Breton NBs make for excellent sap tanks, but an Imperial is not at a disadvantage here, being arguably the most flexible race in the game.
You can pretty much do whatever you want if you run Footman. You don't have to run Footman, it's simply the best single tanking set (no other set provides the same level of mitigation with only 5 pieces, which also come in jewelry). Other strong sets to pair it with are Tava's Blessing, Bahraha's Curse or Leeching, Fasalla's Guile (for pvp), or even something simple like Seducer's.
Aim to have your max health at 27k+ by the time all is said and done (including CP, Attributes, and Enchants). Beyond that, it's best to sink everything into magicka. If you choose a Breton, your CP allocation will be a little different from other tanks, due to the inherent spell resistance. A good starting allocation is as follows, assuming you're an Imperial:
Warrior:
74 Block Expert
1 Spell Shield
Everything else into Hardy / Thick Skinned / Elemental Defender in a 2/1/1 ratio.
I also recommend 10 points into Quick Recovery.
Mage:
100 Elemental Expert
46 Elfborn
21 Blessed
Thief:
Your choice - I recommend splitting your points between both magicka and stamina management here, with a primary focus on reduced cost over recovery. I overweight stamina stars relative to magicka stars personally.
I strongly recommend using a 1h+S on both bars. A simple, but flexible bar setup:
Bar 1 - Pierce Armor, Double Take, Defensive Stance, Swallow Soul, Siphoning Attacks
Bar 2 - Inner Rage, Sap, Deep Slash, Swallow Soul, Concealed Weapon
If you decide to run Tava's, I would put Soul Harvest on your off-bar so that you recover your ult during AoE trash pulls more quickly. You can pair this up with something like VoB on your main bar for the added health. If you want to take it a step further, 5 Tava's + 5 Footman + 2 Blood Spawn = Ultimate Regen build for a NB tank. DKs do a similar ult regen setup, but as NBs we don't have to accommodate the Potentates set to accomplish the same thing (due to ult generation through siphoning, and through potion drinking). Using the same Soul Harvest off-bar strategy, you can get have Aggressive War Horn on your primary bar, and this results is very frequent war horns for your group (moar damage!).