Why are people complaining about Tanks?

Seriously. (Talking about Pure Tanks) Nautilus, Zac, Malphite and Maokai (especially Maokai for some reason) are REALLY hated by the community. They are unkillable and deal tons of damage but can do well even from behind.

I don't get it though. Tanks are supposed to engage fights before everyone else and they have to be a threat so players will get in trouble for ignoring them.

Riot knows this and generally puts a large ammount of CC on tanks (I love Nautilus just for this <3), situational Mobility (Maokai's W, Nautilus' Q, Malphite's R is too good to be used just for mobility) and high base damages so they don't have to deal as much damage to deal damage.

I love playing Nautilus top and I usually build Rod of Ages into full tank. I deal as much damage to champions as my carries, peel better than the support and generally last much longer than anyone else.

Yes, I am describing the incredible strengths of Tanks and wondering why people hate them, but Tanks DO have their weaknesses.

I'll talk about Nautilus' weaknesses here because he is the tank I play the most. Nautilus' biggest strengths are his amount of crowd control and his durability via his W. His weaknesses are his extremely long cooldowns and his mobility. This can be abused by dodging his Q and even if he lands it, a champion with displacement can work great against him. His cooldowns are a problem for him in fights. If he gets ignored with his W up then yes, he is a huge threat but a good team will temporarily pop his W off to make sure he deals no damage untill his 3 basic abilities come off cooldown.

Another common pick, Malphite has huge weaknesses too. In my opinion, he has the BEST ultimate in the game (it combines heavy AOE CC with great amounts of mobility and damage. It even surpasses Command: Shockwave IMO). After he is ulted however, unless you really are an all AD team (which you shouldn't be) the rest of his kit is not that great. His E can be annoying if you are an AD Carry, but just move out of the way. What is he going to do, Q you? Oh no, what a nightmare. It is not like almost every ADC has some mobility steroid.

Also, in my experience of playing Bruisers/Juggernauts (Garen and Darius are especially great against tanks, especailly after Garen's buff) they counter Tanks heavily because they are generally really tanky and can deal as much if not more damage. In a teamfight, they might not really focus the Tank(s) but ask them too. It can work. Also, Tanks counter Tanks. Malphite ults Lucian? Maokai W's on top of him and Lucian gets back. Malphite W's Ahri? Good luck against Nautilus' Q. Now, Nautilus doesn't have his Q to displace an Assassin or close the gap between him and the enemy ADC or APC. Nautilus won't let anyone get close to his carries with his hook? Well, let's show him Zac's long range leap and see if he changes his mind.

Yes, an assassin can't kill a tank. Yes, most AD Carries will die 1v1 to a serious tank if they get caught (except for Vayne, but being anti-tank is her thing). But they are TANKS. It is hard enough when your team has 1 tank and not even a bruiser to stay frontline along with the Tank. Even though they are Tanks, if they engage and their team doesn't follow as fast as they should, they will die fast. When I Tank my team expects me to:

-Remain a threat (dealing good amounts of damage)

• CC the right target at the right time

• Peel for the carries

• Tank the enemy's damage

I may sound overly dramatic, maybe I am, but I just wanted to get this off my chest.

TL;DR: Don't hate Tanks. They are (along with the support if they are not the support) the unsung heroes of League of Legends. Counter Tanks with either displacements, Tanks or Bruisers.

Thanks for reading.