Assassins
In patch 11.18b, Riot Games has directly targeted the damage output of the Assassin team by nerfing the bonus critical damage at the 4/6 champion thresholds from 50/70% down to 40/50%. If you’ve ever played an Assassin team, you know that this system heavily relies on hitting the 4 champion mark to amplify the damage of Nocturne or Kha’Zix. This is a crucial condition that helps Assassin players secure win streaks, earning gold even if Nocturne hasn’t been leveled up too high yet.
However, with the aforementioned nerf, the damage of the Assassin composition will be significantly reduced during the mid-game. This change results in players struggling to secure wins, maintain large amounts of health and gold, and being easily eliminated before Nocturne can reach 3 stars. After patch 11.18b, the Assassin team will likely become a situational composition, and players should only build this team comp when they are fortunate enough to receive multiple Nocturne early on.
Kha’Zix Hyper-roll
This is a newly emerging composition in patch 11.18 after many “late-game” team comps were nerfed. The strength of this composition lies in units like Kha’Zix and 3-star Gragas, which create significant annoyance for opponents. A 3-star Kha’Zix will serve as the primary damage dealer and clean up rounds of combat exceptionally well. Meanwhile, 3-star Gragas is a heavy tank that can absorb a lot of damage on the front lines. This duo provides players with a solid foundation to aim for the 6 Divine threshold.
However, patch 11.18b has somewhat ruined this playstyle as Kha’Zix’s damage was nerfed at 3 stars. We need to remember that during the mid-game, 500 damage to a single target from a 3-star Kha’Zix is insufficient to take down 2-star carries from the opponent. Once Kha’Zix can’t eliminate enemy champions quickly, he becomes vulnerable to taking damage and has a high risk of being taken down. Players will need to consider carefully when building a Kha’Zix hyper-roll team in the future.
Yasuo – Spirit Mage
After Volibear and the Demon units were nerfed, Yasuo emerged as an incredibly powerful carry in Teamfight Tactics as he is hard to take down while providing strong true damage. Riot has likely recognized this and nerfed Yasuo’s true damage from 25/35/55 down to 20/25/40 in patch 11.18b. As we can see, a 2-star Yasuo in patch 11.18b can only deal true damage similar to a “1-star god” from previous updates.
This directly impacts the snowballing ability of the Yasuo – Spirit Mage team as this unit no longer possesses strong damage output and cannot be countered as effectively as before. Clearly, without the ability to snowball and dominate opponents, the Yasuo – Spirit Mage team will face significant challenges against strong late-game team comps like Celestials or Guardians. It is likely that the top 4 placement rate and average placement of the Yasuo – Spirit Mage team will drop significantly in the upcoming patch 11.18b.