Team Composition - Tanks: Initiating and Pulling Aggro

As a tank, you want to take as many hits as possible and live as long as possible. Your job is to be at the front line, the first to go in, and the first to die. I know this may or may not be intuitive, but yes, you want to be the one focused and the first to die. Remember, everything explained here assumes that you are roaming as a group and that your team are following and are preparing for a decisive battle.



As a tank you will be leading the team through the forest. You will be about 1-2 seconds a head of your team while they follow closely behind. In regards to maintaining aggro and tanking hits. Sometimes I think of it as a team effort. Your team has to position themselves behind you so that it is worth while to for them to attack you while your team hits from behind instead of walking past you while you are attacking them. Focusing their main dps will generally cause their team to focus on you. Also you will lead differently depending on which hero you play. For example.



Allistar: you will walk the front lines and the moment you see the other team (assuming you are roaming as 5) you will flash in (if you have it) then pulverive them and push the squishiest hero towards your team. After doing so you will be the only hero in attacking range of 4 of them so they will intuitively focus you. If you do not have flash, you can always just ghost walk and headbutt their tanks back while you and your team go forwards to initiate. Remember after you headbutt you have to choose when you should pulverize. Don't do it automatically. You want to stun as many as possible. So I would usually walk forwards a little into the center of their team before pulverizing.



Amumu: again, your job is to lead. The best way to initiate is to have your team move forwards slightly before and a head of you. You then you flash in and use your ultimate to maximize the 3 seconds of pounding you just set the other team up for. Again, be selective of when you should use your ultimate. Do not use it until your teammates are in range of attacking. Sometimes, I flash in too early or I am tanking their hits. I would tantrum and dispair for a second or two to wait for my team to catch up before I use my ultimate. Remember, Amumu's ultimate does not do that much damage. Its purpose is to disable the other team while yours can pound them. So make a conscious decision when you should ult to maximize that damage. When you do ult them, remember to auto attack and tantrum their carry dps and bandage that champion as your ultimate runs out.



Gangplank: It is kind of unconventional to build gangplank as a tank but it works pretty well. If you are using him as a tank. I wouldn't mind having him be the initiator aswell. You want to run far enough infront of your team so that they focus you usually 2 seconds. You want to keep charging forwards towards their range heros so their melee can follow until they ultimately are all grouped up on top of you then you can use your ultimate.



Malphite: Is sort of like Amumu because of the AOE stun but is different because he is basically flashing and stunning at the same time with his ultimate. The best way to use his ult is to wait for the battle to commence first then go in and focus their dps. This would mean that an off tank has to initiate.



Singed: He is a pretty good initator as well. You can use ghost, boost, and insanity potion to charge in with poison trail and slow one of their squishies and toss them back and run back instantly. This will allow you to pick 1 off and snare/poison the other team if they want to run forwards to save the person that got tossed.

Janna: I like to set her up a little differently. People think of Janna as a squishy hero and that she cannot tank so its almost natural to try and jump and kill her asap. I like to run into a group of 5 a second a head of my team and drop a howling gale before I use my ult to blow 1-2 champions towards my team and the rest back. This will allow my 4 teammates to focus 1-2 champions and kill them quickly. If they focus me while my ult is up I will shield myself while simultaneously use my the gale which has been charging to knock they up in the air and go back behind my team.

There are several different tanks and different ways to initiate but the moral of the story is: If you are the tank, you have to run ahead. This will make the other team focus you. As the tank you want to tank the hits and charge towards their squishies or dps and disable them if you have it. Tanks with AOE disables are:Gangplank, Malphite, Amumu, Janna, Allistar, Rammus, Nunu, Morgana even Singed (Nasus doesn't have an AOE disable but is also an awesome tank).

But as a quick disclaimer, this will only work if your team is together and you plan on being organized. Because if you run in and no one follows up. You will die and the fight will quickly become a 4v5 which will lead to an infinite spiral of death.