Damage Shields are Bad for Vet HelRa..and some other thoughts

kylewwefan · January 2017

It would be cool if we could make it work, but damage shields are bad for trials tanking because they are un-mitigated. Not affected by your resistance or holding block.

So, if you have 70k health and a 50k boneshield....one or two hit from any trials boss and your shield is gone. That's why they are bad. BTW, none of the damage shields are really cheap to cast and can't really be spammed.

I would also like to add whatever nonsense you read about max resistance not necessary is simply not true for learning in Vet Trials setting. With phenomenal healing and other mitigation techniques cough GUARD, you can get away with less; but when learning do your group a favor and wear Maxed resistance sets.

I also use shield play enchants on jewelry. Some recommend magic recovery so you can spam igneous. This doesn't work so well for learning my Redguard DK. 3 Block cost reduction is much more effective. For magic tank to work you need blue Wrothgar Health/Magic recovery food, attributes/armor to 30k health, 20k stam, rest magic.

The Meta Builds you read about work well with Meta Groups. They are tried, tested and true. That said, I've seen the Meta cause much frustration from groups that aren't optimized for it.

See, high end groups that put this stuff out there like it's gospel don't even take any stam builds in with them. Console is quite different. Often times, more than half the group is stam build. Maybe adding Hircines would help group more than other healer sets.

I had a night of frustration last night; 2 Vet HelRa, 1 Maw. none passed. First, tank had some Tava, Alkosh, Bloodspawn build kept dying at air atronach running out of resources or getting one shot. Got down to even 2% health and the group wiped. After few attempts called it quits.

Maw, couldn't beat the first boss.......not uncommon. Kind of knew it wasn't gonna work as it took so long to get there.

I tanked the last HelRa all the way to the warrior....couldn't pass the DPS check from 70~30% the adds needed to die much faster IMO.

Some other thoughts:

I've seen very few groups that can beat the top boss Flame Spinner in HelRa.

It is super rare to see anyone using maelstrom or Master weapons on console.

I don't even need anything in these trials but weapons. I give it all away. This is for fun mostly.

Eternal Yokeda is terrible reward for such hard content.

paulsimonps · January 2017

What are you on about regarding shields? Using Igneous shields before big hits is great for DK's. Sure the Damage Shield itself does not have any resistance but since there are things that mitigates damage before the damage shield is diminished and some after damage shields make a great option for tanks to use during any and all trials. I would not recommend Bone shield cause it doesn't have the added bonus of giving you stamina back while using it and costs too much stamina to be spammed, if you run out of stamina for blocking you are going to die.

And why on earth would you want 70k Hp? It would mean you focused WAY to heavily into that, or did you just use that as an example? Either way its misleading since there are things that will mitigate the amount of damage shields takes and also that shields will get destroyed very fast but in clutch situations they are live savers.

CP Passives such as Elemental Defender and Hardy will mitigate damage taken before the damage shield gets hit. So will Minor and Major Maim and many other things. Look here for more info: https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/279426/damage-mitigation-explanation-and-list-of-options/p1

Also Meta tanking builds work great regardless of the group composition. What matters is if the tank in question is familiar with the way to tank in those types of builds, it comes down to play style and not just wearing the right type of armor and skills but how and when to use what.

Masel · January 2017

The issue with some trial bosses is that their attacks hit based on your health. Ra Kotu for example one-shots you with 70k health if you don't block his heavy attack, because his attacks are health based and a 70k healthtank is hard to counterheal in those scenarios. The healthtank is great for some trials(for example offtanking vMoL) but in many other cases (Ra Kotu in Hel Ra and the Last Boss in AA) it's not viable.

The healthtank concept is awesome in four man dungeons and vDSA because you contribute a lot to your groups survival through massive shielding, but for trials the alkosh or powerful assault/ebon/warden setup does a lot more for your group.

kylewwefan · January 2017

The creative builds. Super high HP makes super high Damage Shield. Fun stuff to play with in dungeons, til you get in front of some trial boss and he rips you to shreds in 2 seconds. This has been found out now.

No one would recommend boneshield or blazing shield unless you had super high health that they scale from. Even then, it won't work in this setting. There's got to be a reason why. It's the mitigation

I saw a guy rocking Tavas/ Alkosh/ BS and he got continuously laid out. Just got pummeled. Couldn't take the beating. I've been there. It's embarrassing af. This poor guy was ready to delete his toon

I can sit there in Armor Master, Footman, Lord Warden and smile all day. I don't need guarded. Don't need to dodge. Don't need shards.

These super tank sets get pooped on for no reason. They're great for someone learning hard content.

I'd jump out on a limb and suggest players created their tanks have probably ran a few trials and dungeons get baffled when their blown out of the water in Vet Trials.

Liofa · January 2017

@Masel92

Just wanted to correct one thing . Ra Kotu's heavy attack is not always one-shot . I have survived that attack multiple times when my block was down . Then I realized that the boss charges the Heavy Attack while sending out those little tornados . I am sure because it really was a heavy hit , took at least 80% of my Health and knocked me back and my DDs started yelling ''Why you move boss?''

In case you are curious about my defensive stats ; 50k Health , 27k Physical Resistance , 100 Hardy .

bigted209 · January 2017

My trials tank is running mainly ebon/alkosh/and either lord wander or blood spawn, or tavas/ebon/blood spawn...depends on situation...at resistance caps or damn close to, 30ish K health/30ish K stam/10k mag with 1800 regen.... you dont need numbers higher than that for starters. 70k health is all fun and games for a blazing shield Templar in cyrodill, but trials...no. As for shields...yeah, you need them. An unshielded tank is quite simply dead, repeatedly. Hel ra is a cake walk as a solo tank, only needing an off tank to guard on hard mode. Tanking really isn't all about being able to take hits to the face. You have to know how to mitigate the damage coming at you, not simply absorb it and hope you live.

Cronopoly · January 2017

Those that run 70K Health builds on Imperial tanks have no problem "Spamming" shields for the group if setup right. I know as I do it daily.

It's well known which 3 or 4 bosses in the entire game including "Axes" that you should not try to tank.

It's hard to call it a bad spec when there's 3 or 4 single situations where it doesn't work vs the 98% of the time when it works brilliantly.

Lukums1 · January 2017

Sounds like you need to stop running with pugs and come run with me

PS4 Lukums1 NA

PPS: Drop the pugs on their asses come play with the big boys

kylewwefan · January 2017

Lukums1 wrote: »

Sounds like you need to stop running with pugs and come run with me

PS4 Lukums1 NA

PPS: Drop the pugs on their asses come play with the big boys

Yes. I would like that very much! I spend a lot of time in groups that struggle. It would be a nice change to burn this stuff down and compete in leaderboard challenges.