Will Tanks Be More Present Next Season?

krynny·10/15/2014, 2:02:31 PM·1 votes·1,005 views

I know we saw a couple in Worlds, but I feel like Tanks are losing their place in the competitive arena. Can some please explain why? I miss seeing top players pick champions like Shen, Malphite, Singed, Cho, and so on. It looks like players are moving more towards high mobility champions. Am I wrong? I would love to see a championship team set of skins that included a Leona, Braum, or Malphite. That would especially make my day.

If I'm way off and tanks are huge in Worlds and the competitive scene, please provide examples and I will be happy to have been wrong.

Cheers,

krynny

6 Comments

pacifishstick10/15/2014, 2:24:55 PM1 votes

When Riot completely overhauled the masteries at the beginning of season four tanks were extremely popular in the top lane. Mundo, Shyvana, Renekton, etc...were pretty much picked every game. They could build full tank and still pump out respectable damage. Then the masteries took some nerfs, then the champs took some nerfs/changes, and it became about fighters/split pushers like Jax, Gragas, Irelia, Nidalee, etc... Now, it's sort of shifted back to tanks (Maokai, Mundo, even Ryze gets pretty tanky), but it's champs with more team fight presence over-all.

A Retarded Clown10/15/2014, 5:46:09 PM1 votes

Well, thing is, tanks more or less don't do well in the jungle. Their clear is slow, their ganks are ok but when you're slow, bulky and hvae skillshot CC they are very telegraphed. And in competetive you don't really value ganking power as much as the ability to take objectives quickly and rotate efficiently. Fast clearers who can sustain as well as set up strong ganks that bring enough damage to do what you need them to.

CHampions early game don't have all that much damage and if mr. tank is walking in with a net zero, even if he hits his CC chances are gank will be unsuccessful.

Ward control/bypassing is also very important, j4 aside no tanks have this ability. Shaco, Noct are probably better picks in competetive than tanks just based on that. THat's why you saw an Eve pick do well

12tales10/17/2014, 1:32:04 PM1 votes

A big issue with the champs you mention is that they rely exclusively on flat HP and flat resistances from items to really 'tank' damage. With the nerfs to Items/Masteries and the buffs to ADC itemization, the raw damage output that a tank can expect to face is so insanely high that even someone with nothing but HP, Armor and MR will die pretty fast. To be a successful tank, you need either insane amounts of free stats to go on top of what you can buy (Rammus, Mundo), or some sort of percentile damage reduction (Maokai, Alistar, Braum). Someone like Shen just can't take enough punishment, because his defensive stats are capped at the raw values he can actually afford (also he doesn't have MR/level, god knows why).

I think it would take some pretty significant changes to itemization to really let the champions you describe shine. Someone like Leona or Braum definitely has the potential to become a competitive pick in the current environment, tho.

Mannysmoker10/18/2014, 3:21:35 PM1 votes

DrMundo doesn't give a f.., about seasons ..