Tanks can cause a lot of problems for mid laners. Not only is it difficult to damage and slay a tanky champion, but picks like Garen, Rammus, and Ornn always deal tons of damage to you.
So if you want to win against tanks, it’s important to play the right mid lane champions.
League of Legends is a bit unfair when it comes to tanks and other types of champions. Besides offensive items with lethality and armor/magic penetration, you must also build defensively.
Since tanks can often one-shot you, your champion must be able to either dodge or endure this damage.
If you’re interested, here I have an entire guide dedicated to anti-tank items in LoL. There you see what are the best items you can build against tanks on any champion.
But now let’s focus on the top 7 mid laners you should play against tanks in League of Legends.
Read Also: Top 10 Best Mid Champions
The 7 Best Mid Laners to Play Against Tanks in LoL
1. Yasuo
Let’s start it off with Yasuo. Yasuo is the best mid lane pick against any tank in LoL. That might be unfortunate for players that don’t like playing Yasuo but let me explain why he’s so good.
One of Yasuo’s biggest strengths is his passive – Way of the Wanderer. Not only does this grant him a shield for basically walking, but it also increases his overall damage.
With any build, Yasuo easily gets to 100% critical strike chance which is very good against tanks in League.
On top of that, Yasuo has his ultimate – Last Breath. Once activated, this ability grants Yasuo 50% bonus armor penetration for 15 seconds besides dealing base AD damage.
And this is a huge reason why Yasuo simply shreds tanks each time he uses his R.
One way to take advantage of Yasuo’s kit is to always activate ultimate at the start. It’s better to simply use your R and fight the tank champion with 50% bonus armor penetration than to wait. You will deal more damage throughout the duel.
But Yasuo is also one of the most mobile and defensive champions in League of Legends. With his E, Yasuo can dash through minions and avoid the tank’s damage.
And his W lets him block and type of skill shot that the enemy launches at him (for example, Ornn’s Q).
And that’s why Yasuo is one of my most recommended mid lane champions to play against tanks in LoL!
Read Also: Top 5 Best Champions Like Yasuo
2. Ryze
In the second place, we have Ryze. Ryze is a notorious late game champion with a potential to 1v9 if played correctly. He has a few advantages over the rest of the AP mages in mid, so here’s why you should play him.
Ryze’s passive allows him to increase his maximum mana by 10% per 100 ability power. Additionally, all of Ryze’s abilities scale with maximum mana on top of AP.
This means that Ryze can deal more magic damage overall than other AP champions because he has two scaling ratios instead of one.
But what makes Ryze truly scary is the fact that his Q – Overload critically strikes when combined with his E – Spell Flux. This damage is linked to his ultimate – Realm Warp which increases the percentage with each rank.
In other words, Ryze’s E-Q deals 100% bonus damage after level 16. This is one of the highest damaging basic spells in League.
And it works very well against tanks, especially if you add one or two magic penetration items.
Additionally, Ryze has one of the lowest-cooldown abilities in LoL. You can basically spam all of Ryze’s spells throughout the game without ever spending your mana.
This makes Ryze an AP machine gun that can shred tanks!
Read Also: Top 15 Best Off-Meta Mid Laners
3. Veigar
Veigar is another mage with a huge advantage against tanks – infinity AP scaling! If you remember, Veigar’s passive allows him to stack bonus ability power each time he damages a champion or slays a minion with Q.
And this has no limit!
During the early game, Veigar isn’t a scary champion to tanks at all. But the longer the game goes on and the more stacks he has, the easier it is for him to carry.
And when Veigar reaches over 1000 AP, his W-Q-R combo can one-shot the enemy tank, no matter how beefy they are.
Veigar’s W – Dark Matter is an important ability and has a lower cooldown the more AP Veigar has. In the late game, this spell reaches to 1.5 seconds cooldown, sometimes even 1 second.
On top of that, Dark Matter scales with 100% of Veigar’s ability power, despite dealing 300 base damage. In other words, Veigar can deal 1300 AP damage in the late game every second with only one spell!
And of course, Veigar’s biggest strength against tanks is his ultimate – Primordial Burst. This ability can deal up to 100% of the target’s missing health as magic damage (as a bonus to the base damage + the AP ratio).
You only need to use it when the tank has 40% HP or less.
And lastly, Veigar’s E is a cage that stuns everyone in a wide circle. This is the perfect tool for stopping many engaging tank champions such as Zac or Rammus.
It limits their movement and it gives Veigar freedom in a teamfight.
That’s why Veigar is one of the best mid laners against tanks in LoL!
Read Also: The 10 Most Fun Mid Laners
4. Zed
But if you’re playstyle is an assassin and not a mage or a fighter, I recommend playing Zed. Zed is one of the best assassin champions in the whole League of Legends. And he’s pretty good at killing tanks too.
Why should you play Zed against tanks?
It’s simple – Zed’s build is full of lethality. If you aren’t sure how lethality works, let me just say that lethality is flat and armor penetration is based on a percentage.
For example, 80 lethality means that you’ll ignore 80 armor from your targets, no matter how much armor they have. And if you have 30% armor penetration, you’ll ignore just 30% of your target’s armor, that’s it.
Because of this, Zed has tons of direct damage in LoL. Yes, he can one-shot an enemy ADC, but his shurikens can take down tanks in a few seconds too.
And depending on how much you’re in a gold lead, you can easily snowball the game, even against fed tanks.
One thing that helps Zed very much is his R – Death Mark. On maximum rank (level 16), Zed’s R bursts with 55% of the damage he’s dealt during the first 3 seconds.
Combined with the raw AD and lethality Zed gets from his build, this damage is actually insane in-game.
So, Zed should be one of your go-to mid laners against ranks in LoL!
Read Also: Top 5 Best Top Laners Against Tanks
5. Cassiopeia
Cassiopeia has always been a great mid lane champion, no matter the matchup. She has high DPS and low cooldown abilities that you can spam. But she’s especially good at countering tanks in the game.
Cass is a control mage, which means that she plays by her own rules. Her W and R are two abilities with which she controls her opponents.
Miasma slows all enemies in an area and disables their mobility spells (Flash, dashes, jumps). And Petrifying Gaze stuns all enemies in front of her.
This allows Cassiopeia to constantly kite tanks and dodge their damage. No matter if it’s a duel or a 5v5 team fight, Cass can keep tanks at a distance to slowly tear them apart.
Cassiopeia’s damage mainly comes from her E – Twin Fang. This is a 0.75-cooldown ability that you should spam 99% of the time.
Against poisoned enemy champions (Q or W), Twin Fang deals an insane amount of bonus magic damage. And it also heals Cassiopeia!
Aside from that, Cassiopeia’s recommended build is also not tank-friendly. She usually builds Liandry’s Anguish, Morellonomicon, and Demonic Embrace, all of which are anti-tank AP items.
All in all, Cass is a great mid champion to play against tanks.
Read Also: Top 10 Best Mages in League of Legends
6. Kassadin
Kassadin is not the most popular champion in the mid lane. And he isn’t known as a tank counter. However, Kassadin has a few strengths that allow him to win more games against tanks than the average champion.
The first thing to mention here is Kassadin’s AP scaling. His E – Force Pulse and his R – Riftwalk are some of the hardest-hitting abilities in the entire LoL. They have low cooldowns and can be used multiple times during a fight.
Additionally, Kassadin’s ult scales with maximum mana and its damage stacks 4 times. When you jump for the 5th time with Kassadin’s Riftwalk, you essentially one-shot an enemy ADC.
And against tanks, you’ll half their HP with a single cast of the ultimate.
But to put his damage aside, let me just remind you that Kassadin has another strength – split pushing!
Yes, Kassadin doesn’t even need to fight enemy tanks in order to win the game. He can split from his team and just take turrets in the side lanes. This forces enemies to come to him and he can always escape with his R.
And that’s why Kassadin is such a great champion to play against tanks!
Read Also: 7 Best Junglers Against Tanks
7. Akshan
And finally, we have Akshan. If you aren’t sure why is Akshan on this list, let me just remind you that he deals most of his damage through basic attacks.
And if there’s one item that really counters tanks in LoL then that is Kraken Slayer – an auto-attack enhancer.
Kraken Slayer synergizes extremely well with Akshan’s passive – Dirty Fighting. Dirty Fighting is a very complicated ability to explain, but I’ll do my best here.
When Akshan uses a basic attack, he shoots twice. The second shot only deals 50% of his AD, but it applies all the on-hit effects, such as the third Kraken Slayer hit that deals true damage.
Additionally, the third on-hit basic attack that Akshan performs also deals bonus magic damage to the target.
All of this allows Akshan to shred only with his basic attacks. The more attack damage and attack speed he has, the faster takes down tanks. His right-clicking playstyle is easy to perform and his damage is inevitable!
On top of that, Akshan has invisibility, a dash, and a long-ranged ability that lets him execute tanks.
He can resurrect allies too, so he’s definitely among the best mid laners you can ever pick against tanks in League of Legends!
Read Also: 7 Best AD Mid Laners to Dominate in League of Legends
