Anti-tank
Levers for getting through a heavy frontline. The first three sections link to mechanic pages where every Set 18 source is enumerated; the last four are curated lists of specific items, champions, and augments whose anti-tank angle isn't captured by an existing mechanic.
Bypass defenses
Damage that ignores Armor, Magic Resist, and Shield outright — or removes the target without going through the damage formula at all.
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Damage that bypasses Armor and Magic Resist — the damage number on the source is applied directly to current Health. Shields still absorb true damage like any other damage type.
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Instantly kills a target whose Health is below a threshold (typically a % of max Health). Resolves as true damage equal to the target's current Health, so it ignores Armor, Magic Resist, Durability, and damage reduction. Unlike ordinary true damage, an execute destroys any active Shield before applying its kill — a shielded unit at low HP is still executed once the threshold check passes; the Shield does not save it.
Strip defenses
Reduces the target's defensive stats so the rest of your board hits harder. Sunder eats Armor (helps AD); Shred eats Magic Resist (helps AP); Stat Steal pulls Armor or Magic Resist off the enemy and onto the holder.
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Reduces the target's Armor for a duration.
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Reduces the target's Magic Resist (commonly by 30%, though the amount varies by source) for a duration, or for the rest of combat with some effects.
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Drains a stat (Armor, Magic Resist, Attack Damage, Ability Power) from enemies and grants it to the source or an ally. Distinct from Shred and Sunder (one-way debuffs that only reduce the enemy stat) because the holder gains what the enemy loses.
Chip max-HP and shut down healing
The canonical anti-tank package: Burn deals % max-HP true damage over time, Wound cuts incoming healing — including Health Regen, lifesteal, and omnivamp. Stack them when the enemy frontline out-sustains your damage.
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Deals a percent of the target's maximum Health as true damage every second. Most burn sources also apply Wound, which reduces healing received — together they form the standard answer to high-Health frontlines.
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Reduces healing the target receives by 33% for a duration.
Punish high-HP targets
Effects whose text explicitly amps damage against tanky units or against high-Health enemies — direct counters to a heavy frontline.
Items (2)
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Gain 15% additional Damage Amp against Tanks.
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Gain 30% additional Damage Amp against Tanks.
Hit % of the tank's max HP
One-shot damage that scales with the target's maximum Health, so the bigger the tank, the bigger the chunk. Distinct from Burn (which is over-time).
Items (1)
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Stunning an enemy causes lightning to strike them, dealing 30% of their max Health as magic damage.
Augments (1)
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Gain a giant Training Dummy. Every 4 seconds, it zaps the 3 nearest enemies dealing 5% max Health true damage.
Steal and repurpose defenses
Drain Armor or Magic Resist off the enemy and convert the stolen stat into damage or healing — the swing is double-sided.
Items (2)
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Every 2.5 seconds, steal 3 Magic Resist from enemies within 1-hex and deal 18% of the holder's Magic Resist as magic damage. If Aegis of Dawn is also equipped, trigger this item's effect every 1.25 seconds instead. Damage increases based on Stage.
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Every 2.5 seconds, steal 3 Armor from enemies within 1-hex and heal a Stage-scaled amount of the holder's Armor. If Aegis of Dusk is also equipped, trigger this item's effect every 1.25 seconds instead. Healing increases based on Stage.
Ignore armor without removing it
Penetration: damage is calculated as if the target had less Armor / MR, but the stat itself is untouched. Stacks alongside Sunder / Shred rather than competing with it.
Champions (1)
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Crimson Fury ability
Crimson Fury Passive: When the target dies, leap at the next target, dealing 170 / 255 / 600 physical damage. Active: Gain 80 / 80 / 280% Attack Damage for 8 seconds. During this time ignore 40 / 40 / 60% Armor. Red Buff: Attacks 1% Burn enemies and heal Brambleback for 4% max Health.
Frequently asked questions
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How do you beat Armor and Health Regen in TFT?
They are two separate problems, so you need two levers. Against Armor you either strip it — Sunder removes a percentage of the target's Armor (30% on every item that applies it, though how long it lasts depends on the source), and stat steal moves it onto your own unit — or you skip the resist formula entirely with true damage, percent max-Health damage, or an execute. Two more levers sit between those two: penetration, where the damage is calculated as if the target had less Armor while the stat itself is left untouched, and Damage Amp that only counts when the target is a tank. TFT floors resistances at 0, so once a target is stripped to 0 Armor any further reduction is wasted and you should switch to bypass damage. Against Health Regen the lever is anti-heal: Wound (Grievous Wounds) reduces health regeneration as well as direct heals, lifesteal and omnivamp, so a regen-reliant frontline stops replacing the Health you chip off it.
Sources
- LoL Wiki — Grievous Wounds ("reduces all of a unit's healing and health regeneration received") (opens in new tab)
- LoL Wiki — Last Whisper (TFT) ("30% Sunders the target for 3 seconds") (opens in new tab)
- How Armor and Magic Resistance works in TFT — LeDuck (Tacter, "reduced to 0 = effectively true damage") (opens in new tab)
- LoL Wiki — Resistances (TFT) (opens in new tab)
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Does anti-heal actually stop Health Regen, or only direct heals?
It stops regen too. The in-game Grievous Wounds tooltip only names "self-healing and incoming healing", but the engine-side definition explicitly includes health regeneration, so regen ticks are shaved like any other heal — and so are lifesteal and omnivamp, since both arrive as normal heal events. TFT's generic default reduction is 50%; the current set's dedicated anti-heal items apply 33%, and the exact figure always comes from the source applying it. Multiple applications refresh the duration rather than adding their percentages, so one anti-heal source on a unit that reaches the right target is enough — a second is wasted.
Sources
- LoL Wiki — Grievous Wounds ("reduces all of a unit's healing and health regeneration received") (opens in new tab)
- LoL Wiki — TFT:Grievous Wounds ("50% less effective by default"; "will not stack but instead refresh the duration") (opens in new tab)
- LoL Wiki — Health regeneration ("healing only for the purposes of healing modifiers") (opens in new tab)
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Do two Armor-reduction sources cut twice as much Armor?
No. Percent resistance reduction does not stack — when two Sunder sources hit the same target only one is active at a time, and item tooltips state "This effect does not stack" outright. Shred behaves identically on the Magic Resist side. Doubling up the same debuff on one carry buys nothing, so the better second slot is a different lever entirely: anti-heal, Burn, percent max-Health damage, Armor penetration, or an execute. Penetration is worth calling out here because it is not the same keyword — it lowers what the damage formula sees rather than removing Armor from the target, so the "does not stack" clause printed on the Sunder items is not a statement about it. On a mixed-damage board one Sunder and one Shred is the standard split, since each only touches its own resistance.