The spirit of competition is still alive in League of Legends, with the game currently in its 16th year of competitive play and running its second season in the new ranked format. If you’re having trouble meeting your ranked grind or simply want to switch things up, then picking a Top Lane Tank can be an excellent way to secure some wins. Knowing the right tank to pick, however, can be a bit tricky, especially if you’re trying to avoid champions that are a bit weaker in the current meta.
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This list can also be read as “The Hardest Top Lane Tanks in League.” While a nerf or buff can greatly determine a champion’s rating on the ladder and the champions on this list currently have lower levels of play and winrates, their difficulty to master plays perhaps the biggest role in why they are lower tier of Top Lane Tanks. These champs can still dominate, but they’ll take you a lot more time and practice to make use of them
1) K’sante
While one of the more visually interesting tanks in the game, K’sante holds the unfortunate reputation of being both one of the hardest tanks in the game to learn. He also currently has perhaps the lowest pick and win rates of his class.
Despite his initial popularity on release, K’sante’s slow, clunky kit has kept him from soaring with the other Top Lane tanks, especially after several patches and a decently sized rework shifted his strengths around. His ultimate, which drops all of his defenses for damage and omnivamp in exchange for capped max health, is one of the more difficult ultimates in the game to master, and for many players provides more risk than reward.
2) Poppy
It hurts to admit, but one of my favorite champions in the game simply may not be the best choice for many Top Lane Tank players.
Though her Q, which leaves a high-damage, twice-triggering mark on the ground, which also slows enemies and her ability to get free armor and MR (doubled on low health) may be appealing, her deceptively high skill ceiling keeps her from competing with some of the game’s “stronger” tanky top laners. Her main forms of CC rely either on a wall or the enemy having a dash (more rare int he top lane than you’d”d think) and her ultimate, while being an incredible disengagement tool, is just that; It doesn’t provide heavy kill power or steroids other tanks have to win a fight, and is definitely more niche than your average top laner’s ultimate.
3) Gragas
It’s hard to call Grgas a pure “tank,” but I still feel as though he fits this list thanks to the popularity of his tank builds. Tanky Gragas has the highest skill ceiling among many Top Lane champions. Without a proper understanding of the character, you can easily be out-traded, out-poked, and straight-up killed in every fight you try to engage in.
A masterful Gragas, however, is a sight to behold and should not be underestimated. Though the champ provides less use outside of lane, a good Gragas in lane can keep you poked to death and then toss you under his own tower for an unfortunate finish.
These, in my opinion, are by far the worst, or at least hardest ot master, tanks for the Top Lane in League of Legends. Their difficulty to master combined with the current state of the game, being the strength of their own kits being nerfed or an increase of strength or pick rate to champions that counter them, has put them at the bottom tiers in their lane as far as win and pick rate. However, these champions are not completely non-viable, and a master of any of them can still climb.
What did you think of this list? Are there any champions you feel shouldn’t be there, or some that you think should take their place? Let us know in the comments below.
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