Tanking with the LT - Progressing as a Tank in VDSA

Personofsecrets · July 2015

Greetings everyone. I’ve seen some recent discussion on tanking and VDSA. I know that there are many people who are pushing the limits of tanking and I therefore want to show off this build in order to give some direction to anyone looking. I hope this get's you thinking about the current weekly leader board, how to get better, and about how interactive and fun tanking can be. Let’s get started.

Once you have done VDSA a few times you will be able to start to use less damage mitigation. Histbark is really good for starter runs, and I continue to use it against the final boss of VDSA, because it does a double job; damage mitigation and stamina preservation. Footman is okay too, mostly because it is an efficient way to get a 5 piece bonus with jewelry. Defensive Stance, Deep Slash, Hardened Armor, and Igneous Shield (pardon my Dragon Knight perspective) are all fine abilities to keep you alive. The problem with using all of these things, especially when you don’t need them, is that you could be using something else that would benefit the group in some other way. And trust me – eventually you won’t be needing those gear and abilities as much because you will be more skilled in preventing damage proactively.

It is also important to recognize that stacking damage mitigation, on top of blocking with a shield, is itself inefficient due to diminishing returns and only really has to be done when enemies are hitting very hard. Additionally, the fortress and bracing combination for block cost reduction causes all other block cost reduction, except for defensive stance or its morphs, to act in a soft cap style diminished return . Needing lots of block cost reduction is another aspect of the game that can be overcome with experience and removing it provides great benefit because, again, you’ll be removing something that is greatly diminished in exchange for something that is not diminished.

Without further adieu, I introduce the gear that I am using.

General Gear:

Let’s discuss some strong points and weak points of the armor.

The core of this gear setup is Warlock. Warlock allows for using many spells in quick secession. If I am assisting in portal slaying or just chaining in multiple targets, then I am more likely to do so, with ease, thanks to the warlock 5 piece bonus. Warlock is also an efficient way to use the jewelry slots and easily beats out the tank go-to Footman’s Fortune. While enemies can hit hard in VDSA I don’t believe they hit hard enough to justify using, Footman’s fortune, a set that is subject to many diminished returns. Although warlock offers less damage mitigation as it is light armor, it offers some great passives from the light armor and undaunted skill line.

The other big part of this gear set up is 4 pieces of Storm Knight. I do want heavy armor. This is because I believe the tank should have some damage mitigation when not blocking. Why I like Storm Knight over Histbark or Elf Bane is the following. I don’t need the extra protection from Hist Bark and Elf Bane would require me to either not use the Warlock 5 piece bonus or the Valkyn Skoria 2 piece bonus.

Valkyn Skoria 2 piece bonus supplies nice burst damage to a roll that doesn’t always get to focus attacks on a single enemy. An alternative, the Engine guardian, is a really nice set as well, but as we all move on to attempting better scores in VDSA, obtaining higher DPS is the way to kill things faster and I think Valkyn offers that DPS where Engine Guardian won’t necessarily do so.

Finally, The Master Sword has a great one piece bonus and fits into the build perfectly, so I am using that and even find the ability altering effect useful in some situations.

Base Stats:

My magic enchants and attribute pool currently gives me 27,000 magic and 26,000 health. As I get more adept at this build, I will shave another 1,000 health in exchange for 1,000 magic. Be wise with the race of your character. I play an Orc, but envy the Imperial base stats. Dunmer is probably the best option due to it’s passive ability of adding flame damage.

I am using v10 base stat food that increases my magic and health pool. I have neglected stamina and therefore have a hard time repeatedly bashing an enemy, but am getting more damage as a result. Remember, a bigger magic pool literally translates into spells dealing more damage. Finally, Panaceas of Spell Power, despite their global cool down, give me the 2 buffs to my spells that I would otherwise be neglecting; I’m not using Entropy or Inner Light/Sea of Flames, but still get Major Sorcery and Major Prophecy.

Enchants:

On jewelry, I am currently testing 3 spell damage glyphs. Shield play was giving a really small decrease to the stamina cost of blocking and I am slowly learning to not need the block cost reduction. Do what you are comfortable with, but work towards not needing enchants that aren’t increasing your damage.

Traits:

For armor, we sadly have to use quite a few traits that have no effect. That is certainly a downside of the build. With the Valkyn pieces, one doesn’t really get a huge benefit from them regardless of the trait. I think reinforced is generally good, Infused is good on the helm, divines is fine on the shoulder.

For The Master Sword, I’ve found the precise trait to offer an okay increase to damage per second. After testing the sharpened trait, I found that the sharpened trait doesn’t increase the damage of my dots, but does increase the damage of larger hits, such as with molten whip. Since the build relies on many dots, I think that precise is the best trait to deal damage, albeit a small damage increase.

Skills:

Bar 1 - Molten Whip, Caltrops, Inner Rage, Pierce Armor, Green Dragon Blood, Dragon Knight Standard.
Bar 2 - Extended Chains, Scalding Rune, Eruption, Burning Talons, Spell Symmetry, Shooting Star

The logic behind bar 1 is the following.

Molten Whip is a nice ability to cast multiple times on a single target enemy and it increases my Dragon Knight Standards damage output. This is good for pushing damage against bosses because molten whip is easily cancelled with a shield bash that can, in turn, prevent an enemy ability or heal.

Inner Rage is nice taunt to get long ranged enemies easily positioned.

Pierce Armor is a mandatory taunt because it is a good DPS increase for the group. This ability will also act as a self-heal for this build.

Green Dragon Blood is for when the healer can’t help me and it also increases my stamina regeneration as I won’t always be using potions that give the stamina regeneration buff.

Dragon Knight Standard is a great ability to finish off bosses and their remaining minions. This is a good target for the might of the guild effect as well.

Now for bar 2

Extended Chains is the reason to bring a Dragon Knight tank. This ability can make rounds much quicker as it reduces running around.

Scalding Rune is a nice DOT for Valkyn, initiates the might of the guild passive, and portal slays.

Eruption is a nice DOT for Valkyn and Portal Slays

Burning Talons is a nice Dot for Valkyn, roots, portal slays, and has almost the same damage output as Elemental Ring, but without the need to use a destruction staff.

Spell Symmetry is a nice way to get back to full magic during combat lulls, it initiates the might of the guild passive, and can get me magic if I need just a little bit of magic for an Extended Chains cast.

Shooting Star is a good ultimate for when I am in need of resources, but need my ultimate for an upcoming wave 5. It is another mage’s guild ability too!

Overall:

This setup creates some great tanking situations. Keeping up pierce armor, chaining enemies together, rooting, and applying dots really amps up both the tanks and the groups DPS. I did leave off Caltrops in my explanations as it is dispensable. Many DPS use that and can get more benefit from it than the tank. In it’s place could go Burning Embers or, in the future, Stone Fist. Might of the Guild helps to increase the effect of all the DOT damage that I am using – it is an all-star passive ability to always be keeping in mind.

Don't think I wont end the thread without showing how this build can bring home the bacon.

@Tabre
@Nifty2g

On one last note, I want you all to think about this build and then consider tanking with the stamina regeneration nerf that was announced during ESO Live 21.

"The other major combat change we made was to block casting, or blocking in general, but it effects block casting and some other things. So with blocking, there’s a lot of issues with tanks, when they are fighting a boss, they didn’t want to ever get hit with a full hit from a boss that was really high damage, so they were just holding block the whole time. It’s not really that interactive and it’s not really that fun either...

The update we made to that to help resolve some of these issues is that you no longer regenerate stamina while you are blocking. This is specifically referring to the stamina regeneration stat.” – Eric Wroebel

After reading my build here, do you think Eric Wroebel is correct or do you know that Eric is wrong when saying that current tanking isn't interactive or fun? Though there hasn't been much content for players to complete, we have all been working on and perfecting our builds, our play, and our teams. Don't let this progression get destroyed by a drastic change that is being made with utterly wrong reason. Remember, everyone is impacted by this type of change, not just tanks. We can still give feedback and prevent this bizarre idea from being implemented.

I thank you all for reading and invite you to comment on this thread. Please share what kind of sweet strategies you have come up with in VDSA. Please share if you are a tank who is having fun in ESO.

Nifty2g · July 2015

This is very different from what my group runs for vdsa but man, this looks really great for a magicka based tank. Nice build, honestly.

I also urge you to take a look at tanking with Silk of The Sun 5pc. Yes it's 5pc light, and yes you can do VDSA with it. It takes some time but give it a shot, it's great

Personofsecrets · July 2015

Nifty2g wrote: »

This is very different from what my group runs for vdsa but man, this looks really great for a magicka based tank. Nice build, honestly.

I also urge you to take a look at tanking with Silk of The Sun 5pc. Yes it's 5pc light, and yes you can do VDSA with it. It takes some time but give it a shot, it's great

Thank you Nifty. My group still has some kinks to work out. One goal is to get all of the boss fights as streamlined as A'nal'a or Pishna and every day we find a few new things to try out.

With the sun set up is double sword and board being used?

tpanisiakb16_ESO · July 2015

I have to say, I'm real interested in trying a magicka tank. I've been a stam tank forever and I feel safer for sure.

I wish Warlock rings weren't so damned expensive or more easily accessible to give this a whirl!

I do agree with you that the nerf to stamina regen while blocking is going to be pretty damning. I wonder if magicka tanks will survive for long or if the meta will shift to stacking as much stamina as possible. Who knows. I hope to see some good discussions coming out of the PTS when it hits.

Joy_Division · July 2015

We don't know if Eric Wroebel is right because we don't know the extent of these changes, we don't know what other gameplay mechanics have been modified, and we haven't been able to test the proposed changes on the PTS.

You also did not indicate whether or not you tank in the manner that Wroebel referred to, just holding block. Do you perma-block, pull nearly 12K DPS, while fulfilling the primary duties of a tank, namely hold aggro, lock down enemies, prevent enemy special attacks, etc.? This maybe interactive and fun for you and others, but as MovingTarget has noted in another thread, the theorycrafting has advanced far far beyond the level of difficulty this game is able to offer and thus renders the game trivially easy.

We won't know if you can't continue to play this build and this playstyle until we know all the changes and have actually played them.

Personofsecrets · July 2015

tpanisiakb16_ESO wrote: »

I have to say, I'm real interested in trying a magicka tank. I've been a stam tank forever and I feel safer for sure.

I wish Warlock rings weren't so damned expensive or more easily accessible to give this a whirl!

I do agree with you that the nerf to stamina regen while blocking is going to be pretty damning. I wonder if magicka tanks will survive for long or if the meta will shift to stacking as much stamina as possible. Who knows. I hope to see some good discussions coming out of the PTS when it hits.

It is really too bad that those rings are so hard to get. It is especially odd given how easily they were obtained pre 1.4.

With the stamina regeneration nerf, as we think of it now, yes, I think magic tanks will have their place in the meta so long as they can leverage their magic into gaining stamina.

I'm just hoping the whole stamina regeneration change goes away

Suru · July 2015

Not sure if you are in hodor buy this is the same build as shown by their tank extensively in their youtube videos lol.

Personofsecrets · July 2015

Suru wrote: »

Not sure if you are in hodor buy this is the same build as shown by their tank extensively in their youtube videos lol.

I've come to this build through independent conclusion. I would appreciate a link If you could share the Honor guide. I'm interested to see what skills the Honor tank suggests. Thank you.

helediron · July 2015

At least @D3usEX has shown vDSA tank build. See here . I am playing similar NB tank build and it is much fun. The trend with these builds is to have just enough tankiness and boost damage and/or healing. I am aiming to 22k health and put 10 attribute points to hp and rest to magicka.

Suru · July 2015

helediron wrote: »

At least @D3usEX has shown vDSA tank build. See here . I am playing similar NB tank build and it is much fun. The trend with these builds is to have just enough tankiness and boost damage and/or healing. I am aiming to 22k health and put 10 attribute points to hp and rest to magicka.

Also high dps tanking is one thing, but in vdsa you need a strong supporting cast aswell

hodor truly display that in their runs

helediron · July 2015

Suru wrote: »

helediron wrote: »

At least @D3usEX has shown vDSA tank build. See here . I am playing similar NB tank build and it is much fun. The trend with these builds is to have just enough tankiness and boost damage and/or healing. I am aiming to 22k health and put 10 attribute points to hp and rest to magicka.

Also high dps tanking is one thing, but in vdsa you need a strong supporting cast aswell hodor truly display that in their runs

You are absolutely right @Suru . That's the idea behind having just enough tankiness. Turning it around, a tanky tank "I just taunt" is a not-so-good vDSA tank. This goes to other roles too. It's all about finding best synergy in the group. The OP build has e.g. chains and magicka to use them. I with NB tank will always envy them

.

Just a suggestion: On many DPS builds using cost reduce on jewelry is more efficient. Spell damage glyphs are rather weak these days.

Personofsecrets · July 2015

helediron wrote: »

Suru wrote: »

helediron wrote: »

At least @D3usEX has shown vDSA tank build. See here . I am playing similar NB tank build and it is much fun. The trend with these builds is to have just enough tankiness and boost damage and/or healing. I am aiming to 22k health and put 10 attribute points to hp and rest to magicka.

Also high dps tanking is one thing, but in vdsa you need a strong supporting cast aswell hodor truly display that in their runs

You are absolutely right @Suru . That's the idea behind having just enough tankiness. Turning it around, a tanky tank "I just taunt" is a not-so-good vDSA tank. This goes to other roles too. It's all about finding best synergy in the group. The OP build has e.g. chains and magicka to use them. I with NB tank will always envy them .

Just a suggestion: On many DPS builds using cost reduce on jewelry is more efficient. Spell damage glyphs are rather weak these days.

@Heledrion, thank you for the suggestion. I will have to see how magic cost reduction enchants stack with the tower champion point passive & the light armor passive.

A big part of why I think just enough tankiness is a good strategy is because, as I pointed out in the OP, having more tankiness than needed is at a great cost (a diminished return).

I wouldn't want to go from one diminished return enchant (shield-play) to another (magic cost reduction). Do you, by chance, know how the spell cost reduction enchants stack with other spell cost reduction?

helediron · July 2015

Personofsecrets wrote: »

helediron wrote: »

Suru wrote: »

helediron wrote: »

At least @D3usEX has shown vDSA tank build. See here . I am playing similar NB tank build and it is much fun. The trend with these builds is to have just enough tankiness and boost damage and/or healing. I am aiming to 22k health and put 10 attribute points to hp and rest to magicka.

Also high dps tanking is one thing, but in vdsa you need a strong supporting cast aswell hodor truly display that in their runs

You are absolutely right @Suru . That's the idea behind having just enough tankiness. Turning it around, a tanky tank "I just taunt" is a not-so-good vDSA tank. This goes to other roles too. It's all about finding best synergy in the group. The OP build has e.g. chains and magicka to use them. I with NB tank will always envy them .

Just a suggestion: On many DPS builds using cost reduce on jewelry is more efficient. Spell damage glyphs are rather weak these days.

@Heledrion, thank you for the suggestion. I will have to see how magic cost reduction enchants stack with the tower champion point passive & the light armor passive.

A big part of why I think just enough tankiness is a good strategy is because, as I pointed out in the OP, having more tankiness than needed is at a great cost (a diminished return).

I wouldn't want to go from one diminished return enchant (shield-play) to another (magic cost reduction). Do you, by chance, know how the spell cost reduction enchants stack with other spell cost reduction?

They all seem to stack. One yellow glyph takes 200 from cost. There CP star stacks with the glyphs. But i don't know the exact formula. You have utility skills like chains and inner rage that benefit greatly from cost reduce. You can't pull any harder but you can pull more often.

Personofsecrets · July 2015

Joy_Division wrote: »

We don't know if Eric Wroebel is right because we don't know the extent of these changes, we don't know what other gameplay mechanics have been modified, and we haven't been able to test the proposed changes on the PTS.

You also did not indicate whether or not you tank in the manner that Wroebel referred to, just holding block. Do you perma-block, pull nearly 12K DPS, while fulfilling the primary duties of a tank, namely hold aggro, lock down enemies, prevent enemy special attacks, etc.? This maybe interactive and fun for you and others, but as MovingTarget has noted in another thread, the theorycrafting has advanced far far beyond the level of difficulty this game is able to offer and thus renders the game trivially easy.

We won't know if you can't continue to play this build and this playstyle until we know all the changes and have actually played them.

Hi @Joy_Division . Thank you for the thoughtful response.

I first want to point out that we do know Eric is wrong with one respect. Tanking is anything but boring and uninteractive. You are correct, we haven't tested the change or the gameplay mechanics to know the extent of the changes and, therefore, if the change is good.

What I suggest though is this, we don't have to test everything to know if it is good or bad. If it was decreed that Olympic ping-pong was to be played with sponges rather than ping-pong paddles, then we would all call the change preposterous. Maybe you think I've made and extreme comparison, but changing a block casters stamina regeneration is extreme. With as much block cost mitigation that I can possibly use, I still lose about 500 stamina a second versus 4 enemies. We already pay the cost to block and paying more costs, especially under the idea that tanking is uninteractive and boring, and especially when we have stamina cost skills and abilities to use, doesn't add up.

Do I perma-block? Of course, except on bar swapping which, consequentially, gets me killed from time to time. Do I do those things while pulling nearly 12k DPS? Of course. Though I agree that theory crafting has rendered the game easy in some ways, that is a separate issue from tanking being allegedly uninteractive and boring. Despite having a high dps group, understand that these runs have been the most challenging I have been a part of and that is because we are playing against time, we are playing against ourselves, and not necessarily playing against the enemies that instantly die. The enemies may die fast, but @Suru pointed out in this thread, the tank has a supporting cast. You may see me as doing all of the abilities of a tank while pulling almost 12k dps, but you don't see my healer pulling 25k dps with a well timed nova. Keep in mind that I am doing aoe damage against many separate enemies at once and that everyone else in the group is still doing way more damage than I am.

Again, you are technically right about what we know and don't know. What I do know though is that tanking will be set back to patch 1.3 if I start having to call for a templars shards. I do know that considering eternal yokeda to make it through content is not where I, or many others, want to be.

Sincerely,
LT

Vaelen · July 2015

Here's a good dps/tank Magicka DK build I run with:

1. Put all attribute points into Magicka, none in Health.
2. Use 2 piece Skoria (Heavy Reinforced), 5 piece Footmans (Boots, Gloves, Necklace, Rings), that leaves 4-5 slots left for Belt/Greaves/Chestpiece/Sword & Board and 2Her. I suggest using a Heavy Magnus set for more dps or Heavy Histbark or Heavy Alessia's Bulwark for more tankiness. I make the Heavy or Medium belt with the Nirnhoned trait, having 1 piece of Nirnhoned helps alot. I prefer using the Master Sword for 1h for the heals so don't use Histbark if you go with Master Sword since you will not get the 5th bonus. You should have 6-7 piece Heavy, and maybe 1 piece medium or light for the Undaunted stat passives, but having 1 medium and 1 light is a big drop to your armor values unless you want to use it on the Skoria pieces. I use all 7 Heavy, and I get hard capped with hardened Armor active (32500), anything lower than that is up to you how much less damage mitigation you want.
3. For skill bars, I use Structured Entropy on both bars for first skill, and Sea of Flames both bars for last skill. for sword and board, I use pierce armor for 2nd, GDB on 3rd, hardened armor on 4th. For 2her I use Burning Embers on 2nd, Engulfing Flames on 3rd, and Burning Talons on 4th. I mostly use Shooting Star for both ult bars, but I may decide to switch to SoM at times.
4. I use all health enchants on all pieces of gear, for the rings and neck I use physical/spell resistance enchants but if you want more deeps go with spell damage enchants instead.
5. For Champ Points, run with magicka/Spell damage affinity, Elemental Mastery/Magicka regen/Spell reduction/Spell absorb/Hardy and Elemental defender, being a dunmer/altmer helps too.

Also use Magicka/Health food too, and you should get around 27-28k Health with roughly 28k-29k Magicka.

Gilliamtherogue · July 2015

Why run Caltrops if you're magicka based? The threat generation is nice but that's a massive damage loss for one of your stamina dps, especially in DSA. Caltrops is consistantly #3 or #4 on my damage charts in DSA, averaging ~100-175k damage ber boss fight.

Personofsecrets · July 2015

Gilliamtherogue wrote: »

Why run Caltrops if you're magicka based? The threat generation is nice but that's a massive damage loss for one of your stamina dps, especially in DSA. Caltrops is consistantly #3 or #4 on my damage charts in DSA, averaging ~100-175k damage ber boss fight.

Hi @Gilliamtherogue , thank you for responding.

As a wrote in my guide, I didn't even include an explanation for caltrops because, often, a melee dps will be using it.

"I did leave off Caltrops in my explanations as it is dispensable. Many DPS use that and can get more benefit from it than the tank. In it’s place could go Burning Embers or, in the future, Stone Fist. "

At the moment the players I am with don't have caltrops. They rolled stamplars and haven't been in pvp to get the skill.

Personofsecrets · July 2015

Vaelen wrote: »

Here's a good dps/tank Magicka DK build I run with:

1. Put all attribute points into Magicka, none in Health.
2. Use 2 piece Skoria (Heavy Reinforced), 5 piece Footmans (Boots, Gloves, Necklace, Rings), that leaves 4-5 slots left for Belt/Greaves/Chestpiece/Sword & Board and 2Her. I suggest using a Heavy Magnus set for more dps or Heavy Histbark or Heavy Alessia's Bulwark for more tankiness. I make the Heavy or Medium belt with the Nirnhoned trait, having 1 piece of Nirnhoned helps alot. I prefer using the Master Sword for 1h for the heals so don't use Histbark if you go with Master Sword since you will not get the 5th bonus. You should have 6-7 piece Heavy, and maybe 1 piece medium or light for the Undaunted stat passives, but having 1 medium and 1 light is a big drop to your armor values unless you want to use it on the Skoria pieces. I use all 7 Heavy, and I get hard capped with hardened Armor active (32500), anything lower than that is up to you how much less damage mitigation you want.
3. For skill bars, I use Structured Entropy on both bars for first skill, and Sea of Flames both bars for last skill. for sword and board, I use pierce armor for 2nd, GDB on 3rd, hardened armor on 4th. For 2her I use Burning Embers on 2nd, Engulfing Flames on 3rd, and Burning Talons on 4th. I mostly use Shooting Star for both ult bars, but I may decide to switch to SoM at times.
4. I use all health enchants on all pieces of gear, for the rings and neck I use physical/spell resistance enchants but if you want more deeps go with spell damage enchants instead.
5. For Champ Points, run with magicka/Spell damage affinity, Elemental Mastery/Magicka regen/Spell reduction/Spell absorb/Hardy and Elemental defender, being a dunmer/altmer helps too.

Also use Magicka/Health food too, and you should get around 27-28k Health with roughly 28k-29k Magicka.

Greetings @Vaelen . Thank you for adding to the discussion.

For your 1st point and point 4, I just want to comment that it doesn't really matter where health comes from. Everything, enchants and attributes alike give health in a 1.1/1 ratio compared to magic and stamina.

For your 2nd point you bring up a good idea with nirnhoned. Everyone should have at least on nirnhoned piece if they can. I do think that you don't need hard capped armor or the footman set though. As I wrote, that gearing is good against very hard hitters, but isn't really needed in VDSA. Additionally, using hard capped armor and Footman's Fortune is inefficient due to diminished returns.

For your 3rd point, I think it is great that you are getting you spell critical and spell damage buff, but I find it interesting to get them both from skills. Just to have those 4 abilities you go from 10 skills to 6. Using chains and pierce armor drop you to 4 and at that point you don't have much flexibility with what you can do.

For your 5th point, thank you for pointing out the important champion points as I neglected to do so in the original post.

Tabre · July 2015

Great build. I especially like how easy it is to get all this gear. Interesting how the VDSA tank has evolved over time. Tanking is non-interactive and boring? Ha! Only for a bad tank who does nothing but hold aggro. A tank who adds value to his group provides all sorts of benefits other than taunting and blocking whether heals, CC, DPS, or support. There is no more engaging experience in the game than to tank. It comes down to how much do you want to do to help your group. You CAN just stand there holding block, or you can do something more useful and have a much more fun time as a tank, which this build allows you to do.

Personofsecrets · July 2015

Tabre wrote: »

Great build. I especially like how easy it is to get all this gear.

I really wanted to make a build that everyone had access to.

Tabre wrote: »

Interesting how the VDSA tank has evolved over time. Tanking is non-interactive and boring? Ha! Only for a bad tank who does nothing but hold aggro. A tank who adds value to his group provides all sorts of benefits other than taunting and blocking whether heals, CC, DPS, or support. There is no more engaging experience in the game than to tank. It comes down to how much do you want to do to help your group. You CAN just stand there holding block, or you can do something more useful and have a much more fun time as a tank, which this build allows you to do.

quoting for emphasis

Baconfat79 · July 2015

Thank you for this post. Lots of great information and ideas here. I'm a DK tank as well, also running Warlock set (which seems to be a pretty rare build these days). I find the Warlock set to be indispensable, as I ALWAYS have enough magicka for GDB in an emergency, or for talons, whip, shirld, etc. I don't know why more tanks don't use it. It's nice to see a real pro validate my way of gearing.

I do have two questions though:

1.) Bone Shield: I love it. What are your thoughts? Do you just not use it because you don't want to waste Stam on it? Or just because you don't need it? I find it to be a real life-saver.

2.) You're obviously a much better tank than I am, but I don't understand how you can possibly run with under 10k Stam and little to no block cost reduction. Just blocking and roll-dodging alone is such a drain. Aren't you constantly running out of Stam? I know GDB works wonders for that, but is there some other Stam management tricks you could share? I can't seem to get away with less than 16-17k Stam. Do you have never-ending shard spam in your group?

Personofsecrets · July 2015

Baconfat79 wrote: »

Thank you for this post. Lots of great information and ideas here. I'm a DK tank as well, also running Warlock set (which seems to be a pretty rare build these days). I find the Warlock set to be indispensable, as I ALWAYS have enough magicka for GDB in an emergency, or for talons, whip, shirld, etc. I don't know why more tanks don't use it. It's nice to see a real pro validate my way of gearing.

I do have two questions though:

1.) Bone Shield: I love it. What are your thoughts? Do you just not use it because you don't want to waste Stam on it? Or just because you don't need it? I find it to be a real life-saver.

2.) You're obviously a much better tank than I am, but I don't understand how you can possibly run with under 10k Stam and little to no block cost reduction. Just blocking and roll-dodging alone is such a drain. Aren't you constantly running out of Stam? I know GDB works wonders for that, but is there some other Stam management tricks you could share? I can't seem to get away with less than 16-17k Stam. Do you have never-ending shard spam in your group?

Thank you @Baconfat79 , for the comments.

As far as bone shield goes, I don't have much experience with that skill. I think a shield could be valuable, but many times my group is spread out and this wont be in the range required to receive it's synergy. Another reason is what you point out and talk about, my low stamina. The only time I use a shield is on the final boss of the final round. My group is stacked tightly to fight that boss and can easily die to the bosses steel tornado aoe attack. I use igneous shield here, but even if I were to use bone shield, I'm not sure if the others would want to use the synergy as they are very busy.

I have switched back to tri stat food for VDSA so that I can be more consistent in having stamina for shield bashes and pierce armor. I enjoyed testing low stamina as it was interesting to see the dilemmas that occur when a stat so low. On the other hand, now I am testing about 21k health and 31k magic.

There is a rare templar shard that I will synergize with, but that is usually before rounds start. I don't like using that synergy at other times because I know that the stamina DPS in my group can usually use it. There is a repentance that gets frequently used in my group by the templar healer. You may want to see if your healer can use that skill (if they are a templar) as it will restore your stamina. I also use Tripotions rather than Panacea of Spell Critical if I find my stamina being low.

It could be that I am not necessarily better than you. Keep in mind that both of us are going to lose about the same amount of stamina per block. It could just be that your fights are longer and you therefore end up blocking more hits, thus losing more stamina. For reference, my VDSA runs are usually a total time that earns a 10-11k in score.