@ chogath buffs
not to mention singed, shen, gragas, garen, zac, others
I thought the tradeoff for being hard to kill and in some cases getting lots of cc was that tanks had super low damage
yet most of them get %max hp damage in addition to respectable base damages
what's the point
There is no aggro in this game. That means there's no way for tanks to force people into attacking them. The only way for a tank to be attacked is if a players chooses to. If a tank does low enough damage to not be a threat, why would anyone ever choose to attack that tank?
Generally speaking, it's there to give them a modest amount of laning power. Otherwise they are too prone to being out laned by semi tanky Bruisers. (Also, if their was not %HP damage, Tank v. Tank would be complete and udder wet noodle fights) And generally, %HP was the best way to give them that level of laning power, because it allowed them to stand up against their fighter counterparts, without becoming oppressive against glass cannons.
That said, I don't especially consider Cho'gath, the best example of a tank to begin with. He only has one form of Strong CC, He lacks any significant defensive steroid, And all of his abilities do damage. To me, he fills the role more of a mage, who trades range for Defense, without trading damage.
I also wouldn't include Singed or Garen, in the tank role either. Garen is defined as a Juggernaut, who has Damage and Defense, but lacks CC. Singed is more of a special case, Even though he's tanky, he really doesn't fill the role of a Vanguard or Warden, So he shouldn't expect to itemize in the exact same manor as them.
Shen and Singed fall off hard in damage when you build MR. Not to mention their damage is less than it usually would against squishier targets. That damage is made to fight bulky front liners and soften them up.
Gragas and Zac are a bit crazy with their damage, but their skills are somewhat telegraphed.
Garen is a juggernaut. They are meant to deal hefty damage.
Because tanks should be able to deal some damage and % max hp means they deal more damage to other tanks. Why do we do it? Because tank vs tank matchups in top lane are the most boring farm fest ever to exist if they couldn't hurt each other.
well some of them are meant to do damage but I agree full tank CC bots shouldn't be damage threats
When OP is too dumb to realize that most of what he explained wasn't even tanks. There IS a difference between a tank and a tanky bruiser ya know. Perfect example is 
He is not a tank in the slightest and rarely wants to go in first, even if he is tanky and hard to kill, no he wants to go in when the fight is in chaos and murder everything.
Shen and Zac are the only real tanks on that list, with Zac even within his kit benefitting from more hp. But both are more than capable of killing the ADC easily if left alone. Gragas is as well but he generally from what I see still builds a couple AP items with his tankiness, but he still has the CC and disruption to be counted as a tank.
Gragas is a relic of old times. His rework was supposed to make him a disruptive damage threat bruiser. Made sense back then but with today's classification system and vision of what things are supposed to look like he doesn't fit (no pun intended). Dude needs mini rework of Udyr/Singed scale that instead of being problematic Tank that is either weak or dominates high tiers of play becomes a fully functional Fighter that he was always supposed to be.
So they can actually do any damage at all, because they aren't going to be building a penetration multiplier item
So they can actually fight in 1v1 match ups.
