Is Alkosh set vital on NB tank?

uGGo7

Updating my NB tank and was thinking about going 5 Tava's, 5 Ebon and 2 Bloodspawn instead of 5 Alkosh, 5 Ebon and 2 Bloodspawn. My main idea on this gear set was that I could get really good ult regen so I could have awesome uptime on warhorn so healers/second tank can slot some other ultimate and doesn't need to worry about warhorn. Also since Tava's adds to all recource pools, it would help me have even better resource management (which already is pretty good). I mainly play offtank in trials like vSO and vMoL.

Do you think Leeching Plate or Bahraha's Curse would be even better than Tava's? I'm not sure how I feel about tanking in medium armor. Also thinking about Akaviri Dragonguard instead of Tava's, I like the idea of 15% less cost on ultimate more than the dodge roll because not all boss fights give the possibility to dodge around (axes in vAA) but unfortunetly Akaviri Dragonguard doesn't add on stamina. Please share your thoughts on this! I got my rotation on point and now its just the question of gear

Preyfar

Vital? Not at all. Nice to have? Yes. Alkosh is great on a tank because it provides a massive debuff to mobs and bosses, and the tanks are in the perfect position to proc it. But unless you're the primary tank in a dedicated trials group it's not vital, no. But it's definitely not a must have. A frontline DPS can run it if need be.

Autolycus

You didn't clarify which content you're tanking, but I'm going to assume veteran trials here, because vet dungeons and normal trials don't merit extensive build consideration.

Leeching and BC have gone the way of the dodo. They are okay, but they are not strong contenders for veteran trials. Buff sets always trump these survivability sets because every class is capable of sufficient survivability without them as a tank. Thus, if one can survive without them, it only makes sense to run something that benefits the group instead.

This leads us into consideration for a variety of sets, as you mentioned, such as Ebon, Dragon, Worm, Powerful Assault, etc. In any case, Alkosh is vital for the main tank. The limitations for high up-time on Alkosh motivate us to have a second person running it, but this can be a stamina DD instead of the off-tank if it makes sense (you have to look to your group composition to know if it's appropriate).

I both main and off-tank for my guild in veteran trials, and I can give you some suggestions on what is "best" for each fight, but it does vary from fight to fight. I don't know any tanks that use the exact same setup on every trials boss; it's simply not the right approach.

To avoid an unnecessarily long post, I won't illustrate much, but one example for me is the Twins vs. Rhakkat. On the Twins I use Tava + BS + Alkosh, and so does my other tank. But on Rhakkat, it depends on whether I main- or -offtank; as an off-tank I use Ebon + Alkosh and Warden, and as main-tank I use Tava + Alkosh + Warden. Other tanks might use something besides Tava (like Hist Bark, for example) to pair with Alkosh, but as NBs we have a magicka source of Major Evasion, so Hist is (pretty much) wasted on us. As a general rule for NB trials tanking, if there's no compelling reason to trade out Tava's (like dying to bar-swaps to reapply Major Evasion, which is a very good reason), then don't get rid of it. Alkosh is too valuable to lose - the only time I'd consider swapping it is if I'm off-tanking and there's a stam DD running it alongside of the main tank.

Oreyn_Bearclaw

In a raid, it is vital that one of your tanks or stam DPS is wearing alkosh and keeping the buff up. As stam DPS are pretty scarce in trials, it typically falls on the tank. The main tank is frankly in the best position to ensure high uptime.

In 4 man stuff, I run alkosh if my DPS are both north of 30k and dragon if they are not.

uGGo7

Thank you all for great answers!