Tanks in League of Legends can be really hard to deal with. They have insane amounts of CC, they do lots of damage, and on top of that, they are nearly unkillable.
Luckily, you as a jungler are in a great position to do something about this.
There are many powerful picks you can play which will melt even the tankiest of tanks.
I have selected the top 7 best junglers against tanks here, and you should have no issue finding one that fits your needs.
1. Master Yi
Without a doubt, Master Yi is the best jungler you can pick versus tanks, and one of the best champions against tanks overall.
The reason for Yi being really strong against tanks is his attack speed and the true damage he does. These are the base stats included in his kit. He has naturally high attack speed and his true damage is activated through his E.
To play into Yi’s strengths, you will mainly want to build attack speed and on-hit items.
The on-hit items damage enemies with a percentage of their HP with each hit. And since Yi hits a lot, he cuts massive percentages of tanks’ HP in a really short period of time.
Recommended Items
Here is the Yi Build I usually go against tanks:
- Blade of The Ruined King
- Kraken Slayer
- Death’s Dance
- Guinso’s Rageblade
- Guardian Angel
- Plated Steelcaps
I will usually go for 3 on-hit items, and then build something for more sustain. For boots, I take Plated Steelcaps against heavy auto-attacking comps, and Mercury’s Treads against comps with a lot of CC
Recommended Runes
Here are the Yi Runes I take in 90% of games:
- Lethal Tempo
- Triumph
- Legend: Alacrity
- Last Stand
- Eyeball Collection
- Treasure Hunter
These runes are great as the Lethal Tempo will give you much-needed attack speed.
The Triumph has great healing after killing enemies, which serves as a great boost. Other two notable runes are Last Stand and Treasure Hunter.
Last Stand will make you much stronger in team fights, and Treasure Hunter is great for snowballing games.
2. Bel’Veth
Belveth is a great jungler against tanks, and she is an amazingly versatile champion overall.
She has many different build options, infinite scaling on attack speed, true damage, and great potential for shredding tanks.
Recommended Items
The Bel’Veth greatest build against tanks is the following:
- Kraken Slayer
- Defensive boots
- Blade of the Ruined King
- Wit’s End
- Titanic Hydra
- Sterak’s Gage
This is also the build you will want to run when ahead, regardless if the enemy team is tank-heavy or not. Kraken Slayer, Blade of the Ruined King, and Wit’s end are the holy trinity for tank shredding.
These items will be enough to melt anyone in the game.
The additional items you will want are Titanic Hydra and Sterak’s Gage. Titanic Hydra will be great for increasing your clear speed, and the Sterak’s Gage is great for extra HP and the shield it gives.
Recommended Runes
Here are the best runes against tanks for Bel’Veth:
- Conqueror
- Triumph
- Legend: Tenacity
- Last Stand
- Sudden Impact
- Treasure Hunter
Conqueror is a great keystone rune for Bel’Veth, she stacks it really fast, and the damage and healing it provides are amazing for her.
Triumph works well because Bel’Veth is usually involved in fights where it gets procked multiple times. Legend: Tenacity is crucial since Bel’Veth is nearly useless when heavy CC-ed.
The Last Stand is much like Legend: Tenacity, and it is taken for its team fight properties. This rune will proc in every fight.
When it comes to the last two runes, Sudden Impact is great since it will get activated by Bel’Veth’s Q, and I usually take Treasure Hunter since it is easy to stack it early.
Read Also: 7 Best Mid Laners Against Tanks
3. Vi
Vi is much different than the rest of the champions on this list. While other tank-countering junglers mostly build on-hit items, Vi relies more on armor penetration and her armor-reducing passive.
So, she is really perfect versus heavy armor compositions.
The passive that reduces armor comes from Vi’s W. It is activated when you hit an enemy 3 times in a row. It will also give you bonus attack speed, and deal a percentage of enemies’ max HP.
To make Vi extra powerful against tanks, you will need the right items. Thankfully, Vi has plenty of options for good items against tanks.
Recommended Items
Here is an example build I use most of the time against tanks as Vi:
- Trinity Force
- Yoummu’s Ghostblade
- Black Cleaver
- Serylda’s Grudge
- Ravenous Hydra
- Defensive Boots
Trinity Force is an all-around great mythic item. It will provide you with many stats, but most importantly attack speed. Attack speed is crucial for triggering Vi’s W passive, and it helps with shredding tanks.
Yoummu’s Ghostblade might sound counterintuitive since it’s countered by tanks, but it is actually a good item on Vi. You can buy it in the early game if you are ahead, and it will help you snowball the game.
The enemy tanks will not have many resistances stacked, and the item will be useful.
Black Cleaver is great because it gives you much-needed ability haste, and Serylda’s Grudge is great for slow, and armor penetration it provides. Ravenous Hydra will help you with healing and clearing the jungle faster. Boots will be defensive and situational.
Recommended Runes
Here are the runes I take as Vi against tanks:
- Conqueror
- Triumph
- Legend: Alacrity
- Coup de Grace
- Magical Footwear
- Cosmic Insight
The runes are quite simple. Conqueror and Triumph are great for the increase in durability through extra healing. Legend: Alacrity gives much-needed attack speed that works well with Vi’s W and Black Cleaver.
Other runes are optional, but I usually run Coup de Grace for securing kills on low HP enemies. Magical Footwear for better scaling, and Cosmic Insight to reduce the cooldowns of my summoner spells.
4. Lillia
When it comes to the best ap junglers against tanks, there are no better ones than Lillia. She has the ability to melt multiple people at the same time, and tanks come as no exception.
To make Lillia work against tanks, you will need to make use of items that deal damage over time, and that deal percentage of HP.
Luckily there are quite a few items like that for AP champions.
Recommended Items
Here is a Lillia build against junglers, which makes use of items dealing damage over time:
- Liandry’s Anguish
- Magic Penetration Boots
- Demonic Embrace
- Void Stuff
- Rabadon’s Deathcap
- Rylai’s Crystal
As you can see there is nothing complicated in this build.
We take Liyandry’s Anguish and Demonic Embrace to deal damage over time, and the rest of the items are for magic penetration. Rylai’s Crystal is the only item whit it’s own purpose. We take this item for the extra slow and HP it gives.
Recommended Runes
Here are the runes for this Lillia build against tanks:
- Phase Rush
- Nimbus Cloak
- Celerity
- Waterwalking
- Ultimate Hunter
- Eyeball Collection
The runes are pretty simple as well. Everything from Phase Rush to Water Walking is taken for extra mobility.
The secondary runes are an exception though. I always take Ultimate Hunter for the cooldown reduction on R, since it is Lillia’s most important spell. Eyeball Collection is taken simply for the extra AP.
Read Also: 5 Best Supports for Crushing Tanks
5. Viego
Playing Viego with his anti-tank build will feel almost the same as playing Yi. The main difference would be that Viego has a much higher skill cap, and he is easier to punish for mistakes.
Recommended Items
The items that we will be building for Viego’s build against tanks are pretty much the same as Yi’s:
- The Blade of The Ruined King
- Kraken Slayer
- Death’s Dance
- Guinso’s Rageblade
- Guardian Angel
- Defensive Boots
Recommended Runes
Runes are almost the same with two slight differences:
- Lethal Tempo
- Triumph
- Legend: Tenacity
- Last Stand
- Eyeball Collection
- Relentless Hunter
The two differences are in the 3rd and 6th sloth. We want to take Legend: Tenacity instead of Alacrity since Viego is much easier to CC than Yi.
We also take Relentless Hunter instead of Treasure Hunter. Viego is much weaker in the early game, and he can not stack Treasure Hunter effectively.
Viego also has much less mobility, so it makes sense to take Relentless Hunter.
6. Trundle
Trundle is a great jungler against tanks, a champion that will perform well even from behind.
The most OP thing about Trundle is his R, which steals 40% of enemies’ armor and magic resist. This spell makes him nearly unkillable in fights and it cripples the enemy tanks.
His Q is also great as casting it will reduce enemies’ AD while increasing his own AD.
Trundle also has a lot of movement speed built into his kit plus the famous pillar which slows and blocks the enemies.
This makes him extremely strong against everyone, especially tanks that generally have low mobility.
Recommended Items
Here is the build I use against tanks as Trundle:
- Iceborn Gauntlet
- Defensive Boots
- Blade of the Ruined King
- Black Cleaver
- Death’s Dance
- Sterak’s Gage
The build starts off with Iceborn Gauntlet whose passive is really significant for Trundle.
It provides bonus health, slow resistance and tenacity for each item you build. Along with Mercury Treads (magic resist boots), it will make you nearly unstoppable.
The next items you will want to build are Blade of The Ruined King and Black Cleaver because of their tank-shredding benefits.
Lastly, the two remaining items will be defensive ones, most commonly Death’s Dance and Sterak’s Gage. You can play around with these and swap them out with other defensive items from time to time.
Recommended Runes
The runes will be the tank shredding industry standard:
- Lethal Tempo
- Triumph
- Legend: Tenacity
- Last Stand
- Eyeball Collection
- Relentless Hunter
Read Also: 7 Best Utility Junglers
7. Jax
Jax is one of the strongest duelists in the game. He will destroy most champions in extended combats and tanks are no exception. And all I can say is Gpd-bless Riot for making this champion viable in the jungle.
Jax is a great jungler against tanks due to his core stats and hybrid nature. He is a strong auto-attacking champion, and he has many viable build paths.
There are plenty of items he can use which allows him to adapt to any matchup.
If you are playing against heavy armor comps, you can run a build that is similar to that I described for Vi.
If you want a more general tank-shredding build you can go for an on-hit one, like that of Yi and Viego. (scroll up to check both)
The rune choices are plenty as well. You can go for either Lethal Tempo or Conqueror. The first will give you the much-needed attack speed, and the latter will give you healing and damage that are really useful.
There is no point in going into specific runes and items since he has so many combinations. The best thing you can do is try out many things and see what works the best for you, in your games.
Read Also: Top 5 Best Top Laners Against Tanks
Conclusion
Tank champions can be annoying to deal with, but luckily there are many things you can do in order to counter them.
As jungler you will have many options. You can pick on-hit champions like Yi, Bel’Veth, and Viego, or you can go for less traditional picks.
A great AP jungler pick against tanks would be Lillia and the items she can build work beautifully against tanks. Against armor-heavy teams, you can pick something like Vi, or Trundle.
