(Complete)

XxBradeyxX

I tried to make a tank but I cant seem to get it right. I am a imperial dk and am thinking about changing my sets to 5 ebon 5 torugs pact. Any help? This is PvE btw. I want to be a self sustaining unkillable tank

VaranisArano

Here's the Tanking University thread, where a bunch of tanks discuss the basics of tanking, including gear choices: https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/377221/tanking-university/p1

So, there's no such thing as an unkillable tank, not really. Tanking requires alertness and respecting the boss mechanics on top of having a solid build.

To be more unkillable, you'll want high health (30-35k for most content, 65-75K if you are going to an all-health build to buff igneous shield), enough of your other attributes to block, move, damage, and heal, and high resistances. Resistances cap around 33K for about 50% damage reduction. (There's a super detailed look at how mitigation actually works by @paulsimonps here: https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/279426/damage-mitigation-explanation-updated-for-morrowind-new-calculator/p1)

Ebon Armory is a solid choice for a tank, especially since it buffs your group a little. Torug's Pact is a fine second set, especially if you are going magicka focused dragonknight.

As for self-sustaining, you'll want to have self-heals in addition to what your healer is using. I find that Burning Embers is an effective spammable and self-heal for my MagDK.

But most of the unkillable-ness will come from respecting the boss mechanics. Some mechanics will one-shot you on normal if not blocked or avoided. Most mechanics on Veteran will one-shot you if not blocked or avoided. On my tank, I know I have to block Selene's Bear the moment I see it start and I have to dodge the Lava Queen of Blessed Crucible's fire lines.


So with you saying that you can't seem to get your tank build right, what's the problem? Are you running out of resources to fight? I found that putting on some recovery glyphs helped a lot with sustain and so did wearing some sturdy trait armor to reduce block cost. Are you dying to boss mechanics a lot? Make sure you block and figure out if there are any special counters. Does your armor feel like tissue paper? Check your resistances and use skills like Spiked Armor or get gear set bonuses to increase your resistances if you need.

If there's something else you are struggling with, just let us know and we'll do our best to help.

Loc2262

VaranisArano wrote: »

On my tank, I know I have to block Selene's Bear the moment I see it start and I have to dodge the Lava Queen of Blessed Crucible's fire lines.

That's correct! Also note that before one or two patches ago, the Selene bear would one-shot anybody, even a tank, even if blocked. So it had to be roll-dodged or avoided, it's like a front conal attack and is being charged up with yellow lines for about 1.5 seconds.

If you're low on resources, remember to do heavy attacks whenever you can, which restores stamina (your stam should be the higher of the two resources), and use potions to restore magicka. The dropped "cheap" ones are fine in most situations, otherwise brew or buy CP150 tri-stat potions yourself. We can help with that if required.

Otherwise Varanis told you everything I could add, and agree with him when he asks what exactly you have trouble with.

Loc2262

Oh, also make sure to level up the "Medicinal Use" passive in Alchemy, which greatly extends the duration of potion effects. Self-made tristat potions will last for 47 seconds then, so you can re-apply them on cooldown if necessary.

XxBradeyxX

VaranisArano wrote: »

Here's the Tanking University thread, where a bunch of tanks discuss the basics of tanking, including gear choices: https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/377221/tanking-university/p1

So, there's no such thing as an unkillable tank, not really. Tanking requires alertness and respecting the boss mechanics on top of having a solid build.

To be more unkillable, you'll want high health (30-35k for most content, 65-75K if you are going to an all-health build to buff igneous shield), enough of your other attributes to block, move, damage, and heal, and high resistances. Resistances cap around 33K for about 50% damage reduction. (There's a super detailed look at how mitigation actually works by @paulsimonps here: https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/279426/damage-mitigation-explanation-updated-for-morrowind-new-calculator/p1)

Ebon Armory is a solid choice for a tank, especially since it buffs your group a little. Torug's Pact is a fine second set, especially if you are going magicka focused dragonknight.

As for self-sustaining, you'll want to have self-heals in addition to what your healer is using. I find that Burning Embers is an effective spammable and self-heal for my MagDK.

But most of the unkillable-ness will come from respecting the boss mechanics. Some mechanics will one-shot you on normal if not blocked or avoided. Most mechanics on Veteran will one-shot you if not blocked or avoided. On my tank, I know I have to block Selene's Bear the moment I see it start and I have to dodge the Lava Queen of Blessed Crucible's fire lines.


So with you saying that you can't seem to get your tank build right, what's the problem? Are you running out of resources to fight? I found that putting on some recovery glyphs helped a lot with sustain and so did wearing some sturdy trait armor to reduce block cost. Are you dying to boss mechanics a lot? Make sure you block and figure out if there are any special counters. Does your armor feel like tissue paper? Check your resistances and use skills like Spiked Armor or get gear set bonuses to increase your resistances if you need.

If there's something else you are struggling with, just let us know and we'll do our best to help.

I just run out of recources and die pretty quickly. You said recovery glyphs would help?

VaranisArano

Getting back resources happens in a couple of ways.
Recovery - that's the value you have for recovering your resources every second or so. Ways to increase that are recovery glyphs, a mundus stone, drink buffs, potions, etc. On my magDK tank I recently switched sets to one that had less magicka, and my sustain went down the toilet. Like popping potions in every fight bad. So I switched out the jewelry health recovery glyphs for a few magicka recovery glyphs, and that helped a lot.
Heavy attacking - Heavy attacking gives back resources the amount of which can be increased with CP. Staffs will give back magicka and weapons will give back stamina.

For dragonknights, we also get a lot of resources back when we use our ultimates thanks to our class passives. So I like to use a very quick ultimate like Dawnbreaker and drop that when I'm running low on resources for a quick boost. The more costly the ultimate, the more resources you get back, so you don't have to use a quick. cheap one. Definitely pick up the Fighter's Guild passive that lets you gain extra ultimate whenever you kill an undead or daedra, and you'll have really good ultimate uptime in certain dungeons.

Loc2262

Looking at the three resource types, you (of course) get health back easiest by (self-)healing. You get stamina back with heavy attacks and picking up spears/bubbles. No need for regeneration there. So you want to put all regeneration sources (monster set pieces, reg glyphs, CP) into magicka reg.

I personally go with 42k health, 22k stamina, 20k magicka and 1180 magicka reg. I pop cheap potions or tri-stat potions as required. I rarely run dry that way, usually only if I spam chains/talons to handle adds, or need to self-heal really intensely due to bad healer.

Magicka reg for me comes from the following (list from the ESO Build Editor):

MagickaRegen:
169: Magicka Recovery Enchantment on Ebon Ring in Ring2 equip slot (Item.MagickaRegen)
124: Shadowrend set bonus #1 (Set.MagickaRegen)
238: The Atronach mundus stone (Mundus.MagickaRegen)
13%: Arcanist CP ability (CP.MagickaRegen)