 50
2. Sprinter – 10
3. Wind Chaser – sub constellation – Hasty – 8
4. Tireless Guardian – 10
5. Walking Fortress – sub constellation – nimble protector – 3
6. Walking Fortress – sub constellation – Bracing Anchor (slottable) 50
7. Hero’s Vigor – 10
8. Survivor’s spite – sub constellation –  Mystic Tenacity – 10
9. Survivor’s spite – sub constellation – Pain’s Refuge (slottable) – 50
10. Survival Instincts – (slottable) – 50

This would be the bare minimum setup, spending 251 CP (753 total required). The next step is to max out passives, that do not require a slottable but increase performance.

1. Hero’s vigor 10
2. Tumbling 30
3. Sprinter 10
4. Defiance 20
5. Hasty 8
6. Tireless guardian 10
7. Fortification 30
8. Nimble 3
9. Mystic tenacity 40
10. Tempered soul 50
11. Piercing gaze 30
12. Savage defense  30
13. Bashing brutality 20

This would max out the fitness tree with all active passive champion points at 542 cp spent 1,626 total spent.

Craft Constellation Champion Points

Below are recommended Craft Champion Point selections for the ESO One Bar Arcanist PvP Tank:

1. Steed’s blessing – (slottable) 50
2. Breakfall 10
3. Wanderer 15
4. Steadfast 10
5. Rationer 10
6. Liquid efficiency (slottable) 75
7. Treasure hunter 50
8. Master gatherer 15
9. Gifted rider (slottable) 100
10. War mount (slottable) 120

This would be the bare minimum setup, spending 455CP (1365 total required). The next step is to max out passives, that do not require a slottable but increase performance.

1. Steadfast enchantment 40cp
2. Breakfall 40 cp
3. Wanderer 60
4. Fortunes favor 10
5. Friends in low places 25
6. Out of sight 30
7. Fleet of Phantom 40
8. Soul’s Reservoir 33
9. Gilded fingers 50
10. Fortunes favor 40
11. Inspiration boost 45
12. Infamous 30

This would max out the crafting tree with all active passive champion points at 898 cp spent 2,694 total spent.

Consumables

Bewitched Sugar Skulls food and Essence of Health (tri-stat) potions are the best consumables for an Arcanist one bar PvP Tank in the Elder Scrolls Online. Bewitched gives you all three useful resources and health recovery tools for a tank. Tri-stat potions give you health and a flood of both magicka and stamina for blocking and casting spells. Orzorga’s Smoked Bear Haunch or Jewels of Misrule can be used as an alternative to Bewitched Sugar Skulls.

• Bewitched Sugar Skulls: Increase Max Health by 4620, Max Stamina and Max Magicka by 4250, and Health Recovery by 462 for 2 hours. Ingredients: Scrib Jelly, Flour, Columbine, Bervez Juice, and Honey.
  • Orzorga’s Smoked Bear Haunch (recovery): Increase Max Health, Health Recovery, and Stamina and Magicka Recovery (effects are scaled based on your level). Ingredients: Red Meat, Tomato, White Cap, Frost Mirriam, and Perfect Roe.
  • Jewels of Misrule (cheap): Increase Stamina and Magicka Recovery and Max Health for 2 hours. Ingredients: Rose, Mint, Lotus, Columbine, and Bervez Juice.
• Essence of Health (tri-stat): Restore 7329 Health, 6618 Magicka, and 6618 Stamina immediately. Grants Major Fortitude, Major Intellect, and Major Endurance, which increase your Health Recovery, Magicka Recovery, and Stamina Recovery by 20% for 31.7 seconds. (effects are scaled based on your level) Ingredients: Bugloss, Columbine, Mountain Flower.
  • Essence of Immovability: Restores health and stamina and is immune to knockback effects. Ingredients: Namria’s Rot, Columbine, and Mountain Flower.

Build Summary – ESO Arcanist One Bar PvP Tank

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