What defines TFT balance? And what is our goal for TFT when it comes to balance? It’s definitely a subjective thing to think about, so I wanted to outline a bit this week some of our goals.
The first one is that every non tank has a comp where they are the 3 item star of the comp that can win the lobby. Usually being the star means top of the damage meters to most of our players, so consider that the reference point (though it’s a bit more complex than that). This means that there are:
-6 1 costs
-9 2 costs
-7 3 costs
-8 4 costs
-8 5 costs
And we want to get as many of those to be viable carry option. Usually each cost has different requirements though. For example for a 1 cost to be the star usually requires them to hit early, level to 8 or even 9, and pair it with some high cost traits and units. A decent example of this right now is the Kog’Maw comp. A 3 cost comp on the other hand likely needs to cap at 3 star and hit some key vertical help, such as the Aphelios comp right now.
One thing to note, is that there are players out there who “hate it when reroll is viable” or “hate when the game is just fast 8/9”, but the reality is being in one of those camps takes out too many options we want viable. If you “hate reroll” for example, that is 22/40 of the carries we want to work. We’re not going to eliminate that much of the field being viable.
And it’s obviously a bit more complicated, as traits and connecting champions have to be taken into account. Some champs might have a very rough early game, but a very high peak such as Soraka on live right now. Others may just be able to coast off their traits like Sivir. These all have to be taken into account as well, and balanced relative to these curves. Their peaks and how difficult they are to achieve also matters.
So looking at the live patch, you can quickly go “Which champs am I never putting 3 items on right now” and that’s something we consider a miss. Things like Khazix, Qiyana, Zyra, Ashe, and Xayah feel like they just aren’t hitting that bar right now. But Zyra is a good example, where we can’t just buff her without impacting Storyweaver and Sage, both of which are already quite strong. Hence some power budget allocation may need to change.
So there ya go. If you find yourself trying to make certain carries work, and they just aren’t, it’s a good time to give feedback. We make adjustments to try to make this more and more of a reality each patch, until we finally get it where all the carries have unique options. Some are harder than others (last set Nami), and some are easy. But we keep pushing!
Have a great week all, and hope you keep enjoying TFT! Take it easy 🙂
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