Do tanks still exists in LoL?
Hello all,
I open this discussion because I'm kind of sad about tanks in LoL.
Tanks are my most wanted role in a moba, nearly every moba I have played I always go to a tank character, but in Leage tanks feels like they can't tank at all. The only period of time you can tank something in Leage is in early game, when your base stats and skills provides you enough toughness to stand some hits without being killed.
In previous seasons of this game, tanks were really awesome, they could initiate a fight without needing to inmediatly retreat from their enemies, but nowadays even if your build, masteries and runes are done to make your defense "awesome" you probably will die with few hits from enemy carry.
So what are tanks forced to do? Well, in the current meta you are forced to build yourself as if you were a bruiser. But you are not a bruiser, so your only goal in the game is initiate and pray.
In this game, is much more cheaper to buy damage than pure tanky stats, and when you buy, there are so easy ways to kill a tank as can be the classical IF+LW combo. That's without talking about % damage to health.
Maybe this can be seen as a "cry", but I feel tanking should be about beign durable and hard to kill (I mean HARD to kill) with high utility, but without damage output. And to be honest, there are really few champions that can be classified as tanks in this game, namely: Alistar, Leona, and Rammus.
And not, I'm not listing Mundo because he is no more the ubertank he was used to be, and even the previous list in late game is kinda weak at standing damage because armor/MR penetration and % damage, Alistar is the only one who can tank in late and it's due to a overpowered ultimate skill to nowadays standars.
I've read somewhere in another discussion that if tanks were as they theoretically should be, durable as hell, they would auto counter ADCs, assasins and mages, but I do not agree. Tanks, as I mentioned before, are durable and crowd controllers, with very little damage most of time.
In the actual state of game, if you want to pick a tank, as Sejuani, Nautilus, Thresh, Braum etc... is the same as to say "let's play a durable fighter", and that's not what a tank is, in my humble opinion.
Sorry for the long post, but this is what I really think about this not so loved class. Tanks have lost their way in LoL.
TL;DR: Tanks nowadays are just durable fighters that lacks of durability after early game, unless you are ahead.
are items I almost always buy on him (the Twin Shadows active is a life-saver for roaming, and Righteous Glory helps speed you and your team towards ulted enemies), and then depending on the team's needs:
build I've seen on a couple of other Bards.
and a 
), a ward, and a trinket. Sustain for dayyyyys, especially since his chimes give him mana and his heal pads can give HP, though you shouldn't take too much poke as Bard. Also the bonus MS from boots is nice for roaming.
for Aatrox, 
for Malphite and other on-hit burst tanks, 
for AP reliant tanks, etc
+ 
and full tank afterward, making him more than an effective bruiser.
Your adc=his bitch
and 
if the target had an excessive amount of defenses.
P.S. i know i missed a lot of champions but these are examples of champions with tankiness in their kits.
I think tanks do fine but a big problem is that botrk and last whisper can nuke them down which is a major problem since the whole point of a tank is that while you can die, you can't get 3 shotted like squishies can.