My Evolution as a DK tank post patch (Imperial City)

hydrocynus

This is posted on TamrielFoundry too so apologies to those who read both.

I would love to hear comments about my build and how it can be improved by you guys in the know.

Below is my evolution as a tank since the Imperial City Patch:

Before patch i ran with Footmans as Standard Paired with Blood Spawn and then 1 of Hist Bark/Seducer/Whitestrake depending on what dungeon/trial/arena etc, and primarly used purple drinks to boost resource regen. In a lot of cases Magicka was my main problem as i liked to use skills like eruption for initial aggro, chains for grouping, Volatile Armour, Obsidian Shield etc, so Seducer was pretty much my Go-To (Pledges and Arena), with WhiteStrakes used when i felt a Hail Mary would be needed (eg Poison Popcorn on Manti) and Hist Bark for instances where i needed to block a lot and avoid getting hit (Axes, Wraiths). I tank with 1H&S on both skill bars (leave the DPS to the DPS’ers and help them with a War Horn rather than trying to DPS myself)

After Patch my first change was to replace Hist/Seducer/Whitestrake with Armour Master and keep Footmans and Bloodspawn. I kept Volatile armour on my bar (ie not changed to unstoppable) and added either Evasion or Annulment to my bar depending on the requirements. I also swapped to purple food from purple drink. I quickly realised that Bloodspawn was all of a sudden a waste as Volatile Armour+Evasion/Annulment was taking my Spell resist to 38-39k and phys to 33-34k. I was however seriously lacking in Magicka and could not chain as much as before.

So next change was to swap Bloodspawn for Engine Guardian and this made my resource management much better but still not easy. I was also now comfortable with hitting Evasion and running around taunting everything without blocking, so i felt that the Footmans 5 piece bonus was a bit of a waste so i started to change to the new 3 pce sets.

I put 2 pc engine guardian and 5 piece Armour master in my 7 armour slots and then i put Amulet of endurance and 2 rings of willpower.

Then on first bar i put weapon and shield of endurance, and second bar, weapon of endurance and shield of willpower. This now gave me the 2 piece bonus of endurance and willpower at all times (1.4k to Health and Magicka).

On the first bar which i slot stamina skills i get 3 piece endurance, adding the extra stamina recovery.
On the second bar, i slot chains, eruption, range taunt, whatever other skills i use magicka for and i get the spell crit on those due to having 3 piece.

(As an aside, The beauty about the above, is all of a sudden if you want to run willpower set you do not need to find an Arcane ring of Willpower. Find a Stamina Willpower ring and a Magicka Endurance Amulet and you get exactly the same benefit as those hugely expensive Willpower Arcane rings without spending nearly that amount of money if you need to buy them). I changed enchants on all rings to block cost reduction, same as i had on Footmans

Once this happened, i had plenty Health (35k buffed with purple food) and Stamina, so i moved attribute points out of health (i was running 0-50-14) and put into magicka (10-40-14) and i now seem to have a much more balanced setup that i feel does all i needed to in each of the cases of Seducer/Whitestrake/Hist bark.

My health is still about 32-33k so am thinking of putting even more into magicka stamina, and at the same time with Volatile armour and armour master proc i am still at 36k spell resist and 32k phys resist.

My CP’s didnt change much from before to after patch except i focused on getting 75 in steed for the extra phys resist from shield and at the same time reduce cost of block for when you need it, and then Thief i put most into Reduction of Stamina/Magicka but still some in the Magicka Stamina Regen (they were even before patch) and as i said, some into tenacity (i had them in bash before – now i only bash when i am desperate for a heal). Mage, well, 30 to get riposte (but not sure its worth it anymore) and the rest into mighty and the others in there – i really dont know what to do with my mage CPs as a tank. Maybe i should try blessed and run Vigor?

Next steps i want to try:
1) Well if i could get my hands on some of those tri-stat glyphs then i could take even more attribute points out of health
2) Enchant weapons with the Glyphs that do Magicka damage and restore Stamina. No more need for the Damage shield glyph, and Endurance comes standard with Health regen, but i think Stamina regen on light/heavy attacks could be really useful as i already use heavy attacks to regenerate stamina – you just dont have to block with evasion and armour master proc’ed so it works nicely (and put CP points into tenacity to make it even better!)
3) max out my pieces – Engine guardian is V14 and V15, Armour master has some V15 pieces and some only purple, Endurance and Willpower Weapons and swords dont have ideal traits, but this will all take time and they are also only purple.
4) Get Caltrops for drawing initial aggro on big trash groups and trolls in sanctum – This will also reduce the amount of magicka i need for eruption.

I think after all of that i should have a really nice setup that is really fun to play as i am not just standing there blocking all the time like i was before – for all the gripes by us tanks (me included before patch) i think this patch has given us the chance to have a lot more fun!

I would love to hear thoughts on what i might be doing stupidly and how i might be able to tweak it to be better?

Flaminir

An interesting read.... I'm about to start re-gearing my tank after IC patch so food for thought...... thanks for posting

SienneYviete

Decent write up, willpower/armor master is a very good setup for a DK tank atm however caltrops no longer grabs initial aggro like it used to and can be pretty heavy on your stamina especially when combined with evasion. If you have a good amount of magicka to burn on trash pulls, proxy detonation, talons and chains does a much better job of grabbing inital aggro from big mobs.

I also have started using bloodspawn set again and dawnbreaker of smiting ulti with this type of setup as a low cost way of proccing battle roar with a really good aoe knockdown to boot.

Brrrofski

I was using half magica abs half stam (30 in health, rest split)

I've pulkexmlsr room magic and put into stamina.

Got 35 points in block reduction.

3 piece endurance end handed with legendary bash/block reduction.

5 piece hist bark and 4 piece night's silence.

I have just enough magic to still use talons, chains etc.

It's not as fun, but with the switch in stamina, when I want to, at least I cann do more dps.

Personofsecrets

I have a challenge for you

Vet WGT

23k HP Max
16k Stam Max
26k spell res max
21k Physical res max
Footman's Fortune off limits
Histbark off limits
Maximum of 15 CP toward stamina management cp

good luck!