Refreshing path is my favorite move and I would use the blur move a bit as well for tanking. Perhaps shades would be good for mobs and fear for CC (groups don't know that agony breaks on damage). the tough part is that a NB tank has to spam shadow moves as it's only tank passives are all in the shadow tree and even then they aren't the best. Plus if you want to be a tank why don't you use puncture that or inner fire are MANDATORY. It is best to choose either or as tanks are stamina and healers are magicka doing both will most likely skew your effectiveness and is NOT viable in the meta Imperials make great tanks.

I've built both a magicka and a stamina NB tank, each of which is sustainable without a healer in all but SO and certain parts of HRC & AA. The full potential of each build is not accessible at your level, because ultimately you're going to need caltrops and vigor.

However, I have a few pointers to get you started. If you want to be able to primary heal on a whim, then I suggest making a magicka build. The beauty of NBs (despite the lack of a "burst" heal like BoL) is that healing scales off of damage dealt. Your primary self-heal in a magicka build will be Swallow Soul (or Funnel Health if you prefer the group-benefit approach). Dealing magic damage, it scales from CP passives like thaumaturge and elfborn. Blessed is a good option too, I have a few points in this as well.

The more Siphoning abilities you have on your bar, the more effective your heals are. In a primary healing role, all you'll ever need for most content is Sap Essence and Healing Springs. Slot skills like Siphoning Attacks for resource management and increased healing effectiveness, as well as Soul Tether for CC and healing effectiveness. Healing Ward and Mutagen/Rapid Regen are key for fights where the group is required to spread out. With high enough spell power and magicka, you will be able to sustain a large group without having to use Healing Springs.

My preference for tanking is to stack reduced block cost and high block mitigation. I do this through the use of Footman and Defensive Stance (1h+s) primarily, of which only Defensive Stance will be accessible to you until endgame. Bottomless resources are entirely possible as a NB tank, especially once you have Caltrops unlocked, but until then, Refreshing Path is a good alternative. Generally speaking, the larger the pull, the easier it is to manage your resources as a NB. The trade-off between NB tanks and other tanks is the lack of CC, such as Talons or Encase, though we are not completely without CC. I use fear to force ranged adds to move into the stack of adds.

Double-take is a must, and I prefer this morph for it's added mobility. It can easily take the place of a gap closer, since applying buffs prior to pulling is a common practice. Just cast your double-take for the buff, and the added movement makes it easy to close in quickly on enemies. For this reason, I don't use a gap closer, but instead rely on Inner Fire (ranged taunt) for scenarios in which moving to the enemy is less favorable.

Honestly, we could carry on this conversation for hours. I've been tweaking and modifying my NB for a long time, and he is in a position to do any role on a whim. He is capable of tanking bosses in full light armor while still healing the group and dealing damage simultaneously. It takes a lot of practice and patience, but it is entirely possible, so keep at it and you will be just fine.

myrrrorb14_ESO wrote: »

Great post! Just started a NB tank and this should help me steer my character development. So far it's fun! Level 18.

I'm happy to help. There is a lot more that goes into it of course, but I don't presume anybody wants to read a novel (haha). I haven't put together my guide yet, but I hope to have one up at some point for people to reference for their own builds.

I'd be willing to offer more suggestions; if there's anything specific you want to know, just ask!

myrrrorb14_ESO wrote: »

I'm currently running with Willows Path and Oblivion. At least until I unlock Siphoning attacks.

Have you tried the Armor Master set? I'm thinking of running that with one of the Immovable morphs. Since the NB lacks a major Resolve / ward I thought this would go well.

I know the one of the NB passives offers 2 seconds after you spam an ability, but that doesn't seem reasonable.

I tested Armor Master as soon as it came out, and while I thoroughly enjoy the set, and find it highly beneficial, I would suggest using a different set if you plan to tank in full heavy armor. At this point in the game, there is no need to reach hard caps in armor/spell resistance. When I used Armor Master, my spell resistance was at 38k and my physical resistance was 34-35k, which is well over the hard cap. This means that using the set with heavy armor is actually wasteful, since doing so provides us with stats that are ineffective, when we could be putting those resources into something else like damage or healing.

I advocate for Armor Master for light and medium armor builds. These tank builds are already viable candidates for the armor skills like elude, harness magicka, and unstoppable, and utilizing these skills is one recommendation I would make, even without Armor Master. Since we are far less likely to reach the hard caps in a LA or MA tank build, Armor Master is far more useful.

Hist Bark is useless for a NB tank who uses Double Take or for any tank that uses Evasion, since they provide the same buff. If one intends to use Hist Bark, then swap these skills for something else. Personally, I prefer to use a different set and keep my skills. My NB tank runs 5 Footman, 5 Leeching, and 2 Endurance. In the absence of Leeching, I've found other magicka-based sets to be good alternatives - anything that provides magicka, recovery, and spell power is viable.

Edit: Forgot to address the Major Ward/Resolve point. If wearing full heavy armor, the duration of Major Ward and Resolve becomes 9 seconds after using a shadow ability. For single-target fights (bosses) it is very easy to keep this buff running - all you need to do is hit the boss with a shadow skill. That could mean using a surprise attack / concealed weapon, or casting refreshing path, or throwing in some shades. I would note here that it's really not necessary to add these skills in to take advantage of the passive unless you really want to. It follows the same logic as Armor Master in that, once you get high enough resistances, adding to them is a marginal benefit that faces diminishing returns.

Autolycus wrote: »

I've built both a magicka and a stamina NB tank, each of which is sustainable without a healer in all but SO and certain parts of HRC & AA. The full potential of each build is not accessible at your level, because ultimately you're going to need caltrops and vigor.

However, I have a few pointers to get you started. If you want to be able to primary heal on a whim, then I suggest making a magicka build. The beauty of NBs (despite the lack of a "burst" heal like BoL) is that healing scales off of damage dealt. Your primary self-heal in a magicka build will be Swallow Soul (or Funnel Health if you prefer the group-benefit approach). Dealing magic damage, it scales from CP passives like thaumaturge and elfborn. Blessed is a good option too, I have a few points in this as well.

The more Siphoning abilities you have on your bar, the more effective your heals are. In a primary healing role, all you'll ever need for most content is Sap Essence and Healing Springs. Slot skills like Siphoning Attacks for resource management and increased healing effectiveness, as well as Soul Tether for CC and healing effectiveness. Healing Ward and Mutagen/Rapid Regen are key for fights where the group is required to spread out. With high enough spell power and magicka, you will be able to sustain a large group without having to use Healing Springs.

My preference for tanking is to stack reduced block cost and high block mitigation. I do this through the use of Footman and Defensive Stance (1h+s) primarily, of which only Defensive Stance will be accessible to you until endgame. Bottomless resources are entirely possible as a NB tank, especially once you have Caltrops unlocked, but until then, Refreshing Path is a good alternative. Generally speaking, the larger the pull, the easier it is to manage your resources as a NB. The trade-off between NB tanks and other tanks is the lack of CC, such as Talons or Encase, though we are not completely without CC. I use fear to force ranged adds to move into the stack of adds.

Double-take is a must, and I prefer this morph for it's added mobility. It can easily take the place of a gap closer, since applying buffs prior to pulling is a common practice. Just cast your double-take for the buff, and the added movement makes it easy to close in quickly on enemies. For this reason, I don't use a gap closer, but instead rely on Inner Fire (ranged taunt) for scenarios in which moving to the enemy is less favorable.

Honestly, we could carry on this conversation for hours. I've been tweaking and modifying my NB for a long time, and he is in a position to do any role on a whim. He is capable of tanking bosses in full light armor while still healing the group and dealing damage simultaneously. It takes a lot of practice and patience, but it is entirely possible, so keep at it and you will be just fine.

Thank you SO MUCH! I'm going to look into all the abilities and morphs you mentioned ( as I'm not familiar to them all) and start on this uber-build you've built, this is a great relief that I can do both and am not limited! Cheers! Also as solid as your build sounds I think it would be awesome to see it as a featured build so others won't have to potentially go through so much trial and error and so much time spent to get something effective.