What's wrong with my tank?

JDW

My character is a Nord Dragonknight and is currently standing at 15.8k health, 17.9k stamina and 12.2k magic (that's unbuffed and without any armour on). I've got my attribute points as 20 Magicka, 10 health, and 34 stamina and I'm using my 310 champion points using alcastthq's tank calculator. I use sword & board on both slots.

I've got rubbish armor but it's all 160cp, I'm wearing heavy shoulders/helmet/waist and the rest is medium and my stats wearing all this is 13k magic, 20k health, 20k stam.

The reason I'm even wearing medium is that I accidentally got rid of my armor by dismantling and now I'm just waiting on the completion of quests and dungeon runs to get some heavy armor back.

What can I do to help me survive in PvE, as I've been struggling to complete some side quests and the main quest is almost impossible unless I've got companions, and I doubt I'd be a very good tank in dungeons so I'm holding off on that.

Even though I'm 320cp, I'm still very much a noob, I spent most of my time on my healer sorcerer, just doing side quests/dungeons and stuff and found it to be quite easy because I've got a pet that can take the damage for me but now that I don't have a pet I'm really noticing my weaknesses in combat. I also have never really used buffs apart from the free daily rewards you get, I'm working on building up my crafting stats but they're low still.

Any tips/suggestions would be most welcome!

Xerge

you are misguided, I believe. There is no such thing as a tank in solo pve content.

I would head straight your faction's main city and respec your character



*you need to gear/build your character for dmg while doing solo content. Not sword/board tank. There are end game builds that let tanks do fun dmg stuff, but that's likely out of your league.
*Always have a food/drink buff -- at least an HP buff to around 16-18k while soloing
*You're looking to ballpark 25-30k health to tank reliably.
*I tanked vet. hel ra citadel in plague doctors/fortified brass/imperial warden monster helm.
*The game does not have a system like WOW to choose a role, you will build either a dps or tank character. you can carry dps sets on your tank character if you want.
*im drunk, take all this lightly -- i've accomplished al ot in this game intoxicated, you can too
*you need t o become rich and always have potions. seriously. You need to max alchemcy too ok? popping red potions every 40 ish seconds will make you god.
*you should put points into health, mayb 10pt into stam.
*THis game is really easy, its ok.
*if you want to have easier to questing while being a tank I suggest you carry a MAG dps set. Believe it or not DK tanks translate well into MAG dk. I use an addon to equip false-god/julianious/iceheart for solo overland on my tank!!

maintaining a main character of tank in eso is more work than averaegr BC as you noticed the solo game becomes more difficult. healers have a similar predicamint

Fennwitty

Join a guild, it's pretty easy to get help with someone to craft full starter sets for you. You might have to provide mats or some cash, CP160 gear takes a lot of materials.

You've got good Stamina, pick up 2-handed weapons or dual wielding. You'll have a nightmare trying to solo quest with double sword-and-board. Not enough damage. You can do one bar with shield one bar with dps weapons.

Always use food. Boosting your attack stat (Stamina for you) also boosts your damage done.

Carry a set of medium armor for soloing if you stay Stamina, and train up the passives. Increases crit, improves stam regen etc. which makes for more damage. Go back to full heavy for normal tanking.

Change enemy aoe colors to something easier to see than the default reddish. Go to Settings>Gameplay and make enemy cues a bright pink or blue. You'll feel like you just became psychic with how much easier it is to dodge attacks. https://help.elderscrollsonline.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/22870/~/how-do-i-change-the-color-of-the-combat-cues%3F

If you need more skill points, farm skyshards a while.

IneedaDollar

1. Be careful with any advice here on the forums
2. You need different setups in different content when it comes to eso.
For solo content / overland a tank build doesnt make any sense since a tank build is meant to help your group.
In a group dungeon or trial on the other hand you need a real tank build.
Dressing Room is an addon that can fix a lot of things in this case.
3. Bufffood is a must and on your tanking build you definetly need 5 or more Heavy armor pieces which will boost your Health by a lot.
The Plague Doctor set is also a very good starter set as a tank and will provide you with lots of health aswell. It's a heavy armor set and can be bought at the guild trader.
It's definetly worth the investment.
4. The advice to join a guild was very good.
Try to find a guild that fits your needs with friendly players that will help you to understand the game.
Running dungeons with randoms will not help you to get better and is a frustrating experience.
Take your time to find a good guild with TeamSpeak or Discord where you can talk to people and not just write in chat.
5. It's completely ok to struggle as a beginner.
Everyone did. The important thing is to keep learning.

BejaProphet

As some have noted, becoming a better tank is not really the answer to a better overland experience.

But about the becoming a better tank part...one of the problems is you aren’t a tank at all. Those numbers you stated, particularly the max health, is on the low end of even damage dealers.

I wrote a guide in tanking about two years ago explaining the job of tanking and the principles of building a character that can do that job well. It’s long and the example numbers are pretty dated; but the principles of what a tank should do and what makes that work are still valid and I stand by them to this day. Perhaps it could help you. The link is in my signature.

JDW

Thanks for all your helpful advice guys, I've turned my tank into a stamina dps but now I've decided to concentrate on my main which is a magicka/healer dps type.

Is it valid to be a sorcerer DPS PvE and have a back bar of a restoration staff for heals? Or should I focus my attention on two destruction staffs and not invest any points in restoration?

Fennwitty

If you're in a PUG it can be safer to have the Resto staff available :P

With a dedicated healer(s) in a trial group you probably won't need it.

Lapin_Logic

JDW wrote: »

My character is a Nord Dragonknight and is currently standing at 15.8k health, 17.9k stamina and 12.2k magic (that's unbuffed and without any armour on). I've got my attribute points as 20 Magicka, 10 health, and 34 stamina and I'm using my 310 champion points using alcastthq's tank calculator. I use sword & board on both slots.

I've got rubbish armor but it's all 160cp, I'm wearing heavy shoulders/helmet/waist and the rest is medium and my stats wearing all this is 13k magic, 20k health, 20k stam.

The reason I'm even wearing medium is that I accidentally got rid of my armor by dismantling and now I'm just waiting on the completion of quests and dungeon runs to get some heavy armor back.

What can I do to help me survive in PvE, as I've been struggling to complete some side quests and the main quest is almost impossible unless I've got companions, and I doubt I'd be a very good tank in dungeons so I'm holding off on that.

Even though I'm 320cp, I'm still very much a noob, I spent most of my time on my healer sorcerer, just doing side quests/dungeons and stuff and found it to be quite easy because I've got a pet that can take the damage for me but now that I don't have a pet I'm really noticing my weaknesses in combat. I also have never really used buffs apart from the free daily rewards you get, I'm working on building up my crafting stats but they're low still.

Any tips/suggestions would be most welcome!

Tank in Overland PvE will just make your game experience a Slow nightmare and frustrating as you take 5 minutes to kill a scamp that a DPS build can kill with 1 light attack and 1 force pulse or wrecking blow depending on if you prefer Mag or Stam.

Keep some points into health and use a max Mag and Mag recovery drink (or Stam equivalent for a big stabby boy) for overland then use a tri stat food for when you are tanking after the former set up got you Gold and Gear and Skill points out the wahzu, no respec needed to swap from one setup to the other as long as you have 30k health when tank and 30k mag/stam when overland with 17k health, enchantments and Mundus stones are your friends.