Imperial Dragonknight Tank

ACamaroGuy

I'm a CP 1394 imperial Dragonknight tank. I only play PvE with him. I've only been tanking approximately 3 months now. You can say I'm definitely new at this. Can you all tell me if my stats are good enough to do veteran trials?
• Monster set - Mighty Chudan
• Armor - Letching
• Weapons and jewelry - Almalexia's Mercy
• Sword and board, sword is infused with stamina absorb
• Lightning staff back bar - infused with absorb Magicka
• ALL armor pieces are in sturdy
• ALL armor pieces have the stamina glyph
• All jewelery is infused with tri-stat
• Every piece is gold except the purple jewelery
• Health points - 43
• Stamina points - 21
ALL STATS ARE NOT BUFFED
• Max magicka 13301 / 1000 (recovery)
• Max health 35371 / 3052 (recovery)
• Max stamina. 26945 / 1000 (recovery)
• Spell resistance - 35986
• Physical resistance - 32686

Ratzkifal

You should look into getting some different sets, for example nonperfect Yolnahkriin from normal Sunspire which your setup should be good enough for already. If you are the offtank in vet trials and get Livewire, you should use a frost staff instead of a lightning staff because Livewire will be your source for Concussion. Akaviri Dragonguard for more Warhorns is also a good option. Those are some easy to get tank sets.
Leeching Plate is a crutch that does not benefit your trial group, so you should learn to tank without it because in most cases you won't be able to wear it. Being a tank in trials means supporting your group. Simply staying alive is often not enough, so a set that only benefits yourself isn't a good choice. It's a similar deal with Almalexia's Mercy only that you can rely on your healers keeping everyone else healed up, so you do not need it.
If you can, try lowering your spell resistance and get something else for it. Beyond 33k there is no point to go further (in PvE) because the extra resistance doesn't really do anything. If you can't then it's not a big deal.

All in all it looks good.

ACamaroGuy

Ratzkifal wrote: »

You should look into getting some different sets, for example nonperfect Yolnahkriin from normal Sunspire which your setup should be good enough for already. If you are the offtank in vet trials and get Livewire, you should use a frost staff instead of a lightning staff because Livewire will be your source for Concussion. Akaviri Dragonguard for more Warhorns is also a good option. Those are some easy to get tank sets.
Leeching Plate is a crutch that does not benefit your trial group, so you should learn to tank without it because in most cases you won't be able to wear it. Being a tank in trials means supporting your group. Simply staying alive is often not enough, so a set that only benefits yourself isn't a good choice. It's a similar deal with Almalexia's Mercy only that you can rely on your healers keeping everyone else healed up, so you do not need it.
If you can, try lowering your spell resistance and get something else for it. Beyond 33k there is no point to go further (in PvE) because the extra resistance doesn't really do anything. If you can't then it's not a big deal.

All in all it looks good.

Should I switch out Letching for Brands of Imperium until I can get something better? Should I ditch Mighty Chudan for Stonekeeper? That will lower my resistances some. Thank you for your input.

deleted221106-002999

Your trial leader would be the best player to advise on specifics on builds required for specific trials with your guild(s).

That said, a couple of suggestions to consider:

• chudan provides a buff your dk skills replicate so consider something else
• letching is ...leaching plate? if so, no.
• optionally decisive trait on the 1-hand weapon
• consider legs, head and chest infused trait with tristat glyphs
• perhaps replace lightning staff with frost staff for minor brittle; infused trait with crusher glyph.

Good enough vet dungeon pug tank, though, as is with very high self-sufficiency which is generally not needed in trials as your group, particularly healers, will be providing you with plenty of resources/synergies.

tank club is one of many tanking information sources you may find of some interest.

Grandchamp1989

Your setup is fine for dungeons and none-score pushing arena's.

For Trials and and Arena score pushing you'll have to look into none selfish sets.

Yolna, Galanwe, Alkosh, Tremoscale, Encratis, PA etc.

AyaDark

ACamaroGuy wrote: »

I'm a CP 1394 imperial Dragonknight tank. I only play PvE with him. I've only been tanking approximately 3 months now. You can say I'm definitely new at this. Can you all tell me if my stats are good enough to do veteran trials?
• Monster set - Mighty Chudan
• Armor - Letching
• Weapons and jewelry - Almalexia's Mercy
• Sword and board, sword is infused with stamina absorb
• Lightning staff back bar - infused with absorb Magicka
• ALL armor pieces are in sturdy
• ALL armor pieces have the stamina glyph
• All jewelery is infused with tri-stat
• Every piece is gold except the purple jewelery
• Health points - 43
• Stamina points - 21
ALL STATS ARE NOT BUFFED
• Max magicka 13301 / 1000 (recovery)
• Max health 35371 / 3052 (recovery)
• Max stamina. 26945 / 1000 (recovery)
• Spell resistance - 35986
• Physical resistance - 32686

33100 do resist work to negate damage - more than hat do not work, so it is all OK.

Mighty Chudan is not good and it is good to change it on balance skill from mage guild as example.

Sword can be defending - Glypghs on 1 H weapons are to bad even with infused (can take poisons as example)

I use Thurvokun monster set + Leeching + serodill crest main bar, perfect 1 j and shield from DSA back bar.

Do not listen about score runs - your sets are good.

If you would be in such good group that you will see than you need not healing - you will take support sets - and your group help you to farm it.

If it is trash groups - do not even care about their opinion - your sets are perfect.

But i like Not Almalexia may be Cyrodil Crest or healing overland set on ground aoe from back bar more (winters respite) with frost staff.

But i like to play 2 shields more

Almalexia is very good to, but i affraid it wil not be good next update with fixes - it scelse from resources in next update ?
So need to wait live version of it.

When it wasbuged and hela 3 times more it was god like set

Septimus_Magna

AyaDark wrote: »

Do not listen about score runs - your sets are good.

The sets only benefit 1 player, its fine for PUGs but for veteran trails you dont want to be selfish and you need to trust your group members.

There is literally no reason not to run Yoln on the main tank, it has good 2,3,4pc bonuses and the 5pc bonus buffs the entire group while applying taunt. If the healers do their job you dont need two sets 5pc bonuses for self-healing, its just wasted potential.

Chudan gives a common major buff which you can get from Balance (also restores magicka) or Hardened Armor on a DK. So my advice would be to slot something to help sustain or eventually increase the group dps (Encratis/Tremorscale). Even for starting tanks its always possible to wear sets that benefit tanking and help the group, like Ebon, Worm or even Drake's Rush.

Starlight_Whisper

Septimus_Magna wrote: »

AyaDark wrote: »

Do not listen about score runs - your sets are good.

The sets only benefit 1 player, its fine for PUGs but for veteran trails you dont want to be selfish and you need to trust your group members.

There is literally no reason not to run Yoln on the main tank, it has good 2,3,4pc bonuses and the 5pc bonus buffs the entire group while applying taunt. If the healers do their job you dont need two sets 5pc bonuses for self-healing, its just wasted potential.

Chudan gives a common major buff which you can get from Balance (also restores magicka) or Hardened Armor on a DK. So my advice would be to slot something to help sustain or eventually increase the group dps (Encratis/Tremorscale). Even for starting tanks its always possible to wear sets that benefit tanking and help the group, like Ebon, Worm or even Drake's Rush.

So sad that tanks are being called selfish...this is why queue is long

Septimus_Magna

Starlight_Whisper wrote: »

Septimus_Magna wrote: »

AyaDark wrote: »

Do not listen about score runs - your sets are good.

The sets only benefit 1 player, its fine for PUGs but for veteran trails you dont want to be selfish and you need to trust your group members.

There is literally no reason not to run Yoln on the main tank, it has good 2,3,4pc bonuses and the 5pc bonus buffs the entire group while applying taunt. If the healers do their job you dont need two sets 5pc bonuses for self-healing, its just wasted potential.

Chudan gives a common major buff which you can get from Balance (also restores magicka) or Hardened Armor on a DK. So my advice would be to slot something to help sustain or eventually increase the group dps (Encratis/Tremorscale). Even for starting tanks its always possible to wear sets that benefit tanking and help the group, like Ebon, Worm or even Drake's Rush.

So sad that tanks are being called selfish...this is why queue is long

We're not talking about PUGs, its fine to run whatever sets you like because you never know what group members you will get.

In regards to veteran trails you have to rely on group mates, how is a tank going to out-heal two dedicated healers? It makes no sense so you're better off supporting the group with extra health, mag regen, minor courage etc.

Tank is a support role, support means not-selfish. Your sets as a veteran trail tank should reflect that because if you only support yourself you're not supporting 92% of the group.

josiahva

I would not attempt any vet trial with those sets(aside from maybe vHRC).

Chudan is situationally useful in places where you would rather not spend the magicka to buff resistances with your class armor skills...but it should never be a default set. The only time you should use it in a trial is when you have no choice....in 4-man content its a lot more useful.

Same for Leeching Plate...situationally useful but your use of that set should be restricted to 4-man content where you are simply not getting enough heals otherwise.

If you are going to wear a set like Amalexia's Mercy, you are better off with Battalion Defender instead....neither set is a good choice for trials though...that's the healer's job generally. In some 4-man content healing sets like that come in handy...I use Battalion Defender+Redistributor myself in vBRP(some arenas) when running 3 DPS....as well as 3 DPS runs for some vet DLC dungeons.

Since you are starting out you will simply not have a lot of the sets that people will go on about here(Yoln, Alkosh, etc...even getting through a normal trial for those as a tank is not fun if you don't have a guild...pugging them in craglorn is a nightmare as a tank for the first few times since you simply don't know the fights well enough and everyone will yell at you...rather toxic)

With that in mind...you need to do the normal trials first...and for that you still want better sets. So sets you should be able to farm fairly easily outside trials(or craft) that will help you out:

Ebon(I am not a fan of this set myself, but its an ok starting point if you have nothing else).
Imperium(This set is underrated, but its pretty awesome if you have it backbar and you can learn to proc it reliably by swapping bars. Normally you want to pair this with a Master Sword/Shield front bar from nDSA)
Torugs Pact(Craftable, still useful backbar even after all this time assuming a staff on the backbar, front bar you can use some 2 piece set that helps...one of the arena sets, or even something like Trainee for max stats)
Fortified Brass(Not much use to the group, but does buff your armor up if you are having trouble hitting cap...its acceptable to run one selfish set if you pair it with one non-selfish set)
Powerful Assault(can get this in IC with tel-var, its a decent group-buff set but requires the use of assault skills...war horn will proc it of course, but if you use this set you are going to want to slot Vigor to proc it reliably(or caltrops I suppose)
Dragon's Defilement(you can get this from lair of marselok...not a great group support set, but its ok, I like this one for times when I need extra resources but still want to run mild support)
Grave Gaurdian(will buff the resistances of you and all near party members while you block)
Mighty Glacier(another defense buffing set for the group)


None of these sets are ideal...but they are all easily accessible to you until you farm normal trials for non perfected versions of the actual gear you want....and they are all situationally useful.

Monster helms:

Symphony of Blades
Bloodspawn
Lord Warden
Tremorscale

Milchbart

Starlight_Whisper wrote: »

Septimus_Magna wrote: »

AyaDark wrote: »

Do not listen about score runs - your sets are good.

The sets only benefit 1 player, its fine for PUGs but for veteran trails you dont want to be selfish and you need to trust your group members.

There is literally no reason not to run Yoln on the main tank, it has good 2,3,4pc bonuses and the 5pc bonus buffs the entire group while applying taunt. If the healers do their job you dont need two sets 5pc bonuses for self-healing, its just wasted potential.

Chudan gives a common major buff which you can get from Balance (also restores magicka) or Hardened Armor on a DK. So my advice would be to slot something to help sustain or eventually increase the group dps (Encratis/Tremorscale). Even for starting tanks its always possible to wear sets that benefit tanking and help the group, like Ebon, Worm or even Drake's Rush.

So sad that tanks are being called selfish...this is why queue is long

There is no queue for vet trials.
He asked if his gear is good for vet trials ...

AyaDark

Septimus_Magna wrote: »

AyaDark wrote: »

Do not listen about score runs - your sets are good.

The sets only benefit 1 player, its fine for PUGs but for veteran trails you dont want to be selfish and you need to trust your group members.

There is literally no reason not to run Yoln on the main tank, it has good 2,3,4pc bonuses and the 5pc bonus buffs the entire group while applying taunt. If the healers do their job you dont need two sets 5pc bonuses for self-healing, its just wasted potential.

Chudan gives a common major buff which you can get from Balance (also restores magicka) or Hardened Armor on a DK. So my advice would be to slot something to help sustain or eventually increase the group dps (Encratis/Tremorscale). Even for starting tanks its always possible to wear sets that benefit tanking and help the group, like Ebon, Worm or even Drake's Rush.

Really bad advice.

You need not trust you group members it is bad idea.

If you see they do their work good, than you can chage sets on some more support.

Trust is silly, observe is good.

If tank put ebon and etc - "if it is noob in party, noob in party with 1 k more HP is the same noob and it will not help at all"

If party already is not exp - it is better to have living tank, than dead tank and noobs with 1 k more hp and etc.

BejaProphet

@josiahva

Torug is not a good choice for a tank to only backbar while using an arena set in front.

If you use blockade for example on a 5 Torug back bar, then you swap to 3 Torug front bar, it will not continue proc’ing at Torug values.

Therefore if you are going to use Torug, it needs to be the one which has 5 pieces on both bars.

BejaProphet

@ACamaroGuy

One thing to always keep in mind when discussing what is “good” for a tank is that trials are not a natural progression for a tank.

We do not get so tough for dungeons then a “notch higher” for trials. Trials fundamentally change what is most important in a tank.

This has two causes. First, in a trial you have four times as many damage dealers. This means that your ability to boost the team’s damage is dramatically more important because it is dramatically more powerful. Second, you have two healers fully dedicated to healing and boosting sustain. In dungeons you have one healer who is quite often not fully focused on healing. This means what it takes for you to survive often is LESS than what it takes when random grouping vet DLC’s.

The great irony then, is that as you move into vet trials it actually becomes LESS about you being a tank and MORE about boosting the other roles. You of course still tank the creatures. But excellence in trial tanking is often about maximizing how many buffs you give, and the ratio of time you keep them active.

This is why many are critiquing your sets. They fail to buff the group. Conversely this is why many are affirming your sets, because your sets will make you really stable at tanking and they are thinking about actual tanking rather than the unique situation of trials.

But if you are asking specifically for trials, then the demand is not for you to be a better tank, the demand rather is for you to boost the inflated roster of damage dealers.

Septimus_Magna

AyaDark wrote: »

Septimus_Magna wrote: »

AyaDark wrote: »

Do not listen about score runs - your sets are good.

The sets only benefit 1 player, its fine for PUGs but for veteran trails you dont want to be selfish and you need to trust your group members.

There is literally no reason not to run Yoln on the main tank, it has good 2,3,4pc bonuses and the 5pc bonus buffs the entire group while applying taunt. If the healers do their job you dont need two sets 5pc bonuses for self-healing, its just wasted potential.

Chudan gives a common major buff which you can get from Balance (also restores magicka) or Hardened Armor on a DK. So my advice would be to slot something to help sustain or eventually increase the group dps (Encratis/Tremorscale). Even for starting tanks its always possible to wear sets that benefit tanking and help the group, like Ebon, Worm or even Drake's Rush.

Really bad advice.

You need not trust you group members it is bad idea.

If you see they do their work good, than you can chage sets on some more support.

Trust is silly, observe is good.

If tank put ebon and etc - "if it is noob in party, noob in party with 1 k more HP is the same noob and it will not help at all"

If party already is not exp - it is better to have living tank, than dead tank and noobs with 1 k more hp and etc.

The small leeching heals will mean nothing compared to 2 healers with strong heals so I dont agree these sets significantly improve survivability in veteran trails. Maybe if you wear something like Plague I can understand the argument.

Ebon is not my favorite set after CP2.0 but at least you support yourself and others while wearing it. 1k health for 12 players is a 5pc bonus thats worth 12k, thats better than small heals just for the tank.

As tank you're in an unique position to bring group buffs that are otherwise unavailable to the group, let other people worry about healing and try to bring as much benefit to your group.

A dead tank helps nobody, I agree with that but if you die because you didnt get small HOTs from you sets its on the healers. For starting tanks sustain might be tough depending on the class and race so its perfectly fine to wear a monster set like Engine Guardian to improve sustain. If you want better self healing you can use master S&B on the front bar and backbar Powerful Assault for example. Enough options to help the group, improve sustain and self-healing without sacrificing a 5pc set to do so.

DDs trust their healers to keep them alive, why wouldnt tanks trust them?

pelle412

Ignore all these people who say your setup is fine. If you want to tank veteran trials, you need to have a mindset of a team player. You're not a single player only responsible for you alone. As part of a 12 person group, you all work together for a common goal and that is to beat the content. If you are unable to sustain or survive without your setup now, then you need more practice before heading into veteran trials.

It is a very nice experience to work together as a big group. You do make a lot of good friends this way and you get better as a player at the same time.

Gandamir

ACamaroGuy wrote: »

I'm a CP 1394 imperial Dragonknight tank. I only play PvE with him. I've only been tanking approximately 3 months now. You can say I'm definitely new at this. Can you all tell me if my stats are good enough to do veteran trials?

Which server are you on? If you are on the EU server, look me up in game ( @Gandamir ) and I will get you into our PvE social guild where we have lots of solid tanks that can help you with coaching and build tips.

ACamaroGuy

Gandamir wrote: »

ACamaroGuy wrote: »

I'm a CP 1394 imperial Dragonknight tank. I only play PvE with him. I've only been tanking approximately 3 months now. You can say I'm definitely new at this. Can you all tell me if my stats are good enough to do veteran trials?

Which server are you on? If you are on the EU server, look me up in game ( @Gandamir ) and I will get you into our PvE social guild where we have lots of solid tanks that can help you with coaching and build tips.

Xbox NA

Ceejengine

Everyone hates on Leeching and usually it's stupid and wrong but in vet trials you're going to need to swap it out.

Vet trials are glorified DPS checks. Your healers will keep you alive with just your basic class skills.

Almalexia's mercy is objectively worse than Battalion Defender.

Lightning staff is a good choice. Concussed increases group damage.

The easiest setup for you to obtain is

Yolnahkriin 5pc body - normal sunspire
Battalion Defender Weapons + Jewels - guild store
Tremorscale monster set full - Volenfel / Glirion pledge guy

With the above set up, you massively increase group damage on your taunt.

1.) From Yol, you grant minor courage, which increases everyone's weapon + spell damage by +215.
2.) From Tremorscale, you shred their physical resistance, increasing stam char's DPS.

Battalion Defender is generally cheap & easy to obtain and heals for a good amount every time you block.

Ultimately you will want to replace Tremorscale with Encratis Behemoth. But tremorscale is very easily attainable and is a great starting point for you.

Encratis' Behemoth is top notch because fire staves are the meta. Mag DPS is more successful in vet trials due to the ability to both avoid mechanics and maintain damage on the boss.

You can also shoot for Lord Warden, which is an AoE group bonus to resistances. It's about the same difficulty to get ahold of as Encratis.

El_Borracho

Leeching is better for dungeons. Crimson is better than Leeching, and while I've seen it run in trials, its also better suited for dungeons.

As others have said, Yolna is the primary trials tank set. I like pairing it with Mighty Glacier or Vrol's Command. However, Powerful Assault has become the popular set in PVE tanking

josiahva

El_Borracho wrote: »

Leeching is better for dungeons. Crimson is better than Leeching, and while I've seen it run in trials, its also better suited for dungeons.

As others have said, Yolna is the primary trials tank set. I like pairing it with Mighty Glacier or Vrol's Command. However, Powerful Assault has become the popular set in PVE tanking

Crimson is not better than Leeching...sure, it heals for more, but the heals are further apart, which can make a big difference...better to get slightly smaller heals constantly than slightly bigger heals 5 seconds apart or whatever Crimson is....you can take a lot of damage in 5 seconds depending on what you are doing.

BejaProphet wrote: »

@josiahva

Torug is not a good choice for a tank to only backbar while using an arena set in front.

If you use blockade for example on a 5 Torug back bar, then you swap to 3 Torug front bar, it will not continue proc’ing at Torug values.

Therefore if you are going to use Torug, it needs to be the one which has 5 pieces on both bars.

You are right, not sure what I was thinking there(probably because its been years since I even equipped Torug's Pact).

Anyway, veteran trials in general tend to be regimented if the trial is organized...the raid leader is going to tell you what they want you to wear, you won't even have a choice in any serious group, and craglorn pugs for vet trials are a nightmare all their own

Varana

Also, 35k resistances are too high. Resistances cap out at 33k (providing 50% mitigation), everything above that is wasted. (Except for the rare instances where a boss apllies Fracture or something like that.)
But even with that, you don't need to reach 33k. Around the 30k mark is usually quite good, after that you don't benefit that much.

The issue with Leeching in trials is also that it scales with the number of enemies. Staying alive in trash pulls is often not the problem; but when you have only one boss in front of you, the effectiveness of Leeching is rather low. And many boss fights in trials come down to fighting a single boss.

As others have said, at least get Yolnahkriin, and swap out Chudan for something else. Lightning staff is not that important any more, and usually the healers will use them anyway. Frost staff has become more useful, and will actually help you tanking as well. After that, do what is comfortable for you.

FrancisCrawford

How standard is the Crushing enchant for tanks?

I've always assumed it's up there with healers running a Major Courage set as something everybody is expected to do in anything other than an unserious or total-beginner builds.

Ahead, actually, since people usually* don't run a Major Courage set until they can complete either Cloudrest or (more likely) White-Gold Tower.

*Yes, I meant "usually". Strictly speaking, there are other options.

El_Borracho

@josiahva I prefer Crimson to Leeching, but you are right, Leeching does not have the delay. They're very close in how they work. I might go back to Leeching if those damage reductions to Crimson happen in the next update.

BejaProphet

Infused crusher on a two hand (most commonly frost staff this patch I think) back bar is standard tank operating procedure.

ACamaroGuy

*UPDATE*
I just farmed the Tremorscale monster set.

**UPDATE 2**
Replaced Letching with Brands of Imperium.