Teamfight Tactics patch 16.4

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LEVEL COST ODDS

We've seen reroll strategies perform pretty well for our 2-cost lines, but 3-costs have yet to find their footing. There are a lot of strong 3-costs this set, but fishing for them on Level 7 is often too risky or expensive, so we're increasing their odds on the Level you roll for them. Beyond helping out 3-cost lines, a more consistent Level 7 will also allow for players to roll a bit on level 7 to power up their board before going 8.

• Cost Odds Level 7: 19/30/40/10/1% ⇒ 16/30/43/10/1%

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LEVELING XP

Last patch, amidst the fast 9 meta of Riggs (Ziggs and Ryze) and Bilgewater, players were already picking up on the strategy of three-star 4-costs. This patch, with Level 9 being harder, that strategy is much more prominent, tilting the balance of level 8/9 in favor of level 8. We're rolling back our changes in 16.3, and coupling them with a couple Econ Augment nerfs so that going level 9 feels more competitive with staying Level 8.

• XP From Level 8-9: 76 ⇒ 68

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UNLOCK CONDITIONS

Kennen is a bit too hard to unlock for a 3-cost Yordle, oftentimes being unlocked around the same time as Fizz.

Now that Bilgewater's no longer dominating elite lobbies through tempo playwith massive Serpent generation, we're able to reel in Tahm Kench earlier—cause you know what they say, the early catfish gets the worms.

• Kennen: 8 Star Levels ⇒ 7 Star Levels
• Tahm Kench: 500 Serpents ⇒ 450 Serpents

Large, like Tahm Kench's appetite.

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TRAITS

Going past Ionia (3) when it's Path of the Blades is like putting an eraser on a pen—sure it's cool, but what does it do? With a higher chance of additional attacks, hopefully we can put that eraser-clad pen to slightly better use.

You almost never wanna play Gunslinger (4) cause the buff from the trait isn't worth fielding the unitemized lingering gunners.

Piltover is a trait that continually gets innovated upon. While that's very thematic, we have some tinkering to do on individual Modules so you can invent freely, without one option feeling worse than the rest.

• Ionia Path of Blades Additional Attack: 30/35/40% ⇒ 30/38/45%
• Gunslinger Attack Damage: 20/35% ⇒ 22/40%
• Piltover (2) Blast Shield: 20% max HP ⇒ 18% max HP
• Piltover (2) Tuned Oscillator: 25% bonus ⇒ 28%
• Piltover (2) Overclocked Capacitor: 22% ⇒ 25%
• Piltover (4) Acceleration Gate: 40% refund ⇒ 35% refund
• Piltover (4) Gigantification Ray: 23% Health ⇒ 28% Health
• Piltover (4) Kinetic Barrier Resists: 60/20 ⇒ 65/30

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UNITS: TIER 1

Jhin landed slightly weak after our 16.3 rework, so we're bringing him up with one more 4 added to his tooltip.

Sona is the only forceable 1-cost reroll comp in the set. While the comp is fun, it's far more reliable than we want a 1-cost reroll comp to be, so we're hitting its most annoying source of power: its ability to stall through healing.

• Jhin Ability Damage: 135/200/300 AD ⇒ 145/215/325 AD
• Sona Heal: 40/50/80/110 AP ⇒ 30/40/65/100 AP

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UNITS: TIER 2

Bard reroll is still weak as a carry, especially at our higher levels of play where his one and two-star forms can't keep up with other early game boards.

Tristana and Xin Zhao are almost never itemized nor fielded at three-stars. We're attempting to change that by buffing them with a focus on their three-star scaling.

• Bard Ability Damage: 120/170/240/320 AP ⇒ 130/185/255/325 AP
• Tristana Ability Damage: 250/375/565 AD ⇒ 250/375/600 AD
• Xin Zhao Heal amount: 95/135/170/245 AP ⇒ 105/145/200/280 AP

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UNITS: TIER 3

Darius has another bug that was severely impacting his playability, but even with that resolved, we think he could use a small quality of life buff to allow him to trigger his execution more often via an extended bleed duration.

Darius's bro is also not doing well. He's doing better than Darius, but not by much, leaving him in a middle-ground of forgetability—in fact, I can't even recall his name. If only he had a punchline to help, like, “Welcome to the League of Darius,” no that can't be it…

Jinx was bugged to attack slower than intended, with a damage per second loss of around 30%. So we're fixing the bug and shipping a compensation damage nerf that is intende to be a neutral change for 1-2 stars and a three-star buff.

• Fixed some scenarios where Darius would stop casting after executing enemies.
• Darius Bleed Duration: 4s ⇒ 5s
• Darius Ability Damage Per Second: 15/25/40 AD ⇒ 12/18/30 AD
• Draven Base AD: 53 ⇒ 58
• Gwen Primary Damage: 45/68/105 AP ⇒ 50/75/120 AP
• Gwen Secondary Damage: 20/30/50 AP ⇒ 25/35/60 AP
• Jinx Fixed a bug where Jinx would occasionally lose attacks during her spell.
• Jinx Ability Damage: 65/100/155 AD ⇒ 50/75/125 AD

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UNITS: TIER 4

Many gamers see our Ambessa buff as yet another Noxus buff. We want Noxus to be in a place where any of its carries can carry. With a buff to Draven, Darius, and Ambessa, the decision should be who to itemize and in doing so, feel those buffs, instead of who to splash into your Noxus (5) or (7) comp to use your items. For our non-vertical minded players, the goal here is to allow Ambessa to be a primary item holder instead of taking your leftover Bel'Veth items in your Void/Slayer/Flex comp.

Lissandra is already finding success in Freljord + Disruptor comps, so why are we buffing her? Well, the comp's being carried by the power of Freljord + Disrupter, which has a bug (see Bug Fixes) with their overlapping damage amp. With that bug fixed we expect to see the comp drop in power, a lot, and since we're not seeing Lissandra perform well in other comps, she's the best candidate for a compensation buff.

With Kai'Sa coming earlier, Void flex comps have been able to come online earlier and stay online longer. Instead of nerfing Kai'Sa here, who we see as a benchmark 4-cost at this point, we're hitting their overperforming tank.

Yunara is still one of the most reliable 4-cost carry, so we've got an AS nerf that is actually meant to hit her AP scaling as well for her more dominant builds that get extra AP via items like Titan's Resolve.

• Ambessa Slam [NEW] deals 40/40/100% bonus damage to Tanks.
• Ambessa Reset Damage: 100% ⇒ 80%
• Lissandra Ability Primary Target Damage: 275/415 AP ⇒ 315/475 AP
• Rift Herald Ability Health Gain: 350/450 ⇒ 300/425
• Yunara Ability Attack Speed: 75% AP ⇒ 65% AP

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UNITS: TIER 5

We're pushing the Omnivamp fantasy for Aatrox as his unlock condition makes you build so much of it. This should be a big buff to one-star Aatrox, but we're slapping on a small compensation nerf on two-star Aatrox so it doesn't go too far.

While the dragon's mid-patch adjustments in 16.3 put him in a better place, players are too quickly pivoting off of Aurelion Sol's Targonian friends, and those higher breakpoints are a bit TOO rare. We're letting him stack a bit faster at 1-star, but compensating by pushing his 2 biggest upgrades later (they should happen at similar times), and making his ultimate black hole upgrade a little easier.

We're making Sylas more worth the chase with a buff to his Cataclysm and Demacian Justice damage.

Our T-Hex buffs are intended to open up innovative build/HexMech combos. Our buffs here are to help one and two-star units that haven't typically been pilots get their T-Hex credentials. Will drain tank T-Hex rise? Maybe, but I wouldn't dust off the Jurassic Park memes just yet.

• Aatrox Omnivamp to AD Conversion: 100% ⇒ 150%
• Aatrox Ability Damage: 95/200 AD ⇒ 95/185 AD
• Aurelion Sol Star Forger Bonus Stardust: 20/33% ⇒ 25/30%
• Aurelion Sol Stardust Upgrades: Bonus True Damage Stardust: 475 ⇒ 550Meteor Stardust: 750 ⇒ 800Black Hole Stardust: 1543 ⇒ 1444
• Ornn Additional HP: 250/450 ⇒ 350/600
• Ornn Chill Duration: 3s ⇒ 5s
• Sylas Cataclysm Damage: 100/180 AP ⇒ 120/200 AP
• Sylas Demacian Justice: 670/1000 ⇒ 700/1050
• T-Hex Ability Damage: 145/250 AD ⇒ 160/265 AD
• T-Hex Missile Damage: 25% of primary damage ⇒ 20%
• T-Hex Damage Falloff per Target: 25% (max 75%) ⇒ 35% (max 80%)
• T-Hex HexMech Fighter: +15/25/40% AD ⇒ +20/30/40%
• T-Hex HexMech Marksman: +10/18/30% Damage Amp ⇒ 12/20/30%
• T-Hex HexMech Tank: 15/25/40% Omnivamp ⇒ 20/30/40%
• T-Hex HexMech Assassin: 30/60/100% Crit chance ⇒ 40/70/100%

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CORE ITEMS

When we gave Nashor's Tooth 5 AP, it ended up being more like 7.5 AP due to the item being paired with spell-crit.

I for one, miss the days of solo frontline Warmog's plus Gargoyle's.

• Gargoyle's Stoneplate Base Armor/MR: 25 ⇒ 30
• Nashor's Tooth Ability Power: 20 ⇒ 18
• Warmog's Armor % Health: 15% ⇒ 18%

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ARTIFACTS

Continuing to buff our weaker Artifacts. Wait, I heard there was an Ornn buff too!?

• Aegis of Dusk 200 HP ⇒ 300 HP
• Aegis of Dawn 200 HP ⇒ 300 HP
• Hullcrusher Base Armor/MR: 50 ⇒ 60
• Mogul's Mail Gold every 12 Seconds ⇒ 11 Seconds
• Sniper's Focus +3 Mana gen
• Sniper's Focus AD & AP 25% ⇒ 20%

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RADIANT ITEMS

• Radiant Gargoyle's Stoneplate Base Armor/MR: 50 ⇒ 60
• Radiant Nashor's Tooth Ability Power: 40 ⇒ 35
• Radiant Warmog's Armor % Health: 33% ⇒ 36%

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AUGMENTS

We've got three (well kinda three) new Augments with 16.4. First up is Gilded Steel, our new Championship Augment to celebrate the Tactician's Crown winner for K.O. Coliseum. Congrats once again WithoutYou! Next up we've got a Prismatic version of Trials of Twilight. Surely this one will help you fill out your Lorefinder! Finally, we've got the return of a reworked World Runes, which now functions as an econ-engine that helps you unlock Ryze as early as possible so you can enjoy playing this wild 5-cost with as many traits as you'd like.

In addition to the exciting new stuff, we've taken a balance pass on our most powerful econ Augments. Many of these Augments have become the backbone to three-star 4-costs, and while those will definitely still be possible, they'll be slightly less guaranteed with some of their resources pulled down.

• [NEW] Gilded Steel (Gold, 4-2 only): Gain 3 non-Tank 5-cost champions. If you field a 5-cost champion, your 1 to 4-cost champions gain 8% Durability. K.O. Coliseum Championship, 2025
• [NEW] Trials of Twilight II (Prismatic, 2-1 Only): Gain 2 Xin Zhaos and a Bloodthirster. Xin Zhao becomes an Attack Fighter. After 5 combats at 3-star, unlock Zaahen. At the start of the next 3 stages, gain a Lesser Champion Duplicator.
• The World Runes: Reenabled. [ADJUSTED]: Gain 2 Emblems from random Region traits. Gain 2 XP every player combat, increased to 4 XP if 4 or more Region traits are active.
• Ascension: 60% Damage Amp after 15s ⇒ 45% Damage Amp after 12s
• Artillery Barrage Spell Damage: 27/40/60/80 AP ⇒ 32/48/72/96 AP
• Chaos Magic Temporarily Disabled
• Commerce Core Initial Rerolls: 10 ⇒ 16
• Commerce Core Rerolls Per Turn: 4 ⇒ 2
• Efficient Shopper Now additionally grants 4 gold
• Epic Rolldown Rerolls: 23 ⇒ 20
• Flexible Team gains 20 health ⇒ Team gains 40 health
• Indecision I Gold: 8g ⇒ 5g
• Indecision II Gold: 12g ⇒ 8g
• Jeweled Lotus II Team Critical Strike chance: 35% ⇒ 25%
• Living Forge 10 player combats ⇒ 9 player combats
• Max Build: [Adjusted] Gain 10 rerolls now. On 4-5 and 6-1, gain a Champion Duplicator.
• On a Roll No longer offered on Stage 2-1
• ReinFOURcement Gold: 12 ⇒ 5
• Spirit of Redemption Heal for 10% ⇒ 7.5%
• Three Threes Gold: 8 ⇒ 3
• Twin Guardians Bonus Armor and MR: 40 ⇒ 50

Small, like, smol.

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UNITS

• Fizz Tooltip updated to reflect that he prioritizes non-Tanks and Fighters.
• Galio Ability can properly critically strike
• Ryze Ability no longer fizzles if the target dies mid-flight

• Fixed a bug where Disruptor's Damage Amp would be higher than intended with units affected by Freljord's Damage Amp
• Bard no longer counts 6 Piltover's Invention as a 3-star unit
• Fixed a typo in Sunfire Cape's tooltip
• Fixed a typo in Call to Chaos' Golden Egg reward tooltip
• Gwen's Scissors and Salvager no longer reset items that stack (Cappa Juice, Deadlier Blades, etc)
• If a champion has multiple Deathblades equipped with the Deadlier Blades Augment, they now correctly gain multiple stacks of Attack Damage on takedown. (This previously fixed itself at the start of every round)
• Kai'Sa and Orianna's unlock conditions are corrected in Tocker's Trials
• Fixed a bug where music is delayed when scouting some arenas for the first time
• Fixed a bug where the unbound pedestal color on Le Cafe De Paris Arena is darker

It's our first balance patch of Festival of Beasts and we're shipping a patch mostly full of buffs right out of the gate to make sure every comp can take flight, or gallop (since it is the year of the horse).

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UNITS

Shyvana and OIaf are our two clear power outliers for the Revivals amidst a patch full of buffs. Shyvana pumps out a lot of damage through her Dragonsoul trait while being incredibly tanky. We're hitting her across several stats, but focusing on her survivability.

• Shyvana HP Gain on Cast: 30/35/40% HP ⇒ 15/20/25% HP
• Shyvana Base HP 800 ⇒ 700
• Shyvana Base AD 70 ⇒ 55
• Vladimir Damage 350/475/725 ⇒ 350/525/790
• Jarvan IV Base HP 800 ⇒ 850
• Kindred Damage 300/450/675 ⇒ 325/490/730
• Olaf Attack Speed on cast 150/175/350% ⇒ 140/165/340%
• Zilean Base Attack Speed 0.75 ⇒ 0.8
• Azir Damage 300/500 ⇒ 350/550

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TRAITS

We love Fortune.

• Fortune (6) average loot increased by ~3g
• Keeper Shield 175/225/275/500 ⇒ 200/250/300/525
• Cultist Galio Base AD 50/75/115/150 ⇒ 50/85/115/150
• Syphoner Omnivamp for Team 10/25/50 ⇒ 15/30/60%
• Syphoners Individual Omnivamp 50/100/125 ⇒ 50/110/135%

• Shyvana no longer can cast multiple times per fight with enough mana regeneration
• Lee Sin now properly drops gold when punching an enemy off the board with Malicious Monetization
• Pilfer now properly grants a copy of the first enemy killed, instead of their gold value
• Cluttered Mind will no longer be offered on Year of the Horse Opening Encounter