"Don't focus their tank!"

Der Lindwurm·Feb 3, 2015·2 votes·1,001 views

"Stop focusing their tank, you noobs!"

I'm hearing things like this a lot anymore. But....... shouldn't it be the other way around? Get their tank(s) out of the way so you can engage the real damage doers unfettered? Tanks can get erased pretty quickly (as in, in 3-4 seconds instead of 2 seconds for a squishier champion in most cases) by a concerted attack if everyone works together. And the last thing you want anyway are enemy champions who are free to attack and do whatever they want since they're not under pressure for an extended period of time. Seems like I've lost a lot of games (ARAMs in particular) because the enemy team understood this but people on my own team kept trying to just bypass Dr. Mundo or Amumu or Nautilus to get to juicier targets further back, missing a lot of chances to isolate and quickly kill them. Or is it really some kind of unwritten official policy that you don't focus tanks?

9 Comments

DedriusFeb 3, 20154 votes

You are not suppose to focus tanks due to the fact that they are primarily there to soak damage while their backline damage dealers dish out damage. If you focus their tanks then you are leaving the true sources damage on the enemy team to do as they please. If the enemy mid and ADC are left alone while you focus their tanks they will rip your team apart in teamfights.

Unless their carries are 0-5 and deal no damage while their tanks are fed, focus the carries.

ProfDrDeathFeb 3, 20154 votes

Only the noobs say such a thing.

The AD carry is actually supposed to focus the tanks - or rather, the highest priority target they can safely attack. And in a standard teamfight, that are the tanky frontliners, as the AD carry cannot afford to dive past them for the squishies.

Hinro HonatoFeb 3, 20153 votes

Some times you don't have much of a choice but to focus the tank. If a renekton or garen is on your back line you're going to want to get them off of them or you won't have a back line.

SEKAIFeb 3, 20152 votes

If a tank takes 5 seconds of team effort to take down (1 guy) while the enemy bursties can pick up 2 to 3 heads on your squishies during that time would you still focus tank?

Because that's entirely the purpose of having tanks there, to make you panic so you will waste your time on them.

Ofc that's not saying you should completely ignore them and just dive to the back, since you will just die but you should never waste too much time on them, leave them to others who are geared for dealing with tanks.

Der LindwurmFeb 3, 20152 votes

{quoted}

If a tank takes 5 seconds of team effort to take down (1 guy) while the enemy bursties can pick up 2 to 3 heads on your squishies during that time would you still focus tank?

Yeah, I understand that's where people are coming from in theory when they say not to focus tanks, but what I see a lot of is Dr. Mundo (for example) pushing out in front of his team and harassing while my ADC and mid keep falling back and won't engage, forcing everyone else to fall back with them. Which in some situations might be a good idea, but in others it means the other team can camp and farm or push the lane with impunity. Then, if the enemy tank gets too bold but only 2-3 people on my team commit to trying to lock him down and kill him, we don't have enough firepower to erase him quickly enough and get destroyed when the rest of his team arrives a few seconds later and now it's 5 vs 2 or 3 since the tank still isn't totally dead. And then we get lectured by those who stayed back about how we're not supposed to target their tank.

Though another common scenario, like I mentioned, is that they actually want to just bypass the tanks if they're out in front. I have literally never seen this work.

Seems like people are overlooking an obvious solution simply because "you don't focus their tank".

SEKAIFeb 4, 20151 votes

Tanks should engage with tanks when situation demands.

Then mages can hopefully do some damage to their entire team during the mess, assassins and carries will then engage to clean up and together finishes the tank. (Many many champs have peels in their kit so it allows for some flexibility when things don't go exactly predicted)

While trying to apply this to every situation is prob not possible but you have to make every teamfight as closely as this.

ABlueQuakerFeb 3, 20152 votes

It's meant to be a team effort. Dealing with tanks is a weird thing because nowadays 'Tanks' - which are more and more often the likes of Irelia and Mundo and Gnar - can deal meaningful damage if they're left chipping away at your AD Carry. If you leave an Enemy Tank fighting 1v1 with one of your carries - they've done their job. It's you job as a team to not let that happen. Enemy Tank for your AD Carry is a bad trade in a teamfight.

Depending on the state of the game, and the nature of the Tank in question, there are three types of ways to play as a tank and, by extension, three types of ways to deal with them. Zoning Tanks are the types of Tanks that will tunnel-vision on on of your Carries and chase them from the fight while his team's carries deal damage unhindered. In this scenario, do as I stated above. Initiator tanks are the likes of Malphite and Gnar who want to dive into the back line and CC as many priority targets as possible in one go, dealing whatever damage they can as they go. The best way to do this is to apply pressure to the enemy team until they are forced to use that initiation on lower-priority targets. Counter-Engage tanks are generally supports (but there are some top lane Off-Tanks that fit this description), and are True Tanks. They provide utility for their team, peel, and some form of counter-initiation tool in their kit. Read: counter-initiation. Abilities such as Braum's Glacial Fissure and Unbreakable, or Alistar's Headbutt Pulverize are best used on clumped targets that have blown their CC and Mobility Abilities on initiation and burst and to mitigate said initiation abilities and initial burst. Play passively against these and poke them down from afar. They can't counter-engage if you never engage on them.

SmokingPuffinFeb 3, 20152 votes

The players who say that are almost universally bad at the game.

You kill what you can. If you can get a squishy target, you do it. If you can't, damaging the tank is better than damaging nothing.

TehNACHOFeb 3, 20151 votes

Ehh, it depends on who you're playing. The ADC for example in most cases can't practically reach the enemy back line without exposing themselves to the enemy frontline, which would very quickly lead to a dead ADC. This is also why ADCs like to optimize for tank busting, their targeting options are usually limited to only being able to attack the enemy frontline. Not because it's the best theoretical move, but it's the move that allows them to survive the longest.

On the other end of the spectrum though, most Fighters have no business trying to fight enemy Frontliners. There are certain Fighters with tank-busting utility Darius , but they're often best designed for threatening enemy squishies and have the tankiness to survive long enough to reach them. Most dive based Fighters, along with Assassins, almost always optimize for focusing squishies because for them, it is the best move they can make.