Started playing PVE tank

Unfadingsilence · January 2018

So after 3 years I finally decided to make a PVE tank. Why you ask? Well never played one before and I really enjoy it, my undaunted took 3 days to max it out and tbh it's a lot of fun...... except when you decide to use group finder and pug some dungeons and for the most part it's fine since my toon is very young and I still need to do a few quest in some of the dungeons. But what gets me pissed off is when you see CP lvls anywhere from 450-690 and they are DPS or healers and you watch them and wonder.... how the hell did you come this far in this game with spamming bow light attacks, using a 2h for DPS and your only rotation is light or heavy attack and uppercut or your only means of healing is healing ward. So to all the tanks out there I must first off by saying I'm sorry and next how do you put up with dealing with people like that?

P.s I just left a group because everyone in the group was killed by adds not even a boss fight by adds in darkshade II right at the beginning when they where running up at the start...

Cage_Lizardman · January 2018

Unfadingsilence wrote: »

P.s I just left a group because everyone in the group was killed by adds not even a boss fight by adds in darkshade II right at the beginning when they where running up at the start...

Seen that one happen many times in pugs. That pack of kwama can hurt.

Integral1900 · January 2018

Group finder is fine for normal dungeons, even most base game vet ones although your pushing you luck a bit there, never ever use group finder for vet dlc dungeons though, that way lies only madness.

Also...

What’s with the two handed comment, got through vet trials with it no problem, no one ever whined at me... although they certainly whined at the arrogant player who sauntered into VMoL one day with an emperor name title, fifteen k health and a name like a sexual innuendo. Had a full rotation and all, a real mr meta, lmao, cocky pillock died so often we ended up giving him the boot

Voxicity · January 2018

I always queue as a dd with my partner who is a tank, to save her from such experiences. We can carry any noobs through pretty much any dungeons except a couple of DLC's.

So I guess try and find a dd qt gf to

CyborgPlatypus · January 2018

They are probably pvp players if they are using 2H

phaneub17_ESO · January 2018

Magicka Tank. Your backbar is a Staff with a combination of Class and Staff skills meant for AOE draw and health restore while your frontbar has your taunt, sustains, defensive skill, and 1 spam attack. It's pretty awesome when everyone else is dead and you can keep yourself alive.

gabormezo · January 2018

I'm mostly play PvP, but occasionally go to PVE to get stuff. My experience is that you will get to a dungeon almost instant as a pug tank, but the chance of failure is very high because of lack of group dps. Slotting some damage backup on backbar can help but only in non DLC dungeons. With my pet sorc in PvE setup I can pull 30K alone on a target skeleton. Queuing with him might take few minutes, but the success has a very high chance.

Doctordarkspawn · January 2018

phaneub17_ESO wrote: »

Magicka Tank. Your backbar is a Staff with a combination of Class and Staff skills meant for AOE draw and health restore while your frontbar has your taunt, sustains, defensive skill, and 1 spam attack. It's pretty awesome when everyone else is dead and you can keep yourself alive.

It is.

And yet they like to try to kill it patch after patch with class nerfs.

gabormezo · January 2018

My MagDK runs a fire staff bacbar when doing PvE pug tank job, with Plague Doctor and Bahra, all attribute points on mag. There was many times when I soloed bosses with him, because everyone got killed themselves and the mechanics didn't allowed me to res them.

gabormezo · January 2018

Side note: queueing for random veteran has a very high chance to get you:
- a decent group
- ruins of mazzatun

Aisle9 · January 2018

Unfadingsilence wrote: »

So after 3 years I finally decided to make a PVE tank. Why you ask? Well never played one before and I really enjoy it, my undaunted took 3 days to max it out and tbh it's a lot of fun...... except when you decide to use group finder and pug some dungeons and for the most part it's fine since my toon is very young and I still need to do a few quest in some of the dungeons. But what gets me pissed off is when you see CP lvls anywhere from 450-690 and they are DPS or healers and you watch them and wonder.... how the hell did you come this far in this game with spamming bow light attacks, using a 2h for DPS and your only rotation is light or heavy attack and uppercut or your only means of healing is healing ward. So to all the tanks out there I must first off by saying I'm sorry and next how do you put up with dealing with people like that?

P.s I just left a group because everyone in the group was killed by adds not even a boss fight by adds in darkshade II right at the beginning when they where running up at the start...

You're forgiven.

And to answer your question, a patience, and alcohol, a lot of alcohol.

Zinaroth · January 2018

Okay.

Getern · January 2018

Unfadingsilence wrote: »

So after 3 years I finally decided to make a PVE tank. Why you ask? Well never played one before and I really enjoy it, my undaunted took 3 days to max it out and tbh it's a lot of fun...... except when you decide to use group finder and pug some dungeons and for the most part it's fine since my toon is very young and I still need to do a few quest in some of the dungeons. But what gets me pissed off is when you see CP lvls anywhere from 450-690 and they are DPS or healers and you watch them and wonder.... how the hell did you come this far in this game with spamming bow light attacks, using a 2h for DPS and your only rotation is light or heavy attack and uppercut or your only means of healing is healing ward. So to all the tanks out there I must first off by saying I'm sorry and next how do you put up with dealing with people like that?

P.s I just left a group because everyone in the group was killed by adds not even a boss fight by adds in darkshade II right at the beginning when they where running up at the start...

You picked up probably the worst time for playing tank. I am not mentioning all the changes and health based tank meta.

But the pug is real. The most annyong position to be among them is a tank. Don't try to feed me with crap like: 90% of the ppl is still learning.

Back in a day it was like Lfg tank v16 for daylies and in 95% u were able to grab reliable group.

Group finder is the last thing u want to use, not even mention that u cant remove specific person from the group afterwards.

Find yourself a decent guild for daylies and work with them only, to make sure ur mental health will stay intact.

I mean, as long u are a decent tank operator urself, are u? Do u chain, do u setup agro for quick burn and the most importantly I hope u are not moving boss unless neccasary? War Horn?

Varana · January 2018

Unfadingsilence wrote: »

when you see CP lvls anywhere from 450-690 and they are DPS or healers and you watch them and wonder.... how the hell did you come this far in this game

CP are not an indicator of how far you've come in the game. There's basically infinite XP lying around, enough to get you well over 600 without touching veteran dungeons or trials even once. If you've played somewhat consistently for a few years, you could be at 1000+ just by doing overland PvE stuff.

Aurielle · January 2018

I hear you, OP. I tried making an Argonian DK tank a little while back and gave up in frustration while trying to learn the role in random normals. Too many people playing this game are absolutely garbage at it. I ended up having to make a hybrid tank/DPS build that could churn out a moderate amount of DPS, before deciding that I'd rather just do full damage, because I wasn't going to learn how to be a good tank in a hybrid build. Bought a race change token and never looked back.

I have a tremendous amount of respect for any new tank who manages to push through and learn despite grouping with people who think light attacking with the occasional snipe and ballista thrown in is effective DPS. It suppose it helps if you, unlike me, can find a guild whose dungeon schedule jives with your work schedule.

paulsimonps · January 2018

Pro strat for PUGing dungeons: Don't ever do it! Guildies for the win!

Magdalina · January 2018

And now you know why we have so few tanks when it comes to groupfinder. You can slot a self-heal/shield and survive bow-wielding healer, you can dodge/shield/kite and survive a tank who doesn't know what a taunt is but there's no getting past 3k-per-person dps. Most tanks who use groupfinder are one of the following - new-ish to it and still enjoying the challenge, hybrids with sufficient off-dps, straightout fake tanks or someone trying to level Undaunted in a hurry and willing to take the risk(and just drop group if it doesn't work).

I personally do enjoy tanking pugs occasionally still, even in vet dlc dungeons, there's a great challenge to it, but it does get old when at least half the groups have less than 20k GROUP dps. And worst of all, most of them absolutely refuse to cooperate whatsoever. They're playing how they want and how dare you tell them you can't jesus beam on a stamina build, you elitist prick?!

Aurielle · January 2018

Magdalina wrote: »

And now you know why we have so few tanks when it comes to groupfinder. You can slot a self-heal/shield and survive bow-wielding healer, you can dodge/shield/kite and survive a tank who doesn't know what a taunt is but there's no getting past 3k-per-person dps. Most tanks who use groupfinder are one of the following - new-ish to it and still enjoying the challenge, hybrids with sufficient off-dps, straightout fake tanks or someone trying to level Undaunted in a hurry and willing to take the risk(and just drop group if it doesn't work).

I personally do enjoy tanking pugs occasionally still, even in vet dlc dungeons, there's a great challenge to it, but it does get old when at least half the groups have less than 20k GROUP dps. And worst of all, most of them absolutely refuse to cooperate whatsoever. They're playing how they want and how dare you tell them you can't jesus beam on a stamina build, you elitist prick?!

I know right? I was doing Wayrest Sewers I (LMAO) on my healer yesterday for the random normal XP bonus, and got stuck behind a door. The group proceeded to engage the next boss, and I could not get to them until they killed it. I s*** you not, it took them ALMOST TEN MINUTES to do it. One of the low CP damage dealers died halfway through the attempt, and the other "damage" dealer (I use that term loosely) did not revive him until I told him/her to do so. I'd already noticed well before that point that group damage was ridiculously low, and had swapped in some more damage skills after the first boss. At the time, I let them know that group damage was low, and that I was switching to a hybrid DPS/heal build -- so they were already aware. I took my almost ten minute wait behind the door as an opportunity to let them know again (in a nice way) that group damage was low, and suggested that they check out Alcast's site for tips. The dead DDer had the audacity to sarcastically chime in that he was dead. I wanted to tell him that, if alive, he'd probably only be contributing 3k DPS anyway, but I held my tongue and just nicely said something along the lines of "I know you're dead, but group damage was low before this point as well." I then informed the other damage dealer that it was their responsibility to res their fallen teammate, and gave them the standard list of priority resurrections.

I hope they learned something, but I'm doubtful. The snarky damage dealer didn't seem to think there was an issue, and didn't seem open to suggestions. The other damage dealer said nothing. It's getting to the point now where I'm just going to start dropping groups if people don't start listening or learning. I hate being that person, but the garbage DPS is real. I blame the recent $14.99 base game sale...

Again, I don't know how new tanks who rely on the dungeon finder for groups manage to learn without going stark raving mad.

JobooAGS · January 2018

I did a random vet as my tank (volenfell) and was stuck with 3 sub 300 cp dpses and healer. the last boss was a nightmare as I had to fight all 3 bosses as everyone else would rather "dps" than play mechanics or res the dead. Fortunately, everyone was willing to listen, I was able to help people with their builds and we eventually cleared it.

BlanketFort · January 2018

I main a tank, if group DPS is too low that we take 3+ minutes on a trash pack, I leave with a „sorry, I’m out. Group damage too low“. Has worked wonders so far.

Iccotak · January 2018

Tank here.
Its annoying when you are the only one doing your job and everyone else is ignoring Group Roles.
Its worse when they dealing with low CP players who have no business doing certain Vet Dungeons yet.

For me the worst part is how many people take tanks for granted. Tanks are the guys that allow the rest to heal/buff and deal high DPS. Without them your resources will drop as enemies/bosses swarm you.

Healers job also includes buffs and keeping resources up. This is important because Tanks can't avoid everything and so need high resistance and resource gain to survive receiving large amounts of damage.

Malakor · January 2018

Unfadingsilence wrote: »

So after 3 years I finally decided to make a PVE tank. Why you ask? Well never played one before and I really enjoy it, my undaunted took 3 days to max it out and tbh it's a lot of fun...... except when you decide to use group finder and pug some dungeons and for the most part it's fine since my toon is very young and I still need to do a few quest in some of the dungeons. But what gets me pissed off is when you see CP lvls anywhere from 450-690 and they are DPS or healers and you watch them and wonder.... how the hell did you come this far in this game with spamming bow light attacks, using a 2h for DPS and your only rotation is light or heavy attack and uppercut or your only means of healing is healing ward. So to all the tanks out there I must first off by saying I'm sorry and next how do you put up with dealing with people like that?

P.s I just left a group because everyone in the group was killed by adds not even a boss fight by adds in darkshade II right at the beginning when they where running up at the start...

I have considered building a PVE tank a few times, but I keep seeing complaints like this and hesitate. Can you offer constructive advice on what an aspiring tank should aim for on a build to avoid being less than useful?

Iccotak · January 2018

Malakor wrote: »

Unfadingsilence wrote: »

So after 3 years I finally decided to make a PVE tank. Why you ask? Well never played one before and I really enjoy it, my undaunted took 3 days to max it out and tbh it's a lot of fun...... except when you decide to use group finder and pug some dungeons and for the most part it's fine since my toon is very young and I still need to do a few quest in some of the dungeons. But what gets me pissed off is when you see CP lvls anywhere from 450-690 and they are DPS or healers and you watch them and wonder.... how the hell did you come this far in this game with spamming bow light attacks, using a 2h for DPS and your only rotation is light or heavy attack and uppercut or your only means of healing is healing ward. So to all the tanks out there I must first off by saying I'm sorry and next how do you put up with dealing with people like that?

P.s I just left a group because everyone in the group was killed by adds not even a boss fight by adds in darkshade II right at the beginning when they where running up at the start...

I have considered building a PVE tank a few times, but I keep seeing complaints like this and hesitate. Can you offer constructive advice on what an aspiring tank should aim for on a build to avoid being less than useful?

Your job is to keep enemies on you so then your pals can heal and dps.
Preferably go heavy armor with 1h + shield.
Look into sets that offer spell/physical resistance along with resource buff & return.
whether you are magicka tank or stamina tank, stamina is still important because it is what allows you to block and dodge.

As a tank you are spending resources on:
Taunting
Blocking
Self-Buffs
Some Damage
Emergency heals

Know your resource management and find sets that make eases their weight.

Generally speaking Heavy Dungeon sets are geared towards tanks so aim for those.

RavenSworn · January 2018

Malakor wrote: »

Unfadingsilence wrote: »

So after 3 years I finally decided to make a PVE tank. Why you ask? Well never played one before and I really enjoy it, my undaunted took 3 days to max it out and tbh it's a lot of fun...... except when you decide to use group finder and pug some dungeons and for the most part it's fine since my toon is very young and I still need to do a few quest in some of the dungeons. But what gets me pissed off is when you see CP lvls anywhere from 450-690 and they are DPS or healers and you watch them and wonder.... how the hell did you come this far in this game with spamming bow light attacks, using a 2h for DPS and your only rotation is light or heavy attack and uppercut or your only means of healing is healing ward. So to all the tanks out there I must first off by saying I'm sorry and next how do you put up with dealing with people like that?

P.s I just left a group because everyone in the group was killed by adds not even a boss fight by adds in darkshade II right at the beginning when they where running up at the start...

I have considered building a PVE tank a few times, but I keep seeing complaints like this and hesitate. Can you offer constructive advice on what an aspiring tank should aim for on a build to avoid being less than useful?

Be self sufficient imo. Depending on the group, it's either you bring more dps or you heal yourself if healer is not doing a good job. Don't judge within the first few rounds of meeting up, always keep an open mind. For me I don't care if others are not doing their job, I know I need to do mine, with excellence. Too many people worry about what others are doing to a point they have pre conceived notions just because another player plays slightly different than them.

It's OK to be selfish in 4man content, 'meta' sets or builds usually lose value when used in a smaller scale. Just for eg as a healers perspective, SPC Worm Cult are the usual suspects for gear. But for a 4 man dungeon that has a Stam based tank and dps, that Worm Cult loses value imo. In this instance you might be better off using Lich, or combat physician. Or maybe you could switch it for a more dps oriented set.

But all in all, do what is fun for you. Don't make this harder on yourself than it already is. As they say, sheep led by a lion will win an army of lions led by a sheep. Be THE lion. You are the tank after all.

ArchMikem · January 2018

JobooAGS wrote: »

I did a random vet as my tank (volenfell) and was stuck with 3 sub 300 cp dpses and healer. the last boss was a nightmare as I had to fight all 3 bosses as everyone else would rather "dps" than play mechanics or res the dead. Fortunately, everyone was willing to listen, I was able to help people with their builds and we eventually cleared it.

I learned that pulling the two that move to the far back of the room takes you out of range of the shock artillery guy so it cant hit you. That helps alot.

Malakor · January 2018

Iccotak wrote: »

Malakor wrote: »

Unfadingsilence wrote: »

So after 3 years I finally decided to make a PVE tank. Why you ask? Well never played one before and I really enjoy it, my undaunted took 3 days to max it out and tbh it's a lot of fun...... except when you decide to use group finder and pug some dungeons and for the most part it's fine since my toon is very young and I still need to do a few quest in some of the dungeons. But what gets me pissed off is when you see CP lvls anywhere from 450-690 and they are DPS or healers and you watch them and wonder.... how the hell did you come this far in this game with spamming bow light attacks, using a 2h for DPS and your only rotation is light or heavy attack and uppercut or your only means of healing is healing ward. So to all the tanks out there I must first off by saying I'm sorry and next how do you put up with dealing with people like that?

P.s I just left a group because everyone in the group was killed by adds not even a boss fight by adds in darkshade II right at the beginning when they where running up at the start...

I have considered building a PVE tank a few times, but I keep seeing complaints like this and hesitate. Can you offer constructive advice on what an aspiring tank should aim for on a build to avoid being less than useful?

Your job is to keep enemies on you so then your pals can heal and dps.
Preferably go heavy armor with 1h + shield.
Look into sets that offer spell/physical resistance along with resource buff & return.
whether you are magicka tank or stamina tank, stamina is still important because it is what allows you to block and dodge.

As a tank you are spending resources on:
Taunting
Blocking
Self-Buffs
Some Damage
Emergency heals

Know your resource management and find sets that make eases their weight.

Generally speaking Heavy Dungeon sets are geared towards tanks so aim for those.

thank you

Malakor · January 2018

RavenSworn wrote: »

Malakor wrote: »

Unfadingsilence wrote: »

So after 3 years I finally decided to make a PVE tank. Why you ask? Well never played one before and I really enjoy it, my undaunted took 3 days to max it out and tbh it's a lot of fun...... except when you decide to use group finder and pug some dungeons and for the most part it's fine since my toon is very young and I still need to do a few quest in some of the dungeons. But what gets me pissed off is when you see CP lvls anywhere from 450-690 and they are DPS or healers and you watch them and wonder.... how the hell did you come this far in this game with spamming bow light attacks, using a 2h for DPS and your only rotation is light or heavy attack and uppercut or your only means of healing is healing ward. So to all the tanks out there I must first off by saying I'm sorry and next how do you put up with dealing with people like that?

P.s I just left a group because everyone in the group was killed by adds not even a boss fight by adds in darkshade II right at the beginning when they where running up at the start...

I have considered building a PVE tank a few times, but I keep seeing complaints like this and hesitate. Can you offer constructive advice on what an aspiring tank should aim for on a build to avoid being less than useful?

Be self sufficient imo. Depending on the group, it's either you bring more dps or you heal yourself if healer is not doing a good job. Don't judge within the first few rounds of meeting up, always keep an open mind. For me I don't care if others are not doing their job, I know I need to do mine, with excellence. Too many people worry about what others are doing to a point they have pre conceived notions just because another player plays slightly different than them.

It's OK to be selfish in 4man content, 'meta' sets or builds usually lose value when used in a smaller scale. Just for eg as a healers perspective, SPC Worm Cult are the usual suspects for gear. But for a 4 man dungeon that has a Stam based tank and dps, that Worm Cult loses value imo. In this instance you might be better off using Lich, or combat physician. Or maybe you could switch it for a more dps oriented set.

But all in all, do what is fun for you. Don't make this harder on yourself than it already is. As they say, sheep led by a lion will win an army of lions led by a sheep. Be THE lion. You are the tank after all.

Thank you as well. A helpful viewpoint.

Motherball · January 2018

I havent played a tank in this game yet, but in other games tanking is very challenging with some pug groups and it can be pretty thrilling with the right attitude. Of course there are moments where its just a wash, but that happens in every role.

Malmai · January 2018

Unfadingsilence wrote: »

So after 3 years I finally decided to make a PVE tank. Why you ask? Well never played one before and I really enjoy it, my undaunted took 3 days to max it out and tbh it's a lot of fun...... except when you decide to use group finder and pug some dungeons and for the most part it's fine since my toon is very young and I still need to do a few quest in some of the dungeons. But what gets me pissed off is when you see CP lvls anywhere from 450-690 and they are DPS or healers and you watch them and wonder.... how the hell did you come this far in this game with spamming bow light attacks, using a 2h for DPS and your only rotation is light or heavy attack and uppercut or your only means of healing is healing ward. So to all the tanks out there I must first off by saying I'm sorry and next how do you put up with dealing with people like that?

P.s I just left a group because everyone in the group was killed by adds not even a boss fight by adds in darkshade II right at the beginning when they where running up at the start...

With 2h build i can do 30-36k solo on boses in vet dungeons, that is not problem its about rotation and dots...

Mancombe_Nosehair · January 2018

I converted one of my templar healers into a tank a couple of months ago, when I was building upto 160 cp, as I got fed up of bad and fake tanks. I love it, and wouldn't go back to healing as I realised that I was a much better tank. Ended up retiring my other healer too.

My advice as a tank is to taunt the one in the mob who either has a sword and shield or two handed weapon, as they do the heavy attacks. The others will prove less of a challenge to team mates. Try to keep the taunted enemy still, especially bosses, so that teammates can use damage over time attacks. Try running to the other side of the boss to avoid area damage instead ie keeping them still.

Firing off a couple of range attacks at mobs while running in will aggro them to you too without taunting them.

Unfadingsilence · January 2018

Malmai wrote: »

Unfadingsilence wrote: »

So after 3 years I finally decided to make a PVE tank. Why you ask? Well never played one before and I really enjoy it, my undaunted took 3 days to max it out and tbh it's a lot of fun...... except when you decide to use group finder and pug some dungeons and for the most part it's fine since my toon is very young and I still need to do a few quest in some of the dungeons. But what gets me pissed off is when you see CP lvls anywhere from 450-690 and they are DPS or healers and you watch them and wonder.... how the hell did you come this far in this game with spamming bow light attacks, using a 2h for DPS and your only rotation is light or heavy attack and uppercut or your only means of healing is healing ward. So to all the tanks out there I must first off by saying I'm sorry and next how do you put up with dealing with people like that?

P.s I just left a group because everyone in the group was killed by adds not even a boss fight by adds in darkshade II right at the beginning when they where running up at the start...

With 2h build i can do 30-36k solo on boses in vet dungeons, that is not problem its about rotation and dots...

I hear ya there but last night duds rotation was light or heavy attack and uppercut on his DK that was it no dots or anything and over the last few days I have seen A LOT of that I even have a clip of a 690 DPS using a destro " lightning staff" bow set up which his rotation consisted of heavy attack with the Lightning staff until he had his ultimate for the destro ultimate and then got on his bow bar and did endless hail and light attack with bow until the destro ult stopped working