NB Tanks: How did you get here?

efster · September 2018

There are a few of us kicking around the forums and I'm kind of wondering what made you look at the class and go "yeah, I want to tank with that". This thread isn't to talk about viability of NB tanking in endgame/PVP/whatever, just a trip to the department of backstory. I don't care if you tank in PVP, vet trials, normal dungeons, spend all your time in zone casting Sap Essence on mudcrabs or if your NB tank just runs around picking NPC pockets these days, I'm just curious about what got you to try tanking on a NB, and why did you stick with it (if you did).

I'll start~

I've played RPGs of various stripes since the mid-90s but ESO was my first MMO (not counting Kingdom of Loathing for obvious reasons) so I didn't know much about tanks, healers, or DPS, other than what I kind of gathered from hanging out with other gamers, many of whom did play MMOs. My first clear of Aetherian Archive (then v12 or v14 or whatever it was) as a stamblade involved Wrecking Blow spam.

I was actually going to roll a DK when I first got the game, because dragons are cool, but then I remembered how much fun I had playing Nightblades in Daggerfall and Oblivion, and NB was the closest to the "sneaky archer" archetype that I usually enjoy, so I decided to go with that. I leveled as a stamblade, but I kind of wasn't enjoying it. In older TES lore, NBs were swift, and agile, and good at magic, but archers in ESO are really not suited for magicka playstyles, unless you count the spectral bow NBs get from Focus. Magicka nightblade seemed like a strange idea at the time since my character is a Bosmer, who aren't really good at magicka type stuff (Jagar Tharn doesn't count).

As I was levelling, the bane of my existence was that Undaunted quest for Banished Cells (i am a completionist and I really don't like having quests sitting in my log unresolved, and I hate abandoning quests even more). I thought that it required me to clear the whole dungeon (I have yet to l2read quest descriptions, it's a lifestyle, don't judge), not just enter it and return to Turuk with the good news, so I spent hours hanging out outside the entrance to BC hoping someone would take me with them. This was long before Group Finder and I didn't know anybody in the game. Then I tried going in there on my own (wearing dropped green/blue gear, no sets). I died to the first trashpack, but hey, my quest had advanced. One thing I noticed during the waiting for BC was a lot of people looking for a tank.

I wasn't really used to the whole MMO community thing and I've always tried to figure things out on my own rather than look up guides, so the learning process for me was very slow. After I discovered sets and started training my character in crafting, I realised that i would be able to maybe use a set to make my character do what I wanted. I started looking at the skills and morphs and passives to see what I could do, and I saw that ESO nightblades had passives that got buffed by heavy armour use, so I thought, what about a tank? It went so counter existing TES lore, but I looked at the in-game description for the class:

Nightblades are adventurers and opportunists with a gift for getting in and out of trouble. Relying variously on stealth, blades, and speed, Nightblades thrive on conflict and misfortune, trusting to their luck and cunning to survive.

...and I kind of zeroed in on "trusting to their luck and cunning to survive" and thought, well, why not try and survive the biggest hits in each encounter? I could do that if I made a tank. Besides, judging from the never-ending stream of "lf tank for XYZ" in zone chats everywhere I went, there was plenty of opportunity in tanking.

By this time I was a lot more aware of just how complex an MMO is compared to a single-player game, so I was much less shy about googling stuff, so of course I googled Nightblade Tank and instantly found the sap tank, which was quite strong at the time. Joined some guilds, made some friends, chose some gear sets, started running group content. Never looked back, tbh, even though the sap tank is only a misty watercolour memory nowadays, and the NB tank identity is being stripped away little by little with every update. I learned to tank on a NB, started out strugglebusing for hours on Grothdarr, and at this point I've cleared nearly all vet content, including many HM trials, on my NB. Due to lack of time IRL I can't quite drum up the interest to tank on anything else. I moonlight as PVP and PVE heals and fair-to-middling mag DPS on the same character via gear and CP swaps, so I'm really kind of a Swiss Army Nightblade, but I don't love anything in ESO as much as I love tanking on my NB.

Okay, maybe fishing. I really love fishing.

Anyway, enough about me; tell me about you!

witchdoctor · September 2018

It is a more aggressive playstyle IMO.

starkerealm · September 2018

Tranq darts and a panel van.

Wait, you mean people get here via other means? Why?

Guppet · September 2018

It’s more a case of using what you have.

I liked the idea of NB so made one. Not with any specific role in mind. I later decided to try tanking so used my NB.

I have since tanked endgame on Templar (bit rubbish), DK (boring as hell) and Warden (actually the most fun).

NB tanking is different. They all do the same just go about it in different ways. That said the flavour of NB tanks is being removed more and more. Thier unique used to be healing while damaging. Path changes destroy that, but it’s no shock, they have been killing sap tanks for ages.

They are still fun (I love that I can get my armour buff by using shade) but I do find that warden is just as fun and flat out more effective.

NB has some very nice passives, you miss them on other classes. Oh and the cloak heal, that’s great.

One thing I would say if you’ve ever thought of tanking on other classes is that getting to level 10, then tanking dungeons is very effective and fun way of levelling

You’ll even know how to tank on the class as soon as your max level. All with no queues. Just be an actual tank and not a fake. I did that on all my characters except my NB.

Tasear · September 2018

Mine got retired to be a werewolf DPS. On that note, it's hard to say what made want to tank with nightblade. I think biggest thing is how they seems own the field. Though going to admit there was was this one nb tank who truly made it look godly. So answer is admiratipm of style.

Rex-Umbra · September 2018

On my phone so will keep my story short:

I love playing Dark Magic type characters so at release I made a breton NB with the goal of making him into a Shadow Knight. Did well in PvP early on and decently as time progressed and my playstyle got weaker and weaker compared to the metas.

PvE was always hard groups would only want a DK tank and had to work twice as hard to prove my worth.

Been really unhappy with the nerfs to strife over the last two years, shade is a joke damage wise. Refreshing path losing all damage now, siphoning attacks no longer procing on abilities like sap essence. I feel like the few things that made the playstyle worth it have been taken away.

LdoubleTG · September 2018

I watched a GTR "Bloodletter" build video and never looked back.. these days i have 3 NB tanks each a different variation, its an aggresive and fun playstyle.

starkerealm · September 2018

Guppet wrote: »

I have since tanked endgame on Templar (bit rubbish), DK (boring as hell) and Warden (actually the most fun).

Wardens are fantastic, though, honestly, my favorite are still Sorc tanks. They're selfish as hell, but so much fun.

Tryxus · September 2018

My NB was once a mighty Breton sap tank, capable of tanking vDSA, Pledges incl Hist ones and Craglorn trials. I was even planning to attempt vMoL with him

Then Morrowind came... now he's my crafter, and an Argonian

Guppet · September 2018

starkerealm wrote: »

Guppet wrote: »

I have since tanked endgame on Templar (bit rubbish), DK (boring as hell) and Warden (actually the most fun).

Wardens are fantastic, though, honestly, my favorite are still Sorc tanks. They're selfish as hell, but so much fun.

Why, why would you say that!! I’ve avoided sorcs up until now. Damn it!!

Guess I have a new project

Still I guess I’ll be the only levelling Sorc in game. I’ll be unique lol.

efster · September 2018

Tryxus wrote: »

My NB was once a mighty Breton sap tank, capable of tanking vDSA, Pledges incl Hist ones and Craglorn trials. I was even planning to attempt vMoL with him

Then Morrowind came... now he's my crafter, and an Argonian

Yeah, I had just managed a couple of vMoL HM clears on my NB just before Morrowind, and after Morrowind, even regular vMoL was an absolute strugglebus. I played FO4 and Skyrim for about 6 months.

Fishoscandi · September 2018

I started as a NB healer. Then I tried out a stamblade and I didn't like it. After that I tried a magblade. Went back to stamblade shortly after. I got tired with all the rotations, tracking and caring about numbers. I respeced to tank and never looked back

It was my first tanking experience. He's still my main and I love him to bits

ccfeeling · September 2018

I have all class tank but warden, but i like NB tank the most, its pretty challenging b4 summerset.

DK tank is too easy, i dont even have to do maths with this class, i dont like ez mode

Mauin · September 2018

I was having a bit of a hard time getting into tanking back then, so I was trying to think of something fun to try. Looked at all the classes and what they had and ultimately decided to make a sap tank called Siphons-Shadows. Everything was great... Until Morrowind happened. At that point, I decided to turn him into a dodge tank using Blur/Tava's Favor.

Now I'm considering just deleting him. It was fun, but now all the fun has been taken away.

ayu_fever · September 2018

my nightblade is:

high elf
tank
NOT a vampire
ice staff both bars
5 light armor 2 heavy armor (still at resistances cap)
20k health

the design and premise of the build is to be as anti-meta as possible and still do the job.
mission accomplished.

it is a much more aggressive playstyle as opposed to the “poke and block” style of the mega boring mega overrated DK.
and yes i am an extreme hater of the DK tank.
they suck.
period.
people just follow silly meta nonsense created by punks on youtube instead of thinking for themselves.
think for yourself.
it wont hurt!
well for some people it will...

my NB is the most fun i have had on a tank.
not only is it “viable” but it works very well.

i dont do trials, so i cant speak on that. it handles dungeons wiht no issues.

MaleAmazon · September 2018

I have this thing where I obsessively need to try all potential character types, especially underused ones. So I've started experimenting with it.

Also NBs are always fun, the red color scheme is easy on my eyes.

jypcy · September 2018

I main tank so made sense to me to have at least one of every class.

Also I like disproving the overdramatic forumlings who claim “you can’t x with a y.”

FlyingSwan · September 2018

I bought ESO at release and, being a keen TES fan since way back, I immediately rolled a Nightblade, because, Dark Brotherhood. I made him a DPS but pretty soon realised that dungeon queues would pass much quicker as a tank. I was intimidated at first as tanking in most games is pretty hard, but soon found out how basic it is in ESO.

But a NB Saptank made the faceroll of ESO tanking a lot more exciting that the drudgery of DK tanking, so I kept him as my main until Morrowind, which killed NB tanking stone cold dead. I left the game for 18 months, came back two weeks ago and turned my NB into a WW DPS for fun, since the WW changes have made that far more viable. I made a Warden tank and that's fun in the way the NB tank used to be.

Game is still a directionless mess however!

eso_nya · September 2018

Long long years ago in a different game when i got into raidleading, i made one char of each class basically for sience. i wanted to know at least the basics to be able to judge better what i can and cant expect of other ppl.

i started to like all the classes and their playstyles and have since than turned into an altoholic.

my first 6 toons on eso i constantly respeced to try out different stuffs. like going from v2 to v4 i leveled 2hander + bow, dw + resto till v6, than back to destro/destro than at v10 tried dw/destro and so on. later on i made more chars and had 1 stam and one mag on most classes.

with OT, i figured that some zones drop nice sets and also, that i might need to be able to kill worldbosses on my own when its late at night and i wanna complete achievments. so i started designing specs for every toon that r capable of doing that.

among the others i got a stamblade and a magblade now that r capable of well, lets say offtanking. the specs rnt designed for progressive leaderboarding, way to little health, way to much dmg output. running s&b + 5 heavys should somewhat qualify tho xD

ghastley · September 2018

Picked just about everything at random for the character. He got NB and sword and board, so tank developed naturally from the latter. Although you can re-spec everything except class, you build the skills you use, so re-allocating everything means learning all the things he doesn't do now. It could still happen, or I could persist, because I'm stubborn.

Tan9oSuccka · September 2018

ayu_fever wrote: »

my nightblade is:

high elf
tank
NOT a vampire
ice staff both bars
5 light armor 2 heavy armor (still at resistances cap)
20k health

the design and premise of the build is to be as anti-meta as possible and still do the job.
mission accomplished.

it is a much more aggressive playstyle as opposed to the “poke and block” style of the mega boring mega overrated DK.
and yes i am an extreme hater of the DK tank.
they suck.
period.
people just follow silly meta nonsense created by punks on youtube instead of thinking for themselves.
think for yourself.
it wont hurt!
well for some people it will...

my NB is the most fun i have had on a tank.
not only is it “viable” but it works very well.

i dont do trials, so i cant speak on that. it handles dungeons wiht no issues.

I would think an Altmer tank would run in the opposite direction once he got anything on his dueling blouse.

But seriously, kudos to you for trying something different.

max_only · September 2018

I’m like you OP.

I got tired of trying to mod Skyrim to have a combat pet so when I came to ESO 2.5 years ago the first thing I made was a pet Sorc. Lol, lesson learned.

The second thing I made was a sneaky archer. Bosmer NB. I was having fun but I can’t dd to save my life. I just can’t twitch like that.

Then I made a Bosmer Templar because it was the closest thing to a nature healer/Druid at the time. He’s my crafter, main, achieve hunter etc.

Once I got to know the game I was interested in tanking. Made a DK tank, boring. Made a Sorc tank. Boring. Looked back at my NB and realized he had so much health, health recovery and self healing that it was almost a no brainer to make him a tank. I loved it. I love proving pugs wrong. I loved tanking and healing world bosses. People actually would take the time out to type “whoa”, “didn’t expect that”, etc.

He was my prize jewel. But everything changed when Morrowind attacked.

When I came back I made some Nocturnal’s Favor and was going to dive back in but what is even the point anymore? ZOS hates seeing Nightblades succeed. They don’t care about role diversity imo. Dk tanks, Templar healers that’s all they care about.

Now I play a Bosmer Warden tank and it’s lovely, he’s so cool. Permafrost, arctic wind, gripping shards. He’s fresh to death. And when i’m solo I use the bear and a bow. I would have been a Warden from day 1 if it existed. Of course this means that he’s next on Zos’s chopping block. Already they cut back the bear damage and the usefulness of arctic wind. I just sigh and trudge on I guess

Guppet · September 2018

Seems there is a trend among us of loving NB’s when they were sap tanks, but switching to Wardens.

Could it be Zos plan to boost warden numbers? Did they nerf sap tanks to get us to reroll?

Ufretin · September 2018

When eso was released I was excited about playing a Breton NB because I wanted to recreate the Covenant hero from the cinematic trailers . Thus, my Breton DW/bow stamblade was born

.
Everything was fine as long as I only did solo quests and normal dungeons (for about 2 years after release actually, with a few extended breaks).
Only when I ventured into more difficult content I realised that Breton race wasn't exactly ideal for stamina builds so I respec'd to magNB (DD) for those extra stats.
However at some point I found that I wasn't really improving as DD. Bringing weaving + rotation to perfection (a matter of manual dexterity) wasn't exactly my thing. Knowledge of boss mechanics, awareness and controlling the battlefield was more to my liking. When I saw GilliamTheRogue's Bloodletter build I was intrigued. I've treasured my trusty Bahraha's Curse set ever since

. Loved my new role (and the zero queue time in group tool) and loved having a more unusual and intersting build. Also, I'm usually not above carrying and explaining mechanics to newbs, depending on time and mood

Ofc I still switch to DD setups for both solo pve and pvp.

That's my story. Kinda makes me sad, thinking of incoming changes with Murkmire. Will NB tanking still be an option? We'll see :'(

ZeroXFF · September 2018

Mine is a stamblade DD, with tank gear/skills, because I wanted faster queues when I'm farming keys on multiple chars. But with Summerset NBs got an HP% heal, making them much more appealing as tanks, so now I tank with it more than I do damage. With the amount of mag regen one can get on a NB I can also keep that HoT up almost 100% of the time, which is awesome. My templar is jealous.

umagon · September 2018

When the game started I wanted to recreate a bleed style rogue I had in another game that I stop playing long before playing eso. I liked the bleed style because it was very different than what anyone else was using at the time in that game. Plus, it was effective and many didn’t players did understand why. I would easily top the kill charts in most of the battle grounds I played in that game.

I wanted my nightblade in eso to be different, at the time bleed builds didn’t work well as there was not much support for it and the skills were lacking. After playing around with a healing/tank hybrid I decided to go full on tank with my nightblade. Mostly because people didn’t run a tankblade and many said it would never work. I like challenges and doing the unexpected. I like to think my tankblade currently is one the most tanky nightblades in the campaign I play in.

Kuramas9tails · September 2018

I tried it. Couldn't do it.

Mettaricana · September 2018

I have a nb sap tank who was a sap tank til zos killed it, then i made a frost tank out of her and zos killed desert rose, and i made a hp and health rec tank and zos killed the sets used, tried an evasion tank and zos killed that this update 20, so im running outta plans here....

Silver_Strider · September 2018

My 1st character inadvertently became a NB tank when I was starting off. Had him try everything (NB healer, Stamblade, etc.) but then my friends wanted to try vDSA when it was still VR14 cap and I had already leveled every skill line by that point so I just moved some stuff around and proceeded to try and Tank. It was a gruelling struggle, had to equip a Resto staff to even keep myself alive in most fights but we cleared.

I wasn't fond of the playstyle at 1st. It was horribly tedious without having a good CC ability to keep adds together and equally tedious to even stay alive at times without keeping a Resto back bar at all times but it wasn't til after making my DK tank and converting my 1st character into a Magblade that I became reminiscent of my NB Tanking days, struggling to learn and keep myself alive. It was a sort of love hate relationship with it since I had spent so much time and effort in researching how to make him effective, even if the payoff was lousy back then.

So at around the time of the Thieves Guild patch, I tried it again. Threw on a Bahrahra's Curse/Leeching Plate set up I had lying about and had a lot of fun with it. I wasn't the greatest tank mind you, but the aggressive playstyle and unique flare of NB Sap Tanking just made the entire concept just that much more fun. I wasn't struggling to stay alive in most content anymore and was doing loads of damage that my DK tank just didn't have. I stayed like that, keeping him around as an on again, off again tank that I could play for fun. My sustain was a non-issue and my damage was amazing that I was ok with the lack of utility.

Everything changed when the fire na...er...Morrowind launched. It murdered my sustain and by extension, my damage. I had to build myself to be even more selfish than I already was and by that point, most groups didn't want me as I didn't offer anything and I felt like a burden. I had to shelf him as a result and made a Warden Tank to fill in. It wasn't until Summerset and several overhauls to skills that would allow me to get some usage out of my NB Tank again. My sustain still needs improvements but I've adapted and I do have some usable CC skills now so I've been dusting him off and playing him again.

The nerfs NB's are receiving on PTS though is just disheartening since we're already hard pressed in the utility department and now our damage is going down to boot. I'm also going to miss the extra sustain and Dodge from the Evasion change but AoE mitigation feels like a fair trade off that I'm not too upset by it.

efster · September 2018

I really like that there's a fairly even split between "went NB tank and never looked back" and "went NB tank, got nerfed into the ground, now play a Warden".

max_only · September 2018

I think we all just find DK tanking too boring and vanilla.