League of Legends Teamfight Tactics: Patch 9.21 notes breakdown

Teamfight Tactics Twitch Showdown. League of Legends.

League of Legends. Courtesy of Riot Games. /

Patch 9.21 is the last League of Legends patch of the ranked season and brings plenty of changes to Teamfight Tactics!

Patch 9.21 will close out the ranked season for League of Legends, Teamfight Tactics, and Set 1. With plenty of twists, turns, and that stupid Void/Assassin meta in the rearview mirror, we look to see how the meta will change one last time and hopefully help all you wonderful readers hit your next ranked goal!

Player Damage

"1-Star by Tier: 1/1/2/2/3 ⇒ 1/1/1/2/32-Star by Tier: 2/2/3/4/5 ⇒ 2/2/2/3/43-Star by Tier: 3/4/5/6/8 ⇒ 3/3/3/5/8Base Damage: 1/2/2/3/4/5 ⇒ 3/3/3/4/5/6"

Riot feels that the damage to players in Teamfight Tactics is too low early game, which is why they bumped up the base damage, but too high later in the game, thus decreasing the damage for higher tier/star units. I think both of these changes are reasonable and will make the mid game feel a bit more important. However, I did like the late game pacing where games would end a bit quicker, rather than dragging a game out when units are largely set and you’re rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.

Traits

Guardian

"Bonus Armor: 45 ⇒ 40"

I don’t think Guardian was particularly overwhelming as a defensive class, especially compared to Knights and Brawlers. In any case, they’re somewhat reverting the 9.20 buffs, which will probably push them a bit further out of the meta.

Hextech

"Item Disable duration: 7 seconds ⇒ 5 seconds"

They touched on it in their Teamfight Tactics /dev diary, but Hextech is one of those “random” traits that really feels bad to play against. Having your items disabled with no way to counter it just feels bad to play against. I’m glad they’re reducing the disable duration even further.

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Knight

"Damage blocked: 15/35/60 ⇒ 15/30/60"

This was needed because 4 Knights was a ridiculously strong early game comp. I think it will still be good, but it might be outclassed by Brawlers.

Rangers

"Bonus Attack Speed: 25%/70% ⇒ 40%/70%"

I’m glad that they’re buffing Rangers early game when the units available to build (Vayne, Varus) are quite bad. However, the late game Rangers like Ashe and Kindred are probably still not good enough to justify building late game (though Kai’Sa is).

Sorcerer

"Ability Power: 40%/100%/175% ⇒ 40%/120%/200%"

Sorcerers definitely could use a bit of love, but I don’t think 9 Sorcs are really ever going to be attainable. The 6 Sorcs buff (100% to 120%) is still quite meaningful, but even those six Sorcs comps are pretty limited.

Champions

Lissandra

"Starting/Total Mana: 0/85 ⇒ 0/95"

I really don’t think that 10 mana bump to her ability is incredibly significant, considering most people were going to build Seraph’s on her. Liss is still quite strong, as are Elementalists generally.

Varus

"Attack Damage: 50 ⇒ 60"

As I said above, Rangers are quite weak early so giving Varus a bit extra damage could make them more attractive to build to four. This buff actually gives Varus more base AD than Kai’Sa, so he could become quite strong as a second carry.

Brand

"Pyroclasm bounce range: 2 Hexes ⇒ 3 HexesPyroclasm missile speed: Slower ⇒ Faster"

One of the annoying things about Brand is that his ability bounces quite slowly and often doesn’t seem to be visually impactful. I’m glad that they’re giving it more room to spread and making the missile bounce quicker, even if the numbers are staying the same.

Cho’Gath

"Spell Damage: 175/350/525 ⇒ 200/400/600"

Cho basically only exists to tank damage and throw out that massive AoE spell. His damage is getting buffed 25 at 1-star, 75 at 3-star, which could actually be massive. Brawlers are already in a strong spot, so adding some damage onto an already tanky Cho’Gath could be the strategy to go for in Patch 9.21.

Draven

"Attack Damage: 70 ⇒ 65"

Goodnight sweet prince. The most reliable carry throughout the season, with some of the highest base AD in Teamfight Tactics, Draven is finally taking a hit here in Patch 9.21. I’m not sure if he’ll be completely unviable, but he won’t be the ultra late game guarantee he was.

Pantheon

"Armor: 80 ⇒ 70"

Considering he has 30 more AD than Leona or Braum, it makes sense that Pantheon should have the least armor of the Guardians.

Items

Locket of the Iron Solari

"Duration: 7 seconds ⇒ 8 seconds"

Locket has been underwhelming for a bit now, but giving the duration a 1-second buff probably won’t suddenly make it an A tier item.

Redemption

"Health threshold: 25% ⇒ 30%"

This is actually really nice for Redemption. It felt awful to have your Redemption wearer not get low enough to trigger the heal or die right before the heal procs. Upping the threshold will give the item a lot more utility to get the heal off sooner.

"Repeating Crossbow"

Attack Speed and Crit Chance per stack: 20% ⇒ 30%

This is nice, but this item still has the massive problem of randomness in that a) the wearer needs to die before the items stats start to become worthwhile and b) you have no idea whether it will go to the carry you need before the fight is completely over.

Spear of Shojin

"Mana restoration: 15% ⇒ 18%"

3% buff might not seem meaningful, but considering that Spear is meant to be the mana regen item for champs with a higher mana pool, this Patch 9.21 buff could be sneaky strong. We’ll have to wait and see.

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Trap Claw

"Stun duration: 5 seconds ⇒ 4 seconds"

I’ll be honest, I’ve never seen this item in my games but I get that having the stun be five seconds can be frustrating to play against. Nice to see the disables are being reduced a bit in Patch 9.21.

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