In Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, Granger, Brody, Kimmy, and Lesley struggle significantly against durable frontliners because they lack rapid attack speeds and sustained percentage-based damage. When facing tank-heavy lineups, draft attack-speed marksmen like Karrie, Claude, or Moskov instead, or adjust your in-game positioning to flank and eliminate enemy backliners rather than hitting tanks directly.
Why Burst and Fixed-Damage Marksmen Hit a Wall
Marksmen generally divide into sustained percentage-based damage dealers and skill-reliant burst shooters:
- Sustained Marksmen: Rapidly trigger on-hit effects from items like Demon Hunter Sword, shredding high-health frontlines regardless of total HP pools.
- Burst Marksmen: Rely on flat physical scaling, single-shot poke, or fixed ability ratios. These kits easily eliminate squishy targets but stall against tanks stacking over 10,000 HP and high defense values.
Defensive item synergies actively punish non-DPS marksmen. Antique Cuirass reduces an attacker's physical attack when hit by skills, directly neutralizing ability-reliant shooters. Blade Armor reflects basic attack damage back to the attacker while providing high physical defense. Without continuous attack speed or native percent-health shred, burst shooters deal negligible damage to frontliners while absorbing reflected damage in return.
The 4 Marksmen Least Effective Against Tanks
| Marksman | Core Mechanical Bottleneck | Defensive Counter Items | Tactical Consequence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Granger | Skill-dependent fixed burst; attack speed does not scale | Antique Cuirass, Blade Armor | Cooldown reliance stalls teamfights once initial shots are absorbed |
| Brody | Capped, slow basic attack tempo; reliant on missing-HP execute | Dominance Ice, Antique Cuirass | Cannot chip deep health pools into execute range |
| Kimmy | Rapid, low-damage continuous hybrid projectile ticks | Radiant Armor, Blade Armor | Multi-stage magic hits trigger flat damage reduction instantly |
| Lesley | Low-frequency single-shot poke with reset delays | Twilight Armor, Guardian Helmet | Damage caps and passive regeneration outpace sporadic true damage |
Granger
Granger functions like an assassin rather than a traditional sustained shooter. His damage relies on Skill 1 (Rhapsody) and his ultimate (Death Sonata). Because Granger converts attack speed into flat physical attack, he cannot run the Trinity build synergy of Corrosion Scythe, Demon Hunter Sword, and Golden Staff. Antique Cuirass directly blunts Rhapsody's scaling. Once his six bullets are spent, Granger must wait on cooldowns, leaving high-defense tanks free to control the fight.
Brody
Brody generates strong early-game lane pressure, but his passive (Abyss Corrosion) locks him into a slow, deliberate basic attack tempo. His ultimate (Torn Apart Memory) functions as an execution tool on low-health enemies, meaning high-health frontliners negate his primary threat. Brody cannot deliver enough basic attacks per second to burn through massive HP pools before enemy tanks close the distance.
Kimmy
Kimmy relies on aim-assisted chemical sprays that deal continuous hybrid damage. This delivery method triggers the exact passive of Radiant Armor, which grants stacking flat magic damage reduction upon taking continuous magic ticks. Within seconds of engagement, Kimmy's poke deals negligible damage, while Blade Armor reflects incoming physical damage back to her, depleting her energy bar for minimal impact.
Lesley
Lesley converts critical chance into true damage through her Master of Camouflage passive, allowing her to ignore physical defense. However, her damage frequency is too low to shred tanks. Lesley relies on sporadic, single-shot poke between stealth resets. A single 2,000 true damage crit fails to threaten tanks with deep health pools, while Twilight Armor caps single-instance burst damage and items like Guardian Helmet quickly regenerate her poke damage.
How to Handle Heavy Frontlines
When drafting or playing into heavy frontline compositions, use these adjustments:
- Draft Tank-Busting Marksmen: If the enemy team locks in durable tanks like Fredrinn, Baxia, or Barats, pick Karrie for her max-HP true damage passive, or Claude and Moskov to maximize Demon Hunter Sword on-hit procs.
- Prioritize Armor Penetration and Percent Shred: If already locked into Granger or Brody, build Malefic Roar early to cut through high physical armor tiers. Equip Sea Halberd to trigger its Punish passive, which grants bonus damage against targets with higher extra HP.
- Flank Instead of Front-to-Back Fighting: Avoid dumping primary cooldowns into enemy tanks. Reposition along the flanks during engagements to focus backline mages and marksmen, letting your frontline crowd-control the enemy tanks.
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Sarah Williams
Sarah specializes in RPG and collection games, explaining team building, character growth, and beginner-friendly ways to avoid expensive early mistakes.
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Player Comments
107 players commented on this guide.
Nice guide. I am checking the other Mobile Legends: Bang Bang articles next.
The explanation is clear, especially for beginners.
This saved me time in the early game.
This helped me understand strategy much better.