No darius, no renekton, sure you have camille who has been a staple for quite a few patches now and jax who every once in a while comes in for jungle and ends up building almost full tank anyways.
Patch 8.4 saw some pretty good buffs to some bruisers, especially darius.
Anyone have any theories as to why such a lack of bruisers in pro play is still the case?
chipndip15 votesBecause fighters don't have a strategic niche in this damn game in the first place. It's the same reason why we don't see skirmishers there in most cases.
Think on it:
There's 5 slots
As of now, we NEED a marksman in bot lane, and we NEED a support champ to cover that guy
There's actually 3 slots
We NEED ap, so some mage or ap assassin.
Alright, there's TWO slots.
Now, think about what you're gonna do with those two slots.
Two slots (unless you have Galio mid), were dedicated to damage. Why draft more damage? However, NO slots were used on strong front liners yet. Sure, beefier divers like Jarvan and Camille are cool, but you aren't REALLY going to waste a slot on someone like fucking Darius when he can't engage fights on top of not being as tanky as actual tanks. Why would you draft anything BUT tanky front liners with engage for your top/jg picks?
DuskDaUmbreon2 votesBecause bruisers, in general, are useless when not strong. It's not even Riot's fault. It's part of their inherent design and the inherent design of League.
As Chipndip said: You only have 5 people. One has to be a marksman because nobody else can be better at taking turrets. You need a support because marksmen aren't able to exist without one. You need AP damage, which should be a third slot. That leaves you two slots, and 2-3 people that need to be peeled for. (3 with enchanter, 2 with tank support). You want at least one good person for peel, and you need someone for engage. Neither of which juggernauts can really do. Divers can engage, but they also need help to do. Tanks can peel and engage.
2 tanks is almost always going to be your best strategy for the other two.
The first reason I said is because of inherent design. Brusiers as a class are fairly general. They're not good at doing anything in particular. DPS? Marksmen do it better. Burst? Mages do it easier, assassins do it better. Tank? Tanks are better at it. Engage/disengage? Tanks. CC? Almost anyone else does it better.
As the current definition of bruiser is, and with the current map (5v5), they just won't be useful unless they're too strong. We'd need to have a need for what amounts to a generalist class first.
Edmundó1 votesConqueror might help
stealthfox941 votesReally? Seems like 
Are still played top a decent amount at all elo's. Also 
in the jungle
Bruisers aren't useless, if you play it right it's the best of both worlds. Tank and deal tons of damage.
Baval1 votesI play Heimer top, so keep playing tanks top please =D
