Guardian's Angel is a tank item. Doesn't this seem strange?

Great Ozymandius··79 votes·5,224 views

In previous seasons, GA was a survival item for squishies. An ADC would build it as his final item because the revive passive meant an assassin could pop you at the beginning of the fight but you could still come back to continue a 5v5 (for example). But a tank wouldn't want the revive passive. The tank could expect to be the last one to die in a team fight, where the revive passive isn't very useful. In past seasons, everyone would say "don't focus the tank." The tank wanted to be focused to keep the damage off of his carries. He would not want to build an item that discouraged him from being focused.

But now you can kill the tank in 1 or 2 seconds if your team focuses him, so why not? This is strange because the GA doesn't actually make you very tanky. Yes, the GA has decent resistances but it has no health. But that's kind of irrelevant this season. In this season, you will never last more than a few seconds as the front-line tank if you are being focused (unless your entire team is already snowballing); it doesn't matter how tanky you are building. Getting more health doesn't matter very much. But the revive passive helps with survival much more.

This just tells you how out-of-line damage is this season. Tanks are building the supreme anti-burst item and carries are not. In order to effectively tank you need to buy a revive passive because tank stats won't cut it.

141 Comments

Sukishoo19 votes

tank stats won't cut it.

Not really. I've never once built a GA for a tank. A lot of people forget that tanks stats are a mixture of Health, Armor and MR... they forget this because I see a lot of them build straight health and of course that is going to get them killed very fast cause they have no resistances to the damage that is incoming.

When you tank and build item 3083 you aren't helping yourself unless you have 3000+ health and are out of combat. Where as if you buy item 3742, item 3065 or item 3190 you will be much better off.

EndlessSorcerer28 votes

Warmog's Armor is actually pretty nice on tanks provided you survive the fight. Afterwards, you just heal up on your way to the next objective without having to back and it lets you protect your surviving allies much more safely.

Personally, I find that Guardian Angel works rather well with Warmog's Armor. I don't really bother with them until my last two items (if at all), but the ability to heal up between fights and to come back after engaging/diving are both rather useful when used properly.

agbudar9 votes

item 3047 item 2303 item 3190 item 3083 item 3026 item 3143 . there now you are tanky and have 20% cdr yay roughly 4k+ health 200+ armor and 150+ mr

you get 1 of the best shield actives in the game warmogs regenerates you which is GREAT for sieges you have a revive for when you screw up you take LITTLE damage from the adc.

Revali21 votes

item 3036 item 3153 item 3142

agbudar8 votes

i wasnt saying you won't die.

i was just saying... now it will take them 3 seconds to kill you and you revive ... YAY

doombotMECHA2 votes

{quoted}

i wasnt saying you won't die.

what. you are a GODDAMN TANK you do not simply DIE in TEAMFIGHTS people try to work their way around you to get to you backline, because you're a waste of time compared to the adc in the backline. WHAT HAS THIS GAME COME TO.

NineTailedMystic2 votes

Is that not 30% CDR? 10% from Equinox, 10% from Locket, and 10% from Warmogs?

agbudar4 votes

equinox doesn't have cdr thats face of the mountain

Great Ozymandius5 votes

Well, the GA is quite popular on the tanks in LCS games. For example, you saw it on gnar, rek'sai, and gragas in the last Cloud 9 vs. TSM game. You might argue that gnar, rek'sai, and gragas are not real tanks, or are vanguards, or something like that. But the point is that Gnar, Rek'Sai, and Gragas were playing the tank role for their respective teams. None of the carries built GA.

I'll repeat that I have no problems with GA; the item is fine. My complaint is with the state of balance that makes it optimal for tanks to pick up GA. The best teams have deduced that a revive passive is better than more pure tank stats.

ZT Xperimentor11 votes

Pretty much; not to mention riot gave all physical champions even more ways to counter tanks. On-top of marksmen already being able to out-tank actual tanks from lifesteal, which is excessively plentiful from the preseason patch.

ModAcademy Kayn1 votes

Define marksmen "Tanking"

chubs12244 votes

Generally that late game hypercarry with 2 life steal items and maw or steraks

Ralanr8 votes

What tanks are building GA?

RcGjWO640w4 votes

Heimertanker. item 3026item 3512item 3060item 3116item 3009item 3027 makes me wish cancer onto starving African children. Kappa.

TTK Dreadnought5 votes

I called him Tankerdinger. lol.

RcGjWO640w3 votes

Tinkerdonger

TTK Dreadnought21 votes

Gragas RekSai in NA LCS Finals last night as examples.

(TO OP) The thing is that, the tanks that do build them are "Vanguards". They Jump into the fight solo to take the burst (because Xv1 looks simple), then your team follows for the engage since the opponents team is on CD or distracted. If the Vanguard died, then GA activates meaning his engage shouldnt of lost much value if they win that engage

Meep Man13 votes

I wouldn't consider either Rek'sai or Gragas as a normal brand of Tank

TiiGz6 votes

They are though, Gragas Rek'sai both build pure tank except for a first item hydra for early ganks on Rek'sai. Tanks are front line, CC heavy champs and that's exactly what both Gragas and Rek'sai do.

The only reason these two are so OP right now is because the Meta has gone back to standard lanes, and with the importance of first tower blood it is important to have junglers who can pressure lanes early. Gragas has his flash body slam combo, with follow up slows while Rek'Sai can gank at unusual angles with his borrow ability also flash/knock up.

BIH Diamond4 votes

Theyre bruisers

notice me Sin pi5 votes

im pretty sure riot gutted their bruiser build in the process of nerfing them

TotalJerk2 votes

Rek'Sai basically just dives in and knocks up a priority target and is then a sitting duck, so I can understand it on her.

Keìron5 votes

I usually build guardian angel on juggernauts because after you revive in the middle of a fight, they're the only class that can survive thanks to their massive sustain.

GULAG 4 U4 votes

Well you shouldn't die in 1-2 seconds unless you're not fed and you jumped in 1v5 really.

CeexSett1 votes

Tell that to MunchCrunchLunch.

GULAG 4 U2 votes

You mean every single idiot out there thinking a jinx with a bt can soak up more damage than a Shen with shields everywhere?

CeexSett1 votes

Oh you also read that? Pretty fun :D

You, I like you.

GULAG 4 U1 votes

You, i like too. But hey, I pointed out how shen doesn't die to cc and they downvoted me :^}

CeexSett3 votes

If you dare to say Malphite lasts more than 2 seconds you can expect your post to be removed due to the amount of downvotes, so stating a tank is actually tanking is obviously going to get you downvoted as well. Shame on you.

GULAG 4 U1 votes

Yeah. Also saying yasuo has counterplay gets the same results, aren't the boards great?

CeexSett6 votes

At least it's easy to farm upvotes.

"I think Yasuo is super OP and is super toxic with infinite mobility and windwall and armor pen and no cd dashes and super mobility and he kills me a lot and never dies because he is broken."

I believe this atracts upvotes

GULAG 4 U5 votes

Exactly. It's getting stupid. In fact I don't bother arguing with people thinking his old poppy levels of broken, most of them are whiny people in silver or bronze like me. Oh and Dominick destine said he has built in sustain , and he got upvoted. Jesus.

CeexSett3 votes

We all know how that guy thinks people below diamond shouldnt be heard because they suck right?

GULAG 4 U3 votes

Oh yeah, and his daily posts about how he's not salty nor toxic...

CeexSett2 votes

Agreement intensifies

GULAG 4 U1 votes

But hey he says yasuo is faceroll, so at least we have the confirmation that he's boosted right?

CeexSett2 votes

He says bronze players should not have access to gaemplay Boards, so it's pretty much hopeless.

GULAG 4 U3 votes

But I believe he's actually bronze and not diamond .

Seenan4 votes

It's odd cause it hasn't changed other than being stronger on squishies now (30% max hp OR 700 hp).

Great Ozymandius11 votes

Exactly. GA became strong on tanks because game balance generally grew so out-of-whack.

Sire Hippington4 votes

this is why zhonyas is a very underated item on tanks these days. It's priceless how confused your opponents get if you turn golden as lee right after the insec that normaly would trade your life for the carrie.

RG Velean4 votes

It's doesn't really show how out-of-line damage is, moreso that people are understanding how to team fight better. I believe this comes from the popularity LCS has gotten and people are starting to fight like them. It's a method called front to back team fighting. If the carries are too far, focus down the tank and force the other teams carries to either come and try to save them, or to run away.

MunchCrunchLunch3 votes

because apparently a 4k hp gnar with 200 mr and 250 armor can die just as fast as the 1.9k hp no resists adc. thats why people get GA.

CeexSett3 votes

When does that happen seriously? They will never last the same time.

Rook Loux1 votes

What's your full gnar build?

MunchCrunchLunch5 votes

{quoted}

What's your full gnar build?

i was watching an lcs game

Rook Loux1 votes

Ok...so what was the build?

Great Ozymandius4 votes

If I am thinking of the same game, Gnar had a randuins, frozen mallet, cleaver, banshees, GA, merc. Cloud 9 tried to contest TSM at baron and gnar died in slightly over a second (his GA had been popped in a previous fight). Part of the reason he died so quickly was because TSM has two fire dragons and an elder dragon. Then again, only lucian had any AD and only vlad had any AP. So the fire dragons were not adding that much damage to TSM.

You could argue that Gnar didn't build full tank, but realistically that would not have changed things much. Let's say we swapped out the cleaver for a deadmans and the frozen mallet for a spirit visage. Then he'd have about the same health and about an extra 50 mr and 50 armor. He'd be dead in about the same time (especially with the last whispers and void staffs on the enemy team).

ModCaptainMårvelous2 votes

lol what.

GA was a gimmick item at best even in earlier seasons. It was an item you got when you were ahead or you knew surviving one rotation was enough. It was NOT a go-to survival item for ADCs. Hell, even now GA is meh. Reviving with 30% HP is not all that great unless you can escape. Same principal as ZIlean ult: It doesn't always save your bacon. Sometimes it just delays an inevitable death.

Great Ozymandius5 votes

GA was a fairly standard final item on ADC's in seasons 2-4.

This season in competitive play you regularly see GA's on the tanks. I mean in the last C9-TSM game, gragas picked up GA as his second item!

In each of the four games, both jungle tanks picked up a GA. So you might say that GA is meh, and perhaps it is, but the point is that tanks are commonly picking up the GA.

I am not arguing that the GA is a strong item. That was not the point of my post. Instead, I'm pointing out that GA makes sense as a pick-up for tanks only if they expect to be bursted at the start of the fight and expect to revive while their teammates are still alive so they can continue the fight or escape. That suggests that there is an excess of damage. Something is wrong with the balance of the game if tanks are paying 1000 gold for a revive passive.

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