Fun (or stupid) tank question/idea...

Armisael9

Wouldn't it be cool to wade into a mob you've aggroed with puncture and spamming Brawler? Or standing your ground in front of one of the Wolf Hunter bosses light/heavy attacking? When I think epic, poster child, uber non-blocking tank I visualize this.

Most likely it's not possible to have a non-blocking tank because of how hard bosses hit in the vet DLC delves, but I was curious if anyone at 780cp (which isn't me at 480cp) has tried or tested a build to that effect?

Yes, the build would be running all selfish sets, but hey it would still be a pretty epic scene! Although you would need to rely on Healer after every big (or even regular?) hit to stay alive.

Build idea:
1p Pirate Skeleton
1p Mighty Chudan
5p Plague Doctor
5p Warrior Poet or Fortified Brass
All health enchants
All health attributes
Defending weapons
Infused large armor, reinforced small armor
Vampire
Active skills slotted that have a passive boost to health or armor (i.e. Entropy, Bound Aegis for Sorc).
5-1-1 Undaunted
Skill for Major Resolve and Major Ward active.
x1 Fire Resist jewelry enchant, x1 decrease spell harm, x1 decrease physical harm

Twist: If you can pull this off with 5p Morkuldin and 2p Maw of Infernal as a pet Sorc tank then the up time of pet chaos (because you're constantly light attacking) would be even more epic! You'd want to include Greaater Storm Atronach.

VaranisArano

I mean, could you? Yeah, sure, as long as you avoided the one-shots you have to avoid and/or block.

But you probably wouldn't be all that effective. The problem is that the tankier you get, the less effective your damage skils get, so you actually get worse at both roles. Your damage simply isn't all that good to compensate for the lack of crowd control or group buffs in a good group.

Now, the best place to run a DPS/tank like that is normal dungeons and easier vets. There, your damage will actually make a difference against the easier mobs and the mechanics and one shot checks are a lot easier for a less armored tank. Many people who know the dungeons can run tanks that are really slightly beefier DDs with a taunt and complete just fine.

(Unfortunately, Maw has a bad tendency to spawn the daedroth right in the tank's face, making it hard to spot certain boss movements.)

Lightspeedflashb14_ESO

The problem with what you are saying, using brawler to tank, is that brawler scales with your Stam and weapon damage, so your shield is going to be small with the sets you are saying to use.

RavenSworn

Lightspeedflashb14_ESO wrote: »

The problem with what you are saying, using brawler to tank, is that brawler scales with your Stam and weapon damage, so your shield is going to be small with the sets you are saying to use.

doesnt brawler scale with the number of enemies hit? but you are right, brawler shield is... disappointing to say the least against bosses. However, it does well with a dps based heavy armor dude but its just not that worth as a main weapon. as an offbar, thats your call op. i would also take Immovable so that you wont have to block those heavy attacks the mobs sometimes have.

TheDarkShadow

This build will probably over resistance cap. A tank in my guild used to do something like... armor master reinforced I think, hopefully with cap resistance he wouldnt need to use block. It doesn't end well.

idk

There are shots that are one shots if the tank gets hit by them without blocking. The only other choice is to dodge roll to avoid damage but that may not work with all damage tanks take for all bosses. With that, dodge rolling the hits that still do significant damage though block is pretty much a standard MO now.

Lightspeedflashb14_ESO

RavenSworn wrote: »

Lightspeedflashb14_ESO wrote: »

The problem with what you are saying, using brawler to tank, is that brawler scales with your Stam and weapon damage, so your shield is going to be small with the sets you are saying to use.

doesnt brawler scale with the number of enemies hit? but you are right, brawler shield is... disappointing to say the least against bosses. However, it does well with a dps based heavy armor dude but its just not that worth as a main weapon. as an offbar, thats your call op. i would also take Immovable so that you wont have to block those heavy attacks the mobs sometimes have.

Brawlers shield is multiplied by the number of enemies, up to 6 times but the base number, the number that is multiplied by up to 6, is based on your weapon damage and max Stam. With 18k Stam and 1400 weapon damage, the base shield is 1.1k, up to 6.6k max, with 41k Stam and 3.1 k weapon damage, the shield is 2.6k base, 15.6k max. I have seen 21k shields on my nightblade fully buffed. Brawler is meant as a dps survial tool, not a tanks.

Pulque

When it comes to non-block tank, it pretty much means maximizing damage mitigation. Two ways: 1. be really tanky. 2. get a super high shield and run mist form. Well, both are for fun, absolutely not for end game contents XD.

How would the first one work?
Think of damage mitigation. Templar is the best 'hold-you-ground' type. Channel Focus provides crazy resistance; sweep has 15% base dmg reduction; automated defense set also provides extra 20% reduction coupled with sweep; deep thought provides crazy additional 30% major protection. The build looks like this:




Potion:restoring health, lingering health, vitality. This is very important to argonian tank.

Food:Orzorga's Smoked Bear Haunch, or Jewels of Misrule.

Race: argonian + infused potion speed
imperial or nord + healthy health recovery

Skills:
Main:taunt, slash, deep thought, sun shield, structured entropy, empowering sweep.
Off: taunt, channel focus, woe, free spot, structured entropy, free spot.
woe proc absorb health enchantment. Keep up channel focus. Deep thought keeps constant regen, while empowering sweep makes you unkillable

Sets: automated defense, green pact, earthgore. Automated defense synergies well with sweep. Earthgore can burst heal you through any crazy dot. Swap earthgore with swarm mother if you need to chain adds.

Test:

Let's throw this tank to vet saint olms. Rule: no block.
olms' reference swipe damage: 77139.
This is olms' swipe damage without sweep on:


This is olms' swipe damage with sweep on:


This build can survive olms, but you have to keep your buff up.

the only blocks were to cancel deep thought so I could get out of lightning pool. And I tried really hard not to right click XD.

How to play this build?
First, you should always have channel focus under your feet. Go deep thought after you taunt adds, you should be able to survive most attacks. Sometimes you have to roll dodge a bit to avoid overwhelming aoe damage. Your ice blockade and potion contribute to your health recovery, so don't forget to keep them up when your health goes down faster than regen. Sweep is our best cheap damage mitigation, spam it!
In dungeon, if you are required to chain adds, you need to run swarm mother. Ice blockade might help immobilize adds.


How would the second one work?
Well, this build is much hard because you can't regenerate resources while in mist form. The entire build relies on the mechanics that mist form mitigates damage to shield. The goal is to maximize shield capacity and to have good magicka sustain so we can spam shield. Magicka Sorc is the best class.

Race: high elf/Breton.

Sets: necropotence, ice heart. Third set can be jurvold’s guidance for extensive shields, destruction mastery for max shield capacity, or war lock for sustain. I don’t consider lich because magicka regen doesn’t work while in mist form.

Food: witch mother.

Skills:
Restro+ice:Jurvold’s guidance
Restro: ward ally, spell symmetry, mist form, twilight matriarch, aegis, barrier.
Ice: hardened ward, dampen magic, mage light, twilight matriarch, aegis, overload.
Overload: inner fire, hardened ward, twilight matriarch, restraining prison, aegis.

Duel ice: Destruction mastery/Jorvuld’s guidance
Main: inner fire, dark deal, mist form, twilight matriarch, aegis, barrier
Off: hardened ward, dampen magic, mage light, twilight matriarch, aegis, meteor.
(... To be continued)(need to wait until they reverse LVL1 Vampire in PTS.)