Best armor sets for tanking and why?

DezKoth87

I'm a dk stamina tank and was wondering wat would be the best gear setup for my tank? Obviously damage mitigation is very important but how do I set up my gear, just right, to have a good balance between resources needed and damage mitigation? Do I glyph everything towards health, do I need magicka? Please help? Thank u

Ffastyl

I cannot say there is a "best" set for tanking, but I can say Heavy Armor is prefered for its high passive mitigation. Medium Armor and Light Armor tanks are possible, but faaaaaaaar rarer than Heavy Armor tanks. Use 5 to 7 Heavy Armor for all of the armor passives and then 0 to 2 of the other armor types to help with resource management if necessary.

I favor the Willow's Path set for increased regeneration all 'round, but that is because I like passive regeneration. One of the more popular sets, at least in previous Updates, is/was Hist Bark, since it grants Major Evasion while blocking. I slot Evasion (from the Medium Armor tree) to grant Major Evasion so Hist Bark is redundant. Conversely, using Hist Bark frees up an ability slot to use something other than Evasion.

Leon119

Most endgame tanks i know use footman with either armor master or hist bark
More people switching to hist bark atm. They also use a master sword when taunting for its passive then usually swap to other bar for the full bonuses.
Along with the mentioned sets the use either engine guardian or malubeth sets. Since the stamina regen nerf i havent seen much blood spawn although i personally still think its good

jebuspowers

I roll 5 Willows Path and 4 song of Lamae. Willow gives a ton of regen which is necessary post IC. Song gives both resistances and health. I think hist bark sucks and I only used it as my secondary pre patch with whitestrakes as my main gear.

REiiGN15

I just use Footmans(endurance set blows) and v16 hist bark. Dodging those potential crit hits saves stamina and health.

DezKoth87

With the next set I make I'm gona go with hist and whitestrake for the health and resistance. Seems pretty sturdy for a tank. How should I glyph and trait the armor? Personally I thought I wouldn't ever need magicka for tanking but recently watch some videos and it seems magicka is how u buff up? Any suggestions on what traits and glyphs to add on?

jebuspowers

You need some regen unless you plan on chugging potions.

DezKoth87

jebuspowers wrote: »

You need some regen unless you plan on chugging potions.

Thank u

Brrrofski

I run 5 piece hist bark and 4 piece night's silence (3 when swap to dps bar with Greatsword).

Dodging 1 in 5 attacks obviously benefits your stamina.

Night's silence adds max stam and stam regen, which is all I struggle with on dungeons.

Just need the endurance jewellery then to start upgrading my heat to vet 16. Very long process.

Rhazmuz

Personally Im not so sold on the 5 piece bonusses which enhance blocking (footman and hirst bark) post imperial city patch. As a tank you will block less, thus decreasing the value of those bonusses.

Personally Im thinking that going for more constant bonusses such as hp, phys and spell resist may be better, at least tanking wise.

A combination of alessias, footman and song of lamae (3 x 4 pieces) could yield quite strong constant defensive stats.

Brrrofski

You still will block.

With a good templar healer and Dps to burn down adds quick, you can still block most the time

notimetocare

Footman and black rose 5sets.2pc whitestrake for filler ATM. This is as a NB tank, I prefer double take to hist bark. Gives me more room for regeneration with black rose.

aialghannam_ESO

Rhazmuz wrote: »

Personally Im not so sold on the 5 piece bonusses which enhance blocking (footman and hirst bark) post imperial city patch. As a tank you will block less, thus decreasing the value of those bonusses.

Personally Im thinking that going for more constant bonusses such as hp, phys and spell resist may be better, at least tanking wise.

A combination of alessias, footman and song of lamae (3 x 4 pieces) could yield quite strong constant defensive stats.

And that's one of the reasons why the recent stamina regen penalty while blocking is the most stupid update in eso yet.

bigereard

Hist Bark is actually better right now.
Pre 1.6 it's only give 20% chance to prevent like 25% of damage to health (which neglectable), the 20% chance bonus to not using stamina is also neglectable, because we can have 3-4k stamina regen (aside of many mechanism to get stamina back).

Right now, it's give you 1 "free" block every 4 block, so basically is give you about 119 - 200ish stamina every block, it's not neglectable because we don't have that 3-4k stamina regen while blocking anymore.

And.. actually with DK or have a templar-spear shard partner, we still can do almost perma block, so it's not that less block, so footman set still as useful as before unless we do solo turtling...

Since tanking not only blocking:

For me 5 light of cyrodiil is the most underpowered tank set ever for templar.
And for siphoning tank, scourge harvester + twilight's embrace is gem!
Blood spawn + akaviri dragon guard/pontates is also good if we have ultimate for tanking (corrosive armor/empowering sweep/bolstering darkness)

Btw, has anybody ever tried beckoning steel + evasion?
Does it really give 52% evasion to ranged attack?
I just think about PvP anti range guardian for healer/support:
guard + beckoning steel + evasion

jebuspowers

I never liked evasion as it only allows you to dodge melee attacks. Or at least when I tried it not once did I ever dodge spell damage. I think a better bonus would be a chance to "auto block" an attack, as in you take damage as if you had blocked the attack without actually raising your shield. Or something like that.

symonator

Personally i like hist+footman - simply the block mitigation and dodge is real handy for tanks, when big hits miss, it saves much stamina.
However, i think i might swap out footman loose the mitigation bonus and try another set with some sort of resource regen.

tpanisiakb16_ESO

I like Hist and 3-peice Footman and that's because with high armor, blocking, and with CP's that 12% block mitigation turns out to be something like 3-4% due to diminishing returns. You can read about that here. Indeed, since busting up my 5-peice Footman's I don't even notice a difference, and the reinforced instead of exploration on pieces far outweighs the small mitigation bonus Footman's was once providing.

Right now my goal is to get two master swords, I'm decked out in all v16 Hist Branch but I do want to play around eventually with Imperium and Leeching. Neck and rings are Footman's, but I'll probably change to two piece agility, 2 piece endurance (Amulet + Shield).

If I had the pieces, I would 100% try Hist Branch + Warlock.

Anyway, yeah, Footman's isn't as good as the bonus tells you, so feel free to break it up and look for something different.

Blackjak-33

I run 5 piece Twilight's Embrace for bonus healing received, and 4 Seducer for magicka regen/max magicka.

On a magicka NB tank.

Kahen40k

I strongly suggest to try 5 seducer, 5 footman, 2 engine and go as magika, if you wanna focus on tanking; with around 50 CP and 3 glyph of block reduction, stamina is not an issues at all, just a spear/ potions here and there and repentance for trash pulls and you'll be fine.

metabLast3r

On a Templar Tank here, currently using Armor Master Set for PVE, Blood Rose for PVP (with food pushing 30k HP/31k Stam). I use the Malubeths set in conjunction with 3 piece agility (Shield/Weap/Ammy). I feel I can take quite a bit of damage, with the occasional heavy swing mixed in for stamina gain. I am, however, leaning towards a Leeching Plate set with CP into Health return.

Septimus_Magna

The new 5-set Willows Path (1x health/mag/stam regen + 15% regen) might also be good for tanks, has anyone tested this set?

vladimilianoub17_ESO1

I have been using a DK tank since release.Tho I have almost equal stam and magika,i consider myself a magika tank because i have 18% magika cost reduction.Its magika what is going to keep you alive by buffing you and self healing you.its magika whats going to help you regen stam(ingenious shiled,drop block and do a heavy attack,and repeat)With magika you can help allies mitigate damage with ingenious shield.Magika will help you CC trash mobs with talons.I only have 3 stam skills on my bars and only activate 2 of them,the rest is magika skills.

My sets are out of the ordinary of what many tanks use.I look for sets to fill stats I need.I used footman before but not anymore because there is no v16 footman.The set i always use and never change it is Seducer because im a Nord and seducer gets me that magika and magika cost reduction my race dont give me.ATM im usig 5 seducer.3 Endurance,that helps me with stam regen.2 pieces of any sets that give me phisicall reduction(usind 2 death wind in this case) cause i needed a bit of phisical reduction.And of course,best monster set for tank is engine as tanks rely on the 3 stats.

My tank,Adriana Red,its an awesome tank.People always give me compliments of how good a tank I am(which I most of the time take a screenshot for my "awesome tank resume"lol)

Each to its own when making your tank build but for DKs all I can say magika is the best because DKs where made mostly for tanking and because of that many of his tanking skills are magika based.You can always contact Adriana Red if you need a tank.@vladimiliano,AD,NA.

jebuspowers

I have been using Willows Path and it makes resources a lot easier to manage.

amneziac

tpanisiakb16_ESO wrote: »

Anyway, yeah, Footman's isn't as good as the bonus tells you, so feel free to break it up and look for something different.

Its better than most people realize. Not only is the 5 piece the best 5 piece in tank gear, it comes with jewelry. Deck yourself out in footmans and take a a few hits while blocking. Then take the jewelry off and do it again. The difference is astounding. I've had it up to here (imagine my hand reaching above my head) with people talking about diminishing returns on damage mitigation. Do the test and see what happens...

nordsavage

I use five Footman, three are jewelry one is shield. I use shield because you only need the last bonus while blocking and I carry two. Five Whitestrake's including four armor and two one handers for each Footman shield, a great sword and a bow. Finally assorted two piece undaunted which are Malubeth, Bloodspawn, Engine Guardian and previously Skoria before the stamina regen nerf. I would consider Lord Warden's if it would drop and Imperium if I had a whole set instead of Whitestrake's. Whitestrake's has never let me down. Do not use Armor Master it is garbage. The five percent bonus resets when you swap bars even with an armor ability on both bars. Immovable is stamina expensive. Evasion is semi stamina expensive and gets in the way of some armor and set procs plus it defeats having resistances with full effect only on medium gear. As for annulment why would you use it when absorb magic is a no brainer for tanks.

jakeedmundson

This build works pretty well... depending on your cp distribution (i have about 110) and stat point allocations
I usually stick to more stamina than health (i think around 50 S and 14 H) and none in magicka because i only use it to buff volatile armor and igneous shield

Armor - 5 heavy, 1 light, 1 medium (and pick up all the armor passives you can for these but make sure to not pick the 5p passive for light and medium)
3 pc footmans (jewelry only) stamina cost reduction and regen enchants
5 piece histbark (all but shoulders and helm) most are health enchants
2 piece bloodspawn (or engine guardian ... but i have yet to see that damn helm drop)

Weapons - S&B and 2 hander or bow
I use the endurance set for sword and shield (extra 1500 health and they are usually cheap to buy)
2h weapon doesn't really matter much... i do nightmothers or hundings rage and mix the gear up if i need more dps i'll swap a couple pieces of histbark out to get some hundings bonuses

for more tankyness i use a 2 hander and get the cleave ability that gives you a shield per enemy hit... and make sure to have rally on your bar (extra damage and a good HoT)
for fights like darkshade... i go full dps with a bow and just taunt the adds when the pop up so we can burn them down.

This build won't get you the max resistance or massive health.. but i've found it works in all of the old vet dungeons.
i think i end up with 28k resistances buffed and around 29k health but you also end up with around 24k stamina... more than enough to let you block and use your abilities. (around 10k magicka but again... i don't use much to stayed buffed)
You could play around with your stat allocations if you want more health... putting 50 (111 per point i think) in health and 14 in stamina would put you over 30k health easily. (i don't find in necessary for most situations - but there is always a chance to get one shot'd if you miss a block)

Erock25

amneziac wrote: »

tpanisiakb16_ESO wrote: »

Anyway, yeah, Footman's isn't as good as the bonus tells you, so feel free to break it up and look for something different.

Its better than most people realize. Not only is the 5 piece the best 5 piece in tank gear, it comes with jewelry. Deck yourself out in footmans and take a a few hits while blocking. Then take the jewelry off and do it again. The difference is astounding. I've had it up to here (imagine my hand reaching above my head) with people talking about diminishing returns on damage mitigation. Do the test and see what happens...

@amneziac The math doesn't lie. On my character with my mitigation levels, that 5 piece footman bonus is only giving me 3% additional mitigation on a blocked attack.

jakeedmundson

Erock25 wrote: »

amneziac wrote: »

tpanisiakb16_ESO wrote: »

Anyway, yeah, Footman's isn't as good as the bonus tells you, so feel free to break it up and look for something different.

Its better than most people realize. Not only is the 5 piece the best 5 piece in tank gear, it comes with jewelry. Deck yourself out in footmans and take a a few hits while blocking. Then take the jewelry off and do it again. The difference is astounding. I've had it up to here (imagine my hand reaching above my head) with people talking about diminishing returns on damage mitigation. Do the test and see what happens...

@amneziac The math doesn't lie. On my character with my mitigation levels, that 5 piece footman bonus is only giving me 3% additional mitigation on a blocked attack.

agreed... i've noticed no big difference in using the 5p... but the 3-4 piece is still worth while

Bashev

Erock25 wrote: »

amneziac wrote: »

tpanisiakb16_ESO wrote: »

Anyway, yeah, Footman's isn't as good as the bonus tells you, so feel free to break it up and look for something different.

Its better than most people realize. Not only is the 5 piece the best 5 piece in tank gear, it comes with jewelry. Deck yourself out in footmans and take a a few hits while blocking. Then take the jewelry off and do it again. The difference is astounding. I've had it up to here (imagine my hand reaching above my head) with people talking about diminishing returns on damage mitigation. Do the test and see what happens...

@amneziac The math doesn't lie. On my character with my mitigation levels, that 5 piece footman bonus is only giving me 3% additional mitigation on a blocked attack.

@Erock25
Did ZoS change the formula? It was 6% before.

caperon

Erock25 wrote: »

amneziac wrote: »

tpanisiakb16_ESO wrote: »

Anyway, yeah, Footman's isn't as good as the bonus tells you, so feel free to break it up and look for something different.

Its better than most people realize. Not only is the 5 piece the best 5 piece in tank gear, it comes with jewelry. Deck yourself out in footmans and take a a few hits while blocking. Then take the jewelry off and do it again. The difference is astounding. I've had it up to here (imagine my hand reaching above my head) with people talking about diminishing returns on damage mitigation. Do the test and see what happens...

@amneziac The math doesn't lie. On my character with my mitigation levels, that 5 piece footman bonus is only giving me 3% additional mitigation on a blocked attack.

3% can mean like 20% less dmg taken = more effective hp. Not like we really need that much mitigation, in fact footman is too good for the content we have.

usmcjdking

As a Templar Tank, I don't think footman's is ideal since Empowering Sweep (which under 99% of circumstances should be your ultimate) has a ridiculously short downtime when combined with Heroic Slash.