In 7 Heavy Shadow Barrier lasts for 11 seconds.

Lynx7386 wrote: »

So it should be pretty close to the dark shades duration. Also thinking I'll combine mirage with that for the minor ward/resolve plus evasion. Trying to get the most possible effects out of every ability since I always feel like there's not enough slots for what I need to use

Yesss, Mirage is awesome. You'd be getting like...6500 resist just passively.

Lynx7386 wrote: »

Is it worth adding in circle of protection from the fighters guild? Gives stamina regen, 8% reduced damage, and one of the morphs reduces roll dodge cost for allies.

Not sure on that one, I defer to an experienced tank. Maybe if you've got the spare slot for it?

So I've tried a couple of different builds tonight. First was a hybrid/magicka setup with around 3k health, 20k magicka, 20k stamina buffed using basically the usual sap/siphon tank build. Didn't really like it, survivability was nice but I felt like useless in pug groups with subpar dps. I could tank and heal and buff but had zero damage.

Then I tried a stamina build. I swapped ebon for dreugh king slayer + black rose + selenes monster set. I set up one bar for tanking with pierce armor, vigor, siphoning attacks, mirage, and unstoppable. The other bar I set up for damage, with surprise attack, heroic slash, killers blade, camouflaged hunter, and relentless focus.

With that setup I have 10k magicka, 36k health, 22k stamina, 2600 weapon damage, 52% crit chance, and 26-28k resists.

It was a much more fun build to play, and had a lot less issues with resources, plus I felt like I was actually able to contribute meaningful damage instead of just being a sponge.

Lynx7386 wrote: »

Is it worth adding in circle of protection from the fighters guild? Gives stamina regen, 8% reduced damage, and one of the morphs reduces roll dodge cost for allies.

Circle of Protection is a highly nuanced ability. It's really only beneficial in a few specific circumstances, and even in those circumstances is often forgone. With the introduction of the Warden, having a Warden healer in group (or potentially another support role or dps that provides the Major Ward/Resolve) will likely render CoP totally obsolete.

Fyi as well the stam recovery is almost meaningless as it is, as the only time your passive stam regen kicks in is when you drop block to light attack or bar swap, and even then it has to coincide with the regen ticks every 2s. So for example, if you drop your block at the 2s mark and light attack, you'll get the resource return from siphoning attacks and the stam regen tick. Bottom line though, stam regen is practically meaningless for a NB tank like any other tank, and it is entirely unnecessary with respect to long-term sustain. You can get all the sustain you really need out of shieldplay and sturdy, shadow ward, constitution passives through heavy armor, and siphoning attacks. Most of the time in vet trials I don't let my block down to even light attack except every 3-5s.

Refreshing Path is a good way to maintain Major Ward and Resolve, as it is a reasonable cost and provides some healing utility to your group, who is typically always in its AoE behind the boss/mob/etc. As a stamblade this is less meaningful, because your magicka heals are going to be very low. In this case you'd be better off simply using the lowest cost shadow ability you have, like surprise attack, or even still use concealed weapon to reserve your stamina for blocking. The damage doesn't matter, so pick the morph you're most comfortable with and use it every ~10s.

Edit: Corrected typo