Mutants
After a period of balancing adjustments and numerous buffs, Mutants have become one of the most popular team compositions in Teamfight Tactics. The reason is that Riot’s adjustments have made the Mutant effects balanced and not overly powerful. Therefore, players can utilize a Mutant team in almost any match, regardless of the effects present in that game. Even some effects like Superscience and Omnivore have become excessively strong.
Therefore, in the upcoming patch 12.8, Riot Games will significantly nerf the two effects mentioned above, as the defensive and offensive stats they provide will be heavily reduced. Additionally, Kha’Zix will also receive a substantial nerf in damage, which will greatly weaken the Mutant team in the later stages. It seems Riot Games wants Mutants to no longer be a versatile composition from start to finish, which is why they are implementing a series of nerf adjustments.
Recyclers
Alongside Mutants, Recyclers are also an extremely powerful race that Riot has to tone down to make the “luck-based” gameplay more balanced. The dominance of Recyclers comes from their ability to provide substantial shields while also “hacking items” to give the composition both high damage and resilience without consuming many resources. As a result, teams built around Recyclers are exceptionally strong in the early game, while still not weak at the end.
The solution Riot has proposed is to nerf the shield stats of Recyclers and key units of this race in patch 12.8. With Ekko, the ability to reduce the attack speed of opponents will be heavily nerfed. Meanwhile, Jinx will see a significant reduction in skill damage at the first two levels, making it less viable to build damage items on her. It seems that compositions using the 4 Recycler threshold will become considerably weaker in the upcoming patch 12.8.
Assassins
Although there are no direct nerfs to damage or critical stats, if you pay close attention, the counters to Assassins have been significantly buffed in patch 12.8. First, the healing ability of the Chemtech race has received a substantial buff from having 5 or more champions. Next, the two races – classes capable of creating strong shields, Sorcerers and Tech, have also been strengthened. Clearly, when Assassins cannot quickly eliminate these compositions, they are likely to fall into a losing situation.
Moreover, the unpredictability of the Assassin team led by Ekko has also been nerfed in his ability to slow down opponents’ attack speed, making it harder for this team composition to counter the opponents’ main damage dealers. In fact, the main damage output in the late game from Kha’Zix has also been nerfed, so the Assassin team will face significant difficulties in the upcoming update. In summary, in a meta where many strong counters are emerging, while Assassins are weakening, players need to think carefully before using this team composition.