Teamfight Tactics Review and Analysis (In Depth Facts and Solutions)!
Played 5 hours straight of TFT for "1 champ" I wanted to Beta test with a new build, and had terrible results!! Terrible results from not even finding the champion card until to late, and for just Tier 1, which is a champ that costs 4 gold, but didn't show up, not even once until late game! Recently I had such bad luck, I have become fed up with this game mode for a bit, but not entirely since I know the work arounds during matches, plus I'm pretty good at it. It's in Beta, and it needs a patch probably as soon as possible so it doesn't die off suddenly! This game mode is fun, but I know almost all the problems it has, so there's no point in beta testing it further, because the fixes are in the Forums at this point. Now I can just wait until they patch it, to beta test it again. I will come back to it now and then, but I will be on TFT much less until the patch for it is up.
If I were to rate this with a score out of 10, I rate it a 4/10 even while being a good player at TFT, and I would not recommend yet in its current state, unless the person enjoys fixing a sloppy mess with a lot of problems at this point. I give it a 4/10 because I like its potential if they do this right, and I like what this can lead to for future projects Riot may consider with its success to expand as a well known game for League of Legends. When this is officially released as intended, and all goes well for TFT, I can see the rating going up a bit, especially with future champions to look forward to trying for Teamfight Tactics, such as Renekton or Urgot!
(Problems and Counters for "Champ Comps" like Fire vs Ice basic concept)
Of course while Glacial's are possible to beat, it does require equally perfect luck for both teams, and is very hard to do for someone who isn't playing the obvious meta setup, but still has been done. Glacial's do need a nerf for their champ comp, and for individuals apart of Glacial comp, such as Sejuani, and Ashe as the main standouts, among Lissandra and Volibear who deal lots of damage on top of the stun freezes! I suggest a damage reduction on all Glacial's so there's fair time for players to takedown Glacial's without having to use a certain champ setup to beat them, or get "very lucky" with your own setup to claim victory over Glacial's, favorable luck wise. Also the Glacial champ comp needs to have the stun chance reduced from 45% chance to around 25% chance at max instead, or change the Glacial comp bonus altogether to make it more fair. In which case I would suggest making the Glacial comp bonus an Ice Shield that blocks a percentage of damage for a duration of say 3 seconds similar to a Kindred barrier, but instead as an Ice Shield for individual champs, rather than nonsense freezing. Also I feel that Demon champ comp should be a good counter to Glacial champ comp since they rely so heavily on mana to freeze, so perhaps the Demon champ comp can use a reasonable buff so it can burn mana whenever a champion or group of champions has mana gain speeds increased from items or from their own champ comp such as Glacial, this way it's not not purely chance based unless the opponents setup has no mana gain speeds increased from anything, to which mana burn becomes less, and remains a chance that's not guaranteed unless the opponent has mana speed gain benefits. Also perhaps the Demon champ comp can deal some fire damage on enemies Demons attack, to prevent healing at a slight reasonable extent, to help counter healing from being to easy but not have it set as overwhelming amounts of burn damage...just enough to make healing seem fairly slowed depending on what others have setup. Of course healing where others cause burn damage overtime, and gaining mana where mana is being burned out as well, would be the counter to Demons champ comp. However champs individual health and damage output is a major problem with these champ comps, because the champ comps can be more overwhelming than the items themselves, especially at the start with good champ card draws from RNG luck. If a champ comp setup stuns a lot, shields a lot, or burns mana and health a reasonable amount, then the champs also need their official health and damage calculated properly so that they are fairly balanced among other options. Once there is more variety of champs to choose from, I imagine countering others setup will be much more fun to do, since our options will be much less limited compared to what we have now!
(RNG Solutions and Bad Luck Comebacks)
When it comes to champ card draws, I feel the game should calculate if you are losing, then you can get more of the champs you need to fairly catch up with a fair chance of winning despite the bad luck earlier in the match. I feel the game should help keep the players falling behind in the game by to much hp, still in the match, with a chance besides just quitting accepting defeat. This way if the player truly feels they could have had a chance with better luck, the players can actually have their chances of finding their champ cards increased so it's no longer an excuse before quitting, so they can test their skills when they have a chance. However, it can be difficult to make a comeback if the meta is also so hard to beat, but at least players can avoid coming in last as much. Perhaps if the game can calculate how many champs you have in the champ inventory, so it can give you more of that champ, based on what players seem to be after. So if I have 1, 2 or Tier 2 Garen for example, then the game can calculate this to a point it knows to give more of that champion upon refreshing. This way finding champion card perhaps 1 time, can make a difference whether you find more or not. Some players like to lose early on purpose so they can get what they want to win, so this is also something to consider. The beautiful thing about programming, and developing with code, is that you can counter anything you want your program to counter, as long as you're aware of what the goal is or should be overall. There's a lot of options here that could make the TFT mode, more "tactical," than it is in its current state.
(Ice Shield "Details" instead of Freeze Stuns for "Glacial's" Champ Comp and a Bland "UI" overall)
For the Ice Shield instead of freeze stuns, I would suggest making the Ice Shield apply to 2 Glacial champs from having 2 Glacial's, then by 4 Glacial Champs it applies to 2 Glacial champs and 2 random champs besides Glacial, and for the final 6 Glacial's the shield can apply to all champs. This alternative is only a mere suggestion, and can be worked around and altered of course. I then want to suggest taking a look at individual champions as they level up in Tier up to Tier 3 from what we've seen. As some individual champions start off reasonable at Tier 1, but their Tier 2 and Tier 3 stat leaps are wildly and absurdly to powerful or full of health beyond fair for other champs. If the goal is to balance TFT so people can get creative with their preferred army without a specific meta, then the game has to be balanced to a point we don't have to choose certain champs to win, and can be comfortable winning with the champs we may prefer, at least to a reasonable extent! There's actually so much wrong with this game mode TFT right now, and this is coming from someone who averages 1st-4th place, and the only way I come in 5th is if my luck was so terrible the match wasn't even bearable due to the mess of RNG for this mode currently! The mode needs more HUD, UI indicators of what's going on, item combos should be inside a drop down tab at least, and perhaps a tutorial for new players to the mode!
(RNG Situation)
I didn't realize how bad the RNG really was until my last recent matches despite doing very well! I tried to get a specific champ to test a build combo with him I haven't seen anyone use yet in the same way, and the RNG is so bad for me with a specific champ, even compared to Legendaries, to a point I earned Tier 2 SWAIN, before I could even find 3 of the champ I wanted, let alone just find more than 1 the whole match (since I only found 1 by phase "7")! I ended up testing the items on SWAIN, but by the time I gave up searching for the champ I wanted to make Tier 2, I was 8hp! This makes me feel like there is very little variety, and diverse options, because the game doesn't allow players to just choose whatever they want and enjoy it. Yes you can find most champs you want, but to find champs that cost more than 1 gold can take a ridiculous amount of effort. I don't mean I spend 50 gold on a single planning phase, I am talking 20 gold every single phase by late game, and getting not a single "specific champ" that I wanted to find after around 100 gold was spent! This is a beta, but this is absurd! I saw someone post about a "Ban Bar," but I think instead we should just be able to spend say 10 gold to claim a champ card we want instantly. This would make it so after all the champs are released for this game mode for example, players can find their preferred enjoyable champs to get creative with, without relying on the most common champs to conquer everyone early as possible compared to other champs that show up much less. This mode is a mess right now, but it has potential to be enjoyable, and not a frustration beyond belief.
(Quick suggestion for Lucian, Draven, and Asol "Corner Main Campers" OP Onslaught)
A champion like Thresh can be as helpful at pulling Corner Campers as Blitzcrank or a lucky Assassin leap, but be more effective than Blitzcrank with decent damage for Thresh basic attacks, as Thresh ability would be a damaging pull we're familiar with, and the passive can teleport the weakest "Ally champion" to Thresh every so often for example. Thresh can be a 3-4 gold champion, that can benefit Phantom, Sorcery, and Demon to add variety. Thresh could counter effective "AOE" champions like Brand, and counter "Corner Main Campers" fairly well for those that don't want to use 1 or the other, thus a counter is needed to balance the tides of battle when choosing otherwise.
Thresh can do well against Glacial's as a Demon causing mana burn, Pulling Corner Campers with the ability, and dealing extra damage as Sorcery, and/or Phantom bonus to add variety for Phantoms. Costing 3-4 Gold because he would be needed near or at Mid Game to defend against Corner Campers etc. His weakest "Ally Champion" teleporting would be good for saving champs from AOE damage away being distanced from the engaging battle. Thresh after pulling can cause a brief 0.3 second stun, reset the pulled champions mana, and passive, allowing the counter to be fairly effective against powerful champs like Draven as a Corner Camper. Before moving on from Thresh, if he is made soon for TFT, it's definitely important he can pull from the far back corner because not many champs can do that and be effective overall besides pulling, like the poor Blitzcrank for example. Knowing players can only hold a max of 10 champions in their army, not including the inventory slots to swap troops...I can see a lot of potential on terms of what champs are used for the Champ Comps in the future of TFT, variety wise.
(Limited use of a champion that may be very effective, and those that aren't don't need the limitation overall)
Finally to even things out for everyone, perhaps certain champions once they reach Tier 2 and/ or 3, there can only be one placed in battle, so if I got Swain to Tier 2, then I can only have 1 Swain in battle since he is so powerful! This would eliminate the possibility of overpowering by using duplicate of the same champions, such as stunning champions like Pyke, Shapeshifting Champs like Swain or Gnar, Cho'Gath's mass Health, and overpowering Corner Camper Champs like listed above, before this. Champs like Warwick or Graves are fine to duplicate, as long as they aren't to effective. Kassiden perhaps can have his health reduced, have no item spam on a single champion, and/ or not be allowed more than 1 of Kassiden in battle once he reaches Tier 2 for example.
Another option for future champions like Urgot or Renekton, is that we can have Ultimate Champions after Legendaries, that can be used as 1 off's where you get them for either a single round, or you get them for 1 phase until they are auto removed from the battle. Once an Ultimate Champion is used in battle, the same Ultimate champ won't be available. So the chances of others showing up increases since they are used once, then removed entirely from the deck to draw from. Ultimate champs can appear automatically at Gold Tier 3! Something maybe worth trying at least, especially for sudden turnovers for losing players, or players in trouble that need the boost. The visual effects for these Ultimate Champs should be fun to see when they appear, even if you're on the side receiving the beating. At first I thought this would be good for any player who gets lucky enough, but then I thought it would be best for someone not getting lucky enough, to help them through an entire phase or round they choose to put the champ into battle, depending on whether they last a round, several rounds, or an entire phase for losing players who are behind. This can also reduce the rate players may quit early from having bad luck, and when more options are apart of TFT as it improves its currently poor RNG system...even then, this would be awesome for players to look forward to instead of just quitting giving up from being in last place. The losing players Rank for TFT can be calculated, so the Ultimate Champ they receive can depend on their skill level, so it doesn't reverse the tides of the battle when they do show up in a ridiculous way, but if it doesn't calculate their skill level, at least it's still for the losing players to have a chance still, if they stick around. Being rewarded for good sportsmanship.