Nords make awesome tanks. It's your adventure play how you wanna play, instead of the cookie cutter BS and everyone running a copy and paste build

DK is most likely considered the strongest for tanking. Others do work and people make them work well, but DK has a lot of crowd control abilities with chains, talons etc. They also have a lot of passives that are advantageous for tanks (increased Spell Resist, increased block mitigation, increased healing received). Mountains Blessing provides a unique way to build ultimate. Battle Roar and 5% stam regen on using an Earthen Heart ability also gives them a good way to maintain resources, especially since you cannot regen stamina while blocking. Other classes can tank without a doubt, but DK is extremely strong for these reasons.

My friend has a Nord DK tank. It definitely performs well and the increased 6% resistance is nice, but I know if he had the option he would convert to Imperial. I am also building an Imperial DK tank. Dark Elf is strong. Redguard, Breton, or High Elf even would be decent options for various reasons.

IMO resources, especially stam and even magicka, are the most important thing for a tank. Even if you have a ton of resistance/health, if you cannot maintain your stamina and your block drops you are dead. Imperial is nice because the huge health bonus allows you to have a lot of health without investing a ton of attribute points/armor enchantments to obtain it, which allows to invest in a large stam pool which allows you to block longer. My build will focus on a large stam pool and reduced block cost, with good magic regen so that I can spam igneous when needed to regen stam.

There are a lot of different ways to go about it, and if you really enjoy a Nord, play a Nord. But it may not be the strongest option because it does not provide much in the way of resources.

MrTarkanian48 wrote: »

DK is most likely considered the strongest for tanking. Others do work and people make them work well, but DK has a lot of crowd control abilities with chains, talons etc. They also have a lot of passives that are advantageous for tanks (increased Spell Resist, increased block mitigation, increased healing received). Mountains Blessing provides a unique way to build ultimate. Battle Roar and 5% stam regen on using an Earthen Heart ability also gives them a good way to maintain resources, especially since you cannot regen stamina while blocking. Other classes can tank without a doubt, but DK is extremely strong for these reasons.

My friend has a Nord DK tank. It definitely performs well and the increased 6% resistance is nice, but I know if he had the option he would convert to Imperial. I am also building an Imperial DK tank. Dark Elf is strong. Redguard, Breton, or High Elf even would be decent options for various reasons.

IMO resources, especially stam and even magicka, are the most important thing for a tank. Even if you have a ton of resistance/health, if you cannot maintain your stamina and your block drops you are dead. Imperial is nice because the huge health bonus allows you to have a lot of health without investing a ton of attribute points/armor enchantments to obtain it, which allows to invest in a large stam pool which allows you to block longer. My build will focus on a large stam pool and reduced block cost, with good magic regen so that I can spam igneous when needed to regen stam.

There are a lot of different ways to go about it, and if you really enjoy a Nord, play a Nord. But it may not be the strongest option because it does not provide much in the way of resources.

I agree with a lot of this but I think you should add Orc to the lineup. Orc has a little less attributes than the Imperial, but it has the Robust passive giving a nice steady flow of health regen (like Nord), and it is a little more aggressive with its +4% Weapon Damage. The thing that really makes it stand out though is the mobility with its greater speed and sprint cost reduction. Do with that what you will. Either way I think Orc at the very least deserves honorable mention here.

It is about the build you are using . For example , I have insane mitigation so I don't need much Max Health . So I choose Dunmer for pushing my Magicka and Stamina further . 25.2k Health , 17,5k Magicka , 29.8k Stamina .

If you are using a Max Health , Max Stamina build ; you should go with Imperial . Choose your build and decide the race after that .

nord dk makes a solid tank. i have one.

MrTarkanian48 wrote: »

dodgehopper_ESO wrote: »

MrTarkanian48 wrote: »

DK is most likely considered the strongest for tanking. Others do work and people make them work well, but DK has a lot of crowd control abilities with chains, talons etc. They also have a lot of passives that are advantageous for tanks (increased Spell Resist, increased block mitigation, increased healing received). Mountains Blessing provides a unique way to build ultimate. Battle Roar and 5% stam regen on using an Earthen Heart ability also gives them a good way to maintain resources, especially since you cannot regen stamina while blocking. Other classes can tank without a doubt, but DK is extremely strong for these reasons.

My friend has a Nord DK tank. It definitely performs well and the increased 6% resistance is nice, but I know if he had the option he would convert to Imperial. I am also building an Imperial DK tank. Dark Elf is strong. Redguard, Breton, or High Elf even would be decent options for various reasons.

IMO resources, especially stam and even magicka, are the most important thing for a tank. Even if you have a ton of resistance/health, if you cannot maintain your stamina and your block drops you are dead. Imperial is nice because the huge health bonus allows you to have a lot of health without investing a ton of attribute points/armor enchantments to obtain it, which allows to invest in a large stam pool which allows you to block longer. My build will focus on a large stam pool and reduced block cost, with good magic regen so that I can spam igneous when needed to regen stam.

There are a lot of different ways to go about it, and if you really enjoy a Nord, play a Nord. But it may not be the strongest option because it does not provide much in the way of resources.

I agree with a lot of this but I think you should add Orc to the lineup. Orc has a little less attributes than the Imperial, but it has the Robust passive giving a nice steady flow of health regen (like Nord), and it is a little more aggressive with its +4% Weapon Damage. The thing that really makes it stand out though is the mobility with its greater speed and sprint cost reduction. Do with that what you will. Either way I think Orc at the very least deserves honorable mention here.

I won't disagree regarding Orc as a completely viable option. The stat bonuses are nice, but they are less than Imperial. However, health recovery is kind of a non-factor in the game. Base health recovery is 309 at V16. If you run Engine Guardian you get an additional 129 totaling to 438.

Orcs get a 20% bonus, so 438*1.2 = 526

526-438 = 88

So an Orc gains an additional 88 health every 2 seconds, or 880 every 20 seconds.

Considering how effective heal over times are in this game, as well as how most incoming damage is over 4 digits, I would say that it would be very unlikely that the additional 88 every 2 seconds would save your life. Also Imperial has a 10% chance to restore 1000 health on melee hits. Hypothetically if I weave 10 melee hits over 20 seconds and get one proc I have better health recovery than Orc.

Regarding the 4% extra melee damage, it would most likely come out ahead for damage, but as an Imperial you would have more stamina which would offset the difference to some degree.

I guess I just assumed that the OP was talking about PVE tanking (Dungeons etc.). Now if this was a Tanky PVP build I think Orc would be one of the best for the mobility. I just don't see many tanks sprinting around dungeons too often.

You are right in your assessment I think, I just felt Orc deserved at least an honorable mention here. There are times when sprinting out of a big aoe isn't such a bad thing either. The added damage output is a nice bonus as well in that it helps you keep attention/aggro. What I like about Robust vs. Red Diamond is that Robust is always on, and Red Diamond only gets good numbers if you are able to spam a lot of light melee attacks. If you are in a scenario where you have to hold your shield up a lot, or fight from ranged (which a lot of boss mechanics and pvp scenarios require) Robust wins every time. This is why I think the arguments for Nord vs. Orc. vs. Imperial each have their merits. I'd mention Argonian but I really don't think that race stacks up to these three, even with recent buffs. I say this as someone who has always liked Argonians, whose first ever TES character was an Argonian in Morrowind, and who plays a v16 Nightblade Argonian with some regularity. The thing that rubs me wrong about Argonian is that I feel like the stats push you in a direction that doesn't fit the theme of the race as portrayed in the past. Swim speed is nice but really doesn't get much opportunity to shine in this game like it did in previous TES (waterbreathing would be huge here). Poison/Disease resistance are slightly okay, but Bosmers get that and better Stealth, something Argonians are historically good at. The incoming health and potion return are fairly okay as well, but as I see it with CP options and potion recharge times they don't really shine all that much.

Imperials are good for every kind of tank, and Breton and Dunmer are good for Magicka tanks.
Nord should be okay, I wouldn't say it's exactly optimal but it's decent and you won't be losing out on much.

Don't roll Nord.

Play what you like every race has its own unique style that brings something to the table. There's no need to min max tanking there's a lot of flexibility with tanking now. Just figure out what kind of tank build you want to run and build around that.

Oompuh wrote: »

Imperial DK

For 4 men dungeons magika NB breton or altmer (you do not need high survival or specific CC there and such tank will invest good for group DPS and healing that also will allow healer to invest in DPS too).
For vDSA - imperial DK for best survival and chains.

RiverDan wrote: »

Not trying to hijack your thread. But I have a question on Tanks. Hope this is cool.

During the double XP week I made an Imperial DK. Got him to Vet 1. Reading this thread I should be able to respec him to a stamina build and make him a tank. Is this correct?
Should he use heavy armor?

This is my second character. My first is a Templar healer.

Thanks.

Yes . For PvE ; 5 Heavy , 1 medium , 1 light . For PvP , go with 5 or 7 medium . Heavy sucks in PvP .

Breton

Magicka Sorc or NB

So, if someone were going to tank with a Magicka build in PvE, would Heavy Armor be advisable?

And how would you allocate attributes?

I apologize in advance if these questions are noob-level.