I am looking to make a NB Tank - seeking pointers

ExiledKhallisi · June 2014

Title says it all, looking for someone to show me what a good tanking set up would look like as far as stat allocation and general skills to focus using.

I am Imperial Nightblade...sword and board going to lvl both heavy and med armors and am debating picking up warewolf. I dont want my hand held just a general idea as I am still learning the class. Any help would be very appreciated.

DeLindsay · June 2014

You should level Light Armor also as the (two) preferred sets are 5pc-Heavy + 2pc-Light or 7pc Light. You will get superior mitigation from Heavy Armor at a cost of less option to "spam" abilities, AOE is where this becomes evident. Some abilities you should look into having:

-Ransack (Puncture Morph) "Melee Taunt" > 1H/Shield
-Inner Beast (Inner Fire morph) "Ranged Taunt" > Undaunted
-Unstoppable (Immovable morph) Tank CD > Heavy Armor
-Veil of Blades (Consuming darkness morph) Ultimate
-Sap Essence (Drain Power morph) AOE
-Refreshing Path (Path of Darkness morph) AOE
-Siphoning Attacks (Siphoning Strikes morph) Recource mgmt
-Swallow soul (Strife morph) Heals you

The above is pretty much it. You don't usually need both taunts on the same weapon bar, most just have Ransack for the +armor it gives you. Swallow Soul should always be on your bar as well as Siphoning Attacks and Unstoppable. The rest is personal choice, you can build a ST and AOE bar if you like. I would add Dark Shades (Summon Shades morph) to the ST bar personally.

PBpsy · June 2014

1. Cap magicka first then go all health for the rest don't really need to bother with stamina
2. Best armor setup is 2Heavy +5 light + some extra armor and spell resist from jewel glyphs.
3. Get all the S&B passives. The actives are not that important except maybe ransack and defensive posture.
4.Sap Essence (Drain Power morph) -Self heal,some aoe damage,and creates a lot of ultimate.
5.Funnel health(Strife morph)-Nice self hot/ group hot and good damage.
6.Inner beast (Undaunted) - Ranged taunt that uses a little magicka which is great since you want your stamina for blocking and dodging.
7.Siphoning attacks -It is better than the morph that heals you since many time you do not really want to drop your guard to attack and your spells can proc the magicka +stamina returns pretty often. Also keep in mind that 20% less spell/ weapon damage is not the same as 20% less dps since spell/ weapon damage only accounts for 50% of the damage done.
9. Veil of Blades- The greatest thing since sliced bread. Snare,AoE DPS,damage mitigation for you and the group. Nicest thing the NB has.
10. Volcanic rune can be pretty great in some situations
11. Killer's blade or Impale getting the highest DPS at the end of the fight is pretty nice.

The best skill is Veil of blades so you want to have it on very often and soon. The best way to do that is have a lot of spell crit that's why the 5 light armor is really great also find some sets that give spell crit and maybe get Inner light. If your crit is high you get ultimate from sap essence both damage and heal crits also from Funnel Health damage and heal crits on you and 2 others.. You get both better dps and self heals and you also get your VOB up more often.

Aedh · June 2014

They pretty much said everything.

You have to make a choice between Swallow Soul (+10% healing received) or Funnel Health (heals two allies as well = more ultimate).
As a tank, you don't generate a lot of ultimate compared to a dd, except through Sap Essence spam, but I remember reading the devs were looking into adding some ultimate generation to heavy armor passives in the future.
But +10% healing received is nice, especially combined with the heavy armor passive, siphoning passive and possibly a Twilight Embrace set for 10% more.

You can sit at +25% healing received from all spells, and +40% from your Siphon spells.

Don't bother too much with stamina, as Siphoning Attacks will grant you all the regen you need. I went with a Redguard, so the +10% stam and Adrenaline Rush help a lot.

The two main weaknesses of Nightblades, when it comes to tanking, are the absence of a reliable armor/spell resist buff, and of an AoE cc. Look into Unstoppable (or + spell resist glyphs) and Volcanic Rune to offset that.

I can put a link to the builds I use, you might get some ideas from them.

Solo build
Group Dungeon (Bar 1 for trash mobs, 2 for bosses, and switch if needed)

reften · June 2014

It's a good idea in my book. You can tank pretty well when necessary, and when you need to do solo content, you can jack up the DPS. I might build a tank version of my NB...it's not too late

PBpsy · June 2014

oren74 wrote: »

It's a good idea in my book. You can tank pretty well when necessary, and when you need to do solo content, you can jack up the DPS. I might build a tank version of my NB...it's not too late

In my experience my tanking build is also pretty good AOE dps for NBs.I just take down my taunt and switch it to Ambush for extra mobility in battle and as an interrupt for those ''Taking aim" ranged attacks. I can take out most trash in Craglorn solo pretty fast and without sacrificing any survivability.

Aoifesan · June 2014

Two things.
1) ransack is NOT your best choice on the first taunt, you are better with the pierce armor as that increases spell and weapon damage to the things you hit with it. You can hit the soft cap for armor / spell resist in medium armor using shadow cloak (and you won't really need to do that that often.
More damage by everyone = stuff dies faster = better than an increase that will routinely be taken care of by Unstoppable if you really really need.
2) Don't underestimate the spell reflection skill in 1/s when you morph that bad boy you cant get a very nice self heal in addition to the block/reflect of spell abilities.

ExiledKhallisi · June 2014

Light armour seems great...but having a vr12 who wears light armour....i cant see myself tanking wearing light armour at end game...

PBpsy · June 2014

ExiledKhallisi wrote: »

Light armour seems great...but having a vr12 who wears light armour....i cant see myself tanking wearing light armour at end game...

Chest and Legs heavy the rest light.Can look pretty badass..

ExiledKhallisi · June 2014

PBpsy wrote: »

ExiledKhallisi wrote: »

Light armour seems great...but having a vr12 who wears light armour....i cant see myself tanking wearing light armour at end game...

Chest and Legs heavy the rest light.Can look pretty badass..

can also get you 2 shot in upper vet content

Maverick827 · June 2014

Aoifesan wrote: »

Two things.
1) ransack is NOT your best choice on the first taunt, you are better with the pierce armor as that increases spell and weapon damage to the things you hit with it. You can hit the soft cap for armor / spell resist in medium armor using shadow cloak (and you won't really need to do that that often.
More damage by everyone = stuff dies faster = better than an increase that will routinely be taken care of by Unstoppable if you really really need.
2) Don't underestimate the spell reflection skill in 1/s when you morph that bad boy you cant get a very nice self heal in addition to the block/reflect of spell abilities.

The debuff from Pierce Armor is negligible in PvE and you shouldn't be tanking in medium armor in the first place.

Maverick827 · June 2014

Summon Shade is also a good ability to look into for single target tanking. -15% damage for 20 seconds and a bit of mobility with the teleport morph.

The biggest downside as someone else said is the lack of a great armor buff. Immovable is really your only option, but it costs a lot of stamina and doesn't last very long.

PBpsy · June 2014

ExiledKhallisi wrote: »

PBpsy wrote: »

ExiledKhallisi wrote: »

Light armour seems great...but having a vr12 who wears light armour....i cant see myself tanking wearing light armour at end game...

Chest and Legs heavy the rest light.Can look pretty badass..

can also get you 2 shot in upper vet content

You can get 2 shot even in 7heavy sometimes.

DeLindsay · June 2014

ExiledKhallisi wrote: »

PBpsy wrote: »

ExiledKhallisi wrote: »

Light armour seems great...but having a vr12 who wears light armour....i cant see myself tanking wearing light armour at end game...

Chest and Legs heavy the rest light.Can look pretty badass..

can also get you 2 shot in upper vet content

What Armor type you wear has literally NOTHING to do with taking more damage or not because the player using 7-pc Light Armor to tank in also usually wears 1-2 Jewelry pieces with +armor (550 ea at Legendary), and/or set pcs like Arena 4-set which pushes that player so far into soft cap that they actually have MORE armor than a 7pc Heavy wearer. That's what makes ESO Tanking a true play as you want to play. Those who want to wear traditional 7pc heavy get superior mitigation from the armor alone and a tad more healing done to them, at a cost of less capability to spam abilities. If you wear 7pc Light Armor you can augment the lack of armor rating with Glyphs/set bonuses while having a much better capability to spam abilities.

-7pc Heavy (or 5pc + 2 Light) = gimped ability spam but alt Glyphing options.
-7pc Light (or 5pc + 2 Heavy) = gimped Glyphing options but great ability spam.
-Medium Armor = no real benefit as of this time.

ExiledKhallisi · June 2014

what about attribute distribution?

OkieDokie · June 2014

ExiledKhallisi wrote: »

Light armour seems great...but having a vr12 who wears light armour....i cant see myself tanking wearing light armour at end game...

All you have to do is make sure you have enough magicka to keep sap essence going on. This means light armor.

I have no problems with 1 h/s and just the chest of the akavari set (6 light/ 1 heavy) and I could do it even with 7 light. So, not a big deal there really. I also have an armor ring with me just in case I feel like I need it (does not happen often).

DeLindsay · June 2014

ExiledKhallisi wrote: »

what about attribute distribution?

0 / 49 / 0 - for all, you can cap Magicka or Stamina stupid easy with Glyphs.