User blog comment:Tails365/A true tank's role/@comment-8468980-20140125054925

riot's made several of these tanks deal lots of damage over an extremely long period of time. Being able to basically deal damage constantly (though very minor) over the entire period of a team fight, tower siege / defense is a critical part of their tank design.

also, it could be argued that J4 could make it onto that list as well since he's got great peel, solid initiation, and has some damage absorption tools.

"But why has Riot made so little of these champions? Because bruisers, although less tanky and much less CC power, possess dmg."

Yes, this was the issue in early-mid S3. Why am I going to play as Nautilus or Sej when I can play as Xin or Vi? The problem was that bruiser/fighters like J4, Vi, Xin, and Hecarim (later Aatrox) possessed way too much utility, base damage, and damage soaking ability. This is why they all got nerfed (mostly, Riot still nurses Lee Sin like he owns stock NO OFFENSE TENCENT).

I don't particularly feel pure tanks / support tanks are in a bad spot overall. Ali and Sej were nerfed and need some attention but the others don't, infact I see Riot nerfing Leo and Thresh soon to be honest.