Hi all. I am currently trying to learn more roles to be a better team player. I currently am doing ok with ranged ad / ap characters (graves, karthus, sivir), but tend to be quite horrible with melee based champs. Is there a tank for me?
For example, if I do play support, I'm best with sona (most similar to other ranged champs). As far as tanks, I was thinking Mao or Galio, since they seem to have some ranged abilities as well.
If I do need to learn a new playstyle, I'd appreciate any advice, guides etc.

Galio is pretty chill. But something I need to tell you:

This game doesn't really have a place for a true "tank." If you don't do any damage the enemy will ignore you and once all your cc is on cooldown you're kinda useless. If you're used to ranged characters, I recommend you work on Gangplank. Build tanky (atmogs and triforce and the like) and you can destroy everyone.

Only a few champs are capable of building full tank and still being useful. And these usually have to jungle to get the farm they need (rammus, amumu to name a few)

Hey all , There's this great commentator streaming right now , He'll be analyzing top level support play over at www.own3d.tv/phrank !

I'd say Alistar, dude has a pretty obvious easy-to-land cc combo/initiate, a built in heal to help cover your mistakes and an ult to help cover your mistakes. And you WILL make mistakes, no doubt about it and people WILL yell at you but don't pay them too much mind while your learning.

Personally, I think malphite is a very good tank to begin with. He doesn't need much cs with the current game meta, and his speed stealer, armour buff and attk speed slow is a very good combination for you to start learning your role as a tank to disrupt the enemy team's effectiveness.

Tbh though malphite isn't a very viable competitive champion so you should quickly switch to trying maybe nocturne tank build whilst jungling once you get the basics

Thanks for the input so far. I should probably add.. I play a lot of unranked solo queue - so I can't expect too much teamplay. The idea of tanky dps is appealing, but it seems that GP doesn't have a lot of CC. I could go Alitstar (have him unlocked, but as previous poster said, I've incited a lot of rage the few times I've played him). If there is a tank / tanky dps that has a less steep learning curve, i'm all for it.

cho'gath is an all around good hero to learn. he has tanking abilities via his aoe silence and stun. his laning phase is more or less uncounterable (if you spec correctly and last hit). he provide buff control with his ult as well.

singed is another good start since he can initiate fights (cho'gath unfortunately is not an initiator). singed can also largely ignore the laning phase since half the heroes cannot do much to singed.


galio is countered often at top since he is more anti-mage than anti-ad. alistar is more of a support tank and is only situationally tanky now. gp is a great tanky dps with a global ult, but you wont really be able to tank much if you are not ahead

AD malphite all the way

Shyvana?? Off tank but still good.

Singed and Cho'Gath.

Singed - Build Rod of Ages and Force of Nature on Singed and you're good to go from there (build armor and whatnot depending on what you need). He has a knock back and mega-slow to fix mistakes. His ult makes you pretty boss in the middle of fights as well.

Cho'Gath - Great ranged harass, excellent passive with last hitting minions (he can't be a support tank bot lane, but top lane can 2v1 just fine under the turret even). He has great interrupt with his knock up in team fights as well as a silence, splash damage, and big true damage nuke to finish off their carries/tanks quick like. Great for baron stealing and early dragons. One of my favourite all-around heroes.