New Year, new Portals… and 11 of them too!!!
We hope you had a great patch 13.24, because it’s time to shake things up with a patch packed full of 11 new Portals, 16 Augments changes, over 10 Trait adjustments, a rework to Heartsteel, an update to over 15 items, and of course, over 20 champion adjustments. It’s a big patch for a big year, but the next patch will also be big (for different reasons), as it brings our first ever set revival with the return of the Galaxies mid-set, Return to the Stars! You can read more about the new (old?) game mode coming with our Lunar Festival event from patch 14.02 to the end of patch 14.03 (Feb 20th) via a dev article here!
TFT’s first set revival is almost here, and we’re gearing up for galactic exploration with the revival of the Galaxies mid-set, Return to the Stars, as a temporary game mode available from patch 14.02 (Jan 24th) until the end of patch 14.03 (Feb 20th) during our Lunar Festival event! You can get more information about why we are returning to the stars, and how we’ve updated the mid-set here.
One of our biggest wins of 2023 will be felt with our first patch of 2024, Spectator Mode! We’re thrilled to have the feature go live this patch, which means there’s no excuses for not inviting me to your community led tournaments. On a serious note, a big thanks to the teams that worked across LoL PC and TFT to make what we thought to be impossible, possible, and another thanks to our passionate TFT community that’s been making community tournaments work for so long without this feature. We’re still in early days here, so be sure to report any bugs you may observe.
Some wild, some mild, some favorites returning, and one that heralds the rise of the Scuttle Crab—you’ve been warned!
We’ve also updated the odds of seeing our rare Portals (such as Scuttle Puddle) to be even across all Portals!
We’ve seen the Open Fort strategy (completely selling board to accumulate more gold) be much more valued than going WLWLW (win/loss/win/loss/win) and preserving Tactician Health. A WLWLW player gets 0 streak gold, while a LLLLL player gets 10 gold, which can be a lot considering the importance of early econ. We’re reducing the value of that early econ by restricting access to streak gold until later in Stage 2, as now LLLLL players will only get 6 gold (and still lose a lot of Health). Is the 6 gold completely worth playing Open Fort—maybe in some situations, but we don’t expect this to be a strategy you want to go for before seeing the outcome of 2-2, or even 2-3.
We’re making Country 7 easier to access, allowing you to live your cowboy dreams… or cowboy night-mares… We’ll be adjusting the power of the trait to accommodate the newfound access to its highest tier (see Traits in the SMALL section).
Jazz is at its best when it’s improvised—there’s no room for cookie-cutter recipes here. With the Jazz Emblem no longer craftable, we will be increasing the power of the trait (see Traits section).
We’re adjusting the rules for Headliners to show up in your shop in order to prevent awkward moments where you can’t three-star your reroll carry, while also making 3-star 4 and 5-cost champions harder to hit through the mechanic. The old rule was also confusing as it led to weird situations where champions in opponent shops could contribute to not seeing a Headliner you may have wanted.
Large like the human need for at least 8 hours of sleep each night. A healthy sleep cycle is a healthy life cycle.
If you compare the output of a trait like Big Shot (40/72/120) versus 8-Bit which requires time to stack (45/75/120) it’s a long shot from a bit underpowered. Even with this reality, the trait isn’t too weak thanks to its powerful champions like Caitlyn and Corki. We’re going to put more power in the trait, while pulling some from its carries to keep 8-Bit from becoming 8/8 bit.
Right now 5 EDM is too strong, and Jax is the strongest version of it. Lowering the power of 5 EDM specifically also allows us to raise the trait power at 3/4, as well as some of the other EDM champions as needed.
Higher levels of Emo were certainly sad, but not in the way you’d want it to be. Now as you go up in Emo breakpoints, you can expect to cast more and more often. This should help vertical Emo Poppy and Vex mostly, as we’ll be giving Annie other adjustments to balance things out.
The way Executioner’s crit rate scaled with enemy health wasn’t very satisfying especially at 4 and 6. Now, they will critically strike low health enemies a lot more and much harder, leading to the vertical living their best crit life.
Heartsteel is getting a rework, but before we get into that it’s worth noting that we’ll also be nerfing the base trait a bit since it’s been too consistent. We’re adding a new “Raise the Stakes” option instead of automatically cashing out after four player combats. This will let players chase after massive cash outs—it’s risky though, as you will have to delay your rewards to a later time AND are punished for winning during this time.
Sentinel 6 and 8 are able to stall out a bit more than intended. We’re giving the trait a minor nerf at 6, but 8 is going down more due to the availability of Emblems from new Portals.
Spellweaver 10 has been virtually impossible to hit, so we’re just removing it as a Prismatic option, and then buffing accordingly. With the support of some of our new Portals especially, 9 should be achievable.
Annie does well with exact items that make her cast a bunch, but when she doesn’t get exactly what she wants, she throws a fit taking the form of bottom four—she is just a child you know. Her reliance on perfect items is due to how much power is in Disentegrate’s powered up state. We’re raising her pre-powered up form, and lowering that rapid fire state to help her control her temper, and maybe be happy with other items as well.
Nami will now cast more frequently, dealing more damage through a fight, but with a reduced stun duration, although that too should even out with how many bubbles she’s throwing.
For the remainder of the buffs here, we’re lifting the weakest 1-costs so that even they can one day dream of being a reroll carry. Special shout out for the Taric buff that should make this warm bodied tank a truly outrageous 3-star Disconaut.
Bard’s damaging notes (Doots) have more impact than his healing notes (Chimes), so we’re making sure he more reliably Doots on his foes than Chimes on his pals to raise his base power. That alongside a damage buff to his Doots will have Bard shooting and dooting his way to a Desperado collab.
While Garen Headliner has found success, his base form could use a Power-Up! We’re taking some of his Headliner power and putting it in the base to keep him more consistent.
Kai’Sa is very good at surviving and using Big Shot procs to finish out fights, but she could use better ratios to become a more reliable carry. We’re buffing her AD and AP scaling, so she can benefit more from the regular AD slams and AP from K/DA, Blue Buff, or Shojin.
With a nerf to Crowd Diver 6, reroll Katarina’s capped out board power has been lowered, and we’re compensating by giving some power back to her as AS.
Ekko is the hardest unit for me to find every game, and that’s not just a “me” thing. His utility, tankiness, and traits make him a high-value frontliner in many comps, so we’re lowering his utility in a stun duration nerf that’ll hopefully make him easier to find, for all our sakes.
Ahri’s blowing kisses like they’re going out of style, so we’re asking her to chill a bit, and reducing her Attack Speed to slow down her cast rate.
Our Karthus adjustments are to make him better at cleaning up fights with less remaining enemies, while being slightly less impactful at the start of a fight.
Twisted Fate is already okay when he gets his narrow items and you’re able to speed level to 8 with a strong frontline. By allowing bonus AS to create even more cards, we’re opening up even more build paths. If you have a strong frontline and other sources of magic damage, opt for more AS to shred enemy MR and gradually take over fights.
Lucian’s Arpeggio hasn’t been properly scaling with Attack Speed (which should increase the number of shots in his spell). But even with that taken into account we’d be remiss not to note his other weaknesses. More AD and a better AD ratio should make this Jazz Legendary worthy of three item slots.
Qiyana’s power ceiling (printing items while also being a very strong unit) has been enabled by her strong damage ratios. We’re lowering those, but also preserving her ability to copy multiple items at once to just her three-star form.
Oftentimes when we create a champion with multiple forms, one form becomes the dominant way to play, and we have to tinker with the other forms to keep them on par. This is that tinkering moment. Our goals with these changes are to have you select a Sona form based upon what your comp needs. Need more frontline—choose Kinetic. Need to empower your AD allies—choose Ethereal for Attack Speed. Need to do more damage, or amplify your other AP units—choose Concussive.
We’re taking another pass on our underperforming Headliners, while shipping two nerfs to accommodate the buffs to their base forms for Garen and Yasuo.
Gnar’s Headliner ability had him instantly transform, jump into the enemy team, and then get focused down. Delaying his jump should prevent this instant focus, allowing carry Gnar comps to lean more heavily into offense.
With our changes to streak gold, Consistency has been dramatically nerfed, so much so that we have opted to disable the Augment completely instead of finding a cheap way to buff it.
While the stun duration on Crash Test Dummies has been lowered the delay on their initial jump will now result in stunned units targeting them (given that they are the dummies are the nearest enemies) once they come out of the stun.
Submit to the Pit (Mosher) is getting a rework that not only makes it more thematically relevant (Mosh with your pals), but also less awkward with constantly fluctuating stats.
With a long patch full of data, feedback, and our own experiences climbing the Ranked Ladder, the live team has taken a pass on a large portion of our item roster. Nearly all AP items have received a buff, while many other items are receiving new features to make them more flexible.
Blue Buff and Red Buff have been the powerhouse core items that have enabled some of our most successful carries throughout patch 13.24. We’re lowering their power here and letting the champions they’ve enabled escape nerfs (Ahri being the exception with a small Attack Speed nerf).
Finally, True Damage Emblem has significantly raised the power and desirability of Spatulas—partially leading to the appeal of Open Forting for early priority on Carousel. We’re completely taking away its Bling Bonus of bonus True Damage, but they’ll still benefit from the base trait’s bonus.
Small, like the chances of hitting 10 Spellweaver.
Prismatic traits are super strong and that’s a good thing for how rare they are. That being said, the new Portals make them less rare, so they need to come down in power to compensate. They will still be super strong.
With Country becoming a craftable Emblem, we’re nerfing the Dreadsteed’s (Hecarim) base resistances.
With 8-Bit getting its Gr8-Bit moment, we’re shipping a small compensation nerf to Corki.
Twitch is already finding success in a few narrow Augment dependent comps, so here we’re adjusting him to be more powerful in his more obvious go-to comp, Punk reroll, by improving his AD scaling.
The numbers on this Lulu buff feel so clean, like a money machine.
With more AD from 8-Bit, Caitlyn will still be A-hit.
Someone has to stop Poppy and tell her the name of her ability.