Empire
In recent seasons of Teamfight Tactics, Riot frequently removes certain traits that provide buffs to a single carry. The reason is that gameplay focused around just one carry often leads to relatively poor metas and is very hard to balance. Examples we can mention include the Lunar trait in season 4 with its level buff effect for champions (usually the Aphelios carry) or the Shadow trait in season 5 which increased attack stats for the “champion.”
In season 6, the Empire is also a trait that provides damage buffs for the “tyrant” it possesses. The imbalance of the Empire trait was even evident at the beginning of season 6 when the composition revolving around Sion dominated. It wasn’t until Riot Games heavily nerfed Sion’s damage and turned this unit into a pure tank that the situation changed. Therefore, it wouldn’t be surprising if Riot removed the Empire trait in the upcoming mid-season update.
Mech
One of the factors that Riot Games often removes in mid-season updates of “auto chess” is traits that easily buff attack stats. The reason is that these traits can be abused by many different compositions at low activation thresholds (usually 2 champions) but still yield very high effectiveness. Representative names of this type of trait include Soul Reaver (season 4) or Dragonborn (season 5), both of which were removed in mid-season updates.
For season 6, the Mech trait is also in this situation as the 2 Mech threshold is being abused by many types of compositions, including team comps that don’t require attack speed. Compositions like Innovators, Jhin – Bodyguards, though not heavily reliant on attack speed stats, are frequently used because they can easily activate the Mech effect. This could place the Mech trait in Riot’s crosshairs for potential removal in the near future.
Giant
The ability to resist crowd control effects in Teamfight Tactics is extremely powerful as it allows carries to deal damage very comfortably. Therefore, to obtain this effect, Riot usually limits it to the Quicksilver item, forcing players to sacrifice an item slot. Hence, whenever a trait provides free resistance to crowd control effects, it becomes very favored.
In season 5, we had the Mystic trait that provided crowd control resistance to nearby allies. Moving into season 6, the Giant trait also has a similar effect but only applies to units of this trait. Given that the Mystic trait was removed in the mid-season update of season 5, it is highly likely that the Giant trait will face a similar fate. Of course, Galio and Cho’Gath might not necessarily be removed from the game, but Riot will surely modify their traits if they do remove this trait.