Welcome to the Trickster Tank non-CP build for stamina Dragonknights!

Build Video can be found here!

Morrowind brought some hefty changes to all classes in regards to resource sustain as well as major mending being made scarce. Stamina players got hit particularly hard, especially Templars and Dragonknights, making them a rarity in PvP these days.

But there is a ray of Hope for those of us staunch stamina users, a sliver of green amongst a sea of blue as is the case these days. The old builds do not work as well anymore, so we must adapt.

My first adaptation comes in the form of the Trickster Tank – designed to weather the magical barrages that are the commonplace in the new battlegrounds. It is a solid, flexible build that has a little flight and a little bite.

Gear:

5x Daedric Trickery

• (2 items) Adds 1064 Maximum Health
• (3 items) Adds 967 Maximum Stamina
• (4 items) Adds 967 Maximum Magicka
• (5 items) While in combat you gain one of 5 random Major Buffs for 10 seconds every 20 seconds. Eligible buffs are Expedition, Protection, Mending, Heroism, or Vitality.

I knew I liked the look of this set when I first saw it! On paper it might look a little lackluster , that 10 seconds between buffs might put a lot off but the buffs are mighty and Dragonknights take advantage of all five! This build can mix the 2.5 second major mending it gets from ignious shields with greater vitality (30% bonus healing received) or greater protection (30% damage reduction) from trickery to regenerate health in the heat of Battle. Greater heroism is a huge buff for dks who channel their ultimates to regenerate resources – in this build it means my spell wall is up that much faster. Major expedition , another Achilles heal for Dragonknights shored up by this set, mobility.

This is a new crafted set from Morrowind, I run it in full Heavy Impen with Stamina enchants.

5x Blessed Meridia

• (2 items) Adds 1935 Physical Resistance
• (3 items) Adds 129 Stamina Recovery
• (4 items) Adds 1935 Spell Resistance
• (5 items) When you block an attack, you have a 33% chance to blind your attacker, causing them to miss all of their attacks for 5 seconds. This effect can occur once every 10 seconds.

Largely ignored, this set is highly under-rated. Used correctly this set has the potential to take a players damage out of the game for five seconds every 10 seconds. Causing them to waste resources on bursting you or your group mates. This synergizes well with Daedric Trickery providing windows of recovery so you can tank some more damage! Let us not ignore the 2k physical and magical resistance here, nicely buffed in Morrowind .

This is a heavy armor set, get it in IMPEN where possible!

2x Tremorscale

• (1 items) Adds 967Max Stamina
• (2 items) When you taunt an enemy, you have a 50% chance to cause a duneripper to burst from the ground beneath them, dealing 6500 Physical Damage to all enemies within 4 meters and reducing their Movement Speed by 70% for 4 seconds. This effect can occur once every 4 seconds

Freshly nerfed but still an incredible tool. This set balances out the previous two defensive ones with a utility / damage / cc toolset. The pbaoe snare that comes from this is potent and helps lock down targets for your team mates or peel dps off of your healers as well as adding a bit of bite to this otherwise tank heavy setup.

I use both heavy helm and shoulders, IMPEN trait.

Consumables:

Potions – Immovable potion, I like the variant that provides run speed, immovability and stamina regen. (Blessed Thistle, Columbine, Namiras Rot).

Poisons – If I use a poison, it is the drain stamina variant that applies a 30% increase to stamina abilities and regenerates your own stamina over time (most importantly)

Buff food – Tri stat all the way, I rely on magicka abilities for buffs and stamina regeneration.

Mundus :

The Shadow – even though my crit is only 22% , having 12% bonus critical damage is still quite valuable for your critical rush and burst via take flight

Abilities:

Bar 1:

Resolving Vigor: Despite the nerf, still a strong heal and HOT, empower this with Trickster buffs and Ignious shields
Pierce Armor: Decent damage, effective debuff and triggers your dd snare proc from Tremor Scale.
Ignious Shields: Major mending for 3 seconds, small shield, regenerates stamina
Reflective Scales : Reflect those spells, which are quite numerous these days, great deterrent to burst from range
Reverberating Bash: Crowd control, Major defile to reduce healing received, perfect for peeling
Spell Wall: Reflects spells for 6 seconds and blocks all incoming attacks, cheap, can flip to two hander while it is up

Bar 2:

Critical Charge: Main gap closer, decent damage via the crit
Venomous Claw: Strong dot, use directly after critical charge
Molten Armaments: 40% bonus to heavy attack damage, makes sense if you are using heavy attacks for regen
Execute: Self explanatory, switch to 2 hander to finish opponents.
Rally: Strong heal over time and on demand burst heal on the 2 hander bar, Major Brutality
Take Flight: Strong and cheap ultimate, unavoidable, can be used as second gap closer.

Methodology:

You are built to tank, so tank! You are not a one stop dps machine, get in there and snare, CC , be a pain in the rear. Daedric Trickery is there to provide strong survivability buffs, keep an eye on which one you have. This is not a perma block build, use block sparingly and in short 1 second bursts to trigger blessed Meridia, keep an eye on that debuff, looks like a small shield. Tremorscale is a great tool for keeping people locked down and off of your support or from fleeing your clutches.

Be wary of your opponents, throw in a reflective scales when you see the spells fireing off, it acts as a deterrent so have an ignious/vigor ready for that lull. Shieldwall can be used offensively, pop it and switch to two hander against ranged classes, they will have little to stop you for 6 seconds. Use it defensively in the middle of a group of enemies, watch their health drop as their spells are reflected, let your team mop up the wreckage.

If you have any questions, suggestions or comments, check out our forum post here!