The Furnace- A DK 2h Tank

"The Akaviri who served under Reman Cyrodiil were dubbed the Dragonguard, as the Dragonborn Emperor's new shock troops were renowned dragon-slayers. They were masters of fire magic and alchemy. This Dragonguard was the direct predecessor of the Blades, who adopted Akaviri style for their weaponry, armor and heraldry."- UESP, Akaviri Lore

I made a stamina 2 hander tank provided extra DPS to the group while still keeping in mind the roles of a tank (taunting, self-sustain, buffing, debuffing). While the 2-hander tank is mostly a debuffer then a buffer, it survives well and in pugs will make those clears a bit faster depending on skill/play level.

You will find that I'll list a lot of options for gear, consumables, and moves below in the guide. Kinda think of them as your utility belt, and you're batman. Keep options around. 

This particular base set up is a very offensive all out DPS kit, and you can make support/sustain/survival swaps as needed. You can also see my necromancer or sorcerer 2h tank funzie builds in my profile.

Veteran Tested, veteran cleared.

I was inspired by a good chum, and wanted to provide a PUG-friendlier DPS that could get into queues faster, while still making sure other players didn't feel like a role was missing. One of the biggest things that some players feel when a ‘fake tank’ joins a group, is that they don't feel they can do dungeon mechanics easily without a taunt on like the boss or dangerous heavies. I wanted to show that you can still skip the wait, be a tank and a DPS, and get done with your daily dungeon grind needs. 

After that, I went on and wanted to test this hybrid Tank DPS's limits in content. So far, the challenge has been refreshing. You can apply this concept to basically any class, and some classes will obviously provide different outcomes for your groups, and gearing needs. Feel free to steal and help improve the pug queue community over all by being the best dps-tank hybrid you can be! Happy Dungeoning! 

GEAR SWAP IDEAS

Body (always on): I went with Drake Rush to play into the theme of the Dragon Knight. Mechanically your sustain comes from doing ultimates, the sets in the base equipment set up will make sure you are always rolling one out as fast as possible, to the beneift of yourself and you group. 

Advancing Yokeda (Beserking Warrior) from Hel'Ra Citadel or Champion of the Hist would be another good easily obtainable set for tankier-DPS as well- being that it is an overland set and give you some more ult if you want to throw out supporting ults for the group. 

For tankier set ups Saxhleel Champion, Arkasis's Genius, Crimson's Oath Rive and Akaviri Dragon are good options. 

Front Bar: Powerful Assault could work, if you want to run echoing vigor and provide more dps-based buffs for your group. Tzogvin's Warband, Kinras's Wrath, Morag tong*, Scavenging Demise**, Grisly Gourmet, Gryphon's Reprisal, and Roar of Alkosh all good buff the dps options to look out for your PUGs bottom line and fits nicely in this for your front bar. Pick what is best for you with the accessibility of content you have! You can also add more survival-based sets here if you feel too squishy. 

 *(if a poison and diseased damage favored group) 
**(If no minor Vulnerability is present in the group)

Crafted set options can be:
Ancient Dragongaurd, Armor Master (note: must have Immovible in your set-up), Clever Alchemist, Coldharbour's Favorite, Daedric Trickery (stats), Daring Corsair, Druids Braid (stats), Eternal Hunt, Fortified Brass, Hist Bark, Hundings Rage, Innate Axiom, Iron Flask, Mechanical Acuity, Might of the Lost Legion, Naga Shaman (good for hard content, as we have no way to self-generate vitality- not as useful if a healer has Hallowfang Thirst), Noble Conquest (frees up totem, if you want to swap something else), Orgnum's Scales, Redistrubitor, Senche-raht's Grit (harder content), Serpent's Disdain, Shaildor's Curse (situational at best), Torug's Pact, Twice Born Star, Varen's Legacy, Willow's Path, Wretched Vitality

There are a lot of crafted sets that could work. I listed all the sets of interest that provided good stats, a fun proc that could add more group utility, or damage, as well as all ranges of content (Base game, or DLC) for accessibility purposes and just for the funs. I bolded the classic ‘this is a crafted tank’ sets however. But honestly just look at the stats, the 5 piece, or 4 and decide for yourself what you need:
 

• Survivability/Sustain
• Damage
• Overall Stat Improvements 
• What this brings for the group, or for yourself

Keeping these in mind and balancing around them, will help your overall experience with this non-traditional tank build. Note some 5 sets (like Varen's) are a boon to your defenses, but provide a fun bit of DPS after a action satisfies the requirement for the proc. There are obviously better combinations to min-max effects and tried and true craft tank options out there you can stick with. 

When swapping gear, you want to try to keep your health in a range that you are comfortable with. I personally like mine around 35-40k with food buffs ect, and adjust my attribute points accordingly.

I prefer 5 heavy armor, 1/1 for undaunted passive purposes with this build, but you can swap accordingly depending on your content challenge needs. 

MONSTER HELMET SWAP OUTS

• Thurvokun for pugs/trash to keep maim on your eneimies. Can be worn all the time for the most part. Kinda like those jeans you wear even to your 1st date, because you just look that good in them. Can swap this helm if you decide to run maim-poisons. This set is less needed for Dragon Knight if you are running with Talons. But a good option if you need to free up the bar for something. 
• Blood Spawn for more survivability, Lord Warden or Chudans. You know, the classics “I don't wanna die” helmets.
• Magna Encarta for general grouping if people either bring minor maim for group, and or are good at keeping totem active. Earth Gore, and Sentinel of Rkugamz also good options for a ‘buffy support’ vibe, amongst other healer helms. You know, the “I'm a healer, I'm a tank, I'm confused, but we don't have a  real healer so someone's gotta do it” kind of helmets. 
• Kjalnar's Nightmare or Standard Stam DPS helmets for easier content where only just a warm body and a taunt is needed, and you want to do more DPS. Velidreth, Maarselok, Selene's, Kra'gh, Domihau, and Slimecraw. 
• Kargaeda is a nice middle of the road for group support, a bit more DPS, and sustain. Not good for overall survival, however. 
• Lady Thorn and Nazaray are a nice middle of the road for more group support, and survival.
• Tremor Scale is fun and adds more shred for your DPS. 

A note for Mythic Set ups: Please don't use the kilt. Or pale order unless you are in content you are confident you can solo, and don't have a healer. If you are a veteran player, you can get away in a full set of medium and run like a maniac with a taunt in your normal DPS set up for random normal. Emphasis on the taunt to help out the over all pug experience for the 3 other players being slung on your speedy killing machine back. Destroy! 

Bloodlord's Embrace, Death Dealer's Fete, and Torc of Tonal Consanty are fairly common pratice tank set ups, just keep in mind to not run your monster, or only do one-5 piece set up. 

 ENCHANTS

We don't talk about Burno, no no.

Anyhow, enchants are part of -your- homework for tweaking. Tanking is about finding what works for you, espically in something as experimental as a DPS-Tank Hybrid.

 I personally went with the combination of enchants because I liked how my stats and sustain felt. If you runnin' out of juice, try regen or max-stam. If you die? Maybe a bit more health and block on the rings. Do, die, do again.

MOVE SWAPS

YES- I correctly selected ENGULFING Flames instead of Noxious Breath. This intentional swap was to provide the extra damage to flame sources to the group (the actual job of the DK). You can, however, choose to swap over to Noxious Breath, and remove Caltrop from your load out. However, Caltrops you will find is a very powerful tool for ‘soft aggro’ and a lot of free AOE on trash pulls. 

Unrelenting Grip is good to help make those proper stacks tanks are expected to do if the group needs it, as well as if there's a mechanic that would benefit from it. Just be smart and swap to the groups' needs. You can wear Swarm Mother's monster set if you need help and sets like Dark Convergence also help a little too. 

Choking Talons, Volatile Armor, Green Dragon Blood and Igneous Igneous are your flex slots that you can use to swap out with various moves that may be beneficial to your group or DPS. Examples of that would be Wrecking Blow, Trap Beast, Immovible, Executioner, bone surge, orbs, blood alter, and shadow silk. 

The bar on the DK load out was a bit tight, because they get a lot in their kit that's great for tanking. For example there is no real spammible, just more DOTs and buffs to manage. You can swap out what fits right for the content you are doing of course. If not, try a heavy attack- they're still in the game, ZOS didn't take them out. Good for sustain espically on high mobility fights where you have to block and dodge roll a lot. 

Ult Swaps: Pick if you need more survival or DPS. Keep in mind your group as well. Good options are things like the Barrier, absorption field, Dawn hammer, or aggressive warhorn.

MUNDAS and ATTRIBUTES 
If you do not run with a divines set up: Do what you wanna do. Since this isn't a divines set up, the mundas is just more like adding a thin layer of butter on a nice piece of bread. Swap for what you need for content, or to get your stats in a comfortable spot (health, resistance caps ect, or go with like stat sticks like max stam, regen, or crit/pen/damage while in easier content).

Divines set up, just note you may be more DPS, but not be able to do harder content as you may be squishier. Stick with standard DPS mundas for that extra zap and pow.

You're going to have to do a lot of tweaking and seeing what you like for your attributes to get your health, and stamina in a range you are comfortable with for the content you are going tank in- especially depending on your race and gear options you decide with.  I threw in some numbers that I was using on my redguard as an example.

CHAMPION POINTS
Honestly, Alcast CP for (solo)DPS or Tanks is advised, swap accordingly if you need more survival or want more DPS. You can try mixing the two to find what works for you, if you want to keep a static CP set up however. 

Be flexible for your group, and the content you are doing with this build. I just kinda threw in what I've been using for my vet-pug's/all around general CP. 

FOOD AND POTS
Dubius Cameron Thorne, Blue stam food, take-away-broth, sugar skulls or tri-stat food are great options (depending if you need to run some mag heavy support moves or not). Easier content, things like green max stam or lava-foot, is good. Go with whats best on your wallet for the contet you are doing.

Tri-pots, or health/stam restore, armor increase, spell resist, unstoppable, or weapon power- are all good options depending on the content or if you need an extra effect.