With exception for 
, who is too strong. Real tanks
in my opinion are the healthiest designs in the game at this time.
Right now they can do their job without dealing overloaded amounts of damage. If behind they still offer utility, if ahead they do some damage but not too much. They die but not too fast. And unlike Divers 
they do not have an unfair amount of pressure on the map.
How does the community feel?
trash sion44 votesI'd have to agree. I mean, tanks aren't balanced, but I'd say they're the least "un-balanced" lol. Sure, people complain about tanks having too much damage for how hard they are to kill, but I think that people forget that on equal gold footing, a tank should be able to duel a melee carry or ADC. The only difference is that a tank invested in staying alive longer to deal their damage, while a carry invests gold in damage upfront. So while a melee carry will kill a tank more easily than another tank, the tank should still be able to kill the melee carry through base damages and surviving damage to do so.
Tanks get a lot of shit, but so do assassins, mages, divers, and ADCs at any point in time. Assassins are way more oppressive when strong because of lack of counterplay when being oneshotted, ADCs are awful when strong because of their ability to 1v5, divers suck when strong because of their ability to oneshot carries AND tank damage, and mages are pretty bad when strong because they can poke safely from range for free. All tanks do are sit in your face, and maybe take out one of your allies before they have to sit on CDs for awhile.
Penns6 votesSo assassins lack counterplay, but tanks, that get basically unkillable if fed, still killing carries in 1 rotation has counterplay? o
Ralanr36 votesThat Nautilus took more than just one rotation and the Draven was behind.
Penns2 votesIts not just about that clip tho and Naut has relatively "low" damage because he is overloaded with easy to hit cc.. at least thats how it should be. Id still argue a squishy assassin with skillshots that, btw, also has to "sit on CDs for a while", has more counterplay than a fed 4k hp 250 armor tank.
Ralanr38 votesDepends on the situation really. We have champions whose basic counterplay is "don't 1v1" for Christ sake.
Knoyle2 votes
Arya Riven4 votesRiven is fairly easy to 1v1 if she isn't fed. But you must either have CC or tankinesd vs her. She wins against most squishies with no CC. :)
You forgot a few though.
Trynd, Shyvana, Udyr, Irelia and Fiora are also great duelists :)
PermabannedGaren8 votesDepends on the situation really. We have champions whose basic counterplay is "don't 1v1" for Christ sake.
And then for those champions whose basic counterplay to them is "don't 1v1", their basic counterplay to the fatass tank you're playing is typically "don't team fight".
The truly powerful duelists in the game, like Tryndamere, Nasus, or Master Yi, are very bad in team fights. A good tank is considerably more useful. So one team has to try to out-rotate and split to victory, and the other team wants to force team fights. This makes the game interesting.
woodvsmurph3 votesPerfectly summarized.
bbQsauçe25 votes[deleted]
Papa Andrei2 votesLike what do you do with 400 armor rammus with 3k health vs riven with bc and LDR?
LordGeovanni5 voteswait for your mage to blow them up because he has no magic resist and has armor on every item to even get near that
Cocho18 votesUnpopular opinion that people aren't going to like.
I hate tanks.
Their kits are very simple. On top of that, in any game, having more health allows you to make more mistakes.
Half the time I don't see the player behind a tank champion, its just the champ themselves. More so for
There was one way to play that fight, and you played it that way, You either won or loss, good job.
Ralanr3 votesYeah, we can take more punishment than others and that allows us to make a few more mistakes.
And tanks normally don't have great skill ceilings or high skill floors. The only one I can think of with a good ceiling is Sion. Hopefully a vanguard update can help with this.
Fondling Gems2 votesI would say there are a number of tanks with good skill ceilings.
Zac, Tahm, Sion for pure tanks.
If we want to include champions under the tank listing we can add Cho, Gnar, Illaoi, Kled, Singed, and Yorick.
I would add in Taric too but he isn't a tank. Like seriously though he is a support/fighter.
There are a couple I would venture to put on the list because general skill with them can increase a lot but I feel like they could be pushed further such as J4 and Naut. (Naut's ceiling actually got lowered due to the aa cancel update because it broke how quickly he could cancel his first passive hit, which net lost him about 3/4th of a auto per passive attack.)
Edit: SteelMankind has a good discussion going in response about class specifics with the new subclasses. If you have the time and are interested read that conversation then re-read this in light of that.
SteelMankind1 voteshttp://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/developer-corner/3A5uuBw7-champion-subclass-list
Cho and Singed aren't tanks (listed under "Unique playstyles") Illaoi and Yorick are juggernauts (subclass of fighter) Kled is a skirmisher (subclass of slayer)
Taric actually is a tank (warden, to be specific) J4 is a diver (subclass of fighter)
Fondling Gems1 votesTaric's listings are all over the place. The whole class mess is a big pile of confusion because there are all types of listings.
LoL at it's most basic core divides champions into Assassin, Fighter, Mage, Support, Tank, and Marksman.
From there we divide into all the millions of sub categories they use nowadays. Fundamentally though champions are given a primary and secondary role from that list. A lot of places are starting to add in other roles like enchanter, juggernaut, warden etc. At their core they are all based around the 6 basic classes.
Example being that all juggernauts are tanks with a mix of fighter. In fact I don't think there was a juggernaut pre-juggernaut term days that wasn't a fighter/tank or tank/fighter.
Since as far as I am aware we haven't gotten a complete list of all the champions by their subclasses I prefer to use their classes, since subclasses are ultimately based off their class.
As such Singed, Cho, Illaoi, Yorick, Kled, and J4 are either primary or secondary tanks.
For the new updates we don't actually have a good source on. As far as I can tell there is no official listing of what Taric is beyond that mix of enchanter/warden as listed in the article you posted.
Based on a basic google search for Taric https://s23.postimg.org/9bowawr6j/Taric2.png
He is listed as a Support Fighter. By the wiki is he a Controller fighter, by the article he is an Enchanter/Warden. So there is a lot of stuff pointing all over the place.
When you trace the sub-classes back to their roots, which you can only apply to Taric if you apply it to how I group all champions, Taric is a Support/Tank with a mix in of Fighter.
Since we don't have a comprehensive official list I use champion classes, not sub-classes, because sub-classes are just that, a break off of a class that still falls under that class. As such all the champions I listed are either secondary or primary Tanks with the possible exception of Cho and Singed due to them being part of the "Special" subclass. Since they used to be tanks pre-name shenanigans I still consider them either primary or secondary tanks when it comes to discussions related to class, because if we only group by sub-class and not class then there are 0 "Tanks" in LoL because they all fall into sub-categories.
SteelMankind2 votesWould agree with you that the class listings are all over the place, but the list I posted IS considered the Riot-official one. Admittedly, they haven't done a very good job of encouraging or supporting it, something which they may be looking into soon according to Riot Axes.
The list I posted also happens to be a complete (as of Taliyah) list of every champion by their subclass, so there's that.
Essentially what's going on is this: over the years, the community has scrapped together a loosely-defined class system. It works in general, but the lack of an offical, Riot-supported system causes some misrepresentation on occasion (such as Yasuo being colloquially called an assassin because mobile melee damage dealer, or saying Kayle is a mage because she builds AP). Bruiser in particular is a horrible term because it just means "tanky with damage" so people were applying it to any champion who built damage and survivability. Once that happens, it loses meaning, since class distinction is supposed to be around playstyle, not builds. Only recently has RIot actually created an official list, but they've done a terrible job at encouraging it. I guess that's from a lack of communication between the dev team and the client team, but hopefully they will do something to fix it soon.
Until then, you can either continue to use the old, vaguely defined terminology, or you could be like me and help spread the use of the newer, objectively-better terminology. You can read up on the terms here: http://na.leagueoflegends.com/en/news/game-updates/gameplay/dev-blog-classes-subclasses
EDIT: That Taric screencap you posted shows his pre-rework stats and abilities
Arya Riven22 votesTanks can take more of a beating but also don't have insane escapes.
Cosmic Warper4 votes[{quoted}](name=Arya Riven,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=IzvHMY7n,comment-id=000c0001,timestamp=2017-01-20T20:19:06.182+0000)
Tanks can take more of a beating but also don't have insane escapes.
Not even just escapes, they don't have any interesting mechanics really. Poppy and sion are probably the only ones ( sion ult, poppy w and ult). Every other tank is super straightforward and doesn't really have more than one or two skill combos
Ralanr2 votesTahm?
Arya Riven24 votesSimple champions are nice tho. Not everyone was meant to be Yasuo.
Snowman Arc10 votesExactly lol. I don't understand everyone's obssession in this game with high skill cap champions, as if it's (the only) measure of being good or not. I have a friend that is in Silver 3 maining Azir and he considers himself better than all S3 people, because he did it playing Azir and not some easy champion.My response is always the same; pick something you consider easy, like IDK Master Yi and climb higher.
I love Maokai. So simple, yet so effective, and having knowledge of laning mechanics and result into winning your lane and then snowballing your lead and carrying the team AS THE SIMPLE TANK.
NineTailedMystic4 votesBecause it's frustrating when someone has to put in 100% more effort to achieve the same effect. People hate Annie because of how simple, yet effective she is. Why play Ahri, Zed, Lux, or Veigar when you can just play Annie and achieve similar results with less effort?
Yet when you put 200% more effort, the high skillcap champs absolutely dominate when mastered which gives the feeling to simpler champs of "Why the fuck can Azir burst, DPS, escape, engage, etc etc, just because the player learned them?"
Snowman Arc10 votesHigh skill cap champions are mostly champions that give you more room to outplay and do fancy combos, which is why they are inherently harder to play. Annie is easy to play, because she does basic things; stun, damage and some defence amplification. That's it, she can't do anything else. Azir can actually do a lot more things, and the better you are mechanically, the better you are gonna do. If you are not up to par to play such champions to a high level, then don't play them. If you are gonna cry because an easier-to-play champion beat a harder-to-play champion, maybe it's not a difficult problem, but lack of skill. 2 hours ago, I played an Irelia game vs a jungler Yasuo, who was 13/3 in 15 minutes and I was 3/6 I believe. I still 1v1ed him with relative ease. The guy then cried "omg faceroll noob champ Irelia how you killed me?" Oh, maybe because you walked into a bush where I stunned you and then you didn't even block a single one of my ults with your wall.
Don't tilt because I play an easy champion. Become better at the game and outplay me, just like how I do to you. That's what I say to those people.
Even then, if you have trouble having success on hard champions, then why don't just play an easier champion to have more success?
Anags2 voteslol you think Sion ult and poppy w are the mechanical parts of their kits? Sion ult just takes a little getting use to stearing it and when to use it. Once you figure that out it is probably the easiest part of his kit other than his W. It's also the most fun.
And poppy w is her easiest skill to use or decide to use especially now that it procs CoC. It is point and click, very little mechanics required. You have to actually hit Q and ult.
If they had not skill requirement there wouldn't be any difference in tank players. And i assure you there is a big difference between a good tank player and a bad one.
MrHaZeYo2 votesUsing a Poppy Steadfast Presence (W) reactionally to stop Kha'Zix from jumping on your ADC is a mechanic.
Snowman Arc6 votesBut it's not a hard mechanic, it's more of a reaction-time mechanic, which is universal for all champions. Hard Poppy mechanics is getting correct angles for the wall stun, like Vayne, utilizing ulti properly and to some lesser extent, hitting both ends of your Q for maximum damage output.
SteelMankind1 votesMega-Gnar is pretty hard honestly. 4 skillshots if you count his jump + he has limited access to his tank stats. While Taric isn't hard per se, he's certainly not an easy champ.
MorgManBasher1 votesI dunno if gnar really counts as a tank though. He's more of a ranged bruiser or fight, don't you think with his damage?
SteelMankind3 votesAccording to Riot, Mega Gnar is a vanguard and Mini Gnar is a marksman. So yeah, Mega Gnar is a tank.
Lauchmelder2 votesInb4 people start building Hurricane, IE and BT on him because "mini gnar's a marksman".
A friend of mine did that, he was Mega Gnar for 3/4 of the game.
Hexs Fortune16 votesMaokai does alot of damage
Ravenous Howls7 votesMaokai does a lot of damage if he builds high end AP items. If he builds tank then not really. At most he will have ROA and maybe a abyssal scepter. If he builds full AP then you should be able to blow him up with little problem.
Edge of Daybreak16 votesI disagree. All of the classes have some huge outliers where some are just busted while others are painfully weak. I would never say a class is most healthy only that some members of it are closer to balanced than others.
Keira Helsh12 votesI think when discussing a topic like this, which is heavily related to Riot's decision to change the mid-season class update, there are a few things to consider.
To me, this seems like the priority should really be divers, unless everyone really wants another season of Vi, Hec, and Lee Sin in every single game and not be able to play champions like Aatrox or Evelynn.
Ralanr7 votesObviously the community doesn't agree.
Arya Riven11 votes-1... = the entire community. This is a discussion thread, why so salty?
edit: *0
Ralanr5 votesI expect more downvotes because much of this community (the forums I mean) seem to have a hate boner towards tanks because of Poppy, Vi, and Hecarim.
Tormentula3 votes[deleted]
Ralanr26 votesIf a tank in a solo lane has no kill pressure then they're basically asking to be bullied by everyone. Forcing them to farm under their tower always.
It's not fun.
The thing about late game tanks is that they can't tank effectively late game. The right pen items have been bought, cutting them down quickly. So tanks have strong early and mid games.
And flat pen has always been shit against tanks. I don't know how Dirk would have helped against Poppy.
Big Lincoln3 votesyeah, i guess it's fine when Sejuani, Nautilus, Maokai all became unkillable back in season 5 while topping damage charts. also all that targeted disabling and generous % damage
Sion is the only healthy tank
Arya Riven28 votesThis isn't season 5
Big Lincoln1 votesoh, they aren't game breaking overpowered now, i guess that means they're healthy xd
there's a reason riot keeps sejuani out of the spotlight. most tanks are just as outdated as old fighters are kit-wise
Arya Riven8 votesSejauni is out of the spotlight because diver junglers are so OP atm, otherwise she usually does average or better.
Attticus Finch22 votesSejuani has had a minimum 50% win-rate for almost two seasons, which is excellent.
And yes, the state of champions years ago has no bearing on the state of them now. Your argument is garbage.
Big Lincoln2 votesby that logic aatrox must be a healthy design too. I mean he isn't overpowered now; there's nothing wrong with his kit, then.
I guess Master Yi doesn't have any design flaws either, since he was only OP a year ago.
sejuani has not been minimum 50% btw, don't lie lmao
Arya Riven12 votesApples and Oranges. There is nothing inherently broken about Sejauni's design. The problem with Aatrox is that drain tanks who are even semi-tanky are toxic by default. Sejauni is a pretty standard tank, was nerfed, and is in a nice spot.
Big Lincoln2 voteshttp://lolalytics.com/champion/Sejuani/
use something that's actually up to date.
There is nothing inherently broken about Sejauni's design.
she's a tank with a terrible tank steroid and bad base stats for her class, and she gets damage for building defensively. that is a horrible, confused design and no doubt that riot will see to it that Sejuani is kept out of the position she got to in season 5 as a strong meta pick.
Arya Riven10 votesSomebody call the cops her win rate dropped 1% this patch putting her ever so slightly under!
Sejauni is out of the spotlight because diver junglers are so OP atm, otherwise she usually does average or better.
