maxle
6581
Nasus is pretty good at fucking up melee characters (I had no items, Nocturne had a bunch of kills and items. Nocturne ulted to me, I killed him), and melee characters are all the rage right now.
Pogo
6582
Rammus, Malphite, Shen, Alistar and Amumu are the only glaringly obvious tanks when considering their passives and abilities are made to supplement a combination of traits including taking damage and debuffing or controlling enemy champs. Vlad doesn’t cut it, he’s too much of a mage, and Cho’ rides the fine line only because he’s so stupidly big that people click on him, he has minor crowd control, and Feast gives him a way to get his team to focus someone. Nasus rides the same line but has the potential to output silly damage, I’d put him more into some type of melee Swain-like mage category.
Nasus is a good choice against a melee heavy team as he is horrible against anyone that can kite (Teemo, Ashe, Janna, etc. just destroy Nasus). He is a tank though, he has the ability to take 2 people out of the fight immediately and makes people focus him by punching them really hard in the face. I’d argue he’s far more of a tank then say Mundo, thanks to his AoE armor reduction (The reason I’m really annoyed at people saying to max your Q/W first, SF is a pretty big deal in a Dragon fight) and Wither, which slows Attack and Move speed combined with his AoE % damage (the reason he is anti-melee).
Like Pogo said though, Tanks aren’t just someone beefy. That’s just a silly label people have begun adopting on everything for no reason, and it pisses me off the same way the “tanky DPS” label does because it’s used so arbitrarily by people who think they know what they are talking about.
To be considered a tank you need (at the very least) a combination of these 3 things: Some kind of CC (If it’s not a hard CC you should be running Exhaust), Naturally beefy stats (with 0 items) and the ability to kill a target outright or cause them to focus you above all else.
JoshV
6584
I’m surprised I don’t see Thornmail on Rammus more, combined with his taunt and his turtle powers (defensive ball & the quake), he can return a surprising amount of damage.
Several reasons for this.
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Tanks item choices are far more match dependent then any other characters in the game (It’s the reason alot of new people struggle with them). Thornmail is the most extreme Anti-AD item in the game and therefore very hard to justify in most cases. It’s also a better pick-up on someone that isn’t a tank, since you want their AD to hit you. This goes doubly so for Rammus who can activate a damage return ability anyway when he knows only he will be hit :)
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Rammus jungles almost exclusively, which causes you to pick up a HoG (or maybe an Aegis if no-one else is in the position to build it) and therefore look to a Randuins for your Armor needs. Which to be honest, is a far better item pick up on Rammus anyway because
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Rammus needs Health, not resistances. I mean sure he’s not going to say no, but you get a free 150/150 from your W. Hence the Randuins pick-up being better, even before you have to finish half of it anyway.
idrisz
6587
that’s entire post is great and all, except tanky dps is just way too powerful currently.
I’m intereasted in this phrase from their patch announcement.
For this patch, we’re mainly focusing on bug fixes, as well as some more buffs to several champions. The reason we went for this focus was to prepare for the upcoming patch, in which we’re preparing some interesting solutions to damage-vs-defense, counters to tank-stacked teams, and other larger balance changes.
So, SOON™ we shall adjust the tanky deeps.
maxle
6589
Sure they will. Until then, I’ll continue loving Nasus. I hate fucking tanky melee, and Nasus A: makes me tanky melee, and I like hating myself and B: lets me destroy tanky melee.
idrisz
6591
no, get one sunfire with rammus, stack pretty well with his ult.
He doesn’t farm up quickly enough? Not tried Warmogs on Rammus, could be lulz I suppose.
I’m really, REALLY liking will of the ancients. It’s fun on Morde and I’m thinking it could be useful on more serious AP characters. It’s not terribly expensive and gives a good chunk of AP in addition to a nice heal rate with the spell vamp.
JoshV
6593
Hah, no get a Rylai’s so that his ult slows and his innate thornmail slows!
(trolling)
You get both. OBVIOUSLY! DUH!
And then, yes, Rylai’s so that your Powerball slows even more. It’s like unnerfing it from a few patches ago!
Pogo
6595
This doesn’t make any sense whatsoever, this concept of “stacks well” with the character. Should I got Madred’s on Shen because it “stacks” with his Ki strike? Should I get a Ruby Crystal on Lux because it “stacks” with her health? Like wut?
Rammus’ ult doesn’t enjoy anything special with a Sunfire. Rammus’ playstyle does, however.
I think he’s referring to the fact Rammus’ Ult and main source of damage affects an AoE around him, meaning a funfire is very effective in combination with it.
Pogo
6597
It’s effective in general!
They don’t call them winfires for nothing ;)
bluemax
6599
My solo top Jarvan is pretty awesome. Tanky DPS FTW.
Undefeated in ranked as him, including 5 straight wins.
Pogo
6600
HotShotGG seems to be maining Jarvan on his Kakasoul smurf account (smurf in this case meaning ~1850 ELO), seems to like to go to midgame with two Heart of Golds, then some type of MR either BV or FoN, then into the Randuins and Atmas/Madreds/Last Whisper for endgame damage.
I should probably buy Jarvan. He’s more effectively replacing Xin Zhao’s role, mainly because a self-shield will always be better than Xin Zhao’s passive and his flag/strike combo is effective as an escape in more situations than Xin’s charge.
tldr: Xin needs a buff
