Teamfight Tactics update 9.16 brings new champions, a new origin, and more

The latest Teamfight Tactics update (9.16) is a big one. It brings with it 4 new champions and a new origin called ‘Hextech’, as well as a whole host of other changes including champion buffs and nerfs, bug fixes, and general gameplay changes, some of which can seriously change the way you play. Be sure to check out the full patch notes along with our comments below:

New Origin: Hextech

The first new origin to be added to the game is here in the form of ‘Hextech’. The origin provides a buff when you have 2 or 4 champions on the board (who are from the Hextech origin). The bonus you receive is a bomb that will spawn on a random enemy champion that has at least one item equipped; once on an enemy the bomb will explode, disabling all of their (and any nearby enemy champions’) items for a short period of time. This origin looks like it could be pretty powerful, especially considering the low cost of entry (only needing two champions), so it will be interesting to see how it can slot into current builds (once we’ve had a chance to play around with the new Hextech champions we will update our best TFT team comps list).

Four New Champions

It wasn’t that long ago we saw Twisted Fate added to Teamfight Tactics, and now we see my favourite League of Legends ADC champion, Jinx, being added. Joining her is Jayce, Vi and Camille. Check out the stats for each of the new champions below:

Camille

• Ability: Camille’s ability, The Hextech Ultimatum, roots an enemy and forces her in-range teammates to target whomever she’s fighting.
• Class: Blademaster
• Cost: 1 Gold
• Ability Damage: 200/325/450

Jayce

• Ability: Disrupts the enemy frontline by knocking back an enemy unit with his Thundering Blow. He then switches to his Mercury Cannon bringing increased attack speed and ranged damage.
• Class: Shapeshifter
• Cost: 2 Gold
• Ability Damage: 200/350/500

VI

• Ability: Targets the farthest enemy and charges towards them, knocking aside and damaging every enemy along the way. Once she gets there, she knocks her target up and damages them.
• Class: Brawler
• Cost: 3 Gold
• Ability Damage: 250/450/650

Jinx

• Ability: Gets Excited after her first takedown, gaining bonus attack speed. If she scores a second takedown she pulls out Fishbones, her rocket launcher, causing her attacks to deal AoE damage.
• Class: Gunslinger
• Cost: 4 Gold
• Rocket Damage: 100/225/350 magic damage in an explosion that covers 3 hexes total.

All four of these champions could slot into a few good builds but Jayce, Jinx, and VI look particularly tempting since Gunslingers, Brawlers, and Shapeshifters appear in a few decent builds already. I’m not yet convinced with Camille as I’ve not had too much luck with Blademasters yet, but we’ll have to see.

Core System Changes

Some very good core changes have been added in this update with the most notable for me being the player damage change which will see players taking more damage in later rounds of the game.

In-Game Matchmaking

Matchmaking has seen some improvements which aim to prevent you coming up against the same player or ghost army two or more times in a row. Riot say this should now almost never happen.

URF Overtime Mode

Draws happened way too often in TFT, which resulted in both players taking a small amount of damage by the time running out (usually because two tanky champions were left on the board). With this update, Riot has introduced an Overtime mode which kicks in 30 seconds into each round and lasts for 15 seconds. This overtime mode introduces the following buff to all champions on the board:

• 30 seconds into every battle the URF Overtime bonus will activate.
• 300% Attack Speed
• 200% Ability Damage
• 66% reduced Crowd Control duration
• 66% Healing Reduction
• 30% increased affection towards maritime mammals.

These buffs will certainly reduce the amount of times we see draws in game, but Riot has said that draws will still be possible.

Ranked Changes

The ranking system changes include an automatic demotion if you lose LP while at 0LP in the division you’re in (this is how it should have worked anyway). Riot has also migrated across the recent rank change in League of Legends which sees players who are in the Grandmaster and Challenger divisions get dropped all the way back down to Diamond should they be demoted, skipping ‘Masters’ completely.

• As intended, everyone will now be demoted if you lose LP in any game you start at 0LP.
• For Grandmaster and Challenger players, if you’re demoted you will now skip Master and go directly to Diamond 1. This is now true in League of Legends as well.
• We’ve also made adjustments to LP gains and losses underneath the hood for extreme edge cases. For the most part, you will not see or feel any changes based on this optimization.

Player Damage Changes

Riot thought games were lasting a bit too long, so they’ve adjusted the base damage that you take should you lose a round.  The extra damage is dependent on the stage you are on, with the highest being 7 base damage when you hit stage 7 onwards. Even with this change you will still be taking less damage overall when compared to when the game was first launched.

• Base damage now scales with current stage.
• Stages 1-2: 1 damage
• Stage 3-4: 2 damage
• Stage 5: 3 damage
• Stage 6: 4 damage
• Stage 7+: 5 damage

Trait Changes

Various traits have been buffed and nerfed, with the most notable being the Demon trait which has been completely re-worked to be a bit fairer to all parties.

Brawler: Bonus Health: 300/700/1200 ⇒ 300/600/1000 – Brawlers felt a bit overpowered, so this is a good nerf.

Demon: The Demon trait has been fully redesigned. Now, instead of shutting down enemy champions ultimate abilities by having a chance to steal ALL mana, they now have a chance to steal a small amount of mana from the enemy, which means Demons will be able to use their ability more often but won’t completely stop enemy champions using theirs. Demon basic attacks now have a 40% chance to burn 20 mana from their target and return 15/30/45 mana to the attacker.

Ninja: Bonus Attack Damage and Ability Power: 40/60 ⇒ 50/70 – This makes running a full stack Ninja build a bit more viable, as previously it was always best to just have one.

Noble: Bonus Armor and Magic Resist: 60 ⇒ 70 – This is a long overdue buff as Nobles have been underpowered in my opinion since release.

Sorcerer: Bonus Ability Power: 45%/100% ⇒ 40%/100% – This nerf hits 3 stack Sorcerers only – previously they were a little overpowered.

Wild: Attack Speed: 10% per stack ⇒ 12% per stack – Although it looks like a small buff to the wild trait it could prove to be quite substantial, especially when running a full Wild build.

Champion Buffs

Some champions were undeniably weak and were rarely used (especially if you wanted to win), so hopefully these changes will make even more champions viable picks.

Elise

• Health: 450 ⇒ 500
• Spiderling Attack Speed: 0.6 ⇒ 0.7

Mordekaiser

• No longer casts his ability if there are no enemies in range at the start of the cast time.

Vayne

• Attack Speed: 0.75 ⇒ 0.7
• Ability Damage (% of Max Health): 8%/10%/12% ⇒ 8%/12%/16%

Lissandra

• Total Mana (the mana required to cast her ability): 150 ⇒ 125

Zed

• Health: 500 ⇒ 550
• Attack Speed: 0.65 ⇒ 0.7
• Ability Damage: 200/300/400 ⇒ 200/350/500

Aatrox

• No longer casts his ability if there are no enemies in range at the start of the cast time

Evelynn

• Now prioritizes her current target with her ability.
• No longer casts her ability if there are no enemies in range at the start of the cast time.

Katarina

• No longer casts her ability if there are no enemies in range at the start of the cast time.
• Attack Damage: 50 ⇒ 65

Kennen

• No longer casts his ability if there are no enemies in range at the start of the cast time.

Shyvana

• Leap AI improved to better kite away from her target.

Akali

• Attack Damage: 70 ⇒ 80

Brand

• Ability Damage: 200/375/550 ⇒ 250/450/650
• Starting and Total Mana: 0/125 ⇒ 50/150

Karthus

• Starting and Total Mana: 0/85 ⇒ 40/125

Miss Fortune

• Health: 650 ⇒ 700
• Total Mana: 100 ⇒ 75

Champion Nerfs

On the flip side, some champions were must haves for certain builds. Hopefully by bringing the champions closer together we’ll see a lot more variation in the team compositions.

Khazix

• Non-Isolated Damage: 150/300/450 ⇒ 150/250/350

Braum

• Health: 750 ⇒ 650

Lulu

• Ability Health: 300/475/650 ⇒ 300/400/500

Cho’gath

• Ability Damage: 250/500/750 ⇒ 175/350/525

Kayle

• Attack Speed: 1.1 ⇒ 1.0

Item Changes

All in all this looks like a great update for Teamfight Tactics, and it will be interesting to see what new team compositions come from the new champions, new Origin, and the champion buffs. Make sure you keep an eye on our Teamfight Tactics guides as they’ll be changing over the coming weeks, taking into account everything we’ve discussed here.