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The Stalwart Bruiser- a hybrid dps/tank build for the Nightblade class
Gilliamtherogue
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Hello! Nightblade extraordinaire, Gilliamtherogue again. Due to many requests I've received for my tanking setup, I've finally sat down and decided to get something on paper. I will start off by saying that I have not really spent much time mathematically into this build as I have with my other DPS builds, and this was more of a dream build I had where I wanted a specific play style and tried to maximize the efficiency of it. I also want to mention that this write up isn't going to be as hardcore in the sense of breaking things down like I did with my previous write up. This is more just a general overlook at the gear and ability setup I throw on when I'm in the mood to tank and have fun.
Instead of taking a pros and con approach as I did in my previous write up, I'm going to just state some facts about this build that could be taken as either side.
eso-skills.com/skill/?z=TS4Vno7@DHSyTEv%DAsW9Zb@5tQ3Um0&p=90629072908290929162917291829192926292729282929203520362037203820392055205620572058212131222123212421252233420413063305130733081325232625913592359336023&a=000064&c=Gilliam&b=The_Stalwart_Bruiser&j=t&q=115&w=35&m=0
This is just an example loadout, but there are tons of interchangeable abilities. I frequently change my bars based on the fights I am doing, so I highly suggest getting a bar swapping addon (I don't have one to suggest since I don't use one, but many people comment on saying I should)
Sword and Shield (Defensive Bar)
Two Handed (Damage and AoE bar)
For PvP I make some minor changes. I almost always have defensive posture on to deal with casters as without it we have no way of defending ourselves against them. I also use stampede on my 2h bar for the added snare and DoT from my maelstrom weapon, it also deals more damage than ambush due to guaranteed crits. I do not run Reverberating Bash since it is broken atm with occasionally ignoring CC immunity. I have Power Bash morphed and occasionally run that, but avoid spamming it. It does not seem to ignore CC immunity as Reverb does, but I still try not to slot it since it always generates drama/etc. Despite not being optimal, it preforms quite well in 1vX situations. I swap out cost reduction on rings to regen and weapon damage for these situations.
5 Black Rose: This set used to be amazing when it was first introduced, but promoted the same play Zenimax tried to steer away from, perma blocking. Now it gives a rather weak buff to Constitution, a rather weak passive. Still it gives about 190 stamina, health, and magicka regen with this setup. Make sure to get EP style to ensure maximum style points. When the Alliance Styles release, I will be replacing this set with something like Hist Bark. Also gives us some added Weapon Damage, which was the main reason I took it.
3 Endurance: A simple 3 piece with 50% bonus stats. Health and Stamina regen, easy enough for what I wanted. I get more out of this regen than most tanks do since I don't have my block button taped down. I run all block cost reduction when tanking PvE, and swap them out to 1 weapon damage and 2 stamina regen when in PvP.
2 Ashen: A simple added amount of health, ideally I'd run something else but was an easily crafted filler.
1 Maelstrom Sword: Gives extra health just for wearing, and adds some nice bonus to Heroic Slash. Plus it looks cool.
You'll notice with this set I have an open slot, my shield. This is because I'm running a Maelstrom Shield, and it isn't activating any set bonuses. I will address this in the optimal setup.
(Optimal)
5 Leeching: The real set that got me into Nightblade tanking, but haven't found ideal pieces yet. The 5 piece procs quite often and does a sizable amount of damage AND healing. It also can proc siphoning attacks at the moment for some extra resources. Great for my personal goals of this build, can't wait to be able to properly utilize this when Thieves Guild releases (spoiler to my future plans for this build!)
3 Endurance: I can't really see anything better than this at the moment, but when Thieves Guild comes out expect to see something different.
1 Monster Helmet: Ideally 1 Bloodspawn would be best here, but Lord Wardens could be fine too. I prefer the stamina regen since I'd use it more than most tanks as I stated. Added health or mitigation works as well!
1 Maelstrom Sword: Exact same, no changes here.
2 Glorious Defender OR Permafrost: Since the Maelstrom shield can come in either of these sets, and they both have Max Health as their 2 piece bonus, it doesn't matter. I'd go with Glorious though because it looks hella cool.
deltiasgaming.com/champion/?b=1d00010019000500590a07014100190000004b00000200004a0100002c022c0000010001
*Thief*
Pretty much identical to my stamina build since I focus on stamina based abilities, just a minor change where I take less stam cost reduction and put it into bash reduction.
*Mage*
The idea here was to get core passives such as Retaliation and such from the Atronach, boost the healing of Vigor/etc from the Apprentice, and then focus on damage in the Ritual.
*Warrior*
I made a lot of magical damage mitigation sacrifices in the Lady to focus on getting Block Cost reduction and Shield Expert, two very vital nodes. Luckily Shield Expert helped alleviate some of that loss, but there was still quite a bit of damage mitigation lost, but block cost reduction is just as important.
For this build your Mundus stone is more of an added preference instead of a core stat role. Many tanks personally like to fill in regen gaps with the Atro or Serpent, but thanks to Siphoning Attacks we don't need it (yet). I tend to take a more offensive one, such as Thief/Shadow/Warrior. Since we have low crit and crit hit damage, Thief and Shadow don't get their true potential, so I would suggest taking Warrior to help increase scaling on all of your abilities (including vigor!). I keep Shadow on since I'm lazy and don't feel like swapping every time I change gear.
As for traits, the real ideal is as follows;
Infused on ALL armor slots. Sounds weird doesn't it? Well this is thanks to an extremely powerful (also expensive...) enchant, the Prismatic enchants. Giving you a bit of each stat you actually get higher pools than you would splitting your enchants evenly, and a 20% bonus on each one is fantastic. With all 7 infused prismatic enchants, you literally become a walking stat machine. It's truly glorious to behold.
Precise OR Sharpened on all weapons; pretty clear cut for a more damage focused roll. I personally run Precise because I have higher crit hit damage than most, but Sharpened is an equally decent choice for this build since we have low damage output. If you want a more beefy approach, take Defending.
Reinforced on SHIELDS. Sounds kind of weird since we have a free Prismatic enchant on our Maelstrom Shield. However the real reason we do this is because of the CP passive Shield Expert which gives 75% bonus mitigation from shields. These babies STACK, meaning we get almost DOUBLE the mitigation from our shields.
I usually run the Bi Health-Stam food but honestly anything works. Tri Food doesn't do too much for us since we don't spam magicka based abilities, but can work if you find yourself using Inner Fire more. The Bi Max Health and Stam regen food works as well, I personally run that in PvP when I need to dodge roll more and my enemies walk out of my ground based AoE (siphoning procs).
Weapon Power+ Weapon Crit potions are usually my go too, but I sometimes use move speed potions in Cyrodiil, or tri pots if my healer is pressed in the group. Ideally though Weapon Power/Crit potions will add some nice DPS to your parse with the buffs they provide, and some extra stamina management too.
Here's some stupid videos of me tanking some encounters, one group and one solo. I forgot to record my Adjudicator fight but I managed to get a screen shot of the parse to show my DPS potential as a tank, it could be much higher if I changed more of my bars to that fight, but I didn't want to alter too much to lose the core feeling of the build. Also my Kena fight was corrupted and only half of the fight was recorded, so I scrapped it. When I get more footage I'll edit this post and add it! I also plan on making NEW build posts for Stamina, Caster, and Tanking once Thieves Guild has launched, which is expected to go live March 7th, so get ready!
Solo boss footage
Group boss footage Adjudicator parse (as tank)
Instead of taking a pros and con approach as I did in my previous write up, I'm going to just state some facts about this build that could be taken as either side.
- This build is focused more on the bruiser play style that attempts to deal more damage than most tank setups, so it does take some time to get used to.
- Resource management is really vital here, if you get too overzealous about DPS then you'll lose much needed resources to continue tanking properly, and vice versa. Try and find a balance that works for you.
- Since we're running some damage dealing components in this build, expect to be less sturdy than full tank builds. If you're looking to have absolute control and support on the field, then you'll likely enjoy something closer to my friends', @chaseman245 and @ettenmoor, setups. They are both phenomenal tanks and run more full on defensive builds.
- This build is not fully maximized in gear, I really wanted a specific look for my character so I opted to take one of the lesser desired sets and traded it for fashion. It's not the worst there is, but I had a few other sets I'd rather run. Thanks to the Thieves Guild update I will be allowed to craft in the style I want when it hits, so hooray for that! I also have not spent the time and money into making everything as top notch as it could, but I will still comment on the ideal setup, as I have run the math for most of that.
- Finally, this build is a total blast. While I've always loved rogue game play, the absolute opposite of that has proven to be just as enjoyable. Walking into a crowd of enemies and locking them down with brute force while defending my allies gives a really unique and thrilling feeling. The ability choice and freedom of this build really let me have fun with it, and I hope some of you will as well.
Skills and Passives
eso-skills.com/skill/?z=TS4Vno7@DHSyTEv%DAsW9Zb@5tQ3Um0&p=90629072908290929162917291829192926292729282929203520362037203820392055205620572058212131222123212421252233420413063305130733081325232625913592359336023&a=000064&c=Gilliam&b=The_Stalwart_Bruiser&j=t&q=115&w=35&m=0
This is just an example loadout, but there are tons of interchangeable abilities. I frequently change my bars based on the fights I am doing, so I highly suggest getting a bar swapping addon (I don't have one to suggest since I don't use one, but many people comment on saying I should)
Sword and Shield (Defensive Bar)
1) Pierce Armor: Our main taunt, bound to melee cast range. It applies both Major Breach and Fracture, so your allies won't need to worry about doing that themselves. We run this over Ransack because our passive Shadow Barrier grants us the same buff and more.
2) Resolving OR Echoing Vigor: A nice little HoT that is based off of stamina. Since this build is mainly stamina based it was a no brainer to pop on. While this won't pump out as much HPS as a full DPS build would, it's still strong enough to validate the use. It should be noted that the separate morphs stack if casted by other players, so try and take whichever your group mates don't have.
3) Heroic Slash: A solid ability that I mainly use due to running the Maelstrom Sword. This ability is full of great utility, and is why the cost to cast is a little high. A 60% snare to help kite non boss mobs, Minor Maim (15% damage reduction) for 12 seconds on affected targets, and Minor Heroism for a nice little boost to ultimate generation. On top of that your next fully charged heavy attack deals some bonus damage and gives extra stamina back. You will see me utilize this enchant quite a bit in the video footage I have.
4) Surprise Attack: Since this build revolves around dealing damage while tanking, this choice was pretty obvious. Not only does it do more damage than any of the sword and board skills, but it also activate Shadow Barrier to give us Major Ward and Resolve for some extra damage mitigation.
*Interchangeable with*
Power Bash: The real reason I made this build. I've always loved the concept of shield based game play so this skill was an immediate first pick for me. Unfortunately it doesn't deal too much damage and is why I often run Surprise Attack over it. However, it does stun targets and WILL make mobs susceptible to the Exploiter passive from 75 points into the Ritual tree in CP, helping your group mates with that perk deal 10% more damage against the target. It should be noted that this morph also DOES NOT ignore CC immunity in PvP, unlike Reverberating Bash, which was another reason I took this instead.
5) Siphoning Attacks: The only reason Nightblades still exist as a competitive class, this skill alone allows us to focus on other stats that help us keep up with the other classes in terms of damage. This ability procs off any non DoT damage source, but also procs off of ground based DoT's, which is why we run Caltrops or Twisting Path. Unfortunately in the Thieves Guild update this will no longer work, and will essentially kill Nightblades' ability to keep up in DPS and tanking. I implore you to provide feedback to Zenimax and let them know that this change should NOT go through to live.
Ultimate) Soul Harvest: A cheap ultimate that provides a nice bit of damage and amplifies extra damage to the target for a short time. Mainly we run this to keep our Assassination passives up, but the extra ultimate generation on kill is nice, although won't be utilized as much since you'll likely get less killing blows than your DPS allies.
2) Resolving OR Echoing Vigor: A nice little HoT that is based off of stamina. Since this build is mainly stamina based it was a no brainer to pop on. While this won't pump out as much HPS as a full DPS build would, it's still strong enough to validate the use. It should be noted that the separate morphs stack if casted by other players, so try and take whichever your group mates don't have.
3) Heroic Slash: A solid ability that I mainly use due to running the Maelstrom Sword. This ability is full of great utility, and is why the cost to cast is a little high. A 60% snare to help kite non boss mobs, Minor Maim (15% damage reduction) for 12 seconds on affected targets, and Minor Heroism for a nice little boost to ultimate generation. On top of that your next fully charged heavy attack deals some bonus damage and gives extra stamina back. You will see me utilize this enchant quite a bit in the video footage I have.
4) Surprise Attack: Since this build revolves around dealing damage while tanking, this choice was pretty obvious. Not only does it do more damage than any of the sword and board skills, but it also activate Shadow Barrier to give us Major Ward and Resolve for some extra damage mitigation.
*Interchangeable with*
Power Bash: The real reason I made this build. I've always loved the concept of shield based game play so this skill was an immediate first pick for me. Unfortunately it doesn't deal too much damage and is why I often run Surprise Attack over it. However, it does stun targets and WILL make mobs susceptible to the Exploiter passive from 75 points into the Ritual tree in CP, helping your group mates with that perk deal 10% more damage against the target. It should be noted that this morph also DOES NOT ignore CC immunity in PvP, unlike Reverberating Bash, which was another reason I took this instead.
5) Siphoning Attacks: The only reason Nightblades still exist as a competitive class, this skill alone allows us to focus on other stats that help us keep up with the other classes in terms of damage. This ability procs off any non DoT damage source, but also procs off of ground based DoT's, which is why we run Caltrops or Twisting Path. Unfortunately in the Thieves Guild update this will no longer work, and will essentially kill Nightblades' ability to keep up in DPS and tanking. I implore you to provide feedback to Zenimax and let them know that this change should NOT go through to live.
Ultimate) Soul Harvest: A cheap ultimate that provides a nice bit of damage and amplifies extra damage to the target for a short time. Mainly we run this to keep our Assassination passives up, but the extra ultimate generation on kill is nice, although won't be utilized as much since you'll likely get less killing blows than your DPS allies.
Two Handed (Damage and AoE bar)
1) Relentless Focus: A nice little source of damage from Minor Berserk and extra stamina regeneration from Minor Endurance. This isn't all to vital to run as the ability itself, but we need to make sure we keep at least one Assassination ability on bar for passives.
*Interchangeable with*
Killer's Blade: A cheap execute that is casted at targets with only 24.9% HP or less. Pretty straightforward, but don't except huge numbers out of it since we're still more of a tank. Swap this on for fights that need to end quicker (enrage mechanics/etc)
2) Brawler: Our main source of AoE damage, rumored to be getting buffed with Thieves Guild or soon after. The main reason we run this is for the damage shield on hit, which gets quite large when dealing with AoE pulls. Your healer likely won't even need to heal you on AoE pulls since you'll constantly be reapplying the damage shield. Also provides a nice little bleed effect which will do sizable damage as a tank as bleeds ignore enemy resistances.
*Interchangeable with*
Power Extraction: Fits the quota for a spammable AoE, it will likely deal more damage and hit more targets than Brawler, but will trade a sizable amount of tankiness for it. Also grants more max Magicka for being slotted and gives us ultimate on cast due to Siphoner passive, and grants us Major Brutality for 20% more weapon damage. I usually run potions for this build so I don't gain as much, but if you'd rather run Tri-Pots then this will be great.
3) Inner Rage: Another taunt, and if it weren't for the fact that it was ranged casted, we wouldn't run it. A sizable cost, and costs Magicka since I prefer to retain my stamina for DPS and blocking. I only use this if I need to get far off targets or if a boss manages to slip past melee range. Has a chance to proc Radiate, which is a nice little synergy your group mates can utilize for some added AoE dps.
4) Razor Caltrops: A nice little boost to DPS with this build, the main reason we run this is for the chance to proc Siphoning Attacks. I use this over Anti-Calvary due to the fact that I primarily run as DPS with my main build, and don't have the time to swap between morphs every time I do pledges or tank off runs in trials. It should be mentioned that if a DPS is in group and has this, let them run it instead, as they cannot stack (even different morphs won't). Swap this out with the interchangeable if this is the case.
*Interchangeable with*
Path of Darkness (Twisting or Refreshing): Serves the same purpose as Caltrops, but is much smaller, deals less damage with this build, and lasts nearly 1/3rd the duration. I prefer Twisting since it hits more targets, and Refreshing won't be healing as much with this build. I also have a personal hatred for Refreshing Path.
5) Mirage: It's time! Every tank I hear asks me where my Major Evasion is since I don't run Hist Bark or Armor Master + Shuffle. I really don't like dodge chance since I hate relying on RNG for defenses, and I'd much rather run something else. However, there are times where I can see its use. It also gives Minor mitigation buffs, which is nice too, and costs Magicka instead of our precious Stamina.
*Interchangeable with*
Turn Undead: One of the most simple yet bad ass skills around. Place a protective ward at your feet which reduces all damage you and allies standing in it take by 8%, and 4% more when fighting Daedra. Also fears nearby Undead which procs Exploiter Passive and lets you come off the defensive more. Only downside is it DRAINS Stamina. Still, how cool do you look just slapping this thing down?
Ultimate) Open slot. Honestly there are plenty of ultimates you can run for a variety of situations. The main ones I use are Soul Tether and Aggressive Warhorn. Soul Tether is a great form of self healing, it stuns/locks down targets, does decent damage, and procs exploiter for you and your group. But on boss fights it isn't all too great, you'd do much more for your team by running Aggressive Warhorn for the extra crit hit damage and stats, or Veil of Blades/Bolstering Darkness for the damage reduction.
*Interchangeable with*
Killer's Blade: A cheap execute that is casted at targets with only 24.9% HP or less. Pretty straightforward, but don't except huge numbers out of it since we're still more of a tank. Swap this on for fights that need to end quicker (enrage mechanics/etc)
2) Brawler: Our main source of AoE damage, rumored to be getting buffed with Thieves Guild or soon after. The main reason we run this is for the damage shield on hit, which gets quite large when dealing with AoE pulls. Your healer likely won't even need to heal you on AoE pulls since you'll constantly be reapplying the damage shield. Also provides a nice little bleed effect which will do sizable damage as a tank as bleeds ignore enemy resistances.
*Interchangeable with*
Power Extraction: Fits the quota for a spammable AoE, it will likely deal more damage and hit more targets than Brawler, but will trade a sizable amount of tankiness for it. Also grants more max Magicka for being slotted and gives us ultimate on cast due to Siphoner passive, and grants us Major Brutality for 20% more weapon damage. I usually run potions for this build so I don't gain as much, but if you'd rather run Tri-Pots then this will be great.
3) Inner Rage: Another taunt, and if it weren't for the fact that it was ranged casted, we wouldn't run it. A sizable cost, and costs Magicka since I prefer to retain my stamina for DPS and blocking. I only use this if I need to get far off targets or if a boss manages to slip past melee range. Has a chance to proc Radiate, which is a nice little synergy your group mates can utilize for some added AoE dps.
4) Razor Caltrops: A nice little boost to DPS with this build, the main reason we run this is for the chance to proc Siphoning Attacks. I use this over Anti-Calvary due to the fact that I primarily run as DPS with my main build, and don't have the time to swap between morphs every time I do pledges or tank off runs in trials. It should be mentioned that if a DPS is in group and has this, let them run it instead, as they cannot stack (even different morphs won't). Swap this out with the interchangeable if this is the case.
*Interchangeable with*
Path of Darkness (Twisting or Refreshing): Serves the same purpose as Caltrops, but is much smaller, deals less damage with this build, and lasts nearly 1/3rd the duration. I prefer Twisting since it hits more targets, and Refreshing won't be healing as much with this build. I also have a personal hatred for Refreshing Path.
5) Mirage: It's time! Every tank I hear asks me where my Major Evasion is since I don't run Hist Bark or Armor Master + Shuffle. I really don't like dodge chance since I hate relying on RNG for defenses, and I'd much rather run something else. However, there are times where I can see its use. It also gives Minor mitigation buffs, which is nice too, and costs Magicka instead of our precious Stamina.
*Interchangeable with*
Turn Undead: One of the most simple yet bad ass skills around. Place a protective ward at your feet which reduces all damage you and allies standing in it take by 8%, and 4% more when fighting Daedra. Also fears nearby Undead which procs Exploiter Passive and lets you come off the defensive more. Only downside is it DRAINS Stamina. Still, how cool do you look just slapping this thing down?
Ultimate) Open slot. Honestly there are plenty of ultimates you can run for a variety of situations. The main ones I use are Soul Tether and Aggressive Warhorn. Soul Tether is a great form of self healing, it stuns/locks down targets, does decent damage, and procs exploiter for you and your group. But on boss fights it isn't all too great, you'd do much more for your team by running Aggressive Warhorn for the extra crit hit damage and stats, or Veil of Blades/Bolstering Darkness for the damage reduction.
For PvP I make some minor changes. I almost always have defensive posture on to deal with casters as without it we have no way of defending ourselves against them. I also use stampede on my 2h bar for the added snare and DoT from my maelstrom weapon, it also deals more damage than ambush due to guaranteed crits. I do not run Reverberating Bash since it is broken atm with occasionally ignoring CC immunity. I have Power Bash morphed and occasionally run that, but avoid spamming it. It does not seem to ignore CC immunity as Reverb does, but I still try not to slot it since it always generates drama/etc. Despite not being optimal, it preforms quite well in 1vX situations. I swap out cost reduction on rings to regen and weapon damage for these situations.
Gear Choices
(Non Optimal)5 Black Rose: This set used to be amazing when it was first introduced, but promoted the same play Zenimax tried to steer away from, perma blocking. Now it gives a rather weak buff to Constitution, a rather weak passive. Still it gives about 190 stamina, health, and magicka regen with this setup. Make sure to get EP style to ensure maximum style points. When the Alliance Styles release, I will be replacing this set with something like Hist Bark. Also gives us some added Weapon Damage, which was the main reason I took it.
3 Endurance: A simple 3 piece with 50% bonus stats. Health and Stamina regen, easy enough for what I wanted. I get more out of this regen than most tanks do since I don't have my block button taped down. I run all block cost reduction when tanking PvE, and swap them out to 1 weapon damage and 2 stamina regen when in PvP.
2 Ashen: A simple added amount of health, ideally I'd run something else but was an easily crafted filler.
1 Maelstrom Sword: Gives extra health just for wearing, and adds some nice bonus to Heroic Slash. Plus it looks cool.
You'll notice with this set I have an open slot, my shield. This is because I'm running a Maelstrom Shield, and it isn't activating any set bonuses. I will address this in the optimal setup.
(Optimal)
5 Leeching: The real set that got me into Nightblade tanking, but haven't found ideal pieces yet. The 5 piece procs quite often and does a sizable amount of damage AND healing. It also can proc siphoning attacks at the moment for some extra resources. Great for my personal goals of this build, can't wait to be able to properly utilize this when Thieves Guild releases (spoiler to my future plans for this build!)
3 Endurance: I can't really see anything better than this at the moment, but when Thieves Guild comes out expect to see something different.
1 Monster Helmet: Ideally 1 Bloodspawn would be best here, but Lord Wardens could be fine too. I prefer the stamina regen since I'd use it more than most tanks as I stated. Added health or mitigation works as well!
1 Maelstrom Sword: Exact same, no changes here.
2 Glorious Defender OR Permafrost: Since the Maelstrom shield can come in either of these sets, and they both have Max Health as their 2 piece bonus, it doesn't matter. I'd go with Glorious though because it looks hella cool.
Mundus Stone, Gear, Consumables, and Champion Points
deltiasgaming.com/champion/?b=1d00010019000500590a07014100190000004b00000200004a0100002c022c0000010001
*Thief*
Pretty much identical to my stamina build since I focus on stamina based abilities, just a minor change where I take less stam cost reduction and put it into bash reduction.
*Mage*
The idea here was to get core passives such as Retaliation and such from the Atronach, boost the healing of Vigor/etc from the Apprentice, and then focus on damage in the Ritual.
*Warrior*
I made a lot of magical damage mitigation sacrifices in the Lady to focus on getting Block Cost reduction and Shield Expert, two very vital nodes. Luckily Shield Expert helped alleviate some of that loss, but there was still quite a bit of damage mitigation lost, but block cost reduction is just as important.
For this build your Mundus stone is more of an added preference instead of a core stat role. Many tanks personally like to fill in regen gaps with the Atro or Serpent, but thanks to Siphoning Attacks we don't need it (yet). I tend to take a more offensive one, such as Thief/Shadow/Warrior. Since we have low crit and crit hit damage, Thief and Shadow don't get their true potential, so I would suggest taking Warrior to help increase scaling on all of your abilities (including vigor!). I keep Shadow on since I'm lazy and don't feel like swapping every time I change gear.
As for traits, the real ideal is as follows;
Infused on ALL armor slots. Sounds weird doesn't it? Well this is thanks to an extremely powerful (also expensive...) enchant, the Prismatic enchants. Giving you a bit of each stat you actually get higher pools than you would splitting your enchants evenly, and a 20% bonus on each one is fantastic. With all 7 infused prismatic enchants, you literally become a walking stat machine. It's truly glorious to behold.
Precise OR Sharpened on all weapons; pretty clear cut for a more damage focused roll. I personally run Precise because I have higher crit hit damage than most, but Sharpened is an equally decent choice for this build since we have low damage output. If you want a more beefy approach, take Defending.
Reinforced on SHIELDS. Sounds kind of weird since we have a free Prismatic enchant on our Maelstrom Shield. However the real reason we do this is because of the CP passive Shield Expert which gives 75% bonus mitigation from shields. These babies STACK, meaning we get almost DOUBLE the mitigation from our shields.
I usually run the Bi Health-Stam food but honestly anything works. Tri Food doesn't do too much for us since we don't spam magicka based abilities, but can work if you find yourself using Inner Fire more. The Bi Max Health and Stam regen food works as well, I personally run that in PvP when I need to dodge roll more and my enemies walk out of my ground based AoE (siphoning procs).
Weapon Power+ Weapon Crit potions are usually my go too, but I sometimes use move speed potions in Cyrodiil, or tri pots if my healer is pressed in the group. Ideally though Weapon Power/Crit potions will add some nice DPS to your parse with the buffs they provide, and some extra stamina management too.
Here's some stupid videos of me tanking some encounters, one group and one solo. I forgot to record my Adjudicator fight but I managed to get a screen shot of the parse to show my DPS potential as a tank, it could be much higher if I changed more of my bars to that fight, but I didn't want to alter too much to lose the core feeling of the build. Also my Kena fight was corrupted and only half of the fight was recorded, so I scrapped it. When I get more footage I'll edit this post and add it! I also plan on making NEW build posts for Stamina, Caster, and Tanking once Thieves Guild has launched, which is expected to go live March 7th, so get ready!
Solo boss footage
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afcUyqBzprIGroup boss footage Adjudicator parse (as tank)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoRrUS1keVUOld member of The Order of Mundus, Mostly Harmless, Hostile, and Genesis Elite. Avid theorycrafter. Herald to competitive stamina DPS pre 1.5. How far we've come!
Have questions? Send me a message on the forums or my other social media. Seeing people learn is my dream and passion.
Guides and other fun videos at https://youtube.com/c/gilliamtherogue
Have questions? Send me a message on the forums or my other social media. Seeing people learn is my dream and passion.
Guides and other fun videos at https://youtube.com/c/gilliamtherogue
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wrathofrraath✭✭✭Ay I DK healed that Adjudicator parse : ). 6k dps as the tank with no shards or repentence wtb nb tank pls.Vokul Lovaas - V16 Magicka Dragonknight
Vokul Vol - V16 Magicka Nightblade
Order of Mundus - NA DC
DK heals OP3 -
Dyride✭✭✭✭✭Is there reasoning behind Soul Harvest being on single target bar?
I would think you would want it on your AOE bar to get the most Ult gen.V Є H Є M Є И C Є
Revenge of the Bear
ØMNI
Solongandthanksforallthef
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Remember the Great Burn of of the Blackwater War!
#FreeArgonia0 -
Gilliamtherogue✭✭✭✭✭
✭Is there reasoning behind Soul Harvest being on single target bar?
I would think you would want it on your AOE bar to get the most Ult gen.
Mainly for the Assassination passives, as my main bar is really competitive for abilities and none of the ones from the tree are justified to keep there (Blur is a 20 second buff so it doesn't belong on the main bar). Regardless, as I stated in the ability explanation, you won't be the one getting most of the killing blows so the ulti gen is null.Old member of The Order of Mundus, Mostly Harmless, Hostile, and Genesis Elite. Avid theorycrafter. Herald to competitive stamina DPS pre 1.5. How far we've come!
Have questions? Send me a message on the forums or my other social media. Seeing people learn is my dream and passion.
Guides and other fun videos at https://youtube.com/c/gilliamtherogue0 -
Zach2322✭✭✭I know you have an updated nightblade tank build that uses magicka instead of stamina, how ever I did not like using it I have difficulty managing both resource pools even with siphoning attacks & engine guardian. I also played with this build for a little bit and I can say I enjoy a stamina tank over Sap tank. Could I still use this build and be effective as a tank if I make it more like a tank instead of a bruiser with the nerf of siphoning attacks? If not, could you by any chance help me out with getting a stamina nightblade tank set working?0 -
hybrid97Soul ShrivenHi,
I was wondering, that if you ever have the time, if you would think about updating this version of the nightblade tank.
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Tamorand✭✭I'd also like to request an update to this wonderful build.
Thank you Gilliam for all your hard work!!
Tamorand0