A note regarding the discussion for infused vs. sturdy due to diminishing returns:

It makes sense right now on live to have infused in some cases, but in the next update that value is either going away or diminished. Helping Hands is a perfect example; Increasing your max stats (depending on your setup) may result in getting more stamina back with each cast than what sturdy can reduce it by per-piece, however for most DK tanks sturdy is a higher marginal benefit still.

But in the next update, Helping hands doesn't scale with max stats, effectively turning that stat pool into a dump stat unless there is another skill that scales with them (for example, we may still like to boost our max stats to scale Igneous Shield with higher health, or higher stamina to boost Vigor's effectiveness, etc).

Sturdy, on the other hand, is more valuable next update, relatively speaking. The reason for this is because the cost of blocking can now occur every 1/4 second instead of every 1/2 second. For most single-target fights (e.g. most bosses) there is no change or very little change, because most bosses don't attack every 1/4 second; some exceptions are The Warrior and Rhakkat. This means that our sturdy, shieldplay, CP, and all passives relating to block cost are now in effect being used up to twice as often as currently on live. The values for each of these passive benefits have not increased at the baseline, but they now have the potential to occur more often, thereby effectively increasing their value at the bottom line.

As a magicka NB heal-tank, I use Sturdy on small pieces, Infused on big pieces, and Reinforced/Nirnhoned on shield (with Ritual mundus). After Morrowind, however, I will use nothing because that playstyle will be all but unplayable

At moment (according Woeler):

Small pieces sturdy, big pieces infused, all prismatic.

With Morrowind...no clue yet. My bet there will be more sturdy. How many ? Look at this site in future: https://woeler.eu/#

TheRealPotoroo wrote: »

Orc stamDK tank. I use Infused/Prismatic on the big pieces, Divines (Lord) on the small pieces, CP on block bonuses and from memory I put a shield play glyph on the necklace over the stamina regen that was there. I may have to rebuild after Morrowind but right now Sturdy doesn't give you all that much.

Flameheart wrote: »

At moment (according Woeler):

Small pieces sturdy, big pieces infused, all prismatic.

With Morrowind...no clue yet. My bet there will be more sturdy. How many ? Look at this site in future: https://woeler.eu/#

Woeler already did the math:

Full sturdy, why?

With the changes to CP and the general hit to sustain it becomes crucial to reduce the cost of block as much as possible. If you have seen my video on block cost reduction you know that sturdy and shadow ward cp diminish each other's value. While that is still true, there is no other useful place to allocate cp or useful traits to put on your armor. Therefore this combination is superior in the Morrowind patch.

Besides that the tanking gear meta experiences a major change in Morrowind if you wanne tank the new trial (Halls of Fabrication, for the older content my guess is that the usual tank equip will be sufficient). As inc damage on tanks in HoF is pretty harsh, tanks will be build as HP-beasts. Up to 75k is possible (Plague Doctor, Green Pact etc.), around 50k seems ok with more as an option. On the first view this seems to be a major loss of dps support. In fact it is, but support is shifted from dps to surviving. Nothing will scale with magicka and stamina anymore, but there are still skills that scale with health. With such a mass of life DK shields will scale up to 10k+ for group members (not just the inc damage on tanks is high there in HoF). To circumvent the nerfs to sustain you may use spell symmetry. Magicka sustain will therefore be a priority point.

Woeler's tank build for HoF in Morrowind: https://woeler.eu/single-article.php?id=30

I guess it will be adapted for single encounters and maybe still experiences a small change here and there.