Malice- Two-Handed Tank Nightblade Build

Have you ever wondered if it were POSSIBLE in The Elder Scrolls Online, to be a fully functioning TANK without the need for a Sword And Board or an Ice staff? Have you ever attempted to make a unique non traditional tank build and found yourself lacking that extra help? Tanks with NON tanky weapons, miss some vital stats. Block mitigation (covered by SnB and Ice staff passives ONLY) And they also suffer with block cost and sustainability of their main resources! Today we solve these problems!

This build is designed to not only TANK with a Two handed weapon, but also TAUNT with it! That’s right, we have taken advantage of the ONLY way a Nightblade can possibly take advantage of an AOE taunt. The Tormentor set and a two hander, specifically with the skill “Stampede”. It is officially the only way to do that ON the Nightblade as any other skill in their tool kit does not apply an aoe burst from a charge or gap closer. Technically i know Lotus fan LOOKS like it should, but it does not. The initial hit is on a single target and the surrounding enemies receive a damage over time affect from that. It’s not the same.

Stampede however, is an area of affect charge and smack! So, it instantly with the correct set, applies a taunt to unlimited targets in one hit, so long as they are in range of the proc.

So with the above in mind, your aggro control is covered and incredibly effective. However, two hander weapons come with a set of problems we had to solve.

The sword n board and ice staff passives BOTH come with their own block mitigation bonus (20% extra damage mitigation while blocking) and the two hander does NOT. So we had to take advantage of a very special slotable CP node (Bracing Anchor) in order to allow for the SAME bonus. This is incredibly important and a huge staple of the overall build, as deliberately, there are mechanics in the game that WILL one shot a “tank” if they lack block mitigation bonuses to a point regardless of how much health they have.

Some mechanics are designed to be countered with the RIGHT amount of resistances and block mitigation combined or ELSE.

The other problem is that a two hander while sustainable as a brawler if you are getting kills, is not quite the same when NOT getting kills. As a tank you are the least likely to kill things so gaining recovery bonuses from your two hander passives for killing blows is not as common, and you are also blocking so recovery is paused anyway.

This becomes a problem when block reduction to cost passives from the sword n board you are used to ALSO is not with us.

So in a nutshell, two issues here! Low sustainability and higher cost! We run out faster right? Wrong! This issue has also been fixed! We have stacked multiple block cost reduction glyphs (yes they have diminished returns but it is worth it) while also utilizing the Vicious Ophidian set to get out stamina COSTS down by a further 8% on top of everything else.

SO, cheaper skills, cheaper blocking, which is exactly what we want. We WILL need to heavy attack from time to time as any good tank spending time studying mechanics and looking for an opening should do, but it is a lot easier to manage. However, Vicious Ophidian does something else too…

IF YOU damage something that is killed shortly after by you or someone else (which is easy with stampede doing damage every second) You gain BACK almost 2.5k stamina, per kill so long as they are at least 1 second apart. Which means through block, you now constantly gain stamina!!!

Technically speaking, so long as your group are doing their job, in a BIG pull you can borderline permablock with all of the tanky expectations to your resources covered completely!

In a single target fight, you have great cost reduction, block mitigation, and it is well paced so you feel like any other tank (be mindful of heavy attacking between hits if you can as always though).
While in a BIG pull, you will use more resources but gain more back so quickly. With a group killing stuff as they should do, you almost have built IN repentance!

And finally for those people that want to offer that little bit of extra help. We have a restoration staff and two major healing and buff skills to help you and the group sustain both resources and health at the same time as offering speed!

This is an incredibly agile, and effective build, however i would expect people to take a little while to get to grips with it as this is a VERY unique twist on a tank!

• AOE Taunt from a charge ability for FULL control of a crowded room!
• Block mitigation and block cost problem SOLVED!
• Resource management from OTHERS getting kills from the enemies you are controlling
• Long duration AOE insta-cast stun!
• Heals, recovery and speed buffs for the group
• Incredible survival without the need for too much baby sitting!
• A truly Unique way to play a tank to keep it fresh for those looking for something new and FUN!
• Maintain taunt without letting it fall off and you will have full control of ALL enemies in range WITHOUT fail!

NOTE: This will take a little bit of getting used to as it is not the “traditional” way to tank, however, if mastered, this is a SOLID option for any pve content for both AOE and single target fights! Protect those squishies!