Gear Review
The 30% mitigation offered by Ironblood is entirely unique which means it's stackable with other sources of mitigation buffs. This unique mitigation makes the set an extremely strong option for just standing your ground. Mobility in PvP is often quite encouraged and the drastic movement slow from Ironblood may be intimidating but again the purpose of the Boss build is to simply live long enough for others in your group to kill for you.
Bloodspawn as a monster set is quite hard to pass up on as it offers more mitigation through Physical and Spell Resistances. Unlike PvE scenarios, it's more than okay to pass the 33,000 Physical and Spell Resistance softcap as players in PvP can debuff you as much as PvE players debuff PvE bosses.
Bloodspawn
also offers unique Ultimate generation which can be extremely helpful
in casting the Shield Discipline ultimate after you've casted Magma
Shell to regain resources to survive even longer due to the Dragonknight
passive of Battle Roar. Earthgore may be an alternative option.
Regardless of the level of coordination in your group, you should opt for the Vateshran One-Handed and Shield (Perfected Void Bash is recommended as the Perfected bonus gives Max Health) so you can not only pull players in for your bombers or groups but also to apply Major Maim to the enemy players to mitigate even more damage.
Last but not least, Meridia's Blessed Armor
is an incredible option to utilize on the backbar. Players cannot hit
you with single target abilities (Light Attacks and Bashes included)
once this set procs except with Area-of-Effect abilities. It's quite
helpful to use to drop block, regain resources, buy more time for your
Ultimate generation and survive longer particularly against ranged
players who are wary of being bombed by you and your group.
Armor Master as a backbar option is a strong alternative but once you're tanking more than twenty to thirty players, it becomes less valuable compared to Meridia's Blessed.
You may notice that the armor is not all in Heavy with one Medium and this is to account for not only a little bit of the Medium Armor passives but also for you to be able to Roll Dodge if you cast Immovable.
Skills Review
The skills are set up in a way one would expect. Maximum healing and mitigation. The Power Slam is a better morph option over Reverberating Bash as you don't want to stun the primary target to pull in with your Vateshran Sword and Board. The more people that are stunned by your pull or a Soul Tether, the better!
Igneous Shield or Fragmented Shield is a matter of
debate as you're weighing 6 seconds of Major Mending versus 3 seconds
yet the higher value of the Igneous Shield against smaller groups of
players may sometimes save you. Always make sure to use either morph before casting a heal!
Green Dragon Blood's
passive Minor Vitality and Major Endurance packaged with the strong
burst heal at lower health percentages is too good to ignore. Defensive
Stance as both a passive and active skill for mitigation and shielding
is a must to maximize your defensive capabilities on this build.
The backbar consists of Rally (a stronger heal than Forward Momentum, and more useful due to Ironblood's eventual snare) and Stampede which is your main method of movement should you be Snared, Immobilized or just slow in the moment.
Immovable lets
you be immune to other players' stuns even without blocking while
giving you more block mitigation should you choose to use this to stand
your ground as you will not be able to move or even Roll Dodge with
Ironblood active.
Cinder Storm is a flex skill, an okay heal over time while acting as a snare on any enemy player within it.
Depending on your group you could use Overflowing Altar instead to give Minor Lifesteal and the synergy's burst heal. Elusive Mist is also technically a flex skill for alternative skills such as Protective Plate or Cauterize but it can be helpful if you happen to have some Magicka with no Stamina left should you need to relocate to a better position for your group.
Magma Shell is a must have skill as it caps incoming damage buying you a lot of time to assess the situation and trying to stack players whether they're ranged or melee. This Ultimate must be used first before Shield Discipline which is a must over Spell Wall - the other morph - as it lasts longer.
Craft
Warfare
Fitness
Champion Points Review
To see what each Champion Point does, hover over or tap each one shown in the allocation chart.
Slippery, Juggernaut, Survival Instincts, On Guard will be the four primary Fitness Slottables you will need. Your Immovable skill, Immovability Potions and Crowd Control immunity will also work in conjunction with Juggernaut's mitigation simply from being immune to other players' stuns while the On Guard Slottable will offer you more block mitigation while being immune to crowd control effects.
Survival Instincts will give you much needed sustain for your Block, Roll Dodge and Sprint costs if need be.
Unassailable, Enduring Resolve and Duelist's Rebuff are key Warfare Slottables to have for mitigation against most sources of damage whether they're Damage-over-Time, Area-of-Effect or single target abilities from other players.
Your fourth Warfare Slottable will be either Last Stand (inevitable Major Heroism) or Resilience (more Critical Damage Resistance) depending on your preferences.
Gifted Rider, Steed's Blessing, Rationer and Liquid Efficiency are the usual Craft slottables many use but War Mount can be a good one should you be more wary of gankers.
Introduction (Update 30, Blackwood)
The purpose of the Boss build is to survive for as long as possible in primarily Cyrodiil open-world or Imperial City PvP environments against larger groups of players so that your group members have enough time and space for an opportunity to target or "bomb" these groups of players. If all goes well, you will be alive - or dead - with a lot of Alliance Points gained.
For a PvP bomber build example, check out the Detonation build.
While certainly the Boss build can work to a decent degree in non-Champion Point PvP environments such as Battlegrounds or the no-CP Cyrodiil campaigns, it's most effective in Champion Point PvP environments due to the added mitigation and bonuses gained from the CP System.
This setup or similar setups to it can be much more effective on Necromancers.
Recommended races for this build are Nord, Imperial and Argonian.
Due to the low amount of recovery for all Health, Magicka and Stamina stats, the best Mundus seems to either be The Lady or The Lord.
Recommended potion for this build will be Essence of Immovability.
Recommended food for this build will be Bewitched Sugar Skulls.
Vampire Stage 3 is highly recommended for this build due to added mitigation from the Stage 3 Undeath passive in conjunction with Ironblood, Immovable and the CP Slottables.
For gameplay and the video showcasing this build, refer to the video above.
With the stat distribution shown on this build page, you will have approximately 32,000 Max Health, 19,000 Max Magicka and 27,000 Max Stamina. Resistances will be well over the 33,000 softcap.