My dumb thoughts: why I think that the tank update won't lead to a "tanky" meta.

Edit: I meant avoid the frontline when talking about assassins. My apologies. I'd change it but I can't scroll through my post in edit mode on a phone.

I avoided the phrase "tank meta" because I don't think enough people know the full difference between a tank meta and a tanky meta (I myself don't really know, this is mainly a guess). In my mind, a tank meta is where you have three actual tanks (not bruisers building tanky) in the game, crowding out top, jg, and support respectively. In a "tanky" meta you get a bunch of champions in top, jg, and sometimes mid building tanky but are more or less meatwalls when compared to actual tanks (like if every jungler was building Cinderhulk but not everyone was an actual tank (Cinderhulk Nidalee, Cinderhulk Rengar, Cinderhulk Warwick) then it's more of a tanky meta (though tanks can be good in tanky metas).

Why I think the update won't push to this (and I'll probably be wrong) is that Riot wants to make defensive itemization significantly better for actual tanks (and juggernauts I guess) while making it not so great on non durable champions. So if it all works out then we won't see things like "Tank Yasuo" or "Tank Ekko" ever again because defensive items won't provide much for them.

Now obviously this can backfire horrifically and the first few weeks of the update will basically be a tank/tanky meta because everyone is going to trying out the new stuff (I'm probably going to experiment a lot with Sion and test out the reworked champions whenever I can. Hell I might even take Sion adc in norms because of it. I also imagine Darius being seen a lot (and banned a lot) because he loves fighting tanks.

Other champions I'd recommend playing if you hate tanks: Nocturne, Trundle, Fiora, etc. basically high dps champions that can afford to get durable through health items. Not sure if they'll be as good with defensive items after the update, but I have a feeling they'll be pretty decent and their mains will find good success.

Champions to not play: most assassins or burst champions. Unless you're confident you can take out the opposing squishy adc (which if you can four tanks, congratulations) you might as well bend over if you pick a burst assassin. But you could use this time to practice on how to avoid the backline.

These are just some thoughts I have about the update. Hopefully the negatives don't actually happen.