Anybody remember when tanks were actually tanky? I do, and here's how it was...

EDIT: Holy crap this is getting some attention. This was just a thread about me venting about my first-world tank problems and I come back with double digit notifications (and upvotes whoo). Thanks for getting this thread attention, guys! If I knew it was going to be this popular, I would have made it a bit neater in the least.

It was a nice and simple time, where I would play (I still do, he's my Shenpai! blushes). I would be fighting somebody like , where I would be cautious about farming and eventually get armor to be able to zone her. I would have trouble against and , but I would survive laning phase and help bot lane get fed, or help mid lane get a kill and push. We would get dragon, and I would be the guy to get those pesky assassins off my carries and dive the back line, forcing them to auto me for reduced damage. I would be that guy who if you focused me, you were wasting your damage and cooldowns, because I had stacked resistances and health, and the only one who passed that rule by was , but it was all worth it when I would manage to lock her down or bait out her tumble so that my team could destroy her via focusing. It was great.

Compare that to today. I will build 400 armor and attack speed slows, over 3000 HP, and this creature woman would come with her toothpick rapier and take 60% of my HP as if I was the ADC. I would be able to walk into my own lane without this frog-looking motherf*cker guy taking 32% of my health in magic damage when he was building the same items as me. And god forbid I try to dive the carries if he presses W and runs off like a jolly fellow who just skipped home after winning the lottery. And with the new ADC tank-buster items coming in (wasn't enough, for pete's sake?), I feel like tanks will not only be down-trodden, but laughably weak. I'm not saying that the meta was Riot's gift to League, but by it is better than what we have now. I know that tanks are not meant to be invincible, but this is my opinion of what a tank is in this meta (if you're not Mr. Hanks over there):

A CC-based champion who builds resistances and health to counter burst, but would be lucky to last 3 seconds longer than the mid laner.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't it better when tanks were stronger? They don't build damage (usually) and have miserable laning phases against DPS just to get back at them in the late game not by KILLING their opponents, but by relying on their team to do that when they catch someone out. I'd prefer a meta where the guys meant to soak up damage are stronger than those meant to deal it. I'm not glorifying the tank age, but for goodness' sake give us a way to counter these 4 ANNOYING things:

1. Focusing the tank. I know it generally doesn't work in theory, but with this new meta and all this shredding of tanks, oh, it works... a little too well. Besides , we have no way for tanks to shrug off some damage except if they have some in-built damage reduction, which is rare even in tanks. An item to reduce damage would be great, as it would help us soak up damage better and have some breathing room against all this %HP true damage going around. I know it sounds broken, but maybe there could be a weakness, like making it an active or something.

2. True damage. Ok, true damage by itself is fun and all when it's used on things MEANT to shred people like and (he needs time to get stacks on you for the nuke, so it has counterplay). But when it starts becoming a thing on light fighters that are hard to kill because mobility and utility. Personally, I think that her vitals are cool and all, it's a little mini-game to try to hit your opponent's weak spot. It's interactive and that's what makes lanes interesting. What I don't like is when she gets no punishment for not hitting a vital, she can use them to essentially destroy you no matter how tanky you are, and there not a damn thing you can do if you don't have escapes. And it's a known fact that tanks are not mobile by default. I wish there was an item that could mitigate this, as I don't think think nerfing everybody who has true damage would be fair, since it is integral to their kits.

3. Critical strike chance. By god, you will know what I'm talking about when you deal with the horror that is top as a tank. You can build all the armor you want, critical strikes will destroy you regardless. Unless you're one of these guys , you are going to have a bad time. is the only item I know of that reduces critical strike damage, which I find to be ludicrous in a meta that encourages AD carries to build crit chance. We need more!

4. The abundance of CC. I know this may fall into the category of getting focused, but when you, as a tank, can't move while the enemy is immobilizing and slowing you to oblivion, it's annoying. I'm the tank, I want to do my job. Tanks are what are supposed to soak up the CC more effectively than the carries not only because they are tankier, but are affected less. In my opinion, instead of removing completely, Riot should take the tenacity and put it into a defensive item. Yes, I know it's going to be broken as hell on , but she needs a rework anyway. I know that isn't a good solution, but I admit I will never be as good as finding solutions to balance things as Riot, even though they mess up here and there.

---

In conclusion, I just want to mention that while my venting may or may not have brought up things that haunt tanks to this day, Riot stated that they're working on each class one at a time. So here's what I mean.

First, we had an AP rework. It was small, but it made AP items less hard to build. There's bound to be another.

Then, we had a juggernaut rework, combining the damage of fighters and the durability of tanks to create someone you want to keep away from your team, but can't kill as fast.

Now, we are having an ADC rework. Helping carries define what makes them unique, as well as creating more situational items to deal with nearly unkillable champions ( DERMERSHIA) and fit ADCs into the niche roles of dueling, sieging, split pushing, or team fighting.

Riot, if you can hear me, just read at least this mini-paragraph: If your next rework is a tank rework, make it so that at least one of these issues is addressed. People like myself who like to play tanks find it difficult to do our job even now. I know you're updating the game one role at a time, but in my hopefully unbiased opinion, tanks will be the best move to make next.

Thank you for taking your time to read this. If you don't feel like scaling the Great Wall of Text, here's a Tl,dr:

Tl,dr: Tanks die too fast, ruining the point of being a tank. Therefore, I propose that true damage, critical strike chance, and general team fighting for tanks be given unique itemization as to create more interesting and interactive build paths. Let's hope tanks are next on Riot's rework list.