In recent patches, melee carries in Teamfight Tactics have been significantly overshadowed by their ranged counterparts. Units like Lucian, Aphelios, and Kayle are dominating the meta with their incredible damage output, safe damage range, and comprehensive protection. Meanwhile, melee carries are gradually being pushed out of the meta, with only a few champions managing to hold their ground.
The first reason for this disadvantage is the direct impact from Riot Games. They have nerfed many viable melee carry champions in Teamfight Tactics, making it difficult for them to compete with other units. Names like Riven, Yasuo, Nidalee, and recently the Assassin composition have all suffered heavy nerfs, affecting both their damage and durability stats.
Moreover, most melee carries in the current fifth season cost 1-3 gold (except for Jax). The lower cost comes with a weaker 2-star power level compared to more expensive champions. If players want those carry champions to be capable of carrying the team, upgrading them to 3 stars becomes the only option. While this may sound easy, rolling for champions to reach 3 stars is incredibly challenging in actual gameplay, resulting in players easily losing health and being eliminated early if they aren’t lucky enough.
Another disadvantage for melee carries in the fifth season is the extremely low number of 4-gold champions of this type, with only Jax available. In contrast, in season 3, players had two relatively strong options: Riven and Irelia. Moving to season 4, Olaf, Tryndamere, and Talon were all incredibly strong melee carries. The lack of variety among melee carries in season 5 has left players with limited options to “pivot” their team compositions, making their strategies very predictable.
Besides subjective factors such as being nerfed and the low number of champions, the prevalence of Rell and the Armored tribe has also diminished the influence of melee carries. What a damage-over-time unit fears the most is crowd control effects. Coincidentally, Rell can create shields, stun widely, and easily interrupt the damage output of melee carries. Therefore, using melee carries in the current meta is extremely risky.
The consequence of melee carries gradually disappearing from the meta is that Teamfight Tactics is becoming boring. Currently, almost every match features players using Aphelios, Lucian, and Kayle as carries, sometimes with a player using Vel’Koz. Matches are becoming too predictable, and other units, although not weak, are often overlooked because they cannot compete with those champions.
Essentially, there is just over a month left in the fifth season of Teamfight Tactics. Therefore, we cannot hope too much that Riot will completely resolve the issues facing melee carries at this time. We hope that Riot will recognize this imbalance and not let it continue into the upcoming sixth season.
