The Bubble Brawler - A DK Build
The Bubble Brawler is all about one thing: shielding yourself to take as little damage as possible and having good self-healing abilities for the rough times. This build is a two-handed and is excellent for soloing large groups of mobs. In fact, the more mobs you can fight at once, the better. It's great for questing & grinding and also as an off-tank for group play.
Link to Build on ESOHead
The build only has one attack skill: Brawler (Cleave morph). Yes, you read that correctly. Brawler is a relatively cheap stamina attack that deals AoE damage, applies a bleeding debuff, and applies a shield for each enemy hit. Skills are split roughly 50/50 between Stamina and Magicka, so that's how I split my Attribute points).
You'll want to wear heavy armor for a while to unlock Immovable and then switch to medium. Medium armor gives you extra stamina regeneration to keep your Brawler extra spammy. The extra damage and crit is nice as well. Light armor is probably something you'll want to wear just to unlock Annulment for a third shield, but it's magicka intensive, so this might not be viable unless you're running a magicka-heavy build.
The rest of skills are focused solely on keeping you alive by mitigating damage, increasing your armor and resists, or regenerating your stamina and health. A Redguard is probably the best class due to their crazy stamina buffs which keep you in the fight well after most players would have to drink a potion. Pick up passives as you see fit.
You won't have any interrupts, however, so get really good at moving or soaking damage. If you need an interrupt, Stone Giant is my favorite because it's instant cast and increases armor. This build struggles against self-healing enemies due to the low single-target damage of the attacks.
Attributes
I keep a 1:1 stamina to magicka ratio. I put zero points in health because, well, health is only useful if you're actually taking damage to the faceguard. Get your stamina and magicka regeneration up, and then you should get stamina reduction items to allow you to spam skills.
Active SkillsBrawler - Deals medium damage, applies a shield to you, and costs next to nothing compared to other attacks. It's best used on multiple targets, so try to keep your damage spread out so you're always hitting 3 or more enemies for a meaty shield. You can spam it, but don't use this too often unless you're just burning enemies down. Let the old shield soak the damage before applying a fresh one.
Rally - This skill is just great. 20% damage buff and a HoT with a strong finish. Keep active.
Green Dragon Blood - This is your "bit off more than you can chew" button. Use this to heal and regen stamina to keep the fight going.
Hardened Armor - Use this along with Igneous Shield just before you run headlong into battle. Reapply as necessary for the free % of HP shield.
Igneous Shield - Besides Brawler, Igneous Shield will keep you alive. Also has a nice buff to your own healing abilities. Good synergy with Rally, green Dragon Blood, etc.
Immovable - Spec into heavy armor long enough to get Immovable for it's basic buff. Don't morph it, though. At this point you'll want to respec into medium armor for the stamina regeneration and crit buffs. Don't worry, you can still use the active skills from each armor class even when not wearing it.
Evasion - Crazy expensive damage mitigation, but it's hit-or-miss (no pun intended). This talent isn't a must-have, but it's decent.
Ring of Preservation - Increases armor and spell resistance while also giving a small boost to health regeneration to all allies. Drop one of these if you are fighting magicka-users.
Reflective Plate - What's better than reflecting projectiles for 4 seconds? Reflecting projectiles for 4 seconds and increasing Spell Resistance like a boss. This drains your magicka, so use when another shield isn't up or if you have amazing timing skills. A must-have versus ranged.
Spiked Bone Shield - Good for group play.
Corrosive Armor (Ultimate) - When the going gets tough, the tough sheathe themselves in fiery hot magma. Perfect for large pulls or bosses. With the Battle Roar passive, this essentially gives a second life.
I really enjoy playing this build because it's part tank and part AOE and is useful for both solo and group content. You won't grind faster than a pure AOE build, and you won't be the studliest tank, and you won't be the best support, but you'll be able to do it all with solid effectiveness.