With Nidalee’s rise in patch 11.3, the Vanguard team is currently at the top of the Teamfight Tactics meta. However, this has led many to believe that without a suitable Nidalee, it’s impossible to build a strong Vanguard team. This perspective is completely wrong, and the following tips from the top 2 Challenger player in North America – DQA_TFT will help you climb ranks quickly with the Vanguard team, even without a suitable Nidalee.
With the Vanguard team, leveling up is extremely important to increase the odds of upgrading the units in your formation. Remember that the Vanguard effect increases stats based on each round won. Therefore, having many 2-star champions will help the Vanguard team accumulate stats very quickly. The ideal level-up milestones will be:
Level up to 4 at round 2-1.
Level up to 5 at round 2-5.
Level up to 6 at round 3-2.
Level up to 7 at round 3-5 or 4-1.
Once you reach level 7, if you have several 1-star versions of champions like Vi, Jarvan IV, or Katarina, you should adopt a slow roll strategy to upgrade them to 3 stars. Otherwise, you should consistently buy experience to reach levels 8-9 and play around 5-cost champions like Azir and Samira.
For item selection, B.F. Sword and Giant’s Rod are the best items for this team composition. If you are not playing around Nidalee, Katarina will be the main carry, and she needs Hextech Gunblade to deal effective damage. Meanwhile, items built from B.F. Sword can completely transform Tryndamere into a terrifying carry late in the game.
Regarding team composition, players need to achieve the 3 Vanguard combo as soon as possible to create an advantage in health stats and skill damage. Champions like Garen and Jarvan IV are must-buy units at this stage. For Chosen champions, if you get a Vanguard Chosen, you should buy that champion immediately.
In the mid-game, reaching the 6 Vanguard milestone is a crucial power spike to help your team win. You should stay at level 7 as long as possible to upgrade key units like Jarvan IV, Vi, and Katarina to 3 stars. Pyke is also a valuable unit to buy at this stage, providing crowd control for the Vanguard team and increasing Katarina’s damage.
By the late game, in addition to a must-buy Azir, Samira is also a unit that players should invest in. Additionally, if you receive the Battle Banner in the fifth shared selection round, you can consider reaching the 9 Vanguard milestone. At that point, your Katarina will be nearly unstoppable.
To maximize damage, players should not place Katarina on one side of the board as this will limit the impact range of her Death Lotus skill. Unless there are very few opponents left and you want to quickly eliminate an enemy team’s carry.
Counter items against enemy teams like Sword of the Divine and Cloak of Stillness also work very well with the Vanguard team. Vi is a champion you can position very flexibly, so equip those items on her to mitigate the opponent’s strength.
Hopefully, with these tips, players will be able to achieve victory more easily with the Vanguard team.