So what's the new tanking meta?

humpalicous

I know that the most recent one before the Nerf-train (Igneous was nerfed in terms of giving allies shields and buffed in terms of yourself, which is counter-intuitive) was a super high health DK tank spamming Igneous Shields to give allies massive shields.

But what's the new meta with the Morrowind expansion and latest Update?

I'm mostly interested in DK-related tanking as that's my main tank (a Nord btw). But please post gear choice, skills, and anything useful I guess.

Thanks in advance!

Glamdring

roll a sorc and u are good to go.

humpalicous

Glamdring wrote: »

roll a sorc and u are good to go.

Lol. already have 2 Sorcs, one each in magicka and stamina.

Needless to say, both are probably my most powerful characters. But I want to start tanking again and DK seems to still be the better tank choice

Liofa

I don't think there is a tanking meta right now . Reason will be explained below . The High Health builds you remember are still going on but only for learning the new trial . Those builds suck at old trials because they don't give any kind of DPS support . In old trials , people already know mechanics and how to avoid them , they don't need that kind of shielding support . They will want DPS boosting .

There are many ways to boost DPS of group . These 2 are the most popular ones :

1- Armor Reduction with sets like Alkosh and Torug's Pact

2- Ultigen for Warhorn spamming with sets like Tava's Favor and Akaviri Dragonguard .

Ebon Armory on main tank is almost a standart so you choose between Alkosh/Torug's and Tava's/Dragon as second set . In our group , I run Ebon/Tava/BS as main tank and our off-tank runs Tava/Dragon/BS . You can find my ultigen build here , completed all trials in HM including vHoF .

What kind of support you want to give to group really depends on your group composition . If your DDs are putting enough points into Penetration CP (which makes sense because of the changes to CP system) reducing armor of enemies won't be that valuable . If they didn't , then you should be using the first option and go armor reduction support . This is why there is not a specific tanking meta , at least for now .

To sum up , what you wear and use are depending on your group . What I said is for trials . If you are looking to tank pledges , you can go with whatever you want , most pledges don't require a tank anyways ^^

Hope I helped , good luck .

x_t7ink_x

I use plague doctor and fully gold footman. My stats are 51k health 18k magic and 20k stam. I use duel sword and board, I'm only 580cp so when that goes up I can swap out a glyph or two and I will be at resist cap with nearly 2k magic recovery. I need to swap my sword less for defending though and get a better trait on a piece of the doctor. Chokerthorn in light, which again I could do with a better one.

Crom_CCCXVI

In non CP, the meta is now a good rotation of skills, not a build.

gpreid81

Plague doctor, warriors poet , skoria works for my nord tank

X3ina

Blood Spawn + Ebon + War Machine (remember to use ebon on body pieces otherwise if you have full ebon on weapons you and your group will get health desync everytime u change bar)

U're welcome

Myerscod

X3ina wrote: »

Blood Spawn + Ebon + War Machine (remember to use ebon on body pieces otherwise if you have full ebon on weapons you and your group will get health desync everytime u change bar)

U're welcome

I'm sure they fixed this

paulsimonps

Liofa wrote: »

I don't think there is a tanking meta right now . Reason will be explained below . The High Health builds you remember are still going on but only for learning the new trial . Those builds suck at old trials because they don't give any kind of DPS support . In old trials , people already know mechanics and how to avoid them , they don't need that kind of shielding support . They will want DPS boosting .

There are many ways to boost DPS of group . These 2 are the most popular ones :

1- Armor Reduction with sets like Alkosh and Torug's Pact

2- Ultigen for Warhorn spamming with sets like Tava's Favor and Akaviri Dragonguard .

Ebon Armory on main tank is almost a standart so you choose between Alkosh/Torug's and Tava's/Dragon as second set . In our group , I run Ebon/Tava/BS as main tank and our off-tank runs Tava/Dragon/BS . You can find my ultigen build here , completed all trials in HM including vHoF .

What kind of support you want to give to group really depends on your group composition . If your DDs are putting enough points into Penetration CP (which makes sense because of the changes to CP system) reducing armor of enemies won't be that valuable . If they didn't , then you should be using the first option and go armor reduction support . This is why there is not a specific tanking meta , at least for now .

To sum up , what you wear and use are depending on your group . What I said is for trials . If you are looking to tank pledges , you can go with whatever you want , most pledges don't require a tank anyways ^^

Hope I helped , good luck .

I second this. I have tried both Torugs and Dragon set up and I really like the dragon set up. I do combine that with 1p chokethorn and 1p shadowrend, that with the bonus to magicka recovery from dragon gives me a lot of magicka recovery, making me capable of using a lot of magicka based abilities such as my shields, buffs and CCs a lot more frequently. But it all comes down to preference.

Oreyn_Bearclaw

paulsimonps wrote: »

Liofa wrote: »

I don't think there is a tanking meta right now . Reason will be explained below . The High Health builds you remember are still going on but only for learning the new trial . Those builds suck at old trials because they don't give any kind of DPS support . In old trials , people already know mechanics and how to avoid them , they don't need that kind of shielding support . They will want DPS boosting .

There are many ways to boost DPS of group . These 2 are the most popular ones :

1- Armor Reduction with sets like Alkosh and Torug's Pact

2- Ultigen for Warhorn spamming with sets like Tava's Favor and Akaviri Dragonguard .

Ebon Armory on main tank is almost a standart so you choose between Alkosh/Torug's and Tava's/Dragon as second set . In our group , I run Ebon/Tava/BS as main tank and our off-tank runs Tava/Dragon/BS . You can find my ultigen build here , completed all trials in HM including vHoF .

What kind of support you want to give to group really depends on your group composition . If your DDs are putting enough points into Penetration CP (which makes sense because of the changes to CP system) reducing armor of enemies won't be that valuable . If they didn't , then you should be using the first option and go armor reduction support . This is why there is not a specific tanking meta , at least for now .

To sum up , what you wear and use are depending on your group . What I said is for trials . If you are looking to tank pledges , you can go with whatever you want , most pledges don't require a tank anyways ^^

Hope I helped , good luck .

I second this. I have tried both Torugs and Dragon set up and I really like the dragon set up. I do combine that with 1p chokethorn and 1p shadowrend, that with the bonus to magicka recovery from dragon gives me a lot of magicka recovery, making me capable of using a lot of magicka based abilities such as my shields, buffs and CCs a lot more frequently. But it all comes down to preference.

Really glad I didnt decon all my Tavas/Dragon stuff when the new "high health meta" dropped. People were calling it a fad, and it appears they might be correct save VHOF progressions groups.

Glamdring wrote: »

roll a sorc and u are good to go.

That is just terrible advice. I would assume OP is talking about actual tanking and not "lets 4 DPS a dungeon, and I throw a taunt on my shield stacking sorc."

DKs are far and away the meta tanks in this game for actual end game content that needs one.

pizzaow

Sets
There are no 'meta' sets anymore (good job balancing ZOS), but rather several decent choices; most of the other comments talk about sets, which can all be useful.

Attributes
Pre-morrowind most tanks would put 30K in health, then dump the rest in stamina. Now, most tanks will put about 20K in stamina, then dump the rest in health.

CP
This has changed quite a bit.
Blue: 100 Blessed, 80 Elfborn, 30 into the Atronach tree (for Riposte passive)
Green: Most builds are investing high (75+) into shadow ward, and a decent chunk in tumbling (40-50). Then you can choose either magic recovery or heavy attacks for resources, so another high amount (70+) in either tenacity or arcanist
Red: (55-65) Ironclad, (45-55) Thick Skinned, (30-50) in Elemental Defender, Hardy and possibly some (up to 40) in Bastion.
Of course, you'll want to adjust the red tree for the specific conent.

Skills
These haven't changed too much. The biggest change I've noticed is that most builds have taken vigor off their bar, and replaced it with green dragon blood.

Race
Argonian seems to be the new meta, but Imperial is a close second.

Septimus_Magna

What about the Meridia's Blessed armor set?
33% chance to blind the attacker and make him miss all attacks for 5 seconds with 10 second cooldown.

Does this even work on bosses? And if so, is the 5-piece bonus worth it?

humpalicous

Septimus_Magna wrote: »

What about the Meridia's Blessed armor set?
33% chance to blind the attacker and make him miss all attacks for 5 seconds with 10 second cooldown.

Does this even work on bosses? And if so, is the 5-piece bonus worth it?

I think Woeler said that blinding does not affect bosses at all, think this is more of a PvP set. I can't say for certain though without testing or quoting him!

humpalicous

Oreyn_Bearclaw wrote: »

paulsimonps wrote: »

Liofa wrote: »

I don't think there is a tanking meta right now . Reason will be explained below . The High Health builds you remember are still going on but only for learning the new trial . Those builds suck at old trials because they don't give any kind of DPS support . In old trials , people already know mechanics and how to avoid them , they don't need that kind of shielding support . They will want DPS boosting .

There are many ways to boost DPS of group . These 2 are the most popular ones :

1- Armor Reduction with sets like Alkosh and Torug's Pact

2- Ultigen for Warhorn spamming with sets like Tava's Favor and Akaviri Dragonguard .

Ebon Armory on main tank is almost a standart so you choose between Alkosh/Torug's and Tava's/Dragon as second set . In our group , I run Ebon/Tava/BS as main tank and our off-tank runs Tava/Dragon/BS . You can find my ultigen build here , completed all trials in HM including vHoF .

What kind of support you want to give to group really depends on your group composition . If your DDs are putting enough points into Penetration CP (which makes sense because of the changes to CP system) reducing armor of enemies won't be that valuable . If they didn't , then you should be using the first option and go armor reduction support . This is why there is not a specific tanking meta , at least for now .

To sum up , what you wear and use are depending on your group . What I said is for trials . If you are looking to tank pledges , you can go with whatever you want , most pledges don't require a tank anyways ^^

Hope I helped , good luck .

I second this. I have tried both Torugs and Dragon set up and I really like the dragon set up. I do combine that with 1p chokethorn and 1p shadowrend, that with the bonus to magicka recovery from dragon gives me a lot of magicka recovery, making me capable of using a lot of magicka based abilities such as my shields, buffs and CCs a lot more frequently. But it all comes down to preference.

Really glad I didnt decon all my Tavas/Dragon stuff when the new "high health meta" dropped. People were calling it a fad, and it appears they might be correct save VHOF progressions groups.

Glamdring wrote: »

roll a sorc and u are good to go.

That is just terrible advice. I would assume OP is talking about actual tanking and not "lets 4 DPS a dungeon, and I throw a taunt on my shield stacking sorc."

DKs are far and away the meta tanks in this game for actual end game content that needs one.

Thank you, I even think I was asking specifically about DK's

SquareSausage

yep imo as what people have touched on depends on the situation and your group.

carry around with you a few sets you can change into depending on the fight before you.

I even carry spare glyphs for jewellery to swap out depending on the boss.

Another benefit of higher health is that you only really need to block the heavies and can soak up a lot of damage allowing you to heavy attack in between blocks and not worry about health.

My personally build for most stuff is ebon/plague with 1 piece chudan/1piece shadowrend. Gets you to just about resist cap and stats are good too, swap jewels depending on fight for either block cost reduction or magicka regen/reduction.

You fit your build really to your raid set up, not everyone is pro so pro builds dont always work for the layman.

ps oh hi there @x_t7ink_x