Although victory in Teamfight Tactics often leans towards those who are luckier or have stronger champions in the early meta of the game, if you maximize your abilities, you can still use your skills to outplay the “luck” of others.
Here are some basic yet incredibly useful tips for climbing ranks:
Use Gold Purposefully and Effectively
First is to use your gold purposefully; this is one of the most fundamental things to know if you don’t want to waste your gold unnecessarily. If you want to buy experience, you should plan ahead for what you will level up for. You might level up to add another champion to the board to activate a certain trait, or to increase the chances of finding 3-4-5 cost champions, or to maintain a winning streak and earn extra gold… If you don’t have a specific goal, it’s best to save your gold to reach 50 instead of buying experience impulsively, which may leave you without either a winning or losing streak.
Secondly, regarding effective money usage, if you want to buy experience, you can refer back to the above point. If you want to roll, there are several things you should consider beforehand to avoid wasting gold: Check other players’ boards to see if they have the champions you want to roll and how many of them. Since the number of champions available in each match is limited (for example, 29 1-cost champions, 22 2-cost champions, 16 3-cost champions, 12 4-cost champions, and 10 5-cost champions), it’s very difficult to buy a champion that has appeared frequently in other players’ boards, except in cases where a Neeko’s item is used.
Another point regarding rolling champions, for example, if you want to roll for Jhin, during the rolling process, you should temporarily buy other 4-cost champions like Wukong, Fizz, Jinx,… to increase the chances of finding Jhin.
Continuously Check Other Players’ Compositions
In the current meta, there are many nearly unbeatable compositions that everyone wants to use. As a result, many players share champions and “die together” in frustration. To avoid being “cleaned out” of champions, it’s best to check if anyone is playing a similar composition to you before deciding whether to stick with your current composition or pivot to another one. One of the worst things you can do is to “copy the composition” of the top player, as it’s simply very difficult to roll against a player who has the strongest winning streak and the most health.
In Teamfight Tactics, even with the same composition, different arrangements can yield different results. You should check the compositions of other players and arrange your team in the most reasonable way possible. If there are few opponents left, you can use an elimination method, as if there are more than 3 people left, the chances of encountering the same player twice in a row are nearly zero (unless you encounter their shadow). You can arrange your composition to avoid the strengths of other opponents, such as Blitzcrank, Silent Cloak, or Infinity Edge,… thereby countering them effectively.
Equip Appropriate Items for Your Carry
Even for the same carry champion, depending on the composition, we can build different items. For instance, many players use 3-star Xin Zhao + Thornmail, Garen + Thornmail, Cho’Gath + Thornmail,… which are extremely tanky and can block critical damage. At this time, if you are using Jhin, you should build a Green Bow instead of a Infinity Edge. Additionally, based on the strength of your composition, you should equip the necessary items for Jhin; if you have 6 Timekeepers, you should add lifesteal items; if you have 6 Shadow or several Universes, you should add attack speed items,… to make your carry as effective as possible.
Knowing early what items your carry needs, you can give those items to a “temporary” champion, such as giving items to Caitlyn before transferring them to Jhin, or giving items to Graves before Miss Fortune,… to maintain health and win streaks early on.