The PUG Predator - A tank/DD build for everyday dungeon success (all classes-ish)

Vildebill · December 2018

Do you still have that sour taste in your mouth from the Undaunted event?
Do you keep losing hair about fake tanks dying on random normals?
Are you out of your mind after 46 minutes of tanking High Kinlord Rilis with a group DPS of 2,5k?

Fear not, for I have brought you the perfect build for all PUG (and other dungeon) runs! The goal with this build is to be able to tank normal and veteran dungeons while dishing out some good damage, so you can get out of every sticky frustrating PUG situation you might end up in. Perfect for the christmas holidays when you have that extra time to dip your toes into some dungeons.

Let's get on with it shall we!

Class
I run as a Dragonknight, but it doesn't really matter at all.

Race
I'm a Khajiit, but who cares about races? *Staring jealously at Redguard racial passives*

Attributes, Food and Mundus Stone
All into Stamina, use what kind of food you prefer (I used blue for extra Stamina and Health), and Lover mundus stone for that extra juicy penetration

Gear
We're going full BiS Stamina DPS gear ("YouTube-build-haters" gonna hate probably...)
2 Velidreth monster set, head and shoulders obviously
5 Arms of Relequen on body
5 Advancing Yokeda (Berserking Warrior), 3 jewelery, one dagger (sword, mace or axe would work just fine and dandy as well since no twin blade and blunt), and a shield.
1 Maelstrom bow back bar, stop talking start farming you guys who doesn't have it

7 medium armor, all divines, all Stamina glyphs, weapons infused. 1h/S bar poison enchantment and bow bar weapon damage. For jewelery traits, go with your personal mix of infused/bloodthirsty, some math guy will most likely give a better response than me.

Or you could just run any other stamina DPS gear combination, like Hundings, Spriggans, Veiled Heritance, Vicious Ophidian, Twice-Fanged serpent or Briarheart, with monster sets like Stormfist, Selene, Kragh or whatever rocks your boat.

Stats
This is my in combat stats self buffed (Major Brutality, Minor Brutality, Major Savagery, 5 Advancing Yokeda stacks and probably a lot of other stuff)

Skills

1h/S bar:
Pierce Armor: Gotta taunt, right? No fake tanks here.
Noxious Breath: Kinda had this on for fracture when doing DPS tests with 2 daggers. Keep it or not, doesn't really matter. The engulfing flame morph would give your group more flame damage so go with that instead.
Venomous Claw: Main spammable, low cost good damage.
Rearming Trap: Minor force and some nice damage.
Flames of Oblivion: Major savagery, and some neat damage since it scales with stamina as well.
Ultimate: Flawless Dawnbreaker: Some extra weapon damage on this bar, mainly not used.

Bow bar:
Igneous Weapons: Major brutality and sorcery for the group, pots are expensive you know...
Endless Hail: Best DPS skill for stamina players, no need to say more.
Razor Caltrops: Good damage and slowing all the trash down like the peasants they are.
Poison Injection: Good damage and a pseudo execute.
Resolving Vigor: A little extra heal when the fake healer is away getting coffee, or the spiders in normal Spindleclutch are too overwhelming
Ultimate: Standard of Might: As the mad king Aerys says, BURN THEM ALL!

If you're not a Dragonknight, change the DK class skills to something fitting (Crushing Weapons for spammable, Expert Hunter for savagery and weapon damage, sorcs have like surge and aegis, some minor berserk OP Stamina Nightblade skill or whatever).

Rotation
Pre-buff with Flames of Oblivion and Igneous Weapons, taunt the enemy to elude the fake tank rage from your fellow PUG members, and then as follows:
Rearming Trap - LA - (bar swap) - Endless Hail - LA - Razor Caltrops - LA - Poison Injection - LA - Standard of Might - (cancel bar swap) - LA - Pierce Armor - LA - Engulfing Flames - LA - 4x Venomous Claw (or other spammable) - LA - Rearming Trap - Restart.

On every second rotation re-cast Flames of Oblivion instead of one claw. Re-cast Igneous Weapons on cooldown (like every third rotation).

Skeleton Parse
This is me self buffed and tired on Christmas day after a lot of herring and schnapps yesterday, could probably be a lot better, especially with some juicy war horns or combat prayer from the healer.

Gameplay
Taunt the boss, face it away from the group, block heavy attacks, don't die and dish out some good damage. That should cover it!

Champion Points
Not gonna bother with exact stuff and numbers, but some these guidelines should be more than fine:
Blue tree: Distribute evenly between Mighty, Thaumaturge, Precise Strikes and Master-at-Arms, and put some into Piercing.
Green tree: Max out Mooncalf for that extra stamina regen, and then split evenly on like Shadow Ward, Tumbling and Tenacity.
Red tree: Put a lot in Ironclad, and then evenly on Hardy, Elemental Defender, Thick Skinned and Spellshield. Red tree CP is obviously based on what content you run, but does it look like this build is serious enough to even comment on that?

That's about it! With this enormous contribution to the ESO Community, I see no reason whatsoever to see a thread like "Fake Tanks", "Fake DPS" or "My damage is too low" ever again. This solves it all.

Happy holidays everyone and remember to be nice to each other out there!

akl77 · December 2018

What happen if you got into a vet dlc dungeon? 16k health aren’t gonna survive as a tank in vet dlc dungeons, need to put on real proper tank gears and proper debuff skills.

Also, grouping adds is very important as a tank, chain as a tank is a must imo.

Asmael · December 2018

akl77 wrote: »

What happen if you got into a vet dlc dungeon? 16k health aren’t gonna survive as a tank in vet dlc dungeons, need to put on real proper tank gears and proper debuff skills.

Also, grouping adds is very important as a tank, chain as a tank is a must imo.

You don't do vet DLCs dungeons with PuGs, unless you are some very special kind of masochist.

Sergykid · December 2018

all my tanks deal 16-20k dps, and have 25k hp with good resistances and in heavy armor.

all u need to be a good tank is heavy armor, taunt, a defensive buff spell, a mag heal/absorb spell, a stam heal/absorb spell, an utility spell, and this is ur tank bar.

now u can switch on the "dps" bar that will have only dps abilities, and u can use dps sets but in heavy armor.

OneKhajiitCrimeWave · December 2018

Asmael wrote: »

akl77 wrote: »

What happen if you got into a vet dlc dungeon? 16k health aren’t gonna survive as a tank in vet dlc dungeons, need to put on real proper tank gears and proper debuff skills.

Also, grouping adds is very important as a tank, chain as a tank is a must imo.

You don't do vet DLCs dungeons with PuGs, unless you are some very special kind of masochist.

I forgot that group finder also knows this and doesn't throw you in to Mazz or MoS any chance it gets in PUG vets..... oh wait.

LeagueTroll · December 2018

Or play a real tank and kick fake dd

Thorstienn · December 2018

So you suggestion for a PUG tank, as everyone hates "fake" tanks is to be a Meta stam DPS, but swap offhand dagger for a shield and swap twin slashes for pierce armor?

Tune in next week, Meta Mag DPS, front flame staff to sword and shield, swap spammable for pierce armor. Or better yet, just swap front staff for frost staff, insert heavy attack.

Caff32 · December 2018

At least run Alkosh

Linaleah · December 2018

Caff32 wrote: »

At least run Alkosh

in pugs? good luck getting enough synergies to actualy make it worth it

max_only · December 2018

16k health is not going to cut it. Pugs have fake healers too.

Just level your Undaunted as a “real tank” and then switch back to DD when you’re done.

I suggest Ebon, Tri stat food, stam (pierce armor) and/or mag (inner fire) taunts, a self heal & Silver Leash. The rest are damage skills and sets. for doing random normal dlc dungeons and below. Any and every class can do it. I don’t go with less than 25k- 30k health.

Op’s “Advice” looks like more trouble, sorry to say.

idk · December 2018

akl77 wrote: »

What happen if you got into a vet dlc dungeon? 16k health aren’t gonna survive as a tank in vet dlc dungeons, need to put on real proper tank gears and proper debuff skills.

Also, grouping adds is very important as a tank, chain as a tank is a must imo.

I had the same thoughts then figured OP is talking about normal dungeons vs vet where anything is fine. While they cannot group they do not have much AoE damage either.

But for normal randoms it is fine. If they do random vets with this maybe they drop group when they get a DLC.

Vildebill · December 2018

LOL this build was more of a joke than something serious, guess you haven't read it all :P it's a full blown out DD build with a taunt and shield. Works out in vet dungeons as well though.

MilwaukeeScott · December 2018

Fun times!

But no chains on a DK Tank makes you naughty. Not vice!

Caff32 · December 2018

Linaleah wrote: »

Caff32 wrote: »

At least run Alkosh

in pugs? good luck getting enough synergies to actualy make it worth it

You’re right. Better to wear selfish DPS sets with 16K health as a tank.

D0PAMINE · December 2018

Aside from s&b these armor sets are already and have been used for a while now

karekiz · December 2018

OP doesn't have Ebon + Alkosh + off hand destro for debuffing.

Karekiz has started a vote kick<.Vildebill>.

ArchMikem · December 2018

Sword and Shield and still gets a 36k parse.

Stebarnz · December 2018

Normal dungeon wear whatever or nothing you can complete them with your monitor turned off, while OP's sets are considered 'selfish' for pug group it should be selfish as there is no point buffing someone pulling 7k dps when you can pull 30k yourself and hold agg.
If OP is good enough at mechs and movement ill dps with him tanking in those sets in any vet dungeon and we will rip it.

Slack · December 2018

Asmael wrote: »

akl77 wrote: »

What happen if you got into a vet dlc dungeon? 16k health aren’t gonna survive as a tank in vet dlc dungeons, need to put on real proper tank gears and proper debuff skills.

Also, grouping adds is very important as a tank, chain as a tank is a must imo.

You don't do vet DLCs dungeons with PuGs, unless you are some very special kind of masochist.

With a pug from groupfinder I have recently completed vet Hm Falkreath, which was even almost flawless with just 1 death (iirc).
Was very nice for a change

Linaleah · December 2018

Caff32 wrote: »

Linaleah wrote: »

Caff32 wrote: »

At least run Alkosh

in pugs? good luck getting enough synergies to actualy make it worth it

You’re right. Better to wear selfish DPS sets with 16K health as a tank.

you understand that there is a middle ground there right? sets like Alkosh only work for groups that are not selfish. pug proof builds which above is honestly not - are still selfish builds. you cannot rely on rest of the group havingenough damage to kill things without you contributing extra, you cannot rely on being healed consistently and you DEFINITELY cannot rely on having steady supply of synergies to make alkosh worth it. it is NOT a good set for pug, its an amazing set for organized groups. so maybe instead of regurgitating meta - try to understand WHY its meta?

in a nutshell - pub proof builds generaly are the kind of builds that allow you to more or less solo dungeons while still performing at least basics of the role you queued up for (for instance for pugging my healer's bars change a LOT vs what I normally run in a guild group. I also fiddle with sets I'm wearing - because I am far too jaded to expect a pugged group perform the way guild group would. sometimes I'm pleasantly surprised. most of the times - I'm not)

Vildebill · December 2018

max_only wrote: »

16k health is not going to cut it. Pugs have fake healers too.

Just level your Undaunted as a “real tank” and then switch back to DD when you’re done.

I suggest Ebon, Tri stat food, stam (pierce armor) and/or mag (inner fire) taunts, a self heal & Silver Leash. The rest are damage skills and sets. for doing random normal dlc dungeons and below. Any and every class can do it. I don’t go with less than 25k- 30k health.

Op’s “Advice” looks like more trouble, sorry to say.

Is this a serious comment? Have you even read anything above except from small fragments you've picked out? Doesn't seem like it since it's deadly serious on something not even pretending to be serious.

You must be fun at parties

josiahva · December 2018

Vildebill wrote: »

Do you still have that sour taste in your mouth from the Undaunted event?
Do you keep losing hair about fake tanks dying on random normals?
Are you out of your mind after 46 minutes of tanking High Kinlord Rilis with a group DPS of 2,5k?

Fear not, for I have brought you the perfect build for all PUG (and other dungeon) runs! The goal with this build is to be able to tank normal and veteran dungeons while dishing out some good damage, so you can get out of every sticky frustrating PUG situation you might end up in. Perfect for the christmas holidays when you have that extra time to dip your toes into some dungeons.

Let's get on with it shall we!

Class
I run as a Dragonknight, but it doesn't really matter at all.

Race
I'm a Khajiit, but who cares about races? *Staring jealously at Redguard racial passives*

Attributes, Food and Mundus Stone
All into Stamina, use what kind of food you prefer (I used blue for extra Stamina and Health), and Lover mundus stone for that extra juicy penetration

Gear
We're going full BiS Stamina DPS gear ("YouTube-build-haters" gonna hate probably...)
2 Velidreth monster set, head and shoulders obviously
5 Arms of Relequen on body
5 Advancing Yokeda (Berserking Warrior), 3 jewelery, one dagger (sword, mace or axe would work just fine and dandy as well since no twin blade and blunt), and a shield.
1 Maelstrom bow back bar, stop talking start farming you guys who doesn't have it

7 medium armor, all divines, all Stamina glyphs, weapons infused. 1h/S bar poison enchantment and bow bar weapon damage. For jewelery traits, go with your personal mix of infused/bloodthirsty, some math guy will most likely give a better response than me.

Or you could just run any other stamina DPS gear combination, like Hundings, Spriggans, Veiled Heritance, Vicious Ophidian, Twice-Fanged serpent or Briarheart, with monster sets like Stormfist, Selene, Kragh or whatever rocks your boat.

Stats
This is my in combat stats self buffed (Major Brutality, Minor Brutality, Major Savagery, 5 Advancing Yokeda stacks and probably a lot of other stuff)

Skills

1h/S bar:
Pierce Armor: Gotta taunt, right? No fake tanks here.
Noxious Breath: Kinda had this on for fracture when doing DPS tests with 2 daggers. Keep it or not, doesn't really matter. The engulfing flame morph would give your group more flame damage so go with that instead.
Venomous Claw: Main spammable, low cost good damage.
Rearming Trap: Minor force and some nice damage.
Flames of Oblivion: Major savagery, and some neat damage since it scales with stamina as well.
Ultimate: Flawless Dawnbreaker: Some extra weapon damage on this bar, mainly not used.

Bow bar:
Igneous Weapons: Major brutality and sorcery for the group, pots are expensive you know...
Endless Hail: Best DPS skill for stamina players, no need to say more.
Razor Caltrops: Good damage and slowing all the trash down like the peasants they are.
Poison Injection: Good damage and a pseudo execute.
Resolving Vigor: A little extra heal when the fake healer is away getting coffee, or the spiders in normal Spindleclutch are too overwhelming
Ultimate: Standard of Might: As the mad king Aerys says, BURN THEM ALL!

If you're not a Dragonknight, change the DK class skills to something fitting (Crushing Weapons for spammable, Expert Hunter for savagery and weapon damage, sorcs have like surge and aegis, some minor berserk OP Stamina Nightblade skill or whatever).

Rotation
Pre-buff with Flames of Oblivion and Igneous Weapons, taunt the enemy to elude the fake tank rage from your fellow PUG members, and then as follows:
Rearming Trap - LA - (bar swap) - Endless Hail - LA - Razor Caltrops - LA - Poison Injection - LA - Standard of Might - (cancel bar swap) - LA - Pierce Armor - LA - Engulfing Flames - LA - 4x Venomous Claw (or other spammable) - LA - Rearming Trap - Restart.

On every second rotation re-cast Flames of Oblivion instead of one claw. Re-cast Igneous Weapons on cooldown (like every third rotation).

Skeleton Parse
This is me self buffed and tired on Christmas day after a lot of herring and schnapps yesterday, could probably be a lot better, especially with some juicy war horns or combat prayer from the healer.

Gameplay
Taunt the boss, face it away from the group, block heavy attacks, don't die and dish out some good damage. That should cover it!

Champion Points
Not gonna bother with exact stuff and numbers, but some these guidelines should be more than fine:
Blue tree: Distribute evenly between Mighty, Thaumaturge, Precise Strikes and Master-at-Arms, and put some into Piercing.
Green tree: Max out Mooncalf for that extra stamina regen, and then split evenly on like Shadow Ward, Tumbling and Tenacity.
Red tree: Put a lot in Ironclad, and then evenly on Hardy, Elemental Defender, Thick Skinned and Spellshield. Red tree CP is obviously based on what content you run, but does it look like this build is serious enough to even comment on that?

That's about it! With this enormous contribution to the ESO Community, I see no reason whatsoever to see a thread like "Fake Tanks", "Fake DPS" or "My damage is too low" ever again. This solves it all.

Happy holidays everyone and remember to be nice to each other out there!

We will ignore the how the Vet DLC dungeons would trash you in seconds(some of them anyway) we will use the example of plain old vet Volenfell. If you cant take the aggro of at least 2 out of the 3 Centurions without dying, you cant tank it effectively(sometimes you even get the aggro of all three even though you cant taunt 2 of them)...and with 16k health...that's just not happening unless you are roll dodge spamming...and we wont even talk about wayrest 1 where you will be one-shot by the last boss(or if not one shot, then her teleport strike immediatley following her heavy attack will do you in.

Dont get me wrong. I too have a beserker-type tank and fully buffed he is 22k health...that build is mostly magicka based and puts out some good damage...but even he struggles with vet Volenfell and Wayrest 1...you have to be really careful there...16k health? no way in hell. Even HM BC1 or SC1 would be tricky...both those bosses can one shot someone at 16k health regardless of resistances. I am sure most runs go perfectly smoothly for you...but a tank build like that sacrifices a lot of survivability and can quickly find itself in trouble. The real problem isnt survivability even though...anyone who is good enough can tank on a 16k health nightblade in full medium armor...the real problem is that when you are devoting so much time and attention to survival there is no way you are putting out anywhere close to maximum damage...sure, you may be capable of 30k DPS against a dummy...but in the real world you are lucky to hit 15k when you have to stop to block a heavy here...stop to roll dodge a teleport strike there, etc etc. In other words, either you cant hold the aggro you need to, or if you can hold the aggro you cant output full damage because all your resources are going into survival...that beserker tank of mine is the closest I have come to good compromise at 22k health and about 22k DPS under real circumstances...and that number drops lower against bosses that require more attention, and forget about taking that thing into a vet DLC dungeon...it can handle vCoS, vWGT, vICP, and thats about it for the DLC dungeons

That being said....if you can play it effectively, all the more power to you. I approve of any out of the norm build

Merlin13KAGL · December 2018

You're a DPS with pierce armor and no ranged taunt.

Not-fake-tanking: You're doing it wrong.

kojou · December 2018

Go with the AY heavy pieces, Bloodspawn monster set, and Alkosh weapons and 25k health and you can do all but the harder DLC and still hit 20k DPS.

Psyonico · December 2018

Troll post rating 9/10 gg

zaria · January 2019

Asmael wrote: »

akl77 wrote: »

What happen if you got into a vet dlc dungeon? 16k health aren’t gonna survive as a tank in vet dlc dungeons, need to put on real proper tank gears and proper debuff skills.

Also, grouping adds is very important as a tank, chain as a tank is a must imo.

You don't do vet DLCs dungeons with PuGs, unless you are some very special kind of masochist.

You can do if you start with the standard dungeons and its an good group so you go for the dlc.
Only pugged one vet dlc directly, bloodroot forge as I only needed the first two bosses for achivement.
nice clear.