Teamfight Tactics patch 13.9 notes

Portals are popping up throughout our Normals queue, spilling out loot from across Runeterra!
Game Updates
Rodger “Riot Prism” Caudill

Portals? Portals! Portals!?

The big star of the patch is not in fact a star, but instead a portal from afar. So grab your friends, or make new ones, and give our Normals (With Portals!?) queue a try! Read more about the new mechanics and a history of our For Fun patches here.

As for the rest of the patch, we’re looking at the high cost units this time around, and making sure when you hit that 3-star Five Cost you are even more likely to win!
Rodger “Riot Prism" Caudill

Mid-Patch Updates

MAY 4TH


We’re shipping a small B-patch to address Gnar and Duelist power as we approach Regionals.

Our competitive scene is in full swing, and in 13.9 we shipped some bug fixes that had unintended balance consequences. The first being Gnar’s interaction with Prankster, which before 13.9 would disable the buff he gets from Gadgeteen. Now that the two work together, Gnar has been raging out too hard to be “just a prank, bro.”

We also found an issue where if you got over 3.0 Attack Speed or higher, it was possible to end up with slower attacks than intended. In correcting this issue, Duelist 6 and 8 got a huge buff. We are disabling the fix for now as we are too close to our peak competition to rebalance the game around it. That being said, we plan to ship it with the next set, when we will have more time to balance around its impact.

Finally, we’ve seen Kayle look particularly strong since we last buffed her. This could be due to the Attack Speed fix discussed above, but it’s also due to the buff we gave her and Gangplank this patch—so we’re responding by reverting her buff just to be safe.
  • Kayle Starfire Spellblade AD ratio: 175 ⇒ 155%
  • Gnar Armor & MR: 50 ⇒ 35
  • Gnar Robo-Rage AOE AD ratio: 110% ⇒ 100%
  • Gnar Robo-Rage Single Target AD ratio: 300% ⇒ 250%
  • SYSTEM FIX REVERT: A fix to High Attack Speeds (typically over 2.8) has been reverted due to it’s unintended power consequences.

Patch Highlights

NORMALS (WITH PORTALS!?) PATCH 13.9

Our For Fun patch has come early, with portals from various regions of Runeterra appearing in our Normals queue only, bringing loot and power to your comps! Read about the mechanic and the history of our For Fun patches with TFT’s best looking writer and three other devs here. You may also notice that the rules for our Portals have changed since we shared the announcement in the Talking Tactics article. That’s because we took in a ton of PBE feedback from the weekend to incorporate below and make the For Fun patch even more Fun!

STAGE 2-6 PORTALS


Common and game accelerating.
  • Stage 2-6 Portals have a 75% chance of appearing. Demacia, Piltover, Targon, and No Portals each have an equal chance of appearing.
  • Demacia: Gain 2 item components
  • Void: Gain a Thief’s Gloves
  • Zaun: Gain 10 gold

STAGE 3-3 PORTALS


Rare and eclectic.
  • Stage 3-3 Portals have an 8% chance of appearing. That 8% is composed of Portals from Ionia, Shadow Isles, Noxus, and Freljord, all of which have an equal chance of appearing.
  • Ionia: Target Dummy + 15 gold
  • Shadow Isles: Champion Duplicator + Two 4-cost Champions
  • Noxus: 2 full Item Anvils
  • Freljord: Ornn Anvil

STAGE 4-3 PORTALS


Uncommon and powerful!
  • Stage 4-3 Portals have a 30% chance of appearing. That 30% is composed of Portals from Targon, Piltover, and Shurima, all of which have an equal chance of appearing.
  • Targon: Gain a Tactician’s Crown
  • Piltover: Gain a Loaded Dice, a Lesser Champion Duplicator, a Remover, and a Reforger
  • Shurima: Gain a Tome of Traits and 6 gold

SYSTEM CHANGES

THREE STAR LEGENDARY UNITS


Hitting a 3-star 5-cost is a rare endeavor, occurring in 2.6% of games (across all modes). So, when it happens we want to make sure it really HAPPENS for the player.
  • 3-star 5-cost champions now all have an additional 4000 health

LARGE CHANGES

Large, like the spoiler for our next set’s theme and mechanic hitting this patch. NOTE: While this spoiler alludes to our mechanic for the next set, it is NOT the mechanic for the next set.

TRAITS


Access to 5 Gadgeteen early with an Emblem has provided too much consistency, especially for a trait full of youngsters who shouldn’t be expected to perform like a late game comp for at least a couple more years.
  • Defender team Armor: 25/75/200 ⇒ 25/70/180
  • Gadgeteen Damage & Damage Reduction per item: 3/10% ⇒ 4/9%

UNITS: TIER 1


A higher base Attack Speed means Gangplank will benefit a bit more when you need to run him in your vertical Duelist comp.

Last patch we changed Kayle’s Cease-fire Spellblade to no longer lock her out of attacking for a brief period. This patch we’re adding the Star to Kayle’s Starfire Spellblade to ensure you can itemize her as a reroll carry, especially when you take Divine Ascent as your Hero Augment.
  • Gangplank Attack Speed: 0.65 ⇒ 0.7
  • Kayle Starfire Spellblade AD ratio: 155 ⇒ 175%

UNITS: TIER 2


Is she a carry, or a utility champion? Neither. Currently, Camille lacks the damage and scaling to play as a reroll champion, while also providing unreliable crowd control that frequently fails to disable anything past the frontline. We’re cutting down her weaknesses with two smaller buffs that are sure to place her on the cutting edge of the meta.
  • Camille Tactical Sweep AD ratio: 210% ⇒ 240%
  • Camille Tactical Sweep Disarm Duration: 1.5/1.6/1.75 ⇒ 1.75/1.8/2 sec

UNITS: TIER 3


Kai’Sa seems to be successful when everyone but me runs her, so I’m not gonna lie… pretty stoked about this one.
  • Kai’Sa Starcharged Damage: 135/205/335 ⇒ 125/185/310
  • Kai’Sa Starcharged Bonus AS: 75% ⇒ 60%

UNITS: TIER 4


Aatrox is the least threatening of the threats—which is pretty soul crushing if you ask me. A bit more base damage will help here.

Garen’s ability has a big, high-impact stun. While a sword slamming from the sky should be stunning, we’re making it both take longer to get that initial cast off AND take even longer to cast again.

Viego and the Renegade vertical have been weak for a while. As a melee carry for the trait, Viego unreliably takes advantage of the extra damage for being the last one standing, so by giving him a bit more Health, we’re hoping he can keep breaking hearts on the battlefield.
  • Aatrox Soul Crush Damage: 200/300/1200 ⇒ 220/330/1200
  • Aatrox The Darkin Blade Damage: 200/300/1200 ⇒ 220/330/1200
  • Garen Mana nerf: 90/180 ⇒ 100/200
  • Jhin AD: 65 ⇒ 70
  • Miss Fortune Bullet Time Damage: 32/50/150 ⇒ 30/45/150
  • Miss Fortune Bullet Time subsequent Damage: 18/27/100 ⇒ 15/24/100
  • Viego Health: 950 ⇒ 1000
  • Viego Heartbreaker Damage: 240/360/800 ⇒ 260/390/900

HERO AUGMENTS


Buffing the worst performers and nerfing the best performers.

Jinx’s carry Augment, Get Excited! greatly benefitted from the Jinx buffs we shipped last patch. The power ceiling of this Augment is also dependent on correct itemization, which is far different from the standard “Jinx hold my items” build you frequently see her wearing in the early game.

Speaking of power ceilings, Garen can throw a giant sword right through them. We are buffing Garen’s Full Power to Sword here due to our Garen nerf above to make sure the already risky Augment doesn’t become unplayable. The Augment has some insane highs with the right itemization and comp, which you are welcome to pursue at the cost of your LP (and mine).
  • Ashe - Laser Focus Attack Speed: 50% ⇒ 45%
  • Lux - Illuminating Singularity Bonus Damage: 120% ⇒ 150%
  • Nasus - Soul Eater Heal on takedown: 300 ⇒ 275
  • Jinx - Get Excited! Base AS: 35% ⇒ 30%
  • Lee Sin - Cleansing Safeguard Mana Reduction: 10 ⇒ 15
  • Pyke - Your Cut Casts per reroll: 3 ⇒ 2
  • Rell - Hold the Line Bonus AP: 80 ⇒ 60
  • Yasuo - Winds of the Wanderer Bonus Damage: 20% ⇒ 8%
  • Jax - Relentless Assault AS per 3 autos: 15% ⇒ 18%
  • Riven - Triumphant Return HP Shield: 40% ⇒ 45%
  • Garen - Full Power to Sword Mana Reduction: 30 ⇒ 50
  • Garen - My Sword is Your Shield HP Shield: 15% ⇒ 12%
  • Garen - My Sword is Your Shield, Shield Duration: 6 ⇒ 4 sec
  • Warwick - Big Data Damage per 100 HP: 0.75% ⇒ 0.65%
  • Warwick - Well Fed Starting HP: 40 ⇒ 60
  • Warwick - Well Fed+ Starting HP: 140 ⇒ 150

AUGMENTS


Certain trait-linked Augments provided too much access, too early, to powerful chase traits. We weren’t comfortable seeing these power thresholds broken so quickly and often, so we’ve changed the biggest offenders to only appear on Stage 4-2 (final Augment).
  • LaserCorps Heart, LaserCorps Soul, Gadgeteen Heart, Gadgeteen Crest, and Gadgeteen Crown all can now only appear on 4-2.

SMALL CHANGES

Small, like the list of ideas I had for this patch’s “small changes” one-liner.

UNITS: TIER 1


Bonky Kong may be a thing of the past, but Stone Skin Spin to Win still has its chance to thrive!
  • Wukong Stone Skin Damage: 140/210/315 ⇒ 150/225/335

UNITS: TIER 3


His weapon gets realer by the minute!
  • Jax Adaptive Strike Damage: 80/125/210 ⇒ 85/130/210

UNITS: TIER 5


Very confused as to how these changes didn’t make it into the Large section. They impact almost every game I play—I assume it’s the same for you!?
  • Ultimate Ezreal Alternate Ezrealities AD ratio: 133/133/277 ⇒ 133/133/533%
  • Syndra at 3-stars will now always cast her ability 9 times. Even when you don’t have units on the bench.

ORNN (FORGE) ITEMS


Clean-up on aisle Ornn.
  • Death’s Defiance AS: 20% ⇒ 30%
  • Death’s Defiance Armor: 20 ⇒ 30
  • Obsidian Cleaver HP: 150 ⇒ 250
  • Obsidian Cleaver AD: 20% ⇒ 25%
  • Zhonya’s Paradox AP: 40 ⇒ 30
  • Zhonya’s Paradox Armor & MR: 40 ⇒ 30

RADIANT ITEMS


Shining a light on the dimmer ones and putting a blanket over those shining too brightly.
  • Brink of Dawn (Edge of Night) AD: 10% ⇒ 30%
  • Brink of Dawn (Edge of Night) Armor: 20 ⇒ 30
  • Locket of Targon Prime (Locket of the Iron Solari) Shield Value: 400/500/600 ⇒ 350/400/450
  • Bulwark’s Oath (Protector’s Vow) Starting Mana: 45 ⇒ 60
  • Quickestsilver (Quicksilver) MR: 20 ⇒ 40
  • Quickestsilver (Quicksilver) Crit Chance: 20% ⇒ 40%
  • Rapid Lightcannon (Rapid Firecannon) Attack Speed: 99% ⇒ 125%
  • Statikk Favor (Statikk Shiv) Damage: 75 ⇒ 65

BUG FIXES

  • Burno has been purged of corruption! Mecha, Feudal Future, & Galactic Victory Burno are no longer plagued by the grey of oblivion during some animations.
  • Fixed bug where Hand of Justice was rolling an extra time on invasion
  • Un-Optimal Prime: Fixed bug where Exo Prime Selector was being created when trait wasn’t active
  • Fixed a bug where Crowns and Crests could fail to grant items if you had a full item bench.
  • Bad prank: Gadgeteens no longer lose their Damage done and Damage taken boosts when Prankster procs
  • Ironic Spark: Ionic Spark deals damage correctly now.