help with DK tank

Malthazar

hello all.
i would like some help in the build of my DK tank. i've being running veteran dungeons for some days and i didn't seem to have that big of a problem, but i don't like how my stamina/magicka are depleted so quickly.
any help would be useful
i'll post a SS i took from my stats so you can see and suggest me any change

https://prnt.sc/mmcp7t

macsmooth

Do you have a food buff for stamina and magicka and tri glyphs would help you but don’t know what sets your running

zvavi

Tri stat food. More dropping block for heavy attacks

xaraan

Part of the "fun" of tanking is managing resources, so make sure you aren't over spamming anything by trying anything 'dps-like' with weaving or over using a skill.

Hard to know exactly what to say without knowing more of your build and gear, but like Zvavi said, Tri stat food is a good start, definitely use that. I usually don't run Lord on my tanks and prefer the Atro stone for magic regen, but that's a personal preference. And as Zvavi said, working in heavy attacks when you can to keep your stam up and even dropping block when you know nothing hardcore is hitting you so you don't waste stamina.

edit: also in addition to tri stat food, make sure you are using tri-stat potions as well and not just regular health or other single stat potions.

paulychan

Resource management is key. Boosting MR is as well.

Malthazar

i'll answer what i can.

1- i took the SS on purpose WITHOUT any buff.

2- i'm using many set parts, most of them give me phisical and spell resistance as 2-3 pieces bonus.

3- my monster set is the one that summon a dwemer sphere that recover 1 of your 3 stats, but i do have the bloodspawn monster set, but i didn't equip it, i was testing the dwemer set.

4- the tri stat food i have is only level 45, since i make them myself, because i'm still leveling provision and i don't have skill points remaining (i'll farm more skyshards later)

5- i have tri stat potion, but only the ones i get for free as daily reward.

6- i tend to spam skills like the root when there's a lot of mobs together to root them so aoe can do it's work.

MartiniDaniels

Well, your build is very different from what is used on "end game" tanking and you are very low CP, so standard recommendations won't work at the moment. About how engame DK looks you may check Alcast site, his builds are beginner friendly:
https://alcasthq.com/eso-stamina-dragonknight-tank-build-pve/

^ but it's for the future. As for now, try using "Jewels of misrule" food, it restores both your stamina and magicka and auto-scales to your level, so you don't need provisioning 50 to prepare it.

https://eu.tamrieltradecentre.com/pc/Trade/SearchResult?ItemID=14749&ItemNamePattern=Recipe:+Jewels+of+Misrule&SortBy=Price&Order=asc

Also if you don't have problems with stamina recovery, try "Orzorga's Red frothgar"

https://eu.tamrieltradecentre.com/pc/Trade/SearchResult?ItemID=6483&ItemNamePattern=Recipe:+Orzorga's+Red+Frothgar&SortBy=Price&Order=asc

And I see a lot of health recovery, which is mostly useless in PVE tanking, because you are normally healed by healer, and in emergency conditions by your skill green dragon blood. So if now you have health recovery jewelry, try replacing enchantments with magicka/stamina recovery glyphs, or block cost reduction enchantments if you like to block a lot.

Malthazar

MartiniDaniels wrote: »

Well, your build is very different from what is used on "end game" tanking and you are very low CP, so standard recommendations won't work at the moment. About how engame DK looks you may check Alcast site, his builds are beginner friendly:
https://alcasthq.com/eso-stamina-dragonknight-tank-build-pve/

^ but it's for the future. As for now, try using "Jewels of misrule" food, it restores both your stamina and magicka and auto-scales to your level, so you don't need provisioning 50 to prepare it.

https://eu.tamrieltradecentre.com/pc/Trade/SearchResult?ItemID=14749&ItemNamePattern=Recipe:+Jewels+of+Misrule&SortBy=Price&Order=asc

Also if you don't have problems with stamina recovery, try "Orzorga's Red frothgar"

https://eu.tamrieltradecentre.com/pc/Trade/SearchResult?ItemID=6483&ItemNamePattern=Recipe:+Orzorga's+Red+Frothgar&SortBy=Price&Order=asc

And I see a lot of health recovery, which is mostly useless in PVE tanking, because you are normally healed by healer, and in emergency conditions by your skill green dragon blood. So if now you have health recovery jewelry, try replacing enchantments with magicka/stamina recovery glyphs, or block cost reduction enchantments if you like to block a lot.

thanks for the tips
well, i'm mostly a PVE tank. i have no idea how to pvp or what skills to have, so for now i'll focus on PVE.
outside dungeons i just go full WW when it get hard, so NP there...

MartiniDaniels

Malthazar wrote: »

MartiniDaniels wrote: »

Well, your build is very different from what is used on "end game" tanking and you are very low CP, so standard recommendations won't work at the moment. About how engame DK looks you may check Alcast site, his builds are beginner friendly:
https://alcasthq.com/eso-stamina-dragonknight-tank-build-pve/

^ but it's for the future. As for now, try using "Jewels of misrule" food, it restores both your stamina and magicka and auto-scales to your level, so you don't need provisioning 50 to prepare it.

https://eu.tamrieltradecentre.com/pc/Trade/SearchResult?ItemID=14749&ItemNamePattern=Recipe:+Jewels+of+Misrule&SortBy=Price&Order=asc

Also if you don't have problems with stamina recovery, try "Orzorga's Red frothgar"

https://eu.tamrieltradecentre.com/pc/Trade/SearchResult?ItemID=6483&ItemNamePattern=Recipe:+Orzorga's+Red+Frothgar&SortBy=Price&Order=asc

And I see a lot of health recovery, which is mostly useless in PVE tanking, because you are normally healed by healer, and in emergency conditions by your skill green dragon blood. So if now you have health recovery jewelry, try replacing enchantments with magicka/stamina recovery glyphs, or block cost reduction enchantments if you like to block a lot.

thanks for the tips
well, i'm mostly a PVE tank. i have no idea how to pvp or what skills to have, so for now i'll focus on PVE.
outside dungeons i just go full WW when it get hard, so NP there...

Welcome to tanking "club" all i wrote is about PVE tanking in dungeons/trials

simeion

Problem I see.

1. no food buff.
2. Wrong Mundus. Tanks are supposed to control the battle field. This requires the use of magic. I dont tank on anything unless I have 1500+ magic recovery. Get the atro mundus. The more magic you can toss out the better you can control.
3. Get rid of Werewolf. Vampire has more useful tanking passives.
4. Spend your CP points when you get them
5. Work on getting to CP300 this maximizes all your stats.
6. Get Lord Warden helm set. I think you would like the resist better.
7. Most of all dont stress about it. Tanking takes time to learn every fight in the game. It helps to have a good healer in the group as a tank, specially when learning.
8. Tanks are worth their weight in gold. Once you become know to players as a tank and your skill increases you get asked to do all sort of things. Take pride on your skill progression, work hard on not relying on a healer, although it is nice to have them.

Malthazar

simeion wrote: »

Problem I see.

1. no food buff.
2. Wrong Mundus. Tanks are supposed to control the battle field. This requires the use of magic. I dont tank on anything unless I have 1500+ magic recovery. Get the atro mundus. The more magic you can toss out the better you can control.
3. Get rid of Werewolf. Vampire has more useful tanking passives.
4. Spend your CP points when you get them
5. Work on getting to CP300 this maximizes all your stats.
6. Get Lord Warden helm set. I think you would like the resist better.
7. Most of all dont stress about it. Tanking takes time to learn every fight in the game. It helps to have a good healer in the group as a tank, specially when learning.
8. Tanks are worth their weight in gold. Once you become know to players as a tank and your skill increases you get asked to do all sort of things. Take pride on your skill progression, work hard on not relying on a healer, although it is nice to have them.

1- i did on purpose because i wanted to see the opinions about my tank stats without any buff to see if there was something wrong.
2- idk where, but i read that the best mundus for dk tank was the lord for the HP bonus.
3- idk if vampire is that good, TBH, i use WW for the fun part, it's just my taste, nothing to do with tanking
4- i'm doing it already, but do you have any good suggestions? i'm spending it increasing my physical resistance, stamina regen and the mage one i don't remember the name.
5- already on it
6- isn't this helm part of a dlc? because my game is totally standart, no DLC or ESO plus.
7- no problem about stress, every MMo i've played i always choose to tank. in WoW i've been a tank for almost 10 years XD
and i'm finding pretty fun to tank in ESO
8- thanks for the tip

Madcap_Symphony

Atro Mundus will help with your magica regen over a little health from the Lord.
Vampire gives 10% magic and stam regen as well as damage reduction at low health, plus frees up an ulti spot over WW.
Note; focus CP on magica regen over stam, you have no stam recovery while blocking, and get back more stam from heavy attacks with S&B already.

commdt

I cant see much from that screen, if you could do superstar with both panels it would be much better. But Ill write down a decent build I run myself.

SETS
First, if you run dungeons, then standard trial build wont work. Specifically, dont use alcosh, as good groups dont run with a healer and bad groups wont give you enough synergies anyway, so it just wont work. Keep it for trials. For dungeons I run Siroria as it gives very much DPS to your group, thus buffing their DPS and making whole content easier. If you dont have an access to Siroria, then you can use Spell power cure or Jorvuld, which are fine too. If you dont have any DLCs at all, you can run Infallible Aether or buy Powerful assault, but both are tricky, as you should use heavy attacks to proc IA and vigor (or caltrops or mana-bomb) for PA
Another (heavy) set would be one of the following: Ebon (if your group need extra survivability), Torug - good universal set for extra uptime on crusher or Dragon for more accessible warhorns. Latter will help you to sustain too, which is good.
As an alternative you can combine 2 of heavy sets, like Ebon + Torug is very cheap and solid choice for beginners
Another option useless for your group but very useful for you if you are struggling for resources is Seducer. It gives you crazy sustain, used it myself while was learning to tank, and it is easily craftable.
If you are up to some trials, then Alcosh is a must as of now. For other set take any of the heavy variants listed
If you use one of the following: Dragon, Jorvuld, Torug, Siroria, SPC, IA, PA (and you most probably would) then you can have full set on just one bar, other bar would be free, so you can put Master or Maelstrom sword and shield on the other bar. Personally I use Master, as it gives you extra healing + some resistance and it is even accessible in base game without DLCs.
For a monster set good choices are Lord warden (for extra defence for you and your group) or Earthgore (for very powerful healing). If you dont have DLCs you can use Bloodspawn or just a combination of parts from sets like 1xPirate skeleton (for extra defence) or 1xShadowrend/1xChokethorn (for mana recovery)

GEAR SETUP
You definitely should develop your Undaunted skill line and take their passives. With them use 5xHeavy + 1xMedium + 1xLight. This way you will get the same HP as with 7xHeavy + Extra mana and stamina, trading just a bit of resistances for it. As for what parts should be light/medium, then there are 3 cases:
1) If you use 2 heavy sets, then the only way to get light/medium is your moster set parts
2) If you use 1 medium or light set then take waist from it, because waists give the less resistances of all parts. then the other weight you can get from one piece of your monster set, which one doesnt matter
3) If you use specifically Torug (or other crafted set like Seducer) then you can get the highest resistanse possible for 5+1+1 with medium gloves and light sash
For weapons I strongly recommend having sword and shield on your main bar and frost staff on your back bar. For a staff invest in the last passive in Destro staff skill line, and only in the last one. There is enother passive which affects Frost staff and gives it very good option, but personally I would not recommend it as it also switches your mana and stamina (you will block for mana and your mana will not regenerate while blocking), that can be tricky. But you can try it also, maybe for you it will work
You can use Electro staff or vMA bow as an alternative on your back bar, but it is for experienced tanks and is not generally needed, frost staff gives you very useful options and is easier to manage

TRAITS
Personally I use sturdy on all armor parts to be ready for emergency situation while you are pressed by a lot of mobs, but it is not really neccessary all the time, so you can try infused on big parts (chest, pants, head and shield) or reinforced on your shield like in good old days
For your Jewelry put Triune on all of them if you have access to it, if you dont, try to keep as many Healthy as possible. You can also try Infused here with say some mana regen enchant
For weapons take both infused if you run dungeons, Ill explain later. For trials youll be better of with Desisive on your sword (main bar)

ENCHANTS
Put prismatic (crafted with Hakeijo) on all your armor. If it is too expensive, use Max health (Oko). If you will combine these, than put prismatic on big parts first (listed above).
For Jewelry combine Shieldplay and Mana regen as you see fit. I would use full Shieldplay on arenas like Dragonstar or Blackrose and full Mana regen on fights like Z'maja (trial), but generally I run 2xShieldplay + 1XMana regen
Weapon enchants in the new patch will be a bit tricky. Now you can put Crusher on your main bar Sword+Shield, but after the patch you will specifically need it on your back bar Frost staff (or other variant). On a main bar for dungeons I personally put Electro enchant on my main bar, running with mag sorc it gives +15% concussion which is really not bad. In trials enchant on main bar doesnt really matter now. You can put Weakening there but personally I dont see much point in it

ATTRIBUTES
Personally I put everything in HP and dont bother, but you can invest sove in mana/stamina, especially if you use Health enchants and dont have Triune trait or if you dont use Tri-stat food. You should aim for at leas 15k Mana/Stamina
Also make sure, that you have slightly more stamina then mana, as in this case using synergy youll get stamina right away and + some extra mana regen, the other way stamina regen dont work while blocking

CHAMPION POINTS
I wont put exact numbers here, Ill just list useful stars with their priority (where 1 being the highest). Put points there as you see fit and dont forget about jump points
Green line:
1. Shadow ward
2. Arcanist, Tenacity, Tumbling
I didnt mention Sprinter, Warlord and Bashing focus even as third priority, because despite useful for a tank these are so situational they are more like a dump stars, so I wouldnt put more than 10 in any.

Red line:
1. Ironclad
2. Thick skinned, Elemental defender, Hardy, Quick recovery, Heavy armor focus, Spell shield
Red line is generally situational, so for different trials you will probably put points in different stars, but for dungeons aim at 66-71 in Ironclad, and number 2 spread evenly (considering your armor cap of 33k! As if you use Torug you probably wont need any points in Spell shield and with Lord warden you wont need Heavy armor focus too)
There is also Bastion. If you feel confident in own defence, you can use it for better defence for your group, for your own defence it will do little to nothing.

Blue line:
1. Blessed
Thats right, other stars wont give anything to you. Elfborn may look useful, but if your green dragon blood crits it will fully heal you anyway. Other points you can put in a second or a third blue line to unlock its ultimate passive (like Last stand)

SKILLS
Now this is the most important part.
Ill list the skills I use personally by bars with some description. Then Il list some variants

Main:
1. Pierce armor. Cheap and usefull taunt, also puts major fracture/breach on target and procs enchants
2. Igneous shield. Puts damage shield on your and your allies, gives you major mending and also procs Helping hands which return you stamina at a cost of mana. Brilliant
3. Chocking talons/Low slash - both put minor maim on your target/targets. Talons also keep mobs at place, so I prefer to use them on trash and they give a sinergy to your allies too. Low slash is for boss fights, especially trials (where you can give multiple warhorns in a single fight) as it gives you extra ultimate
4. Green dragon blood. Self heal which scales with your HP
5. Many options here, Ill list them separately:
a) Efficient purge (for purging and passive mana regen)
b) Reflective plate (for removing slowness from you where it is present)
c) Absorb magicka (I use it only as a main tank in vetMOL for absorbing Barrage)
d) Guard (PvP skill can still be used in vHOF HM, but sees less use now)
e) Engulfing flames (gives huge bonus to fire damage for the whole party, should be always present, but I usually use it on a back bar, put it on main bar in some fights where bar swapping is hard)
f) Shield charge - when you need to charge for your target (vHOF last boss for main tank, vCoS 2nd boss)

Ultimate: Barrier (for passive mana regen) / Magma armor (where you need to survive in very nasty situations)

Off bar:
1. Inner rage - ranged taunt, useful in any fight
2. Unrelenting grip - use to stack mobs in one place, you can also get a speed buff from it
3. Elemental blockade. Use it constantly to proc your back bar enchant (and Olorime if you use it). It will be the only way to uptime full Crusher in the next patch. So with Siroria have a full set on this bar
4. Volatile armor / Balance - both give you major resolve/ward, in the same time Balancealso gives you free magicka at the cost of some health and debuff which reduces your healing done. Although tricky, Id strongly recomment get used to Balance as it is very powerful skill
5. Many other options here, Ill list them separately:
a) Engulfing flames (explained above)
b) Guard (explained above) - you need the skill on both bars for it to work
c) Energy orbs - for resources + some heal for you allies (if you dont have a healer)
d) Altar (Undaunted) - good for proccing Siroria/SPC and some extra heal for your party, used mainly by offtank in trials
e) Vigor/Mana bomb - for proccing Powerful assault, so have a full set on this bar
f) Elemental drain - for some fights when you dont have a healer
g) Crushing shock - For some fights where you need to bash ranged targets
h) Deep breath - for some fights where you need to bash multiple targets (trilas mostly)

Ultimate: Aggressive warhorn, period. You should use it all the time for extra group DPS. If you use Jorvuld or Dragon, have a full set on this bar

OTHER
For food you can use either 3-stat food (best used with Balance skill) or Red Orzoga (if without Balance)
For mundus Atronach is a must if you dont use Balance. If you do it is good too, but there are some options like max HP or resistances if you do need it for some reason
Also as already was mentioned go for vampire as it is +10% free mana regen

Well, I hope I didnt miss much. Ask if there are questions left

Malthazar

commdt wrote: »

I cant see much from that screen, if you could do superstar with both panels it would be much better. But Ill write down a decent build I run myself.

SETS
First, if you run dungeons, then standard trial build wont work. Specifically, dont use alcosh, as good groups dont run with a healer and bad groups wont give you enough synergies anyway, so it just wont work. Keep it for trials. For dungeons I run Siroria as it gives very much DPS to your group, thus buffing their DPS and making whole content easier. If you dont have an access to Siroria, then you can use Spell power cure or Jorvuld, which are fine too. If you dont have any DLCs at all, you can run Infallible Aether or buy Powerful assault, but both are tricky, as you should use heavy attacks to proc IA and vigor (or caltrops or mana-bomb) for PA
Another (heavy) set would be one of the following: Ebon (if your group need extra survivability), Torug - good universal set for extra uptime on crusher or Dragon for more accessible warhorns. Latter will help you to sustain too, which is good.
As an alternative you can combine 2 of heavy sets, like Ebon + Torug is very cheap and solid choice for beginners
Another option useless for your group but very useful for you if you are struggling for resources is Seducer. It gives you crazy sustain, used it myself while was learning to tank, and it is easily craftable.
If you are up to some trials, then Alcosh is a must as of now. For other set take any of the heavy variants listed
If you use one of the following: Dragon, Jorvuld, Torug, Siroria, SPC, IA, PA (and you most probably would) then you can have full set on just one bar, other bar would be free, so you can put Master or Maelstrom sword and shield on the other bar. Personally I use Master, as it gives you extra healing + some resistance and it is even accessible in base game without DLCs.
For a monster set good choices are Lord warden (for extra defence for you and your group) or Earthgore (for very powerful healing). If you dont have DLCs you can use Bloodspawn or just a combination of parts from sets like 1xPirate skeleton (for extra defence) or 1xShadowrend/1xChokethorn (for mana recovery)

GEAR SETUP
You definitely should develop your Undaunted skill line and take their passives. With them use 5xHeavy + 1xMedium + 1xLight. This way you will get the same HP as with 7xHeavy + Extra mana and stamina, trading just a bit of resistances for it. As for what parts should be light/medium, then there are 3 cases:
1) If you use 2 heavy sets, then the only way to get light/medium is your moster set parts
2) If you use 1 medium or light set then take waist from it, because waists give the less resistances of all parts. then the other weight you can get from one piece of your monster set, which one doesnt matter
3) If you use specifically Torug (or other crafted set like Seducer) then you can get the highest resistanse possible for 5+1+1 with medium gloves and light sash
For weapons I strongly recommend having sword and shield on your main bar and frost staff on your back bar. For a staff invest in the last passive in Destro staff skill line, and only in the last one. There is enother passive which affects Frost staff and gives it very good option, but personally I would not recommend it as it also switches your mana and stamina (you will block for mana and your mana will not regenerate while blocking), that can be tricky. But you can try it also, maybe for you it will work
You can use Electro staff or vMA bow as an alternative on your back bar, but it is for experienced tanks and is not generally needed, frost staff gives you very useful options and is easier to manage

TRAITS
Personally I use sturdy on all armor parts to be ready for emergency situation while you are pressed by a lot of mobs, but it is not really neccessary all the time, so you can try infused on big parts (chest, pants, head and shield) or reinforced on your shield like in good old days
For your Jewelry put Triune on all of them if you have access to it, if you dont, try to keep as many Healthy as possible. You can also try Infused here with say some mana regen enchant
For weapons take both infused if you run dungeons, Ill explain later. For trials youll be better of with Desisive on your sword (main bar)

ENCHANTS
Put prismatic (crafted with Hakeijo) on all your armor. If it is too expensive, use Max health (Oko). If you will combine these, than put prismatic on big parts first (listed above).
For Jewelry combine Shieldplay and Mana regen as you see fit. I would use full Shieldplay on arenas like Dragonstar or Blackrose and full Mana regen on fights like Z'maja (trial), but generally I run 2xShieldplay + 1XMana regen
Weapon enchants in the new patch will be a bit tricky. Now you can put Crusher on your main bar Sword+Shield, but after the patch you will specifically need it on your back bar Frost staff (or other variant). On a main bar for dungeons I personally put Electro enchant on my main bar, running with mag sorc it gives +15% concussion which is really not bad. In trials enchant on main bar doesnt really matter now. You can put Weakening there but personally I dont see much point in it

ATTRIBUTES
Personally I put everything in HP and dont bother, but you can invest sove in mana/stamina, especially if you use Health enchants and dont have Triune trait or if you dont use Tri-stat food. You should aim for at leas 15k Mana/Stamina
Also make sure, that you have slightly more stamina then mana, as in this case using synergy youll get stamina right away and + some extra mana regen, the other way stamina regen dont work while blocking

CHAMPION POINTS
I wont put exact numbers here, Ill just list useful stars with their priority (where 1 being the highest). Put points there as you see fit and dont forget about jump points
Green line:
1. Shadow ward
2. Arcanist, Tenacity, Tumbling
I didnt mention Sprinter, Warlord and Bashing focus even as third priority, because despite useful for a tank these are so situational they are more like a dump stars, so I wouldnt put more than 10 in any.

Red line:
1. Ironclad
2. Thick skinned, Elemental defender, Hardy, Quick recovery, Heavy armor focus, Spell shield
Red line is generally situational, so for different trials you will probably put points in different stars, but for dungeons aim at 66-71 in Ironclad, and number 2 spread evenly (considering your armor cap of 33k! As if you use Torug you probably wont need any points in Spell shield and with Lord warden you wont need Heavy armor focus too)
There is also Bastion. If you feel confident in own defence, you can use it for better defence for your group, for your own defence it will do little to nothing.

Blue line:
1. Blessed
Thats right, other stars wont give anything to you. Elfborn may look useful, but if your green dragon blood crits it will fully heal you anyway. Other points you can put in a second or a third blue line to unlock its ultimate passive (like Last stand)

SKILLS
Now this is the most important part.
Ill list the skills I use personally by bars with some description. Then Il list some variants

Main:
1. Pierce armor. Cheap and usefull taunt, also puts major fracture/breach on target and procs enchants
2. Igneous shield. Puts damage shield on your and your allies, gives you major mending and also procs Helping hands which return you stamina at a cost of mana. Brilliant
3. Chocking talons/Low slash - both put minor maim on your target/targets. Talons also keep mobs at place, so I prefer to use them on trash and they give a sinergy to your allies too. Low slash is for boss fights, especially trials (where you can give multiple warhorns in a single fight) as it gives you extra ultimate
4. Green dragon blood. Self heal which scales with your HP
5. Many options here, Ill list them separately:
a) Efficient purge (for purging and passive mana regen)
b) Reflective plate (for removing slowness from you where it is present)
c) Absorb magicka (I use it only as a main tank in vetMOL for absorbing Barrage)
d) Guard (PvP skill can still be used in vHOF HM, but sees less use now)
e) Engulfing flames (gives huge bonus to fire damage for the whole party, should be always present, but I usually use it on a back bar, put it on main bar in some fights where bar swapping is hard)
f) Shield charge - when you need to charge for your target (vHOF last boss for main tank, vCoS 2nd boss)

Ultimate: Barrier (for passive mana regen) / Magma armor (where you need to survive in very nasty situations)

Off bar:
1. Inner rage - ranged taunt, useful in any fight
2. Unrelenting grip - use to stack mobs in one place, you can also get a speed buff from it
3. Elemental blockade. Use it constantly to proc your back bar enchant (and Olorime if you use it). It will be the only way to uptime full Crusher in the next patch. So with Siroria have a full set on this bar
4. Volatile armor / Balance - both give you major resolve/ward, in the same time Balancealso gives you free magicka at the cost of some health and debuff which reduces your healing done. Although tricky, Id strongly recomment get used to Balance as it is very powerful skill
5. Many other options here, Ill list them separately:
a) Engulfing flames (explained above)
b) Guard (explained above) - you need the skill on both bars for it to work
c) Energy orbs - for resources + some heal for you allies (if you dont have a healer)
d) Altar (Undaunted) - good for proccing Siroria/SPC and some extra heal for your party, used mainly by offtank in trials
e) Vigor/Mana bomb - for proccing Powerful assault, so have a full set on this bar
f) Elemental drain - for some fights when you dont have a healer
g) Crushing shock - For some fights where you need to bash ranged targets
h) Deep breath - for some fights where you need to bash multiple targets (trilas mostly)

Ultimate: Aggressive warhorn, period. You should use it all the time for extra group DPS. If you use Jorvuld or Dragon, have a full set on this bar

OTHER
For food you can use either 3-stat food (best used with Balance skill) or Red Orzoga (if without Balance)
For mundus Atronach is a must if you dont use Balance. If you do it is good too, but there are some options like max HP or resistances if you do need it for some reason
Also as already was mentioned go for vampire as it is +10% free mana regen

Well, I hope I didnt miss much. Ask if there are questions left

i could understand most of it.
but i have only some questions.

1- i'm using the champion of the hist set now, because with 5 pieces i get 1 ultimate every 1.5 seconds during combat, making easier to fill my ultimate slot, idk, it seems good.

2- what is the use of both bars? i mean, i can change them during combat, sure, but if so, why should i use anything if not sword and shield? won't it hinder me? like the frost staff

3- i'm using the 1 hand + shield ultimate that allows me to block everything during 6 seconds with no stamina cost, i used magma armor, it's good, but idk, the sword and shield ultimate seems good as well.

there's so many skills that seems so useful, but too little space to put them that it makes me confused on what is better.
i know that i can play however i want, but in veteran dungeons i don't want to hinder the group XD

Madcap_Symphony

1- Using Heroic Slash from sword and board already gives you minor heroism so Champion of the Hist does nothing. If you want ulti sets go for Akaviri Dragonguard for a lower ulti cost, or Hide of the Werewolf for ulti gen.

2- Currently running double S&B is fine, but come the changes on the 25th you are going to want a staff backbar to fully proc your Crusher enchant.

3- The S&B ulti has a slight bug with it that can get you killed, when it wears out you can’t be already blocking or else you are holding block then the block drops because the ability ends and your not blocking even though your holding it. You have to wait on the animation to end before blocking again, and this can get you killed by boss 1shots if timed wrong. There are 2 better defensive ultimates as Commdt stated.

The PvP ulti Barrier is a good ulti to run because it’s a large overshield for you and nearby party members, plus as mentioned it gives 10% mana regen while slotted if you unlock the passive.

And Magma Armor, Incoming damage is reduced to 3% of your max health and close allies get a full health damage shield.