Dragon Knight "Tank" build.

S1rKu1L

After making approx 5 different combinations of race, class, and weapon in beta; I have what I believe a viable combination for tanking.

Imperial/Red Guard
Dragon Knight
One Handed and Shield.

Any race technically can do this role, MP regen is viable as is Stamina regen races. The primary reason for Imperial or Red Guard is the One handed boost early. Many of the passives that increase damage blocked and reduce cost of blocking are higher level skills. Sooner you get there the better tank you will be.

Active Skills
My Imperial tank has his skills deep into the Dragon Knight class for Damage Dealing, but only has 1 active skill from the one handed and shield line. The reason for that is because Stamina must be conserved for blocking, so I don't want to use it all up doing damage.

When out in the open and facing single or 2 NPC's I use:

Fiery Grip (Unmorphed)
Searing Strike (Morphed to increase Damage over time (DoT) by 9% each tick)
Puncture (Morphed to give more armor)
Dark Talons (Morphed to give DoT)
Molten Weapons /Dragon Heart (Depends on difficulty)
ULTIMATE: Dragon Knight Standard (Morphed for reduced damage to me)

When in tight quarters or facing groups:

Fiery Grip (Pull NPC's together for AOE's)
Fiery Breath (AOE Flame DoT)
Puncture (Finishing move, or if grouped to taunt)
Dark Talons (Doesn't work on flying.. so be aware of that and not waste Mana)
Molten Weapons./Dragon Heart (Depends on Difficulty)
U: Dragon Knight Standard.

Group Dungeons:

Fiery Grip (Low MP to group mobs and pull boss off healer briefly to get puncture in)
Puncture (Taunt)
Dark Talons (AOE Root and DoT)
Molten Weapons
Spiked Armor (Not Morphed)
U: Dragon Knight Standard for now - Thinking about Immovable or Magma Armor later on.

Passives

The first passive that was huge for me was Kindling, which at 2nd level gives 66% boost to fire damage over time. With some skills morphed to either give Damage over Time (DoT) or to have a compound increase over time I found my self casting three skills and waiting for npcs to die with a puncture to satisfy my blood thirst. It works with the Ultimate Dragon Knight Standard which is why I use that primarily.

The approach I took next was any passive that increased my blocking, reduced blocking cost, reduce interrupting cost (Bash), or increased my damage reduction was taken. There are many of them.

Then I work on stamina and Health increasing passives found under racial and heavy armor. I always keep a skill point back in case I find a use for another skill or want to add a stamina or health passive right before taking the 3rd skyshard or leveling. You never know when you will gain a level in a skill tree and have a great passive available.

Gear

I am currently sitting with 5 heavy items and 2 Light. 5 Heavy give me the passive bonuses for blocking, while the light items allow for higher Mana Regen. I use Pots primarily for Stamina Regen.

My armor rating is consistently just over the threshold for diminished returns, as is my MP Regen. I find this works well for most situations as I need the MP to cast buffs and to pull those pesky mobs off my healer. Stamina Pots are on constant cycle for big bosses, and so far that has been sufficient for using puncture every 10-15 seconds, blocking big attacks, and bashing to interrupt skills. With the passives I have blocking is very effective and costs less stamina.

So that's my guide for building a Dragon Knight Tank, hope it helps someone.

Regards,

SirKull

Double You Tee Eff - Aldmeri Dominion, Imperial, Dragon Knight, Board and Blade

UPDATE:

As I reach the mid 40's some items have changed.

First I run at the edge of Diminished Returns (DR) on my armor rating, and found that I could put on 2-3 light or medium armor items and still be close to the DR point. This is where set bonuses came into play. I played around and found what I liked, got a set that gave 100 Spell Resist and am using that.

Next is skills:

As you gain in levels you will find more groups of NPC's: Fire Breath and Talons were my go to weapons in that case.

Also I got Shield Charge as it worked better for tanking group mobs. Charge in, Talons, Fire Breath, then puncture individuals to get aggro.

Dragon Heart has saved my hide more times than I can count. Got it morphed to boost stamina regen. With Mana pots I have massive survivability. I replaced spiked armor for this as I found it more useful.

If people find good combinations I wouldn't mind trying them out.

SirKull

Double You Tee Eff - Aldmeri Dominion, Imperial, Dragon Knight, Board and Blade

Kiputytto

I haven't been having problems getting threat or being too squishy on my Dragon Knight tank yet but there was something that didn't feel right about the skills that I was taking. I went through several guides (as many as I could find) in hopes to see how other people were using Dragon Knights to tank, something about your build stuck with me. While I didn't follow it exactly how you outlined it (I'm not that big of a fan of Spiked Armor since I'm almost always armor soft capped) I used a great deal of it.

Thanks for taking the time to put this together.

S1rKu1L

Kiputytto wrote: »

I haven't been having problems getting threat or being too squishy on my Dragon Knight tank yet but there was something that didn't feel right about the skills that I was taking. I went through several guides (as many as I could find) in hopes to see how other people were using Dragon Knights to tank, something about your build stuck with me. While I didn't follow it exactly how you outlined it (I'm not that big of a fan of Spiked Armor since I'm almost always armor soft capped) I used a great deal of it.

Thanks for taking the time to put this together.

Glad someone was able to find use with my experiences.

Cheers

mutchiib16_ESO

Like the guide! Gonna test it out! But how do you spend your atribute points?

Thanks!

lajnus86b16_ESO

Ok you are doing it alright but i will tell you this, endgame you gotta think diffrently and swap spells depending on boss and trash, core is to have one tanky for tanking with debuff/surviablity. and one for aoe a bit of slefbuffs.

1.puncture(taunt)2. spiked armor.3 DT/knockdown ,4 defensive stance. 5, dragon armor green morph.

this is what every dk tank should and will be using for tanking bosses that hit hard and you dont need any additional damage out of the tank, and you keep molten weapon lava whip,fiery breath, talons and 5 and last obsorb dmg spell for raid/group, this one i change around and slot around often depending on wich fight.

But the first bar above is what is used almost all the time. with only one thing to change is depending on the fight but works for most scenarios.

your tanking build wont do its job in raids/VR dungeons.

your job is to keep yourself up and your group healthy and be able to position yourself, in VR you need to be able to take hits to do this, or you gonna get oneshoted or run out of stamina or be swarming room with aoe on the floor.

the build you are working works now, but lategame it wont work.

funny part is defensive stance is actually terrible use effect.
But awsome passive when u have it maxed out on bar, 10% less stamina for blocking is insane.

Matrinka

If you want a tank that is based more so on magicka rather than stamina Bretens are a better choice. Sure you may not have the MINOR exp boost but you gain a lot in return especially in fixing the normal weakness for tanks: low spell resistance. This is the way to go if you want an mp regen race for tanking.
Dark Talons morphed to reduce enemy damage by 10% combined with Unstoppable is a great combo that reduces a lot of damage.

Topher

hey thanks for the effort putting everything down. I am going to make a go at getting my toon respec'ed (L26) and see if I can make this all work. Anything to avoid going DPS and having to wear light armor and use a staff *BOO HISS*

Ragnar_Lodbrok

Too bad the build is worthless now due to repeated nerfing.

fromtesonlineb16_ESO

Ragnar_Lodbrok wrote: »

Too bad the build is worthless now due to repeated nerfing.

Oh go take your doom and gloom crap somewhere else, this build is still fine for what it's designed for.