I think it entirely depends on the build you're going with, which changes based on class/race/gear combinations.

I don't have solid answers but other than what others here reply with the following sites should give you some additional information. All sites can be found with a quick Google search, some are in my signature.
I believe Alcast now has tank builds listed for most classes on his page which can give you some basic information on where to start. Woeler also has some good tanking information on his website.
For in depth breakdowns and discussions Tamerial Foundary would be a good place to start.

I've tanked on every class, to some degree at least, but I always hated tanking on a templar, so I'm not going to comment much on that one.

Nightblade
My nightblade mostly tanked back during the days of the sap tank, which are long gone now. I have tanked recently with him, but it's definitely harder than it once was. I highly recommend using the sentinel of rkugamz set on nightblade tanks now to aid with stamina recovery on fights where you have to permablock.
On the bright side, most content doesnt require you to permablock, especially as a nightblade, because you have a lot of incoming healing.
Some key skills:
Refreshing path: Use this on cooldown, it's a good source of aoe aggro and heals you and your team, plus it activates shadow barrier for your major resolve/ward. It also gives you major expedition so you can get around quickly.
Mirage: Always keep this up, it's 15% dodge chance and minor resolve/ward, between this and shadow barrier your resistances should be good to go.
Shadow image / shades: These can be used to help with shadow barrier uptime, especially if you dont run 7 heavy. Shadow image is more useful IMO because the shades will always attack the same target, meaning they dont spread maim any easier. Shadow image lets you teleport by activating it again, which can be very useful for mobile fights.
Funnel Health: Heals you and an ally, can be cast while blocking, and helps with proccing sentinel monster set.
Sap Essence: AoE damage and heal for you and your group, procs major sorcery and brutality, can help keep sentinel active.
Veil of Blades / Bolstering Darkness: The main ultimate you'll want to use (though slot soul harvest on your main bar and put this on your back bar to help with ultimate gen), this gives you and allies 30% damage reduction (60% for you if you pick bolstering), and the veil morph does aoe damage which can help with threat on packs.

Nightblade tanks are best served going with high magicka recovery to allow casting all of these abilities frequently.

Sorceror
I went stamina heavy on my sorc (khajiit) tank. I tried a magicka build, which should work better on paper, but I found it far more clunky and difficult than the stamina setup. The essentials:
Hurricane Major resolve/ward and deals damage around you, makes aggro easy and procs critical surge often for heals.
Bound Armaments Boosts max stamina and heavy attack damage and gives minor resolve.
Critical surge Heals you on any critical hits, pairs very well with hurricane.
Dark Deal Uses up magicka to restore stamina and health, has a delay and drops block but can still be useful for emergencies.
Absorption Field Best ultimate for a sorc tank IMO - silences/stuns enemies for 10 seconds and heals allies in the bubble. You can go with suppression field and the passives will cause it to heal you (but not allies) and deal damage, if you're looking for more aoe damage sources.

I also ran dual wield back bar on my sorceror for blood craze (damage and heal over time), Rend (damage and heal over time ultimate), and quick cloak (25% reduced aoe damage taken and major expedition for 6 seconds, useful for a tank for sure). I didnt spend much time on that back bar though.

I'll write up the others later, late for work =P

Regarding your thread title, "You're welcome."

Regarding the OP, it comes down to if you intend to dedicatedly tank or also DPS at some point.

If you're just going to tank, all in health, get the remaining stats from gear, glyphs, and food.

If you're also going to DPS (even a little), usually all in your main stat (Stam for weapon builds, Mag for casters)

Again, you can make up the necessary difference with gear and glyphs.

TL;DR; It doesn't matter how you get the overall stats, so long as you get the stats. That being said, it's much easier to fine tune with gear and glyphs than the cost of repeccing attribute points.

If you have an idea of the gear you intend to run, you can slot it first, then adjust stats to get the levels you're after: Usually 30k+ health, 20k main stats (stam if you're a block tank, mag if you're a shield tank), and 10k or so in the other.

Skill/passive wise, you're looking for things that shield, heal, mitigate, snare, CC , and otherwise debuff (maim being a key one).

Channeled focus / Ritual of Retribution for templars
Bolstering Darkness / Mirage for Nightblade.
Encase / Lightning Form Sorc
Permafrost / Frost Cloak for Warden

Those kinds of skills...

Regarding attributes, until you get comfortable with your own style, Woeler's site is pretty good advice that is working well for me. I think a DK tank is safe and close to target with ~35k health. Then think large stam pool since you don't regen while blocking. Then a smallish mag pool but lots of mag regen. One small area where you can 'season to taste' regarding balancing stam/mag is whether you pick the stam or mag morph for the undaunted ranged taunt.

(And glad to see another fan of Seducer for tanks above!)

Again, I want to thank everyone for all of the help and advice. I think I have a good idea of which class I may go with now for tanking, though I'm going to roll it around in my head for a while. I only have one last question. Where do I find Prismatic Glyphs, or do I have to craft them, and how?

for templar.
there's the blazing shield templar build.
crazy amount of health and magicka regen, spam a huge damage shield while reflecting damage back at mob. kinda hard to die unless you fail special boss mechanics. can't help to heal much and only deal a few k dps. but you survive lots of thing and can rez teammates 20% faster, and they rez in full health by you.

and as for stamina templar,
Power of Light gives a rare defense debuff on mob,
Repentence gives free heal and stam inbetween trash mob packs,
Biting Jab allows you to do decent dps regardless of weapon choice,
Extended Ritual is an AoE snare on mobs and boost your healing skill (Echoing Vigor) and has a long duration,
Restoring Focus is only needed if you really need that extra survivability,
Empowering Sweep costs only 72 ultimate and can be used quite often to proc War Machine set, and reduce the damage you receive.

drawback is stamina sustain in boss fight, so you need Engine Guardian set or things like that

Still need to know more about Prismatic Glyphs.

Lynx7386 wrote: »

AcadianPaladin wrote: »

Regarding attributes, until you get comfortable with your own style, Woeler's site is pretty good advice that is working well for me. I think a DK tank is safe and close to target with ~35k health. Then think large stam pool since you don't regen while blocking. Then a smallish mag pool but lots of mag regen. One small area where you can 'season to taste' regarding balancing stam/mag is whether you pick the stam or mag morph for the undaunted ranged taunt.

(And glad to see another fan of Seducer for tanks above!)

A large stam pool on a dk tank only gives you more room for error. You may not regen stam while blocking but you can spam igneous shield while blocking to recover just shy of 1000 stamina per cast. At the new lowest block cost (roughly 300~) you can lose up to I think 1200 stamina per second from blocking, so you'll still lose out over time by around 200 stamina per second on aoe packs. Bosses tend to attack slowly enough that an igneous shield every 2-3 seconds will hold you over.

I prefer max magicka on my dk over a large stamina pool because at the start of most fights I use molten armaments, hardened armor, choking talons, eruption, elemental blockade, and engulfing flames, then I have to be able to use chains to yank in any ranged enemies and still use igneous shield and green dragon blood as needed. That's a ton of front loaded magicka drain, and when I was running a low magicka pool it was impossible to pull off.

100% agreed. When I first started tanking, I hated it because I ran meta builds and was CONSTANTLY out of magicka. I'm now specced 54 into magicka and 10 into health, running 5 Ebon/5 Torugs/2 Bloodspawn for normal trials, and 5 Ebon/5 Seducers/2 Illambris for vet dungeons. I get my stamina from tri-glyphs, Igneous Shield, and Argonian potion passives. I seldom run into stamina concerns, because I'm not running content that requires permablocking.