Are there diversity in tank builds?

Asardes · September 2018

Yes, you can paint your Ebon in a variety of ways and even put a costume or outfit over it.

OneKhajiitCrimeWave · September 2018

Healing tanks are a thing when you play warden or templar tank. My Warden can sustain burst heals to people of around 13k per second with Polar Winds for around 15-20 seconds with no issue, longer than any game mechanic pretty much.
Add the heals from lotus and you're literally smashing heals out at all times.

I've never made a Templar tank i was happy with, so can't fully comment on them but i've seen some with monstrous burst heals

GreenhaloX · September 2018

Guppet wrote: »

Meta is only needed for leaderboards, this can’t be stated enough. Any other content can be done with not meta, it may take slightly longer, that is all.

If you build an actual tank however you like, your not going to get kicked in 4 man content. So long as you hold bosses in place and stack mobs, no one is going to kick you.

If they do, they are not people you would have enjoyed grouping with anyway.

Want to build for tanking and damage, go ahead, have fun with it.

Want to build for tanking and healing, likewise.

It’s only an issue if you get into content that you can’t complete and you know 100% the reason is you.

There are far less people willing to be actual tanks than dps, stop thinking you are a slave to them. In leaderboards trials only should you accept that.

Outside of them, guess what, your the star, your the leader, also the one with instant queues and probably the biggest collection on monster sets.

Embrace your privilage, take your rightful place as group lynch pin!!

Insightful otherwise, but.. I personally think meta is not what makes the leaderboard. I think it is more of the individual or entire group efforts of constantly doing the trials or whatever event more and more, constantly putting in the countless times and efforts continuously honing and mastering the skillset or group efforts to the point everyone is in sync or your individually. Kudos for those group or harder gamers able accomplish such feat. Some of us aren't so privileged to the time allotted, unfortunately.

Merlin13KAGL · September 2018

GreenhaloX wrote: »

Guppet wrote: »

Meta is only needed for leaderboards, this can’t be stated enough. Any other content can be done with not meta, it may take slightly longer, that is all.

If you build an actual tank however you like, your not going to get kicked in 4 man content. So long as you hold bosses in place and stack mobs, no one is going to kick you.

If they do, they are not people you would have enjoyed grouping with anyway.

Want to build for tanking and damage, go ahead, have fun with it.

Want to build for tanking and healing, likewise.

It’s only an issue if you get into content that you can’t complete and you know 100% the reason is you.

There are far less people willing to be actual tanks than dps, stop thinking you are a slave to them. In leaderboards trials only should you accept that.

Outside of them, guess what, your the star, your the leader, also the one with instant queues and probably the biggest collection on monster sets.

Embrace your privilage, take your rightful place as group lynch pin!!

Insightful otherwise, but.. I personally think meta is not what makes the leaderboard. I think it is more of the individual or entire group efforts of constantly doing the trials or whatever event more and more, constantly putting in the countless times and efforts continuously honing and mastering the skillset or group efforts to the point everyone is in sync or your individually. Kudos for those group or harder gamers able accomplish such feat. Some of us aren't so privileged to the time allotted, unfortunately.

Which usually funnels towards a limited set of builds/gear/skills/classes/races to achieve top 10 scores.

Thus, meta. Content specific meta, to be sure, but meta, nonetheless.

Mephisto939 · September 2018

I have run hist bark and bloodspawn on my tank for years. About 2 years ago I switched out Pariah for Undaunted Bastion. There's not much he can't handle, but I don't do vet trials.

MYWARCHILD887 · September 2018

Diversity in tank builds all depends on how you want to play. Do you want to be the follower or the rebel? If you want to be meta then you are going to be limited in your builds. The rebel however has choices. Like the post above I ran Hist Bark, Pariah and Thunderbug for years, then I switched Pariah for Brass after CWC. Now thanks to Jewelry I am running Brass, Twice Born Star and Valkyn Skoria. I love this build and can honestly say I have never been happier playing this game. Am I a meta tank?... No. But there is much more to tanking than just being a damage sponge.

LizziAS · September 2018

Currently using Vipers Sting, Plague Slinger, and Sellestrix and while i lose 10k health by not using the 'prescribed heavy armor', my solo play (which is most of this game for me) is a lot more interesting. As long as i keep spell absorb active i do well enough to do vet dungeons but i do get oneshotted on HM which sucks. The loss of health requires i be picky with the healer.

Trying to play in solo mode with the'prescribed' armor sets and being a weak dd is boring and takes forever.

Inarre · September 2018

Lyserus wrote: »

We got a lot of dps builds (pet build, snipe build, elemental, werewolf etc) and healers are not lacking diveristy (stam healer, nb blood heal etc)

But so far I have not seen good tank builds that are different from the "classic" tank build
Health-Shield templar tank was nerfed
Sap NB tank was nerfed
Shield-stack Sorc tank was nerfed
and among DK/Warden tanks I don't see a large diversity in playstyle (except minor things like DK chain etc)

Do any of you know some refreshing tank builds? Especially for warden (Since I have 2 tanks, redguard DK and nord warden, DK is doing great while warden a bit lacking....and really no reason to use both if warden one plays the same and is overall a worse tank)

I've seen some interesting damage tank builds lately in four man content. Not meta but still interesting. Thunderbug and Grothdar is the first that comes to mind usually paired with Leeching plate or Baharas curse.

LeagueTroll · September 2018

Relax. Guilds would not get rid of you just because you say lord warden is useless and chudan make tanking ez. Many guilds simply don’t have the spare tank for trial. If you don’t feel comfortable, wear survival sets. If you feel comfortable, wear support sets.

Starlock · September 2018

Well, let’s see. All of my tanks are different classes and use different gear. I actually have a rule that two characters cannot use the same set gear. That’s boring, and uncreative. Works fine for what I do, from normals to trials to vets.

ayu_fever · September 2018

i mained a nord templar tank since 2 weeks before morrowind released.
still do.

my only complaint is this:
people are excited they FINALLY didnt get a “fake tank” in the group finder, and then.....
the cries of my tank NOT being a dk!!!!
because of the group details showing i am a templar, i was accused of being the healer that fake-queued as a tank!

troll’s blood!!! i have been called everything by random milk drinkers because i committed the crime of being a TEMPLAR instead of DK, and a being a NORD instead of being an argonian or imperial, and for being a TANK instead of a healer!!!

but...... i never respond or talk back to these milk drinkers.
we whack the first boss and they ALL quit whining!
i let my character do the talking for me.

all these milk drinkers worry wayyyyyy too much about what EVERYONE ELSE is using!!!!
these punks on you tube make a build and then suddenly that build becomes the gospel and it must be followed 100% OR KICK!!!!!!!

the elitism and drama is why i dont do guilds and dread group finder.

just chill and run the content.
kick the slackers.
HAVE FUN! (this is a game afterall...)

Starlock · September 2018

ayu_fever wrote: »

i mained a nord templar tank since 2 weeks before morrowind released.
still do.

my only complaint is this:
people are excited they FINALLY didnt get a “fake tank” in the group finder, and then.....
the cries of my tank NOT being a dk!!!!
because of the group details showing i am a templar, i was accused of being the healer that fake-queued as a tank!

That’s hillarious. My main tank is also a templar, but I can’t say I’ve had such an entertaining experience. I think if someone called me a healer who queued as a tank, I would respond with “sure... let me heal this vet dungeon. Then you will understand the meaning of fake healer considering I’m a stam build.”

munster1404 · September 2018

I think gear setup doesn't matter for the majority of 4 men content. It's the real end game stuff like Trials which determines meta. Since I don't run trials, I play whatever I like:

a) Argonian DK: 5 piece Shacklebreaker/5 piece Plague Doctor/1 piece Domihaus/1 piece Malubeth.

b) Imperial Warden : 5 piece Ebon/ 5 piece Torug/ 1 piece Shadowrend/ 1 piece Mighty Chudan

c) Argonian Nightblade : 5 piece Knight-Errant's/ 5 piece Bahraha's curse/ 2 piece Tremorscale.

max_only · September 2018

Lightspeedflashb14_ESO wrote: »

Delimber wrote: »

max_only wrote: »

All tanks have to use Alkosh and Ebon and that is my biggest complaint. Tanks have very little variety with their armor. Different monster sets for different situations but mostly Lord Warden (I don’t mind that at all, love LW)

Chains or silver leash; stamina taunt; crowd control; class skill; class skill; ultimate

Inner rage; debuff; class shield,; Absorb magic/class projectile shield; flexible (usually a gap closer or something); Warhorn.

That’s my basic set up for all my tanks: Warden, templar and Nightblade.

It never occurred to me to use silver leash to act as a chains skill for a Warden. Going to have to try it out.

For my primary dungeon tanking DK I'm running Ebon, Warrior Poet and Mighty Chudan.

My Warden tank is still a work in progress and a struggle to find something that works well. Trying to think outside the box for the Warden.

http://en.uesp.net/wiki/Online:Frozen_Gate

I run sentinel of rkugams/livewire/sanctuary on my warden tank. Works great buffs Group DPS. Of course my dk tank would be the one that I would take into vet trails and she wears the classic lord warden/ebon/alkosh. I recently have been trying out sunderflame instead of alkosh with groups that don't provide more then 2 synergys, works great.

And if you are not running a back bar staff, you are gipping your self, wall of elements is super useful and getting magic back without using balance is great.

Frozen Device takes too long to aim and arm for the pug squishies I run with.

I’m not running a back bar staff but I don’t have a problem with magick regen. I’ll try it but it’s doesnt seem critical for the content I mostly do.

max_only · September 2018

LizziAS wrote: »

But what we dont see any of is healing tanks or damage dealing tanks. The op says such things were nerfed? I guess i havent been around enough to know

Saptanks(magblade tanks) and Blazing Shield Templars used to tank and keep the whole group topped up. I played a saptank for a long time and it was crazy fun.

Waffennacht · September 2018

Well I just look at the numbers.

If a debuff is giving 5% more damage to the group, and the group is 2 PuG dps doing a combined total of 20k dps - not needed

If you have a 12 man crew doing 40-60k dps per, then 5 % is massive.

So I have a very selfish tank that runs Gloom and Gore and Doctor on a warden. I use this for PuGs, I don't try to join 12 man vet trials with that.

Emmagoldman · September 2018

Are ult regen set ups strong?

BuddyAces · September 2018

Just helped out guildies with a scalecaller no death run. Tank was a mag sorc with 18k health. Some whacky shield build. We got it second attempt.

If you know what you're doing, you can make anything work.

Mettaricana · September 2018

I dont see diversity....

Stack armor poke boss and adds... rinse and repeat with only 3 taunts in the game the rest kinda falls into self buff, self heal, taunt, etc the gear names change but the end its all the same.

MartiniDaniels · September 2018

Mettaricana wrote: »

I dont see diversity....

Stack armor poke boss and adds... rinse and repeat with only 3 taunts in the game the rest kinda falls into self buff, self heal, taunt, etc the gear names change but the end its all the same.

I am running quite diverse pug build now with bosmer stamDK tank in medium armor, S&B/Bow and centered on stamina regen, it's not good choice for trials (since there you are forced to hold block most of the time) but performs surprisingly good in dlc vets (which are more of mechanics knowledge then permablocking).

5 medium pieces and 2 heavy, bone pirate + nocturnal's favored + chudan + serpent mundus + all jewelry on stam regen, other glyphs on health = 30k resistances, 3500 stamina regeneration, 40k health. With that setup you can still block deadly strikes and all other time you are free to move around boss spamming bonewalls, shuffles, leashes, ranged taunts and interruptions, crowd controlling with bombard and roll dodging out of deadly aoes and you always have stamina for all it without drinking potion every 20 sec. It's absolutely another kind of experience in comparison to bulky heavy tank I played before, HAs are required rarely, and HA is time when you are most vulnerable -> minimizing HA = minimizing risks.

Of course you may replace nocturnal with plague doctor, serpent with lord, 5 medium with 5 heavy etc... and get mediocre boring 50k hp build.

Yes, there are some tough situations where your health/block is not enough to survive all the incoming damage when boss enrages but that's where your ultimate saves the day.

Board setup:
S&B: pierce armor, heroic slash, bonewall, shuffle, green dragon blood, spell wall/aggresive horn (depending on group)
Bow: inner beast, venom arrow, igneous shield, bombard, silver leash, magma armor.

Why bow? venow arrow as ranged interrupt (100% required in pugs), bombard as alternative to talons (harder to use due to cone instead of radius but don't cost magicka, cone has more reach, and you may use it regularly due to crazy stamina regen), HA bow attack against bosses with shield - try it, you'll make boss look stupid when he will try to block it and put you off balance lol. Also mobility from hasty retreat, combined with medium armor passives allow you to outrun your dps-mates in distance between encounters, and manage to pre-aggro all mobs with bombard before dps land their aoes, so you won't spend all your stamina to re-aggro all trash mobs back to you with taunts.

Merlin13KAGL · September 2018

ayu_fever wrote: »

because of the group details showing i am a templar, i was accused of being the healer that fake-queued as a tank!

This indicates a special kind of stupid on their part. Why would you queue jump from a role that rarely has to wait to the other role that rarely has to wait?

@ayu_fever My very first tank was a templar tank. it's been met with surprise at how effective and survivable it can be in content.

There's so much more to it than the build, and unfortunately there seem to be more non-skilled players people have had experience with than skilled ones.

The first pull will tell the tale. And if it works, non-meta is usually a non-issue.

RouDeR · September 2018

I tank all the vet HM 4 man content with my impregnable gear just fine ^^ #TooLazyToSwapGear

max_only · September 2018

Well there goes 2 out of 3 tank builds.

Minor/Major Evasion: These buffs no longer grant a passive chance to dodge. They now reduce the damage you take from area of effect attacks by 5/25%. All abilities that previously granted Minor or Major Evasion have been converted to this new effect, and the Blade Cloak ability now grants Major Evasion.
Developer Comment:
Spoiler
This change affects the abilities Blur, Evasion, Deceptive Predator, Gossamer, Grace of Gloom, Adept Rider, Hist Bark, and Spectre’s Eye.

As noted above, we spent time fixing issues with dodge, with the goal of making sure that you only dodge abilities/projectiles when you are actually actively dodging. Passive dodge goes against that, so we removed it from the game

.

MartiniDaniels · September 2018

I spent so many time and resources to develop and hone that char, he is placed under death sentence now (death from boredom). RIP.

Ok, i guess they did it to make me go to crownstore and switch my dk's race to argonian.

Ha-ha, no! I'll play it in vetdlcs anyway and will ruin games for other people with build becoming useless after update 20, and I'll blame you ZOS in chat everytime.

Ufretin · September 2018

Awesome thread with many interesting suggestions!
Sadly, it was just made obsolete by today's PTS patch notes. RIP NB tanks (among other things) :'(

Merlin13KAGL · September 2018

max_only wrote: »

Well there goes 2 out of 3 tank builds.

Minor/Major Evasion: These buffs no longer grant a passive chance to dodge. They now reduce the damage you take from area of effect attacks by 5/25%. All abilities that previously granted Minor or Major Evasion have been converted to this new effect, and the Blade Cloak ability now grants Major Evasion.
Developer Comment:
Spoiler
This change affects the abilities Blur, Evasion, Deceptive Predator, Gossamer, Grace of Gloom, Adept Rider, Hist Bark, and Spectre’s Eye.

As noted above, we spent time fixing issues with dodge, with the goal of making sure that you only dodge abilities/projectiles when you are actually actively dodging. Passive dodge goes against that, so we removed it from the game

.

And a few sets along with them.

DanteYoda · September 2018

There is no diversity because gear is so cookie cutter and most skills are useless bar a few..

Merlin13KAGL · September 2018

DanteYoda wrote: »

There is no diversity because gear is so cookie cutter and most skills are useless bar a few..

Latest PTS notes aside, you're doing it wrong.

Asardes · September 2018

New META dodgy tank with 2W backbar