Welcome Rio supporters and Chemtech players alike,
With 11.24, we’re taking on a large series of buffs for trait-linked Augments, widespread balance changes, and reworks for Chemtech and Blue Buff. There are also changes coming to the League of Legends event structure that impact how you gain points for LoL events in TFT, and bug fixes like Tactician Scouting’s return in Double Up, unit targeting consistency, and Lissandra spell functionality. There’s a lot to get into, so I’ll keep it short here and medium later on.
We’re shipping a larger than usual B-patch for our longer than usual patch 11.24 to ensure a diverse and dynamic meta during our Winter break.
With stall and Mutant comps dominating the meta we’re hitting some of the Augments that have enabled their success.
When itemized correctly, Kassadin and Darius provide way more tankiness than we are comfortable for a 1-cost.
Cho’Gath’s base stats have provided for too consistent of stacking for this feast or feast more champion. By hitting the big guy’s stats and mana it’ll be harder to force him without high-rolling early. The base AD nerf should prevent AD Cho’ from being the go to Mutant for any Mutant trait variation. This may seem like a lot, but this Cho’ Cho’ train was well off the rails.
Two Yones!?!? We’ve finally fixed a longstanding Yone bug that he was balanced around. In doing so, we’re shipping a few buffs to make sure this is as close to a power neutral change as possible. However, I would add that Built Different Yone is looking pretty strong with these changes.
As one of the hardest to reach traits of G&G, Chemtech 9 should be worth the investment.
Shortening the Protector shield will prevent the Protector Emblem on Cho’Gath from being a Neglect-your-damage entirely Emblem.
With stall comps dominating the meta, nerfs to an item that helps your frontline stall, and another that helps your stalling carries carry, will put more pressure on teams looking to win in overtime.
Two changes that slipped through the cracks in our initial notes release. They’re small (3-star changes), but important to note, so we’ll keep them front and center for now.
Soul, heart, and other trait-linked Augments have struggled compared to their more versatile peers, especially when players are offered a Prismatic tier (most powerful) soul Augment as the first option in lobbies while other players are offered more instantly impactful, non-trait bound Prismatic options.
With these adjustments, we hope to see trait Augments perform equally to Augments of the same tier. All of these changes are buffs that provide a small amount of instant power to your board or economy in addition to the beneficial traits they already provided.
Most heart Augments now also grant a champion of the same trait, allowing you to instantly tap into the power of that trait, or get just a bit closer to the next breakpoint.
All Augments that grant one emblem have been renamed for consistency to crests (e.g Hired Gun has become Mercenary Crest). The crests listed below also grant a champion from their trait.
Some Soul Augments that benefit units of the same trait have been changed to crowns, and now grant 2 emblems allowing you to instantly capitalize on the trait’s power by bestowing it to your units. Other soul Augments now also grant gold in addition to their benefit. These changes should allow for a more immediate power spike similar to other Prismatic options. As a reminder, emblems also provide a small amount of combat power depending on their recipe, or default 150 Health.
Large, like the weight of my feelings after Arcane.
Innovators are too strong when they can hit the trait’s next breakpoint much earlier than expected. These changes let players still achieve the Bear/Dragon dream but prevent them from accessing them too early.
March of Progress is really good for a gold Augment (Tier 2). Instead of nerfing it, we’re making it a Prismatic (Tier 1) and then buffing it just a bit, while making it only appear as the first Augment choice. This way, it’ll always feel like a high roll.
Our Spell Blade changes are intended to be power neutral, with a focus on increasing satisfaction and fantasy via one visible large damage auto after each spell rather than a small bonus on each attack.
By the time a Chemtech champion dropped below the health threshold, triggering the trait, the fight would end before the buff could be used effectively. By giving the buff a flat duration and making its potency scale with trait breakpoints, we’re hoping Chemtech 7 and 9 will have more impact later into the game.
Garen’s been empowering dominant reroll compositions since G&G’s release, but he’s found decisive success in recent Sniper Protector comps, so we’re striking his execution damage down quite a bit.
Me Kat meow ⇒ Me nerfed now. Even with a nerf in our mid-week patch, Katarina’s damage has been caught cutting class without a hall pass. So, we’re hitting Katarina with a substantial damage nerf at 3 stars; which, considering how often she casts in a fight, is a considerable change. We’ll be keeping close eyes on her, especially as Kat has fallen out of favor in non-NA regions while continuing to define the meta in NA.
By defining the meta, Katarina has led to the uprising of the troll! Gaining popularity as a counter to Katarina comps, Trundle comps have ended up being effective into just about every comp with correct itemization.
Taric with some tank items can get into an unkillable cycle of healing, especially in the early game or with an Arcanist spat. By nerfing his healing, it’ll be more possible to take him down.
Vex’s ability to stall out fights with repeat shields is allowing for backlines to pump out uninhibited damage. This wouldn’t be so bad if Vex didn’t also top the damage charts while doing this.
Ekko's fulfilling his role as the utility Assassin, but the attack speed disparity he creates through a reduction on the enemy and increase to his allies, is too impactful.
Despite the dominance of Assassin comps, one Assassin seemed to be missing out on all the fun—and it wasn’t because they turn invisible. The most successful Assassin comps oftentimes just ran Shaco as an afterthought, preferring (rightfully so) to itemize Twitch if they had the extra items to go around.
Strengthening some of the more niche 4-costs to perform better at what they do, whether that’s CC, tankiness, or dancing with a sword.
Jhin will still get those sweet sweet backline assassinations slightly more often, but it will take him longer to auto down the frontline.
Every spark can’t be your Final Spark if you cast 11 times in a fight.
Jayce’s hammer form is more often than not his best form, partially due to the excessive tankiness it brings, and partially due to Jayce’s shaky performance when using cannon form—even on the smallest of targets.
If you thought that reference was metal, the next one is Akaline. Unless you happen to have perfect items for her lying around, Akali has struggled to find a place in G&G. With a bit more base stats, Akali should be able to hit the barium requirements for a viable 5-cost.
Making a colossal and speedy entrance onto ranked ladders near you, attack speed Galio, aka Clapio, has proven to be both strong and awkward to play. While it’s always awesome to see new and inventive builds, Clapio is not only the most optimal way to play Galio, but also over our desired balance levels. The changes below reign in on the applause, but deliver an encore performance for tank Galio with some extra health and spell damage.
Finally, a nerf to Viktor should keep his damage from disintegrating unintended team comps and fan girls alike.
Blue Buff has been successful as a carry item for specialized casters, but has struggled as a late game item when a player’s carry doesn't need Blue Buff. We're increasing the starting mana to allow utility units to get their first cast off faster, without impacting the best use cases too much.
Small, like my chances of being casted in season 2 of Arcane regardless of my large talent, which is in fact, very large.
Please @ me your Stand United theory-crafted comp and double hook Blitzcrank VODs!
This is where we buff all the traits at their specific breakpoints that are not being used or are just underperforming.
Syndicates have been the Syndican’ts all set, so we’re adding some power to the defensive bonuses these shady operators get while decreasing the bonus amplifier at (7) Syndicate to account for the extra armor and magic resistance added.
It’s time to pay the reroll toll.
Rather than heavily nerfing any piece of the popular and powerful Kog’maw protector reroll comp, we’re adding small nerfs and adjustments to multiple components that make the comp as strong as it currently is. As with our Garen and Kassadin nerf above, we’re adjusting Kog’maw so his 3-star form doesn’t vastly outperform his 1 and 2-star forms.
With two critical Lissandra bugs being fixed (related to her spell failing to cast), she’s been significantly buffed. To compensate for this we’ve shipped a preemptive nerf. The Lissandra changes are large, in that there are many, but they should only result in a small nerf overall.
It’s hard to stack stacks when the clock’s stacked against you, so we’re making it easier for Cho’Gath to get big in Hyper Roll.
Points collected for all League of Legends events moving forward will be based on how much time is spent playing rather than number of games. For more details, check out the Quick Gameplay Thoughts on it. As for how this impacts TFT, keep reading below.