Item-dependency, overpowered comps and champions, bad investments and repetitive games. These are all symptoms of Teamfight Tactics’ main problem: most champions are just synergy fodder.
Before talking about TFT, I’d like to talk about Blizzard’s newest RNG Fiesta™, Hearthstone Battlegrounds. Basically, if you like autobattlers but don’t want to use your brain, this is the perfect game for you.
Other than being able to play in a sleep-deprived state, I like Battlegrounds because every unit has the ability to be, as my new favorite streamer k3sojuu says, “a fucking crank.”
What I mean is, every unit has the ability to singularly carry a composition, regardless of cost. A unit in Battlegrounds can literally get 60 times stronger than its base stats. In TFT, units generally get five times better at most.
What the hell is a three-star Warwick going to do? Now, a Warwick with a 60 times multiplier would actually slap. Obviously, I’d rather have a 15-star Brand, but having the option to all-in any unit is everything.
What would you do if you were offered five Varus’? Okay; now what would you do if you were trying to win?
Exactly, and that’s the point. The options you’re given are largely an illusion.
If I get two rods and a tear, I’m not taking Ashe, no matter how many times she’s offered. Even if I magically got six Ashes, I’m not holding 12 gold on my bench and spending an extra 12 to get a decent three-star unit in my Ocean Mage comp.
There are literally times where I’d rather have a one-star Annie than a three-star Twitch. That’s a problem.
Notice how, according to lolchess.gg, four Rangers are nowhere to be found
Remember Gnar and Sejuani? In pretty much any situation, if you were randomly offered two of either, you could just hold onto them and throw them in level seven or eight. Even if they didn’t give any synergy, putting in random units was good because most were individually strong, regardless of situation. At least the four and five-costs.
But without synergies, most champions feel like jokes. Comparatively, Singed and Zed are really strong stand-alone units that can fit in pretty much any comp. This is viewed as toxic, Singed, get it, because the problem is universality. If every champion is powerful, the problem largely disappears.
Imagine a world where if I randomly get nine Braums, the optimal play isn’t to sell and replace him. A world where mixed comps consistently top two because of good decisions and the top three S-tier comps aren’t forcefully oppressive.
So, what’s the solution?
Well, the main problem is individual units are weak. So Riot tried a really creative solution that I appreciate a lot. They lowered the champions required for synergies, so most synergies require only two or three champions.
This in theory means if I randomly get offered three Ezreals, I can splash either two rangers or glacials in my assassin composition. In practice, this only works for Mystics.
Also, a more minor issue is the champion pool is so small that I can ignore champions and just force an extra good unit at either level eight or nine, but that’ll be solved with releasing new champions.
I’d like to posit a major solution and a few minor ones.
First, let’s go crazy, like really crazy, like golden Lux levels of crazy. Let’s make every three-star unit a crank.
Most three-star units get four to six times the stats. Let’s up that to at least 10 times. When you make a three-star Brand, his bounces go from five at level one to 20. Yorick goes from two targets to 12. Singed’s damage goes from 200 to 2,000.
Let’s do that with every champion.
When I play Ocean Mage, if I’m offered two extra Nautilus’, I rarely take it. It’s generally not worth it to sink, get it, Nautilus, an extra 18 gold to make him level three. Also, I sacrifice a ton of interest doing this. So, it could well-be my three-star Nautilus didn’t cost 27 gold instead of nine, but like 40 gold instead of 11.
And what’s my reward for pretty much giving up level nine on a composition that aggressively levels? A single-target stun that lasts for six seconds instead of three and deals 400 damage instead of 100.
I definitely did not make this on imgflip.com
Let’s crank those numbers up. Why not 1,000 damage? Why not give Nautilus 6,000 health instead of 3,060? It would certainly make Titanic Hydra better, but we’ll get to why items suck later.
Also, why the hell do four-cost units only sell for six gold after investing 12 gold into levelling them? It’s 2019; can I please get a good ROI on my Malphite? Can we at least get 10 gold when we sell a silver four-cost?
Hearthstone Battlegrounds does something really interesting. Aside from doubling the power of any upgraded unit, you automatically receive a minion from one tier higher. In TFT terms, if you upgraded a Janna to level two, you’d get to select one of three, five-cost units for free.
If Riot doesn’t want to do that, can I at least sell my units for a reasonable price? We know how the game works now; there’s no need to further punish and disincentivize us from not playing the perfect eight-champion, S-tier composition.
And what’s the perfect composition without perfect items?
First, let me just say the carousel is the coolest thing an auto-battler has. Don’t @ me.
However, the disparity of items is WAY too high. I’m going to talk about Woodland Sins since that’s the comp I’m most familiar with, but this applies to every composition in set two.
So firstly, there’s items where if you build them, you’re just inting. If you voluntarily build Repeating Crossbow, Quicksilver or Hextech Gunblade in anything above silver, you’re actually a win-trader.
Also, if you play Woodland Sins without your Renekton having exactly PD, Dragon’s Claw and a Giant’s Belt item, you’re a for-fun player. Again, the choices are largely an illusion.
My first recommendation is simple. Lower the base stats for all items. That way, if I don’t get at least three B.F. Swords and Recurve Bows, I don’t automatically bottom eight. Also, this allows me a little more freedom on item and champion choice.
Let’s try the “if everything is weak philosophy,” because attempting to make every item strong clearly hasn’t worked for two sets.
Also, I really, really liked completed items randomly dropping from minions. The problem was they dropped instead of base items. Let’s go crazy on the drop rates. Let’s make every creep round past minions guarantee one completed item on top of the current drop chances.
Let’s spoil players with choices.
Right now TFT is feeling a bit too formulaic. I shouldn’t objectively know what the best choice is at every stage of the game. Or, at least, it shouldn’t be this obvious.
Just go spat 4Head
