Season 12 took steps to bring defensive stats in the game up a notch. Season 13 has added to the work with a revamp to Tank itemization, giving Tanks more options to handle their opponents with. But, even before these updates, and likely if they’re ever toned down, there are just some Champions that are absolute monsters when it comes to Tanking. Today, we’re going to unpack those picks for you, but before we do, let’s talk about the types of Tanks in League.

Two Tanky Flavors

League Champions are designed with class archetypes in mind, and within their overarching classes are multiple archetypes. Tanks come packaged with two subclasses that help define how they want to approach games from a moment-to-moment basis. Those subclasses being Vanguards and Wardens.

Vanguards are your offensive Tanks. They lead the charge for their teams by being the defining source of ‘Engage’, meaning that they’re the ones that get fights going. They do this by having extremely high impact crowd-control abilities with wide and impactful ranges, allowing them to hit the ‘Go’ button at a moment’s notice.

Wardens are the exact opposite of Vanguards. They’re defensive Tanks. Wardens specialize at holding space (controlling zones) and peeling. Their kits are best suited in scenarios where they are the counter-engage or anti-dive options for a team as their crowd-control is far less aggressively inclined with less range. But since they lack a higher ability to engage fights, they make up for it with unique ways to control the tempo of fights beyond flat crowd-control.

So, now that we’ve got these two perspectives in mind, let’s jump into unpacking some of the best of the best from both categories!

Ornn

Representing our first of many Vanguard choices on the list, Ornn is, perhaps, the most competitively viable Top Lane Tank in League’s history. (Though a later pick may look to change that.)

As with most Tanks, Ornn’s innate strength comes from his scaling ability. His personal base stats, while being higher than average early, fall off as the game goes on. This gives him some ‘oomph’ in lane but doesn’t allow him to remain a threat as things drag on. This decline is adjusted through scaling values and promotes Ornn’s identity as a Mid to Late game focused Tank where those scaling values come to life with more items at his disposal. And itemization is really where Ornn shines since the core grab of his kit, his Passive - Living Forge, promotes not only his late-game strength but that of his allies as well.

Living Forge is a very wordy Passive with a lot of features, but we can break it down pretty quickly in case you’re not familiar with Ornn!

Ornn’s passive allows him to shop while in lane. This shop allows him to buy non-consumable items, so don’t expect to be sustaining your way through the lane by constantly buying health potions.

Ornn’s passive gives him bonus values in Health, Armor, and Magic Resistance from all sources, and amps up an additional 4% every time he upgrades a Mythic Item.

Ornn’s upgrades come from his passive as well and can be distributed to his whole team. First, Ornn will upgrade his own Mythic Item into a Masterwork variant at level 13 for free. Then at each level after (excluding level 18) Ornn can upgrade the Mythic Items of his allies. Masterwork Variants don’t grant additional effects but do upgrade base stat values on the items granting them a bonus of roughly 1000 gold.

And lastly, against Brittle enemies, (a debuff applied by Ornn’s Ult - Call of the Forge God and W - Bellows Breath) Ornn’s basic attacks briefly knock-up his target and Ornn and his allies deal bonus magic damage (based on Ornn’s max health %) to those opponents while consuming the debuff.

So, tying on all these late-game inclined bonus stat effects with Ornn’s ability to disrupt entire fights as both a great engage or counter-engage source thanks to the wide range of his Ultimate and the easy to execute nature of his E - Searing Charge, and you’ve got a quintessential Tank that is highly valued in meta games that run long.

Malphite

Malphite is perhaps the easiest Tank to pick-up and play on this list, and even bad Malphite players can look great thanks to his Ultimate. But, before we get that far into his kit, let's talk about what separates Malphite out in the Tank crowd.

Malphite is one of the best Tanks against heavy physical damage compositions since his W – Thunderclap and E – Ground Slam both scale off his armor. Thunderclap’s passive increases his armor when his Granite Shield is up and both abilities’ damage scales off Malphite’s bonus armor. Additionally, Malphite’s Ground Slam also applies a Cripple effect, which reduces the Attack speed of anyone hit, further benefiting him against auto-attack focused opponents.

But, of course, that resilience against Attack Damage isn’t what defines Malphite alone. Truly his Ultimate – Unstoppable Force is what defines Malphite as a Champion and makes him a premiere Engage Tank in League. Unstoppable Force is quite simple to understand reading simply as: Malphite dashes with displacement immunity to the target location. Upon arrival, he deals magic damage to nearby enemies and knocks them up for 1.5 seconds.

With a range of 1000 and an effect range of 325, Malphite can quite easily catch multiple opponents within the effect of his ultimate, allowing it to serve as an excellent pick and teamfight starting tool. When paired with other Ultimate-centric Champions like Yasuo, Miss Fortune, or Diana, Malphite is, without a doubt, the best wombo-combo Tank in all of League of Legends.

Leona

Leona shines her light on this list as our first Tank Support pick, and her presence is more than welcome. While one could argue that Rell gets Tankier than Leona, and that Nautilus is just a generally more flexible pick, I view Leona’s play pattern as a bit more consistent in comparison to those two so we drop her here. Though, truthfully, you can’t go wrong with either of those two if you don’t favor Leona in your Tank Support role.

Anyway, Leona comes packaged with some respectable resistances in the early game which allows her to trade heavily into enemy Minions and opponent damage since she’s going to be centered in a duo lane nine times out of ten. Extra resistances can come from her W – Eclipse, which grants her bonus Armor and Magic Resist as well as a flat damage reduction. And truthfully that’s where Leona’s tankiness ends beyond itemization and scaling.

The rest of her kit concerns itself towards her identity as an Engage Tank. Her Q – Shield of Daybreak, is a simple auto-attack empowerment/reset that simply stuns a target she right clicks. Simply effective. Her E – Zenith Blade, is a skillshot that shoots from Leona’s position towards a target direction. If the blade collides with an enemy Champion, they’re rooted for half a second and Leona then dashes to their location. Leona’s E/Q combo is the bread and butter of her kit, and when combined with her Passive – Sunlight, which applies an effect that can be consumed by an ally to deal extra magic damage to the target, makes Leona’s Level 2 all-in one of the best in Bot Lane.

Beyond all this though, there’s Leona’s signature Ultimate – Solar Flare. You can think of Solar Flare quite similarly to Malphite Ultimate in that it’s a decently ranged AoE engage ability, but unlike Malphite, there’s a sweet spot that Leona needs to hit to stun her target and she doesn't dash to the location. Instead, targets are simply stunned which allows Leona to step forward with the rest of her kit. This makes Leona one of the simplest yet most effective Tank Supports you can pick up!

Sejuani

Sejuani flails her way into the list as our premiere Tank Jungler, but similarly exists in the Vanguard/Engage Tank categories as our previous picks. And like Ornn, she’s one of the most competitively viable Tank selections within Professional Play and definitely deserves your regards as far as mastery is concerned.

While having the natural Tank scalings that one expects from the class’ design, Sejuani is far more about the crowd-control aspects of the kit. In fact, only one small section of her Passive – Fury of the North, grants her bonus resistances in Armor and MR, while the other section of it deals with the damage dealt from her the Frozen debuff she applies with her other abilities.

Speaking of her abilities though, Sejuani has another passive on her E – Permafrost, which synergizes extremely well with other melee Champions on her team. Permafrost is a stacking passive that, when capped, allows Sejuani to trap and stun her opponents and it stacks quickly when a target affected by her passive is dealt damage by any melee Champions. So, when Sejuani comes in on a gank into a melee lane, she and her lane partner can quickly chain-CC an opponent to death or force them to burn important resources like Ults or Summoner Spells to insure their survival. And it doesn’t matter how many melee sources are dealing the damage, the more the better really. Which is why you’ll often see Sejuani paired up with the likes of more carry-oriented lanes in Top like Aatrox or Renekton, while pairing well with the likes of Yasuo and Yone in Mid.

After all that, her kit is pretty easy to break down. Her Q – Arctic Assault causes her boar Bristle to charge forward and deal damage in a target direction. If she collides with a Champion, they’re knocked up! Her W – Winter’s Wrath, deals damage in a target direction, applies her passives, and slows her opponents while knocking back Minions and Monsters. And lastly Sejuani’s Ultimate - Glacial Prison, flings a frozen bola in a target direction for up to 400 units. If it collides with a Champion, they’re stunned for 1.5 seconds, and a massive slowing field is created around the area which also reveals targets within!

Her ability to dash in and engage from far away is what defines Sejuani, and when you pair her with great melee partners, things can get out of hand for her opponents in teamfights!

Galio

Mid Lane is the last place that Tanks can call home! And while the lane itself centers more towards Mages and Assassins, there’s one particular stone-made boy that rocks in Mid that can act as the team's Tank, especially against heavy AP damage. That stoney-boy being Galio!

Galio makes his Heroic Entrance onto this list as being a great Anti-Magic Tank, but he also comes in as our only selection for the Warden archetype on this list. So, Galio’s typical Tank behavior is far more short range and counter-engage focused, so you won’t see him making huge Flash-Engage plays unless it's an absolutely free setup gifted to him.

Anyway, Galio’s Anti-Magic nature centers off his synergy with the Magic Resistance stat. The effects of which come from his Passive – Colossal Smash and W – Shield of Durand. For Colossal Smash, it’s less about the defensive resistances and more about the damage scaling provided by his MR stat. Simply put, Galio’s enhanced auto from his passive deals more damage the more MR, AD, and Ability Power he has to work with.

Shield of Durand is a bit more on the nose when it comes to utilizing his Magic Resist defensively. First, Galio gains a passive Magic Damage shield based on his % max health that restores whenever Galio doesn't take damage. This makes him quite resistant to enemy AP poke. Second, whenever Galio uses his W, he channels and generates a taunting aura around himself. While channeling and for two seconds after, Galio gains a sizable amount of magic damage reduction (and half that amount of physical damage reduction) that scales off his Magic Resist. This is great since he also slows himself during the channel, and this period makes him quite vulnerable to enemy poke.

After all that though, it’s business as usual for a Mid Lane Champion with the remainder of Galio’s kit scaling off of Ability Power. Galio’s in-lane nature is all about shoving waves and moving himself towards his allies so that if they’re in trouble he can respond and turn plays around with his semi-global Ultimate – Heroic Entrance. This ult brings Galio directly to his allies where hero-punches the ground dealing AP damage and knocking back opponents that are close to his landing point. When combined with Shield of Durand and his E - Justice Punch, which knocks up his opponents he charges into, Galio can provide a ton of short-range CC around priority friendly targets making them that much harder to take down. Or, if peeling doesn't need to be his focus, he can utilize his ultimate as a follow-up to other dive focused characters like Volibear, Leona, Sejuani, and more. Galio’s gameplay revolves around who he needs to support the most with his massive CC layers and when he’s played to his best, he’s insufferable to deal with!

Closing Out!

So, there you have it folks! While I’d love to include a Bot Lane focused Tank, I don’t really count Farming Tahm Kench into the equation since he has to be paired with Senna to be a viable choice. But consider him an honorable mention. In fact, consider these honorable mentions if you didn’t see your favorite Tank cross the list:

• Braum - Great at peeling for carries and controlling chokes. Pairs well with auto-attack focused teams thanks to his passive!
• Maokai - Great in lane sustain thanks to his passive which makes him viable in Top, Jungle, and Support! He also has flexible build paths between AP and traditional Tank.
• Nunu - One of the best beginning Junglers to learn thanks to his extra Smite in the form of his Consume! Excellent long-range engage abilities with his Snowball as well!
• Poppy - If things are getting too Dash-oriented on the enemy team, Poppy’s W is great at trimming those dashy-do-badders down and setting them up for her team!

Now, with all that, we hope these Tank pick-ups serve you well! Good look and keep an eye out for our piece that promotes Tank Shredders if you’re feeling around for some Anti-Tank choices!