Why i'm not happy with going as a Tank Support anymore

CarameI Frappe··45 votes·3,778 views

Truth be told, I love Leona ... she is my main. Being a tanky support and taking on the world is how I got to Plat 5 last Season. Everything about being able to take on the entire team and come out alive was always a great feeling to bear. However as time went on, no longer can I even manage to survive much of anything anymore. This is not me saying that Tank Supports are no longer valid, because they still have great uses (Braum with his shield, Alistar with his headbutt / knockup, ect.) but as it comes to being tanky ... they don't feel tanky right now.

Katarina Leblanc AP Assassins can easily destroy me now, despite building item 3190 item 3401 and such. Granted I know i'm not supposed to be as tanky as a top laner or jungler who's Rammus but even still, the lack of defense is clearly showing itself. I have to ban Vayne now because she shreds my armor and can 3 shot me even if the ADC is behind late game. How am I suppose to save / protect my allies if I can't even survive most of the damage now?

I feel like Riot's been buffing damage, but not providing us tank options due to how Bruisers / Divers have been taking advantage of such things (like how Riven has been using Colossus Keystone) and how items like item 3742 got nerfed quite a bit because it was too good at release. I feel like in order to be useful as a Support, I instead go with champions like Nami Janna because items like item 3107 item 3504 item 3222 (basically utility / mobility / ect.) are what is working well. I just had a ranked game where I didn't die and did more for my team than what I could as a tank support. This saddens me, I want to provide my team with a good tank support but not die like a squishy .... le sigh

102 Comments

Ralanr9 votes

Support tanks are usually less tanky than top or jungle tanks because they have to sacrifice their income to another laner.

But I've been feeling pretty tanky on Tahm support so idk.

ForFoxSakes24 votes

Jungle tanks now also suck because of their super slow clear speed and the enemy jungler can invade to steal your camps and you cant do anything about it. Camp steals hurt so much more with the higher timer on spawns

Snowplosion2 votes

For some reason most the tank junglers are hanging around a 44-45 percent win rates...

Ralanr2 votes

Slow clears I'd imagine.

50000000000000001 votes

No way! Tanks can clear raptor camps easily! No other junglers than tanks have AoE clears! </s>

Snowplosion1 votes

I'd imagine Amumu would be fine in the new jungle, but his stats say the opposite.

50000000000000001 votes

I tried to pick up Maokai jungle because he can insta clear raptors with stacked E, but with no luck.

Snowplosion1 votes

I feel like the Bruiser junglers like Vi and Hecarim do the job of tanks as well as they do, but they can also clear and duel much better.

Penns2 votes

I also feel like a tank support is literally unkillable as ap assassin with item 3401 and item 3190 so idk either lol.

PB4UAME4 votes

lmao, how? That's 60 mr, and only a few hundred health. Also, the cooldown on locket's shield is longer than most mid's ults at a minute and a half and isn't reduced by CDR. Not to mention, you can just wait 2 seconds for the shields to ware of then blow them up-- especially since by the time the support has boots, sightstone, FotM and a fucking Locket a solo laner should be at 3-4 items.

Penns3 votes

Because Braum fully blocks the damage of 1 spell, Tahm has "2 health bars", Leona has a like ~80 MR steroid on W that lasts for 3 or 6 seconds and so on... And its not like, if I hit my ult with Fizz, I can just wait for the shields to wear off and blow them up. I cant even blow them up with the raw stats from those items lol.

Ralanr6 votes

Well tanks are supposed to survive assassin burst and supports are supposed to make the job of assassins difficult.

I don't see the problem.

Penns3 votes

Sure it is, Im not saying they should die to a non fed Fizz combo with FOTM and Locket. What Im saying is that "AP Assassins can easily destroy me now, despite building item 3401 item 3190 and such. " doesnt make sense because they cant.

Silverjust2 votes

I agree (what CDR?)

Very Hard Engage2 votes

{quoted}

Support tanks are usually less tanky than top or jungle tanks because they have to sacrifice their income to another laner.

But I've been feeling pretty tanky on Tahm support so idk.

oh so you need items to get tanky, you dont say

Ralanr6 votes

Why yes. Items definitely help one feel very durable so they can survive in fights. But I also said I've been feeling pretty tanky as Tahm on a support budget so who knows?

THE RlVER KlNG3 votes

I don't even bother with Tahm support anymore. You either play him into a Thresh/Naut lane and eat your ADC constantly, and then they outscale you, or you get denied the ability to show up vs like a Karma/Janna/Nami. You have to play a really coordinated aggro lane, or rely on an ADC that can farm and rotate well, which is rare, to be useful.

Mid lane Tahm is where it's at. TahmKench item 3027 item 3152 item 3001 item 3285 item 3742 item 3047

He's pretty bad right now, since most meta top laners either outrange him, out-stat him, or outscale him, and he doesn't push all that well, and his jungle is leagues worse now that he doesn't have any bufflings to spit.

Oglaf7 votes

{quoted}

Support tanks are usually less tanky than top or jungle tanks because they have to sacrifice their income to another laner.

But I've been feeling pretty tanky on Tahm support so idk.

And they have to sacrifice item slot(s) for less-than-ideal tank items, putting them behind actual tanks even further.

item 3401 +item 2045 make you kinda beefy, but neither can compete with true tank items.

Maximum Morde9 votes

Yeah, tank melee supports are free kills early game so long as you and your adc know how to play. I personally love seeing someone lock in Braum, Leona, Tahm Kench oe Thresh. I know it means me and my duo partner are about to get fed as fuck just popping them over and over

Glory ln Death1 votes

Sion support laughs at your theory.

Maximum Morde1 votes

Sion is broke as hell tho, and thankfully never played :)

Glory ln Death3 votes

Hey, man - he's been through a lot! Just because he has a few battle scars here and there - and a metal stub for a leg - and a dagger in his skull - and a crown for a jaw - and a furnace powered by the souls of his enemies in his stomach... Doesn't mean he's broken!

Darkeus9 votes

Heck. I just feel bad as a support main in League right now. Lol

Kitty Hole9 votes

I can understand your frustration. A tank support's only form of aggression is to put him/herself into harms way. This can make or break your game with one decision. Whereas Magicka supports harass you from a safe distance while also sustaining the carry. Magicka supports feel like the meta right now, ive found that certain tanks synergize with certain adc's.

Like Leona -> Lucian Braum -> Ashe Alistar -> Kalista Thresh -> Vayne

It sucks and it seems like there really aren't items that will help your teammates that a magicka support could make better use of. To me, just building tank doesn't sound very supportive.

DarkRitual9 votes

Leona item 3071 item 3748 item 3022 item 2303 item 3158 item 3053 I'm helping us win by making the enemies dead.

xevi3 votes

death is the best cc

inb4 Darius support

kasfas1 votes

I actually have the best synergy with Darius support according to riot...

Ralanr2 votes

Mine is Leblanc...

JoeMG2 votes

Got a bit of a spanking from a Darius support recently ;(

drakuIa4212 votes

atleast you build sightstone

CasterGilgamesh5 votes

[{quoted}](name=Kitty Hole,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=p313KfHQ,comment-id=0009,timestamp=2016-12-14T23:28:00.950+0000)

Magicka

have you been playing too much skyrim?

Kitty Hole2 votes

eso xd

Supreme Senpai692 votes

" A tank support's only form of aggression is to put him/herself into harms way."

Well versed. In a team game where you've never met anyone else before now, why would you choose this? Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn't, but it depends entirely on your team. Why put your victory in the hands of RNG? You can instead play a mage support and kill the enemy yourself.

It feels so bad, but that's sorta what's what right now. I can't consistently win on tanks, but I can on mages.

YoungFarmer4 votes

I always felt that AP/Mage supports outclassed the fuck out of tank supports, I play braum and go full tank and can barely tank any damage and then Lux or zyra builds item 3092 and 100-0 the enemy adc on her own. According to champ.gg (obviously not perfect but still an idea) the top 10 supports are: Janna Zyra Brand Nami Morgana Blitzcrank Karma Sona Soraka Zilean

HazyCloud74 votes

Eh. Shielding/healing itemization is totally broken right now and if you try to point it out people dog pile on you. That's why ranged supports are so dominant. And I know everybody has access to the same items, but the likes of Thresh/Leona/Braum are not going to be benefit from healing/shielding power anywhere near as much as ranged supports will.

AtheosisX4 votes

Stop building tank support items and just build pure tank items. Tank support items are a trap.

Edit: Aside from Face of the Mountain.

Flaherty3 votes

Maybe it has more to do with the items you're building, locket seems to be pretty bad right now from what I'm seeing and you seem to consistently buy it when playing a tank support even if the enemy team has barely any magic damage

Skorch3 votes

I want a new hard core MR tank item really badly.

bad arcade kitty1 votes

{quoted}

I want a new hard core MR tank item really badly.

wtf

do you know how ridiculously strong is the stuff like maw and visage?

Skorch6 votes

What if im playing naut, visage is useless, and maw is for damage dealers to survive, not pure tanks.

aspects13 votes

tanks cant make lc$ big play$

Lintu Puck3 votes

maybe not big damage plays, but tanks that can stun entire teams can win teammate fights and matches. sound like big d**k plays to me

aspects12 votes

tell that to rammus

Linna Excel3 votes

The problem with tanky supports is they don't have a lot of money to build a lot of tanky items. So they are stuck with support items that don't give them much armor. I mean the only armor item a tank support gets these days is item 3190 and that's not nearly enough. 30 bleeping armor on a full build support tank isn't enough! Just about every tank support prefers item 3401 to item 2303 which limits their item slots, making things worse.

So if riot wants to fix this, then they either have to encourage tank supports to buy real tank items or add more items that favor tanky supports.

bad arcade kitty2 votes

Sion is the best support for the last two patches (if not three) with 55% winrate

guess what kind support he is, tanky or squishy

it's just that leona, bram and ali are rather overnerfed currently, not some generic problem with tanky supprots

Danjeng7 votes

Sion support has had a high win rate for a while now. Sion support also has a very low playrate. Do the math.

KoKoboto1 votes

Well the only defensive steroid Leona has is her W and if that's on cooldown you're gonna die really fast. Also because they removed the health on Locket you are actually not as tanky because you have little bonus health to go with your extra resistances early-mid game.

I feel on a lot of tank supports going locket early, although good for the team, will screw yourself over really hard if you ever find yourself needing to do stuff. Locket gives no CDR or health so you're only buying it for the active, pretty good armor but mediocre magic resist. I've been playing a ton of Kench and I just go locket 3rd or 4th item and build selfish resistances and CDR like Frozen Heart and Spirit Visage.

Give Eye of the Equinoxitem 2303 10% CDR please!

DarkRitual4 votes

I honestly just ignore Locket now. You're more useful as a diver living longer with warmogs than trying to shield your team but just dieing and not being able to cc anyone after going in.

KoKoboto2 votes

Yep, I think Rito went the right direction with Locket you don't NEED to buy it every single game. If I notice that the enemy has a lot of burst or an assassin, things that do damage in an instant than I would go locket. Otherwise I will build tanky or more AP, thus enabling my champion to do what they do better.

DarkRitual3 votes

Banshees or Randuins is usually better as a single item against assassins though. Locket is really only useful against significant AoE damage, and only sometimes since it's cooldown gated. I wish they'd adjust the stats so it can get some HP back on it. Then I might actually want to buy it from time to time.

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