Runeterra's Live Design Lead, Steve "RubinZoo" Rubin, acknowledged on Twitter that Twisted Fate is outperforming and is probably due for some adjustments. He specifically cited Stress Testing, the new P&Z spell from the Aphelios Champion Expansion which can draw an additional card when combined with either Rummage or Pick a Card, as the root cause behind his recent success.
Quote From RubinZoo Great games this weekend in @PlayRuneterra Seasonal, congrats to @MajiinBaeLoR for slaying Americas!
Stress Testing is certainly the straw that broke the camel's back on Twisted Fate and we'll be looking into adjustments for him.
Twisted Fate has certainly been a prolific champion choice both on ladder and in the recent season tournaments; he is a critical component of the TF/Fizz Burblefish deck, the TF/Aphelios Temple deck, and the still-pretty-good TF Go Hard decks. In last weekend's Seasonal Tournaments, only 6 out of the 32 NA participants didn't bring a TF deck, and out of Final 8 all but one had TF (shout out to Chomi!).
RubinZoo didn't comment at all about what exactly he was thinking about changing or when these changes could go live. It is worth noting that the upcoming balance patches are 2.3.0 (this week's expansion release) and 2.5.0 (expected Wednesday, March 31st), so unless something is squeezed into either this week's patch it will be almost April until we see these changes implemented.
What are your thoughts on the state of Twisted Fate? What (if anything) would you change? Share below!
Comments
The best evidence to know that I should keep playing LoR in order to being better is noticing that I don't know which is the whole power of this Champion and why is he so OP.
I'm fully focused on Feljorn because is the faction that I understand most but despite being a game 1yo since leaving beta the amount of differents mechanics and cards is so huge.
He is good for two primary reasons: flexibility and trading up in value.
The ability to choose which card you want from him on play is extremely strong due to the potential value of his cards.
If you do opt for the simple blue card, even a mystic shot, the best way to remove him, is a fine trade for you. You traded one mana for card advantage, which is typically better for you anyway.
In addition to all of that, he threatens to win the game almost on the spot if not dealt with due to the raw power of his level up. Virtually no weaknesses makes for a very powerful champ.
If you're interested in seeing high-level play of TF, the VoDs of last weekend's seasonal tournaments can be found in Youtube (for SEA and EU) and Twitch (for Americas). E.g. starting around 1:05:00 in this clip you can see how ridiculously fast some players can level him up. Definitely not a champion I could play even close to optimally.
What can you even nerf on tf?
Mana? 5 mana would kill him.
Hp? It doesn't matter that much, but probably.
Effects? They are too iconic but stun can go to 1 dmg..
Attack? Doesn't matter..
That's the big question, right?
I'd probably try changing Pick A Card from Draw 3 Fleeting to Draw 2 Fleeting. I think Draw 8 -> TF L2 is generally a fair risk -> reward proposition, it's just that certain highly optimized decks have made it way to easy to "pop off" and flip TF too quickly. I don't really like the idea of directly nerfing TF, as that would probably kill using TF outside of those optimized decks.
I think tf is too strong baseline too, many decks don't even level him.
Think they will ezreal him and lower the impact of his lvl 2.
Remove attune from blue card.
Can't, blue card in league gives mana.
And draw is also crucial.
You can't change neither blue or red cards, they would lose too much of tf's identity.
Make him harder to level up and either nerf the red or blue card, balance takes priority over flavor.
Something about him has been extremely strong basically since his release. He's had a tier 1 deck in every single meta since last June. He's way over due for a nerf.
All I know is that increasing his level up isn't the answer. Something else needs to be done.