Would Be Tank Seeks Advice

Elephant42

I'm looking to tank with my Nord DK. She has levelled 2H and S&B to 50 and is working on bow, and wears all heavy armour - has not levelled either medium or light, although this could be rectified if needed. I've concentrated on stamina skills and morphs. Seeking advice on how to distribute attribute points, jewellery and suitable CRAFTED armour sets.

TIA

JonzzLonewolf

I would recommend a 5 piece Just Bark and 3-4 piece Shalidor's Curse depending on your weapon, for only crafted sets.

Elephant42

I looked at both Hist Bark and Whitestrake's Retribution and am leaning towards the latter because I'm a bit concerned about exceeding the armour cap with Hist Bark. How likely is this (exceeding the armour cap)?

I ask because I like the look of Death's Wind but am concerned about all the armour it adds for the aforementioned reason.

Rosveen

You're a tank, you want all the armor you can get. You won't even get close to the cap with equipment alone. The dodge chance from Hist Bark is excellent and this set is better if you run with a good group because your health probably won't get low enough to activate Whitestrake's shield. It also helps the healer all throughout the fight. That said, Whitestrake isn't a bad choice per se.

p_tsakirisb16_ESO

Elephant42 wrote: »

I'm looking to tank with my Nord DK. She has levelled 2H and S&B to 50 and is working on bow, and wears all heavy armour - has not levelled either medium or light, although this could be rectified if needed. I've concentrated on stamina skills and morphs. Seeking advice on how to distribute attribute points, jewellery and suitable CRAFTED armour sets.

TIA

Also what separated good tanks from AWESOME tanks, is caltrops.
Get it if you want to get better aggro managment.

Elephant42

Thanks for the advice - anyone got any thoughts as to how to distribute attribute points?

Also what about jewellery? - my current thinking is 3 x Unassailable all with Alchemist enchants - thoughts?

UrQuan

Saaay, @Elephant42 you're not by any chance the guy who tanked the normal and vet pledges with me and a couple of other guildies last night are you?

Anyway, I do highly recommend Hist Bark - the dodge chance is frankly awesome. I use it on both of my tanks. Having a 20% chance to dodge while blocking means that you flat-out avoid a TON of damage. Unassailable jewelry is definitely a solid choice. Personally I prefer shield play enchants on my jewelry when I'm tanking, but your mileage may vary.

@p_tsakirisb16_ESO is right that caltrops are great for a tank - I've been in groups where the tank used caltrops to great effect. Sadly, so far caltrops has been out of reach for me because I really don't PVP so I've never managed to get my Assault skill line up to 6. Whether that's a barrier for you as well, I couldn't say.

And as far as attribute point distribution goes... What are your stats looking like at the moment without food buffs? Personally for a tank I prefer to have relatively even amounts of stamina and magicka (in some ways stamina is more important, but I like to have a healthy amount of magicka too for skills like Hardened Armour and one of the Dragon's Blood morphs), and high health. I know there are people who prefer more magicka so they can stack shields instead of relying on health, or people who prefer more stamina so they can keep blocking indefinitely. I think to a certain extent it comes down to your playstyle.

p_tsakirisb16_ESO

UrQuan wrote: »

@p_tsakirisb16_ESO is right that caltrops are great for a tank - I've been in groups where the tank used caltrops to great effect. Sadly, so far caltrops has been out of reach for me because I really don't PVP so I've never managed to get my Assault skill line up to 6. Whether that's a barrier for you as well, I couldn't say.

Is easy to get if you are low level. Get to level ~40, but for sure before 46, to Cyrodiil on the non Vet campaign.
You will get Assault 6 in few days if you kill the realm enemies and do the PVP missions.

Elephant42

UrQuan wrote: »

Saaay, @Elephant42 you're not by any chance the guy who tanked the normal and vet pledges with me and a couple of other guildies last night are you?-snip-

Yep that's me - please don't hold it against me

Elephant42

UrQuan wrote: »

-snip-
@p_tsakirisb16_ESO is right that caltrops are great for a tank - I've been in groups where the tank used caltrops to great effect. Sadly, so far caltrops has been out of reach for me because I really don't PVP so I've never managed to get my Assault skill line up to 6. Whether that's a barrier for you as well, I couldn't say.-snip-

It is

tintin_milou

Does Hist Bark's 5-piece bonus (20% dodge chance ) stack with NB's Blur dodge chance?

If the dodge chances don't stack, and you are a NB, would you still use Hist Bark? Thanks!

Elephant42

UrQuan wrote: »

-snip-Unassailable jewelry is definitely a solid choice. Personally I prefer shield play enchants on my jewelry when I'm tanking, but your mileage may vary.-snip-

Interesting idea. My thinking is that with the 3 alchemy enchants I can keep a potion going pretty much constantly, at the very least with only a small gap between losing the buff and the cooldown expiring. However, given how important the shield seems to be for tanking, this definitely warrants a trial. It seems to be pretty easy to get Unassailable stuff, so I might keep two sets with the different enchants and see which one gives the best results. As is usually way with these things, it's likely that each set will be best depending on the circumstance - sigh, my brain hurts thinking about it...

Rosveen

tintin_milou wrote: »

Does Hist Bark's 5-piece bonus (20% dodge chance ) stack with NB's Blur dodge chance?

If the dodge chances don't stack, and you are a NB, would you still use Hist Bark? Thanks!

They don't stack properly. I'm going with Hist Bark to save a skill slot.

UrQuan

Elephant42 wrote: »

UrQuan wrote: »

Saaay, @Elephant42 you're not by any chance the guy who tanked the normal and vet pledges with me and a couple of other guildies last night are you?-snip-

Yep that's me - please don't hold it against me

Hey, I thought we did awesome as a team! We got the silver key on the normal pledge and the gold key on the vet! And for a guy who came into it saying "I'm trying to become a tank but I'm not really geared or set up for it" you did a great job! Especially since we had never all played together before...

UrQuan

p_tsakirisb16_ESO wrote: »

UrQuan wrote: »

@p_tsakirisb16_ESO is right that caltrops are great for a tank - I've been in groups where the tank used caltrops to great effect. Sadly, so far caltrops has been out of reach for me because I really don't PVP so I've never managed to get my Assault skill line up to 6. Whether that's a barrier for you as well, I couldn't say.

Is easy to get if you are low level. Get to level ~40, but for sure before 46, to Cyrodiil on the non Vet campaign.
You will get Assault 6 in few days if you kill the realm enemies and do the PVP missions.

*facepalm* I totally forgot that the PVP mission boards even existed. OK, that's something I can try doing the next time I'm in Cyrodiil that will actually help at somewhat towards getting Caltrops. As opposed to the PVE stuff I've been doing in Cyrodiil that only helps when it lands me in some unexpected PVP action.