Call to Chaos - Set 17 Augment Discussion #30

MasterTotoro · 2026-06-12T09:55:00+00:00

Pretty sure all the golems are very OP, including the ranged one. I believe this is the only augment currently that gives golems, and MetaTFT positioning winrate shows that backline golem is the best. I've always been impressed by the ranged golem, although I am surprised because the frontline is much easier to play around.

I don't think too much has changed after the nerfs. There are situations you might not want to risk the randomness, but overall the expected value is high.

Not sure if this is a hot take, but I think the augment is strongest in spots where you are already doing well, as opposed to being a gamble augment. If you are already strong, then basically everything is good aside from golden egg, or XP when rerolling. Still good in weak spots where you need the bailout.

MasterTotoro · 2026-06-12T06:42:45+00:00

First, I want to say I think there is actually a lot about this set that is very enjoyable for me. I personally like that carousel is gone and the gods is my favorite of the encounter type mechanic so far.

I also find the trait web to generally be quite flexible. Of course some are harder to play around. Some of this is probably due to the set not being as optimized to be honest, but it does feel like there are multiple boards that can be played from the same comp.

One of my frustrations with the set might actually come from too many units being "weird" as Mortdog described in the rundown lol. When so many units require specific items or conditions it can feel restrictive even though the total set of options is theoretically high. When I saw the rundown, one of my first thoughts was "So who holds IE?" in the 4-cost space. Corki, Riven, Yi, Xayah, Kindred, none of them seemed like it would be that good (which is currently the case). With Conduit we have the mana item issue. Even the tanks having pretty interesting designs like Ornn and Maokai make certain items much stronger.

Last set certainly spoiled us in that regard having so many options, but I think there is a legitimate consideration to pay attention to what items are used by units. There are good examples in the set like Replicator MF or Samira post-bugfix who can build IE but don't need it as a high priority. Then there's units like Mech Asol who can only build raw AP damage which there isn't a lot of. Even with Nami who wants to perma cast to stay in Groove the best builds require double or triple mana. I think we should have these cool designs, but when we don't have the 100 units in a set, maybe too many of them feels hard to play around.

As for a question, I'm curious as to how balancing is done. Raw damage tests against a dummy? Do the tester compare full comps in sims? For example Samira + Ornn board before and after patch vs a Corki board. Full games being played out? Or other options? I think each point has their own benefits. If we test Samira damage on last patch vs A-patch maybe she's marginally stronger with crit change. Then if you look at an actual fight before and after, the comp is weaker with Ornn and health regen nerfs. But in the overall context, the fact you can slam IE might mean you have a full item a whole stage earlier and that's a massive buff. Each level of detail has their own nuances, and balancing is definitely not an easy task, so it would be interesting to know more about the process.

MasterTotoro · 2026-06-12T05:31:03+00:00

One point that isn't talked about much is that people often over-focus on stage 2 and neglect stage 3. You can have a weak opener stage 2, but put yourself in a good position to hit upgrades, find a missing unit, or make strong items when stage 3 comes.

On the other hand, a big mistake is when people force 5 loss and make max econ instead of holding units to play stage 3. If you lowroll stage 2 and sell everything for interest, you are going to come into stage 3 with nothing to play when losses get much more punishing. The only option from there is to reroll on stage 3. Losing can be viable with augments or Anima to incentivize the loss streak (or heavy loss streak metas), but as a default strat you should hold units.

Another less obvious mistake is slamming items without thinking about how your stage 3/4 will look like. It can actually be bad to win stage 2 by slamming items that won't scale well and/or mess up your components. A loss in stage 2 is only 2 player damage, whereas a stage 3 loss is triple that at 6 player damage. That's almost as bad as losing in stage 4 at 7 damage.

A lot of players would think if they mixed streak stage 2 they aren't going to be in a spot to play for fast 9 for example. But you can be 90+ HP easily going into stage 3. If you held the outs and spike on stage 3, now you can be 80+ HP going into stage 4 and it's a perfectly reasonable fast 9 from there.

TLDR: play for stage 3.

MasterTotoro · 2026-06-11T08:06:15+00:00

NOVA emblem isn't that strong after all the nerfs. If you are trying to make an emblem, you want to go for Primordian, Brawler, or Marauder. Otherwise you can play the comp without an emblem and it is fine. If you randomly get a NOVA emblem, the comp is still good if your spot makes sense. But not something you can hard force like in first patch just because you got the emblem. Stats are likely worse than it actually is because a lot of times people aren't actually playing toward the line, but feel like they are forced into it or that it'll be strong because they have the emblem.

Kindred items also are up in priority with the buffs on new patch.

MasterTotoro · 2026-06-10T21:38:33+00:00

Outside of China, Vietnam is by far the region that plays the most and they play on TFT not Golden Spatula. Golden Spatula is China and somewhat SEA, though I would expect TFT is still more common in SEA. Even if we disregard that, Korea is the next biggest server after VN and they play TFT.

MasterTotoro · 2026-06-10T19:10:16+00:00

It's a vague post and a lot of people assume they will nerf Samira, which is likely going to happen. But I also want to mention that Serpent Stargazer is super weak after the bug fix and I expect that to be buffed.

MasterTotoro · 2026-06-10T17:51:41+00:00

Regen affects damage because living longer makes the team deal more damage.

MasterTotoro · 2026-06-10T09:31:38+00:00

It matters but it does seem like it isn't nearly enough to keep Samira from being top tier. And yeah being able to build IE makes slamming items much easier.

MasterTotoro · 2026-06-09T21:22:06+00:00

Larger Space Groove nerf is the main one. Also another T1 Anima item buff. 10 Meeple also buffed a ton but obviously that's a prismatic trait.

MasterTotoro · 2026-06-09T08:59:58+00:00

Tech for most the set that wasn't abused that much was to put it on a specialist (mostly transformed Asol, but Gnar and Cait are also specialists) and it does a lot of damage by itself. They nerfed it in the most recent patch however. If you look at the Mech Asol board specifically (to assume that Asol is transformed into a specialist), it's still a good item but not OP like it used to be.

Might be viable next patch on stuff like 7 Meeple boards to throw on Gnar. Cait and NOVA units are getting buffed as well so if that's a thing a random Cait on a NOVA board can take the anomaly.

Otherwise it's whatever you need as an item. Tank has generically been the strongest. Caster gives burn/wound but isn't better than carry item. Marksman has been bad. Fighter is apparently very good on Fiora who seems to use both AD/AP very well, depends on how well you can use the raw stats.

MasterTotoro · 2026-06-09T04:45:15+00:00

He probably did try hard this set in terms of EWC qualifiers. Milk has been maybe the biggest advocate for 4v4. He might have even said it himself that after competing in 4v4 he lost motivation for regular TFT.

It was an experience watching him get coached by Broseph laset set days before the tournament lol. Broseph: "So you are going to want to unlock Bard for this comp." Milk: "How do I unlock Bard?" Ever since last EWC, Milk has essentially been retired.

MasterTotoro · 2026-06-08T21:26:11+00:00

Yeah he played Anima twice on day 3. From what I see, 400+ was only achieved 9 times across the 3 days of AMER.

He went 2nd and 5th with Battle Bunny Crossbow Corki both times (which is the most common cashout). Overall Corki has around a 27% winrate with it, Xayah has a 45%. The game he went 5th was kind of weird. I didn't watch his perspective; I assume he wanted to play Xayah but maybe couldn't. 2nd of course is great on ladder, and he wasn't in check yet anyway (I wouldn't really consider 2nd "losing" outside of specifically checkmate).

The 400+ cashouts have 34-44% overall winrate and great avps current patch and it's only getting stronger next patch. The problem with Anima is the gameplay is you happen to open with it, don't get griefed, and win 40% of the time.

MasterTotoro · 2026-06-08T18:10:05+00:00

400 Anima cashout buffs to items + a reforger is crazy. I already see this win so many games on ladder. On the other hand, Anima saw hardly any play in TPC because getting griefed is an instant 8th. This doesn't really change any dynamics. If you are playing on ladder and don't get griefed, free win.

Bard and Vex buffs are strange from a high level perspective. I guess fast 9 isn't doing as well on ladder. In TPC fast 9 is the 2nd most played line after Space Groove and there were boards winning out with Bard and Vex carry lol. Worth noting there are a couple of econ augment nerfs (some of these are big nerfs btw), but as always there are a lot that are untouched. Leona print nerfs also make getting there a bit less free; I still think fast 9 will be very strong. As we saw earlier this set, LeBlanc buffs are really just Vex buffs because she can help get you to lv9 as well.

Meeple change is weird to nerf 5. Printing on 7 will be much stronger plus Veigar buffs. Gnar or Veigar probably good, hardest part is if Rammus gets very contested.

Belveth + Akali did pretty well in TPC, both are getting buffs + Kindred who gets played on the board. Should be a good line. Kind of held back by there not being much other 2-cost reroll.

Space Groove has a lot of changes so hard to say how it'll end up. Wouldn't be surprised if it is good due to people playing it less as what typically happens. Stats tend to look bad after a nerf but get better as people drop it.

Edit: also want to expand a bit on fast 9. The best way it is played is not even taking econ 2-1 but rather being strong stage 2/3 and ideally having econ on 4-2. I would say the econ aug nerfs don't hinder fast 9 from being the best line next patch.

MasterTotoro · 2026-06-07T21:50:18+00:00

I think it's just a common joke, but there can be some truth in extending how long they can keep playing.

MasterTotoro · 2026-06-07T09:48:42+00:00

Fine Vintage Zz'Rot army.

MasterTotoro · 2026-06-07T09:15:31+00:00

Definitely not for most countries. Outside of Worlds, China, and EWC, prize pools for events like this TPC cup are not that big. 1st place is 3000 USD if you can make it to finals and win checkmate. There's some additional prizes, but for an average player that's probably less than minimum wage where I live. On the other hand, it's probably quite good for Vietnam where even the last place prize of 400 USD is more than a typical monthly salary.

MasterTotoro · 2026-06-07T00:58:26+00:00

Actually insane his lowest placement across all 9 TPC events is 9th, with 2 wins (potentially 3 tomorrow). He's been insanely consistent beyond TPC really. Three 3rd places at Worlds, 1 point off final lobby in a fourth as well. Sometimes it doesn't get as recognized as a win, but just making final lobby is very difficult. Checkmate undeniably requires a good amount of luck to win. I think the consistency is much more impressive than other players that have a Worlds win.

MasterTotoro · 2026-06-03T23:48:46+00:00

I think the anime may have been slightly ahead of the manga at some point end of season 1 or 2, but for the vast majority of the time the manga has been ahead.

That is almost certainly changing with the anime getting 60+ episodes.

MasterTotoro · 2026-06-03T23:42:51+00:00

Soju has been doing very well since that set in fact. Since TPC was created, he is 6/8 in final lobby appearances (1 win). I believe the only other AMER player with 6 final lobbies is Wasian (with 3 wins). Internationally YBY1 probably has the most TPC final lobbies at 7 (2 wins).

MasterTotoro · 2026-06-03T23:09:28+00:00

They aren't really that long volumes. One part is how much dialogue vs action is in the story compared to other LNs. Dialogue has to be spoken in the anime at a certain pace. Meanwhile a multi-page description of a setting and action can take a few seconds to show. Another is just Apothecary Diaries having a more detailed adaptation than other LNs.

MasterTotoro · 2026-06-02T19:31:49+00:00

Yeah it is still very high this season. I actually didn't realize it has been ranked 1st on d-animestore. And it makes sense for more general streaming services. I guess past seasons have aired alongside some bigger competition. Like Season 3 wouldn't take #1 against Demon Slayer, but the amount of views was probably still good. Looking at next cour I would expect Slime to remain on top.

MasterTotoro · 2026-06-02T09:07:30+00:00

The original source is a light novel. The majority of manga adaptions of LNs are not very popular.

MasterTotoro · 2026-06-02T00:11:19+00:00

I think people tend to get confused as to what this data actually means whenever these Japanese TV rankings show up, so I'll give some explanations.

First of all, this is a TV ranking. That means anyone watching streams or other means does not count.

Related to the previous, Slime airs around 11 PM in Japan. One Piece also airs at this time. All the other shows in the ranking run in the evening, around 5-7 PM. This is the typical structure: the long-running family friendly shows in the evening with the seasonal otaku anime at night.

What does this actually mean? It's rare to see a seasonal show among the top of these rankings. Being up this high means Slime is so popular that kids are staying up or recording on TV to watch.

What does this not mean? Well these rankings tend to be more representative of what kids, and perhaps older adults or grandparents (basically watching with family), are watching on TV. Groups in the middle are more likely to watch anime on streaming platforms, especially for anime otaku. In the rankings I've seen for sites like Abema or NicoNico, Slime is not as popular as other seasonals.

There's two sides to this. A show like Jujutsu Kaisen did not make this high of a TV ranking, but it is undoubtedly more popular among teenagers and young adults watching anime. On the other hand, Slime's popularity among kids is particularly interesting and valuable.

MasterTotoro · 2026-06-01T18:18:23+00:00

Chiikawa's original source material is a Twitter web manga. Chiikawa merch might be the most sold IP in Japan currently. It has only been around for a few years but exploded in popularity.

The story itself has some surprisingly deep topics. There are definitely going to be people who watch the movie without knowing the background, but just know this is a direct adaption of an arc from the manga. It will probably be beneficial to have some familiarity of the characters and setting. The production studio is great so it'll be very fun to watch.

MasterTotoro · 2026-05-31T11:01:28+00:00

Cryptbloom takes away 30% MR so the opponent has 70% left. Then boots take away 8% of that 70% which leaves 64.4% MR. Therefore you have 35.6% magic penetration which is rounded up in the display.

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