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6 Beginner Mistakes I See All The Time & How To Improve From Them

DryBear·8/6/2019, 3:12:08 PM·7 votes·3,173 views

Hey folks! If you'd prefer to be seduced by my voice instead, here is the video form of this topic LINK HERE. Timestamps for each tip are in the comments & description. I'd appreciate it if you'd give it a look. <3

6 Beginner Mistakes

  • Picking an end-game team comp too soon

There are a lot of guides going around on good end-game team comps (heck I even made one) and sometimes players can get tripped up in this by trying to pick their end-game comp too early on in the game.

It's easy to be seduced by the Void Brawlers or hyper carry Draven, but what drives compositions in this game is primarily items. It's more important to consider (A) what items you're getting and (B) what comp other players are building. I see a lot of newer players not spending the time to create Early Game and Mid Game compositions that will allow them to transition into the build they ultimately end up on. For example, a full 6 Sorcerer build can be strong but a majority of the strong units in that composition are expensive which means if you force it as an early or mid game build you risk getting crushed too soon.

A good rule of thumb is to start creating your end-game build around the time you hit Wolves. If you don't have your end-game build by Raptors, it's usually a good time to go all in and roll until you feel like you have a strong composition.

  • Re-rolling too often and without a specific goal in mind

Economy is more viable than it has been in the past. Too often I see players re-rolling blindly or out of habit which can lead them to losing by mid-game. I recommend having a SPECIFIC goal in mind each time you re-roll.

Say you're looking to level up one or two of your units. Knowing what cost they are and ensuring you're at a level that gives you a good drop rate for that unit and then rolling until you get it is a great way to use the re-roll mechanic. It's also important to take stock of how many of that unit are already taken by other players. Your level plus the available stock of the unit will help you determine how likely you are to find that unit if you rolled for it. Re-rolling is an important strategy in TFT but a fickle mistress if you don't treat it right.

That said, I will caution that you usually want to play the same way as the other players in the lobby. If most players are playing Economy and you're re-rolling or vice versa, you will usually just lose too much HP or fall behind late game.

  • Building the wrong items or building items at the wrong time

The HOT items right now are Guardian Angel, Morellos, RFC, and Statikk Shiv. Most of this revolves around Karthus or Cho dealing bonkers AoE damage and preventing healing with Morellonomicon. Conversely, items like Hurricane, Sword of the Divine (since Assassins got nerfed), and Titanic Hydra are risky items to create. Some of them because the items that make them are better made into other items. Looking at Titanic Hydra, you'd rather make a Morellos with the Giant's Belt and a Rapidfire Cannon, Statikk Shiv, or Rageblade with the Recurve Bow.

It takes time to understand when the best time is to combine items, but put simply you just want to wait until you can make the best items for the composition you're building. If you're losing HP, you're forced to create whatever items you can with what you have.

If you're 1 or 2 rounds away from a creep wave or a carousel, and you don't feel like you're going to lose a lot of HP in the next round it's good to wait and see what you get before you commit to items.

  • Not playing what the GAME gives you

This is HUGE. I've seen players re-roll 60-80 Gold looking for the units that fit the composition they placed in their head and never find them. Meanwhile they don't notice that the game has been giving them 12 Gnars along the way because other players aren't running Yordles or Shapeshifters. This is why I LOVE the limited stock component of Teamfight Tactics as it can make off-meta or less popular builds powerful when they are being ignored. Is Void Brawler with Morellos, GA, Deathcap on Cho better than Wild Shapeshifter? Right now, sure. But if you're uncontested and can get a stacked 3* Gnar and Shyvanna while others fight over Cho and Karthus? It's a different story.

The best TFT players have a wealth of knowledge on what works and what doesn't, and then seek to play off what the game is giving them to make the best composition. Keep an eye out before you hit Wolves for units that are going uncontested or are showing up frequently and ask yourself if it's worth making a transition to a new composition!

  • Running units that bring low value or are low tier

When I get stuck, don't have a composition I feel good about, and have some Gold I will turn to "Rolling Down". In this process, I'm rolling looking for high value units that work well in the current meta or are anchor units in strong compositions. In the same way, you always want to be employing units that have high value to your team.

I see a lot of players running units that are low value like Elise or Twisted Fate. In most cases, running other units regardless of synergy will benefit your team more than trying to force a 3* Twisted Fate in his current state. Familiarize yourself with the strong and weak units, then try to avoid using units that in general are not very good.

  • Not constantly assessing your team's strengths and weaknesses

Similar to romanticizing end-game comps, I don't see players assessing their team's ACTUAL strengths and weaknesses enough. This comes with experience but a skill that every TFT player should practice.

Every stable team comp needs:

  1. Front Line stability. The Front Line stability can come from Brawlers, Guardians, Knights, or units like Gnar that can take a beating. Without this, your team can get steamrolled before your units can deal damage. Kindred's ult can be a stopgap for this if you're positioned properly as well.
  2. Damage. The Damage can come from Draven/Rengar, Rangers, Sorcerers, Assassins, etc. Without this, you won't be able to chew through the enemy Front Line or take out key targets.
  3. Teamfight Strength. This is your initiation and disruption potential. Units like Gnar, Sejuani, and Cho'Gath fit into this category as well as synergies like Glacial or Demon and items like Hush, Cursed Blade, or Sword Breaker. This component is essential when team sizes go over 6 as you need to be able to disrupt and shut down the enemy team. It's also why Support, Guardian, Tank, and Initiators exist in MOBAs like LoL.

Throughout the match you should be constantly assessing how strong you are in each of these categories. For example, if you have damage but no front line yet it can save you a lot of HP to throw a Poppy or solo Braum out in front just to allow your damage dealers enough time to get some kills.

And that's it! I love discussing games so please let me know if you have any feedback for me or my content.

What are other mistakes you see? Do you agree or disagree with my assessment?

Cheers!

6 Comments

Preheated Oven8/6/2019, 4:02:09 PM3 votes

[deleted]

Worst JG Wins8/6/2019, 9:13:40 PM2 votes

He dude i suggest you work on your own game before you start trying to coach people.

For example your first "mistake" is just straight wrong. There are plenty of team comps that are extremely wide and you can legit decided to force them before you even Q up. There are team comps that can low roll units and do great so long as you hit the items and deciding to go into these comps off getting 4 good items for them off the first minion wave is perfectly fine. Picking an end game team comp early is fine... it's just you need to know how to get to the comp and what makes the comps good.

iainB858/7/2019, 2:47:27 AM2 votes

A lot of it is sound advice, however I feel you'd receive a more positive reception if you titled it something more along the lines of "Tips for Success" or what not rather than "Beginner Mistakes" because a lot of what you suggest is just a solid way to perhaps win more games, but not the only ones.

For instance, picking up late game champions is certainly a risk but not really a beginner mistake as it can pay off dividends if you get the follow up you need.

Another example is your structure of a "stable" team comp -- you can certainly win by going all in on one type without building a "stable" comp as you describe. Again, a risk, but I wouldn't call it a "mistake" either.

Bottom line is I think you may be coming off a bit elitist by sharing what works for you, and labeling other strategies as "beginner mistakes" when you could phrase it much better. Just some feedback for you.

xxMOExx8/8/2019, 5:45:37 PM1 votes

And here we see the LoL community really coming out to shine! Gotta be one of the most toxic communities on the planet. Drybear, you keep it up! Following this advice, I have already secured more wins in two days than I have since it released!

Devilreaper XIII8/8/2019, 9:21:34 PM1 votes

{quoted}

6 Beginner Mistakes

  • Picking an end-game team comp too soon

It's easy to be seduced by the Void Brawlers or hyper carry Draven, but what drives compositions in this game is primarily items. It's more important to consider (A) what items you're getting and (B) what comp other players are building. I see a lot of newer players not spending the time to create Early Game and Mid Game compositions that will allow them to transition into the build they ultimately end up on. For example, a full 6 Sorcerer build can be strong but a majority of the strong units in that composition are expensive which means if you force it as an early or mid game build you risk getting crushed too soon.

A good rule of thumb is to start creating your end-game build around the time you hit Wolves. If you don't have your end-game build by Raptors, it's usually a good time to go all in and roll until you feel like you have a strong composition.

you can get champions to lvl 3 early game, so it wouldn't be a mistake to pick it as playthrough.... why go for a full sorc team? all of them are rather squishy with the exception to kassadin.... a better strategy would be to build yuumi on a brawler or knight, spare no expenses, gold is the least important, since you get enough each round for sure, gold loses even more value mid to late, since getting those champions to level 3 late game is nigh impossible with such a small pool.

  • Re-rolling too often and without a specific goal in mind

Economy is more viable than it has been in the past. Too often I see players re-rolling blindly or out of habit which can lead them to losing by mid-game. I recommend having a SPECIFIC goal in mind each time you re-roll.

Say you're looking to level up one or two of your units. Knowing what cost they are and ensuring you're at a level that gives you a good drop rate for that unit and then rolling until you get it is a great way to use the re-roll mechanic. It's also important to take stock of how many of that unit are already taken by other players. Your level plus the available stock of the unit will help you determine how likely you are to find that unit if you rolled for it. Re-rolling is an important strategy in TFT but a fickle mistress if you don't treat it right.

That said, I will caution that you usually want to play the same way as the other players in the lobby. If most players are playing Economy and you're re-rolling or vice versa, you will usually just lose too much HP or fall behind late game.

what past? this game isn't that old. i'm pretty sure players reroll to get the champion they need, unless they can see into the future..... best way to deal with it is to spend 4 gold on xp once, and the rest for rerolling, as far as the pool goes, its rigged, i noticed some players both getting level 3 gold chanpions early game and some other players getting level 1 or 2 of the same champion, whilst tier 1 champions no one builds never appear for some reason......

  • Building the wrong items or building items at the wrong time

The HOT items right now are Guardian Angel, Morellos, RFC, and Statikk Shiv. Most of this revolves around Karthus or Cho dealing bonkers AoE damage and preventing healing with Morellonomicon. Conversely, items like Hurricane, Sword of the Divine (since Assassins got nerfed), and Titanic Hydra are risky items to create. Some of them because the items that make them are better made into other items. Looking at Titanic Hydra, you'd rather make a Morellos with the Giant's Belt and a Rapidfire Cannon, Statikk Shiv, or Rageblade with the Recurve Bow.

It takes time to understand when the best time is to combine items, but put simply you just want to wait until you can make the best items for the composition you're building. If you're losing HP, you're forced to create whatever items you can with what you have.

If you're 1 or 2 rounds away from a creep wave or a carousel, and you don't feel like you're going to lose a lot of HP in the next round it's good to wait and see what you get before you commit to items.

its not like you really have a choice in what items you get, unless you (purposfuly) lose, and even than the carrousel might not provide what you need, so yeah going for these HOT items may not be possible..... especially mid game when you start to take quite the damage, its best to use some items to stay in the game, and keep 1 or 2 item combinations on the bench to place on the champion(s) crucial.

  • Not playing what the GAME gives you

This is HUGE. I've seen players re-roll 60-80 Gold looking for the units that fit the composition they placed in their head and never find them. Meanwhile they don't notice that the game has been giving them 12 Gnars along the way because other players aren't running Yordles or Shapeshifters. This is why I LOVE the limited stock component of Teamfight Tactics as it can make off-meta or less popular builds powerful when they are being ignored. Is Void Brawler with Morellos, GA, Deathcap on Cho better than Wild Shapeshifter? Right now, sure. But if you're uncontested and can get a stacked 3* Gnar and Shyvanna while others fight over Cho and Karthus? It's a different story.

The best TFT players have a wealth of knowledge on what works and what doesn't, and then seek to play off what the game is giving them to make the best composition. Keep an eye out before you hit Wolves for units that are going uncontested or are showing up frequently and ask yourself if it's worth making a transition to a new composition!

not everyone is psychic, you speak in past tense, '' Meanwhile they don't notice that the game has been giving them 12 Gnars along the way'' yeah great, because you can't.... you can try to go for that level 2 champion the game gives, but what if the game would give you just the 1 or 2 champions you need to make a level 3 that fits into your comp? rerolling or taking what the game gives you are equally risky strategies, both can pay off or kill you.

  • Running units that bring low value or are low tier

When I get stuck, don't have a composition I feel good about, and have some Gold I will turn to "Rolling Down". In this process, I'm rolling looking for high value units that work well in the current meta or are anchor units in strong compositions. In the same way, you always want to be employing units that have high value to your team.

I see a lot of players running units that are low value like Elise or Twisted Fate. In most cases, running other units regardless of synergy will benefit your team more than trying to force a 3* Twisted Fate in his current state. Familiarize yourself with the strong and weak units, then try to avoid using units that in general are not very good.

you contradict yourself right there, first you state that you should pay attention to what the game gives you, but than you state you should look for alleged ''value units'' which is it? burn your gold to get what you need/want or get what the game gives you? besides not everyone gets the chance to build stronger units, so a weak elise or twisted fate level 2 is still better than a level 1 ''value unit'' that will never make level 2, you can choose to use the weaker units as fodder, to allow your stronger units to use their abilities.

  • Not constantly assessing your team's strengths and weaknesses

Similar to romanticizing end-game comps, I don't see players assessing their team's ACTUAL strengths and weaknesses enough. This comes with experience but a skill that every TFT player should practice.

Every stable team comp needs:

  1. Front Line stability. The Front Line stability can come from Brawlers, Guardians, Knights, or units like Gnar that can take a beating. Without this, your team can get steamrolled before your units can deal damage. Kindred's ult can be a stopgap for this if you're positioned properly as well.
  2. Damage. The Damage can come from Draven/Rengar, Rangers, Sorcerers, Assassins, etc. Without this, you won't be able to chew through the enemy Front Line or take out key targets.
  3. Teamfight Strength. This is your initiation and disruption potential. Units like Gnar, Sejuani, and Cho'Gath fit into this category as well as synergies like Glacial or Demon and items like Hush, Cursed Blade, or Sword Breaker. This component is essential when team sizes go over 6 as you need to be able to disrupt and shut down the enemy team. It's also why Support, Guardian, Tank, and Initiators exist in MOBAs like LoL.

Throughout the match you should be constantly assessing how strong you are in each of these categories. For example, if you have damage but no front line yet it can save you a lot of HP to throw a Poppy or solo Braum out in front just to allow your damage dealers enough time to get some kills.

depends on the strategy, you can throw an entire yordle team in a corner around a karthus stacked with 2 ludens, to prevent karthus from dying for 5 seconds so karthus can destroy all opponents in 1 or 2 shots, heck you can even do this with rangers or sorceres without any tank units, or you can run a full assassin team, sheer damage from behind the enemy front line, all that would be left would be tanks, what point is a front line when all your champions jump behind their front line? no one to protect on your side, or try a full knight team with lots of aoe damage, or place a full team with champions that cause damage in a straight line like ahri, ashe, aurelion sol, miss fortune, varus, mordekaiser and yasuo all in different positions to cause damage from all sides, or a team full of healing champions, nida/lulu/darius/WW/elise and two more random champs etc. or a duplicate team of level 2s, 2 cho gath 2 kassadin 2 khazix 2 reksai, 1 random brawler they all get the void bonus (except that random one)