What separates a Tank from a Juggernaut.

Let's look at the primary Juggernauts and tanky fighters, and see what is different between them and tanks.

Juggernauts All have some minor form of crowd control, and some survivability. For Shyvana and Garen it is tanking stats and mitigation. For Illaoi and Darius it is self healing. But... what do they actually do in a fight? Damage, that is what all of their abilities are aimed at. Dealing large amounts of damage and being a threat to the enemy team. Targeting them is okay in SOME situations, if Darius is the most fed enemy and is hard diving, targeting him is okay for some of your damage dealers and CC to prevent him from one shotting the carry. But they aren't tanks... their tanking steroids are decent but aren't strong enough. A little pen and Grevious Wounds counters their tankiness. They also provide minimal CC, Darius has a pull and slow, Garen a silence, Shyvana a tiny knock back on her ult, Illaoi slows.

Now on the other hand we have real tanks. What is different about these champions is they don't deal nearly as much damage based on their items, against those above. What do they do well? Well, as tanks they are tanky to start. Comparing Shyvana's 20 bonus armor and magic resist, we have Leona's 60+20% bonus armor and magic resist, Rammus 120 bonus armor and magic resist, Poppy's 20% max HP shield and 15% bonus armor and magic resist, and Sejauni's 25 bonus armor. Tanks also often have scaling based on defensive stats like Armor, Magic Resist and Health, rewarding them for building tanky. So let's see, they take less damage than the Juggernauts and deal less damage. But there is more to it than just that. See Tanks reduce damage in another way, and it doesn't just reduce damage but it reduces the enemy's mobility, damage, utility, escape, chase, disengage and engage. It is Crowd Control. Crowd Control is arguably more important for a tank than tanking steroids. Because Crowd control reduces damage to not only yourself, but your allies as well. It is the primary source of threat for a tank. It allows tanks to engage fights, peel for allies, disable high value targets and lockdown enemy teams reducing their ability to output damage.

This is where many people fall short, they class Shyvana or Darius as 'tanks' because they are hard to kill. But they also do not provide the level of lockdown nor as strong of tanking steroids as a true tank needs. When your team says 'we need a tank' they typically mean you need somebody who can initiate fights and lock enemies down. But at the same time, tanks are a bad idea to focus, unlike Juggernauts they die far more slowly and their HP, Armor and Magic resist, shields and active mitigation cannot be easily countered by just penetration and Grevious Wounds. They take too long to kill and do too little damage to be a high priority target.

So, the difference between a Tank and a Juggernaut can be summed up as: Juggernauts do more damage, sometimes it is okay to focus them and Juggernauts defenses are weaker and easier to counter. Juggernaut's role is to deal damage and be a threat so they are worth attacking.

Tanks do less damage, it is rarely okay to focus them, they provide lockdown reducing damage for themselves AND their allies, their defenses are stronger and harder to counter. Tank's role is to initiate fights, lockdown and peel for carries, if enemies are stupid enough to focus you, you are amazingly tanky to survive it.

Now there are 'halfway' examples. Champions who almost meet in the middle or can serve either role. But Riot is creating new classes to resolve this issue of 'definition'. In the end, before you comment on what a champion should be building, what role they serve for your team, what you should pick for your team comp, or before commenting on balance. You should always ask yourself "Is this a tank or a juggernaut?"

Thank you for reading.