Nightblade tank theory

Vindene_Evantyr

SO i was thinking about the nightblade last night before i made one. I THINK they could make for a deathknight/shadowknight if you focus Siphoning and SwordnBoard, possibly with Assassin's Blade from assassination (for that healing boost off kills), heavy armor and MAYBE soulmagic (havent really gone into the soulmagic morphs yet, just remember there being a HP,Sta, Mgk restore on enemy kill)

Granted this is all based off of early game experience from beta and looking at the unmorphed skill tree. Also wouldnt know what to REALLY prioritize with only 5 ability slots.

For race i would go redguard or Imperial (the swordnboard bonus xp and i believe both get a stamina racial) as well as imperials negligible healthsteal racial.

What does everyone think?

krapmyself

Note that the weapon and shield weapon skill line is the premiere tanking method. EVERY class can tank since every class can use this skill line. (It's wise to use heavy armor as well.)

Players will argue that certain classes are made for tanking, and there is truth there, but they ARE NOT exclusive to it. Any class can tank. Class gives you three unique skill lines. that's pretty much the purpose of classes.

Kyubi_3002b16_ESO

actualy running heavy armor + siphon+shadow+2H or sword shield indeed could yield you some form of a death knight as siphon possess both a life draining spell and a mass aoe that greatly increase your weapon damage for every mob drained

Not to mention a siphon specialist greatly empower all Healing received and done from all source

Im quoting power extraction here
Increase weapon damage by 11% for every ennemy damaged (maximum 9) for 20 second... scary isnt it?

disexistencenub19_ESO

This is my aim with my NB character as well. I am unsure if I want to focus on the on kill morphs or not, as I'd like him to be effective in combat and not afterwards. Though it sounds promising for an AOE centric build where you are always pulling multiple mobs at a time. Probably good for leveling at least.

My character is a Nord, so I thought focusing on maxing health regen and siphon healing would be pretty effective together. I plan to do 5 heavy/2 light armor, unless I'm running into problems with stam or magicka. My point spread while leveling is 2/1/1, mag/health/stam, which keeps it fairly balanced. Any thoughts on this? I'm kind of just winging it at the moment and haven't reached a high enough level to make a fair judgement.

jhaak714_ESO

I'm wondering if someone will run a nightblade tank in medium armor with blur (or double take morphed) and elude while maintaining leeching strikes up while taunting with inner fire and DW their way through fights.

Only need inner fire to keep taunting a big target and you keep regenerating stam and magicka through basic attacks.

Kaluu

I'm going to dabble in this a bit. My plan was to go Argonian, doubling up on potion effectiveness. The increased healing received should have amazing synergy with Strife, Path of Darkness(morphed), and/or Entropy. I also think Blur and debuffing shades will be tremendous tanking assets.

Kyubi_3002b16_ESO

how about trying this? http://esobuild.com/?MwbgbCygTAdNcAmtgCMQBYBmAuArLABwAMJcAhuQMbHQ6GyXmq4aPU5wCMYYqdXWFirhgxcgFM8xFHixcMGKrEVdyxabPmKqQAA=

Altrought its more of a heavy death knight then a tanking build

kpop_ESO

There is a fully fleshed out Night Blade Tank build posted here:
http://tamrielfoundry.com/topic/night-tank-heavy-armor-nightblade-tank/

I've been using it, and am about level 30 currently. My input:
- You do relatively bad dps. If you're expecting DK like damage output from WoW, then you won't see it.
- Sword and Board is pretty much a requirement for tanking - I've done all the dungeons so far, and the fights aren't overly difficult - but the bosses in general have heavy damage output. Not to mention most trash pulls are a minimum of 6 enemies.
- Once you hit about 25, the build becomes infinitely more fun - at this point you'll have your barrier from Heavy Armor, your Teleport from Assassination Line, your Speed Boost + Self Heal from Shadow Line and Leeching Strikes.

As mentioned above, any class can tank... so far from what I've seen, the skills you use don't even really matter that much.. the most important thing for any tank is learning to Block, Bash and Dodge. The only reason I went Nightblade is because as a Redguard Nightblade you pretty much have infinite Stamina in combat.. so you can spam everything and still be fine for blocking/bashing and dodging.

Dragon Knights appear to have higher damage as a Sword n Board build though, so if you're looking for dps.. I would suggest dragon knight. I still think Nightblades make the best end game boss tanks though.

Kyubi_3002b16_ESO

use the power drain... gain 99% weapon damage (11% per target increase) for 20 second? i think nightblade got the best dps synergy depending on the number of targets. it just happen that if you dont run power drain youl probably do less damage indeed.

Xithian

I've been playing a khajiit nightblade tank since the first moment I logged on. It's great. I currently use the first two sword and board skills (40% armor/resist debuff, and -15% to all dmg dealt), the leech from siphon (heal others), the ultimate from siphon (heal others), the assassin finisher (regain MP/HP on kill, almost a free cast really), and just playing around with the last slot. I plan on ditching the finisher later and slotting the debuff pet and haste as my final two. I'm running heavy armor and so far have all the passives for heavy armor and 1h/shield that are available to me.

I'm still playing around with other skills every now and then. I've done one skill reset so far. I don't feel that I have low DPS. I burn my mana for damage any time it's over ~50% and save the reserve for when I need to back off to range or just burst. Stamina stays about 50% as well from keeping up debuffs, with the remaining used for blocking or burst. Killing felt slow until I started burning my mana instead of hording it for emergencies. I have to remind myself that my leech does good damage...it's not just a heal.

It's a very fun character to play.