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Thoughts on Tanking

SecretAgentHulk··3 votes·602 views

I'm in Bronze I. I started playing LoL at the very end of season 3, and I only started understanding the game a couple months into season 4. The S4 tank situation is the only one I've ever known, and so it's the meta I've come to understand and utilize. I see a lot of people complaining about the current state of tanks, even at my own level, and to this day I don't understand it. Tanks are some of the most OP champions out there (Rito pls never nerf Mundo). I originally wrote this in response to a Silver V player, but I figured it could be useful to other players out there around this level (I know nothing about higher-ELO tanking). This is my thoughts on how to tank effectively, more in mindset and style than in play. My current win/loss ratio as a tank is about 2-to-1, if that matters to you.

  1. Tanking is a role that requires a team advantage to be successful, because you need to be able to out-tank their tank while your team out-damages the damage-dealers.

  2. Tank is a second support. It requires a competent team who is able to capitalize on your tanking, and it requires you to coordinate with the team so you're not the one doing something stupid. This applies even in laning phase if you're behind, as you will absolutely need a gank to come back. If your team sucks, you will too. Don't sweat it.

  3. Your entire goal as a tank is to feed your team. If the jungler camps you top-lane, great. Your ADC should be getting fed af. Does your botlane or mid suck? Push top hard and take some of the pressure off other lanes. (Assists feed them too. Mundo triple kill ftw.)

  4. Full tank is not a viable build. You need to throw a little damage in there—I really like Liandry's Torment on Mundo, I bet Malph loves Abyssal Scepter, and Cho can build almost anything and be OP—to make it possible to kill the enemy team mostly by taking less damage so you don't die, but also dealing enough that they die too. It's not even damage; you just need a way to take somone out of a teamfight, and even Braum's passive is pretty decent for that.

  5. It's OK to die. Just be the first one dead and make sure your team can clean it up. They should have LW/VS too.

IDK but if I play straight-tank Malph or Mundo top (with that one damage item), by level 10 I will pretty consistently be contesting my midlaner for "most fed champion on the Rift", and once teamfight phase rolls around, I may fall off in damage, but I can use my fed-ness to snowball my team into victory.

Also, why the hell is Mundo considered a fighter first, tank second?

13 Comments

Lordk0z3 votes

I think Tank doesn't just mean raw durability, but also adds in some CC, for example, Cho'gath not only takes hits, but also has the CC to make the enemy cry.

SecretAgentHulk2 votes

Were you answering my Mundo question? If so, that makes sense, thanks.

Lordk0z1 votes

Yeah, sorry I wasn't being clear.

Done251 votes

{quoted}

Were you answering my Mundo question? If so, that makes sense, thanks.

Here's a quick guide to help determine Fighter vs Tank. I'll even use two confusing champions as example.

Fighters: Do most of their damage by hitting things with their auto attacks and tend to have their main focus be on 1v1.

Mundo: The vast majority of his damage comes form nailing a target with his Q then using E to slap them really REALLY hard again and again until they fall over. He has very little AP scaling and most of his damage is from his basic attacks. That's why you buy Wit's End or BotRK and not Abyssal Scepter.

Tanks: Most of their damage comes from their kit. They lack single target damage and instead focus on AoE.

Cho'Gath: Q,W, and E are all AoE. While he may auto attack a lot it is only done to trigger his spikes, rather than because his attacks on their own hurt. Everything in his kit rewards building AP.

SecretAgentHulk2 votes

I understand. I also build Mundo tank. Not tanky, but tank.

item 3047 item 3065 item 3068, some combination of item 3083 item 3143 item 3075, and item 3151

I don't build AD because nothing scales off AD. I also don't super care about AP, because only my W scales off that. I build health and harass. Health to stay alive, and harass to make the enemy team focus me in a fight. I know I could build bruiser if I wanted, but I like tanks, and 4k health with way too much armor is fun times for me.

Pandemic Punch2 votes

Some Champions don't need any damage items. At my rank I regularly do more damage than my ADC as pure tank Sion.

Don't nerf Sion pleaaasseeee

SecretAgentHulk2 votes

Lol. With a few points in Mundo's E I can out-damage similarly, even without Liandry's.

insaiyanbacca1 votes

i have a question i hope you could answer about tanks as i dont play them often. during the laning phase is it better to try and go aggressive or just farm?

SecretAgentHulk1 votes

Always farm and get gold, but other than that it really depends on the champion and your opponent. With Malphite, where farming properly is hard once you have a point in W, I just push and harass hard, but I leave myself super vulnerable to ganks. With Mundo, I spam cleavers like my life depends on it, but sometimes it's for heavy harass because I'm ahead, while other times it's just to last-hit a minion because I'm behind.

Jungle Lux God1 votes

What you are describing are bruisers, not tanks. Bruisers get 1-2 damage items and then build tanky, while tanks build nothing but tank items, give or take mobility boots or boots or swiftness.

The difference?

Tanks are expected to actually support the team and help them get kills, while Bruisers are as content with getting kills as they are getting assists. Likewise, Tanks are comfortable initiating and peeling and dying while watching their team clean up, while Bruisers need to survive a lot longer because they don't have the raw utility that tanks have.

SecretAgentHulk2 votes

No, I'm describing tanks. I'm just saying in point 4 (which seems to be the only one you disagree with, yes?) that just like an ADC still needs something defensive, a tank still needs something offensive. He needs a reason for the enemy team to focus him.

Yes, a tank's primary role is to get the rest of the team kills, but the only way I know how to do that is by making it worthwhile for the enemy team to not focus the damage dealers, and the only way I know how to do that is to be a pain in the ass. Unless you're Braum, most tanks burst CC, not DPS it, so IMO the way to be a continual pain in the ass is to do a bit of damage. (Auras like Abyssal Scepter's don't count—you could either kill the tank that is allowing the mage to amplify their damage, or you can just kill the squishy dealing amplified damage.)

Mundo with full W, Sunfire Cape, and Liandry's does 148 magic + 2-4% maxHP * 15mpen per second, which is a pretty good reason. Malphite with full W passive, Sunfire Cape, and Abyssal Scepter does similar damage. Both of them (at least in my hands) are simply trying to take the pressure off the mage and ADC so they can clean up the fight. If the aura/splash damage I'm doing gets me a triple (stupid, stupid enemy team, yes, please hit the guy with the Thornmail), so be it—the damage dealers should have killed harder. I can usually build any tank full tank and still be super fed.

Jungle Lux God1 votes

The problem with point 4 is that tanks don't inherently need to deal damage. They just need to either be as annoying as possible, or chain CC the enemy as much as possible long enough to take the enemy carry out of the fight.

Skarner is a good example for both. He has the AoE stun from his passive to disrupt the enemy carries, or can take an enemy carry out of the fight with his ultimate, either by physically ulting them or simply by the threat of feeling Skarner's sting.

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