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Build - Nightblade Dynamic tank/dps
MasterLanz
✭✭✭
This build is designed on the basic convention that a tank is ultimately just there to tank bosses while still making it his job to see to the protection of the party, whether he has aggro on the mobs or not. The mindset of the build is not what makes the tank himself the best, but rather what makes the whole party the best while still allowing the tank to do his job. Thus an emphasis is placed upon skills that benefit the party, and not just the tank. This is also a tank/dps build, because the aim is to tank during bosses, and dps during regular pulls, and dynamically swap between tanking and dpsing as the situation demands.
Attributes: Health primarily. The build uses stamina and magicka in fairly equal distributions, but health should be the primary attribute overall.
Build 'basics': http://esohead.com/calculator/skills#mczzyt0MV0W9M8fXuY8fXi48IPUR8IPq48LxkH808w2Bl8w2Ct8IPSd8IPq48LxkE808p7JMdBvj6MdBEp6cdBET8T7JMrqAi6MrqAI6MrqAD6MrqAZ6crqLw8y7HNR3a6bR3r6MfQE16MfQE36MfQlr6MfQlu6MfQlI8t7rNsgZ6rsg18F7JrzrJ6Lbux6dbut6MIPNU6MIPAh6MIPAT6MIPAv8P7mAdYf8zc7zzgeXm8zf7zzNbo8zu7zzHfYE6zHfZd8zG7zzHQ3F8zI7zzJIoX6zJIkL8zN7zzJZcY8zA7zzKpUN8zL7zzK4EX
I call this the 'basics' because this is the core to how the build plays, but beyond this, the rest can be whatever the player wishes. Note the lack of an ultimate. This is because the ultimate can be pretty much anything. Pick one that you like. I happen to be a werewolf, so that is generally my ult, but being a werewolf is not relevant to this build.
This build is about 50 skill points, so obviously this can be integrated into other builds, and leaves a lot of freedom for the player to branch out however they want.
Primary skills (shared on both bars)
Funnel Health: While conventional theory might insist that Swallow Soul is the obvious tanking morph for Strife, it is an 8% increase versus 300%+ increase since Funnel Health is granting healing where healing did not exist. While it is important for the tank to stay alive, 8% is not going to be the line that the survivability is drawn. With so much self-healing and armor charging, the tank is not going to be in many situations where having 8% more healing will mean the difference of success and failure. Being able to heal the party as a free bonus, however, has substantial benefits. Since Funnel Health 'sticks' to the target, it allows healing of party members even when they stray out of the healer's AoEs. It also automatically spreads out to affect unaffected party members instead of re-applying it to party members who already have the buff, so two casts of Funnel Health will typically put the Heal onto the whole party. The end result is a 'fire and forget' healing spell that just applies heal-over-time effects to nearby party members without having to put any thought into actually healing them.
Ring of Preservation: This skill is particularly beneficial for groups with other melee characters. Compared to Immovable, Ring of Preservation is about 40% less effective, but also 40% cheaper, while providing substantial passive health regeneration, lasting more than twice as long, and affecting any other allies in the area, rather than just the tank. As above, the objective is not to maximize the tank, but rather maximize the whole party. Ring of Preservation is also very easy to sustain without a substantial stamina investment, freeing up stamina for blocking/dodging and other skills.
Tank skill bar with Sword and Shield
Ransack: A common skill for most tanks. Since this build doesn't lean very heavily on single-target spell damage and its not certain whether the party is spell-heavy or not, Ransack is recommended over Pierce Armor. Obviously Pierce Armor is a viable alternative if the player expects party spell damage is going to play such a substantial role that it is worth losing armor over.
Absorb Magic: This could also be Defensive Stance or just Defensive Posture. I like having Absorb Magic for PVP and it is useful for various spell-heavy bosses, but it's mostly here for the passive benefits.
Leeching Strikes: While it is reputedly bugged at 2.4% instead of 4%, it's still a substantial amount of self-healing while attacking constantly. This could be Siphoning Attacks if, for example, the player prefers to just bash things a lot.
DPS bar with Dual-wielding
Blood Craze: single-target DPS is not the main role of the tank in smaller fights, but blood craze will help for finishing off low-health mobs as well as sustaining the tank's health in order to alleviate the strain on the healer. Blood craze is not essential to the build, but it synergizes with all the healing nicely and helps to keep the character 'durable' even when not tanking.
Whirling Blades: Since dungeon mob pulls are typically large groups, the stamina return on Whirling Blades is maximized, granting the most uses. Could also be whirlwind or steel tornado, if preferred.
Sap Essence: Power Drain is critical for maximizing Whirlwind. Sap Essence is preferable for party sustaining, but Power Extraction potentially means more overall increase in power. This can also be either morph, depending on whether the player wants to lean more on healing or DPS.
Note on overcharging armor: Ransack and Ring of Preservation will blow you way past overcharge for armor. This is deliberate. Even with the overcharge penalties, you're getting as much as 50% more armor consistently from these two skills, and that extra armor is absolutely worth having.
Note on healing: The main benefit of the various healing elements of the build only becomes fully-apparent when they are all stacked together. The build allows the easy and constant application of various stacking heal effects simultaneously to facilitate this result. While something like Leeching Strikes alone might not produce much healing, the combination of Leeching Strikes + Funnel Health + Ring of Preservation does. Note that the healing in this case is not intended to in any way serve as a substitute for a proper healer, but rather helps sustain the tank so that the healer doesn't need to heal them quite as much.
Weapons: Main hand is, obviously, sword and shield. Offhand is DW for me, but 2H works well too. I recommend DW specifically due to the sheer damage output of Power Drain + Whirlwind.
Armor: 5 Heavy, 2 medium. Full-investment into heavy armor, and investment into damage/critical/stamina passives from medium armor. You can, potentially, lean more on medium armor and less on heavy armor, but then you become more and more dependent on the armor buffs to give the tank his toughness.
Playstyle intention
How the tank plays out changes depending on the fight. Against single-targets/bosses, the tank fills their main role of tanking, and in the process of tanking is handing out heals via Ring of Preservation and Health Funnel to the party, to help support the healer without detracting from the tank's focus on their main job.
Against mobs of enemies, the tank still focuses on keeping the party alive, but now does so through providing buffs and healing to the party while fighting to kill targets as quickly as possible.
The aim of the build is that the character can focus on tanking while they're tanking, and focus on dps while dpsing, but is providing healing and buffs to the party at the same time.
The Dynamic Tank is for the dynamic player. It juggles DPS, Tanking, and some healing all at the same time. Your mileage may vary, but that is also why it's only 50 skill points.
Attributes: Health primarily. The build uses stamina and magicka in fairly equal distributions, but health should be the primary attribute overall.
Build 'basics': http://esohead.com/calculator/skills#mczzyt0MV0W9M8fXuY8fXi48IPUR8IPq48LxkH808w2Bl8w2Ct8IPSd8IPq48LxkE808p7JMdBvj6MdBEp6cdBET8T7JMrqAi6MrqAI6MrqAD6MrqAZ6crqLw8y7HNR3a6bR3r6MfQE16MfQE36MfQlr6MfQlu6MfQlI8t7rNsgZ6rsg18F7JrzrJ6Lbux6dbut6MIPNU6MIPAh6MIPAT6MIPAv8P7mAdYf8zc7zzgeXm8zf7zzNbo8zu7zzHfYE6zHfZd8zG7zzHQ3F8zI7zzJIoX6zJIkL8zN7zzJZcY8zA7zzKpUN8zL7zzK4EX
I call this the 'basics' because this is the core to how the build plays, but beyond this, the rest can be whatever the player wishes. Note the lack of an ultimate. This is because the ultimate can be pretty much anything. Pick one that you like. I happen to be a werewolf, so that is generally my ult, but being a werewolf is not relevant to this build.
This build is about 50 skill points, so obviously this can be integrated into other builds, and leaves a lot of freedom for the player to branch out however they want.
Primary skills (shared on both bars)
Funnel Health: While conventional theory might insist that Swallow Soul is the obvious tanking morph for Strife, it is an 8% increase versus 300%+ increase since Funnel Health is granting healing where healing did not exist. While it is important for the tank to stay alive, 8% is not going to be the line that the survivability is drawn. With so much self-healing and armor charging, the tank is not going to be in many situations where having 8% more healing will mean the difference of success and failure. Being able to heal the party as a free bonus, however, has substantial benefits. Since Funnel Health 'sticks' to the target, it allows healing of party members even when they stray out of the healer's AoEs. It also automatically spreads out to affect unaffected party members instead of re-applying it to party members who already have the buff, so two casts of Funnel Health will typically put the Heal onto the whole party. The end result is a 'fire and forget' healing spell that just applies heal-over-time effects to nearby party members without having to put any thought into actually healing them.
Ring of Preservation: This skill is particularly beneficial for groups with other melee characters. Compared to Immovable, Ring of Preservation is about 40% less effective, but also 40% cheaper, while providing substantial passive health regeneration, lasting more than twice as long, and affecting any other allies in the area, rather than just the tank. As above, the objective is not to maximize the tank, but rather maximize the whole party. Ring of Preservation is also very easy to sustain without a substantial stamina investment, freeing up stamina for blocking/dodging and other skills.
Tank skill bar with Sword and Shield
Ransack: A common skill for most tanks. Since this build doesn't lean very heavily on single-target spell damage and its not certain whether the party is spell-heavy or not, Ransack is recommended over Pierce Armor. Obviously Pierce Armor is a viable alternative if the player expects party spell damage is going to play such a substantial role that it is worth losing armor over.
Absorb Magic: This could also be Defensive Stance or just Defensive Posture. I like having Absorb Magic for PVP and it is useful for various spell-heavy bosses, but it's mostly here for the passive benefits.
Leeching Strikes: While it is reputedly bugged at 2.4% instead of 4%, it's still a substantial amount of self-healing while attacking constantly. This could be Siphoning Attacks if, for example, the player prefers to just bash things a lot.
DPS bar with Dual-wielding
Blood Craze: single-target DPS is not the main role of the tank in smaller fights, but blood craze will help for finishing off low-health mobs as well as sustaining the tank's health in order to alleviate the strain on the healer. Blood craze is not essential to the build, but it synergizes with all the healing nicely and helps to keep the character 'durable' even when not tanking.
Whirling Blades: Since dungeon mob pulls are typically large groups, the stamina return on Whirling Blades is maximized, granting the most uses. Could also be whirlwind or steel tornado, if preferred.
Sap Essence: Power Drain is critical for maximizing Whirlwind. Sap Essence is preferable for party sustaining, but Power Extraction potentially means more overall increase in power. This can also be either morph, depending on whether the player wants to lean more on healing or DPS.
Note on overcharging armor: Ransack and Ring of Preservation will blow you way past overcharge for armor. This is deliberate. Even with the overcharge penalties, you're getting as much as 50% more armor consistently from these two skills, and that extra armor is absolutely worth having.
Note on healing: The main benefit of the various healing elements of the build only becomes fully-apparent when they are all stacked together. The build allows the easy and constant application of various stacking heal effects simultaneously to facilitate this result. While something like Leeching Strikes alone might not produce much healing, the combination of Leeching Strikes + Funnel Health + Ring of Preservation does. Note that the healing in this case is not intended to in any way serve as a substitute for a proper healer, but rather helps sustain the tank so that the healer doesn't need to heal them quite as much.
Weapons: Main hand is, obviously, sword and shield. Offhand is DW for me, but 2H works well too. I recommend DW specifically due to the sheer damage output of Power Drain + Whirlwind.
Armor: 5 Heavy, 2 medium. Full-investment into heavy armor, and investment into damage/critical/stamina passives from medium armor. You can, potentially, lean more on medium armor and less on heavy armor, but then you become more and more dependent on the armor buffs to give the tank his toughness.
Playstyle intention
How the tank plays out changes depending on the fight. Against single-targets/bosses, the tank fills their main role of tanking, and in the process of tanking is handing out heals via Ring of Preservation and Health Funnel to the party, to help support the healer without detracting from the tank's focus on their main job.
Against mobs of enemies, the tank still focuses on keeping the party alive, but now does so through providing buffs and healing to the party while fighting to kill targets as quickly as possible.
The aim of the build is that the character can focus on tanking while they're tanking, and focus on dps while dpsing, but is providing healing and buffs to the party at the same time.
The Dynamic Tank is for the dynamic player. It juggles DPS, Tanking, and some healing all at the same time. Your mileage may vary, but that is also why it's only 50 skill points.
2
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Feimerdre✭✭✭✭Ultis go for Soul Siphon and Bolstering Darkness then I suppose?
Interesting build. Thanks for sharing it.Edited by Feimerdre on May 8, 2014 10:46AM1 -
MasterLanz✭✭✭Could be either-or, yeah. I picked up Consuming Darkness but I haven't decided which to morph it into yet.0