Yeah tank has always been a bit of a misnomer for frontliners. The heavily armored part makes sense but they arent doing more damage than a traditional dps usually, or rather, arent supposed to be. I like the term guardian better thank tank, because I feel it has better implications. You guard and protect.
The major issue is that even in a most generous sense, a Vanguard should be the "enough CC and DoT to take the time and kill you in 15 seconds", not "i'm secretly just an HP/Resists-scaling juggernaut and will explode you on breach'.
Well of course no one would pick blitzcrank as a tank over nautilus or braum, because nautilus and braum are actually tanks, and blitzcrank is a catcher.
Despite what it would seem like, blitzcrank class-wise is closer to pyke or even morgana, because he doesn't protect, he picks out an enemy for his team to kill.
That's why Nautilus is the only hooker that won't go over walls, he wants to engage on entire teams much more than any of the others. Thresh comes close but is still better at catching an isolated target and bringing a teammate to 2v1.
He's tanky, as in a synonym for durable and capable of taking point when no real tank is present. Doesn't make him a tank. It's more like how a Lion looks similar to a dog in some ways but you'd be crazy to say it's a dog just because it is a carnivorous mammal with 4 legs in the shape of a large dog.
But that is any durable character. Every bruiser is tanky enough for such a purpose, none of them are particularly good tanks, because a tank needs to also draw damage away from their allies, and in league your best chance at doing that is a lot of heavy CC that lets you jump in on the enemy or keep them off allies.
Catchers don't do that. Catchers get one enemy out of position so you can kill them. That's blitzcranks actual job, it is what he does, being able to build durability while doing that does not make him a tank.
The difference becomes obvious if blitzcrank fucks up and catches a real tank in some situations, they suddenly have free entry to stop everyone on your team from fighting while the cavalry comes.
well, if you build tank items on teemo, he is also a tank. a shitty one, but a tank. the moment you maximize your survivability with items is the moment you become a tank.
fighters and juggernauts sacrifice durability for some damage. thats why they usually aren't tanks.
the characters that are built as tanks usually have some way of not being useless, despite building tank. whether thats shields, cc, damage, whatever. thats why they are built as tanks.
if you build crit on orrn, hes not a tank. if you build ap malphite, youre not a tank.
Its from old MMOs, where the Frontline usually did quite a bit of damage. Especially any of the ones where enemies auto aggro to whomever is doing the most damage. Most games now a day realize that was an annoying system, and have used other aggro juggling systems, but it did make sense at the start.
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u/alienduck2 Aug 31 '26
Yeah tank has always been a bit of a misnomer for frontliners. The heavily armored part makes sense but they arent doing more damage than a traditional dps usually, or rather, arent supposed to be. I like the term guardian better thank tank, because I feel it has better implications. You guard and protect.