heavy armor black rose works well for a stam build

AlnilamE wrote: »

My Templar tank runs 5 Armor Master, 5 Pariah and 2 Bloodspawn. I've not tried Engine Guardian yet so I can't compare, but I should set her up with that and see how it goes.

Now, she is mainly specced as Tank, with the majority of her points in Health, but if you are a stam DK, I don't think it would be a problem for you to have all points in stam instead.

How is Pariah? Is the 5pc any good, since as a tank you're rarely ever missing any health..

DangerMan wrote: »

AlnilamE wrote: »

My Templar tank runs 5 Armor Master, 5 Pariah and 2 Bloodspawn. I've not tried Engine Guardian yet so I can't compare, but I should set her up with that and see how it goes.

Now, she is mainly specced as Tank, with the majority of her points in Health, but if you are a stam DK, I don't think it would be a problem for you to have all points in stam instead.

How is Pariah? Is the 5pc any good, since as a tank you're rarely ever missing any health..

The 5 piece is lousy, you have to have your health so low for it to kick in significantly that it's numerically worthless. I don't remember the numbers exactly, but a forum search for that set should bring up the tests done on it.

Ideally, a full Tank will be at or near Max resistance (physical and spell) with Major and Minor buffs already so gimick sets like Armor Master and Pariah are not that great. Just for example, I put together a DK tank that's still just in purple gear since DB launched and he's right on the brink of both resistance caps without a single Champion Point spent on increasing Heavy Armor resistance. Getting your resistance up is pretty easy, managing your Stamina and/or Magicka is the "hard" part of tanking these days (in my opinion).

5 Tavas 2 Bloodspawn for exceptional unti gen and max uptime on aggressive warhorn.

I just use 5 piece medium Twice Born, 2 Bloodspawn (light and heavy for undaunted), 3 endurance jewellery and Oblivion's Foe for sword and board. Then health and stam regen for mundus stones. Works for me.

If you think your DK is a little squishy then Armour Master could work but personally I think as an off tank you should be taking advantage of your underlying DD.

For tanking vet dungeons and old trials / normal modes you don't need any special defensive gear. So I would choose some sets that help supporting my group like tava (+ using warhorns), ebon, alkosh or powerful assault.
Since you will most likely have no cp in block cost reduction if you have them specced for dps, you should probably get sturdy on some of the small armour parts.

I'm currently experimenting with 5 dreugh king slayer 4 lamae and 3 kvatch seems to have a good offensive whilst retaining that tanky feel on my DK

Just slot a taunt and a shield if you're not doing end game. My Templar tanks and heals at the same time still and his CP's are allocated for PvP. Its easy.

DangerMan wrote: »

So, between my 5 v16 characters I have everything but a tank.

My main character is a Stam DK DPS and I'm planning to have him set up as an off-tank. I know I won't be end-game ready, and I'm not planning to run vMoL as a tank on him, but I just want something that can tank vet dungeons and some of the easier trials. Having run everything multiple times I'm more than familiar with the mechanics of 90% of the PvE content. I also have enough skill points to get all the skills and passives necessary for DPS and Tanking.

What tanking sets should I run to minimize any respec'ing of champions points (currently allotted as a DPS). 5pc Armor Master & 2pc Engine Guardian? Or should I take the 2pc Bloodspawn and 5pc Tava's Favor route since I'm a DK? Are there any other better sets?

@DangerMan ,
a DK, experienced from other roles, not vMoL and you are at CP cap

I guess you do not want to experiment and are aiming for a more conventional build with some group support you can deliver.
So my two cents for a conventional build:

As base case for your group support I would suggest: good Ultimate gain to keep up for example Agressive Warhorn.
My second suggestion for good group support is to have enough Resources.
Either for Magicka Talons/Chains/heal or for more taunts / Stamina DPS.

I would go for Hist Bark and Footman as main set up.
Use either Engine Guardian or Bloodspawn depending on the kind of fight.
Use swapping kind of Jewelry enchants depending on the kind of fight (see below for details).


Details:

S&B is the obvious Weapon choice, also because you get since DB 36% Block cost reduction (instead of 30%).
Defensive trait for 2.5k Resist.

For the group Tank role HA is the obvious Armor choice because of mainly the Constitution passive. The benefit of higher Health and Healing Received means that you can put a bit more Attribute points in the other stats.

If you can allow for tri-stat Armor enchants and Legendary level, it will always help ofc, but imo at CP cap not really needed.

Pariah is good for solo PVE, ok for PVP, and not good enough for a raid Tank role, because you want to be above 90% Health.
I did testing on it: you get roughly 2.5k at 0% Health loss and then 850 Resist per 10% Health lost.
Post #76 in https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/comment/2819444#Comment_2819444

A DK greatly benefits from an Armor set with Evasion when several enemies are hitting you.
A Dodge means no Stamina Block costs incurred, besides the on average 20% less Damage.

So.. Armor Master + MA Evasion morph is a viable possibility, but Hist Bark is much more simple to handle. Saving a slot and Stamina costs, which you can better use for Heroic Slash to get Minor Maim and more Ultimates gain.

At high CP, you will have enough CP in Hardy and Elemental Defender to use Sturdy traits on ALL your Armor pieces except your Chest and your Shield. Because the Shield Expert is since DB in "The Lady" like Hardy and Elemental Defender you get the max Resist benefit for no additional CP. For Shield Nirn is slightly better than Re-Inforced (not really worth the Gold).

The savings you get by this on your Stamina Block costs are so good that you can now adapt the kind of Jewelry enchants to the kind of raid you are doing:
With many enemies hitting you, you use more Block cost saving enchants, Saving Stamina Block costs, needing less Obsidian Shields casted to get Stamina back from the passive Helping Hands. Netting in more resources for group support or self heals.
With less enemies hitting you, or only one enemy hitting you, and the improved HA Constitution passive, you can use more Magicka Recovery/Cost saving enchants.

So with some swapping of Jewelry per fight you can adapt your build easily to your feel, to your liking and the kind of fight !

The same adaptation toggle for different fights you have with Engine Guardian and Bloodspawn.

EDIT:
Black Rose is against multiple enemies hitting your Block the lesser choice compared to Hist Bark, because you will need too many of your resources to keep up your block.