NightBlade Trials Tanking

kylewwefan

I had the opportunity to main tank VetHelRa last night and it was going good until the last boss. Everyone seemed good with the healer, so I don't want to blame the guy, though I do question their methods myself. Ebon, Lord Warden, Heavy Kagrenacs.

Must admit, I just crafted the Kagrenacs after reading about it and it completely sucks balls. I even made 2 legendary shields. What a freaking waste.

I do still have LunarBastion, ArmorMaster, footman, orgnums, beekeeper, plaguedoctor I can use. The healer recommends I get Hist Bark. I may go ahead and make up a set, though I think with Mirage I really don't need it?

I was a bit embarrassed by my performance with the warrior, but I thought it handled the air atronach spin phase very good....I wouldn't have gone down at all except the healer went down and I fell right after.

With the Warrior I don't know what happened. My bar has puncture/shades/mirage/absorbMagic/siphon. Everything is block casted, and I have plenty of resources. I crumble like a sack. Get up block, potion, re cast, taunt and fall right back down.

The healer is trying to keep me alive with BoL.......this is where I think the problem is. I have healed vet trials...and I uh...don't have breath o life on any bar. Maybe that's wrong IDK?

Liofa

I could help much more if I knew your stats but it is ok .

-Spend your points into Hardy .
-You don't need Hist Bark . No one needs Hist Bark . Mirage , Evasion gives the same buff anyways .
-Do not let the boss enter the blue area because blue area will also buff boss' damage .
-BoL is not guarenteed . It's heal may go to someone else when you need it most . Healer should heal with abilities that is certain heals to you like Springs .
-Someone else using the Alliance War Support skill Guard on you will help a lot . It doesn't have to be the off-tank . A Magicka DD who wants Minor Force can use Stalwart Guard on you . It is ok . Guard won't hit them a lot but still they need to be careful and a bit more defense than usual .

I think these should be enough to survive that boss .

kylewwefan

Thanks for writing back. I usually run off tank and am the one guarding the main, but different guild gave me chance to main solo tank...it appears I still may need some work. I don't have numbers with me ATM, but I did just change attributes to give me about 36k health, 20k mag, 20k stam.

Un-buffed resistance around 22~23 k. Buffed probably 28~30k. I used to wear armor master that put me around 37k resistance.......I may switch back to that? LOL!

I have health enchants on everything I think and 2 shieldplay...maybe 3. Crusher on weapon. S/B both bars.

I was not running out of resources, just falling over dead. I may respec attributes back to all stam, as magic not a big factor.

I'm sooo disappointed with the heavy Kagrenacs. I really wanted it to work.

code65536

Nightblade tanks definitely should not use Hist Bark. We're the only tanking class that can get Major Evasion without using stamina. And while I love using Kagrenac on a saptank, I would not use it in a trial. Kag is a great set for a nightblade to use in dungeons and allows you to do a fair bit of off-dps and off-healing. But those features are not useful in a 12-man trials. Tava and Dragon are good sets to pair with Ebon.

The amount of damage during the Channeled Swipes is quite large and is more of a healer check than it is a tank check. You need stacked Springs. BoL can definitely help supplement, but the target limit means that it's not that reliable. Minor Vitality (from Mystic Guard or from slotting Swallow Soul on your main bar) can help. Being guarded helps. I also like to shield-spam during the swipes to help the healer out (you can use Annulment here).

paulsimonps

Liofa wrote: »

-Someone else using the Alliance War Support skill Guard on you will help a lot . It doesn't have to be the off-tank . A Magicka DD who wants Minor Force can use Stalwart Guard on you . It is ok . Guard won't hit them a lot but still they need to be careful and a bit more defense than usual .

Not true, when adds are not around no one but the tank is taking damage and so their almost all heals go to the guy that is guarding as well as the tank. As well, all mitigation except for the blocking mitigation from the guarded target is carried over onto the person guarding the tank. If they remove say 20k worth of damage they will most likely only take 1k or even less. Its nothing at all. And any damage shield that is applied on the guarded target will remove damage equal to that of 42.9% of the damage shields strength.

But yes of course everyone needs to be careful on the warrior to avoid or block his AoEs.

kylewwefan wrote: »

Un-buffed resistance around 22~23 k. Buffed probably 28~30k. I used to wear armor master that put me around 37k resistance.......I may switch back to that? LOL!

37k Resistance is 4k more than the hard cap, its not necessary. You should find other ways to get the damage mitigated. Getting a set that gives damage shields could be a thing to consider, or even thou the guy above said not to, go with histbark if you can't afford to do Mirage or Evasion. Whitestrakes is a great crafted set for giving you damage shields and its cooldown is short enough that you can get the shield when you need it. Thou since you are a Nightblade you really should use Mirage, you are getting Major Evasion, Minor Ward and Minor Resolve that last for like 26s its a great skill. Another thing you could do is also spam Swallow souls during the Channeled attacked, even just having it slotted gives you 8% healing received, which btw is something you might want to put some points into for CP after getting 100p into Hardy. Just remember Thick skin won't work on him cause even thou his attack is called channeled sweeps its not a channel and therefor not a DoT.

Liofa

@paulsimonps

Hmm , might be different for DDs and healer I guess . On our last run , one of our healers guarded me and on my combat metrics , my max tick of damage to the healer with Guard was 7k . I don't know from which hit , probably from the cleave during the execute .

Autolycus

As a NB tank, Hist Bark is basically wasted on you. The only reason you would want to stop using Mirage in favor of Hist Bark is if your Mirage is on your back bar, and bar swapping is the reason you die. If you can bar swap between attacks then there is no reason to use Hist Bark as a NB tank. Same goes for if you have Mirage on your front bar. Even the Warrior has plenty of opportunities to let down block though, so I'm inclined to think that the underlying issue is something else.

Also, BoL is not an ideal heal for most of that fight. Everyone should be positioned so that the entire group is inside of Healing Springs. There are exceptions (like when an add spawns on the other side of the room, dps spread out for this and BoL is useful), but for the most part everyone should be inside of Springs.

That's not to suggest that it's your healer's "fault" per se. Will you share some of your stats? How much health do you have? What are your resistance values? Are you certain that he's not hitting you while your block is down? Do you have Major Ward/Resolve active as much as possible? Can you apply Minor Maim (Heroic Slash or Shades), or are you doing it already?

Some tanks prefer to have multiple sets and will switch to something more ideal specifically for that fight. Personally I prefer to keep my ulti-regen build for the Warrior. For this I use Tava's, Blood Spawn, and Dragon. You can make a decent case for Lord Warden since it buffs the group, and not just the tank (and your group doesn't tank damage for most of the fight, just a couple of parts). However, it may be beneficial to use Blood Spawn because it affords a greater amount of resistances, plus ultimate. Having your group cast War Horn every 30s (at least) is important because your max health will be higher for the whole fight. If you have more ultimate generation then you can cast more War Horns, or if you already have good uptime on these, then you can use something like the 1H&S ultimate frequently (like during his channeled sweeps, which btw is not a DoT).

I just updated my NB tanking guide today. Feel free to check it out if you're interested, and if you do I hope it helps you with your build. I'd be happy to help answer any questions you might have.

One more thing: Whoever is tanking the Warrior in our group typically calls out a specific command when he starts doing his channeled sweep. The intent here is to "warn" the healer of the "big" damage incoming. Something simple like this could be the fix for your team too.

WalksonGraves

I have a nb tank and have done vhel ra the most.
I'm using leki/reactive/bone pirate and it reduces so much damage you can survive much easier.

kylewwefan

Buffed I had 30kspell 28k physical resistance with kags. I tried footman that gave me 33 spell 30 physical. I'm gonna switch shades to back bar, Refreshing path to front bar. The shades stay active for 20 seconds, but the shadow ward is only active 9 seconds. I think it would be better to be able to keep casting Refreshing.

Brrrofski

I've done vet Hel ra on mine with no issue. Build is in my signature. I think I've ran it without dying. The warrior is fine. Biggest issue is the air atro. One of his attacks I dodge role out of though.

kylewwefan

I was feeling many of the problems may have been the healer.....but he blamed me first so.......

I had no problem with the air atronach til the healer died.

Use immovable pots when atronach spins.

cellobuddy

The warrior is one of the only healer checks in the game. If the healer doesn't have HoTs on you and you can't heal yourself for about 50% of your health in a second, you will die, even with capped resists. I don't know how long your healer's been out of the game, but very few people recommend histbark for trials tanking. And no one recommends it for NB tanking. Footman may be the best set you listed for that fight. The extra mitigation from blocking may be enough for you to heal yourself through his swipes. Make sure you're staying buffed and block-cast swallow soul during his channel. Hopefully the healer has at least one healing spring on you. You may also consider putting down bolstering darkness as he starts that attack if your healer is just neglecting you. It may help to remind your healer that you aren't a DK that can spam coagulating blood during that portion. If they're used to a DK tank, they may not have realized that they have a responsibility to help keep you alive.

Izaki

Are you using vigor?...

kylewwefan

Thanks for all the posts! I have finally leveled up my DK and tanking with it for now. I tried NightBlade tanking for the last year and it is much more difficult than with the DK.

Joy_Division

Shouldn't your raid have "healers"? If there is only one healer, my guess is that's the major issue.

Boss fight is mostly about knowledge / experience. Bar swapping will get you killed and that channeled swipes pretty much requires a real raid spec tank as opposed to the pledge daily or PvP tanks.

SolarCat02

For that fight...

If you are dying bar swapping, dropping block, running out of resources, standing too far from the group, or being one-shot, that is all on you as tank. Speaking as a healer, please do your best to also get out of his Wave attack, too, if it's aimed in your direction. (It replaces the shield throw for that phase).

Everything else is up to the healer. You should have two healers (one on each side) with Healing Springs, overlapping you, the majority of the damage dealers, and their own character. That is the bulk of healing for this fight.
Breath of Life is NOT reliable as a main heal for that fight.

Some good information in this thread:
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/310343/what-is-your-tanking-setup-for-vhrc-warrior