Most TFT players will agree with lead game designer Stephen “Mortdog” Mortimer that the 10.14 patch threw the metagame for a loop. In an effort to review what went wrong, Mortdog reviewed changes made in the patch via his self titled “Post MORTem review.”
The goal of the Post MORTem is to “look back at some of the changes made and figure out were they good or not,” according to Mortdog. Not all the adjustments in the TFT patch 10.14 were bad, as Mortdog highlighted both the good and the ugly.
“Looking back, some changes may have been too aggressive,” said Mortdog.
Syndra was one of these aggressive mistakes, leading to her hotfix. And Jarvan IV wasn’t an ideal ship either, since he was given a hotfix right after the release of the patch.
Not all four levers pulled on Jarvan IV were bad, but some were unnecessary and others should have not taken place. The health buff, according to Mortdog, didn’t change much. And the attack damage change was likely unnecessary.
The adjustment that threw Jarvan IV was his mana change from 50/100 to 40/80. As a one-cost unit in the trait Protectors, “Jarvan having the better mana was incorrect,” said Mortdog. The other adjustment that shouldn’t have taken place was an increase to his standard attack speed bonus.
An adjustment to Star Guardians was a good move overall, allowing the champions to get played outside of the typical SG comp. But the Neeko adjustment “may have gone too far,” according to Mortdog, creating too much CC. Celestial had decent changes overall, with the exception of a buff for “two Celestial.” The adjustment pumped up other traits using two Celestial, such as Dark Star and Protector.
Changes to champions were mixed in TFT’s Patch 10.14. Some were very healthy for the meta and others, not so much. Mortdog did express that it wasn’t the number of levers pulled on specific champions that threw the meta out of whack. Irelia was a prime example of this, having five changes made and still having room for improvement.
Ashe had a few changes that could have been left out, like her health and Crystal Arrow buffs, and Jhin didn’t necessarily need the extra attack damage. The Rakan buff overall was correct, it was just too much health, And the Ezreal nerf was right, but the mana should have been 40 instead of 30.
Mortdog also went on to say that Neeko boxes and tie-breakers were both solid changes. And that the tie-breaker bug should be resolved with TFT Patch 10.15. Players shouldn’t expect any major changes in the next patch, just minor tweaks to level things out. A full rundown of the MORTem review can be found on Mortdog’s YouTube page.
