Teamfight Tactics patch 16.2

OPENING ENCOUNTERS

As a reminder, patches usually go live early Wednesday morning (or is it Gwensday), but this one will be hitting live Thursday!

---

• newGwen (6% chance to appear): After the first 3 Carousels, Gwen gifts players a random component and a pair of scissors that cut items into components
• Draven chance to appear: 6.2% ⇒ 5%
• Lissandra chance to appear: 7.2% ⇒ 6%
• Teemo chance to appear: 5.2% ⇒ 4%
• All other Opening Encounters will be going down by 0.2% to make room for Gwen

Large, like the Ixtal Sunshards I never cashed out.

---

TRAITS

Bilgewater is in a pretty good spot when the seas are calm, you’ve locked in early, and you’e capitalized on plundering the strongest items and units from the Black Market, but the seas aren’t always calm, and the disparity between the trait’s strongest units/items and weakest are enough to capsize many-a-lost ship. We’re hitting the most powerful items which alongside a nerf to Graves (who’s performing very well at high ranks) should keep Bilgewater’s high tide in check, but don’t hit the deck in despair. We’re righting the comp’s course with substantial buffs to both Twisted Fate and Miss Fortune later on.

While the Path of Prosperous can rebuild the Placidium with gold, other paths wander astray, oftentimes being too difficult to build around than they are worth. We’re leveling out these trails with buffs for the Path of Transcendence and Spirits, while the Prosperous will have to pay a tax in reduced stats (but no change in gold drop chance).

At the highest level of play, a few dominant Ixtal strategies have emerged. We’re looking to once again even the trait out by making one of the hardest quests a bit easier, while nerfing the 550 cashout, which was far above the greatest value for the Sunshards.

As our greedier tank trait that doesn’t provide the same team-wide benefit as Defender or Bruiser, while not being as strong as Warden, Juggernaut (6) could be a bit more durable.

Barring rare exceptions (Noxus 3 early is strong and Silco’s Revenge), Noxus and Zaun have been two regions that have had little success with our opening patch. We’re giving both considerable buffs, especially at later break points to get them back on the map.

• Bilgewater (Black Market item) Captain’s Brew Debuff Duration: 3s ⇒ 2s
• Bilgewater (Black Market item) Captain’s Brew AD/AP: 15% ⇒ 10%
• Bilgewater (Black Market item) Dead Man’s Dagger On-Kill Stats: 15 AD/AP ⇒ 10 AD/AP
• Ionia Path of Prosperous Base Stats: 18/30/40 AD/AP ⇒ 10/25/40 AD/AP
• Ionia Path of Transcendence 3* Bonus: 50% ⇒ 100%
• Ionia Path of Transcendence Magic Damage: 22/28/33/70% ⇒ 20/25/30/70%
• Ionia Path of Spirits AD/AP Per Cast: 4/4/4/7 ⇒ 3/4/5/7
• Ionia Path of Spirits HP%: 20/25/35/75% ⇒ 25/30/35/75%
• Ixtal Quest Adjusted: Lose 10 combats in a row: 550 Sunshards ⇒ 500 Sunshards
• Ixtal Quest Adjusted: Play 3 Ixtal: 17 rounds ⇒ 13 rounds
• Ixtal 550 Cashout Reward: 7x Lesser Duplicators/Tactician’s Crown/2x Greater Duplicator ⇒ 7x Lesser Duplicators/Tactician’s Crown/1x Completed Item Anvil
• Ixtal Adjusted Quests: Lose 10 combats in a row: 550 Shards ⇒ 500 Shards, Play 3 Ixtal: 3 Ixtal for 17 rounds ⇒ Play Ixtal for 13 rounds
• Juggernaut (6) Damage Reduction: 25-33% ⇒ 26-36%
• Noxus Atakhan Omnivamp: 20% ⇒ 30%
• Noxus (5) Noxus Health Multiplier: Stage 4/5/6: 3.75x/4.5x/5.5x ⇒ 4.5/5.25x/6.5x
• Noxus (7) Health Multiplier: Stage 4/5/6: 5x/6.5x/8.7x ⇒ 5.75x/7.25x/9.25x
• Piltover Electrical Overload Damage: 100 + 10% ⇒ 50 + 10%
• Shadow Isles AD/AP: 18/20/22/25% ⇒ 18/20/25/33%
• Zaun Durability: 10% ⇒ 15%
• Zaun (5) Heal: 25% max health ⇒ 30% max health

---

UNITS: TIER 2

Bard as a carry is not as strong as using him as an econ-generator for loss streaking. We are happy that he is seeing time on the board, but the Bard fan in us is saddened that he’s typically sold off before his reroll dreams come to fruition. A small nerf for the rerolls in Stage 3 and 4 and a buff to his ability damage (which is further amplified by three-stars) should open up this comp and bring the struggling reroll Bruiser/Bard (or other variations yet to be discovered) back into the meta.

Some couples are carried by just one partner, but on TFT we’re all about reciprocal relationships full of support and a healthy balance of trading items with the Teamwork Cannon. With 16.2, we’re taking a couple of couples to couple therapy, at times, rebalancing their roles and at other times just nerfing Tryndamere. With high-damage and Durability Tryndamere just needed CC Immunity to become an unstoppable stacking stat-check machine. We’re bringing down a few components of his kit, that should result in a large nerf to the unit.

We really want reroll Yordle to be a thing—and it almost is—it’s so close! With a quick Teemo three-star buff, and a buff later on to Ziggs, we think our Yordle fans will have something to celebrate in this patch.

• Bard Rerolls on loss: 1/2/3/3/3 ⇒ 1/1/2/3/3
• Bard Spell Damage: 115/155/220 ⇒ 120/170/240
• Graves Health: 750 ⇒ 700
• Graves Base AD: 55 ⇒ 50
• Teemo Primary Spell Damage: 130/200/300 AP ⇒ 130/200/330 AP
• Teemo DoT Damage: 35/55/85 AP ⇒ 35/55/100 AP
• Tryndamere Spell Base Durability: 25% ⇒ 15%
• Tryndamere Spell Damage: 120/180/270 AD ⇒ 100/150/225 AD
• Tryndamere’s Ashe Passive Increased Move Speed: 250 ⇒ 100
• Twisted Fate Passive Damage: 40/60/90 AP ⇒ 50/75/115 AP

---

UNITS: TIER 3

It may be the League of Draven, but it’s not Dravenfight Tactics. We’re significantly lowering the damage on Draven’s empowered axes, but we’re buffing his base AD to even things out a tad (this will still be an overall nerf for Draven). This allows us a bit more power-budget for some brotherly love, giving Darius a decent sized buff through Mana and heal on his ability. The goal here is to open up Darius as an itemizable tank that can still contribute to stacking Adoration for Draven. It also opens up more room for a LeBlanc buff, allowing us to ensure each Noxian is worth fielding.

Kobuko was healing for double his intended amount at the end of his ability, but despite that he was still pretty balanced. We’re fixing this bugfix with a near power-neutral change. We didn’t simply double the heal of the ability, because the bug happened at the end of his cast, where he could die before the full benefit.

We’ve completely rescripted Jinx’s ability to be (hopefully) bug-proof in the future. But even with her ability now correctly firing on all cylinders/bullets/rockets, she could still use a buff to keep her shooting faster, with a little bit of energy! P.S. Those are the lyrics to Get Jinxed which is definitely NOT 12 years old now…

• Darius Mana: 15/75 ⇒ 20/65
• Darius Max HP Heal: 10% ⇒ 15%
• Draven Base AD: 45 ⇒ 50
• Draven Spell Damage: 140/210/350 AD ⇒ 120/170/290 AD
• Kobuko Bugfix: No longer incorrectly heals again for the full amount at the end of his spell
• Kobuko Heal: 100/140/200 AP + 8% Max Health ⇒ 180/240/300 AP + 12% Max Health
• Jinx Spell has been completely rewritten, fixing bugs where Jinx would not attack or sometimes lose damage.
• Jinx Spell Damage: 42/63/110 AD ⇒ 65/100/155 AD
• LeBlanc Spell Damage: 270/405/620 AP ⇒ 300/450/700 AP
• LeBlanc Secondary Damage: 150/225/350 AP ⇒ 180/270/450 AP

---

UNITS: TIER 4

Diana’s Bloodthirster, Rageblade, Titan’s build had her surviving with infinite casts and shields, while dealing a whole lot of unintended physical damage as fights went on. We’re nerfing her base AD and shield, in the hopes that this evens out her build paths to be more in line with her AP form.

While AP Kai’Sa has found success, her AD form has been lost to the void. A small damage boost should help.

Along with a buff to the Shadow Isles trait, we’re also giving Kalista a small buff to have her casting a bit faster, and be less dependent on Spear of Shojin to get there. She’ll also be hitting more targets, but with an unchanged total damage, allowing her to proc more utility effects like Burn/Sunder.

We’re giving Singed a small buff and adjusting his role to signal that you should be playing this guy as a utility tank (Shred/Burn/Wound, heck maybe an Evenshroud to help your newly buffed Jinx pop off) more than a damage carry.

Yunara has been the most dominant 4-cost for our winter-break patch. We’re lowering her damage a tad, but especially hitting her access to backlines. Combined with adjustments to Kraken’s Fury (see below), she should fall in line among the other AD 4-costs.

• Ambessa Slam Damage: 275% of initial ⇒ 315% of initial
• Diana Base AD: 45 ⇒ 35
• Diana Shield: 200/250/300 AP ⇒ 80/100/300 AP
• Kai’sa AD Form Spell Damage: 38/57/135 AD ⇒ 42/63/150 AD
• Kalista AS: 0.8 ⇒ 0.85
• Kalista Mana: 20/70 ⇒ 20/65
• Kalista Number of Targets: 3 ⇒ 4 (total damage unchanged, 50% of spears still go to the primary target)
• Miss Fortune Base Spell Damage: 130/200/3000 AD ⇒ 145/220/3000 AD
• Seraphine Damage Per Crystal: 25/40/200 AP ⇒ 35/55/300 AP
• Seraphine Heal: 60/90/400 AP ⇒ 40/80/400 AP
• Singed Role: Magic Fighter ⇒ Magic Tank
• Singed Movespeed: 200 ⇒ 425 (Fighters gain increased Move Speed)
• Singed Mana Per Second: 10 ⇒ 5
• Singed Heal: 12/65 AP ⇒ 15/80 AP
• Skarner Stun Duration: 2/2.25/8s ⇒ 1.5/1.75/8s
• Yunara Spell Damage: 85/130/450 AD ⇒ 80/120/425 AD
• Yunara Reduction Per Enemy: 70% ⇒ 75%
• Veigar Spell Damage: 66/99/199 AP ⇒ 62/93/199

---

UNITS: TIER 5

For how hard he is to unlock, Aurelion Sol isn’t able to have the impact we’d expect from a star crashing dragon.

Ah T-Hex. We’ve got a series of large nerfs for the apex-predator of the patch, from cutting the caster Mana regen to less than half for those three-star Caitlyns, to lowering the shield and damage and finally increasing the rate it falls off (less bursty to backliners). We really do not want a 1-star T-Hex one-shotting backliners.

While T-Hex has certainly taken over the meta, a few other Legendary units are also outperforming their peers. We’ve got nerfs for Kindred, Lucian & Senna, and Baron Nashor to preemptively open up more late-game options in a meta where a dino-bot is the ruling tyrant!

• Aurelion Sol Spell Damage: 350/615 AP ⇒ 450/800 AP
• Baron Nashor Acid Glob Damage: 50% of base damage ⇒ 40/45/50% of base damage
• Kindred Passive Damage: 350% AD ⇒ 300% AD
• Kindred Spell Duration: 2.5s ⇒ 2s
• Senna & Lucian Black Mist Duration: 15s ⇒ 8s
• T-Hex Caster Stats: 3/6/12 Mana Regen ⇒ 2/4/5 Mana Regen
• T-Hex Shield: 20% Max Health ⇒ 10% Max Health
• T-Hex Spell Damage: 135/240 AD ⇒ 125/200
• T-Hex Falloff per Target: 18% (max 55%) ⇒ 25% (max 75%)
• Ziggs AS: 0.85 ⇒ 0.9
• Ziggs Mana: 0/160 ⇒ 0/140
• Ziggs Passive Damage: 30/50 AP ⇒ 45/80 AP

---

CORE ITEMS

Part of the AD dominant meta is due to the power of Kraken’s Fury. With that a bit less furious (and the rest of the patch’s balance changes) we expect to see more AP lines emerge.

• Kraken’s Fury AS at max Stacks: 30% ⇒ 15%

---

EMBLEMS

You ever get last pick on the Carousel and only have a choice between a Spatula and a Pan? That should be a special moment, being in first place and still getting a golden cooking utensil, but instead, it’s just become a moment of just holding and hoping for another to make a Tactician’s item, rather than an Emblem. The power of Emblems has long been tied to the power of verticals, but with Lore & Legends, individual units and flexible trait splashing reigns supreme—and this is good as it is what makes the set so flexible. So, to maintain our set’s flexibility, we’re buffing the Emblem items to be at roughly 3 components of power (still weaker than Core Items). This should create interesting use-cases where these Emblems are good slams on secondary (or more likely tertiary) carries, with more stats that can amplify other bonuses the unit may have from their traits/other items.

For readability, we’ll go through Origin Emblems first (which are receiving bigger buffs on average) and Class Emblems second.

• Bilgewater Emblem Stats: 1 Mana Regen ⇒ 2 Mana Regen + 10 AD + 10 AP
• Demacia Emblem Stats: 20 Armor ⇒ 25 Armor + 25 MR + 3 Mana Regen
• Freljord Emblem Stats: 150 Health ⇒ 400 Health
• Ionia Emblem Stats: 10 AP ⇒ 25 AP + 25 AD
• Ixtal Emblem Stats: 150 HP ⇒ 250 HP
• Noxus Emblem Stats: 10 AD ⇒ 25 AP + 25 AD
• Void Emblem Stats: 10% AS ⇒ 20% AS + 10 AD + 10 AP
• Yordle Emblem Stats: 20 MR ⇒ 30 MR + 30 Armor + 20 AD + 20 AP
• Zaun Emblem Stats: 20% Crit Chance >> 20% Crit Chance + 350 Health
• Arcanist Emblem AP: 10 ⇒ 25
• Arcanist Emblem Mana on Kill: 15% of max Mana ⇒ 20% of max Mana
• Bruiser Emblem Health: 150 ⇒ 250
• Defender Emblem Stats: 20 Armor >> 30 Armor/MR
• Disruptor Emblem Stats: 150 Health ⇒ 150 Health + 20% AS
• Juggernaut Emblem Stats: 20 Magic Resist ⇒ 30 Armor/MR
• Gunslinger Emblem Stats: 150 Health ⇒ 150 Health + 20 AD
• Quickstriker Emblem AS: 10% ⇒ 25%
• Quickstriker Emblem Heal: 10% ⇒ 15%
• Invoker Emblem Mana Regen: 1 ⇒ 3
• Longshot Emblem Stats: +1 Range ⇒ +1 Range + 20% AS
• Slayer Emblem AD: 10% ⇒ 20%
• Slayer Emblem Shield: 15% ⇒ 30%
• Vanquisher Emblem Stats: 20% Crit ⇒ 20% Crit + 15 AD + 15 AP
• Vanquisher Emblem Gold Chance: 2% ⇒ 3%
• Warden Emblem Health: 150 ⇒ 250

---

ARTIFACTS

Overall, we’re taking a balance pass to make sure our new Artifacts are on par with the rest of their roster.

Buffing our Aegises (Aegisies? Aegezzus? Aegusie?) to tick faster, stealing more resistances over time, with a slight decrease in the multiplier for their combo which will keep the combo power-neutral despite the individual Aegissesess (certainly the correct spelling) being stronger.

Darkin Scythe Yasuo has swept through backlines and LP alike, as the slash has been bugged to apply critical strike/on-hit effects. A quick bugfix here will keep the item functioning as intended and allow for us to buff Ionia without taking a strong use-case into completely over-powered territory.

• Aegis of Dawn Steal armor every 3 seconds ⇒ 2.5 seconds
• Aegis of Dawn activates every 1.5s with Aegis of Dusk equipped ⇒ 1.25s with Aegis of Dusk equipped
• Aegis of Dusk Steal MR every 3 seconds ⇒ 2.5 seconds
• Aegis of Dusk activates every 1.5s with Aegis of Dawn equipped ⇒ 1.25s with Aegis of Dawn equipped
• Cappa Juice Base AD/AP: 20 ⇒ 25
• Cappa Juice Scaling AD/AP: 0.8% ⇒ 1%
• Darkin Scythe Slash can no longer Critically Strike or apply On-Hit effects
• Void Gauntlet Store 25% max health and 2% more every second ⇒ Store 30% max health and 2.5% more every second

---

RADIANT ITEMS

All buffs to our underperforming Radiant Items, except for Kraken’s Fury, which is being nerfed to be in-line with the nerfs to its core form. This is a follow-up on our Radiant Item overhaul that we did at the start of the set where we changed the roster to be about two times their core versions power.

• Radiant Adaptive Helm Gain 90 Armor/MR ⇒ Gain 100 armor/mr
• Radiant Adaptive Helm Gain 20% AD and AP ⇒ gain 25% AD and AP
• Radiant Dragon Claw 18% max health ⇒ 22% max health
• Radiant Kraken’s Fury AS at max Stacks: 60% ⇒ 30%
• Radiant Spirit Visage 600 HP ⇒ 700 HP
• Radiant Steadfast Heart 500 HP ⇒ 600 HP
• Radiant Gargoyle Stoneplate 20 Armor/MR ⇒ 25 Armor/MR
• Radiant Gargoyle Stoneplate 200 HP ⇒ 300 HP
• Radiant Warmog’s Armor 1000 HP ⇒ 1200 HP
• Radiant Warmog’s Armor 30% max health ⇒ 33% max health

---

AUGMENTS

We’re temporarily removing our Prismatic Axiom-based Augment that just couldn’t keep up with Augments on its tier, as we rework it for a return in patch 16.3. The Silver versions are pretty close (and fun), so we’re keeping them with a nice positioning buff!

We’re also removing Growth Mindset and Hexgate Travel, two Augments that produced unhealthy design outcomes. Growth Mindset required unintuitive and unhealthy econing by holding gold until stage 4-2, where you’d hope to hit the Augment and then power level, while Hexgate Travel made it too easy to access T-Hex and boost him with a three-star unit.

Finally, as we’re buffing our Emblems, the World Runes is getting quite a large indirect buff. We’re preemptively lowering the cashout for the Augment as it will have a lot more combat power.

• Axiomata has been temporarily removed
• Axiom Augments backline hexes will now always appear in a corner hex
• Bandle Bounty Gold Per Yordle: 3 ⇒ 2
• Bandle Bounty II Gold Per Yordle: 5 ⇒ 4
• Birthday Reunion Thief’s Gloves Requirement: Level 6 ⇒ Level 7
• Bronze For Life now grants 4 Armor & Magic Resist per trait instead of 2% Durability
• Growth Mindset has been Removed
• Hexgate Travel has been Removed
• Silco's Revenge Augment Max Health Damage: 40% ⇒ 30%
• Soul Awakening Bonus True Damage: 15% ⇒ 12%
• Trials of Twilight now grants 2 copies of Xin Zhao immediately instead of 1.
• The World Runes Cashout Gold: 40g ⇒ 30g

Small, like little Yordles.

---

AUGMENTS

• Evolve and Overcome now displays total XP earned in its tooltip
• Infinity Protection has had its tooltip improved
• Late Game Scaling tooltip now specifies that it only counts player combats
• Slice of Life has had its tooltip improved
• Two Much Value tooltip now specifies that it only counts player combats

• Jinx’s script has been rewritten from scratch and should no longer stop attacking in edge cases
• Veigar’s increased AP passive and Blue Buff properly interact now
• Icon flexing: Flexible is now using the correct augment icon
• Warlord’s Honor’s stack counter visual effects are now properly removed when a champion is benched
• Hustler is now properly excluded from Hedge Fund and Invested
• If the player has Component Buffet, Min-Max now grants component anvils instead of random components
• Thorn-Plated Armor now correctly increases Bramble Vest’s damage in Stage 3
• Fixed an issue where Radiant Ionic Spark was doing more damage than intended if a unit was holding more than one Radiant Ionic Spark and the player had the High Voltage Augment. This did not affect regular Ionic Sparks
• Low Aura: If a player surrenders with the Aura Farming champion still locked, it now removes itself from the board and returns to the champion pool
• Veigar, Miss Fortune, and Aurelion Sol’s ability will no longer miss if enemies move more than 1-hex away from the epicenter before the spell lands
• Fixed a bug where T-Hex targeting was inconsistent
• T-Hex no longer fails to absorb his pilot under rare circumstances
• Quickstrikers no longer acquire targeting before other units at combat start
• Construct a Companion no longer fails if the player has 2 copies of the unit on the rightmost slots of their bench
• Hextech Gunblade no longer breaks Fizz's empowered auto attacks
• Brotherly love: Yone can no longer revive Yasuo under rare circumstances
• Sylas’ ability logic improved to more likely use Garen’s spell when 1 unit is alive.
• Fiddlesticks walking logic improved to better hit more enemies on average
• Ixtal Quest timing properly checks at the end of the combat phase
• Free Rerolls from Trade Sector and Commerce Core now stack
• Lucky Gloves+ properly grants its extra sparring gloves in Tocker’s Trials
• “Deal 7500 damage” Ixtal quest properly completes on away boards
• Wood Axiom no longer occasionally loses its bonus health at combat start
• Physical damage from Fizz’s empowered attacks can properly critically strike
• Void Mutation tooltips properly update when becoming supercharged
• Lissandra’s overkill damage applies when killing reviving units such as Zaahen and Aatrox
• Wukong’s clone properly benefits from Thorn-Plated Armor
• Fateful Find’s charm from Xerath properly has VFX
• The Prismatic Ionia Enlightened path properly grants XP
• Cooking Pot no longer grants stats to Summons
• Fixed an issue where server lag could occasionally cause Garen to heal the wrong amount
• Fixed issues where selecting combat-based Ixtal quests during combat would cause them to not complete that round