Are pure tanks obsolete?
Stonewall008 takes a look at the current state of pure tanks in relationship to bruisers and makes suggestions on what should be done. What do ya'll think?
20 Comments
Pure tanks aren't in any way obsolete - they just exist in a different context now. The only True Tanks that exist, do so ONLY within the Bottom Lane.
Top Lane and Jungle are reserved for champions that, although they build tanky, have inherent damage from their kit, and often build (at least) one (pseudo-)offensive item to reinforce that element of their kit (E.g. Liandry's Torment on Zac, RoA on Maokai, Trinity Force on Nasus, and Hydra on Renekton).
True Tanks, however, provide Utility and CC and no meaningful damage and should exist ONLY within the Support Role. Their aim is to be able to use their abilities as often as they can, as long as they can to both disrupt the enemy team with CC and provide their team with an edge through the Utility they provide.
Think of it this way. There are 4 degrees of tankiness within League of Legends - True Tank (Purely tank stats - often with Auras and activate-able utility and/or CC items), Off-Tank (tanky with at least 1 'Offensive' item), Bruiser (a balance of Offensive and Defensive stats), and Carry (little-to no defensive stats).
It depends on the meta. Tanks are really good against bruiser but not so much against assassins. They also combo really well with hyper carries.
The current meta does not give them much room outside of cassiopeia but assassins are getting nerfed and we are seeing more kogmaw proffesionally so there is still hope.
RIP tanks
Like other have said in here. The only true tank should be in the support's. Ever one else should have one damaged item or have a lot of damaged in their kits.
To tell the true I cant think of a single tank that is not play support that does not do this.
It's kind of sad that now if you want to play a pure tank you're obligated to go for the support role. Playing a pure tank can be unrewarding since you don't actually kill anyone but set up your teammates to do the same. The support role exacerbates this because being the support is traditionally unrewarding for most players in and of itself. Playing a pure tank in a support role is a "double whammy" of not getting credit for making plays. 
being the notable exception, of course.
As far as buisers go, they demonstrate a point. Bruisers don't often have the CC and disruption potential of a tank, instead opting for more damage. The thing is, damage causes death, and death is the best CC in the game. Tanks can lock you down for several seconds; bruisers can do the same thing but better by just killing you. All this without sacrificing much tankiness. I can't see a situation outside of the support role where a bruiser couldn't do the same job as a tank, but better. That is a disheartening thought for someone who likes tanks.
In my opinion, a lot of champs considered to be "pure tanks" could function fairly efficiently if built as bruisers.
for example has great potential as an AD or AP bruiser due to the nature of his kit.
also qualifies, with his Ult giving him a massive AD boost and damage reduction. There's a reason people started to build Triforce on him and it actually worked.
works extremely well as a bruiser, given that his kit is actually very good at dueling and shutting down carries.
seems to be the exception. Unlike others of the same class, he actually has no meaningful AP or AD scaling. He scales marginally well with attack speed due to his passive, but it is very hard to play Braum as anything EXCEPT a pure tank.
you realize braum is literally a pure tank?