You can run whatever set you want, you don't really need a trial setup to do dungeons. You can use a variety of both dropped and crafted sets instead of that: Bahraha's Curse & Leeching Plate for self heals, Akaviri Dragonguard for ultimate cost reduction and Armor of the Seducer for magicka sustain, Brands of Imperium for group shields, Hist Bark for the newbie tank that just wants to hold RMB and do nothing else, and Plague Doctor or Green Pact for the noob that can't be arsed to even do that.

Royaji wrote: »

It's not like you have a wide selection of other tanking sets either. Your options are pretty much ebon, torug's or dragon. Nothing too exciting so why bother with unslotting ebon?

plague doctors extra 3k health seems alot better than a small 1k health for your group.

Checkmath wrote: »

you just stated it yourself. it is the meta for trial tanks. in dungeons actually a combination of torugs and alkosh may be meta for the best dps you can push with your damage dealers.
but who cares about dungeons? you see the point? dungeons are no competitive pve content and therefore doesnt count as end content. since there arent leaderboards for dungeons, nobody cares what a tank in there is wearing. the meta therefore only applies for trial content, where you want high survivability to not lose points and high damage for faster runs. ebony male ensures the higher survivability, meanwhile torugs or alkosh provides the damage buff.
just to conclude again: anything else than trials does not belong to the competitive pve end content. therefore the meta only applies to trials and nobody cares about the meta for tanking in dungeons.

Ok, so meta doesn't count for 4 man dungeons, thanks for clearing that

LegendaryOaks wrote: »

Royaji wrote: »

It's not like you have a wide selection of other tanking sets either. Your options are pretty much ebon, torug's or dragon. Nothing too exciting so why bother with unslotting ebon?

plague doctors extra 3k health seems alot better than a small 1k health for your group.

Here's the difference. In a trial, that 1k health for every group member is the difference between a wipe and not. It prevents death among the dps and healers. 3k health to a tank isn't going to help as much as keeping your healers alive and keeping your dps alive so the boss dies quicker.

Oompuh wrote: »

LegendaryOaks wrote: »

Royaji wrote: »

It's not like you have a wide selection of other tanking sets either. Your options are pretty much ebon, torug's or dragon. Nothing too exciting so why bother with unslotting ebon?

plague doctors extra 3k health seems alot better than a small 1k health for your group.

Here's the difference. In a trial, that 1k health for every group member is the difference between a wipe and not. It prevents death among the dps and healers. 3k health to a tank isn't going to help as much as keeping your healers alive and keeping your dps alive so the boss dies quicker.

I'm speaking outside of trials, more in the 4 man content zone

You need a set to boost your health in tanking hard content. Your two best choices for health boost are plague doctor and Ebon. Plague does nothing to help your group.

The damage dealers in your group are often pressing the line of how squishy they can be so as to squeeze out a little more damage. As a result, they are often flirting with a thin line to where things that should not be one shooting them is doing so. When a damage dealer crosses that line it gets really messy really fast. Your ebon armor allows them to edge that much closer, especially when you are combining it with heroic slash's minor maim causing those aoe's to do less damage. You may not think it much as a mighty tank, but they appreciate it. Plus, it sure beats plague doctor's nothing.

Because you, as the tank, generally aren't in trouble of dying if you set up your build well.

So what else do you do? You buff the group, either their damage or their survivability. Or both if you run the usual Ebon + Alkosh set up.

Do you already bought Plague Doctor Frost Staff for your tanky? No? Fcuz no! Cuz i already bought them all!
Kidding, only those 500 gold and 1К gold (EU). 40k version still in store

Never copy meta trail setups for dungeons if you are healer or tank. Never! You just gimp yourself. This is especially true for PUGs.

Just go hybrid route i.e. half tank/DD or barely healer/more DD. And with that hybrid route you can also play overland content without switching to DPS setup.

That's the problem with some meta lemmings as they try to preach how trial setups are the only way for dungeons. No no and no. Ebon and Alkosh in dungeon PUGs? Yea, right...

In first pull you already know what PUG you got - your typical low to average DPS (15-20k) or high one. Buffing low DPS group is useless and the massive waste of time.

LegendaryOaks wrote: »

For anything outside of trials, ebon's 1k health bonus is literally useless.

Correct.

Which is why it's the trials meta. Most people don't want to bother adjusting their gear too much from the most critical situation (trials) to optimize for a more casual situation (dungeons), so you end up seeing it a bunch in dungeons too. Not a huge deal, still helps a little.

(Worth noting that it's not bad to have an ebon chassis in midsized and larger PvP groups, too.)

Jim_Pipp wrote: »

You answered your own question!

The 1k health bonus is nice, and it is necessary in trials. The truth is that the meta in this game has moved to Tanks being group support damage sponges. It is a great meta for trials but it means that tanky builds really struggle with overland questing, which is kind of funny when you think about it.

Been playing my stamdk lately, farming out skillshards and the like as ive ignored her since levelling during the exp event. Haven’t had any difficulty with overland content/questing
Currently wearing 5pc Ebon set and 5pc Way of the fire, just because it was in my bank having collected with my main, so not exactly a lot of damage

fred4 wrote: »

Asardes wrote: »

You can run whatever set you want, you don't really need a trial setup to do dungeons. ... and Plague Doctor or Green Pact for the noob that can't be arsed to even do that.

Or the warden tank who gains significant AOE damage and healing from running a health-based spec. Arctic Blast + Gripping Shards + Absorb Magic.

Pssst, don't try to play Warden different from DK tank meta. /s
After all, our famous meta builder still even in Summerset doesn't use Gripping Shards on his Warden build (also Woeler (arguably the best DK tank player) doesn't use it, too) so you don't need those noobish/selfish sets. After all, both use Chocking Talons on DK... So why not using similar ability on Warden?

IMO, the Ebon buff alone isn't all that essential. It adds an extra 1.1k health--which won't save anyone from a one-shot. (A DPS that dies a lot with 16k health is still going to die a lot with 17.1k health.)

Where the Ebon buff starts to become more helpful is when you combine it with high War Horn up times. Remember that War Horn boosts all of your resources pools--including health--by 10%. Assuming that the average trials-ready DPS has 16.3k health* then, in a group with the Ebon buff and high War Horn up times, they will effectively have 19.1k health: [(16.3k + 1.1k) x 1.10] = 19.1k. This provides an appreciable layer of cushioning to everyone in the group.

TL; DR: Ebon alone isn't helpful, but Ebon + high War Horn up times can be very helpful. Since high War Horn up time is part of the trials meta, it makes sense that Ebon is a part of that.

If you're in a situation where you're not using War Horn (e.g., when PUGging dungeons), don't bother with Ebon.

*This health value assumes that the DPS in question is running a 5/1/1 setup; has all of the undaunted passives; runs a regen food or drink; has 1 health glyph on a large armor piece; put all of their attribute points into magicka or stamina, and has max CP.