5 things to know about Teamfight Tactics patch 9.15

Teamfight Tactics is only a few weeks old, but that doesn’t mean it’s immune to big changes. In the latest patch for the auto-battler game mode Riot has reworked several of the game’s origins and classes, along with buffs and nerfs to some of the game’s biggest systems.

The biggest reworks from patch 9.15 hit Void and Assassins. Void units will now deal true damage if their bonus is active, which should give them a significant leg up considering their usual low damage. Meanwhile, Assassins will move faster than they did before, but can be targeted earlier. Non-Assassin units will also move slower, meaning that the back lines are a little bit less likely to open up for Assassins to jump into. Knights also got a big change and now help your team ignore 15/30/55 damage from all sources now, instead of only blocking basic attack damage for themselves.

Another large-scale change this patch is coming to the way streaks work in the game. Before this patch going on an early game win-streak was a sure-fire way to put yourself in a good place, while trying to rack up gold early from a loss streak could be a dangerous proposition. Both kinds of streaks start earlier now, which should help out both sides. Now they should be a little bit more even, thanks in part to the nerf to player damage that also came in. This nerf means that losing just a few rounds shouldn’t put you on death’s doorstep anymore.

For a look at every change made in this patch you can check out our full Teamfight Tactics patch 9.15 patch notes.

Knights got a huge buff

Perhaps the biggest change of the entire patch is the buff that Knights got. Rather than simply blocking a small portion of basic attack damage that hit themselves, Knights will now provide a defensive boost to their entire team. This means that just four Knights can block 30 damage from every ability and attack any enemy uses. Along with that, they also got fairly significant armor buff across the board.

The Assassins rework will make them move differently

Assassins are now a whole lot more complicated. They now have a few more specifics around the way they interact with the game, including moving faster than other units, and jumping earlier. This means that by the time Assassins jump, the other team may not have moved much, which makes positioning against Assassins a lot more important. As a slight bonus for this change, and the nerf they suffered last patch, some of TFT’s Assassins got changes to their abilities, including buffs to Rengar, Katarina, and Evelynn.

Streak changes should make them more useful

Both win and loss streaks got an adjustment this patch, but the good news is they both changed the same way. Rather than their old breaking point, the needed amounts of both wins and losses has gone down, which should make both more effective. Here are the new breakpoints for both streaks.

• Win/Loss streak breakpoints: 2/5/8 ⇒ 2/4/7

Players will take less damage from certain units now

Damage in the late game has always been a little high in TFT. Things could be going great one minute, and the next you could be out of the game. So, Riot is trying to scale back player damage just a little bit, but it has a few very specific ideas about how to do that. The damage for certain tiers of units and certain star levels has changed, so it’s probably easier to just list them out.

• Damage from Spiderlings/Elemental Golem: 2 ⇒ 1
• Tier 4 (1 Star): 3 ⇒ 2
• Tier 5 (1 Star): 4 ⇒ 3
• Tier 3 (2 Star): 4 ⇒ 3
• Tier 4 (2 Star): 5 ⇒ 4
• Tier 5 (2 Star): 6 ⇒ 5
• Tier 4 (3 Star): 7 ⇒ 6

Lots of classes and origins got big buffs and nerfs

This patch made most of its balance decisions based on which classes and origins were buffed rather than making changes to individual characters in a vacuum. Demons, who have dominated the last patch or two, got nerfs across the board, with a big nerf to the mana burn chances as well as specific nerfs to Varus, Aatrox, and Morgana. Meanwhile, both Brand and Lissandra got buffs to their abilities since the elemental bonus got nerfed last patch.