Is it worth it to go full tank in low elo?

ScurvyNave·Apr 9, 2015·1 votes·884 views

I won't lie I'm a bronze

and one thing I've noticed is that unless you get that one good team outta fifty going full tank just hurts you. The number of times I've won top lane as Sion and roamed to help other lanes get their first towers and yet still lose the game cause in the end i do no significant damage and can only engage and tank with some cc. Tanking is just frustrating and annoying late game and I really wish it wasn't cause its one of my favourite roles.

What I'm asking is if it would be better for me to learn some carry top lanes so I don't have to rely on team cohesiveness or like minded play in oder to win? Cause honestly its a rare thing when a non-premade team has good enough communication or play reading ability to act together and with no damage follow up a full tank is useless.

8 Comments

NebuulApr 9, 20151 votes

In lower elo, you can still go full tank and be effective. The difference, though, is communication required. In higher elo, players are more likely to recognize when you expect them to follow up with you, to the point of anticipating when you will engage. That anticipation, though, is a learned skill and is the product of experience. In lower elo play, you need to take a second and type out or otherwise signal your intentions to your team. Basically, expect that your team is unlikely to recognize whatever strategy you plan on executing, so communicate it to then explicitly.

This communication is also useful in higher elo play, but it becomes less necessary.

ScurvyNaveApr 9, 20151 votes

That's great and all and I agree that typing out what you plan to do is useful but..... There comes a time when you have a split second decision to make (like when the enemy Kat uses her E and is out of position for several seconds). When this happens I can't be expected to write an essay on how we should engage now and that I am ulting in and activating righteous glory for team to keep up.

Good Communication without voice chat is like world peace, we can never fully achieve it and unlikely to get close to it as well

NebuulApr 10, 20151 votes

It doesn't have to be an essay. Also, there are obviously times that you won't have time to type. However, if you are on your way to a lane to gank, or a team fight is, you suspect, about to happen, you can type something like, "engaging when Kat shunpos" or "tower diving be ready" -- the goal isn't to have a long discussion about the finer points of strategy. All you need to do is initialize your team's thinking because, as you have noted yourself, bronze players are rarely on the same page.

Edit: it goes without saying, but I'll say it anyway: always use your pings. This holds true for all elo brackets.

kcStrangerApr 10, 20151 votes

The way I see it, there are three situations worth talking about:

If it's a stable situation and you have time to type your plan in chat, do it.
If a good situation arises and you have time to throw out a ping but not to type in chat, do that. Hopefully, your team will catch on. If you absolutely need your teammates to follow-up quickly for it to work out, think twice about your move.
If you don't have time for a signal of any kind, don't go for it if it's at all close. To take your example, let's say Kat is out of position but it's 5v5, and you need your team to follow quickly to burst her down. You may just want to let something like this go if you don't even have time for an "assist me" ping, since quite likely your teammates won't catch on, you won't have enough damage to kill Kat, and you'll eat a bunch of focus fire for not enough reward. If it's 5v4, though, the resulting fight might be lopsided enough in your favor that it's a good move even if they're a little slow to act. My experience playing initiatiors (e.g., I play Jarvan IV) is that you always have to keep in the back of your mind whether your team has an advantage (usually superior numbers, though it could be something like "they're doing Baron") in the situation. If you don't have a clear advantage of some kind, you need to think more about counter-initiation or zoning as opposed to initiation.

Communication issues do significantly hamper your ability to make clever, spur-of-the-moment initiation plays which depend on your teammates following up quickly. However, they don't significantly hurt your ability to teamfight, zone, and counter-initiate. So if you just don't go for risky initiations, you can still be very effective.

kcStrangerApr 9, 20151 votes

I'm no expert, but from what I can tell tanks definitely aren't as valuable at low elo or in solo queue in general. However, they can still be useful, and it's not necessary to avoid them entirely. I think the biggest adjustment that you have to make is with initiations. Your team doesn't know what you're thinking, and especially at low levels it may take them a few (crucial) seconds to follow you in, if they do at all. So, if it's at all close as to whether you should be engaging, you may want to shy away from it. When you do engage, throwing out an appropriate ping may increase the odds that your team follows you, though it's far from foolproof.

It all depends on what playstyle you want to learn. I'm inclined to think that the difference in strength between carry and tank tops isn't so big that you need to avoid the tanks, but you do have to keep in mind that your team will react a bit slowly to your moves, and play accordingly.

DJ Di0Apr 9, 20151 votes

Amumu Freelo

IllumanatiObamaApr 10, 20151 votes

My advice, after building 2 or 3 tank items, build at least one damage item for good measure. You lose out on some tankiness but you'll be able to hurt squishes which is your job as a tank anyway. This is my suggestion if you're playing in lower elo.

Also, ping before initiating so your team knows what you're gonna do.

67chromeApr 10, 20151 votes

I won't lie I'm a bronze

The win rates for champions are actually pretty much the same from Bronze up to Diamond. Once you hit ranked most players at least get the basics and you can be successful with any class. Might as well just run with whatever suits your fancy.

Also - there's 2 very different play-styles with a full tank champion, namely there are:

tanks, tank/supports, tanky CC
fighter/tanks, tanky DPS

Tanky CC champions are among the best team-fighters in the game. Inversely pretty shit in a 1v1.

Tanky DPS are among the best duelists, and inversely among the worst team-fighters.

If you want to run a lone wolf, solo-carry mentality, fighter/tanks are one of the best archetypes to run with. They often do crazy damage in full-tank builds too, so it's not like full tank means no damage. That's more true in turn-based games where you don't have the survival tools of range and speed to balance a game around. In LoL, tankyness is often one of many tools to survive long enough to get a job done, resulting in tanky DPS champions like Nasus to stay pretty even with mega-ranged champions like Ziggs or incredibly mobile champions like Zed in terms of damage inflicted.

Also - I've had really good experiences with fullfilling supportive rolls in Bronze, and actually shot out of their pretty fast when I decided to use Leona rather than trying to carry my team with the damages.

If you're running into a full late-game, no support, all kill-based, lone-wolf team as a tanky CC champion, you can defeat them pretty easily, exploiting them early, exploiting their lack of support, exploiting their poor formation choices, exploiting their lack of initiation. You get a massive strategic edge with a tanky CC champion more often than not, it's all about using it effectively. Which can mean being pretty chatty, especially in champ select to get communication flowing.

In either case - it's more about your own mentality.