Red Post Collection: 2/25 TFT Mid-Patch Update, /Dev: TFT: Galaxies Team Compositions, & more

Continue reading for more information!

• Red Post Collection: 2/21 Mid Patch Updates, QGT: Feb 21, EUW/EUNE Clash Reschedule, Ask Riot & More
• Champion & Skin Sale: Week of February 24th
• 2/24 PBE Update: Loading Asset Tweaks & Tentative Balance Changes
• Free Champion Rotation, Week of February 25th
• 2/25 PBE Update: Tentative Balance Changes
• 2/26 PBE Update: More Tentative Balance Changes

Table of Contents

• 2/25 TFT Mid-Patch Updates
• /Dev: TFT: Galaxies Team Compositions 
• Miscellaneous

2/25 TFT Mid-Patch Updates

A mid-patch update for TFT went out on 2/25, with changes for Shadow, Sion, and Master Yi:

"2/25/2020 Balance Changes 

Shadow Bonus Damage: 65%/165% ⇒ 65%/150%
Sion Spell Damage: 200/400/800 ⇒ 200/350/700
Master Yi Bonus Damage: 75/100/500 ⇒ 40/80/500"

/Dev: TFT: Galaxies Team Compositions 

Check out a new /Dev on TFT: Galaxies, showing off some of the new champions and compositions - "Take a sneak peek at some of the upcoming origins, like Star Guardian and Mech-Pilot!":

"Last week we introduced Teamfight Tactics: Galaxies and its new mechanic. This week we'll talk about a few of the teams that will be inhabiting these galaxies, how they work, and where they fit within the set. Hopefully this gets your galaxy brains going, because ultimately it will be up to you to chart your own course, discover new compositions, and achieve victory. 

What We Learned From Rise of the Elements 

In Rise of the Elements, we got a lot more information on what makes a satisfying composition. Some things went well, for example: the ability to pivot to things like Mystic to counter specific enemies, and the ability to combine traits in interesting ways to make a powerful carry like Kindred with Inferno and Shadow. Other things didn't go so well: A few comps felt like you had to go the full 6 or they weren’t worth pursuing (Berserker), or the opposite where 6 was never worth pursuing (Mage in the first half of the set). We also need to make sure that the compositions have satisfying carries with really satisfying spells. 

We’re taking these learning forward moving into Galaxies. Let’s start by introducing a handful of the champions and traits you’ll be using and show some example compositions you can make. 

Star Guardians 

First, one of our more straight-forward compositions: Star Guardian. It uses all 6 of the Star Guardians as a base, and then can expand into a few different compositions. The trait gives mana to all the Star Guardians each time one casts a spell, so these will be very caster-heavy comps. 

Final Composition Example: 6 Star Guardian, 4 Sorcerer 

• Trait Effect: Whenever a Star Guardian casts their spell, distribute (3) 20 mana (6) 30 mana among all the other Star Guardians.
• Poppy - Tier 1 (Star Guardian/Vanguard): Tanky Frontliner
• Zoe - Tier 1 (Star Guardian/Sorcerer): Ranged CC
• Ahri - Tier 2 (Star Guardian/Sorcerer): Ranged Spell Damage
• Neeko - Tier 3 (Star Guardian/Protector): AOE CC
• Syndra - Tier 3 (Star Guardian/Sorcerer): Ranged Spell Damage
• Soraka - Tier 4 (Star Guardian/Mystic): Team Healing
• Sorcerer: All allies gain (2) +15% (4) +40% (6) +120% increased Spell Power
• Annie - Tier 2 (Mech Pilot/Sorcerer): Frontline Spell Damage

How it works: Arguably the most stable version of the Star Guardian comp, it can be achieved at Level 7 and gives your whole team 40% spell power to boost their constant spell spam. Poppy and Annie provide a nice front line, Neeko CCs, while Ahri and Syndra do massive amounts of damage. 

Why it works: We believe it's important that every set has a few compositions that are pretty easy to understand and put together. Less experienced players can buy all the Star Guardians and still do very well. You’re going to be in a pretty good spot if you get them all, which is a core skill to understand. 

That being said, there’s more depth to the Star Guardian Origin. You can go Protector if you need more front line, you can pivot into Mystics if there’s too much spell damage, and you can even get more creative since Tear of the Goddess and Spatula merge to make a new item that can turn any champion into a Star Guardian! Our favorite so far has been Star Guardian Vel’Koz. 

Cybernetic 

For the next example, let’s look at new origin that has a pretty straight-forward bonus, but a really unique requirement to activate it: Cybernetic. This origin is flexible—you can splash at 3 or try to go deep for all 6.

Final Composition Example: 6 Blademaster, 3 Cybernetic 

• Trait Effect: Cybernetic champions with an item equipped gain (3) 300 health & 30 attack damage (6) 800 health & 80 attack damage.
• Leona - Tier 1 (Cybernetic/Vanguard): Tanky frontliner
• Fiora - Tier 1 (Cybernetic/Blademaster): Fragile Melee DPS
• Irelia - Tier 4 (Cybernetic/Mana-Reaver/Blademaster): Melee DPS
• Blademaster: Blademasters have a (3) 25% (6) 50% chance on hit to attack two extra times.
• Xayah - Tier 1 (Celestial/Blademaster): Ranged DPS
• Shen - Tier 2 (Chrono/Blademaster): Tanky frontliner
• Yasuo - Tier 2 (Rebel/Blademaster): Melee DPS
• Kayle - Tier 4 (Valkyrie/Blademaster): Ranged DPS 

How it works: A comp that’s all about empowering Irelia to be a massive carry, Cybernetic gives health and attack damage if the champ has at least one item on them. You can put items on Leona and Fiora to power them up and keep them useful all game, and then in the late game, load up Irelia to be your major item carrier. Backed up by 6 Blademaster (yes it's back with some slight adjustments), she’ll be a monster. 

Why it works: Cybernetic opens up a new option that we haven't seen before, in that you need to spread out your items to maximize the benefit. The trait itself is VERY strong if you’re willing to put one item on each champion, so it becomes a fun puzzle to figure out which items get you the best return. Cybernetic is also a much more flexible origin, as it has a LOT of options on how to branch out. We expect it to be one of the more popular three-piece Origins. 

Mech-Pilot 

Lastly, we want to share the one I think most of us are the most excited about. When we first pitched the Galaxies theme, we all jumped at the chance to do this, so let me be the first to introduce you to the Mech-Pilot Origin. 

Final Composition: 3 Mech-Pilot, 4 Sorcerer, 3 Star Guardian, 2 Demolitionist 

• Mech-Pilot: (3) At the start of combat, three Mech-Pilot champs are merged into a Super Mech until it dies.
• Annie - Tier 2 (Mech Pilot/Sorcerer): Frontline Spell Damage
• Rumble - Tier 3 (Mech Pilot/Demolitionist): Frontline Spell Damage
• Fizz - Tier 4 (Mech Pilot/Infiltrator): Backline CC & Damage
• Demolitionist: (2) Demolitionist’s spells stun for 2.5 seconds.
• Ziggs - Tier 1 (Rebel/Demolitionist): Ranged Spell Damage
• Sorcerer: All allies gain (2) +15% (4) +40% (6) +120% increased Spell Power
• Zoe - Tier 1 (Star Guardian/Sorcerer): Ranged CC spell
• Ahri - Tier 2 (Star Guardian/Sorcerer): Ranged Spell Damage
• Syndra - Tier 3 (Star Guardian/Sorcerer): Ranged Spell Damage

How it works: With this comp, Annie, Rumble, and Fizz combine together into a Super-Mech! This big tanky mech shares traits and stats from the pilots, so the higher star level they are, the stronger your mech. The super mech can also use up to three items, which makes for an interesting puzzle on how you itemize it. Then by including 4 sorcerers, your mech gains +40% spell power, and when your mech casts his giant AOE spell, it stuns everyone it hits for 2.5 seconds!

Why it works: From a thematic standpoint, we’re really excited to see a giant mech and the destruction it can cause. From a gameplay standpoint… we’re REALLY excited to be able to see a giant mech and the destruction it can cause! It’ll also be fun to see which items and traits synergize best with the mech. It’s spell is REALLY big, but it’s also susceptible to CC. All of the different possibilities should lead to some really cool highlights! 

Welp, That's All For Now! 

Later this week we’ll be doing a deep-dive into what we learned from Rise of the Elements (like we did after Set 1), and then during the first week of March, we'll reveal the rest of Teamfight Tactics: Galaxies."

Miscellaneous

• The Good, The Bad, and the League: 2/4 - 2/24

"Your semi-weekly dose of server problem-os, NA League news, and other! 

2020 is in full swing. LoR entered open beta, Sett is STILL punching an awful lot of things, Your Shop is active and C9 is undefeated...so far. Clash happened this last weekend 

Follow-Ups:

• Mac voice still not working properly It’s being worked on! There’s improvements being done to Riot Voice and it should be fixed in the nearish future (not a Soon™ type scenario).

Ongoing

• None

Server Stuff:

• MFA host has higher error rate than acceptable(2/7, ~4 hours) Automated alerting reports that error rates for Multi-Factor Auth (MFA) are above acceptable rates. NOC notifies engineers, who investigate and fiddle with config changes. Then, additional hardware is scaled up to handle extra load, and the problem is resolved. An additional code change is scheduled to permanently fix the underlying problem.
• Elevated error rate causing login issues(2/7, ~30 minutes) NOC is notified that error rates are reaching unacceptable levels. NOC techs cycle the boxes running the programs, which solves the problem.
• Player in Game (PIG) loss due to unknown reasons (2/10, ~8 minutes) Automated alerting notifies the NOC that PIG dropped mysteriously. PIG recovers shortly, but investigations into why that happened find no root cause.
• NA players report inability to patch Riot Client (2/11, ~10 hours) NOC is notified by PS that they’ve gotten a large volume of support requests due to an inability to patch the Riot Client. Investigation points to an issue with timeouts. Engineers point software towards a different box, which fixes the routing issues causing the problem.
• Issues with game starts (2/14, ~20 minutes) Automated alerting notifies the NOC that game starts are impacted. Before an investigation can be spun up, game starts resume normal metrics, and further watching doesn’t show any additional problems.
• Signups API failure(2/21, ~6 minutes) Automated alerting notifies the NOC that signups have reported 0 signups for 5 minutes. NOC tech takes a look and notices that one of the backend connection nodes isn’t transmitting data. Routing around the impacted node fixes the problem while the node is rebooted.
• CPU Usage too high - Mitigation steps (2/22, ~89 minutes) CPU usage hitting warning levels due to Clash. In response, practice games are set to 10 player minimums and then the practice tool is disabled too. ARAM queue is throttled, and then all steps are undone as soon as the CPU levels lower to acceptable ranges.
• CPU Usage too high - Mitigation steps (2/23, ~95 minutes) CPU usage hitting warning levels due to Clash. In response, practice games are set to 10 player minimums and then the practice tool is disabled too. Co-op vs. AI games are throttled, and then all steps are undone as soon as the CPU levels lower to acceptable ranges.
• Practice Games Finishing in Error (2/24, ~11 hours) Automated alerting notifies the NOC that games are ending with unacceptable error rates. Investigation starts, and engineers notice only practice games are ending with errors. Further checks notice that unverified code around clash trophies in practice tool seems to be the culprit. A hotfix goes out that fixes the issue.

Game Stuff:

• Network config for perks service accidentally deletes Runes (2/4, ~38 minutes) Network engineer changes the config for perks, which accidently disables rune selection for all Riot Shards. Once discovered, the network engineer undoes the network configs for perks that caused it.

Morgageddon"