crislevin wrote: »

It is true, I honest don't see a group running well without a tank and a dedicated healer.

I did all 15 normal dungeons, and 2 vet dungeons with my dps sorc, i did 7 more normal dungeons with my healer temp. Healer is extremely necessary in most dungeons, tank is invaluable as well.

That sounds like what I am looking for, so (even pre veteran), healers and tanks have great value?

If your group doesn't have a tank DONT be a healer. The threat list goes like

1. Taunts
2. Heals
3. DPS.

So without a tank you are top of the hit list.

As the balancing changes take effect I expect things to fall back into a more traditional holy trinity configuration. So DK's in heavy are probably the most natural tanks.

it seems dk and temp tanks are more common. and definitely go with heavy armor, one hand and shield. Robe and staff are for dps or healing.

fyendiarb16_ESO wrote: »

Hilgara wrote: »

If your group doesn't have a tank DONT be a healer. The threat list goes like

1. Taunts
2. Heals
3. DPS.

So without a tank you are top of the hit list.

Thanks, but that goes for every single mmo with the trinity setup. No offense meant. Still something I did in all mmo's I played previously. The only reason I have only done 1 group dungeon until now is because no quest led me to it besides the first and not in a guild for social means. (sorry for the extra note, but man do I HATE the fact that we automatically join with all alts and thus have a hard time separating alts of separate factions.)

What I meant was no amout of DPS seems to be able to trump Healing or Taunts in this game. In WOW you could out threat the tank if you have really high DPS and maybe got a few lucky crits but I recently went in a low level dungeon at about V5 on my NB to help out some low level guildies. They didn't have a tank so I just thought my DPS would hold threat. Nope. The level 17 healer got splattered every fight. Nothing I did held threat.

I've tanked all the vet dungeons and normal ones and tanking is somewhat different than in other mmos. During thrash pulls do not even bother with aggro, apply as much cc as possible and dps, for example volcanic rune and impulse do the job well.
On bosses just keep the aggro while doing as much dps as possible in the process.

Dragon knights and Sorcerers have a much easier time tanking, they should wear 7 light and have razor armour/conjured armour on at all times. 1h and shield on at least 1 bar, reserving the other for more dps oriented play.

Templars and nightblades usually go with more heavy armour since they don't have as good armour increasing class skills.

I'm not saying there aren't other viable tanking builds, but heavy armour just plain sucks atm, not much reason to wear it.

crislevin wrote: »

Good read on tanking in ESO http://tamrielfoundry.com/2014/03/tanking-primer/

Reading this atm (slow reader and still reading, but thanks nonetheless), but it seems that at least for tanking the old school "grab aggro of all" does not work here. Problem is that most likely the conjecture is that if you do that you die, but it is expected from most new dps and healers.

I mainly...no I should say only, play pugs (if I would group up which I want). so most will expect me to get all aggro all the time...or is this just me thinking I need to do this? Should I ignore past experiences and go for the toughest mobs and let the dps handle the rest? I fear that if I do that...the healer is the one dealing with the rest instead of the dpsers.

Tanking is needed. However, no specific build is essential to tanking, and you can block with any weapon.

You can tank with light armor as NB too as long as you know what you're doing. For one, you can reach close to the armor softcap even if you're naked. For example at v12, each v12 +armor glyph gives you +600 armor, and three of them is already 1800 armor.

For tanking, your skill in when block and dodge is more important than your specific build.

I have had many many cool moments in the group dungeons, they are a blast!!!

Aeratus wrote: »

Tanking is needed. However, no specific build is essential to tanking, and you can block with any weapon.

You can tank with light armor as NB too as long as you know what you're doing. For one, you can reach close to the armor softcap even if you're naked. For example at v12, each v12 +armor glyph gives you +600 armor, and three of them is already 1800 armor.

For tanking, your skill in when block and dodge is more important than your specific build.

My main character is a DK light armor utility tank. Originally, I went with what seemed obvious during beta - heavy armor for protection. Except, no. Heavy Armor is borked in this game, only good for looks. After some experimentation, I went 2 heavy, 5 light. Casting razer armor put me well into the soft cap. 2 heavy peices allowed me to take unmoveable as a utility skill to negate cc when needed.

For weapons, I've played with a number of things. 1 hand and shield has always been consistent. However my original second bar was restoration staff centered. My thoughts were I could backup or even main heal as needed through 1-50 content. Two things changed my mind on that. One was forum posts stating that DK's were terrible healers. There is some truth in that compared to other classes due to magicka regen issues with the DK class. However, at that time, I found myself unwelcome anywhere in PVE content if I stated I intended to heal in any way. Which led to the second, I had an unused second set of skills. After much teeth gnashing and some expletive tyrades, I decided to change up my second bar to destruction staff. Destruction staff was pretty optimal in my current tanking endeavors. Impulse, volcanic rune, were great additions. However in situations where it wasn't practical to remain in melee range crushing shock, and other single target abilities far outpaced other options. No standing around when mobs are out of melee range. Quite nice overall.

I like my build insofar as I am always above the the armor softcap, have two different taunts to choose from (1hand and shield puncture morph or inner fire). Spell resistance well into the soft cap. Magicka regen that works well. Depending on the group composition and ability I can alternate from cc, dps, or boss rooting. Oftentimes in the same fight if needed. I prefer being able to swap roles if necessary. And I prefer the swiss army knife approach.

Peope will say often that all you need to tank in this game is heavy armor and a shield. This isn't accurate imo. The best tanks don't need a constant lifeline to be able to function. Heavy armor passives are severely lacking compared to light armor. So you end up with slightly more health, which means you live without a lifeline a milisecond or two longer in fights.