For Teamfight Tactics players, the general mindset is to prioritize elements that provide damage and strong attack capabilities for their team composition. This is evident in the fact that players often prioritize acquiring or crafting attack items or upgrading their main carries first. Even when selecting augments, the majority of players tend to lean towards those that offer strong attack effects; if not, they must at least provide a lot of gold or items to upgrade their teams.
However, the truth is that not all augments that provide damage or attack effects are the right choices. In fact, in the professional tournament environment, defensive and healing-oriented augments are prioritized by the experts. Even at the recent Mid-Set Finale by Riot Games, the Customized Armor augment at Silver tier was the most chosen upgrade, despite having a very low pick rate in ranked play. So what is the reason for this paradox? Let’s find out.
First, we need to understand that the number of items each player receives in a single match is limited to 12-14 individual item pieces. This means that in most games, you will only have enough items to fully equip 3 items for 2 champions. Some support items like Tear of the Goddess, Trap Claw… will be crafted for a unit with a versatile nature. In summary, with a standard composition (8 champions at level 8), most of your units will not carry items.
Therefore, the number of champions benefiting from the Customized Armor augment (increasing armor/magic resistance when not carrying items) is extremely high in the late game. Consequently, even support units or those used to “activate traits” still contribute something to the overall strength, at least by increasing durability. Remember that in Teamfight Tactics, no unit possesses overly “useless” skills, so as long as you keep your team alive longer, you will gain a lot more power.
Moreover, the Customized Armor augment is an upgrade that can fit all types of compositions as armor/magic resistance stats are always highly valued. This allows you to have more options when building your team and not be forced into a specific team composition when choosing other augments. With the first augment choice right at round 1-3, you won’t know what champions you will receive in the future. Therefore, choosing augments that are too oriented towards a specific composition is not good at all.
The only issue with the Customized Armor augment is that it doesn’t give players the feeling of significantly strengthening their team, as the stats provided are armor and magic resistance. However, in reality, this augment is extremely strong and weakens the carries of opponents significantly when many of your units possess good defensive stats. It may not provide a satisfying feeling for players, but in fact, it is a very powerful augment and players should choose it as soon as possible.
