TFT patch 16.5

Arcanist verticals have vanished from lobbies, with just a trace of their spark appearing in vertical Demacia comps. We’re buffing Arcanist’s later breakpoint while bringing down the (2) as well as vertical Demacia just a tad to allow more AP variations to fight for the number one spot.

We’ve got decent sized nerfs to the two Ixtal quests that are just too good. The player Health quest was too easily activated by swapping out of Ixtal after selecting it, then swapping back in after going below 30 Health.

With the new League of Legends season, Atakahn has been removed from Summoner’s Rift, but there’s no need for him to be absent in Noxus (5) as well. Atakhan’s getting a big buff at (5), especially for his mid and late-game.

As a general trend, we’re buffing 2 and 3-cost reroll comps to bring these strategies up to par with 4 and 5-cost carries.

Graves, Orianna, and Rek’Sai are all strong units that fall off once they hit three stars. We’re giving relatively large buffs to their three-star form, but for Orianna, who is really strong at one and two-stars already, we’re lowering her power until she can get to that three-star point.

We’re buffing three AD reroll champions that love Darkin Scythe especially when three-starred, so to make sure these comps can be viable without it—we will be nerfing the Artifact that was previously the only way these comps have been able to succeed.

With our 2-cost buffs we’re also shipping a few 3-cost buffs, also with a focus on their three-star form.

If there’s one champion that has been Jinxed this set it’s… Jinx. With bugs that have hurt her damage output and generally being an unreliable 3-cost carry, Jinx has struggled all set.

Leona, Malzahar, and Zoe all aren’t worth three-starring. Even if you’ve got Double Trouble Malzahar or hit a three-star, you’re mostly playing for fourth.

While Vayne can perform well in the mid-game, she’s fallen off as of late, which raises an alarm in a world where Demacia is quite strong. We’ve got a three-star buff for her that can hopefully have her tumbling into comps near you.

We’re happy with the power of our 4-costs overall with a few exceptions. Bel’Veth seems to be the winner of the patch for consistency, but not by that much, so we’re targeting her ability to rack up bursts of Attack Speed as she gets kills.

With Bel’Veth down, we’ve got our second place 4-cost, Yunara, whose hybrid-scaling has led to specific best-in-slot builds that we’d like to be a bit more flexible. Her AP scaling means Titan’s Resolve is often one of her best third items because the AP it grants allows her to get more Attack Speed and cast even more often. Yunara was always meant to be an AD/AS carry, so we’re moving her AP scaling off of the bonus Attack Speed and into additional damage, with the hopes that a higher flat AS buff on her ability will allow her to build a more situational third item like Giantslayer, Kraken’s, or even Red Buff if you need the burn.

Last patch we buffed Aatrox’s Omnivamp scaling to make him better with the Bloodthirsters you typically build to unlock him, but it wasn’t enough to push the BTs into his core build. We’re following up with more of the same this time, so this Darkin can have brighter days with the back half of our patch.

We’ve fixed a bug with Mel that allowed her to die and still build Mana towards her Radiant Item cashout. In fixing that we’ve inadvertently nerfed her, so we’re lowering the mana required in the hopes that a few mana items and an early two-star Ambessa can get you further than, well, that two-star Ambessa.

With his chains loosened, a freshly freed Sylas still isn’t hitting the mark we want for a 7-cost that is so hard to access. We’re making his worst cast (Cataclysm from Jarvan IV) hit much harder, while also upping his Attack Speed so once he casts it, he can get out of his now-compromised position with another cast.

We’ve got another list of changes for T-Hex that are aimed to allow him to cast more than once, hit his primary target very very hard when doing so, and not accidentally snipe backliners in the process. These changes may also allow for some new pilot cooks, but as with the last patch (and the one before), it’s still not best to run three-star Caitlyn as the pilot.

The bulk of our Augment changes are buffs this time around as we focus on lifting some of our struggling combat Augments, and our harder to play ones (Dummify, Secrets of the Sands).

Past a heavy list of buffs we do have a few nerfs, one for our Prismatic Trials of Twilight which released too strong, even as a Prismatic. And another nerf for Solo Leveling which excels with continued optimization.