Riot Games releases TFT Patch 11.20: breaking down the fun

With the announcement of TeamFight Tactics’ next expansion — TFT: Gizmos and Gadgets is coming out at the beginning of Nov. — fans have officially hit the “Set 6 waiting room” angle. However, Riot Games decided to do a few things to keep players engaged with the current TFT: Reckoning expansion for the last two patches. Here is a breakdown of the major changes coming to TFT Patch 11.20.

Two radiant armories add to the fun

Perhaps the biggest change in all of TFT: Reckoning is coming out with two patches before the end of the set. The entire meta may change from this and, since the TFT Reckoning World Championship is over, now is the time to release it while there is nothing major happening.

To keep players interested as they wait for the next set, Riot decided to double down on the Radiant Armory mechanic. Starting in Patch 11.20, there will now be two Radiant Armories in each game rather than one. The first will appear as usual on Stage 3-5. The second one will appear at the beginning of Stage 5-1.

The addition of the second Radiant Armory will give every composition a brand new power spike. This will allow hyper carries to be more hyper, tanky frontlines be even tankier, and sadistic players who want to make other players uninstall the game to be able to pick both the radiant Zephyr and radiant Shroud of Stillness.

Kled’s time in the meta is over

For the past two weeks, one composition has had a polarizing impact on the metagame. The Kled Hellion reroll composition has been a mainstay in the meta, thanks to the North American reps at the TFT Reckoning World Championship. Both SpencerTFT and DeliciousMilkGG popularized the comp and it had a very strong effect on the metagame. The comp, which relies upon the Hellion trait attack speed buff and Kled’s raw damage output, has been oppressive in the right hands. Riot let the patch run its course but Kled will not be running around the map anymore.

In Patch 11.20, Kled is getting a trio of nerfs. Two of them are directed at him while the other is a trait nerf. Kled is getting his ability Violent Tendencies damage nerf. Violent Tendencies does a remarkable amount of damage on Kled’s every fourth auto. This is getting nerfed from 200% to 150%. The other nerf comes to Kled’s base AD, which is getting cut from 65 to 60. Essentially, Kled will be doing less damage overall.

The third nerf is the nail in the coffin. At the six Hellion interval, which is the functioning interval for this comp, Kled will only have 70% increased attack speed, reduced from 80%. In the past, even the smallest of nerfs have made a big impact but this is no small nerf. Kled had his time; he will now be riding his pet Skarl into the sunset.

Draconic Abomination make their last-minute comeback

At the way start of Set 5, the best comp in the game was the super value-focused Abomination Draconic composition. This comp allowed players to play the weak Draconic trait, which trades power for money but compensates the weakness by adding the Abomination trait. The Abomination trait adds a super powerful three unit synergy. This spawns a gigantic Sion, which is often unable to be killed. This combination essentially allowed players to earn infinite gold while also having a power team. Although this comp was a fan favorite, it was severely oppressive. It had laid dormant for the majority of TFT Set 5.5. But, with only two patches left before TFT: Gizmos and Gadgets, Riot decided to unleash it once more.

In Patch 11.20, the Abomination trait is receiving two significant buffs. The first is the base damage increase for the monstrosity. This buff gives the Monstrosity 90 damage at the four-unit interval and 110 at the five-unit interval. Both buffs are 10 AD increase. The other buff is attack damage per level. Again the buffs are at the four and five-unit interval with the monstrosity getting an extra one damage per level with nine at four units and 11 at five.

Draconic’s buffs come in the form of value. The expected value of each egg at both the three and five-unit intervals has been buffed, and so have the chances of getting super rare four and five-turn eggs. These buffs may not be enough to make the comp tier zero but it will surely give players an excuse to lean towards these traits once again.