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Need advice on DK tanking.

Flynn17
Flynn17
Soul Shriven
I was hoping that someone on here might be able to help me with my Dumner DK tank. The build that I'm currently running net's me a little over 50k hp. Various forums/guides suggest that 50k hp is overkill and that stats/skills/set bonuses are better allocated elsewhere after you hit around 30k hp. I'm running 5 piece Plague Doctor, 5 Piece Warrior Poet and 2 piece Fury... I forget what else! Most of my enchants increase my health. Most of my champion points go into either self heal, damage mitigation, or resist. Just wondering if anyone can point me in the right direction. Perhaps what armor set's I'd be better off with?

Thank you!
  • ImpOfThePerverse415
    If you can get a hold of a set that offers more group utility, go for that. The number that matters for survival is effective health, or your magnified health pool after damage mitigation has been applied. It's better to be at the resistance cap of 32,500 with lower health than below the cap with high health because heals are effectively magnified by your resistance (being healed by 5000 will keep you alive longer if you have higher resistance). Sacrificing health for stamina also means being able to block more, which magnifies it further.
  • paulsimonps
    paulsimonps
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    If you can get a hold of a set that offers more group utility, go for that. The number that matters for survival is effective health, or your magnified health pool after damage mitigation has been applied. It's better to be at the resistance cap of 32,500 with lower health than below the cap with high health because heals are effectively magnified by your resistance (being healed by 5000 will keep you alive longer if you have higher resistance). Sacrificing health for stamina also means being able to block more, which magnifies it further.

    With all the possible forms of mitigation resistance is overrated, a tank in full heavy with major ward & resolve will be enough. The high HP set ups gives DKs really powerful shields, for not only you put your allies, even after the nerf its still good. And you dont need stamina to get more time for blocking, what you need is cost reduction.

    For OP, look for sets that either buffs the team or buffs you so you can more easily buff the team, ebon armory is a must and its easy to get, helps with keeping everyone alive. My other recommendation would be the akaviri dragon set, gives you ultimates faster, helps your sustain and you can buff or protect your team more often. Monster set, is a preferance thing so its about what you like. But those 2 sets there aleays makes a solid build regardless of playstyle.
  • DHale
    DHale
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    Flynn17 wrote: »
    I was hoping that someone on here might be able to help me with my Dumner DK tank. The build that I'm currently running net's me a little over 50k hp. Various forums/guides suggest that 50k hp is overkill and that stats/skills/set bonuses are better allocated elsewhere after you hit around 30k hp. I'm running 5 piece Plague Doctor, 5 Piece Warrior Poet and 2 piece Fury... I forget what else! Most of my enchants increase my health. Most of my champion points go into either self heal, damage mitigation, or resist. Just wondering if anyone can point me in the right direction. Perhaps what armor set's I'd be better off with?

    Thank you!

    Don't re-invent the wheel on you tube Woeler, Alcast, and Liofa are all good sources. Also I like leeching plate and Akvari dragon and malubeth or bloodspawn or pirate skeleton used them all like them all.

    Having plague doctor, Ebon, green pact and Alkosh if you are able is ideal to try different things. Although people like the above who can rely on heals and shards or orbs can run more utility sets I do not have that much coordination. I need to run some self sustaining sets when needed.

    Sorcerna, proud beta sorc. RIP April 2014 to May 31 2016 DArk Brotherhood. Out of retirement for negates and encases. Sorcerna will be going back into retirement to be my main crafter Fall 2018. Because an 8 k shield is f ing useless. Died because of baddies on the forum. Too much qq too little pew pew. 16 AD 2 DC. 0 EP cause they bad, CP 2300 plus 18 level 50 toons. NA, PC, Grey Host#SORCLIVESMATTER actually they don’t or they wouldn’t keep getting nerfed constantly.
  • SquareSausage
    SquareSausage
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    Plague doctor, ebon, best combo imo. Gives you great survivability and boosts your team mates HP.

    can sit at 50k HP and have good pools of magicka and stam. You'd want to consider getting magicka recovery too so attronach mundus, regen jewels enchant, a cost reduction too, 1 piece of chokethorn and/or shadowrend monster pieces. I sometimes switch to 1 piece Chudan for resists. Everything is situational, you may have an offtank in ebon so you can then wear someother set, lunar bastion, akaviri dragon etc. You will learn as you play with trial and error what works.

    Warrior poet aint that great considering the 5 piece bonus you already get with warhorn. But if you aint in trials then you prob wont be getting that buff so guess can work.

    Breakfast King
    PS4 EU
  • Liofa
    Liofa
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    Hey ! Here is some advice before you go with a High Health build . You should know one thing . You cannot boost group DPS with your glyphs on armor , attributes and food but you can boost it with the sets you wear . What I do is , get all the Health from glyphs , attributes and food and wear sets that supports group . For example , I have 48k on my Dark Elf Tank with full support sets . It goes to 53k on Imperial . That means , without sets like Plague/Green Pact , you still can have high Health pool . And you still will be able to boost group DPS by wearing certain sets .

    This is my setup : http://en.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildData?id=15952

    As you see , Tavas , Ebon , Blood Spawn . All support sets . I am still at 52k Health with horn and could be 57k if I was Imperial . Tava's might be a bit hard to sustain if you are a beginner . But if you get used to that , it gives the highest ultigen from all sets in the game . Akaviri Dragonguard (ultigen) , Torug's Pact (single target armor reduction) , Alkosh (AOE armor reduction) are other viable choices .

    Rest is up to you . Also , never copy paste a build . Make sure to change it according to your playstyle and you will be fine ^^ Good luck .
  • paulsimonps
    paulsimonps
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    DHale wrote: »
    Flynn17 wrote: »
    I was hoping that someone on here might be able to help me with my Dumner DK tank. The build that I'm currently running net's me a little over 50k hp. Various forums/guides suggest that 50k hp is overkill and that stats/skills/set bonuses are better allocated elsewhere after you hit around 30k hp. I'm running 5 piece Plague Doctor, 5 Piece Warrior Poet and 2 piece Fury... I forget what else! Most of my enchants increase my health. Most of my champion points go into either self heal, damage mitigation, or resist. Just wondering if anyone can point me in the right direction. Perhaps what armor set's I'd be better off with?

    Thank you!

    Don't re-invent the wheel on you tube Woeler, Alcast, and Liofa are all good sources. Also I like leeching plate and Akvari dragon and malubeth or bloodspawn or pirate skeleton used them all like them all.

    Having plague doctor, Ebon, green pact and Alkosh if you are able is ideal to try different things. Although people like the above who can rely on heals and shards or orbs can run more utility sets I do not have that much coordination. I need to run some self sustaining sets when needed.

    Trying to experiment or "re-inventing the wheel" is always a good thing, test it and see how it goes but if it doesn't work either keep testing or move on, but never be afraid to test.
    Liofa wrote: »
    Hey ! Here is some advice before you go with a High Health build . You should know one thing . You cannot boost group DPS with your glyphs on armor , attributes and food but you can boost it with the sets you wear . What I do is , get all the Health from glyphs , attributes and food and wear sets that supports group . For example , I have 48k on my Dark Elf Tank with full support sets . It goes to 53k on Imperial . That means , without sets like Plague/Green Pact , you still can have high Health pool . And you still will be able to boost group DPS by wearing certain sets .

    This is my setup : http://en.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildData?id=15952

    As you see , Tavas , Ebon , Blood Spawn . All support sets . I am still at 52k Health with horn and could be 57k if I was Imperial . Tava's might be a bit hard to sustain if you are a beginner . But if you get used to that , it gives the highest ultigen from all sets in the game . Akaviri Dragonguard (ultigen) , Torug's Pact (single target armor reduction) , Alkosh (AOE armor reduction) are other viable choices .

    Rest is up to you . Also , never copy paste a build . Make sure to change it according to your playstyle and you will be fine ^^ Good luck .

    That right there, always change things up to fit you, there is no BiS for Tanking really, there are good sets but nothing is set in stone. I mean even Ebon isn't BiS in all situations. If you can survive without it you can give other buffs too people. Though personally I do always use it :tongue:

    And yea, like you said Lifoa Tavas can be a bit harder to use for new players so do recommend Akaviri, especially with that magicka regen bonus it has. I would also say that if you are fighting something that hits very slowly then Akaviri will be the better one, less hits equals less procs on Tavas.
    Plague doctor, ebon, best combo imo. Gives you great survivability and boosts your team mates HP.

    can sit at 50k HP and have good pools of magicka and stam. You'd want to consider getting magicka recovery too so attronach mundus, regen jewels enchant, a cost reduction too, 1 piece of chokethorn and/or shadowrend monster pieces. I sometimes switch to 1 piece Chudan for resists. Everything is situational, you may have an offtank in ebon so you can then wear someother set, lunar bastion, akaviri dragon etc. You will learn as you play with trial and error what works.

    Warrior poet aint that great considering the 5 piece bonus you already get with warhorn. But if you aint in trials then you prob wont be getting that buff so guess can work.

    Another good thing I would recommend to try to help with Magicka recovery is the Orzagars Red Frothgar drink, gives 5000 max HP and about 400+ Magicka recovery. And since Max Stamina and Max Magicka is not as important anymore its a really good substitute for tri food in my opinion. And I do second that Chokethorn shadowrend set up. Been running it for a long long time now. Almost since they fist came out.
  • josiahva
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    If you are going the high health route ditch warrior poet(almost worthless) and replace it with Imperium or Ebon(you wont lose much if any health). For lower health builds you have other options like Tava's favor, or Hist Bark, Footman's Fortune is another option. In trials you will get generic demands that you run Ebon and Alkosh. When not running trials, you have many options available to you that will work wonders depending on your build. I find Rattlecage/Thunderbug to be a fun combination when trying to put out some damage. On my damage focused DK tank I use Rattlecage/Way of Martial knowledge(for the 4 piece bonus while on staff)/Illambris. There are a couple of "meta" builds for DK tanks, but depending on the content you run and your personal playstyle there are a ton of options that will work, some take more skill to play successfully though...my dmg tank for instance is much harder to play and survive that my meat tank, but can pick up the slack for bad DPS in pug groups...would never take it to a trial though. I am also working on a warden tank/healer hybrid that is built to run with 3 DPS(could do the same thing on my DK dmg tank, but fewer buffs available). The point is...what content are you planing on tanking?...and do you want to do anything aside from tanking while doing it? Without knowing that there is no optimal build.
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