5 Mages – 3 Dragons
With Dragons being very popular in the current meta, a rather negative situation is occurring where champions of this trait are fiercely contested. The consequence is that it becomes very difficult to upgrade key champions like Nami and Illaoi to 3 stars during the mid-game. For a composition that relies heavily on Mages, this is extremely detrimental as you won’t have sufficient tank or healing champions and will easily lose a lot of health.
Furthermore, the option to transition to Aurelion Sol at the end of the game for the Mage composition has almost been eliminated at this point. The reason is the same as above, as this champion is fiercely contested by other Dragon players. When you have less gold and lower health, the chances of rolling Aurelion Sol are nearly zero. Therefore, the advice is not to use the 5 Mages – 3 Dragons composition at this time.
Dragon – Mage
Although it is not in a state of fierce competition, Dragon – Mage has become extremely weak at this point. The simple reason is that the main carry of this composition – Ao Shin has been heavily nerfed in patch 12.14, from damage output to the energy reduction effect on opponents. Clearly, when compared to other champions of the same cost like Shyvana or Aurelion Sol, Ao Shin is significantly lacking and cannot compete.
Not stopping there, the damage output from the Dragon effect at 2 champions has also been significantly weakened, which affects this composition a lot. In summary, with the heavy damage reduction in patch 12.14, Dragon – Mage has become extremely weak and cannot compete with other compositions. Of course, it can still “work,” but players must be extremely lucky and have a 2-star Ao Shin early on.
Bruiser – Assassin
Among the champions in Teamfight Tactics, Olaf is perhaps the character that has been most heavily and comprehensively nerfed in patch 12.14. First, the increase in AD per level has been reduced from 80% to 50%, making the 3-star champion strategy (including Olaf) both expensive and ineffective compared to before. Specifically for Olaf, he has lost nearly 40 base AD at 3 stars, which is a huge number.
Next, Olaf’s skill itself has also been nerfed in terms of bonus attack speed, leading to a significant reduction in his damage output. As a result, the Bruiser – Assassin composition with Olaf as the carry has almost completely disappeared from patch 12.14 with an extremely low pick rate. Even when it does appear, the chances of it making it into the top 4 players are very poor. Players may need to bench Olaf if they want to improve their ranking points at this time.