Riot Games often steps in to help champions who struggle with the plethora of changes that accompany the start of each season of League of Legends. But in the case of Twisted Fate, some of these adjustments are making this magician’s opponents disappear too quickly.
After years of hiding in obscurity, really only being used by professional players and one-tricks, Twisted Fate once more sits at the top of the League meta—but not just in the mid lane. Following a massive overhaul to the champion’s identity, Twisted Fate has been comfortably reigning over more traditional picks in both the top and bot lanes as well, despite even a few nerfs sliding through.
Riot shocked League players with the addition of AD-centric buffs to Twisted Fate in Patch 14.2, providing the champion with easier access to alternative, off-meta builds. But the sheer amount of damage he now gains while opting for these builds has nearly wiped away his standard AP builds entirely, turning the champion into a pseudo-ADC that not only deals hybrid damage with auto attacks but comes with crowd control and near-whole-map movement.
Luckily for League players, Twisted Fate made his way onto the nerf list with Patch 14.4, though surprisingly it wasn’t his newfound AD success that was targeted. Instead, the bonus AP ratios on both his W and E were slightly decreased, which does impact the champion regardless of what items he has in his arsenal but has done very little to decrease his presence in three separate roles.
As of now, the mid lane is the only position where Twisted Fate continues to shift between AD and AP builds, oftentimes opting for hybrid itemization that can be easily attained through simply farming minions and with his passive. While in the top and bot lanes, Twisted Fate acts similarly—and oftentimes better than—a traditional marksman, opting for items like Kraken Slayer, Statikk Shiv, and Rapid Firecannon to increase the damage and speed of his auto attacks.
He now hovers around a 54-percent win rate in both the top and bot lane with this AD build, while mid lane sits slightly lower at 51 percent, according to OP.GG. These win rates remain on par with where they were when the buffs were launched in Patch 14.2 and do not appear to be decreasing anytime soon. He’s also reemerged in all levels of professional play internationally across these three roles, where he’s likely to remain a strong flex pick for the remainder of the patch.
These discrepancies with Twisted Fate mirror the ongoing conversation regarding Maokai who, despite also being nerfed, remains one of the strongest and highest win rate champions in the game when used as a support. It’s unclear if either of these champions will be targeted with hotfix nerfs to account for their win rates during the Patch 14.4 life cycle, or if Riot will wait to implement more changes in Patch 14.5.
