DK Tank - Mag or Stam?

terrordactyl1971

I'm looking to start an alt that is a DK tank in heavy armor. He will be for tanking with a sword and shield in PVE content. Not interested in PVP with this character.

Should he be magicka or stamina based? Which is best for tanking? Also, how many points would he need to put into health ideally?

willymchilybily

health required is dependant on content and resistance. some dungeons like vWGT has mini bosses hit for 26k if you drop your block even at 50% cap reduction.. but most other content 25kHP would be fine. If you aim for 25k HP before food, you can make the rest with food or the orsinium regen+health provisioning recipies.

I really really like magicka tanking so have a biased.

Spoiler

You have low stam pool so you need reduced block cost on jewlery and a few CP. but otherwise its simple as you only use pierce from 1H+shield and block, no other stamina drains. which makes it easier for some content being able to do this. using choking talons can really help your team in trash pulls. spell reflect is great for some boss adds tank them all and the boss at once. eruption to slow trash. deep breath can multi silence healers. And i still have sword and board to tank/heavy attack for stam regen. between synergies and earthen heat ability spam i have fairly good sustain.

Edit: but arguments can be made that either is good and has its benefits. And either can allow you to be more than just a tank by swapping gear/bar setup.

dday3six

Tanks focus on personal goal posts among all 3 stats. They need enough HP to take big hits, enough stamina to block and taunt, as well as enough magicka for utility skills. These are personal preference as everyone's different.

In the end you want be comfortable with the stats you've set up on your tank based on your personal style, current CP, and the gear you have access to. Then whether or not you run with pugs often.

The margins are pretty wide. Health ranging from 30k-25k. Stamina and Magicka from 30k to 16k.

Many tanks are going toward tank/dps hybrids and that favors stamina set-ups. However that also means dabbling into PVP long enough to unlock Warhorn, Vigor, and Caltrops. Vigor if nothing else because it's a lot of utility to have it running plus Igneous Shield.

If you want nothing to do with PVP. Magicka is more complete without Alliance War skills.

I55UE5

Stamina for tank in current meta. Most magicka based skills will be used as utility, so don't skip it completely.

TotterTates

You could run a balanced build. You can take a look at mine here: The Bastion

Granted, it's not the easiest build out there... but I'd argue that it's certainly the beefiest.