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Tanks don't feel like 'tanks' anymore.

Emikzen·1/24/2018, 11:01:29 AM·27 votes·3,739 views

As a tank player ever since runes reforged it hasn't felt like I've been playing a traditional tank, when playing things like Poppy, Maokai, Nautilus, Rammus, Amumu etc. Since when was it their job to straight up kill people with aftershock or die trying. They're made to CC and tank damage not to be a killing machine(For the most part). My job was never to kill enemy squishies, it was to CC them or keep them busy long enough for my teammates to kill them. But now I can kill them without any help most of the time.

In the old Masteries as a pure tank you would either go Courage of the Colossus or Stoneborn Pact if more supporty tank. Both of these gave you actual tank stats or effects, and made you feel tanky. No offensive stats whatsoever.

However with the introduction of the new Runes I never felt like there was a rune that fit the 'tank' playstyle. Currently it feels like resolve runes are somewhere in-between bruiser and tank and not specifically for either.

Aftershock - Is in a way similar to courage, you proc it by hard CC'ing someone and you gain a small amount of tank stats for a limited time and some damage around you, on paper it sounds like a great replacement for Courage. But in reality as a tank, for me damage has always and will always be irrelevant, aftershock is more of a bruiser tank rune especially with the latest patch that added ad/ap scaling and changed the resistance values values. This is still the closest we have to a proper tank rune.

Guardian - Extremely limited in how it can be used, especially toplane. It works well for some tanks which specialize in peel but for most CC tanks you want to be ontop of the enemy squishies and not your own. This is mainly used for supports and on botlane, not really for toplane tanks.

Grasp of the Undying - You pick it to win lane and duels or simply to sustain in lane. It's a very situational rune, especially for a tank so it's not always the best. Doesn't work well with a lot of tanks either, but still an option.

We're missing a rune that fits the role of a traditional tank and can help them do their job and actually tank and CC or help with it. Something like brittle where it extends CC durations or straight up old Courage back. Changing Aftershock from doing damage around you to an aoe slow is also an option.

Some may argue that tanks should be able to kill squishies in teamfights or even solo and apply kill pressure. Read this post by Riot. "Tanks excel in shrugging off incoming damage and focus on disrupting their enemies more than being significant damage threats themselves." - Which is far from what they are today.

This doesn't mean that tanks shouldn't do any damage at all, I still think they should have mainly %HP damage to deal with other tanks and enough flat to be able to farm properly. Currently they have enough damage to kill most squishies without breaking a sweat, but in return get killed fairly quickly in the lategame, especially by adcs, which is a big problem when the games are longer. The threat of tanks should be their CC and brick wall feel, not their burst potential and kill pressure.

Generally I think tanks do and take too much damage and have lost their role as a traditional tank, they used to be a brick wall or CC machine, now they're just made for killing. I would love to see some changes to runes regarding this, aswell as maybe items.

60 Comments

Milton Fletcher1/24/2018, 11:52:42 AM10 votes

League itself isn’t league anymore .

Daddy Ants1/24/2018, 11:33:21 AM10 votes

Riot had a smart idea to buff the hell out of Aftershock as well.

XD

Rexxiee1/24/2018, 4:08:11 PM5 votes

Riot has been getting rid of classes weaknesses over time.

They thought it was a good idea to make it so tanks arent team reliant anymore and can just go in and 1v1 every bruiser at all stages of the game.

Because you know, when i think about a tank the first thing i think is ornn pressing W and half healthing me in lane in a single trade, this is totally what tanks are about /S

SpecterVonBaren1/24/2018, 9:03:50 PM4 votes

Never forget pre-Juggernaut patch. When tanks were tanks and people banned Gragas and Sajuani and then did whatever they wanted.

Hibeki1/24/2018, 7:50:03 PM4 votes

Lol half the tanks in top lane right now are fucking ridiculous.

They can 100-0 virtually anyone other than another tank because 'low mana cost high base damage low cooldown damage amp cc ability' almost every fucking one of them has means they outdamage /ccchain burst practically anyone in the fucking game

Full tank sion will kill you with ult chain combos before you can even move

Maokai has a stupid fuckin ministun on Q so theres no getting to him, on top of the massive damage and low cooldown

Ornn ridiculous damage on W plus a shield so he can outtrade anyone, give it a low cooldown too so he can kill people in an all in.

Teridax681/25/2018, 5:47:31 AM3 votes

One worrying trend I've seen on the Boards is that some players seem convinced that a champion is useless unless they personally get to kill others. As a result, these same players have often defended the state of tank damage by claiming that crowd control would not be enough to make them worth playing. Not only is this patently false (tanks have been useful when their damage was low, and supports are a prime example of a class that generally lacks damage, but still contributes enormously to their team), I also think it's dangerous for the game's design, as the same mentality may have been responsible for pushing tanks to have more damage in the first place. As a result of this, many tanks have essentially become divers with more durability and more crowd control, and in general I think tanks and fighters have become more similar to each other than ever before.

I agree with the OP that I don't think this should necessarily mean that tanks should have no damage whatsoever; rather, their damage should not be comparable to that of a damage-dealing class if the champion in question is not meant to specialize in damage. Additionally, I also agree that tanky classes (so tanks and fighters) are currently not actually all that durable, and as a result many of them have ended up having to apply burst in order to stay relevant in fights, as they would die before being able to kill their targets otherwise. Fights overall tend to end a little too quickly, imo, and I think allowing more durable classes to soak up a team's damage output for more than just a few seconds would allow balance to become less brittle, as the effectiveness of a champion wouldn't have to rely on just a handful of meaningful actions. Over the past few seasons, tanks have had their power shifted from durability to damage, and while the problem isn't unique to tanks, it's a shift that I think needs to be reversed in order to bring them in line with their class fantasy.

NextSeasonBetter1/24/2018, 11:38:45 AM3 votes

RIOT WANT THE BRONZE AND SILVER AND GOLD PLAY STYLES TO BE BUFF SO THEY CAN GET MORE PEOPLE TO PLAY THE GAME. IT'S BULLSHIT!

Draehl1/24/2018, 5:38:34 PM2 votes

Not sure if you care but I experience the same issue when trying to play off tank Bard (a playstyle that was completely viable before the runes reforged patch). Even if you take defensive masteries and tank items it still doesn't make much difference in the current high damage environment. All of the damage runes and items are vastly outscaling the defensive runes and items.

ƒrostγ1/24/2018, 5:11:22 PM2 votes

The class should be renamed to 'tanky assassin'.

HungryAngry2SPP1/24/2018, 4:59:19 PM2 votes

Poppy item 3147 item 3078 item 3748 item 3087 item 3031

Nice tank :)

Jamenawerl1/24/2018, 6:31:49 PM1 votes

Unless they gut ADC damage no thanks, im already had my fair share of season 4 bullshit where any moron with lifesteal literally healed off you.

If you want to play tanks without damage you can still do it, just go supp Braum Taric TahmKench Rakan Thresh

If you are killing the ADC in teamfights without help as a tank (with the exception of Rammus), just climb ranks until you get matched against people with hands. I agree that tanks do more damage now, but it isnt that much, and it is necessary to keep them balanced.

Meep Man1/24/2018, 4:06:16 PM1 votes

Poppy was always meant to be a hybrid Tank. The rest are a little strange to me though as to why they deal as much damage as they do. I'm fine with them slowly killing people over time, like how Maokai can do sometimes where his fights last about 10+ seconds.