Riot just unveiled the official Teamfight Tactics patch 9.14b notes for the update rolling out today. As expected, Assassins and Volibear are taking some serious hits. A number of champions and items are being tweaked slightly to align them with other options.
Critical changes
Like previously reported, Riot has changed critical strike damage, which “now stacks additively rather than multiplicatively,” according to the notes. Baseline critical strike chance for having three Assassins is down to 125 percent from 150. These two changes should reduce the average damage output of Assassin champions by a healthy 25 percent.
After a full week of Ninja Assassin teams clearing every lobby, this is a change in the right direction. Alongside the changes, Riot is buffing the Infinity Edge item. It will now deal 150 percent bonus damage, up from 100, to preserve its usefulness in general.
Volibear takes a big hit, losing some value in both armor and attack speed. This is another good change, since Volibear had quickly become everyone’s favorite AD carry since the massive buff he received in the last patch.
Another Daisy nerf
The Elementalist synergy was heavily scaled down in patch 9.14, but it has remained popular in the current Teamfight Tactics meta. Daisy, the golem that Elementalists can summon, receives a 12 percent health reduction in an attempt to balance her strength.
Some strong but less-dominant synergies are receiving buffs this Teamfight Tactics patch. Wild now gives a 10 percent attack speed buff per stack, up from eight. The three-Sorcerer synergy increases spell damage by 45 percent, up from 35. This change should make teams with partial Sorcerer support more viable.
The proc rate of the Cursed Blade item is now 20 percent, down from 25. This is likely to mitigate how effective the item could be on Gunslingers and others with access to spam attacks. Alongside the change, Riot revealed the proc rates for Swordbreaker and Hush, which are 25 and 50 percent respectively. These numbers were data-mined a while back, but not officially disclosed until now.
Other changes include slight balance tweaks to the Morellonomicon item and champions Akali, Evelynn, Mordekaiser, Poppy, Tristana, Ahri, and Rengar. Mordekaiser’s buff is just 10 percent extra health to his 1-star form. This doesn’t feel like a lot, but it will be compounded by his armor, which is higher than that of other Knights.
Stay tuned to Daily Esports for more Teamfight Tactics news and content!
