The unyielding backbone of any successful Mobile Legends team lies within its tank heroes. These selfless guardians peel for fragile carries, initiate decisive team fights, and absorb staggering amounts of damage to create opportunities for their allies. While marksmen deal the damage and fighters split push, tanks orchestrate the flow of battle through crowd control and sheer resilience. The evolving meta, influenced by recent item adjustments favoring tankiness, solidifies their crucial role in securing victory across all ranks. Understanding the strengths and unique mechanics of the top tank heroes is paramount for climbing the competitive ladder. 
People Also Ask
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Which tanks are best for solo queue players?
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How do recent item changes affect tank viability?
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Which tanks counter high-attack-speed heroes?
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Are there tanks that can deal significant damage?
12 Lolita: The Shield Sentinel
Lolita stands as Mobile Legends' premier protector against projectile onslaughts. Her passive consistently generates shields for nearby allies, bolstering their survivability significantly during skirmishes and sieges. Her defining trait is her second skill, capable of completely blocking incoming projectiles like Franco's hook or Lesley's ultimate, and even reflecting them back onto the enemy team. While her crowd control isn't team-wide, her first skill provides a reliable, short-cooldown single-target stun. Her ultimate creates a large slowing zone that can stun enemies if combined with allied CC, though it's often used effectively for zoning and area denial.
11 Franco: The Hook Specialist
No MOBA is complete without its hook champion, and in Mobile Legends, Franco embodies this terrifying role. Landing his signature first skill, a long-range hook, can single-handedly decide team fights by dragging an unsuspecting enemy into the heart of his team for instant deletion. His ultimate adds another layer of lockdown, suppressing a target for an extended duration. This isolation potential makes Franco lethal in the early and mid-game. However, his lack of area-of-effect crowd control sees his popularity wane in higher ELO where coordinated teams demand more impactful teamfight disruption.
10 Belerick: The Thorny Retaliator
Belerick thrives as a specific counter-pick, punishing teams reliant on high attack speed. His entire kit revolves around retaliation damage. The faster enemies attack him, the more damage his passive returns – making him a nightmare for marksmen like Moskov, Layla, or heroes like Thamuz and Zilong. He excels in drawn-out matches where enemy carries become powerful. Choosing Belerick requires foresight; if the enemy composition lacks significant attack speed threats, other tanks offer more consistent value. His niche is potent but situational.
9 Carmilla: The Synergy Amplifier
Carmilla epitomizes the true essence of a team-dependent tank. Her effectiveness skyrockets with coordinated allies. Her passive and first skill grant her surprising sustain by stealing enemy defenses and regenerating health. Her second skill provides mobility and a stun. Carmilla's game-changing potential lies in her ultimate, which links nearby enemies. Linked targets share a portion of the damage they receive and, crucially, share debuffs like stuns or silences. A well-timed Carmilla ult can effectively turn a single-target stun into a team-wide lockdown, exponentially increasing her team's area damage potential.
8 Akai: The Unstoppable Force
Frustrated by unresponsive teammates? Akai offers a solution: a tank capable of significant damage and self-reliance. His kit rewards building pure HP; casting skills grants him shields, and hitting enemies deals bonus damage scaling with his massive health pool. This allows him to hold his own, even jungling effectively. Akai's crown jewel is his ultimate, granting him complete crowd control immunity while he barrels through enemies, knocking them back and interrupting their actions. This unparalleled mobility and disruption make him versatile for saving allies, securing kills by pushing enemies towards damage dealers, or escaping precarious situations.
7 Atlas: The Deep Sea Engager
Mobility is often a tank's Achilles' heel. Atlas solves this problem with his second skill, providing a dash and subsequent movement speed boost, allowing him to initiate or reposition swiftly. His passive applies consistent slows to nearby foes. His ultimate is a powerful setup tool, capable of grouping and knocking up the entire enemy team. While similar to Minotaur or Tigreal, Atlas's ultimate animation is more telegraphed, giving alert enemies a brief window to escape using Flicker or dashes, demanding precise timing from the player.
6 Minotaur: The Raging Controller
Minotaur remains a cornerstone tank due to his potent, reliable crowd control and added utility. His ability to knock up multiple enemies simultaneously – achievable with both his first skill and his rage-enhanced ultimate – makes him a constant teamfight threat. These moments of mass disruption are often game-deciding. Beyond CC, Minotaur offers healing through his second skill and becomes significantly tankier during his enraged state. His well-rounded kit provides consistent value throughout the match.
5 Gatotkaca: The Aerial Menace
Gatotkaca uniquely blends significant damage output with traditional tank resilience. His passive triggers an empowered basic attack after absorbing a threshold of damage, dealing hefty damage and healing him – perfect synergy with items like Thunderbelt. This allows even full-tank builds to threaten enemy carries. His global presence comes from his ultimate, enabling him to leap anywhere on the map, landing with a damaging knock-up. This map-wide engagement potential allows for surprise initiations or cross-map saves, defining teamfights before they even begin.
4 Hylos: The Solo Queue Juggernaut
For players venturing alone into ranked, Hylos is a top recommendation. His strength lies in raw durability and surprising damage, requiring less team coordination than setup tanks. His passive amplifies HP gained from items, making him exceptionally beefy. While lacking strong initiation CC (his first skill is a minor stun), his second skill deals continuous magic damage in an area around him. This damage stacks rapidly, allowing Hylos to whittle down and potentially solo kill enemy damage dealers – a feat few other pure tanks can replicate consistently.
3 Chip: The Reality Warper
Chip, though a relatively new addition, has rapidly ascended the ranks due to his unparalleled teamfight manipulation. While boasting solid damage (scaling with HP) and decent crowd control, his ultimate defines his dominance. It teleports his entire team directly onto a single enemy hero, instantly creating a devastating 5v1 scenario. There's little counterplay to being unexpectedly surrounded by the entire enemy team. This ability forces enemies into constant positional paranoia, wins crucial picks, scatters formations, and can single-handedly secure objectives or turn the tide of battle.
Top Tank Item Buffs (Season 2025)
Recent patches have significantly bolstered tank itemization:
| Item Name | Buff Details | Impact on Tanks |
|---|---|---|
| Cursed Helmet | Increased magic damage aura radius and burn scaling | Better waveclear & sustained magic damage |
| Radiant Armor | Enhanced magic damage reduction stacking; higher max stacks | Much stronger against magic burst |
| Bruteforce Breastplate | Increased HP conversion to Physical Attack; better passive proc condition | Boosts hybrid tank/fighter damage |
| Wishing Lantern | Nerf: Reduced bonus damage dealt to tanks | Tanks take less damage from this anti-tank item |
The current meta undeniably favors the stalwart protectors and initiators of the Land of Dawn. Mastering their unique mechanics and understanding their synergies is key to dominating the battlefield.
Recent trends are highlighted by PC Gamer, which consistently delivers expert analysis on evolving game metas and hero viability. Their coverage of multiplayer online battle arenas (MOBAs) often emphasizes the importance of tank roles, noting how itemization changes and balance updates can dramatically shift which heroes dominate the competitive ladder, much like the current tank-focused meta in Mobile Legends.