Best armor sets for tanking and why?

Erock25 · October 2015

Bashev wrote: »

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.

If you throw in Deep Slash debuff, Absorb Magicka blocking buff, and hard cap resists... footman comes out to about a 2.8% mitigation increase while blocking.

caperon wrote: »

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.

How do you figure a 3% mitigation increase can equal 20% less dmg taken? If we're comparing 5 piece of Footman to 4 piece of Footman, it is even less than 3% difference in dmg taken considering we aren't blocking every attack.

Vildebill · October 2015

I'm a Khajiit DK and use 5 piece footman's fortune, 5 piece hist bark and 2 engine guardian, 5/1/1 for Undaunted passive. I've used this setup since footman/engine guardian was new and haven't had any reason to change it, not even after IC. Maybe i'll craft myself a vr16 hist bark set though, not that it's a huge difference. Blood Spawn was good before IC, before stamina recovery went down the drain

That's the best set-up in my opinion and to how i tank, but a lot of sets probably work out depending on you play style, so find out what you are struggling with and put on gear that fixes that.

paulsimonps · October 2015

Lets write up an example. Lets use a DK as our class since its the most common tank. A DK with hardcapped resistance that is using absorb magic and deep slash while blocking with and without footman has these mitigations(Dk and sword and board passive counted in):

Footman: 0.5x0.5x0.8x0.9x0.92x0.85x0.88=~0.1238=~12.38% left from the original which is ~87.62% total damage mitigation.

Without Footman: 0.5x0.5x0.8x0.9x0.92x0.85=~0.1407=~14.07% left from the original which is ~85.92% total damage mitigation.

If we use a normal attack that does say 10,000 in base damage when hit with no resists or abilities or passives then the damage taken with and without footman is:

Footman: 0.1238x10,000=1238

Without Footman: 0.1407x10,000=1407

Then you do 1407/1238=~1.1365 and that shows that without footman you take 13.65% additional damage compared to having footman, which is 1407-1238=169 dmg in this case. But yes the total damage mitigation will show only an increase from 85.92% to 87.62% which is only 1.7% more. I still don't think footman is worth it. Though if you have lower resist the % that footman adds will be more because of the diminishing returns in mitigation. I myself have far from capped resist but if you are close to it or at it then I would even more so not bother with footman.

Nick_Nitr0 · October 2015

I have researched tons of DK Dragonknight Tank Builds and still I'm very confused on what I should run. I have seen all of the popular builds for tanking Vet Dungeons and White Gold Tower, and they all seem to need 300 or more champion points and engine guardian. I need a elite tanks help, I have been getting 4 gold keys a day and still no Engine Guardian Shoulders at all HEAVY, MEDIUM, LIGHT. NADA! I need a build for a V16 DK Tank Dunmer, I have 180 CP and am still working on Engine Guardian shoulders, I have the Helm in Heavy. If someone has a build that they have used to do all the Vet Dungeons including WG Tower and City of Ash on V14- V16. I would be forever grateful. Thanks

Brrrofski · October 2015

When, not if, when got engine guardian helm, it'll be:

2 engine guardian
5 whitestrake
2 Alessias bulwark

Sharkano · October 2015

I too dropped Footman, though I miss it a bit. I still use hist bark, endurance, and Skoria with lots of dots (eruption, unstable flame, volatile armor, fire breath, etc.), as watching hordes of meteors explode from sky on mobs all around me is a blast. I recommend dot-mania. I know it's dps, but still amusing . . . .

amneziac · October 2015

@paulsimonps and @Personofsecrets have done the most number crunching on resists and block mitigation, so I won't argue with them at all. Look up their posts for some very detailed analysis.

In game though, here is what footmans equates to for me:
With the stats you see on my character below, I ran the following test on world boss in craglorn: With absorb magic on my bar, and the mob being heroic slashed, he hit me for 659 when blocking, and 3.7k when not, while wearing the footman jewelry for the 3,4, &5 piece bonuses. With those unequipped, but still debuffing, it hit me for 931 and 3.9k respectively.

So the resists from footman only account for 5.5% damage mitigation when not blocking. Makes sense, as I lost the 1890 physical resist from the footman jewelry. When blocking though, the 5 piece kicks in and wow...thats 41% more damage I take while blocking when not wearing footmans. Not sure why its so much...but that's a TON.

This is on a build that features 31k physical resist, which a lot of people are saying is overkill and drives diminishing returns too high.

41% less damage taken is hardly a very diminished return in my opinion.

If I change my set up to allow for an even lower resist of 21,700 and get rid of footmans, then he hits me for 1.1k blocking and 4.4k unblocked. So that's only a difference of 441 (+67%) while blocking and 500 (13.5%) while not blocking.

We can dance around the diminishing returns of resistances and block mitigation, but me taking 67% less damage than the a tank running no footman and lower resists adds up to a lot of resources I'm sucking that could be used for other things.

To reiterate - I don't think that anyone has to wear footmans to compete at a high level, we've proved that a good player can get the job done in almost any gear (given that he or she is with other good players). I also don't think that footmans is the greatest thing in the world...but I do think that its the clear winner of sets to occupy jewelry slots. By a lot. I can't wait to find something to replace it with, I just don't think that its in game now or coming down the pipe any time soon.

@jakeedmundson & @Erock25
Its not that the math lies, the mitigation might only be 3% on the whole....but taken with the 5 piece bonus, the result is MUCH more than 3% less damage.

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amneziac · October 2015

Nick_Nitr0 wrote: »

I have researched tons of DK Dragonknight Tank Builds and still I'm very confused on what I should run. I have seen all of the popular builds for tanking Vet Dungeons and White Gold Tower, and they all seem to need 300 or more champion points and engine guardian. I need a elite tanks help, I have been getting 4 gold keys a day and still no Engine Guardian Shoulders at all HEAVY, MEDIUM, LIGHT. NADA! I need a build for a V16 DK Tank Dunmer, I have 180 CP and am still working on Engine Guardian shoulders, I have the Helm in Heavy. If someone has a build that they have used to do all the Vet Dungeons including WG Tower and City of Ash on V14- V16. I would be forever grateful. Thanks

Nick - You can absolutely have a tank build without engine Guardian. I haven't run EG since 1.5. Great set, I just think that there's better to be had. My personal preference is any monster helm with a 1 piece HP bonus and a masters sword (comes out of vdsa). Since the masters sword is even harder to get than engine guardian, thats probably not a possibility for you. If not, I would suggest running another undaunted 2 piece. Blood spawn is very solid. If not that, then Malubeth is also a great option for a tank.

Try this set up:

All 7 pieces heavy. Sword and board on both bars. All or most attribute points in stam. All enchants to HP.
Footman - 2 rings, neck, gloves, and belt (gloves and belt might have to be v13 as v14 is extremely hard to find)
Hist Bark (v16 crafted) - sword (defending), shield, chest, legs, boots. I'd go with infused on chest and legs, reinforced or divines on the rest. To be honest, it doesn't really matter except that one of these needs to be nirnhoned.
2 Piece Undaunted set - Both heavy if you can get it. Blood spawn or Malubeth until you get engine guardian
With 180 CP, I would probably dump all your points into the Warlord for the thief tree and block expertise for the warrior. The mage doesn't really matter.

Bar set up might look something like this (although I change these up all the time, tailor it according to your playstyle):
For trash:

Bar1: Impale, chains, choking talons, coagulating blood, and absorb magic. Ulti - banner, warhorn, or dragon leap
Bar 2: Inner fire, deep slash, Cinder storm, igneous shield, razor armor. Ulti - Magma shell

For solo bosses, I like to change my bars to get rid of chains and talons but only if there aren't a bunch of little adds (done quick with Wykkyd outfitter)

Bar 1: Impale, Deep slash, structured entropy, coagulating blood, and absorb magic. Ulti - same, whatever is appropriate
Bar 2: Inner fire, flex, structured entropy, flex, and absorb magic. Ulti - Magma shell

I like keeping inner fire on the back bar just in case the boss gets away and I need to range taunt. I keep absorb magic and entropy on both bars so that I don't have stat changes or mitigation changes between bars. The two flex spots can be a lot of things. If there are ads that run out, then I'll put cinder storm or chains or talons on there. If not then I might slot necrotic orb or vigor or some other group support skill. Its really your call.

I plan on posting a build thread in the next few days, so if anyone wants to tear into me for the above, wait for that as this was just a quick and dirty to give Nick some options.

Sokre93 · October 2015

Once the new DLC comes out, personally, I think the best option will be 2 piece engine guardian, 5 piece Pariah, and 5 piece armor master. I did this on the PTS (I had to use Warden's helm and shoulder) and had 27k HP with no Mundus, with all attribute points into magicka, and got up to 47k SR with 45k PR (at about 50% hp). I know caps are at 33-35k, but I have so much wiggle room to do whatever I want on my bars now, so long as I have an armor ability on each bar.

Personofsecrets · October 2015

How is Footman's Fortune adding more than 3% damage mitigation again?

amneziac · October 2015

Personofsecrets wrote: »

How is Footman's Fortune adding more than 3% damage mitigation again?

LT - I haven't run spreadsheets to show the mitigation as a percentage of the whole, but when combined with the 5 piece bonus, the numbers I posted are what I'm seeing in game. Tested on trash, tested on adjudicator, molag kena, etc.

My guess is that the 5 piece 12% is off the top before anything else gets applied? Hopefully you can shed some light on why I get hit for so much less with footman. My mitigation is fairly high, I'm blocking with absorb magic on my bar and the mob being debuffed with slash....and I'm seeing a straight up damage increase of 40% without the footman 5 piece.

TBH - I haven't really cared to dissect the math behind it until we started the conversation on the forums...everything is easy enough as is and it was working really well for me. Now that its up for debate though, I would love to know exactly why its so effective.

paulsimonps · October 2015

Sokre93 wrote: »

Once the new DLC comes out, personally, I think the best option will be 2 piece engine guardian, 5 piece Pariah, and 5 piece armor master. I did this on the PTS (I had to use Warden's helm and shoulder) and had 27k HP with no Mundus, with all attribute points into magicka, and got up to 47k SR with 45k PR (at about 50% hp). I know caps are at 33-35k, but I have so much wiggle room to do whatever I want on my bars now, so long as I have an armor ability on each bar.

Why would you want so much Resist? Even if you got debuffed in PvP you would be way over the Hardcap. I see no reason to go that far past it even for PvP.

pogopwns_ESO · October 2015

armor master 5, endurance 3, engine guardian 2... seems legit...

Petros · October 2015

REiiGN15 wrote: »

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

Npcs dont crit

Bashev · October 2015

paulsimonps wrote: »

Sokre93 wrote: »

Once the new DLC comes out, personally, I think the best option will be 2 piece engine guardian, 5 piece Pariah, and 5 piece armor master. I did this on the PTS (I had to use Warden's helm and shoulder) and had 27k HP with no Mundus, with all attribute points into magicka, and got up to 47k SR with 45k PR (at about 50% hp). I know caps are at 33-35k, but I have so much wiggle room to do whatever I want on my bars now, so long as I have an armor ability on each bar.

Why would you want so much Resist? Even if you got debuffed in PvP you would be way over the Hardcap. I see no reason to go that far past it even for PvP.

Average penetration in pvp is 12k if you add a debuf from 5k that means you are -17k.

Petros · October 2015

vladimilianoub17_ESO1 wrote: »

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.

People always give me compliments of how great I tank too, and with only one hand

amneziac · October 2015

It sucks theorycrafting when I can't log onto my tank to nose around and test things....but then again, I don't spend time on the forums when the servers are up

Septimus_Magna · October 2015

For my NB sap tank I use:
5x HA/1x MA/1x LA
5x Willows
5x Footman
2x Engine Guardian or 2x Blood Spawn

Hist Bark is not as good on NB tanks because they already get the 20% dodge from Mirage/Double Take.

Is anyone using TBS on his tank? If so, what mundus stones are you using?

phillyproduct · October 2015

Seducer is nice to if your a magic tank armor mastery is ok, hist bark 5piece isnt worth it anymore and evason can go on ya bar if you wearing armor mastery and boom you now have hist bark 5piece bonus plus armor mastery. sheagoths wrath isnt bad imo neither is twice born star.

This game allows you to be flexible with tanking since at max you only need 35k res and each class has a way to up res bye 5k in one off their class tree's so your goal is to get to 30k res with nirn its easy 4 spell physical a little harder but this game allows freedom to a extent

Shader_Shibes · October 2015

Brrrofski wrote: »

2 Alessandro bulwark

He plays for Juventus right?

Personofsecrets · October 2015

amneziac wrote: »

Personofsecrets wrote: »

How is Footman's Fortune adding more than 3% damage mitigation again?

LT - I haven't run spreadsheets to show the mitigation as a percentage of the whole, but when combined with the 5 piece bonus, the numbers I posted are what I'm seeing in game. Tested on trash, tested on adjudicator, molag kena, etc.

My guess is that the 5 piece 12% is off the top before anything else gets applied? Hopefully you can shed some light on why I get hit for so much less with footman. My mitigation is fairly high, I'm blocking with absorb magic on my bar and the mob being debuffed with slash....and I'm seeing a straight up damage increase of 40% without the footman 5 piece.

TBH - I haven't really cared to dissect the math behind it until we started the conversation on the forums...everything is easy enough as is and it was working really well for me. Now that its up for debate though, I would love to know exactly why its so effective.

I am going to run some numbers tonight @amneziac . I've been under the impression that the 5-piece bonus of Footman's fortune only increases damage mitigation for a player that is blocking with the damage mitigation armor rating cap by about a further 3%.

It could be that things have changed, but I didn't really follow some of the other posts in this thread so I hope to shed light on what may be happening when i post later tonight.

paulsimonps · October 2015

Personofsecrets wrote: »

amneziac wrote: »

Personofsecrets wrote: »

How is Footman's Fortune adding more than 3% damage mitigation again?

LT - I haven't run spreadsheets to show the mitigation as a percentage of the whole, but when combined with the 5 piece bonus, the numbers I posted are what I'm seeing in game. Tested on trash, tested on adjudicator, molag kena, etc.

My guess is that the 5 piece 12% is off the top before anything else gets applied? Hopefully you can shed some light on why I get hit for so much less with footman. My mitigation is fairly high, I'm blocking with absorb magic on my bar and the mob being debuffed with slash....and I'm seeing a straight up damage increase of 40% without the footman 5 piece.

TBH - I haven't really cared to dissect the math behind it until we started the conversation on the forums...everything is easy enough as is and it was working really well for me. Now that its up for debate though, I would love to know exactly why its so effective.

I am going to run some numbers tonight @amneziac . I've been under the impression that the 5-piece bonus of Footman's fortune only increases damage mitigation for a player that is blocking with the damage mitigation armor rating cap by about a further 3%.

It could be that things have changed, but I didn't really follow some of the other posts in this thread so I hope to shed light on what may be happening when i post later tonight.

What he is saying is that the difference between the numbers he gets when not using footman and using footman has a difference of about 40% increase in the dmg taken between those two end numbers. Say for example that you got 80% mitigation and compared the dmg you take with someone who has 90% mitigation. If the base damage is 10,000 then take away 80% and you get 2,000 take away 90% and you get 1,000. 2,000 is twice as much as 1,000 and so you take 100% more damage when having only 10% less total mitigation. Same if we compare 83% with 86% or 1700 with 1400 there is a 21.4% difference between them but only 3% total mitigation.

But as I noted above, the diminishing returns makes the difference of having and not having footman at as a dk with a say hard capped resist only 1.7% total which made you take only 13.65% more dmg when not having it.

M_TeK_9 · November 2015

I'm a DK tank. DK tanks rely heavily on both magic and stamina. Magic for the shields, chain, ranged agro, etc and stamina for the break outs and blocking. Footman's is a great set to buff your resistance and mitigate damage. There is no questioning that. I have this 5 PC gold VR 14 and I wouldn't sub it for any thing but the WGT imperium set and maybe a few other hidden gems.

That being said I mix my Footman's with 5 PC vr 16 hist bark and any monster set. I mop zergs with skoria. It's amazing. So that combination is def top contender....but the real gem is footmans combined with a 5 PC undaunted bastion. Undaunted bastion prox a 12k DMG shield just for taunting while under 60% health. It lasts for 15 seconds and cools down in only ten seconds. This actually gives you a chance for a 24k DMG shield for 5 seconds. On top of max resistances (which you should hit when popping immovable or hardened armour) that is always mitigating 50% of all damage, this shield stacked with igneous' and footman's 12%, I am virtually unkillable with a semi competent healer hiding behind me.

That's two VR 14 sets that when combined outshine anything else I've tried and believe me there's not many people who have respec'd more than I, or who carries as many armour sets as I. I've tried a great many combination of sets and this is my favorite so far. The only crappy thing about the undaunted bastion set is that it's VR 14 max and it comes from undaunted daily chests.......and if you're vr16 it will never drop. It only comes out of there for you if you're at VR 14 or less.

Forestd16b14_ESO · November 2015

I use whitestrakes and to me personal is one of the very few good tanks ts in the game. In case you haven't notice ZOS hates tanks.

How ever I wanna say deaths wind would be good if the cool down was shorter. Like knock back and stun 4 enemies that is extremely useful for CC.

jebuspowers · December 2015

5pc whitestrakes, 4 pc footman, 3 pc Willows Path. Plenty of defense, emergency shield, and some resource regen. It was all around a good setup post ic.

WolfingHour · December 2015

vr14 5 orgnums scales + 5 footman + 2 valkyn skoria on my NB tank because it still works perfectly.

Working towards getting 5 leeching. I might upgrade to vr16 when I get that IF the 5 piece triggers SA.

AverageJo3Gam3r · December 2015

You guys that are running 5 footman and 5 histbark/whitestrakes, how do you keep up resources? In boss fights I'm constantly out and feel that I need the regen of willows.

shugg · December 2015

AverageJo3Gam3r wrote: »

You guys that are running 5 footman and 5 histbark/whitestrakes, how do you keep up resources? In boss fights I'm constantly out and feel that I need the regen of willows.

What class are u, my dk does it through battle roar and my nb does it through siphon strikes - havent needed shards on any of the vet imp city dungeons for months

hrothbern · December 2015

.

WolfingHour wrote: »

vr14 5 orgnums scales + 5 footman + 2 valkyn skoria on my NB tank because it still works perfectly.

Working towards getting 5 leeching. I might upgrade to vr16 when I get that IF the 5 piece triggers SA.

I understand that you get 5 DOT ticks from adds in the cloud (that does not move).
So also the first tick is a DOT !
Nice for Valkyn Skoria... not nice for SA

But it can give very good Heal
And I will going to grind for it.
For PVE.

see post:
http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/234033/has-anyone-already-experience-with-the-leeching-plate-set#p1

hrothbern · December 2015

AverageJo3Gam3r wrote: »

You guys that are running 5 footman and 5 histbark/whitestrakes, how do you keep up resources? In boss fights I'm constantly out and feel that I need the regen of willows.

are you DK or NB?