Magic DK tank

Duragon_Darko · May 2016

I've gone over is a million times, but every time I spec Stam, I never have enough magic for abilities. I've balanced out my attributes, and as Vet 4, with food, I have 19k in all three (magic, Stam, health) and I survive a lot better, can tank a lot better, and hold my own. Magic abilities as a tank have all the debuffs I need (slow, defense down, defense up for me, healing, self healing, etc.). Does anyone else feel the same and can you share your loadout? Cause when I tank with friends, they like how I do it, but when I tel them I'm magic, they all say I should switch to Stam. Again, tried it and failed, lol. Anyone else?

KingYogi415 · May 2016

I have no problem tanking with with a full magic build.

heavy chest and pants maybe more if you do not feel tanky enough.

The truth is being only tanky is not helpfull, you need to putting out dps and self healing.

proxy det inhale and batswarm help things move along along quickly.

Always keep resto staff on your back bar and duel wield/ sword and board on your front.

Spec everything into magick and bastion.

Cheers!

lathbury · May 2016

@hydrocynus this seems like a thread for you mate

Duragon_Darko · May 2016

Awesome. I do sword and board on both bars for now. Ransack, Coagulating Blood, Defensive Stance, Igneous Shield, Hardened Armor on one bar, with Reverbating Bash, Flame Lash, Draw Essence, Choking Talons, Burning Embers on the other.

If I bash, I can flame Lash twice (off balance enemy turns this into Power Lash) and get 5.5k in health back in 2 sec, not including the 25% bonus I get with Igneous Shield active, and Essence gives me 1k health each time I use it. I also hit every enemy I can with Burning Embers, since I get 75% of the 5.8k damage I do back in health, again, not including the 25% bonus to heals from Igneous Shield. After rooting the mobs with Talons, I will sometimes go in and Burning Ember 2 or 3 mobs at once and then grab taunts, even go for essence, and try and catch an off balanced mob with Power Lash and get back or heal back 15k in 10nsec without the Lash. In the thick of things, I can always hit Coagulating Blood and get an additional 8% healing received. The Talons serve the purpose of rooting as well as decreasing damage done to me by 15%, and Hardened Armor is always up.

I see what your saying though. Go with staff and get rid of bash, lash and possibly one more and go with Healing Ward and Rapid Regen I guess, right? @KingYogi415

KingYogi415 · May 2016

Duragon_Darko wrote: »

Awesome. I do sword and board on both bars for now. Ransack, Coagulating Blood, Defensive Stance, Igneous Shield, Hardened Armor on one bar, with Reverbating Bash, Flame Lash, Draw Essence, Choking Talons, Burning Embers on the other.

If I bash, I can flame Lash twice (off balance enemy turns this into Power Lash) and get 5.5k in health back in 2 sec, not including the 25% bonus I get with Igneous Shield active, and Essence gives me 1k health each time I use it. I also hit every enemy I can with Burning Embers, since I get 75% of the 5.8k damage I do back in health, again, not including the 25% bonus to heals from Igneous Shield. After rooting the mobs with Talons, I will sometimes go in and Burning Ember 2 or 3 mobs at once and then grab taunts, even go for essence, and try and catch an off balanced mob with Power Lash and get back or heal back 15k in 10nsec without the Lash. In the thick of things, I can always hit Coagulating Blood and get an additional 8% healing received. The Talons serve the purpose of rooting as well as decreasing damage done to me by 15%, and Hardened Armor is always up.

I see what your saying though. Go with staff and get rid of bash, lash and possibly one more and go with Healing Ward and Rapid Regen I guess, right? @KingYogi415

This is is you full respec for magic. If you stay stam at the very least you need a two hander on the back with rally and vigor.

You back bar you can still have harnessed magicka and bone shield. Back bar should be mostly buffs.

Use them before every fight, switch for the import ones during. The most we get as hybrid in this game is using tri-pot food after we go all magick or stam.

Cheers!

code65536 · May 2016

Duragon_Darko wrote: »

Cause when I tank with friends, they like how I do it, but when I tel them I'm magic, they all say I should switch to Stam. Again, tried it and failed, lol. Anyone else?

You need to find better friends, then.

But, seriously, there is nothing wrong with magicka tanking. And there are many tanks (myself included) who think that it's superior.

Baconfat79 · May 2016

Magicka DK tank works extremely well. If you are short on stam, you can just spam Igneous Shield to regain it. "Helping Hands" passive is amazing.

Duragon_Darko · May 2016

Thanks all, I appreciate the comments!

ethanthefox · May 2016

I went with 5 Seducer + 2 engine guardian + 3 willpower+ 2 death wind to reach both 30k res buffed. (Purple armor tho) All heavy , infused with tri-glyphs , tri-food. 22k mag,18k stam , 31k health, 1800 mag regen. On boss figths I usually alternate between igneous shield + another skill. Very supportive build that let plenty time for the healer to dps. No stam problems at all, no shards needed. Im an orc but I would race change to imperial for the bigger pool bonus.

Duragon_Darko · May 2016

5 seduced and 2 engine guardian, yea, so.... I'm only Vet 5, but is there a site that tells you all the different armor names and stats so a newb like me can know what is what and which armor is better?. lol. There are so many specific armor sets, seriously, just wow.

ethanthefox · May 2016

Check elder scrolls online wiki. You can use a lot of differents working setups for tanks in general. I was a tank stam oriented before, then made some dps gear, grinded to v16 and then switched to mag tank. Lot better setup for my Dk now

IcyDeadPeople · May 2016

@Escorpiao_Noturno has one of the most tanky builds I've seen, not sure if he has updated this for latest patch, though:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j54n1khPNbc

Escorpiao_Noturno · May 2016

IcyDeadPeople wrote: »

@Escorpiao_Noturno has one of the most tanky builds I've seen, not sure if he has updated this for latest patch, though:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j54n1khPNbc

Tks man... I used to be a good tank, but now with Thives Guild pach I can't tank 3 players.

You guys must see Severoni Draconis, some RED guy tanking. He is a really nice guy and the best tank so far on pvp.
And also he can kill a lot guys., even with tank build.

Also Vortexman is a another great tank. But he didn't shared his build for me. I asked many times.

Here i am tanking when I go emp... I miss those days

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jE5Xm4jiNaw

Dubhliam · May 2016

I'd like to share my mag DK build.

It is so much fun playing a mag DK tank, you never get bored, I don't stop casting skills in combat.
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12745480_675934265881565_3647165683893195895_n.jpg?oh=03a0f0c5715402800e8f74c0026dda89&oe=57A81D77

I recently changed my CPs a bit (to unlock Shield Expert), but all in all, this build is oriented so that you can easily swap into a magicka DD just by changing skills and gear (if I enter the dungeon as tank, otherwise I start the dungeon with Thief mundus).
DressingRoom addon FTW.
Edit: health/stamina food.

hydrocynus · May 2016

Please dont let people tell you that you must change to stamina because you dont have to.

I love tanking as a magicka tank and just feel for most of the DK skills that you have, it just makes more sense to me. I know many great Stamina tanks and they are awesome so this is not a Stamina vs Magicka thing.

For me, i like to ensure my stamina pool is large enough to support the few stamina skills and block/dodge roll when i need it. At V16 i have found the best balance for me has Magicka at about 30k, Health at 28.5k, and stamina then sits at about 19k.

My Stamina skills that i use are:
1) Pierce Armour - prefer this morph over Ransack as it gives bonus damage to party
2) Absorb magick - Good passives and a nice burst heal from magic damage
3) Shuffle - Used to add dodge chance and proc Armour master set (my main tanking set)

I sometimes put on Vigor or Heroic slash when they are needed in raids but as you can imagine i have to use Vigor sparingly. I wish i could use Caltrops for initial aggro but it wipes my stamina way too quickly so i prefer Eruption as it scales off magicka.

Besides that all the core Tanking skills i use are magic based so it makes sense.
My standard bars for most content look like this (both 1H&S - you dont need DW/2H on 2nd bar if you do it right):
1) Pierce Armour/Volatile Armour/Obsidian Shield/Absorb Magic/Harness Magicka/Horn
2) Inner Rage/Extended Chains/Eruption/Draw Essence/Shuffle/Banner

First bar is tanky bar second is CC/Damage bar.

Both bars always have an Earthen heart skill (Obsidian shield/Eruption) which are used for emergency stamina regain if required (you just spam them and an Earthen heart passive will return you stamina - cant remember which one it is).

Harness Magicka/Shuffle are on bars to proc armour master. Shuffle is great on trash as it means you dont have to block much and can move freely. Shuffle also makes my Armour master set equivalent to Hist bark without having to block.

First bar is boss & "Oh crap" bar, second is trash and "bosses you dont respect" bar.

On trash always open with Eruption for initial aggro (If you have less stamina issues you can use caltrops) then start chaining trash in use draw essence to keep yourself healed and reapply shuffle/Eruption when needed.

I noticed you mentioned applying burning embers to all mobs? Try draw essence - will give you nice burst heal from i think up to 6 mobs so you dont have to target each individual mob with burning embers (rather use the time to taunt and chain.

Other skills i use from time to time depending on situation are Talons, Fire Breath, Igneous Weapons, Burning embers.

For CP, key ones for me are Block Expert (75 or more), Arcanist, Magician, Warlord (a few). Rest of Warrior on The lady (Elemental Defender, Hardy, and Dot one i cant remember name) and a few in the extra healing one in lord.
Mage CP are done exactly like a DK Fire Mage would do ( i think elemental expert 73/thaumaturge 73/elfborn 18/spell erosion 3 but just look at a DK firemage build thread to get it). I believe this gives much nicer output than wasting 30 points in Atronach Constellation just for Riposte passive which is not great damage to be honest.

Gear i use:
my main setup is 2 Lord warden, 5 Armour MAster 5 Ebon (5H, 1M, 1L) but that is overkill for a lot of content. Nice for raids for the extra utilities for the group.
For pledges i like to go DD tank and have a set of Heavy Julianos/Torugs/Willpower/Skoria set but its just for fun. To be honest i am not sure it does much more damage than my main tank build.
I am also interested to try Sceptres eye set - Magicka way to proc same as hist bark is very nice idea and you dont have to block for that either! Just need the mats to try i guess. Seducer also nice for Magicka Sustain if you need - good in places like Dragonstar arena when you need as much magic as possible.

Glyphs on gear are mostly Tri stat glyphs mixed with some Magic/Stamina to get to the base stats i want above. With Ebon set you get to 28.5k health easy so no need for Lord Mundus so i use Mage Mundus to get more magicka. For me More than 28.5k health is overkill for all content i have done (everything except i have not finished vMoL so it may not be enough for that but handle the first boss ok on my build - never been past first boss so cant say)

There are many ways to do this tanking thing - the above is just mine and want to illustrate that you can be effective with 2 bars of 1h and Shield and also you can be very effective as a magicka tank.

Gargath · May 2016

Duragon_Darko wrote: »

I've gone over is a million times, but every time I spec Stam, I never have enough magic for abilities. I've balanced out my attributes, and as Vet 4, with food, I have 19k in all three (magic, Stam, health) and I survive a lot better, can tank a lot better, and hold my own.

I was also trying with different specs, but ended up with all attributes put into health with build based on max health and health regen, and even without any magicka and stamina points I have no problem with resources. Just needed to get used to proper use of abilities followed by heavy weapon attacks to help stamina restoration.
I'm now level36 Nord in Heavy Hist Bark armor 5 pcs. and Medium 2 pcs. Whitestrake (dagger, shield also Whitestrake). 2 pieces armor with impenetrable traits (460 on this stat in attributes).
All gears custom-made by me in purple quality, including purple enchantments (all stamina on armor, poison on dagger, health regen on necklace and rings - all healthy.
CP 3x96 so far from other characters - I put only into health regen, reduced cost of blocking and mighty.
I based my tank on 2 lowest cost offensive stamina skills and 3 supporting magicka:

1. Fiery Grip->Empowering chains for extra damage (Ardent Flame)
2. Puncture->Ransack for constant taunting (1H+Shield)
3. Searing Strike->Unstable Flame because of stamina and low cost (Ardent Flame)
4. Obsidian Shield->Igneous Shield for great defense (Earthen Heart)
5. Spiked Armor->Hardened Armor for great defense (Draconic Power)

Ultimate Dragon Leap->Take Flight for lower cost, better damage and more frequent use than others ulitmate, also it's my only aoe

.

With 1H+shield I use just one bar and do not need 2-nd one (I put 2H axe on 2-nd but only for levelling 2H for Momentum).
I also keep Dragon Blood from Draconic Power on 2-nd bar for self healing when things get ugly, but practically I don't need it.
My tactic is mainly on constant taunting and blocking, and because poor stamina/magicka my skills aren't powerful but by keeping bosses and mobs busy on me all the time, others from group usually kill them quite fast.

Btw. since lvl 33 to 36 I did so far 5 dungeons and didn't die yet. Others can also feel quite safe with me. If they died (very rare) it was usually from their unblocked headshot (happens to me too when dpsing) or boss who attacked templar using Radiant without blocking (weird is that when boss reacts to someones Radiant, my crazy taunts/bashes are ineffective for several seconds like boss was immune to taunts/bashes).
My scaled vet16 stats in dungeons are ~45k health and ~3,7k health regen.

PS. up to lvl32 I was playing with training traits on both armors, preparing this alt for tank from the beginning, so both armors' passives are almost filled up.

frownsyndromes · May 2016

this is a nice middle ground man i find with higher dps im alot more tanky due to heals from inhale increasing and more

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRJo7BRhkC8

DRXHarbinger · May 2016

Get yourself an infused master sword. 2200 health back for every shank you inflict plus healing passives, best tanking item in game.

Gargath · May 2016

Any way to obtain this awesome sword on lvl around 36?

Duragon_Darko · May 2016

All fantastic replies, and a few answers to other people's questions too! I love this community, extremely friendly and helpful. Keep it coming! Thanks again!

edopey · June 2016

@Dubhliam
Sorry for OT, but which addon is that, shown on a picture?

hydrocynus · June 2016

Hey dopey! Its called MyBuild

edopey · June 2016

@hydrocynus Thanks

Dubhliam · June 2016

edopey wrote: »

@Dubhliam
Sorry for OT, but which addon is that, shown on a picture?

Yeah, sorry for being a slowpoke, but @hydrocynus already answered.
It does not provide the skills in the picture though, those were photoshopped from Skill Calculator.