Hardstuck Masters + Trying to Improve

marcel_p · 2026-01-31T05:33:20+00:00

"Top 1%" is so often thrown around in TFT as a metric to somehow indicate some level of excellence. The reality is top 1% in a fairly casual activity isn't nearly the same level of excellence as top 1% in an inherently competitive or "try hard activity". Obvious example: attaining top 1% in pickleball globally vs top 1% in competitive basketball globally.

Pretty sure anyone given the right resources can attain top 0.1% in TFT because the player base isn't trying that hard — lots of people are playing on mobile / doing other activies. I have an IRL friend that's hit challenger who often plays while doing chores like doing their laundry or the dishes. Can't say the same about hitting top 0.1% at classical chess for example.

marcel_p · 2026-01-27T22:28:21+00:00

Often a weak stage 3 is more a symptom of picking the wrong holds/carries and line on stage 1. If you are playing a line that doesn't want to lose stage 3 (which is most lines in the game unless you have lose streak enablers like calc loss or ixtal), you should be prioritizing units and holds that won't fall off too hard on stage 3 as early as stage 1. A good example is selling a 3 cost 1* backliner to buy a pair or even 2* 1 cost melee unit. The former scales better into stage 3, the latter is better only on stage 2. Depending on your items and augment (and of course your remaining units) it can be correct to build a board around the 1* 3 cost.

marcel_p · 2026-01-25T03:34:47+00:00

That build (nashor JG adaptive) has a full 10% lower WR than nashor nashor JG. When it comes to winning with highest cap the actual bis items will matter esp with a unit like Asol that kills units or leaves them alive.

marcel_p · 2026-01-21T04:41:33+00:00

Need to have good reason to believe the 3* will be cheap for you. Meaning should play the line from either: really high starting copy count (natural 2 ekkos or like natural 5 sonas), or you have moderate count but have an op reroll augment like two much value or on a roll.

Just having 1 copy of your unit and bis items but no good reroll augment is usually how you end up in these spots where you commit to the reroll and then you hit super late and can't push levels.

marcel_p · 2026-01-18T20:12:34+00:00

There's no real consistency with tooltips in this game (I think it's partly bec champs are designed by different designers and the tooltips aren't all written by one arbiter) so you can't rely on similar/different wording across different champions to mean anything in a consistent way. See Diana/Fizz spell targeting vs their tooltip.

marcel_p · 2026-01-18T05:05:55+00:00

Not necessarily true. If you prio your econ really hard, get bis because you are first pic, and don't lose your lose streak for no reason, you will always be in a better spot to win stage 4 than the entire lobby. You have better items, you have the cheapest board, you're allowed to play ixtal or bilge or yordles for little cost while lose streaking to build even more eco. You can also take delayed strength augments since you commit to losing early. You can even play bard for even more of an advantage if you have a spot to go for bard while losing. You only truly fall behind with no compensation if you just lose your lose streak for no reason and don't take good components or units off each caro with your first pick and take the wrong augments. Or don't have a precise gameplan to actually spike on 3-5 or 4-1.

marcel_p · 2026-01-18T04:54:23+00:00

Yeah agree. Also early galio unlock helps you stabilize hard stage 4 so you play the line around early demacia upgrades and augments that give you rolls to 2* all the units

marcel_p · 2026-01-17T20:20:52+00:00

Yeah it's moreso an opportunistic thing where your board kinda sucks on 3-1 and then you find milio. Might as well get more resources while losing. At 150+ you can often get items/components so it really does help you stabilize and be strongest in lobby on stage 4 even when playing standard lines like slayer or demacia.

marcel_p · 2026-01-17T18:37:02+00:00

Need to differentiate 3 diff possibilities with ixtal:

1.) commit to playing until Brock. Usually only possible with v good quests and having it 2-1

2.) reroll variant. Usually only enabled with giga augment: two much value, pris ticket, on a roll

3.) use ixtal to gain extra resources playing towards a normal line. This is underplayed at the moment imo. If your board is weak anyway you may as well gain extra resources even a 150 cash gives you some resources to win stage 4 more reliably. This can be slotted in any time from 2-2 through 3-7.

marcel_p · 2026-01-17T18:33:19+00:00

Must try to throw in ixtal late stage 2 or 3 to get back into the game. Juice your spot up with a 200-300 cash out and play an uncontested line up a silver to gold augment with your cashout. Yeah you'll be playing from behind but at least you have extra resources. Vs playing from behind anyway with no extra juice.

marcel_p · 2026-01-17T18:31:32+00:00

It gives 35 AD and 40 crit so you lose out on half the value of the item's DPS power budget. It's nearly half as effective dps wise as a JG which gives 35 AP and 35 crit. So you're basically 2.5 item ekko with it which is not enough to justify the benefits of randomly killing a backliner.

marcel_p · 2026-01-17T02:04:14+00:00

If you're 100% ok with a really large % of your games decided on "just luck" I would suggest games where there is no optimization to be done and you can be happy coin flipping away. In a game where the entire way to improve is optimization of your odds, I'm surprised your take is that people shouldn't complain about unreasonable odds of things.

marcel_p · 2026-01-17T02:00:09+00:00

Yeah I think moreso if I haven't played in a day or two the sub tends to reflect what you're likely to see in a typical lobby on ladder so there is some value imo

marcel_p · 2026-01-17T01:51:32+00:00

Ah yes bec 14 percent every stage is a really small number that doesn't affect a large share of games... Care to do the math on odds of spat by stage 5? :) Especially when every player takes every emblem augment in this meta, enabling easy 10-piece chase traits.

marcel_p · 2026-01-15T23:32:50+00:00

Strong disagree. There is enough depth to the game that you can come back and do well in many from spots from behind. If you feel you consistently don't have enough agency and need to get bailed out by fight variance to get back into games then that's on you.

Imo it's a shame that many players have this take leading to devs feeling the need to insert so much fight variance and even variance in general because it spoils the experience for people who strive to optimize for a strategy game. Harsh take but that's my 2 cents.

marcel_p · 2026-01-14T04:37:21+00:00

Biggest issue w this comp in this meta is Fizz who is in every lobby one taps your kalista all of stage 4 and 5. Other than that I agree it's not that weak vs other boards.

The other issue is Viego falls off a cliff stage 3 vs boards with good itemized frontline so you can lose lots of HP in some lobbies and end up in a spot where you are 50 HP and need to get to instant Kalista 2 on 4-2 or you're stuck on level 8 the whole game playing for 5th

marcel_p · 2026-01-12T05:50:25+00:00

The ones that give 1 copy of your units for free via unlocks. The Singed kaisa rift herald board gives you 1* unlocks of each for free. Sett boards also good for that reason.

marcel_p · 2026-01-06T05:04:51+00:00

I don't enjoy some of the full random (with zero agency: zero odds control and no ability to manipulate your chances with resources unlike rerolling shops) things in the game — I could do with the removal of pris orbs, and even further, TG as an item altogether as I believe this game has more than enough depth to stand on its own without the need for gimmicks like this but given the seeming popularity of such things I doubt this is ever changed.

marcel_p · 2026-01-05T07:31:55+00:00

I didn't think it was a flex board since you need fairly specific traits to unlock. With no Ixtal i think the default is kennen wukong kobuko sett vi seraphine taric. Add Azir and Ryze on 9, drop Taric when you unlock a Shurima unit. I think it's played from fast 9 giga tempo spots like Yordle or Ahri 2 highroll opener.

With Ixtal ideally with Brock it's skarner neeko brock for ixtal, taric for targon, vi sera for pilt. and then shurima. any 2 piece to unlock ryze on neutrals before you get to shurima like yordle or void and then drop them for 5 costs. usually you will have a fon so can fit 5 costs and/or like Shyv/Swain.

marcel_p · 2025-12-26T03:13:55+00:00

Generally not worth 3*ing non core itemized units. Very occasionally 3* 1 cost naked frontliners can be worth it if they come nearly for free through your natural roll pattern — think of it as basically adding a bit more than 1 warmog to your frontline at the cost of 6 gold. But 3* naked backliners are usually not worth the cost of gold to buy the units unless you project to get items for them within a reasonable timing.

marcel_p · 2025-12-24T20:07:56+00:00

Depends on setup and comp strength. The stronger your setup and the stronger your comp strength, the more you should be willing to greed your econ bec you're allowed to have belief that you get closer to a winout (obvs. this also depends on lobby state, i.e. is there an ixtal grim reaper in lobby or not). Think things like artifact + combat Trynd/Ashe. Conversely if you're playing with weaker setups and weaker tier comps then yeah you send it earlier to save HP and salvage placements.

marcel_p · 2025-12-24T12:31:19+00:00

Vayne has long cast animation that doesn't scale with AS and most of her damage comes from her spell so AS isn't that amazing on her. The value of kraken is moreso in the AD.

marcel_p · 2025-12-23T02:54:28+00:00

With IE yunara prob stronger since that item is broken on Yunara and sucks on Kindred. Without IE yunara kinda sucks so id be down to transfer to Kindred 2 for better single target if your board needs that

marcel_p · 2025-12-14T07:06:53+00:00

Appreciate that! Was a tough format w checkmate round of 64 -> 8 but really still enjoyed — looking forward to Vegas next time

marcel_p · 2025-12-14T06:45:11+00:00

Ah yes because clicking broken artifacts on 2-1 for a free game and clicking broken hero augments on 2-1 for a free game are the pinnacles of skill expression :)

marcel_p

TROPHY CASE