League of Legends: Teamfight Tactics Patch 9.20 breakdown – end of Knights?

Traits

Assassin

"3 Assassins: 75% CritDmg & 10% CritChance -> 75% CritDmg & 5% CritChance"

A 5% critical strike chance nerf to the 3 Assassin synergy is quite liberal, basically halving the chance your Assassins will crit. That said, given how strong Assassins and IE are in combination the nerf to this synergy makes sense.

Guardian

"Armor Bonus: 35 -> 45"

Guardians have long been outclassed by Knights in the meta, so giving them 10 bonus armor on their aura is actually quite huge. It also helps that there is a new Guardian (Pantheon) that makes this synergy more attractive.

Gunslinger

"1/2/3 extra shots -> 1/2/4 extra shots"

This is nice for Gunslingers, but the main problem with this synergy is that most of the units in this class – specifically Graves, Tristana, and Gangplank – are just awful. Even the pairing of Jinx and Lucian isn’t particularly strong and I don’t think there is going to be an instance where you want to build more than two in a comp.

Knight

"15/35/65 -> 15/35/60"

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA (inhales deeply) HAHAHAHAHAHA. Yeah, keep rushing Knights. They’re the best tank line in the early and mid game and five damage off their reduction late game probably means nothing (you could just swap two Knights for Guardians maybe).

Wild

"12% AS per stack -> 10% AS per stack"

I don’t think this nerf was necessarily warranted. Wild is strong, sure, but the class isn’t oppressively strong. Still probably worth building Wild/Shapeshifters just because of the innate synergy and the fact that Shapeshifters are still strong overall.

Champions

Aatrox

"Armor: 25 -> 35"

This gives Aatrox the same amount of armor as Jayce and Yasuo, neither of whom are particularly tanky units. This will help Aatrox get to his ability at least once, but I doubt it will do more than that.

Akali

"AS: 0.85 -> 0.8"

Small attack speed nerf doesn’t hurt Akali as much as the Assassin/IE nerfs.

Fiora

"HP: 400 -> 450"

Fiora has been a trash unit for quite some time now and I’m not sure if 50 HP buff will help. Especially considering this will just mean she is tied for the lowest base HP in Teamfight Tactics, rather than the outright holder of that title.

Gangplank

"AD: 55 -> 60"

As I said above, Gangplank is one of the weaker damage dealing units in Teamfight so five base AD is beneficial. However, with 60 AD he now has as much as Jayce and Pyke, neither of whom are as dependent on their base AD levels as GP is. He’s probably still quite weak.

Kai’Sa

"Spell AS: 30%/60%/90% -> 50%/75%/100% Shield: 300/600/900 -> 400/700/1000"

She’s one of the weakest 5g units in TFT, so it makes sense that Riot would give her a hefty buff. However, the fact that she’s getting 20% AS and 100 HP shield at 1-star makes me concerned she could become the premiere Ranger in the game.

Leona

"HP: 750 -> 800"

With the buffs to Guardians Leona is in a prime position to be one of the key late game front line units. An extra 50 HP is just a cherry on top.

Lucian

"Spell: 100/225/350 -> 125/250/375"

You weren’t picking Lucian for his spell’s damage, but for it’s repositioning power and repeated auto-attacks. Luckily Lucian didn’t really need a nerf anyway.

Poppy

"HP: 800 -> 700"

Of all the Knights to target, I’m shocked Riot decided to go for Poppy. Yes, Yordles are still a decent synergy to build into (especially if you’re going Sorcerers) but given how strong the Garens and Dariuses are in Knight comps this is a puzzler.

Volibear

"AS: 0.6 -> 0.65"

Voli is definitely struggling, even as Glacial comps became one of the premiere comps in Teamfight Tactics. A little attack speed should help him out.