Beginner simple tank build (DK)?

Pallmor

I'm looking for a simple basic DK tank build that doesn't rely on some weird exploits, some crazy hard-to-get gear, or some high-ranking obscure skills.

I just need a meat-and-potatoes basic starter tank build with 6-trait (or lower) craftable gear or gear that can be bought at a guild trader. I need to know what skills to use, where to put my CP, etc. And I don't have very high Undaunted or Alliance rank either, so I need basic skills to start with.

And I don't need some build that's really complicated to play either (no "well, the key to this build is weaving this skill with these other 2 skills every 6.5 seconds in rotation"). Just something basic for a tank newbie, please.

I could use some newbie tank tips too, please.

Tryxus

Tava's Favor: 5 Trait Craftable Set, BiS for a DK Tank
Bloodspawn, Engine Guardian or Malubeth Monster Helmets
Ebon Set from CoH 1 or CoH 2

A good way to gear up for any tank

Synfaer

A basic, easy to gear, Stam DK. Ultimate generation is king for DK tanks because of our passives, provides good resource management.
Tava's Favor & Histbark are good starters sets that you can craft (go all heavy or 6 heavy/1 light until u get undaunted passives). Infused trait on head/legs/chest with stam or tri-stat glyphs. Sturdy trait & stam glyphs on the rest.
Jewelry glyphs block cost reduction.
Weapons, start with sword & board on both bars, one sword Defending trat the other Decisive or defending. Weapon glyphs, one crushing the other stam return.
If you can get monster helms, start with Bloodspawn (ulti gen) & engine guardian (resource gen).
Put your Red CP into damage reduction, Elemental Def/Hardy/Thickskinned.
Green CP in magician/warlord/mooncalf
Blue CP in Blessed/Elfborn & maybe a bit in Thaumaturge
Use tri-stat purple food or stam/health food
Mundus - Atronach (magic regen)
For stats, I would put 10-15 into magika and the rest into stamina. This should give you about 25-26k health which is enough for most stuff and still gives you utility for debuffs & CC.

A good starting overland loot set to get is plague doctors as this can significantly boost your health for difficult 'last boss' fights.

idk

Tryxus wrote: »

Tava's Favor: 5 Trait Craftable Set, BiS for a DK Tank
Bloodspawn, Engine Guardian or Malubeth Monster Helmets
Ebon Set from CoH 1 or CoH 2

A good way to gear up for any tank

This with bloodspawn. 5 heavy, 1 light and 1 medium for max stats assuming you have or will get the undaunted passives.

Sturdy on all small pieces is preferable to reduce block cost. You can do same on large pieces or go infused for more max stat. Shield reinforced since it's the largest piece of armor.

Suggest tri stat glyphs on all armor. 50% more max stat. On an imperial you'll have more than 30k health without adding any via attributes.

Mundus - atronach. Even as a stam tank magika is very useful to a dk. Chains, igneous and more use magika.

Delimber

For skill rotation I like having a cc (talons), physical taunt, a DoT (that poison claw thing), vigor (or other self heal) and spiked armor (if needed).

Back bar is with a bow and is set up for ranged fights (undaunted taunt) along with buffs such as igneous weapons etc.

Those are the usual/default skills I'll run in a group. For ult I'll run with Standard of Might on the front bar and the bow ult on the back bar.

Although some swear by having battle horn for a tank ult.

For the gear, the suggestions offered in the other posts seem to be a good choice.

I like having all my attribute points into stam and my armor to be enchanted with health glyphs. Works for my Nord DK tank and my play style.

Woeler

Tryxus wrote: »

Tava's Favor: 5 Trait Craftable Set, BiS for a DK Tank
Bloodspawn, Engine Guardian or Malubeth Monster Helmets
Ebon Set from CoH 1 or CoH 2

A good way to gear up for any tank

When will you stop posting this nonsense? This is the third topic you post this on this week. Tava's favor is NOT best in slot fo dk tanks.

Easy to access and nice for beginners, but definitely NOT best in slot.

@ OP Hist bark is also a good set to start with.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upYhwqV8tvA

sneakymitchell

Pallmor wrote: »

I'm looking for a simple basic DK tank build that doesn't rely on some weird exploits, some crazy hard-to-get gear, or some high-ranking obscure skills.

I just need a meat-and-potatoes basic starter tank build with 6-trait (or lower) craftable gear or gear that can be bought at a guild trader. I need to know what skills to use, where to put my CP, etc. And I don't have very high Undaunted or Alliance rank either, so I need basic skills to start with.

And I don't need some build that's really complicated to play either (no "well, the key to this build is weaving this skill with these other 2 skills every 6.5 seconds in rotation"). Just something basic for a tank newbie, please.

I could use some newbie tank tips too, please.

A lot different than sit and hold block everytime and taunt it requires skill and knowing when to block damage.
https://youtu.be/vemr8LNY2y8

sneakymitchell

A very aggressive build indeed for a tank and can slot vigor to aid group if not running with healers at all.

Tryxus

Woeler wrote: »

When will you stop posting this nonsense? This is the third topic you post this on this week. Tava's favor is NOT best in slot fo dk tanks.

You know what? I'm sorry, you're right. I should not be posting any advice about what I think works properly at all anymore or try to help a fellow player at all >_> . I'm oh so sorry that I'm trying to be helpful

Anyways, on a tank I prefer Tava mixed with Bloodspawn if I'm tanking on a DK and currently the Ebon set. Means I'm tanky, I give my group members a HP buff and I have some good Ulti Regen which is nice on a DK due to the Battle Roar passive

I prefer 5 Heavy, 1 Med and 1 Light with Infused on all pieces, enchanted with tri-stat glyphs. Sword and Board on both bars, Reinforced shields with Tri Stat glyphs and Defending Swords

Works pretty nice

scorpiodog

Pallmor wrote: »

I'm looking for a simple basic DK tank build that doesn't rely on some weird exploits, some crazy hard-to-get gear, or some high-ranking obscure skills.

I just need a meat-and-potatoes basic starter tank build with 6-trait (or lower) craftable gear or gear that can be bought at a guild trader. I need to know what skills to use, where to put my CP, etc. And I don't have very high Undaunted or Alliance rank either, so I need basic skills to start with.

And I don't need some build that's really complicated to play either (no "well, the key to this build is weaving this skill with these other 2 skills every 6.5 seconds in rotation"). Just something basic for a tank newbie, please.

I could use some newbie tank tips too, please.

The biggest challenge is that DPS will keep crying for you to agro more, and sometimes that's hard to do without a large AOE skill like caltrops.

Just ransack the boss every 10 seconds and stay alive is all I ask of a tank outside of Trials. Other DPS will whinge that you don't have this or that skill to keep them alive or increase their DPS. I guess you have to decide how much you want to coddle your DPS.

pizzaow

As a beginner tank, what matters more is bar setup and learning the mechanics of the bosses (what can/should be interrupted) rather than sets.

While you're learning, I'd recommend having one bar dedicated for bosses and another for trash mobs and non-essential buffs. This way you shouldn't need to bar swap during the boss fights and can concentrate on staying out of red and holding the boss in one place.

For sets, I'd encourage you to have "passive sets" like hist bark, ebon and my favorite starter set; black rose (you can hold block and receive the full benefit of each of those). While Tavas is great, it requires you to keep shuffle active in order for it to work... when learning to tank I found it easiest to minimize the amount of buffs my build required; as I improved it became much easier to manage resources, switch bars, drop block and keep extra buffs up. Early on I held block and spammed pierce armour and heroic slash way too much, so stamina was often low (black rose made this easier).

Your boss priorities are:
1. Hold aggro; taunt at least every 15 secs
2. Don't die; learn (ask group) any 1-shot mechanics, block and keep resistances up, learn what red you can stand in and what you need to avoid, have at least one self heal (health potion, vigor, coagulating blood)
3. Boss positioning; a good dps will lay down some aoe- don't move the boss out of this, or make the dps chase the boss around the room. Also turn the boss around so their heavy attacks only hit you. Protip: twisting (slightly spinning) the boss is often a great way to move out of nasty aoe (red) and still keeping the boss in one place... the less you move, the less the boss moves
4. Interrupt interruptable attacks. Again, ask the group if there's anything you need to watch out for.

If you've done that and still have resources then look into:
1. Buffing up group/debuffing boss; warhorn, heroic slash, noxious breath, igneous weapons...
2. Positioning adds; chain and taunt adds into the aoe, talons...
3. Doing damage

What I used for my beginner "boss bar" was:
Pierce armour: main taunt
Igneous shield; use to turn magic into stamina, and nice to get in the habit of hitting before your heal
Defensive shield: I wouldn't use it, but the passive is pretty nice
Vigor (or colagulating blood): heal in case I stand in too much red or forget to dodge something
Volitile armour: this is the only buff I worried about to start

On my back bar I had:
Heroic slash: debuffs boss
Inner fire: ranged taunt
Chains: managing adds
Noxious breath: debuffs boss
Shield assault: useful for chasing some bosses around the room

For ultimates, I usually have one "me" ultimate I use when in trouble (leap, magma shell) and one group ultimate (warhorn, standard of might).

My "easy to play" target numbers were ~30K buffed resistances, ~30K health and ~30K stamina (I only had ~10K magic). With this, I was able to make several mistakes and still survive

Good luck!