[Top 10] LOL Wild Rift Best Tanks (Ranked)

Updated:

23 Apr 2023

The new update has just been released and it has given us three new tank items and a couple changes on existing tank items that we have. Now we are all wondering which tanks will be the best to use in ranked games, well stop wondering because this will help you in figuring that out.

10.Blitzcrank

Blitzcrank is a tank support that is mainly played in the support role. Blitz isn’t the best support to use, but he is probably the easiest one to get used to since your combo for controlling an enemy is hooking them and then doing your empowered auto that will knock up the enemy. Blitz also has an AoE silence from his ultimate that can disrupt enemies from making use of their abilities. Blitzcrank can tank a lot of damage, and when he’s at low HP, he will gain a shield that can help him survive.

Blitzcrank is great for zoning enemies in the lane; landing your first ability has a high chance of letting your ally get a kill. You can play really aggressively, especially if you have your passive ready. You can bully the enemy in lane and deny them gold by positioning yourself like you’re going to grab someone. In the late game, when you're all grouped up, if you manage to grab an enemy, it will always result in a kill for your team. In team fights, you can do an AoE silence that can prevent ability-reliant champions from doing anything.

Blitzcrank is an easy champion to play; he doesn’t have really difficult combos, and most of the time your combos are just going to be pulling an enemy and knocking them up. The only thing is that since he doesn’t have much in his kit, his hooks can be predicted, and champions that have blinks or dashes will be hard to pull. In most cases, you’ll want to save your hooks and use them to passively threaten enemies; this makes them more useful sometimes since enemies will play less aggressive, but if you’re confident you can land the hook, don’t be afraid to throw it.

A good thing to keep in mind is your passive cooldown, whenever it’s off cooldown you can play aggressively since you gain a big shield when you’re low on HP. Build “Dead Man’s Plate” and get either the protobelt or glorious enchantment for the boots.

What makes Blitzcrank a strong tank:

Blitzcranks passive gives him a big shield, this catches the enemy that’s focusing him off guard.
He has an AoE silence that can stop enemies from using damaging abilities for a few seconds.
He can get a burst of movement speed from his ability, this lets him maneuver better in team fights or easily chase down enemies.

See Blitzcrank in action:

9.Shen

Shen is a tank that can be played in the Solo lane or Jungle, his abilities can protect allies by negating damage from the enemy or teleporting to them and giving them a shield . Shen is good at starting team fights, his third ability will let him dash towards a direction and taunt enemies that are along the way, combine it with his second ability that lets him block enemy attacks allowing him to tank a lot of attacks.

Shen can block attacks and gain shields, he has a gap closer that can taunt enemies, this allows him to play aggressively without losing trades, he can also deal damage based on an enemy’s max HP, meaning he can deal a lot of damage even to champions who build a lot of HP items. In team fights you can use Shen as the engager or have him split push and just keep an eye on allies that need to be saved using his ultimate ability.

Shen isn’t a hard champion to play and he can be played in three different roles but you’d want to play him more as a Jungle since you’d want to focus in assisting your allies and split pushing rather than engaging enemies solo, he also isn’t a good champion to use in the support role since he has no way of poking the enemy safely and since he’s a melee champion he isn’t safe from getting hit. In the jungle he can focus on farming for his core items and respond with his ultimate whenever a teammate needs it.

Shen’s ultimate will allow you to shield an ally anywhere on the map, this allows you to respond to teamfights no matter where you are on the map, with that in mind you can split push lanes without much drawback, if the enemy decides to defend the lane your pushing you can stay at a safe distance to distract them, this will give your team the opportunity to initiate a four versus five or a three versus five and you can make it a five versus five if you use your ultimate to help your team.

What makes Shen a strong Tank:

Shen can tank and protect his team, making him a flexible champion to use.
He can split lanes by himself while also being able to help his team in team fights.
He can take a lot of hits and engage for his team.

See Shen in action:

8.Malphite

Malphite is a tank that can be used in the support or solo lane,he can stack armor really well making him a hard counter for a heavy AD team composition. Malphite can also deal a decent amount of burst damage even when he is building tank items. He is also one of the best tanks against teams who deal more AD damage.

Malphite has one of the best engages in the game, his ultimate can easily knock up multiple enemies while also dealing a decent amount of damage. Malphite is also really good in the early game. You can harass your enemies in lane with your first ability, this is a lock-on damaging ability that has a good amount of damage and range, this will also slow the enemy once it lands making it easier for you and your allies to chase them down.

Malphite is one of the easiest champions to play, he doesn’t have a complicated combo and most of his abilities are pretty straightforward, of course you’ll still need to play your cards right and use your abilities as effectively as you can. Most of his abilities deal damage and scales with armor, allowing you to easily counter AD champions.

Malphite is one of the champions that you can solely build armor and and still deal a decent amount of damage on, you can also go for a bit of AP although I recommend AP items that give HP and AP at the same time like “Rod Of Ages”. You can engage even without using your ultimate ability, you can use your first ability to slow enemies down and gain movement speed allowing you to close the distance, it’s better to use your ultimate when you can hit more than one enemy champion or you can use it when an enemy decides to flash away.

What makes Malphite a strong Tank:

His damage scales with his armor allowing him to deal damage while being more tanky against AD champions.
Malphite gains a shield whenever he doesn’t take damage, this allows him to easily go for trades in lane.
Malphite gains bonus armor based on how much armor he has.

See Malphite in action:

7.Braum

Braum is a tank that is mainly played as a support, his passive allows his allies to stun enemies that he hit, he can block projectiles with his shield and he can gain and give armor and magic resist. Braum can also knock up multiple enemies with his ultimate ability.

Braum is a tank that can stand in front of his team to tank projectiles and skill shots, he can negate the damage of the first projectile and the next projectiles that he catches will deal reduced damage, this makes him effective in protecting his allies from high damaging abilities that are projectiles. Braum can also quickly dash to his allies, this gives him and his ally armor and magic resistance.

Braum does well in the support lane since a ranged marksman can effectively proc his passive to stun enemies, he can also easily tank the enemy marksman's basic attacks with his shield allowing his ally to freely throw basic attacks or abilities. Braums ultimate ability can be used to engage or disrupt enemies, most of the time you would rather use your ultimate to disrupt enemies since if you hit an enemy with your ability they will be marked and if the passive is successfully activated the enemy will be stunned for a decent amount of time.

Braum is an easy to use tank support, his abilities are straight forward without needing much thought for the combos and you would put more thought into landing your first ability to initiate a fight. Try to always stand in front of your ally to block basic attacks and abilities with your shield. Always time your ultimate to hit as many as you can and to give your allies more time to attack the enemy, using it early can only be effective if your allies are ready to respond as soon as you knock them up.

What makes Braum a strong Tank:

Braum can reduce the effectiveness of ranged enemy champions who rely on basic attacks or projectile type abilities.
Braum can gain armor and magic resist that scales with his own armor and magic resist.
He has one of the most effective ways to crowd control enemies.

See Braum in action:

6.Leona

Leona is a tank that is played mostly as a support, she is a champion who excels in getting close to enemies and stunning them with her abilities. She can become really tanky with her second ability that will make her take a defensive stance that boosts her armor and magic resistance.

Leona can easily target enemies that stay behind tanks, she is a champion that you will want to get deep into the enemies since her bonus armor and magic resist lasts longer when she is engaging enemies, hitting enemies with abilities will also mark them with your passive allowing your allies to deal bonus damage.

Leona can stun enemies for a long time, with your third ability you can stun enemy champions and this stuns the last enemy hit so you can get to the enemy back line, with this you can follow up another stun with your first ability. You can easily hold a fed enemy for a long time giving your allies a lot of time to deal damage.

Leona doesn't have a set of combos you would need to master but you need to remember to use your abilities on high priority targets like the enemy marksman or mage, stunning the damage dealers will be the most beneficial for your team. There is also a trick you can do using your third ability and your ultimate, you can cast your ultimate ability while in the middle of the animation of your third ability, this makes it easier for them to get stunned by your ultimate as your third ability will stun the enemy first.

What makes Leona a strong Tank:

Leona can close the gap between her and the enemy, she can also get to the enemies standing behind tanks.
She gains a huge boost in armor and magic resistance.
She can initiate fights with her third ability or her ultimate and these abilities allow you to target enemies that try to stand behind their team.

See Leona in action:

5. Amumu

Amumu is a Tank that is mostly played in the Jungle. Amumu is a champion that can close the gap between him and his enemies, stunning them in the process before using his ultimate to stun everyone around him, applying his passive that let’s enemies take true damage from magic damage they receive. Amumu also reduces damage that he takes from all sources with the passive from his third ability.

As a tank Amumu can initiate fights for his team, his first ability can stun enemies that are hit and make Amumu dash into them, catching a squishy enemy like a mage or marksman isn’t that hard if you position yourself to flank the enemy from the side or from behind. Once amumu latches onto one champion their allies aren’t safe as Amumu can just make them unable to move or attack.

Amumu is a good pick if you have a team that has a lot of AP damage, his passive makes them deal true damage. Amumu is also not easy to counter, his first ability has two stacks meaning you can hit one and if the enemy tries to flash or dash away you can still chase them down easily. As amumu only has crowd control in his first ability and ultimate ability he has limited options to use when trying to engage.

Amumu can build AP items to make use of his passive but it’s more advisable to build “Sunfire Aegis” and tank items. Sunfire synergizes well with his third ability as both will deal damage based on the enemies HP and add the new tank item “Searing Crown” which also burns enemies based on their HP, both these items deal magic damage in turn it works with Amumu’s passive. Getting protobelt is a good way to get close to enemies before using your ultimate. Make sure your team can follow up whenever you try to engage, you can tank most of the damage but if you die before your team can even get close then your death would be useless.

What makes Amumu a strong Tank:

Amumu takes reduced damage from all sources and it scales with how much armor and magic resist he has.
Amumu can initiate fights and boost the overall damage of his team with his passive.
Amumu deals damage based on the HP of the enemies, making him deal more damage as the game progresses.

See Amumu in action:

4.Alistar

Alistar is a tank mainly played in the support role. He is a champion that has three different types of crowd control from his abilities, his ultimate allows him to reduce the damage that he takes by a lot allowing him to eat everything his enemies throw at him. He can also heal himself and his allies when enemies damage him.

Alistar is a heavy crowd control champion, with his gap closing ability and AoE knock up, he can be said to have the best intimations in the game, and he can do his standard combo as soon as he hits level 2. He can tank a lot of damage with his skills and stick closely to enemies to stun,knockback or airborne them.

Alistar is a good tank to use against a lot of champions, he doesn't have that many counters just make sure to ban Morgana if you don't want your crowd controls made useless. You can also protect your allies by just standing beside them, you can push away enemies that try to go in, knock them up to cancel whatever combo they're trying to do to your allies or just straight up catch abilities the enemies throw at you while your Ultimate is active.

Alistar is an easy champion to learn, his combos is mainly using your second ability to get close to your enemy and using your first ability as quickly as you can to knock them up before they get pushed away, you can also try to push away the tank and just use your first ability to knock up whomever is nearby them, this knocks their tank away and gives your allies more opportunities to deal damage to an enemy marksman or mage that the tank was protecting.

Bonus tip: you can use your first ability and then use flash while mid animation, this can surprise your enemies and even allow you to use your second ability to push an enemy towards your team.

What makes Alistar a strong Tank:

Alistar has an in-built healing ability with his passive that activates whenever an enemy hits him, the cooldown of this ability is reduced whenever he knocks up or stuns an enemy.
Alistar has three different ways to stop an enemy, this allows him to prevent enemies from dealing damage.
With his damage reduction from his ultimate ability you can literally walk all over the enemy team while tanking everything they have.

See Alistar in action:

3.Thresh

Thresh is a tank that is mainly played in the support role. He is a tanky support that can scale his armor stat indefinitely making him grow stronger the longer the game progresses. His abilities shine well when working with allies, having two ways to pull or push enemies towards his team and having an ability to give a shield to himself and his allies while being able to pull them away from dangerous situations.

Thresh is a strong champion in the early game, he can easily poke enemies with his ranged basic attacks and when you're confident you can throw a hook and just go in, throwing a lantern to your ally will allow them to quickly follow you in engaging the enemy. With your growing armor stat you can be more of a problem for their marksman as the game progresses.

Thresh is a good pick against most enemies in the Duo lane, just be careful when using him against champions that have dashes or blinks as it will be harder to land your first ability. Morgana can also be a challenging enemy to face as your crowd controls can be rendered useless if your timing isn't good. Staying close to your ally is one of the best play styles you can do, protecting them from enemies that try to focus them by landing your hook or pushing them away or even having a lantern for your ally so they can quickly get away from the enemy.

Building "Iceborn Gauntlet" is a must for Thresh, you gain a lot of armor so the slowing field will grow larger as you stack more souls, plus the stats of the item is really good as it gives you ability haste, HP, and armor. Your first ability is effective in stunning enemies but can be easily dodged if you make it obvious that it's what you're going for, try to fake enemies out by constantly faking that you're trying to engage, or even use your third ability first before throwing a hook, remember your first ability has a faster cooldown when you land the ability so make sure you have a high chance of landing the ability. Your ultimate is a good way to secure kills or zone enemies out, it also deals a decent amount of damage, using it in tight spaces is great but you can also push an enemy into it with your third ability.

What makes Thresh a strong Tank:

Thresh can scale his armor stat as much as he wants, this allows you to build more magic resist early if the enemy deals a lot of it.
Thresh can save allies with the shield from his second ability but the best part of it is that he can pull an ally out of a dangerous position.
Thresh has a good way of disrupting enemies, his third ability can cancel some champion abilities like Tristana's jump.

See Thresh in action:

2.Garen

Garen is a tank champion that is mainly played in the Solo lane. Garen is a champion that excels in close combat, he can silence enemies preventing them from using any abilities, he can gain damage reduction giving him an edge in one versus ones, he can spin one top of his foes dealing continuous damage and he can execute enemies with his ultimate ability.

Garen is a difficult champion to deal with, he can out-trade most enemies in the top lane since he regenerates HP when he doesn't get hit by enemy champions if he isn't against a ranged enemy in the solo lane he will almost always win trades in lane, later in the game this becomes more prevalent as he can just not get hit for a few second heal up and get back into the fight without needing to recall. His damage reduction ability also lets him just walk all over his enemies, this also gives him tenacity which makes crowd controls almost useless against him. His ultimate executes enemies based on their missing health so he can just walk up to a low health enemy and deal a lot of damage if not straight up killing them.

Garen is a good champion to use against ability reliant solo lane champions, his first ability that deals damage and silences his enemies and the reduced damage he takes thanks to his second ability makes it hard to lose a fight. Fighting ranged champions will be hard but can be done when you have your ultimate ability and they don't have any dashes aside from flash.

You can play Garen in different play styles, you can hard push lanes and play separately from your team by pushing towers while they take objectives or push a different lane, dragging one or two enemies to you can open up the possibility of taking an objective for your team or if the enemy decides to put all five people on you team, you can easily take towers. You can also play a hard aggressive bruiser tank, playing with your team. You can start fights by yourself as your team follows up on you or flank the enemy team, Garen has a lot of movement speed and he can take a lot of hits while easily disregarding crowd controls.

What makes Garen a strong Tank:

Garen can deal a lot of damage and still tank a lot.
He can build a full tank and still deal tons of damage against enemy champions.
He can be played flexibly, giving different ways to be effective.

See Garen in action:

1.Nautilus

Nautilus is a tank that can be played in the Solo lane, Jungle and Support. He is a tank that can deal a lot of damage to squishy enemies and still be able to take a lot of hits. He has a high rate of survivability and a decent amount of mobility that allows him to quickly get around the map, this makes him a good Jungler, add to the fact that he can immobilize an enemy in three different ways, making your ganks have a high chance to kill the enemy.

Nautilus can easily initiate fights and immobilize multiple enemies with just his passive, his first ability can close the gap between him and his enemies allowing you to make use of his passive ability to root enemies, you can also slow enemies with your third ability and deal bonus damage with his basic attacks using his second ability. His best form of crowd control is definitely his ultimate since this ability locks on to an enemy that you targeted and will knock them up, this ability will also knock up enemies that the ability passes through, this is is one the best ways to initiate since this ability can only be dodge with spell immunity that comes from items like “Banshee’s Veil”, “Nights Edge”, and the boots enchantment Veil. Nautilus can easily target enemy marksman or mages with his ultimate this will either be unable to make them do any damage or escape from getting bursted by your team.

Nautilus is a good pick in the support role against anything. He can be played in the solo lane but you might not have an easy time against some matchups especially against ranged champions. Jungle is definitely a good role for Nautilus as he can move around the map with his first ability, his ganks are also really good as he can initiate a fight with a stun and close the gap between him and the enemy. Nautilus doesn’t have difficult combos that you need to know, his ultimate is pretty much a point and click with no need to aim, just remember to target the mage or the marksman.

If you’re playing Jungle as Nautilus you should always build “Sunfire Aegis” as this helps with clearing Jungle camps quickly, you can also switch to being a split pusher since the item also clears waves faster and if you have Demolish you can take towers really well. You can gank as early as level 2 so if you see an enemy overextending don’t shy away from ganking that lane. Always start fights with your ultimate as this can collapse the enemy that is grouping up, and you can easily follow up with your first ability to close the gap. In the Solo lane you would want to build “Iceborn Gauntlet” as Nautilus uses a lot of abilities in between basic attacks this would boost your damage early on against AD champions.

What makes Nautilus a strong Tank:

Nautilus can easily engage enemies and make them unable to move and do any damage.
Nautilus also gains a shield that is based on his HP, this lets him stack more HP to absorb more damage.
Nautilus can deal a lot of damage with a full tank build.

See Nautilus in action:

And those are all the best tanks in Wild Rift at the moment, this list can change when they add new tanks or add new items that work better for other tanks that aren’t on this list.