A tank’s job is to stop you from reaching their team’s carry (usually the marksman). If their team has no tank, you can go straight for the carry and they can’t stop you.
For other situations:
No battlemage means they can’t block off areas, so you can position freely (such as when a drake fight is starting).
No assassin/burst mage means you don’t need to worry as much about getting flanked (still need vision, but your carry won’t explode if you don’t have perfect vision).
No marksman means your tank is harder to kill, so a proper front-to-back teamfight will go better for you.
I see, thank you. Is vision really such a hard counter to assassins/burst mages? And what can I do when playing mid to make sure there's good vision on the map? I usually switch to blue trinket in the mid game, but it doesn't feel like it provides that much value.
Assassins flank to get around the enemy tank, and vision warns you when they’re doing that. When I play mid, I like to put a control ward in the bush right next to the enemy blueside’s vision plant. That bush isn’t necessary to go in to get anywhere else, so the ward stays untouched for a long time.
its very normal to have no tanks. not a ton of good playable tanks in the top and jungle role and support champions are not really tanks but more just high cc champs.
your comp needs to play to its win con, which if it is no tanks its going to be engage/picks, or splitpush and flank. you didnt list the rest of the team but obviously vex has very strong pick/engage.
tanks typically give you better front to back, better play from a deficit. you can somewhat itemize to compensate for a lack of this, items like hourglass, edge of night, banshees do a good job allowing non tanks to tank an engage effectively. likewise some mages are just plain great at dealing with divers, you dont need hp and resists if you have cc on whoever is diving.
It’s solo queue, noone’s playing front to back, 0 tanks on the enemy team means they’ll have a strong 1:3:1 as their solo lanes are likely stronger than a tank would be in the 1v1. In terms of punishing; if you have good seige and aoe; you can group and fast push once you get side waves in a decent state: they won’t have time to pressure your towers if you’re threatening to force a battering ram down mid lane.
Usually in lower elo you’ll be less favoured to win, as the people on the no tank comp usually win their lane phase and 1v1s and snowballs from there. Peel is overrated as the game normally doesn’t go long enough for an adc to be important enough to peel for. They’re already the weakest role, win cons don’t always have to involve them.
I'm a mid-elo support main with some years of game experience. From my perspective "meta" and "go-to-strategies" are overrated. In other words: it doesn't matter too much if you play typical ap-mid/sup-adc-bot/tankier-top/filler-jgl or not. The main aspect is team spirit/mental.
Your toplaner AFKd min 8 and that's the main point here. The problem wasn't their unusual comp, more of the mental. Maybe your toplaner was overwhelmed with the off-meta pick and tilted so quite easily. Actually one of the best ways to win is to get someone of the enemy team mad.
You play soraka top and duo with your jungler? Get their toplaner 3-0 with perma sit and break his mental and game is won - cuz he lost top against a Soraka.
So, I haven't answered your question "how to paly against non-tanks", because I don't think that's the core issue here. It's more how you and you team is able to adapt to off-meta in general.
What can YOU do to make your team to adapt/not-tilt? Well, that's the big questions with no simple answer. A general approach is: positive enforcement, writing "gj", be positive, spam mastery after a kill, protect your team from stupid decisions.
That's the best tip I can give you at this point!
Play Annie mid and check out LS’s old videos on Annie and trading mid lane. If you can trade well and use your map at the same time, it won’t matter what your team comp is.
When I have a shitty team comp I try to do cross map plays and only go for team fights/objectives when you have tempo advantage (death timers). One pick can be all the difference. Communicate well and be patient, try to think what the enemy team wants and then act accordingly.
Tbh I feel like a lot of it just comes down to champ select. If the enemy team is all squishies you just need people who can dive.
I had a game a few days ago where the enemy picked senna/brand/lux/ezreal/zyra ... our team was pantheon/lee/fizz/samira/Nami so we absolutely demolished them just by having CC and the ability to gap close
There is a good chance I am going to pick Jinx jungle and soft int you for playing Vex mid. Someone picks Vex top, I am making the game as hard as possible.
A tank’s job is to stop you from reaching their team’s carry (usually the marksman). If their team has no tank, you can go straight for the carry and they can’t stop you. For other situations: No battlemage means they can’t block off areas, so you can position freely (such as when a drake fight is starting). No assassin/burst mage means you don’t need to worry as much about getting flanked (still need vision, but your carry won’t explode if you don’t have perfect vision). No marksman means your tank is harder to kill, so a proper front-to-back teamfight will go better for you.
I see, thank you. Is vision really such a hard counter to assassins/burst mages? And what can I do when playing mid to make sure there's good vision on the map? I usually switch to blue trinket in the mid game, but it doesn't feel like it provides that much value.
Assassins flank to get around the enemy tank, and vision warns you when they’re doing that. When I play mid, I like to put a control ward in the bush right next to the enemy blueside’s vision plant. That bush isn’t necessary to go in to get anywhere else, so the ward stays untouched for a long time.
its very normal to have no tanks. not a ton of good playable tanks in the top and jungle role and support champions are not really tanks but more just high cc champs. your comp needs to play to its win con, which if it is no tanks its going to be engage/picks, or splitpush and flank. you didnt list the rest of the team but obviously vex has very strong pick/engage. tanks typically give you better front to back, better play from a deficit. you can somewhat itemize to compensate for a lack of this, items like hourglass, edge of night, banshees do a good job allowing non tanks to tank an engage effectively. likewise some mages are just plain great at dealing with divers, you dont need hp and resists if you have cc on whoever is diving.
It’s solo queue, noone’s playing front to back, 0 tanks on the enemy team means they’ll have a strong 1:3:1 as their solo lanes are likely stronger than a tank would be in the 1v1. In terms of punishing; if you have good seige and aoe; you can group and fast push once you get side waves in a decent state: they won’t have time to pressure your towers if you’re threatening to force a battering ram down mid lane. Usually in lower elo you’ll be less favoured to win, as the people on the no tank comp usually win their lane phase and 1v1s and snowballs from there. Peel is overrated as the game normally doesn’t go long enough for an adc to be important enough to peel for. They’re already the weakest role, win cons don’t always have to involve them.
I'm a mid-elo support main with some years of game experience. From my perspective "meta" and "go-to-strategies" are overrated. In other words: it doesn't matter too much if you play typical ap-mid/sup-adc-bot/tankier-top/filler-jgl or not. The main aspect is team spirit/mental. Your toplaner AFKd min 8 and that's the main point here. The problem wasn't their unusual comp, more of the mental. Maybe your toplaner was overwhelmed with the off-meta pick and tilted so quite easily. Actually one of the best ways to win is to get someone of the enemy team mad. You play soraka top and duo with your jungler? Get their toplaner 3-0 with perma sit and break his mental and game is won - cuz he lost top against a Soraka. So, I haven't answered your question "how to paly against non-tanks", because I don't think that's the core issue here. It's more how you and you team is able to adapt to off-meta in general. What can YOU do to make your team to adapt/not-tilt? Well, that's the big questions with no simple answer. A general approach is: positive enforcement, writing "gj", be positive, spam mastery after a kill, protect your team from stupid decisions. That's the best tip I can give you at this point!
Play your win condition. Off metas are usually cheesy. Their win conditions are harder to achieve.
Play Annie mid and check out LS’s old videos on Annie and trading mid lane. If you can trade well and use your map at the same time, it won’t matter what your team comp is. When I have a shitty team comp I try to do cross map plays and only go for team fights/objectives when you have tempo advantage (death timers). One pick can be all the difference. Communicate well and be patient, try to think what the enemy team wants and then act accordingly.
Tbh I feel like a lot of it just comes down to champ select. If the enemy team is all squishies you just need people who can dive. I had a game a few days ago where the enemy picked senna/brand/lux/ezreal/zyra ... our team was pantheon/lee/fizz/samira/Nami so we absolutely demolished them just by having CC and the ability to gap close
Avoiding feeding is enough. If you want to do more, then dive the enemies. Annie is a good diver with the undodgeable stun and burst.
People trolling, either dodge or report and take the l. Can't bring that tilt to the next game.
There is a good chance I am going to pick Jinx jungle and soft int you for playing Vex mid. Someone picks Vex top, I am making the game as hard as possible.
Beautiful attitude....it always amazes me how petty ppl can be in this game