Ok, after getting to play test the game some in the last beta weekend, I am so anticipating this game. It is practically all I am thinking about, which only makes getting my school work done that much more difficult. Since the way character development is laid out and with gaining skill points, it seems that pre-planning your build is crucial to access the most optimized skill set up upon hitting lvl 50 or shortly their after. So with that in mind, i have been looking over the skills, their morphs, how to get skill points, and looking at what appears to be optimized skills sets for tanking.
With that in mind, I present my tanking build. This is based around the fact that I am also creating my main as an imperial, however the racial skill choices will obviously change if you wanted to adopt these skill sets. I figured I would share my skill build, along with thoughts on the skills I chose and why. This is intended for PVE content and not necessarily for PVP.
To start off, my build is planned for a total of 121 skill points, however 46 of those are invested in crafting. I am noting this up front because you do not have to invest those skill points into crafting to make this work, so really the total skill points used for the build itself is 75. As for the crafting, I have maxxed out both blacksmithing and enchanting with skill points. The reason is I want to be able to craft my armor/weapons as well as provide the best enchants I can to my gear. I haven't invested in woodworking, of course I might in the game.
So onto the build. To start with, I have learned playing in the beta, that my first 3 skill points spent should be one in each class tree. The reason for this is by leveling, you can put one of each class tree abilities onto your hotbar and this will help speed up the ranking process, both for the skill itself, and for the class tree. This is crucial for early soloing and leveling, because well, ranking up the tree itself opens up the other abilities you want to actually learn, considering the last three abilities in each tree require ranks 20, 30, and 42 respectively. For the dragon knight, that meant my first 3 skill points will be spent taking Fiery Grip, Spiked Armor, and Stonefist. Only two of these abilities are actually used in my tanking hotbars at endgame. Not bearing in mind, that in most games, bosses are immune to stuns and knockback, I have decided to avoid those for single target. I will have two hot bars planned, both using 1h weapon and shield. However because my second hot bar doesn't actually have any 1h shield abilities in it I could just as easily take dual wielding or great weapons, or what ever other weapon I want here, but I personally will be sticking to the shield because of its added defenses.
Also, as with any tank, the importance tends to go towards survivability and aggro management. This means, having high mitigation, avoidance, and hit points to soak up the hits that get through. With Eldar Scrolls, also improving your chances to get bonus healing helps out the healer and helps to keep you alive, as well as any passives that give you self healing or bonus resource regeneration is always a must. The bonus to resource regeneration I think will become more appealing to tanks, because it means we can do stuff more rapidly. A larger magicka or stamina pool will of course be nice, but having the ability to renew those resources faster is much better than simply a larger pool.
Starting off:
Attributes and Mundus: Well my plan for spending those attribute points is that well, you get 49 points to spend as you level, and I am putting everything into health. The reason is..as a tank, you need more health. The stamina and magicka bonus would be nice, but the trade off is you sacrfice your hitpoints to boost those, and as a tank, that can be bad. The health is your buffer when you do take the damage, the more you got, the more you can take. In the beta it was 20 points of health for each attribute, but I think the recent change is now at 15 per point. Stinks that they lowered it, but it still is an extra 735 health when you get to 50 on top of what you have from each level up, gear and other bonuses.
Mundus stones are another little buff. They are basically stones you click to active a buff. I think this buff runs constant till you change it at another stone. For tanking, their are only a few stones that interest me. The lover is great, because this one reduces spell damage you take. This is a nice offset for spell resistance and might be the one I take the most. However another one is also just as beneficial and that is the Lord and the Lady. The Lord mundus stone provides increase health. Whats not to love about more Hitpoints. The lady on the other hand provides increased armor. Depending on how close to hardcap you are, it might not be as useful, but it is another option to consider. The mage and the Tower can also be beneficial as the Mage buffs your maximum magicka, and the Tower buffs maximum Stamina. these can also help offset your pools if you find you are running low, but they probably wont be the most beneficial Mundus Stones to get the buff from.
Racials: While these are intended for an imperial, you can always choose another race. However, I will not really cover the racial skill points specifically, just note, that the imperial is only available to those who got the imperial edition of the game, aka the collectors. The imperial race provides faster leveling of the sword and board weapon, it also gives you more health, higher stamina, and a chance for your weapons to heal you...yeah lifesteal lol. After the imperial, the next best races for optimizing as a tank are Nord because of their increased armor and in combat health regeneration, Redguard because of sword and board their increased stamina and loads of stamina recovery, and Orsimers (ORKS) because of their increased health, their quick leveling of heavy armor and their increased health regen in combat. That being said, you can pretty much make a tank out of any race, those are just the best 4 races because of their preferred racial bonus which contribute directly to tanking. Other races do have some nice bonus that can help, such as Bretons having spell resistance, Bosmer having increased stamina, increased stamina resistance and poison and disease resistance, and the Altemer do have a faster magicka recovery and higher magicka pool. In the build I capped out my skills for the imperial, using another race means you might save some points by not investing in some of their racial abilities simply because they wont benefit you for tanking, but that choice is ultimately yours.
Skill Bar 1: The single target or boss bar. This bar was intended on single target fights, usually a boss, or single pulls because the mobs are boss like. I have not experienced the boss fights yet in this game, just going under speculation from the way boss fights are in most any other game. ESO might be different, and if they are similar to skyrim, you may have a mixx of styles as well, ranging from the boss being bad enough to be alone, or the boss may spawn minions that annoy the group, or the bosses might not be as epic as they appear to be, and are surrounding by some pretty elite body guards. That being said, you can always swap to bar 2, and back and forth as needed, which is why some of the skills are placed in different bars.
hotbar1-1: Extended chains: This is just an awesome ability. it is really the only ardent flame ability I took, and I am using extended chains for the extra reach. This ability is very useful, because it pulls the target to you. Their may be some mobs that might be immune to it, however I chose this over a charge because lets face it...only fools rush in, and I can't tell you how many times in so many other games, that being able to yank that lone range caster into the fray has sped up a fight. This is mostly what it is intended for, to bring that one mob that wont move closer into arms reach so they can die quickly and with the rest of their friends, or alone either or, they are gonna die.
hotbar1-2: Pierce Armor. This is are staple, our taunt. I chose to morph into pierce because well, 40% reduced armor and and spell resistance on the target is a good thing. Means they die faster as well as it saying..HIT ME!!!
hotbar1-3: Defensive Stance. This is one of the many defensive abilities in our arsenal. This one in particular reflects spell damage back to the cast and stuns them for 2 seconds. Pretty nice on that alone, but it also gives us 2 more seconds of block mitigation, and it reduces the cost of block by 8% by having it slotted. Can you say BONUS.
hotbar1-4: Unstoppable. The only active ability in the heavy armor line. This is another defensive ability and increases armor and spell resistance by 20%. That is a straight 20% but it only lasts for 8 seconds. however, for each piece of heavy armor worn, it increases the duration by 5%. With 7 full pieces, that becomes an additional 35% which translates into the effect lasting for 10.8 seconds. Not really all that great, but it is noticable, because well its almost 3 extra seconds of protection and mitigation. Even if you chose to go with a 5 heavy armor and 2 light armor build it still provides you with 10 seconds. I am personally not going with 2 light armor, but that is more of a personal preference. More on that later in the post.
Hotbar 1-5: Green Dragon Blood: Our self heal....yes..we get a heal. This heals for 30% of missing health, so useful in those moments when you are low on health or getting wailed on. It also increases health regeneration by 40% and stamina regeneration by 17% for 20 seconds. So...this means, your getting low, say below 50%, well it gives you have 30% of that missing health plus kicks your regen rate up, and helps replenish that stamina bar. This is the only ability I have mirrored in both hot bars, but I may eventually change it out later in the game on hot bar2 for something else.
hotbar 1-U: Corrosive Armor: This is the ultimate ability chosen for Hotbar1, this is another defensive ability. However it is also the only real aoe ability on this bar. This ability caps out incoming damage to 3% of your maximum health. Now say that with me...3% is the max hit you are gonna recieve. This isn't just physical dmg, but also spell dmg, because its just all incoming dmg. That means, if you say hve 2000 health, that means the max damage you will recieve while this is active will be 60 points of damage. Think about it....the boss enrages, you pop this, for the activate time, you will only be hit for 60 points of dmg per hit...any type of hit...period. That is just nice for surviving those spike dmg periods as well. It only lasts for 12 seconds, so it isn't very long, but it is handy in a pinch to help the healer out if they are struggling to keep you topped off. On the plus side, it also deals damage back to nearby enemies while also reducing their damage output by 30%. This means....you don't take much damage at all, all nearby enemies get damaged and they aren't doing as much damage now.
Hotbar2: Now this is specifically my AOE focused bar. However, some of the abilities on here will be useful in single target tanking as well, so keep that in mind, you can always swap between bars to make use of an ability.
Hotbar2-1: Volatile armor. I put this hear, because well this is the morphed version of spike armor, and while it does provide a really nice armor buff, I put it hear because it does aoe damage back, so its better suited for aoe tanking, when you got multiple mobs beating on you. This will provide a nice healthy armor boost to hit those hard caps while mutliple guys hit you, plus everyone that hits you, deals damage back to all enemies within range. So you can just tell those mobs...why are you hitting yourself, and why are you hitting your friends. It also does damage on activation.
Hotbar2-2: Choking talons: This ability is just nice for groups. It immobilizes all nearby enemies within 8 meters for 4 seconds, and deals damage to them. It also reduces their damage output by 15%, BONUS. It also has synergy meaning an ally can active a chain ability off it which will Impale the enemies that are held with the talons. That means, every enemy that is held still, gets even more damage thrown at them.
Hotbar2-3: Inner Beast. This is our AOE taunt, plain and simple. This is the only skill I chose from the guild lines, and its from Undanted rank3. It has a 28meter range, which is huge. It does magic damage to all nearby enemies in range, and forces them to attack you for 15 seconds. It also has a synergy ability but only a 15% chance for it. However this synergy ability will do magic damage to affected target, whos target I am not sure, but assuming the tanks target. This magic dmg is in the form of a 4 second dot, then it will explode and deal massive damage to all enemies nearby. So its an aoe dmg taunt that has a chance for one of your teammates to just blow it dealing massive damage. Teamwork anyone??
Hotbar2-4: Deep Breath: An aoe dmg and self heal ability. This ability basically absorbs health within 8 meters and it interuppts and stuns enemies for 1.5 seconds. Not really long, but hey it breaks channeling or long cast spells. After 2.5 seconds, it then explodes on the enemies dealing damage back. So wait...it not only takes away their health, it then blows up on them...while giving you the health it stole.
Hotbar 2-5: Green Dragons Blood. My only mirror.
Hotbar 2-U: This hotbar I took a different ultimate. Reason is so I have access to two different ultimates, but because sometimes you may need to hurry and jump into the fray of a large group of trash mobs, like those that ran to attack the healer. Ferocious leap, is just that. It is a leap ability where you jump to a target within 20 meters range, and deal dmg to enemies within 6.5 meters. You also recieve 30 spell resistance for 8 seconds, and it knocks back all affected enemies.
So as you can see, the hotbars are set up with specific intent and situations in mind. Its not perfect, and as I said, Green Dragons blood is the only mirrored ability, but I might look into something else to place their, either in the single target or aoe tree.
Passives: These are the bread and butter of the build, because these are almost always in effect. Their are some passives that have requirements, however most of those requirements will be pretty much met.
Weapon: Sword and board- I maxxed out every passive in this tree except for bash. I don't have that skill slotted or invested in, so their wasn't a point to this passive. However the others are just to good to pass up for a tank.
Fortress: Reduces the cost of blocking by 15%, and reduces use of sword and board skills by 5%. Whats not to love, pierce armor uses less stamina, and blocking is reduced again in cost.
Sword and Board: Increases weapon dmg by 3% and block mitigation by 10%. That means more dmg output for more threat, and more mitigation when you block, meaning less damage taken..its a win/win.
Deflect Bolts: Blocks 8% additional dmg from projectiles and ranged attacks. Whats not to love.....less dmg from arrows and fireballs when you throw up your shield.
Battlefield mobility: 25% increased movement speed while blocking....yes please. Will be blocking alot, might as well be quick while doing it, maybe we can block the healer too hehehe.
Heavy Armor: Well i took every passive to heavy armor, and i only took heavy armor. Why? Resource management, saves skill points, plus lets be honest...PLATE looks COOL!!!!!
Bracing is the only ability that requires 5 or more pieces of heavy armor for its effect, and it gives a decreased cost to block by 10%. If your math is good, that is now a 33% reduced cost to block from heavy armor, sword and board skills, and from slotting defensive stance. All four of the other passive provides a bonus per peice of heavy armor you have equipped. So with 7 pieces equipped, resolve will provide an additional 7% base armor and spell resist. Constitution provides 14% extra health regen. Juggernaught gives an extra 3.5% power with melee attacks, and rapid mending provides 3.5% extra healing recieved. All of these bonuses are just that...bonuses to dmg, bonus to health and healing, and more mitigation. As a tank, whats not to love about it.
Now those who want to take light armor for a 2pc bonus, they are doing it mostly for spell warding. This will basiclaly give them an extra 8% spell resistance. While it seems good, remember, you are sacrificing some other options such as reduced regen, reduced bonus healing, reduced dmg. You are also investing in another armor tree thus spending more skill points, and you are also not maximizing your crafting skill points either. As I said, I am focusing on blacksmithing, and the reason is partically because of tempering. This is the ability to improve your gear, so even if you get a drop, you can improve it to make it better. While you can invest in the other profession as well to do the same for cloth, its just more skill points and your not being as effective with your skill point use. Their is also the trade off of the extra armor you get from the two extra pieces of heavy armor just for the gear alone... its physical mitigation over spell resistance. This boils down to personal preference, and trial and error, testing to see which works out best for you.
Class passives. Earthen Heart. I am starting here, because their are fewer passives I took. I only maxxed out and took earthen roar for the restoration of health, magicka and stamina when using the ultimate. It basically restors 50% of the ultimates cost to those 3 traits, but when ever I use corrosive armor, it heals my health a little, as well as my magicka and stamina. I also invested into the max of helping hands. This ability also restores 2% of max stamina when ever you use an earthen heart ability. That means, my corrosive armor will not only restore 50% of its cost to health, magicak and stamina, but 2% of my stamina as well. This is all about resource management.
Ardent Flame: I didn't invest in anything here, nothing that benefits tanking, just damage and i only have one ardent flame ability.
Draconic Power: I invested in every passive here. First off, Scaled armor increases spell resistance. Iron Skin allows me to block an additional 5%, which for those who want math..boosts it to 15% extra block mitigation from this and sword and board. Eldar Dragon improves health regen by 2% for each draconic ability slotted. that is basically 2% extra health regen when using bar 1, and 6% extra regen when using bar 2. More regen when dealing with more mobs. Burning Heart increases healing recieved by 6% for each draconic ability slotted. That means, when using bar 1, its 6%, but bar 2 is an 18% bonus. Again, more healing when dealing with more mobs.
World passives:
Soul Magic. I only took the passives here for now, reason is...the skills aren't useful for tanking, however, the passives are handy. I invested in maxxing out Soul Summons and Soul Lock only. Soul Summons basically allows a player to revive once every 2 hours without the use of a gem. Well that is handy, because if you don't die often, you can revive for free basically. Soul Lock basically gives a 5% chance or better (if it improves on each skill point), of having weapon attacks filling a gem. This means I wont have to use the soul ability and have it slotted to refill my soul gems. It isn't every time, but it does happen and that means free soul gems filled up.
Vampire: While a fun line, I only invested in the passives. Might have to spend an extra skill point in the tree to improve the ranks but that isn't really a requirement on the skill calculator I am using. Only need to get to rank 7 here.
I opted to take the passives Supernatural recovery and Undeath. Recovery basically does what it says, it increases magica and stamina recovery by 5-10%. Faster recovery means more use of skills and abilities. Undeath on the other hand is increased damage mitigation when below 30% health. The damage mitigation can increase up to 50% based on health levels. This means, if you are tanking and you drop below 30% health, more dmg mitigation which means more survivablity while the healer is working to get you healed back up.
Werewolf: I only saw one useful passive or skill in this line for tanking, and it does require rank 6. Again I might have to spend an extra skill point in this tree to get the ranks up high enough. However, this is highly optional, so maybe not worth investing in up front but later down the road. Savage Strength was the only ability I saw of any value for a tank. This passive gives you max stamina increase by 3% per kill, and can stack up to 5%. While not great, it does improve your stamina pools, so kill after kill you can maybe block more often or do more things. In aoe trash packs, this is far more beneficial, but as I said, it isn't necessary for tanking, just a bonus.
Now to recap some of the total bonuses gained from the passives and abilities. (including racials for imperials)
33% reduced cost of Blocking.
15% more blocking mitigation
8% additional block mitigation against spells and arrows
16% health regen with hotbar 1, 20% health regen with hotbar 2
9.5% bonus to healing with hotbar 1, 21.5% bonus healing with hotbar 2
3% additional damage with 1h weapons, plus 3.5% additional power to melee attacks.
7% bonus armor and spell resistance
12% bonus Hitpoints
10% maximum stamina plus a chance at 3-15% additional per kill
10% chance to restore health with melee attacks.
Hope this build helps someone, I have been giving it alot of thought this past week, trying to come up with the most points effective tanking build. This will of course have to be playtested after launch, because I haven't been able to experience any dungeons yet, or any bosses, yet alone anything really group wise to see how hard it is to hold agro. This is simply just my planned build at launch, and I figured, Might as well share it with everyone to get some thoughts and feedback, but also to maybe inspire some other tanks out their. Will have to look into my Templar Healer build next, so I have that planned out as well for launch.
