Challenger – Chemtech
Since the release of patch 12.6, the Challenger – Chemtech composition centered around Warwick has consistently shown overwhelming strength regardless of the opponent or technology core. Basically, Warwick is a champion suited for every match as he can deal damage based on a percentage of maximum health. Combined with a high attack speed and damage reduction effects from Challenger and Chemtech, Warwick has become extremely difficult to counter at the current moment.
However, with the upgrade to version 12.6b, Warwick’s dominance has been comprehensively reduced. First, the nerf to his base attack speed will make Warwick interact with items and attack speed effects much worse than before. Next, the Challenger system itself has also seen a reduction in the additional attack speed, as well as the damage reduction capability of the Chemtech trait. As a result, the Challenger – Chemtech composition has been nerfed in both damage and survivability.
Assassin
The strength of the Assassin system in Teamfight Tactics season 6.5 is that they can be strong from very early on with a series of powerful 1-2 gold champions like Nocturne, Twitch, and Talon. This allows you, at level 6, to roll for a 3-star Talon while also leveling up both Nocturne and Twitch, saving a significant amount of gold. All of this is thanks to the absurd damage output of Talon and Twitch, despite their extremely low purchase cost.
This dominance of the Assassin team is likely to be halted in the upcoming patch 12.6b as both Twitch and Talon are receiving nerfs to their damage and ability casting. Remember that Twitch has already been nerfed in skill damage stats, and with the maximum energy increased to 45, the frequency of this unit’s ability casting is even lower. With Talon also having his skill damage reduced, could the Assassin team pivot to revolve around Kha’Zix?
Innovation
It’s not an exaggeration to say that Innovation is the trait that Riot Games has comprehensively buffed in patch 12.6, as stats like attack damage, shields… all become stronger over the course of the match. As a result, this trait has become absurdly powerful throughout the match duration. With Teamfight Tactics lacking any champion or trait that can effectively counter shield generation, Innovation is currently quite unbalanced.
And then the adjustment Riot has made is to nerf the base shields provided by this trait to reduce the “tankiness” of Innovation. Furthermore, the two key units of this composition, Lucian and Sivir, have both been nerfed in their damage output, so their overall damage will decrease relatively. Of course, these changes are not enough to make Innovation disappear completely from the meta, but they will make players think twice when deciding to build it.