Yesterday (May 27), Riot Games officially announced the first details of the mid-season update. With 14 new champions, 3 new traits and origins, along with the removal of many old champions, the meta of Teamfight Tactics will change significantly. However, that is a matter for the future; the new champions added to the game are causing players to express their dissatisfaction due to their overwhelming strength.
Even in player comments, champions like Urgot, Bard, and Riven are excessively unbalanced. Specifically, Urgot’s ability to eliminate opponents can bypass the Guardian Angel’s protection, Bard can “farm experience” right in the monster round, and Riven is so powerful that she only needs 1 item to become immortal.
Discussion about the mid-season update on PBE
If you guys want a post to discuss, here it is. I want to share a few things I’ve noticed.
First is the interaction of the Combat Machine trait. When missing just 1 stack to activate the healing ability, champions of this trait can take lethal damage and still heal thanks to the trait’s combo. My Kog’Maw survived Caitlyn’s ultimate thanks to activating the Combat Machine effect and regained 60 health. That could be a bug.
Riven doesn’t need the Timekeepers or Blademasters traits because she only needs a Blue Buff (the new Archangel’s Staff). With a Zeke’s Herald, Blue Buff, and a Wizard’s Hat, she can continuously activate shields for 15 seconds. It’s strange that 2 champion combos can’t compare to 1 item.
Vayne is no different from a Shaco with a Rapid Firecannon. The game now resembles Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, with the battlefield filled with bombs and crowd-control effects eliminating opponents. Get defensive items or pay the price.
Urgot seems to be too strong. I’ve only played a few matches, but Urgot with a Blue Buff and Shojin’s Spear completely dominates the game without any counters. The Zeke’s Herald is meaningless against his pulling ability.
I just played a game with 6 Guardians with Urgot, and it felt like everyone else was playing a different game. I agree that he needs to be nerfed a bit. If Urgot is nerfed, then the future Combat Machine lineup will rely on Viktor, who is really too strong.
I think Viktor is simply the strongest Combat Machine unit right now, and I didn’t even play him in that lineup. I just tried 4 Sorcerers – 4 Vanguard and this champion dealt damage equal to 130% of my maximum health, plus a laser that dealt about 1000 damage.
The Guardian Angel also doesn’t work, which is crazy.
Guardian Angel is meaningless against Urgot; he simply eliminates that unit without any resurrection.
Bard shouldn’t receive meeps during the monster rounds; this makes people just buy Bard for the monster rounds and then sell immediately. If the Scoundrel can’t get gold from the monster round, then Bard shouldn’t receive experience from it either.
This makes sense; I just watched Scarra play a game rolling for Bards at level 6 and he made it to top 4 just because he got over 10 experience from this champion every round.
In player feedback, Urgot’s ability to eliminate opponents regardless of Guardian Angel appears to be a significant imbalance. The Guardian Angel exists to provide a unit with a “death prevention” ability when taking overwhelming damage. Moreover, in the original League of Legends, there is no mechanism that allows eliminating opponents through Guardian Angel or similar abilities. Therefore, this existing interaction in Teamfight Tactics is extremely unreasonable.
Hopefully, Riot Games will soon release a patch to fix Urgot’s overly dominant interactions.