I Quit Maining Tanks after 4 Years

PapaGreg21··37 votes·11,313 views

I recently gave up playing tanks after 4 years of learning how to best perform that role. It has taken me awhile, but I realize that I'm choosing inferior champions to play with and the game simply is too hard to not take advantage of meta champs. Over the last year, this is what I have found is bad concerning the role:

1)-Scuttle changes make your already slow first clear twice as slow (for junglers). You can't fight the early duelist junglers and if you don't get one of the first 2 scuttles you are screwed. This was easily the worst jungle change I have seen since I started in season 4.

2)-You have too many counters. Before you had to worry about ADC's that build armor pen. Now armor pen is everywhere and bruisers are dealing true damage.

3)-Their kits are just inferior to a lot of the more overloaded champs and have much lower ceilings. Think of all the things in somebody like Lee Sin, Kayn, Yasuo, Ekko and Irelia's kits. The only one that has anything close is Thresh and maybe Ornn.

4)-There is a noticable difference in the amount and quality of skins/narrative/attention being paid to tanks over ADC's and mobile carries. This isn't a gameplay issue but it reflects the importance that Riot has placed on those kind of champs, which I think is more of a company viewpoint.

5)-For laning tanks, CS is simply easier to secure with a more offensive oriented champion because it makes last hitting easier. This also allows you to farm faster, aquire gold quicker, and reach your items faster than slower clear champs.

6)If a tank is ever popular in normal play or LCS, they don't last long.

The easiest way to recognize that tanks are really in a bad spot is look at the last few months where ADCs have been out of the meta. You would think that makes tanks really thrive because ADCs are their counter because of the range and armor pen but it hasn't given any rise to the playrates of tanks in the least. In fact, it seems like there are less tank players than ever nowaways. Tanks should have weaknesses but right now, there are simply too many.

41 Comments

Tahminatrix 10 votes

When a tank can only tank based on how many enemy champions it manages to put a hard cc on and how often they can...

This is what the game has turned into for tanks, if youre out of cc, then youre dead. It doesn't matter if youre supposed to get hit, getting hit is the end of the world, even for tanks.

If youre a tank without any meaningful cc, you are going to die very very fast.

Void Kaiju3 votes

I find the biggest issue for tanks is that they get crushed during the span of a single crowd control spell even if they get Merc treads. That and every non ADC tank killer is meta right now which spells hard times for them. That and the constant presence of multiple divers/assassins means it is very hard to be proactive, because if you get one the other will jump your team while your stuff is on cooldown.

I think overall they're still in an alright place (with a couple who could really use some help). Pretty much all of them except chogath have damage mitigation baked into their kits that makes their effective hp far larger and reduces the effectiveness of %hp damage. They can do their job but the meta is making that job significantly less enjoyable since you don't get to play aggro unless the game is pretty much already won by your damage dealers.

deadlychuck6 votes

Which really means that you should probably be stacking damage and CDR on tanks instead of armor and health... kinda sad

RogueWill6 votes

at that point you are better playing Pyke or Rakan where you can still apply the same amount of CC (or comparable) while still have access to your other utility assets. The point of a tank was that you could apply more than one rotation of hard CC, and damage throw at you was mostly wasted

DeusVult2 votes

Nautilus laughs in E cycling during a fight

Death by Glamour9 votes

unless I get item 3193 I melt in 3 seconds

NekoniClaws7 votes

Yeah I felt SUPER MELTY on Leona a couple games recently. I don't have to survive lane / push to roam / and clear, so as a tank sup I'm a little safer, but even after that I get in situations where I can't build anything to be tank because the enemy team has EVERYTHING covered.

There is %health, true damage in IE, true damage in conqueror, true damage in kits, the 2 ignites that get used on me, armor pen, armor shred, lethality after my armor's been shredded, health-checking, whatever press-the-attack does and on-hit-mixed damage. Oh and don't forget that old strat of using AP or actually taking a tank buster.

I'm kind of lost. I want to start stacking health because %health is rarer than all these shreds, but there's not much health in the support tank items.

Nea1043 votes

Indeed.

Plus, the absurd nerf to support items, especially item 3302 (already gutted): now you have even less sustain, because you start with only 2 potions. And this is so bad for champions who rely on sustain.

They have helped poking/bursting supports once again :D

Teridax684 votes

I sympathize with this. I used to main tanky champions in the jungle, and for past few years it feels like League just really, really doesn't want anyone to be actually durable. Everything is predicated on how quickly people can die, and this rule has even been extended to tanks, whose contribution in durability has been sidelined in favor of spamming CC and large amounts of base damage. There had always been a problem in overlap between fighters and tanks, but now the problem is worse than ever, because now tanks are also being pushed to get kills. Even from a thematics perspective, most of the bios and lore we've gotten for tanks recently emphasizes their eagerness to fight and kill stuff, with Galio as a prime example. It feels like Riot just doesn't know anymore what to do with tanks in their game, and that they perhaps don't even want tanks to really exist anymore, which is why tanks have instead been awkwardly relabanced into these bruisers with more CC.

NanoFlameZero4 votes

{quoted}

I recently gave up playing tanks after 4 years of learning how to best perform that role. It has taken me awhile, but I realize that I'm choosing inferior champions to play with and the game simply is too hard to not take advantage of meta champs. Over the last year, this is what I have found is bad concerning the role:

1)-Scuttle changes make your already slow first clear twice as slow (for junglers). You can't fight the early duelist junglers and if you don't get one of the first 2 scuttles you are screwed. This was easily the worst jungle change I have seen since I started in season 4.

2)-You have too many counters. Before you had to worry about ADC's that build armor pen. Now armor pen is everywhere and bruisers are dealing true damage.

3)-Their kits are just inferior to a lot of the more overloaded champs and have much lower ceilings. Think of all the things in somebody like Lee Sin, Kayn, Yasuo, Ekko and Irelia's kits. The only one that has anything close is Thresh and maybe Ornn.

4)-There is a noticable difference in the amount and quality of skins/narrative/attention being paid to tanks over ADC's and mobile carries. This isn't a gameplay issue but it reflects the importance that Riot has placed on those kind of champs, which I think is more of a company viewpoint.

5)-For laning tanks, CS is simply easier to secure with a more offensive oriented champion because it makes last hitting easier. This also allows you to farm faster, aquire gold quicker, and reach your items faster than slower clear champs.

6)If a tank is ever popular in normal play or LCS, they don't last long.

The easiest way to recognize that tanks are really in a bad spot is look at the last few months where ADCs have been out of the meta. You would think that makes tanks really thrive because ADCs are their counter because of the range and armor pen but it hasn't given any rise to the playrates of tanks in the least. In fact, it seems like there are less tank players than ever nowaways. Tanks should have weaknesses but right now, there are simply too many.

They feel real bad ATM. They have the worst items in league without a doubt.

Critmaster Garen3 votes

{quoted}

5)-For laning tanks, CS is simply easier to secure with a more offensive oriented champion because it makes last hitting easier. This also allows you to farm faster, aquire gold quicker, and reach your items faster than slower clear champs.

for laning tanks, the cs isnt as important as the xp.

even if you miss 20 cs over a fighter that you may lane against, youre still going to by useful through your utility.

its why a lot of lane tanks often forfeit their lanes and sometimes a good amount of cs, in the favour of roams to their carry lanes.

while getting as much cs as possible is alwyays peferable on any champion, missing cs for a cross map play is more acceptable for a tank than a fighter for example.

AirKingNeo3 votes

lol what maokai was meta for years, what do you mean if a tank sees competitive play their days are numbered?

tanks have had their counters removed. Armor pen has been nerfed repeatedly. Tanks aren't weak to healing anymore. Tanks have waveclear.

MrFawknSunshine3 votes

you are 100% correct. too much true damage in game. runes are shit for tanks . they get out classed in lane and bullied out by fighters/juggernauts who start with the same hp and armor/mr stats as tanks while having better damage and better runes.

Rabbi Shekelberg3 votes

I just want to play Shen top. I get poked and outsustained every matchup, can’t cs under tower because of the q nerfs, and whenever I go in I get outraded anyway. Every keystone on him is trash except grasp which is decent at most melee matchups (you lose every trade even with grasp up so why even bother risking your landing phase for 5 max hp). Using his kit feels like shit because there aren’t any attack speed item for tanks, or many cdr items for non mana tanks. And if I take precision for the attack speed, I lose even more cs and cool down on the already ridiculous cool down on his ult.

Also you don’t literally can’t waveclear without one (usually 2) waveclear items, which rushing core component of one of them delays your first item if you are against AP, and the other one doesn’t grant you hp at all, so have fun against ranged tumors.

Hayaishi2 votes

Actually if ADCs are meta so are tanks because tanks keep them safe.

When tanks are not meta is because assassins are due to assassins simply dont have to worry about them or anyone for that matter

LTK KoRo6 votes

But the problem is, if ADCs are meta, tanks are meta but they have negative fun of playing. Im a tank player too, and there's nothing worse than being cut down by a Tristana in 1.5 second, because she's an ADC, and she got to rightclick me.

Moons of Jupiter10 votes

{quoted}

Actually if ADCs are meta so are tanks because tanks keep them safe.

When tanks are not meta is because assassins are due to assassins simply dont have to worry about them or anyone for that matter

Assassins make several classes redundant when they are strong, and this pattern isn't unique to this game.

RookPusher3 votes

{quoted}

Actually if ADCs are meta so are tanks because tanks keep them safe.

When tanks are not meta is because assassins are due to assassins simply dont have to worry about them or anyone for that matter

Supports keep the safe.

Rathar Dashing2 votes

I think the relationship works the other way, too.

If tanks are strong, ADCs are meta because they're the best at dealing DPS to tanks.

D4M2X02 votes

[deleted]

French Courtesan1 votes

and being plat 2 shitting on challengers was somehow okay in your opinion?

D4M2X01 votes

[deleted]

French Courtesan1 votes

You havent been diamond 1 at the end of season whether you stopped playing or couldnt handle it does not matter, you are plat 2 and you are complaining about not being able to pick champs that arent meta. Meanwhile you are playing singed that is very fucking meta.

D4M2X01 votes

[deleted]

French Courtesan1 votes
Terozu2 votes

You're doing this now?

Right after the tank buffs?

Bijeesny3 votes

{quoted}

You're doing this now?

Right after the tank buffs?

Buffs? Lmao, the only champ that got useful buff was leona.

Terozu1 votes

...

Leona.

Had the worst of the buffs.

It is in fact even a nerf early game.

Bijeesny2 votes

W - Eclipse COOLDOWN 14 seconds ⇒ 14/13/12/11/10 seconds

I don't see how it affected her early but okay :D

Terozu2 votes

PBE had it also have lower numbers at lower ranks, until it hit rank 3.

I got confused. My bad.

Alzon2 votes

Her only change was her W CD now scales down with rank. This means its already-low downtime will be practically nonexistent, since it’s often maxed first. Leona can now soak as much damage as a top lane tank with twice her income. With zero downtime at 40% CDR. unless she gets kited (like that’s even possible for her).

The Amumu change was a straight buff, and I’m one of the people who see the Nautilus changes as a buff as it’s more total HP shielded and more AA resets. Rammus and Maokai buffs were kinda meh. A little more scaling for Rammus and more jungle clear for Maokai. Tahm, however, got shafted, and Riot called it a “buff.” He lost a good quarter of his total power budget with the one ability that does anything in a teamfight on a doubled cooldown.

So no, Leona definitely did not receive the worst of the buffs. Not even close.

Terozu1 votes

PBE also had lower damage reduction and damage numbers at lower ranks.

I got confused im sorry.

TheSingularity2 votes

100% agree.

The sheer weakness of tanks has moved me off tha class and out of the jungle. Into mid lane and onto mages (the next best thing for me as I still have utility).

You remember quill coat? Made a post in gp+ that may be worth the read if you're as avid a tank lover as I am.

French Courtesan1 votes

1)-Scuttle changes make your already slow first clear twice as slow (for junglers). You can't fight the early duelist junglers and if you don't get one of the first 2 scuttles you are screwed. This was easily the worst jungle change I have seen since I started in season 4.

You, a tank (a class that is fully teamfight focused), have issues with not being able to fight a duelist? Are you seriously bitching about? Nice buddy.

2)-You have too many counters. Before you had to worry about ADC's that build armor pen. Now armor pen is everywhere and bruisers are dealing true damage.

Now adcs dont do damage to you and bruisers can actually fight you. Why is that an issue? Oh I guess it was better when picking tank(again a fully teamfight focused class) meant win by default againist a fighter(a largely duelists and divers with bad engages and low CC), all you needed was tabi sunfire. Yeah that was fun I guess.

3)-Their kits are just inferior to a lot of the more overloaded champs and have much lower ceilings.

I am sorry, what? Tanks are class full of champions that have CC chains, %max hp damage, most of them deal magic damage on lane where rushing magic resist means suicide, build cheap items, scale from defensive stats, posses unrivaled engage spells and most of them have moblity. If I am correct only two tanks without a single dash are Cho gath and Singed. Whose kit is overloaded?

Think of all the things in somebody like Lee Sin, Kayn, Yasuo, Ekko and Irelia's kits. The only one that has anything close is Thresh and maybe Ornn.

Lee Kayn Yas and Ekko have much higher skill ceiling than tanks, dont act like tanks arent second easiest champion class in the game thanks.

4)-There is a noticable difference in the amount and quality of skins/narrative/attention being paid to tanks over ADC's and mobile carries.

Might be because noone wants to play tanks? I mean seriously go to twitch.tv and find one tank main. Tanks in this game are inherently flawed to be popular. And if they are popular then they are broken.

This isn't a gameplay issue but it reflects the importance that Riot has placed on those kind of champs, which I think is more of a company viewpoint.

Why would you pull resources into something noone wants to play or to play againist?

5)-For laning tanks, CS is simply easier to secure with a more offensive oriented champion because it makes last hitting easier.

No.

This also allows you to farm faster, aquire gold quicker, and reach your items faster than slower clear champs.

Just no buddy, tanks can rush that tabi sunfire combo and they can lane without being bothered 24/7.

6)If a tank is ever popular in normal play or LCS, they don't last long.

TANKS ARE LITERALLY 100% PICKED ON LCS. 3-4 tanks per game every single lcs game. WHAT are you talking about.

The easiest way to recognize that tanks are really in a bad spot is look at the last few months where ADCs have been out of the meta.

https://www.leagueofgraphs.com/champions/stats/nautilus/top/diamond https://www.leagueofgraphs.com/champions/stats/sion/top/diamond https://www.leagueofgraphs.com/champions/stats/malphite/top/diamond https://www.leagueofgraphs.com/champions/stats/singed/top/diamond https://www.leagueofgraphs.com/champions/stats/ornn/top/diamond https://www.leagueofgraphs.com/champions/stats/chogath/top/diamond

worst champion on this list is cho gath with 47% wr. Thats struggle? People onetrick ryze with 44% win rate and get challengers. Mind that this is diamond + elo.

You would think that makes tanks really thrive because ADCs are their counter because of the range and armor pen but it hasn't given any rise to the playrates of tanks in the least.

Maybe because they are fucking boring?

In fact, it seems like there are less tank players than ever nowaways. Tanks should have weaknesses but right now, there are simply too many.

They have only one weakness, a player that is playing him. Tanks have overloaded kits with tons of uncleansable CC #knockups. Literally only thing that is holding you down is you yourself.

BigFBear1 votes

I checked your profile and match history. This is no shaming: You are Silver 1 MMR in Solo Queue and you mostly play ARAM. The few ranked games you have played are a good time ago and back then you played 2 games then pause for 8-10 days, make another 2, pause for a few days and so on... Ofc u will not climb if you play like that. But you still have 61% winrate with Shyvana (she isnt a pure tank per definition but she is tanky af) and you have 56% winrate with Rammus. These are your most played champs. Idk what you complaining about. This is good winrate, why not continue?

Actually Rammus is second best Jungler in Silver+ Amumu is 4th best. https://www.leagueofgraphs.com/champions/stats/jungle/silver/by-winrate

But what i can see is: you have a very high deathcount in your games. Blaming the Meta for that is pretty weak. Your Kda is way below silver avarage. Maybe you should rewatch some of your matches and try to figure out your bad habbits. That what i do from time to time. Btw. i am otp Voli Jungle only (full tank). A champ with the lowest pickrate in Jungle. People often tell me "rofl why play Voli in 2018? he is so useless" blablabla. I climb pretty good with him (Plat 2 Promos atm). Maybe tanks are a bit harder than in Cinderhulk-Meta but that doesnt mean you cant climb with him out of Silver/Gold/Plat. Just stay with Shyvana, farm as much as you can and destroy enemy team. And play continuously not with 10 days breaks in between. I bet you wil climb.

SirPurrr1 votes

A lot of this is untrue. I'd take a tank over Lee Sin in almost any game if it's played well. The main issue is the early game and some of the champions you listed, such as Ekko and Kayn are not strong there either. In fact, if Ekko wasn't played almost exclusively by mains with a 1% play rate, I bet he'd be performing pretty poorly. He's not bad but there are a lot of subtleties to him. They can't duel a lot of junglers and tanks often outscale them into late too (team comp and skill based). Some tanks are struggling yes, but not all. Rammus for example is in a great spot.

PapaGreg211 votes

A lot of this is true. You were incorrect in your first sentence

JimqD1 votes

Tanks? You mean slightly weaker super minions?

Sire Hippington1 votes

agree with everything but the last part:

The easiest way to recognize that tanks are really in a bad spot is look at the last few months where ADCs have been out of the meta. You would think that makes tanks really thrive because ADCs are their counter because of the range and armor pen but it hasn't given any rise to the playrates of tanks in the least

Tanks like adc heavy metas, and they dislike bruisers, while bruisers dislike adc+tank metas. Yes, the damage from adc is dangerous for tanks, but tanks excel at either makeing sure their own adc can deal his full damage, or at shutting down the enemie adc with some good engage+cc befor he really does much damage. The mistake many people do is thinking that tanks funktion as damage sponges, that's more the juggernaut way of teamfighting, tanks deliver a lot impact with upfront burst and CC, and while they prefer staying alive for multiple rotations, they can have enough impact with their initial combo so dieing to quickly is not as bad for their impact(still feels bad though) They might not work to well 1v1 vs strong adc, but combined with their team they thrive in adc heavy metas.

Now Bruisers is a different thing, they don't really profit as much from a tank frontlineing, they are not as vulnerable to CC unless it's combined with high damage(aka a strong adc in the back) and they have enough survivabillity to basically ignore the damage from tanks past lane, while also haveing enough damage to take down tanks. Tanks don't like bruisers unless the tank is supported by a strong adc that can kill the bruoser duering the tanks CC.

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