Questions about tank combat and a sketchy question about "hiring players to be my ESO bodyguards"

Zombocalypse · October 14

For the first... I read that there are four aggro-grabbing taunts available in the game. Two from the one handed plus shield skill, one from undaunted, and the other is just characters spamming frost spells from ice staves in general. My question is that if I want to grab all aggro for my team, do I need to use all four simultaneously per fight? As in, do I stack them together by doing all four? Or basically each and every one of them turns aggro from 0 to 100 without the need to add the other taunts in my arsenal?

Another question about tank combat is that will I run out of stamina in tank-style fights with tank-related active skills usage if I literally never invest points in stamina and put all to health? I understand it might not be META to only put points in health when leveling up and never to magicka or stamina, but I just choose to do it as my own way of making my own build. But if I need to put some points on stamina to make active skill usage actually feasible for tank combat, I may have no choice in the matter.

Third question... I mean, if I offer one player a PayPal money gift so he plays with me for two hours on my day off as a literal hired video game companion, will that be against the rules in this game? I just find MMO players to be fickle with helping others consistently and are not always there because of random reasons. But if he's a PayPal paid hired MMO mercenary... Well, he'll probably stick around. lol. I just have to ask.

Thank you. I quit FFXIV over a year ago and haven't looked back since. That game has great art, great story, and great music. But I just never really found it fun after five years of playing it. I have some experience playing ESO in the past and I think it is a way better game.

Thanks. I'm excited to play.

WitchyKiki · October 14

wut?

Why would you pay someone to play the game with you, and a tank at that?

ESO isn't like FFXIV, just get good... for real. Theres no forced trifecta into most normal content, you can essentially run most normal dungeons with 4-well equipped DPS that have self-sustain and have decent Champion Points.

If you are looking to run trials, vets, and all other challenging content, then again, why would you pay a tank? lol just find a guild that has similar interests in content.

As for paying someone IRL money to play the game with you, well I don't know if its against TOS, but it sure isn't smart.

Sarannah · October 14

1: You only need to slot one taunt. But if you prefer you can use a melee and ranged taunt if you like that, so you can taunt everything. Though a ranged taunt also taunts closeby. (Melee taunts usually debuff the monsters though, so they are good if you want things to die faster.)

2: On all my tanks I run 64 health stat, but I do have 1 jewelry stamina regen enchantment. For me this is enough. If you are away from enemies, you can charge a heavy attack while approaching them, with the heavy armor passives you should be restored to full stamina(or almost full). Don't sprint full on, just small bursts when needed. Or you will waste stamina needlessly. (Note: The highest content I have tanked is veteran HM dungeons.)

3: Don't pay players to play with you, especially not reallife money(not sure if it's against the TOS). If you are a tank, you will get pug's instantly in the dungeonfinder(not all runs will work out, don't let that bother you). If you are an ok/good tank, you will get friend requests by the dozens. As everyone wants to know a tank who wants to run content with them.
Players are always doing their own thing, so matching schedules is hard, I get that. Try finding a guild or multiple guilds(can have 5), that should help with players always wanting to do the same things at the same time as you do. While you will also get to know familiar faces from guildmembers, and maybe make friends there. All free!

Edit: To practice tanking, try it out on world bosses with many add spawns first. This way even if you lose aggro on one or two monsters, noone will mind. But it will let you practice taunting.

Zombocalypse · October 14

Sarannah wrote: »

On all my tanks I run 64 health stat,

What does that mean? Does it mean that you invested on nothing but health and zero on magicka and stamina on all 49 level ups until champion rank?

Sarannah · October 14

Zombocalypse wrote: »

Sarannah wrote: »

On all my tanks I run 64 health stat,

What does that mean? Does it mean that you invested on nothing but health and zero on magicka and stamina on all 49 level ups until champion rank?

Yes. For how I play I do not need them.

Edit: Forgot to mention, besides the one jewelry stamina regen enchantment, I also use the undaunted skillline passives to restore resources.

MorganaLaVey · October 14

Zombocalypse wrote: »

[...]My question is that if I want to grab all aggro for my team, do I need to use all four simultaneously per fight? As in, do I stack them together by doing all four? Or basically each and every one of them turns aggro from 0 to 100 without the need to add the other taunts in my arsenal?

In ESO tanks only taunt bosses and elite enemys who do more damage than normal trash. Trash is outhealed by the healer.
For new players its often recomended to have 1 stamina short range taunt from sword and shield skilltree and a long range magica taunt from undaunted skill tree.

Zombocalypse wrote: »

[...]
I understand it might not be META to only put points in health when leveling up and never to magicka or stamina, but I just choose to do it as my own way of making my own build. But if I need to put some points on stamina to make active skill usage actually feasible for tank combat, I may have no choice in the matter.

1. In ESO healing is very strong so you can heal from 1% to 100% in 1 or 2 seconds.
2. In ESO tanking is more about avoiding damage than about taking it.
To avoid damage use
-resistences: 600 resistence = 1% less damage taken, it goes up to 50%
-Block: again 50% less damage taken
-Shields: are low in maciga/ stamina cost but can absorb massive amounts of damage
-Dodge: avoid 100% of damage from dodgeable attacks.

This means you should only put enough points in to HP to not get oneshot let the healer heal you up again or heal yourself.
Put many points in magica and stamina to use block, shields, dodge and other skills.

Renato90085 · October 14

i have some exp for tank easy trial hm(vss/vcr/vka)
for tank
1. 33k armor when you have buff
2. 37k-42k health can tank all thing in game,and some mech(vcr/vdsr)dmg is you 90% health..you still can run 64 point health for tank but sometime it a hard work for healer
3. stam>mana,because orb restore stam or mana , maximum is higher.
4.destruction staff first passive not need used
5.dodge and block boss heavy attack please

pklemming · October 14

Tanks are all about the recovery. Magicka primarily, but stamina recovery too. You use food that increases health, but also gives mag and stam regen. Tanks should have 64 points in to health. There are some caveats to that, but the general rule is 64 points

You use the Atro mundus for magicka regen and all the small body pieces are divines to reinforce that recovery.

Jewelry-wise, I tend to use tri cost reduction enchant and maybe one block cost reduction.

On my tanks, I never run out of resources. You heavy attack between mechanics to restore more resources too. There are excellent resources online on how to build and play tanks. Search Youtube for Hyperoxies

It is weird to pay someone to play with you. A little sad. but not against the rules, though. Find a guild and play with friends. If you are on PC, get Wizard's Wardrobe, and you can swap between tank and dps/ solo setups at the click of a button.

All overland stuff is soloable, even world bosses. Some things are harder than others, but ultimately, there is nothing I can think of in overland content that is not soloable(including all the new WW bosses). A lot fo the time, harder content will already have people there, hanging around, hoping for others to help.

As for dungeons, you can queue for them, and the game will form a group for you. PLaying as a tank is a fast queue, as is healer, dps can take longer. Don't be tempted to queue as a tank, if you are not at least prepared to taunt. I really hate those people that queue as tanks, but are dds and let stuf run all over the place.

Lastly, for soloing.. all points in to stam or mag , depending on what type of DD you are. You can slot heals, if need, or put on tankier gear if you are struggling, but as a DD, never put points in to health, it is just not needed.

sarahthes · October 14

pklemming wrote: »

Tanks are all about the recovery. Magicka primarily, but stamina recovery too. You use food that increases health, but also gives mag and stam regen. Tanks should have 64 points in to health. There are some caveats to that, but the general rule is 64 points

You use the Atro mundus for magicka regen and all the small body pieces are divines to reinforce that recovery.

Jewelry-wise, I tend to use tri cost reduction enchant and maybe one block cost reduction.

On my tanks, I never run out of resources. You heavy attack between mechanics to restore more resources too. There are excellent resources online on how to build and play tanks. Search Youtube for Hyperoxies

It is weird to pay someone to play with you. A little sad. but not against the rules, though. Find a guild and play with friends. If you are on PC, get Wizard's Wardrobe, and you can swap between tank and dps/ solo setups at the click of a button.

All overland stuff is soloable, even world bosses. Some things are harder than others, but ultimately, there is nothing I can think of in overland content that is not soloable(including all the new WW bosses). A lot fo the time, harder content will already have people there, hanging around, hoping for others to help.

As for dungeons, you can queue for them, and the game will form a group for you. PLaying as a tank is a fast queue, as is healer, dps can take longer. Don't be tempted to queue as a tank, if you are not at least prepared to taunt. I really hate those people that queue as tanks, but are dds and let stuf run all over the place.

Lastly, for soloing.. all points in to stam or mag , depending on what type of DD you are. You can slot heals, if need, or put on tankier gear if you are struggling, but as a DD, never put points in to health, it is just not needed.

Tanks typically run around 30-40 points in health, not 64 points in health. Most tanks at least in endgame sit at at 32-35K health before warden buff. That is more than enough. The reason for keeping it low is all the dots and attacks that scale with health. It's much easier to heal out of a 7K dot than a 15K dot.

Soarora · October 14

Zombocalypse wrote: »

For the first... I read that there are four aggro-grabbing taunts available in the game. Two from the one handed plus shield skill, one from undaunted, and the other is just characters spamming frost spells from ice staves in general. My question is that if I want to grab all aggro for my team, do I need to use all four simultaneously per fight? As in, do I stack them together by doing all four? Or basically each and every one of them turns aggro from 0 to 100 without the need to add the other taunts in my arsenal?

Inner fire/inner rage (undaunted), puncture (sword and shield), frost clench (ice staff), and some scribing abilities apply a hard taunt, causing enemies to attack you.
Chains such as silver leash (fighters guild) apply a hard taunt on enemies that are not already taunted.
You only need 1 taunt, but I’d suggest having a range taunt at least.

Zombocalypse wrote: »

Another question about tank combat is that will I run out of stamina in tank-style fights with tank-related active skills usage if I literally never invest points in stamina and put all to health? I understand it might not be META to only put points in health when leveling up and never to magicka or stamina, but I just choose to do it as my own way of making my own build. But if I need to put some points on stamina to make active skill usage actually feasible for tank combat, I may have no choice in the matter.

I put all points into health, you won’t run out of sustain. There’s several ways of helping your sustain such as through food/drink, armor traits, and skills.

Zombocalypse wrote: »

Third question... I mean, if I offer one player a PayPal money gift so he plays with me for two hours on my day off as a literal hired video game companion, will that be against the rules in this game? I just find MMO players to be fickle with helping others consistently and are not always there because of random reasons. But if he's a PayPal paid hired MMO mercenary... Well, he'll probably stick around. lol. I just have to ask.

Just get an NPC companion and/or make friends. ESO overland isn’t very hard, can do lots of it as a tank even. Bosses need a DPS though, unless you like very slow fights.

Aggrovious · October 14

Zombocalypse wrote: »

For the first... I read that there are four aggro-grabbing taunts available in the game. Two from the one handed plus shield skill, one from undaunted, and the other is just characters spamming frost spells from ice staves in general. My question is that if I want to grab all aggro for my team, do I need to use all four simultaneously per fight? As in, do I stack them together by doing all four? Or basically each and every one of them turns aggro from 0 to 100 without the need to add the other taunts in my arsenal?

Another question about tank combat is that will I run out of stamina in tank-style fights with tank-related active skills usage if I literally never invest points in stamina and put all to health? I understand it might not be META to only put points in health when leveling up and never to magicka or stamina, but I just choose to do it as my own way of making my own build. But if I need to put some points on stamina to make active skill usage actually feasible for tank combat, I may have no choice in the matter.

Third question... I mean, if I offer one player a PayPal money gift so he plays with me for two hours on my day off as a literal hired video game companion, will that be against the rules in this game? I just find MMO players to be fickle with helping others consistently and are not always there because of random reasons. But if he's a PayPal paid hired MMO mercenary... Well, he'll probably stick around. lol. I just have to ask.

Thank you. I quit FFXIV over a year ago and haven't looked back since. That game has great art, great story, and great music. But I just never really found it fun after five years of playing it. I have some experience playing ESO in the past and I think it is a way better game.

Thanks. I'm excited to play.

Listen man, group finder exist. I highly recommend you check out https://thetankclub.com/eso-dungeon-tank-build/ to see what is meta for tanks. The website also has alot of information on how tanking works.

I would have a tank that you can use because they are the most needed role in the game.

Sarannah · October 14

Good advice from all players here, also fun to see how we all tank differently!

As stated above, tanks are rare. And good tanks even more rare. You just have to find what works for you tanking-wise/playstyle-wise, and play it. You will improve with experience, the more you play tank the better you will become at it.

PS: Personally I don't only taunt big monsters or bosses, but I taunt every monster. Just with a priority system of hardest first: Bosses -> hard monsters -> regular monsters.

JaxontheUnfortunate · October 15

I tank as a werewolf so maybe there is something not quite right with me.

Aggrovious · October 15

JaxontheUnfortunate wrote: »

I tank as a werewolf so maybe there is something not quite right with me.

Dude I kid you not, I have been reading up on this: https://thetankclub.com/eso-werewolf-tank-build/. The idea that rush of agony can be a insane off-tank pull for normal trials or dungeons is pretty cool. I also want to test and see if Pearlescent Ward counts a direwolf as a group member, because that would be funny if it does. I am building up transmutes right now to werewolf tank, I think it would be a lot of fun.

AnduinTryggva · October 15

Death is not really bad in ESO, just a minor inconvenience.

So why do you want to pay for a "bodyguard" with real money?

BXR_Lonestar · October 15

Sarannah wrote: »

2: On all my tanks I run 64 health stat

No offense, but that seems like an AWFUL lot of health. If it fits your playing style and it works for you, then by all means I wouldn't change it, but none of my tanks run that much health. Usually my tanks run around 40-45k health, with warden buff I'll reach 50k health on some setups. But depending on what class I'm on, I prefer to have a much higher stam pool or mag pool available to me. Again, depending on what class I'm taking on, usually I run around 22-25k stam or mag, and usually around 18-20k of the other resource. I just find it too difficult to try to tank harder content without a decent size resource pool.

Soarora · October 15

BXR_Lonestar wrote: »

Sarannah wrote: »

2: On all my tanks I run 64 health stat

No offense, but that seems like an AWFUL lot of health. If it fits your playing style and it works for you, then by all means I wouldn't change it, but none of my tanks run that much health. Usually my tanks run around 40-45k health, with warden buff I'll reach 50k health on some setups. But depending on what class I'm on, I prefer to have a much higher stam pool or mag pool available to me. Again, depending on what class I'm taking on, usually I run around 22-25k stam or mag, and usually around 18-20k of the other resource. I just find it too difficult to try to tank harder content without a decent size resource pool.

It’s personal preference/depends on the rest of your build I’d say. I tank trial and dungeon HMs and tris with all my points in health and it works just fine for me.

kringled_1 · October 15

Probably also somewhat dependent on content. It's been a while but all the raid leads for vCR+3/GH I've run with didn't want tanks much over 40k health because of the struggle to heal out of baneful.

Soarora · October 15

kringled_1 wrote: »

Probably also somewhat dependent on content. It's been a while but all the raid leads for vCR+3/GH I've run with didn't want tanks much over 40k health because of the struggle to heal out of baneful.

I agree. That and probably also OT in SS if doing “OT gets a tomb” strat.

kringled_1 · October 15

Soarora wrote: »

kringled_1 wrote: »

Probably also somewhat dependent on content. It's been a while but all the raid leads for vCR+3/GH I've run with didn't want tanks much over 40k health because of the struggle to heal out of baneful.

I agree. That and probably also OT in SS if doing “OT gets a tomb” strat.

Heh, I remember some panicked voices in pulls where a tank unintentionally got into a tomb.

belial5221_ESO · October 15

You could join guilds,you get 5 so there's bound to be one person to help,and make friends,that'll help you free.Paying RL money for services in ESO is against TOS.Once your ubild has 40k health and 33k armor,including ability bufs,set bonus,food/drink,you can put points in other places for resources.Nord sword/shield build gets 33k armor easily.There's other build sites too like xynode,deltiagaming,skinnycheeks,etc to get you started also.You can adjust the builds if your playstyle needs a bit different setup also.You can get an idea about your setup here https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildData ,just create a new build and tinker.

Aggrovious · October 15

BXR_Lonestar wrote: »

Sarannah wrote: »

2: On all my tanks I run 64 health stat

No offense, but that seems like an AWFUL lot of health. If it fits your playing style and it works for you, then by all means I wouldn't change it, but none of my tanks run that much health. Usually my tanks run around 40-45k health, with warden buff I'll reach 50k health on some setups. But depending on what class I'm on, I prefer to have a much higher stam pool or mag pool available to me. Again, depending on what class I'm taking on, usually I run around 22-25k stam or mag, and usually around 18-20k of the other resource. I just find it too difficult to try to tank harder content without a decent size resource pool.

@Zombocalypse

Keep in mind this is on a Warden who has a passive that gives them Minor Toughness (10% more health).

Have a template and then work from there. If you want less health, go for it. Some mechanics however one shot DPS because they have 19k-22k HP. You however will live with more health. Synergies generally give you resources back, but if you have players they don't hit X often, then consider going more into sustain options.

Good luck

Vulkunne · October 15

Zombocalypse wrote: »

For the first... I read that there are four aggro-grabbing taunts available in the game. Two from the one handed plus shield skill, one from undaunted, and the other is just characters spamming frost spells from ice staves in general. My question is that if I want to grab all aggro for my team, do I need to use all four simultaneously per fight? As in, do I stack them together by doing all four? Or basically each and every one of them turns aggro from 0 to 100 without the need to add the other taunts in my arsenal?

Another question about tank combat is that will I run out of stamina in tank-style fights with tank-related active skills usage if I literally never invest points in stamina and put all to health? I understand it might not be META to only put points in health when leveling up and never to magicka or stamina, but I just choose to do it as my own way of making my own build. But if I need to put some points on stamina to make active skill usage actually feasible for tank combat, I may have no choice in the matter.

Third question... I mean, if I offer one player a PayPal money gift so he plays with me for two hours on my day off as a literal hired video game companion, will that be against the rules in this game? I just find MMO players to be fickle with helping others consistently and are not always there because of random reasons. But if he's a PayPal paid hired MMO mercenary... Well, he'll probably stick around. lol. I just have to ask.

Thank you. I quit FFXIV over a year ago and haven't looked back since. That game has great art, great story, and great music. But I just never really found it fun after five years of playing it. I have some experience playing ESO in the past and I think it is a way better game.

Thanks. I'm excited to play.

I'm just going to say this and no more. I've been a Tank with this game for as long as I can remember, like since pfff 2015 I believe. As soon as I could start Tanking I did. And I learned a couple things and I'll briefly list some of those below.

1) You gotta be yourself, however you also need to understand what a Tank needs and what people expect. Its like a dance kind of, you gotta be able to dance.

2) There is absolutely no way anyone can answer how many points here or there. Again, its all about what kind of Tank you want to be and what does your Tank bring to the table. I could go for days talking about this topic but I won't. In short, you're gonna have to suffer and learn but if you stick with it you'll find what you want. Keep an open mind but realize that when it comes to Tanking you're going to get like a gazillion and one different opinions. Its hell getting started with this but...

3) Once you know what you're doing... you don't need to worry about paying people right? They will pay -you- (if they could) for your assistance. The game is suffering from a shortage of tanks and it doesn't surprise me that this is so. But work hard, get big and stronnng and everyone will be begging you to Tank for them. I'm serious. Don't pay them make them pay you, even if its contributing to your goals for this game, make it so they need you and not the other way around.

You have quite a bit of work ahead of you but remember that all of us had to start from somewhere.

Good Luck

Necrotech_Master · October 15

there are actually far more than 4 things that taunt in the game now lol

1h/shield skill
undaunted taunt
ice staff using destructive clench
arcanist first skill in soldier of apocrypha line
(upcoming) templar spear charge
a huge number of abilities from scribing (there is a taunt and pull focus script)
almost any skill which can do pull also can apply a soft taunt

for the other parts of your post, as a tank you need to manage blocking vs heavy attacking to get resources back, you cant perma block easily because you have 0 regen while your blocking

and pretty sure paying people with real money for in game stuff (even just assistance) is probably not really allowed lol

BXR_Lonestar · October 16

Soarora wrote: »

BXR_Lonestar wrote: »

Sarannah wrote: »

2: On all my tanks I run 64 health stat

No offense, but that seems like an AWFUL lot of health. If it fits your playing style and it works for you, then by all means I wouldn't change it, but none of my tanks run that much health. Usually my tanks run around 40-45k health, with warden buff I'll reach 50k health on some setups. But depending on what class I'm on, I prefer to have a much higher stam pool or mag pool available to me. Again, depending on what class I'm taking on, usually I run around 22-25k stam or mag, and usually around 18-20k of the other resource. I just find it too difficult to try to tank harder content without a decent size resource pool.

It’s personal preference/depends on the rest of your build I’d say. I tank trial and dungeon HMs and tris with all my points in health and it works just fine for me.

Yeah, I know it is preference, but it is also a matter of group comp and who/what you play with. I tank vet/hm content on my tanks too, but especially in dungeons, I'm rarely supported by a dedicated healer - mainly because I am also my groups only healer player. So when I tank, we run 3 DD, and it's a race to burn everything before the tank (me) runs out of resources or gets overwhelmed. Usually, I don't get any orbs or shards (this is also why I run argonian on my main tanks - tri pots make sustain cheesy). Basically everything in my setup is geared towards maximizing group damage, except for if I'm having a hard time surviving, I'll throw on Malubeth's to help with that.

Familiarity with the content is also important because if you know exactly what to do and when (i.e., if you know you can't block an attack and you need to dodge roll) you can avoid wasting resources and maximize the resources you have.