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The ESO Ember Tank Build is good for some of the hardest content in the game and perfect for solo play!
Companions, just like players, come with class presets. Ember is your typical Sorcerer, which is useful for crowd control, and her skills offer good survivability!
By Pixel | Updated for Necrom Chapter, U38 on June 3rd, 2023
Ember Tank Build Guide
Her playful schemer class skill line has good healing, while the Mischievous Caster skill line will help you stun and immobilize enemies, allowing you and your companion to have better survivability. Pair this with outside skill lines from sword and shield and guilds skill trees, and she’s absolutely great at protecting you, the player.
Ember the Khajiit has an extraordinary talent for magic, but also mischievous nature. Her hard past doesn’t stop her on the path to grand adventures with you!
Ember’s unique perk gives a chance to acquire hidden wallets of gold when pickpocketing. A very helpful ability for your thief’s travels!
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Good survivability | Weak class off healing abilities |
| Great for stealing |
How to unlock Ember in ESO, and where do I find her? “Tower full of Trouble” Quest.
You can find Ember Quest in the High Isle zone in two locations. The First location, and most likely you’ll find easily, is a man attacked by magic anomalies just next to the Tor Draioch Wayshrine.
The second location is on the northern road to the Tor Draioch tower, where Ember fights the magic anomalies.
After you complete the quest, you can find Ember and all unlocked companions in your collections menu. Press the default key “U” on your keyboard or go to the collections tab, pick Allies from the list and then Companions. Now you are ready to Build your Ember as an ESO Tank.
Ember Tank Build Progression
Companions are similar to players, and here are some focus areas for you while optimizing your companion.
Obtain multiple gear sets: You’ll want flexible options once you hit the end game, even if you plan on leaving her as a tank. You can find gear by looting defeated enemies or in various chests and boxes almost everywhere in the game. Or you can go to any town Armor and Fine Garments store and pick up light, medium and heavy companion gear. I’d also go to a woodworker and weapon smith and pick up a sword, shield, and various staffs. Swap a gear or weapons and level skill lines because you never know if you want to switch!
Combat Level: Start levelling up your companion. Companions level up similar to a player by killing enemies and eventually reaching level 20 (currently max). So you can grind with your companion (grinding video guide). The exception are guilds’ skill lines (Mages Guild, Fighters Guild, Undaunted), to level them up, you need to complete guilds’ daily quests. You can find them in Grahtwood (map click), Stormhaven (map), and Deshaan (map).
Focus on Guild Skill Lines: You’ll want to prioritise completing the guide-specific daily quests in order to unlock the most powerful skills in the game.
Gear: Now, start collecting pieces of gear to optimize your tank. Two of the best traits for your companion are bolstered, reducing damage and Vigorous, adding extra health.
Ember and Player Best Build Combo
ESO companions are a great way to have a helper in battle, but they can also be easily killed. This build will increase their survivability and your questing or even dungeon experience.
The secret is a five-piece craftable set from the Necrom Chapter Telvanni Efficiency. This combination reduces the cooldown on companions’ abilities allowing them to heal, evade and defend easier.
Here are examples of how it’ll help your builds:
- Tank companions commonly use the Fighters Guild ability Ritual of Salvation to reduce damage by 20%. With this five-piece active, the duration of the ability along with the cooldown is 8 seconds so hypothetically nearly 100% uptime.
- Damage Dealers use the medium armor skill Vanish for survivability, providing a full healing every 36 seconds. With 50% less time, every 18 seconds, your companion will outlive nearly anything as a DPS.
- Healers rely on the Restoration staff abilities, which can be cast repeatedly along with the Haste skill. This turns your companion into a spam casting machine and huge heals per second.
To further augment this effect, you can combine the armor trait “quicken.” This armor trait at purple quality gives a 2.6% reduction on ability cooldowns per piece with 5.2% on both weapons. So the new cooldown for the Vanish skill becomes only 5.7 seconds! Everything the companion does becomes radically improved.
To further aid in this, Isobel has a buff to light and heavy attacks after using penetrating strikes. Bastion has a buff for light and heavy attacks as well. In fact, each companion has some aid and utility to provide, and the reduction in cooldown means nearly 100% uptime giving them much greater survivability and utility.
How to modify your build?
We suggest a modified heavy attack/oakensoul build. You will have high health, mitigation and damage with the recommended gear sets. You always equip 5 medium Telvanni’s on your body and use Sergent’s Mail for heavy attack damage along with the Empower buff from Oakensoul.
Video
Ember Tank Skills and Gear
Skills
In ESO, unlike players, Ember’s abilities work on a cool-down system, and you have 16 seconds before the skill can be used again. Thus, placing a skill on the first spot vs the last greatly impacts its frequency.
An example: Ember has a sword & shield skill: Provoke, by default, this ability lasts 15 seconds, with a 16-second cooldown. If you put it in the first spot on her skill bar, the companion will activate it first, and immediately when it comes off, cooldown, giving you consistent taunt on enemies. Follow the skills listed in our ESO Ember Tank Build for the best results. When you make changes, you get the most out of the performance of the companion’s skills.
1. Provoke (Skill line: Companion Sword & Shield) – Melee taunt and perfect opener to go on cool down first.
2. Quick Fix (Skill line: Companion Playful Schemer) – Great burst heal
3. Ritual of Salvation (Skill line: Companion Fighters Guild) – Fighters Guild ability with 20% damage reduction for standing in rune
4. Hurricane Visage (Skill line: Companion Mischievous Caster) – Reduces damage taken by 20% and deals shock damage to nearby enemies
5. Crimson Font (Skill line: Companion Undaunted) – Heal over time for your companion and you, you can activate synergy and heal for 50% of your health.
Ultimate: Raging Storm (Skill line: Companion Lightning Caller) – Insane damage AoE and execute that follows the enemy.
Gear
All heavy armor gear pieces give the best possible survivability. The Bolstered, reducing damage is a great trait, But your companions’ primary self-burst heal is based on the percentage of max health. Thus, your companion will be able to heal to full with more max health. You can’t go wrong with either trait, but Vigorous was the answer when we cleared Veteran Dragonstar Arena with Ember as the tank.
| Vigorous | Bolstered |
|---|---|
| Increases Max Health by 1.8% | Reduces damage taken by 1.2% |
| Increases Max Health by 2.2% | Reduces damage taken by 1.5% |
| Increases Max Health by 2.6% | Reduces damage taken by 1.7% |
| Slot | Weight | Set | Trait |
|---|---|---|---|
| Head | Heavy | Companion’s Helm | Vigorous |
| Shoulders | Heavy | Companion’s Pauldrons | Vigorous |
| Chest | Heavy | Companion’s Cuirass | Vigorous |
| Legs | Heavy | Companion’s Greaves | Vigorous |
| Gloves | Heavy | Companion’s Gauntlets | Vigorous |
| Boots | Heavy | Companion’s Sabatons | Vigorous |
| Belt | Heavy | Companion’s Girdle | Vigorous |
| Weapon One | Sword | Companion’s Sword | Vigorous |
| Weapon Two | Shield | Companion’s Shield | Vigorous |
| Necklace | Companion’s Necklace | Vigorous | |
| Ring | Companion’s Ring | Vigorous | |
| Ring | Companion’s Ring | Vigorous |
ESO Tank Build Tips and Tricks
Control: Just like commanding a pet, you’ll need to hit the default key “Y” and the left mouse to attack or the right mouse to return (no PC). Companions don’t know when to move out of bad AoE’s or mechanics. So you, as the player, must make this a priority.
Combat: You’ll want to target the priority mob, this could be a boss or a mini-boss or something that can one-shot players that are non-tanks. Remember, companions have no AoE or multiple target taunts, just like players. If you start off by attacking, Ember will have a hard time gaining aggro, especially if you constantly change targets. Command her to attack first if possible.
Targeting: Remember that she will swap if you fully charge an attack, not on Ember’s target. So who you’re attacking is just as important as how you start the fight.
Companions Synergy: Companions can provide synergies but not use them. That’s why the undaunted skill lines are so vital to prioritise and use.
Provide Off Healing: Every class or combat style has some off healing. Even a small bit of off-healing will help Ember survive, allowing her not to have 4 slots on his bar loaded with self-healing. Trust me, slotting off healing ability is all you need to allow her to provide more utility.
Make companion your own! These tips can help you, but the result is up to you. Experiment, try things outside of the box and meta ideas. You’ll be surprised at just how effective these things can be. Thanks for reading!
More ESO Articles, Guides and Builds
Thank you for reading the ESO Ember Tank Build guide! Check out more companion builds and a comprehensive companion guide and video. Also, consider watching me on Twitch, feel free to ask me questions about my builds and games I play or check out my YouTube Channel.
