Deltia wrote: »

Hello,

I posted this build on my website here but wanted to share it on the forums as well.

Welcome to The Tava's Tank a Dragonknight Tank Build for ESO. In this guide we will cover everything you need to know about DK tanking. This will be the permanent updated home for T3 so make sure to bookmark and check back for updates.

https://youtu.be/NUkLZWlrw9g

Objective
I wanted to do something different with my tank with an offensive focus, ultimate generating, group utility juggernaut . The idea behind T3 (The Tava's Tank) for the Thieves Guild is generating ultimate with the Tava's Favor set. Additionally, we will be using many buffs in our rotation to help the overall team. This build is designed for group dungeon PvE content, not solo or leveling but end game tanking. I've tanked with this build through nearly every challenge in the game, Vet White Gold Tower / Prison, the new Trial Maw of Lorkhaj, Dragonstar Arena and more. If you're looking for something different than you're old typical Blocknight, give this a try.

+ Ultimate generation like crazy
+ Group utility with buffs/debuffs
+ Massive resource pool and regeneration with Battle Roar
- Not good for solo play
- Not easy to play with many buffs

Skill


SKILLS LINK HERE


Sword and Shield Bar One - Meant for "Chains & Bang," control, taunting and healing.

• Unrelenting Grip (morph of Fiery Grip | Ardent Flame skill line) - A 22 meter range pull that refunds magicka if it doesn't pull. Basically a free spammable ability on bosses or recently pulled targets. I consider Chains and Bang a must have for any DK tank unless tanking a solo boss. This morph is great due to the nature of magicka refund and can be spammed if all your buffs are up.
• Pierce Armor (morph of Puncture | One-Hand and Shield skill line) - A debuff and taunt costing stamina. The debuff is fantastic for helping strip armor and spell resistance adding up to a lot of damage. However, Inner Rage (Undaunted skill) is also very powerful considering the Synergy can do upwards of 100k damage! As I play an Orc DK for my tank, I take the stamina based taunt and find it valuable.
• Choking Talons (morph of Dark Talons | Draconic skill line) - I still love Talons because of it's control, damage reduction on mobs and the synergy hits extremely hard. Considering the new Trial Maw and it's sets focus on synergies, it's a most have still. If you have extra magicka, consider using this on a boss too. While they my not be "Talons" in place, the debuff will still persist.
• Defensive Stance (morph of Defensive Posture | One-Hand and shield skill line) - A block reduction cost and damage mitigation is a must have on my main Taunt bar. Combine this with Footman's Fortune set for a whooping 20% block damage reduction.
• Resolving Vigor (morph of Vigor | Alliance War Assault skill line) - An AoE self/group heal from the PvP skill line. I consider self-healing an important part of tanking and to NOT being reliant on a healer when in a pinch. Not to mention this can heal and save your team from death makes it a must have.
  ALTERNATIVE - Deep Breath (morph of Inhale) - A great magic based self-heal is Deep Breath. The down side is it requires targets to hit in order to heal, but the up side is it acts as a AoE interrupt. When I tank on my magicka based Dunmer, I use this but prefer a stamina based heal/build on my Orc.
• [Ultimate] Aggressive War Horn (morph of War Horn | Alliance War Assault skill line) - This is a must have tank Ultimate, "horny time fun time" as Parfax would say. The amount of damage this provides the party is absurd and it's what we focus our build around for that reason. No it will not show up on your individual DPS counter, but if you want dungeon clears to go from hard to easy mode, cast this on boss encounters. With a 250 ultimate cost and our Dragonknight Battle Roar passive this acts like a Tri-Pot on steroids giving us near full resources (from empty). In a four player dungeons, a healer and I can keep this 100% of the time during a boss fight, making the encounter go much faster thus much smoother. You really really really want Aggressive not Sturdy Warhorn. The extra critical hit damage at the start provides a dramatic increase in damage. Lastly, don't use this on meaningless trash pulls. It's meant for burning bosses and mini-bosses not a 200 HP spider. Only cast if you're about to die for resources, otherwise save it.

Sword and Shield Bar Two - Meant for buffs and debuffs along with ranged taunt if needed.

• FLEX - Engulfing Flame (morph of Fiery Breath | Ardent Flame skill line) - Seems like an odd skill to have here right? But if you think about it, nearly ALL DPS builds these days have some type of fire damage. Shooting Star an ultimate used by nearly all DPS, fire damage. Stamina builds use Scorched Earth, magicka builds use Wall of Elemental, Force Pulse and the list goes on and on. Image giving your team a 10% bonus to those abilities? You can just by casting this. The trick is not to over cast and swap it out if there's another DK. This isn't your #1 priority as a tank, but can greatly benefit the party.
  Alt #1) Inner Rage (morph of Inner Fire | Undaunted skill line) - Some fights require a ranged taunt (Maw for instances) in these cases, swap this out for Inner Rage and let the other DKs in your party apply this buff.
  Alt #2) Igneous Shield (morph of Obsidian Shield | Earthen Heart skill line) - If you want ultra healing, combine Igneous Shields with Vigor or Deep Breath for a powerful heal due to major mending.
  Alt #3) Eruption (morph of Ash Cloud | Earthen Heart skill line) - This is a good way to get aggro on mobs from range since Razor Caltrops no longer functions this way.
• Igneous Weapons (morph of Molten Weapons | Earthen Heart skill line) - Another useful buff that we run for the party allowing us to constantly maintain major Sorcery and major Brutality (20% spell/weapon damage). It's AoE, has a great range, long duration and ultimate generation every 6 seconds. Plus it gives us back stamina and can be spammed casted. Lastly this also grants the party Minor brutality as well. I cast this often during and after combat for ultimate generation due to Mountains Blessing passive.
• Elude (morph of Evasion | Medium Armor skill line) - We must have some sort of dodge chance to proc our Tava's Blessing gear enabling us to gain massive ultimate, well this is the skill. The choice for morphs is on you, for PvP I love shuffle for removal of snares. However, if you plan on using medium armor (I prefer light on stamina race) then extra duration mean less stamina usage. Keep this up 100% of the time, you're character should always look grey like a shadow.
• Volatile Armor (morph of Spiked Armor | Draconic Power skill line) - Our major source of spell/physical resistances that also does a slight bit of AoE damage on cast. I like to use this in combination with Choking Talons during AoE trash pulls to gain a lot of aggro at the start. Consider this the second most important buff to maintain 100% of the time. Your character should now look grey and have spikes on their back at all times.
• Heroic Slash (morph of Low Slash | One-Hand and Shield skill line) - Another ultimate generation tool plus a damage debuff that last 9 seconds (twice as long as Choking Talons). You can also spam cast this for a little bit of extra damage, just make sure you're over 25% stamina for next encounter. The ultimate generation is very noticeable and you'll be casting Horn left right and center.
• [Ultimate] Take Flight (morph of Dragon Leap | Draconic Power skill line) - Really any low cost ultimate ability can go here or Magma Shell if you want a panic button. However, I love this ability for burst damage, an AoE stun and a flood of resources if I'm about to die and don't have 250 ultimate. Even on a tank, this hits like a truck.

Buffs
Elude - 20% dodge chance 20 seconds
Volatile Armor - major resistances 20 seconds
Igneous Weapons - major Brutality and Sorcery mainly for your party 39 seconds
Defensive Stance - reflect on range magic attacks not arrows or physical 30 seconds

Debuffs
Pierce Armor - taunt so mobs beat on you not your allies 15 seconds
Heroic Slash - damage debuff 9 seconds
Engulfing Flame - fire damage debuff 10 seconds

Rotation

• As you can see, we got a lot of buffs/debuffs above that we maintain. Keep in mind priorities, if you have 10% stamina it's more important to keep Elude and Pierce Armor up than Defensive Stance and Heroic Slash, prioritization makes this build work. So here's how I go about doing it.
• Cast Igneous Weapons, Defensive Stance and close the gap into a pack of mobs or boss.
• As soon as I get into the tick of things, I Talons, Volatile Armor and Pierced Armor individual targets (usually I pot a potion at this time as well)
• Next up is get massive ultimate generating with Heroic Slash on the most threatening mob
• Now I cast Engulfing Flame on the group for a damage debuff

Then you've come to the point of prioritization. Need stamina? First option is potion, next is spam cast Igneous Weapons. Ask yourself, am I grey appearance with spikes on my back? If not, Elude/Volatile Armor. Do I have extra stamina? Heroic Slash and rebuff Defensive Stance. It takes some time, when in doubt taunt targets and keep your basic buffs up. Warhorn at the beginning of boss fights and possibly another time (I can do 3x during Lord Warden).

Gear




25,000 health (you don't need 60k to be a good tank) > 20,000 stamina > 33,000 Physical and Spell Resistances buffed (Volatile Armor / Blood Spawn) > Rest in magicka

• Blood Spawn - Obtained in Spindleclutch (helm only) and shoulder via Undaunted Pledges. This gives a heap of ultimate for getting beat on which we will. The extra resistance is also nice combined with our Major Resolve and Ward for over 10,000 physical and spell resistance.
• You shouldn't be struggling with resources but if you are, Engine Guardian is another option. However, you'll be sacrificing a great deal of ultimate generation which is what the build is hinged on. Stick with Blood Spawn if at all possible.
• Tava's Favor - A 5 trait craftable set found in Hew's Bane the new Thieves Guild area. This is an absolute monster combined with Major Evasion and there's really no substitute.
• Footman's - I still consider good old VR14 Footman's a tanks dream due to the block mitigation and basic resistance it provides. If VR ranks are removed, I image this will once again be Best in Slot. A lot of people use Pariah though I've never been found of it nor any other five piece with jewelry.
  ALT Glorious Defender - This can only be obtained in Veteran Maelstrom Arena and it puts an interesting twist on this tank. You have to be more active, but are rewarded with more dodging thus more ultimate. However, you'll lack a lot of mitigation needed for tanking the biggest and nastiest bosses in the game. Your choice, but Footman's is a safe and proven choice over Glorious Defender.

• Armor Traits - I prefer Reinforced on large pieces such as Head, Chest and Legs and Divines on smaller to boost my magicka regeneration (Atronach Mundus Stone). Remember there is a hardcap on armor and spell resist which I think is 33,000, not 100% sure. So anymore than that is overkill (when buffed). Same with health, you don't need 60,000 health as this is about buffing/debuffing not being a bag of HP that can't cast or do anything.
• Glyphs - I haven't tested out Prismatic glpyhs yet because frankly I don't have the gold for them (accepting donations . So I strip my character down without attributes, then see what I need to add based on my racial boss (max stats to health, stamina and magicka). On my weapons I go with stamina absorb on my main taunt bar because Pierce Armor can proc this every 5 seconds and a weakening glyph on my back Sword that reduces targets weapon damage. Lastly don't forget the important of reduced block cost enchants on your jewelry. Remember we aren't regenerating stamina while block so there's little put in running that.
• Food - Since we are going for max stats on all there resource pools, purple quality tri-stat food only makes sense.
• Potions - You guessed it, tri-potions. No it's not cheap but you'll hardly ever run out of resources.
• Attributes - It's going to be different on nearly every person. Truly worry about max numbers NOT attributes. As an Orc, with Undaunted max I have 32/0/32 split. That will be much different than a Bosmer or an Imperial.

Champion Points


LINK HERE
RED
Steed - 75 CP into block cost reduction mainly to get the important Shield Expert passive.
Lord - Second most important is getting that physical resistance up near hard cap with Heavy Armor Focus.
Lady - Next I do a three way split between Elemental Defender, Thick Skinned and Hardy. If anything left over, I dump into the Lord Quick Reocvery for a bit of extra healing.

BLUE
Offensively it's not that important where we spend our CP. However, there's the Last Stand passive in the Ritual and another helpful passive, Riposte in Atronach. I then spend whatever is left on Blessed for more self healing with Vigor.

GREEN
REMEMBER, we do not regeneration stamina while blocking. It's important to have some, but I prefer reduced stamina cost and magicka recovery because we can regenerate that while blocking.
Tower - 30 reduced stamina cost, 55 into reduced magicka cost.
Lover - 67 into Arcanist for magicka and 15 into Mooncalf for stamina recovery.

Mundus, Race and More

Mundus Stone - I highly prefer the Atronach as I play as an Orc and have zero benefit to magicka. Additionally, 5/2 heavy to light ratio will help you being able to cast more. I don't go wild with health so this is the only option for me as I can hit hard cap in resist when buffed.
Racial Choice - 1) Nord, damage mitigation and health, it's meant for a tank period. 2) Imperial a heap of massive stats please self healing off melee attacks. 3) Argonian self-healing, great resource return on potions and max health.
"Deltia, can I be X race and tank?" Yep, I do it on a Orc and it works just fine. You need to find what your races strengths are and work around your weaknesses. A High Elf can make a fine DK tank, just need to spec more into magicka, health and change abilities.
Werewolf or Vampire - I don't really see a benefit to either for PvE tanking so I don't use it.


That concludes the The Talons Tank - Dragonknight Tank Build for ESO. Leave me a comment on what you think and if you're using it, how is it working? This took a very long time to produce because I wanted to center it on something different but effective. I hope you enjoyed this build, thanks for reading.