It's not the support's job to tank.

LunarStrike·May 12, 2017·57 votes·3,934 views

So I join champ select, jg locks in yi, top locks in fiora. My turn comes to pick, My jungler and top laners ask me to tank & start flaming me once i picked sona. They dodged, good riddance. I'm so tired of people thinking it's the support's job to fill for the team, but top and jungle can play whatever they like. I have no problem with being adaptable, but if you're a top laner or a jungler that's whining for a tank, no one's stopping you from playing tank k?

85 Comments

SlythionMay 12, 201730 votes

it's everyone's job to fill the team

Sometimes it's better to place the tank as a support if it means fulfilling another one of your team's needs (if you counterpick top or need a threat like Yi in the jungle). It all depends on the situation, so I can't make the decision as to who should've tanked for your team without being there.

But you're essentially right, it's never one person's job to fulfill the team requirements in a team comp

IcyPepperMay 12, 20177 votes

Hey, look at the bright side: maybe you can't be the tank, but you can make everyone else a tank!

Taric Lulu Bard

It's not enough, but hey it's something~

Fondling GemsMay 12, 201731 votes

######But Taric is a Tank

Chromatic EagleMay 12, 20171 votes

Isn't he a warden?

Auz the RipperMay 12, 20171 votes

A warden is a type of tank mate

Chromatic EagleMay 12, 20171 votes

Thought he said he wasn't a tank.

IcyPepperMay 13, 20172 votes

I said the tank, not a tank. As in you (shouldn't) be the only frontliner as the support (gold income comes to mind). Taric's ult helps alleviate this to a degree for the obvious reasons.

o Recovery oMay 12, 201710 votes

No he's not, he's a fashion model. Reported.

Fondling GemsMay 12, 20175 votes

Hey man, someone has to be a fashion model for tanks, have you seen Garen's sense of fashion?

Voluug13May 12, 20171 votes

He can be both.

crippler38May 13, 20171 votes

that means he'll never die since the enemy won't ever kill him.

IcyPepperMay 13, 20171 votes

A tank, but not the tank because everyone gets to be a tank with him!

He's that goddamn fabulous.

SpecterVonBarenMay 12, 20174 votes

How does Bard make you a tank?

SkelenthMay 12, 20171 votes

Stones are hard and all the world knows Bard a makes you stoned

HalcyonDwellerMay 12, 20171 votes

Wut.

SlythionMay 13, 20171 votes

Bard is essentially the Bob Marley of LoL

IcyPepperMay 13, 20171 votes

Mostly a joke, but his ult is an aoe zhonyas. Timed right, you could avoid a potentially fatal rotation of the enemy, and part of tanking is mitigating damage... again, that logic has flaws but it was supposed to be a joke.

SpecterVonBarenMay 13, 20171 votes

Bard : I shall turn you all into GOLD! The most durable of all metals! Doot bwhooo!

LunarStrikeMay 12, 20173 votes

A top laner tank would still be much more efficient than a support tank who's barely even getting gold. just my 2 cents.

SlythionMay 13, 20171 votes

It all depends on the situation when it comes down to it

Sometimes you really need that counterpick in the top lane to make everyone's lives easier. A lane bully top can be more preferable to the team if it means keeping that enemy Nasus useless for the whole game

Gosh DarnMay 13, 20171 votes

Well I try to be flexible and fill in the gaps just because it makes our chances better, even though it's not fun being forced into a role, but support is the one role that can't just fix everything. Their gold income and base stats are way too low from having no CS and being several levels behind.

I'd be much more annoyed at a top lane last pick locking in Yasuo than a support last pick locking in Sona when our team needs bulk.

LenaroMay 12, 20177 votes

I refuse to play tank supports if I'm the only tank. Unless my lane gets a massive lead I won't scale effectively and it is very probable I will simply feed kills. Anyone who expects a support to effectively solo tank doesn't understand how gold starved they are. There are a handful of tank supports which can work solo; Taric and Alistair come to mind. However, the bulk of 'tank' supports will get chunked just as easily as mage counterparts.

PeepingPeafowlMay 12, 20174 votes

Exactly this it, is so stupid to expect a support to be a tank, let alone the only tank. Even if they have around the same gold as an actual solo lane tank they are still worse than a real tank, as an example I had a game where I was TahmKench support. Pretty tanky right?

Well hes what I had with 6,482 gold item 2303 item 1031 item 1001 item 3801

Hes what the enemy solo lane Gragas had with 6,666 gold (not kidding) item 2031 item 1028 item 3047 item 1056 item 3025 item 3211

I only had like 200 gold less than him and I was still not even close to how tanky he was

Not to mention the level difference that also makes him even more tanky than me.

Maybe my build sucks or whatever but at the end of the day, thinking that your support is gonna get anywhere close to what a real tank is gonna have is a joke.

Blade of JusticMay 12, 20171 votes

{quoted} I only had like 200 gold less than him and I was still not even close to how tanky he was

Not to mention the level difference that also makes him even more tanky than me.

Maybe my build sucks or whatever but at the end of the day, thinking that your support is gonna get anywhere close to what a real tank is gonna have is a joke.

To be fair, Gragas doesn't have the ability to double his potential health or eat a team member in order to protect them from damage, so... Swings and Roundabouts.

PeepingPeafowlMay 12, 20172 votes

Yes support tanks require abilitys to try and lower the diffrence between real tanks and them. TahmKench 's grey health Taric 's ult and bonus armor, sheilds and heals Alistar 's ult Braum 's shield Leona 's Armor and MR on W and so on and so forth

They also tend to give up damage that solo lane tanks have for ally centric abilitys

If I had been solo lane Tahm Kench I would be waayyyyy tankyer than I would have been as a support, which is what I'm getting at.

ErockandrollMay 12, 20172 votes

{quoted}

Exactly this it, is so stupid to expect a support to be a tank, let alone the only tank. Even if they have around the same gold as an actual solo lane tank they are still worse than a real tank, as an example I had a game where I was support. Pretty tanky right?

Well hes what I had with 6,482 gold

Hes what the enemy solo lane had with 6,666 gold (not kidding)

I only had like 200 gold less than him and I was still not even close to how tanky he was

Not to mention the level difference that also makes him even more tanky than me.

Maybe my build sucks or whatever but at the end of the day, thinking that your support is gonna get anywhere close to what a real tank is gonna have is a joke.

2300 + 800 + 650+ 300 = 4050

While supports should get some control wards, that's build leaves over 2k unacounted for, So I'm guessing you had all that in the bank.

1200 + 2700 + 1100 +400 +400 + 150 = 5950

in contrast, Gragas has less than 1k in the bank. (or spent on consumables) So He's probably getting in more backs, and buying more often.

Just adding those items up, you have nearly a 2K difference in permanent items. So even if the gold difference is only by 200, your stat line is significantly weaker. But that doesn't justify the support tanks disposition.

What does support that disposition, should be the gold difference in general. (Not being able to build as many stats) As well as the fact that you still have to build support items and fill the support's job. (Wards)

PeepingPeafowlMay 12, 20171 votes

I roamed alot that game and Gragas had Tp so that seems fair

but yes sightstone being a mandatory 800 gold that generally has to be built sometime in the early to mid game is a dampener on tankyness in addition to the loss of solo exp and CS. You also have to invest in your gold income item, although that one can come significantly later depending on how the game is going.

I don't really consider control wards to be a support expense, but you do tend to buy more of them as a support I suppose.

Glory ln DeathMay 12, 20171 votes

That doesn't explain your missing 2.4k gold, though... You could easily have completed that second item you were working on and either upgraded your boots or gotten at least one component for your next item.

You can't compare a champion with 4k gold in items to a champion with 6k gold in items, especially when they could easily have the same value of items.

PeepingPeafowlMay 12, 20171 votes

what? yes it does?

I just said I roamed alot and he had Tp, of course hes going to have spent more of his gold than I have, unless im misunderstanding you?

Glory ln DeathMay 13, 20171 votes

So... go back to base...

You probably needed to back anyways to restock on wards. Again, why are you comparing your builds at that point?

PeepingPeafowlMay 13, 20172 votes

game ended in a surrender at 23 so I didn't get the chance to back

I'm comparing builds to show how even with similar levels of income supports will still have less tanky of an itemization than a solo lane tank would due to the requirement of them building support items.

Glory ln DeathMay 13, 20171 votes

But the example is completely invalid. You had similar income, but you hadn't used anywhere near the same amount of your income. Yeah, if you had used that remaining 2.4k gold, you still probably would have had less tank stats, but not by nearly as much.

If you're going to compare two champions with similar income, compare them when they've actually used that income. It would be like saying Vayne gets way more from her income than Lucian and pointing to a game where both earned 10k gold, but Lucian never bought any items. They just aren't comparable with that argument.

PeepingPeafowlMay 13, 20171 votes

They lost a team fight, we took nexus towers and then they surrendered. I got a ton of gold right at the end I never had a chance to back with. I said this in the last post, with a link to the game.

Yeah, if you had used that remaining 2.4k gold, you still probably would have had less tank stats, but not by nearly as much.

so you would agree that a support tank is inferior to a solo lane tank in terms of tankyness then?

Glory ln DeathMay 13, 20171 votes

Yes, a support tank will almost always be less tanky than a top lane or jungle tank. But that doesn't take away from the fact that your example doesn't reflect this.

PeepingPeafowlMay 13, 20171 votes

Alright, well I'm sorry I picked a bad game to try and show that with. I disagree that it doesn't reflect my point about supports, but It helps no one to have confusing examples.

PhDs NutsMay 12, 20176 votes

To be fair, Sona was a terrible pick when the top and jg both didn't have any CC either.

DokkaebiMay 12, 20174 votes

But Yi is a tank? Oh wait I forgot people still build him crit in low elo.

SlythionMay 12, 20175 votes

even his better build is still bruiser at best, hardly a tank

He essentially becomes a Renekton on steroids with less health but much better dive/kill potential

Baron of BreadMay 12, 20172 votes

And in high elo if you bother to keep up with some of the high elo Yi players (Silencee and Cowsep off the top of my head still do crit some of the time).

They don't do it every game of course, but most people don't build the same items every game.

Billy VoHagenMay 13, 20174 votes

Both you and them are at fault.

CasterGilgameshMay 12, 20173 votes

it really isnt supports dont get gold to do so even tank supports cant really tank they just there to protect the carry

RookPusherMay 12, 20173 votes

The game doesn't reward tanks, nor do tanks have much chance of climbing out of low brackets. That's why top and jungle don't take tanks. I personally think they should, but after this recent "tank change" there's now less of an incentive to build tanky.

Riot should have made tanks less situational so that you wouldn't be screwed twice for playing one.

LuperCasperiMay 12, 20173 votes

Supports aren't efficient tanks without some backup muscle anyway, especially champs like Leona Thresh

ThwartinMaPlansMay 12, 20172 votes

Yea pretty much agree here. Stop crying for a fcking tank when you yourself could also play one.

Alex h8721May 12, 20172 votes

I will sometimes pick nautilus support if the team doesnt have a great amount of CC/engage, more-so for that than his tankyness, since im going to be building support items first rather than full tank.

Playing tank supports can really suck against a duo-ranged botlane, but once nautilus hits 6 the playmaking potential w/ his ult is big. Max W first for the shield strength and you can tank turrets during a dive and your CC/pick potential w/ dredge line and ult will be useful (potentially game winning) the entire game even if you don't become "the unkillable tank" w/ your lack of solo-lane gold.

TwitchInMyPantsMay 13, 20172 votes

Solo tank support is the worst thing in the world, especially without some followup/setup cc. What the hell is a Leona supposed to do as a main tank against a Sejuani or Naut? I'm pretty sure some lifestealers like Xin and Warwick get tankier than the budget supports are allowed.

Crokinole AceMay 12, 20171 votes

It's fine to have no tank, but your team should understand that the win condition is not going to be team fighting.

Getting your team to understand that and play like it is just as hard as getting TSM to play to the comps that they draft for themselves. Good Luck![slayer-jinx-wink]

ErockandrollMay 12, 20172 votes

{quoted}

It's fine to have no tank, but your team should understand that the win condition is not going to be team fighting.

Getting your team to understand that and play like it is just as hard as getting TSM to play to the comps that they draft for themselves. Good Luck![slayer-jinx-wink]

While the likes of Fiora and Yi bash on you for not picking a tank for a support, all in the name of COMP. I become curious on what their plan was for the comp, picking those skirmishers. Cause as far as I can tell, their are asking me to be their meat shield, while hogging all the glory.

The Fiora Pick up suggest split pushing, which isn't a teamfight oriented strat. So suggesting I should play a tank cause teamfight, is completely misguided. I rather play a support who can get the carries out of a pickle in the 3v3 or 4v4. (Which could be a warden, but also could be an enchanter.)

The Yi pick I think is even more questionable. Aside from the fact that you probably don't need 2 skirmishers on the same comp, I feel like Skirmishers make for pretty poor Junglers. You bring no CC to the gank, so you rely on your laners for Gank Assist. (Questionable if the top lane pick was Fiora) I might be convinced to play a pick support like Thresh or Blitz, but if they ignore my lane, I will regret that decision. And with my experience with Skirmisher Junglers, is their going to be power farming in the early game. And if they are going to power farm, I'd pick a support that is strong early, and can resist ganks.

Hexs FortuneMay 12, 20171 votes

Whos job is it to tank?

The jungle that needs dps for quick clears, objective securing and roaming?

The top who needs to be able to function as a split pusher?

AidenJacobsMay 13, 20172 votes

neither of those are required in a team comp. also the nighter amount of gold those roles get allow for the tank not to be squishy af because of a lack of items. Heck 9 times out of 10 i would prefer a naut top and a rammus jungle.