Gear Swap suggestion for tanking veteran dungeons

raj72616a

To DPS while taunting, or To buff party and crowd control and chain mobs while taunting, that is the question for PUG tanks.

while some people might insist that when you queue for the tank role in a veteran dungeon, you must diligently focus on your tank duties, my personal experience with PUG is that quite often it's more beneficial to the whole group to sacrifice some of your survivability in order to dish out more damage even when you are a tank.

on PC we have several addons that allow switching equipment and skills with just one hotkey, so it's easy to alternate between a set that favor tanking ability and a set that provide more dps even in the middle of the pledge run.

i use two sets of gear for my stam sorc when i PUG vet pledges as tank:

on both setups i use Pierce Armor and Heroic Slash to taunt and apply debuff, Critical Surge + Hurricane to self heal and increase defense, Dark Deal to restore health and stamina.

Set 1: Bloodspawn + Ebon + Pariah. Sword and Shield on both bar. Echoing Vigor, Turn Undead, Bone Shield, Aggressive Warhorn, for better survivability and better group support.
Set 2: Iceheart + TFS + Hunding's Rage. Sword and Shield front bar, Bow back bar. Poison Injection, Endless Hail, Rearming Trap, basically a stam dps with a taunt, and passable self heal and damage shield to survive trash mobs without a healer.

after pugging most of the non-DLC pledges with both gear sets, these are my personal opinions on gear choice for each dungeon (of course if you're a godly flawless conqueror you could tank all dungeons naked, i'm just an average tank who know generally what to do but make mistakes and fail some mechanics now and then)

1. Banished Cells I - no significant burst damage from boss, go DPS
2. Banished Cells II - need to keep multiple Daedroths alive for Hard Mode, go Heavy Armor. first mini-boss you may want to stand in stupid to tank it, to avoid fire aoe spreading everywhere (the fire doesn't disappear, the more you move around, the less space for dps to stay safe).
3. Darkshade Caverns I - DPS should be fine
4. Darkshade Caverns II - the two mini bosses (Netches and Sentinels) have large number of adds in their fights, some group might require a Heavy Armor tank to taunt as many of adds as possible. go DPS on final boss.
5. Elden Hollow I - the growing Red Circle AOE from boss can one-shot non-tank. it's dodgeable, but go Heavy Armor for a more relaxing fight.
6. Elden Hollow II - no significant burst damage, just go DPS
7. Fungal Grotto I - the growing Red Circle hurt a lot. it's dodgeable but when you're tanking the boss at melee range, you don't have lots of room for mistake. Heavy Armor for relaxing fight (ie, none of the attack can one-shot you even if you fail to block).
8. Fungal Grotto II - lots of mechanics that need fast DPS, and final boss just teleport around and throw AOE everywhere. you can't survive standing in stupid even in heavy, so go DPS.
9. Spindleclutch I - the growing Red Circle and Arachnophobia can both one-shot non-tank. both dodgeable but it's harder when you're tanking the boss at melee range. go Heavy Armor so you can survive mistake, and help rez dps that failed to dodge the one-shots.
10. Spindleclutch II - no significant burst damage from bosses, 2nd mini-boss is a dps race, 3rd boss's red circle is instant death if you touch it, just go DPS
11. Wayrest Sewers I - heavy attack from boss can one-shot non-tank if unblocked. totally avoidable, but Heavy Armor allows you to survive mistake.
12. Wayrest Sewers II - not tested yet
13. Arx Corinium - cone attack from boss hurt a lot but dodgeable, and survivable if you are at full health when you get hit. fine to go DPS.
14. Blackheart Haven - third boss First Mate Wavecutter has a channeled attack that can wipe the squishy dps if not interrputed, no mistake allow for this. there's no mechanics that you can overcome with high health and high resistance, just go DPS.
15. Blessed Crucible - you can't stand and survive the lava attack no matter what gear you are in. no major mistake allowed for the lava attack (getting hurt once is fine, getting consecutive hit you'll die). heavy attack is survivable for non-tank if blocked. fine to go DPS, but Heavy Armor allows you to be careless with boss's heavy attack and focus on when the lava attack will happen.
16. City of Ash I - no significant risk, just go DPS
17. City of Ash II - not tested yet
18. Crypt of Hearts I - no significant risk, just go DPS
19. Crypt of Hearts II - hard mode require you to hold aggro of at least 4 adds without dealing too much damage to kill them. easier in Heavy Armor.
20. Direfrost - final boss is sort of a dps race, the growing Red Circle is very avoidable after you learnt the mechanics so there's no real risk. easier fight in DPS gear.
21. Selene’s Web - the green bear one-shot you no matter how heavy your armor is. no mistake is allowed for walking away from the bear attack, so high health is not very meaningful. go DPS.
22. Tempest Island - the final boss does not follow taunt, you can't take all the damage on yourself. there's no advantage in not running away from growing Red Circle or in inviting the charge attack. just be a 3rd DPS who apply Pierce Armor and Heroic Slash.
23. Vaults of Madness - the 2 AOE attacks from final boss is very easy to recognize and dodge from. you cannot survive standing in stupid anyway. go DPS.
24. Volenfell - no significant risk with mini-bosses, the 2nd of which is even immune to taunt, just DPS until final boss. the green/yellow robot's heavy attack can one-shot non-tank if unblocked, and even if blocked, it can be lethal if the red robot's AOE happen to go near you. Heavy Armor will allow you to survive accidents and have a smoother fight.