Teamfight Tactics PBE Patch 9.14: Full notes and changes

Teamfight Tactics is getting its biggest update yet. Patch 9.14 will include the game mode’s first new champion, Twisted Fate, as well as balance changes, item tweaks, a ranked mode, and an overhaul of the UI.

New champion: Twisted Fate

Twisted Fate is TFT’s 51st champion. He’s a two-cost Pirate Sorcerer, while his skill set is similar to his League of Legends counterpart. His ability randomly chooses between a Red, Yellow, and Blue card, each with a unique effect. The red card deals splash damage around a target, the yellow stuns, and the blue card restores mana to himself, as well as nearby friendly units.

He’s definitely not going to be the strongest champion in the game, however, his synergies will allow room for Sorcerers and Pirates to thrive. He relies heavily on RNG, but with a couple of items, he should be a respectful asset to your force.

Balance changes

Elise is now a one-cost unit.
Demons now deal 100 percent / 200 percent / 300 percent of the amount of mana burned as damage.
Frozen Heart now slows attack speed by 25 percent (up from 20 percent).
Hextech Gunblade now heals from 33 percent damage done (up from 25 percent).
Red Buff and Morellonomicon now deal 13 percent of the target’s max HP over 5 seconds.
Runaan’s Hurricane now summons a spirit who mirrors your attacks, dealing 25 percent damage.

Guardian Angel now revives a unit with 500 HP and +1 rank (allowing for units to surpass three-star).
Warmog’s Armor regen increased from 3 percent to 6 percent max HP per second.
Zeke’s Herald attack speed increased from 10 percent to 15 percent.
Spatula items now double the stats of the item they merge with.
Guinsoo’s Rageblade attack speed per stack increased from 3 percent to 4 percent.
Zeke’s Herland and Locket of the Iron Solari now only apply to units in the same row instead of all surrounding units.

Item randomness

To combat item RNG in TFT, Riot has changed how item drop rate works. Randomness will still be a factor, however, it should be less of an issue.

Every PVE round starting from the second will have a monster that will drop a guaranteed random item. The monster will be harder to kill, though, with added buffs, such as magic resistance.

Ranked

Alongside the release of Patch 9.14 comes a ranked mode to TFT. The system will be similar to League‘s Summoner’s Rift, but they’ll be a handful of key differences. Here’s the changes.

You’ll gain a lot more LP when you finish a TFT game in first place, since you’re basically beating seven other players in that game. You’ll typically gain some LP if you finish fourth or higher, and lose some LP if you finish fifth or lower, but spots in the middle will have fairly small changes for most games.
There are no promotion series in TFT. As soon as you hit 100 LP, you’ll promote and carry over any extra LP with you. Since there isn’t a single winner or loser in TFT, promotion series don’t translate very well.
Since there are no promotion series, there’s less protection and it’s easier to demote. You’ll still only demote if you lose while at 0 LP.
Your rank will feel like it moves a bit faster in TFT. Removing promo series and decreasing demotion protection means that your rank can jump more rapidly, and you’ll gain (and lose) more LP per game when things go really well (or poorly).
Premade Ranked restrictions are a bit different for TFT. You can queue with up to five friends if you’re all Gold or lower. If anyone is Platinum or above, you’ll only be able to queue up as three.

UI changes

A DPS meter is the latest feature to be added to TFT. Each round, players will now see a sidebar that includes details of damage dealt by each unit, including your opponent’s. This new change should help players get a better understanding of the strengths of each unit, allowing for compositions to be built with ease.

Players were previously forced to use cheat sheets to find item combinations. To combat this, Riot is now allowing players to drag and hold items over other items to see their combinations.

TFT Patch 9.14 is scheduled to release July 17.