League of Legends TFT: Patch 9.24 introduces Soulbound champions

Champions

Tier 1

"Ivern Shield Value: 200/350/500 ⇒ 200/300/400"

They’re toning down his scaling shield value to hit the Eggrolling comp, as noted above.

"Maokai Passive Heal: 100/175/250 ⇒ 100/150/200"

Same drill as Ivern, trying to hit that early Woodland snowballing comp.

"Renekton Spell Healing: 150/250/350 ⇒ 150/225/300"

And finally taking a bite out of the Croc but not letting him heal endlessly when he uses a spell. However, with the buff to Berserkers and only losing 50 healing a 3-stars, I think Renekton could still be a very good unit to build around early.

Tier 2

"Neeko Attack Range: 2 ⇒ 3"

Neeko has been the weak point in the Woodland comps and I’m really glad to see she’s gotten some love. However, one Hex of additional range is not that impactful.

"Yasuo Attack Damage: 55 ⇒ 60"

Remember what I said earlier about Cloud/Blademasters being ridiculously good with Yasuo as the centerpiece? Well that’s even stronger now that they’re buffing his AD.

Tier 3

"Aatrox Total Mana: 85 ⇒ 70"

Another Blademaster to go along with Yasuo and he got a buff thanks to his Light synergy being stronger. We could be seeing a Light/Blademaster build on non-Cloud boards with Aatrox as the focal point.

"Sivir Attack Damage: 50 ⇒ 55"

Someone at Riot really wants to play Blademasters in Patch 9.24 because Sivir was a core component of that Cloud/Blademaster comp that was so dominant. Don’t be surprised if she pushes out Yasuo in a Light/Blademaster comp.

"Soraka Attack Range: 2 ⇒ 3 Attack Speed: 0.65 ⇒ 0.7"

I mentioned that Soraka wasn’t really benefitted from the attack speed buffs to the Light Element, so I’m fine with Riot showing her some love here. I still think she’s the weakest of that trait, but who knows how these little changes can affect champions.

Tier 4

"Annie Tibbers Health: 2200 ⇒ 2000 Tibbers Armor: 40 ⇒ 30"

This was definitely needed, as the changes to late game Summoners and Inferno were poised to make Annie an absolute monster. Reducing the health of Tibbers (who was already impossible to kill before Patch 9.24) is needed to keep her from totally swinging the TFT meta.

"Brand Ability Damage: 250/325/400 ⇒ 225/300/600"

This is a straight nerf, as there’s almost no world where you’re going to get a 3-star Brand. I think he’ll still be strong thanks to the Inferno buffs, but I don’t think he’ll be the centerpiece of that comp.

"Malphite Ability Damage: 125/200/275 ⇒ 150/300/1000"

Malphite is a really niche pick right now, since Wardens are so bad. You only really pick him on Mountain boards and you’re not really picking him for his ult. That said, adding 100 damage to his ult at 2-stars could incentivize building more damage on him (I won’t even get into his 1000 damage at 3-stars since no one will ever see that and if you do you’ll be dead when he ults).

"Yorick Ghoul Health: 600/1000/1400 ⇒ 600/1000/2000"

Yeah Yorick’s a pretty bad Summoner and he’s not going to get much help from those Light buffs. Unfortunately, only getting buffed at 3-stars is basically meaningless.

Tier 5

"Taric Total Mana: 150 ⇒ 125"

For such a high-impact ult, there are too many times when Taric just never gets it off, so I’m fine with them reducing the total mana. Crystals and Wardens aren’t really central comps to build around anyway, so Taric is still only getting picked in niche situations (for instance in an Ashe-centric comp).

"Singed Ability Damage: 200/400/2000 ⇒150/300/2000"

Poison/Predator was incredibly strong in TFT Patch 9.23 (can’t believe they didn’t nerf Kog’Maw at all) and getting a Singed in the late game was definitely the crowning piece. I wholeheartedly agree that he needed nerfs on his ability, since it would crop-dust the entire team.

"Lux Tier Total Mana: 85 ⇒ 80 Ability Damage: 500/800/9999 ⇒ 600/900/9999"

Riot wants to make Lux a champion that fits into any comp, or at least makes you reconsider your comp. The problem is, that she shows up so far into the game that you’re not going to swing your comp to accommodate her and you might not have room on the board to fit her.

Items

"Reduced the likelihood of class items appearing on Dragon."

Nothing feels worse than seeing the Dragon will give you a Blade of the Ruined King when you’re building a full Mage comp.

"Re-enabled a bunch of items to drop from Dragons/Rift Herald again. Now only Thieves Gloves, Force of Nature, and Titanic Hydra will not drop."

Not sure why Titanic Hydra fits in this group, but otherwise that makes sense.

"Phantom Dancer Now only negates the bonus damage from critical strikes, rather than dodging the entire attack. This change will not be reflected in the PD tooltip until patch 10.1."

PD was a ridiculously strong item and countered a lot of Assassins, so it’s good that they’re taking out the complete dodge mechanic (there’s already enough dodges in TFT as it is).

"Giant Slayer Damage: 8% ⇒ 9%"

I think Giant Slayer is actually a super-undervalued item. The problem is that it requires two components (BF Sword and Recurve Bow) that you will almost always be combining into something better (like a GA or Shiv).

Let us know which comps you think will dominate TFT in the comments! Stay tuned for our last TFT tier list of the year this week!