4-cost champions are arguably the most important class in Teamfight Tactics specifically and the autobattle genre in general. These champions possess great power, capable of carrying entire compositions with high damage output, strong crowd control, or excellent durability. Moreover, they are not as hard to obtain as 5-cost champions and can be upgraded to 2 or even 3 stars quite easily.
In Season 3 of Teamfight Tactics, this class also houses some of the strongest carries like Jhin, Kayle, Irelia, or highly versatile champions like Cho’Gath or Soraka. Jinx is also part of this class, and she is considered the most important carry unit for the Brawler – Gunner composition. Many players were extremely excited about Jinx’s return to Teamfight Tactics.
However, according to Mortdog, the lead designer of “Luck-based Chess”, Jinx is currently the worst champion among 4-cost champions. This is quite unreasonable since the Brawler – Gunner composition is top-tier; why is the team’s carry so weak?
A player asked: “Do you have any plans to buff Wukong? He seems to be the weakest 4-cost champion.”
Riot Mortdog: “Actually, that’s not true. In our last check, the two weakest champions among the 4-cost class were Cho’Gath and Jinx.”
While this may sound quite unreasonable, the actual numbers that Riot Games has don’t lie; Jinx is significantly weaker than she was in Season 1. If you haven’t noticed, the truth is that in the Brawler – Gunner composition, the two units that consistently deal the most damage are Lucian and Miss Fortune. Jinx is at a disadvantage because she requires too many conditions to be strong; of course, very few ideal scenarios occur.
For Jinx, the first important thing is the items; you need at least one main damage item, one effect item to take advantage of the Gunner’s effect, and one defensive item; lacking any of these is a disaster. This relies heavily on luck, as the items dropped from the monster rounds are random, the items in the shared draft aren’t always suitable, and if they are, you also have to compete with many other players.
Additionally, in this season, we only have 4 Brawlers, one of which is nothing but a meat shield, Malphite. Remember that in Season 1 we had up to 6 Brawlers, and even Warwick, a 1-cost champion, had crowd control. This means that the tank line for Jinx to shoot is not as thick anymore, and the Brawler champions themselves do not deal enough damage to soften opponents before Jinx can finish them off, leading to the common situation where the tank line dies before Jinx can deal damage, resulting in her poor performance stats.
Perhaps players should adopt a different mindset when playing Brawler – Gunner after Mortdog’s insights. You can completely focus items on Lucian and get him to 3 stars, use Graves, and completely skip Jinx, then level up directly to 8 and roll for Miss Fortune. We still have enough Gunners, the damage remains strong, and we can bring them out immediately instead of waiting too long like with Jinx.
