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An item to make tanks viable again

The Paulrus·1/8/2015, 9:14:08 PM·2 votes·415 views

So we all know that full-on tanks are nearly impossible to play in the current meta. You just get chunked down by items like item 3135 and item 3035 and item 3153 and to a lesser extent, item 3151 in a teamfight before you even know what hit you. So how do we come up with items that prevents tanks from being burst to death before they even know what happened without making Brusiers too ridiculously overpowered. I've got what I think would be a good idea. Bear with me as this is a fairly long and detailed post.

Emblem of Valor Build: Giant's Belt + Chain Vest + Negatron Cloak+ Crystalline Bracer+ 600 gold (total cost 3800 gold - an item 3031 level item for Tanks) +600 Health +50 Armor +50 MR +50% Base Health Regen

Unique Passive: This item grants 7(+1 per 400 bonus health, +1 per 50 bonus Armor)% increase to Armor and (+1 per 400 bonus health, +1 per 50 bonus MR)% increase to MR.

**What this item does:**This item has a similar cost to item 3031 and item 3104 and will be just as critical to tanks as those are to ADCs. It rewards building bonus health, armor, and MR with more of each while making it cost prohibitive and less beneficial to bruisers who may get 1 or 2 tanky items

Let's look at a current bruiser versus a current tank, both with fairly reasonable builds.

Darius vs.Rammus

Darius Build: item 3074 item 3047 with an enchant item 3143 item 3078 item 3156 and Emblem of Valor

Total Cost: 18328 gold Totals: Bonus Health: 1350 Bonus Armor: 145 and (+13.275% MR) Bonus MR: 90 and (+5.175% MR)

Level 18 Totals Total Health:3513.2 Total Armor: 265.52 (reduces physical damage by 73%)(42.1% reduction against item 3035) Total MR:150.82 (reduces magic damage by 60.1%)(49.5% reduction against item 3135)

Rammus Build : item 3083 item 3047 with an enchant item 3075 item 3102 item 3068 and Emblem of Valor

Total Cost :15225 gold Bonus Health: 2300 Bonus Armor: 220 and (+17.15% Armor) Bonus MR: 95 and (+14.65% MR)

Level 18 Totals Total Health:4326.5 Total Armor: 370.194 (reduces physical damage by 78.7%)(70.6% reduction against item 3035) Total MR: 170.14(reduces magic damage by 63.0%)(52.5% reduction against item 3135)

So, this reduces the item 3035/ item 3135 dilemmas for the most part for real tanks, reducing their effectiveness by a little under half (in this example).

Due to the fact that high damage items like item 3031 item 3089 item 3072 item 3074 are all fairly high in cost, (3800,3300,3500,3300 respectively), the gold required to build this for bruisers would be fairly build damaging for only a moderate return. For instance, Darius's final item, likely a item 3035 or a item 3026 costs, at best, 1000 less gold than this item. While Rammus pays a similar premium for this item, he gains about 30% more Armor than Darius did almost triple the bonus MR.

A tank, has lower cost items, the biggest of which is frozen mallet @ 3300 and is only used on some builds. On this build, the highest cost item, other than Emblem of Valor, would be Banshee's Veil at 2750. Part of the lower gold totals is due to tanks getting lower numbers of kills and therefore less gold. This would likely be a high cost, high value option for tanks looking to be more beefy.

Thoughts/Feedback?

3 Comments

Lord Dusteon1/8/2015, 9:22:50 PM1 votes

No. You give an item that literally gives defense, a REACTIONARY purchase, a 100% need every game item. This item gives literally everything a tank could ever want, and unless they really want a unique passive makes the best tank build change from building based on the enemy's comp (wow, they have a lot of AD autoattacks, I probably want a thornmail or frozen heart, or wow, they have a lot of powerful combo starting spells, I should get banshee's instead of spirit visage) to building 5 of these and boots (maybe skip the boots lategame for another one). At no point should there ALWAYS be a 100% best tank item no matter the enemy team.

The Paulrus1/8/2015, 9:52:59 PM1 votes

The whole point of the tank is to be able to absorb damage, no matter what the source is. This enhances that ability at a premium cost. And there is no way you can honestly tell me that a tank will not purchase Warmog's every single game and it is always a 100% best tank item. Why? Because it's an item that serves a purpose for literally every tank, no matter if their opponents are AD or AP. This item is in that same realm.

While defense is, to an extent, a reactionary purchase, this is certainly only slightly true for tanks. The minute you see their teamcomp, you know what you're going to be building. This item enhances the value of whatever other purchases you choose to make. Tanks lack an item like this, while AD champions have LW and IE and AP champs have Void Staff/Rabadon's. Your enemy has a lot of AP and you want to build MR? This helps with that. They've got a lot of AD and you're going to stack armor? Yep. Check. They have true damage so you need to build health? Check to that too. They've got a hybrid team? Well this increases the efficiency of all the other items you bought to block all the other sources.

If anything, this enhances the value of purchases made as a reaction to a team's comp. If you'd normally buy Visage over Frozen Heart, but their team is largely AD, that bonus you get from that extra Armor might be enough to make you forego the health/MR/passive to build more to the enemy's strength.

It also discourages enemies from choosing unbalanced comps. If you want to go all AD, have fun getting armor stacked and not being able to get very far with it.

Vesarixx1/8/2015, 9:55:31 PM1 votes

Riot put out a statement a while ago that they wouldn't release an item that had health, MR and AR all on the same item, think it was when they were remaking locket.

I had an alternative solution though http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/gameplay-balance/p0bnA43G-all-hail-leviathan-or-how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-the-botrk?show=nested