Tanks: What are your favorite sets for the axes in AA?

kylewwefan · July 2017

paulsimonps wrote: »

I have been working on a set up for the Axes but I don't have all the pieces yet. It would be 5p of Defending Warrior and 5p of Leeching plate. Get that with all sturdy and all other sources of block cost reduction and you will be able to block forever and both of your sets will heal you a ton and deal enough damage in AoE to keep agro on them without having to retaunt as long as they don't get hit by other people, so no shards allowed, but but healing orbs are.

Is the Defending warrior same thing as resilient yokeda? I used that setup some time ago with leeching and Malubeth the scourger on a SapTank. Though, I've given up tanking with nightblade...it never crossed my mind to use them on DK. I think she's still using Ebon alkosh...which is a terrible setup for AA lol.

paulsimonps · July 2017

kylewwefan wrote: »

paulsimonps wrote: »

I have been working on a set up for the Axes but I don't have all the pieces yet. It would be 5p of Defending Warrior and 5p of Leeching plate. Get that with all sturdy and all other sources of block cost reduction and you will be able to block forever and both of your sets will heal you a ton and deal enough damage in AoE to keep agro on them without having to retaunt as long as they don't get hit by other people, so no shards allowed, but but healing orbs are.

Is the Defending warrior same thing as resilient yokeda? I used that setup some time ago with leeching and Malubeth the scourger on a SapTank. Though, I've given up tanking with nightblade...it never crossed my mind to use them on DK. I think she's still using Ebon alkosh...which is a terrible setup for AA lol.

Yes its the same set, just one of the name is the set name and one of the names is what they call the actual armor pieces, its weird but there are more than just this set that has 2 names. Seems unnecessary but it is what it is.

Inig0 · July 2017

This is what i would recommend

http://en.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildEditor?id=19956

paulsimonps · July 2017

Inig0 wrote: »

This is what i would recommend

http://en.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildEditor?id=19956

How do you get time to use Invigorating Drain on that fight? With all the heavy attacks going out that would seem really hard to do, and you don't use the Sword and Board ultimate nor the Heavy Armor skill, do you use Immovable pots or do you just have it on the bar cause you use it else where? Also not really seen anyone use balance anymore with the nerf to it and its morphs, how does it feel for you? Seems like kind of a waste on a fight where you take so much damage. And with as many hits as you are taking, wouldn't major evasion and Tava's Favor give you more Ultimate?

Inig0 · July 2017

paulsimonps wrote: »

Inig0 wrote: »

This is what i would recommend

http://en.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildEditor?id=19956

How do you get time to use Invigorating Drain on that fight? With all the heavy attacks going out that would seem really hard to do, and you don't use the Sword and Board ultimate nor the Heavy Armor skill, do you use Immovable pots or do you just have it on the bar cause you use it else where? Also not really seen anyone use balance anymore with the nerf to it and its morphs, how does it feel for you? Seems like kind of a waste on a fight where you take so much damage. And with as many hits as you are taking, wouldn't major evasion and Tava's Favor give you more Ultimate?

Well, until you get 4+ axes its easy to not have to block especially with the amount of hp youll have. The nerf to balance wasnt as much as a nerf as i think people received. Normalizing the health drain from it feels more like a buff honestly. I still use it in every trial. That being said its a bit more difficult to pull off in vaa axe fight but still possible for sure. The reason why ill never run tavas + shuffle is because of the nerf to dodge and the increase cost of skills like that not to mention the meta of more hp and less resources.

paulsimonps · July 2017

Inig0 wrote: »

paulsimonps wrote: »

Inig0 wrote: »

This is what i would recommend

http://en.uesp.net/wiki/Special:EsoBuildEditor?id=19956

How do you get time to use Invigorating Drain on that fight? With all the heavy attacks going out that would seem really hard to do, and you don't use the Sword and Board ultimate nor the Heavy Armor skill, do you use Immovable pots or do you just have it on the bar cause you use it else where? Also not really seen anyone use balance anymore with the nerf to it and its morphs, how does it feel for you? Seems like kind of a waste on a fight where you take so much damage. And with as many hits as you are taking, wouldn't major evasion and Tava's Favor give you more Ultimate?

Well, until you get 4+ axes its easy to not have to block especially with the amount of hp youll have. The nerf to balance wasnt as much as a nerf as i think people received. Normalizing the health drain from it feels more like a buff honestly. I still use it in every trial. That being said its a bit more difficult to pull off in vaa axe fight but still possible for sure. The reason why ill never run tavas + shuffle is because of the nerf to dodge and the increase cost of skills like that not to mention the meta of more hp and less resources.

I see, never used balance or the other morph myself, got almost 2k magicka recovery so never felt a need for it. But cool to know it still works.

Gaggin · July 2017

On my Templar tank I just use hist+dragon+EG for vaa. Been thinking of replacing dragon with leeching for more healing on HM so healers don't have to touch me. Resources are never a problem as long as u taunt with mag and stam. The sets really aren't that big of a deal on this fight, its more controlling the axes(taunting them when they spawn behind an atro) and not dying when things get hairy.

cosplayerrain · July 2017

For axes- plague for extra health to yourself and dragon to gain your ulti back super quick

cosplayerrain · July 2017

Because the healer will provide you synergies. Alkosh is decent too. The ritual should be put down and shards so you get resources back and also healer should run master resto, which also gives back Stam too.

paulsimonps · July 2017

cosplayerrain wrote: »

Because the healer will provide you synergies. Alkosh is decent too. The ritual should be put down and shards so you get resources back and also healer should run master resto, which also gives back Stam too.

Alkosh is 100% useless while tanking Axes. You are not meant to kill the axes so a resistance debuff is not needed.

ARIES SERPICO · July 2017

It used multiple sets like
Hist Bark-Footman-Malubeth helm Shoulder
Ebon (Even though some are out of range for buff) Hist bark-Bloodspawn
Mixed in Lunar bastion sometimes also. so there are multiple options depending only on wat set up you feel comfortable with.

XGCAlbatr0ss · August 2017

I've been running automated defense and dragon for that fight with chudan. It works wonders, that 20% msg mitigation every 45 seconds works wonders. If I don't feel like running that than I'll do plague and lunar bastion.

XGCAlbatr0ss · August 2017

Dmg**

Tasear · August 2017

Doesn't have to good choice right?

Plague and green pact showed me I had much to learn while I almost fell off the cliff.

Asardes · August 2017

Tasear wrote: »

Doesn't have to good choice right?

Plague and green pact showed me I had much to learn while I almost fell off the cliff.

You'll not die unless you run out of stamina and get CCd, and in that case you will because usually axes hit consecutively and if you can't break CC you are dead o matter how much health you have. As for falling off the cliff it's not always the tank's fault. If the other players fail to pop the mines before they blow up and spread the dark AoE on the ground, tanking the axes in a fixed spot becomes impossible because of that DoT stacked on top of the damage that gets trough block. That's the reason I stopped doing trials for a couple of months when I first got that nasty problem.

As for Green Pact and Plague Doctor, they will be hit hard with the nerf hammer next patch, cutting 1.5K and 2K health respectively. And that's on top of the previous nerf to ingenous shield for group which made stacking health less useful in the first place. Sets may come and go, but what matters is skill. A magicka sustain and high ultimate generation setup works best there because if you are a DK you can turn that into stamina readily. The helping hands and battle roar changes only affected you negatively if you had > 25K stamina, for tanks that had magicka and stamina resource pools around 20K it is actually a slight buff.

Autolycus · August 2017

I tanked it on HM this past Monday in just PD and Ebon. It's been awhile since I tanked it so I did have 1 or 2 BoL's from my team right before we went in for execute, but a minor adjustment alleviates the need for that anyway. Aside from that, I had no help with resources (including orbs and shards) and did no heavy attacks for stam either.

code65536 · August 2017

I tanked axes on vAA HM last night for the first time in months--I hadn't done it since some time during the Homestead patch. I had heard good things about Defending Warrior (Resilient Yokeda), and it looked like that Leeching would be a good set to go alongside it, so I tried out that combo last night (in the past, I just tanked it in the same gear that I used for the rest of the trial).

And then I come onto the forums to see that @paulsimonps had the exact same idea.

I loved it. I had 4x sturdy, 4x infused (all the large pieces were infused because most of the pieces that I had were collected pre-Morrowind), 3x block cost enchants. I never ran into stamina issues. I never needed an orb/shard, and I never needed a heal (the healers were free to devote their full attention to the group). I had no need for a defensive ultimate, so I used War Horn (I'd step off my rock and closer to the group to blow it, if there wasn't a black hole there at the time). At one point, we called for a wipe, and I decided to see how long I could hold out. With everyone else dead, 4 axes, 3 atros, and 2 mini-mages all beating up on me, it took almost half a minute for me to finally die.

So, yea, my vote is for Resilient/Leeching. That said, anything could work--my first time doing axes on vAA HM was in Ebon/Alkosh--but having that extra margin from Resilient/Leeching means that I could support the group indirectly by not consuming any of the attention or resources of the healers.

TankHealz2015 · December 2017

vAA tanking the axes -- Pro Tip (i just learned this... )

It's not about your armor sets- it's about your tactics.

I had been tanking all wrong and sometimes just getting lucky...

The key to tanking those axes in vAA =

1. range taunt the axes to a little stone out cropping-- at the edge.

why : because they will be far from the group and not get hit by any group damage

2. I'm a DK so- slot Ash Cloud skill - ground based persistent AoE

why : because it is a DoT and it returns a bit of stam on cast. The axes will all be standing in your AoE as a precaution that they do not lose interest in you and wander away. Even though nobody else is hitting them.. you gotta be safe

3. You don't need to re-taunt the axes- once you got them --you got them and they stay with you-- i was over taunting and running out of stam all the time. and wondering,, why do i keep running out of stam, what am i doing wrong. etc.etc

Using this (guidance from a guildie) I had no problem at all tanking all 5 axes... somebody threw an occasional healing orb or shards at me, but to be honest they were not necesary.

front bar : range taunt, heroic slash, defensive posture, ash cloud, harden armor
back bar

dont use it. always stay on front for this fight.

My armor sets when I learned this tactic: Livewire + Dragonguard + Bloodspawn
only sturdy traits i had were on the 3 jewelry pieces.

--I did use a couple potions , but just a couple.. nothing more than normal

I have been tanking for a long time, and nobody ever taught me this until just a few days ago.

Hope this helps somebody out there.

Mister_DMC · December 2017

Yup, volatile armor also works. Same thing with ozaras adds except for the troll one they are on you they stay on you.