League of Legends Patch 9.16 Teamfight Tactics – enter the Hextech ultimatum

Tier 4 Champions

Akali

"Attack Damage: 70 ⇒ 80"

Akali got heavy nerfs in 9.15(b), so getting 10 damage back is probably warranted. That said, she could become OP once again thanks to these buffs and Ninja getting buffed.

Brand

"Ability Damage: 200/375/550 ⇒ 250/450/650 Starting and Total Mana: 0/125 ⇒ 50/150"

I really like this change. Brand should have a massively impactful ultimate, but right now it feels incredibly weak.

Cho’gath

"Ability Damage: 250/500/750 ⇒ 175/350/525"

On the other side, for an ability that has such a massive area, it probably shouldn’t do that much damage.

Tier 5 Champions

Karthus

"Starting and Total Mana: 0/85 ⇒ 40/125"

I don’t think Karthus really needed nerfs, but if they were going to give some to him I’m not opposed to this. Giving him access to his ability earlier will probably help him without making him OP.

Kayle

"Attack Speed: 1.1 ⇒ 1.0"

She’s definitely a good unit right now, so we’ll have to see if the minuscule attack speed nerf does anything.

Miss Fortune

"Health: 650 ⇒ 700 Total Mana: 100 ⇒ 75"

Interesting that they’re giving more health to offset her losing mana. That ult is massively impactful, but I don’t think she needs any more health to offset a nerf that makes her ult up less often.

Items

Hush

"Reworked: Now has a 33% chance on hit to prevent the enemy champion from gaining mana (we’re calling it Mana Lock) for four seconds."

Hush in its previous iteration was basically an item that was never worth buying. This version…it may be worth buying in cases where you have auto-attackers facing heavy ability teams like Sorcerers/Elementalists.

Infinity Edge

"Critical Strike Damage: 150% ⇒ 200%"

Another buff on top of those the item got in Patch 9.14(b). With a few Ninjas and Assassins (namely Zed and Akali) getting buffs it’s possible we see those comps return to Teamfight Tactics.

Ionic Spark

"Damage: 150 ⇒ 125. Now properly stacks."

Now you can stack Ionic Sparks which is pretty nice. Especially on heavy tank teams, stacking Ionic Sparks could be very strong.

Locket of the Iron Solari

"Shield Duration: 4 seconds ⇒ 6 seconds"

Locket’s been lagging since the Patch 9.15 nerfs, so giving it a bit longer duration makes sense. I think it will still be weak until the shield strength gets buffed.

Morellonomicon

"Burn Damage Duration: 5 seconds ⇒ 10 seconds"

Red Buff

"Burn Damage Duration: 5 seconds ⇒ 10 seconds"

I get that Riot wants to normalize the burn duration on these two items, but both of them are in a really good spot right now. Definitely, buy Morellos for AoE abilities and Red Buff on auto-attackers.

Redemption

Heal: 1000 health ⇒ 1500 health

Another underwhelming item that needed a buff. Hopefully, between this and Locket buffs we won’t get a Teamfight Tactics meta where heals and shields keep rounds going for minutes on end.

Statikk Shiv

"Damage and Bounces: 4 bounces, 90 damage per bounce ⇒ 3 bounces, 100 damage per bounce"

Overall this is a nerf to the damage, but I think it’s still going to be a very strong item. Any AoE damage, especially when auto-attackers like Rangers are so strong.

Warmog’s Armor

"Heal: Now heals a maximum of 400 health per tick. This mostly nerfs its effect on PVE dragons."

Not sure how often that interaction comes up, but good to know at least.

Guardian Angel

"Tooltip updated to reflect functionality (does not interrupt abilities or remove positive buffs). It now properly removes Grievous Wounds and resurrects properly."

Kind of a quality of life change, kind of a bug fix. In either case, I don’t expect it to drastically change how strong GA is.

New Drop Mechanic

"In rare instances it’s now possible to drop a full completed item instead of the two components separately."

Well, that’s pretty cool. It does add a lot of RNG to Teamfight Tactics since you can’t disenchant/disassemble items. Less control over how to build items kind of sucks, but it will probably also feel pretty nice in some instances where you outright get the item you wanted or needed.

Patch 9.16 will hit the Teamfight Tactics arena on Wednesday, August 14.