My Tank's Build

Crickiit · October 2015

Hey guys and gals, I thought I'd post my build and see what you guys think and potentially give some assistance to others looking to improve they're tanks.

Background:
I have been playing since launch on PS4 NA, and beta tested it back in the day for PC. My only character is currently a V14 Orc DK (I work a lot and do not have the time for alts and heavy grind sessions). Aside from a short stint in PvP, after that at level 25ish, I have spent 85% of my time in group dungeons and have seen it all, dungeon-wise.

Equipment:
I'm not going into to much detail since this changes as I level up, but currently using full footmans, 3 piece endurance, and other fillers as I find things that fit.

Champion Points:
I'm only at 86, so these don't matter much, just suffice to say, I have them in health, block mitigation, and other obvious tank related constellations points.

Current Stats:
unbuffered [After eating]
Health: 27,560 [32,390] Recovery: 1036
Stamina: 10,091 [14,264] Recovery: 693
Macgicka: 9,453 [13,394] Recovery: 622

Spell Resistance: 23,752 (buffed is 28,872)
Physical Resistance: 20,573 (buffed is 25,693)

Weapon Damage: nonexistent

Skills:

Bar 1: Sword & Board
1: Pierce Armor
2: Deep Slash or Shield Charge depending on situation
3: Defensive Stance
4: Coagulating Blood
5: Hardened Armor
Ultimate: Magma Shell

Bar 2: Destro Staff
1: Inner Rage
2: Extended Chains
3: Choking Talons
4: Igneous Shield
5: Pulsar
Ultimate: Standard of Might, sometimes Ferocious Leap for the cheap cost to coincide with Battle Roar & basically offers invincibility for 6 seconds.

How do I use these bars?
Bar 1: Mostly my boss bar
This is pretty self explanatory, taunt bosses, slow down enemy's, and reflect projectiles; as well as heal and improve total resistance.

Bar 2: Magicka based skills and mob/adds control
Inner rage when a boss is too far away or obstructed by environment, pull in enemies, and lock them in place. I love Choking Talons for its damage reduction and is my main spam skill. Igneous Shield is great when the healer is in a pickle and needs a few more seconds to get that heal cast or a is not within heal range but I am etc. And pulsar follows my initial Choking Talons cast to reduce time killing mobs and decreases strain on my DPSers.

I know I'm an orc and have no business using magicka but I have no choice as a DK which is where the Destro Staff comes in.
A) ultimate regen is way faster with a staff then it is with a melee weapon.

as a tank my main concern is max health, which means my regens take a hit, as you've seen from my stats section. Being completely immersed in dungeons for months on months have allowed me to hone my skills in watching for exactly when to block and when it's not necessary, when I'm not blocking, I'm heavy attacking, so I always have stamina and magicka when I need it.

I would love to hear any CONSTRUCTIVE criticism or answer any questions aspiring new tanks have, my hope in this post is to do my part in eliminating so-called "bad tanks" and cleanse our proud title of meat bag. For those of you who think it's easy, it's just as hard as healing or DPSing correctly

Last I would like to repeat, Constructive criticism is gladly appreciated; please leave any close-minded "nopes" to a minimum.

GuyNamedSean · October 2015

I would use Heroic Slash instead of Deep Slash. You have almost no damage, so build your Ultimates that way instead. For most of it, I wouldn't be able to tell you what's up as I tank on a Nightblade right now and have never really played as a DK. The resistance values you're at are really good, though. I would look at other tanking sets than Footman's, as when you get up there in damage mitigation, the bonus from Footman's doesn't matter much.

I had a thread about the full damage mitigation formula that I'll link to here:

http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/225833/full-damage-mitigation-formula#latest

Scyantific · October 2015

How are you not running out of magicka with all of those magicka based skills? Just curious, because I doubt you have enough recovery with potions and battle roar to make up for what you're burning through.

Crickiit · October 2015

@GuyNamedSean if I'm not at the resistance cap how is it wasteful? As far as damage goes, my belief is that I shouldn't be dealing damage, my ultimates have different uses for different situations depending on what's happening at the time. I do have medium gear for the odd time I'm out adventuring and need to deal damage; but for the most part, the more damage I can take, the more damage my DPSers can do without worrying about running away. That's my belief anyway.

@Scyantific it's pretty easy: don't button mash, use your head. I typically run in, and talons>pulsar>heavy attack>talons>heavy attack, and so forth interchanging talons for what's best to use at the time, chain to pull an archer in, pulsar because it either ran out or more trash was added in mix. I can't say I never run out, but I have enough to do whatever I need to at the time when it counts.

GuyNamedSean · October 2015

Crickiit wrote: »

@GuyNamedSean if I'm not at the resistance cap how is it wasteful? As far as damage goes, my belief is that I shouldn't be dealing damage, my ultimates have different uses for different situations depending on what's happening at the time. I do have medium gear for the odd time I'm out adventuring and need to deal damage; but for the most part, the more damage I can take, the more damage my DPSers can do without worrying about running away. That's my belief anyway.

The reason I consider it wasteful is due to the diminishing return on resistance. If you were lower on your number Footman would be very useful. At the levels of resistance you have it's only going to make a few percent difference. That could matter in Cyrodiil where people run high puncture builds, but in PvE you'd be better off using an armour set that will provide larger bonuses for you.

As for damage, I'm not suggesting you use Heroic Slash to deal more damage. I'm suggesting it because it grants Minor Heroism so you can easily build your Ultimate up for when you need it. Using Heroic Slash I'll gain 100 Ultimate by killing only two Imperial Soldiers.

paulsimonps · October 2015

I myself would stick with deep slash as opposed to what GuyNamedSean said, for me its the ability to be able to splash the Minor Main too two additional targets that wins it. In fights like AA last boss, the 3 DK's in vWGT, the 4 bosses in vICP and in fights with the larger trash mobs in the previously mentioned dungeons, the ability to use 1 attack to apply a "long lasting" minor main on 3 enemies instead of 3 attacks helps A LOT with resource management.

With your regen and thinking that you run full heavy or at least a 5-2 or 5-1-1 I would recommend against relying on so many magicka abilities, or well mainly I would recommend against the staff. You said you liked to follow up on your choking talons with Pulsar to take the load of the DPS, it should work the other way around, DPS should kill stuff faster to take the load of off you. My recommendation would be to try and taunt as many of them as possible with pierce armor too debuff them that way instead. Not only will that make them take more damage but it will of course secure your hold on them as a tank. CC is good and all but against ranged attackers they will still attack your DPS even if you pull them in or talon them. Pulsar is a good option if you want to run the destro but do know that a lot of the enemies in later dungeons will be immune to that effect.

I would also recommend if you get the time to PvP a little to try and level your Assault skill line to get Warhorn. The morph Aggressive Warhorn is great for not only giving you 50% of all your resources back with Battle roar cause it costs so much but it increases all your and your allies resources by 10% and remember damage scales of your max magicka or stamina as well as your spell and weapon damage so your DPS's will do more Damage and your healer will heal stronger. The last effect of that morph as well increases damage dealt by critical attacks by 30% I think it is for the first 10s of the Warhorns effect making your DPS's do even more damage. A buff like that is great for a tank to give out.

As well when we are talking about buffs. If you have a Stamina based dps in your group if you do the Igneous Shield at least every 30s you will give them 5% extra weapon damage with your Mountains Blessing. For me the Igneous shield is my most spammed magicka ability. It gives me and nearby allies a strong damage shield(less so on allies), it gives me 5% max stamina back, it gives me 2 ultimate(6s cd) and it gives all allies within 30m 5% more weapon damage. So spam that thing whenever you can if you can afford it.

I know you run more Magicka heavy so I would recommend trying out the Seducer set if you can, Hist Bark is my choice for a tank set but if you want to rely that much on Magicka then it might be a better option. Though since you are an Orc and you get bonuses into HP and Stamina I would recommend a more stamina based set up, you don't have to but if you want some inspiration for what a stamina based DK tank can look like I got my build posted HERE

Scyantific · October 2015

@paulsimonps Does Choking Talons not apply Minor Maim even if the snare doesn't work?

paulsimonps · October 2015

Scyantific wrote: »

@paulsimonps Does Choking Talons not apply Minor Maim even if the snare doesn't work?

Choking Talons Minor maim lasts for 4 second and it costs a lot. the deep slash lasts for 12 second and costs less and its stamina based.

Crickiit · October 2015

@paulsimonps Holy crap have you given me a lot to think about and work on! Thanks a lot! If I could kiss you I would

your post is worth it's weight in Rubedite! Looks like I have some more grinding ahead of me

what do you do for range?

P.S. Your link brings me to this post haha

paulsimonps · October 2015

Crickiit wrote: »

@paulsimonps Holy crap have you given me a lot to think about and work on! Thanks a lot! If I could kiss you I would your post is worth it's weight in Rubedite! Looks like I have some more grinding ahead of me what do you do for range?

P.S. Your link brings me to this post haha

@Crickiit Sorry this link should work better:

http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/223879/enduring-dragon-pve-tank-by-luna-hlaalu

And for range, I try and use it as little as I possibly can but I use the stamina morph of the ranged taunt, only a few fights I need it in and the list gets shorter the more I practice. It just costs so much no matter if you use it with Magicka or Stamina and it doesn't give you the 2 debuffs. I can only really think of the Lord Warden fight of vICP as a fight I use it in. I have even done AA Axe's without it, tricky but doable, and it sure as hell freaked out all the DPS's :P I have seen ton of comments where people are asking for tactic advice on certain bosses and people respond with saying that the range taunt is a must on certain fights but I do all of those fights they mention without it and never had any problems.