It seems like 2020 is going to be a good year for tanks in Teamfight Tactics.
Riot game designer Llord Llama introduced drastic changes to the autobattler’s items in today’s Dev Corner post. Riot wants to address problem items that didn’t quite deliver as intended while helping some items scale along with champions when they level up. And tanky units will finally get some exciting gameplay with new additions slated to debut on the Convergence in 2020.
Here are all the item changes coming to TFT with Patch 10.1.
Last Whisper replaces Repeating Crossbow
- Last Whisper: When the wearer inflicts a critical hit, the target’s armor is reduced by 90 percent for three seconds.
Repeating Crossbow was intended to have “huge upside” but was quite underwhelming and inefficient. The fact that it couldn’t jump to carries who had three items on them already also limited its use. With the addition of Last Whisper, the entire team will benefit from the armor penetration debuff when taking out beefier champions.
Bramble Vest replaces Thornmail
- Bramble Vest: Negates bonus damage from critical hits on the wearer. When the wearer is hit by a basic attack, a hail of thorns hits nearby enemies for 80/120/160 magic damage (increases with the holder’s star level and can only damage once per second).
Though Thornmail might’ve been a great option for Braum, it was awful on every other champion. Devs ran into issues when balancing the item because any buffs to it made Braum overpowered and nerfs made it useless on other units.
Bramble Vest is intended to be a mix of Phantom Dancer and Thornmail, dealing damage to enemies when taking damage. It will also scale depending on the wearer’s level, a never-before-seen feature in TFT.
Titan’s Resolve replaces Phantom Dancer
- Titan’s Resolve: When the wearer is hit by a source of damage, they gain a 2.5 percent stacking damage increase (stacks infinitely).
Titan’s Resolve should bring more damage to tanks and units that can last long in battle. Consequently, putting this item on squishier targets would be inefficient and wasteful. Since Bramble Vest will be filling a similar “anti-crit” and “anti-assassin” role as Phantom Dancer, according to Llord Llama, the item was no longer needed.
Iceborn Gauntlet updated
- Old: Creates a zone of ice that expands when the wearer dodges, slowing enemies’ attack speed by 25 percent.
- New: After casting a spell, the wearer’s next basic attack freezes the target for 1.5 seconds.
Quicksilver updated
- Old: Prevents the next crowd control effect applied to the wearer. Refreshes every three seconds.
- New: The wearer is immune to crowd control effects.
Frozen Heart updated
- Old: Reduces the attack speed of nearby enemies by 40 percent.
- New: Reduces the attack speed of nearby enemies by 40 percent (stacking increases the radius of this effect).
Ionic Spark updated
- Old: Whenever an enemy casts their ability, they take 90 true damage.
- New: Enemies within three hexes that cast a spell are zapped, taking magic damage equal to 200 percent of their max mana.
Locket of the Iron Solari, Statikk Shiv, and Luden’s Echo updated
- The three items were widely considered to be early-game assets that fell off in the late game. They’ll now scale based on the wearer’s star level.
