Sorcerer Tank Build
Sorcerer tank builds are surprisingly strong in terms of survivability and self maintenance, capable of managing their resources incredibly well. What they lack in terms of buffs and debuffs, they more than make up for by taking a ton of pressure off the healer, allowing the healer to plow more effort into keeping the DPS alive.
Gear Sets
Archdruid Devyric: This is our access to Major Vulnerability, which we otherwise don't get without Turning Tide or Glacial Colossus. You can get this set from Earthen Heart Enclave.
Saxhleel Champion: We use this on a Sorcerer tank so we don't have to use Aggressive Horn for Major Force, meaning we can instead use Summon Charged Atronach. We want to use this instead because it provides the very powerful Major Berserk buff to nearby allies when one of them activates the synergy, and with this set, we also get Major Force. Get this set from Rockgrove.
Drake's Rush: In order to get the most out of Summon Charged Atronach and Saxhleel Champion, we want to pump our ultimate regeneration up, and this is perfect for that. You can get up to 66% uptime on Major Heroism for you and three group members easily with this set, which comes from Blackdrake Villa.
Puncturing Remedy: An excellent tool for staying alive, this two-piece from Dragonstar Arena will allow you to pump up your resistances and heal yourself with easy, using only your taunt.
Skills
Pierce Armor: Your primary taunt that should be kept up at all times. This will apply Major Breach and Minor Breach as well as activating the Master's weapons you use, increasing your resistances and healing you.
Vibrant Shroud: This is a great skill that allows you to immobilize enemies in front of you. However, the main benefits are the Minor Vitality and Major Maim buffs you get and the Minor Prophecy buff you apply to your group. You can even get these for free by casting the skill on a boss, which refunds the cost.
Bound Aegis: One of the best tanking skills around, just slotting this gives you 8% more magicka and Minor Resolve. Using it will allow Minor Protection and a massive 40% extra block mitigation.
Regenerative Ward: Regenerative Ward is a very versatile skill that grants you a heal, applies Minor Endurance and Minor Intellect for extra recoveries to you and your group, and grants you a very big shield that you can time well for the big hits.
Summon Clannfear: Your primary heal as a tank that will also provide valuable passive buffs such as 8% extra max health from Expert Summoner.
Aggressive Horn/Reviving Barrier: If Summon Charged Atronach is going to be your primary offensive ultimate, which means other people are running Aggressive Horn, you can instead use Reviving Barrier for a defensive failsafe.
Elemental Blockade: A great skill that allows you to apply Chilled and Brittle in an area, snare and immobilize enemies, and gain a projectile shield for you and your group.
Destructive Clench: Having access to a ranged taunt is very useful, and this one allows you to also apply the Chilled status effect and Major Maim while immobilizing the target.
Dark Deal: This is invaluable on a tank, allowing you to recover health, stamina and stamina over time at the cost of magicka. Just be careful about when you use it, as it drops block.
Summon Clannfear: Your primary heal as a tank that will also provide valuable passive buffs such as 8% extra max health from Expert Summoner.
Boundless Storm: This is your source of Major Resolve, increasing your resistances. You also get access to the valuable Major Expedition buff, which increases movement speed significantly, and you may also apply Concussion through the skill's passive AoE lightning damage.
Summon Charged Atronach: This ability applied Major Brutality to your whole group when the synergy is activated, making it incredibly valuable. Better yet, this morph in particular always applies Concussion with its AoE attack, meaning your group can benefit from the Exploiter CP perk.
Champion Points
Ironclad: This grants you a nice boost to your damage mitigation against direct damage attacks, which is one of the most common that you will encounter in PvE.
Enduring Resolve: Damage over time mitigation is very useful, since it counts for single target DoTs and area DoTs. This means that, in many cases, this will stack with Unassailable.
Duellist's Rebuff: Often stacking with Ironclad to further boost your resistance against single target attacks, this is a useful one for tanks in particular, helping to mitigate the heavy damage coming from bosses.
Unassailable: Helping you to stand in stupid for longer, Unassailable will reduce your damage taken from area attacks, helping towards taking the pressure off the healer.
Boundless Vitality: Every bit of health makes a difference, especially in some of the tougher content that The Elder Scrolls Online has to offer. This will help you bump yours up a little more, increasing your survivability.
Fortified: Similar to Boundless Vitality, one can never have enough resistances, and this will add a little extra to boost your survivability so that you can focus more on the task at hand.
Sustained by Suffering: Gaining the ability to regenerate resources faster when you have negative effects on you is just perfect for a tank, making this a smart choice.
Bracing Anchor: As a tank, you don't need to move that much, but you certainly need to block as much as possible, making this a great addition to your toolkit.
Mundus Stone
The best Mundus Stone to use on this build is the Atronach, boosting Magicka Recovery massively. Tanks have great need of additional magicka recovery, and rely on other sources of recovery such as heavy attacks, group synergies and potions for their Stamina.
Food Buff
Tanks benefit especially well from Orzorga's Smoked Bear Haunch, boosting all recoveries along with Max Health as well. However, it is expensive, so if you need a cost-effect option, use the Bewitched Sugar Skulls, which are also very effective.
Race
The best race to use for this build is a Nord for its higher resistances and ultimate regeneration, but Argonians, Imperials and Bretons are also excellent options for their superior survivability and sustain.
Potion
Tri-restoration potions are generally the best for any tank to run, allowing you to manage your resources perfectly. However, when you are dealing with trash mobs and the like, you won't want to waste them, so carry some trash potions around for the parts that aren't very intense.
Mortality
The Undeath passive can be tempting for tanks, but running a Vampire on all but highly specialised and rather inefficient builds is a bad idea. The amount of fire damage found in PvE content, and the high increase to standard skill costs, will make running Vampire on a PvE tank a liability.
Notes
Sorcerer tanks have become more and more powerful over time, and now occupy a niche that rivals other classes that are more popular for tanking, such as Dragonknights, Necromancers and Wardens.
Sorcerer tanks have access to a wide range of buffs that can be provided to your group, one of which is the incredibly valuable Major Berserk buff which can be obtained by an ally activating the synergy from the Summon Storm Atronach ultimate ability. Having a reduced cost for ultimates makes this even more powerful, leaving Sorcerers in a great place for group support.
Similarly, Sorcerers have great access to some very nice survivability and utility in their toolkit. Shattering Spines helps to control the battlefield incredibly effectively, while Streak provides an easy AoE stun. They can even provide shields to the whole group with Daedric Refuge, making them a great all-rounder for tanking.