[2022] Welp fellow tank mains.

We do agree that tanks shouldn't be weak, and it is never our intent to make a class weak. In fact tanks have been very strong for a while, if you have a tank on your team you have a much higher chance of winning. We don't expect that to change here, and if tanks are weak after these changes we have a balance patch every 2 weeks.

The issue we tend to see with tanks is that it is more difficult to feel successful as a tank and know what you did was the right call, and requires follow up from your team. Whereas an assassin or carry can feel successful from getting kills, and it is very clear when they are doing their job.

Right, I am not conflating juggernauts and bruisers with tanks. When I say tanks I'm talking about pure tanks (Amumu, Rammus, Braum, Leona, Alistar, Malphite, etc). I am not talking about Darius, Garen, Dr. Mundo, Riven or anyone else that is often conflated with tanks because they are melee.

The goal is not to give tanks damage, but we also don't want a world where tanks are literally unkillable. They should be durable, they should take time to kill, but a world where it takes forever for a tank to die just stalls out the game, and not in an interesting way.

What exactly do you mean by "fast paced"? You are right that they are not as flashy as assassins/carries, but that isn't something that can really be solved with items or runes. The fact of the matter is that most players tend to like dealing damage, and that is just inherently flashier (you remove someone from the map).

You are right that support income is lower than carries, but their items are also MUCH cheaper, and tanks are the ones making the item choices. For most carries the items are dictated by your champion, whereas tank items have a bit more flexibility with things like picking the right item for the right situation.

If you feel like tanks are popping like balloons I STRONGLY suggest trying out Winter's Approach, it is criminally undervalued for how well it is performing. That isn't to say itemization is perfect, there are still improvements we can make. But things take time, and we shouldn't wait until we have everything before we ship anything.

We've also been playing with these in our internal tests and while that can only capture a small fraction of test cases, I hope it brings you some comfort that we didn't feel tanks were severely hurt by these changes.

It does work on most tanks, and that comes from live data not our internal tests. If you don't want to buy it then don't, I'm just telling you the facts about the item, it's up to you if you want to take the advice or not.