Riot released that they believed that tanks are the in the weaker level of classes. Tanks used to be top class in both competitive and in casual matches. However, with the increase in items and neutral objective buffs, tanks have become irrelevant other than a select few. Last year’s tanks such as Nautilus, Maokai, and Sion are getting some nice buffs. Leona, Rammus, Amumu, and Tahm Kench are also getting some love from Riot. Let’s go through the buffs planned for 8.16.

Amumu:

Amumu was given a scaling buff that now reduces physical attack damage equal to 3% of his total Armor and Magic resist. This will help him early game as he will receive a nice buff after his first clear. However, it doesn’t change the fact that he still clears relatively slow and uses tons of mana. He should be able to become a beast in late game fights as he can soak up a significant amount of damage.

Leona:

Leona has gotten a more polarizing buff. Players will now have to choose whether or not they want to have a kill lane or have earlier tank stats. Leona’s W, Eclipse, will now have a scaling cooldown  from 18 seconds to 10 seconds based on level. However the scaling damage has been transferred to her E, Zenith Blade. This will make Leona a more feast or famine laner if she maxes E as she will be forced into a more aggressive style.

Maokai:

Maokai was one of the most prominent junglers in season 2 because of his sapling mechanics. His laning has always been mediocre, but Riot is looking to put the tree back amongst his brethren. Maokai has gained a small MS buff and a .5 magic resist per level buff. The most important was the change to his Sapling as its max damage has increased to 500 to non champions. This will help his jungling significantly and allow his strong ganks to thrive earlier.

Nautilus:

Nautilus got a buff to the uptime of his shield. It’s cooldown is significantly lowered, but the strength of it has been decreased in the late game. He should be able to jungle better, but the mana cost only being reduced by 20 might not be enough as Nautilus has mana problems. Even his old top lane build use to be 3 Doran’s Rings. We will have to see if this is enough for him to see a resurgence.

Rammus:

Rammus got more armor and more magic resist at every point in the game. It’s significant, but his absurd levels of armor and magic resist may not be enough with the new IE.

Sion:

Sion’s W will give him more max hp per minion. This is pretty good as it will allow him to itemize Warmog’s Armor or a higher armor/magic resist item first. This buff will benefit the players who can farm well and not be too relevant at lower ELO’s.

Tahm Kench:

The toad is the last champ on the list of tanks to be buffed. He already sees considerable play, but now he is getting more offensive tools in early laning phase. His Q’s cooldown has been reduced but so has the slow duration. His W cooldown has been doubled, which heavily ruins his defensive capabilities. However, if he devours an enemy, the cooldown is reduced by half. This seems to be a good buff for top lane Tahm Kench, but normally TK is a tech pick into pick comps. Morgana may replace him in that situation now.

Patch 8.16 will come live soon. Take note and prepare yourself for the onslaught of tanks in your ranked games.