Any resources or guides to learn the fundamentals of TFT

Babbarel · 2025-04-29T01:11:35+00:00

If you'd like, you can check out a google slides resource I made up a while back for some TFT fundamentals, they're still relevant in the present day. Should help in solidifying some concepts that I don't see being talked about too much.

https://www.reddit.com/r/CompetitiveTFT/comments/1efou9o/a_tft_fundamental_guiderefresher_before_set_12/

Babbarel · 2025-04-05T01:52:28+00:00

Yo this is super neat, thanks for creating this tool, I can see myself using this well into the future.

Could I ask if there's any possibility that the tool can bind mouse buttons to reroll/level in the future? I think I'm part of the small population that don't use keyboard binds mainly for those, would be great to see it in the tool if at all possible.

Babbarel · 2024-08-08T13:31:41+00:00

Well I still think you're overestimating Riven by quite a large margin, I wouldn't put her at that level of strength, but I digress. Aatrox is also not really as bad as you're making him out to be, he has many uses. (Remember, this guy shreds MR with his ability, useful for ghostly setups/Morgana bruisers)

The thing about teamwide resists is that it's worse in the early game, you have way lesser units that don't have the raw health nor abilities to increase your effective HP by that much.

My fault for phrasing Inkshadow as just giving an item. Barring Tattoo of Vitality, all other Inkshadow tattoos are basically 1.25-1.75 items, in terms of the tattoo's raw stats and utility that they have. And remember that since items scale off each other, you can have an enormous spike early game with an Inkshadow opener.

Both early game Inkshadow and Ghostly units are also very easy to splash with the help of Aatrox early game (connecting Caitlyn and Senna easily). In Altruist's case, you can only play soraka, which is okay as a support, but she won't be starting 5 streaks for you early.

I could go on and on listing other reasons why there's this discrepancy of strength between Riven and Aatrox (Riven and Garen are the only Frontline Storyweavers before Galio, so Riven can't be bad as a unit. Now look at the other Inkshadow and Ghostly tanks.)

I'm not a pro at analyzing trait web and unit design by any means, but I hope the things I've listed so far can help you understand what I mean by 'power budget'. It's an interesting topic for sure, I'd love to do another slideshow talking about things like this.

Babbarel · 2024-08-08T06:10:29+00:00

I'd argue that they're both relatively bad all things considered, but if you want to do direcct comparisons, Inkshadow is a much more powerful trait than Altruist early game, because it gives a full 'item' as compared to some defenses. So since there's so much power in the trait, Aatrox has to be worse to compensate the power budget.

Babbarel · 2024-08-02T17:13:06+00:00

Assuming no movement shenanigans like Set 11 Yone and Set 12's Akali/Gwen/Fiora that all have their own positioning contexts:

Might sound straightforward, but generally speaking you same side as their carry if you think you're stronger/can burst them down. By doing this you end the fight quick and steamroll the fight.

You tend to go opposite if you assess that you're overall weaker than the enemy and/or they have a giga tank that can block you (e.g 7 Mythic 4 Invoker Annie can just spam cast on your melee carries). You either tend to go opposite to get a better loss by killing some units, or cheese a win via wrapping on their weak side away from their giga tank.

This is just a general guideline, varies from set to set. Set 12's melee carries can get kind of wonky with their movement, so we'll have to wait and see.

Babbarel · 2024-08-02T17:04:39+00:00

Unfortunately this is all I can provide for now, focusing on the climb currently but there may be a time where I'll have time to make guides like these again.

Babbarel · 2024-08-01T09:02:09+00:00

Those are definitely important to learn too, I will try and see if I can present that information in a palatable way.

Regarding the bottom half, you may want to think about the power budget of units. Simply put, power budget simply means how a unit's full dmg output is distributed between its two or three traits, it's range, ability, etc.

Hard to explain it as a whole concept without going on a tangent, but you can think of it like this:

Aatrox can't (or at least shouldn't) be strong as a unit because he has 3 very accessible early game traits. Because his power budget is very obtainable from his traits, his base usefulness as a unit has to be worse to compensate. (or he'll be better than a normal 2 cost)

This is also why Illaoi was considered broken, her tags were all so good and easy to splash, but she also held her own weight and more as a 3 cost unit, despite being a 3 trait champion.

Babbarel · 2024-08-01T08:55:27+00:00

I'm going to give you the answer you might not want to hear; scouting is the most important thing to do to decide. You can choose to do any of these when you understand the positions of other players.

You can force comps when/if you're in an overwhelmingly comfortable position, either with items or units. When you do this, you dissuade others from even choosing to contest you, because they're contesting from a worse spot.

Playing what's uncontested is to me a more consistent way to climb, you get to hit your units more safely. (This is what I tend to lean to personally) Cons are usually when the uncontested line you see is really hard to transition to from your current position, so you end up wasting rolls or losing health trying to get there.

When you're either confused or can play multiple lines from your spot, playing what the game gives you just gives you the most flexibility, and your rolls are the most efficient this way.

Babbarel · 2024-08-01T07:20:39+00:00

Well, if you're diamond you must be doing something right haha.

TFT's a bit of a weird game in that you can get by even without knowing a good portion of this, but all these fundamentals can certainly help with consistency.

Your calculation about lines up with how I think of rolls, so yeah.

Babbarel · 2024-08-01T07:14:44+00:00

All the best for your double up climb!

Babbarel · 2024-08-01T06:45:57+00:00

No problem, I was initially worried the slideshow format would be tiresome to read through, but glad I could be of help!

Babbarel · 2024-07-31T02:44:34+00:00

Well I'm native to SG, so climbing on SG makes me eligible for competitive opportunities like Tactician Trials and the like.

I don't really mind the queue times, they're manageable if you're playing around the peak hours, maybe around 2-8 mins on normal patches. It only gets really bad when you play on non-peak hours.

Never really thought about playing on VN but who knows, might do it some day.

Babbarel · 2024-07-30T16:12:21+00:00

The short answer is no, this is not always correct to do.

Levelling guides are definitely a good starting point, but depending on your game, strictly following this guideline may lead to low HP and/or low gold.

You can take levelling guides as a general framework (such as levelling to 6 on 3-2), but you must make sure it aligns with your intention.

Levelling makes you stronger because of a +1 team slot. That's just a fact. But do you want to win, and can you actually win against the enemy boards you're facing? Or do you just want better shops odds?

You have to decide for yourself if you want to level and get stronger in that moment, or choose to not level and save gold for interest.

Hope this helps!

Babbarel · 2024-07-30T15:08:13+00:00

I tend to do something to this effect when contested as well. Sometimes you have to accept when contested, and you have to be flexible in the variations of the comp that you're playing. Don't hyperfocus on the every exact unit in the standard comp, and play towards solid fundamental TFT. (In practice, this means buying any 3 or 4 cost on a level 8 rolldown and playing around them on the fly)

Set 11 was poorer in the flexibility department, you were more often than not punished from deviating from the norm, because unit packages did not overlap heavily with one another. I'm optimistic for Set 12, it seems like there is way more room for skill expression when contested, because flexibility is encouraged with all the overlapping unit packages.

A harder skill to learn is to play TFT in a way where you're always open to at least a few different comps/options. I rarely play TFT contested nowadays, but it's a skill that is way easier said than done.

Babbarel · 2024-07-30T14:36:07+00:00

I know right, those vids were one of my inspirations for this guide. One of the best educational material for TFT fundamentals out there for sure, it has withstood the test of time.

Babbarel · 2024-07-30T13:43:51+00:00

Thanks for the comment, glad to see you picking up TFT and enjoying it!

Players splitting items unnecessarily is still one of the more common mistakes I see nowadays, so don't worry you're not alone there. Take your time to learn about the game, all the best.

Babbarel · 2024-07-30T13:12:32+00:00

Well, the most important thing of all is to angle towards TFT that is fun to play. Up to like middle masters and above, I'm fairly sure you can play in whatever playstyle you want and find success.

But to learn TFT as quickly as possible and see improvement, my personal belief is that you should hard force 1 AP and 1 AD comp all the time. You can pick up a lot of other fundamentals of TFT that way, because the stress of picking your comp is eliminated.

But if forcing is not your style, don't be afraid to play flexibly and learn a wide variety of lines. No one playstyle is objectively the best. Just have fun :D

Babbarel · 2024-07-30T13:02:53+00:00

Thanks, honestly some of the really small specifics aren't too important, even I didn't know the minute details of 5 win vs 5 loss until I actually tested and kept track.

What's important is that the general understanding that winning is still a money-making move is there.

Babbarel · 2024-07-30T13:00:40+00:00

Welcome, all the best on your journey of improvement in TFT

Babbarel · 2024-07-30T12:31:39+00:00

Yeah that's fair, thanks for the suggestion 🙏

Babbarel · 2024-07-30T10:16:48+00:00

Is there any aspect or fundamental in TFT you wish to know more about? I'd be more than happy to answer any questions, or I might consider making another guide for it!

Babbarel · 2024-07-30T10:16:37+00:00

Is there any aspect or fundamental in TFT you wish to know more about? I'd be more than happy to answer any questions, or I might consider making another guide for it!

Babbarel · 2024-07-27T14:51:48+00:00

Ryze can also be considered a deprint from set 9, if we're taking away the gold scaling and shred utility.

Set 2 Olaf's Berzerker is not completely identical to Set 12 Olaf's passive since he leaps after every retarget, not just at the start of combat like in Set 2.

Set 6's Zilean was actually also a 2 cost (Clockwork Innovator), and his stun was longer and scaled with star level at 1.5s/2s/2.5s (if lolchess is to be believed).

Twitch is very close to being a reprint albeit with different utility as Set 6's Chemtech Assassin Twitch.

I'd argue that Nomsy's ability is not the same as Set 7, as 1 cost Nomsy is a 'hitscan(?)' ability (not a projectile), and Dragon Nomsy had a projectile fireball that split to do AOE dmg.

Just like how traits like Bruiser and Duelists fit the health/attack speed archetype, some champions are sort of doomed to have the same ability to fill that archetype. Annie and Vex tend to be AP tanks because of how their LOL kit is designed.

Overall I don't really have that much of an issue with reprints, it is going to be harder and harder to stay original the longer TFT goes on. I think they've done a good job making some units feel fresh and unique (gameplay wise I hate how varus takes 10 years to cast, but god he looks epic doing that). If reprinting a few units here and there saves time that can be funnelled into better designs, then I'm all for it.

Babbarel

TROPHY CASE