With reasonable thinking and keeping up with the meta, players of Teamfight Tactics can quickly climb to Gold – Platinum ranks quite easily. However, the story changes when trying to transition to Diamond and beyond. Many players find themselves stuck in a frustrating cycle of ups and downs, guarding the Diamond gate with a series of alternating wins and losses.
If you find yourself in this situation, check if you are making any of the following “seemingly minor but significant” mistakes.
Focusing too much on damage traits while neglecting support traits
Many players make the mistake of maximizing all the damage traits of their main champions, such as 6 Assassins or 6 Dark Stars. However, in reality, players should adapt to each match and include defensive traits like Mystic or Vanguard, especially in the current context where Syndra and Shaco are still very strong.
Using gold incorrectly, not adapting to the situation
This is also a reason why some players have played many ranked games but still cannot escape low ranks. As we know, Teamfight Tactics has a mechanism similar to other Auto Battle games regarding earning extra gold after each round, called Gold Interest – which helps you gain an additional 10% on your gold based on how much you have after each round.
Therefore, if you buy champions randomly and roll too many times, or simply hoard gold to maximize interest, you are making a mistake. This directly affects your team’s fighting power, leading to inevitable losses. There are certain times you need to spend all your gold, such as the early game. This is the time when you still have little gold, and you should use it to level up or upgrade a 1-cost champion to maintain your rank. On the other hand, some team compositions need to hyper roll like Guardian – Star Guardian, Assassin – Rebel, while others may require slow roll like Mech Pilot, Sniper… This requires players to understand which phases to save money and when to spend.
Always dreaming of a “dream team” and refusing to adapt
Building a “Dream Team” is always a player’s aspiration, but not every match will allow that. In strategy games, this can change based on circumstances and numerous factors, especially after minor updates or major patches, where heroes’ strengths fluctuate and various traits change.
For example, if you prefer Dark Star but can’t roll for Shaco and see many Vanguard champions, you should switch to a Vanguard – Marksman build. Or if you want to play a Sniper Brawler composition but Irelia shows up early, don’t hesitate to pivot to Cybernetic, as it might be a strong carry for you.
Equipping items at the wrong time or on the wrong champions, sometimes too hastily and other times too late
Just as important as rolling champions, understanding item stats and using them appropriately will determine the effectiveness of the units on the battlefield. To grasp this, you need to be familiar with champion types, basic stats, and item passives at different stages of the match.
Items in the early, mid, and late game will differ significantly if you equip them correctly according to the champion type. In the first three rounds, the Rift Herald, Wolves, and Rock Monsters have a good drop rate for items, and if you’re too eager to equip items, you might end up needing to sell those champions later without being able to reclaim the items. Furthermore, with completed items, you should avoid doing this as well because once they are equipped to a champion, they cannot be removed, resulting in losing a valuable item. Thus, being behind and losing will just be a matter of time.
Additionally, many champions or compositions require specific items to ensure maximum strength. For instance, Jhin needs Infinity Edge and Guardian Angel… Some players often wait to complete their entire team and perfect items before combining them; however, a piece of advice is to use substitute champions to combine items (Caitlyn holding items for Jhin, Lucian holding items for Jinx…) to help maintain health effectively and quickly. Choose some essential items like “needed for any team” such as Guardian Angel, Morello’s Evil Tome, or Infinity Edge to complete first and maintain your winning streak.
Always trying to upgrade too many champions to 3 stars, resulting in losing too much income
There’s no denying that having 3-star champions significantly boosts your team’s power. However, getting a champion to 3 stars requires many criteria such as gold, health, current level, and especially luck. Many players greedily roll important champions to 3 stars, causing their gold reserves to dwindle, losing the opportunity to level up and rank high. Currently, only the Guardian – Star Guardian composition requires many 3-star champions; for other compositions, you can efficiently save gold and level up.
Determining your composition from the first rounds
Some players, upon acquiring any champion, always aim for a specific composition centered around that champion. For example, if you pick Shaco with a BF Sword in the shop, you might only focus on building around this champion with Dark Star or Pilot, thus missing better opportunities from other 2-star champions. Many players make this mistake, and in the end, Shaco doesn’t even reach 2 stars, and the Dark Star front line doesn’t appear, not to mention that the subsequent rounds are filled with Bloodthirster and Tears, leading to a series of losses.
Selling 2-star champions to equip items for 1-star main champions
Sacrificing low-tier 2-star champions to obtain items for high-tier 4-5 gold main champions that are only 1-star will come at a cost. Your current team may become weaker since your main champion is only 1-star and will take a long time to roll up. Therefore, don’t be foolish enough to make such an unworthy sacrifice!
Not checking opponent formations and rigidly arranging your team
This mistake is still common among many players, even among experienced ones. By analyzing the opponents’ formations, we should be more flexible in choosing our build and arranging our positions for the champions.
For instance, don’t stubbornly try to face off against a Star Guardian if the other player has a well-equipped Syndra while you haven’t even rolled Zoe up to 2 stars. Or if you face a 3-star Shaco with full items, take full advantage of the counter potential from Infinity Edge… the results can sometimes be very surprising.