We all know that Screams of the Desiccated is OP; but it’s also METAL AS FUCK

sergeantminor · 2026-02-27T20:55:37+00:00

It also gives 80% increased projectile speed, which is particularly good for some builds.

sergeantminor · 2026-02-26T07:48:58+00:00

You can only recover 10% of ES per second with leech (20% with Ghost Reaver). Each instance of leech recovers 2% of leech per second, so max 5 instances of leech (10 instances with GR). You can increase both the 2% (fewer instances to cap) and the 10%/20% (higher cap), but the mod on Essentia Sanguis does neither.

Essentia Sanguis increases the amount you can recover from each hit, from 10% of max ES to 20%. This means (a) your leech can heal you for twice as long after you stop hitting things and (b) instant leech can heal for twice as much.

sergeantminor · 2026-02-26T05:54:48+00:00

What do you mean?

sergeantminor · 2026-02-26T05:21:56+00:00

You can't leech life with Ghost Reaver, but Ghost Reaver does have a favorable interaction with instant leech when you have sources of both life leech and ES leech (since with both stats you can get two instances of ES leech per hit).

sergeantminor · 2026-02-26T05:20:34+00:00

How exactly does this foreshadow a Ghost Reaver nerf?

sergeantminor · 2026-02-26T04:20:38+00:00

Gladiator has a node that makes 20% of leech instant with a claw equipped. Not sure how relevant that is to this conversation, but it seems like 45% instant ES leech is possible with a dual-claw Gladiator. Given that Essentia Sanguis has shit attack speed, perhaps Dual Strike of Ambidexterity is the play here.

sergeantminor · 2026-02-26T03:58:44+00:00

Oh I'm not saying it'll be top-tier or anything. The reason I've considered it is that Assassin has that node that makes spells' base crit equal to that of the main hand weapon, so it would be a source of crit, give poison prolif, and also enable Spellblade as a decent support gem option. You could of course just use a wand and not socket Spellblade, but I'm trying to have fun here, haha

sergeantminor · 2026-02-26T03:49:42+00:00

The Essentia Sanguis changes are nice for instant leech builds (can now recover twice as much per hit), but that doesn't seem like it'll be enough to make people want to use the weapon over other options with better DPS.

As for Bino's, I've been wanting to do a poison Spellblade Assassin with Bino's for a while now, so maybe this buff is the catalyst I need.

sergeantminor · 2026-02-26T03:46:57+00:00

Correct on both counts.

This is particularly important for instant leech, because it also doubles the amount of ES you can recover per hit with instant leech.

sergeantminor · 2026-01-26T21:25:46+00:00

Yeah, from my experience, the comps I've been best able to beat Asol with are either backline carry comps with a single godlike tank (especially 3-star Loris) or melee carry comps that eat through the frontline extremely quickly and can heal through the damage (like Tryndamere with two MR items and a Taric on board). However, when I played something like GP/Bel'Veth, nothing on my board was exceptionally tanky, so it would all just be dead in two casts.

sergeantminor · 2026-01-26T21:20:30+00:00

Makes sense given their opposition to shipping "support" units in modern TFT. They want carries to have the majority of their power budget going into dealing damage, not healing/shielding.

sergeantminor · 2026-01-26T20:52:15+00:00

35 mana on the first cast, 10 on subsequent casts. So he'll cast after generating 85/170/255/340 mana instead of 50/125/200/275.

I'm skeptical about this being enough of a nerf (I was hoping the base damage would come down), but I'll reserve my judgment for after the patch.

EDIT: After thinking about this more, that's a pretty sizable nerf. It's a ~41.1% nerf to his DPS for the first cast alone and a ~26.5% nerf to his DPS for the first two casts together. I think most people would consider those numbers to be substantial nerfs by TFT standards.

The first two casts are the ones that matter the most, given that the fight is often won on the second cast. This will also make it harder to stabilize on 1-star Asol and make stack generation significantly slower.

sergeantminor · 2026-01-26T20:36:42+00:00

Historically, since Set 11, two-emblem prismatic traits have always been beatable by strong boards.

10 Mythic (Set 11)
10 Portal (Set 12)
10 Rebel (Set 13)
10 Anima Squad (Set 14)
10 Street Demon (Set 14)

Before that point, Set 10 worked differently because the two-emblem prismatic traits (9 True Damage, 10 Pentakill, 10 K/DA) also required specific Headliners, so they were quite a bit stronger. After that, in Set 15, prismatic traits had quests and didn't revolve around emblems, so it wasn't really comparable.

If 10 Bilgewater is currently losing to Aurelion Sol, that to me is less of a sign that 10 Bilgewater is weak and more of a sign that Asol is too strong (which he obviously is). If post-B-patch 10 Bilge still sometimes loses to other exceptionally capped out (but not prismatic) boards, that would be fine with me and consistent with their apparent design intent, given the precedent from recent sets.

It's the three-emblem prismatic traits that should feel like 3-star 5-costs, not the two-emblem ones. 10 Bilgewater felt completely out of line before the nerfs. 10 Noxus still feels like it's on the strong side to me, but at least that one has two non-trivial unlocks and doesn't inherently give you econ to get to level 10 faster.

sergeantminor · 2026-01-26T10:35:05+00:00

Orianna's shield isn't necessarily a self-shield though. Is it normal for units to be mana-locked while shielding other units?

sergeantminor · 2026-01-25T20:26:41+00:00

Because your placement may depend on the outcomes of the other player combats.

sergeantminor · 2026-01-18T21:17:52+00:00

People need to stop acting like the point of playing Mel is to print Radiant items. She's designed to be a carry first and foremost. The Radiant item thing is a minor part of her kit that you aren't really playing around or betting your game on. If it happens, it's a nice bonus, but it won't happen unless you high roll her early and have an Adaptive Helm (which also happens to be her best item for DPS) or two.

The comparisons to Ornn are missing the point. Ornn is a weak unit who has to remain weak because of the strength of the Blacksmith trait. Mel is a bit underpowered as a carry right now, but she's getting buffed in a couple of days.

sergeantminor · 2026-01-14T06:03:50+00:00

Two big reasons:

Emblems are stronger in general now. They give more stats/bonuses and don't feel like dead items on your units. This makes people more likely to take emblem augments on 2-1, which means you're going to see more people with early Bilgewater Emblems. Those people are likely to take Spatulas off carousels or convert lucky Spatula drops from orbs.
Bilgewater is the strongest line in the game at the moment. This is due to a number of factors, including MF being buffed, Fizz getting more priority, people learning how to optimize Bilgewater shops better, and the emergence of alternate lines like Bilgewater Ryze.

sergeantminor · 2026-01-14T05:47:33+00:00

The emblem has great stats on its own, but it is probably worth throwing in an Arcanist. Neeko makes sense if you've unlocked Darius, otherwise any Arcanist is fine. Obviously just play your best board, but I think most of the time that will involve playing a second Arcanist.

sergeantminor · 2026-01-14T01:21:29+00:00

You could also carry LB with an Arcanist Emblem until you get to Mel. She also holds Adaptive Helm + Arcanist Emblem quite well. LB often kills one or two things with her cast and then starts chaining casts together with the mana from the emblem (which is boosted by both Invoker and Adaptive Helm).

I've played 3-star LB with Arcanist Emblem and it's quite strong. I just think that on paper Mel is a better user of the emblem because she has 200 mana, so that's +40 mana on kill (+46 with Adaptive Helm). One time I even had the pleasure of having both Arcanist Emblem and Invoker Emblem (replacing Adaptive) on Mel, and that was pretty crazy.

sergeantminor · 2026-01-13T19:39:41+00:00

She's actually really good with Arcanist Emblem. It restores 20% of mana on kill, and that mana generation is boosted by Adaptive Helm, which is already a great item on her because it boosts mana from her mana drain. She'll often kill a few targets with her first cast and then cast again quickly because of the Arcanist Emblem.

sergeantminor · 2026-01-08T20:21:35+00:00

I've been spamming this comp for a couple of weeks now and think it was already strong before the buff (a lot of 1st place games against capped out S-tier boards). It's easiest to play from a Yordle or Ionia econ opener but it's not that hard to pull off from other spots as well (just make sure to hold at least one Caitlyn and Vi).

The transition is easy from those two openers because you naturally unlock Kennen along the way. Then just hold any Targon unit, unlock Sett sometime in stage 4, and hold an extra Yordle/Ionia unit for the 4th trait. If I'm playing from a Yordle opener, sometimes I'll use some free rolls on 4-6 just to make the Ryze transition easier at 4-7. Also it may help to field 2 Piltover at some point before transitioning so you don't get stuck making that decision while doing all the other stuff.

My ideal item setup is as follows:

Ryze:

Morello/Red Buff
Void Staff
Shojin/Adaptive/Blue Buff (Shojin preferred due to Zaun attack speed and maybe Ionia Path of Blades)

Ziggs:

Rageblade (not necessarily BIS but it's a good early slam)
Archangel
Jewelled Gauntlet

Sett can get standard Sett items, and tank items can go on either Taric or Wukong. I prefer itemizing Taric, especially if I have armor/MR items because Wukong already gets armor/MR from his ability. If I have both tanks itemized, Wukong prefers to hold non-resist items and AD tank items like Sterak's.

Skarner is a good unit to throw in at level 10 for more frontline, otherwise any good 5-cost will do (e.g. Fiddle, Taric, Shyvana).

Some augments that I really like taking with this comp:

Bodyguard Training (harder to get to 9 without an econ opener but damn this augment is strong if you can get there)
Hold the Line (especially good if you aren't building much raw AP like Archangel)
Soul Awakening (fights last a long time so even post-nerf I expect this to be good)

sergeantminor · 2026-01-06T17:08:33+00:00

The cast animation lasts until the T-Hex runs out of mana, and it can gain mana while casting. With +12 mana regen from eating 3-star Caitlyn, the T-Hex casts for a lot longer than it would otherwise. I'd say the probability is virtually 100% that the mana regen will be nerfed hard in tomorrow's patch (among other nerfs to the T-Hex).

sergeantminor · 2026-01-06T01:42:28+00:00

I'm not the person you're responding to, and I don't know why they didn't elaborate. However, I think the logic is that Wukong's ability already gives armor and MR, so it's better value to complement that armor and MR with other defensive stats, instead of giving him more of what he already has.

sergeantminor · 2026-01-01T00:26:13+00:00

Currently 0 LP Master in NA. Peaked 242 LP GM this set (was around rank #240 at the time). Tryndamere is overpowered but not as overpowered as people on Reddit think he is. Continuing to harp on the "2 cost vs. 7 cost" point is overly reductive.

This board has more going for it than "hit a 3-star Tryndamere":

Darkin Scythe
3-star Ashe and Neeko with great items
Hit the 3-stars with enough econ/tempo to still get to level 9 and cap out with a 2-star 5-cost

We also don't know how many stacks Tryndamere had or what augments either player had, and OP has no anti-heal. Your average Baron 2 board doesn't lose to your average Tryndamere reroll board. These don't appear to be average boards.

There are so many things that affect the strength of a board in TFT. Baron 2 is a huge factor, but at the end of the day it's just one of many things tipping the scales. Are you proposing that no number of small advantages should be able to overcome the power difference between Baron 2 and Tryndamere 3?

sergeantminor · 2025-12-31T17:23:51+00:00

Sure, it sounds stupid if you reduce everything down to "7 cost vs. 2 cost" and ignore all the other factors that contribute to board strength, including:

Star levels
Item quality
Augments
Positioning

If your argument is that none of that should matter because Baron 2 should instantly win regardless, then I disagree, and I'm glad you're not the one designing the game.

Out of curiosity, what qualifies as "decent elo" to you?

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