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Ok, can someone explain to me how to tank?

Cheesybox·12/25/2014, 7:28:23 AM·6 votes·1,399 views

My most recent game got into an end-game situation as Renek. http://matchhistory.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/#match-details/NA1/1676412453/38151874?tab=overview Randuins, Sunfire, Visage, Thornmail, Cleaver, Ninja Tabis. Plus the associated runes and masteries and whatnot. I couldn't take more ~3 or 4 seconds worth of damage from LB's DFG plus all the armor shred and pen between Riven and Lucian. So instead of whining about how useless tanks are (cause Riots not gonna fix a god damn thing), my question is how can I make myself a more effective tank at that point? Sell off the Cleaver for something else? A different damage item? A Frozen Heart? Warmogs? Frozen Mallet? I'm absolutely clueless as to how I could've taken more damage while still being enough of a threat to make people focus me. Is this really how "tanks" are supposed to be now? Full defense=surviving for 3 or 4 seconds vs a carry getting instagibbed? Tanks don't feel even the slightest bit satisfying to play anymore because of all the % hp and % resist penetration in the game

14 Comments

GundayMonday12/25/2014, 7:57:25 AM8 votes

item 3102 counters burst mages. Probably would have lived for a lot longer with your shield blocking the item 3128 active.

You itemized completely against ad. Sure you had a item 3065 , but the enemy Leblanc built straight AP and magic pen. Zyra probably did a lot of work against you too looking at her items. Highly recommend reading up on effective health and how to optimize it against multiple types of damage. Your build is solid against an all ad team. But they have two AP champs, so that's probably why you got wrecked. Highly recommend replacing your item 3075 with a item 3102 .

Other thought. Why are you getting burst down by Leblanc ? If you're up far enough for her to jump in and kill you, why didn't you cc her and have your team blow her up? Watch your replay from this game. I would guess your positioning was off and you were too far ahead of your team for them to follow up. If you weren't out of position, then your team was too derp to follow up (slow reaction time or lag or whatever) and you should be farther back to compensate for this anyway.

My two cents. Happy to spec a few games if you'd like better feedback. Hard to give anything meaningful from a match history page. Add me in game and shoot me a message next time we're both on if you'd like that to happen. Happy to help!

Vycky12/25/2014, 11:18:02 AM3 votes

Aside from builds, look up on something called 'kiting as a melee.' It's where you literally try and kite champions around with your movement and abilities to prevent damage. In a fight, it can be called the highest form of tanking that you can do. Almost no champion can just sit on top of 5 fully built enemy champions and expect to live through it on tank stats alone.

Kiting as a melee involves a variety of things to be effective with the prevention of damage being a key factor. Take Renekton for example. His Slice and Dice can be used to zone off or engage enemy carries but instead of sitting on top of them, dash backwards and run towards your team. The enemy AD-Carry will be forced to walk forwards to continue attacking you which may cause them to stop attacking until they can catch up. Done right, this tactic will prevent a lot of damage taken by your tank. This concept can be why AD-Carries are so prevalent in the game because they have the highest DPS in the game and also the best ''tanking'' in a fight because no one can hit them if played right.

Take some of the popular tanks in the League today: Maokai, Mundo, Gnar, or Jarvan IV. They all have some sort of movement or slow ability which allows them to effectively kite away and prevent damage whereas Cho'Gath or Alistair aren't nearly as effective as they must land hit or miss crowd-control to prevent enemy damage.

AtheosisX12/25/2014, 1:48:55 PM3 votes

Late game is where tanks really fall off. Unless you have a lot of disruptive cc you aren't going to last very long if the enemy team has a lot of high damage champs.

Cheesybox12/25/2014, 9:06:16 AM3 votes

According to the death recaps, it was pretty much entirely Lucian damage that was killing me. Maybe that's my first problem, trusting the death recap to be accurate

Stars Shaper12/25/2014, 9:28:45 AM3 votes

All I can think of is being a focused tank. This means that you choose to tank the kind fo damage the majority of enemies have or either (if your supp is a tank too) one goes for magic damage mitigation (Solaris is a must) and one for armor.

Your job then is getting fast to the carry you don't mitigate, suppress him (hard CC) and then hope that team will do the favor of killing him.

MRMourninWood12/25/2014, 9:21:12 AM2 votes

Here's what you have to take into consideration when tanking; The amount of dmg + dmg penetration they have compared to your resistances.

here's my understanding of how it works: Teemo has 20 magic pen runes, gets haunting guise and sorc boots, then rushes void staff. he has 50 magic pen and 39% penetration with mastery. SO he ignores 39% then adds an amount of magic dmg equal to 50 magic pen whatever that would be, basically extra % dmg to counteract magic resistance, any extra is bonus dmg.

That garen finishes spirit visage and gets merc treads, and he has like 120 magic resist. he has like 50-55% damage reduction.

That amount of magic resist isnt worth crap against that much magic pen, and Gare-bear takes the full amount with extra. In this scenario, even though Garen built defence, he is NOT tanky. He still has his w passive damage reduction, but that isnt much.

Once you understand that, Garen really needs more magic resist to even get damage reduction. If he stops there because he is a "Meta Rat" and doesnt get more magic resist because he builds the same way every time he is really boned.

The best way to tank is to build specifically for a dmg carry you want to tag down, for example if you build alot of armor, go after the attack damage carries and fight people who you have defense for, and let your allies focus on the mages.

Kaisha12/25/2014, 9:14:42 AM2 votes

Tanks are there strictly for CC and are pretty much useless otherwise.

Hasztalan212/25/2014, 11:38:59 PM1 votes

First of all Renek is a bruiser and not a tank, so getting 1-2 completed damage item be4 resistances are a lot more effective on him...

James Nicholas12/25/2014, 8:44:59 AM1 votes

I found the only "tank" I enjoy recently is jungle Sion.

I get Ranger with Devoured first, then frozen mallet and boots as needed, then honestly whatever...

You just ultimate into fights and throw down your whole combo, then die and proceed to punch the tar out of stuff

Sooko12/25/2014, 9:57:40 AM1 votes

I still think that instead of building a ton of stats, the most effective way to tank is through damage reduction champions, for example Alistar or Maokai. These guys don't care about last whispers and void staves for a few seconds, which should let you initiate and last a few more seconds too (still less than you should as a tank, though).

Other than that, maybe a Zhonya's or a GA if you are ahead can help you survive the enemy team's penetrating burst (I realized what I just wrote, but I won't change it) and double their efforts to kill you. Be careful, however, that these can remind the enemy team not to focus you, even though there aren't many reprecussions about focusing tanks nowadays.

soulbanana812/25/2014, 5:21:55 PM1 votes

Banshees' veil needed to be in there. You were up against burst mages. Also, Frozen mallet might not have been too bad, considering the extra HP to survive Riven's burst damage. It also gives you sticking power. Cut Thornmail against any AD caster(Riven, Lucian), for it does close to nothing against them. Thornmail is only really good against AA reliant ADCs(Jinx, Cait, Vayne, Ashe, etc). On the same note, Mercury Treads could've been there too.

Yulen Xoshxius12/25/2014, 7:32:39 AM1 votes

I want to see what tips people give as well. I like Leona for tanking for the stuns.