Short-

Regardless of class, can an Imperial using heavy armor (mainly) and sword/shield be a viable end game tank?

Is class more of a flavor to the tank or does the class really heavily influence your "tankiness".

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Longer-

I want to tank in the game, i enjoy it, but im having trouble firmly deciding on a class.

Should i end up down the line doing end game "raids" or whatever they have for larger groups, will all this freedom they give us at start and during my leveling build end up biting me in the butt if i dont choose (example) DK Draconic Power build.

From what i see and read the Devs are doing a good job with balace overall, so i would think they wouldnt have content that forces only 1 spec to be needed to complete it.

I like the imperial for the racials and a little RP' lore thing in my head.

I read up and like the looks of the heavy armor.

My playstyle usually gravitates to sword and sheild regardless.

That stuff i have set, so while ive read DK might be the min/max "best", will taking templar be viable and just more heal'ish, while a nightblade is more dodgy, etc.? Again is the class choice just to spice up, add flavor and augment the race/armor/weapon combo choices?

I tend to play 1 character and do everything i can with him, i dont tend to make alts (unless its just to see story content in another faction). I'd hate to reach max level and find out my class choice killed my usefullness in end game content.

Already a lot of threads about that, I'll just quote myself as I do every time:

Though you could technically tank in medium or light armor and with any weapon, heavy armor and shield will give you the most damage reduction. I don't believe dodging can be integrated efficiently as a tanking strategy because it drains a lot of stamina and moves you away from the enemies, giving them chance to switch target to your aliies.

I could be wrong though

I enjoyed tanking a lot on Dragon Knight, I missed a bit of AoE tanking though.

http://elderscrollsonline.wiki.fextralife.com/Earthen+Heart from the DK line is great. Templars can heal so they might also be a good choice.

Cas