Tank Meta

CoolMike127·Apr 4, 2016·3 votes·1,289 views

It seems that no matter what stage of the meta League is in, it always seemingly starts to shift toward the tank meta again and again, after every big change in meta (like adc meta with new adc changes pre-season and rageblade meta (with devourer junglers as well) where hybrid damage and devourer junglers are making use of the splash damage it provides with its hybrid stats), it slowly starts to shift back to the tank meta.

Anyone able to provide some insight on why this seems like the case? Are strong tanks what constantly dominate the meta and change shift it back?

18 Comments

RogueWillApr 4, 20162 votes

There is a difference between tank meta and needing a tank in your team.

ADFC meta was not defined but having adc on your team (since pretty much is mandatory to have an adc all the time) is the same cases with tanks. The tank meta was defined when tank would be able to push a lead without little to no way to stop them. Currently if a tank gets a lead he will still die considerable fast thanks to the adc doing so much damage.

If the "tank" you are referring to dives to killl you then you are most likely forcing an off tank or a tanky champion intead of a real tank. Most tank champions can't solo anyone, the exceptions are tanks that cam burst you before the adc can do their DPS. Someone like Malphite or Chogath

CoolMike127Apr 4, 20161 votes

Your definition of tank meta is correct, as in the one I had in mind when creating this discussion. The tank meta is basically the time when tanks are able to provide strong enough cc and peel, or any other sort of ability to help the team prosper, with little ability to stop the sheer power of the innate strengths. With consistant changes to the meta, it is expected to see different champions prosper and others decay, but it always seems that some sort of tank(s) will tremendously prosper (like Malphite a couple patches ago or a bruiser like Poppy that is able to not only able to break through enemy lines and easily cc and disrupt any team-fight, but also is extremely difficult to kill).

RogueWillApr 4, 20162 votes

{quoted}

Your definition of tank meta is correct, as in the one I had in mind when creating this discussion. The tank meta is basically the time when tanks are able to provide strong enough cc and peel, or any other sort of ability to help the team prosper, with little ability to stop the sheer power of the innate strengths. With consistant changes to the meta, it is expected to see different champions prosper and others decay, but it always seems that some sort of tank(s) will tremendously prosper (like a couple patches ago or a bruiser like that is able to not only able to break through enemy lines and easily cc and disrupt any team-fight, but also is extremely difficult to kill).

2 champions don't create atank meta thou...to be considered a tank meta all tanks (or at least most of it) are abel to prosper to some extent/ Poppy and Malphite are just having the Jarvan effect. Champions that were average but due to the external circumstances has become way too powerful. In Malphite and Poppy case is her armor scaling that helps with the ridiculous amount of damage ADC are doing and hence other tanks can't keep up.

axel vazquezApr 4, 20161 votes

I feel it brother. We've been going on this forever. Right now we're facing with tanks (damage included). With these powerhouses, one teamfight can basically cause an entire loss of the game due to the sand towers and long death timers.

CoolMike127Apr 4, 20161 votes

It always seems to circulate with the tanks with strong cc and ability to peel (or provide some other assistance to the team), will out-shine the weaker tanks that aren't able to perform as well as their counter-parts. A good tank can lead a teamfight to victory and if they are able to provide any other strong attributes, it makes them all much better. It's like a consistent contest in which tanks are able to perform better.

RalanrApr 4, 20161 votes

I didn't see many tanks during the devourer meta.

CoolMike127Apr 4, 20161 votes

During devourer meta, Malphite was a top lane terror of a tank that was able strong early game (with his aoe damage) and was strong in team fights with his game changing ult, strong enough to the point of him needing to be nerfed a couple patches ago to keep him back in check.

RalanrApr 4, 20161 votes

Does that make all tanks strong?

Tanks counter damage. They should be common in damage metas.

CoolMike127Apr 4, 20161 votes

I agree with you that tanks do counter damage, but they shouldn't be able to best a bruiser or any kind of duelist in a 1v1 or small skirmish. Tanks excel in teamfights where they are able to protect their damage dealers and provide their cc and peel for the team.

The example before, Malphite , was able not only able to completely hold his own against many different top laners, but his aoe splash damage made him quite strong in terms of clearing waves efficiently and winning trades against bruisers that shouldn't be pushed back in early game by him.

RalanrApr 4, 20161 votes

Against champions with no resistances, I disagree.

But you're right that top lane tanks have been pretty dominant. Though I believe it has something to do with the lane being unfriendly to anyone who is both melee and squishy (ranged top laners do not make top lane enjoyable due to the free poke from their auto attacks. You'd think this would discourage tanks in top lane, but it actually encourages them since they don't lose power by rushing defensive items).

I don't want to see a major nerf to all tanks. Some tanks don't really need to be nerfed (like Sion).

HethaleanApr 4, 20161 votes

Building very tanky provides a lot of safety. Especially with long death timers and auto-snowballing (minions being stronger if your avg level is higher or have more towers), not dying a lot is compelling. That is the case in this meta (I imagine... I have no data or grand experience to really say why)

CoolMike127Apr 4, 20161 votes

Tanks prime objective is to either initiate a fight or disengage it with their cc and provide peel for the damage dealers and keep them from dying.

A tank should generally not die, unless it's for protecting the team or giving the team any advantages possible. Theoretically, a tank should die more than the carries, as it then means that they died to protect the damage dealers in team-fights.

HethaleanApr 4, 20162 votes

Yeah that's the idea behind CC based tanks. However, lots of people who do damage are building tanky (especially with the bruiser items like Maw/Steraks/etc) in order to not be as squishy and die less. Tank Akali, Tank Master Yi, Tank Ekko, are all instances of this. We even saw Zed building the tanky damage items in LCS recently.

CoolMike127Apr 4, 20161 votes

Your're quite right, bruisers are able to build semi-damage defensive items and their goal is to reach the backline and destroy the damage dealers, while not being able to be stopped easily, as they don't provide as much cc and peel to protect their carries efficiently and/or reliably ( Garen is a prime example of such a bruiser). Though I feel like the role of such bruisers shift the prime goal of a tank to help the team through defensive means, but I cannot say that bruisers aren't able provide just as much assistance as a tank, as their goal is disrupting the enemy team, allowing the damage dealers to be able to execute the enemy damage much easier.

venomous frostApr 4, 20161 votes

because of the way this game is designed, tanks will always a necessity. If you do not have tanks, objectives like baron and dragon will be hard to take since they do a lot of damage.

Also when there are no tanks, nobody can engage a teamfight, they will just instantly die.

When you have a lead, you need a tank to force an engage under tower, else they can stand under tower forever since assassins cannot dive towers.

It's just the way this game is played, tanks will always be a must, no matter what type of meta there is.

CoolMike127Apr 4, 20161 votes

I fully agree with you and I also had thought about how the cc and peel a tank or 2 provides in a teamfight is essential, as tank meta in a way just seems to be the "normal" meta.

Tanks are able to provide cc and peel are core reasons why they are a must.

LaughingMan11Apr 4, 20161 votes

Basically, its the natural order of things, Damage becomes super popular, and for the carries to finally be stopped in a game, some one finds out effective tank builds to counter the items being used.

For the current tank meta following the devourer meta, you'll notice that Maw has become increasingly popular because of all the mixed damage going on, Tank meta will usually always follow the previous damage meta, but the tank meta changes based on the type of damage before it. Then some other damage items get reworked, and since everyone is used to tanking against the SD meta, they start dying a lot to what ever the new damage meta will be, and then once the SD meta finally shifts out, Tanks will become strong again, because they will be building to counter which ever damage meta comes next, and then we're back to tank meta, and so on and so forth.

CoolMike127Apr 4, 20161 votes

I completely agree and understand what your saying, as it makes sense that strong things will be countered and then new things will make things strong, which will always be countered, thus a cycle of countering the previous meta.

Btw, Maw is generally a defensive item used to prevent magic damage while providing attack damage, built more on bruisers (the semi-damage ones that run into the enemy team and disrupts and destroys the backline) than tanks (generally provide strong cc and peel to protect the damage dealers). You are not wrong that maw does counter devourer for bruisers, I was referring to tanks, as it seems that tanks are able to simply a large selection of strong defensive items that are able to protect them (like getting a Randuins to slow attack speed or using Thornmail to counter high auto-attacking enemy champions).