As we know, in the recent 12.12 patch of Teamfight Tactics, Riot Games significantly buffed the Dragonmancer trait. This has led to a variety of Dragonmancer compositions emerging, centered around key champions like Varus, Vladimir, Nami… Some high-ranked players have even taken advantage of this buff to upgrade the basic Marksman composition by adding Nami with the Mystic trait to counter the overabundance of magic damage playstyles.
Basically, when building the Dragonmancer – Guild composition, you will still play around Varus and Illaoi. However, you will also use Nami as a versatile champion to enhance the healing capabilities of your frontline champions. Moreover, utilizing Varus, Nami, and Illaoi will help players avoid wasting resources and maximize the Dragonmancer effect.
In the early game, you should use 1-2 cost Dragonmancer champions like Vladimir, Nami, Skarner to maintain health. By level 5, players can add Heimerdinger, Lillia, or Shen to activate important milestones like 3 Sorcerers, 2 Brawlers. This will give you a balanced team in terms of damage on the backline and tankiness on the frontline.
By mid-game, you should replace Vladimir and the Sorcerers with marksmen. However, players should only do this when the Dragonmancer shop features Varus. If not, you should keep the Sorcerers to maintain health since 1-star Varus is relatively weak and does not deal enough damage. Your main strategy at this stage will be to hold 50 gold, level up consistently, and use gold to upgrade Varus, Illaoi (and possibly Nami) to 3 stars at level 7.
Besides the Dragonmancer champions, you should also pay attention to buying strong Guild champions like Sejuani or Twitch. As you enter the later stages of the match, Talon and Bard are extremely valuable purchases as they provide strong stats along with damage and crowd control. The advice is to spend all your gold at level 8 in order to quickly upgrade your carries.
For the augment choice, Crafting on Site is an augment you should grab immediately as this composition utilizes Ornn’s items very well. Additionally, the Silver Arrows or Ascension augments also fit this composition perfectly as they greatly increase damage and counter the current tanky champions.
For item choices, you should equip Varus with a Guinsoo’s Rageblade as soon as possible. The Deathblade is also a strong option, but Giant Slayer tends to be more suitable given the prevalence of Brawler compositions at this time. Furthermore, Runaan’s Hurricane is also a strong item for Varus.
