Advice on Build Idea

AndrewW200

Hello all, first time posting on here but I thought I'd give it a shot to see if I can get any good advice for a build I've been thinking of testing out.

I've come to realise that as a player, I seem to prefer slower damage types, like those from the 2 Handed or the Sword & Shield. I also feel that I'm not exactly very good in a DPS slot as I don't really have the "skills" to keep up and dish out huge amounts of burst damage - especially when some boss mechanics seem require quick kills on Adds to prevent 1 shots.

As such, I've been thinking of a simple Night-Blade Tanking Build that I'd like to hear your thoughts on.

Stamina Night-Blade, Nord, CP220 (current)

Front Bar: Tank Bar

1. Ransack - Taunt and gives an extra layer of protection vs Pierce Armour which puts an additional De-buff on enemies (not sure if bosses are immune)
2. Suprise Attack- Fast, cheap and De-Buffs and also gives hp increase and other buffs thanks to shadow tree
3. Shielded Assualt - Charge with damage shield
4. Killer's Blade - Cheap execute for when boss gets low
5. Heroic Slash - Filler Damage and Ultimate Regen
Ulti: Sturdy Horn / Bolstering Darkness / Soul Tether (Not entirely sure on Ulti pick)

Back Bar: Defensive DPS / Cleave Bar

1. Brawler - AoE cleave that gives damage shield
2. Leeching Strikes - For resource management & small heal
3. Wrecking Blow - For sheer dps and the damage buff it offers
4. Momentum - Heal over time and gives increased damage
5. Dark Shade - Summons 2 minions to attack enemies and they deal a 15% damage De-buff to those they hit
Ultimate: Not entirely sure here either.

The way I see it working is that between the hardest hitting attacks the boss can throw at me, I can bar swap when needed to replenish brawler, leeching strikes, Shades and momentum when they fall off, while focusing on the Front bar for the general use.

The point of this build is to only bar swap to the 2 hander to refresh buffs or when clearing standard enemies to make dungeons run faster.

I'm not sure about Champion points themselves.

If you think this is an okay build or if you can offer any advice on how to make it better without making it too complicated, I'd appreciate the effort

Ideally this build would fill the role of a generic bulky shielded tank that can also help out on dps when the tanking isn't that important i.e. vs bosses that don't hit overly hard / when you have an amazing team / against standard mobs.

Please be nice! :P

Narvuntien

Okay so it is kind of difficult to get your head around.. but tanks don't really need to do damage. They debuff the enemy bosses and give thier team buffs so they can kill things faster.

Secondly if you avoid the red zones you don't actually take that much damage, especially when you know all the mechanics, many abilities can be interrupted. So abilities that weaken your enemies are more important than those that give you defences. There is infact a defenses cap of 50% of damage.

Tanks are typically hybrids. Using lots of all the resources.

Nightblade tanks can do some particularly interesting things.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBstBT-1dHI
Where they basically self heal through damage, now this is a magicka nightblade tank but it works.

Kel

https://youtu.be/tEHMc-CmpuE

https://youtu.be/t5dBsIJ70YQ

I don't know about NB tank, but if you're open to ideas, here's two pretty amazing tank builds to check out.

VaranisArano

Yeah, its an okay build. It'll do the job you need it to.

Suggestions:

1. Bosses are not immune to the debuff on Pierce Armor. I strongly advise using Pierce Armor for both Major Fracture and Major Breach. Reasons: Unless you have a dedicated group, you can't guarantee you'll have either stam or magicka DPS. Most importantly, if you've build your tank correctly, you won't need the extra physical resistance. Resistance caps at 32ish K anyway for a max of 50% damage reduction, but the benefit you get from Ransack is much less that the benefit your group gets from a fully debuffed boss. For those reasons, almost every end-game tank uses Pierce Armor instead of Ransack.

2. If you want to use your Two-handed bar for buffs and killing mobs, I'd highly suggest you get Caltrops. Caltrops will give you an AOE DOT that's excellent for aggroing and slowing trash mobs, especially since it looks like you lack crowd control skills. You'll use Caltrops like a stam DPS uses Endless Hail, as a constantly refreshed DOT that adds DPS on top of your two-handed damage or tanking, but you'll also use Caltrops the way a DK tank uses talons or a Sorc tank uses Encase. Caltrops won't lock the enemy in pace, but it will slow the trash mob down (especially in choke points) and thus make it easier for your DPS to melt the mobs. Furthermore, getting Caltrops will also give you access to Vigor if you find yourself needing better self-heals. If you need advice about PVPing to get Caltrops, I'd be happy to give some.

3. Surprise Attack is still good, but the Major Fracture it grants won't stack with the Major Fracture you'll get from Pierce Armor/Ransack which should be up constantly from taunting. That's not a reason to not use it, I just wanted to point that out. Similarly, Dark Shade's Minor Maim won't stack with your Low Slash Minor Maim, so if those shades keep attacking the same target you do, they may not be all that useful. You'll just have to see how they behave and if they are hitting the targets you want them to hit. You might have to try those skills out to see if they are performing for you the way you want.

4. For ultimates, I'd pick an offensive and a defensive ultimate. I prefer Dawnbreaker as my offensive ultimate because there are a lot of dungeons with undead or daedra enemies, so I've got easy uptime on Dawnbreaker with the Fighter's Guild Passives. Otherwise, Soul Tether looks like a good offensive ultimate with healing benefits. For defensive ultimates, I'd go with Bolstering Darkness.

Warhorn is nice, but is better if you run with a regular group that can keep up Warhorn as opposed to PUGs. If you do go with Warhorn, I might pair it with Soul Harvest for the increased ultimate generation. Put Soul Harvest on the bar you kill enemies with + Fighter's Guild Passives and you should have excellent Ultimate generation to fuel Warhorn. In theory, anyway.