League of Legends TFT: Patch 9.22 breakdown for Rise of the Elements

Set 2 and Rise of the Elements is hitting TFT alongside League of Legends Patch 9.22 and we have all the info on what’s changing!

After weeks of teases, previews, and the Invitational Tournament, Set 2 of Teamfight Tactics, Rise of the Elements, is finally here! With the official announcement of League of Legends Patch 9.22, the new era of TFT has finally arrived. If you want to know the biggest changes on a very basic level, you can check out our patch preview here, but if you’re ready let’s dive into a new world of TFT!

Ranked Ladder Changes

"Ranked is off during patch 9.22, it will return with patch 9.23.Placing 4th or better will never deduct LP. Placing 5th or lower will never reward LP.Challenger and Grand Master slots:Korea, Vietnam, China: 300 Challengers, 700 Grand Masters.EU West and North America: 200 Challengers, 500 Grand Masters.All other regions: 50 Challengers, 100 Grand Masters."

The biggest changes here are the reduction in the number of Challenger and GM slots and the fact that you can no longer lose LP when finishing 4th or higher. That was an incredibly annoying and frustrating feature for people in Set 1.

System Changes

"Board size: 3 rows of 7 hexes ⇒ 4 rows of 7 hexes.Player Damage: 3/3/3/4/5/6 ⇒ 2/3/4/5/6/7Summoned units don’t deal player damage by themselves, but they count as as if their Summoner was alive if at least 1 of them survives the round.Level 8 Champion drop chances per Tier level: 15/20/35/22/8 ⇒ 15/20/35/24/6Once you pick up a champion from the carousel, your Little Legend will no longer collide with your opponents."

The board size change is obviously big because it creates more space for you to position units and room for champions to move and not get blocked by their allies. The damage changes should slow the game pace down a bit from live early, but speed it up late.

The Level 8 champion drop chance change is actually pretty big because at that point you’re really only looking to upgrade maybe a 3g or 4g unit and now you’ll actually have a better chance to do so (upgrading a 5g unit is kind of a pipe dream). The unit collision removal on the carousel is a welcome change since it was so annoying to have an enemy block you from getting a unit you wanted when they already had one.

Champion Pool Changes

"Tier 1: 39 ⇒ 29Tier 2: 26 ⇒ 22Tier 3: 18 ⇒ 16Tier 4: 13 ⇒ 12Tier 5: 10"

Smaller champion pools mean that there are less copies of a given unit in the overall pool to choose from. Now, to upgrade a 1 cost unit to 3-stars you’ll need almost 1/3 of the total units in the bag (9/29) to do so. This should make higher-cost units more powerful at the expense of lower-cost units since they can’t be upgraded as easily.

Mana Generation

"1 Star Champions: 6-10 Mana per attack ⇒ 8 Mana per attack2 star champions: 10 Mana per attack3 star champions: 10 Mana per attack ⇒ 12 Mana per attackMana generated from taking damage reduced by 15%."

So 1-star and 3-star champions will generate more mana per attack, making attack speed items even more of a premium in TFT Set 2. The reduction of mana gained from taking damage should also be really bad for champions whose ults have healing in them (drain tanks) and tanks who need to get that critical ult off.

Items

Recipe Changes

"Cursed Blade has been removedNegatron Cloak + Recurve Bow = Ruunan’s HurricaneSpatula + Needlessly Large Rod = Inferno’s CinderSpatula + Tear of the Goddess = Mage’s CapSpatula + Chain Vest = Warden’s MailSpatula + Negatron Cloak = Talisman of LightSpatula + Sparring Gloves = Berserker’s Axe"

All of these new items are building out of Spatula, which means they are simply going to impact the holder’s Class or Origin and not really be built for stats. The big change, though, is the removal of Cursed Blade and replacing it with Ruunan’s Hurricane, which was a fairly underwhelming item in Set 1.

Stat changes

"All Spatula Items: No longer give double statsChain VestArmor: 20 ⇒ 25Negatron CloakMagic Resist: 20 ⇒ 25Recurve BowAttack Speed: 20% ⇒ 15%DeathcapAbility Power: +50% ⇒ +75%Dragon’s ClawMagic Reduction: 75% ⇒ 50%Giant’s Slayer: 5% Max Health True Damage ⇒ 8% Current Health Physical DamageGuardian’s Angel: 500 Health on revive ⇒ 400 Health on reviveHand of JusticeDamage and life on hit: 40% or 40 ⇒ 50% or 50Ionic SparkTrue Damage: 125 ⇒ 100Luden’s EchoDamage: 180 ⇒ 150Luden’s Echo now always goes off once per spell castRunaan’s HurricaneBonus Damage: 75% ⇒ 60%Runaan’s Hurricane now grants one extra bolt per copy on a Champion.Thieves Gloves: Increased Average value of items at Level 8 & 9."

These are way too many items to go over but there are a few things that stand out as being particularly huge.

• Recurve Bow getting 5% attack speed removed right as we said at the top that you would be generating more mana from basic attacking than taking damage. We’ll have to see if that evens out the increased reliance on attack speed.
• Luden’s Echo having one proc per spell cast is great not only from a balancing perspective but just a “feels good to use” stand. This was a pretty underwhelming AP item compared to Morellonomicon and Deathcap so maybe now it’ll actually be in a good spot.
• Dragon’s Claw losing 25% magic damage reduction is huge. We’ll have to keep an eye out and see if Mages go wild on Patch 9.22.
• Giant’s Slayer switching from percent max health true damage to percent current health AD damage really just makes it worse overall on who it’s designed to counter (tanks) but better on life-stealing/healing champions.

Item System

"Uncommon orbs average gold value reduced very slightly.Gold orbs average gold value reduced very slightly.Spatula drop rates reduced.Reduced the chances of getting combined items slightly.Dragons now drop two common orbs in addition to their carried item.Elder Dragon and Rift Herald drop a common and an uncommon orb in addition to their carried item."

The gist is that Riot is reducing the amount of gold you can get for free in TFT, along with the chance that you can get combined items or spatulas. However, to offset that, you will be getting more chances to get those component items later in the game. I think this is a perfectly fair tradeoff because it forces players to play the early game a bit more cautiously (since they’re likely to get a bit less gold from orbs) and not be punished for having one or two random components leftover heading into the late game.

Traits

Elements

These replace the Origins from TFT Set 1, though some of these previous Origins will return in the same form. The Elements are:

• Cloud = All allies gain dodge chance.
• Crystal = Champions cannot take more than a certain amount of damage in a single hit.
• Desert = Reduces enemy armor.
• Glacial = Same as Set 1.
• Inferno = Spells create scorched earth beneath the enemies hit for five seconds, dealing damage.
• Light = Light champions gain attack speed each time an allied Light champion dies.
• Mountain = At the start of combat, a random ally gains a 1500 health shield.
• Ocean = All allies gain mana every 4 seconds.
• Poison = Attacking enemies poisons them, increasing their mana cost by 50%.
• Shadow = Deal increased damage for the first five seconds of combat and after each takedown.
• Steel = Gain invulnerability for a few seconds while taken below 50% health.
• Woodland = Creates a clone of a random Woodland champion at the start of combat.

Classes

Like with Origins, some Classes will be coming into TFT Set 2 in the same state as they were in Set 1. The Classes are:

• Alchemist = Ignores unit collision and never stops moving.
• Assassin = Same as Set 1.
• Avatar = Counts as two units towards trait bonuses.
• Berserker = Leaps to nearest enemy at the start of combat. Has the chance to hit all units in a cone.
• Blademaster = Same as Set 1.
• Druid = Regenerates 40 health per second.
• Mage = Chance to double cast their ability.
• Mystic = All allies gain magic resist.
• Predator = Instantly kills enemies who are below a certain health threshold.
• Ranger = Same as Set 1.
• Summoner = Summoned units have increased health and last longer.
• Warden = Gain increased armor.

Champions

Finally, here is a list of all the champions that are coming to TFT with the Rise of the Elements, along with each of their Elements and Classes.

Tier 1 units

• Ivern (Woodland/Druid)
• Kog’Maw (Poison/Predator)
• Nasus (Light/Warden)
• Zyra (Inferno/Summoner)
• Renekton (Desert/Berserker)
• Ornn (Electric/Warden)
• Warwick (Glacial/Predator)
• Vladimir (Ocean/Mage)
• Taliyah (Mountain/Mage)
• Maokai (Woodland/Druid)

Tier 2 units

• Rek’Sai (Steel/Predator)
• Thresh (Ocean/Warden)
• Jax (Light/Berserker)
• Syndra (Ocean/Mage)
• Yasuo (Cloud/Blademaster)
• Skarner (Crystal/Predator)
• Varus (Inferno/Ranger)
• Volibear (Glacial/Electric/Berserker)
• Braum (Glacial/Warden)
• Diana (Inferno/Assassin)
• Vayne (Light/Ranger)
• Malzahar (Shadow/Summoner)
• Neeko (Woodland/Druid)
• Leblanc (Woodland/Assassin/Mage)

Tier 3 units

• Kindred (Shadow/Infern/Ranger)
• Veigar (Shadow/Mage)
• Sion (Shadow/Berserker)
• Nautilus (Ocean/Warden)
• Aatrox (Light/Blademaster)
• Dr. Mundo (Poison/Berserker)
• Sivir (Desert/Blademaster)
• Azir (Desert/Summoner)
• Ezreal (Glacial/Ranger)
• Soraka (Light/Mystic)
• Qiyana (Assassin)
• Nocturne (Steel/Assassin)

Tier 4 units

• Malphite (Mountain/Warden)
• Twitch (Poison/Ranger)
• Janna (Cloud/Mystic)
• Annie (Inferno/Summoner)
• Brand (Inferno/Mage)
• Yorick (Light/Summoner)
• Olaf (Glacial/Berserker)
• Kha’Zix (Desert/Assassin)
• Ashe (Crystal/Ranger)

Tier 5 units

• Master Yi (Shadow/Mystic/Blademaster)
• Nami (Ocean/Mystic)
• Singed (Poison/Alchemist)
• Taric (Crystal/Warden)
• Zed (Electric/Assassin/Summoner)

Tier 7 units

• Lux (Avatar)