League of Legends: Teamfight Tactics Patch 9.19 breakdown – Sparring Gloves and Kai’Sa hit the arena

Tier 4 champions

Akali

"Attack Speed: 0.7 ⇒ 0.85"

Small buff that could help, especially in combination with the Ninja buffs. Not sure how big it will be but I’m excited to see.

Gnar

"Health: 750 ⇒ 700 Transform Health: 300/600/900 ⇒ 250/450/650"

Gnar is a big reason why Wild + Shapeshifter comps were so strong last patch in Teamfight Tactics. With Shapeshifters also getting nerfed, Gnar is probably going to need to sacrifice some of the damage he could get away with building for defensive items.

Jinx

"Attack Speed: 0.65 ⇒ 0.7"

She went from being a strong late game hyper carry to build around to kind of useless. Gunslingers are still very weak, but maybe Jinx can be slightly better in more situations.

Kindred

"Attack Speed: 0.65 ⇒ 0.7 Ability Duration: 4/5/6 ⇒ 3/4/5"

Kindred’s ult, like the Yordle synergy, is very frustrating to play against. I’m glad Riot decided to nerf the duration, even at the expense of Kindred getting to output a little more damage.

Sejuani

"Health: 850 ⇒ 800 Stun Duration: 2/4/6 ⇒ 2/3.5/5"

The nerfs were justified, and they might seem like overkill given the nerfs Glacials also got. However, she’s also one of the highest-health units in Teamfight Tactics and has the Knight buff as well. She’ll still be a good frontline pick.

Tier 5 champions

Anivia

"Health: 700 ⇒ 750 Attack Speed: 0.6 ⇒ 0.8 Starting/Total Mana: 0/100 ⇒ 50/125 Ability Targeting: Random ⇒ Furthest Target"

The changes to her base health and attack speed are nice, but not game-breaking. However, the changes to her mana, which will make it easy for her to get to that first ult (75 less mana) but harder to get multiple ults without something like Shojin or making her a Sorcerer will be very difficult. I think Anivia will continue to be a sub-optimal pick for a 5g unit.

Miss Fortune

Health: 700 ⇒ 750
Attack Speed: 0.85 ⇒ 0.95
Mana: 0/75 ⇒ 0/150
Ability Damage: 900/1300/1700 ⇒ 1300/2000/2700
Ability Targeting: Current Target ⇒ Furthest Target

They’re making MF much more focused on getting off that powerful ult, which makes sense to me. It’ll be harder for her to get there and I think the lack of emphasis on her autos makes her Gunslinger synergy less useful, but she should be a bit of a better late-game carry if you can give her a way to get that mana quickly.

Swain

"Damage per tick: 50/100/150 ⇒ 40/80/120 Heal per tick: 40/70/100 ⇒ 30/60/90"

Swain is such a great late-game Teamfight Tactics unit, especially since he has three synergies he can work into. While the damage nerf is a little hard (especially at 2 and 3-stars) I definitely think he needs to have the healing reduced.

Yasuo

"Health: 700 ⇒ 750"

Doesn’t really matter, because Yasuo’s big problems are 1) his lackluster ultimate 2) the Exile synergy not feeling very useful and 3) Blademasters just generally sucking.

Items

Dragon’s Claw

"83% Magic Reduction ⇒ 75% Magic Reduction"

Puts the item in line with the Dragon class’s MR, so this makes sense thematically and power-wise.

Frozen Heart

"30% Attack Speed Slow ⇒ 35% Attack Speed Slow"

The anti-Ranger/auto-attacker item definitely needed a good bit of love. 5% might not even be enough.

Infinity Edge

"+200% Critical Damage ⇒ +150% Critical Damage"

Pulling back more power on Assassins by hitting their favorite item.

Rapidfire Cannon

"No longer grants “Your attacks can’t be dodged”"

Yordles all squeal in glee.

Titanic Hydra

"10% Max Health in a splash ⇒ 3% Max Health to target and adjacent enemies behind them."

This I don’t get. Titanic Hydra had the opportunity to be a unique item in Teamfight Tactics that opened up more bruiser-y comps to do enough damage to not need backline DPS. Now, this item is pure trash, don’t buy it.

Zephyr

"Now is a Unique item"

So you can’t have multiple Zephyr’s on one champion because…why would anyone ever want to do that?