User blog:Fistful of Force/Fistful of Force's Tanking Guide



Ok, every time I walk into a ranked game and see a bad tank, I die a little inside. So, here is me, sharing my knowledge with you. Disclaimer: Some swearing. First off, what is tanking? To understand tanking, you have to understand LoL. In LoL, everyone deals damage, but not everyone does at the same rate. To tank is a playstyle that sacrifices damage for survivability. Here are a few important facts to remember about tanking.

Table of Contents (ctl+find system):

A) What is tanking? [00001]

B) Ranked Play [00002]

C) Item recs [00003]

A) What is tanking? [00001]

1) Tanking is all about being the last person standing. You deal **** damage, but in the end, when you're the last one standing, does that really matter? They laughed when you built a Force of nature first, but you'll be the one laughing when you kick their asses. So, build tanking items, aspiring tank, you!

Useful Spreadsheet for how much MR/Armor to buy: http://na.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=1067682

2) You also need to deal damage. I'm not talking about 50 dps. If that's all you do, you might as well be a fricking wave of minions, and well, we all know how much a wave of minions do. I mean, Significant damage. You need to deal enough damage so at the end of the day, after all the armor, magic resist, and heal bull **** you deal some actual damage. Tanking does not give you an excuse to deal no damage. When it's down to just you and him, if you don't want to be the one on the ground at the end of the day, you better be bringing some mad dps. Sheen and Sunfire are good items to get. More on that in section 3. and ffs, realize that...

3) No, you're not gonna be the main source of damage on your team. Jesus, whenever an amumu builds a deathcap first, a rabbit dies. Stop killing rabbits.

Look at the cute rabbits!



Why you kill them?

There is a reason why people focus on building damage, or everyone would play tanky dps. So if you understand...

<p style="border-style: initial; border-color: initial; ">4) ****ing protect your carries! No, I don't mean, jump in when your carry does something stupid like initiate with their escape spell. I mean, when the **** hits the fan, you better be right next to your carry, unless you're initiating. If you're initiating, you can jerk off wherever you want, but unless you are, I expect you to be CLOSE ENOUGH TO HUMP YOUR CARRY. If you aren't close enough to rape your carry, you aren't close enough.

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<p style="border-style: initial; border-color: initial; ">So, I read these threads alot: "What do you do when an Olaf with ult comes at your carry with ghost?"

<p style="border-style: initial; border-color: initial; ">5) Here's what you do. Don't waste your cc on him, save it for when it'll actually affect him. You keep up with your carry, and when that Olaf's ult comes off, You lay the mutha****ing smackdown on that dumbass. He think he so cool with his ragnorak? Well, we'll see how much he likes his epeen when your ****ing CHOP IT OFF! This is known as peeling, a.k.a. being smart.

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<p style="border-style: initial; border-color: initial; ">And finally....

<p style="border-style: initial; border-color: initial; ">6) Tanks, at the end of the day, no amount of tankiness will save you from a farmed up carry. I could talk about diminishing returns on armor, MR, and hp. I could talk about carry kiting and initiation position. But in the end, the real reason I build damage is because I WANT TO PUNCH THAT SISSY CARRY IN THE FACE.

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<p style="border-style: initial; border-color: initial; ">Only one damage item, mind you, only one. But when push comes to shove and the world attacks, punch back, LIKE A REAL MAN.

<p style="border-style: initial; border-color: initial; ">Fuck yea.

<p style="border-style: initial; border-color: initial; ">8) Finally, we have initiation. What is initiation? It's when you, as a tank, say **** this. "**** CARRIES. **** KITING. **** YOUR OP SCALING AND CHAMPIONS, AND SKILLS. WE FIGHT ON MY TERMS. THIS IS MY WORLD! MY WORLD!"

<p style="border-style: initial; border-color: initial; ">Initiation is the most powerful move that a tank has.

<p style="border-style: initial; border-color: initial; ">It is the nuking of Hiroshima (sry, about that, japs). It is the D-Day of tanking.

<p style="border-style: initial; border-color: initial; ">When a tank is farmed, tanky, and powerful, he pulls out the biggest CC stick he has, flashes straight to the enemy carry and starts whacking on him like there's no tomorrow. You might die. You might do nothing, stunlocked till death. BUT YOU WENT OUT LIKE A MAN.

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<p style="border-style: initial; border-color: initial; ">Edit: whenever you initiate, and DON"T die, DO NOT, I REPEAT, DO NOT chase after low hp squishies (or worse, non-squishies). Instead, retreat to throw off enemy aggro (yes, I mean the enemy team and not minions) then run back in when they are starting to focus on someone else.

<p style="border-style: initial; border-color: initial; ">Edit: Now, it might be manly to go out in a blaze of glory. But it's really lame when it doesn't do anything but cause your death. So you want to do two things before you initiate. The first is MAKE SURE ALL OF YOUR TEAMMATES ARE NEXT TO YOU. This is so they can take advantage of your glorious, glorious sacrifice. The next is PING WHO YOU'RE GONNA INITIATE ON, AND WAIT TWO SECONDS BEFORE YOU INITIATE. This tells your team your gonna initiate, and makes them more mentally prepared, which, as any soldier can tell you, is very important and can mean the difference between winning and losing.

B) Ranked Play [00002]
<p style="border-style: initial; border-color: initial; "><u style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">(Advanced: Only for ranked players) Runes, Summoner Spells, and Masteries.

<p style="border-style: initial; border-color: initial; ">Up until now, I've talked about basic tanking tactics, but now I'll talk about what you can do before a game. Be warned, this is pretty heavy stuff, but a solid basic understanding of Runes, Summoner Spells and Masteries is essential for any sort of ranked play. Alot of what is on the forums theoretical bull****, so, I'll try to stick to what I personally know about RSSM. If you want that mathcraft you can just google it.

<p style="border-style: initial; border-color: initial; ">Now, before we begin, you might ask your self, do Runes, Summoner Spells, and Masteries really make a difference? Yes~! They do! If you don't believe me, go into a custom game and try it out for yourself. Pick a jungler and jungle without runes. Then jungle with runes. Did you notice how much faster and safer you jungled? RSSM make a HUGE difference in all parts of the game.

<p style="border-style: initial; border-color: initial; ">There are two basic mindsets with RSSM. The first one I like to call "shoring up". It's when you find weaknesses in your champion and you build your RSSM to strengthen those weaknesses. For example, Nasus is a popular tank with great damage, but he is lacking in CC and gap closers. So I build him 1/21/8 with exhaust/ghost, and ArPen, mp/5, scaling MR, and HP runes. The masteries and runes ensure he can farm well and ignore light harass in lane. Then, with a simple chalice of harmony (which synergizes well with my seals), I can pull off harassment by spamming wither and hitting them with my auto + siphon strike. Then, when their HP is low, I can towerdive them with my ult, which does damage like a sunfire cape (i.e. stunned or not). The Ghost/Exhaust allows me to deal near true damage and partially negates flash/escape spells. As you can see, I've built my RSSM to allow Nasus to dominate any lane (important for him, because it lets him farm his q!) even though you wouldn't think he was a strong laner because he's melee with no gap closer.

<p style="border-style: initial; border-color: initial; "> The second mindset with RSSM is to play to a champion's strengths. For example, nocturne has a passive that increases his survivability and damage that also scales with his attack speed. I build him 21/0/9. Attack speed marks and quints, with flat armor seals and scaling MR (since his early game is all in the jungle anyways). I take smite and Ghost. This allows him to make full use of his passive, and he because a extremely strong jungler, (though his ganking still nerfed). I have to be extra careful about his role in teamfights though, since he loses in the RSSM area for survivability.

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<p style="border-style: initial; border-color: initial; ">In general, when you make your RSSM, you want to think along these thoughts. "I hate how _____ champ _____ is." Means you probably want a shoring up build. "If only I had a little bit more ____" means you want to build to the champs strength.

<p style="border-style: initial; border-color: initial; "><u style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">(Advanced: Only for ranked players) RSSM for tanks:

<p style="border-style: initial; border-color: initial; ">When you are building RSSM for tanks, you have to remember that the basic principles still apply: You have to build tanky, and you have to build some damage. Around an 80/20 mix of defense, offense. Now, the offensive parts of a tank's build are pretty easy. Most tanks have nice base stats and strong abilitys, meaning Magic Pen. Marks and Exhaust + Mastery. But you shouldn't underestimate the ability of quints also, and if your feeling confident enough to play without HP quints, you might go for move spd or AP quints. AP quints are actually better in come cases, because heals aren't migitated by MR, and neither are shields.

<p style="border-style: initial; border-color: initial; ">BUT, you still have to build defensively. Previously I just said that you had to, and it's true. But what I didn't mention was that the higher ranking you get, the more likely it is that when you are getting hurt, it isn't YOU that the enemy is targeting. In fact, you are just probably in the way of some random AoE spell (this assumes you didn't do something stupid, like walk too far out or something, and get gimped 1 v 5). This is especially true if you are doing your job right, and staying in front of your carries. Harassment hurts, and if you are already half HP before the teamfight begins, you aren't going to do a lot of tanking. In mid game teamfights, when you don't have a decent build, the only edge you got between five players who want nothing more than to kill you, and your precious hit points, is your RSSM.

<p style="border-style: initial; border-color: initial; ">Sometimes, this is why I prefer FoN instead of BV. Cheaper, with regen and movespeed, not bad with Merc treads.

<p style="border-style: initial; border-color: initial; ">But how should you build your RSSM?

<p style="border-style: initial; border-color: initial; ">Well, you want to increase your Effective HP as much as possible. if you are tanking with a champ with lots of HP, like Cho, you want to increase your MR and Armor. But if you have alot of MR and Armor, like Rammus, you want to increase your HP.

<p style="border-style: initial; border-color: initial; ">Coincidently, this applies to Damage too. If you feel like your are surviving very well, but not doing any damage, you might want to build more into damage. Ask yourself if you could have done without that extra 25 HP, and whether that opponent would have died if you had tacked on that one extra AP quint.

<p style="border-style: initial; border-color: initial; ">In the end, you need to decide for yourself what kind of RSSM fits you. But remember, at the end of the day, it better be YOU, who is the last one standing.

C) Item Recs [00003]
<p style="border-style: initial; border-color: initial; ">8) Frozen mallet...

<p style="border-style: initial; border-color: initial; ">...is a great item, get it. Now this is just my opinion, but, if you're going tank, and you have good tanky RSSM, then you should get Frozen Mallet, asap. Not phage, but Frozen Mallet. Randuin's Omen is great and all, but you can only use it once every sixty seconds, which is basically once a teamfight.

<p style="border-style: initial; border-color: initial; ">Of course, if you're tanking with a guy like nunu, GP, or mundo, who already have perma-slow, you shouldn't get it. And yea, it's not that good on tanks with a lot HP with no Armor or Resist, but lots of HP (like Cho-Gath). But if you're playing Garen, Rammus, or Leona, it's like a gift from God.

<p style="border-style: initial; border-color: initial; ">I do, however, have to give a warning. Frozen mallet is really fricken expensive. If you are the only tank on a team of four squishies, don't build it, because you need to build more tanky. But, you SHOULD build it if you are the off-tank on a three-two tank-squishy team.

<p style="border-style: initial; border-color: initial; ">(But F-F-Fistful, high Elo players tell me that it's a **** item!!!!111lol)

<p style="border-style: initial; border-color: initial; ">Yea, whatever, if you want to listen to them, be my guest, you don't have to read my guide. But I understand that some people may have some reservations about getting Frozen Mallet, so I have summoned Billy Mays from beyond the grave to explain why it's a god tier item.

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<p style="border-style: initial; border-color: initial; ">HI BILLY MAYS HERE WITH ANOTHER FANTASTIC PRODUCT!

<p style="border-style: initial; border-color: initial; ">EVER HAD A TEAMFIGHT WHERE YOUR TEAMMATES WERE STUPID AS ****ING ****? DID YOU BLOW YOUR STUNS AND SLOWS ON THAT STUPID TOWERDIVNG ALISTAR WHO COULDN'T TAKE A HINT?

<p style="border-style: initial; border-color: initial; ">THEN YOU NEED FROZEN MALLET!!! IT CAN SLOW THE **** OUT OF THOSE ****ING TOWERDIVERS!!!

<p style="border-style: initial; border-color: initial; ">YOU BET IT CAN SLOW THOSE ****ING TOWERDIVERS!!! WATCH AS I STAB THIS STUPID ALISTAR WITH MY SWORD!!! A NORMAL TANK WOULDN'T HAVE THAT KIND OF SLOW AND YOUR STUPID ****ING CARRIES WOULD DIE!!! BUT WATCH AS I USE FROZEN MALLET!!!! WATCH AS I CUT THROUGH THAT ALISTAR'S MOVESPEED LIKE A HOT KNIFE THROUGH BUTTER!!! HE CAN'T GET TO THAT DUMBASS AKALI WHO STAYED WITH ONLY FIFTY HP LEFT!!! EVEN WHEN HE USES HIS ULT I JUST RE-SLOW HIM!!!

<p style="border-style: initial; border-color: initial; ">BUT I"M NOT DONE YET!

<p style="border-style: initial; border-color: initial; ">IF YOU HAVEN'T HAD A TEAMFIGHT WHERE YOU BEAT THE **** OUT OF THEIR CARRIES AND STARTED TO CHASE THEM, ONLY TO NOTICE YOUR STUPID ****ING CARRIES WERE GETTING TOTALLY OWNED BY THEIR SINGED, I DON'T KNOW WHAT THE **** YOU'VE BEEN DOING!!! IF YOU DIDN'T HAVE FROZEN MALLET AND GOT SOME **** LIKE RANDUIN'S OMEN, YOUR STUPID ****ING CARRY WOULD BE DEAD CUZ YOU USED IT ON THOSE CARRIES WHO FLASHED AWAY ANYWAYS!!! BUT WATCH AS I USE FROZEN MALLET TO SLOW THE **** OUT OF THAT DUMBASS SINGED!!! WATCH HIM CRY AS NOW HE IS KITED AND BATH IN HIS BLOOD AS YOU BEAT THE **** OUT OF HIM AND HE CAN'T RUN AWAY!!!

<p style="border-style: initial; border-color: initial; "> <p style="border-style: initial; border-color: initial; "> BUT I'M STILL NOT DONE YET!

<p style="border-style: initial; border-color: initial; ">HAVE YOU EVER FOUND A DUMBASS LEONA WHO WAS WALKING AROUND ALONE? DID YOU SLOW HER WITH YOUR RANDUINS OMEN, ONLY TO HAVE HER STUN YOU AND TRLOLOL THE **** AWAY? YOU NEED FROZEN MALLET!!! WATCH AS I SLOW THE **** OUT OF HER AND SHE CAN'T RUN AWAY!!!

<p style="border-style: initial; border-color: initial; ">BUT THAT'S STILL NOT ALL!!!

<p style="border-style: initial; border-color: initial; ">IF YOU BUY NOW FOR JUST TEN EASY PAYMENTS OF 325 YOU GET AN EXTRA 700 HP AND 20 DAMAGE FOR NO EXTRA CHARGE!!!

<p style="border-style: initial; border-color: initial; ">FOR NO EXTRA CHARGE!!!

<p style="border-style: initial; border-color: initial; ">HERE'S HOW TO ORDER!!! GO TO YOUR SPAWNING POOL AND CLICK ON THE SHOP, THEN ON THE HEALTH BUTTON! THAT'S SHOP, THEN HEALTH BUTTON (you stupid ****ing ****)!!! ORDER NOW~!!!

<p style="border-style: initial; border-color: initial; ">YOU HAVE TO!!!

<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;">Edit: about trinity <p style="border-style: initial; border-color: initial;">Quote: <p style="border-style: initial; border-color: initial;">Problem with trinity is it's too expensive, getting a sheen and an aegis is much better.

<p style="border-style: initial; border-color: initial;">tl;dr, rush sheen, don't rush trinity |}

<p style="border-style: initial; border-color: initial;">Edit 2: and Sunfire capes: Quote: <p style="border-style: initial; border-color: initial;">Get a sunfire cape. This is the go-to item for many tanks. It gives 40 dmg per second, which is roughly equivalent to a B.F.S. Sheen is also good, but requires more skill, i.e. skill timing to get the most out of your sheen, and when NOT to time out your skills to CC someone to death.

<p style="border-style: initial; border-color: initial; ">Peace, I'm out, happy tanking!

<p style="border-style: initial; border-color: initial; ">disclaimer: pics credit where due.