What is fun about playing tanks.

Kinkoh·1/31/2018, 11:28:36 PM·1 votes·938 views

Having not played tanks much in my life, I really just want to know why you tank players play the role and or the champs. Please just comment your reason why you play tanks. What fun do you get from playing a tank, because there has to be a reason behind why people play the role other than auto fill and peer pressure from your team. When you are in champ select thinking about what champ you are going to pick, what goes through your head when you pick a tank?. What do you look forward to?

17 Comments

BobaFlautist1/31/2018, 11:39:16 PM5 votes

Power fantasy is being so strong that you thwart your opponents' plays just by existing - to be so far and unbreakable as to render attempts to damage you futile. You know in "Meet the Medic" when Heavy shouts "I'm Bulletproooooof"? That's what we want to feel when we dive head first into the enemy team, laughing at their pitiful efforts to even effect us. Leona's "Next time, try to leave a scratch" is another good quote

More realistically, tanks are generally the class that's first in a fight, last out of it. When they're strong, they can pick fights with little fear of retribution. You can walk up to a fed assassin and glue yourself to his ass, repeatedly telling him to go fuck himself as he desperately burns everything trying to get past your thick, unbudgeable body. You can bathe under towers and shower in MF's ult.

When tanks are strong, they dictate the rules of engagement: "Ok, we're fighting here, and we're fighting now. No, I don't want to fight anymore. I'm going home". They get to punish over aggression or overly passive play - the Riven or Yasuo or Pantheon that's so desperate to get kills and snowball, that would be a huge pain in the ass for anyone else? You get to laugh as they rage when their faceroll doesn't feed then kills, tilt, and try to dive you - only to die, thrashing pathetically against your durability. Meanwhile, the Ezreal or Nidalee or Ziggs that hides a million miles away and takes pot shots? You laugh at them. You casually stroll between them and your damage, soaking up all the skillshots as your adc takes tower. You wade under their tower and shove their face in the ground, laughing as they use their escape only to fall to your diver or assassin.

Laura ß1/31/2018, 11:31:19 PM3 votes

nothing, if you like easy wins then they might be fun but as far as actual gameplay and effort tanks are the lowest. And if you play tanks and/or main a tank then you are a low person in my eyes.

Whisper871/31/2018, 11:47:34 PM1 votes

Winning - just playing what your team needs is fun. I mean pretty much the champ select process for me goes like this: Based on our picks and there picks, what does my team need me to do? What champions do I play that fulfill that need? Will I get snowballed on super hard in lane if I pick that? If so, then second best pick in regards to what team needs in favor of better laning.

I use that same process in every role including ADC and Mid.

Feeling unkillable - there is something fun and badass about getting to just wade into a fight an be a part of it 100% of the time. Other classes have to weave in and out a bit more, tanks can just go in and stay in.
Blasting fools with CC - I mean damage is definitely cool, but there is something so satisfying about like landing a 4-5 man Malph ult, or popping righteous glory on Maokai and just thrashing on them with your Ult-W-Q. Maybe ur not killing urself, but you bounce them around and stun them and feel like an all around bad ass. I mean a well put together engage or disengage from a tank is easily as impactful if not more so than an assassin going in and 1 comboing your ADC.
Team fighting in general - I enjoy all aspects of the game, but team fighting is definitely the coolest part. Especially since not many solo q players take the time to learn it well. Like a lot of solo q is people really tunnel visioning on lane matchups or 1v1's/skirmishes. Being able to demonstrate your ability to navigate and impact a 5v5 or 4v4 with high efficiency is very...satisfying, again made more so by the fact that it's kind of a lost art in solo q.
Building a strong team comp - champ select is one of my favorite parts of watching LCS, and being able to construct a well thought out team comp and then execute it well is very very satisfying.

I think you will find mostly versatile, creative, and team oriented students of the game picking this role. Back before sighstone and vision changes came out I actually preferred support over how it is now. It was hilarious when you could carry a game through vision control. I remember multiple times where my team just strangled another team out of the game, sometimes even coming from a lane deficit, just because I warded so much and cleared vision so much. It tilted opponents to the point where they'd often specifically make comments about it in post-game lobby (Fk you and your vision control Morg) they'd say to me. Winning through lane and dueling is all well and good, but thinking outside the box and exploiting all the other avenues to win is also nice.

Let's also remember that decision making is a skill. Because of fewer mechanical options and less lane potency, tanks are very very reliant on decisions of: to engage or not? to peel for carries, or dive their carries? to TP bot, or save TP for map pressure? To build self tanky items, or supportive ones? to take the kill, or let X take the kill?

So yeah it's a different kind of skill than mechanics, but not any less important or interesting than mechanics. If LOL was 90% mechanics it would a fighting game not a MOBA, and waaaaaaaaaay less interesting as an esport or even casual game in my opinion.

Fowus1/31/2018, 11:52:41 PM1 votes

I like to win

FullmuteAll play1/31/2018, 11:54:55 PM1 votes

As for champ select, I am support main, so basically I pick whatever my team needs, and if it is a tank (which is quite often) I pick a tank.

Longtowel1/31/2018, 11:54:57 PM1 votes

Have you played Mundo with 5500 health and Gargoyles?

You go in, with like 11000 health, 300 armour and MR, regenerating 1000 hp per second, while burning everyone around you for 150 damage, as well as being 90% immune to CC.

Ignore all the damage, just go balls to the walls in the middle of the biggest fight you can find and just keep throwing cleavers like you have no care in the world.

Trust me. Its soooooooo much fun.

Enselus1/31/2018, 11:57:14 PM1 votes

Winning.

Mita30031/31/2018, 11:58:03 PM1 votes

I like playing tanks like sion where i can tank 3 people at once and still do some damage. I dont know being really hard to kill is fun for me sometimes its not that bad like people say it. You dont just sit there and tank if you play correctly and use your cc on a adc or the midlaner you can win a team fight just with that only you have to rely on teamates which is not the best option in low elo.

Bael the Riser2/1/2018, 12:08:33 AM1 votes

Defending the weak Leona Taric

Rayjay Redfang2/1/2018, 12:13:46 AM1 votes

As a tank you have less pressure to carry. It is just more enjoyable to CC and peel for teammates, and generally, I just don't like being super squishy and dealing out a lot of damage. I like to be super tanky....and dealing out a lot of damage. Also I just enjoy the kits of a lot of champions that are tanks.

Being a tank isn't about being a beef wall, it is about knowing when to engage, disengage, keep yourself alive during a fight while also keeping your teammates alive. I just find it more enjoyable than being in the back line trying to kill the opposing team's tanks.