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What makes tanks so privileged?

bluefrosst·12/24/2017, 4:05:41 AM·4 votes·544 views

Looking mostly at how low variance the class is, along with tanks almost always having SOMETHING broken on any given patch. I don't play tanks myself, I don't find them that enjoyable to play, so I may have some things wrong.

This is my opinion. Tanks fill a role of absorbing damage and bringing crowd control and that's it. They're supposed to be very hard to blow up. However, why do we see countless games of full tank champions TOPPING damage charts? The problem is that once you give tanks a modicum of damage, they'll do way too much because they live so long that they get multiple full rotations in a teamfight.

This leads to my next point. One of the WEAKNESSES of tanks has historically been the laning phase. Then why do they get to rush Bramble Vest and Ninja Tabi against people who choose the strategy of picking a lane dominant champion, say...Renekton, the classic "I want to destroy you in lane" champion. You decide to rely on the win condition of building a lead on the tank so that they can't scale. Oh wait, they got Bramble Vest and Ninja Tabi (hell, even just Ninja Tabi seems to suffice) and now they don't have to respect your stronger laning phase and they kinda just win the lane from there. It also doesn't even cost the tank that much. Tanks having access to Grievous Wounds would be fine IMO if the tank had to complete Thornmail to get it. Compare this to Executioner's Calling, Ignite, and Morellonomicon. These are the other UNIVERSAL ways to get Grievous Wounds. Executioner's Calling is a dead end for anyone not building full damage or at least a lot of damage items. Ignite takes a summoner spell slot. A top laner would rather have Teleport for global pressure. Unsealed Spellbook isn't for everyone either. Furthermore, if you DO take Ignite and you don't get an early kill, well you're probably boned because you'll lose so much trying to walk back to lane. Morellonomicon is a FULL item commitment. While just about every AP mid DOES buy this item, it also requires that you get someone low enough. Bramble Vest has next to no downside compared to these other options.

Okay, say you want to opt for a split push strategy. Keep the tank from using his teamfight strength by pulling his team across the map. First off, not only are most champions that fill the role FUCKED by Bramble Vest and/or Ninja Tabi rush (Fiora, Yasuo, Riven, Irelia to an extent...), but also you can just take Demolish and now tanks not named Shen can fill a split push role too. I understand Riot want to allow champions to be played in diverse ways, and Demolish does a good job in this regard. It just shoves a lot of champions out of the meta because now you have no reason to pick an actual split pusher when you can just take Demolish on Maokai/Ornn/insert whatever tank is broken at the time here.

Third. Tanks are just never...useless. When was the last time you flamed your mid or your ADC for being useless? Now when was the last time you flamed your tank player for being useless? Tanks need to be higher variance, and you need to be able to completely shut a tank out of the game. If I flame horizon a Malphite as Riven and solo kill him twice in lane, they should have NO WAY BACK INTO THE GAME, they should be donezo right then and there. I should be able to just straight kill that guy under his tower.

Can someone explain to me why tanks seem to be so privileged? IMO tank players are basically the same as egirl support players. No skill required AT ALL, with the added bonus of Riot having some kind of hard-on for them. I guess 7.9-7.13 have been the only five patches in the last two and a half years where there has been incentive to pick a squishy team comp. I loved watching teams execute no-tank comps in competitive.

10 Comments

FireDrizzle12/24/2017, 4:43:00 AM3 votes

If a carry isnt killed in a fight and they have enough gold they carry a fight, but if the tank hasnt got ahead of his team you need to leave him alive and focus his team, allowing him to put out a lot of damage if he has some.

"Compare this to Executioner's Calling, Ignite, and Morellonomicon. These are the other UNIVERSAL ways to get Grievous Wounds. Executioner's Calling is horribly inefficient in terms of raw stats (You only get 525 gold worth of AD)."

Paying 240g for grievous wounds is a bargain. Bramble vest has 700g in stats but costs 1000g. It has return damage yeah, but that is not so strong if the item is rushed and the grievous wounds dont last as long and arent applied through harrass stopping healing off minions. Bramble vest does outscale executioners but your criticism of executioners calling is nonsense honestly. The actual downside of executioners calling is its usually a dead end item if you arent an adc. i do agree about having grievous wounds on thornmail only though, with bramble vest getting stronger with armour you build there is even less reason than ever to upgrade.

"Third. Tanks are just never...useless. When was the last time you flamed your mid or your ADC for being useless? Now when was the last time you flamed your tank player for being useless? Tanks need to be higher variance, and you need to be able to completely shut a tank out of the game. If I flame horizon a Malphite as Riven and solo kill him twice in lane, they should have NO WAY BACK INTO THE GAME, they should be donezo right then and there. I should be able to just straight kill that guy under his tower. "

You cant take away a champs abilities by killing them, so they arent as uselss as others behind, no. What would you suggest? I mean the flipside is tanks arent snowballing like carry champs when they get a lot of kills.

Escheton12/24/2017, 4:51:32 AM3 votes

Tanks need bramble because hp/5 boosters have been nerfed and lane phase is notably shorter. Meaning that bruisers quickly outsustain tanks that aren't Cho or Maokai. On top of already having significantly more kill pressure.

Further, bramble and tabis suck against anything that isn't an auto attacking bruiser. No health, no MR and notably no tenacity. Meaning any AP jungler or mid would still shred whoever is forced into buying them to survive lanephase.

SEKAI12/24/2017, 5:09:09 AM3 votes

What makes tanks so privileged?... Looking mostly at how low variance the class is,

You must have never seen the marksman class.

At least only a couple of tanks are problem children reking shits, meanwhile it's the reverse for the marksmen where only a couple from the class are not some kind of big trouble.

AR URF12/24/2017, 6:39:34 AM1 votes

The tanks I find to be the problem are those that have innate bonus resistances such as Sej's frost armor. Rammus's W. Malphite's Passive. Poppy's w passive etc. In my opinion the reason why I hate tanks is because of the whole mentality behind tanks and how riot has worked them over the seasons. Basically in these days the mentality behind the players that play tanks is this. "I build armor nad MR so that I never die in teamfights" And riot seems to support this way of thinking, which is a shame when you're getting outsustained as a juggernaut or ADC.

And due to that thinking people complain when champs that are designed to shred tanks do just that. IMO this game needs more tank shredders.

Nea10412/27/2017, 7:38:10 PM1 votes

Atm basically everyone can melt a tank al lalong the game, from Xerath to Tristana :)