Help My Tank

MasterGohan · June 2016

Hey all!

I'm looking to build a tank. But I've never played as a tank before so I've got a few questions.

1. What is the roll of a tank in battle? Like what does the tank actually do?
2. What skills are useful/advantageous to tanking?
3. What kind of enchantments should I use?
4. What armor sets work well for tanking?
5. Where should I distribute my attribute points?

Any and all information will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Nestor · June 2016

1. Tanks main purpose is to draw and keep Aggro on the Boss and if possible, the Adds. But, the Adds are really the DPS's job to take out, then they foucus on Burning down the Boss while you aggro it. While doing so, the Tank should try to kite the boss into a position so that it can't attack the DPS, like turning it away from the other group mates so their directional and cone attacks don't hit the other members. Also, the Tank is usually the one who knows the mechanics of the Boss and coaches the group on how to approach the fight.
2. Taunt skills is key, along with Crowd Control skills, and damage mitigation techniques/skills. One Handed Shield has a Taunt Skill, and Undaunted has a ranged Taunt skill. Nice to have a Dodge skill or an armor set that provides it
3. Health
4. Hist Bark, Allesia's Bulwark are a couple, but other tankers may have some better ideas.
5. Health, and possibly Stamina.

Here are some other thoughts

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/261125/how-to-gauge-success-as-a-tank

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/256178/tank-gear-setups-and-tips-for-newcomers-to-the-field/p1

MasterGohan · June 2016

Thank you for the info. I'll definitely check out those links. I appreciate you helping me out!!

MuddledMuppet · June 2016

Great info from @Nestor I'll add some:

For your build, it's R&R time. No, not rest and recuperation silly! Resistences and resources.

It doesn't matter how much pure health you have, with low resistences it'll get burned away quickly and place a massive strain on your healer, I aim for 33k for intense fights. (Cap?) These come from champion point allocation, abilities, passives and armour sets, explore all your options there.

If you run out of resources you can't block attacks, taunt or break CC, identify your weaknesses in resources and know what abilities you can use to make these back, I would look at a poison guide as some poisons now can help with return. Consider drinks if you can get high enough health, (35k?) Or Orsinium delicacies.

Mitigating damage comes from a variety of sources, blocking, mobility, dodging, abilities being the main. You don't regen stam when blocking, so it's useful to know how else to reduce Inc damage. Always be on the look for heavy damage telegraphs.

I am a magica night blade tank, vampire too lol so how I do things may be different, but I generally taunt as much as i can then use refreshing path/mist form to get away from all the alpha strikes, use siphoning attacks with resto staff with stamina drain poison to regain resources, I also use engine guardian which is a massively useful tanking set.

Once you have your survivability sorted, you need to look at what else you can do to help the team, I generate a lot of ultimate and blast out aggressive war horn for boss fights, if adds are problematic I use soul siphon four aoe stun. You need debuffs especially for bosses, explore your abilities, you need to reduce their resistance and reduce their damage.

Have either a gap closer or chains to disrupt enemy healers etc.

I probably should have said earlier, but always buff up before fights, and try to identify when you can switch bars four buffs etc.

Carry a DPS set for certain fights where bosses can't be tanked and DPS will help the group more.

Read a guide for each dungeon if not familiar with mechanics.

Hope that helps, any questions feel free to ask and good luck!

Edit: don't 'over-taunt' bosses! That can enrage them and you lose agro, no more than three taunts in 15 seconds

Autolycus · June 2016

MasterGohan wrote: »

Hey all!

I'm looking to build a tank. But I've never played as a tank before so I've got a few questions.

1. What is the roll of a tank in battle? Like what does the tank actually do?
2. What skills are useful/advantageous to tanking?
3. What kind of enchantments should I use?
4. What armor sets work well for tanking?
5. Where should I distribute my attribute points?

Any and all information will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

I can answer your more basics questions, as others have done, but it might be more beneficial for you overall if you have some idea of which class/race you want to play. Even if you haven't decided on a single class/race you like best, narrowing it down to a few options and telling us here what you are considering can be very beneficial, because we'd then be able to outline the pros/cons of each option for you.

Since @Nestor gave you a good summary of your specific questions already, I'll just add to it some supplementary points:
1. Tanks are also becoming more than just a bulwark. With each patch they become stronger support roles, above and beyond holding aggro. Certain sets, glyphs, skills, poisons, etc. will boost the strength of your entire party, and the more of these support functions you can fill as a tank, the better off your group is in any type of content (note that this is most prominent in trials). Examples include Crushing enchants, Pierce Armor, Alkosh, War Horn, Stalwart Guard, and Vulnerability Poison. Various buffs, like Igneous Weapons (for DK tanks), can be run by the tank so that dps can put something else on their bar(s).
2. Make use of both taunts, not just one. As you get more experience with your build, you'll make better use of each. I recommend using the magicka version of Inner Fire to avoid using too much stamina, which is what Pierce Armor uses. Aside from taunts, it is very important to keep Major Evasion active. If you're a NB, you can use Blur. If you're any other class, you can use Evasion (medium armor).
3. Glyphs vary with gear choice. The safest bet is to go with Health, but as you get more familiar with the build, your total health pool can be cut back to afford better sustainability, self-heals, support skills, etc. When you've become familiar with your build and have had some practice, you can afford to go as low as 25-26k total health. At this point, you can trade your health glyphs for Prismatic Glyphs (boosts all three stats) or go straight into magicka or stamina enchants, depending on your build.
4. The #1 tanking set right now is Tava's Favor. Almost all of the end-game tanking builds (for any class) use this for progression content. It isn't necessary in 4man dungeons, but it still helps considerably. Other sets to consider include: Footman (dragonstar arena), Hist Bark (crafted), Alkosh (trial set), Sunderflame (city of ash), Allessia's Bulwark (crafted), and Bahraha's Curse (thieves guild quests).
5. This one is really complicated, and this post is lengthy already. I have a guide on NB tanking, and my main tank for trials has a DK tanking guide, in which we both detail possible CP allocations. Here are the links, and you can explore those to get a better understanding of CP:
My Guide
Zegota's Guide

MasterGohan · June 2016

Oh man! I love it! This is all good stuff. Thanks @Autolycus, @MuddledMuppet, @Nestor.

So some more info: I am a Dark Elf DK, level 29.

devilsTear · June 2016

Is over taunting really a thing?

MuddledMuppet · June 2016

MasterGohan wrote: »

Oh man! I love it! This is all good stuff. Thanks @Autolycus, @MuddledMuppet, @Nestor.

So some more info: I am a Dark Elf DK, level 29.

Glad it's been useful!

@Autolycus has some great info in his guide, well worth a read. I do things slightly differently, my build being less dependent on skill, arguably his approach is for high-skilled end game very experienced tanks.

My reasoning being, if tank goes down, it will often lead to a team-wipe, thus I use engine guardian instead of blood spawn: more survivability, less uptime on war horn.

I use armour master and baharas, slotting immovability to procs it. This places me at resistance cap, combined with judicial use of mist form I can be virtually unkillable.

From this all I would take: build for your weaknesses and your strengths, keep pushing the envelope towards group utility but only to the point where your healer isn't a buff-bot for you. Carefully examine all your passives as well as skills, see what passives give the team minor buffs etc, I am not familiar with dk tanking, but here's an example from nb view.

If I use the one-hand and shield taunt, not only does it taunt but it reduces bosses spell and physical resistance, thus more damage inflicted by the team. If I use inner fire as ranged taunt, I lose that debuff, so I make sure I use mark target to achieve the same result.

My setup is usually:

All attributes in mag, tri-glyphs on major pieces of armour, mag on smaller. Purple food (gold food is awesome but expensive!) I use the lord mundus for health, I like to have mine at 30k minimum. (Kudos to those who manage with less!) Jewellery glyphs I use 2 flame resist for high fire content, magic regen otherwise.if not vamp you won't need those.

One hand and shield
Immovable, poison mist, refreshing path, pierce armour, funnel health, soul-tether
Bar two for buffs/regen, resto with stamina drain enchant/poison
Caltrops, siphoning attacks, mirage, inner-fire, mark target, aggressive war horn

Refreshing path is used for me to zip around and apply taunt left right and Center, as dk you'll be using chains. Lazy sod.
Caltrops helps grab aggro and applies cc, mirage gives me 20% dodge - you.all need evasion for this, other skills I've already mentioned their rationale.

I'd suggest the best set you could get your lvl would be armour-master as it is craftable, too many other useful sets to list for your secondary, but if u can get baharras at your lvl I'd HIGHLY recommend it!

Some would advice against vamp tanking, but I can go toe-to-toe with any of the fire damaging bosses I have come across, ie the fire dadroth in banished cells, I don't lead him slowly around the dungeon, I hold him in one place. Skoria hates me and gets upset when all his flames do is warm my tootsies.

All this you'll be able to do with dk, I just wish I could give more specific advice for your skill set!

Liofa · June 2016

Here is my build which is Dark Elf (Master Race) like you . http://tamrielfoundry.com/topic/pve-horny-tank-stamina-dk-tank-build-dark-brotherhood/

It is based on Ultimate Regeneration at highest rate possible and sustain . It is tanky enough . I tanked vSO several times with this build . Only downside is the lack of self-healing which is unnecessary since there usually is a healer for that . I slot Vigor on my back bar when fighting a single target boss . You know , just in case healer dies .

Btw , I made some changes after the video so I don't recommend watching the video . Just read the build and decide for yourself if you want to use it or not ^^

Mike_IG · June 2016

Have u gone magicka or stamina with your Dark Elf DK?, Personally I've gone magicka and I find it so much more fun to tank than a stam build but is a different way of tanking (although taunting etc is the same)

With Magicka I'm always on the attack and rarely blocking as the skills you have deal damage and can heal you almost as fast as the enemys do damage most of the time.

MasterGohan · June 2016

Whew! I'm really digging all the help. I'm still getting used to the dk skills so I'm not sure what works for me yet. I've started as a stamina build but that can change. I'm not so far in that I can't still play around some.

You have all put so much thought and work into these responses and guides. Its amazing. Thank you. It'll be a while before my dk is ready to tank successfully but with this much help I'm sure I'll be alright.

Curragraigue · June 2016

devilsTear wrote: »

Is over taunting really a thing?

One person no but two people yes

MuddledMuppet · June 2016

Curragraigue wrote: »

devilsTear wrote: »

Is over taunting really a thing?

One person no but two people yes

Really? I'd always been under the impression otherwise, is there a confirmation of this anywhere? Not saying you're wrong but would be nice to be 100% sure!

CasNation · June 2016

Others have already added a lot of really usefull info, so I will just say one thing:

Tanking is the most fluid role in the game on how it can be achieved. Many people have many different methods, and they don't always line up. There are also time when certain methods are better than others, or where one build is great most of the time but useless on a few occasions.

Keep in mind as you progress that your role is fluid, and you will need to be able to adapt to each challenge. Dps and heals don't have this issue nearly as much as a tank does, but I think tank can be the most fun role in the game as a result.

boggie · June 2016

MuddledMuppet wrote: »

Curragraigue wrote: »

devilsTear wrote: »

Is over taunting really a thing?

One person no but two people yes

Really? I'd always been under the impression otherwise, is there a confirmation of this anywhere? Not saying you're wrong but would be nice to be 100% sure!

No idea where to even begin looking for the patch notes where it was changed. Was a long time ago. But I can tell you from personal experience that, provided you are the only one taunting, you can spam the crap out of a taunt and the mob/boss will not become immune. Still generally inadvisable, as it would be a massive waste of resources, but you can do it. Two or more people taunting back and forth too rapidly WILL cause the target to become taunt immune, however. Have had it happen on the double boss in MoL when one of the tanks mis-targeted their taunt during the boss swap.