Dragonknight Tank

Pompeyfluff · July 2015

Hi All,

I hoping that some of you more experienced players might be able to give me a bit of feedback on my current build.

I'm running a Dragonknight Tank build, VR4, with points in health and stam (roughly 29pts in health, 20 in stam, 0 magicka). Heavy armour only.

Using one hand & shield with following skills:

Pierce Armour
Deep Slash
Defensive Stance
Power Slam
Green Dragon Blood
Ferocious Leap

Second weapon tree is bow (mainly for Cyrodil as wanted a bit of range)

Poison Injection
Arrow Barrage
Bombard
Focused aim
Green Dragon Blood
Ferocious Leap

Aim of the build is to make a decent health tank for PVE (swap out Power slam for Inner beast in dungeons) but to give me something usable in PVP as well.

At Vr14 i will be using 5/5 Hist set, but would like recommendations on sets for other gear (hist will be armour, so ideas for weapon set will be useful).

Thanks in advance.

Lynx7386 · July 2015

I run a 5 light / 2 heavy sword and shield dk, gives more resources to utilize class skills. I found that 7 heavy or a stamina focused build doesn't let me use talons, reflective scales, dragon blood, or fragmented shield enough, and the extra resources also let me solo easier with molten whip spam.

With 9 items (7 armor + weapon & shield) I run 3 piece song of lamae, 2 piece torug's pact, and 4 piece magnus, all of which boosts spell power to improve damage in pvp and soloing. Hist bark for tanking, obviously.

leepalmer95 · July 2015

Hmm , not sure about a stamina tank.

Draxys · July 2015

I highly discourage you from running one build for both PvE and PvP. If you like tanking in PvE, you should have a tank setup with gear and skills for that, and a completely separate setup for PvP. One build will simply not be successful in the other setting.

Pompeyfluff · July 2015

Draxys wrote: »

I highly discourage you from running one build for both PvE and PvP. If you like tanking in PvE, you should have a tank setup with gear and skills for that, and a completely separate setup for PvP. One build will simply not be successful in the other setting.

OK - well as I am pretty much the tank for the main group I run with in PVE what changes would you recommend?

Draxys · July 2015

First thing I'd do is switch slam for burning embers. Don't underestimate the need for magicka as a tank, as it should also be your job to sometimes pull enemies into the group with extended chains (which I would slot on your off bar- your off bar weapon should probably be another sword and shield but you can get away with destro/resto). Otherwise, first bar is good, and second bar should have chains, the magicka taunt from the undaunted skill line, and an AoE skill or two- talons/deep breath are good there for a root and an aoe interrupt.

Pompeyfluff · July 2015

that's a lot of magicka skills for a stam biased build. I was keeping the magicka for use with green dragon blood but have the stam for the rest of the skill tree.

I'd like to try and stay with a stam based, so any thoughts on skills with the stam aspect?

Draxys · July 2015

Pompeyfluff wrote: »

that's a lot of magicka skills for a stam biased build. I was keeping the magicka for use with green dragon blood but have the stam for the rest of the skill tree.

I'd like to try and stay with a stam based, so any thoughts on skills with the stam aspect?

Honestly I'm not sure a stamina based tank is a good idea, due to so many useful tank abilities requiring magicka. Not to mention, in the upcoming 1.7/2.1 whatever you want to call it patch, stamina regen while blocking is going to be a thing of the past, making stamina based tanking even less viable. I would leave the stamina to blocking/dodging etc as a tank, and use your magicka wisely (you still won't be able to cast tons even as a tank that uses magic) for utility skills.

Pompeyfluff · July 2015

Draxys wrote: »

Pompeyfluff wrote: »

that's a lot of magicka skills for a stam biased build. I was keeping the magicka for use with green dragon blood but have the stam for the rest of the skill tree.

I'd like to try and stay with a stam based, so any thoughts on skills with the stam aspect?

Honestly I'm not sure a stamina based tank is a good idea, due to so many useful tank abilities requiring magicka. Not to mention, in the upcoming 1.7/2.1 whatever you want to call it patch, stamina regen while blocking is going to be a thing of the past, making stamina based tanking even less viable. I would leave the stamina to blocking/dodging etc as a tank, and use your magicka wisely (you still won't be able to cast tons even as a tank that uses magic) for utility skills.

True - the stam regen while blocking is going to be a pain, so might be something for me to consider.

Lynx7386 · July 2015

Magicka is just a better focus for dk characters, especially tanks. A stamina dps build might work, but so many of the dk's iconic, must-have abilities are magicka based that you're gimping yourself by not having enough resources to use them.

Pompeyfluff · July 2015

hmmmm - reason i went down the stam route was this post:

[url]=http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en-GB/discussion/159225/heavy-armoured-dragonknight-pvp-tank-group-orientated-unfinished-1-6"[/url]

It sounded like a viable build. Do you think this would be a viable option?

Stinkur · July 2015

http://tamrielfoundry.com/topic/the-bastion-endgame-pve-tank-build/

Look this link up, bookmark it. It works awesome.

Pompeyfluff · July 2015

Stinkur wrote: »

http://tamrielfoundry.com/topic/the-bastion-endgame-pve-tank-build/

Look this link up, bookmark it. It works awesome.

looks interesting -
how does it work at lower VR levels (VR4 for example)?

Stinkur · July 2015

Should work fine. Find a similar set to footmans since it's dropped gear. Important thing is leveling up the skills he shows and learning to use them. Remember your job is holding aggro on a boss and in multiple mob situation taunt the ones that are on healers and use the chains to pull mobs in for aoe.

Arato · July 2015

if you're tanking PVE you should have both bars be sword/shield. You have a ranged taunt (inner rage) and a melee taunt (ransack/pierce armor whichever morph you prefer, I like pierce armor to allow magicka dps members to do more damage to the boss), have one on each bar, so even if you're short one resource you can always pop a taunt. On each bar you should also have defensive stance as the passive on that improves your blocking, and sometimes the reflect is handy (or at least have it on your main blocking bar for bosses). You should also have igneous shield on one bar, and while not strictly necessary if you remember to use igneous shield once every 20s (for mountain's blessing) it can be handy to have an earthen heart skill on the other bar too, maybe obsidian shard to knockdown a single target harassing a healer, maybe cinder storm to slow down aoe trash

So that's taunt, earthen heart skill, and defensive stance on each bar, that leaves 2 skills on each bar to fill out.

Hardened Armor (Spiked Armor morph), one of the Dragon Blood morphs (I actually take coagulated dragon blood as potions give the same stamina regen buff as green dragon blood, and they don't stack), and Choking Talons are pretty key, giving you a damage shield/increased defenses, a self heal with increased regen (and increased incoming healing when you have dragon skills active as well), and an aoe root with debuffing enemy damage and giving an opportunity for a synergy.

Last skill can vary, maybe extended chains to pull, maybe structured entropy for the passive health bonus and health drain (maybe if you only go 1 earthen heart skill you'd have it on both bars), maybe draw essence for trash pulls, maybe heroic slash for ultimate gen, maybe spiked bone shield

Ultimates... magma shell or standard of might or both, but if you're taking one, ferocious leap is a good option for the other because it's cheap, gets you a damage shield, and restores resources through battle roar

I like taking all points in health, while getting stam/magicka enchants on gear to round out roughly 15-16k magicka/stamina and 30k health.

I organize my bars based on aoe/trash, or boss.

AOE/Trash bar:

Hardened Armor
Inner Rage (between this and talons you get some nice aoe synergies)
Choking Talons
Cinder Storm
Draw Essence
Ferocious Leap (U)

Boss bar:

Structured Entropy
Pierce Armor
Coagulating Dragon Blood (or Green if you don't use tripots)
Igneous Shield
Defensive Stance
Magma Shell (U)

Footman's and Hist Bark gear with either engineer or spindleclutch shoulders/helm, 5 heavy 1 light 1 medium.

Pompeyfluff · July 2015

Thanks for the advice.

I have adjusted my build away from a stam/health to a more balanced layout.

One hand+ Shield on both bars with a range of both stam and magicka skills including Inner Beast, Pierce armor, Green Dragon Blood.

I'll keep respeccing if needed but i'm, enjoying the combination I have now.

thank you all for your help.

Arato · July 2015

I'd strongly advise Inner Rage over Inner Beast because like I said, if you have both, no matter what resource you're short on, you have a taunt option.