In Season 5, one of the mechanisms that attracts players to Teamfight Tactics is the introduction of a series of Dark Equipment. With the theme of the Great Decay, these items are also “cursed” by the Black Mist and when the owner uses them, alongside the benefits, they also require certain “trade-offs”. For example, the Dark Blue Buff can provide 50 mana at once provided the owner’s health drops below 60%…
However, this is what players receive when the official version is launched. Recently, Riot Mortdog – the “father” of TFT announced on his personal Twitter the first design of a series of Dark Equipment, some of which have become highly contested items like the Deep Dark Blue Buff, the Dark Blood Sword, and the Dark Morello’s Tome…
It can be seen that compared to the official version, the first design versions of the Dark Equipment are mostly detrimental. For example, while the Dark Morello’s Tome doubles the burn effect and anti-heal, it reduces the damage from the owner’s skills to 0, or the Deep Dark Blue Buff gives 200 true damage but after the second use, the skill cannot be used anymore, although 100 mana is restored. Or the Fallen Guardian Angel can revive 3 times but each time only restores 250 health, totaling about 750 health, which definitely cannot withstand if the opponent has critical hit items…
It is clear that if these initial designs were actually applied, the aforementioned items would likely be less favored than they once were. For instance, LeBlanc, who once dominated TFT with the “Chain God” playstyle, being unable to cast skills would be considered self-destructive, or the Dark Blood Sword that was attached to Draven to heal more, with the initial mechanism increasing damage but after 10 seconds it would stop healing and lose 10% health each second thereafter, almost no one would use it anymore because while it deals high damage, it would be very difficult to last long if it self-sustains.
Anyway, these designs have not come to fruition and now we have moved to Season 5.5, but surely many players have breathed a sigh of relief because Mortdog did not “self-destruct” LeBlanc or bring the first version of the Dark Morello’s Tome into use.