How are tanks not going to be blind picks top?

Oakleaf Ranger··1 votes·893 views

Tanks are the default blind pick top for good reasons.

Almost anything top lane that isn't a tank has horrible match ups that make blind picking anything not a tank a huge risk and pain. Counter picking has become a huge problem in the top lane because of how unbearable playing as X champion/class into Y champion/class has become.

With tanks being the overall exception to this dilemma.

Tanks being able to itemize resistances and health from the start makes them extremely forgiving and safe unlike all the other classes. They have the cheapest items. They have little incentive to play aggressive or try to gain a lead. The difference in power between a tank with a lead and without it is so small that the risks of aggressive play are not worth it for tanks.

Buff tank top champions, raise the cost of their items, remove the armor from Sunfire Cape, and break the jungler's legs.

Figure it out from there then.

5 Comments

Critmaster Garen3 votes

tanks are the exception because they dont rely on winning lane.

for them its just enough to not fall too far behind, to still be useful later on. they often can just leave lane and give up a wave of minions for a roam play. if that play gets their carries ahead, it usually doesnt matter when they fall behind their opposing laner themselves.

like, a 5 man malphite ult will still have an impact, even when hes 30 cs and half an item behind.

i dont think thats really a problem though.

Oakleaf Ranger1 votes

Its not just that they are useful later on. Its that they also scale and become more impactful than any other class top lane.

DuskDaUmbreon1 votes

Yes. And their baseline usefulness isn't impacted by items.

Like he said: Malphite will usually out-scale most juggernauts and fighters in a teamfight, simply because his R gives a large base level of usefulness. Malphite is useful whether 5/0 or 0/5. Darius or other bruisers are only useful when ahead.

And that's fine. Darius will end up being far more impactful, even in late, when 5/0 than Malphite will be when 0/5. He'll do loads more damage and zone almost everyone away from him by virtue of existing (legit all he has to do at that point is exist near the ADC and he's the best support in-game when fed).

Malphite makes it a 5v5 regardless of his score. And that's fine, because it's balanced out by it being a 4v5 if Darius is behind or a 6v5 if he's ahead. Bruisers end up high-risk high-reward (At least at that tier: Bronze and Silver it's more like no-risk infinite reward, tbh), while tanks are very stable and safe picks.

Verxint1 votes

Another thing is that in low ranks people don't don't pick reliable beef/engage so being the team that does have it is a big advantage

Oakleaf Ranger1 votes

Let me first say I made this as a response after reading the lastest dev update.

Riot doesn't want top lane tanks to be default blind picks, assuming I understood that correctly. Which I definitely agree with which is why made this explaining why I think that currently is and how to fix it IMO.

So no tanks being safe or at least stable picks is not a good thing.

While I think tanks would be fine. The problem is that tanks also out scale all the other classes in a 1v1. Not just in team fighting.

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