5 things to know about Teamfight Tactics patch 9.14

The first full Teamfight Tactics patch is here and it’s bringing with it some massive changes to the popular new mode.

First of all, TFT now has a ranked mode. The mode will match players together based on skill and allow players to rank up — or rank down — based on how they finish in matches. Just like regular League of Legends these ranks will be broken up from Iron to Challenger, with all the other ranks along the way.

As for actual gameplay changes this week, there are a ton. Most of the game’s items got changes here or there. Almost all of the Origins got tweaked a little bit, and there are way too many champion changes to list right here. Perhaps most important, at least to some players, is the new system of item drops, which guarantees at least one drop in every PVE round in the game.

For a full look at everything that’s changing as part of Teamfight Tactics patch 9.14, you can check out the patch notes. To see all the changes coming to Summoner’s Rift as a part of this patch you can use our summary, or look at the full patch notes.

From now on TFT will patch every week

After this first wait of about three weeks, Teamfight Tactics will now update every week. The updates will be split into two types. Larger updates will come during regularly scheduled numbered League of Legends patches, while smaller updates will happen in the weeks between that should bring less substantial balance changes to the mode.

Twisted Fate is here

Twisted Fate is the first new champion added to Teamfight Tactics and he’s a two-cost Pirate Sorcerer. Just like Graves, Twisted Fate has his Bilgewater skin on to fit into the mode’s pirate bonus. TF’s ability is Pick a Card, which works about the same way it does in the regular game. TF will randomly select one of three cards and throw it at his current target. If he picks a red card it will do damage in an area around the target, a yellow card will stun the target, and a blue card will restore some of TF’s mana, along with the mana of any other allied unit standing near him.

The way attack speed works has been changed

There’s been a buff to most of the attack speed items in Teamfight Tactics with this patch, including Recurve Bow. While this might sound strange, since they were already some of the strongest in the game, there is a reason behind them. Attack speed is now calculated off of a percentage of the champion’s base attack speed. So, champions with lower base attack speeds will now get smaller bonuses from attack speed items. This means you’ll have to be a little more focused when giving out attack speed, because it’s not going to have a similar benefit for every champion.

Riot Games

The way you get items is different now

Instead of items being distributed completely at random, there’s now a bit more of a method behind the madness. Every PVE round will now drop at least one reward. The rewards can be component items or gold. While this doesn’t guarantee you an item every round it gets you a lot closer to a reward every time than the previous system, which could often leave players empty handed.

Spatula got a whole lot better

The previous version of Spatula was only good for Force of Nature or adding a new Origin to a unit. However, the new version will also double the stat of the item it’s placed with. For instance, if you create a Youmuu’s Ghostblade to make a champion an assassin, the Ghostblade will now also grant that champion 40 attack damage, rather than the 20 a B.F. Sword normally gives. Another important change is coming to Runaan’s Hurricane which will now do slightly less damage, but mimic whatever on-hit effects a champion has. That means the Runaan’s shots will now trigger things like Red Buff or the burn from Morellonomicon.