TL:DR
- There's a new Galaxy.
- Battlecasts are slightly better.
- Don't ever build Spark.
Game Changing
- A new Galaxy, called The Big Bang, has been released. It basically combines Trade Sector, Super Dense and Treasure Trove into one Galaxy.
- The Big Bang has a 20% chance of occurring and every other Galaxy, including normal games, now has 10% of occurring.
- Dwarf Planet has been removed. I privately said if this was the only change they did, I'd be completely happy with the patch. It slightly nerfs Mech, Gangplank and Jinx. Fantastic work; keep it up!
Major
- Cassiopeia deals 7%, 6.7% and 14.3% more ultimate damage at levels one, two and three. The only thing significant is throwing in a level-one Cass for your fourth Battlecast is noticeably better, especially if you put AP on her. Also, in the very rare situations where you slot her in for a second Mystic temporarily, this may barely tip the scales in your favor when you're running Bard, Cass or something in the early game.
Minor
- Mordekaiser resists 23.5% more magic damage. It's a nice buff to Astro Vanguards I suppose, but this doesn't have much application.
- Ezreal has 10% more attack damage. Great buff as he's generally only used as synergy fodder. It'll slightly nudge Rebels and Brawler Blasters which I spam anyway, so neat!
Insignificant
- I don't know; like the bug fixes or something?
Meta Update
Other than Battlecasts, Rebels and Brawler Blaster getting a really slight buff, I don't think anything's changed.
Due to that, I won't be going over comps, but you can find my previous comps here. (Except never build Spark on them. I'll explain why in a sec.)
However, I would like to go over one thing in particular: Ionic Spark.
After two days of getting shit on, I've come to the conclusion that Spark is the most overrated item in TFT. Let's do some math. Author's note: after doing the math, it's about 1.5 to 2 times worse than I thought.
So firstly, the shock effect. Let's look at the early game when the effect is most impactful. Let's acknowledge that if your tank is in the backline, you've probably already won the round unless it got Blitz hooked. So, this mainly shocks frontline units like Illaoi, Poppy and Graves.
The highest mana of the three is 90 and the lowest MR is 30. That means that after reduced magic resistance, a frontline champion would end up taking about 172 damage. Sounds pretty good, ya?
Well first, that's like 15% of a champ's health, which isn't bad to be fair. But then we look a little closer.
Let's be really generous and say the average frontline champion ults once every three seconds in the early game. That would mean Spark's DPS is about 57. At level one, that means it does 85% more damage than Bramble Vest. At level two it does 32 % more.
Still pretty good, but Bramble gets activated immediately since autos start coming out at the start of the round. That means completely excluding Bramble's AOE damage, it takes Spark about 12 seconds to catch up to Bramble's level-two value.
So, let's grant that Spark, functionally, is a slightly better Bramble Vest in regards to it's shock.
But what about it's MR shred? That's where the item becomes a joke.
Generally Spark has two functions in regards to it's shred: put it on Neeko and let your carries deal extra damage, or put on GP/ Rumble to increase their damage.
In both cases, it's a grief.
The highest magic resistance in the game is 40, and the lowest is 20. So let's do three calculations.
At 20 MR, you go from dealing about 83% damage to a whopping 90% damage. At 40, you go from dealing about 71% damage to a stunning 79% damage. And finally, with 2 Mystics and a base 40 MR champ, you get the highest spike of going from 53% damage to a whole 65% damage.
So, to save time on math, let's charitably say the average damage increase is 10%. You know what does double that? A fucking Rod. Like the tier one item.
Yes, equipping a tier-one item to your carry is twice as strong as Spark; that's how bad the item is.
But Fornari, it increases damage for your whole team; you must be wrong!
Ok buddy. Let's calculate best-case which is Egrils. Let's be very charitable and say there are four DPS champions: Syndra, Xerath, Ahri, and I'll even include Neeko to make you happy.
By the way, I'm ignoring the fact that Syndra doesn't target frontline and half of Ahri's damage is true.
That's still only an extra 40% damage. Do you know what else gives an extra 40% damage? TWO RODS! Like not a Rabadon's, two separate Rods
Spark's most optimal use increases it's estimated value from one Rod to two. Wow.
So in conclusion: never build this item except as a third item on Neeko sometimes maybe.
