What’s cooking, Tacticians?
Last patch we added the widely desired bonus Hero Augment rerolls and alongside this, we committed to more finely tuned Hero Augment balance. Well, this is the patch folks, so buckle up because we’re tuning dials to adjust over 30 Hero Augments, mostly focusing on making each one viable and fun, but also nudging even the most slightly overpowered Augments into the realm of balance.
We also have new cosmetics! Chibi Ahri makes her debut alongside her high-schooler-with-a-full-time-job counterpart, Chibi Star Guardian Ahri. Be sure to check the two out, but don’t overlook the new Star Guardian themed Furyhorn and Hushtail variants while you’re at it.
Okay, let’s dive into the Cosmetics then see what Mort’s cooking in the balance department.
If Star Guardian Ahri ever met her Chibi, would they be stuck in an infinite loop of irresistible charm? Chibi Star Guardian Ahri comes with her own Star Guardian finisher—it’s more of a colorful transcendence than a finisher—but it’s certain to be the last color your opponents see. The only way to get Chibi Star Guardian Ahri is as a rare drop from her Opulent Jewels.
Her tails are her good luck charm, and her charm is her foe’s bad luck. Unlike her Chibi Star Guardian counterpart, Chibi Ahri will remain available past patch 13.6.
You may still like them when they're angry. Starchaser Furyhorn (Epic), Blazing Star Furyhorn (Epic), Starcrossed Furyhorn (Epic), Dawnstar Furyhorn (Epic), and Star Nemesis Furyhorn (Epic) will be available for direct purchase for 925 RP starting this patch!
Ever since Foxfire Hushtail met Chibi Ahri, accusations of who-stole-whose style have been tearing the Convergence apart. For 925 RP, you can pick up Foxfire Hushtail (Epic) or any of their other variants: Stardust Hushtail (Epic), Cloud Catcher Hushtail (Epic), Lovely Guardian Hushtail (Epic), Star Nemesis Hushtail (Epic)!
While we like the additional guaranteed player damage added in Stages 3+ at the start of Monsters Attack!, if you’re losing fights badly—and I mean really badly—we want to give a bit more cushion to help you survive.
We’re giving Component Anvils more choices to avoid the possibility you’re offered 3 components that just don’t make sense with your comp. Adding one more component option is a WAY bigger change than you might think. It is no longer possible to have all offerings be completely defensive, nor is it possible to get offered all Magic Damage components or Physical Damage components. In other words, you should almost always have a viable path forward with Component Anvils.
Having minions drop gold at the very end of the round has led to situations where you didn’t have the time to buy out your shop, or even pre-level. There’s no reason to have a weird APM (actions per minute) reflex test gating your ability to implement early game tactics.
Large, like Chibi Star Guardian Ahri’s fan base.
A.D.M.I.N. four has suffered across the board, with the exception of the Gold drop effects. By adding a new boost at A.D.M.I.N. four, we’re buffing the trait greatly. To keep the new power ceiling in check, we’ve had to preemptively lower many of the effects. At worst, these changes are neutral, and at best they are a significant buff.
The Gadgeteens recently ran out of springs to use for their Spring Loaded Rapid Firecannon, but it’s for the best as Attack Speed isn’t a super desirable stat for the trait when played vertically. Instead, the crew has concocted a more useful trinket, Gadgeteen Titan’s Resolve, that’s sure to make its way into pockets across the playground.
While we’ve seen many viable comps arise during 13.3, much of the meta has been led by the strength of AD carries in the late game. Our nerfs to Sureshot here are sure to give late game AP comps their shot as well.
With Gangplank being in a fairly strong place, we’re able to remove a part of his ability that rarely does anything aside from complicating his tooltip.
Malphite and Fiora are both underperforming to the point where they cannot be bailed out by their Hero Augments. We’re helping them out here with general buffs, but expect us to also rework their Hero Augments if their performance remains low.
We’re fixing a bug with Jax that impacts the way his spell scales with Ability Power over the course of a fight, and in doing so, giving him a large buff. So as to not return us to the patch before Jaxmas, we’re shipping a sizable preemptive nerf.
Kai’Sa has seen success in replicable reroll comps that use the huge jump in her three-star power to carry themselves through late game. By leveling off the Attack Speed scaling, we lessen the threat (or Threat killing) potential she has in the late game, while giving her a bit more in the early game with a one-star buff.
Our changes to LeBlanc increase her itemless base damage by a small amount, but also increase her damage significantly with additional Ability Power, as each fired Sigil scales with the stat. Maybe you can toss her a rod or two so she’ll stop throwing LeBlanks.
It’s time to scrub the board with a Meteor Shower.
With the exception of Bel’Veth, we’re bringing up the power floor of our four costs with a series of Mayor Pengu approved super buffs.
Both LaserCorps and Duelist are tempo comps, but they struggle to seal the deal in the end game. By buffing Zed, we're hoping he can act as the anchor to the end game of the comps.
Even though he is our designated sad boy, Aphelios shouldn’t have to be blue all the time. We’re shipping a nerf to Infernum alongside buffs to his two other guns to hopefully get Aphelios to a state where each gun selection can be weighted equally.
UwU Crabgot is too cute to be this strong. The value he adds to a comp with huge AoE crowd control gives his allies too much time to sidestep enemy damage. And when you add max Health percentage damage on top of it, you might as well call Urgot a shell corporation with how much value he’s getting away with. By softening his shell, we’re making positioning Urgot in front of huge mobs of enemies a bit more risky.
Hextech Gunblade has been a go-to slam on just about any carry. The Omnivamp value is just too high due to the item healing both the user and the lowest percent Health ally—which effectively doubles the Omnivamp number.
The power of Quicksilver is something that changes greatly with the proliferation of crowd control in a set. Even with the Sejuanis, Rammusias(?), and Urgots of the set, CC is a bit low compared to other sets. How do you plural a Rammus?
Last patch we added four Hero Augments rerolls. We did this for a number of reasons that we thought would make TFT more enjoyable for casual and elite players alike. And without letting this change go too much to Mort’s head—it kinda hit. That being said, in our last patch we also acknowledged that with more autonomy over which Hero Augment you select, Hero Augment balance will become even more important. So with this patch, we’re making large changes to over 30 different Hero Augments with a focus on buffs to ensure each Hero Augment is strong enough, and fun enough to play.
With our 13.3 changes to Gadgeteen, the trait is able to be played as a teen-sized vertical. With that in mind, we’re giving the trait room to grow by adjusting its trait-linked Augments.
We’ve made some Augment movements to our most threshold-y trait, LaserCorps, which jumps significantly in power every time you hit the next trait breakpoint. The power level of the LaserCorps trait-linked Augments should reflect the effect of hitting these breakpoints, so we’ve made the LaserCorps Heart Gold, while removing the Crest entirely.
Small, like the little voice of anxiety telling me that I need Chibi Star Guardian Ahri to be cool at the office.
You may find this section disarming…
Hero Augments, not Heroes Augments.
We've discontinued support for iOS 12 with this patch. Earlier mobile OS versions become increasingly more difficult to support over time, so we’ll occasionally need to increase the minimum OS version requirements to continue playing TFT Mobile.