Question on the Dragonknight class and tanking

arun_rajputb16_ESO · August 2014

I've created a new character (Nord Dragonknight). I'd like to spec this as a kind of a tank but I can't work out what best to spend attribute and skill points. My previous chars have been maily DPSers using Bow, which is easy to work out. But the Dragonknight has two different paths, it seems. I can either concentrate on magicka (using the class abilities) or stamina (using the weapon abilities - in this case a sword and shield). If I spend attribute points on all three - magicka, health and stamina - I feel like my char is weak. But I can't figure out whether to concentrate on the class skills or weapon skills. There are some really good abilities on both sides but which is best? What kind of chars have you all created?

Any advice/help would be greatly appreciated...

Troponin · August 2014

Make it easy on yourself. With the way gear is these days, go all health on your attribute, then gear for magicka and stam. You will have more than enough stam and magicka doing it this way. In fact, my DK is only level 46, Nord as well, and I am finding I don't have stam or magicka issues hardly at all. Remember this one thing; Your job is to mitigate and avoid damage, to distract the big hitters, and to make it easy for your healer and easy on your dps to burn down their targets. Why is this important to remember? Because this means, you shouldn't be burning through your stam and magicka on abilities until you need them. I was watching an awesome tank on youtube a couple months ago and I noticed him doing something. He would taunt every 12 seconds, but then concentrate on staying out of the bad stuff and staying alive. He did little damage at all. If you do this, you should never run out of resources unless youre screwing up or your healer is really, really bad.

arun_rajputb16_ESO · August 2014

As I'm normally a dps char, I'm used to attacking constantly (and then running when I aggro them enough) so I'm not not used to the tanking method. What you've said has made me realise I'm tanking all wrong. I usually just button smash to keep their attention. I assumed, if I keep damaging them, I'll keep their attention. But, if I play it cool, and keep and eye on my effects, I won't really need high stamina or magicka attrib points (just use enchats, like you said).

Thanks for your advice. It's been enlightening

Troponin · August 2014

arun_rajputb16_ESO wrote: »

As I'm normally a dps char, I'm used to attacking constantly (and then running when I aggro them enough) so I'm not not used to the tanking method. What you've said has made me realise I'm tanking all wrong. I usually just button smash to keep their attention. I assumed, if I keep damaging them, I'll keep their attention. But, if I play it cool, and keep and eye on my effects, I won't really need high stamina or magicka attrib points (just use enchats, like you said).

Thanks for your advice. It's been enlightening

Trash it a little different. I would advice using talons on trash to at least stop them from rushing by you and all ganking the healer. From there, the occasional AoE is helpful. Since AoE trash pulls are usually relatively short battles, I would go ahead and assist some in the AoEing.

Troponin · August 2014

I just want to add, as a tank your damage abilities don't add a lot of hate to the enemies. You might snag a couple in a group, however, your healer will most likely pull more hate than you will. If you truly want the attention of an enemy, you must taunt with either ransack or Inner (something or other) from the undaunted line.