Nightblade Stam Tank....

TheUrbanWizard · December 2016

I've got an urge to give this a go with a max cp Imperial, just for a bit of variety.

Can anyone offer up some advice on gear, cp passives, skills etc? Stam/health allocation? Is it even viable?

Edit: Pve mainly

Brrrofski · December 2016

I was toying with the idea of it.

I was looking at the hunt set from Maelstrom. Even drops on normal if vet isn't your thing. Assume it would work with Dark shades like all other "pet" sets do. May offer some good sustain and comes in jewelelry. Not sure how could it would be.

Didn't think much more beyond that honestly lol. Though I'd mention in case nobody else does.

LjAnimalchin · December 2016

I tried it, it works, you can play it similar to a dk as long as you have decent resistance and health you will be ok for most content. I'm currently running a sap tank (magicka) on my wood elf though, which is a lot more versatile and unique. And tanky. Sap tank can survive alone with most bosses for like ten minutes its crazy. Maybe longer i havent played it much yet.

kylewwefan · December 2016

It works. I use Ebon/LunarBastion/Lord Warden. I would always use Ebon and something else. The lunar set has nice group utility, Alkosh is often brought up. Dragon is good to reduce the warhorn cost. I don't think Tavas is that great, and hist bark is not so good on a nightblade using mirage.

Tanking still builds up Ulti very fast, and I'm usually sitting on one waiting my turn so the excess generation is not needed.

Depends on who you play with. I'm only talking about trials really. Dungeons may be a bit different. There is nothing in any dungeon that's gonna hit you like the axes in AA, or the warrior or the Celestial Serpent.

You can use shades or Refreshing path or

Zerok · December 2016

What would be the benefits of stamblade tank over a magblade tank ?

TheUrbanWizard · December 2016

@kylewwefan yeah I picked up 3 ebon jewellery on a run last night, but I've picked up 5x footman with jewels as well which I think I might go for cos of more damage blocked

nilldax · December 2016

Brrrofski wrote: »

I was toying with the idea of it.

I was looking at the hunt set from Maelstrom. Even drops on normal if vet isn't your thing. Assume it would work with Dark shades like all other "pet" sets do. May offer some good sustain and comes in jewelelry. Not sure how could it would be.

Didn't think much more beyond that honestly lol. Though I'd mention in case nobody else does.

+ BR, quite good sustian in block - not identical as DK can but stll worthy.

Silver_Strider · December 2016

Nightblade: Ok
Stamina: Ok
Tank: ERROR!!! ERROR!!! ERROR!!! Unable to process request. Silver-Strider.exe has crashed.

NB Stam Tank is, IMO, one of the most limited, difficult and dull playstyles in the game. While it is possible, you will be facing a uphill battle that really doesn't get easier at any point.

As far as I can tell Siphoning Attacks scales off magic, meaning your main source of sustain is instantly gimped by going stamina. Add to that, a larger part of a NB tank's toolkit are all magic based (Mirage, Shades, SA, etc.) You will pretty much be limited to a handful of casts at a time. Sure, you can substitute some of
those skills with a stamina equivalent (Shuffle = Mirage, Heroic Slash = Shades) but you lose out on a larger majority of your class passives and SA still scales only on magic so your resource management is still taking a dive.

I don't mean to sound overly negative but that's just my experience with NB Stamina Tanks. It can work, I'm sure but I really cannot see much benefit to it over its magic counterpart or Stamina equivalent on other classes.

kendellking_chaosb14_ESO · December 2016

Zerok wrote: »

What would be the benefits of stamblade tank over a magblade tank ?

Higher DPS.

Silver_Strider wrote: »

Nightblade: Ok
Stamina: Ok
Tank: ERROR!!! ERROR!!! ERROR!!! Unable to process request. Silver-Strider.exe has crashed.

NB Stam Tank is, IMO, one of the most limited, difficult and dull playstyles in the game. While it is possible, you will be facing a uphill battle that really doesn't get easier at any point.

As far as I can tell Siphoning Attacks scales off magic, meaning your main source of sustain is instantly gimped by going stamina. Add to that, a larger part of a NB tank's toolkit are all magic based (Mirage, Shades, SA, etc.) You will pretty much be limited to a handful of casts at a time. Sure, you can substitute some of
those skills with a stamina equivalent (Shuffle = Mirage, Heroic Slash = Shades) but you lose out on a larger majority of your class passives and SA still scales only on magic so your resource management is still taking a dive.

I don't mean to sound overly negative but that's just my experience with NB Stamina Tanks. It can work, I'm sure but I really cannot see much benefit to it over its magic counterpart or Stamina equivalent on other classes.

StamTanks are not easy to play but they are very powerful never tested with Siphoning Attacks scales with but it's gives a lot 1k for light/heavy attacks and 2k on damage it's a pass to drop some mad deeps. StamTank have a Tanky/DPS mix that's hard if not impossible to get form other classes.

Chairo_Kuma · December 2016

I've been playing with a stam NB sap tank for a few weeks and I like it. It takes some getting used to but i've run vet content with no problem so far. its fun and interesting little build. I've been running a red guard but thinking of going Argonian.

Soleya · December 2016

I started tanking on my Stamblade over a year ago when they nerfed blocking/stam regen. We couldn't find tanks for dungeons, so I just tried it out.

I have quite a bit of fun on it and can tank vet pledges without much trouble. I've not done the DLC dungeons (other than vWGT, have tanked vCOS, but couldn't get past final boss. And vRoM didn't make it past argonian behemoth boss)

Probably the biggest downside is no good crowd control. But with siphoning attacks I rarely run out of stamina.

My current build runs 2 Engine Guardian, 5 Hist Bark, 5 Footman (old gear set, want to try out some new gear sets). 5 heavy 1 med 1 light.

For my bars i run
Vigor, Inner Beast, Caltrops/Shades/Double Take, Relentless Focus, Refreshing Path, Veil/Warhorn
Ambush, Pierce Armor, Siphoning Attacks, Suprise Attack, Defensive Posture, Soul Harvest

Refreshing Path and Suprise Attack are for the shadow barrier passive (30k resistance with that up). Soul Harvest because I'm on that bar most of the time and when things die I get ultimate. I only run caltrops if no one else is, good way to grab aggro from mobs when the fight starts, otherwise usually run shades instead. Rest should be self explanatory.

Majority of the skills are stamina so I only worry about one resource pool.

Caligamy_ESO · December 2016

Stam NB Tank is actually extremely fun to play and I have solod many many vet pledges on mine from start to finish without using potions. I play as a redguard with it, and would definitely recommend trying this out.. but you should do the grind and obtain Vigor and Caltrops for it as it makes a massive difference. Anyway here is my build, enjoy.

Attributes: All Stamina
Tri-stat enchants on infused pieces. (With blue food you should be sitting at around 27-28k health)

Main bar - Sword and shield
1 Pierce Armor - physical & spell resist debuff + taunt skill
2 Heroic Slash - For ultimate generation
3 Dark Shades - Debuffs the target you summon them on reducing their damage by 15%, Shadow Barrier passive also kicks in off this and increases Physical/Spell resistance by 5280 points which increases in duration for each piece of heavy armor equipped
4 Siphoning Attacks - Provides you with infinite sustain as long as you keep it up 100%
5 Shielded Assault - Mostly for the quick mobility in groups.. This skill I swap out quite often depending on the situation, Defensive Stance is quite useful on some bosses here
Ultimate: Reviving Barrier - Provides around a 19-20k dmg shield to party members in the area, and heals HP for the nearly the same amount. Passive for slotting it increases Magicka Recovery by 5~10% if your alliance rank is high enough.

Back bar - Sword and shield
1 Refreshing Path - DoT + healing and increased movement speed, also activates Shadow Barrier Passive on the backbar.
2 Resolving Vigor - Its a heal.
3 Mirage, or Blur - 20% dodge chance that fuels the Tava's Blessing armor passive for ultimate generation, also buffs Physical & Spell Resistance with the Mirage morph.
4 Razor Caltrops - For Mob control in parties, toss this into the crowds before your dps run in and turn it into a cat herding festival
5 Sap Essence - AoE magic dmg that heals you for 20% of the dmg done for each enemy hit, and buffs with Major Brutality and Major Sorcery for 20 seconds
Ultimate: Aggressive Warhorn - AoE party buff that increases Health, Magicka, and Stamina totals by +10% and provides increased Critical hit damage+30% for 8 seconds.

Alternate Ultimates
Soul Tether is excellent for emergency heals in massive groups of enemies + the CC it provides for a little while.
Veil of Blades does a nice long lasting area DoT, allows party members to activate synergy for a pretty hefty heal, and lowers damage taken by 30% for anyone standing inside of its effect.
Soul Harvest Doesn't provide much passive bonus or attack power, but it is the best for insane ultimate generation rates while slotted on the main taunt bar.
Shooting Star because meteors are fun..

Armor
5x Tava's Favor
5x Thunderbugs
2x Bloodspawn 1 x heavy, 1 x medium

Defending Swords
Infused Body, legs, head, and shields. (tri-stat enchant on all but health on shields)
Sturdy Feet, Hands, Shoulder, Belt (Stamina enchants)

Mundus: Atronach for magicka regeneration

Sidenote: lately I have been playing around with swapping out the Thunderbugs for other sets like Leeching, or Bahraha's Curse.. both have been pretty effective for their healing abilities, but Thunderbugs really increases your solo damage output when you're doing pledges. It is rare when I come across PvE content you cant just flat out solo in this setup; world bosses, pledges - normal and vet, etc. Stuff like Trials and vDSA however I probably wouldn't advise.

code65536 · December 2016

Zerok wrote: »

What would be the benefits of stamblade tank over a magblade tank ?

None. If you tank on a nightblade, go mag.

kendellking_chaosb14_ESO wrote: »

Higher DPS.

How?

The problem with stamina in general (not just for nightblades) is that most of your DPS skills are weapon abilities. Which mean that for stam-tanking, you are forced into a choice: either sword-and-board for proper tankiness (Fortress is really a must-have) or some other weapon in order to do DPS. Nightblades do have one class DPS ability that they can use from a S/B bar: Surprise Attack. But it's expensive, draws from the same resource pool you use for blocking, and draws from a resource pool that can't regenerate while blocking.

In contrast, a magblade has Funnel. It's cheaper. It heals you and the group. It's ranged. It draws from a pool that regenerates and that doesn't affect your ability to block. And you have Sap for AoE and more group healing. And Path for even more group healing, speed, and more AoE.

A stamblade tank can't out-DPS a magblade tank unless they sacrifice a lot in the tanking department, like dropping S/B from one bar, blocking less, etc. A magblade tank can do a lot of DPS (more than any other tank class, IME), without sacrificing tankiness. My magblade runs with 26K health, 17K stam, 36K magicka, and 2K unbuffed spell damage when tanking. I'm wearing 5p heavy armor, using sword-and-board on both bar, blocking everything, and still pulling 10K ST and much, much higher in AoE. A stamblade tank--or any other type of tank--simply cannot do that.

kylewwefan · December 2016

I have footmans also. I like it. Think it's a good set, but it gets a lot of hate on the forums for some reason. They seem to think that too much mitigation is a waste there's some hard cap thing it likely puts you over, but the game won't tell you what it is. IDK? It's tank gear that has jewelry. Tharpt should mean something.

Vorcil · December 2016

A good build for PvP:

Magicka NB, leeching plate, baharas curse, whatever monster mix you can throw in for procs.

Survivability is pretty decent, baharas curse jewellery, sword and board (as it only comes in light armor)

KingYogi415 · December 2016

Step 1. Respec for magic.

Step 2. Craft heavy seducers.

Step 3. Taunt and sap your way to victory.

code65536 · December 2016

KingYogi415 wrote: »

Step 1. Respec for magic.

Step 2. Craft heavy seducers.

Step 3. Taunt and sap your way to victory.

Step 4. Decon Seducers and craft heavy Kagrenac.

Brrrofski · December 2016

code65536 wrote: »

Zerok wrote: »

What would be the benefits of stamblade tank over a magblade tank ?

None. If you tank on a nightblade, go mag.

kendellking_chaosb14_ESO wrote: »

Higher DPS.

How?

The problem with stamina in general (not just for nightblades) is that most of your DPS skills are weapon abilities. Which mean that for stam-tanking, you are forced into a choice: either sword-and-board for proper tankiness (Fortress is really a must-have) or some other weapon in order to do DPS. Nightblades do have one class DPS ability that they can use from a S/B bar: Surprise Attack. But it's expensive, draws from the same resource pool you use for blocking, and draws from a resource pool that can't regenerate while blocking.

In contrast, a magblade has Funnel. It's cheaper. It heals you and the group. It's ranged. It draws from a pool that regenerates and that doesn't affect your ability to block. And you have Sap for AoE and more group healing. And Path for even more group healing, speed, and more AoE.

A stamblade tank can't out-DPS a magblade tank unless they sacrifice a lot in the tanking department, like dropping S/B from one bar, blocking less, etc. A magblade tank can do a lot of DPS (more than any other tank class, IME), without sacrificing tankiness. My magblade runs with 26K health, 17K stam, 36K magicka, and 2K unbuffed spell damage when tanking. I'm wearing 5p heavy armor, using sword-and-board on both bar, blocking everything, and still pulling 10K ST and much, much higher in AoE. A stamblade tank--or any other type of tank--simply cannot do that.

Yeh, I agree. I have 34k magica, 2k unbuffered spell damage and even 32% crit. For a tank, it pulls crazy damage.

My saptank doesn't drop block. Ever. Yet I can constantly DPS. You'd run out of stam doing that on a Stam NB tank. Which then means no block

Stam NB would work, it's just not as independent as magica. I don't think there's a vet dungeon my saptank can't do without a healer. Not sure you'd be able to do that as a stam NB.