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@RiotRepertoir, @Meddler: What do you think about the laning phase for tanks like Singed, Nasus, etc

Maxxston·1/11/2016, 6:09:23 PM·35 votes·7,680 views

Yo reds,

Just curious about your thoughts on champions like Nasus/Susan, Singed, and similarly stat-checky style tanks.

It seems like playing against them is incredibly dull. Either (a) you have the damage to push them out of lane, but likely never kill them, or (b) they have so much sustain and/or effective health that you can't do anything to them that doesn't include "take a ridiculous amount of minion damage while they ignore you/disengage effortlessly/opt to not participate in laning against you in any way".

Is this a problem that you guys see/agree with (or have plans for?) or do you view this situation differently? On a personal level, these tanks are incredibly frustrating to lane against; it's like playing against a brick wall in most cases.

Edit for those arguing over definitions: there's definitely some nuances to the terminology. Riot still hasn't posted the list of the dozen terms they use internally that they mentioned a few days ago. If a red responds, maybe they'd be willing to categorize some of these champs for us? :D

I specifically chose the 2 named for the lack of both solid ranged poke as well as mobility options (other than slows). In contrast, Darius/Malph/Poppy/Shen/Mundo all have at least one or both of those options. Trundle could go into the same camp as Singed and Nasus (depending on if you count his speed field as a serious mobility option or not).

94 Comments

RiotMeddler1/12/2016, 6:50:46 AM26 votes

I feel that the benefits they offer to the game outweigh the duller laning experience they sometimes create. Having tanky champions get played in a solo lane's valuable for team comp variety in , since it gives tanky builds that are more gold and XP dependent a home and allows more flexibility as to what sort of champion you run as a jungler or support. It also gives players that want to play some champions, but don't want to jungle, an option, and creates variety of playing against experience for opponents. The occasional non kill lane that forces you to roam or push can be an interesting change, it's when it's happening frequently I'd call it a real problem.

Dreadlocks1/11/2016, 6:13:40 PM11 votes

God bless, we still have tanks viable in the top lane.

Aezanthya1/11/2016, 10:17:05 PM9 votes

Playing against nasus is so frustrating : you either stomp him and you're fine. You don't stomp him but he does not kill you and you pray that you finish the game fast. You don't stomp him, the game lasts for too long and you get Q'd to death/see your towers die in 2 sec and you're force to send 2-3 people just to stop him.

I never understood how that was considered a healthy champion but that's just me. (i'm not saying he's broken or needs nerf. I think he needs a rework.)

Partholonian1/11/2016, 11:42:28 PM6 votes

Laning doesn't have to be about killing people, and Riot should definitely not listen to the opinion of anyone who thinks a lane is "dull" if nobody dies.

Furthermore, you could always roam or tp to kill a non-tank, there are usually some on the enemy team.

But picking a tank into someone who wants to get early kills and snowball should be a completely valid counterpick.

P.S. And if they keep tweaking herald until it does what it's supposed to, "shove them in and take herald" should be a reasonable option too, if your jungler is willing to help with it.

My Waifu Vanilla1/11/2016, 10:22:14 PM5 votes

Honestly, my only problem with Nasus is his passive since after level 7 or so it does not matter HOW much you have been shitting on him when he can Q and heal for 5% of his health or close to it.

nightsharks1/12/2016, 4:45:49 AM4 votes

I was playing Nasus against a GP, and was powerfarming as any good Nasus should through the first 20 minutes of the game. He kept trying to poke me out with his Q, and then I would heal up with my Q AND get stacks. It was super frustrating for him, I could tell. He'd try and zone me out with barrels, but I completely ignored him and kept farming without losing much health at all. Oh the joys of being a Nasus player.

On a more serious note, Nasus has more counter than people give him credit for. His early game is terrible, with an 8 second cooldown on his Q and only 10% lifesteal. If you can deny him farm in the first ten minutes of the game, you should be good to go. He'll either spend the rest of the game farming to catch up or dying in teamfights. Because of his farm-reliant playstyle, he usually has to sit out early and mid game to get those coveted Q stacks. This means no TPs anywhere unless you want to miss out on 3-5 waves of fresh minion meat, which equates to roughly 100-150 stacks. If Nasus gets 600 stacks by 20 mins, and the other lanes are all getting stomped on, chances are he's not going to make much of a difference. Chain CC shuts him down pretty fast as well, because a lot of his survivability is reliant on lifesteal + Q. I was playing against Varus and Lux, and Lux would snare me so Varus could ult me and the rest of the team took me down pretty fast. Nasus also has no gap closer, which is why a lot of people take ghost. You wanna 1-shot the carry? Gotta catch them first!

tl;dr Nasus is love, Nasus is life.