User blog comment:PurpleWii/The Evolution of the Tank archetype./@comment-4091261-20160425195544

I don't particularly care for the Diver side of things since they were always prominent, but what I do appreciate is the Offtanks' increased relevance--haven't heard that term in a while eh? Offtanks are tanks who definitely do damage, but do so in a way to protect the ally backline rather than to engage the enemy backline.

I personally believe there are styles people prefer when playing a tank. And no, not divers and juggernauts. I am talking about offtanks and bruisers. Wait though, what about support tanks? Well actually support tanks fall into a category of either offtanks or bruisers if you think about it, ex. and are bruisers while  and  are offtanks. In the end, the main way to categorize it is by the purpose. Bruisers wish to charge into glorious battle. Offtanks wish to protect their legion of troops.

While offtanks and bruisers are subcategories of fighters, they actually represent how people feel about tanks much better than fighters due to both being quite bulky. You will never see a tank that doesn't adhere to the category of diving or protecting, because what else would the tank do otherwise? A long range CC tank that doesn't dive the enemy? That would just be a mage who needs to cap CDR. In the end, the term tank in this game is associated with bulkiness and thus requires fighting or engaging at some point; because there wouldn't be a reason to build survivability otherwise.

That said, I do agree with the direction they are taking this. In the end, it is damage that gives a champion proactivity--the ability to do things without assistance--with tanks having more damage like they are capable of being more active within teamfights and benefit from focus from even fed bruisers. I believe reworked is the greatest tank to have come to existance in League of Legends thus far as he combines both the traits of Offtanks and Bruisers perfectly forging him into the archetype tank. However as I stated at the very beginning, I don't really care for the bruiser side of things.

Divers have been glorified in this game for generations upon generations. Time and time again do bruisers fall out and then immediately come back, and they even become relevant in metas not pertaining to them. There are a great many people who love charging into glorious people, however there are some people who would rather protect their own over charging recklessly. If anyone ever believed protecting the team was just for people who didn't want to give a significant influence to the game, champions like, , and exist to prove otherwise.

The only reason why people didn't play offtanks that protect their allies is because the items used in such a manner are either used better for diving or are already built by the support. I'm talking about items like {{ii|Frozen Heart}] and, and being used much better for chasing enemies in a dive than as CC to prevent the enemy from diving. Now there is a much wider variety for offtanks in terms of items so their relevance is made clear.

In my opinion, it doesn't matter whether or not a tank does damage or not, what matters is if they hold the influence people would expect from a tank. I would love to see more close range zoning potential from tanks since there are around 35 divers and 18 offtanks, but Rito has been doing a lot better than before in terms of offtanks. They definitely haven't neglected offtanks cause, , , and reworked were all released pretty recently so I'm sure they'll fix the image of tanks eventually.