A Tank OTP's Opinion on the Tank Itemization Update

Hey guys. So, the tank update has been out for a while and while I haven't been playing the game too much, when I have sat down and played I've been testing all kinds of different builds and I've come to a few conclusions about tank itemization. So, when Repetoir stated that he wants to do a follow up in 7.11, I hope he'll take some of these things into consideration.

Number One: Tanks Need to Build Too Many Stats Now This is mostly an older tank problem than a newer one, but older tanks already have enough crap to deal with without their itemization becoming problematic. Basically, the push to make tanks more reliant on building multiple health items AND at least one dual resistance item ( / ) leaves little room for anything else. Let's look at a typical tank build, shall we?

You need a jungle item, so that's . Then you need boots, easy. or . You also need Stoneplate or some equivalent. Then you need an MR item and an armor item, both of which need to give some amount of health to make up for boots/Stoneplate not giving health. / works for our example. That leaves one item slot left, and that would probably be best served as an additional dual resistance item slot like or the new .

The main problem I have is that tanks have become so dependent on multiple item scaling to reduce their one item power spike that now they are being punished for building a particular stat they've always needed: mana. have all had crippling mana problems for years because they are intended to be forced into building mana items like or (It had mana when many of these tanks were created).

An easy solution to something like this is to do the same thing Riot did when they made a jungling tank: give them some good base mana already! Gragas has FOUR HUNDRED mana at level 1, Nunu has 293! If you want us to stack armor, health and MR that's great, but we don't need to be stacking mana as well when mana does not appear on any item that gives at least two of the other (except , but do you really want every jungle/top tank building Banner of Command in every game? That active doesn't need to be so widespread, same as when Zz'rot was constantly built).

Number Two: There Needs to be a Floor for Sieging

A lot of people are saying that tanks aren't lasting in fights, but they're not entirely correct. Tanks are lasting through some fights, it's just that the fights that they outlast don't lead to anything productive or memorable because they have nothing to contribute outside team fights.

I am not saying that marksmen should become useless, that's not my point at all, but there needs to be a floor on how much damage a champion can deal to objectives so that if you win a fight you aren't left feeling like you can't do anything because the enemy team managed to kill your one damage dealer. Right now, tanks cripple their team by playing well but being unable to contribute to winning the game in ways that divers, juggernauts and assassins can.

My solution: Against towers and epic monsters, if your auto attacks would deal less than (some number deemed appropriate by Riot)/level, they deal that number instead. This would be far less than a champion who built AD or AP, but would be far greater than a champion who was relying solely on base AD like a support or a jungle tank (who are also suffering from lower XP values and therefore have less base stats to contribute as well).

Number Three: Courage of the Colossus Needs Some Oomph Back - Now that we've lost quite a bit of health per purchase of tank items (and we are being encouraged to build more resistance items that do not offer health on wardens and vanguards), Courage of the Colossus could use some better base shielding. Poaching is annoying, sure, but the high cooldown should make it less problematic in lane than it was on launch. A simple solution, if you really are concerned about it being abused in lane, is to simply make it unable to proc unless there are at least two enemy champions nearby (similar to the hard stance you took with Irelia's Ionian Fervor). Boom, now it's not nearly as much of an issue in top lane, and it doesn't pose as much of a threat in early ganks. It is defined as a team fighting mastery only, and it can be buffed safely.

Number Four: Randuin's Omen is Absolutely Terrible - Seriously, this item is bad. Bad, bad, bad, and I have no idea why you thought its release form was a good idea. It's nice that it keeps track of the damage that the passive prevented now, but it sets you so far behind for the cost that you won't buy it until later (and if you do you are going to get punished hard for spending 2600 gold on not-stats) and by the time you do buy it, the enemy carry has had plenty of time to pick up a anyway. 350 Health when we are buying at least two items that do not give any health ( ) is unacceptable.