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Riot, can you make a mechanically hard tank champion?

KarmaWhore·9/21/2015, 1:09:38 AM·70 votes·7,091 views

I was joking around with my friend about his complete lack of mechanics when he brings up a fair point. Riot really hasn't made very many mechanically hard juggernaut/tank champions. Most of the really hard champs, Azir, Kalista, etc. are usually in the carry roles, or are carry type top lanes

Most juggernaut champions tend to be brainless hunks of meat that run in and disrupt the enemy team before they die. But it would be kind of interesting to see a tanky champion who actually requires a lot of skill to play.

EDIT: I know a lot of you guys have mentioned champs that take particular skill in certain areas (Energy management, decision making, etc.) What I think the tank class is missing is a champion that has a really high skill cap in terms of simply champion mechanics. No one out there is going to say Shen is harder than Zed, or Tahm Kench is harder than Kalista.

The only suggestions that I really agree with on the list is probably . The others may be hard to master, but not necessarily difficult to play decently well.

140 Comments

Squidblimp9/21/2015, 2:43:54 AM43 votes

Zac Zac is pretty mechanical dude. You have to land that knockup on as many people as possible, which is actually pretty hard. You have to move around during your ult, making sure to knock people in the CORRECT direction and slow the correct targets. You have to repeatedly pick up your blobs, which is almost like Draven axes but without the time limit, and make sure opponents don't crush them. You have to make sure to use W right when it's up, since the cooldown fluctuates. You have to land your Q to slow as many people as possible.

Gnar Gnar as well. His rage mechanic is difficult to manage. Landing the boomerang over and over is hard, and kiting using your W passive. Mega Gnar requires clutch ult timing and positioning, and using your W and Q on as many targets as possible, and catching stragglers with Q.

UPfreely9/21/2015, 11:56:16 AM14 votes

just wait for ironsides malphite, he'll be mechanically hard. hue ill show myself out

COWmanLord9/21/2015, 1:12:23 AM6 votes

Well Gnar can be pretty tricky as you have to play around his transformation, and although most tanky champs don't have particularly complicated kits, they also have a degree of challenge when it comes to actually pulling off your combo effectively. A malphite of sejuani who only hits 1 person with their ult in a teamfight is not landing a very good ult. A lot of the difficulty comes from your own knowledge of when is a good time to engage and how you pull of the engage.

Irelia Bot9/21/2015, 1:59:57 AM6 votes

we need a meepo tank.

regonas9/21/2015, 1:20:13 AM4 votes

Chogath Malphite Maokai Nautilus Pantheon Shen TahmKench Volibear Rumble Taric these can play top, are tanks and are quite complex. So, i don't know what are you talking about, mate.

Veraska9/21/2015, 1:49:26 PM3 votes

Just gonna rehash some points I'm seeing people make.

All true tanks are really mechanically simple, big aoe abilities and easier to land skills, it's to give them reliability, it's the decision making that (which is a legit skill but bit what op is talking about) that makes the standard tank challenging to play.

It'd be difficult to make a mechanically difficult, true tank/mainly because they're often slow and beefy as hell to compensate, this makes them very forgiving of misplays and poor positioning/targeting, so you can't make a tank that can be punished for bad play the same way azir or yasuo could.

My solution? Either A tank who has abilities that interact with both opponents and allies like bards E and R, if tanks can't have flashy difficult mechanics like azir drifts or flash ult insec plays, then you can add the difficulty in their decision making by making their spells have either win teamfights or fuck up your team. Maybe a champion who creates terrain and stuff.

Or maybe they just got to try and make a pure tank/juggernaut who doesn't directly get durable, but has ways of tanking aggro through deception or something, like a juggernaut shaco, where he's not directly tanky and he's slow, but there's a bunch of him coming from all directions and the only way to know he's not coming is to focus down all of them.

Just some thoughts I'll keep brain storming in ways to make a mechanically complex tank/juggernaut

Snake Town9/21/2015, 2:35:43 PM3 votes

I vote something like dota's earth spirit

Laustin Space9/21/2015, 3:53:04 PM3 votes

Gnar

MoloMan8D9/22/2015, 3:43:00 PM1 votes

http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/skin-champion-concepts/IodOPYHq-champion-concept-golbert-the-helping-hand-a-tank-jungler-that-moves-in-a-really-special-way

Here's my champion concept of a REALLY hard tank (both mechanically and litterally)

The Loveless9/21/2015, 5:28:02 PM1 votes

Grunts aren't that smart to begin with.

Actually..to make champs complex would require them to have ranged skillshots. There's literally no way you can miss attacks if you're up close in melee range - that's the point. If you could miss VERY short range skills as a melee, that's a horrible feeling as a player.

Can you give an example of your ideal, complex tank champ, OP?

Scrimshäw9/21/2015, 3:56:20 AM1 votes

so you're saying every champ that is mobile is mechanically challenging