Why is the tank meta something people want?

Colgate Minuette·Apr 27, 2016·2 votes·1,096 views

I'm not going to bother complaining about it because someones going to say the necessary "oh yea cause assassin meta was so much better"

But I am going to ask "why is the tank meta something people want"

Why can't we have something like:

Mage meta Assassin meta ADC meta Jungle bruiser meta

Anything but "please let my team have 4 tanks or else we lose because the enemy has 3"

Oh hey I guess that counts as complaining... Oh well. Whal I'm doing that can I mention that I've had 12 friends quit league in the past 2 months every single one of which has said they quit because of the tank meta? I'd much rather get deleted in .2 seconds if I screw up then struggle to keep my carry alive for 4 years because tahm kench refuses to die and thinks its funny to do more damage in one ability then cait does in 2 auto attacks.

12 Comments

LiveYiOrDieHardApr 27, 20164 votes

It has been an ADC meta for the past 6 years.

You guys just call it "assassin meta" or "tank meta" or w/e at the time has the best chance of fighting back against the ADC overlords.

Sniper 0Apr 27, 20162 votes

It's less of a tank meta and more of a meta golem meta. Even with the nerfs to IBG the 20% cdr is still very overbearing with a lot of champion kits. The item does not cost nearly enough to justify everything it has.

Maximum MordeApr 27, 20162 votes

Probably because it's more fun to have actions, counter actions, and the ability to actually play the game instead of Assassin/ADC meta where you instantly die or just get lol right clicked from 600 range.

IlliadApr 27, 20161 votes

I've never been more pleased then when my team can just walk over another team, their turrets, their baron, their nexus, at 6k health each

Colgate MinuetteApr 27, 20162 votes

[{quoted}](name=Tetsu Juan,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=aBvQnnbi,comment-id=0000,timestamp=2016-04-27T17:55:41.057+0000)

I've never been more pleased then when my team can just walk over another team, their turrets, their baron, their nexus, at 6k health each

I'm perfectly okay with tanks. But I'm not perfectly okay with tanks doing damage without building damage. You should not be able to 1v1 an adc without having at least 1-2 damage items.

LiveYiOrDieHardApr 27, 20164 votes

[{quoted}](name=Colgate Minuette,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=aBvQnnbi,comment-id=00000000,timestamp=2016-04-27T18:01:07.475+0000)

I'm perfectly okay with tanks. But I'm not perfectly okay with tanks doing damage without building damage. You should not be able to 1v1 an adc without having at least 1-2 damage items.

ADCs are teamfighting gods, farming gods, and sieging gods... And yet for some reason you people still think those same ADCs should also outduel solo laners.

PhantomGGApr 27, 20161 votes

To be rather blunt

Tanks take less skill

The majority of the people who play this game have no skill

Thus rather flame what does take skill for they refuse to understand it, and beg for a meta that they understand. Which is Hur dur sejuani press w and it's ok if I miss my ult for the rest of my toolkit is amazing.

RalanrApr 27, 20162 votes

{quoted}

To be rather blunt

~~Tanks take less skill~~ Different set of skills

The majority of the people who play this game have no skill

Thus rather flame what does take skill for they refuse to understand it, and beg for a meta that they understand. Which is Hur dur sejuani press w and it's ok if I miss my ult for the rest of my toolkit is amazing.

Anivia and Zed are two difficult champions for different reasons. They have different skill paths rather than skill levels.

Sure there are easy tanks ( Malphite Amumu ) but there are also easy assassins ( Katarina MasterYi ). Now before people butcher me for calling or easy, they have low skill floors despite having relatively high skill ceilings. It's not really that hard to kill at least one target with them, which is their job (hell I don't play Fizz much, but even if I'm doing poorly I can still kill one person). Assassins and tanks have different skill sets that some people have an easier time picking up over others.

One example is kiting. Some champions are built around the ability to kit, and some players find themselves picking these champions rather easily because they are more inclined to kiting. Then we have positioning, resource management, aggro, lockdown, knowing when to engage, knowing who to save, etc.

I get that we all hate certain types of champions and claim they are unfair or take less skill than us to preserve some sense of pride. I get that, it's basic human nature.

As for why people enjoy tankier metas over assassin metas? I think it relates to why I prefer to start games being as durable as possible: It better allows us to learn from failure.

In an assassin meta, you die really quickly. Sometimes too fast for you to realize you died. Now all deaths are learnable, but to die so quickly over and over again, and to have the enemy taunt you with, "Scrub! Noob. Git Gud" just makes people more frustrated.

So turn off all chat, simple right? People aren't as simple as we'd all like.

Now in a tank meta, people have a better chance to survive long enough to escape with their lives and hopefully learn something. Course this can be taken to the extreme and people learn nothing, diving headfirst and complaining when they die because they, "built tanky".

A full tank meta is stupid, but it feels more fun for some people than dying to Zed in mid and getting mocked because of it (sorry Zed mains, I know you all don't spam the laugh). People actually get to feel like they can try. It's not a high noon quick draw that leads to the guy with the best connection winning.

These are my thoughts at least. I don't like assassins, but I don't consider them unskilled. I play tanks, so you can take my bias and shove it down my throat. I just hope that you don't feel the need too after reading this.

ZeeWolfZApr 27, 20161 votes

The problem is that Riot has many new ideas that they are shoving into a new season without thoroughly testing them. So far we've seen countless of changes and late balancing. Everything on PBE goes life.

The reason Tanks dominate is because nearly each tank Item only costs 2,700 with 500+ HP bonusses and massive dominant passives. While ADC's/Bruisesrs/Mages have to pay 3400-3700 for each item. GG RITO.

OurLestradeApr 27, 20161 votes

The assassin meta was the most boring thing I've ever gone through. It was just grey screens while all the Zeds, Lee Sins and LeBlancs made their dubstep montages and rubbed one off because they were oneshotting squishies and felt like they were the best players ever.

venomous frostApr 27, 20161 votes

because everything that is worth taking down in this game, requires tanks to do.

want to kill drake? need a tank want to towerdive and not stall games for 60 minutes? get a tank that tanks turret want to baron? get a tank want to engage a fight without dying instantly without gimmicky skills? get a tank

This game revolves around tanks because its designed that way. there is no such thing as tank meta, tanks will always be needed regardless of the current meta.

Colgate MinuetteApr 27, 20161 votes

[{quoted}](name=venomous frost,realm=EUW,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=aBvQnnbi,comment-id=0006,timestamp=2016-04-27T18:09:46.958+0000)

because everything that is worth taking down in this game, requires tanks to do.

want to kill drake? need a tank

No you don't? I can solo drag with jungle twitch lol let alone taking it with maybe an ADC and a fiddlesticks.

want to towerdive and not stall games for 60 minutes? get a tank that tanks turret

Or swap tower aggro between players? (btw you can turret dive with only one tank on the team you don't need 3 tanks jungle top and support)

want to baron? get a tank

This I kinda agree with except for high lifesteal champions. But those aren't always in game so. But my point still stands you only need one tank to do that.