The new patch 9.18 for Teamfight Tactics is here and it brings some changes. In addition to a revision of the item distribution, the biggest problem of LoL Auto Chess, some surprising changes have also been made.
What are the highlights of the patch? In TFT, you can now obtain not only items and gold but also champions and the new item Neeko’s Help from the chests of NPC opponents.
Through the revision and the addition of more content, the randomness factor is intended to be slightly reduced and the game as a whole should be fairer. All players should receive roughly equal amounts of chests and item components.
The unfair distribution of items has been identified by players as the biggest problem of Teamfight Tactics and has been criticized for a long time.
The introduction of the new base item Combat Gloves, which was initially announced for patch 9.18, is delayed by two weeks.
What changes surprised the players? With patch 9.18, the distribution of champions and the experience required for higher levels were also adjusted. These changes were somewhat surprising because they, unlike some buffs and nerfs, were not presented in advance.
The reason for the changes to experience is said to be the revision of the item distribution, as there is now a bit more gold in the game. The new levels are as follows:
- Level 5: 10 EXP ⇒ 12 EXP
- Level 6: 18 EXP ⇒ 20 EXP
- Level 7: 30 EXP ⇒ 32 EXP
- Level 8: 46 EXP ⇒ 50 EXP
- Level 9: 64 EXP ⇒ 70 EXP
Additionally, there were slight adjustments in the champion distribution:
- At level 3, you will now more often find 1-gold champions
- At level 5, the chance for 4-gold champions has increased by 2%
- At level 6, there are no longer 5-gold champions
- At level 9, the chance for 5-gold champions is now 2% higher
- Of the 3-gold champions, there are now only 18 instead of 21 in the champion pool
Buffs for Beasts and Knights
What classes and origins were changed in the patch? Overall, the balance changes in patch 9.18 were relatively small. The beasts (Wild) benefit the most, as they now have a new effect that prevents attacks from being dodged:
- Beast (4): All your allies gain 12% attack speed per attack (up to 5 stacks) AND their normal attacks cannot be dodged.
Further buffs were given to Elementalists and Knights:
- Elementalist Golem – Armor: 20 ⇒ 40
- Knight – Damage reduction: 15/30/55 ⇒ 15/35/65
- Assassin – Jump delay: 0.325 seconds ⇒ 0.395 seconds
Nerfs for Evelynn and Pantheon
Which champions were strengthened? The biggest buff from patch 9.18 goes to Twisted Fate. He now has more health and distributes more mana with the blue card.
But other champs also benefited from the patch:
- Camille – Attack damage: 50 ⇒ 55
- Elise – Attack damage of spiders: 50 ⇒ 60
- Graves – Armor: 20 ⇒ 30
- Katarina – Mana: 0/100 ⇒ 0/85
- Akali – Ability damage: 150/275/400 ⇒ 200/350/500
- Anivia – Ability duration: 800 damage over 8 seconds ⇒ 800 damage over 6 seconds
Which champions were weakened? The nerfs mainly targeted Evelynn, who had a good grip on the meta of patch 9.17. The execution threshold was reduced from 65% to 50%, and the multiplier was also weakened from 3/5/7 to 3/4/5.
Further nerfs primarily hit the champion Pantheon, who was introduced with patch 9.17, and the Void creatures:
- Kassadin – Attack damage: 55 ⇒ 50
- Kha’Zix – Base/total mana: 0/50 ⇒ 0/65
- Pyke – Base mana: 75 ⇒ 50
- Pantheon – Health: 1,000 ⇒ 850
- Pantheon – Attack damage: 80 ⇒ 75
Another buff for the Amulet of the Iron Solari
What changed regarding the items? A surprising nerf with patch 9.18 occurred on the base item Giant’s Sword. The damage was reduced from 20 to 15.
Otherwise, there were buffs for four items:
- Frozen Heart – Duration of the debuff: 2.875 seconds ⇒ 4 seconds
- Amulet of the Iron Solari – Shield strength: 250 for 6 seconds ⇒ 300 for 7 seconds
- Bladebreaker – Chance to disarm: 25 % chance to disarm for 4 seconds ⇒ 33 % chance to disarm for 3 seconds
- Zephyr – Banish duration: 5 seconds ⇒ 6 seconds
What else changed? In the official patch notes, you will find a large number of bug fixes, mainly concerning Camille and Luden’s Echo.
Additionally, there is now a note in the game about items that are not stackable on a champion.
The last change concerns the music of the game. New soundtracks have been added that adapt to the respective phase of the game.
How is TFT doing in general and what about its competitor Dota Underlords? We took a closer look:
