Tanking backbar?

huschdeguddzje

Just curious what you run on your backbar for endgame content, I like two handed as my Buff bar, with green dragon blood and rally getting some nice healing over time.
But I have to switch often because my group does not approve.
Or I get kicked instantly

Magdalina

My blazing shield tank runs DW backbar but that's because she's originally for PvP and I was just using it for a little bit of burst back there and was subsequently too lazy to swap to something else for PvE. I did no death tank CoS/RoM like it but that's more in spite of that than thanks to that I suppose. One useful thing DW does give me is more spelldamage=>stronger heals, which can come in handy sometimes, I offheal on her a lot. Double bar s&b is probably your safest bet though.

WrathOfInnos

I think most tanks use sword and shield on both. Frost staff back bar is probably 2nd. Some tanks use a lightning staff back bar to provide off-balance with wall of elements, especially when grouped with stamina DPS. For some content, dual wield can also make a good buff bar, since it gives access to blade cloak to reduce AoE damage.

FakeFox

Currently a lot of tanks run lightning staff to give off balance, otherwise mostly s&b.

Loc2262

The S&B passives are best suited for tanking. So except you're really good with managing your bar swaps, I'd suggest you put S&B on both bars to have those passives active at all times.

Rally isn't really a good heal for a tank. You have much more health than Rally can usefully restore. Dragon Blood and Vigor are way better.

Hibiki54

All my main tanking skills are on my front bar - Hardened Armor, Heroic Slash, Igneous Shield, Pierce Armor and Absorb Magic

My utility skills are on my back bar - Choking Talons, Green Dragon Blood, Resolving Vigor, Unrelenting Grip, Inner Rage

Maura_Neysa

No, just no.... You can't End Game Tank with 2H, at least not if you're talking about vet Trials/4-man Skin runs. Rally is stamina, don't waste yours on a skill on something the healer is covering. Most tanks x2 S&B, personally I back bar a Frost Staff on my Warden, but my block still cost stamina, I have seen/heard of the Lighting Staff, but thats risky/over kill/and soon to be useless. Plenty of DPS with Lighting, plus 2 healers and with the coming Off Balance nerf even 1 Lighting Staff will maintain max uptime.

VaranisArano

I run a Dunmer MagDK tank in normal and vet dungeons, so my main bar is One-hand and Shield and my back bar is an Inferno Staff. I could probably swap to a lightning staff at some point, but I keep the inferno staff for when I'm doing overland PVE content.

Lightspeedflashb14_ESO

If I saw the tank I was grouped with pull out a two hander, I would instantly vote to boot. No questions. Actually just did this on a vet bloodroot. Dual weild would be better, cloak gives 25% AOE damage reduction, much better then the heals you would get from rally. But for real, any real tank will have double bar s/b and in rare instances, an ice/lightning staff for the reasons in this thread.

paulsimonps

Lightspeedflashb14_ESO wrote: »

If I saw the tank I was grouped with pull out a two hander, I would instantly vote to boot. No questions. Actually just did this on a vet bloodroot. Dual weild would be better, cloak gives 25% AOE damage reduction, much better then the heals you would get from rally. But for real, any real tank will have double bar s/b and in rare instances, an ice/lightning staff for the reasons in this thread.

I have to agree that Two Handed and Bow are the 2 weapons on a tank that I would not approve of. Resto staff I can get, cause heal tanks, Destro cause of Ice and Lightning for their reasons, and like said the Dual Wield for the Blade Cloak. I will say this though, there are very very few instances where Blade Cloak is needed and there really isn't one in Dungeons. So in dungeons I wouldn't want to see anything but Staffs or Shield for back bar. Unless of course it was an easy dungeon where tanking can be done by a DPS with a taunt slotted, in which case I would not care as long as they actually taunt but that is a different story.

TL;DR Two Handed back bar is not necessary and do not give you anything useful.

kringled_1

I've back barred bow for Vila Theran (FG2)because I can't do anything in melee range once the ground aoe's build up until she teleports and the cycle starts again. The two DS2 fights (Grobull and Engine guardian) I also use different setups but tanking per se is not entirely useful on those fights.

paulsimonps

kringled_1 wrote: »

I've back barred bow for Vila Theran (FG2)because I can't do anything in melee range once the ground aoe's build up until she teleports and the cycle starts again. The two DS2 fights (Grobull and Engine guardian) I also use different setups but tanking per se is not entirely useful on those fights.

There is a super easy way to make Melee a viable option for Vila, just seems like too many don't know about it. After she has teleported 3 times, as the tank run away from here really far, this will force her to follow you so she can stay in range to attack you, then once she is out of the AoEs run back to her and hit her in the face with that sweet melee strike. Seriously, there is no reason to ever not do this, it gives you more things to do and makes it so you can apply more debuffs on her, and if you have 2 stam melee characters in your group the fight will go WAY faster. So all you are doing is LoS her from one side of the room to the other and it helps a lot.

Maura_Neysa

kringled_1 wrote: »

I've back barred bow for Vila Theran (FG2)because I can't do anything in melee range once the ground aoe's build up until she teleports and the cycle starts again. The two DS2 fights (Grobull and Engine guardian) I also use different setups but tanking per se is not entirely useful on those fights.

FG2, DS2 are not what I'd ean endgame content. Maz, Cradle, Faulk, Bloodroot, vDSA and vet Trials are end game content.

RavenSworn

Actually it all depends on the encounters and what your group setup is, not to mention at which point of end game you are in. I've had extremely successful runs with a tank who back barred a bow or a two hander as a healer myself. It's a unique way to gain aggro and maintain respectable dps when it's needed. I've also had horrible runs with a double s&b tank that doesn't seem to know how the encounters go and think being a meat shield is the way to go. :rolling_eyes:

I don't vote kick people for their use of weapons. That's just idiotic, judgemental and lacking in character. It's the same when people vote kick a cp 80 tank but these cp690 themselves are doing 10-15k dps on a static target and that tank is kicking it as a tank.

Vet trials are only 5% of the total game. For everything else, if it works, it works.

Lightspeedflashb14_ESO

RavenSworn wrote: »

Actually it all depends on the encounters and what your group setup is, not to mention at which point of end game you are in. I've had extremely successful runs with a tank who back barred a bow or a two hander as a healer myself. It's a unique way to gain aggro and maintain respectable dps when it's needed. I've also had horrible runs with a double s&b tank that doesn't seem to know how the encounters go and think being a meat shield is the way to go. :rolling_eyes:

I don't vote kick people for their use of weapons. That's just idiotic, judgemental and lacking in character. It's the same when people vote kick a cp 80 tank but these cp690 themselves are doing 10-15k dps on a static target and that tank is kicking it as a tank.

Vet trials are only 5% of the total game. For everything else, if it works, it works.

You feel better? Getting that "actually" out there? Of course everything depends. That is such a cop out thing to say.

Also lol at you calling me judgemental for kicking a crap player while judging me for doing it. Lol lacking in character, har har har. You are just a hilarious guy.

You seem like a nice guy but I have played with more then my share of crap players. I am aware of what works and what does not. Two hander on vet and you have 30k health does not work. You will be a drag on the team. You will be wasting other peoples time. I usually do not have the time to spend on these people. Lol at unique way to gain aggro and "respectable dps". There is always other people playing and if nothing else I can just jump on one of my 2 healers or my 2 tanks and basically get a group instantly. So if you feel like you are better person for wasting your time with these people, good for you.

All 7 of my dps do more then 60% of the dps in the group when I use the group finder like more then 70% of the time. And I am not even a great dps. I do 20k to 25k self buffed on a dummy.

TankHealz2015

I mostly tank with Frost Staff on back bar

But, i carry all three types of destro staffs with me always. So depending on the group, I can bring what is most useful.

Frost = immobilizes, slow, and block with magika instead of stamina (lets me balance my resources)

Lightening = fun visual effects and constant off- balance and sometimes a PUG group needs the extra dps

Flame = very rarely use this. but hey you never know.

RavenSworn

Lightspeedflashb14_ESO wrote: »

RavenSworn wrote: »

Actually it all depends on the encounters and what your group setup is, not to mention at which point of end game you are in. I've had extremely successful runs with a tank who back barred a bow or a two hander as a healer myself. It's a unique way to gain aggro and maintain respectable dps when it's needed. I've also had horrible runs with a double s&b tank that doesn't seem to know how the encounters go and think being a meat shield is the way to go. :rolling_eyes:

I don't vote kick people for their use of weapons. That's just idiotic, judgemental and lacking in character. It's the same when people vote kick a cp 80 tank but these cp690 themselves are doing 10-15k dps on a static target and that tank is kicking it as a tank.

Vet trials are only 5% of the total game. For everything else, if it works, it works.

You feel better? Getting that "actually" out there? Of course everything depends. That is such a cop out thing to say.

Also lol at you calling me judgemental for kicking a crap player while judging me for doing it. Lol lacking in character, har har har. You are just a hilarious guy.

You seem like a nice guy but I have played with more then my share of crap players. I am aware of what works and what does not. Two hander on vet and you have 30k health does not work. You will be a drag on the team. You will be wasting other peoples time. I usually do not have the time to spend on these people. Lol at unique way to gain aggro and "respectable dps". There is always other people playing and if nothing else I can just jump on one of my 2 healers or my 2 tanks and basically get a group instantly. So if you feel like you are better person for wasting your time with these people, good for you.

All 7 of my dps do more then 60% of the dps in the group when I use the group finder like more then 70% of the time. And I am not even a great dps. I do 20k to 25k self buffed on a dummy.

That's the thing, if it was a vet trial, I would smash that vote kick button for a tank that pulls out a two hander, no questions asked. But for a vet? Even on Hm, it's all about knowing the mechanics. Remember drodda? You don't even need a true tank by then. But if you don't know the mechanics, it'll still be a full 15-20mins fight. That's why I say it depends at which part of end game are you in.

We already have groups made up of all dps burning through the non dlc vet dungeons, or the 3:1 healer/tank dps composition. The tank pulls out a bow? Who cares, we're burning through it. As long as the tank has the boss facing his way, I'm fine with it.

And we always, almost always remember the bad runs but we hardly notice the good ones when we run pugs or whatnot. It's a common thing, even at our workplaces, complaining about the bad times but glossing on the good ones.

And no I don't feel like a better person, I just feel we could all be better in managing our response to all of this. I apologise if I rub the wrong way, it's just a pet peeve of mine vote kicking people without giving them a chance.

PlagueSD

My DK tank I run S&B on front bar and Frost staff on back. This lets me switch which resource pool I use for blocking. If there's a lot of movement involved, I'll tank with Frost staff and use stamina for movement. If it's a simple tank & spank, I'll use S&B.

Also, if the boss teleports around a lot (Lord Warden) I'll frost staff tank as it's a pain to melee tank that fight.

https://youtu.be/t_P0pPk6naM?t=55s

Maura_Neysa

PlagueSD wrote: »

My DK tank I run S&B on front bar and Frost staff on back. This lets me switch which resource pool I use for blocking. If there's a lot of movement involved, I'll tank with Frost staff and use stamina for movement. If it's a simple tank & spank, I'll use S&B.

Also, if the boss teleports around a lot (Lord Warden) I'll frost staff tank as it's a pain to melee tank that fight.

https://youtu.be/t_P0pPk6naM?t=55s

I also S&B + Frost Staff, but my block always cost Stamina. I never worry about my stamina pool (Except PvP) Lord Warden is actually a pretty stationary fight. Avoid the portals, range taunt and make him come to you.

PlagueSD

Ahh, I have points in Tri-focus so I can range taunt with a FS heavy attack.

While using a Destruction Staff Heavy Attack:

• Grants bonus effects based on the element used:
• Fully charged heavy fire attacks deal 12% additional damage.
• Shock Heavy Attacks damage nearby enemies for 100% of the damage done.
• Fully-charged Frost Heavy Attack taunt the enemy to attack you for 15 seconds and grant a damage shield that absorbs 805 damage.
• While a Frost Staff is equipped, blocking cost Magicka instead of Stamina

I always love DPS Sorcs that have that and use a frost staff. Nothing funnier than watching a Sorc run around after they taunt the boss off of me.

Maura_Neysa

PlagueSD wrote: »

Ahh, I have points in Tri-focus so I can range taunt with a FS heavy attack.

While using a Destruction Staff Heavy Attack:

• Grants bonus effects based on the element used:
• Fully charged heavy fire attacks deal 12% additional damage.
• Shock Heavy Attacks damage nearby enemies for 100% of the damage done.
• Fully-charged Frost Heavy Attack taunt the enemy to attack you for 15 seconds and grant a damage shield that absorbs 805 damage.
• While a Frost Staff is equipped, blocking cost Magicka instead of Stamina

I always love DPS Sorcs that have that and use a frost staff. Nothing funnier than watching a Sorc run around after they taunt the boss off of me.

Inner Fire is just far do much better, don't have to drop block, 3 taunts in 3 seconds instead of 1 and 19k stamina for just 2 things blocking and Pierce Armor. No worries about needing a skill on my back bar but not having the magic to be able to block there.

SevenKegs

Run double sword and board. Back bar I run Harden Armor, Heroic Slash, Unrelenting Grip, Inner Rage, and Green Dragons Blood. ULT Aggressive War Horn. My back bar is my buffs/debuffs. Front bar is used for mob control and healing. Front bar I run Pierce Armor, Igneous Shield, Resolving Vigor, Choking Talons, and Absorb Magic. ULT Magma Shell.