TFT Patch 10.4 Preview: Proposed Glacial Buff will Melt

The Glacial Origin is getting a big buff in TFT Patch 10.4, but it probably won’t lower the temperature of your games any.

Patch 10.4 looks to have plenty of new bells and whistles to add to TFT, including an updated UI and a buff to the forgotten Glacial Origin. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem that these buffs are going to freeze up the TFT meta. Here’s a look at the potential changes coming in Patch 10.4 and what they could mean (note, these changes are subject to change).

Glacial

"Basic attacks from Glacials have a 25% chance to stun the target for 1.5 seconds and do 50/125/250 bonus magic damage."

Glacials have been in a very rough spot for basically all of Set 2 after being one of the default good comps in Set 1. A big reason for that isn’t that the buff is necessarily weaker, but the fact that the champions in the synergy are just not as good as the ones in Set 1.

Back in Set 1, Glacial was so strong because it had two champions that could very reliably proc the passive with their autos (Ashe and Volibear with what is now the Runaan’s passive). Set 1 Glacials also had multiple champions that did AoE damage and/or had CC baked into their kits (Anivia, Sejuani, Lissandra).

By contrast, Set 2 Glacials have two champions to reliably proc this passive – Ezreal and Olaf – but they are not as good as the Ashe/Voli combo from set one. Olaf is quite strong, even without Runaan’s to spread the Glacial because of his Berserker synergy, but Ezreal has long been one of the weakest Rangers in the meta. In addition, with how his kit and ability compare to Set 1 Ashe, it’s much less effective to build on-hit/attack speed on Ezreal, which makes the Glacial trait worse on him.

Worse yet, Set 2 Glacials have no champions with those big, AoE abilities or other champions that you can rely on as a secondary carry. Back in Set 1, if you got a lot of Tears or Needlessly Large Rods, you could put them on Anivia for a secondary carry, but that no longer exists in Set 2. Without attack speed items, Glacials basically have no utility and that’s why this trait will still be weak even with this buff.

Malphite

"Damage: 150/250/100 ⇒ 150/300/1000"

I had to double-check my sources to make sure this wasn’t an elaborate hoax but, yes, they are buffing Malphite in Patch 10.4. Malphite is, without question, one of the best “versus all” units in TFT, which means that you can basically stick him into any composition so long as it doesn’t mess up your existing synergies. His ult is massively impactful (pun intended) and he has two very solid defensive traits in Mountain and Warden.

Master Yi

"Meditate: Duration of gained attack speed and bonus magic damage increased from 6s to 8s"

Master Yi is also an incredibly powerful unit in TFT with his synergies (particularly having three with one being Shadow) so giving him more buffs is a bit curious to me.

Nami

"Ability damage: 100/200/300 ⇒100/200/1000Ally bonus damage: 25/50/300 ⇒ 50/75/500"

The damage buffs are meaningless because 1) you’re not picking her to be a damage source and 2) you’re never getting a 3-star Nami. The bonus damage for allies “blessed” by her ult is pretty meaningful for one of the strongest Mystics in the game.

Senna

"Ability damage: 50/100/150 ⇒ 100/200/300Duration of on hit buff decreased from 4s to 5sDamage of on-hit buff increased from 15/40/65 to 25/60/100"

Senna’s been struggling for a while now, but this could bring back the Light/Soulbound comp centered around Lucian.

Taliyah

"Duration of stun effect from ability decreased from 2s to 1.5s"

I personally don’t think Taliyah is a massively problematic unit in the current meta, but I know she does get a fair bit of play in higher elos. This nerf is fairly light, but it should be meaningful.

Taric

"Invulnerability duration changed from 3/3/5s to 2.5/2.5/8s"

Like Nami, the buff at 3-stars is irrelevant, so this is a 0.5 second nerf effectively. That’s huge for a champion that has been prominent in the meta, as the Crystal Origin pairing of Taric/Ashe has been massively OP.