Tanks are the most annoying enemies you can face in League of Legends. The amount of damage they do simply doesn’t make sense in combination with the amount of health, armor, and magic resist you have to go through in order to take them down.
And because tanks are so prevalent in LoL, it’s important to play champions that counter them, even as a support.
Luckily for us supports, there are more than a few champions that do well against tanks. Some of their damage scales with the target’s maximum HP so they always stay relevant, especially in the late game.
That said, let’s go through the 5 best champions you can play versus tanks in League.
Play These 5 Supports Against Tanks in League of Legends
5. Senna
Despite being one of the few AD supports in League of Legends, Senna’s a pretty decent pick into tanks. A small part of the reason why is her offensive build path with her passive being the primary advantage she has.
Absolution, Senna’s passive, allows her to collect Mist stacks from slain enemy minions and champions. Each stack increases her base AD while every 20 stacks she gets a bonus attack range and critical strike chance.
In theory, there’s no limit to how many stacks Senna can get per game. This simply means that she scales incredibly well and usually becomes a second AD carry on the team. Because of this, she’s pretty efficient at combating tanks in LoL, especially with the right build.
Speaking of Senna’s build, items like Lord Dominik’s Regard, Eclipse, and Umbral Glaive are essential for her. They all grants bonus armor penetration and lethality, allowing each of Senna’s basic attacks to take huge chunks of HP from her tanky targets.
With Senna, you need to pay extra attention to positioning and kiting like an ADC. This is tricky for many support players because they don’t usually work on these skills with regular support champions.
But if you’re careful with Senna and work on your stacks actively throughout the game, you can definitely carry your games against tanks.
Read Also: Top 10 Best Healers in LoL
4. Swain
Swain is another champion that can collect stacks throughout the game and get stronger and stronger.
Thanks to his passive, Ravenous Flock, Swain can collect stacks from slain enemy champions or with his W, Visions of Empire. Each stack grants him bonus health permanently, effectively making him one of the tankiest mages in the entire League of Legends.
Additionally, when Swain activates his R, Demonic Ascension, he deals damage and heals himself. Because of this, Swain can hold his ground against all tanks in the game and fight longer than most other supports.
But what also makes Swain an effective counter to tank champions is his build path. He usually goes for items like Liandry’s Anguish and Demonic Embrace, both of which do burn damage based on maximum HP.
Swain’s kit is really useful in many situations. He’s able to crowd control tanks in teamfights while slowly draining their health bars. He also dominates the laning phase, so make sure you give him a try.
Read Also: 5 Best Synergy Supports for Swain APC
3. Zyra
Unlike Swain and Senna, Zyra doens’t have a passive that allows her to scale infinitely in one way or another. But what she has more than both of them is pure damage.
Zyra’s ability kit is pretty simple but overwhelmingly powerful. Besides a root, a knock-up, and a poking Q, she has plants that auto-attack nearby enemies from range. And depending on how many of them she has around her, she can absolutely shred any tank.
What boosts Zyra’s damage so much are three key items – Liandry’s Anguish, Demonic Embrace, and Morellonomicon. While the first two do burn damage and help her stay relevant in the late game (when tanks are the strongest), the third one lowers their overall healing and allows Zyra to pressure them even more.
On top of this, it’s very easy for Zyra to spread her damage around and deal serious damage to tanks because even if she misses her abilities, her plants count as abilities and can apply all the item effects.
So, definitely give Zyra a chance!
2. Pyke
Pyke is my go-to support champion against tanks whenever I’m looking to close the match early. He’s especially good at being the aggressor in the first part of the game, so use him that way.
The main advantage that Pyke has over tanks is his ultimate, Death From Below. It’s an execute type of spell that you hate to aim. And if you do, you get a reset and you can use it on the next tank on the enemy team.
The beautiful thing about Pyke’s R is that it scales with his level, his base AD, and the amount of lethality he has. In other words, tanks are literally useless against Pyke when he’s ahead because his ulti can always execute them below a certain percentage of HP, no matter how tanky with armor and magic resist they are.
That’s why it’s really important to win the early game with Pyke and gain a level advantage over the enemy. Items like Umbral Glaive, Duskblade of Draktharr, and Youumu’s Ghostblade are must-haves because they grant lots of attack damage and lethality.
Pyke is really a fantastic carry-support pick in League of Legends and he’ll definitely help you defeat any tank.
Read Also: 7 Best Mid Laners Against Tanks
1. Brand
I’ve already mentioned that burn damage is an effective tool against tanks in League of Legends. And Brand is the master of it!
Brand’s passive, Blaze, allows him to burn enemies for extra magic damage whenever he hits them with one of his abilities. And this burn damage is based on the target’s maximum health.
However, if Brand hits an enemy champion with 3 separate abilities, he sets them Ablaze. Targets with Ablaze explode after a few seconds, dealing extra damage that scales with their maximum HP but also Brand’s AP.
On top of this, the core items for Brand are the burning items Liandry’s Anguish and Demonic Embrace. Combined with the passive, Brand is the best damage-over-time champion that shreds tanks in every game.
Because Brand’s designed this way, his damage is always high enough to combat tanks. And it doesn’t matter how much magic resist they build because the more HP they have the more damage Brand does to them.
So, always prioritize Brand against tanks in League of Legends.
Read Also: 7 Best Synergy ADC Picks to Play with Brand Support
Conclusion
It’s not always easy to stop tanks as a support in League of Legends, especially if you’re a tank player yourself or an enchanter enjoyer. The items that I mentioned above can definitely help you with any champion but the better strategy is to play the champions themselves.
I hope that this guide helped you understand how to counter tanks in LoL as a support and what to play against them. Good luck!
Read Also: Top 5 Best Top Laners Against Tanks
