Should you use this build?
Welcome to the ESO Ember Tank build 2023! 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! 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 have better survivability. Pair this with outside skill lines from sword and shield and guilds skill trees and she’s absolutely great in protecting you, the player. The ESO Ember Tank build works, at some of the hardest content in the game and can work for you!
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!
If you looking for an Ember guide or quest, levelling and report information click HERE. More companion builds HERE, and a comprehensive companion guide and video HERE.
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How to unlock Ember and where do I find her? Ember quest, “Tower full of Trouble”.
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 is fighting 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.

Progression
Companions are similar to players and here are some areas of focus for you while working through 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 companion gear, light, medium and heavy. I’d also go to woodworker and weapon smith and pick up sword and 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 click). 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 click), and Deshaan (map click).
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.
YouTube Guide on Companion Progression
Ember Tank build
Skills
Companion abilities work on a cool down system unlike players and often have 16 seconds before the skill can be used again. Thus, placing a skill on the first spot, vs the last has a great impact on its frequency.
An example: Ember has a sword & shield skill: Provoke, by default, this ability last 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. For the best results follow the skills listed here but also be knowledgeable about how it works. Now when you’ll make changes, you get the most out of the performance of the companion’s skills.
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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 enamies
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 when we cleared Veteran Dragonstar Arena with Ember as the tank, Vigorous was the answer.
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 |
Tank companion 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 just like players companions have no AoE or multiple target taunts. 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 if you fully charge an attack, not on Ember target, he will swap. 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 type of 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 out but the end 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!
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