Dmg Mitigation for Tanks

paulsimonps
paulsimonps
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*WARNING WALL OF TEXT AHEAD*

Hi everyone. I'm doing this post for a few reasons, first to show of how mitigation works for those that might not know, second to explain why I think that the Footman set is not a necessity for tanks, and to show the diminishing return of increased dmg mitigation.

The testing I have done was done with my Vr14 DK Dunmer Tank, and it was tested against a Vr11 Storm Atronach by the Shada's Tears Wayshrine in Craglorn.

The way dmg mitigation is calculated is simply by multiplying the decimal forms of the decreased dmg output of the enemies. So say you have hardcap'ed Physical resistance and block at the same time, it would look something like this: 0.5*0.5=0.25=75% mitigation. Or say you are a DK with Absorb magic while blocking with hardcap'ed Physical resistance and the sword and board passive: 0.5*0.5*0.9*0.92*0.8=0.1656=83.4% mitigation.

The gear I used while testing was as follows:

WoKiIA4.jpg

My stats:

PHYSICAL RESISTANCE:
  • Gear only: 23378
  • Gear+Hardened Armor: 28498
  • Sword and Shield Only: 1759
  • Sword and Shield+Hardened Armor: 6879

SPELL RESISTANCE:
  • Gear only: 22143
  • Gear+Hardened Armor: 27263
  • Sword and Shield Only: 4259
  • Sword and Shield+Hardened Armor: 9379

During my tests while I wore full gear I tested with both Footman on and Footman off, though I always kept the jewelry since there really aren't that many jewelry options for tanks. The Attack I tested against was the atro's "Bash" and its base dmg when I wore no gear and wasn't blocking was 5597dmg. Further more I used all different combinations of the skills that were available to me as a DK to check the differences in mitigation. The skills I used were Deep Slash, Absorb Magic, Hardened Armor and Ring of Preservation. Now before I being to show all the number, I know that the Footman set version will always give more, but what I meant by that it's not a necessity is that its not really that significant of an increase to state that its a must have.



Base dmg: 5597

First I tested without full gear:
  • Blocking with no gear: 2519 dmg taken, 55% mitigated
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  • Blocking with only sword & shield: 1908 dmg taken, 65.9% mitigated
  • Blocking with only sword & shield and hardened armor: 1751 dmg taken, 68.7% mitigated
  • Blocking with only sword & shield and absorb magic: 1690 dmg taken, 69.8% mitigated
  • Blocking with only sword & shield and ring of preservation: 1686 dmg taken, 69.9% mitigated
  • Blocking with only sword & shield and deep slash: 1622 dmg taken, 71.0% mitigated
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  • Blocking with only sword & shield, hardened armor and absorb magic: 1551 dmg taken, 72.3% mitigated
  • Blocking with only sword & shield, hardened armor and ring of preservation: 1547 dmg taken, 72.4% mitigated
  • Blocking with only sword & shield, absorb magic and ring of preservation: 1493 dmg taken, 73.3% mitigated
  • Blocking with only sword & shield, deep slash and hardened armor: 1489 dmg taken, 73.4% mitigated
  • Blocking with only sword & shield, deep slash and absorb magic: 1437 dmg taken, 74.3% mitigated
  • Blocking with only sword & shield, deep slash and ring of preservation: 1433 dmg taken, 74.4% mitigated
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  • Blocking with only sword & shield, hardened armor, absorb magic and ring of preservation: 1371 dmg taken, 75.5% mitigated
  • Blocking with only sword & shield, deep slash, hardened armor and absorb magic: 1319 dmg taken, 76.4% mitigated
  • Blocking with only sword & shield, deep slash, hardened armor and ring of preservation: 1315 dmg taken 76.5% mitigated
  • Blocking with only sword & shield, deep slash, absorb magic and ring of preservation: 1269 dmg taken, 77.3% mitigated
  • Blocking with only sword & shield, deep slash, hardened armor, absorb magic and ring of preservation: 1165 dmg taken, 79.2% mitigated

Now for some talking after that wall of text. First, the reason ring of preservation is in here is that I wanted to simulate what it would look like if I were a Nord, now the Ring does 8% mitigation while Nords get only 6% so it doesn't really add up but meh. Second, I did the no armor bit mainly because I wanted to show you what skill does what protection. Something I noted though is that I got different numbers for the Absorb magic and the ring of preservation even though their tooltip both show 8% mitigation. And lastly, something to note is that the DK's have a passive which grants them 10% Block mitigation, templars on the other hand have a passive which grants them 15% but only for melee.

Now for full gear testing:
  • no blocking with full gear: 3561 dmg taken, 36.4% mitigated
  • no blocking with full gear and hardened armor: 3114 dmg taken, 44.4% mitigated
  • blocking with full gear: 1246 dmg taken, 77.7% mitigated
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  • blocking with full gear and absorb magic: 1104 dmg taken, 80.3% mitigated
  • blocking with full gear and ring of preservation: 1101 dmg taken, 80.3% mitigated
  • blocking with full gear and hardened armor: 1090 dmg taken, 80.5% mitigated
  • blocking with full gear and deep slash: 1060 dmg taken, 81.1% mitigated
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  • blocking with full gear, ring of preservation and absorb magic: 975 dmg taken, 82.6% mitigated
  • blocking with full gear, hardened armor and absorb magic: 965 dmg taken, 82.8% mitigated
  • blocking with full gear, hardened armor and ring of preservation: 963 dmg taken, 82.8% mitigated
  • blocking with full gear, deep slash and absorb magic: 939 dmg taken, 83.2% mitigated
  • blocking with full gear, deep slash and ring of preservation: 936 dmg taken, 83.3% mitigated
  • blocking with full gear, deep slash and hardened armor: 926 dmg taken, 83.5% mitigated
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  • blocking with full gear, hardened armor, ring of preservation and absorb magic: 853 dmg taken, 84.5% mitigated
  • blocking with full gear, deep slash, ring of preservation and absorb magic: 829 dmg taken, 85.2% mitigated
  • blocking with full gear, deep slash, hardened armor and absorb magic: 821 dmg taken, 85.3% mitigated
  • blocking with full gear, deep slash, hardened armor and ring of preservation: 818 dmg taken, 85.4% mitigated
  • blocking with full gear, deep slash, hardened armor, ring of preservation and absorb magic: 725 dmg taken, 87.0% mitigated

Now that was with full armor and no Footman 5 piece. My favorite combo to use is Deep Slash, Absorb Magic and Hardened Armor. They supplement each other very well and one is magicka, one stamina and one costs nothing if not used which is rarely needed. Now for my last wall of text I will show the same combos but with a 5 piece Footman bonus, I myself as said don't think its enough to warrant saying its a must to have while tanking endgame content. So far I have been able to complete everything I have tried without it, only thing I have yet to try is SO HM.

  • blocking with full gear(+Footman): 1041 dmg taken, 81.4% mitigated
  • blocking with full gear(+Footman) and ring of preservation: 920 dmg taken, 83.6% mitigated
  • blocking with full gear(+Footman) and hardend armor: 911 dmg taken, 83.7% mitigated
  • blocking with full gear(+Footman) and absorb magic: 897 dmg taken, 84.0% mitigated
  • blocking with full gear(+Footman) and deep slash: 885 dmg taken, 84.2% mitigated
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  • blocking with full gear(+Footman), hardened armor and ring of preservation: 805 dmg taken, 85.6% mitigated
  • blocking with full gear(+Footman), ring of preservation and absorb magic: 793 taken, dmg 85.8% mitigated
  • blocking with full gear(+Footman), hardened armor and absorb magic: 785 taken, dmg 86.0% mitigated
  • blocking with full gear(+Footman), deep slash and ring of preservation: 782 dmg taken, 86.0% mitigated
  • blocking with full gear(+Footman), deep slash and hardend armor: 775 dmg taken, 86.2% mitigated
  • blocking with full gear(+Footman), deep slash and absorb magic: 763 dmg taken, 86.4% mitigated
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  • blocking with full gear(+Footman), hardened armor, ring of preservation and absorb magic: 694 dmg taken, 87.6% mitigated
  • blocking with full gear(+Footman), deep slash, hardened armor and ring of preservation: 684 dmg taken, 87.8% mitigated
  • blocking with full gear(+Footman), deep slash, ring of preservation and absorb magic: 674 dmg taken, 88.0% mitigated
  • blocking with full gear(+Footman), deep slash, hardened armor and absorb magic: 668 dmg taken, 88.1% mitigated
  • blocking with full gear(+Footman), deep slash, hardened armor, ring of preservation and absorb magic: 590 dmg taken, 89.5% mitigated
  • GuyNamedSean
    GuyNamedSean
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    So basically your conclusion is that tanks so easily reach massive levels of mitigation, we don't really need Footman because at that point the difference in damage taken is negligible? And I'm assuming my NB tank using Major and Minor Ward and Resolve, a 20% dodge chance, a Minor Maim on my opponent, and either morph of the Shadow Ultimate would get to such levels if my armour rating is on par?
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  • paulsimonps
    paulsimonps
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    Yes that is my point exactly. And yes with those buffs you can easily get enough to get around the same numbers. Especially if you use the ulti, as a NB tank I would go with the one that gives you 60% extra mitigation cause with your armor buff you would get high mitigation during the ulties effect without blocking and you could potentially do heavy attacks to regain stamina if needed. You can easily calculate how much mitigation you would get at least a close number by following my advice in the post on how to calculate it. I can't remember the exact number of the hard cap but its around 34k resist now and so using that comparing that with your own resists you should be able to get the mitigation from your armor to use in the kind of equation I put above in the post. Oh and I would also of course recommend using absorb magic or defensive stance.
  • leandro.800ub17_ESO
    leandro.800ub17_ESO
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    Well i dont realy know if it works like this against all enemies. Try going agains mantikora with no footman and you will see.
    Could be also depending on the penetration that the enemie has.
  • paulsimonps
    paulsimonps
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    I have defeated every single boss in the game without footman. I used to wear footman before I did all my testing and the manti fight was not harder without it. I don't actually know how PvE enemies are in terms of penetration but I have no problem with taking too much damage when blocking either large chunks of enemies or few large ones or even bosses, only problem is to keep the stam up, which in my current build is not that hard at all, though it requires some back up from a shard and some synergies from time to time.
  • ThatNeonZebraAgain
    ThatNeonZebraAgain
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    Thanks for the testing! I too recently got rid of Footman and haven't looked back. Right now on my magicka Argonian NB tank I'm equipping 5pc Lamae, 3pc Willpower, 2pc Endurance, 2pc Malubeth. I will soon be crafting a 5pc Kagnerac set though to help bring up my DPS/heals. Of course, I also use Mirage for dodge+minor phys/spell resist buffs, as well as Twisting Path for procc'ing Shadow Barrier's Major phys/spell resist buffs. After using both Bolstering Darkness and Veil of Blades, I still say I prefer VoB because the damage is excellent and the best form of mitigation is killing your enemy as quickly as possible. The mitigation of BD was insane though, you could rez or heavy attack and barely lose health, but it was overkill and I found I needed more damage to help bring enemies down. Maybe when Trials and super hard bosses are relevant again BD would be the better option.
    I have defeated every single boss in the game without footman. I used to wear footman before I did all my testing and the manti fight was not harder without it. I don't actually know how PvE enemies are in terms of penetration but I have no problem with taking too much damage when blocking either large chunks of enemies or few large ones or even bosses, only problem is to keep the stam up, which in my current build is not that hard at all, though it requires some back up from a shard and some synergies from time to time.

    If you are a NB, as long as you have 15-18k stamina, Siphoning Attacks+Caltrops/Sap Essence is all you need to have almost unlimited stamina. Against tough single boss, replace Sap Essence with Structured Entropy, which is a really cheap spammable skill that provides Major Sorcery, a small a HoT, and 8% increased to HP while slotted. Argonians also have an edge now because I can pop any kind of potion and get a decent chunk of all my resources back (this also means tri-pots replenish even more resources). I love surprising groups by tanking 5+ adds during Nerienth; also have tanked AA axes with ease, but not since IC came out because it's damn near impossible to find Trials groups, although I suspect I wouldn't have any problems.

    Also, just for the sake of accuracy, the hardcap for mitigation now is 33.1k, not 34k.
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  • paulsimonps
    paulsimonps
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    Thanks for the testing! I too recently got rid of Footman and haven't looked back. Right now on my magicka Argonian NB tank I'm equipping 5pc Lamae, 3pc Willpower, 2pc Endurance, 2pc Malubeth. I will soon be crafting a 5pc Kagnerac set though to help bring up my DPS/heals. Of course, I also use Mirage for dodge+minor phys/spell resist buffs, as well as Twisting Path for procc'ing Shadow Barrier's Major phys/spell resist buffs. After using both Bolstering Darkness and Veil of Blades, I still say I prefer VoB because the damage is excellent and the best form of mitigation is killing your enemy as quickly as possible. The mitigation of BD was insane though, you could rez or heavy attack and barely lose health, but it was overkill and I found I needed more damage to help bring enemies down. Maybe when Trials and super hard bosses are relevant again BD would be the better option.
    I have defeated every single boss in the game without footman. I used to wear footman before I did all my testing and the manti fight was not harder without it. I don't actually know how PvE enemies are in terms of penetration but I have no problem with taking too much damage when blocking either large chunks of enemies or few large ones or even bosses, only problem is to keep the stam up, which in my current build is not that hard at all, though it requires some back up from a shard and some synergies from time to time.

    If you are a NB, as long as you have 15-18k stamina, Siphoning Attacks+Caltrops/Sap Essence is all you need to have almost unlimited stamina. Against tough single boss, replace Sap Essence with Structured Entropy, which is a really cheap spammable skill that provides Major Sorcery, a small a HoT, and 8% increased to HP while slotted. Argonians also have an edge now because I can pop any kind of potion and get a decent chunk of all my resources back (this also means tri-pots replenish even more resources). I love surprising groups by tanking 5+ adds during Nerienth; also have tanked AA axes with ease, but not since IC came out because it's damn near impossible to find Trials groups, although I suspect I wouldn't have any problems.

    Also, just for the sake of accuracy, the hardcap for mitigation now is 33.1k, not 34k.

    Thanks for the hardcap info, only tested it briefly on pts so forgot. And I have always wanted to try a sorc or NB tank but I'm to lazy to level alts :P They do look really nice though. Question for ya, I have yet to personally see a NB tank tank lower boss on the mantikora fight and live, any recommendations I can give to my NB tank friends?
  • paulsimonps
    paulsimonps
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    mods pls delete, double post
    Edited by paulsimonps on October 16, 2015 5:42PM
  • ThatNeonZebraAgain
    ThatNeonZebraAgain
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    Thanks for the testing! I too recently got rid of Footman and haven't looked back. Right now on my magicka Argonian NB tank I'm equipping 5pc Lamae, 3pc Willpower, 2pc Endurance, 2pc Malubeth. I will soon be crafting a 5pc Kagnerac set though to help bring up my DPS/heals. Of course, I also use Mirage for dodge+minor phys/spell resist buffs, as well as Twisting Path for procc'ing Shadow Barrier's Major phys/spell resist buffs. After using both Bolstering Darkness and Veil of Blades, I still say I prefer VoB because the damage is excellent and the best form of mitigation is killing your enemy as quickly as possible. The mitigation of BD was insane though, you could rez or heavy attack and barely lose health, but it was overkill and I found I needed more damage to help bring enemies down. Maybe when Trials and super hard bosses are relevant again BD would be the better option.
    I have defeated every single boss in the game without footman. I used to wear footman before I did all my testing and the manti fight was not harder without it. I don't actually know how PvE enemies are in terms of penetration but I have no problem with taking too much damage when blocking either large chunks of enemies or few large ones or even bosses, only problem is to keep the stam up, which in my current build is not that hard at all, though it requires some back up from a shard and some synergies from time to time.

    If you are a NB, as long as you have 15-18k stamina, Siphoning Attacks+Caltrops/Sap Essence is all you need to have almost unlimited stamina. Against tough single boss, replace Sap Essence with Structured Entropy, which is a really cheap spammable skill that provides Major Sorcery, a small a HoT, and 8% increased to HP while slotted. Argonians also have an edge now because I can pop any kind of potion and get a decent chunk of all my resources back (this also means tri-pots replenish even more resources). I love surprising groups by tanking 5+ adds during Nerienth; also have tanked AA axes with ease, but not since IC came out because it's damn near impossible to find Trials groups, although I suspect I wouldn't have any problems.

    Also, just for the sake of accuracy, the hardcap for mitigation now is 33.1k, not 34k.

    Thanks for the hardcap info, only tested it briefly on pts so forgot. And I have always wanted to try a sorc or NB tank but I'm to lazy to level alts :P They do look really nice though. Question for ya, I have yet to personally see a NB tank tank lower boss on the mantikora fight and live, any recommendations I can give to my NB tank friends?

    Unfortunately I've only been able to tank AA and Hel Ra before a combination of work and IC came along to drastically cut into playtime and opportunities to tank Trials (people are also hesitant to let NBs tank because it's harder to tank well as a NB compared to DK). I have played a DPS role on a SO run where we had a Templar tank, and he did it no problem. But I have no reason to doubt NB abilities for Mantikora based on D3usX's NB tanking videos. He's one of the best out there I've seen, and here is his mantikora vid from last march.
    Edited by ThatNeonZebraAgain on October 16, 2015 6:53PM
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  • NoS_smoke
    NoS_smoke
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    Been saying this for months so I just tell groups I wear footman so they let me tank. Ppl like to think inside the box. I don't wear that crap. And I use bolstering to go from 0 to 28k stamina very quickly....
  • GuyNamedSean
    GuyNamedSean
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    Now a real good question: Is the damage mitigation for physical and spell resistance a linear progression (gaining one percent of mitigation for every 662 resistance) all the way through to the 33.1k cap? I'm on console so I can't use addons to determine the exact amount of damage I'm taking and calculate it.

    And is the hard cap for damage mitigation total 90%? I saw that figure stated in a previous thread.
    Edited by GuyNamedSean on October 17, 2015 7:15AM
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  • Septimus_Magna
    Septimus_Magna
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    For my bosmer NB sap tank I was considering:
    2x) malubeth (30% healing taken during beam) or engine guardian (random regen)
    5x) twilight (10% healing taken) or willows path (tri-stat regen)
    5x) healers (8% healing done)
    5x HA and 2x LA > Thief mundus

    Hits Bark is useless for NB tanks imo bc they get major dodge from Mirage. With the use of Swallow Soul (8% healing taken), Sap Essence, Siphon Attacks and Refreshing Path the healing and resource regen should be great.

    Has anyone tried 5x healers with their NB sap tank?

    Im new to tanking so all advice will be appriciated.
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  • paulsimonps
    paulsimonps
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    Now a real good question: Is the damage mitigation for physical and spell resistance a linear progression (gaining one percent of mitigation for every 662 resistance) all the way through to the 33.1k cap? I'm on console so I can't use addons to determine the exact amount of damage I'm taking and calculate it.

    And is the hard cap for damage mitigation total 90%? I saw that figure stated in a previous thread.

    Yes its linear. And while I have personally not gone past 89.5% I see no reason for a mitigation hardcap, because its always diminishing its never gonna hit 100% and the only way to get higher than 89.5% that I got from my testing is to use Nova and veil at the same time while being a nord with slighly higher resist than I had, but if I remember right I did calculate once how much you would get if I added in all passives and active abilities that could potentially be applied to a character at the same time and I got like 95% mitigation but it would only last for 10s since it was done with 2 ulties and high costs abilities.
  • The Uninvited
    The Uninvited
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    I switched from 5 Hist + 5 Footman to 5 Black Rose + 2 Fire + 3 Endurance + 2 Footman. Hardly noticed any difference in tanking, but now I can do a bit more damage as well. :) When I get Malubeth or Engine complete (still missing both helmets) I'm going to drop the Fire pieces.

    Must admit, I never tanked trials so not sure if it would work there too.
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  • GuyNamedSean
    GuyNamedSean
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    I actually ran my numbers that I have currently and if I do literally every defensive thing on my bar sans Minor Maim (which wouldn't actually count toward my cap) I'd reach .099 for the end value. 90.1% effective. So I can just barely hit my cap. Though if I'm not using the ultimate my value goes up to .165, or 83.5%. I may have messed up my numbers somewhere, as it was right before I went to sleep, but I'm going to make a point to redo the calculations later.
    For my bosmer NB sap tank I was considering:
    2x) malubeth (30% healing taken during beam) or engine guardian (random regen)
    5x) twilight (10% healing taken) or willows path (tri-stat regen)
    5x) healers (8% healing done)
    5x HA and 2x LA > Thief mundus

    Hits Bark is useless for NB tanks imo bc they get major dodge from Mirage. With the use of Swallow Soul (8% healing taken), Sap Essence, Siphon Attacks and Refreshing Path the healing and resource regen should be great.

    Has anyone tried 5x healers with their NB sap tank?

    Im new to tanking so all advice will be appriciated.

    I actually used to run a set based solely on increasing my healing taken, but I found it was more than enough just to have 30 CP into the increased healing taken and forget about an armour set for it. Maybe that's because I work very well with my healer, I don't know.

    Edit: I re-ran my numbers without rounding at any point and at maximum would have 90.5% damage mitigation when Bolstering Darkness is active, just barely hitting the cap. This is with Major and Minor Ward and Resolve bringing my Physical Resistance to 20863 and my Spell Resistance to 22394. I calculated off of Physical Resistance since it was the lower of the two. I'm wearing five heavy and two light with One Hand and Shield with five pieces of Song of Lamae and four pieces of Whitestrake's Retribution. Everything is at least blue with the shield, hat, cuirass, sash, and greaves purple.

    I have to use every buff I have access to, but according to the numbers I calculated I am just barely hitting the cap.
    Edited by GuyNamedSean on October 17, 2015 12:27PM
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  • SmalltalkJava
    SmalltalkJava
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    Bumping this so I can revisit as I work on my sorc tank
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