I've been playing since Season 2 and I've seen a lot of metas come and go but one recurring one seems to be the dreaded "Tank Meta". I'm sure you've seen the memes, or probably tried to kill a lategame Cho'Gath at some point, so we're going to cover some basic things to help you navigate it.

1. DO invest resources in your ADC.

They have the best chance of burning down the tanks you'll be playing against. Some patches ago the prices of items that give bonus critical strike percentage were reduced. This is important because currently the best way for an ADC to deal with tanks is utilizing a crit build. Champions that are naturally effective with those builds (Tristana, Xayah, Sivir) are very strong as a result, because their optimal build for their kit is also the optimal build for the meta. It's no surprise those AD picks show up in LCS drafts consistently. Support items are very strong right now, and you can really buff up your ADC by means of things like Ardent Censor. With Teleport on your top laner, every lane can put pressure on the bottom lane effectively. Tanks also can reasonably buy items like Knight's Vow or Locket of the Iron Solari that synergize with ADCs.



2. DO NOT lose the game early to tanks.

The last thing you want is a big fat Maokai/Gragas pushing you off towers as you watch your structures burn down because you lack the gold/items to contest. Each lane is responsible for proper warding, and identifying potential points of attack. A lot of the common tank junglers have hard engages that are difficult to avoid early, so you have to identify those threats. For example, the enemy team has Gragas. A classic gank from Gragas involves his Flash-Body Slam combination where he covers a large amount of ground, and hits you with hard CC. So, with some help from your team, identify:

a: Does Gragas have Flash?

b: Is he currently a threat to gank you?

If the answer to both of these questions is "yes", then playing safe will be of the most benefit, or if you can check "no" on one of these you have an opportunity to play forward, but with some caution.



3. DO build armor penetration.

A lot of AD players will get their 3 crit items and wonder why they can't knock down the Maokai in their face. Sometimes an early Last Whisper can be a sound investment. Think about this: If you find yourself dying repeatedly to CC, you will probably pick up a QSS for 1300 gold. If you find yourself dying to tanks, there is another 1300 gold item, Last Whisper, that with its 35% armor penetration can make a world of difference for you. Same thing goes for bruisers and off-tanks. I love playing top lane and jungle, and on most AD champions in those roles a Black Cleaver is a pretty reasonable item to grab first or second. Another perk of Black Cleaver is that it reduces armor as a debuff so you're also helping your team deal more damage.



4. DO NOT ignore team comps when making your champion picks.

This is a personal pet peeve of mine. Sometimes you just don't want to pick Zed into 3 big tanks regardless of how much you want to play him. If the other team has already grabbed 2 tanks by the time you're picking your champion, take note and adapt your choice accordingly. For example, I really enjoy Graves jungle and have had some successful games on it when the enemy team shows me a damage composition. But it's equally frustrating and miserable to play it against two big tanks so I've had to turn it into a situational pick rather than something I can just grab with the first pick and expect to play my way out of matchup problems. Try and have one or two backup picks if your main just isn't ideal for burning down big fat tanks. The last thing you or any of your teammates want to do is lose a game in champion select.





5. DO consider playing some tanks.

The old expression "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em" applies here. One of the interesting dynamics with solo queue to me has always been finding a balance between playing what's strong and playing what you enjoy. If you absolutely can't stand playing tanks, this may not be for you. If you are open to it, tanks can be very strong rewarding champions. Some can be played as flex picks, Maokai is viable in top and jungle for example. The impact of dictating engages and zoning out, sometimes killing the enemy carries cannot be overstated. Tank builds are strong, have nice buildpaths featuring cheap strong components. Bami's Cinder a few patches ago had its price reduced, making it pretty easy to grab on your first back with boots or another component. The same goes for the Bramble Vest that builds into Thornmail. These changes help patch up where tanks are notoriously weak - in the early game. But I don't need you to tell you WHY tanks are strong, we're here to figure out how to work around them.



6. DO NOT focus down tanks if it's not your job.

This requires an understanding of each person's role in the teamfight. This may sound simple but you don't want to blow too many cooldowns killing a tank in a teamfight. If you can find an opening to get onto a priority target, and it's your job to do so, you want to make sure you have the abilities available to do so. One of the worst feelings is when you kill the tank at the beginning of the fight and get burned down by a Cassiopeia you were ignoring. This is especially important when your carries are going to be outscaled in a fight. If your Sivir can outdamage everyone else on the enemy backline, it's a viable option to just protect the Sivir. If they have the Sivir then you have to start thinking about ways to kill it. Moral of the story, don't waste cooldowns on the tank.





In conclusion, playing against tanks requires good situational awareness. You have to identify threats and be able to adapt your gameplay accordingly. The nice thing is these principles apply to any meta. The best way to handle tanks is to assess threats on the enemy team, and what you can do early in the game to hold them down, what items you can build to help neutralize their strengths, and which members of your own team are best equipped to stop them. Eventually the meta will shift again, but these same principles can help in many situations.

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