• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 01:44
CEST 07:44
KST 14:44
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
[ASL22] Ro8 Preview: Within Reach5[ASL22] Ro8 Preview: In A Tizzy11[ASL22] Ro16 Preview: Holy Diver5[ASL22] Ro16 Preview: Rough Waters10[ASL22] Ro24 Preview: Siren's Call8
Community News
StarCraft II 5.0.17 PTR Patch Notes (Sept 30, 2026)54Weekly Cups (Sept 21-27): herO and ByuN double2Weekly Cups (Sep 13-20): herO scores triple3BSL Season 2313Weekly Cups (Sep 7-12): SHIN, ByuN, MaxPax double down1
StarCraft 2
General
How do you feel about the mass reverts in the 5.0.17 PTR? StarCraft II 5.0.17 PTR Patch Notes (Sept 30, 2026) SC4ALL: II SC2 Complete Invited Player Lineup StarCraft open world shooter announced at BlizzCon Weekly Cups (Sept 21-27): herO and ByuN double
Tourneys
Sea Duckling Open (Global, Bronze-Diamond) Stellar Fest TWO the Moon (Dec 16-20) 2026 GSTL Grand Finals SC2 INu's Battles#21 [ 3-Days tournament ] ScienceCraft (October 24-25) - Live Event
Strategy
[H] ZvP Mid-Late Game: Stalkers Collossi HT
Custom Maps
[M] (2) Sweltering Sands [M] (2) Frigid Storage
External Content
The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 545 And Drops and Rifts Mutation # 544 Double Trouble Mutation # 543 Enhanced Defenses
Brood War
General
Fantasy returning? Bot on ladder BW General Discussion ASL22 General Discussion a Announcement on the JEDI Ringing
Tourneys
[ASL22] Ro8 Day 4 [Megathread] Daily Proleagues [ASL22] Ro8 Day 3 [ASL22] Ro8 Day 2
Strategy
Cliff Jump Revisited (1 in a 1000 strategy) Replay Review Process - What do you do? Simple Questions, Simple Answers Odyssey Mineral Stack Saturation
Other Games
General Games
Nintendo Switch Thread General RTS Discussion Thread Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Total Annihilation Zero
Dota 2
Dota 2 Champions League Season 3 Begins April 25! Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
[TL LoL EUW IHs] Teemo shall perish
Heroes of the Storm
Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug
TL Mafia
TL Mafia Community Thread
Community
General
Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine Canadian Politics Mega-thread US Politics Mega-thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread Artificial Intelligence Thread
Fan Clubs
Serral Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
Movie Discussion! [Manga] One Piece Diablo Animated Series on Netflix
Sports
Football (Soccer) Thread MLB/Baseball 2023
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread
TL Community
Recent Gifted Posts
Blogs
[ASL22] Ro4 Day1 Ticket Giv…
bITt.mAN
Escaping Into Video Games: G…
TrAiDoS
38 yo Retired SWE loo…
PurE)Rabbit-SF
Can Bots Beat Pros?? Starcr…
namkraft
[meme] I finally understa…
LUCKY_NOOB
Regacy Esports:Our Goa…
regacyesports
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 7361 users

Wut es a tank? huehuehuehue (splr: Morde es #1) - Page 3

Forum Index > LoL General
Post a Reply
Prev 1 2 3 4 Next All
Mogwai
Profile Blog Joined January 2009
United States13274 Posts
February 03 2011 20:56 GMT
#41
On February 04 2011 05:53 spinesheath wrote:
We should just all agree that a tank can only be a champ that can switch between tank mode and siege mode and all that stuff.

(and therefore there are no tanks in LoL)

i disagree, heimer #1 siege mode.
mogwaismusings.wordpress.com
crate
Profile Blog Joined May 2009
United States2474 Posts
February 03 2011 20:56 GMT
#42
"Tank" is like some other terms ("metagame" for instance, or "mindgames" in the Smash community) in that its (mis)usage has broadened to the point where using the word in any sort of intelligent discussion is pretty dumb. You're just bound to be misunderstood on at least some level.

That said I don't think it's terribly hard to see which champs have innately good survivability (Taric, Malphite, Udyr), which have good initiation (Malph, Rammus), which can keep anti-carries off your carry (Udyr, Cho) and so on. I feel like arguing over the definition of a word that is used so broadly ("tank") is silly when there are other, perfectly good words that accurately express what you're trying to say.
We did. You did. Yes we can. No. || http://crawl.akrasiac.org/scoring/players/crate.html || twitch.tv/crate3333
TheYango
Profile Joined September 2008
United States47024 Posts
February 03 2011 20:56 GMT
#43
On February 04 2011 05:46 Mogwai wrote:
I find this thread fascinating because everyone thinks everyone else looks like a complete retard because no one knows wtf makes someone a good tank or a tank at all.

Read: "You all just got trolled by Gizmo."
Moderator
Mogwai
Profile Blog Joined January 2009
United States13274 Posts
February 03 2011 20:57 GMT
#44
the thread title has huehuehuehuehuehuehue in it, I'm not sure anyone is even slightly surprised that I'm at least 50% trolling here.
mogwaismusings.wordpress.com
TheYango
Profile Joined September 2008
United States47024 Posts
February 03 2011 21:00 GMT
#45
On February 04 2011 05:57 Mogwai wrote:
the thread title has huehuehuehuehuehuehue in it, I'm not sure anyone is even slightly surprised that I'm at least 50% trolling here.

But we all played into it nevertheless.
Moderator
BlackPaladin
Profile Joined May 2010
United States9316 Posts
February 03 2011 21:01 GMT
#46
Pshhh A tank is big and green and goes pewpew with it's giant cannon. Come on, aren't I right here?
"Your full potential does not matter if you do not use all 100% of it."
Scorcher2k
Profile Joined November 2009
United States802 Posts
February 03 2011 21:08 GMT
#47
On February 04 2011 05:57 Mogwai wrote:
the thread title has huehuehuehuehuehuehue in it, I'm not sure anyone is even slightly surprised that I'm at least 50% trolling here.

I thought trolling your own thread was illegal and that you would be shot.
Mogwai
Profile Blog Joined January 2009
United States13274 Posts
February 03 2011 21:11 GMT
#48
I'm not full blown trolling, just being an ass to try to prove how stupid nailing down what a tank is is. Tanks come in many shapes and sizes and do many different things. besides, I'm not terribly interested in this discussion. I merely created this thread to stop the patch notes thread from getting completely derailed.
mogwaismusings.wordpress.com
HazMat
Profile Blog Joined October 2009
United States17077 Posts
February 03 2011 21:40 GMT
#49
Mord best tank in game huehue.

/thread.
www.youtube.com/user/ShakeDrizzle | League and SSBM content creator | Armada's Youtube Editor
Scorcher2k
Profile Joined November 2009
United States802 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-02-03 21:47:42
February 03 2011 21:45 GMT
#50
On February 04 2011 06:11 Mogwai wrote:
Tanks come in many shapes and sizes and do many different things. besides, I'm not terribly interested in this discussion. I merely created this thread to stop the patch notes thread from getting completely derailed.

So do weebles and they never fall down. I think you really, secretly, unbeknown to yourself, craved an opportunity to talk about the classification of pen.. I mean tank sizes.
GeneralStan
Profile Blog Joined August 2007
United States4789 Posts
February 03 2011 21:53 GMT
#51
Malphite is clearly a tank IMO.

He has build in damage mitigation with his passive, and his ultimate puts him right in the midst of the other team, who will usually toss a round of nukes his way, meaning he has just succeeded in both initiating a fight and absorbing a significant portion of the enemy team's punishment.

As far as disruption goes, how much more disrupting than a giant rock man in the middle of your team's squishies can you get?

¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Mogwai
Profile Blog Joined January 2009
United States13274 Posts
February 03 2011 22:02 GMT
#52
right and all tanks are beefy. that's their unifying characteristic. to imply anything more is to lose sight of why we call them tanks and exposes a severe lack of vocabulary. you want an initiator, ask for an initiator.
mogwaismusings.wordpress.com
Niton
Profile Blog Joined March 2009
United States2395 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-02-03 22:15:56
February 03 2011 22:11 GMT
#53
reposting from the other thread: https://spreadsheets0.google.com/ccc?key=tGtYuuZzXpcShHUAb2pUPYg&hl=en&authkey=CKvx9s4K#gid=0

This spreadsheet's really cool, and gives a nice baseline for talking about how durable a champion is (or isn't).

---

I think the main difference between a 'Tank' and a 'Bruiser' (thx Riot for the terms) is that a bruiser can be looked at to provide physical or magical damage as their primary reason for being on a team, whereas a tank provides meatwalling or group EH as their reason for being on a team.

Look at the champs Riot has tagged as 'tanks'. None of them are champions you'd pick to fill an AD or AP carry role on your team, and they're not the fragile buffbots that 'Support' has come to mean in LoL either. The idea of a 'tank' to me is a 'non-carry, non-caster, character takes an active role in battle' character.

- Shen and Rammus do this by having skillsets with taunts and abilities to prevent damage to themselves.
- Amumu and Galio do this by bringing in an AoE disable that forces fights for their teams.
- Alistar does this by having a skillset that lets him wreak havoc in combat along with an ult that lets him do it.
-Taric does this by having a hard requirement to be in melee to be at his full effect and having a skillset that's entirely focused on support and survival. He's a 'Durable Support' as much as he is a 'Tank', but the terms aren't that different for the LoL terms.

Other popular 'tanky' champions clearly have ways in which they're either AD or AP, but for the above champs, it's not even what they're doing, but how they're doing it.
tree.hugger: Coming off of [(T)fantasy v. (T)Really] into [(T)Barracks v. (T)MVP] is like coming out of Manhattan into New Jersey. You just have to speed up and ignore it.
Logrus
Profile Joined September 2010
United States228 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-02-04 01:56:47
February 04 2011 01:47 GMT
#54
On February 04 2011 07:02 Mogwai wrote:
right and all tanks are beefy. that's their unifying characteristic. to imply anything more is to lose sight of why we call them tanks and exposes a severe lack of vocabulary. you want an initiator, ask for an initiator.


This is the crux of it and very well said.

Which is an interesting issue, because now we see that the usage of the word 'tank' encourages further confusion and obfuscates the REAL question, what the discussion is really about, "who is an/the best initiator?" Taric and Janna have better initiates than Malph and Morde. Malph and Morde are sure more durable than Taric and Janna.

We all know who the tanky champs are already. Rather, we should be discussing who all the initiators are, and how to min/max the relationship and balance between being able to initiate effectively and surviving after you've initiated.

Champs like Rammus and Shen are natural in this role. Sometimes unorthodox champs with amazing initiates like Annie build tank and attempt to also fill the same role. Other times the responsibility for the role is shared amongst a team like Ashe Fiddle Morg Trynd Mundo with plenty of initiates and beef, just not both on a single champ.

This is where the breakdown occurs I think because in most cases people expect a single person on the team to shoulder this responsibility. "WTF NO TANK?" means '4x of us are not gunna start the fight, you should pick someone durable cuz we want you to run in first, also u better be good at running in first and then getting out too or we call u a nub.'

This sums it up very nicely:

On February 04 2011 04:54 ArC_man wrote:
I feel "tank" is a hugely misused term in LoL (and I hate using the word "tank"). When people ask for a "tank" in a game, they 99% of the time they mean a hero who has initiation abilities. Unfortunately for LoL, many of the inherently tough (ie: high hp/armor/mr) heros have initiation abilities which creates confusion because people now associate "tank" with "initiation".

It is a common misconception to assume that every team needs a tank. You can win games without a tank easily (unlike initiators).

TLDR: don't even use the word "tank", it only causes confusion.


Ultimately we should still use the word tank, but to mean beefy/durable and that will eventually trickle down. Meanwhile in solo que instead of complaining no one picked a tank I'll instead be saying 'WTF NO INIT?'
"Down, down into the pile, into the great slag heap, window onto the ends of time and space, where nothing is to be seen at the end, I went, between walls forever afire, never burnt down..." -Merlin, Prince of Chaos
Tooplark
Profile Joined October 2008
United States3977 Posts
February 04 2011 01:56 GMT
#55
Difference between a babysitter and a support is who you're casting the spells on :3
WHAT POW'R ART THOU WHO FROM BELOW HAST MADE ME RISE UNWILLINGLY AND SLOW
Mogwai
Profile Blog Joined January 2009
United States13274 Posts
February 04 2011 02:03 GMT
#56
best initiations in the game, in order:

1. Ashe
2. Malphite
3. Amumu
4. Rammus
5. Blitzcrank

honorable mentions to all the pussies who need flash to make it happen
Alistar, Annie, Galio
mogwaismusings.wordpress.com
Abenson
Profile Blog Joined December 2009
Canada4122 Posts
February 04 2011 02:07 GMT
#57
Tanks = lots of hp bars!
Morde es #1 tank
Logrus
Profile Joined September 2010
United States228 Posts
February 04 2011 02:15 GMT
#58
On February 04 2011 11:03 Mogwai wrote:
best initiations in the game, in order:

1. Ashe
2. Malphite
3. Amumu
4. Rammus
5. Blitzcrank

honorable mentions to all the pussies who need flash to make it happen
Alistar, Annie, Galio


ya ok but...

so like, why?

I mean, I don't think you're wrong, but I'm curious for example why mummy is #3 but i don't see Janna or Shen on the list. And Ashe arrow is amazing but that's all she has, so if u consider bandage toss in a vaccuum without his ult is it still #3 over rocket grab #5? And when is it a good idea to build Annie pure tank and be my teams stun initiator instead of say picking Sion and building tanky?

These are the type of questions that I think need further discussion and why this is a good thread!
"Down, down into the pile, into the great slag heap, window onto the ends of time and space, where nothing is to be seen at the end, I went, between walls forever afire, never burnt down..." -Merlin, Prince of Chaos
Tooplark
Profile Joined October 2008
United States3977 Posts
February 04 2011 02:23 GMT
#59
This is only from an initiation standpoint.
The purpose of an initiator is to take quick, decisive advantage of a mistake on the enemy team. Ashe is #1 for a long duration global stun. Malphite has his ulti and large burst/slow/aspd redux. Mumu similarly. Rammus powerballs into your carry and you lose the teamfight. Blitz pulls someone not tank and it's gg. Etc.
WHAT POW'R ART THOU WHO FROM BELOW HAST MADE ME RISE UNWILLINGLY AND SLOW
TheYango
Profile Joined September 2008
United States47024 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-02-04 02:34:58
February 04 2011 02:26 GMT
#60
On February 04 2011 11:15 Logrus wrote:
I mean, I don't think you're wrong, but I'm curious for example why mummy is #3 but i don't see Janna or Shen on the list. And Ashe arrow is amazing but that's all she has, so if u consider bandage toss in a vaccuum without his ult is it still #3 over rocket grab #5? And when is it a good idea to build Annie pure tank and be my teams stun initiator instead of say picking Sion and building tanky?

Shen is a poor initiator. You port in once the fight has started, but at actually starting fights, Shadow Dash really doesn't do it for you, especially against a team that has enough on-demand cc to keep themselves out of its woefully weak range. The best way Shen gets a fight started is to apply pressure on the other side of the map and wait for someone else to start the fight--which isn't really initiating in a useful sense.

With regard to Amumu/Ashe--while it's true that they can't do their initiation very often, in the context of a teamfight, that's not really a necessary trait. What IS necessary is reliability. If Amumu lands bandage/ulti or Ashe lands an Arrow, the fight is going to happen because you've got some significant portion of their team locked down. From there, once the fight is over, initiating a teamfight isn't going to be something you need to do in the next 20 seconds--because a significant portion of one team or the other is going to be dead. By the time both teams are in position to teamfight again, those skills will be ready again. Note that given the cooldown of Flash compared to initiation ultimates, this is NOT true of flash-based initiatiors like Galio, Alistar, and Annie.

One of the reasons I personally label Amumu as a better initiator than Blitzcrank is his ability to force his initiation through spell blocks (Black Shield and Banshee's Veil). You land a toss on someone, it pops the veil, pulls you through to them, and catches them in the ulti with all of their teammates. Later-game, Blitz needs to push through spell blocks in order to perform his initiation reliably.
Moderator
Prev 1 2 3 4 Next All
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
OSC
00:00
OSC Elite Rising Star #21
Liquipedia
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
Nina 114
StarCraft: Brood War
Rain 2010
Shuttle 934
Dewaltoss 81
Hm[arnc] 46
Bale 26
Noble 25
ZergMaN 12
yabsab 8
Icarus 5
Dota 2
NeuroSwarm161
League of Legends
JimRising 641
Counter-Strike
Coldzera 1140
Heroes of the Storm
Khaldor698
Other Games
summit1g8324
C9.Mang0322
PiGStarcraft280
Mew2King156
ViBE55
ArmadaUGS40
trigger6
Organizations
Dota 2
PGL Dota 2 - Main Stream81
[ Show 13 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• practicex 24
• intothetv
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• Migwel
StarCraft: Brood War
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
Dota 2
• lizZardDota2312
League of Legends
• Lourlo1151
• Rush1147
• Stunt425
Upcoming Events
Stellar Fest
7h 17m
OSC
16h 17m
CranKy Ducklings
1d 4h
Online Event
1d 5h
FEL
1d 10h
AI Arena Tournament
1d 11h
BSL: Ladder Tournament
1d 13h
Sparkling Tuna Cup
2 days
INu's Battles
2 days
herO vs Classic
Percival vs Rogue
BSL Open Qualifier
2 days
[ Show More ]
BSL Open Qualifier
2 days
Replay Cast
2 days
Afreeca Starleague
3 days
Rush vs Light
WardiTV Weekly
3 days
Replay Cast
3 days
Afreeca Starleague
4 days
Soma vs Soulkey
INu's Battles
4 days
SHIN vs Cure
ByuN vs Zoun
PiGosaur Cup
4 days
The PondCast
6 days
INu's Battles
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Proleague 2026-09-30
Blizzard Classic Cup 2026
Calamity Invitational

Ongoing

ASL Season 22
Super Anchor Qualifying S3
CSL 2026 AUTUMN (S22)
Acropolis #5
Stake Ranked Episode 4
1win Private Club #1
Logitech G Play Connect 2026
SL StarSeries Fall 2026
FISSURE Playground #3
BLAST Open Fall 2026
Esports World Cup 2026
BLAST Bounty Summer 2026
BLAST Bounty Summer Qual

Upcoming

Acropolis #5 - GSB
Acropolis #5 - GSC
BSL Season 23
SC4ALL II: Brood War
BSL 23: Non-Korean Championship
HSC XXX
Stellar Fest 2: Lunar Cup
SC4ALL II: StarCraft II
Kung Fu Cup 2026 Grand Finals
RSL Offline Finals
Custodian Cup
Copium Cup
PGL Major Singapore 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 6
BLAST Rivals Fall 2026
IEM Beijing 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 5
PGL Masters Bucharest 2026
1win Private Club #2
Thunderpick World Champ. '26
ESL Pro League Season 24
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2026 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.