Tank Build

[JDizzle]

I'm trying to make the ultimate tank build. I figure Breton + Lord's Stone + Alteration + Alchemy + Smithing + Heavy Armour + Block + Enchanting is the way to go. I'll use Alchemy to cover holes in my resistances, and try to get them all as close to max as possible. My question is, how close can you get to maxing all resistances to make the perfect tank build? Are Orcs better suited due to Beserker which halves incoming damage, or are Bretons always the better choice? Any other suggestions you can think of before I start up this character to make it nigh unkillable?

I was going to go for restoration for the Avoid Death perk, but I was thinking hopefully this character would be tough enough already and I would rather up One-Handed to dish out more damage. In terms of magicka, health and stamina - what's a good balance? I've got an Orc on Master nearing level 30 so far, but I find I have little magicka to maintain Alteration armour. Is it good to have a mix of health and magicka to maintain these spells and then have good enchantments on armour, or have less magicka and enchantments on armour designed to negate the cost of the spells but more base health? Really any advice people could offer would be appreciated, there seems little or no info on optimised character building so far due to how new the game is.

 

[Razgud]

The answer to your first question is 85%. The official game guide has some suggestions for warrior or berserker builds. I love your idea to get the Lord Stone bonus. They suggest health/stam 60/40 (warrior) or 50/50 berserker. I've been doing your Breton build pretty much, except no almost no magic and the warrior stone in place of lord stone 'cause I want the perks faster. Seems to me Breton (with Dragonskin 50% magic absorb once/day + 25% magic resist racial ability) + Lord Stone is better than the orc racials since you can mitigate physical damage easily with armor. I use restoration for the occassional healing spell and to keep a ward going with the left hand against mages in place of the shield. In addition to the resists and one-handed enchantments you mentioned, consider "fortify block," and "fortify heavy armor." Fortify health seems like the worst armor enchantment once you get your health over ~200 since it is not percentage based like resists are. First thing I did was get smithing to 90 for access to the end-game armor (using hide bracers and iron daggers mostly).

 

[NoVa]

Anybody is a tank at a high enough level, even on Master, using either light or heavy armor. I play on master using light armor with approx 90% light armor bonus with an absorb magicka ring and necklace. If this isnt enough magicka resistance for you take the alteration perk Magic Resistance (up to 3 ranks). Nothing kills me besides fall damage. To be clear I'm not saying that things couldn't kill me, I just kick their ass first. If you want to sit there and eat damage, light or heavy armor will do with max skill level and 150% armor bonus from perks. Magic is the only threat at this point and like I said you can take the alteration perks and jewelry to absorb magic. A shield is overkill in terms of armor level especially if using it to block melee attacks, but can be used to close most of the gap left in your magic defense. I prefer dual wield. As for the restoration/one-hand debate.. an ultimate tank would have both.

 

[J747L]

I created a thread about enemies that stop using elemental attacks if your fire/frost resistance is 100% and beyond (I have a 52% fire and frost resist boots and ring). It's a game killer and is not fun to play. I therefore reduced my stacked up resistance to 98% by wearing a 46% fire frost resist ring instead. I kept the 52% resistance ring as back up just in case.

Once you've reached the limit of your skill tree in smithing you're probably wondering how I got the 52% enchant since it's 46% by default. This can be reached by using enchantment potions. Further on you can enchant gloves to improve your armor by 25% IIRC. But these gloves themselves can be enchanted while under the effects of the enchantment potion and boost the improve percentage to 27%.

What I haven't explored yet is to make an enchantment potion that is more powerful than the ones I bought through alchemy... better start looking into that possibility to further increase my tank just to see how far it can go.

added: My current armor rating is 1017 with shield. I'm not convinced that this is the limit though

 

[JDizzle]

Well thanks for the responses, maybe I won't focus on making this character as unkillable as I first thought if it's quite needless at high levels. I'll bear in mind using potions to craft better enchanted items and also sticking the fortify enchants on armour.

 

[Kerzechtus]

Tank build?

Race: Orc, Breton, Redguard (not only plenty of skills to benefit but Addrenaline rush + power bash combos? wowza)

Heavy or Light Armor, Dragonscale is pretty close to Daedric with perks/skill advancement so take your pick.
Block for obvious reasons
One-hand also for obvious reasons unless you want to cast via Destruction with 1 hand most of the time as you have a shield.
Smithing for quicker armor upgrades
Enchant due to double enchant and other perks FROM THE MIDDLE PART OF THE TREE can really buff you up on your nice legendary crafted armor.
Restoration is a pretty vicious combo with powerbashing if you get the perk where your stamina is recovered as you heal.
Alteration can help if you desire to buff up for a load of armor rating.