What the heck happened to lane tanks?

Yorukin·10/27/2015, 2:31:19 PM·24 votes·2,897 views

Title. I've noticed that virtually every true tank nowadays is played either as a bot lane support or in the jungle. With the versatility in jungle picks and the option of mage supports, I just have to ask: why not play them up top? As weird as it may seem, I enjoy playing champions like Nautilus, Maokai, and Sejuani in the top lane environment.

EDIT: Perhaps I should clarify. I didn't play tanks because of the tank meta, it's because I simply prefer playing them to most damage-focused top laners. I'm still perfectly willing to take them into their other primary positions, I just feel like they've been bullied out of their original home.

87 Comments

Remlap122310/27/2015, 7:35:30 PM25 votes

%max health true damage is what happened to lane tanks.

Fiora Garen Vayne .

Why would you take a CC bot that gets melted as easily as any other champion, when you can take someone that builds just as tanky, but does damage?

We're back to the League of Bruisers.

Darius Gangplank Garen Mordekaiser

BattleOxe10/27/2015, 2:33:37 PM17 votes

Because juggernauts still exist. And fiora too

SEKAI10/27/2015, 2:39:18 PM14 votes

Because Riot made sure they won't be in the lane for whatever reason

Yaskamasandwich10/27/2015, 11:11:40 PM9 votes

Several reasons why tanks disappeared top lane.

Reason #1: As mentioned several champs are just tank destroyers, most of them recently reworked and released, and popular top lane: Darius Fiora Gangplank Garen AAAANNNNDDD recently released, arguable balanced but still anti-tank jungler Kindred Some of them old but getting out of the gutter: Gnar Riven Also Bot lane anti-tanks being popular Kalista Vayne

Reason #2: As before mentioned Juggernauts, now Juggernauts are not actually really bad. They have the inherent weakness of getting kited. Unfortunately these items exist item 3742 item 3071 item 3748 item 3053 Juggernauts are not bad, it is their synergy with items that make them terror. These items effectively remove their weaknesses and lets them scale well into late game which is the meta right now. Though realistically it is rather nice to have items and champions synergize so well, it would be nice if other types of champions should synergize with their items too.

Reason #3: 99% of tanks have been constantly nerfed AND their items. Again this was to make sure there would be no late game tanks, not even the infinite stacking Sion Or the ADC hating Sejuani This doesn't make sense to have these two mid game champions, and these two got the brunt of it. In a meta where late game is key, there are almost no tanks. The item item 3709 item 3717 item 3721 item 3725 was constantly nerfed to beyond the point of "better nerf Irelia" joke. Granted as a tank player I agree that released Cinderhulk was just plain STUPID! But it was nerfed to a good spot, then nerfed again for ... worlds? I don't know. Top that off at patch 5.16 the same patch where Juggernauts and their items came out, item 3143 item 3075 item 3110 were also nerfed. The reason behind the nerfs were more than likely to make sure Juggernauts do not abuse them. Can you imagine Darius running around with pre-nerfed ? I dare not.

Despite all of these the sleeper op only late game tank Malphite is seeing play. This is the tank that all other tanks want to be like. A tank that was buffed up instead of nerfed, and even with the items nerf, he and Rammus were the only ones who loves the new item 3075 . A weak early game but with a rewarding late game who's kit make it so that he laughs off a 6 item Vayne as he drinks her tears. He is also a top lane tank, reason you're seeing a lot of him now. He's the only arguable real tank left, though probably not for long so if ya love tanks, learn him and abuse him while ya can.

Sorgklaan10/27/2015, 8:05:42 PM9 votes

Singed is still the king tank of toplane.

slippykitten10/27/2015, 7:52:25 PM8 votes

Because full tanks in toplane are boooooooring to play. They are only picked there when they are super dominant, and even then they are just a farming bot until team fights.

Very Hard Engage10/27/2015, 2:33:42 PM8 votes

because darius and garen are just ruining their day with true damage ults, and other champs are just roaming top and getting free kills on them because tanks often lack escapes.

generally top lane wants to push, take turrets quickly, and force people to go cover the pushing lane to prevent turret loss, and you can go 5v4 some other objective, thats whats popular right now. except not a lot of tanks can really take the beating top lane right now.

Old Man Teeto10/27/2015, 11:58:27 PM6 votes

If you don't deal damage, you don't get farm.

Pure tanks just don't deal enough damage or bring enough to a team composition.

Riot has continually pushed MORE AND MORE damage into the game to the point that even having a full item lead as a pure tank doesn't mean you are actually stronger.

Look at how they decided to buff Mundo, they just gave him more damage.

Pure Tanks were supposed to be "Neutralizers" able to sit in lane and minimize the punishment high-damage split pushers did and then translate into team fights by being harder to focus down with great utility.

Pure Tanks just get destroyed in lane now, outscaled, outsplitpushed, and have shittier itemization.

SpecterVonBaren10/27/2015, 9:12:28 PM5 votes

Look at why Tahm top is powerful, because while you can poke him down, if he manages to get on you then he punishes you for it. If someone on the other hand plays Malphite top and isn't experienced enough with him to know how to play the match up then he'll not only get bullied but also killed over and over if he tries to farm or fight. You don't have to deal with this problem as a sup or jungle for obvious reasons.

So in short. Most lane tanks can't function because they have no way to punish the enemy laner and just get rolled over.

Only Play Darius10/27/2015, 8:54:58 PM5 votes

Because tanks get bullied out of lane too easily, they don't have the items to withstand harass and don't have the damage to scare off their opponent. Seeing as they are very reliant on items, this poses a very big problem. Ranged tops are also a thing and they make life hell for low-damage tanks.

Gnar in particular is a giant FUCK YOU to any lane tanks, with nonstop poke and continuous %maxHP damage.

Tanks also aren't suited for solo lanes because they have a hard time generating map pressure, due to poor waveclear and poor 1v1 capability.

TL;DR even if it provides a strategic advantage, playing a traditional tank in a solo lane these days just isn't fun because every new champion has range, poke, and %HP damage.

Blue Kaozi10/27/2015, 2:39:40 PM4 votes

Whats been said previously. Tanks arent as tanky as they used to be, juggernauts are about as tanky and do far more damage, and lots of top laners have true damage. Not the best situation for true tanks.

kile14710/27/2015, 8:54:48 PM3 votes

Probably because solo lanes are a very duel-y environment. Tanks aren't good at dueling unless they are OP. When tanks are given tools to stay in lanes alone they end up being very strong because by definition tanks have a lot of cc and are hard to kill, so when given other things like good waveclear, sustain/poke, or good damage they tend to have too much power in their kits. Right now the only tank I play top lane is Gnar because due to the unique nature of his kit he is allowed to have tankiness, cc, damage, waveclear and poke which are all the things he needs in order to be a tank and to lane well.

tldr: Tanks can't solo lane unless they are OP or "overloaded".

NemeBro10/27/2015, 10:51:04 PM3 votes

http://champion.gg/statistics/#?roleSort=Top&sortBy=general.playPercent&order=descend

There are two tanks (three if you count Gnar) in the top ten most picked champions in top lane.

Are they picked as much as fighters? No. But... were they ever? =\

I can't remember a single time top lane hasn't been mostly champions like Irelia, Riven, Tryndamere, or whoever, with a few champions falling in (Garen and Darius) and out (Hecarim) of the meta. So, fighters.

Caytheles10/27/2015, 8:10:58 PM3 votes

Because Juggernauts and or Fiora will demolish them atm. top lane is at a very closed state right now

Krys Star10/28/2015, 3:25:23 AM3 votes

Curret top laners in the meta bully tanks out of lane without much repercussion, on top of majority of them being quite tanky themselves. That, and the added fact that many favorable tank items has received nerfs. Frozen Heart, Sunfire Cape, Randuin's Omen, Banshee's Veil, Spirit Visage (although it received an amazing buff a few patches ago so...), Righteous Glory. The new 'juggernaut' items are quite amazing, but tanks don't really benefit from it since most of them scale off of ap.

Riot kicked tanks in the shins, and left them on the floor while bumping up fighters and bruisers. It's sad, really, because I love having a tank on my team but rarely have them. Now I'm trying to learn tank laners myself, even if it wont always have favorable results. Bring tanks back! :(

MorganFreemanBot10/28/2015, 4:45:21 AM3 votes

Naut and Sej have never been great in top lane. They've made a showing once in a blue moon, but been far from outstanding. Hell, Sej has pretty much only ever been played as pure AP when played as a laner.

Mao, likewise, only became a good (and for awhile godly) top-lane due to a rework which buffed the shit out of him.

People like to say that "Juggernauts and fiora happened to tank lanes", but in truth tanks have never had much of a place in top lane. Most of the tanks you see top have been gimmicky damage dealers; things like headbutt-sheenslap Alistar and AP Sejuani . If not it's just because they're stupid strong; case-in-point being Maokai after buffs or Shen back in s2.

Reminiscing about a 'tank dominant top lane' which the juggernauts crushed is putting on rose colored glasses and then looking back at a slice of history which never actually happened. Top lane has always been ruled by the likes of Renekton Nasus Darius Olaf Rumble Shyvana Irelia JarvanIV or else Lissandra Elise Nidalee Kennen Vladimir Jayce . It's always been predominantly bruisers or ranged bullies. Either tanky damage dealing melees, or somewhat less tanky but super pokey ranged lane bullies with lots of control.

There have been a few outliers here and there. Riven is too squishy to really qualify as a 'bruiser' but also isn't a tank or ranged, Vladimir has no CC to speak of an a piss-poor early game. He's more apt to get bullied by nasty bruisers than bully them. Yasuo had a stint as a meta top laner despite not fitting the criteria I mentioned.

The only tank who has consistently been either alright (upto godly) is Singed . Malphite is right behind him on that menu, having good poke, a way to mitigate poke himself, and a surprisingly strong all-in with his ultimate.. Plus the ability to make ADC's cry themselves to sleep late game.

Minions4eVeR10/28/2015, 1:08:39 AM2 votes

They're still present Malphite Maokai Nautilus Shen Sion TahmKench Zac all of them are very viable top laners and they fit the Tank role perfectly. Just because Bruisers are being played more doesn't mean Tanks aren't played either.

My Waifu Vanilla10/28/2015, 2:34:28 AM2 votes

Because no lane tank is going to do well against a bruiser opponent in a 1v1 and their team will typically lack damage compared to the opponent with the bruiser. On the flip side since you have cc and most bruisers don't have escapes or cc you can basically beg for jungle ganks and shut them down and have more "reliable" tp ganks than your fiora opponent. The reason this probably isn't a wildly used tactic in worlds is you will probably be running a damage jungler and the tactic is fairly obvious and can be counter ganked where you will probably lose a 2v2 since one of you is a cc bot and the other is a damage source while they most likely have 2 decent damage dealers. That is my thought on it.

FantasySniper10/28/2015, 3:31:22 AM2 votes

Nearly every top-lane tank is countered by some pick or another that is likely popular to begin with.

And if they aren't countered by any conceivable top-lane pick, they just plain don't work well enough in the first place.

RetroRage9610/28/2015, 12:00:09 AM2 votes

Same bro! I love playing tanks and offtanks, but nobody seems to play them anymore unless they have tons of teamfight potential.

Viperjcs198510/28/2015, 9:26:42 PM1 votes

Top Tahm is a thing.

Sire Hippington10/28/2015, 2:51:05 PM1 votes

juggernauts do a decent job at giving them a hard time in lane(Trees should never get close to axes...)
Tank items have been nerfed, so their scaleing woth gold has been nerfed, which leads to the question: Why put them into a spot that gets alot gold when there are other champs that scale far better with gold?

Sasogwa10/28/2015, 4:03:17 PM1 votes

Because they get slaughtered by the likes of Darius Fiora Gnar

Chaotic Reks10/27/2015, 8:43:34 PM1 votes

Shen Sion DrMundo Singed are the only lane tanks that i can think of

THESuperStuntMan10/28/2015, 7:29:54 PM1 votes

Answers are: Black Cleaver Fiora Vayne Kindred All the other %Health damage. Armor nerfs Tank Champ nerfs. .... There's just really almost 0 bonus for building full tank items. Just pick a champ that does damage and build damage items. Or pick a tank support who can tank forever without tank items (Alistar, Braum).

JJI74410/28/2015, 5:06:39 PM1 votes

Juggernaut reworks introduced two toplaners who:

A) Enjoy rushing a Black Cleaver. B) Are too tanky for most tanks to kill themselves. C) Are difficult to itemize against (pre Black Cleaver, let alone after) D) Deal enough sustained damage without mana constraints to wear down tanky opponents.