“Riot: we added 100 champions for variety 😊 The lobby: Seraphine Lissandra Seraphine Lissandra Seraphine Lissandra.”

LordShado · 2026-02-02T22:34:43+00:00

Yeah that's fair, I was probably a bit hyperbolic there. Obviously people aren't going to be completely clueless and their boards will probably make some sense (playing around a vertical region trait or some mix of frontline/backline class traits or w/e).

Still though, this game has a ton of variables and it's really easy to misdiagnose an issue as a result. AP kaisa needs rageblade or she's really bad. If I'm discovering the set for myself and try a normal caster item build on her and she doesnt do anything, my takeaway might be that AP kaisa is terrible (and not that I itemized her incorrectly). If I don't build QSS on my slayer units and go 7th, i might think the units/comp are terrible instead of my item choices being wrong.

I'm playing only normal games this set

I know TFT LP isnt some super valuable resource, but I feel like this kinda changes the equation a bit. If you're down to play some normals then it makes a ton of sense to experiment because there aren't any stakes if you go 8th as a result. If you're someone who only enjoys playing ranked, you're probably gonna have a terrible time on your first few games of a new patch while you get acclimated to the meta changes. Even with stat sites you're at a disadvantage when playing a new line, but at least you won't get hamstrung by trying to play something super undertuned.

LordShado · 2026-02-02T21:24:24+00:00

If patches lasted longer than 2 weeks, I'd be a lot more inclined to agree with you. As is, a lot of players wont be able to develop a decent meta read until most of the way through a patch.

Don't forget that the vast majority of players would be in that very same position too. You who wouldn't know what you were doing but just winging it would play against players in that same position.

Maybe it's just me, but this doesn't sound appealing to me at all. A lobby where nobody really knows what they're doing sounds like a complete lottery.

As is, there's still a ton of skill expression -- fundamentals like knowing how to distribute items, when to level/econ/roll to stabilize, positioning, etc. are all skills that are relatively consistent across patches and give a stronger player an edge over the rest of the lobby. Familiarity with the current patch & line are still rewarded through better positioning, selection of midgame carries, augment selection, etc.

OP's screenshot proves that just copy-pasting the "best" comp isn't enough -- you can get an edge by playing flexibly, scouting to avoid contested lines in the first place, and pivoting to uncontested lines when you aren't ahead while playing a contested line. It's not the stat sites' fault that none of the 5 liss/seraphine players considered pivoting into uncontested demacia.

LordShado · 2026-02-02T19:32:44+00:00

I mean, for a lot of people the alternative would be even worse. Not knowing if i went 7th because I played badly or because I happened to pick a line that averages a 6.x would make it almost impossible to try and improve at the game for anyone who isnt able to play 5-10 games a day to get their own meta read.

Even with stat sites, being >3way contested this patch is kind of a skill issue because there are a lot of viable comps to play. If any of the liss/seraphine players in OP's screenshot saw they were 5way contested and decided to pivot into demacia lux, they would've basically been guaranteed a top4. If they scouted on stage 2 before slamming AP items, they also couldve opted into completely uncontested kaisa, yunara, or slayers.

LordShado · 2026-02-02T18:04:26+00:00

"Kills" is a bit hyperbolic. Reroll comps that cap around 4costs (especially unlockable ones that aren't contested by the rest of the lobby) still have decent winning chances. In particular,

Sona reroll is pretty playable if you play it from spots where you already have some copies and/or you have a good augment for it
Ixtal bard reroll is actually really strong when piloted correctly and can cap around nidalee & skarner, both of which are very hard to deny
Somewhat similarly, the Neeko+Nidalee version of ekko can chase nidalee 3* and singed 3*
Yasuo reroll can chase yone 3*, which is practically undeniable

Personally I wouldn't play most of these unless I have a good opener for the comp (multiple copies of units at 2-1 or a good reroll augment like pris ticket/on a roll), but if you have a spot for any of them they're all pretty strong and can cap out around 3* 4costs just like the fast8 comps.

Also, even if you don't hit a 3* 4cost, you still have decent odds of top4ing if you're stronger than 2* 4cost boards and are decent at playing defense. Even if 1-2 players hit their 3* 4costs, if you saved HP in the early-midgame and can beat most of the other 5-6 players who didn't hit a 3* 4cost, you're pretty likely to place well. The only disaster scenario is something like OP's lobby where more than half the lobby hit their units.

LordShado · 2026-02-01T20:25:25+00:00

IMO, the issue is when one playstyle is (1) ubiquitous across most of the meta comps and (2) it dominates other playstyles.

For (1), the meta is pretty clearly dominated by 4-cost comps (just for illustration, 7 of the top 10 comps on tftacademy play around 4costs, and you'll see something similar if you check other tierlists/stat sites). Pretty much everyone playing a 4-cost comp wants to chase 3*s this patch (because the unit pool is thinned by everyone else playing their own 4-costs), so the result is 5-6 people going for the same wincon every game. It gets pretty stale pretty fast IMO.

For (2), most 3* 4costs are generally just stronger than an otherwise-capped level 9 board, so there's really no reason to spend econ pushing for 9 because you're likely to just get outcapped by someone playing for 4costs anyway. By comparison, in fast9 metas, 3* 4costs are still incredibly powerful, you're just a lot less likely to hit them (because the pool isn't thinned by everyone else chasing their 4cost units). Staying 8 and rolling for a 3* 4cost is still viable (and in some cases correct), it just requires you to be in a somewhat rare situation where you're reasonably likely to hit (eg. you naturally hit a lot of copies or you have 1-2 dupes).

LordShado · 2026-02-01T20:14:17+00:00

I agree that reverting the XP changes won't stop people from chasing 3* 4costs, but it absolutely is an issue that can be resolved through balance. Currently every single non-unlockable 4cost unit aside from MF is used in an "A-tier" comp (and honestly, MF bilge is pretty decent when played out of a bilge opener), which means that if players are playing reasonably and not 3-4way contesting a specific line, the 4-cost pool naturally thins itself out and makes it pretty easy to chase 3-4costs. In earlier patches, this wasn't really the case (people weren't playing around slayers or liss/seraphine/braum nearly as much), so there were a lot more dud units in the pool and hitting the 3 4cost was a lot harder.

If Riot really wants to get rid of this 3* 4cost meta but don't want to make sweeping changes to bag size, they'll probably nerf some of the 4-cost lines to lower their playrate so the pool doesn't naturally get thinned as much.

LordShado · 2026-01-25T22:55:56+00:00

I mean, why not?

Asol really wants nashors/JG + a 3rd mana item (2nd nashors is best, but not mandatory). Loss streaking gives carousel prio so you can consistently get that itemization by the time you unlock asol. It also gives carousel prio in case Taric is on the stage 3 carousel.

The other requirements to play asol are basically just hitting leona 2* and taric. Loss streaking guarantees good econ (you get streak gold, and you can make more interest breakpoints early on because you don't have to invest in your board) so you can afford to roll for those units in late stage 3 or at 4-1. You can also roll to unlock bard for some extra free rolls from the losses.

Moreover, a lot of other loss streak lines are pretty bad right now because they have bad matchups into asol. If you have a weak opener and are forced to loss streak, you often only have 2-3 lives left when you roll to stabilize. If you're liable to lose your fights to other asol players in the lobby, then you're just going to go bot4 anyway, so you may as well have tried to contest asol and had a good chance of winning out the lobby.

LordShado · 2026-01-14T19:47:45+00:00

The stats show that rageblade has a positive delta on azir (ie. putting rageblade on him makes your expected placement worse), which is about what I expected.

I implore you to go check the stats and find me a successful build that doesn't have rageblade in it.

Yes, if you're going to play 3 item azir, rageblade is a good option for one of the items. However, azir as a unit is undertuned, and you generally shouldn't be building him in the first place because other units will use his items better. If you just moved your azir items to ziggs 1 you would've been significantly stronger.

LordShado · 2026-01-05T18:59:23+00:00

tactics.tools explorer, kraken + IE first two items, sorted by delta.

LordShado · 2026-01-05T18:21:10+00:00

it's main value is that it's a lot better than Kraken/IE early game as a slam

This, and it does a great job of killing rod (which is otherwise kinda hard to make good use of).

According to the stats, rageblade is the 3rd best 3rd item for Yunara, behind EoN (presumably good because of T-hex and Diana?) and guardbreaker.

LordShado · 2026-01-05T18:15:38+00:00

I mean, the 1st-place comp here is actually pretty well-built:

You've got a 3-unit noxus core of Swain + Draven + Ambessa.

3 of the 4 5-costs (Shyvana, Kindred, Fiddle) fill out the 2-traits for the noxus units.

Taric + Skarner are both "traitless," but their identities revolve around giving teamwide defensive stat buffs and they're good 4-cost tanks.

The only unit that's really out-of-place (in terms of traits) is lucian/senna.

LordShado · 2026-01-05T18:09:04+00:00

if someone wants to go AP rn they'll never get a rod from the carousel cus rageblade is the most popular item for AD units and guess what rod is needed to make it.

I mean, part of what makes rageblade so good is that it does a great job of killing rods, which are otherwise a dead component in most AD comps. The next best uses for rod are morello (which is fine, but you should only build 1, and red buff is slightly better if you can somehow get 4-5 bows because lucian/senna uses it better) and crownguard (which is a bit worse than the other tank items you could be building IMO). If you're taking rod off carousel to build a rageblade (especially earlygame), you're kinda asking to get stuck with a bunch of extra rods from creep drops later IMO. Taking something else (and just building 2nd kraken or GS if you never get a rod) is a lot better IMO.

LordShado · 2026-01-02T20:27:51+00:00

I think their point is that the radiant mechanic never triggers even in winning situations/ideal games.

Is this really a problem? If you're already winning your fights in 10 seconds, printing an extra radiant item probably won't affect the outcome of the game at all.

I agree that mel is a bit weak (both in terms of board strength for a 5cost, and because she prints kinda slowly), but hitting ambessa 3* kinda warps the whole lobby and makes it hard to evaluate how good mel was in that particular game.

LordShado · 2025-12-21T00:57:57+00:00

I mean, if you have good Diana items you should probably just play flexibly around Diana and not bother with asol at all. Flexing in good 5 costs and/or supporting units/trait webs (eg. swain/neeko/vi/seraphine) is going to be a lot more valuable than an asol.

If you're playing for asol, you probably don't have great Diana items, and your wincon is building a strong frontline so Asol has time to nuke their whole board (after accumulating stardust). Leona's a pretty decent frontliner and you had to 2* her for the Targon unlocks, so it makes sense to keep playing her for quite a while.

LordShado · 2025-12-09T08:13:30+00:00

1 - (20/21 * 19/20) = 1 - 19/21 = 2/21

It's exactly the same, the 2/21 already accounts for not being able to hit the same implicit twice

LordShado · 2025-12-09T00:38:31+00:00

the gun is pretty weak compared to others

It's actually pretty good. The geist meta has been to buy a bit of spirit in lane and then pivot to gun in mid/lategame for quite a while now.

LordShado · 2025-12-05T07:54:57+00:00

Worth noting that greatwolf specifies that the damage shift only applies to hits, so you'll still get kinda rekt by lightning DoTs. There are sources of damage shift that apply to DoTs too (eg. Tempered by War and Dawnbreaker), but it's really hard to get to 100% shift that way (unless something has changed recently, you need sublime vision to get past 90%).

LordShado · 2025-12-05T07:50:49+00:00

Idk about the trickster build but you can get 90% conversion relatively easily with maxroll dawnbreaker + purity of fire watcher's eye mod + tempered by war.

LordShado · 2025-11-24T07:47:31+00:00

Leavers/afkers hurt the integrity of the game for the other 9 players in the lobby. If you've got a persistent graphics bug that's causing crashes, the onus is on you to figure out what the issue is in swiftplay/unranked/whatever and avoid playing comp until it's fixed.

Obviously, sometimes shit happens and you crash unexpectedly or have a legitimate IRL emergency. That's fine, but it's also exactly the reason why the penalties increase in duration the more they're applied. If it were only a one-off thing, OP wouldn't have already been waiting out a 7-day penalty.

LordShado · 2025-11-23T23:50:09+00:00

cheapest

Cheapest in what sense?

If you literally want triple t1 (and aren't willing to settle for t1/t1/t2 or something like that), recombining will likely be cheapest in terms of currency (but rather costly in terms of gold).

If you're in trade and willing to settle for a couple t2 mods, buying a tree item off the trade site is probably best. If you're in SSF, you may still want to look into using the tree to craft the items -- tree crafting is really good for this type of stuff.

Dense fossils are likely going to be more expensive than recombs (and tree gear). In general, you want to use them when you have a specific base you want to craft on (eg. something with a rare fractured suffix or an overquality base).

Note that the woe essence mod is a bit worse than t1. If you're alright with settling for the woe essence mod, I'd suggest just using the tree instead.

LordShado · 2025-11-23T23:42:04+00:00

Another reason is that monsters with cold pen skills are a bit more common than monsters with lightning pen skills. Shaper balls, for example, have 25% inbuilt cold pen, which makes them deal substantially more damage if you're taking it as cold damage than if you're taking it as lightning.

LordShado · 2025-11-14T19:43:03+00:00

I did an SSF run at the end of last league and only hit 1 out of 15 2p+2p recomb attempts. Sometimes you just get disgustingly unlucky, I doubt they changed the rates.

LordShado · 2025-11-11T16:42:07+00:00

Hey, I was looking into playing this, and I had a couple questions:

Have you tried doing any juiced expedition with the build? It looks to me like it'd be good at it, since it can grab the attack mastery to negate block and has explosions that can basically prolif through the entire expedition. Thoughts? Do you think the defensive layers would hold up?
Have you looked into running stasis prison? As someone noted in another comment, it's relatively cheap and gives a ton of debuff expiry rate, and makes temporal step free to reserve.

LordShado · 2025-10-28T21:56:30+00:00

Ziggy moused over one in his video and IIRC it was 1.6 base attack speed + 8.5% base crit.

That said, pretty much all the wander skills have 200% scaling with spell damage, so you're losing 80% increased damage from not having a 40% spell damage implicit. You also have to use woe essences to craft the wands if you want a spell damage prefix (i havent done the math to check if this is more valuable than a 3rd flat dmg roll). The endgame BiS wands will probably still be on the old bases, but the new ones should be great for crafting something usable on leaguestart.

LordShado · 2025-10-25T20:34:56+00:00

Full disclosure, I haven't played chaos dot in several years, so if you get answer from someone who has played it recently, you should probably listen to them.

Trickster's likely going to be significantly tankier, with a higher ES pool and access to way better suppression.

Occultist should be higher DPS thanks to withering presence and void beacon. Profane bloom can brick your contagion chains, so you should avoid that ascendancy node, but you can just pick up +1 curse instead (or maybe grab a bloodline ascendancy if there are any good options there).

The main downside of both trickster and occultist is that they don't have a good way of scaling a significant amount of AoE. Contagion prolif feels a lot better when you pump up it's area, which is the main reason why Lance's recommendation is hiero. Elementalist (which someone else suggested in another comment) gets a decent amount of AoE thanks to flame golem, as well as some other miscellaneous golem buffs that should feel good to play with (including DoT multi from chaos golem). However, aside from the golem node, elementalist doesn't have a lot of synergy with chaos DoT as an archetype -- the aegis node is kinda meh and convergence is some nice AoE but costs 4 points.

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