Stam Nightblade Tank Help

Gahmerdohn

Hello everyone,

First of all I want to mention that I'm already aware of the fact that Mag NB tanks (sap tanks) are actually way better .

The problem for me with that is the sides-build available . Tanks aren't always needed in all fights , even if it's just for questing I'd like to have a secondary DD build and that's the problem , I never enjoyed playing as a magicka caster in MMOs . If I play as a Sap Tank (magicka) I'd have to play a magicka DD build as well .

With that being said I'd like to know if there's a viable way to build a stamina based NB tank . I don't pretend to do the headquarters with him, I just want to be able to clean all the PVE content .

FlyLionel

You would probably need the mazzatun set(undaunted)? All tanks will want that major armour buff at all times and even by having 15k magic you wont be able to keep that major buff up at all times if I can remember correctly. It increases the duratiom with each heavy piece worn? So yeah, mazzatun just slaps that passive in the face and says stfu I want automatic,which in short just makes life easier for a stam nb tank. If you go the passive way use engine guardian, no doubt. So now what will be your two 5 piece options? I say hist bark, the one where you block and get major evasion. No need to run shuffle and drain your stam because you arent a dk with infinite sustain. If you can sustain with shuffle go tavas for more utility for your group? All crafted all simple and easy(craft those with 1h and shield!). You will need another 5p set, and honestly I would say use mazzatun(5p one)...i use it for fun on my dk but never need it, its like a last stand; google it. That set is hard to farm I admit, so if not that just go with ebon? Easy to farm and its great. Im running blanks on jewelry tanking sets around your level to get, maybe black rose in jewelry and two body pieces? Im just figuring out sustain wise what will help...make sure you call for those shards lol..Good luck (defending/decisive/infused are best for weapons and for shields try reinforced or infused. I would go defending and reinforced personally).

RavenSworn

hi there!

Build a Stam NB tank and i personally believe that one of the best ways to build a stam NB is to focus on ultimate generation and pump out those ults such as Warhorn, Soul Tether or Bolstering Darkness. Couple this build with Ebon for excellent group utility.

You can also try Soul Harvest spam with the Witchman overland set in Rift to keep health sustain and Duneripper Set to enhance the healing taken effect. The set bonus is not that great but its good enough for all PvE content imo.

The main objective here as a tank is to have group utility in your tool set; at the very least, good crowd control. DKs are the best at this but it doesnt mean NBs cant have that utility as well. Take Swarm Mother and you are good to go.

Hopefully this helps!

Autolycus

Gahmerdohn wrote: »

Hello everyone,

First of all I want to mention that I'm already aware of the fact that Mag NB tanks (sap tanks) are actually way better .

The problem for me with that is the sides-build available . Tanks aren't always needed in all fights , even if it's just for questing I'd like to have a secondary DD build and that's the problem , I never enjoyed playing as a magicka caster in MMOs . If I play as a Sap Tank (magicka) I'd have to play a magicka DD build as well .

With that being said I'd like to know if there's a viable way to build a stamina based NB tank . I don't pretend to do the headquarters with him, I just want to be able to clean all the PVE content .

Gear and skill selection is largely the same for a stamblade tank as for a magblade tank - I wouldn't go so far as to say magblades are "way better" as that is up for debate; frankly most people who talk down on NB tanking haven't done it. The key difference between the two is that magblades use class skills for self-healing and stamblades use Vigor. There are strengths and weaknesses to both. For example, a stamblade tank is much better suited to be an off-tank running all medium (like Powerful Assault + Alkosh) for fights like Rhakkat where the off-tank isn't doing a whole lot of actual tanking. On the flip side, a magblade tank is much better suited to main tank Rhakkat because a magblade has the ability to spam wards for the chaingun mechanic. Both builds have the same potential for high ult regen, high sustain, and all of the necessary utility for trials (except chains, which really aren't that important save for a couple of fights, and can be handled by someone besides the tank in the right group).

Gear selection (depends on the fight):
Ebon + Alkosh
Tava's + Alkosh
Ebon + Powerful Assault
Alkosh + Powerful Assault
Combined with Lord Warden or Blood Spawn (or if you're really ballsy, Sentinel of Rkugamz for your Powerful Assault setup)

The gear combinations themselves will appear to favor stamina, but it's no secret by now that tanking is, and has been, a hybrid role (with explicit nuances depending on the fight). As a main tank you should be at 30k+ health with only a food buff (with war horn you should be higher). Beyond that you want to sink the rest of your attributes into your primary stat, which in your case is stamina. Enchants should be Prismatic or Health, Shieldplay, or magicka recovery. You should aim to have as few skills that cost stamina as possible so as to reserve your stamina primarily for blocking, so most of your utility should be magicka-based. I know, we have Siphoning Attacks, right? Yes, it's fantastic, but you shouldn't drop block unless you have to. To accomplish this, make good use of Sturdy traits, the Shadow Ward CP passive, and at least 5 pieces of Heavy Armor to get the most out of Constitution (this is also fairly important for meeting the minimum standards for armor and spell resist too). I recommend using a 5/1/1 setup if you're not quite at the "minimum" health threshold, and going full 7 heavy if your max stats are fine, as 7 heavy will be better sustain for you, and nothing related to sustain as a NB scales from the maximum - it's all flat values regardless of how much total magicka or stamina you have.

The exact spots to put all of your skills is somewhat flexible, so I'm going to tell you which skills to run instead of a bar layout:
1. Pierce Armor
2. Heroic Slash
3. Blur (I recommend Double-Take for the major exp.)
4. Absorb Magic
5. Siphoning Attacks
6. Inner Rage
7. Any Shadow skill for Major Ward/Resolve (for a stam build you're probably going to use Shades or Concealed Weapon - again looking to offload utility to magicka and not stam, so Surprise Attack would not be the top choice but is fine if you want it for your DD setup)
8. Aggressive Horn

Those are the skills I would consider "mandatory." Now here is a list of skills that you should expect to use at some point, which varies from fight to fight:
1. Swallow Soul (strongly recommended for your front bar because healing received is too good to pass up without a very compelling reason)
2. Mystic Orb (for your Moondancer DDs and to support your other tank with synergy options)
3. Sap Essence (or Power Extraction, though there is no compelling reason to use the stam version here, what you care about is Major Sorc/Brutality and to use it as both an aggro generator at the start of a pull or to regain resources in AoE fights)
4. Bolstering Darkness (passive health + a really good "oh sh**" button)
5. Vigor (this is a "mandatory" skill for any setup you use that contains Powerful Assault)

That's basically the bulk of it to get you started. I typically run with Swallow Soul on both bars for the healing received, but when I tank certain fights I drop it on the back bar for Mystic Orb. Chances are you will want to do the same thing but for Vigor (I get rid of Mystic Orb for Vigor in a Powerful Assault setup but we have a ton of synergies from several people in the group to justify me doing so).

Sap Essence is a really, really good aggro generator. For all dungeons and normal trials you can forego taunting many enemies as long as you are the first person to hit them and Sap is what you use to do so. Seriously, I've pulled entire groups of enemies with just Sap and never taunted any of them, and they stayed on me until they died. I just tested this again the other day - my magblade healer ran into a trash pull with me; I pulled everything first with Sap, and then he ran in and spammed Sap over and over again, yet they all stayed on me. It's not a real "taunt" but it works quite well. You just need to familiarize yourself with where to draw the line and when to actually taunt. Furthermore, the Major Brutality is very important for your Powerful Assault setup - if you're going to be spamming Vigor, it might as well be the highest healing potential you can get out of it. Just keep in mind that if you're doing Powerful Assault + Alkosh, you are the off tank and 95% of your job is support.

When it comes to min/maxing a tank, race plays a fairly important role. You could make any race you want and still complete the tough stuff. But to illustrate the point, let's look at Rhakkat in vMoL. As an off-tank, I want to use Powerful Assault + Alkosh. This means I'm almost a full support build, and my top priorities (aside from taunting and interrupting the Hulks) are to proc Alkosh and hit as many people with Vigor as frequently as I can. Well, Vigor scales with WD and weapon crit. So in this case, it makes the most sense to be a Khajiit. On the other hand, if I'm main tank on Rhakkat, I'm faced with a great deal of magic damage, and a pretty strong need to be able to move from point A to point B very quickly, and then hunker down. In this case, being a Breton is optimal, because not only can I allocate points that would normally go to spell resistance into other stats, but my passives also help me to sustain better. I could reallocate those points into something like healing received, or even Bastion for extra shield strength during the chaingun phase.

Hope this helps! Remember to avoid stamina recovery if given the option, and become a master at being able to weave your light attacks in between the boss's attacks (I know this is fundamental but it's very important, you don't want your group to die because you let down your block too early).

P.S. This is predominately directed at Trials tanking. Most of the concepts are applicable and true still for vet dungeons and normal trials, but I want to point that out, as sometimes people don't realize that a BiS trials setup is often a BiS dungeon setup too. For example, Ebon + Alkosh is still really good for dungeons, and the more PUGs or newbies in your group, the stronger the case for this setup is, actually (as long as you are actually getting synergies). Alkosh will boost the dps of your weaker DDs and Ebon will help them survive, so it's a win-win. We generate ult fast enough for just about every mechanic on every fight without Tava's, so you can easily justify using this info to run your dungeons.

Gahmerdohn

Hello guys,

Thank you a lot for all the information and help everyone ( @Autolycus , @RavenSworn , @FlyLionel ) !

So based on what you guys told me and what I had already I've been able to make something that actually work , not perfectly but we are , I think , in a good path.

SO when I'll have all the skills up I'll probably use :

1

1H&S Bar :
Pierce Armor - Heroic Slash - Absorb Magic - - Siphoning Attacks - Path of Darkness (morphs) [ Soul Harvest / Soul Tether]

Dual Wield :
Blood Craze - Inner Rage- Steel Tornado/ Razor Caltrops - Killer's Blade / Vigor Morph - Mirage - [Agressive war horn, Soul Tether etc]

2

1H&S Bar :
Pierce Armor - Heroic Slash - Absorb Magic - - Siphoning Attacks - Path of Darkness (morphs) [ Soul Harvest / Soul Tether]

1H&S Bar :
Inner Rage- Razor Caltrops - Killer's Blade (flex) - Vigor Morph - Mirage - [Agressive War horn , Soul Tether etc]

With Tava's Favor + Ebony + Swarm mother/Blood Spawn for the moment .


For now that what it looks like :

subir fotos a internet

subir gif

The only questions I have remaining are : How about CP ? And what morph of "Path of Darkness" you think is better ?

Here you have a clip to see it in action (not perfect gameplay but I'm working in it )

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7AAmhEvS78&t=200s

exiars10

Hello and sorry for necro.

When I was new to game, I actually played OHaS until I hit level 15 and found out it was not optimal way ...

So here is the my situation:
1) no access to any DLC,
2) I don't play trials and
3) I don't play harder veteran dungeons.

Basically normal group dungeons and easier veteran one.

I watched and read woeler, read this and other threads here and in other places... This is how I see it:

Gear:
Hist Bark + Powerful Assault + 1 pc monster shoulder (Lord Warden or Mighty Chudan).
One hand weapons and shields of Powerful Assault set are 100k+ and I refuse to spend money on it as I have other more important things to buy. This means I can't fully use any Monster Set.

Anything better? Alessia's Bulwark or Hist Bark for crafted set?
I have 5x Ebon but it's all armour. I can't get jewelry and weapon drops for life so I gave up farming them.
I want cheapest and quickest possible route .

Skills:
1) Pierce Armor – Heroic Slash – Absorb Magic – Veiled Strike* – Swallow Soul* / Soul Harvest*
2) Inner Rage – ??? – Resolving Vigor – (Leeching Strikes) ??? – Swallow Soul* / Aggresive Horn

*These are slotted for their passives.

I have no idea what slot at ???

Every suggestion is welcomed.

Asardes

In short, this is my setup:

Race: Khajiit
Mundus: Lord
Consumable: maximum health & stamina food
Stats: 15K magicka | 35K health | 27K stamina
Gear: 5 Brands of Imperium 5 Tava's Favor 2 Swarm Mother 1 Light /1 Medium /5 Heavy, infused on big pieces and sturdy small ones, prismatic defense enchants, infused weapons, crusher enchant on front bar, weakening on back bar

Skills:
Front bar: Pierce Armor | Heroic Slash | Absorb Magic | Swallow Soul* | Bone Surge || Bolstering Darkness
Back bar: Inner Rage | Razor Caltrops | Resolving Vigor | Refreshing Path** | Mirage*** || Aggressive Warhorn

*this skill is slotted just for the passive - Minor Vitality (+8% healing received)
**used to activate Barrier passive that gives Major Resolve and Ward, duration extended based on heavy armor pieces worn
***gives Minor Resolve and Ward and Major Evasion, which allows Tava's Favor to proc

Note:
Tested mine to the breaking point, in fact past it, which was veteran Bloodroot Forge no-HM without healer, I could have probably do HM with healer. So it's workable unless you venture into the hardest veteran DLC dungeons and veteran trials. Note that this character is first and foremost a damage dealer, and most of his gear is dedicated towards that role, which he can fulfill quite well, and only the gear and mundus change for the tanking role. This setup is just made so I can farm undaunted keys from pledges faster, since most people in my guild search tank for those.

ccfeeling

U said u wanna clear all pve content?
So u mean all vdun HM and all Vtrial as main tank?
It will be difficult if yes, i bet most of endgame writers cant even do it with current NB tank.

If just play for all vdun mode , any NB build is fine, u just need 3 good dps and remenber all major mechanics.

RavenSworn

Asardes wrote: »

In short, this is my setup:

Race: Khajiit
Mundus: Lord
Consumable: maximum health & stamina food
Stats: 15K magicka | 35K health | 27K stamina
Gear: 5 Brands of Imperium 5 Tava's Favor 2 Swarm Mother 1 Light /1 Medium /5 Heavy, infused on big pieces and sturdy small ones, prismatic defense enchants, infused weapons, crusher enchant on front bar, weakening on back bar

Skills:
Front bar: Pierce Armor | Heroic Slash | Absorb Magic | Swallow Soul* | Bone Surge || Bolstering Darkness
Back bar: Inner Rage | Razor Caltrops | Resolving Vigor | Refreshing Path** | Mirage*** || Aggressive Warhorn

*this skill is slotted just for the passive - Minor Vitality (+8% healing received)
**used to activate Barrier passive that gives Major Resolve and Ward, duration extended based on heavy armor pieces worn
***gives Minor Resolve and Ward and Major Evasion, which allows Tava's Favor to proc

Note:
Tested mine to the breaking point, in fact past it, which was veteran Bloodroot Forge no-HM without healer, I could have probably do HM with healer. So it's workable unless you venture into the hardest veteran DLC dungeons and veteran trials. Note that this character is first and foremost a damage dealer, and most of his gear is dedicated towards that role, which he can fulfill quite well, and only the gear and mundus change for the tanking role. This setup is just made so I can farm undaunted keys from pledges faster, since most people in my guild search tank for those.

You make me want to change my Stam nb dps to a tank back again lol.

Just a note as well, include swallow soul as part of a rotation as well as it also helps with ult generation with the transfer passive in siphon tree. If you can slot in leeching strikes, that would be even better as it gives better returns than just a slotted minor vitality passive.

I love bone surge but I think I prefer it on a healer than a tank, since the synergy is the one that procs the 100%health damage shield, rather than the ability itself. This works really well for a tank to activate the synergy as that would be a 35k health damage shield.

Asardes

RavenSworn wrote: »

Asardes wrote: »

In short, this is my setup:

Race: Khajiit
Mundus: Lord
Consumable: maximum health & stamina food
Stats: 15K magicka | 35K health | 27K stamina
Gear: 5 Brands of Imperium 5 Tava's Favor 2 Swarm Mother 1 Light /1 Medium /5 Heavy, infused on big pieces and sturdy small ones, prismatic defense enchants, infused weapons, crusher enchant on front bar, weakening on back bar

Skills:
Front bar: Pierce Armor | Heroic Slash | Absorb Magic | Swallow Soul* | Bone Surge || Bolstering Darkness
Back bar: Inner Rage | Razor Caltrops | Resolving Vigor | Refreshing Path** | Mirage*** || Aggressive Warhorn

*this skill is slotted just for the passive - Minor Vitality (+8% healing received)
**used to activate Barrier passive that gives Major Resolve and Ward, duration extended based on heavy armor pieces worn
***gives Minor Resolve and Ward and Major Evasion, which allows Tava's Favor to proc

Note:
Tested mine to the breaking point, in fact past it, which was veteran Bloodroot Forge no-HM without healer, I could have probably do HM with healer. So it's workable unless you venture into the hardest veteran DLC dungeons and veteran trials. Note that this character is first and foremost a damage dealer, and most of his gear is dedicated towards that role, which he can fulfill quite well, and only the gear and mundus change for the tanking role. This setup is just made so I can farm undaunted keys from pledges faster, since most people in my guild search tank for those.

You make me want to change my Stam nb dps to a tank back again lol.

Just a note as well, include swallow soul as part of a rotation as well as it also helps with ult generation with the transfer passive in siphon tree. If you can slot in leeching strikes, that would be even better as it gives better returns than just a slotted minor vitality passive.

I love bone surge but I think I prefer it on a healer than a tank, since the synergy is the one that procs the 100%health damage shield, rather than the ability itself. This works really well for a tank to activate the synergy as that would be a 35k health damage shield.

As I mentioned, the description I gave was a short one. I will go into detail further:

Well all my characters are able to do multiple roles, just changing Mundus and gear; most have multiple gear setups for their designated role(s). CP wise Tank and DD setups are not that different, red CP is basically the same on all characters, I allot 48 CP in Shadow Ward on all characters, since block cost reduction is good even for DD or healer and the rest, like Warlord are also useful regardless of role, I split the rest between Tenacity and either Arcanist or Mooncalf depending if the character is stamina and magicka. Blue CP are where the differences between magicka and stamina are largest, but they don't really make much of a difference for tanks since you aren't supposed to deal damage. In this particular case CP in Precise Strikes are quite useful, since they increase the critical healing from Vigor, and work quite well with Carnage racial passive.

I tried using Leeching Strikes as tank, but the return is simply not worth it since that skill is only used effectively it if you weave light attacks all the time, which isn't really the case for a tank that has very little openings in some of the fights; it's totally worth it on DD since that rotation depends a lot on weaving due to Relentless focus. On tank stamina return comes mostly from well timed heavy attacks, which of course benefit from CP in tenacity - all my chars have 64 there - as well Heavy Armor: Revitalize. That skill was worth slotting on a tank back in the day before Morrowind, when it could return both resources on any attack, hence the "sap-tank" builds of yore.

I do in fact use Swallow Soul as a magicka dump from time to time, to generate ultimate trough Siphoning:Transfer and increase my healing done a bit trough Siphoning:Soul Siphoner, since I only use magicka for keeping up the buffs from the back bar. Also what I forgot to mention is that Refreshing Path works as an aggro generator when you grab trash, just like any other ground based AoE and also grants Major Expedition which is quite useful in some fights where you need the mobility.

As I said, the build is quite good for most content, including older DLC dungeons - have tanked vICP, vWGT, vRoM and vCoS on hard mode without much trouble, and sometimes even without healer support, but in fights like Earthgore Amalgam the incoming damage is simply too high, and without healer support I have trouble keeping my health up, until the next boss heavy attack comes. In that fight you must stay at full health at all times since otherwise you die, so I had to roll dodge a lot to be able to get it done. Also I wouldn't recommend it in fights where you have to perma-block, like the axes in vAA since there isn't any way to restore stamina reliably while blocking - I explained why Leeching Strikes is ineffective.

aeowulf

exiars10 wrote: »

Every suggestion is welcomed.

Just thought i'd mention that, please bare with me!

NB tank are not in a strong place, they have bad resource management (see Asardes comment), they have no crowd control and no group utility. They have to rely on sets for all three of those. Unfortunatly you are going up against classes in the tank role that have oodles of all three and can equip pretty much what they want set-wise. The other classes now rule pve groups and are so common now certain things will be expcted from you, which a NB simply does not have access too, talons, chains etc.

My suggestions are to learn the content you want to do, look at Gilliamtherogue's tank build (as well as Asardes), get a thick skin & don't get disheartened.

Asardes

Well my first character is a stamina DK, and he has 2 top x 2 bottom x 3 monster Tank gear, and plenty of skill variation setups which can adapt to every type of content. There's really no contest between that, and the "forced" Stamina NB tank setup, simply due to class skills and passives. There's no replacement for Earthen Heart:Helping Hands and Battle Roar passives, and Draconic Power: Green Dragon Blood skill. Sets like Brands of Imperium and using Bone Surge somewhat compensate for the lack of Earthen Heart:Igneous Shield, and Swarm Mother for Ardent Flame: Unrelenting Grip, although they come nowhere near in terms of utility. The only unique utility of NB tanks is very good ultimate generation, especially combined with Tava's Favor - as of Clockwork City patch they are the only class that can use that in heavy armor - and unique group and self mitigation trough the use of Bolstering Darkness ultimate. But those at not nearly enough to compensate for the lack of block sustain. Also if you compare to Warden, for certain boss fights, that class has much better ultimate generation due to Winter's Embrace:Shimmering Shield - Major Heroism, which is unique to the class - and also has access to Major Protection trough Permafrost ultimate, albeit not the extra self mitigation offered by Bolstering darkness. Hence the limitations to content that can be tanked on a Nightblade.

Lynx7386

FlyLionel wrote: »

You would probably need the mazzatun set(undaunted)? All tanks will want that major armour buff at all times and even by having 15k magic you wont be able to keep that major buff up at all times if I can remember correctly. It increases the duratiom with each heavy piece worn? So yeah, mazzatun just slaps that passive in the face and says stfu I want automatic,which in short just makes life easier for a stam nb tank. If you go the passive way use engine guardian, no doubt. So now what will be your two 5 piece options? I say hist bark, the one where you block and get major evasion. No need to run shuffle and drain your stam because you arent a dk with infinite sustain. If you can sustain with shuffle go tavas for more utility for your group? All crafted all simple and easy(craft those with 1h and shield!). You will need another 5p set, and honestly I would say use mazzatun(5p one)...i use it for fun on my dk but never need it, its like a last stand; google it. That set is hard to farm I admit, so if not that just go with ebon? Easy to farm and its great. Im running blanks on jewelry tanking sets around your level to get, maybe black rose in jewelry and two body pieces? Im just figuring out sustain wise what will help...make sure you call for those shards lol..Good luck (defending/decisive/infused are best for weapons and for shields try reinforced or infused. I would go defending and reinforced personally).

Nightblades certainly dont need chudan for major resolve/ward. We have a passive that grants those buffs every time you use a shadow ability. That passive can also proc from surprise attack, a stamina ability with very low cost, if you're saving your magicka pool for something else.

Also, why would you run hist bark for major evasion (or shuffle for that matter) when we have mirage, which grants major evasion as well as minor resolve and ward? Have you ever played a nightblade tank?

As for stamina sustain, sentinel of rkugamz is my go to for a magicka nightblade tank since you're putting out a ton of healing, but it's less reliable for a stamina heavy build. Using bloodthorn as a jewelry set+2 would probably work better, as it restores both stamina and magicka every 5 seconds just from dealing direct damage (which can come from block casting either a magicka or stamina ability depending on which pool is lower).

aeowulf

Pretty sure no class <need> chudan as they already have major resolve/ward from skills, however in the case of other classes wearing chudan will free up a skill slot for something else, which can be really useful.

but there are set's like, for example swarm mothers which gives a chains like affect. I can't think of any that can AE crowd control though

exiars10

All right, after more in depth research and additional replies here I settled for the following skills:

1) Pierce Armor – Absorb Magic – Dark Shades – Lotus Fan – Swallow Soul* / Soul Harvest*
2) Inner Beast – Mirage – Resolving Vigor – Razor Caltrops – Swallow Soul* / Aggresive Horn

*Slotted for passives.

For the gear, I decided to go with fun build as it's going to be more than enough for the content I play.

1 pc Shadowrend + whatever I get from RNG opening chests...
5x Thunderbug‘s Carapace
5x Livewire

Both overland sets are (super) cheap to buy and I get some DD and utility.

Lynx7386

Use bahraha's curse instead of thunderbug, better damage and it heals you. Run it on jewelry and weapons if you can.

exiars10

I want sets which process when I get damage not when I do damage .

aeowulf

in the insance of baharaha's curse, the uptime is much greater than leeching, at the cost of lower returns. It has a 25% chance on doing damage vs an 8% (or something) when recieving. You need to be tanking atleast 4 or so mobs to equal the proc chance assuming everything does one damage effect per second. Reality is, you need the proc more often when fighting tough mobs (usually single target boss) and by the time you rack up your dot's, the proc chance sky rockets. The biggest benefit of leeching is the jewellery is healthy (purple onwards) which means it's easier to switch between a dps & tank build with gear. Also with mirage, you are reducing the 'on hit proc chance' by a further 15% as you should be dodging. (again reality is lower as you can't dodge everything)

RavenSworn

Asardes wrote: »

RavenSworn wrote: »

Asardes wrote: »

In short, this is my setup:

Race: Khajiit
Mundus: Lord
Consumable: maximum health & stamina food
Stats: 15K magicka | 35K health | 27K stamina
Gear: 5 Brands of Imperium 5 Tava's Favor 2 Swarm Mother 1 Light /1 Medium /5 Heavy, infused on big pieces and sturdy small ones, prismatic defense enchants, infused weapons, crusher enchant on front bar, weakening on back bar

Skills:
Front bar: Pierce Armor | Heroic Slash | Absorb Magic | Swallow Soul* | Bone Surge || Bolstering Darkness
Back bar: Inner Rage | Razor Caltrops | Resolving Vigor | Refreshing Path** | Mirage*** || Aggressive Warhorn

*this skill is slotted just for the passive - Minor Vitality (+8% healing received)
**used to activate Barrier passive that gives Major Resolve and Ward, duration extended based on heavy armor pieces worn
***gives Minor Resolve and Ward and Major Evasion, which allows Tava's Favor to proc

Note:
Tested mine to the breaking point, in fact past it, which was veteran Bloodroot Forge no-HM without healer, I could have probably do HM with healer. So it's workable unless you venture into the hardest veteran DLC dungeons and veteran trials. Note that this character is first and foremost a damage dealer, and most of his gear is dedicated towards that role, which he can fulfill quite well, and only the gear and mundus change for the tanking role. This setup is just made so I can farm undaunted keys from pledges faster, since most people in my guild search tank for those.

You make me want to change my Stam nb dps to a tank back again lol.

Just a note as well, include swallow soul as part of a rotation as well as it also helps with ult generation with the transfer passive in siphon tree. If you can slot in leeching strikes, that would be even better as it gives better returns than just a slotted minor vitality passive.

I love bone surge but I think I prefer it on a healer than a tank, since the synergy is the one that procs the 100%health damage shield, rather than the ability itself. This works really well for a tank to activate the synergy as that would be a 35k health damage shield.

As I mentioned, the description I gave was a short one. I will go into detail further:

Well all my characters are able to do multiple roles, just changing Mundus and gear; most have multiple gear setups for their designated role(s). CP wise Tank and DD setups are not that different, red CP is basically the same on all characters, I allot 48 CP in Shadow Ward on all characters, since block cost reduction is good even for DD or healer and the rest, like Warlord are also useful regardless of role, I split the rest between Tenacity and either Arcanist or Mooncalf depending if the character is stamina and magicka. Blue CP are where the differences between magicka and stamina are largest, but they don't really make much of a difference for tanks since you aren't supposed to deal damage. In this particular case CP in Precise Strikes are quite useful, since they increase the critical healing from Vigor, and work quite well with Carnage racial passive.

I tried using Leeching Strikes as tank, but the return is simply not worth it since that skill is only used effectively it if you weave light attacks all the time, which isn't really the case for a tank that has very little openings in some of the fights; it's totally worth it on DD since that rotation depends a lot on weaving due to Relentless focus. On tank stamina return comes mostly from well timed heavy attacks, which of course benefit from CP in tenacity - all my chars have 64 there - as well Heavy Armor: Revitalize. That skill was worth slotting on a tank back in the day before Morrowind, when it could return both resources on any attack, hence the "sap-tank" builds of yore.

I do in fact use Swallow Soul as a magicka dump from time to time, to generate ultimate trough Siphoning:Transfer and increase my healing done a bit trough Siphoning:Soul Siphoner, since I only use magicka for keeping up the buffs from the back bar. Also what I forgot to mention is that Refreshing Path works as an aggro generator when you grab trash, just like any other ground based AoE and also grants Major Expedition which is quite useful in some fights where you need the mobility.

As I said, the build is quite good for most content, including older DLC dungeons - have tanked vICP, vWGT, vRoM and vCoS on hard mode without much trouble, and sometimes even without healer support, but in fights like Earthgore Amalgam the incoming damage is simply too high, and without healer support I have trouble keeping my health up, until the next boss heavy attack comes. In that fight you must stay at full health at all times since otherwise you die, so I had to roll dodge a lot to be able to get it done. Also I wouldn't recommend it in fights where you have to perma-block, like the axes in vAA since there isn't any way to restore stamina reliably while blocking - I explained why Leeching Strikes is ineffective.

I think with the changes to synergies right now, sustain should not be much of an issue (it is still a problem, but it shouldn't be that much imo). Leeching strikes does return stamina at the end of the duration but I understand if peeps aren't comfy with that, it's returns are not as substantial as people would want it to be.


Do note you still get stamina return if you refresh it early, just not the same amount. It also proc transfer. It's just another tool imo

Lynx7386

Use bahraha's curse instead of thunderbug, better damage and it heals you. Run it on jewelry and weapons if you can.

exiars10 wrote: »

I want sets which process when I get damage not when I do damage .

Its a 25% chance, very easy to set off even with pierce armor. It can also proc off of other proc sets like livewire or leeching plate.