Possible for a nightblade to tank?

Eppi_BE

Hey all

I'm lvl'ing my wood elf nightblade (AD) and i'm almost veteran
but know there is a need for tanks in the guild (and i have a lot of experience whit tanking and healing from years of World of Warcraft)
so i was wondering if it is possible/good to respect my assin/bower nightblade in to a hard ass tanker
I just want to help my guild and don't want to begin a new char
just now i'm close to the big fun in the game at the veteran lvl's

where can i find a good nightblade tank build?, to have an example our something like that

greatings

AlnilamE

I don't have a specific build, as my tanks are my templars and DKs and my NB evolved more as a DPS/Healer.

But there certainly are NB tanks, and it's pretty convenient to be able to drop your own veils on a boss.

TehMagnus

http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/156060/how-to-tanking-1st-boss-in-sanctum-ophidia-on-nightblade

Here you got a post from a guildmate who tanks SO and VDSA with his Nightblade.

ThatNeonZebraAgain

NBs make great tanks, especially with the ability changes in 1.6. My Argonian NB tank still performs very well even if they took away my huge potion self-heals.

Elijah_Crow

Absolutely. I'm a Nightblade tank myself. I haven't finished my revamped build for update 6 yet but to give you an idea of the concept:

Volcanic rune, immovable, lotus fan, sap essence, as a lead in grabs solid agro then start puncturing with sword and board. Very active and fun tanking. I run 5 heavy and 2 medium.

Elijah_Crow

Oh and as a side note I'm also a Bosmer which works well with the Stamina Regen. I'm also a werewolf which is another stam Regen boost in human form. Great race and class combo for tanking.

DeLindsay

Indeed Tanking as a NB is very easy, especially in 1.6 since we can hard cap Armor/Spell Resistance with a few gear tweaks.

The only real issue with NB Tanking is we don't have much in the way of self Healing/Shields, at least not BIG self Heals so it's better to get to hard cap (32,500 which is 26,420 + Major/Minor Wards) first, then add in some Block mitigation (5pc Footman works great, Defensive Posture and it's morph too) second and then worry about self Heals via Sap Essence (only really valid in AOE), Funnel Health (very low Heal in Tank spec), Structured Entropy (actually decent heal but every 6 sec), Refreshing Path (junk Heal but good to keep up Major Ward), Health potions (no longer OP for NB's in 1.6). Absorb Magic (morph of Defensive Posture) can be a great heal if used correctly, but not as many opportunities to use it as weapon attacks, even from Staves, don't count.

Shields for us come from Absorb Magic (only Spell Projectiles), Harness Magicka (only Spell damage), Bone Shield (straight 30% of your Health) and finally Glyph of Hardening for a teeny tiny ~1100 Shield once every 8 seconds. There are a few 5pc set bonuses that can proc very good Shields that are worth looking into. Whitestrake's Retribution can literally save you from death. Undaunted Bastion comes in Light / Medium and Heavy and has the best set bonus Shield in the game, but that one requires input from you unlike Whitestrake's. There's a 3pc from Vet Dungeons that has a chance to proc a small Shield on damage, and a 5pc from PvP iirc, both are very small Shields, I can't remember the name of either one atm.

Don't bother with Leeching Strikes, Siphoning Attacks is far and wide the superior morph. Even with huge Health values that 2% Health isn't even a band-aide considering only weapon attacks can trigger it. Maybe if all attacks did it'd be of some value, but it just isn't.

ThatNeonZebraAgain

To add to what DeLindsay said, here are some other options for self-healing:

• Soul Tether ultimate is very good now, particularly in aoe situations (your other bread and butter ultimate would be Consuming Darkness since it offers the most mitigation)
• Try Resto Staff on your off-bar. I've saved groups countless times thanks to this.
• Stack +Healing Received bonuses. This is another Argonian-NB synergy. I have around 40% healing received (4pc Unassailable, 3pc Shalidor's Curse, plus racial, armor, class, and Champion constellation) on my Argonian NB tank, which makes my self-healing abilities much better and makes me very easy on the group's healer.

DeLindsay

ThatNeonZebraAgain wrote: »

Stack +Healing Received bonuses. This is another Argonian-NB synergy. I have around 40% healing received (4pc Unassailable, 3pc Shalidor's Curse, plus racial, armor, class, and Champion constellation) on my Argonian NB tank, which makes my self-healing abilities much better and makes me very easy on the group's healer.

I actually started out as a NB Tank doing this but back when we had soft caps is was meh at best. I can see the possibilities of it now though, could be very useful. The only issue I'd have right now (low Champion Point totals) is you won't be capable of reaching hard cap for Armor in a +Healing received build meaning you will take more damage than someone like me who is hard capped. Later on when we're all deep in the Champ trees I can see this overtaking other builds since just about all Tanks (in 7/7 Heavy) will be hard capped thanks to Heavy Armor Focus.

Zershar_Vemod

Pre 1.6 it was possible, not as sure now due to everyone still figuring out builds.

DeLindsay

Zershar_Vemod wrote: »

Pre 1.6 it was possible, not as sure now due to everyone still figuring out builds.

Not sure if trolling or didn't bother to read anything beyond the Thread title.

Dukegaming

I would like to bring attention to a passive in the Shadow tree for Nightblades that would be beneficial for tanking.

Shadow Barrier - "Activating a Shadow ability gives you a Major Ward and Major Resolve, increasing Spell Resistance and Armor by 8000 for 4 seconds. This duration is increased for each piece of Heavy Armor Equipped." Rank 2/2

So, maybe adding just one ability from the Shadow tree into your tanking rotation might be worth it, considering this passive doesn't have an internal cooldown.

DeLindsay

Dukegaming wrote: »

I would like to bring attention to a passive in the Shadow tree for Nightblades that would be beneficial for tanking.

Shadow Barrier - "Activating a Shadow ability gives you a Major Ward and Major Resolve, increasing Spell Resistance and Armor by 8000 for 4 seconds. This duration is increased for each piece of Heavy Armor Equipped." Rank 2/2

So, maybe adding just one ability from the Shadow tree into your tanking rotation might be worth it, considering this passive doesn't have an internal cooldown.

We do, we use Refreshing Path that I listed in my comment above

Eppi_BE

will someone make his build he is telling here
in some build calculator like esohead.com

is this a good one?, just thit one with some help of the guild
esohead.com/calculator/skills#1.mcRzyy0MV9m8fWGr8IPbc8GFj38fXiC8IPyL8IrvR8yZOc8IqRb8GFx48fWIu8IPyL8GHRb8y7rbR3a6IR3r8C7Gbzqa6qzqb6Nzqu8D7bqzdM6IzdR8F7xNzrJ6Ibut837cqw33857zzx3TH8zf7zzNbo8zu7zzHfYE6zHfZd8zG7zzHQ3F8zI7zzJIoX6zJIkL8zN7zzJZcY8zA7zzKpUN8zL7zzK4EX

starkerealm

Eppi_BE wrote: »

will someone make his build he is telling here
in some build calculator like esohead.com

is this a good one?

You might have some teething issues with it, but that looks serviceable. I'd be kinda tempted to go 2hander on the alt bar for Brawler and Rally. But, that is serviceable.

Eppi_BE

how thus the attributes need to be for a tank?

DeLindsay

Eppi_BE wrote: »

how thus the attributes need to be for a tank?

A common Attribute spread in 1.6 is 15/32/15. I personally am 40/22/0 and it works just fine for my Tank build while also being perfect for my Healing/DPS/PvP builds as well.

Hypertionb14_ESO

yes, it always was..

not in endgame content like trials or vet dsa where a instant self heal on command is need but literally anywhere else.

Sap tanks are literally the best tanks for groups of mobs.

starkerealm

DeLindsay wrote: »

Eppi_BE wrote: »

how thus the attributes need to be for a tank?

A common Attribute spread in 1.6 is 15/32/15. I personally am 40/22/0 and it works just fine for my Tank build while also being perfect for my Healing/DPS/PvP builds as well.

The alternative advice is to go 0/62/0 and pick up the magicka and stamina from enchantments. Though, don't actually find the arguments for that particular distribution persuasive.

Panda244

"The Nutella Nightblade" - PvP Build

• 5 Set Hist Bark
• 5 Pieces of Heavy Armor with Impenetrable, Enchanted with Health/Magicka

• 2 Set Malubeth's Scourge
• 2 Pieces of Light Armor with Infused, Enchanted with Stamina

• 3 Set Dominion's Potentate
• Sword/Shield + Neck, with Defending/Impenetrable + Healthy, Enchanted with Disease/Health/Block Cost Reduction

• 2 Set Cyrodiil's Light
• Rings, with Arcane, Enchanted with Spell Damage

Main Bar (Sword/Shield)

1. Swallow Soul
2. Sap Essence
3. Absorb Magic
4. Invasion
5. Siphoning Attacks
6. Ultimate: Veil of Blades

Off Bar (Restoration Staff)

1. Refreshing Path
2. Rapid Regeneration
3. Structured Entropy
4. Cleanse
5. Unstoppable
6. Ultimate: Soul Assault/Replenishing Barrier/Soul Tether

[Attributes]: 16 Stamina, 16 Health, 30 Magicka.

PvP build, works fine in PvE, just change up skills as you go, won't need Unstoppable or Cleanse on the second bar and going to need a taunt on the main bar, I've tanked every vet dungeon and 20+ people in Cyrodiil with this build, it's never failed me, not yet anyway

ThatNeonZebraAgain

starkerealm wrote: »

DeLindsay wrote: »

Eppi_BE wrote: »

how thus the attributes need to be for a tank?

A common Attribute spread in 1.6 is 15/32/15. I personally am 40/22/0 and it works just fine for my Tank build while also being perfect for my Healing/DPS/PvP builds as well.

The alternative advice is to go 0/62/0 and pick up the magicka and stamina from enchantments. Though, don't actually find the arguments for that particular distribution persuasive.

How much HP or stam/mag does each attribute point give now? I went full health and it seems a bit overkill, but I also want to be beefy in PvP.

ThatNeonZebraAgain

DeLindsay wrote: »

ThatNeonZebraAgain wrote: »

Stack +Healing Received bonuses. This is another Argonian-NB synergy. I have around 40% healing received (4pc Unassailable, 3pc Shalidor's Curse, plus racial, armor, class, and Champion constellation) on my Argonian NB tank, which makes my self-healing abilities much better and makes me very easy on the group's healer.

I actually started out as a NB Tank doing this but back when we had soft caps is was meh at best. I can see the possibilities of it now though, could be very useful. The only issue I'd have right now (low Champion Point totals) is you won't be capable of reaching hard cap for Armor in a +Healing received build meaning you will take more damage than someone like me who is hard capped. Later on when we're all deep in the Champ trees I can see this overtaking other builds since just about all Tanks (in 7/7 Heavy) will be hard capped thanks to Heavy Armor Focus.

I currently only have 7 points into the Quick Recovery constellation, to make up for the 2% healing received we lost from Swallow Soul's passive being pointlessly nerfed. I put the remaining 18 points into Heavy Armor Focus though, and plan to keep investing them there. The problem with using non-crafted sets though are the traits... wish they'd implement a way to change the *** traits that come on good sets (or would have just thought for 2 seconds about it before deciding what traits the armor should have).

teladoy

Every class can do everything in this game if you find the way to optimize which skill to use, armor and etc.

The thing is that maybe templars and DK will always have a better advantage tanking that a NB. But in my opinion a slightly advantage, not big thing. Because if that would a problem then also has be the dps, what I mean is that there are classes and builds that will always do more dps then others, but no one complains of that isn't true?



There will be always something more optimal, that doesn't mean nothing at the end, important it is, how good and skilled you are.