Welcome to our Teamfight Tactics cheat sheet for Set 7, Dragonlands.

These infographics will give you an easy reference for item recipe combinations.

We recommend downloading our free TFT Desktop App so you can get the cheat sheets within an in-game Overlay and not worry about looking at a second screen.

If you found this page looking for the upcoming TFT Set, currently on the PBE, head to our all-in-one Teamfight Tactics Set 7 reveal page that covers all champions, synergies, and more!

TFT Set 7 Item Cheat Sheet

TFT Cheat Sheet Item Combinations

To see all the stats for these item combinations and components, head to our handy TFT Set 7 item database.

• Archangel’s Staff
  • Tear of the Goddess + Needlessly Large Rod
• Assassin Emblem
  • Spatula + Sparring Gloves
• Astral Emblem
  • Needlessly Large Rod + Spatula
• Banshee’s Claw
  • Sparring Gloves + Giant’s Belt
• Bloodthirster
  • Negatron Cloak + B.F. Sword
• Blue Buff
  • Tear of the Goddess x2
• Bramble Vest
  • Chain Vest x2
• Bruiser Emblem
  • Giant’s Belt + Spatula
• Cavalier Emblem
  • Chain Vest + Spatula
• Chalice of Power
  • Tear of the Goddess + Negatron Cloak
• Deathblade
  • B.F. Sword x2
• Dragon’s Claw
  • Negatron Cloak x2
• Edge of Night
  • Chain Vest + B.F. Sword
• Frozen Heart
  • Tear of the Goddess + Chain Vest
• Gargoyle Stoneplate
  • Negatron Cloak + Chain Vest
• Giant Slayer
  • Recurve Bow + B.F. Sword
• Guinsoo’s Rageblade
  • Recurve Bow + Needlessly Large Rod
• Hand of Justice
  • Sparring Gloves + Tear of the Goddess
• Hextech Gunblade
  • Needlessly Large Rod + B.F. Sword
• Infinity Edge
  • B.F. Sword + Sparring Gloves
• Ionic Spark
  • Needlessly Large Rod + Negatron Cloak
• Jeweled Gauntlet
  • Sparring Gloves + Needlessly Large Rod
• Last Whisper
  • Sparring Gloves + Recurve Bow
• Locket of the Iron Solari
  • Needlessly Large Rod + Chain Vest
• Mage Emblem
  • Tear of the Goddess + Spatula
• Mirage Emblem
  • Negatron Cloak + spatula
• Morellonomicon
  • Needlessly Large Rod + Giant’s Belt
• Quicksilver
  • Sparring Gloves + Negatron Cloak
• Rabadon’s Deathcap
  • Needlessly Large Rod x2
• Ragewing Emblem
  • Recurve Bow + Spatula
• Rapid Firecannon
  • Recurve Bow x2
• Redemption
  • Tear of the Goddess + Giant’s Belt
• Runaan’s Hurricane
  • Recurve Bow + Negatron Cloak
• Shimmerscale Emblem
  • B.F. Sword + Spatula
• Shroud of Stilllness
  • Sparring Gloves + Chain Vest
• Spear of Shojin
  • Tear of the Goddess + B.F. Sword
• Statik Shiv
  • Tear of the Goddess + Recurve Bow
• Sunfire Cape
  • Giant’s Belt + Chain Vest
• Tactician’s Crown
  • Spatula x2
• Thief’s Gloves
  • Sparring Gloves x2
• Titan’s Resolve
  • Recurve Bow + Chain Vest
• Warmog’s Armor
  • Giant’s Belt x2
• Zeke’s Herald
  • Giant’s Belt + B.F. Sword
• Zephyr
  • Negatron Cloak + Giant’s Belt
• Zz’Rot
  • Recurve Bow + Giant’s Belt

To learn about the latest new TFT Set, head to our all-in-one Teamfight Tactics Set 7 reveal page that covers all champions, synergies, and more!

The post Teamfight Tactics Set 7 Cheat Sheets for Items, Champions, Origins, and Traits appeared first on Mobalytics.

New TFT team comps often appear quite quickly in TFT as bi weekly meta shifts change things dramatically. Some comps are invented on patch notes day, while others are adjusted over time and appear close to the end of a patch.

New comps can be quite jarring to play as it’ll feel like learning the game all over again. So here are a few main things to keep in mind when playing a new comp.

1. Know the purpose of items

If you are learning a new comp, chances are that you are reading a guide that already has optimal items for you to build. While this will be very helpful to follow, you don’t always follow the guide precisely.

Recommended Items

For example, here we have an example 3 item for Twitch. These may be our recommendation for best in slot items, but you can swap some items depending on what you have.

Infinity Edge is the best damage scaling item for Assassins. It synergizes perfectly and results in massive damage. Giant Slayer is another item to scale damage, but in a different aspect.

While Infinity Edge scales Crit Damage, Giant Slayer will simply give bonus damage. If you don’t have an extra Negatron Cloak, you can simply replace Runaan’s Hurricane with Giant Slayer.

Replacement Items

Edge of Night can be a possible third item for Twitch as well. He can output great damage, but is somewhat frail. This can help him survive just a bit longer in the late game to deal with enemy teams.

In situations like these, you should experiment with different items and see what results you get. Maybe you are able to find other items that are also strong, or maybe you fail and your team is nowhere near as strong.

Either way, you will learn what items will be good for a new comp, and judge whether or not you should play said comp based on your items.

2. Have a leveling strategy

Leveling strategy is one of the most important things to consider when seeing a new comp. For example, a comp like Draven and Friends will play a fairly “normal” strategy that looks to find 2 star units for a complete level 8 comp.

Conversely, comps like Talon Reroll or Mutants look to find 3 star units and stay at level 6 or 7 for longer. This is why at Mobalytics, we’ve added a leveling guide to our comps to ensure you know what you should prioritize at certain points of the game.

However, maybe you find a guide that doesn’t go in-depth on this topic, or maybe you play against a comp you’ve never seen before. In these situations, you should learn how to come up with a leveling strategy for yourself based on your previous experience.

Depending on the cost of your carry, you will be able to determine this yourself. If the comp carry is Ahri (4-cost), you will likely level normally to level 8 to finish your comp. If the comp carry is Kai’Sa, you might want to greed more to hit level 8 early.

If the comp carry is Senna, you may want to stay at level 7 longer to reroll for 3 star Senna. If your comp carry is Talon, you will want to stay at level 6 to reroll for 3 star Talon.

These leveling strategies have evolved over the course of the game’s history, and for a more in-depth guide, check out our resource on Leveling Strategies.

3. Optimize your positioning

Positioning in TFT is a unique aspect to comps and in my opinion, one of the least important aspects of any guide. While there may be a general positioning you should follow, positioning has a direct correlation to the enemy comps.

If you are playing against Assassins, you want to put your carries more to the side or front. If you are playing against Blitzcrank, you want to position your carry so they won’t be hit by his ability.

What if enemies have Zephyr? What if enemies have Shroud of Stillness? Or Blitzcrank? Or Blitzcrank with Zephyr?

Positioning will always be a choice based on the opponents you face. As such, when reading a guide, or looking at a new comp, simply try and see what things are necessary.

Ask yourself why the positioning is the way it is rather than simply copy it. As you find answers throughout your games, you will start to understand the general concepts of positioning like:

• How do I protect my carry?
• Who should be my main frontline
• Should I turtle in the corner or spread my units out?

4. Adjust your team comps according to game state

If you see a new comp, or read a new guide on a comp, you will be tempted to simply buy only the necessary units. While this may work out, you might not hit your units early enough, take too much damage, and bleed out in the late game.

If the guide you read covers everything you need to know, you might not need to know this, but there are a few ways to improve your game knowledge, and adjust to new comps.

Use transition units

Transition units are a great example of adjusting comps. Maybe you are running a comp like Draven and Friends and have items like Infinity Edge + Runaan’s Hurricane.

There are a plethora of units that can hold these items for Draven in the early and mid game. Ezreal, Warwick, Senna, Ashe, are some easy examples.

Even if your final team comp runs a unit like Senna, it’s important to still use your items to stay strong. You can eventually find more units to get your items back, but you can’t get your health back. (Unless you have Metabolic)

Adjust your item choices

We touched on items previously, but items are also an important counter play mechanic. If you see an enemy that has a lot of healing, you may want to prioritize getting a Morellonomicon over your ideal carry items.

If the enemy has a lot of CC or Enforcer, you may want to prioritize getting Quicksilver. Carries will often have ideal items, but make sure to also itemize against what you are playing against.

Understand interchangeable units

Let’s look at this team comp. It’s a fairly standard build that runs 5 Innovators along with other traits like Clockwork, Enchanter, Socialite, etc.

You can follow this exact team comp every game and find success, but learning how to adapt and react to opponents will make you an even better player.

Examples

• If I have an Innovator Emblem or Heart, who do I take out for Singed for Innovator 7?
• If I can’t find Jayce, what does my ideal team comp look like?
• Should I replace Ezreal with a stronger unit or keep Scrap?
• What’s the best unit to add in at level 9?
• Or do I swap out multiple units at level 9?

There are many variations you can do for any comp. Just look for traits that support your team or units that have powerful abilities. If they have both, even better.

Conclusion

When learning a new comp, it will be easier to follow the guide word for word and see what happens. While you may get decent results, thinking critically about what you should do to make the comp optimal for every game will allow you to truly master a comp faster.

There will be times where straying from the path will result in bad games, but you learn so much more in the process. Think about it like an investment. If you push the comp and change things, you will learn things that will improve your game knowledge.

Eventually, you will reach a point where you only need to know what units are run in a comp. After that, you will be able to fill in all the blanks yourself.

This will be even more useful on patch days. When many changes happen, new guides can be a bit delayed as they wait for the meta to settle.

In situations like this, your primary source of comps will be the opponents you face or streamers.

The moment you play against a new comp, or see it on stream, try to fill in the blanks yourself. Eventually, you will reach a point where you can master a new comp even before a fully fleshed guide comes out for it.

Thanks for reading! Be sure to check out our recommended team comps, champs, and items to help you adjust and adapt.

To learn about the new TFT Set, head to our all-in-one Teamfight Tactics Set 6.5 reveal page that covers all champions, synergies, and more!

The post How to Learn New TFT Team Comps Faster appeared first on Mobalytics.

If you find yourself being hard stuck in a certain elo or lose way more LP than you gain, it’s time that you look at what you can improve on rather than queuing up and expecting better results. There are likely habits you can improve on that will greatly improve your climb.

Over the course of the game’s life span, I’ve watched many streamers and friends play at varying different ranks. I’ve successfully reached Challenger in both Set 1 and Set 2, (although I ended the sets at about 400 LP Grandmaster). Since then I’ve mostly floated around High Diamond / Master in the sets since then.

I’ve coached a player who was new to TFT to Diamond after only a few sessions. While I may not be the best, I have studied and seen things that I believe players should work on during their climb up.

With this in mind, I’ve categorized what I believe is lacking from most players at certain ranks in the game. Do note that this is a generalization from what I’ve seen from other players. You may be a Gold player that does certain things better than most Plat Players.

You may be a Diamond player that might not have the fundamentals of a Plat player. Keep this in mind when reading through my tips and see what you can apply for yourself.

Iron – Bronze

For these first two ranks, I group them together because you are likely new to the game, or possibly new to auto chess as a whole.

One lucky win in your placement is almost enough to separate Iron from Bronze.

Also, note that these tips are great for anyone trying to get their friends to play TFT. Slowly introduce them to the game rather than throwing them into an information dump.

In this elo, I recommend two things.

Learn all the mechanics of the game.

You should understand how the game works, how gold works, how rolling works, what champion abilities are, etc. It can be quite daunting for a casual or new player to quickly learn 50+ champions and even more item combinations but focus on the core gameplay rules first. My next tip will help you slowly build your knowledge of the game over time.

Learn 1 Comp, and play it until you understand how it works

As a new player or casual player, you don’t want to spend too much time learning everything before you go into a game. You should queue up in ranked or normal and simply play and practice one meta comp. Learn the 8 or so champions that make your final build, and learn a few good champions to use in between.

After you are able to play 1 comp a few times, you will slowly learn what the items do, what the champions do, how to make the items, etc. Once you feel like you’ve learned it and can replicate the comp without a guide, move onto another comp. This process will be fresh as you are exploring new comps constantly. Over time, you will learn what all the mechanics of the game are.

Silver – Gold

Silver and Gold can be quite the large range to group, but most of the ideas for climbing out of Silver and Gold are quite similar.

Learn fundamental skills

Things like economy, scouting, positioning, and itemization are all things that you will slowly pick up over time by either playing the game or watching others play. When you learn a new comp, you may follow a general guideline, but start to branch out and begin to understand why certain things are the way they are. Ask yourself question like:

• Why is this item good for this champion?
• What other items should I make?
• Why do I position this champion here?
• When should I roll down? Or why do I roll down at this level?

Silver and Gold are where you should begin to understand the game on a core level rather than following a guide perfectly.

While you can climb very high playing one build the same way over and over, patch updates or meta shifts can put your climb to a halt.

By learning these skills, you will be able to know when to adapt certain comps in certain situations.

Maybe instead of hyper rolling, you decide to slow roll, or maybe you decide to build a suboptimal item to try and reach top 4. Learning fundamentals will allow you to make the most out of every game rather than going all-in on one strategy.

Platinum

Platinum players usually have got the basics down, but don’t necessarily apply many of the fundamentals every game. Platinum is very achievable for players who follow a guide for the strongest comp in the meta, but recently, TFT has shown more diverse metas that reward players for playing flexibly and adapting to the situation.

For Plat players, I have two main tips:

Apply the fundamentals throughout the game

By this point, you should understand how to build your economy, how to scout, how to itemize, etc. But you should be able to apply the skills you’ve amassed throughout the game. The best players scout almost every single round and reposition their board to give them the best possible chance of winning.

You may have found solid success in following a strategy, but learning how to adapt and being disciplined enough to do it throughout the entire game will give you a much better chance of climbing through plat.

Start to create your own playstyle

Playstyle is something often overlooked in TFT, but it is something that is very important to climbing higher and to possibly even climb to Challenger.

What do I mean by playstyle?

For example, you may be a player that likes to play only 1 comp and to play it to perfection. Kiyoon is a perfect example of a player who for a long time only played Mech Infiltrators. He was arguably the best Mech Infiltrator player and knew every single detail about the comp.

On the other hand, you may want to play like Polt’s, who plays very aggressively and mixes and matches synergies based on what he finds.

Either way, you should begin to understand how you enjoy playing the game, or what you have found brings you the most success. By doing so, you will have a clear vision of how the game will play out, and can make decisions to best achieve that vision.

By understanding and coming up with your own playstyle, you will make faster decisions like:

• What item should I go for here?
• What starting item do I want?
• What possible builds can I go for in this situation?
• Do I want to be a one-trick?

By figuring out your own playstyle, you will be able to make decisions faster. With that extra time, you can use it to scout and reposition or talk to chat if you’re a streamer.

Furthermore, by solidifying a playstyle, you will begin to understand your strengths and weaknesses. Maybe you have found a system of itemization that works for you, but you are lacking when it comes to champion selection in the early game.

Eventually, you will be able to create a unique playstyle that only you can replicate. No two TFT players will make the exact same decisions in a game, and this is where you need to find what gives you an advantage.

Diamond

Unfortunately for Diamond players, this is where it can start to get rough. For the most part, climbing out of Diamond is simply the skills you learned to climb out of Plat, only, you do it better.

Everything you’ve learned up to this point should be refined even more.

If you’ve been scouting and repositioning well, you need to do it better. Find the position that gives you the best chance of beating multiple boards.

If you are committed to playing the same comp every game, learn every single minute detail about it. Every possible item, every possible position, every possible adaptation.

Every minute decision you make will be the difference when you’re trying to hit Master. Many games will end with multiple players in single-digit HP. One mistake in the early game can be the difference between a 6th and a 3rd. Or in some extreme cases, the difference between a 1st and an 8th.

Get in the right mindset

If you’ve hit Diamond, it’s likely that you are fundamentally sound. At this point, if you haven’t already, take a step back to put yourself in the right headspace.

If you lose a game that’s extremely close, don’t tilt. Instead, ask yourself what you could’ve done better. It’s impossible to top 4 every game, and you should always be looking for ways to improve.

Master

If you’ve reached Master, first of all, congratulations. While some may discount the achievement, getting Master is not a simple feat for the vast majority of the players. You should feel proud of your accomplishment up to this point.

It would be boring to simply say do everything you’ve done up to this point but better, but really, climbing higher in Master is just that. If you think you’ve mastered an aspect of the game, you likely haven’t yet. And if you truly believe you have a skill down, master another skill. While this will be a majority of the improvement you will strive for, you should also do one more thing…

Find a Competitive Edge

At this point of your climb, you should look to find out what it is you excel at and hone in on that. You’re starting to compete with the best of the best, and you need to find what it is that makes you stand out.

For me personally, I found that I learned new comps very quickly, so I would often play new and strong comps early when the community would find out about them. As more players caught on, I would lose my edge. As such, I usually played more games when patches first hit, or when a new comp gained popularity.

If you haven’t figured out that special sauce that you have, don’t worry. It took me many months before I realized what my strengths were. Take your time, continue to improve, and you will over time begin to realize what it is you have that other players don’t.

Grandmaster+

Honestly, at this point, you just have to commit to being the best. If you want to climb up and into Challenger, you have to really put in the time and effort to compete with those that live and breathe TFT.

If you’re like me, you’ll be happy with Grandmaster and continue playing for enjoyment, but if you really want to hit Challenger, you must have the drive and determination to make it happen.

Rank 1

Good luck!

To learn about the next TFT Set, head to our all-in-one Teamfight Tactics Set 6 reveal page that covers all champions, synergies, and more!

The post Tips for Climbing Every TFT Rank (From a Grandmaster Player) appeared first on Mobalytics.

One of the best ways to learn and get better at any game is to watch the top players.

Many top players stream consistently and provide a lot of insight about their opinions in stream.

Usually, streamers and top players don’t disagree on too many things about the meta, but there can be some subtle differences in their play.

In this article, I’ll be going over the Liquid TFT players and show you ways to improve by analyzing their profiles and playstyles.

1. Kurumx

[See Kurumx’s TFT profile]

Top 3 Comps:

Taking a quick  look at Kurumx’s top 3 comps, we can see that his favored comp consists of running Challengers as the carry. This is a quick way to see if Kurumx is a player you’d be interested in watching. If you want to get better at playing Fiora/Kai’Sa/Yone comps, Kurumx is a great choice.

Top 3 Combined Items:

Runaan’s Hurricane is likely a flex pick for both Yone and Urgot. After that, Infinity Edge shows that he favors AD comps, and lastly, Morellonomicon is simply a strong item on any team comp.

Other Resources:

If you’re more interested to see more in depth stats about his Profile, be sure to check out the link we provided above. If you’re interested to see more of his gameplay, you can check out his Stream or his Youtube.

2. Saintvicious

[See Saintvicious’s TFT profile]

Top 3 Comps:

Looking at Saint’s top 3 comps, we can see a similar story to Kurumx with a small difference. He also favors late game comps with units like Jinx or Fiora, but he also plays more Jhin than Kurumx.

Top 3 Items:

We see a new top item for Saintvicious with Guardian Angel. This is once again a very solid flexible item on many team comps, similar to Morellonomicon.

Other Resources:

If you want to see how Saint pilots his comps, make sure to check out his Stream and Youtube channel as well.

3. Grandvice8

[See Grandvice8’s TFT profile]

Top 3 Comps:

Here we see a big difference compared to the other two players. GV8 plays a lot more Arcanist games than the first two, so he is a great resource for learning those comps.

Top 3 Items:

GV8’s top items are very different from the other players. He doesn’t particularly favor AD or AP items, but his top 3 items show extremely flexible items. All three of these items can easily fit into any team comp.

Other Resources:

I would recommend Grandvice’s Stream and Youtube channel for some insight on how he plays less common team comps. He’s shown that he’s not afraid to try less common comps in the past, so he is definitely one to watch if you like more off meta comps.

4. Robinsongz

[See Robinsongz’s TFT profile]

Top 3 Comps:

We see Robin’s top comps match that of GV8’s very similarly. Having two streamers to watch play more AP comps is valuable when one or the other isn’t streaming.

Top 3 Items:

Infinity Edge and Morellonomicon are two common item picks already, but Ionic Spark stands out. This item heavily favors AP comps, but this could also just be Robin playing a lot of Akali games when Akali was overpowered.

Other Resources:

Robin also has a Stream and Youtube much like all of the other streamers we’ve discussed. I believe that Robinsongz will be a player to watch if you’re interested in how he is able to consistently build his economy to hit late game units. His playstyle may change in upcoming patches, but the information will always be valuable in the future.

5. AKAWonder

[See AKAWonder’s TFT profile]

Top 3 Comps:

Just because this profile is Grandmaster doesn’t mean you can’t learn a lot. Seeing players from other regions also shows more variety in playstyles that is valuable for any player. The comps here are more of the same, including things like Jhin, Arcanists, and Jinx comps.

Top 3 Items:

The only new item we see here is Giant Slayer. While Giant Slayer is a very powerful item, it can be lacking if you don’t have the big damage items like Infinity Edge.

Other Resources:

AKAWonder has a Stream and Youtube channel where he speaks Spanish and has a Spanish audience. Even if you don’t speak Spanish, you can still learn a lot from watching his games.

6. Snoodyboo

[See Snoodyboo’s TFT Profile]

Top 3 Comps:

Snoodyboo stands out from the other players in that he seems to play more Innovator comps than the other players mentioned. Innovators can be difficult to play consistently, so catch his stream if you want to learn a few things.

Top 3 Items:

Once again by this point, a lot of the items will be repeats of what we’ve seen. Hurricane, GA, and Morello are all very strong and flexible items in the meta. His best average placement with these 3 items is with Morellonomicon, which is an interesting fact to point out. This was also the case for many of the players here.

Other Resources:

Snoodyboo is also another EU Streamer and Youtuber who speaks Spanish and has a Spanish speaking audience. His gameplay matches more closely to the NA players we’ve looked at, but watching other regions is always useful for learning. Different regions often have slight differences in the meta, which can give you an advantage in your own region.

Final Words

Watching different top players is an amazing resource for gaining insight on their various decisions. They also often create Youtube content that is educational and provides even deeper insight on their gameplay choices.

If you’re just starting out or need some help, watching these players play or checking out their profiles are great ways to get some initial insight on the meta.

However, once you’re confident in your own gameplay, I would recommend trying to see what you disagree with. No two TFT players will make the same decision every game, even two players on this list. If you disagree with an opinion or a choice these players make, delve into that more and try to figure out why. These types of analyses will help you gain deeper game knowledge and further your skill.

Thanks for reading! If you’re interested in searching up other players, be sure to check out our Profile Search Page or our Leaderboards to find players you may be interested in.

To learn about the next TFT Set, head to our all-in-one Teamfight Tactics Set 6 reveal page that covers all champions, synergies, and more!

The post How to Learn from TFT Twitch Streamers (6 Follow Recommendations) appeared first on Mobalytics.

If you’re new to Auto Chess games or came from a different Auto Chess game, you might have trouble knowing what to do during the carousel. The game throws you right into it, so it may catch you off guard, but it is something that you will quickly pick up.

In this article, we’ll be explaining how the carousel works, and what items you should look to go for.

If you’re brand new or still have trouble figuring out what items combine into what, make sure to download our overlay for an easy in game resource for items.

What is the Carousel?

At the start of the game, every player will see a spinning carousel of units with an item on it. By right clicking, you can move around and try to be the first to grab a specific champion and item. At the start of the game, all of the units will be 1-cost and this will gradually increase as the game goes on.

Starting from Stage 2 (the first pvp stage), every 4th round will be a carousel round. Once again, you will be able to grab a champion with an item, except now, players will be released 2 at a time, starting from the player with the lowest health. Because of this, being lower health early on can be a strategic choice to grab an item you really want.

Starting Carousel

The first carousel sets the tone for your early game and can play a solid impact on what comp you choose to play. Do note that for players around low Diamond or lower, you can do well by starting with just about any item component (except maybe Negatron Cloak).

To display this, I’ll go over each item component and some of the strong item choices you have. This will help you decide what item you want to start with and how you decide to play the game.

For the following section, check out our item page if you don’t know what each item does. Also check the main website to see updated Tiers for items every patch.

Recurve Bow

One of the most popular items to start with is a Recurve Bow. Recurve Bow is unique compared to other item components because some champions best items require multiple Bows. For example, Talon wants Rapid Firecannon and, meaning he requires 2 bows. Getting one at the start greatly increases your consistency in completing these items.

Other than that, Recurve Bow is still a strong item that can be used in many different comps

• Rapid Firecannon and Runaan’s Hurricane are a core item on many champions.
• Guinsoo’s Rageblade and Statikk Shiv are great early game items.
• Last Whisper and Giant Slayer are great for dealing with late game tanks.

B.F Sword

Another popular starting item choice is B.F. Sword. Almost all of the items you can build with B.F. Sword are strong both early and late game.

• Infinity Edge and Last Whisper are two of the best attack damage items.
• Spear of Shojin and Guardian Angel are strong on any team comp on many different units.
• Bloodthirster is great item for AD carries that need sustain.

Chain Vest

Unlike BF Sword and Recurve Bow, Chain Vest is strong for different reasons. Bow and Sword are mainly used to increase your early game attack damage. Chain Vest, however, is a more defensive item that starts out a bit weaker, but can fit into many comps.

• Locket of the Iron Solari and Sunfire Cape are good early game items on any team comp
• Guardian Angel is a flexible defensive item on carries or strong frontline units
• Bramble Vest is an amazing defensive item
• Titan’s Resolve is also a great item that is good on tanks and carries.

Sparring Gloves

Going back on the offensive, Sparring Gloves is a strong item because it helps you build offensive items for either attack or magic damage carries. It can also build into great defensive items as well.

• Infinity Edge and Last Whisper are great damage items on many attack damage carries.
• Jeweled Gauntlet is also a great magic damage item on most carries.
• Quicksilver and Banshee’s Claw are amazing defensive items as well.

Needlessly Large Rod

Rod is still a strong starting item, but it is slightly less flexible than B.F. Sword. There are some stand out items, but these items mostly transition into magic damage comps, which are usually less flexible than attack damage comps. However, Rod can be a stronger item late game on some carries compared to Bow and Sword items.

• Locket of the Iron Solari and Guinsoo’s Rageblade are great early game items.
• Rabadon’s Deathcap and Jeweled Gauntlet are great magic damage items.
• Morellonomicon is a great utility item on almost every team comp.

We rate this item slightly lower than the items above simply because you don’t have great attack damage items to build other than Guinsoo’s Rageblade. Even still, if you really enjoy playing magic damage team comps, this can be the item for you.

Giant’s Belt

Much like Chain Vest, Giant’s Belt is a strong and flexible early game item. It doesn’t necessarily point you toward a specific comp, so you can choose this item if you like having flexibility. We like Chain Vest a bit better than Giant’s Belt, but this is still a solid item.

• Sunfire Cape and Zeke’s Herald are strong early items that can fit into any comp
• Morellonomicon is a unique item that is also very strong as long as you have the right unit to hold it.
• Warmog’s Armor is a great defensive item for a frontline tank.
• Zephyr is a very powerful item, but is more powerful late game when you can use it to its fullest.

Tear of the Goddess

Tear is another solid item, but the items cater more for magic damage carries instead of attack damage ones. Similar to Rod, if you want to play magic damage comps, go for these items as they build into important items for magic damage carries.

• Statikk Shiv is a great early game item that also provides a nice debuff.
• Chalice of Power is amazing in almost any team comp to provide more Ability Power for your carry.
• Blue Buff is a powerful item that turns some units into hyper carries like Katarina or Karma.

Spatula

While Spatula is a very powerful item, it can sometimes become a dead item. Starting with a Spatula can be very strong as it opens you up to a lot of powerful combinations. However, in the middle or toward the end of the game, this item can become a dud if you aren’t able to effectively use it in your team comp.

Negatron Cloak

Negatron Cloak is still a very solid item, but the item usually takes last pick over the other ones. Some notable items include:

• Bloodthirster is great for high damage carries to gain some lifesteal.
• Chalice of Power and Zephyr are great on any team, but don’t provide as much power early game.
• Runaan’s Hurricane is great for scaling the damage of carries that auto-attack.
• Gargoyle Stoneplate is great for making one unit into a hyper tank.

Later Carousel Rounds

After the initial carousel, you will have a few goals for the rest of the carousels in the game.

Carousel Stage 2-3:

In the two carousels after the initial, you will simply want to pick up an item component that you need. Getting an item component that you can use and combine immediately will add the most power to your team. You could also consider getting an item component that you really need but can’t build an item immediately.

Ideally, the item you need will be on a higher cost unit, but sometimes you may just have to take the 1-cost unit if it has the item you need.

Carousel Stage 4:

In this carousel, 4-cost units will begin to appear.

• If you are strong and healthy, prioritize getting the item component you need the most.
• But, if you are behind, you may want to pick up a 4-cost unit if it is a carry that will help you stabilize.
• Lastly, you see a 4-cost carry with an item you want, run straight for it.

Carousel Stage 5+:

In Stage 5, the Carousel will have only combined items. Be sure to keep this in mind when combining items before this point. You may not make it to the carousel in Stage 6, which will have both combined items and components. As such, make sure to combine what items you can.

5-cost units will begin appearing here, so also think about if a 5-cost will carry your team more than a specific item. Lastly, you may also want to see what items or units other players want. You can choose to take something your opponent wants to prevent them from getting stronger rather than getting something you want yourself.

Closing

This was my basic introduction to item starts and things to keep in mind for carousels. After a few games, you should get used to this mechanic and know what to do. Try testing out certain item component starts to see what works for you. Many top players prefer different starting items, so don’t be afraid to try out something new.

To learn about the new TFT Set, head to our all-in-one Teamfight Tactics Set 6 reveal page that covers all champions, synergies, and more!

The post Teamfight Tactics Guide: How to Make the Best Carousel Picks appeared first on Mobalytics.

TFT games often don’t go how you might initially plan. While you can do very well forcing the same comps over and over, it can be very rewarding to pull of a successful pivot or transition.

For the most part, pivoting refers to when you change the comp you are going to a different one based on circumstances like items or the champions you find. Transitioning usually refers to changing your board over the course of the game, which can happen even when you are playing the same comp.

The purpose of this guide is to help you identify things like:

• Why should you pivot comps
• When should you pivot comps
• How to pivot successfully
• Late Game Pivoting

Why Pivoting is Important

Playing flexibly in TFT is one of the best ways to improve and climb. Pivoting is an important skill to have as you can recognize that if you continue on your current game plan, you likely will not reach top 4.

This can be very difficult to discern. Sometimes, if you’re playing a reroll comp, you may think that you won’t hit and it will be better to level up instead.

However, either decision you make can be correct. If you level up and maybe hit 6th place instead of 8th, you can consider that a good choice. On the other hand, if you decide to commit and hit your 3 star unit and reach top 3, that can also be see as the correct decision.

Lots of TFT decisions fall under this circumstance. Pivoting can be a great option to mitigate bad luck you run into, but you can also play well without pivoting. It’s simply an option to add to your arsenal.

When Should You Pivot?

As I just mentioned, pivoting may not always be the correct decision. It will be hard determining when to pivot, and even reviewing games can lead to survivorship bias. Even still, there are plenty of flags you can look for to help you determine the best time to pivot.

What units do you have?

If you plan to play a comp that runs an Attack Damage carry, do you have the right units to easily transition? The early and mid game can often be a jumble of whatever units you find, so that won’t matter too much. However, as you approach the later stages of the mid game, you should assess what units are on your board.

If I plan to play Bruiser Urgot, but my frontline consists of Bodyguards, maybe I should decide to play with a carry that synergizes well with the units I have. This way, I can spend less gold trying to replace more units on my board.

Do you have the right items?

Items are a key aspect to the strength of your carry. Going for the same comp every game can lead to success, but some games, the right items just won’t drop. In these situations, you should try to see what carries can make the most out of your items.

Conversely, you may want to play a specific carry, like Jhin, and have 3 perfect items for him. However, while rolling down, you only find Urgot. You can decide to pivot to Urgot, but your items are better for Jhin. Depending on the speed of your lobby, you can afford to be more greedy with your items in order to build the best items possible in every scenario.

As you climb higher and higher, the speed and strength of the lobby will increase. You might not be able to afford to hold onto item components. Building strong generic items that are strong on many carries or comps is one great way to keep yourself open to pivoting or transitioning.

How much gold do you need?

Gold is your best friend. If you have a strong economy, you can make the hardest pivots or transitions possible. You can replace your entire board at 5-1 if you have enough gold. You won’t be in this situation most games.

You need to assess your items and units to see what units you want to find as you pivot. Once you figure this out, you can get a general idea of how much gold you need to find these units.

If I play the early game with Challengers like Camille, Samira, Warwick, and Quinn, I can decide to go for a Challenger comp. However, as I roll, I may find an upgraded Jhin. I need to ask myself, what units will I be replacing and with what? I can keep Camille for Clockwork, but I will want to have a new frontline like Bodyguards, another Sniper like Caitlyn or Miss Fortune, and some utility units like Janna or Orianna.

Pulling this off requires me to save up enough gold. I may decide to lose a few rounds to save up more gold so I can have a better chance at hitting the units I need.

How to Pivot Successfully

Pivoting successfully is the culmination of identifying all of the signs that you should pivot. Once you decide to pivot, identify what items you have, what units you can keep or need, and how much gold you need.

Going through this game plan throughout the game will help you be prepared for any situation. Furthermore, here are some additional tips for pivoting.

You Don’t Have to Pivot All at Once

Pivoting can be a slower process than drastically flipping your board. Even if your units don’t have syenrgy as you pivot, having upgraded units with less synergy can often be better than a bunch of 1 star units that make up your ideal comp.

Pivoting slower is also easier on your economy. Rolling down to 30 or 20 will give you just a little bit more to find the extra units you need rather than rolling down to 0 for a hard pivot.

You Can Always Pivot Back

Another benefit to pivoting slower is that you are able to change your mind. If you can’t find your Urgot 2 and decide to run Jhin 2, you can always keep Bruisers in your frontline for a bit. You may run into Urgot 2 in the next couple of rounds and be able to play the original comp you intended to play.

Understanding How Strong You Need to be

Pivoting often happens when luck doesn’t go your way and you need to adjust on the fly. Because of this, you may be losing a lot of HP while saving up gold. If you’re low on health, you may decide that going all in for a large power spike is the best way to stabilize.

As you play more and more, you’ll be able to understand how strong your board is compared to the rest of the lobby. Going for a large power spike faster than other players and before they roll for carries can be a good way to secure your units.

Late Game Pivoting

All of the things I’ve covered so far explain the basics of pivoting from one team comp or carry to another. However, there is also a late game pivot or transition that can be used to “cap your board.”

If you find yourself win streaking very hard, you might be able to reach level 9 with a lot of gold. If this is the case, you should look for ways to pivot into late game comps that use lots of 5 cost units. This can be the difference between placing 1st and placing 2nd.

If you’re able to complete your team comp, great. You can hit level 9 and add in a Yuumi or something to get a bit stronger.

However, the best players will find ways to continue pivoting and transitioning well into the late game. Maybe the right decision is to replace half your board for strong units like Galio, Jayce, Kai’Sa, Viktor, etc.

This type of pivot is very difficult to pull off and requires a lot of gold. Even with this skill, it won’t make the biggest difference in your games. But TFT is a game of inches. Finding every small advantage you can is what will make you a strong TFT player.

Thanks for reading! Be sure to check out our meta team comps page, or head to our Team Builder to try and come up with your own comps.

The post TFT Guide: How to Pivot Your Comp and Transition appeared first on Mobalytics.

TFT is a highly complex game in which very many small decisions can greatly affect the outcome of your game. Things like positioning, itemization, and scouting are all examples of small decisions that will greatly increase your team’s effectiveness throughout the game. In this guide, we will take an in-depth look at scouting, and how you can improve your climb by simply taking the time to scout out enemy boards.

What is scouting in TFT?

Scouting in TFT refers to looking at the boards of enemy players to adjust your gameplan. This adjustment can come with itemization, positioning, or deciding on your team comp. To do so, you can click on the player portraits to check on enemy boards specifically, or you can use hotkeys.

• 1/Q – Scout the next player in clockwise fashion.
• 3/R – Scout the next player in counter-clockwise fashion.
• 2/Space – Center Camera on Little Legend

Note: Using Hotkeys will cycle through based on the mini map on the bottom right. Clicking on player portraits will allow you to see the board of any player you want, which you may want to do based on health.

Why is scouting important?

For many players climbing in Silver or Gold, scouting can be a luxury that you will save until the endgame to specifically counter enemy positions, but many of the top players scout many times throughout the match to constantly adapt to what they see.

While you may not be able to extract as much information as top Challenger players, over time, as you practice scouting, you will be able to find the pieces of information that will be useful to you quicker, allowing you to put yourself in the best position to either win the game, or play for a top 4 spot.

The Scouting Paradox

Many times, you will notice that a lot of the top players scout very sporadically. Some games they may scout many times, and other games almost none at all. This comes from pure experience as once you become accustomed to positioning, itemization, etc, it can be easier to play without scouting. So while scouting can be quite important, there possibly will come a point where scouting is less necessary as you accustom yourself to the meta.

Even still, it should come as no surprise that scouting will almost never be a detriment, unless you don’t give yourself enough time to do other important things like buying units or changing position.

When should you scout?

Scouting effectively can be quite difficult for players who are not accustomed to scouting. Even still, if you have a round where you aren’t buying any units, and you have an extra 20 seconds before you watch your board fight, take that time to take a quick peek at everyone’s board to at least learn something about the state of your lobby.

If you have any extra time, you can take that time to scout instead of waiting around. Lastly, don’t forget to take a quick look at the items of whoever you are fighting.

It’s easy to look at the units you are directly fighting, but also looking at the items they have can help you envision their plan, which will allow you to adjust your own game plan, or even steal the item they want from the carousel.

Early Game Scouting – Should you Slow Roll?

Slow Roll decisions are one of the best early examples of scouting. Let’s say you want to play a popular slow roll comp like Katarina. You may find an early Katarina 2, and decide to play this comp. However, if you scout around and find 2 or even 3 other players with Katarina, you may want to play a different comp.

You could commit anyway and hope other players pivot, or hold hands together to the bottom of the lobby, but that is a decision you can make after scouting.

This form of scouting is quite quick as you simply need to count the amount of enemies that are holding the units you want, as well as count how many units they have already.

You should also see what items they have as that is another indicator of how likely they will continue playing a certain comp.

Mid Game Scouting – Understand what players are committing to

This is the area in which most players aren’t sure what to look for. It can be quite difficult to find the time to scout when you are planning your build and are unsure what units to put in. As a result, the mid game can become much easier if you know what build you are going for as well as what units you plan on putting in.

The more experience you have playing a build, the faster you will be able to make decisions, resulting in more time leftover for you to scout. The mid game from after Krugs to Wolves is where most players will be committing to whatever build they plan on going, so that moment is a good time to look at what they have to adjust your game plan.

Things to look out for

What type of damage are most players in the lobby building?

If you see that most players are playing assassins or mages, you can plan your items accordingly to counter them. For example, Dragon’s Claw will help against mages and Bramble Vest will help against assassins.

What are the strongest players in the lobby playing?

If you find yourself in the middle of the pack, you should try and figure out what enemy teams will likely defeat yours. With this knowledge, you can reposition your board to hopefully minimize the damage you will take if you face them.

Simply moving your carry a few hexes to ensure they don’t get jumped on by assassins can help save that slight bit of HP you need to crack top 4 later in the game.

What items do enemies have on their units or on their bench?

If you have enough time, items can be a great indication of what players are capable of building into. If you see lots of players building Bramble Vest, assassins might not be the correct decision.

You can also check the items that have already been built by players to assume which carry they are going for. If someone has built very specific items like

Blue Buff + Jeweled Gauntlet, you can very safely assume they are going to play Lux or a similar AP carry.

How much HP and Gold do other players have?

Player gold and health can be a great indicator as to what decisions people will make in the near future. For example, if someone has low health and a lot of gold right before a neutral creep round, it is safe to assume that they will all in after creeps.

If they happen to be going for the same build as you, you might decide to roll sooner to find the units first. You might decide that their build has a favorable matchup against yours, so you may want to reposition your board to counter theirs instead.

Conversely, if you find that you lost to a board while the enemy has no gold, you can safely see that they already went all in, and with this knowledge, you can safely determine whether or not they will be a threat after you use up your gold and resources.

Late Game Scouting – Play for small advantages

Late game scouting is one of the most common scouting times as there are less players to look at during this time. These are the times when you should position your board to directly counter the player or players that you didn’t beat previously, but might be able to if you safely protect your carries, or spread out your units to avoid enemy CC.

We won’t go in-depth into positioning here as it will require an entire guide of its own, but these general tips can be followed:

• Position your carries away from where assassins will jump, either on the opposite side or in the middle.
• Putting your carry on the opposite side will run the risk of your enemy also repositioning, so watch out for that.
• Spread out your units for teams that have area of effect damage or CC. Units like Braum or Lux can be reduced in strength if you position your team to ensure that they don’t hit your entire team during the fight.
• WATCH FOR ZEPHYR. Zephyr is one of the late game items that can entirely determine the fight if they manage to land it on one of your main carries.

Additional Scouting Tips and Tricks

Carousel Sniping

If you know what item or champion your enemy desperately needs, you can choose to pick that up from the late game carousel if you yourself don’t have an item or champion that you need more. This can stop a Kai’Sa 2 or Jinx 2 from destroying your team while you weren’t paying attention.

Zephyr

I briefly mentioned Zephyr previously, but also know that if you find a Zephyr from the late game carousel, you can ensure you land it on their main carry if you wait until right before the fight starts to place your Zephyr. This ensures that they can’t move their carry and you can snipe them with Zephyr at the last second. Note that this will only work once, and make sure whatever you are trying to snipe isn’t in the Zephyr spot of a champion you have with full items.

• In this example, I want to Zephyr his Kha’Zix, so I wait until right before the round starts to place my Zephyr on my bottom right unit. Had I placed it earlier, he could have moved his Kha’Zix at the last second.

Hold contested units

If it’s early in the game and you have extra gold beyond your interest level, you can spend your extra gold to hold units that you know enemies want.

In the early game, this can be Katarina or Scrap units that you don’t need. In the late game, you can look to hold 5 cost units that many players are looking for or 4 cost units they are trying to 3 star.

Adapt accordingly as players die

If you are looking for the last Kai’Sa you need for 2-star or the last Lux you need for 3-star, you might decide to wait until the player with a 2-star Kai’Sa/Lux dies first so that you have a better chance of finding them when you roll down.

This comes with predicting whether or not the enemy player will die before you do, so make sure that factor that into your decision.

Scouting check list (quick rundown of things to look out for)

Early game

• Should I slow roll?
  • Check enemy units
• Check enemy items
  • (Who’s going for Katarina?)
• What items have people built?
  • Zephyr?

Mid Game

• What damage types are people building?
  • Itemize accordingly
• Should I clump my board or spread out for CC units?
  • Assassins or AoE?
• Who do I lose against?
  • (Counter position accordingly)
• Once again, enemy items/units.
  • ZEPHYR
• Plan build ideally for less contested units.
  • Not always possible but try to

Late Game

• What high-cost units do people need?
  • Take them yourself
• What items do people need?
  • Steal them from the carousel
• Position specifically against certain enemies you haven’t fought in a while
  • In top 3, play the odds and position against the enemies alternating, note that the ghost board will be random.
• Where are the Zephyrs?
• Are other players holding my units?
  • (If so maybe eco to 9 or wait until they die to roll.)

If you follow each of these steps and questions throughout the game, you are sure to increase your win rate or top 4 rate by a large margin compared to never scouting.

Conclusion

Scouting is a very necessary part of the game, and some high elo players scout very consistently while some only do sparingly. As explained, scouting will never hurt your chances, but sometimes just watching your own board fights can give you a strong enough idea of how the lobby is going.

That being said, those who do take that extra step to scout other boards can truly make min/max decisions that might alter their placement as a result. Scouting can be tough to integrate into every match you play, but taking small steps will very likely result in less tilt and better decision making, ultimately allowing you to climb the ranks faster and with a better win rate.

Thanks for reading our TFT scouting guide! Be sure to check out site for recommended team comps, champ tier list, and item tier list to help you stay on top of the meta.

To learn about the latest TFT Set 6, head to our all-in-one Teamfight Tactics Set 6 reveal page that covers all champions, synergies, and more!

The post How to Improve your Scouting in TFT appeared first on Mobalytics.

Welcome to our glossary of TFT terms. Some terms have been used since the start of the game, while other terms have slowly been defined over time.

If there’s a term that you feel is missing, make sure to comment down below so we can add it to our glossary.

To quickly find a term that you’re looking for, use Crtl + F to find what you’re looking for.

If we missed anything, feel free to leave a comment and we’ll add your request!

TFT Terminology

Ability / Spell

• Each champion or unit will have an ability. This ability will either be a passive effect, or will be something that the unit will cast after they reach full mana.

AP

• Short for Ability Power, this stat empowers champions abilities, giving them more scaling. Also referred to as Spell Power.

Bench

• The area below a player’s board where they can put extra units. This is where you will hold units to eventually put in or hold to try and upgrade your units. The bench can hold a max of 9 units.

Board

• The main area of the screen in which players place their units to fight other players.

Buff

• A buff often refers to a patch or change in the game in which a champion, item, or  trait receives a change that benefits them.
• Can also refer to the bonus you receive from a set of traits in game. (Ex: Bruiser 6 Buff)

Build

• Often refers to a specific set of items to use on a specific champion.
• Can also refer to a specific combination of champions.

Carousel

• Refers to the part of the game where players pick up a unit and item in a shared pool.

Carry

• A champion capable of winning the game when invested into with things like items and supporting traits.

Chosen

• A set mechanic added in Set 4. This mechanic allows players to purchase a Champion with bonus stats and has one of the unit’s traits counted twice.

Comp (Team Comp)

• Refers to a specific combination of champions and items.

Economy

• Refers to the general concept of building up gold in the early stages of the game.

Elemental Hex

• A set mechanic used in Set 2. Players can place units on an Elemental Hex for bonus effects at the cost of one item slot.

Experience (XP)

• The game mechanic that determines when a player will level up. Can be purchased with gold or gained passively each round.

Fast 8

• Refers to a strategy in which a player levels up to 8 early in order to find high cost units faster. Often occurs when a player hits level 8 in Stage 4. For more information, see our Leveling Strategies Guide.

Ghost

• Refers to playing against an enemy without dealing damage to them after winning. This will occur when the lobby has an odd number of players. You will still take damage when losing to a Ghost.

Hextech Augment

• A new Set Mechanic added in Set 6. Players will choose an upgrade from a shop that affects their game in a variety of ways. This happens 3 times throughout the game.

Hyper Carry

• A hyperbole of a regular carry. Signifies that a champion  has even more potential to carry than other units.

Hyper Rolling

• A strategy that involves rolling early game in order to try and 3-star a 1-cost unit early on in the game. For more information, see our Leveling Strategies Guide.

High Roll

• Refers to being lucky.

Little Legend

• Refers to the small sprite that players control and move around with.

Low Roll

• Refers to being unlucky.

LP (League Points)

• Refers to the ranked points that a player wins or loses in their ranked games.

Mana

• Refers to the bar that allows champions to cast their abilities. Mana will be gained by basic attacks, taking damage, items, or other in game effects. (In this image, Zigg’s Mana bar is 60, denoted right below his Health Bar).

Meta

• Meta can be thought of as the acronym, “Most Effective Tactic Available.” This refers to the optimization of strategies players find, resulting in optimal comps or builds to play.

Nerf

• Opposite of a buff. Occurs when a change made to a unit, synergy, or item negatively affects their performance in game.

OP

• Short for Overpowered. Describes when something about the game is much stronger than its competition.

Overtime

• Occurs when the time limit in a round runs out. The fight will then go into overtime, a 15 second period in which champions are affected with these modifiers.
  • 300% increased attack speed.
  • 100% increased ability power.
  • 66% reduced crowd control duration.
  • 66% healing and shielding reduction.

PBE (Public Beta Enviroment)

• An official testing server that where Riot allows players to play the game with previewed changes to the game. The PBE also often has the new set of TFT two weeks before releasee.

Positioning

• Refers to how players place their units on the board.

Pivot (Transition)

• Refers to when a player changes their comp plans mid game to adjust for in game variables like items or luck.

PvP (Player vs. Player)

• Refers to a round where a player fights another player.

PvE (Player vs. Environment)

• Refers to a round where a player will fight in game enemies for loot drops.

Roll Down

• The act of rolling down consists of spending all of a player’s gold in order to search for units.

Scouting

• Refers to looking at enemy boards in order to gain an advantage.

Set

• Refers to the period of time in which the game has a specific set of champions and items.

Slow Rolling

• Refers to a strategy where a player slowly rolls in order to hit 3-star units. This involves saving up 50 gold and then rolling only the gold above 50. For more information, see our Leveling Strategies Guide.

Splashable

• Refers to a champion(s) that is able to be added in a large amount of team comps. Units like this often provide utility to the team and require low investment.

Stage

• A group of Rounds that determine the current state of the game.
  • Stage 1 consists of 3 PvE rounds.
  • Stages 2+ consist of PvP rounds, a carousel round, and a PvE round.

Streaking

• Refers to the bonus gold gained when a player either wins or loses multiple rounds in a row.

Strongest Board

• The strongest team a player can make with the units they have available.
• This term often refers to the ability to build a strong team early on without having to invest gold into rolling.

Trait (Synergy)

• Refers to the class or origin of a champion. These will provide your team bonus effects upon reaching a certain interval.
  • Example: Akali has two traits (Assassin and Syndicate)

20/20

• This refers to when a player forces the same team comp every game, effectively playing the comp 20 games out of 20 games.

That sums up our TFT Terminology Glossary. This will hopefully give you a better idea of what players are talking about online or in streams. As previously mentioned, if you are unclear about a term or think we are missing something, be sure to comment and let us know.

Thanks for reading, let us know if we missed any terms and we will add them! This list of terms will continue to grow and improve over time.

To learn about the new TFT Set, head to our all-in-one Teamfight Tactics Set 6 reveal page that covers all champions, synergies, and more!

The post Terms That Every TFT Player Should Know appeared first on Mobalytics.

If you’ve read any of my past articles, you will know that there is a strong tie between carries and the corresponding leveling strategy. This guide will go over all the popular leveling strategies and how to follow them.

When playing TFT, it is important to learn how to manage your economy, so if you don’t know the basics of economy yet, check out our basic economy guide here.

Leveling strategies are essentially a basic blueprint that determines when you should level and spend your gold. Keep in mind that these strategies are rarely followed step by step as every game requires adaptation and flexibility.

In TFT, there are currently four prevailing leveling strategies:

• Hyper Rolling
• Slow Rolling
• Regular Leveling
• Fast 8 (Occasionally Fast 7 or Fast 9)

All of these strategies have their corresponding team comps depending on the cost of the carries in the comp. While there are other ways to play the game, these are the most common strategies used by players of all skill levels.

Hyper Rolling

NOTE: With the updated rolling odds, hyper rolling is arguably not a viable strategy anymore. Most comps that rely on 3 star units now slow roll as it is more optimal. However, the strategy is still there for those who want to try it for slow roll comps depending on 1-cost units.

Focus:

The focus of hyper rolling is to spend lots of gold early to try and 3 star multiple 1 cost units. This ideally will lead to a win streak in the mid game, allowing you to catch up in levels to create a strong enough team comp for late game.

Game plan

Stage 2:
Stage 2 is all about finding your core units while making as much interest as possible. Since you spend all your gold early, it’s crucial to also earn a lot of gold to ensure you can hit your units.

Stage 3:
On Round 3-1 you can roll all of your gold in search for your 1 cost units. If you 3 star your main carry early you can stop rolling and use that to carry you back up to 50 gold. You can continue to slow roll your gold for other 1 cost units if you have 50+ gold.

Stage 4:
On Round 4-2 you will be 8 EXP from level 6. If you are missing some units or even your main carry, you can continue rolling to search for them and then proceed to level with your last 8 gold. Ideally you won’t have to do this, but if you were unlucky in your initial hyper roll you can do this as a last resort to hit your units.

Stage 5+:
By this point in the game, you should have all the 3 stars you want and should be focused on catching back up in levels. Level up to 7 when you have a good unit to put in, and save up gold for level 8 to complete your team comp. After this, focus on other things like counter positioning or counter itemization to try and place as high as possible.

Notes:

Hyper rolling can be quite risky, so make sure you scout your lobby early to see who is taking the units that you need. Furthermore, with hyper roll comps, you can choose to also slow roll instead at level 5 instead of rolling all your gold down at level 4 8/10 EXP.

This can be more consistent, but if you found many copies of your carry early, it can be worthwhile to hyper roll to start an early win streak and save health.

Slow Rolling

Focus:

Slow Rolling is the process where you roll your gold above 50 to slowly find the core units you need to 3 star. This often happens when your main carry is 1 or 2 cost. This strategy can be strong if you hit your units early, but can also be scary if you find your units too slowly and lose too much health in the process.

Game Plan

Stage 2:
Like Hyper Rolling, you should look to save up as much gold as possible during stage 2. However, with slow rolling, you shouldn’t only pick up the units you need or else you will bleed out. Try to use cheap and effective early game units to stay healthy without spending too much gold.

Stage 3:
Slow Rolling also depends on the main cost of your carry. For example, in Katarina Reroll, you want to find Katarina (2 Cost), so you slow roll at level 6. For X-Men, you want to find Malzahar/Cho’Gath (3 Cost), so you level up normally proceed to slow roll at level 7. If you are lose streaking up to when you hit level 7, you may want to consider rolling down to 40 or even 30 gold in order to stabilize your team with 2 star units before you begin to slow roll.

Note for 3-costs: If you are having an extremely lucky game where you are strong, you can opt to slow roll for 3-cost units at level 8. This helps as you get access to higher cost units, but it can be risky if you take too long to find your 3-cost units.

Stage 4:
If at any point you find yourself hitting around 30 health, it may be time to all in to find 3 star units before you bleed to death. If you were lucky enough to find your core units 3 star, you can begin to slow level up to 8 to complete your team comp.

Stage 5+:
Stage 5 will depend on what happened during stage 4. If you are on the brink of death, you can all in to find your units and try to land in the top 4. If you found your 3 stars and stabilized, you should look to hit level 8 and find more units to compliment your team.

Notes:

Like Hyper Rolling, you should scout your lobby to see if anyone also plans to go the same comp as you. If you are uncontested, you will find better success in finding your units.

Some comps utilize units that are 1 and 2 cost. For example, in My Garen Academia, you may want to slow roll at level 5 to find Garen, Graves, and Kassadin. If you are able to, you can use that power spike to reach level 6, and proceed to slow roll for Katarina.

Regular Leveling Strategy

Focus:

This leveling strategy is considered regular as it has been in the game for so long. This strategy plays the game quite “normally” and focuses usually on a 4 cost unit as the main carry. In the late game, these comps look to 5 cost units to strengthen the team, but does not center on a 5 cost unit. However, this strategy also will have the most variation as it plays depending on the units you find and the items you find.

Game Plan

Stage 2:
In Stage 2, you can try to win streak if you find lots of upgraded units or strong items. You can level to 4 on Round 2-1 if you have enough gold, or even 2-2 if you won the first round and found more upgraded units. If you continue your win streak, you can level up to 5 right after the carousel on 2-4 to try and continue your win streak.

Alternatively, if you don’t find strong units, you can simply lose streak and start to build up your economy without leveling up. At the Krugs, if you don’t feel like you can beat them at level 4, you can level up to 5 to ensure you get all the possible item drops. 

Stage 3:
If you are fortunate enough to have a win streak going into stage 3, you can level up 6 on 3-1 to secure your streak. If you are feeling strong enough or risky, you can also level up to 6 on 3-2 if you won the fight on 3-1 without leveling. With a win streak, you will be able to continue building up gold without rolling for units to hit level 7 and 8 to find your core units.

If you were lose streaking up to this point, you can level up to 6 on 3-2 to try and stop the bleeding. You can roll down a bit of gold here to try and stabilize, or try to ride out the lose streak if you are playing a bit riskier. As long as you didn’t lose every fight without killing a single unit, you shouldn’t be too afraid of dying at this point yet.

Stage 4:
At Round 4-1 almost every player (who’s not hyper rolling or slow rolling) will level up to 7. Regardless of whether you were win streaking or lose streaking, you should ideally also hit level 7 at this point.

If you have a lot of health or are still win streaking, you can choose to not roll and try to hit level 8 early. If you are low on health and have a weak board, you should roll some gold here at level 7 to stabilize your board and find 4 cost units to carry you back up.

Stage 5+:
Similar to Stage 4, on Round 5-1 almost every player (who’s not hyper rolling or slow rolling) will level up to 8. Level 8 is often considered the largest power spike as most comps find an optimal combination of units at level 8. Level 8 also provides a solid chance to find 5 cost units, and a good chance to find 4 cost units.

You should hit level 8 on this round and roll down your gold to complete your team. If you find all of your units 2 star, you can proceed to build your economy back up to try and hit level 9 to further strengthen your comp, and to find 2 star 5 cost units.

Notes:

“Regular” Leveling often utilizes 4 cost carries like Lux or Jhin, and has variations about how greedy you should be with your economy. If you were win streaking, you can opt to go Fast 8 and sacrifice some health to have better odds of finding your core units.

Similarly, if you were lose streaking, you can also choose to go Fast 8 as a last resort to stabilize.

If you were constantly floating in the middle, you might have a hard time discerning whether or not you should go Fast 8, as you might not have enough gold to do it reasonably.

As such, following this regular leveling strategy can be a good way to secure a consistent top 4 finish.

Fast 8 (Occasionally Fast 7 or Fast 9)

Focus:

Fast 8 is the process of leveling up to 8 early (usually on Round 4-3 or 4-5) as a way to find 4 and 5 cost units faster and easier than other players. In the past, some 5 cost units could solo carry a team, like Set 2 Zed, or Set 1 Kai’Sa.

In those metas, this strategy was a way to rush level 8 to find these strong units to carry your team. Currently, Fast 8 is more of an option from regular leveling depending on the circumstances of the game.

If you find yourself with a very powerful early and mid game, or have an amazing economy, you can choose to go Fast 8 with a regular comp, or use this gold to find lots of high cost units for a more powerful late game.

Game Plan

Stage 2:
In order to Fast 8, you will need lots of gold to do so. In stage 2, you follow a regular strategy by either committing to a win streak or a lose streak depending on the units you find.

Stage 3:
Similarly, Stage 3 also follows a similar strategy to regular leveling. The only caveat is that if you plan to Fast 8, you should not roll down at all at level 6 and continue to commit to your lose streak. If you lose your win streak, you usually will be healthy enough to lose rounds to continue saving gold.

Fast 7 Option: If you have a large amount of gold, you can level up to 7 early after the carousel on round 3-5. You usually will not roll after this, and this option is taken when you have a strong 7th unit to put in. This will also increase the odds you naturally find a 4 cost unit in the following few rounds. This option is either taken to continue a win streak, or to slow the bleeding from a lose streak.

Stage 4:
This stage is what you were waiting for. At round 4-3 you should be able to hit level 8 with approximately 30-40 gold left over if you were greedy and smart with your economy. After hitting level 8, you will roll down to find your core 4 cost carry and possibly 5 cost carries that compliment your team.

Alternatively, if you are still strong without rolling, you can level up to 8 and simply do nothing. The natural shop refreshes may contain core 4 or 5-cost units, and you can simply wait for 5-1 to roll down. If you’re bleeding out, however, definitely roll down early.

Stage 5+:
By 5-1, almost everyone in the lobby will be level 8, barring Hyper and Slow Roll comps. If you are lucky enough to high roll your entire team without rolling down too much at level 8, you can look to Fast 9.

In order to Fast 9, you simply save up your gold to hit level 9. If you were fortunate enough to complete your team during Stage 4, you can save up even earlier and hit level 9 way before other players can. This usually will only happen if you are on a win streak, but can happen if you high roll your units after hitting level 8 on 4-3 from a lose streak.

Notes:

If you are on a heavy win streak, Fast 8 can be a reliable way to finish top 2 or even first.

If you are on a heavy lose streak, Fast 8 can be a risky option to try and compete for first even after a terrible start. Unfortunately, if you are on a losing streak and don’t find your units even after Fast 8, this will likely result in a Fast 8th.

Lastly, you may feel strong enough to Fast 8 or even Fast 9 if you naturally find your core units. If there are other players playing your same comp, it may be smart to roll down anyway at levels 7 or 8 as they may take the copies of the units you need.

Additional Tips and Tricks

Remember to adapt

Regardless of whatever strategy you are playing, there will be games where the correct decision isn’t always a simple level up here and roll down here. The best players know about these strategies, but also follow the flow of the game and make adjustments when necessary.

For example, if you are hyper rolling, you might not know when you should level up to 7. Is it when you have enough gold? Or should you slow level to 7 to ensure you can hit level 8? There are many other intricacies that you should try and figure out for yourself. If you stray from a strategy, ask yourself if it worked or if it didn’t.

Figuring out your own playstyle

If you are able to understand the basics of every leveling strategy, you will be able to find a play style that suits how you want to play. If you like playing 3 certain comps, you can strategize about how you should level and roll to keep all three options open throughout the game.

Conversely, if you want to become a 1 trick, you can master one comp and figure out every intricacy to your leveling strategy. These strategies are only basic guidelines for how to play certain comps, but finding a playstyle for yourself will be the most rewarding and help you climb in your own unique way.

Use our overlay to help get started

If you are new and just starting out, it will be helpful to have a basic leveling strategy planned out for any comp you decide to play. To help with this, you can download our overlay to give leveling recommendations depending on the comp you decide to play.

To learn about the latest new TFT Set, head to our all-in-one Teamfight Tactics Set 6 reveal page that covers all champions, synergies, and more!

The post When and How to Level in TFT (Four Fundamental Strategies) appeared first on Mobalytics.

TFT is a brand new game that’s part of a genre that isn’t even a year old. With all the hype going on it can seem like you have fallen behind the crowd but in the big scheme of things, if you start to learn now, you’re actually among the first people to start playing in its life span…

Learning a new game, let alone a new genre can be overwhelming at times since there is a lot to learn and soak in, but that’s part of the fun! In this absolute beginner’s guide, we’ll teach you the basics so you have a good idea of what’s going on in your very first game.

We’ll assume you have a basic idea of what TFT is and you’re looking to play your first match. If you’ve already played a few and want to learn more we’ll guarantee you’ll learn something new as well.

Let’s learn how to play Teamfight Tactics!

How do you win in Teamfight Tactics?

The ultimate goal of TFT is to be the last player standing in an 8-player free for all match. You spend the game accumulating resources like gold and items and making decisions to build a team of units with different strengths, weaknesses, and abilities.

If you compose your team with units that synergize, they will be empowered with buffed properties. Your team of units will fight against the teams of the other players at random during the rounds. The player whose team loses will take damage. When a player runs out of life, they are out. This may seem hard but getting top 3 counts as a win, so aim for that.

These are the very surface level basics of TFT. Let’s get started with walking through how to play a match.

The Carousel

Every game begins with all 8 players at the carousel (also known as the “shared draft”).

The carousel continuously spins and has random 1-cost units paired with a basic item (more on items later).

After a brief delay, all eight players will simultaneously be able to grab a unit. All you have to do is walk up and touch the one you want with your Little Legend and it’ll latch on to you.

With experience, you’ll have a better idea of which champions or items are better than others and will be able to strategize but don’t worry too much about that for now.

Carousel rounds will happen periodically throughout a match. After the very first round, players will be able to choose in an ordered arranged from last place to first place.

If you found this beginner guide while trying to specifically learn more about the carousel, check out our TFT carousel guide.

Building your First Units: The Three Minion Rounds

Round 1: Placing your unit

Now that we have your first piece and item from the carousel, we’re ready for your first battle! Don’t worry too much, the first three rounds are against bot-controlled minions that are very easy to slay.

To learn more about your unit you can right-click on them during a battle or while they’re on your bench (you can also right-click on the units of your enemies.)

Here you can see your unit’s synergies, health/mana, cost, rank, ability information (by hovering), and items (which you can also hover). Keep these in mind, for now, we’ll discuss them later.

Right-click on any champion unit for more information about them.

To understand what is happening in each round, take a look at the top of your screen. You can see the first carousel round icon, two minion fight icons, and a cube icon. These events will occur from left to right.

Before you fight, you have a set amount of time to prepare (as represented by the countdown). Right now you’ll only be able to change the position of your unit but you’ll have more options in a bit – for now, just drag your first unit from your bench and onto the board. (If you don’t do this, it will automatically be done for you)

In this game, we grabbed a Ziggs with a Sparring Gloves

Once the countdown finishes, combat will begin and your unit will come alive to fight the minion bots. Since the minions are weak, your single unit should be able to kill them easily.

Mana and Abilities

While your unit fights, you may notice that their blue mana bar begins to fill up. Your champion will gain mana when they are dealing damage and taking damage.

Once their mana bar is full, they will cast their ability. Ziggs’ ability is Mini Inferno Bomb, which deals damage to enemies in a radius.

Note that not every champion has a casted ability. If you chose a unit like Warwick, this will not happen because they have passive abilities that are passive abilities.

Item Drops

When you fight bot-controlled minions and monsters, you have a chance to get an item drop. Outside of the carousel rounds, this is the only other time you can get items.

In this image, we got an additional Sparring Gloves from defeating the minions.

Since minion rounds are easy, we don’t need to rush to combine and can instead, keep it on the bench to keep our options open.

Hextech Augments

In Set 6, the Cube image at the top will indicate a time to choose a Hextech Augment. This mechanic is exclusive to Set 6 and gives your team bonuses depending on which Augment you choose. This will happen 3 times throughout the game at rounds:

• 1-4
• 3-3
• 4-5

Rounds 2 and 3: The Shop

After your first minion round, the game starts to really open up in terms of making decisions and constructing your team composition. Let’s take a look at the image below and break it down.

At the beginning of round 2 and every round after until the game ends, you’ll be given five choices of champion units from the shop. All eight players in the match draw from a shared pool of finite pieces.

For each unit, you can see their cost, synergies, and a description of their ability if you hover them.

Above the five units you can see the amount of gold you have. Outside of buying units at the shop, you can also use gold to refresh, or “reroll” to another set of five champions for 2g or buy 4 experience points for 4g. You can also sell the units on your board or bench (you won’t always get back equal value for what you bought them for).

You can also choose to lock your shop (top right corner of the shop) so it doesn’t refresh at the beginning of the next round.

Some quick notes on these options:

• Refresh: If you choose to reroll, it’s possible to see the same champions you had in a previous reroll. We’ll discuss rolling odds in a bit.
• Buy XP: Your player level determines how many pieces you have on the board (if you’re level 3, you can have 3 unit pieces).
  • You will passively gain experience each round, but you can spend gold if you’re looking to increase your level and max number of units (up to 9 using experience).
  • You can see how many points to hit your next level and your current level at the left of the shop.
• Lock: If you like the options given by a roll but don’t have enough gold to buy everything you need, consider locking your shop so you can buy when you get more gold for your next round.
• Sell: You can sell your units by dragging them onto the shop or by clicking them and pressing E.

With so many options, it can be hard to understand when and why to buy champions. When you first start playing, you should be focused on trying to build toward your unit synergies.

Building Unit Synergies

Building a team around synergies is a core gameplay aspect of auto chess games like Teamfight Tactics. There are two types of synergies, class and origin, and every champion has at least one of each (some have more).

Remember when we right-clicked Ziggs earlier for more information? We saw that he was a Yordle and an Arcanist. Since then, we’ve bought different champions and now the synergies highlighted above show different traits we have on the board.

These represent the synergies that are currently on your board, and the number of units for a synergy’s ability to turn on.

You will see what synergies a unit will have in the shop as well. If you remove them from the board, the synergies will disappear from the left side of the screen.

Ziggs’ origin is Yordle. If we were able to find more Yordle units (another Ziggs wouldn’t count), such as Vex and Poppy, the trait will activate.

Ziggs also has the Arcanist class. This offers you a different path with its own possibilities, advantages, and disadvantages.

There are a ton of really cool synergies in TFT to learn more about them and their unique abilities, be sure to check out our wiki’s on origins and classes.

The way you learn about team comps depends on who you are as a player. If you’re someone who likes to learn on your own, feel free to experiment and learn through trial and error about which classes and origins work together well.

If you’re someone who wants to win now or immediately learn what’s good, check out our team comp recommendation guides to see team comp builds refined and tested by high-level players.

Ranking Up Units

Another core mechanic to keep in mind is that in TFT, you can combine identical units in order to make stronger ones – this is called ranking up (also called leveling up).

You can rank up your units by combining three copies for each tier:

• Three 1 star units = One 2 star unit
• Three 2 star units = One 3 star unit
• This means that you need a total of nine 1 star units to get a 3 star unit.
• Units you buy from the shop are 1 star unless they are Chosen (Set 4 mechanic).

In the image below, we have two 1 star Ziggs (indicated by the bronze color to the left of her health bar) on the bench and on the board, as well as one Ziggs available in the shop.

By buying the Ziggs from the shop, all three will automatically combine into a 2 star Ziggs. When this transformation occurs, Ziggs grows in size and in power. The rank up will also alert everyone in the game in the chat log, so know that it’ll draw attention and keep an eye on the activity of other players.

In the image above, we can see that Ziggs now has a silver icon to the left of his health bar instead of bronze. By right-clicking to examine him, we can now see two stars instead of one.

If you hover an ability, you can see how it scales (which means gets stronger) with increasing rank. Now that Ziggs is 2 star, he will deal 425 damage with his ability instead of 325.

So on top of assembling team synergy, you’ll also want to continually upgrade your units as the game goes on. By the end of the game (if you survive until then), most of your team should be 2 star and even have a few 3 stars if you play your cards right.

As you level up, the pool of champions available to you and their probability of appearing changes (details shown in the table below). To keep it simple, if you’re hoping to get a 3 star unit, it’s wiser to hold off on leveling up because doing so may decrease the chances of it appearing.

Likewise, if you’re looking to find a higher cost unit to complete the last part of your synergy, you may want to buy experience to increase your chances of it appearing. Just like a game of poker or a card game like Magic the Gathering, it’s all about playing the odds and doing what you can to understand and influence them.

Now that we know the basics of team building and which units to target, let’s get back to the game walkthrough.

Round 2-1 and Onwards: PvP Until Last Player Standing

After the three minion rounds end, Round 2-1 will begin and you’ll start to have player vs player fights. In the image below, we can see that we have three pvp fights before a carousel round, followed by two more pvp fights, and then lastly, a creep round.

This pattern will repeat until the end of the match when one player is standing (top 4 counts as a win). In the following sections, we’ll be discussing the overall concepts of a match instead of walking you through round by round.

PvP Rounds

During the pvp rounds, you’ll face a random opponent and pit your team of champions against theirs.

Depending on how badly the winning side wins, the losing side will take damage. There’s a specific formula for this but since this is a beginner’s guide, to simplify it, just think about it in terms of units that survive on the winning side.

If you have a really close battle that ends in a 1v1 between two final units, the losing side will take a small amount of damage. If the winning side wins by a landslide and has many surviving units, the loser will take a large amount of damage.

In the image above, in yellow, you can see the standings based on how much health players have. By clicking on their icon, you can also take a look at their board and bench.

You can also do this by clicking on the minimap at the bottom right, or by using the 1, 2, and 3 keys to rotate between player boards or return to your own (1 and 3 cycle, 2 returns you back home).

Carousel

As we mentioned earlier during the carousel section, player standings can be important because it determines the order in which players choose their pieces at the next carousel phase.

All players begin the carousel phase locked and are released in reverse order starting with last place and ending with first place. This lets players who have fallen behind an opportunity to catch up since they are more likely to get the item and unit that they need most.

At this point, you may be asking, if players that are doing worse get better choices at carousel rounds, what’s the point of being ahead? Well, I’m glad you asked.

The Basics of Econ: Win Streaks, Lose Streaks, and Interest

In Teamfight Tactics, you’ll get passive income for free each round. The first few rounds, you’ll gain increasing gold every round starting from 2 gold up until a base of 5 gold per round. You get 2g round 2, 3g round 3, 4g round 4, and 5g round 5 and every round after.

You also get additional gold based on win/loss streaks and interest. If you are winning or losing consecutively, you will gain extra gold – here’s how it works:

• 2-3 round streak = 1 extra gold per round
• 4 round streak = 2 extra gold per round
• 5+ round streak = 3 extra gold per round

This rewards players who have been doing well and throws some love to players who are having a rough time (there’s actually an advanced playstyle where you lose on purpose to get lose streak income and a good place in line for carousels, but that’s not for this article). You also get +1 gold for rounds that you win.

Depending on how much gold you have at the end of a round, you also get an interest bonus at the beginning of your next round. The amount of interest you get is related to every 10 gold you have up until 50:

• 10g = +1g interest
• 20g = +2g interest
• 30g = +3g interest
• 40g = +4g interest
• 50g = +5g interest (the max)
• Example: If you end the round with 34g, you will have an additional +3g from interest next round.

You can check how much gold you’re earning per round at any time by hovering your gold in shop (shown in red below). You can also get an idea of how much gold another player has by looking at the counters on the sides of the board (shown in yellow below).

Red: hover your gold in show to see your total income. Yellow: see how much interest each player is getting.

Each counter represents how much interest a player is receiving. The counters on the left represent your interest – since we have 50g in the bank, that means we’d get 5g in interest, hence the 5 counters. In a similar fashion, the opposing player has at least 40g, as shown by the four counters on the right. Unfortunately, you can’t tell the exact amount of gold your opponents have but at least this gives you a good idea.

To learn more, we strongly recommend checking out our TFT economy guide. We’ll cover these topics in more depth and give fundamental strategies regarding gold and econ management.

Positioning Basics

Managing your economy, buying units, and assembling your team are incredibly important but can all go to waste if you don’t position your units properly.

Making sure that your units are in the most optimal places possible will help you get the most value out of them and increase the consistency of their success in battle.

Here are general guidelines:

• Since mana is generated from fighting and taking damage, you want your pieces in a position where they are actively dealing damage and taking damage to cast their abilities (without dying of course).
• Try to have your units cast their ability at least once. If they’re dying before that, something is likely wrong.
• Most team compositions are similar to League, you’ll have a beefy frontline that protects your squishy backline of damage dealers and utility units.
• As the game goes on and you have a better idea of who you’ll be facing (since there are less players in the game), you’ll want to adjust your positioning accordingly.
• To save time, you can swap units by dragging one unit onto another. They will automatically switch places whether they’re on the board or the bench.

To help these make more sense, we’ll cover the main fundamental of positioning.

Frontline and Backline

At the very basic level, you should position your units with a simple idea of frontline and backline.

Frontline Units: Frontline units usually have a defensive trait like Bruiser or Bodyguard that lets them absorb damage from enemy teams. These units will usually be melee units as well, so placing them in the front ensures that they won’t need to spend time walking up to hit enemies.

Backline Units: Backline units are simply the opposite. Backline units usually either provide damage, like Caitlyn, or utility abilities like healing and shields. These units usually have range that allows them to hit enemy frontline units without needing to move as much.

Without getting too specific, almost all comps follow this general idea. You can do other things like place more toward the right or left side, or even in the middle of the board. Some synergies also make it so you want to place your units close together or further apart.

To learn more about how to place your units and the fundamental concepts for doing so, check out our TFT positioning guide.

How to Combine Items and Who to Give Them To

Throughout the article, we’ve mentioned that you could get items from the carousel or monster rounds but we haven’t really covered what they’re for and how to use them. In this section, we’ll finally discuss how to best use them and why you should prioritize certain items over others – here are the main things you need to know:

• Every unit can hold a maximum of three items.
• Granting a unit an item is permanent. In order to move an item to another unit, you’ll have to sell the unit currently holding the item.
• There are two types of items, basic and combined. Giving a unit two basic items will create a combined item.
• In general, you’ll want to use items to augment the strengths of your team comp.

Items do everything from granting basic stats like health and attack speed to breaking the game by letting you exceed the max number of units. Having the right items on the right units will strongly increase your chances of winning, especially against teams that don’t use their items as well.

Similar to the positioning section, we’ll cover three different examples of items and who they’re best on:

Example #1: Guinsoo’s Rageblade on Tristana (empowering auto-attackers)

Needlessly Large Rod + Recurve Bow = Guinsoo’s Rageblade

Guinsoo’s Rageblade grants its wearer 6% additional attack speed every time they attack, and it stacks infinitely. This means that they’ll attack faster and faster the longer a battle goes.

Example#2: Spear of Shojin on Viktor (cast abilities more often)

BF Sword + Tear of the Goddess = Spear of Shojin

If it wasn’t apparent by now, abilities are game-changers in TFT. As we mentioned in the positioning section, getting one ultimate off is usually seen as a success. Spear of Shojin allows its wielder to cast their ability more often because they gain 8 mana per attack.

This is insane on champions that have really powerful ultimates, such as Viktor, whose ability damages many enemies with lasers. With Shojin, Viktor can potentially cast many times in a fight, assuming he stays alive long enough to do so.

Item Tier List and Recommendations for Every Champion

Items are one of the trickiest aspects of TFT to get the hang of. Since you’re just starting out, it’s a good idea to try them all out to see how they feel and work. To make the process easier, however, we strongly recommend checking out our TFT items tool.

We not only give you all the recipes for combined items, but we also tell you which champions each item is best for and rank them according to their tier. By following our recommendations there, we guarantee you’ll learn at a faster rate and see your success increase in your matches.

Frequently Asked Questions by Beginners

Lastly, we want to try to answer some questions we see often from beginners. As a disclaimer, know that Teamfight Tactics is a very situational game so we will do our best to give the most accurate answers possible, but things may be different for you based on the context and skill level of players in your matches.

If we didn’t cover your question in this Teamfight Tactics guide, let us know in the comments!

Should I spend gold early and try to see which units I can get the most of or should I save?

Definitely check out the guide we linked in the economy section above. We cover three main strategies that will help you with the decision making process related to spending to find upgrades or saving up.

In general, if you’re looking to maintain a win streak, it may be more worth it to look for upgrades to continue to snowball. Keep in mind, however, how realistic your odds are.

If you aren’t winning early on, it’s probably more beneficial to save up, as long as you aren’t getting completely destroyed and losing tons of HP. If you’re able to get a lose streak while staying healthy, you’ll be in a position to not only max interest but also be in a good spot at carousel rounds.

Which champions are strong when?

This is leaning towards a more advanced concept called “power spikes”, which if you’re a League player, you may be familiar with.

In a nutshell, it means that most pieces have a point in time where they are designed to be strongest, and times where they’re expected to not be good or fall off.

In general, attack speed is better early game, and raw burst is better later game. Single target abilities are better early game, AoE abilities are better late game.

I’ll give an example. In the early game, Caitlyn can be very strong – since there are less pieces on the board, she can execute an important enemy with her ability. In the late game, her ability is less likely to hit an enemy carry, making her ability less powerful.

Should I give my tanks items or my back line?

In general, offensive statted ones are better on your carries and damage dealers while survivability items are better for tanks. Utility items like Zeke’s Herald tend to crossover between both types of units.

Where do I position my units? Why do some people have all their units on the left side, others on the right, and others in the middle?

Positioning your own units depends on your team comp and the units you have, be sure to follow the guidelines we gave in the positioning section above.

In regards to other players, they are in different places because they are trying to find the ideal placements for their team against the rest of the competition.

Sometimes little tweaks here and there make a difference, and as the games wind down and the number of players decreases, positioning becomes even more important.

Does what I pick matter in the first carousel?

You can definitely still win with basically any unit as your first (especially since they’re low cost and not punishing to just sell and replace), but you can get a strong start if you manage to grab a contested item that is strong in the current meta.

Should I hold onto my items or use them ASAP?

In a nutshell, you want to try to get the ideal items on your ideal champions. If it’s the early to mid game and you still have time to find these, it may be better to hold on and wait instead of combining for weaker items.

If it’s the late game, however, and you’re close to dying but still have basic items sitting on your bench, it may be your best bet to fight for survival using the combined items they can create.

Remember that item combinations are permanent and there’s no way to get an item back without selling the unit holding it. Another good tip is to use a 1 cost unit to create a combined item on and then sell it, that way you don’t have to worry about accidentally combining with a basic item that your carry was holding onto.

To learn about the latest new TFT Set, head to our all-in-one Teamfight Tactics Set 6 reveal page that covers all champions, synergies, and more!

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