[BUILD] - Talo’s Savior (Dragonknight Tank)

James-Wayne

I’ve always loved playing god-like roles so I present my Tough Tank build for The Elder Scrolls Online One Tamriel, Talo’s Savior! Not only is this build really easy to play but you can play the tank role in any group situation including Trials with hard mode. The Tank role in the Elder Scrolls Online is unlike other MMORPG’s whereby you are required to taunt and hold aggro against every single enemy, oh no not in this game you don’t. Tanks are required to maintain basic positioning, resource management and yes hold aggro… but on the bigger bosses, rarely on the trash mobs plus tanks are expected to either DPS (as is every other role) or more important provide group support.

Ok let’s get started, our class of choice for this build is the Dragonknight which is the best Tank class in the game, Templar is the second best Tank choice, let’s not debate it because it’s fact. The best race choice is Imperial due to its maximum boost to health and stamina but Argonian, Nord or Orc would also work and we’re putting all attributes into Health as we’re aiming for 50k+ health.

The Vampire morph has some advantages with this build such as the passive Undeath which reduces damage taken when your below 50% health and the skill Invigorating Drain which restores Health and generates Ultimate but the Vampire morph is certainly not needed as you can manage your health with pots, class skills or group healing. The Lord Mundus is great for the extra health but The Lady, The Lover and The Steed are all other good choices too. We’re running Health and Stamina food with Health, Stamina and Magic pots for sustain although they are not needed as our skills will sustain us enough.

When I create builds I do prefer to use sets that are obtainable without too much trouble which makes it easier for casual players who do not have the time or resources to grind for the best gear and this is one of those builds. The sets we are using are part craftable and part overland/dungeon sets which makes them easily accessible. Our first set is Tava’s Favor which is crafted on Hew’s Bane (Thieves Guild DLC), this set was chosen for the 5th piece ability to generate ultimate. We are also using 5 pieces of Plague Doctor for the overload of health bonuses and our chosen monster set is Pirate Skeleton. We are running Sword/Mace for our weapons and shields with reinforced. All armour has health glyphs, 1 light, 1 medium and 3 heavy armour pieces for the undaunted passive with a combination of infused on the bigger pieces and sturdy for block cost reduction on the smaller pieces plus all jewellery has reduced stamina costs.

The below skill bars are what I’ve found to be a great combination to complement each other, they help you to stay alive and most importantly they help your group out. As my setup is geared mostly towards group play it doesn’t have enough DPS to achieve some solo play however swapping the Plague Doctor set out for Knight’s Errant (it’s what I use) will allow you produce sufficient DPS for you to kill things in an reasonable timeframe. You can even swap out the monster pieces for anything that provides Stamina and DPS.

BAR 1: Sword and Shield
Pierce Armour: Provides 15 second taunt plus debuffs with major fracture and breach. Not all bosses/mobs can be aggro’d but most can.
Igneous Weapons: Provides 20% buff to spell and weapon damage to your group, activating also provides minor 5% buff from your class passives.
Igneous Shield: Provides a 10k+ damage shield to your group, potential life saver and also activates Helping Hands passive to restore 5% Stamina.
Shuffle: Provides 20% dodge chance which increases ultimate gained through Tava's Favor set.
Stalwart Guard: Provides minor force buff to a team mate while taking some of their damage.
Ferocious Leap: Provides 103% damage shield of max health and helps crowd control mobs. Standing in red damage circles is no issue with this up.

BAR 2: Sword and Shield
Unrelenting Grip: Pulls trash mobs together so you can...
Choking Talon: Hold them using Choking Talon while the DPS AOE the trash down. Speeds up play tenfold, so longs your DPS are outputting enough damage.
Balance: Transfer Health to Magicka and provides Major Resolve and Ward. Draining your health will also help proc Pirate Skeleton.
Spiked Bone Shield: Provides an damage shield which is 30% of your Max Health (25k+) and returns 33% damage to melee attackers. Group can activate an damage shield too.
Stalwart Guard: Needs to be on both bars otherwise you will lose the bond with your team mate, you can always reapply it if you want to.
Aggressive Horn: Provides 10% increase to all attributes for you and your group plus provides the group with Major Force. It's important we generate as much ultimate as we can for maximum up time on this ultimate.

Additional Skill Options:
Below is a small list of additional skills you can use based on the group situation you may be in, the content you are completing or even if you don’t have all the skills required yet such as Stalwart Guard.

Heroic Slash: Provides debuff and generates ultimate.
Absorb Magic: Provides an massive damage shield when dealing with magic based enemies.
Green Dragon Blood: Helps health and stamina sustain if your group does not provide enough (with our own internal self-sustain it's usually not needed anyway).
Venomous Claw: Cheap DPS skill if you need to provide some DPS.
Noxious Breath: Cheapish DPS skill plus provides Major Fracture to a group of mobs.
Invigorating Drain: Restores 20% of your missing health and generates ultimate.

Do you see the pattern here for this build? Drain health to get magicka, use magicka class skills to get stamina and health plus generate lots ultimate at the same time while giving everyone damage shields to survive! It's one big vicious circle of sustain and your helping your group while also helping yourself, in fact I've been in groups where I don't even need a healer, sorry healers!

The rotation for this tank build would be activate buffs before engaging so Stalwart Guard > Igneous Weapons > Shuffle > Igneous Shield (reapply when needed) and then once started on trash mobs use Unrelenting Grip > Choking Talon > Balance then repeat or use Pierce Armour to provide DPS support. When engaging bosses the rotation would be Pierce Armour > Igneous Shield > Shuffle > Spiked Bone Shield then repeat and use Ultimate when required. If your using the optional skills then fit into your rotation as needed.

In regards to champion points the more you have the better but if you’re not doing veteran or hard mode content I wouldn’t worry too much. Check out the attached chart for where to focus on putting your champion points.

This is the end of the build outline for my Tank, Talo’s Savior! If you have any questions or comments please leave them in the comments below.

@James-Wayne