I am wanting some input from some of you ppl that have played in the beta if possible about tanking skills. I am intending to make my first character an imperial tank in heavy armor with sword and shield as main weapon focus. I do not know a whole lot about available skills for the DK or Temp as its a bit more time consuming using this xbox 1 controller to type with. Anyhow my main question is, does either class have any tanking specific abilities? Also if any of you guys (or gals) that have tried tanking with both classes, which did you prefer to tank with and why? I have thought about templar mostly going on the basis of being able to be a decent healer, as i am in most mmo's i play b/c i am usually pretty darn good at it. But with this game i kinda want to do something different. thanks!

Haven't played either but have grouped with a DK tank. He has an ability, Fiery Grip, that yanks an enemy out of a group to be slaughtered... great for pulling from a distance without aggroing the room.

I know that some of the tanking abilities will be weapon abilities on the 1h+Shield skill line, so you'll want to look there too.

Whichever you pick, you can have a backup restoration staff for healing.

Try this skill calc... there's another one at ESOHead, but it has some errors which are causing people a lot of confusion http://skillcalc.massyx.de/

Every class has abilities useful for tanking, whether it be damage mitigation, healing or crowd control. Which one you choose mostly comes down to preference, really. The Nightblade is probably the least equipped to partake in a "traditional" tanking role but can still do it through CCs, evasion and healing.

Which do you think would be the prefered tank specialized class tho when a group is looking to take down some serious content?

Ive never played a DK, but the general consensus is that they will be the preferred tank.

Having said that, any class can tank. Templar will still be very good.

Either one.

You could have a Nightblade or Sorcerer tank if you wanted. Your class does not make you "optimal" for one role.

There are abilities in the guild trees great for tanking. Undaunted line has a taunt and a damage mitigation skill, fighter's guild has a nice damage reduction ability. You have several ways to deal damage and reduce enemies damage as well as taunt in sword and board line. As for the mention of fiery grip, I don't see why the templar couldn't have a nice ranged ability to pull and deal damage with but I would have that on my secondary bar for both classes, honestly you will still be using your second bar to make the most use of your character. I am saying that without enough experience, but it is an assumption based on trying to create builds. Keep in mind also the undaunted taunt is ranged which can be a nice benefirt, and take place of fiery grip as well.

I would look at the templar and dk and see which of the abilities you might want to take on your main bar and which you want on your secondary bar. templar has heals, area of effect damage reduction, a nice stamina and hp regen ability, as well as nice knock backs and even a really nice damage mitigation ultimate. DK has some really powerful things as well, a nice mitigation ultimate, self heals, damage shields etc. It is hard to do the math on things without knowing the skills effect at higher levels etc, but I assume eventually that information will be out eventually after release. I would go with which one you think you will enjoy more and which skill combos mesh better with your plan, I mean you really need to plan it out, then try it and see which skills work well and which need to be swapped for something else.

I have not been able to make my mind up but with the patch notes and the difficulty of mobs increased i am really leaning toward templar just because of the heals. I am not really up on the DK abilities, they might have a heal or such but the thought of having to manage heal pots just doesnt do it for me.

My main will likely be a Templar healer, but I also plan to have a tanking spec. I like the wide range of abilities available to that class, which should make for a versatile tank. The main bar will probably look like this:

http://www.esohead.com/calculator/skills#zoaXRj28bOx8RjI8RGb8kNw8kjQ8N7JLDM6LDi6rDu6zDG6LDT6MbMUf6MbMXO8T7JLRMA6MrqAi6MrqAI6MrqAD6crqLw8j7DrSZ6zUM6rUR6MrJO16MrJPr6MrJPu8n7JLWF6zWQ6LWZ8y7HLR3r6rR3f6MfQE16MfQE36MfQlu6MfQlI8P7mLdYf837zrw3Y8zM7pcgcmM6cgcmm6zgcoS6cgkvQ

Luminous Shards: Helps with both magicka and stamina regen for you and one other group mate, and also should help hold AoE aggro.

Blazing Shield: Damage prevention for you as well as more AoE damage/aggro generation, both on activation and also when the shield runs out.

Purifying Light: Debuff that helps your group deal damage. Hopefully, you get credit for the additional ~33% damage (huge threat generation if that's true.)

Restoring Focus: Defensive buff and increased healing for both you and your group. Replace with Unstoppable if you already have a Templar in the group using this ability.

Pierce Armor: A true taunt, and another debuff to the target, again increasing the damage of your group. I see this as a must-have for tanks, way better than the Dauntless taunt IMO.

Solar Prison (Ultimate): Enemies deal less damage, combined with a stun effect synergy? And it's AoE? Yes, please.

This build offers a nice balance of buffs for you and your group, offensive/defensive debuffs to the enemy, plenty of AoE threat generation (as well as the single-target taunt), and to top it off has a little bit of regen from Luminous Shards. My second hotbar would probably be full of long-duration healing ground effects (Sanguine Altar, Extended Ritual, Ring of Preservation, etc.) Those are all things I can lay down when the opportunity presents itself, then forget about for 15-20 seconds. Add in Binding Javelin and a leap attack of some kind (Shielded Assault or Toppling Charge) for PvP, and I think this will be an effective tanking build for most situations.

-Travail.

If you're looking to play a traditional style tank I'd say go DK or Sorcerer. Templar is a little weak in traditional defensive buffs, which tend to be more useful against powerful attacks. Defense buffs are typically % based thus they scale to damage. Self heals do not: many tanking classes in other MMOs that started with mainly self heals were switched to predominately defensive buffs later due to falling behind in the endgame.

That's not to say Templar doesn't have the tools, and I haven't seen many of their morphs so they might pick up better tools over time.