I usually play more traditional tanks focused on disruption and mitigation, like Jo and ETC.
However, seeing recent Tyrael patch that improves his damage and self sustain, I began to wonder about Tyrael and other tanks with bruiser build and play style.
For Blaze, Tyrael, and Arthas, their kit and talents allow aggressive damage build. Can they be played as a durable bruiser, and perform the general duty of a solo tank by pressuring the enemy with high damage in Storm League? Or is hard CC and other utility essential for a main tank?
I wouldn’t recommend playing them as a solo front line, or even solo tank (although I have on all three), but they shine as a main tank with a second tanky front line hero next to them. Bruisers such as Imperius, Artanis, or Yrel work well with any of them. Even better, if you choose two of the three, you can do some amazing things. Blaze + Arthas is one of my favorite front line combos.
You can play however you like and everyone’s experience will be different at various skill levels, some obscure situational talents might also work miracles depending on the draft. If you’re not playing at the top level, many people will want to try out new and different things just because they’re bored of the same 10 hero meta.
Exactly why I don’t understand people hating on some maps. Sure, most of us find them annoying and have a slight gag reflex when we have to play on them, but it opens up different possibilities that make the game less dull.
Oh, I am not saying it can’t be done, you have seen me do it often enough, especially on Blaze and Tyrael. However, if you are at lower ranks where people do not follow up (or use Bunker!), or if you do not have much experience playing tanks, solo front line Blaze can be frustrating. I generally recommend newer players, or those learning to tank, to have a buddy up front when playing heroes like those mentioned in the OP.
Arthas is an okay solo tank if you have lots of bursty mages on the team. He’s a great solo tank if the enemy goes for 3 aa frontline (thrall xul artanis kharazim).
Tyrael is a great maintank if you have a dive comp or the other team has bursty mages. He’s hard to play though.
Dont play blaze dont know him
As bruisers they’re all good. I pick tyrael to support divers or to put pressure on backline like ming, morales ect. Hes bad in solo lane. He’ll soak the xp but wont win lane vs any bruiser. Arthas is great vs aa but is also one of the best solo laners in the game atm. Blaze again idk but is great in solo lane. Also has best waveclear of three here.
In my opinion, Arthas will easily become a main tank in the storm league in the amount of CC buff (stun) ,Also Blaze with a certain amount of buff on the main damage and also a certain amount of buff on CC itself can be a suitable option as a main tank for storm league.
But in the case of the Tyrael, I think he needs a rework for the role of a bruiser. He doesn’t have enough resistance, and also he need the more strong CC to be in the role of a main tank.
I do wish Tyrael had a bit more reliable CC. Small AoE 25% slow is worse than Rehgar’s totem with 35% slow, and that can be upgraded to larger AoE with 90% slow on first 1 second. Tyrael only gets same radius slow increased to 35% slow.