DK Tank set up for current game

Fleymark

Been messing around with some alts recently and have decided to add a DK Tank into the mix. Tons of threads around discussing the basic questions I have, but all I find seem to be from at least a couple of months ago and involve a lot of theory crafting and there have been 2 major patches since with lots of changes to DKs specifically. Thought I would start a fresh discussion about the basics of DK tanks in the current game and hopefully others can benefit from it too. The DK is probably the class I know the least about, atm.

First, I'm having a tough time deciding on race. I'm something of a min maxxer, at least while learning...On paper, Nord seems like the logical choice, but dunmer and redguard seem to have plusses, too. Nord has straight up "tank stuff"..bonus to health and health regeneration and an armor bonus. Dunmer has bonuses to start and magicka pools as well as fire dmg, which, it would seem, DKs have a lot of. Redguard is appealing, also, because it has bonuses to stamina pool, stamina regeneration, and a stamina leech...This could be stacked upon with a stamina build or just be an improved basic stamina set leaving the option to stack for magicka. All 3 have their appeal to me, I'm just so clueless as to what I'll be doing as a DK and tank I'm not sure which way to go.

All of the above would be easier to decide also, if I knew how I'm going to build, in general. On paper, I'm thinking 1h/shield, of course, as primary melee skill but beyond that I'm really not sure. Logically, being a tank and going stamina, a lot of people would go 2h for aoe dps...I don't have a 2 hand user so it would be fun to give it a go....But I've noticed with my main that range just owns over melee in so many cases (especially in the main story fights, solo boss encounters, and vet content in general) so being a tank, maybe going archery secondary would make more sense. But then of could deviate a bit and go destro staff instead (also making dunmer more appealing). Or do 3...I'm not crafting on this toon so points will be in more abundance than I've been used to so far. Or are there enough ranged abilities in the class lines alone to cover this and I should just go pure melee.

But then that begs the question of how to attribute this guy. Full health and spec with glyphs like my other toons or go with more of a split setup...lots of people seemto go 10-29-10 on tanks it seems.

Questions, questions! Problem with this game is it's so easy till 50 you can't just go in and try things out. And now we have this stupid limit on character deletes. Otherwise I would just go experiment.

If anyone who plays DK tanks wouldn't mind helping me get up to speed on this stuff I would be very appreciative.

yodased

Imperial is by far the best tank followed by orc for passives.

1h/shield and resto has been the best mix for my DK when I tank on him. I wear warlock set and knightmare set mix and I have specced every single point into magic.

Works just fine.

Maverick827

I wouldn't go DK tank, the class gets nerfed every patch and will soon be suboptimal at everything.

Fleymark

Well, I guess I should add that I don't have IE so Imperial isn't an option for me but I did pre-order so I can play any other race.

Also, I already have a NB main that is dps and a Templar healer caster alt, so DK tank is what I'm interested in with this alt.

I understand there have been nerfs, but this is an alt, so that notwithstanding this is still the way I'm going with this toon. There will be balance eventually, it's the skill sets and how they fit the roles is what interests me here.

Fleymark

So that's it? DKs are getting nerfed so don't play one?

It's can't be that bad!