I tank nearly exclusively for a team of RL friends. Currently, that's a 3-man team of myself, Templar healer, Sorc DPS. Our fourth, a NB DPS of some persuasion, will be catching up shortly. I'm aware that, to some extent, I'm deviating from conventional wisdom with some of my choices; I don't need to be theoretical-max optimal so long as I'm functional for my team. And, indeed, I will never be maximized, because I'm an Argonian.

Level: Not far past 50, as the group is in general leveling slowly based on time available. Not planning anything unexpected in CP expenditures. Mundus: Atronach

Bar 1 (1h Shield) Pierce Armor / Burning Embers / Unrelenting Chains / Structured Entropy / Absorb Magic Ult: Ferocious Leap?

Bar 2 (1h Shield) Volatile Armor / Choking (?) Talons / Igneous Shield / Invigorating Drain / Heroic Slash Ult: Magma Shell

The idea is, in general, establish control with Talons / VA / prioritized taunts, harpoon stragglers into the pile, and otherwise cycle dots for damage while building extra ultimate when time permits. Burning Embers spam permits health recovery in an emergency. Igneous Shield launders Magicka to Stamina via passives. Argonian potion bonus (and the "tripot" on ultimate use) covers the gaps. In a worst-case scenario where I run low on Magicka against a boss, Unrelenting Chains is spammable, if low, dps, at zero cost against cc-immune targets, until I can stabilize.

Obviously, the base chassis is rather low on AE damage. I swap in Deep Breath or Eruption when that's necessary, typically in place of Drain.

Open questions:

1. Is Pierce Armor the right taunt here for general use? Obviously, Inner Rage is a thing when a ranged taunt is required, but I'm of the "Stamina is for blocking, dodging, and taunting" school of magtank philosophy.

2. Currently, I run Structured Entropy as my Major Sorcery source instead of Igneous Weapons. That provides me an additional dot to toss around, some measure of extra self-healing, and enables the Mages Guild passives (including improved Magicka / Magicka recovery, and the Empower effect). There's obviously a case to be made for going the other way here (although my group does generally have their own Major Sorcery sources).

3. Is Choking Talons the right Dark Talons morph? Burning gets a lot of love online these days, but the raw numbers seem unimpressive, and it's my understanding that the dot doesn't apply to things immune to the root (bosses, flying trash), which do at least get the Choking debuff. Frankly, does this even make a difference (I'm giving the same debuff to bosses via Heroic anyway)?

4. I'm not happy with my Ultimate selections. Ferocious Leap (or Take Flight; I've toggled this morph several times) is, in principle, chosen because it's cheap, allowing more frequent use. Also, as a single-package damage source, it works well with the Mages Guild Empower mechanic. Should this simply be Shooting Star despite being less-spammable? As for the other ultimate, I get fairly little mileage out of Magma Shell. What other options should I be considering here? Is my default group sufficiently well-configured to benefit from Aggressive War Horn? Should I just go with the standby DK flag? Replenishing Barrier? Bats? :P

5. Finally, do I need to force one of those AE buttons onto the bars full time (almost certainly in place of drain, I imagine)? I assume an Inhale morph is the right choice if so. Is Deep Breath's interrupt preferable to Draw Essence's vastly improved cost profile?