In need of Dragonknight Advice

Marukeru · January 2016

Heyo! So, I feel as though I'm a little bit of a rut here with my DK. Would you guys mind looking over what I'm currently using and offering some advice on how to improve? Currently, I am attempting to play Tank, and am running with a friend on occasion. Though I find that I sometimes struggle a little bit. I am ideally trying to find something that is mostly self sufficient (My friend is raw DPS, no heals) yet could still maybe deal moderate damage so I don't take a century to kill an Elite mob. Honestly, Sustain is likely my greatest goal.

Race: Orc
Class: Dragonknight

Attributes are currently: 0/30/20

Primary Stats are at:
[*] MM: 12,180
[*] MR: 580
[*] MH: 21,387
[*] HR: 777
[*] MS: 14,847
[*] SR: 626

[*]Spell Resist: 22,307
[*]Phys Resist: 19,768

Gear:
[*] 5H/2M - Magicka Enchants(non-crafted)
[*] 5 piece Hist Bark
[*] 2 piece Trials w/Bar1
[*] 3 piece Trials w/Bar2

Action Bars are:
Bar 1: 1H/SH

Pierce Armor
Burning Embers
Deep Breath
Igneous Shield
Green Dragon Blood

Bar 2: 1H/SH

Shielded Assault
Burning Embers
Deep Breath
Absorb Magic
Eruption

Please keep a few notes in mind:

I play PvE
I am AWFUL at PvP, so acquiring skills from those lines is difficult for me
I sometimes struggle when trying to use 2H or DW, maybe due to my lack of blocking while not using shield
Mage & Fighters Guild are at 8, I'm trying to raise them
Undaunted is still only 2

NBrookus · January 2016

What level are you?

Marukeru · January 2016

NBrookus wrote: »

What level are you?

vr2 and 1/3

::EDIT::
An added note. I'm not sure I have the skill to Hard Tank in Higher end content. I just don't feel confident with my build or skill. As for general PvE, I wouldn't mind something a little more damage-y while still being very beefy and difficult to take down for my enemies.

I have scoured the interwebs; be it here, Tamriel Foundry or google in general, and have yet to find something that seems to fit what I'm looking for (w/o requiring some sort of gear I don't have, or can easily acquire).

NBrookus · January 2016

Your specs aren't bad for VR2. Your attributes are a little spread out. Focus on sufficient health, then either stam or magicka, and tailor your abilities to that.

Dungeons: I'm not seeing any CC abilities on your bars, which you'll need for mobs. Cinder Storm (morph of Eruption) and Talons work well. You should level up light armor so when the last Undaunted Passive kicks in, you'll get the most out of it. Just put a light piece on a small slot, like a sash. I'd also be sure to level up Defensive Posture; you'll need it.

Solo questing, you need more damage so you do want to level up some skills there. You can block with 2H and DW, just not quite as effectively. 2H has the advantage of Rally for self healing. Bow is not the biggest damage dealer, but you can use it to soften up enemies, then use a gap closer and melee. Or if you go magicka, a fire destro staff. Engulfing flames, searing strike and lava whip synergize well with each other.

That said, if you have an affinity for stamina S&B, go with it and make it work for you. Plan on having two sets of skill bars - and eventually, probably two sets of armor - for dungeon tanking versus questing/DD.

AverageJo3Gam3r · January 2016

Tanking isn't terribly hard. Tbh, start tanking right now. Find a group that will run the dailies at your level. A lot of v16s are willing to run them just to burn them quickly. That way, it's not a big deal if you mess up because they're so much higher level than the content they can survive on their own while you're being rezzed. If you do this, you'll get pretty good at tanking by the time you hit vr16.

Marukeru · January 2016

NBrookus wrote: »

Your specs aren't bad for VR2. Your attributes are a little spread out. Focus on sufficient health, then either stam or magicka, and tailor your abilities to that.

Dungeons: I'm not seeing any CC abilities on your bars, which you'll need for mobs. Cinder Storm (morph of Eruption) and Talons work well. You should level up light armor so when the last Undaunted Passive kicks in, you'll get the most out of it. Just put a light piece on a small slot, like a sash. I'd also be sure to level up Defensive Posture; you'll need it.

Solo questing, you need more damage so you do want to level up some skills there. You can block with 2H and DW, just not quite as effectively. 2H has the advantage of Rally for self healing. Bow is not the biggest damage dealer, but you can use it to soften up enemies, then use a gap closer and melee. Or if you go magicka, a fire destro staff. Engulfing flames, searing strike and lava whip synergize well with each other.

That said, if you have an affinity for stamina S&B, go with it and make it work for you. Plan on having two sets of skill bars - and eventually, probably two sets of armor - for dungeon tanking versus questing/DD.

So mix in some AoE control skills. Got it.
What should my goal be with stats? I've read a lot that getting to 20k HP is ideal, then from there you just boost your other stats to get them up to par.

Brrrofski · January 2016

Well on mine I put all my stats into stam. Then add health Glyphs on my armor to get me up to 20k (25k with food). Both my resistances are around 32k (with hardened armor up)

I run 2 engine guardian, 3 death wind and 3 Alessia bulwark (4 with sword an board out). 3 piece endurance for jewellery with magica regen on. 5 heavy, 1 light and 1 medium because of undaunted mettle. I used to run hist bark, but I changed to flat out mitigation over dodge chance. You can use shuffle for that if you really want.

Sword and board:
Unstable flame (mainly to proc engine guardian)
Absorb magica
Pierce armor
Green dragon blood (up as often as possible for more stam regen)
Igneous shield (to get stam back when EG gives me magica)
Ferocious leap (cheap so resources back more often, great mobility on moving bosses and gives a shield)

2h Greatsword:
Checking talons (group aoe and maim)
Executioner
Hardened armor
Wrecking blow
Extended chains (bring adds into AOEs and mobility for teleporting bosses) - I have started using shuffle now though for the dodge chance
Corrosive armor (for hitting the fan moments)

I tank the pledges with absolute ease. I have Greatsword so I can help out with dps. It makes it more exciting too.

I'm set like that with attributes and Glyphs so I can throw on a medium hunding's, ashen and agility and still do big damage in pvp. If you just want a pve tank, you can improve a lot more on ideal tanking stats.

Marukeru · January 2016

Brrrofski wrote: »

Well on mine I put all my stats into stam. Then add health Glyphs on my armor to get me up to 20k (25k with food). Both my resistances are around 32k (with hardened armor up)

I run 2 engine guardian, 3 death wind and 3 Alessia bulwark (4 with sword an board out). 3 piece endurance for jewellery with magica regen on. 5 heavy, 1 light and 1 medium because of undaunted mettle. I used to run hist bark, but I changed to flat out mitigation over dodge chance. You can use shuffle for that if you really want.

Sword and board:
Unstable flame (mainly to proc engine guardian)
Absorb magica
Pierce armor
Green dragon blood (up as often as possible for more stam regen)
Igneous shield (to get stam back when EG gives me magica)
Ferocious leap (cheap so resources back more often, great mobility on moving bosses and gives a shield)

2h Greatsword:
Checking talons (group aoe and maim)
Executioner
Hardened armor
Wrecking blow
Extended chains (bring adds into AOEs and mobility for teleporting bosses) - I have started using shuffle now though for the dodge chance
Corrosive armor (for hitting the fan moments)

I tank the pledges with absolute ease. I have Greatsword so I can help out with dps. It makes it more exciting too.

I'm set like that with attributes and Glyphs so I can throw on a medium hunding's, ashen and agility and still do big damage in pvp. If you just want a pve tank, you can improve a lot more on ideal tanking stats.

Very helpful!
I don't have the Engine Guardian pieces, so I guess I'll use a stronger mix of Death Wind and Alessia Bulwark for the time being.

I can try out all point into Stamina to see how that goes, and pick up some HP enchants for my gear. My resistances are a bit off, but you're counting Hardened armor, so I can probably get there.

Your S/B is similar to what I use often, though I sometimes have trouble using Absorb Magic at the right moment. Practice makes perfect I guess.

I'll give this a try! Thank you for the details!

Any other advice is welcomed!

NBrookus · January 2016

I did the all-stam thing for a while like @Brrrofski laid out, also with 2H on my back bar. It didn't work as well for me as what I ended up doing. YMMV. Experiment and see what suits you. I completely respec'd and re-geared 4 times I think before finding my niche, and I'm still not all the way geared up now.

Just for comparison, I run 28k health and regen drinks on a magicka DK. (Swap to light armor and I'm 17k health unbuffed.)

Brrrofski's main bar and mine are very similar. I run:
Pierce Armor
Heroic Slash, for ultimate generation
Absorb Magic
Obsidian Shield morph, since it procs Trinimac
GDB
with Aggressive Warhorn

Back Bar I am also S&B with:
Inner Fire (magicka/ranged taunt)
Extended Chains
Cinder Storm
Shuffle (for my Armor Master buff)
Choking Talons
with Aggressive Warhorn again, since my team tends to run Ring of Preservation and the NB aura; otherwise I'd do DK Standard of Might.

So instead of DPSing myself, I focus more on maximizing the DPS my regular group does with buffs and debuffs and CC since they are pretty awesome damage dealers, and am some help to the healer so he DPS's more, too. Short boss fights are good boss fights. I change up my bars for specific fights as needed.

In a PUG you may not have good DDs... being able to hedge your bets with 2H and Corrosive Armor on your back bar is a useful option to have.