The 14.20 patch was promised to be "micro changes" to help put things more into balance, but there have been wide sweeping changes that have sharply impacted the meta. Halfway through last patch, TFT Academy decided to restructure the tierlist because it was getting overly crowded in S and A tier. It looked like there were even MORE S tier comps than any other tier which doesn't sound right when evaluating proper tiered gaps. So now we want to give clearer understanding of a comp's power level.
When something is in S tier, it's one of the most overpowered strategies out there that simply outperforms other comps. They have few weak matchups and are very consistent at pulling out top placements.
Comps in A tier are also very good, but they need a little bit more to perform at the level of S tier comps. But you should expect to see lots of A tier comps every game, sometimes even more than the S tier comps especially if they are conditional such as Warwick reroll.
B tier comps are reliable comps but your mileage may vary. Sometimes you can hit and dominate games easily, but other times you'll struggle and take a hard bot 4 finish.
C tier usually means its rare to see them in game and even rarer to witness strong performance.
Let's walk through the top tier comps to understand what is defining most end games at the moment.
-S tier-
- Ryze
- Mages
- Warwick
- Dragon Shapeshifters
- Kalista
- Spin to Win Wukong
Ryze has become the new Spatula (or Pan) King. He generally performs very well with an emblem of some sort. The best version by far is 6 Scholar. Once you get upgraded frontline and Milio online with Ryze 2, the board starts to overwhelm due to their immense amount of stats and how well the 5-costs fit onto the board. Portal is still one of the most dominant tempo comps in the game with strong Stages 2-4 that should guarantee a top finish if you hit the units on-curve. And there is a new variation of Ryze that doesn't require any emblem which plays around 4 Vanguard for safe Top 4s. More on that later.
Mages were extremely OP at first patch launch, but got reigned in a little in the B-patch to be just standard S-tier. There are 2 strong variations: one that plays around reroll 1-costs Soraka and Seraphine or tempo to get to 7 Mages ASAP and carry Nami/Norra/Veigar. The tree can support 2 players if one person decides to reroll 1-cost and the other chooses to push levels. We've seen multiple players in tournaments top 4 while both committing to Mages early.
Warwick technically got buffed this patch with 4 Vanguard being better. The interesting thing about Warwick is that now players have caught on that you don't need Vamp Scepter artifact to play him. If you have an A tier artifact such as Rapidfire Cannon or Prowler's Claw, you can still do lots of work and cruise to Top 4 if you hit quickly. Don't overly force it though -- in these situations you ideally have several copies of Warwick early through an opener such as the Upgraded Champion portal or Artifact Anvil with early Warwicks.
Dragon Shapeshifters are the new hotness taking over the meta. Dishsoap tweeted out the general gameplan:
Shyvana 2 is an absolute terror right now and stacking her gives you dominant early-mid game wins. She also can compete in Stage 4 and annihilate 1* 4-cost carries who are positioned thoughtlessly. The board always play 6 Shapeshifters 3 Dragons with Varus so similar to Kalista, the board is quite similar every game. Even just having items on Briar 1 and Smolder 1 can get a top 4.
Kalista is the same as the past two patches. 5 Faerie Kalista with 3 Multistrikers Camille and Zilean. There is some innovation being experimented with: if you have a Faerie emblem, you can play 7 Faerie in the mid game with Gwen and Bard while cutting the Multistrikers as a method to get to level 9. It's not that strong in the stats, but some top players are exploring this space some.
Finally, Spin to Win Hunters got some significant buffs and rounds out the S tier. You don't even need the Wukong Hero Augment to perform well if you have other good Hunter augment such as Hunter +1, Hunting Frenzy, or other ridiculous combos such as Wukong Big Gains. 6 Hunters in general is quite powerful and you even have the option of not playing Wukong and pushing levels for Briar with the Hunter emblem.
The biggest change this patch is the general emblem augment pass. Now, it is much harder to instantly build a board with a Prismatic Crown and get your vertical going. Instead, you have to carefully evaluate if your spot is strong enough to justify trading a Gold or Prismatic tier augment for an emblem.
We still recommend taking a good emblem for your vertical on 3-2 and 4-2, but generally avoid on 2-1. Listed below are the good options at 2-1, but in general most Crests and Crowns are much more situational so be extremely mindful of taking one early.
For 2-1 Crowns, the following ones are good / acceptable:
Tier 1 - Mage Crown, Hunter Crown
Tier 2 - Sugarcraft Crown, Scholar Crown
Tier 3 - Witchcrown Crown, Faerie Crown, Shapeshifter Crown
All of the above Augments still retain their completed item so your tempo should still be intact. Mage is nearly an always take if you have an AP start. Hunter is exceptional, but can struggle a touch if you don't have upgrades early. Sugarcraft should be taken if you have extra items either in your opener or from the Portal. Scholar has one of the highest caps in the game.
Crests are in a similar boat where sometimes you just don't even get the unit anymore. The only 2-1 Crests generally seen are:
Tier 1 - Witchcraft Crest, Scholar Crest
Tier 2 - Portal Crest, Hunter Crest, Faerie Crest, Mage Crest
Very quietly getting multiple buffs over the course of several patches are Bastions. If you look at the vertical of the trait, they now give 100 Armor and Magic Resistance, doubling that for the 8-piece synergy. This is an enormous amount of tankiness that shouldn't be ignored. Diana is also an incredible cap to late game boards if you get her 2* with good AP items as she can AOE nuke boards with a burst of team healing. What's not to love?
The primary issue with Bastions are that there are so many low-tier units. Who wants to play Poppy, Lillia, and Nunu late game if you aren't activating their origins like Witchcraft, Faerie, or Honeymancy?
Well, it just so happens that 4 Bastions are Hero Augments: Poppy, Lillia, Nunu, and Shen. So now we have an excuse to lean into these units and build vertical. In these Hero Augments, if you find a way to play 6 Bastion and set up a good backline, the data looks rather impressive.
The ideal backline combos we are seeing involve Ryze, Milio, and Xerath. The general skeleton is to set up 6 Bastion with this backline and give Ryze / Xerath carry items and Milio mana items. This should help cap your late game board.
And if you need to cap even higher because the lobby is too strong, you can begin selling the cheaper Bastions for higher quality units. For example, you can ditch Nunu and Shen for Morgana and Rakan to activate Witchcraft and Faerie. Or if you are playing Shen's Pillar of Flame, you can replace Lillia and Poppy for Varus and Smolder.
As much as this is the established tier list now, there are whispers among high elo circles that the meta is far from solved. The main reason is that mid-game should rapidly transform as many people begin catching onto Shyvana being busted and the reliability of 4 Vanguard.
4 Vanguard being great is really important for a couple reasons. The first is that it breathes new life into some reroll comps such as 4 Vanguard Hwei or 4 Vanguard Mages. The second is that you now can afford cheaper frontlines than just hitting 2* 4-cost. And the best part? There are plentiful amount of Vanguards you can throw at 1 and 2 costs. This is a huge deal for both Stage 3 and 4 where people felt like if you lowrolled early, you have no option but to enter the 4-cost lottery and inevitably miss. Miss Taric 2 for Ryze? Well, hold onto that Galio 2 and look for 4 Vanguard. Can't find Rakan for Karma? Anchor around Mordekaiser Galio and splash in Nami with Vex (and Syndra fits in quite nicely here too!).
You'll realize there are lots of splash traits available with them too such as Sugarcraft, Frost, Blasters, and more. Right now, winning stage 3 and 4 often defines your placement range within the game so having a strong mid-game is crucial. Time to suit up those Vanguards and get to work.
As always we end with the best openers for you to consider on Stage 1 and 2. The strength of these openers largely depend on upgrades and items so don't only hold the best units if you are giving up pairs of other solid units.
S tier: Frost Twitch (AD), Mages Vanguard (AP), Shapeshifter Dragon (AD), Portal (AP/AD)
A tier: Honeymancy (Flex), Faeries (Flex), Eldritch (Flex)
B tier: 4 Witchcraft Neeko (AP), Multistrikers (AD), Vanguard Blasters
Avoid if you can: Sugarcraft
Good 3-costs to keep from orb for Stage 2: Wukong, Swain, Neeko, Vex, Veigar, Morde
These are the standard openers you'll often see. The more effective boards you can build for cheap, the higher the tier. This is because you're more likely to 2* units and snowball momentum. If you need to 2* a unit to be effective (example: Nilah 2), then it makes it hard to justify holding for unlikeliness of upgrading + impact on your economy.
That's all for now. Thanks for being a loyal Patreon sub! If you have any further questions, feel free to drop them in our Discord server. See you on ladder!