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A One-Trick Pony Tank Main's Guide to Tanking in Season 6

The Yetii Rider··41 votes·4,077 views

Okay, so I've seen too many posts recently complaining that "tanks do not feel tanky" in this season. Let's get the primary issue out of the way.

Why Do Tanks Feel Weaker Than Previously?

This is because of the damage creep situation. Riot has added a large amount of raw base damage to the game via keystones. This has created two separate but equally important situations that make tanking feel worse.

Situation 1: Champions have more damage. Fervor of Battle, Grasp of the Undying, Thunderlord's Decree and Deathfire Touch all add damage to otherwise balanced champions' kits. And every member of the enemy team could reasonably be running one of these masteries. That's a lot of extra damage to tank!

Situation 2: Because champions have more damage, they are finding success building tankier. This one is a bit more complex to understand, but the best way to think of it is that marksmen can build Maw/Sterak's and still do enough damage to kill someone because they have Fervor of Battle. Because they are rewarded for auto attacking a lot instead of auto-attacking hard, it's actually more beneficial to simply build tank so you can survive long enough to get your Fervor of Battle stacks than it is for you to build crit and murder someone in three seconds.

This means that true tanks have to tank for longer periods of time before a threat is neutralized by the ally champions. Because true tank champions often don't have many ways to sustain themselves in combat, this has become a problem and has led to many people feeling that true tanks just don't live long enough to actually succeed.

So, how do you tank in this meta?

How to Tank in this Meta, Step 1: Strength of Ages

If you want to tank, reject damage. A tank's primary goal is survival, their kit is the contribution to the team. If you have Sejuani, you want to get multiple Artic Assaults and Permafrosts off in a given fight, you don't care about how much damage Flail of the Northern Winds is doing. So, the first step to this is selecting Strength of Ages as your keystone, not Grasp of the Undying.

"But Yetii Rider, this will make my trading values horrible in the top lane!"

You're right, imaginary whiny boards member! That leads me to step 2!

How to Tank in this Meta, Step 2: Only Play Jungle (In Retrospect, This Should Probably Have Been Step 1)

Tanks have a hard time trading in lane with Strength of Ages? No problem. Just don't lane. Play jungle, get some sweet ganks, farm up and control dragons. Then you'll be able to work effectively in the mid game and shut down those pesky damage dealers just like you want to.

How to Tank in this Meta, Step 3: Rush Armor

So, the reason you run Strength of Ages is simple: you gain 300 extra health, which means you are less punished for rushing a full armor item. Full armor items tend to be poor choices to rush simply because they offer no defense against magic damage and you can get bursted down. But Health+Armor items are often ineffective against AD assassins, who will use you as food in the mid game to get nice and fat so they can delete your carries. As your primary goal is survival, you need a full armor item to deal with the situation.

Thornmail, Frozen Heart, and Zz'rot Portal are all excellent ways of combatting AD assassins easily.

"Wait, but what if there's no AD assassin on the enemy team? I ban Zed all the time!"

Good question, Greg. Let's take a look at that, shall we?

How to Tank in this Meta, Step 4: Ignore Step 3

So, rushing armor is actually not my typical strategy! That's what I did back at the beginning of this season, but since 6.9 came out, tanks' prayers everywhere have been answered!

See, like I said at the beginning of the post, the main reason that tanks are having issue this season is because they don't have a method of sustain in team fights. But we got one with 6.9!

How to Tank in this Meta, Step 5: Praise the Eons

item 3010 Hallelujah! Or...whatever the Jewish version of Hallelujah is if you're Jewish. This item is amazing! You heal yourself every time you use mana? And it's based on the mana costs, which are intentionally high on tank champions? While giving you health and mana? This item is perfect!

So, I play Nunu. This is my typical build path: item 1039 item 1006 , then item 3706 , then item 3009 into item 3010 into item 3027 , and only then do I even buy item 3751 . I regularly take the most damage in the game (because I solo every dragon and some barons, and I'm also tanky as hell) while having the fewest deaths. Because I have amazing in-combat sustain.

How to Tank in this Meta, Step 5.5: Follow the Road of Ages

So, yes. You should always rush Rod of Ages on tanks. It gives you lots of health, lots of mana for your high mana costs, and some nice AP to boot. The sustain is beautiful and it gets stronger when you upgrade so you shouldn't wait to upgrade. Get that as fast as possible. You won't believe how clutch 20 health per ability cast is for a tank.

"But, Yetii. I play a tank that doesn't have any AP ratios!"

The only tanks in the game that have no important AP ratios are Sion and Poppy after their reworks. And neither of them is struggling because they have nice shiny fresh out of the rework bin kits. So enjoy your freelo. I'm talking to the lone Malphite and Maokai mains right now.

How to Tank in this Meta, Step 6: The Build

As always, items are just stats with some neat bells and whistles tacked on. No matter how much Riot tries to make items balanced, they fail at it. So, here's the complete build:

item 1401 item 3009 item 3027 item 3512 item 3065 item 3143

This will work on any tank. You have lots of health, plus more with Strength of Ages. You have lots of armor, lots of magic resist, and tons of health regen. You also have the Eternity passive from Catalyst of Eons, and the bonus sustain across the board with Spirit Visage. You have lots of mobility with Point Runner and Boots of Swiftness. You have damage over time with Cinderhulk, and an AoE slow with Randuin's.

If the enemy team doesn't have any significant crit threats, get Dead Man's Plate instead.

Edit: After a few discussions in the comment section, I am including suggestions for a top lane build in the OP. After all, you're not always guaranteed to get jungle.

Starting items: If you're a pure tank, you want to start item 1028 item 2003 (x2), or item 1029 item 2003 (x4) against heavy AD threats like Quinn or Riven. You should start item 1054 against champions that deal damage primarily through auto attacks like Jax, Teemo, possibly Irelia.

If you're playing a more aggressive top laner who wants to trade well and get a kill early, start item 2033

Pure tanks often have trouble CSing early under pressure, so I suggest upgrading that item 1028 into a item 3751 quickly. Against an AP top laner like Teemo, Vlad or Ryze, you want a item 3211 , which you build into item 3102 if you're ahead, and item 3065 if you're behind, or if you have heavy sustain in your kit like Trundle, Volibear or Mundo.

Here's a complete build for a top lane tank: item 3111 /item 3047 (depends on enemy comp)item 3068 item 3065 item 3143 item 3512 item 3190

Happy tanking, summoners.

108 Comments

ZT Xperimentor16 votes

Personally, I'd go with mercury treads or ninja tabi depending on the enemy team. Especially since swiftness shoes got their movement speed noticeably lowered.

The Yetii Rider7 votes

Tanks don't care about tenacity. If they're getting CC'd, they're doing their job properly.

Auto attack damage reduction isn't useful to them either. Marksmen are designed to kill tanks, even if you live an extra half second because of the 10% reduction, you'll still die.

The extra MS is particularly useful in the jungle. Gets you to camps faster, helps you gank faster, can be the difference between you reaching dragon as it spawns and 10 seconds before it spawns. MS is good.

More importantly though, slow resist helps you avoid being kited. There's a lot more slows in the game than there is hard CC that's affected by Tenacity. You're only doing your job if you're in the thick of things, so buy some slow resist and clobber these losers with your abilities!

Edit: Also you don't need to delay your build in the jungle by 200 extra gold. You're already stuck buying knife, which gives you 0 defensive power against champions for 1050. Boots for 1100 before you can even start building health is just slowing you down way too much.

ZT Xperimentor18 votes

Indeed, however a tank that's stunned cannot disrupt you from killing his team; and tenacity still reduces the effectiveness of slowing effects, just not as much. Ninja tabi still give you extra armor.

I'd say movement speed in general is important for tanks regardless of position played; but again swiftness shoes hardly give much speed anymore. Swiftness shoes give +55, mobility boots give +115 out of combat but act like basic shoes in combat, and every other boot kind gives +45 movement speed. 'Greater quintessence of movement speed' gives +1.5% movement speed each, +4.5% if using nothing but; I have yet to play a champion that didn't get a bigger moment bonus from these, than I did by changing between swiftness & tank boots. I've frequently delayed upgrading my basic shoes because I already outran most of my enemies early game.

MisterShameless2 votes

item 3047 have been 12% reduction for a few patches now.

The Yetii Rider3 votes

{quoted}

item 3047 have been 12% reduction for a few patches now.

Oops. You're right.

BastionKross9 votes

Don't you think it's sad that, in your view, tanks have become viable only if jungled? I mean technically you could be a tanky support, but if your team's primary tank is the support that's not great news either.

The Yetii Rider13 votes

Nope. I don't think that at all. Tanks are like supports, their primary power is offered in crowd control and peel. If that power is too effective in solo lanes it becomes oppressive and keeps out the people who want to go top for some epic melee brawls between powerful warriors like Renekton and Darius.

Tanks should be concerned with team fighting. I don't play a tank to 1v1, I never have and I never will. Jungling is just fine for me.

It Hertz When IP1 votes

So would you be able to make a guide for tank junglers? As someone who usually ends up playing support, I'm finding that a lot of my squishy choices for support that don't have built-in self sustain are really struggling these days, so I'm switching back to my usual tank options.

The Yetii Rider1 votes

Can you be more specific? What aspects of tank jungling do you need help with?

It Hertz When IP1 votes

Mostly clear tips. I want to be able to take Mao, Cho, and Sion as jungle choices but I seem to spend all my time early game rapping clearing to stay relevant, while the Yis, Wukongs, and Xins camp my lanes without any apparent downsides. Might be my rune pages?

The Yetii Rider2 votes

My runes: Attack speed reds, health per level seals, CDR glyphs and MS quints.

Start Talisman Refillable, start Gromp and get a good leash.

When you are clearing birds KILL ALL OF THE SMALL BIRDS FIRST. When you are doing Krugs, kill the small Krug first. If you focus on the big monster in either of these camps you will take upwards of 100 extra damage per camp.

AFK Push1 votes

Ever since Cinderhulk tanks will always scale better in the jungle due to having much more hp late game than a solo lane tank. This is further complimented from Strength of the ages which is mediocre at best on toplaners due to not having as frequent access to monsters.

The current condition of top lane is dominated by assassins building tank, and juggernauts like Darius Garen Illaoi. Blame Grasp of the Undying for making true top lane tanks less viable, because almost any nontank can use it and build tank and be almost as useful. This is the primary reason why crap like tank ekko exists. It does suck for top lane tanks, however champs like Sion Maokai Zac are still doing fairly well due to having very good base damages, sustain, and utility/peel/engage which makes them better picks over many juggernauts and tanky assassins imo.

The Yetii Rider1 votes

Huh. I literally haven't seen Zac top once all season. Must be more common in ranked than normals. Do you play it?

AFK Push1 votes

If I wanna play tank top and wanna do a little roaming then he is my go to. He is also particularly strong in lane not only because of good base damages, but that he is manaless meaning he can go toe to toe with the likes of other manaless tops.

Ralanr1 votes

Hmm...that is an excellent point.

What do you propose building on him? Whenever I see him played I see people build RoD, which confuses me because he doesn't use mana.

AFK Push1 votes

Typically something like item 3068 item 3065 item 3020 item 3742 item 3083 item 3001

Zac likes to stack the hp, hp regen, and of course the healing effects from spirit visage goes greatly with his kit. Zac has very good base damages (all abilities in 200s maxed), he also has very spammable abilities with low cooldowns in q and especially W (which cooldowns quicker by picking up blobs). If ahead build item 3151 item 3020 item 3001 to be able to take down the squishies and tanks alike, whereas for tank items if it doesn't give health or health regen then it probably isn't worth since he relies on those stats whole heartedly.

Athenes Lulu4 votes

Considering that tanks can melt down squishies as quickly as ADCs can do, getting any form of damage on then isn't a problem at all as long as you get one AP item. Really, 1-AP rest tank builds are all good enough for being the tank that enemies will hate you, but your teammates will love you for. So, thumbs up for going over the specifics on what you build and when to build them.

Oh and bonus points for your attitude. I had fun reading this honestly.

Melledoneus3 votes

This guide is how I play Sion or Maokai.

For Shen, you take Grasp. Start with ruby crystal or cloth armor. Ruby crystal is preferred. Next, make sure to utilize your Q autos and avoid your opponent's harass. If you let your opponent push you to turret, you can scare them away by having your dash up. The moment they try to harass you at the edge of your turret, short-E and lead your taunted target to turret range. You might get a turret shot, maybe even a summoner spell out of panic.

If your opponent is ranged, ward up and try to play safe until 3. After that, if they try to harass you, engage on them and harass them harder. You can zone them if you play it right, unless it's Graves. Screw Graves.

When you hit 6, look for any fights. Bot lane is a good place to start, if your mid laner is against an assassin you'll be able to snowball them, too. Being a tank means that you will be there to lock down enemies and buy some time for your teammates to win the fight. If your gank is successful, take the turret and a dragon if possible. If it didn't work that well or you finish before your turret is down, hope that you have teleport up.

Build your armor item, preferably Sunfire. Then, if you're up agaonst an AD-heavy comp, go into DMP. This build offers plenty of survivability and mobility, as well as some waveclear. If you're against AP, rush Banshee's after Bami's Cinder. Make sure that by your 3rd or fourth item, you start building your titanic hydra. While it violates rule one of full tank, remember that Shen is a DUELING tank and you must utilize his split pushing/dueling potential to the maximum. With Hydra you can be a potent damage threat with spikes of damage while the carries auto attack you. This forces the team to focus you or lose their damage, effectively making uou public enemy one. Should your own carries be under heavy fire, switch to defensive mode. Ultimate, E, and W are your main tools. You can also slow people in some situations with Q they are between you and your carry. Remember that you must prioritize your own carries, and once they are relatively safe instantly go for the enemy carries, or distract the juggernaut/bruiser. Shen can be very distracting if he wants to be.

That's my guide to playing Shen. This post is going to get buried though, so meh.

The Yetii Rider1 votes

All of this is very helpful! Thank you for the time you took to write this.

Melledoneus1 votes

Thank you for reading it! I know large walls of text can be discouraging, and Shen isn't popular enough for people to read a short guide on how to lane with him, but I just wanted to help out those few who care.

I like your post, too, although I have to say that top lane tanks should completely replace marksmen top laners in the meta. I'm tired of having virtually ungankable, unkillable ADCs roaming the Rift after free farming by default because they were against a tank top laner. Also, tanks are countered by lane bullies like Darius, and are strong against squishy damage champions once they build resistances, such as Riven. It's supposed to be a triangle rock-paper-scissors system, but ranged top laners screwed that up.

The Yetii Rider1 votes

It's unfortunate, but Riot's attempt to make other champions viable in bot lane included making marksmen viable top lane. They never considered it would just result in triple ADC comps.

DeathBurst3 votes

That's a gross simplification, and the "only play Jungle, don't go Top" isn't really helpful...

You want Singed to Jungle? You want Garen to Jungle? You want Cho'Gath to jungle?

And what about all the Tank Supports? They shouldn't tank? Quid of Leona/Braum/Thresh/Taric?

The Yetii Rider2 votes

Singed DID get that buff to his E that makes his jungle clearing better...but no. Singed is an exception to the "tanks have a hard time CSing and clearing waves" though. That's what makes him able to function top despite his disgusting mana costs.

Cho'Gath is an excellent jungler. Dunno why you're complaining there. With 1000 true damage on his ultimate and excellent health scaling that is empowered by Cinderhulk he is a literal monster of objective control. Yes, I have had many successful games as Cho'Gath jungle.

Garen isn't a tank. He builds tanky, but his job is to get to the back line and wreck face. This isn't a guide on how to juggernaut.

DeathBurst1 votes

Re: Cho'gath, aren't his early clears horrendous?

And you didn't answer about all the Tank Sup.

All in all, you didn't made a guide on "how to Tank", you made a guide on "how to build a small class of champs", and you phrased it in absolutes that are not true.

Nautilus, Maokai can function Toplane, and get more gold this way and scale harder. Plenty of Tanks don't need Catalyst and are still perfectly able to do their job, mostly among Supports. But your guide tells them nothing about how to do their job correctly.

The Yetii Rider1 votes

{quoted}

Re: Cho'gath, aren't his early clears horrendous?

No worse than Amumu's.

Re: Tank Supports:

Tank supporting is easy. You build Sightstone and Locket, and then you're providing plenty of tankiness to yourself and your team. Bond of Stone does your job for you even if you are afk in the middle of a team fight.

President Swa1n2 votes

Hi! Thanks for the great guide. I'm a top lane main and I was wondering if you have a suggestion for a first item when not jungling. I currently put mid as my secondary role, but after hearing your reasoning, I'm probably going to revert back to Top/Jungle. Thanks.

The Yetii Rider3 votes

Ah! I'm glad that you feel that way!

Unfortunately, top lane isn't a vacuum like the jungle. Items in lanes always depend on the matchup, whether you're winning or losing, enemy team comps, that kind of thing.

Generally, pure tanks have some issue with CSing properly under pressure, so I usually rush Bami's Cinder as a first item on tanks (including starting the game with a Ruby Crystal and 2 pots).

If the enemy team has no serious AD threats (very rare) I might skip the Sunfire Cape entirely and go straight into Spirit Visage. If the enemy laner is an AP top laner like Ryze, Teemo or Vladimir, I /wrists and cry myself to sleep. Then I rush Spectre's Cowl and build it into either BV or SV depending on how the matchup is going. BV if ahead, SV if behind.

President Swa1n1 votes

Haha, thanks for the pointers :)

For pretty much all of season 6, though, I've been told that corrupting pot was the standard start on top laners.

http://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/484/105/fdb.png

How do I determine which starting items to take?

The Yetii Rider4 votes

{quoted}

Haha, thanks for the pointers :)

For pretty much all of season 6, though, I've been told that corrupting pot was the standard start on top laners.

http://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/484/105/fdb.png

How do I determine which starting items to take?

Corrupting Potion isn't good for the health sustain. It's good for the trading power. If you're not looking to trade and go for an early kill, go for Ruby Crystal. Setting your build 500 gold back by buying an item you can't upgrade isn't worth unless you get kills.

Renekton, Darius, maybe Riven want Corrupting. Garen doesn't because he doesn't have mana. (Riven's health regen is THAT bad)

If you're against Teemo, Quinn, or Jax, buy Doran's Shield.

President Swa1n1 votes

Awesome, thanks for the help :D

EDIT: TBH this thread REALLY doesn't have anywhere near enough upvotes.

The Yetii Rider2 votes

I'm just a Gold V scrub, my voice doesn't mean much on the boards. It's alright. I've helped a few people, that means it was worth the thirty minutes it took to type it up. [slayer-pantheon-thumbs]

Melledoneus1 votes

I have to disagree with Doran's against Quinn. Her Q is AoE and her passive procs count as a bonus damage to her autos, so armor or health would be better.

The Yetii Rider1 votes

I just thought that the Health regen early would be useful against her. But yeah, if you've played the matchup a lot then Cloth 4 is probably better.

Melledoneus1 votes

Doran's shield is a joke. The passive doesn't do what it says either, since its reduced damage is mitigated by resistances, so that instead of 8 less damage you get 5 or 6 reduced, which is plain unfair.

I would rather build into my first tank item and have potions to survive the atrocious trial that is laning against Quinn. Although I usually swap lanes with my assassin so that they get a free lane and the mid laner can't kill me because they relied on laning against a squishier champion to get ahead.

TyrekGoldenspear2 votes

Full build Garen running into the enemy team with W activated.

Feels good to eat their full rotations and not care.

But getting there is so hard when I'm up against ranged champs in top.

How to Tank in this Meta, Step 2: Only Play Jungle (In Retrospect, This Should Probably Have Been Step 1)

Welp, time to play Garen Jungle, wish me luck!

Aeszarck1 votes

{quoted}

Welp, time to play Garen Jungle, wish me luck!

While rushing Catalyst of Aeons into Rod of Ages!

TyrekGoldenspear3 votes

"But Garen uses no mana QQ" - A Poor Garen main.

He needs no mana silly. his abilities are fueled by Demancian Justice.

Justice is his mana, it will proc RoA!

Dreadlocks2 votes

The only tanks in the game that have no important AP ratios are Sion and Poppy after their reworks.

item 3070 Shen

The Yetii Rider1 votes

[{quoted}](name=Red Rengo,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=onOJu2V1,comment-id=0017,timestamp=2016-07-15T12:14:11.027+0000)

item 3070 Shen

Is Shen still building tank? I thought he was having more success as a juggernaut.

Ralanr1 votes

Sion's shield has an AP ratio. I'd say it's important.

You could grab Righteous Glory if you can't make use of RoD I imagine.

The Yetii Rider3 votes

I guess. Tanks typically have pretty decent AP ratios though (because most of them are so old that they were released at a time when all abilities had AP ratios) so RoA is usually just the strictly better choice.

AFK Push2 votes

So does his E, but that is better for top lane or support sion. Since Sion already has infinitely scaling hp, you could just as easily get an armor item like item 3110 to get the mana you need for him and still be plenty tanky hp and armor wise.

Spoofghoul1 votes

no in combat sustain you say

item 3083 item 3083 item 3083

Ralanr5 votes

Warmogs heart works out of combat.

Spoofghoul1 votes

the 200% regen works in combat though and it aint unqiue

Ralanr4 votes

I honestly don't notice in combat regen unless it's Mundo or Volibear.

Spoofghoul1 votes

depends on the champion really sion or darius have pretty decent regen

add in a visage and grab runic armor

some scaling regen yellows and quints and you will for sure notice it did it once on sion, just going for max regen/hp ended up with 3 warmogs visage cinderhulk and armor boots

with full tank masteries got about 8k hp that game with 130 armor/mr and ofc the added damage reductions from ninja tabi and redsmite, 130 resistance was just enough to make penetration sort of useless but still have noticeable defense.

had some nasty ridiculous hp regen to boot and i promise you ive never been more tanky ever the regen was off the charts and with the damage reductions applied to their strongest dps with the shieldspam to boot they needed to burn through nearly 40k effective hp to kill me needless to say i bolted when i got low hp and returned 10 sec later with full hp pretty crazy shit lol

going for hp regen on the right champions can actually work really well it helps that sion can zone really well and kite melees decently aswell as having acces to a shield to keep enemies at bay every now and then to let the regen kick in and regen 1k hp before really engaging again and being threathening

Ralanr1 votes

Hmm...you know normally I'd say you're lacking resistances, but you have 8K health.

I'm probably one of the few Sion mains that haven't gotten higher than 5.4K in a game.

DeathBurst1 votes

Well I'm not a Sion main, but I do play him a lot still. And I usually don't go for full HP builds either, for what it's worth.

What do you use as Runes? Scaling Health yellows? Do you think Health Regen runes have some merit?

Ralanr1 votes

Armor yellows, scaling MR blues, ad reds and hybrid pen quints.

I don't grab health runes because I focus on farming early game. The defense of only high health has proven fickle to me in the past, so I make sure I have good resistances early game.

I could probably try health runes, but I'm not sure if it'd work well. Plus I still need to buy them.

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