Jhin – Guardian
With an impressively high top 4 placement rate of 52.2%, Jhin – Guardian is currently one of the most effective rank-climbing compositions in Teamfight Tactics. The strength of this composition comes from the balance between attack, defense, and utility units, along with extremely strong area control capabilities. It’s important to remember that the 52.2% top 4 placement rate is calculated in the current version after Jhin was nerfed on basic attack damage and skill damage in patch 11.24.
Additionally, we must consider another factor: the rare appearance of Assassin compositions in the current meta, especially Katarina-based team comps. The Jhin – Guardian team is particularly vulnerable to Assassin compositions because they can quickly eliminate Janna and Orianna, leaving the damage dealer unprotected. This may be the biggest reason why, despite Jhin being nerfed, the composition centered around this champion remains among the top rank-climbing teams currently.
Guardian – Marksman
In recent patches, the Guardian – Marksman composition has been nerfed repeatedly, particularly regarding Garen’s position. This unit has had its maximum energy increased, skill damage reduced, and even the duration of shields from the Guardian trait has been nerfed by 2 seconds in the recent patch 11.24b. However, surprisingly, the Guardian – Marksman composition still boasts an incredibly high top 4 placement rate of 53.3%, despite the continuous nerfing of its key tank unit during this time.
The biggest reason for this paradox is that many players believe the Guardian – Marksman composition is no longer strong and have stopped ‘spamming’ this team comp. As a result, the pick rate and competition for this composition’s key units have significantly decreased, and the rate of upgrading the composition has increased considerably. For a hyper-roll composition like Guardian – Marksman, getting key units to 3 stars is the most important, and even with stat nerfs, it does not have a significant impact.
Challenger
In the recent patch 11.24, the Challenger composition faced extremely heavy nerfs as attack speed was significantly reduced at all thresholds. Moreover, the soul generated from the main carry’s skill – Yone, losing the ability to double the trait stats, has also weakened the Challenger team considerably. Theoretically, this should be the case, but in reality, the Challenger composition remains at the top of the meta with a 51.3% top 4 placement rate.
Essentially, the nerf that Riot aimed for was simply to reduce Yone’s power. Meanwhile, this composition still has many other strong carries like Fiora, Kai’Sa, or sometimes even Warwick. Additionally, Yone himself remains a strong carry, with the only weakness being that this unit always requires ‘signature’ items and cannot flex items like before. Therefore, if Riot wants to nerf the Challenger team, they need to take even stronger actions in future patches.