User blog:CCoville/Tankin' ain't easy

... for me anyway. As anyone who's read my posts will know, I cry like a bitch when the last 1 or 2 people to join a queue will autolock on some squishy DPSer when our team is lacking the beefiness. Because of that I'll pick the champ I want but won't lock until everyone else has done so.

For example, yesterday I only had time for one game and really wanted to get in to it with Irelia considering I wasn't able to use her at all in the last couple weeks. So we're waiting for the last person and they automatically take Ashe and lock in. At that point we already had Tryndamere, Zilean, Ezreal and myself. Why they would think we would need an Ashe is beyond me.

So, I sighed, switched to Rammus and went with it. For the record, we did win, but Ashe wanted mid and lost her tower by the 10 minute mark. Then without saying anything she started jungling and gave up the next tower shortly afterwards without defending it.

However, none of that is the point of this post. The point is that I am trying to learn how to use and have fun with as many tanks as possible. And I do like most of the tanks I've used. Rammus, Blitzcrank, Nunu, Singed are all guys that I now own and have used a bit. Sion I also own but haven't used him yet. I also am considering buying Shen as soon as I get enough IP.

Here's my issue though: I die too much as a tank. On the one hand I consider myself really good at this tanking thing in that I will throw myself at the enemy no matter what if it'll keep my squishies safe. I can be on deaths doorstep and not even hesitate to powerball in to three enemies chasing down ezreal running for his life. I fully understand that tank-guy is more expendable than the carry.

I would like to learn, though, when and how to break it off with the enemy so that I can live to tank again rather than sit through the Death timer. It just seems that, in a team fight, there's always someone I should be taunting or diverting.

Another thing I have a problem with is communication and I guess that can be simply a by-product of playing in the solo queue. At least 3 or 4 deaths per game are the result of me seeing my team and their team kind of doing that pre-teamfight dance and me saying "OK" and diving in to them soaking up damage for 10 seconds and finding out that my team didn't back me up. It's kind of disappointing to say the least.

I suppose I need to do a better job of pinging or sending a quick message communicating my intentions. Either way, I definitely have a lot of work to do to refine my tanking ability. If anyone has advice or tips on the matter please let me know.