Roles Revamped and Item Changes

We’re changing up Roles in TFT! And some item changes that are coming with it.
Game Updates

ROLES REVAMPED

With the launch of K.O. Coliseum, we are revisiting unit roles and evolving them.

TL;DR: We’re changing how units gain mana depending on their roles. 

The goal here is to create a healthier system that will allow us to design more melee carries, weird but fun units with different types of ultimates and attacks, and an overall more interesting game. This shouldn’t change how you’ve been playing TFT, but will solve for weird edge cases like splash damage granting the enemy carries extra mana. 

But first, as a refresher, what are roles? If you’ve ever right-clicked a unit to check its details, such as Attack Damage and Attack Speed, you’ll also notice a role that currently serves as a way to recommend items for that unit.

But units don’t fit into a one-size-fits-all box. They should do what you expect them to do based on their role in-game. Moving forward, roles will now be defined by the job the unit is expected to fill, and do a bit more than just provide useful item recommendations. This new system will open doors for us in the design space and allow for more interesting melee carries, amongst other things, so be on the lookout with K.O. Coliseum! Without further ado, let’s dive into the changes. 

All units in TFT have roles, each of which is composed of two parts. The first part is damage type. This will help to identify at a glance how units deal damage, and the types of items that can support that. 

Here are the three different damage types: 

  • Attack: Primarily benefits from Attack Damage for their offensive stat.
  • Magic: Primarily benefits from Ability Power for their offensive stat. 
  • Hybrid: Benefits from both Attack Damage and Ability Damage for their offensive stat.

The second part is the team role. This will help determine how champions interact with various gameplay systems. If that sounds complicated, let us explain:

  • Tank: Melee champions that take damage for the team 
    • 5 Mana per attack 
    • Generates Mana from taking damage 
    • More likely to be targeted 

Here is Mundo as a Tank soaking in the damage (and some mana).

  • Fighter: Melee champions that are durable frontline damage dealers 
    • 10 Mana per attack 
    • Has 10% Omnivamp 
  • Assassin: Melee champions that are fragile or mobile damage dealers 
    • 10 Mana per attack 
    • Less likely to be targeted 
  • Marksman: Ranged champions that primarily deal damage by attacking <
    • 10 Mana per attack 

Here we can see Ashe as Marksman, Yasuo as Assassin, and Naafiri as Fighter.

  • Caster: Ranged champions that primarily deal damage by casting 
    • 7 Mana per attack 
    • Generates 2 mana per second 

Lucian, shown here as a Caster.

  • Specialist: Unique champions (like Viktor from Into the Arcane) 
    • Generates resources in a unique way 

And Kayle, as a Specialist, has no mana!

These damage types and team roles will combine to create 18 different roles in TFT. But don’t worry about remembering all of them—you can always inspect a unit to see their role. Despite changing how a unit gains mana, Roles Revamped shouldn’t actually impact your playstyle that much. You’ll still put Tanks in the frontline, trying to soak up enemy abilities, while your backline Casters and Marksmen dish out the damage. It’s worth noting that not all roles will be in every set, especially Hybrids or Specialists. 

One of the most noticeable changes to roles will be the mana changes. We’re moving from the 10 baseline mana per attack, as well as everyone gaining mana for taking damage, for a few reasons. In past sets, some melee fighters could spam abilities and live through 1v9 situations with enough Omnivamp. The old system also made splash damage feel detrimental as it fed mana to the enemy backline. And for Tanks, mana regeneration felt disproportionately weaker with their large mana pool. And for just about everyone that's not a Tank, attack speed was often the best way to generate mana. Red Buff being a better item than Morellonomicon on some Casters feels counterintuitive. 

The goal here is to preserve the natural way for units to generate mana and reward a champion with mana for doing what they’re supposed to be doing. As you play K.O. Coliseum, we simultaneously want this system to be intuitive and natural as you continue to play units across their roles the way you have in the past, while also allowing us to update our items and open up more design space for this set and the future of TFT. Speaking of, let’s check out our updated items!

ITEM CHANGES

If you were around a couple of months ago (no worries if you weren’t), you might’ve seen the previous round of item updates. Need a refresher? You can check it out here.

Following Roles Revamped and the updates to how champions gain mana, we’re updating more items!

TL;DR:

  • Effects that trigger once per combat at a certain health are now referred to as “Lifeline”. This creates a way to summarize these effects in one category and helps to simplify the tooltips at a glance. 
  • Most items that used to provide “mana” now provide “mana regen”. Mana Regen is a healthier stat that we’re introducing through the role revamps. Starting Mana was always awkward and unhealthy, as it put all of its power in accelerating the first cast and then had no other power. 
  • Items that are crafted from components are no longer Unique. Unique items are generally confusing for players and lead to awkward situations when components don't line up well. Moving forward, we’re making sure that stacking multiple of the same item is possible. Whether that’s optimal or not, you get to choose. 

ITEMS 

  • Tear of the Goddess
    • Mana: 15 >>> 0
    • Mana Regen: 0 >>> 1
  • Spear of Shojin
    • Mana: 15 >>> 0
    • Mana Regen: 0 >>> 1
  • Blue Buff (Reworked): Blue Buff has long been an item that has meaningfully restricted design space for champions in TFT, so we’re changing it. Just like Warmog’s, Deathblade, Deathcap, etc, two Tears become “The Mana Generation Item”
    • No longer unique.
    • Mana Regen: 5
    • Attack Damage: 15
    • Ability Power: 15

Here is a video comparing the old Blue Buff and Spear of Shojin from Cyber City with the new version in K.O. Coliseum:

  • Archangel’s Staff
    • Mana: 15 >>> 0
    • Mana Regen: 0 >>> 1
  • Hand of Justice
    • Mana: 15 >>> 0
    • Mana Regen: 0 >>> 1
  • Morellonomicon: For Casters, we’re moving away from attack speed and emphasizing mana regen. This also creates a mana regen item without a Tear.
    • Attack Speed: 10 >>> 0
    • Ability Power: 25 >>> 20
    • Mana Regen: 0 >>> 2
  • Adaptive Helm (Reworked):
    • Mana Regen: 2
    • Magic Resistance: 20
    • Gain 15% additional mana from all sources. The wearer gains a bonus based on their role:
      • Tank/Fighter: Gain 35 Armor and Magic Resistance.
      • All Others: Gain 15 Attack Damage and Ability Power.
  • Protector’s Vow (Reworked):
    • Mana Regen: 1
    • Armor: 25
    • Magic Resistance: 25
    • Start of Combat: Gain 20 Mana.
    • Lifeline: At 40% Health, gain 20 mana and a shield equal to 20% max health.
  • Giant Slayer (Reworked): Extra damage against Tanks has always been the intended goal of Giant Slayer and now we have the system to make it so.
    • Attack Damage: 25 >>> 20%
    • Ability Power: 25 >>> 20%
    • Attack Speed: 25 >>> 20%
    • Damage Amp: 5% >> 10%
    • Gain 15% additional Damage Amp against Tanks.
  • Nashor’s Tooth:
    • AP: 10 >>> 20
    • Attack Speed on Proc: 60% >>> 30%
    • Mana Regen: 0 >>> 2
  • Edge of Night
    • No longer unique.
    • AS: 0 >>> 15%
    • AP: 0 >>> 10
    • Armor: 10 >>> 0
    • Lifeline: At 60% Health, briefly become untargetable and shed negative effects.
  • Titan’s Resolve
    • Bonus Resists at Cap: 20 >>> 15
    • Grants CC Immunity at Stack Cap for the rest of combat
  • Hextech Gunblade
    • Mana Regen: 0 >>> 1

RADIANT ITEMS

  • Radiant Spear of Shojin
    • Mana: 15 >>> 0
    • Mana Regen: 0 >>> 2
  • Radiant Archangel's Staff
    • Mana: 15 >>> 0
    • Mana Regen: 0 >>> 2
  • Radiant Hand of Justice
    • Mana: 15 >>> 0
    • Mana Regen: 0 >>> 2
  • Radiant Morellonomicon
    • Mana: 15 >>> 0
    • Mana Regen: 0 >>> 4
  • Radiant Adaptive Helm
    • Mana: 15 >>> 0
    • Mana Regen: 0 >>> 5
    • Magic Resistance: 25
    • Gain 40% additional mana from all sources. The wearer gains a bonus based on their role:
      • Tank/Fighter: Gain 60 Armor and Magic Resistance
      • All Others: Gain 30 Attack Damage and Ability Power.
  • Radiant Protector’s Vow
    • Mana: 30 >>> 0
    • Mana Regen: 0 >>> 3
    • Armor: 50
    • Magic Resistance: 50
    • Start of Combat: Gain 30 Mana.
    • Lifeline: At 40% Health, gain 40 Mana and a Shield equal to 45% max Health.
  • Radiant Blue Buff
    • Mana: 30 >>> 0
    • Mana Regen: 0 >>> 10
    • Attack Damage: 60
    • Ability Power: 60
  • Radiant Spirit Visage
    • Mana: 15 >>> 0
    • Mana Regen: 0 >>> 2
  • Radiant Giant Slayer
    • Attack Damage: 50
    • Ability Power: 50
    • Attack Speed: 20%
    • Damage Amp: 20
    • Bonus Damage Amp: 20%
    • Gain 25% additional Damage Amp against Tanks.
  • Radiant Nashor’s Tooth
    • Ability Power: 30
    • Base Attack Speed: 20
    • Attack Speed on Proc: 75
    • Mana Regen: 3
  • Radiant Edge of Night
    • No longer unique.
    • Attack Speed: 40%
    • Attack Damage: 25
    • Ability Power: 30
    • Armor: 10 >>> 0
    • Lifeline: At 60% health, briefly become untargetable and shed negative effects.
  • Radiant Titan’s Resolve
    • Bonus Resists at Cap: 50 >>> 40
    • Grants CC Immunity at Stack Cap for the rest of combat

ARTIFACTS

NEW
  • Dawncore
    • Ability Power: 15
    • Attack Damage: 15
    • Starting Mana: 15
    • Mana Regen: 5
    • Reduce the holder's max mana by 10. Subsequent spellcasts reduce max mana by 10%, to a minimum of 15.
CHANGED
  • Blighting Jewel
    • Mana: 15 >>> 0
    • Mana Regen: 0 >>> 2
  • Deathfire Grasp
    • Mana: 15 >>> 0
    • Mana Regen: 0 >>> 2
  • Horizon Focus
    • Mana: 15 >>> 0
    • Mana Regen: 0 >>> 2
  • Innervating Locket
    • Mana: 15 >>> 0
    • Mana Regen: 0 >>> 2
  • Manazane
    • Mana: 15 >>> 0
    • Mana Regen: 0 >>> 2

Numbers are subject to change before live.

All this goes live with K.O. Coliseum on July 29 alongside TFT15.1. Be sure to check it all out then, but if you’re looking to warm up more before your tournament arc begins, be sure to watch our latest Dev Drop here, or check out any of our other articles like Cyber City Learnings or our Gameplay Overview.