I wish this game's ENTIRE DYNAMIC was different, and more focused on TANKS!! AAA!!! (LONG POST!!!!)

A LOT of people have issues with the preseason, and even more don't like that it seems to be continuing in this direction! I've got some concerns with the direction the game's heading in, too. (mostly just being dominated by one-sided snowbally games, stalling being a thing of the past, and the game just being saturated with damage in general) But the kind of things people are saying are pretty harsh. Riot's dedicated to making a good game, I mean, this is their only game, it's their thing.

No matter how wonky their balance decisions get at times (LOL flat health on Veteran's scars, Deadman's nerf, Unyielding nerf, Bond Of Stone nerf, crushing my dreams one mastery at a time) they'll always be trying to steer this game towards being as fun and engaging as possible.

Even now, I occasionally can have some semblance of fun in this post-apocalyptic preseason. But mostly pain and suffering, or the completely unsatisfying apathy that comes with completely stomping the enemy team with no chance of a comeback, it's numbness enveloping me in a cocoon of silent agony. But inside, I dream of a glorious future Cinderhulk's release was really fun, but kinda skewed the game. A meta where tanks can really take a hit, and keep on coming, an ever present force. But even then, it had a HUGE issue. The tanks were dealing ridiculous damage. It really bothered me to see Sejuani catch and kill a Twitch from full health in about 5 seconds.

That isn't to say I think tanks shouldn't be able to do damage; I think the issue is that their main threat in a teamfight isn't just their CC, it's also their damage, and that much damage on a durable champion presents a really difficult problem for the opposing team with no easy solution. And instead of toning down their damage over the course of a fight, Riot targeted their survivability.

I really don't like to see a meta where the only real defense a Tank has against a carry is their own damage.

The solution in my opinion, is to take some of their damage from their active abilities, where they kill you and you can't get away or fight back, but put a large amount of power into their passive mitigation, and most importantly, their passive damage potential. If people are targeting a tank, that's when the tank should be dealing damage. It reinforces the idea that tanks want to be soaking hits and being in the fight, as well as the idea that you don't want to focus the tank.

Their threat in a teamfight should be their CC, if a Sejuani catches a Twitch out, she should be doing so to keep him occupied until her team follows up. This way, they have a clear weakness, and clear strengths, and they can be a lot more powerful without being oppressive.

Maybe there are some flaws with the execution of this idea, but I think it represents my ideals. You don't just "take out" a tank on your own in a couple seconds. It should be a bit of a project late game, something you do when the tank is way overextended, or when the rest of his team has been killed and he can sustainably be focus fired. At the same time, A tank shouldn't be assassinating an ADC.

As for what kind of changes I would make, I would take the Rabaddon's/Infinity Edge approach, where tanking is something you explicitly itemize for and stack, while adding power when the tank is being attacked, as opposed to explicitly offensive power.

And thus these abominations spring forth:

A shift to passive, reactionary damage!

When a tank's damage grows from being focused on themselves, that creates a clear message and reward scenario for the tank! "GET FOCUSED! CHARGE IN THERE! TAKE HITS!" And obviously creates an opposing message for the enemy team. "Don't focus the tank! Find a way around them, don't get engaged on"

Once tanks have some very meaningful counterplay, I'd give them the tools they need to do their job!!!!!!

Something I'd definitely do is give Thornmail Grievous Wounds, and Stick Last Whisper's Armor Pen to 25% (I'm sorry but ignoring the 6 armor items a tank builds specifically to counter the adc with a single item is gross.)

But I wOULDN'T make the GRAVE mistake of buffing tank items across the board. Bruisers would become gods overnight.

No.

Tanks need an Infinity Edge. Something that multiplies what they've got, and cements their role as a big guy what takes hits. Right now tanks can only linearly scale armor and HP, and hope it's enough to last!

Titan's Spaulders/Warmog's Armor? GOLD COST: 4000

• 250 Health UNIQUE PASSIVE: 10% Bonus Health, increasing by 1% per minute, up to a maximum of 40%. Time of purchase doesn't matter; it's based on game-time. **UNIQUE PASSIVE - WARMOG'S HEART: **When the user has 4000 maximum health or more, Warmog's Heart is activated. This is an effect that can be toggled between health regeneration and damage reduction. This toggle has a cooldown of 60 seconds. Health Regen per second: 1%, gradually decreases to 0.5% over 5 seconds as damage is taken from champions and large monsters. Damage Reduction: 10%, increasing to 20% over 5 seconds as damage is taken from champions and large monsters.

Warmog's sounds a bit overloaded now? Well you can't rush it or it's passive is pretty useless, and it's a seriously late-game option thanks to it's high price. Sweeping changes to tanks would be made that keep these strengths from being oppressive. Thornmail is a lot more powerful thanks to countering Lifesteal even harder, and the fact that tanks are just more durable now. These changes would usher forth a new meta where actual tanks are super durable late game, but have meaningful shifts in power (changing to regen passive to recover from fights, putting their ramping damage reduction on cooldown). With these changes, I'm worried about these champion's damage output because exists as an active offensive tool for them and as a passive offensive tool.

Damage shifts from their up-front damage to their ramping damage would probably have to happen, and with lower numbers It isn't a lot of fun as an ADC to have a tank run up and mow you down without anything you can do about it. (especially the ones that speed themselves up and slow you. HOW TO ESCAPE?)

Movement speed slows during combat on tank items is one option, and could be a good way to justify such powerful stats on an item besides gold cost, while also making fighters and champions that want to get around quickly during fights shy away from pure tank items.

I'm messing around slightly, but I've always wanted tanks that are seriously durable in this game, and I wasn't around during Mundo's glory days.

Feel free to talk about changes to this design, or talk about how this kind of tank could be implemented without being gross.I DON'T CLAIM TO BE A NUMBERS GUY!! OR EVEN A BALANCE GUY! I just want a world, where in this game, people don't die in 2 seconds when they're building to not die in 2 seconds.

**And also know, this is just a pretty dedicated guy's tortured thoughts. At the most, I'd like to hear Riot's thoughts on how really tanky tanks could possibly happen without making the game terrible, and the implications for the game to have a real counter to this very damage-ruled meta, besides even MORE damage. **