Sinolai wrote: »

I have been playing my magSorc as a tank quite often too, though I have to say it is not quite optimal. You can use Swarm Mother monster set to help with the lack of chains and if you have more magicka than stamina use maelstorm sword & board. Ebon Armor is nice armor to use.
Unfortunately I really cant recommend Ice staff since magicka is usually better spent buffing and healing. I use Master's restoration staff or vMA lightning staff in the back and 3x endurance jewellery. There is no useful unique ice staves for tanks so you should go with pretty much any nice 4x piece with rings and staff that would help your survival.

I was thinking of getting a Maelstrom Ice Staff, which I could combine with Elemental Blockade to provide my group with some extra damage, while also getting a chance to apply the Chilled effect and immobilize enemies. Not the greatest thing, but yes, it's tough to find a viable Ice Staff for tanking, because they're bundled with Inferno and Lightning Staves, which are used to deal damage, not tank, so you can't have a set benefitting just one out of three staves.

I have tried going into a dungeon as a magicka sorcerer tank once, and it didn't go too well. Part of it was lack of experience, part of it was bad armor choice, but another part was that I was completely focused on magicka. By using 1H + Sword I have a chance to use my Stamina, too, and give my magicka time to recharge.

You loose so much as a tank by not running sword and board on both bars. If you absolutely want to run an ice staff then it should be a back buff or mobs bar not your front bar. When fighting a boss you should be using sword and board for the best protection you can get (two times 5 sets and sword and board passives).

I don't even bother running a pull on a Mag Sorc tank. If you go in first and tag everything with boundless storm you should pull enough of the mobs to you that you can then encase and streak them to cc them where you want them. Again if you really want to pull the range mobs with more than just a range taunt (Undaunted skill or the Staff) you can use Swarm Mother monster set but personally I think it is a waste, you are better running a different monster set like Bloodspawn or Lord Warden.

Saphayla wrote: »

Sinolai wrote: »

I have been playing my magSorc as a tank quite often too, though I have to say it is not quite optimal. You can use Swarm Mother monster set to help with the lack of chains and if you have more magicka than stamina use maelstorm sword & board. Ebon Armor is nice armor to use.
Unfortunately I really cant recommend Ice staff since magicka is usually better spent buffing and healing. I use Master's restoration staff or vMA lightning staff in the back and 3x endurance jewellery. There is no useful unique ice staves for tanks so you should go with pretty much any nice 4x piece with rings and staff that would help your survival.

I was thinking of getting a Maelstrom Ice Staff, which I could combine with Elemental Blockade to provide my group with some extra damage, while also getting a chance to apply the Chilled effect and immobilize enemies. Not the greatest thing, but yes, it's tough to find a viable Ice Staff for tanking, because they're bundled with Inferno and Lightning Staves, which are used to deal damage, not tank, so you can't have a set benefitting just one out of three staves.

I have tried going into a dungeon as a magicka sorcerer tank once, and it didn't go too well. Part of it was lack of experience, part of it was bad armor choice, but another part was that I was completely focused on magicka. By using 1H + Sword I have a chance to use my Stamina, too, and give my magicka time to recharge.

Damage is meaningless for tank sow vMA Ice Staff is not really needed. Any other set with some-what tank related 4x bonus benefits you more. Undaunted Range taunt (mag morph) replaces ice staff heavy attack easily. It costs a little but the effect is instant and if you are magTank you have magicka to spend.
What I do is to keep hardened ward up to absorb normal hits with staff while throwing buffs/heavy attacks, use twilight to heal when HP is low and healer is busy and swap to sword & board to block heavys or just dodgeroll them (vMA set helps with sustain. awesome regen after low slash + you get heroism and maim enemies [also why ice staff is unnecessary and you dont want to root enemies when they are too far]) Ebony armor with full HP glyphs an 1xlight 1xheavy monster set should give enough HP to tank with all atributes in magicka.

Unfortunately there is simply no replacement or substitute for chains/device, which is one of the things that sets dragonknights and wardens apart from the other classes as 'viable' tanks. You can manage on other classes, and swarm mother "can" work, but it's just less efficient, slower, and more limiting to builds. It's especially difficult to run swarm mother on a primarily staff based tank, because you're giving up a 5 piece on the staff bar (which is why I tend to run ice staff as a back bar weapon, and not a main tanking weapon, keep the shield up there for most content).

Still, at least for normal trials and 4 man content, a pull ability isnt absolutely 100% necessary, it just makes things easier for the group. Personally I would not suggest frost staff on non-warden tank (it does work pretty well for nightblades but on a sorc there's really no synergy with class abilities). I actually had the most success tanking on a stamina sorc build rather than a magicka sorc build, despite magicka sorc having higher apparent resistances and utilities.

With the stamina sorc tank, run dual wield backbar and 1h/shield front bar. Dual wield gives you access to blade cloak (huge damage mitigation for tanks, and it can provide major expedition with quick cloak to combine with minor expedition from hurricane for super speedy movement). It also gives you further self healing through rend and blood craze, and additional AoE threat and some stamina recovery with steel tornado. Combined with critical surge you can self sustain through most 4 man content without a healer, while adding a fair amount of damage.