View Full Version : What is the best tank?
Dulahey
07-28-2009, 02:59 PM
Just curious who is THE best tank. Or at least nominations.
Pestilence is one of my favorite characters and I tend to gear him pretty defensively. (Heart/Shaman Head/Daemonic BP) Apparently most people feel he should be more offensively geared but oh well.
Rojer
07-28-2009, 03:07 PM
Electrician is with mana shield, so is accursed.
Vorret
07-28-2009, 03:07 PM
I was playing against a high level legionnaire once and the dude wasn't killable.
But other than that, not sure :P
EnragedCamel
07-28-2009, 03:15 PM
Legionnaire is the best tank because of Taunt. The fact that you can force everyone around you to auto-attack you for X seconds, while you are returning AoE damage to them, is really really great.
Legionnaire and Armadon.
Both if they are built right. Armadon is more of a killer Tank, but he can be unkillable if you know what you're doing.
Triangleman1
07-28-2009, 03:37 PM
except armadon sucks right now.
Villezzz
07-28-2009, 04:42 PM
Warlock is (literally) indestructable if your team plays correctly (means throwing all their spells when you do that Healcrap on enemies)
EnragedCamel
07-28-2009, 04:42 PM
who is warlock dude
use hon names
DarkHelmet
07-28-2009, 04:48 PM
who is warlock dude
use hon names
hellbringer you nub
GotPho1
07-28-2009, 04:50 PM
I tanked like a beast with Armadon. I was like totally unkillable.
Legionnaire and Accursed are good tanks too.
FiNGERS
07-28-2009, 04:51 PM
M1 Abrams.
Villezzz
07-28-2009, 04:55 PM
M1 Abrams.
God, I even lol'd at this ;D
raiz265
07-28-2009, 04:56 PM
leopard 2!
whatever, electrician with some sacrificial stone charges rules :D
Hoodwizard
07-28-2009, 08:01 PM
a farmed zepher is pretty much unkillable due to how fast he becomes indestructable. basically black helm. bracers, steamboots and he is a tank
_Archangel_
07-29-2009, 02:21 AM
Legionnaire is the actual only "Tank" that can force you to attack him, otherwise it's Armadon with a Mock of Brilliance or Electrician with Null Stone (I think that's what Linken's is called in HoN?). Force enemies to use two stuns to break his grip.
At OP, Pestilence should definitely be geared offensively. He does amazing DPS with just Insanitarium and Steamboots; throw Shieldbreaker or Shrunken Head on top and it's GG
Azariah
07-29-2009, 02:26 AM
It seems to me that the "best" tank would need to pose some sort of actual threat. That's the problem with the Electrician - he's nearly indestructable, but the other team can really just ignore him and kill everyone else first.
Azariah
07-29-2009, 02:38 AM
Also, I think there's a metagame consideration.
Scout and/or Madman make an appearance in almost every pub game. In this context, I think Pestilence is almost always the right pick.
evotech
07-29-2009, 04:36 AM
Legion is the only tank because noone attacks a tank unless forced to :P
BLUEPOWERVAN
07-29-2009, 04:44 AM
zephyr sprang to mind, for the same (farming) reason already mentioned. but, steamboots is really dumb =[
Vesper25
07-29-2009, 04:47 AM
Electrician and Abaddon (if built that way) are THE best tanks.
BLUEPOWERVAN
07-29-2009, 04:57 AM
Electrician and Abaddon (if built that way) are THE best tanks.
It's very hard to build up with these heroes. Electrician almost never gets a kill, and is pretty ineffectual by himself in a lane. Abaddon can KS with his spells, but is still a fairly unthreatening melee'r relying on last hits.
Zephyr is the #1 farmer in the game, and should manage twice as much money as those other two.
Abaddon relies on his ultimate gimmick for tanking, but this is pretty ineffectual against a good team (30% evasion/reflection is much better). Electrician is not enough of a threat to draw aggro; at least abaddon is a constant source of healing; zephyr's aoe damage has no trouble in qualifying him as a threat.
Grimkor
07-29-2009, 05:05 AM
Suprised there's not alot of mention of Pestilence, he isn't the BEST sure but he's got to be right up there.
Verne
07-29-2009, 05:13 AM
Jereziah anyone? Way better than Accursed since he can actually heal himself with his heal and also help the team way better than Accursed.
_Archangel_
07-29-2009, 05:25 AM
Electrician and Abaddon (if built that way) are THE best tanks.
Abaddon (Accursed) is a terrible tank. Nobody would attack him. Ever.
Electrician eats one stun and then nobody would really bother.
Dulahey
07-29-2009, 10:40 AM
Gonna mess around with offensive Pestilence and try to learn Zephyr. I like the idea of Zephyr just because he's so different. Just seems like there's a wide variety of what items to put on him.
Xsorus
07-29-2009, 03:55 PM
Try building your Blacksmith like a tank, I've done it a few times, he's damn near unkillable at a certain point.
Extremely fast with ranged stun/nuke and a range snare.
BLUEPOWERVAN
07-29-2009, 04:53 PM
Suprised there's not alot of mention of Pestilence, he isn't the BEST sure but he's got to be right up there.
I think he's better than accursed and electrician certainly. He has a lot of utility, but it's somewhat situational whether he's the "best" tank. He is often the best pick for such a slot though.
IMO electrician is better as a support character, simply because of the "aggro" reasons discussed above. It's also hard for him to lead out sometimes, because his +armour/magic armour buff relies on getting close and using his skill before being stunned. leading out with mana shield can end up with a quickly drained mana pool, particularly if they are running mana burn...
EnragedCamel
07-29-2009, 04:57 PM
Jereziah anyone? Way better than Accursed since he can actually heal himself with his heal and also help the team way better than Accursed.
Yeah, his magic immunity and ult make him very formidable against casters, and against melee, his heal's damage component can be very annoying.
Marko_RS
07-29-2009, 05:02 PM
Pestilence...i mean if u gear him up..stun stun stun stun...everyone who know slardar, know what im talking about, a tank with a bash, nice speed and huge dmg. A tank carry.
1. zephyr
2. electrician
3. legionnaire
4. accursed
5. armadon
Feriluce
07-29-2009, 07:02 PM
Armadon
He seems to be bugged though. I was standing with my back to a tower, for a while, and I didnt get 1 single spineburst to pop out by itself, no matter how long I stood there.
mintawno
07-29-2009, 07:07 PM
I swear I see Jereziah in every game. Simply because he can anti magic himself makes him very hard to kill for any int hero or agi hero that depends on spells ;) The good news is if he targets himself, he also can't heal himself.
shroomtea
07-31-2009, 03:07 AM
I'd say that Legionaire is the best one, though you need some disable to be useful late-game.
Predator is yet another good candidate for tanking, since his magic immunity and blink let him charge into quite a number of enemies and his ability to lifesteal 6% of current enemy hp makes it more logical to attack targets with full hp
Arachnid
07-31-2009, 05:19 AM
Devourer with 200+ strength, that one sword that deals 40% AoE damage, and Heart of Life. He can take anything...and apparently never gets full either. Never invite this guy to an all you can eat buffet!
kingcomrade
07-31-2009, 06:54 AM
There are no tanks in HoN, this is now WoW where enemy heroes have aggro meters. What you are looking for is initiator. That's the HoN version of a tank. He's not the person who sits and takes damage while everyone else DPSes, he's the person who goes in first and tries to disable the enemies so his teammates can follow up. He will not be attacked after he first initiates because there are now more pressing concerns than a low-DPS strength hero whose spells are on cooldown.
The best at the initiation role in HoN are Behemoth and Legionnaire if they have Blink Daggers.
Verne
07-31-2009, 06:58 AM
There are no tanks in HoN, this is now WoW where enemy heroes have aggro meters. What you are looking for is initiator. That's the HoN version of a tank. He's not the person who sits and takes damage while everyone else DPSes, he's the person who goes in first and tries to disable the enemies so his teammates can follow up. He will not be attacked after he first initiates because there are now more pressing concerns than a low-DPS strength hero whose spells are on cooldown.
The best at the initiation role in HoN are Behemoth and Legionnaire if they have Blink Daggers.
I wouldn't go as far as to say there's no tanks in HoN. Initiator and Tank are pretty much two sides of the same card. The tank relies on defensive stats so he can survive the initial onslaught thrown at him when he goes in first and gives time for his allies do their thing. Initiator however does not rely on his stats as much, instead he uses his abilities to disorient and disable the enemy so his allies can do their magic.
edit: example of a tank would be Electrician (good for taking damage but not the best disabler) and an example of the initiator would be Behemoth with his stun abilities, but not quite as good at taking damage as Electrician.
FruLLe
07-31-2009, 07:22 AM
I think Armadon and Electritian. Mostly because the ones i have met is in late game indestructeble.
noodle0117
07-31-2009, 07:39 AM
I CANNOT BELIEVE that no one ever mentioned pebbles.
I own with pebbles. He has stun, powerful ranged AOE attacks, Uber strong damage ( good for last hitting) and loads of armor and debuffs/disables only last for -40% of their duration.
Pebbles may have a slow attack speed, but u got awesome spells and defensive passives
TurooX
07-31-2009, 07:47 AM
The best tank is the one that deal's the most damage, cuz he will get all the aggro^^ Get alot of health and SMACK THEM with whatever hero you are.
Shadowcamsy
07-31-2009, 07:52 AM
Legionnaire - Best tank for casters, get a portal key, magic armor then health and you're set to tear them apart
Zephyr - Best ranged hero tank, if the enemy has heroes like Arachna and Valkyrie, 30% damage reflect is op.
At the moment there is no real melee damage return tank, with abilities like Centaurs or NA's in dota. So Legionnaire is pretty much the only hero that's a playable tank for decent games. No one would play Armadon as a tank, no reason to focus him.
Krowser
07-31-2009, 10:22 AM
Legionnaire - Best tank for casters, get a portal key, magic armor then health and you're set to tear them apart
Zephyr - Best ranged hero tank, if the enemy has heroes like Arachna and Valkyrie, 30% damage reflect is op.
At the moment there is no real melee damage return tank, with abilities like Centaurs or NA's in dota. So Legionnaire is pretty much the only hero that's a playable tank for decent games. No one would play Armadon as a tank, no reason to focus him.
O_o
And for everyone who nominates Pesto, this thread is about TANKS not Strengh heroes in general. A tank is a Hero that takes a load of damage and spells without croaking. Pesto is a hero killer, not a tank. Just look at his abilities.
McNinja
07-31-2009, 10:30 AM
Yep, amount all the best tanks, i think electrician takes the cake. Not even legionaires +armour compares to electricians invulnerable shield.. of mana.
Imo a well played electrician trumps all other well played tanks for the sole purpose of tanking. Owl is pretty good at tanking but i've yet to see him really shine as a tank, although hes more of a situational tank - if he has ult and shield then hes pretty hard to kill.
BLUEPOWERVAN
07-31-2009, 10:39 AM
Pesto has good strength gain, and wears armour well -- if you give him heart, does he not tank!
Really, what makes legionaire tankier? Is lego's 3 seconds of aoe focus fire really so different than pestilence's 3 second aoe stun?
Sure he swirls around doing near aoe damage, but thats hardly helping him tank.
Pest's strongest abilities, his stun, his bash, his expose armor, don't require that you stack damage to be useful... leaving it perfectly acceptible to stack health and armour.
"best RANGED hero tank" refers to what sort of carries the other team uses. If their carry is just arachna, zeph pretty much ruins her.
Krowser
07-31-2009, 11:26 AM
Alright, but looking at his skills, pesto is more attack oriented. Sprint makes you move faster and take more damage, two things you don't do when tanking.
His stun is good.
The bash is good for annoying casters and keeping attention on himself, kinda like lego's taunt.
His ult is purely for killing people.
After all this, I say Electrician is one hell of a wall when it comes to taking damage and not blowing up. He has 2 purely defensive abilities, a disable and a multipurpose slow/haste/dispeller.
His ult is awesome, slow enemies, haste self, save allies, dispell garbage (although the dispell doesnt work proprely I.E, slither's poison sticks)
Edit: I realised what he meant with the range tank after I posted.
SoleSurvivor
07-31-2009, 11:27 AM
Leoric :D, he will not be created? =[
BLUEPOWERVAN
07-31-2009, 11:34 AM
Alright, but looking at his skills, pesto is more attack oriented. Sprint makes you move faster and take more damage, two things you don't do when tanking.
2 things you don't want? So a tank/initiator in dota does not want to enter battle and position faster? Or have a chance of escaping/healing up? Obviously you don't want to be taking extra damage, but why say something so silly about movement speed
Volshok
07-31-2009, 11:35 AM
STR heroes that are actual threats, Leo and DK come to mind.
Hoenhime
07-31-2009, 12:06 PM
tree nuff said
Krowser
07-31-2009, 12:28 PM
[QUOTE=Krowser;77586]Alright, but looking at his skills, pesto is more attack oriented. Sprint makes you move faster and take more damage, two things you don't do when tanking.QUOTE]
2 things you don't want? So a tank/initiator in dota does not want to enter battle and position faster? Or have a chance of escaping/healing up? Obviously you don't want to be taking extra damage, but why say something so silly about movement speed
Well define tanking, I thought it was a hero's power to stay in the fight without crapping out. Were not talking about escaping here. With that logic you could say Scout is an awesome tank because he's so hard to kill while in reality it's because he's always running away.
Electroman1
07-31-2009, 04:51 PM
Abaddon (Accursed) is a terrible tank. Nobody would attack him. Ever.
And that's why you play him as the supporter he is. I die a little inside everytime I see people buying offensive gear on him (yeah you know who you are).
Astrolobe and Post haste, get some talismans (the cheap +6 int +3 rest, forgot the name) and if you are rich a shivas.
The normal reactions: What LoL mOre Like ASStrolobe on him!! Post Haste? R u InsAnE In The MeMbRanE? SHIVAS(forgot the HoN-name)? LOL you get hack and slash ofc!11 Best item ever!
The simple answer to these are: No. Try it out then PM me your thanks.
You won't get any frags but your team will, take one for the team. Play accursed correctly.
BLUEPOWERVAN
07-31-2009, 05:01 PM
so having a skill that makes him go fast somehow invalidates his tank role?
lego's call causes him to take more damage. every other skill he has, just deals damage to others.
Pesto's stun causes the same people that would do more damage to lego, to do no damage at all. Pesto's bash causes him to take less damage.
pestilence has far more purely defensive skills than legionnaire
if you are so angry that pestilence has one skill that causes him to take more damage, how do you explain that legionare has no skills that cause him to take less damage than pestilence would?
kingcomrade
07-31-2009, 05:53 PM
Magnataur is a better tank than Centaur because he can actually deal damage lategame.
Verne
07-31-2009, 06:28 PM
Pestilence can tank, just like any hero in the game if geared that way, but his abilities do not promote tanking. Pestilence is far more valuable as a damage dealer and support than as a tank.
DounJeimes
07-31-2009, 06:55 PM
at the moment axe. zephyr i like too.
Kien2
07-31-2009, 07:55 PM
Abaddon ofc
Anura
07-31-2009, 11:59 PM
Electrician with Helm of Black Legion, Ring of Sorcery, and Sacraficial Stone plus some charges = the definition of immortality
Ragnarok17
08-01-2009, 12:02 AM
"Scout and/or Madman make an appearance in almost every pub game. In this context, I think Pestilence is almost always the right pick."
Yeah, that's a good idea :)
Treant is also a very good tank, however in HoN he's nerfed in the way that he doesn't have Living Armor anymore :( He has the biggest str gain in HoN (unless they changed it recently).
And about Pesto:
Duh, ANYONE with a heart CAN be a tank. Don't mention items in this XD.
Although Pesto may have good str gain, Pesto is supposed to be played as a chaser/hero killer, not a tank :).
Lol about Zephyr being a ranged tank, that's just a bit ironic... not saying that he's not a tank, but a ranged tank is a bit strange.
And just to straighten the debate thing here, are we talking about who is the best tank, or are we talking about who is best at tanking? There's a difference :).
Fiddlenemu
08-01-2009, 06:27 AM
Defiler and Pyromancer are the best tanker . . . yes i'm serious!!1!
one of the best tanks = jerreziah, he gets aggro pretty fast. since they think aww look, that dude is big and hulky, he heals people. lets face rape him!
myeah...
Pashtet
08-01-2009, 11:39 AM
Noone mentioned Jereziah? o_O his antimagic spell last like forever at level 4 + improves you movespeed. Btw he also have heal and ult which gives you 1k defence for a small amount of time.
Kazakov
08-01-2009, 11:43 AM
Bristleback/Armadon is damn straight untouchable thanks to the passive that reduces damage from the sides and back. You can pretty much wade into an entire group of enemies and go to town on one while ignoring the rest completely. And since he effectively gives himself his own giant IAS bonus, you can go straight up str and hp items and still kick some considerable ass.
ChimEuphoria
08-01-2009, 11:48 AM
Pre nerf dirge.
tddvisme
08-01-2009, 07:48 PM
the best tank is the hero can be tank and under controlled of best tanker-players :)
but i vote for centaur, treant (dotA) , electrician(HoN)
livmew
08-01-2009, 11:14 PM
Electrician is a horrible tank. To be a good tank you must be desirable to hit. Noone wants to hit electrician! Legionnaire, now there's a guy who demands your attention. ^_^
Noone mentioned Jereziah?
Actually 5 people in this thread wrote the same thing you just wrote.
If people aint attacking you you're not a tank, since only legio can taunt the rest must present a threat, this is the reason heroes like pestilence comes into mind that can initiate from the forrest, stun and wreak havoc while people either flee or fight and then hopefully get out once he gets too low.
That's why defiler with ulti is usally a pretty fun one aswell :)
For pure fountain tanking any hero with enough sacrifisal stone charges and some reduction but who would care about that?
Verne
08-02-2009, 06:50 AM
Electrician is a horrible tank. To be a good tank you must be desirable to hit. Noone wants to hit electrician! Legionnaire, now there's a guy who demands your attention. ^_^
So if enemy Electrician pops out of the fog you just stand there and let him come to you and drain some of your mana and disable one of your heroes? Electrician is an amazing initiator with his shield and disable.
carazyasian
08-02-2009, 08:06 PM
so having a skill that makes him go fast somehow invalidates his tank role?
lego's call causes him to take more damage. every other skill he has, just deals damage to others.
Pesto's stun causes the same people that would do more damage to lego, to do no damage at all. Pesto's bash causes him to take less damage.
pestilence has far more purely defensive skills than legionnaire
if you are so angry that pestilence has one skill that causes him to take more damage, how do you explain that legionare has no skills that cause him to take less damage than pestilence would?
I don't remember the percentage that pest takes when he has his Sprint skill on, but he is still taking MORE damage than need be.
Legionnaire has Taunt which makes people attack him, but he gains LOTS of armor that prevent the high amounts of damage. He also has more defensive skills because with his twirl, he damages them, and you don't want to be next to him when you're low because his next spell(ultimate) is a guaranteed kill.
I don't remember the percentage that pest takes when he has his Sprint skill on, but he is still taking MORE damage than need be.
It's 10% which isn't terrible, the ability to get in/out is much more valuable.