Best League Of Legends Tank Runes In 2025

Summary

• Many runes are underrated and underused for Tanks in League of Legends, offering variety and versatility.
• Certain runes like Shield Bash and Demolish provide unique benefits for Tanks in different situations.
• Runes like Grasp of the Undying and Overgrowth are essential for scaling health and damage for Tank champions.

Over the entire lifetime of League of Legends, the game has received consistent updates to many of the systems, champions, and items that make the game so unique and fun. Whether it’s an entirely new champion or a tweak to an existing playstyle, Riot constantly changes how the game feels and functions, bringing in new possibilities and build options for players to experiment with.

In the rune department, the Tank role has always had some fairly staple options when it comes to choices, with many of their runes remaining virtually the same for the last five years or so. But there is still room for variety and expression when it comes to choosing a rune that fits the champion’s kit or the player, with some being mediocre, while others are straight-up overpowered.

8

Guardian

Stand With Me

• Passive: While within 350 units of an allied champion, you raise your Guard. Allied champions you affect with unit-targeted abilities are also Guarded for 3 seconds, regardless of distance.
• If you or a Guarded ally would take 90 – 250 (based on level) damage within 2.5 seconds or lethal damage from an enemy champion, monster, or turret, you both gain a shield for 45 – 120 (based on level) (+ 12.5% of your AP) (+ 8% of your bonus health) for 2 seconds.
• Cooldown: 90-40 (based on level) seconds

When it comes to Tanks in the Support role, there isn’t a great deal of choice when it comes to effective and reliable run keystones. Guardian is by far the best choice for players looking to support their ally as a frontline Tank and can even be picked on certain Enchanter champions as an alternative against more aggressive lanes.

While it does have limited utility in the solo lanes or Jungle, as a Support rune it is incredibly useful and grants some much-needed survivability for the squishy ADC that is constantly under fire. It continues to scale up into the late game as well, providing a significant amount of protection for when an enemy assassin decides to dive into the backline.

7

Second Wind

Take A Breather

• Passive: After taking damage from an enemy champion, regenerate 3 (+ 4% of your missing health) health over 10 seconds.

One of the biggest factors when it comes to surviving the landing phase is the ability to soak up damage and sustain the blows coming from the enemy. Second Wind gives the player so much additional survivability when it comes to living through poke and taking favorable trades thanks to the additional healing.

When combined with other runes and items like Doran’s Shield, the player can practically absorb all the damage taken and even heal more in some cases. It isn’t limited to just Tanks either, being useful on Midlaners who need some extra help in a rough matchup, but it’s still very effective in the Top lane, particularly in ranged matchups that like to go heavy on the poke. While it is predominantly a lane rune, its power is more than enough to warrant taking it to get through the tricky levels early on.

6

Shield Bash

The Best Offense Is A Good Defense

• Passive: Whenever you gain a shield, your next basic attack against an enemy champion is empowered to deal 5 – 30 (based on level) (+ 2.5% bonus health) (+ 15% shield amount) bonus adaptive damage. The empowered attack lasts for up to 2 seconds after the shield expires.

Shield Bash is a unique rune in the Resolve tree that is incredibly useful on champions who can reliably generate shields in their kit. A great example of this is Shen, who can instantly grant himself a shield with a very low cooldown, allowing him to engage and proc Shield bash multiple times in a single trade.

It can even work with Supports like Nautilus who can engage and bash enemies in the face for some unexpected burst, or enchanters like Renata who can add some power to their trades and elevate specific botlane matchups to new levels. Because it is reliant on shields, certain champions won’t be able to benefit from the rune, but it is a great choice for any Tank player looking to add some extra damage to their build.

5

Demolish

Structures Are No More

• Passive: Generate stacks every 0.5 seconds on enemy turrets within 600 units, up to 6 after 3 seconds. Your next basic attack against a turret with 6 stacks is empowered to consume all stacks to deal 100 (+ 35% of your maximum health) bonus physical damage.
• Cooldown: 45 Seconds

The main role of a Tank in a team is to create space with their high health pools and use their CC abilities to find engages onto the enemy carries. But there is plenty of room in the game for some sneaky tower takes, and split-pushing to create pressure on the map and inject gold into the team. Demolish is a great tool for adding additional threat to unattended towers and makes singing alone or in a group significantly more effective.

The other benefit is that the other two runes in the tree, Font of Life and Shield Bash, are rather situational or straight useless on most champions, which means that Tanks can quite happily take Demolish almost every game, without having to drop a stronger rune. And because the damage scales with maximum health, a stat that Tanks build anyway, beefy characters like Sion can practically oneshot towers without needing to build a single damage item.

4

Conditioning

Ramping Up The Stats

• Passive: After 12 minutes, gain 8 bonus armor and 8 bonus magic resistance and your total armor and total magic resistance are increased by 3%.

Resistances are the bread and butter of the Tank class in League, reducing incoming damage threats significantly and allowing them to frontline for a much longer time while their allies dish out the damage. Conditioning trades off some early lane survivability for some scaling resistances that can turn Tanks into immovable objects with the only requirement being time.

It is an incredibly versatile rune that works on a large number of champions looking to raise their stats, particularly if the matchup in the lane is easy and allows for some scaling. Champions like Ornn adore this rune, having bonus resistance scaling built into his kit, but it feels strong on almost every Tank and gives a huge amount of value in just a single rune.

3

Aftershock

An Unkillable Stunbot

• Passive: Immobilizing an enemy champion grants you a static 35 (+ 80% bonus armor) bonus armor and 35 (+ 80% bonus magic resistance) bonus magic resistance for 2.5 seconds. The bonus resistances are capped at 80 – 150 (based on level). After the duration, you release a shockwave that deals 25 – 120 (based on level) (+ 8% of your bonus health) magic damage to enemy champions and monsters within a 350 radius.
• Cooldown: 20 seconds

Aftershock is a crowd-controller’s dream, giving an absolutely ludicrous boost to survivability for a class of champions that almost always has a decent amount of CC. Most commonly used on supportive characters like Nautilus who can hook in and not worry about getting chunked out, there are plenty of other characters who can benefit immensely in other roles like K’sante and Sejuani.

With such a short cooldown, trades become favorable and almost unlosable, which turns some tricky matchups into instant wins. And by the late game, where the bonus resistance reaches insane numbers, the total damage reduction becomes absurd and all the enemy can do is run away and hope they can live through the onslaught of stuns.

2

Overgrowth

Feast On The Fallen

• Passive: Every 8 monsters or enemy minions that die near you permanently generates a stack. Each stack grants 3 bonus health. This effect can stack indefinitely. After reaching 15 stacks (120 monsters or minions), your base and bonus health is permanently increased by 3.5%.

Tanks like two core stats in their builds: resistances and health. Overgrowth handles the latter and provides a great scaling option that can be picked on basically any character using the resolve tree. While the numbers sound small, the percentage bonus is the main power, providing a large boost to the health pool, which is great on health stackers as well as squishier champs looking for slightly more survivability.

As it functions on both minions and jungle camps, many champions across roles can pick up the rune to great effect, giving an incentive to stick around and farm for a bit longer to increase their health passively. It’s simple and sits right at the bottom of the rune set, but is no slouch when combined with a set of tanky items, on a Tank that can create some serious problems thanks to the extra bulk.

1

Grasp Of The Undying

The Perfect Keystone

• Passive: Entering combat generates 1 stack every second for the next 3 seconds, refreshing the duration with each instance of combat and stacking the effect up to 4 times. At maximum stacks, your next basic attack within 5 seconds against an enemy champion consumes all stacks to deal bonus magic damage equal to (3.5% Melee / 2.1% Ranged) of your maximum health, heal you for (1.3% Melee / 0.78% Ranged) of your maximum health, and permanently grant (5 Melee / 3 Ranged) bonus health.

One of the most popular runes in the game and commonly taken across a variety of classes and champion types, Grasp of the Undying single-handedly gives players more health, healing, and damage and has even unlocked plenty of Tank builds for certain champions who would traditionally build full damage.

With so much crammed into a single rune, it is hard to pass up for Tank characters and is very effective on several other champions that can activate the rune with their abilities, like Gangplank or Smolder. Scaling well into the late game, the heals just get bigger and bigger and the damage follows suit, with the entire rune synergizing incredibly well with the rest of the resolve choices to increase the health gain and turn any character into a high health menace that storms across the rift looking for more.