The Elder Scrolls Online: Morrowind Guide Training Archetypes Tanks

The Reaper

Class: Nightblade

Race: Argonian

Attribute Focus: Health/Magicka/Stamina

Weapon Types: One Hand and Shield, Destruction Staff

Armor Focus: Heavy

Mundus Stone: Atronach

Bar 1: One Hand and Shield

Key Abilities

Ability	Description
	Pierce Armor: Morphed from Puncture (One Hand and Shield). This Stamina ability is your main taunt. It also applies Major Fracture and Major Breach, reducing the target’s Physical and Spell Resistance. Use it when needed, but be mindful of the Stamina cost.
	Heroic Slash: Morphed from Low Slash (One Hand and Shield). This is your priority Stamina ability. It applies Minor Maim, reducing the target’s damage done, and grants you Minor Heroism, increasing your Ultimate generation. It also serves as a single-target snare.
	Swallow Soul: Morphed from Strife (Nightblade > Siphoning). This Magicka ability is your primary attack and a reliable source of healing over time. Slotting it also grants Minor Vitality, increasing your healing received by 8%.
	Sap Essence: Morphed from Drain Power (Nightblade > Siphoning). This Magicka ability serves as an area-of-effect attack and a potential group heal. As long as the attack hits an enemy, you gain Major Brutality and Major Sorcery, increasing your Weapon Damage and Spell Damage for 20 seconds.
	Refreshing Path: Morphed from Path of Darkness (Nightblade > Shadow). Activate this Magicka ability to deal AoE/DOT damage to enemies within the target area. While in the affected area—and for up to two seconds after leaving it—you and your allies receive healing over time. Casting it also grants you Major Expedition, increasing your movement speed by 30%. It’s useful, but it’s slotted specifically to keep a Shadow ability on the Action Bar.
	Soul Harvest: Morphed from Death Stroke (Nightblade > Assassination). This is slotted to help with Ultimate generation, but it’s a cost-effective Ultimate Ability and a good option for single-target damage as well. It’s also chosen to keep an Assassination ability on the Bar.

This is your main Bar. It holds your main attack and both of your One Hand and Shield abilities. This loadout does not feature an empty slot.

Bar 2: Destruction Staff (Frost Staff)

Key Abilities

Ability	Description
	Mirage: Morphed from Blur (Nightblade > Assassination). This Magicka ability grants you Minor Evasion, Minor Resolve, and Minor Ward, increasing your Dodge Chance and your Physical and Spell Resistance for 26 seconds. Refresh as needed.
	Siphoning Attacks: Morphed from Siphoning Strikes (Nightblade > Siphoning). This Magicka ability causes your light and heavy attacks to restore Health and Magicka for 20 seconds. With some basic weaving, this ability serves as another self-heal with a nice return on resources. Slotting also keeps a Siphoning ability on your Bar.
	Elemental Blockade: Morphed from Wall of Elements (Destruction Staff). This Magicka ability is a good source of area-of-effect damage. Try to keep it active for the duration of any fight.
	Lotus Fan: Morphed from Teleport Strike (Nightblade > Assassination). Activate this Magicka ability to teleport to your target, damaging and snaring them. When you arrive, you also afflict nearby enemies with Magic Damage over time.
	Veil of Blades: Morphed from Consuming Darkness (Nightblade > Shadow). This Ultimate Ability snares nearby enemies, deals Magic Damage over time, and grants you and your allies Major Protection, reducing your damage taken by 30% for the duration of the effect. Low-Health allies can also activate the Hidden Refresh Synergy, granting them invisibility, increased speed, and a heal-over-time effect.

This is your backup Bar. Use it to cast buffs, use your gap closer, and generate additional area-of-effect damage.

Use the remaining slot to add any ability you feel is helpful.

Priority Passives

While you should invest in all core Passives, your class-based Passives are particularly important. Some of the chosen abilities are slotted specifically to keep these Passives active.

Again, Tri Focus and Ancient Knowledge are what make the Frost Staff a useful backup weapon—don’t forget about the Destruction Staff Passives.

Equipment Recommendations

Weapons
Priority Trait: Defending
Priority Enchantment: Crushing
For your main Action Bar, you’ll need a one-handed melee weapon and a shield. Early on, use the highest-quality weapon/shield combinations you can find. It’s usually best to look for one-handed melee weapons that feature the Defending trait and the Crushing enchantment.
For your shield, Sturdy is probably the most useful trait. Favor enchantments that boost Maximum Health, Maximum Magicka, or Maximum Stamina as needed.
When it comes to your backup Bar, you’ll generally want to use the highest-quality Frost Staff you can find. Defending is probably your best trait option, but Sharpened is useful if you favor a bit of extra damage.
Remember that once you’ve invested in Tri Focus, your Frost Staff’s fully charged heavy attacks also serve as long-range taunts. If you’re not a group’s designated Tank, consider switching to a Lightning Staff to avoid unwanted attention.

Armor
Priority Trait: Sturdy or Infused
Priority Enchantment: Maximum Health, Maximum Magicka, or Maximum Stamina
This isn’t a main-Tank build, but mitigation is still important. Heavy armor should still be your focus. You’ll generally want to use at least five pieces of heavy armor, but consider equipping two pieces of light armor. This prevents you from taking advantage of the Undaunted Mettle Passive Ability, but the Light Armor Passives can sometimes prove more useful.
Look for head, chest, and leg pieces that feature the Infused trait to boost your most powerful enchantments. For the remaining pieces, prioritize the Sturdy trait to reduce the cost of blocking.
When it comes to enchantments, Maximum Health is the best way to get started. Experiment with Magicka and Stamina enchantments once you feel your survivability is acceptable. Eventually, you’ll want to utilize Prismatic enchantments, but that should be put off until you’re satisfied with your armor set.

Jewelry
Priority Trait: Healthy
Priority Enchantment: Shielding
Until you collect a set you find useful, prioritize jewelry items that increase your Maximum Health and reduce the Stamina cost for blocking. As you obtain better gear, consider looking for jewelry that increases Magicka Recovery.

Archetype Advice

This build has considerable survivability, but it lacks some key tanking skills. If you plan to tank beyond basic group dungeons, start ranking up abilities like Inner Fire (Undaunted) and War Horn (Assault), then invest in the most useful morphs. You might also consider exchanging your Frost Staff for another weapon/shield combination.

The Argonian was selected primarily for its bonus to healing received. This helps make the most of your various Siphoning abilities.

By switching weapons, you can use heavy attacks to regenerate Magicka or Stamina as needed without a huge drop in survivability—just remember that a fully charged heavy attack from your Frost Staff also serves as a long-range taunt.

Once you’ve invested in Rank 2 of the Shadow Barrier Passive Ability (Nightblade > Shadow), casting Refreshing Path also grants you Major Ward and Major Resolve. When combined with the Minor Resolve, Minor Ward, and Minor Evasion granted by Mirage, your survivability is significantly improved.