Enduring Dragon [PvE Tank] by Luna Hlaalu v2.0

paulsimonps

So I have been asked once again to make a build post about my current set up for my Enduring Dragon Build. This is a DK PvE Tank build that I personally use. Its a Build focused on blocking as much as possible while still dealing out buffs and debuffs to targets and allies. This is a build that have successfully Tanked veteran Maw of Lorkhaj multiple times and does well in all other trials as well as vDSA as well. So lets get started.

This is my current gear set up as well as my Champion points and other stats. The resources shown are with buff food on, I use the purple food that increases all three resources. So first off, yes I use the Engine Guardian, bite me. I think its a great set. It procs very often and can help in crucial situations. The ability to, if the right proc gets activated, spam damage shield or heals to your allies or chain in multiple mobs without loss of magicka or stamina is really great. It makes it so that you can use abilities in a way that you otherwise would hesitate to do.

Secondly we have Hist Bark. This is my personal choice over Tava's cause I don't like to have to rely on the medium armor ability to get the 20% dodge chance. It costs a lot of stamina and I would rather be save than sorry. So far in our guild core team throwing out a good amount of Warhorn's have not been a problem. Its a great survivability set all in all.

Lastly we got Alkosh, the go to tank set that was designed as a DPS set. Its 5 piece bonus lets you debuff targets around you whenever you use a synergy lowering their spell and physical resistance by 3010. Which is a huge deal, this set will increase the damage of the entire raid. A tank should always be pop'ing the synergies anyway and now if you are a bit tactical about it you can be a great support tank while helping yourself stay alive by utilizing the Undaunted Command Passive.

My armor is made so that the pieces with the lowest amount of armor are the light and medium armor pieces necessary to get the max out of your Undaunted Mettle passive, this gives me the highest possible resistance I can get while doing with a 5-1-1 set up. As well I am using a Nirnhoned shield to utilize the Shield Expert Passive which increases the armor you get from a shield by 75%, this does effect the Nirnhoned's 301 resist increase. Making the shield have a armor rating of 3536.

Now for my attributes and Champion points. My attributes are simply put in such a way that when I got my food on I will reach 30k HP or at least close too, currently I am 42 HP away from 30k but with the 10 extra CP with next update that will be sorted. Every point over that will be put into stamina. My champion points are set to increase my healing done and received as well as giving moderate amount of mitigation and block and stamina cost reducation. Not much really interesting about it but I think its always nice to play around with CP and see how you like it. Now for abilites:

First Bar:

• Igneous Shield
• Pierce Armor
• Heroic Slash
• Hardened Armor
• Absorb Magic
• Aggressive Horn

Second Bar:

• Unrelenting Grip
• Inner Beast
• Choking Talons
• Resolving Vigor
• Absorb Magic
• Aggressive Horn

My main bar is my boss bar basically. It got the taunt, the debuffs and buffs and all necessary stuff. The back bar is my Crowd control bar, with the range taunt, chains and talons. Vigor is there too for some extra healing. Oh and speaking of healing you might notice that with the exception of Vigor I have no self heal. That is because in a trial I got 1-2 healers on me. I shouldn't have to have one. And so far making sure I got my Hardened armor up to get the resistance and healing received I have been able to survive most things that have been thrown my way.

When it comes to ultimate's it Warhorn all the way. Aggressive Horn is one of the best damage buffs in the game. It increases Critical damage by 30% for 9.5s and all of your resources by 10% for 30s. That is one powerhouse of a buff. Now make sure to get a good rotation with your other tank and healers when using this in trials to get the max up time on it. That is very Important.

Now for a few small things after. Like race and such. I am a Dunmer for example but I would say best race for this set up is the Imperial. The 12% HP and 10% Stamina is awesome to have. Simply adjust your Attributes so that you have either just over or just below 30k HP and then put the rest into stamina. That way you will make the most out of your buffs. 2nd best I would say would be the Nords, they have the same attribute passives as Imperials just slightly weaker but they get 6% raw mitigation with it. And sure that isn't that much but combined with the HP and Stamina its a good solid 2nd choice. 3rd and last choice is actually Dunmer. This is cause of the Magicka, Stamina and Fire resistance that they get. And I will explain why in just a bit when we get to.....

VAMPIRISM! The extra magicka regen that they get combined with the Undeath passive makes vampirsim a no brainer. You get 10% more magicka and stamina regen, and if you get below 50% Hp you get extra mitigation to a total of 33% when you get to your lowest. That more than offsets the slight increase in fire damage. And sure you might not like the look but get yourself a skin and problem solved.

Now I probably forgot a bunch of stuff but simply ask me here and I will respond to any questions regarding my build or how I play in certain situations. And as a small finale here is Luna Hlaalu:

Blakeabutler_Blasius

Great build and always impressive to see it in use.

Nerdman9

I was just looking for a good dk tank build. This looks perfect. Thanks for posting it. Great write up.

Tremors

Nice write up man, I like engine a lot too. If everything else is perfect, why not utilise an amazing resource tool and burst heal over those 2 slots.

Can I ask if you have tanked vet Hel Ra since update on these stats and without magma Armour? The warrior combo is rough and I got eaten alive at 29.5k health, spamming shield. The other tank had 40k health and could igneous through it, I figured it was the extra health.

Asmael

RedVyperOfDorne wrote: »

Nice write up man, I like engine a lot too. If everything else is perfect, why not utilise an amazing resource tool and burst heal over those 2 slots.

Can I ask if you have tanked vet Hel Ra since update on these stats and without magma Armour? The warrior combo is rough and I got eaten alive at 29.5k health, spamming shield. The other tank had 40k health and could igneous through it, I figured it was the extra health.

On vet Hel Ra, the offtank can use Guard on the main tank, makes surviving the swipes MUCH easier.

LadyNalcarya

@RedVyperOfDorne wrote: »

Can I ask if you have tanked vet Hel Ra since update on these stats and without magma Armour? The warrior combo is rough and I got eaten alive at 29.5k health, spamming shield. The other tank had 40k health and could igneous through it, I figured it was the extra health.

Im not the OP, but yeah, 29k can be a bit low for that boss if youre just blocking.
There's an alternate option though - ask someone in group to put Guard skill on you (any morph). So they will take 30% of the damage youre taking.
Also 100 points in Hardy helps.
Also its possible to dodge 3-hit combo.

nine9six

Always enjoy reading up on your setups. Thanks for posting!

paulsimonps

Let me tell my my first experience in vet Hel Ra. We went in and tried HM on our first go. First pull was like this. I pull the warrior and made him face everyone like we had used to, a few seconds later he wipes the entire team with his channeled sweep. And we went oh its a cone attack now. So we did the same thing again but had me face him away from the group. I died a few seconds later. And I keep doing that. In the end I started to roll dodge away every time he did it. I started getting a lot of questions about my tanking set up and my mitigation all of a sudden. People questioning my tanking set up. What we found out thou was that that was not the problem. The problem was the way we were healing.

Even without guard, having a constant heal focus from both healers made it possible to stand in his channeled sweeps no problem. Spamming healing springs is not enough you need to really utilize your healing arsenal as a healer on this one. I know Jaylee, our core teams healer said she used a rotation including healing springs, mutagen, breath of life and ritual of retribution. Basically you want to apply healing springs and let it run its course and do the others in between. Oh and have one of the healers run Mutagen and the other rapid regen, they stack.

That's what we figured out and sure we do have someone guard me but it doesn't have to be another tank. Last time we had one of the healers do it. If you want to know more about why that is check me post about damage mitigation and specifically the part about how guard works and you will see why its ok for someone that is not a tank to guard the tank.

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/279426/damage-mitigation-explanation-and-list-of-options/p1

Liofa

Hey ! Nice build as always . Glad you went high Magicka . Feels much better right ? ^^ About Hel Ra Hard Mode . I had the same issue . Group mates wanted me to go High Health build . I survived without Guard and with 1 healer . But before this , I wanted to test if I can survive with my 25k Resist , 25k Health Ultigen build . There were 4 of us after run while doing this test . Me , off tank , 1 DD and healer . So , we pulled . Off tank used Guard . DD was just watching and observing . Healer spammed Springs and I was standing in Ritual . I was also using Vigor before he starts sweeping and spamming Igneous Shield in the duration of sweeps . I did survive . My health didn't go below 60% . But they still wanted me to go High Health build because ''What happens if healers can't heal you ?'' . You know the rest . We didn't complete it yet but I want to hear your opinions about this . I know as a fact that it is tankable using our normal tank builds . I am curious about your progress there as a tank . Everyone I ask , who completed Hard Mode , saying that their tank had at least 40k Health and capped resists . I would be really glad if you can give me some info about your experiences there .

Note : Of course it is easier to tank with high Health and max resists but giving up that many buff/debuff is a big deal for me . That is why I am asking .

Thanks !

paulsimonps

I have not been in there for a while but I can tell you this. Its not necessary to have 40k HP for it nor have maxed out resistance. Look at beyond infinity, their tank didn't have 40k and he didn't use a self heal either. So there is that. But getting your mitigation up where it is suppose to be is necessary. Around 88% or more would be preferred on that fight. But do keep in mind the diminishing returns and set it up accordingly. Movement and coordination wit the team is of out most importance. Moving to much will mess with your heals. Keep the bosses movements at a minimum so that the group can do the same. And also I would say that the off tank shouldn't be the one to Guard the tank but preferably a healer or dps and then have the off tank focus on handling the adds to diminish movement of the group and the damage they take. If the group takes little to no damage the healers got more time to focus the main tank.

Totalitarian

paulsimonps wrote: »

Movement and coordination wit the team is of out most importance. Moving to much will mess with your heals. Keep the bosses movements at a minimum so that the group can do the same.

Wise words from a wise tank.


If I had a dollar for every tank who moves around constantly during the Infernal Maw fight in vet Banished Cells...

Staying still in that fight makes it nice and easy to:
1. Avoid environmental damage from boss
2. DPS with AOEs
3. Heal

LadyNalcarya

Liofa wrote: »

Hey ! Nice build as always . Glad you went high Magicka . Feels much better right ? ^^ About Hel Ra Hard Mode . I had the same issue . Group mates wanted me to go High Health build . I survived without Guard and with 1 healer . But before this , I wanted to test if I can survive with my 25k Resist , 25k Health Ultigen build . There were 4 of us after run while doing this test . Me , off tank , 1 DD and healer . So , we pulled . Off tank used Guard . DD was just watching and observing . Healer spammed Springs and I was standing in Ritual . I was also using Vigor before he starts sweeping and spamming Igneous Shield in the duration of sweeps . I did survive . My health didn't go below 60% . But they still wanted me to go High Health build because ''What happens if healers can't heal you ?'' . You know the rest . We didn't complete it yet but I want to hear your opinions about this . I know as a fact that it is tankable using our normal tank builds . I am curious about your progress there as a tank . Everyone I ask , who completed Hard Mode , saying that their tank had at least 40k Health and capped resists . I would be really glad if you can give me some info about your experiences there .

Note : Of course it is easier to tank with high Health and max resists but giving up that many buff/debuff is a big deal for me . That is why I am asking .

Thanks !

Thats because these are "safe" stats to survive on your own if guard breaks, healer is dead etc...
Also, on high hp build you have a strong igni shield so that helps too.
If your group is 100% sure about movement and youre sure that you will have HoTs and healer's attention 100% of time you can go with lower hp. But capped (or close to that) resists and Hardy cps are pretty much the must I would say.