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Why the comeback of AP champions will help alleviate the pains of the Tank meta.

PrinceKO·4/12/2016, 3:13:05 AM·2 votes·488 views

When I watched the TSM vs. Immortals playoff series, I finally understood why the tank meta was real and why it's so effective. Here is what Hauntzer built during games 2 and 3 (I excluded game 1 because IMT kind of trolled that game with Lucian top and their 3 ADC comp).

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See the trend? Pretty much the same item build with the same end result, Mao/Poppy tanking everything and TSM stomping IMT 3-0. We all know that AD champs, due to better itemization as well as nerfs to a lot of AP items, have put them on top, which is why stacking so much armor and largely ignoring MR items is viable. There is absolutely no punishment for grabbing only 1 MR item and still be able to tank enemy magic damage, usually from the APC in mid.

This is why I believe AP champions, especially AP bruiser who usually go top lane, need a comeback to alleviate this issue. Tanks pretty much grab Spirit Visage and nothing else to counter magic damage because there is no magic damage to tank. According to champion.gg's list of performance rankings in top lane, only Kayle and Ekko ranks in the top 20, and Ekko builds the same items as tanks these days, so he barely counts. Once popular AP bruisers such as Ryze, Rumble, and Vlad are way down near the bottom with not so pretty win rates. AP champions are just severely handicapped by their items and has led to a domino effect. AD champs rise, then CC tanks who can stack armor become powerful.

So, bottom line, here's to hoping that the Mage update helps create better itemization while also making AP top laners viable again. Otherwise, we're pretty much going to see the same team comps as we're seeing now, and nobody wants that.

3 Comments

Pierce The Veal4/12/2016, 3:17:01 AM3 votes

{quoted}

When I watched the TSM vs. Immortals playoff series, I finally understood why the tank meta was real and why it's so effective. Here is what Hauntzer built during games 2 and 3 (I excluded game 1 because IMT kind of trolled that game with Lucian top and their 3 ADC comp).

:

:

See the trend? Pretty much the same item build with the same end result, Mao/Poppy tanking everything and TSM stomping IMT 3-0. We all know that AD champs, due to better itemization as well as nerfs to a lot of AP items, have put them on top, which is why stacking so much armor and largely ignoring MR items is viable. There is absolutely no punishment for grabbing only 1 MR item and still be able to tank enemy magic damage, usually from the APC in mid.

This is why I believe AP champions, especially AP bruiser who usually go top lane, need a comeback to alleviate this issue. Tanks pretty much grab Spirit Visage and nothing else to counter magic damage because there is no magic damage to tank. According to champion.gg's list of performance rankings in top lane, only Kayle and Ekko ranks in the top 20, and Ekko builds the same items as tanks these days, so he barely counts. Once popular AP bruisers such as Ryze, Rumble, and Vlad are way down near the bottom with not so pretty win rates. AP champions are just severely handicapped by their items and has led to a domino effect. AD champs rise, then CC tanks who can stack armor become powerful.

So, bottom line, here's to hoping that the Mage update helps create better itemization while also making AP top laners viable again. Otherwise, we're pretty much going to see the same team comps as we're seeing now, and nobody wants that.

There's no need to build that much magic resist because mages just don't focus people they can't 100-0. Having a lot of hp does that, so the additional magic resist just stops the aoe damage from dealing chubks of damage to them.

WalkingInACircle4/12/2016, 3:14:47 AM1 votes

But mages are too powerful when they can do things that help their team win the game.

Miku Lv994/12/2016, 6:40:52 AM1 votes

I feel like the new mage update might actually make the problem worse. Without much mana regen, they'd mostly be bad against tanks since they'd run out of mana if they tried to attack tanks too much.