Happy New Year explorers! As the holiday festivities come to an end we would like to apologise for being a little quiet over the past week; many of the Metahub team have been busy with family and friends. Thankfully, a member of our discord server Bart#4400 put his free time over the holidays to good use and submitted a comparison of the legendary tanks in the 1.5 meta, collaborating with myself to produce the following:

Tanks in the Meta:

Prior to 1.5, tanks were a powerful and pervasive force in the arena. Now, after important balance changes detailed below, their role is a lot more niche and well defined, but still incredibly important in a balanced team. As such, this article has been written to explain the different strengths of each of the 6 legendary tanks, helping you to decide which of them will work best for your team.

Changes in 1.5:

Superiority Strike: By removing the full cleanse from superiority strike any tanks using it lost a key aspect of their speed control; and more importantly became very vulnerable to DoT.

DoT: The increased strength and availability of bleed created a lot more viable counters to the big tanks.

Chompers: The addition of new powerful tyrannosaurs, as well as buffs to existing ones, further increased the number of threats to tanks in the meta.

DS/AP Counter: A lot of counter-attackers are now able to shatter shields and pierce armor with their passives, adding even more troublesome match-ups for tanks.

All the tanks we will discuss here share the same two major weaknesses (bleed and Defense Shattering moves); the ones with higher health pools being more susceptible to bleeds while the more shield reliant options with lower HP face a greater threat of being easily dispatched by a Defense Shattering Rampage.

The fact that there are now so many potential threats to tanks shouldn’t discourage their use; in a healthy meta there needs to be a balanced trade off between strengths and weaknesses. The respective strengths offered by each tank should be the deciding factor on which to include, as each of them brings something different and desirable to the table.

Having relatively low base attack and health means Alanky can easily look weak when compared to the alternatives, however 30% armor combined with an unmatched array of shields more than make up for those shortcomings when used correctly. She also out-speeds many troublesome Defense Shattering counters. Alankylosaurus can be considered quite accessible to create; as the vast majority of players will be receiving a steady stream of both her components through battle and daily incubators. That said, she could prove difficult to level as one component is an arena exclusive, and the other spawns in parks.

Where Alankylosaurus really performs is not in the 1v1 match-ups where, although she can stall well with her shields, her damage output lets her down. It is instead on the strength of her Swap In Invincibility; allowing you a free swap into anything not using a defense shattering/nullifying move. Not only is this a very useful tool to have available in any match, it is the strongest defense against Cloak users in the game.

As a fusion of two local day/dawn/dusk epics, Ankyntro is the least accessible of the six; but she is certainly worth the effort! Great base stats across the board combined with a 0.5x Counter and an exceptionally versatile move-set means Ankyntrosaurus has very few bad match-ups. If you are able to run an Ankyntro at team level it is almost certainly a good idea to do so. The only reason they are not more prevalent in arena is the scarcity of the components; it is almost always going to be below team level, and once she reaches level 20 she has a direct upgrade in Trykosaurus.

The Spiky Potato is an exceptionally good damage sink and specialises in stalling out fights while chipping away the opponent. It is all about mind games and out-predicting your opponent to win in the 1v1. Even when beat, those counter-attacks add up, and combined with the 3 turn slow from Thagomizer Ankyntro can provide a great set-up.

High health, 40% armor, and a 0.5x Counter is just the start of Gigaspike’s resume. A high damage move-set that also provides excellent speed control (Decelerating Impact and Rampage can be cycled indefinitely) compensates for what would otherwise be a lackluster attack stat. Relatively easy to obtain and level, Gigaspikasaur was often overlooked due to sharing components with two of the more popular tanks from prior patches (Stegod and Tragod). In her current state it is hard to argue she is not at least comparable in strength to either; and with accessible components offers a very viable alternative to both.

A defensive powerhouse, Gigaspike is a great all-rounder that puts out a surprising amount of overall damage. She specialises against hit-and-runners by being able to lock them down with Pinning Strike and mitigate/soak a lot of their damage.

The third superhybrid of Nodopatosaurus to be released, it is likely to prove the least accessible of the three for any players not living in Local 4. With very strong base stats, a 0.25x Counter and a move-set including the priority shield from Bellow and Long Protection, Nodotitan is the meatiest of meatshields. Bellow, Decelerating Impact and Superiority Strike give unmatched speed control utility

The lack of a 2x multiplier, along with the desirability of playing Long Protection or Bellow early, means Nodopatotitan does often go down with quite a low overall damage output, however she excels as a damage sink and has a lot of tools to help set up a win. Nodotitan has an awful lot going for her, however she needs a high damage team to set up and compensate for her poor damage output, as she will rarely score the take downs herself.

With a massive health pool further protected by 30% armor, Stegod may no longer be the undisputed queen of tanks but remains extremely relevant. She boasts great speed control with access to Thagomizer and Superiority Strike, and has high damage output due to having both 2x and 1.5x multipliers along with the highest base damage of the six. She is also one of the more accessible of the group (albiet less so than in prior patches), made up of a global anytime rare, a global day/dawn/dusk common and an anytime park common.

Stegodeus’ main strengths lie in being a great damage sink, easily dealing with many fragile, speedier dinosaurs and also inflicting a decent amount of damage into even her hardest counters. A key aspect of Stegodeus in particular is Thagomizer, the 3 turn, 50% slow which can heavily punish whatever a hit’n’run dino swaps into, and means being able to gain and maintain priority over faster Superiority Strike users.

A relatively low health pool certainly doesn’t mean Tragodistis is fragile; 40% armor and Long Invincibility allow her to easily soak non-shattering damage. An incredibly speedy tank at 124, Tragod will often have to take less hits than other tanks might due to having (and being able to maintain) priority in many match-ups. Her very versatile kit also outputs a surprising amount of damage through Rampage and her 0.25x Counter. Tragodistis remains fairly accessible to those who hunt most during daylight hours, comprising of a global rare and two local commons that are all day/dawn/dusk spawns.

Tragod’s signature strength comes from Greater Stunning Strike; being able to chain a total of 5250 damage while only taking one hit against those she out-speeds; or 4250 against faster opponents from the 3 turn combo of GSS -> SS -> R (if set up). The stun can also be key in stalling out a turn of a buff such as Ferocious or Evasive (unless the opponent is immune!).

Parting Words

While this article is dedicated to the legendary tanks, it would be remiss not to touch on the epic APEX-tier tank Brachiosaurus. A non-hybrid that has been fairly accessible since release as a global night and now global day epic, along with being featured in recent events, she is a very viable alternative option, especially for newer players. Brachi most closely compares to Nodopatotitan; but trades a lot of utility and armor for an even larger health pool, impressive damage output aided by a 30% Critical Chance, and a bit of speed. This helps brachi to perform substantially better against shattering attacks than the legendaries, while maintaining most of their good match-ups.

As always explorers, it’s up to you to decide how best to build your team as different play-styles and unequal access to parks/locals make different choices more or less viable. This is a good thing overall, as leads to greater diversity in the arena, especially in such a balanced meta where there are few wrong choices.

Thanks again to Bart#4400 for his help producing this article, and if you’ve got any thoughts about this or any of our other articles be sure to join the discussion on our Discord server or in the comments below!