Today’s Teamfight Tactics update didn’t just have extensive champion and trait changes, but a bunch of items are also receiving buffs and nerfs to ensure their health in the game.
Items have proven to be especially powerful in the case of high DPS champions such as Aurelion Sol and Draven, since it means that their damage can reach more astronomical heights. Some of the main culprits for their immense damage are being toned down in today’s patch, while other items are being buffed to make them more attractive to pick.
Zeke’s Herald is the first to get taken down a notch since the adjacency criteria for the attack speed steroid it offered made it far too easy to boost multiple champions in your team. Attack speed is quickly emerging to be a dominant stat in Teamfight Tactics and Zeke’s will now only offer a +10 percent boost as opposed to the 20 percent it used.
This should make life much easier for players not centered around high-DPS compositions and means they won’t be shredded within seconds. Rapidfire Cannon received a simple fix with the removal of the triple range.
Spear of Shojin is another problem child because its passive meant that any attack speed-heavy champion could quickly charge up game-changing ultimates. Instead of the 20 percent mana regen per attack, which meant an ability could be firing again in only 5 attacks, the new 15 percent regen per attack (which doesn’t seem too much of a hit) now means that that ability can now only fire in 7 attacks. This offers a larger window for them to be taken out and give other players a chance to take them out before they wipe your entire squad (looking at you Draven).
The rest of the items here will be receiving buffs, with the first to step up and be given power being Guardian Angel. A valuable ability inside regular League, champions using GA in TFT will now receive 500 health upon revive instead 300, meaning they won’t be killed instantly and can contribute to the fight a little more. Ionic Spark, the item that damaged any enemy when they used an ability, now does double the damage and will deal 200 to opponents using abilities. This could open up a counter-strategy to champions such as Aurelion Sol and Garen whose ultimates are their main source of damage. Luden’s Echo also gets its damage doubled to 200 and will see more play now due to the impact 200 splash damage can have.
Moving on to tankier items, Thornmail will now reflect 35 percent of the damage dealt as opposed to 25 percent, and will kill DPS champions much quicker now. Warmog’s Armor gets a 0.5 percent boost to the max health regen it offers and will now heal 3 percent per second.
The buffs to these tank items means that tanks have more options and don’t always have to spec into DPS items to stay relevant. Volibear and Cho’Gath, for example, will use these items well. Overall, these changes mean that no items will be powerhouses when the game releases live tomorrow and are good changes to ensure that the fledgling game remains healthy.
