Boards›Gameplay

Why tanks are a dying breed and why Riot needs to be careful not to let them slip into obscurity.

TheThomTanksWell·8/24/2016, 12:54:47 AM·4 votes·1,128 views

We have now seen Juggernaut(fighter/bruisers) updates, Marksmen updates, and Mage updates. Next is Assassins. Where is the tank update/balance rework? I have been playing this game for over 4 years and have been a tank main since the start. Let me tell you the true tanks, the ones who meet riots criteria of: peel, survivablilty, and initiation, are dying out. Why pick Maokai top when yo can trash him with any off-tank fighter? Why play Amumu or Sejuani jungle when you can clear faster and gank better as a lot of off-tank fighters? The trend I have been seeing, and not so subtle about pointing out here, is that fighters, or off-tanks or bruisers or whatever you want to call them, have been outshining tanks for a while now. I mean sure a well timed amumu ult will snare the enemy team and open up opportunities for yours, but why not just stun them with Ekko's aoe STUN instead and pick up a few of the kills for yourself so you can brag about having more kills than deaths?

When I look back to when I started playing tanks had pretty much one job: take a beating so no one else has to. But how many of us witnessed that Darius who 1v3's and wins? I just had a game where I was top as Kled vs. an Illaoi , and while I will be the first to admit I had never played kled I do know what is what in top lane as a whole. But when our jungling Yi comes top and she calmly 1v2's us at level 4 and walks away, I was dumbfounded. Not since the days of pre-nerf Maokai has a champ done that. Yet Maokai got nerfed into the dirt. Illaoi is still consistently winning every top lane I see her in. What is the difference? Illaoi Is a "fighter" so she is supposed to be a mix of tank and damage. So while Mao is forced to grow through the cracks in the roadside Illaoi is a murder train with no brakes. So if she has the survivability of a tank and the damage of a Tryn(used to be a melee carry but was lumped with off-tanks in the fighter category), why play Mao or Galio or any tank top when she can do pretty much anything except peel.

Which is a good segue into my next issue: movespeed. Go ahead and open your browser to the Riot site with champs(not a third party site since they rate champs like mundo as tank) and look through their base movespeeds. Now that you have done that look for tank items that increase move speed. Did you find it... That is right 1 item for tanks(more often bruisers) that increases movespeed and it goes away the second you AA someone. How does one peel when the whole team fight moves faster than you do? Someone gave me some advice that is sort of good, but not really: movespeed quints, Boots of swiftness and the masteries that increase movement. The problem with that advice? First: the masteries only work in the river/bushes(explorer) which you give up early game survivability if you are jungling or supp(I know 2 damage does not seem like much but it adds up over those harasses), and out of combat movespeed(Wanderer) which is negated the first time someone clips you with poke or harass. As for the Quints? I use all 3 quints as movespeed on 90% of my tanks and still cannot keep up with anyone else. Lastly Boots of Swiftness means I lose tenacity. Do not get me wrong as a tank I would rather them hit me with cc than my team, but as a solo queue player I cannot rely on my team taking advantage of them blowing all their cc on me. I need to know that I can reduce the amount of time I am cc'ed so I can escape when my team mates inevitably lose nerve when I take it and run. So I trade things that make me a better tank just to accommodate scrubs who cannot wait for my initiate? Hardly seems fair.

As I wind down here a bit I just want to ask everyone's opinion, but mostly other tank mains. Because I find myself either playing fighters instead of tanks or building tanks more like carries or assassins to stay a threat. All these new items for mages, marksmen, and bruisers, but not a lot of love for these great beasts. As I see it there is still a tiny niche for us in bot lane as supports, but then it is that much more difficult to stay relevant into the late game with no farm. And I do realize if there were good tank items they would just be abused by fighter ::cough::Deadman's Plate::cough::, but that does not mean tanks should get neglected. I mean we used to have a mastery that gave bonus gold on assists, what happened to that? There are support only items(effectively), so why not make some items that have little appeal to bruisers but much to tanks. Perhaps an item that builds out of Kindle Gem for some cdr and something else for some movespeed, but then have it grant bonuses based on assists? So what if supports by it, they need the help to? But with no real appeal to bruisers(no damage or anything substantial) but would be a HUGE help in keeping tanks relevant. I might just be a grumpy person but I feel tanks(while i have heard people say this is a "tank meta" what they really mean is "tankY meta" or brusier meta since I see very few actual tanks out there these days) are becoming obsolete. I see this as a bad thing because people are already saying "I'll Tank" then lock in as garen who has no peel. Or Chogath who has no initiate. I am just trying to raise awareness of the tank discrimination going on not only among us summoners but at riot games as well.

16 Comments

PermabannedGaren8/24/2016, 1:00:43 AM5 votes

I stopped reading when it became clear to me that you're ignorant of the fact that Maokai was one of the top three best top laners in the entire game like four patches ago. I continued reading despite my better judgment only to be even more flabbergasted at your ignorance that Sejuani and Amumu are great junglers right now, and have been rocking 53% win rates for a while now.

Please just stop posting. You're fucking bronze four with a negative win rate. You don't have any grasp of what is or isn't strong, and no you're not stuck in bronze because you play tanks and tanks are weak. Amumu is the second highest win rate champion in bronze in NA.

Tanks aren't bad, Riot isn't discriminating against tanks (they just buffed fucking Malphite), and you should be ashamed of yourself.

Handy Sandy 8/24/2016, 1:00:13 AM4 votes

I barely see tanks anymore..I really want them back. It makes positioning if you're a mage or an adc really difficult because nobody intiates. Can't do much with some 3.5k health darius, I'm talking about a 6k health Volibear or something like that..

Apocalypsic8/24/2016, 2:16:25 AM2 votes

Every time I see a Zac single handed my carry games, it will remind me how wrong you are.

Just because it's not required to have two or three tanks on teams to win anymore does not mean they are irrelevant.

TheThomTanksWell9/3/2016, 9:54:46 PM2 votes

For those of you here to not just simply state that my opinion(although there are facts to back it up) is wrong and then give arguments that prove my point:

Let us discuss things that could be potentially helpful. Itemization is hard as is proven by Deadman's Plate, since it got nerfed shortly after its release because of fighters abusing it, or Titanic Hydra, since lets face it few real tanks are ad already and most are not really Autoattack based champs. Sunfire is great, but it is already done and does not stack with its tank jungle counterpart. I think that the tank mastery tree needs to be looked at. It is pretty good, but giving tanks extra bonus armor and mr just makes them harded to kill. It does not help with much else. The tenacity is perfect since Mobi and Swiftness boots are pretty much standard these days. But giving us hp regen that gets better when below 1/2 hp, not so much. It sounds good but is based on base hp, it does not just give flat hp regen which I understand why they switched over(being as giving 50 hp/5 was much more relevant on low base hp regen'ers than on tanks. Also, while everyone wants to survive, tanks are designed to take the damage for the team. Below 1/2 hp is about the time we have to kick it into do or die mode. Not run like a squishy, because half our hp is just about a squishy's normal hp. I think that with some masteries that grant bonus gold on assists and possibly something that gives movespeed when moving toward enemy champs(not much, just a little to help keeps us between our team and danger.) I do not know honestly. I am sure Riot will eventually think of something(even if it means that all the tanks get slowly reworked on a single champ timeline) given time. I just think that since MOBAS did not start with heroes/champs/whatever designed as tanks, that was something League did differently than Hereoes of Newerth, that they would keep them relevant instead of letting them become more and more obscure. In the mean time we will just have to make do and try harder to do a job that an other class does just as well if not better.

TTK Dreadnought8/24/2016, 4:15:09 AM1 votes

I just had a game where I was top as Kled vs. an Illaoi , and while I will be the first to admit I had never played kled I do know what is what in top lane as a whole. But when our jungling Yi comes top and she calmly 1v2's us at level 4 and walks away, I was dumbfounded.

Yea i dont understand how people dont expect her to be strong pre-6. While is nots guaranteed that either side would get a kill, she can still deal enough damage to at least make you think twice and everyone backs off. But If you didnt have ignite but continued to fight her around tentacles then i will say you deserved it. Kled is actually VERY annoying to play against as an illaoi because while he doesnt have sustain, his damage and natural tankiness (and skaarls potential return) is very good. If you or Yi had ignite, then you should of won that fight.

TANKS aren't horrible at all. Its just hard for tanks to lane against fighters, bruisers, mages, ranged champs and juggernauts (unless you're gnar...) because your melee and they out damage you in a 1v1 early game or they constantly poke you until you fall behind. Gnar is the ANNOYING exception. Its often just safer to play a pure tank as support or jungle where you can still apply your CC in the form of ganks and where you arent required to deal massive damage, but supply just enough to help.

Calabok9/3/2016, 9:32:02 PM1 votes

Tanks are not dying. stop whining.