Advice on stam nord dk tank solo/casual pve build

RazielSR

So I want to use my nord dk from time to time but not to be competitive in endgame etc...for that I have other chars. I want to solo the maximum content possible with a stam dk tank nord build. What I find is mostly for endgame...but not good for soloing.

Some thougths? Tavas+random like withestrakes or bahrahas?

I wanna be unkillable in solo pve.(lol I know you can be unkillable almost with every build) but I want to play this tank too. I was thinking in a regen tank but maybe feels silly for solo pve and I should go more dps than that.

Well,is just to play from time to time my nord and not use it just as a crafter.

Asardes

Depends on the content. I've soloed EP alliance zonez, Coldharbour, Cadwell's Silver & Gold (including public dungeon and world bosses and dolmens) as well as lower Craglorn delves on a Nord DK tank, in crappy gear, hybrid build and with low CP. I didn't even have 2H specced back then and had only heavy armor. I used a combination of Vampire's Kiss and Willow's Path crafted sets and basically had great regeneration and self heals from kills even if DPS was really low. Willow's Path is still my 5 piece tanking set for dungeons (in groups, of course) though now I'm full stamina build (because of thri-gliphs on all tanking gear), have full spec DD skills and gear to change to when needed.

I don't think you can solo 4 man dungeons with a tanking build these days. It was possible a long time, before IC, when dungeons didn't scale properly and there was stamina regeneration with blocking. There are about that some videos on youtube.

RazielSR

Thanks for your reply.

But that video is for magicka.

With vampire+willow you cant dps...
I mean I will need tons of time to kill XD


I guess the best is tava+dragon+ebon or similar but I dont want to spend so much money (even having a lot as I have) for this build.

Lefthy

Nord DK here, playing that class since the launch and I´ve done almost all the pve content, that not require a group.

First of all, i guess you are asking while you lvl up to 50….so my advice if thats the case is, use drop and quest pieces, you dont need anything more to be honest , heavy armor is you friend, i use 5 pieces heavy and 1 light and 1 medium to lvl up all skill lines.

(of course if you enjoy the art of crafting, or you just want to learn how to craft, you can play with diferent sets – if you upgrade the armor to Green and the weapons to blue you are fine for while)

When you hit 50 you will start lvling CP, until you hit CP160 you can still playing with drop pieces, again if you want to taste some crafted set, do it.

If you wanna do some normal dungeons time to time, i recomend you to join a friendly guild to hit those without the pressure and the wait that is joining a random group. (pressure if you are tanking XD)

You can finish all the three factions and DLC solo content likethis without problems.

If you hit CP160 and want something more reliable my recomendation for solo content in CP160 and above is:

ARMOR:
5 x Morihaus heavy armor
5 x Flanking Strategist heavy armor
Pick one and use use 5 pieces armor and the other one you use 2 pieces armor + 3 pieces jewerly doesnt matter wich one. Use Health enchants on chest and pants and Stamina enchants in the rest or just use whatever enchant is already on.
Why this? Because its cheap as F! and you can run some veteran dungeons with this pieces.
If you want to craft something you can swap the one that is only armor pieces with:
Alessia Bulwark for start tanking
Night Mother Gaze to make more DPS

SKILLS:
Main bar (2H sword) Critical Charge – Searing Strike - Uppercut – Reverse Slash – Momentum/Molten Weapons
Back bar (Bow) Poison Arrow – Arrow Spray –Snipe – Obsidian Shield – Dragon Blood
Back Bar (Swoed and shield) Srone Fist -Puncture – Fire breath – Spiked Armor – Dragon Blood


Anyway by the time you hit this last part, you will already know almost all the basics of your class and probably start looking for more min/max builds
Good luck pal,

RazielSR

Thanks for the info.

I have about 660cp right now and 7 chars. Been playing since beta but I never liked to be a tank so my knowledge is just general regarding tanks. This dk was stam dps,then mag dps and now stam tank.

Being a nord you are nothing in this game if you are not a tank,so a long time ago(this was my first char from early access) I decided to leave this char just as my crafter. But hey I would like to play with him a bit again so that's the reason of this topic.

But its ok now and I have enough answers.

Many thanks for your help.

Asardes

You're lucky. My Nord DK was my 1st char and currently my main one. I had to also accommodate crafting skills. Had to run trough Cadwell's silver to get enough skill points to spec the 3 gear crafting skills to max level, and trough Gold to get the consumables crafting skills to max level as well. Craglorn and Cyrodiil to get the points for 2H and Medium Armor, and IC for some misc skills in Fighters Guild and Undaunted line. The points from ranking up in Alliance were set aside only for Alliance War skills. I plan on resetting the points when I'm done finishing research and unlocking 2W and the proposed weapon ultimates as well.

If you want to have a good run trough the zones spec as DD, then spec as Tank. For stamina builds (most tanks are stamina builds) vigor is a must because the DK self heal is very weak. A good tank needs to go DD without difficulty. In some dungeons it's necessary (VWGT Planar Inhibitor fight, the 2nd half of vet Darkshade Caverns).

RazielSR

So I've been playing a bit. I have a combo of 5 mori/4 flanking/3 dreugh

31k health/24k stam/9800 mag.

900 something stam regen.

Serpent mundus.

About 2550 weap damage with momentum.

Should I change mundus I guess?

Is more or less ok? I find no problems dying while soloing mobs or craglorn,apart of running low on stam...maybe because Im used to stamblade redguard....stamplar redguard...magblade if we talk about mag...

Maybe better to use coagulating blood instead of vigor?So in case I need heal, I wont use stam pool?



EDIT: All purple ofc...not gonna spend tempers with gold weapons or armor XD

Asardes

31K health is too much even for hardcore tanking. 25-26K is more than enough. You should put points in stamina once you get health (buffed) at that point. While I was playing as hybrid build it was the lack of stamina for CC break, roll and block that killed me, not the lack of health. 900 stamina regeneration is a bit low even vor PvE content. You should aim for 1-1.1K. In PvP 1.5K is the bare minimum. Skills that use stamina, such as melee weapon skills, archery, fighter's guild, assault (most importantly vigor) and class skill morphs scale of stamina and weapon damage. Having less stamina affects damage. 10.5 points of stamina are equivalent to 1 point weapon damage so having 3.2K less stamina is equivalent to having 300 less weapon damage (maximum 5 set bonus from Hunding's). Dragon Blood is a lackluster skill because it heals as a percentage of missing health. It's an emergency burst heal, and not a very good one. Vigor is much better, and it heals you more if you have a lot of stamina and weapon damage. Also having more stamina and more weapon damage means that the enemies die faster and they have less time to damage you. With more stamina you can also break CC and roll from danger.

RazielSR

I have the feeling you are talking more about a dps build than a tank build when you say you will kill enemies faster so you will die less
For that I have chars with 36k dps or 4600 weap damage buffed but as we were talking about a tank...

But I understand what you mean. And I agree...I have to find a tanky dps...because of the nord thing...thats what I think I wanna achieve with this build.

I will change health for stam and see how it goes.
What mundus then? max stam one?

Asardes

Well, it's extremely frustrating to kill things on a tank. It works, but it's painfully slow and resource management is a nightmare. I was extremely happy when I decided to buy 9 hakeijos to enchant my armor so I could put all my attribute points in stamina and still be viable as tank, then even more so when I had enough skill points to spec 2H, medium armor and most fighters guild skills (had bow already speced).

64 stamina, keep serpent, get separate tanking and DD gear (in the long run)

Asardes

My unbuffed stats in tanking gear are

13.5KM | 19.8KH | 27KS
790M | 764H | 1620S regen
1335 SD | 1400 WD
25.4K both physical and magic resistance (30.7K with spiked armor on)

I tank most gold pledges like that, meaning all non-DLC veteran dungeons, when running with PuGs.
I've even tanked VICP and VWGT unbuffed a few times, but not with PuG.
I haven't attempted the new dungeons because the mechanics are very hard, and bosses even more so. Velidreth hits like a truck.

So 31KH is clearly overkill. Even for trials. Most content can be tanked with 20KH or less.