Tanking

[quote=Jebus McAzn]A tank needs to be able to take focus fire, but more importantly, he needs to be able to draw enough attention to merit earning the focus fire. Alternatively, a tank can simply take their highest damage dealer out completely. Basically the most important part of being a tank is to nullify the damage output of the most threatening character or characters on the enemy team while not dying. Whether this means taking all of their spells like a champ or just CCing them to oblivion, any way you can get it done works. The top tanks are Amumu, Shen, Rammus, and Malphite. Amumu has a stun and a massive AoE ult, while being naturally bulky due to base stats and Tantrum. Shen has a global ult, saving allies, and an AoE taunt, on top of a shield and great base stats. Rammus has his obscenely long taunt, a stun, a slow, and a skill that makes him bulky as hell. Malphite is naturally tanky and has a stun+knockup ult as well as a decrease on attack speed and movement speed. So you probably all know the skills already, but it's always worthwhile to analyze exactly how well they can tie in to their role. Note also that every single one of these ways to "distract" a damage dealer are all very "in your face", compared to an assassin or a caster who bursts and then gets the hell out of there.[/quote]

[quote=FreestyleZer0]Basicly Jarvan like the example given is not a tank, no matter HOW tanky you build him, he is not a tank, mere fact is because he can NOT make people focus him UNLESS (this is rare) he ultimates someone who has no blink/flash/jump/dash that starts attacking him (plain stupidity unless no other choice like not being able to run around/cloack/stun/fear etc).[/quote]

[quote=Visfarix]I think Malphite should be taken off the list of "top tanks". The nerfs he received shortly after becoming FotM and especially the ones more recently really weakened his ability to threaten enemies and the fact he has no CC besides his ult kind of makes him a poor choice for defending allies. As a secondary tank or off-tank he's absolutely great, but I just don't think he cuts it as a main tank anymore. Honestly, in the current meta, I think Alistar and Blitzcrank can fill the main tank role better than Malphite can.[/quote]

[quote=Jebus McAzn]Alistar and Blitz aren't exactly main tanks - they're much more useful for support or general disruption. I agree though. Malphite lacks the main hard CC that a good tank needs - only his ultimate is amazing, but as for everything else, he lacks the raw stopping power of, say, Rammus.[/quote]

[quote=Queso][quote=Rudmed] Anyone here notice that people are the tanks, but they are not exactly doing thier job to the best of thier abillities? I mean I have just noticed that some people get really bloodthirsty, and go for a kill leaving thier carry for dead basically. I'm just wondering if anyone else has seen this alot. [/quote] I don't normally see this, but coincidentally it did happen yesterday. A couple of people on my team were playing singed and shen....and in every single fight they would chase the one squishy running away while the rest of our team was getting destroyed. It was very discouraging. They kept saying "this is why I never tank" and I kept thinking, yeah because you're not very good at it. (and when I say chase, I mean really really chase them far away....even when the fights inevitably moved to the base and inner turrets were dying while they tried to get that one kill)[/quote]

[quote=Joobieo#41288][quote=Visfarix] I think Malphite should be taken off the list of "top tanks". The nerfs he received shortly after becoming FotM and especially the ones more recently really weakened his ability to threaten enemies and the fact he has no CC besides his ult kind of makes him a poor choice for defending allies. As a secondary tank or off-tank he's absolutely great, but I just don't think he cuts it as a main tank anymore. Honestly, in the current meta, I think Alistar and Blitzcrank can fill the main tank role better than Malphite can. [/quote] No i still believe in the right hands Malphite is still a top tier tank.[/quote]

[quote=Trojan995]I feel like some champions can fit niche tank roles. Since there's so few good tanks in ranked games, at least one or two of them are banned EVERY game. Shen, amumu, and rammus were all banned in the last ranked game I played. Malphite resorted to tanking for us, and I (as udyr) was going to off-tank (but I was ready to switch to tank at any time). I think that a lot of champions can 'niche tank', especially when the true tanks are banned/picked. For example, I've played udyr in 5 ranked games (out of the 5 games I've played) - and I tanked in all but the above mentioned case. Why? Because shen/amumu/rammus were either banned or first picked. Though I usually play Udyr as tanky DPS, all it took was a mindset change to be the tank. Instead of making a beeline for the carry and just pounding away, I'd make a beeline for the carry, get focus fire, and then chain-stun everyone I could. If their anti-carry started hitting hard on our carry, I'd go stun him. I also had enough itemless damage that I could force someone to CC/focus me or run. So basically what I was trying to get at was that there's those certain champions that can fill the role of tank when shen is banned EVERY GAME.[/quote]

[quote=Iratesniper][quote=ShadowReign757] A tank should never have an issue with dying to save his team, that's what he's there for. Of course, as Rudmed stated, carries are 8 times out of 10 worth more gold. Here's an example: I was Malphite, and after we had a bad teamfight, Master Yi, Xin Zhao, and me were running away from the enemies, who also had 3 people left. I had about half health and my two teammates had 1/4 health left. I had my ult, but instead of using it to get away, I ulted the chasing enemies and killed one, but the point is, I saved my teammates who were on a rampage. The enemy got less gold for me, and my teammates were able to defend the base until the rest of us were back. Under most circumstances, the tank should be able to sacrifice himself for the carry, so long as they have the power to defend the base, or as long as the enemy will get less gold for you. One last note: A tank should never sacrifice himself if the carry can get away without your help. [/quote] While what jebus said is important, THIS is the most important thing for a tank. Your job as a tank is to keep your teammates alive, even if this means you die in the process. I play malphite alot, and I can't count how many times I've saved my team and gotten away, or died keeping everyone alive. On a side note: Malphite IS a top tier tank if played CORRECTLY. If you go into a game as Malphite and ks as much as possible with skills, especially ult. You are not playing him as a tank, as he should be.( there are soo many people doing this, it gives Malphite a bad rep.)[/quote]

[quote=caucheka]i was once in a game as tank (i think amumu) and i was having an argument with a teammate over how many times i died. i told him that as a tank, it shouldnt matter how many times i die, just that i died to save the carries from dieing (as they had streaks going.)[/quote]