Divines, or Sturdy for Tanks

Brunoad

Which trait would be more useful for a Tank and why?

FlyLionel

Sturdy on live/sturdy when Morrowind comes. You're blocking more than releasing block and there is no more reduce cost in CP next patch so more CP will go into reducing blocking making it more important.

Edit: Divines only boosts your mundus, so for a DK tank which is the thing; atronach mundus will grant more magicka recovery. This means more chains/igneous shield spam which is good but it's not as primary as sitting and soaking all damage while holding block. Tank dies and everything else dies.

Nestor

Sturdy for sure.

Divines does not really add all that much to the character stats anyway, even if fully improved at CP160

http://elderscrollsonline.wiki.fextralife.com/Mundus+Stones

It's like one Glyph. Sure it can help DPS a little, but your a Tank.

Your job as a tank is to absorb damage, and you need to be able to mitigate that damage with Block.

Jciampi

I used to rock sturdy for reasons listed above. Then i found a block calculator thread and saw that if i enchanted my three jewelry with block reduction (already had one like that), my block cost was under 500, waaaaaaay better than 7 pieces of sturdy was doing for me. Now I rock divines/infused gear as a stamina DK tank. Works great. Plus the glyph reduces bash cost greatly too

Liofa

I think you should have different setups . If you have survival issues , go with Reinforced . If you have sustain issues , go with Sturdy . If you want more healing done and more stats overall , go with Infused . You can mix everything up and go with Reinforced Shield , Infused big pieces and Sturdy small pieces . This will give you decent stats overall but the bad part about doing this is , you may be getting something that you don't need . For example , in a fight where you don't block at all , Sturdy items will not give you anything , or your group . In such a case , you want all Infused for max Stats to increase your healing done . But again , these are very advanced things . If you are just looking to tank pledges , go with the overall decent stats setup .

Narvuntien

Sturdy on small pieces and Infused Prismatic defence on the big pieces.

Sturdy is not as effective as Block reduction enchants on your jewels.

I have nirnhoned sheild because it is better than re-enforced.

TheStealthDude

It really depends on your build and how much you are blocking. If you run a standard perma-block build, sturdy is an excellent choice (even more so with the blocking changes coming in the next patch, IMO). If you don't block as much in your build, for example a DK shield tank build, then divines/infused might be the better choice.

Silver_Strider

Sturdy on small and Infused on big pieces is what I normally do.

I generally find Divine useless for tanks as the Mundus stones for tanking aren't overly useful. At least with infused, with prismatic enchantments, I get nice bits of stat increases to everything that matters for my role instead of a slightly better Mundus bonus to 1 thing.

Erock25

infused/prismatic on everything. sturdy doesn't interact well with block cost reduction CP so you really should use one or the other and I currently use block cost reduction CP.

WalksonGraves

Erock25 wrote: »

infused/prismatic on everything. sturdy doesn't interact well with block cost reduction CP so you really should use one or the other and I currently use block cost reduction CP.

What do you mean by this? Unless the cost somehow increases even with diminishing returns it will result in a cheaper block which will be more important when they increase the rate at which it drains stam.

Gargath

I put sturdy on all parts and only reinforced on shield.

Stannum

Sturdy for small enchant parts, infused for large. All prismatic.

Personofsecrets

It may be worth going 8 sturdy in the future.

Mivryna

As a Magicka Sorc Tank, I use Reinforced. I get very close to armour cap without the need for set bonuses, so all of those can go to utility sets. I use Julianos, Magnus, and Willpower for the time being so I can DPS and heal when necessary, while still remaining very buff.

Since I tank with an ice staff, all I have to do is use Dark Conversion to get Magicka and Health back. It's a bit tricky to get used to, but I like the balance between roles.

Avalon

While discussing this, a small question... What is the effect of the block enchants (for reducing cost) on blocking with a frost staff? I ask, because it uses magicka instead, and, there is no shield involved. I assume that it has the same effect, but, I wish to confirm?

As for best traits, I'm with the earliers, sturdy on small pieces, infused on big ones for use with prismatics. Although, would divines be ok to use instead of sturdy?

DHale

When morrowind drops you will be in 7 sturdy maybe 8 sturdy. I promise.

Avalon

DHale wrote: »

When morrowind drops you will be in 7 sturdy maybe 8 sturdy. I promise.

And, why is that?

Liofa

DHale wrote: »

When morrowind drops you will be in 7 sturdy maybe 8 sturdy. I promise.

For axes , I agree . Otherwise , definitely not .

paulsimonps

I'm 8 sturdy right now. Works wonders.

Erock25

WalksonGraves wrote: »

Erock25 wrote: »

infused/prismatic on everything. sturdy doesn't interact well with block cost reduction CP so you really should use one or the other and I currently use block cost reduction CP.

What do you mean by this? Unless the cost somehow increases even with diminishing returns it will result in a cheaper block which will be more important when they increase the rate at which it drains stam.

I'm pretty sure this was brought to my attention first by that guy who has all the tanking videos .... @Woeler I think. I hope I'm not butchering this but the block cost reduction CP and the sturdy trait work multiplicatively. So for example (completely made up numbers) if you have 100 cp into block cost reduction and 0 sturdy your block will cost 500 (down from 800). If you have 0 CP into block cost reduction and 8 sturdy your block will cost 500 (down from base 800). If you have 100 CP into block cost reduction and 8 sturdy your block will cost 380. So yes, you're right that it will always result in cheaper block cost, but you're spending that CP or those gear traits on something that gives highly diminished returns. Again my numbers are completely made up but that's how his explanation made it sound to me.

Blake6332

Jciampi wrote: »

I used to rock sturdy for reasons listed above. Then i found a block calculator thread and saw that if i enchanted my three jewelry with block reduction (already had one like that), my block cost was under 500, waaaaaaay better than 7 pieces of sturdy was doing for me. Now I rock divines/infused gear as a stamina DK tank. Works great. Plus the glyph reduces bash cost greatly too

Why not use Sturdy small pieces/Infused big pieces AND shield play enchants? Its not like you cant use both. In morrowind I will be going 8 (shield+armor) sturdy, 100 shadow ward and 3 block cost enchants.

DHale

Liofa wrote: »

DHale wrote: »

When morrowind drops you will be in 7 sturdy maybe 8 sturdy. I promise.

For axes , I agree . Otherwise , definitely not .

You are not some joe shmoe tank Liofa. But for the rest of us that don't have the best gear gold Alkosh, etc... and have to pug groups and are not in elite pve raid guilds we will be wearing 8 sturdy.

Woeler

Going 7 sturdy.

Jciampi

Blake6332 wrote: »

Jciampi wrote: »

I used to rock sturdy for reasons listed above. Then i found a block calculator thread and saw that if i enchanted my three jewelry with block reduction (already had one like that), my block cost was under 500, waaaaaaay better than 7 pieces of sturdy was doing for me. Now I rock divines/infused gear as a stamina DK tank. Works great. Plus the glyph reduces bash cost greatly too

Why not use Sturdy small pieces/Infused big pieces AND shield play enchants? Its not like you cant use both. In morrowind I will be going 8 (shield+armor) sturdy, 100 shadow ward and 3 block cost enchants.

Mainly cause I use my mundus for magic regeneration. So this boosts it. But i see what you're saying.

Anyone wants a block calculator this one is awesome from woeler
https://woeler.eu/index.php?p=blockcost

Morgul667

I like to go sturdy, helps a lot

Blake6332

Jciampi wrote: »

Blake6332 wrote: »

Jciampi wrote: »

I used to rock sturdy for reasons listed above. Then i found a block calculator thread and saw that if i enchanted my three jewelry with block reduction (already had one like that), my block cost was under 500, waaaaaaay better than 7 pieces of sturdy was doing for me. Now I rock divines/infused gear as a stamina DK tank. Works great. Plus the glyph reduces bash cost greatly too

Why not use Sturdy small pieces/Infused big pieces AND shield play enchants? Its not like you cant use both. In morrowind I will be going 8 (shield+armor) sturdy, 100 shadow ward and 3 block cost enchants.

Mainly cause I use my mundus for magic regeneration. So this boosts it. But i see what you're saying.

Anyone wants a block calculator this one is awesome from woeler
https://woeler.eu/index.php?p=blockcost

Every tank uses atronach stone.

Point is, your sustain would be far better with sturdy instead of divines, the extra magicka recovery is not that much at all. If you arent already, go vampire and your sustain will he better.

Narvuntien

There are too many fire based bosses to be a vampire tank. Too much of a liablity

Blake6332

Narvuntien wrote: »

There are too many fire based bosses to be a vampire tank. Too much of a liablity

Absolutely not. Even standing in fire will hardly hurt you as a vamp tank. I've done the entirety of vCoA2 as stage 4 vamp tank (including last boss HM), and never thought once that the fire damage was too much - even with guard on our stam dps during the last fight.

paulsimonps

Narvuntien wrote: »

There are too many fire based bosses to be a vampire tank. Too much of a liablity

There really isn't. Also with how the vulnerability is done and how mitigation is calculated its not that big of an issue. In Veteran Dungeons nothing really does enough damage to be a problem for Tanks and the only Trial boss I know that uses Fire is the up top boss in Hel Ra, oh and the Last part of the Mage is Fire, or so I've heard at least, always forget to check

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/279426/damage-mitigation-explanation-and-list-of-options/p1

Personofsecrets

Erock25 wrote: »

WalksonGraves wrote: »

Erock25 wrote: »

infused/prismatic on everything. sturdy doesn't interact well with block cost reduction CP so you really should use one or the other and I currently use block cost reduction CP.

What do you mean by this? Unless the cost somehow increases even with diminishing returns it will result in a cheaper block which will be more important when they increase the rate at which it drains stam.

I'm pretty sure this was brought to my attention first by that guy who has all the tanking videos .... @Woeler I think. I hope I'm not butchering this but the block cost reduction CP and the sturdy trait work multiplicatively. So for example (completely made up numbers) if you have 100 cp into block cost reduction and 0 sturdy your block will cost 500 (down from 800). If you have 0 CP into block cost reduction and 8 sturdy your block will cost 500 (down from base 800). If you have 100 CP into block cost reduction and 8 sturdy your block will cost 380. So yes, you're right that it will always result in cheaper block cost, but you're spending that CP or those gear traits on something that gives highly diminished returns. Again my numbers are completely made up but that's how his explanation made it sound to me.

Another aspect of diminished returns is that players have to think that they wont always be generating virtual resources by sturdy, but as long as their magic pool isn't full, they will be receiving resources by divines with the Atronarch stone.

On boss fights within Maw, for example, a players isn't always being hit by attacks. In those cases, a diverse resource management setup, such as mixing sturdy and divines, may lead to the best resources management. During times when sturdy does nothing, one could instead have extra magic.

In the past, this principle applied to choosing shadow ward versus the other cost reduction CP. In the future this will most likely apply to the jewelry enchants that people choose.

Autolycus

All sturdy.