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"Tanks"

YNX Glaive·8/2/2017, 1:10:12 AM·5 votes·507 views

As someone who plays tank in league of legends sparingly, except to balance out a backline heavy team comp, I have ranted alot about many tanks absurd percentage damage and scalings that, while meant to allow them to stay relevant damage wise, tends to send them into the "really now, REALLY" category. This post isn't about that. I wanted to briefly address the controversial topic of what "tank" means in league of legends and what I think about it (because that's what this forum is for, if you don't like my opinion feel free to flame me using brand's head)

So, whenever i see people talk about "tanks" and either how under nourished they are in that role or how flabbergasting they can be (I have started a few of these myself... hehehehe) Many people jump to "oh but that isn't a tank that's a sub-hyper-twice removed You get the point. Imo, if i see a champion in game that has more than 3.2K health and a total of over 325 resistances, that is indeed a "tank" and not a sub-hyper-twice removed piece of potato that Riot has listed under the class of "who knows what lul" Just because Riot states that it is put under one class, and inadvertently one job, that doesn't mean the meta has conformed to it to the T.

14 Comments

Ralanr8/2/2017, 1:20:27 AM7 votes

Caitlyn : WTF Nasus, why didn't you peel Yi off of me?

Nasus : He's immune to slows, what else am I supposed to do?!

Caitlyn : Tank noob!

Nasus : FUCKING HOW BITCH?

Look, I get that people take the easy route in class and champion identification, and quite frankly I give no shit about what you call something in game because I have more important things to do in game than to explain what a tank is and what a tank isn't. Namely in keeping my allies alive.

But here? In the forums where people try to have discussions of class balance? It is important to get all the facts straight so we can lead ourselves to the best solution.

So no, Darius is not a tank. He is designed to build durable and hit hard while being extremely susceptible to kiting.

Yes, Braum is a tank due to the hard CC and peel power in built into his kit.

No, Garen is not a tank. His lack of hard CC and mainly selfish focused kit focused him more towards being a juggernaut.

Yes, Sion is a tank because of all the AoE hard CC in his kit and the powerful teamfight starting engage.

No, Vi is not a tank because her kit's durability stats are mainly meant for her to survive when fighting one target in a field of many.

Yes, Alistar is a tank because of engage combos and his beneficial abilities to allies.

If you want to complain about tanks, fine. But know the difference so even the people who disagree with you can see that you're not an idiot who doesn't know the difference between tanky and tank.

Escheton8/2/2017, 1:28:54 AM3 votes

325 resistance total is what you consider a Tank then? Ok. lets grab a random non-squish champ: Vi has base armor ranging from 25.9 – 85.4 Vi has base magic resist ranging from 32.1 – 53.4

That is 138.8 resists right off the bat. Now, lets say she went attack speed reds, dmg quints and scaling resists yellow and blue (seems plausable, I dunno, don't play her and random pick). That adds 27 armor and magic resists at level 18. We now total 192.8. Lets say she goes for item 3111 or item 3047 because the other options are meh . That is 30 armor or +25 magic resist. Lets factor in the lowest for convenience. 217.8 total resists before we take even a single non-boot item.

Add in item 3742 and item 3193 and we are on 367.8 or even 447.8 total resists on what seems a perfectly normal bruisery jungle build. She can have 3 full AD items. And you would consider her a tank.

I disagree.

oSEXYPLATYPUSo8/2/2017, 1:14:26 AM2 votes

so by your argument then DR MUNDO is in fact a tank ?

Slythion8/2/2017, 2:20:40 AM1 votes

No, the confusion lays in the fact that "tank" has 2 meanings, and people on the boards (just as you've done here) try to group those two meanings together because one fits the category of the other.

The actual words are "tank" vs. "tanky", but the definitions of both are the 2 that I refer to.

You're definition of is of the "tanky" variety, as shown here. You believe a "tank" is just someone with a lot of defensive stats such as "3.2k hp and a total of 325 resistances".

While that definition surely includes those of the tank class, tanks (as a class of champions) are more than that. Tanks are cc-orientated champions that are meant to disrupt the enemy. There's probably a better definition out there but you get the idea.

But as you can see, there are two similar words with two similar definitions, but the act of freely using one as a replacement of the other causes inconsistencies, falsehoods, and confusion.