Night blade tank CC options?

dbik

So I tried tanking my first dungeon the other day, just started playing a few weeks ago. Let's just say, I rolled bloodmage for awhile to level faster and not feel so ashamed of myself. Haha.

Biggest issue I had was the lack of viable CC. I've looked into volcanic rune, but I hate ground target effects. I may have an alternative however.

Lotus fan, followed immediately by a mass hysteria should be, on paper, pretty godly for those trash pulls right?

Two pretty costly abilities, but maybe swappingto willows path or some other magical based set like seducers?

I'm full on magician, minus the pierce armor skill.

Thank you for any advice. Bought this game specifically to tank, but it's rather unlike anything I've tried before.

dbik

Sorry for the typos. Autocorrect fail.

lolo_01b16_ESO

In most cases fear will be the worst cc you can use in group pve. Whe fighting trash you want the enemies to be stacked up so you can kill them with aoe. If you fear them, they will run away in different directions and your dps will need to single target them.

Caltrops would be a much better option. It makes it easier for you to get aggro and helps with your stamina management.

dbik

Well I've tested lotus fan and mass hysteria together in non dungeon settings. With the massiv snare from lotus fan, they don't run far at all, and are snared even longer when hysteria runs out and start running back toward me. Keeps them pretty tight, and they.re all rebuffed with minor maim to boot.

I was just interested to see if anyone had any luck with this combo because of how long the two snares chained together would last.

usmcjdking

Tank mass CC is pretty much the Sorc Tank and DK Tanks forte. High regen and naturally tougher outer shells are the forte for Templars and NB tanks.

dbik

So let the DPS worry about the CC then? I've been a tank since the release of EQ1. So far, I love this game, but the tanking mechanics are a bit clunky to me.

Reeko

As a nightblade tank you want caltrops because it procs your siphoning attacks. I use Dark Shades for my minor main plus i think they can proc siphoning as well. Use Veil of Blades and Swallow soul. Sap Essence too for trash mobs. As a nb tank you can do more dps/aoe dps than a standard dk tank imo

Jovaras

volcanic rune after stacking mobs.

dbik

ok, what can I use until I can get the grind done for Trops?

I dont normally PVP, how long will it take a person to grind those out in PVP, if he plays say, 2 hours a day and maybe a little more on weekends?

eliisra

Different classes brings different things to the table as tanks. If you want to group up all adds perfectly for AoE bombing, you have to play DK.

NB tanks cant spam roots or pull adds, but they make amazing self sustain builds. Think that's why I enjoy NB/templar tanks so much, you can back yourself up and even save the group, when healer sucks or keeps dying. DK's are more handicapped in those situations.

Besides, you dont need to CC the entire room in PvE. Just taunt the big guys, interrupt archers doing Take Aims, stop healers healing and similar. DD's and healer will always take some dmg from trash, it's indented and not because "bad tank".

ThatNeonZebraAgain

For trash pulls, NBs best form of CC is just getting as much aggro as possible while keeping all the mobs on top of one another. Without Caltrops, Lotus Fan+Twisting Path+Sap Essence/taunt spam would be your best bet, but even then Lotus Fan (and Twisting Path even less so) aren't really necessary, they're just helpful for first few seconds. Trash pulls are not much of a threat anyways, so there's even no big reason for CC other than helping kill them a few seconds faster. Another thing you can do is tell your group not to attack anything for the first couple seconds, that way you can get and hold most of the trash aggro before they engage. Like you mentioned, Volcanic Rune (or Meteor for that matter) can be useful has a hard CC, but being ground-targeted makes it clunky. You definitely want Caltrops as soon as you can get it; it's such an amazing tool for aggro and proccing Siphoning Attacks.

Mass Hysteria should never be used except for certain encounters where you either need to keep mobs alive for some reason, or you have a bad healer and the group can't take on more than a few mobs at a time. Mass Hysteria used to be amazing for the Daedroth adds during final boss of Vet Banished Cells, as well as the spirit adds in the Nerienth endboss fight, both of which require a certain number of them to be alive at a certain point in order to get the Gold Key, but ZOS has changed those adds to make them immune to fear.

dbik

This is all great info, everyone. Thank you very much for the replies. I guess I'll start working on caltrops, I was hoping to avoid the PvP grind I keep hearing about, but it seems essential to the build. Been tanking MMO's for almost 15 years, I'm sure I can get the hang of this one too. The NB tank is the closest thing I've found to my beloved SK from EQ1. I've tried pretty much every game thats come out since then, and they just didn't have the same feel, or I didn't like other aspects of the game.

Thanks again, I'll start on Caltrops ASAP.