Best Dragonknight Dungeon Tanking Build

jazzinspace · April 2014

I imagine you want 1 weapon set for tanking single target bosses (immune to stuns and slows) and 1 weapon set for group trash.

http://esobuild.com/?IwbgLCBMkgdLIDMAuA7LYqywMYA4AzXAUwE5ltFiDxhTTiwjFgBDABlbAFZYA2YGFIF2zYInb5uQAA==

Thoughts?

rhubbert_ESO · April 2014

The single boss build is very tanky but you may be in danger of diminishing returns due to the soft cap on your stats. I would maybe swap out Razor Armor for the weapon ability Deep Slash. Even it the boss is immune to the snare, it will probably still be able to apply the 15% damage reduction.

Mulk · April 2014

whether you want to drop razor armor or not is dependent on whether you are wearing heavy armor or not. With heavy armor, it's not that great of an armor boost. So dropping it for deep slash (or, if damage taken isn't an issue for you for whatever reason, a different attack skill) makes sense.

On your AoE/non-boss bar, I'd swap one of your AoE skills for coagulating blood - that's a skill I personally keep on the bar no matter what build I am using as a DK. The health return, health regen buff and the increased resistance to damage can help on high damage group pulls.

yogarogue · April 2014

I like the idea here.. its an obvioous choice for 1 hander and shield for tanking..

HOWEVER, My approach will be a bit different..

You see, The morphs you have chosen to take for your hotbar abilities are defensive In nature. I will opting for a much more offensive approach. My defense in mitigation, spell resist, health regen and blocking (blocking should be HUGE seeing as mostof my hotbar is magicka based and I can just hold right click and cast after my initial taunt) will be ultimately enhanced thru passives in heavy armor, 1h and shield, and various class skill passive abilities so that number 1). My defense is not on cool down, so my resilience will last forever.
2). I can hold agro easier with more dps output. 3). more room on the hotbar for utility rather than primarily defensive abilities.

That's just my 2 cents

jazzinspace · April 2014

yesterday I tried to tank Fungal Grotto, it's the first instance for the ebonheart. It's level 12-15 but we tried it at level 11 and failed miserably. Without Dragon Blood there is no single target heal that the healer can give you so tanking the first boss was impossible to stay alive.

When dealing with packs of trash before bosses it seemed to me like all I could do was try and tank 1 or 2 of the hardest mobs because of no aoe taunt. I could cast my aoe root and try and do some aoe damage to take control over as many as possible but it felt like a bit of a free for all. Has anyone seen a successful strategy for tanking multiple mobs? Or should I even try and get tanky enough to survive that many mobs hitting me?

Rykmaar · April 2014

No. You are right for using talons to control groups, but you can't AoE tank everything. Your group needs to be aware and react, use CC, dodge, etc themselves. You should focus on being able to pick which mob or mobs are the most dangerous and taunt those while also paying attention to your group. They, in turn, should use their CC and kill the other mobs quickly before killing the ones that are beating you up.

jazzinspace · April 2014

ok so generally for aoe packs, chain in the most dangerous one, throw your talons, put up spiked armour and hold down right click unless you need to dodge.

for bosses, spiked armour, taunt and hold right click.

Should I be holding right click block for the majority of fights to reduce damage or trying to deal damage as well? seems like the optimal is right click block and taunt when you've lost aggro.

Mulk · April 2014

right click block the whole time only works if you have the stamina pool to be able to keep taunt and block up at all times. Most people wind up reactively blocking the attacks they need to, and dodging those (by movement, not by rolling) those they can. If you have the stam pool and recharge rate to do it, though, by all means. Your healer will love you for it.

Remember, part of the name of the game is resource management. You want to try to avoid bottoming out on anything unless it is an emergency.

Tiarette · April 2014

Even though this is excellent advice for single target tanking, how is this build for multiple targets in dungeons and groups as far as agro is concerned? Do you have any issues maintaining agro at all?
New DK solid tank build but uncertain on some of the abilities as far as group agro is concerned.

Mulk · April 2014

Tiarette, you don't tank all the things. You won't live if you succeed in it. You pick out the most dangerous mobs in a pull, and the rest of the group CC/root/controls/dpses the others. A couple of them will no doubt be chasing your other group members, but that is on them to take care of it.

Vikova · April 2014

How are you going to avoid softcap problems? Talking to people in-game, it appears to be very easy to hit armor and health softcaps. It can pose problems for pure defense tank builds.

Mulk · April 2014

soft cap doesn't mean you get no benefit, it means you get a reduced benefit. Pretty much, you'll need to judge the gain you get from piling more into the soft capped stats versus picking up other stats you get full benefit from. Some will weight that in one way and some in another. The "correct" answer will no doubt depend on your playstyle.

Tiarette · April 2014

As a tank, I feel uncomfortable with mobs chasing my healer around. But thank you very much for the insight.

Stautmeister · April 2014

http://esohead.com/calculator/skills#czmzyyfXu38fXhm8uzgx8uvZi8ugIo8Gsb18fXuY8fXi48rrYM8uEIK8GkP48GsbX8T7NNRMA6MrqAi6MrqAZ6crqLw8y7iAR3a6dR3r6MfQE16MfQlr6MfQlu8E7zNzmW8l7NAzoC6bzkA6bzky6MuvVB6MuvVD8B7GdzRf6bzsa6qzsw6MGkXf8zk7zzvKVv

Is the build im using. Ransack/ Razor armor keep my armor up to the softcap
Im at the soft cap for stam/health regen.
Stats points are 2 magicka 3 health 1 stam.
Enchant for stam/magicka

Burning talong and extended chains to put them all grouped up in front of you ready to get aoed down.
against bosses i generally go set 2. because it gives me a *** amount of survivability. Even though im softcapped razor armor still gives me 400 extra armor, so well worth it. + the extra healing recieced is really nice.

Magma shell is your oh *** button. Tanked all dungeons up to level 30 without issues.

Dont use ransack more than once every 15 seconds. you need all your stamina for reflection and blocking. Save mana for razor armor or green dragon blood. Start obsidian shield in the start of pulls or when there is heavy aoe dmg.
If you can get items with spell resist use them. Because im a dark elf i get around 300 fire resist extra, which helps a lot.

For soloing take bar 1 but take searing strike (fiery breath is only effetive against 3+ groups) and silver bolts from the fighting guild. Youl be able to solo all content meant to be solod.

TwoCrazyPeople · April 2014

Looking at the passive racial skills a Dark Elf gives, and seeing your lack of usage in fire skills, I would prefer an Orc or Red Guard, rather than the Dark Elf.

Also you selected to use one handed and a shield which Red Guard has a racial passive to improve that.

onyxius · April 2014

kstauthamerb16_ESO wrote: »

http://esohead.com/calculator/skills#czmzyyfXu38fXhm8uzgx8uvZi8ugIo8Gsb18fXuY8fXi48rrYM8uEIK8GkP48GsbX8T7NNRMA6MrqAi6MrqAZ6crqLw8y7iAR3a6dR3r6MfQE16MfQlr6MfQlu8E7zNzmW8l7NAzoC6bzkA6bzky6MuvVB6MuvVD8B7GdzRf6bzsa6qzsw6MGkXf8zk7zzvKVv

This seems like a good setup, but you say you use bar 2 for tanking bosses because of razor armor, yet in this build you have volatile armor and its on bar 1, did you miss click some of those?

esoheads setup isnt bad, but i prefer teso.mmorg site for as kill calc. Anyway, just wondering which is which for your bars, i would think bar 1 would be better for tanking, but I'm not that knowledgeable about Dragonknights

http://teso.mmorpg-life.com/eso-skill-calculator/

yogarogue · April 2014

Please refer to this forums.elderscrollsonline.com/discussion/65715/dk-tanking-guide-an-offensive-approach#latest I may be tooting my own horn but I have yet to see a build to stand up to this one. Yet have I seen anyone who finds it not to work.