Thread:Willbachbakal/@comment-1920550-20161003011221/@comment-1330314-20161014000220

I get what you mean with Nidalee/Rek'Sai/Azir being top competitive picks while being significantly weaker at lower elos, but again, that's still not "struggling" in the sense that those champions are really having difficulty seeing play, at least not while there are still a great deal many champions that have trouble seeing play at all elos. They need their power adjusted so that they can be both satisfying and competitively viable, but in the end, they're still fixtures in the current state in the game, just like marksmen have been fixtures throughout most of the game's time.

I agree that tank items need more situational effects, though. The single biggest issue with tank items right now, aside from their stats being about equally effective regardless of who picks them, is that their bonuses are so generic that any champion can also make equal use of them. We need better separation between tank items and fighter items, and both need to give power that works for their specific class. I don't think tank assassins were really an issue until this season, mostly because Dead Man's Plate is behind a lot of current builds (again, because durability and mobility are two of the most desirable stats for a melee champion), but we're at a point where tanky itemization needs to change.