On November 8th, Teamfight Tactics Season 10 officially launched on the PBE server for players to experience early. Along with a series of new traits and mechanics, Riot has also made notable changes in the items for this season. Notably, the introduction of 2 new items named Red Buff and Giant Slayer.
With Red Buff, this item will be crafted from 2 Wooden Bows with an effect that allows champions to deal an additional 8% damage. Furthermore, attacks from champions with this item will inflict the target with a deep wound effect and burn 5% of their health. This is the item that replaces the Rapid Firecannon from previous seasons.
In terms of effects, Red Buff is a good item for providing healing reduction for physical damage compositions. Wooden Bow is generally a highly valuable item and often contested. Therefore, players rarely combine 2 Wooden Bows just to obtain an effect that counters enemy champions. While it is true that Riot needed to remove Rapid Firecannon, replacing it with Red Buff with the aforementioned effect seems unreasonable.
Next, Giant Slayer will have component items of Fighter Gloves and Chain Vest. The effect of this item is to reduce incoming damage by 8%, which will increase to 15% if the champion is above 50% health. This means that at the start of the round, champions with Giant Slayer will be able to significantly reduce incoming damage.
This is a relatively strong tank item as it can reduce all types of damage from physical to magical. Moreover, the maximum effect is activated right from the start of the round, so players can confidently utilize the full power of Giant Slayer. This is a very good replacement for the rather weak item, Night Harvester, from the previous season.
In conclusion, with the use of relatively hard-to-acquire component items, Red Buff is expected to be merely a situational item with low pick rates. Meanwhile, Giant Slayer appears to be a relatively strong tank item with a significant damage reduction stat. Perhaps Riot still needs to make necessary adjustments to help these 2 items become more balanced before the official server launch.