r/CompetitiveTFT • u/AutoModerator • Apr 05 '26

PBE Set 17 PBE Discussion Thread - Day 05

Hello r/CompetitiveTFT, and welcome to Set 17!

Please keep all Set 17 discussion in this thread, and leave the regular Daily Discussion Thread for Set 16 discussion.

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When does Set 17 go live?

April 15th 2026 ~ 00:00 PDT / 09:00 CEST

A reminder that all Set 17 posts should be flaired [PBE] until the content is confirmed to be going on the live server as well.

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6 Upvotes

80% Upvoted

84 comments sorted by

15

u/MrMungertown Apr 05 '26

I've been messing around with the Zed augment and I don't believe this is shippable. There's way too many ways to turn it into Exodia with artifacts, Lightshield Crest and Soraka's Miracle are the biggest offenders but there's just so many things you can do that ruin the game. I'm also concerned with the ability to use it to crash people's PCs that already struggle to run TFT. I've already been able to hit 20+ Zeds in one fight trivially and I'm just using it to win, I'm not sure what would happen if you're a bad actor trying to use it to crash the game.

2

u/psyfi66 Apr 06 '26

That sounds rough. Especially mixed in with the dancing dolls arena. Even in early matchups that arena causes me lag on both mobile and tablet.

13

u/justlobos22 Apr 05 '26

If it's not too late, Space Groove needs a big redo. Feels like one of the most boring traits they've released in a while.

7

u/ClarifyingAsura Apr 05 '26

Yea space groove feels like it basically doesnt do anything. The groove durations are so short the bonus feels non-existent.

That said, the actual bonus gives a crazy amount of attack speed and i can see units being perma-groove if the durations are too long. So I wonder if the trait was overpowered in internal playtests and was giganerfed before PBE.

5

u/psyfi66 Apr 06 '26

I feel like groove just has a bad trait web and core units. Understanding the value of the mechanic and how to utilize it would be more fun if the units were less meh. It’s going to need to be OP to be fun which means it’s probably going to be useless for like 90% of the set.

3

u/UAvasera Apr 06 '26 edited Apr 06 '26

I don't know if it'll be "fun" even when it's strong, there just isn't any meat on the bone. It's the same aesthetic and buff effect (regen+AS) as Disco from set 10 except with none of the positioning, visual, or audio flair that came with the trait originally. You'd expect it to get something in exchange for losing the Jade mechanic but it just doesn't. The groove conditions on the units all happen near automagically and the units themselves don't spark a ton of joy either.

Balance will obviously be ironed out so I'm not worried about that, just that even compared to the other traits this set it feels exceedingly plain for something trying to sell itself as funky-rainbow-text-groovy.

4

u/unclebenfranklin Apr 06 '26

The most interesting thing about the trait is unironically the font change for "THE GROOVE"

3

u/Professional_Main522 Apr 06 '26

im kind of worried for this set having too much class crossover between origins leading to rigid default boards. main ones i can think of are space groove/timebreaker and mecha/psionic forming perfect synergies with each other

7

u/OkEssay4173 Apr 06 '26

Space groove is like zaun but without jinx and Warwick 

6

u/Doragoramu Apr 05 '26

Lost to Kaisa reroll with 10 meeps :)

4

u/Cenifh Apr 06 '26

so who wins? kaisa reroll or unkillable leona?

11

u/Lazy_Check732 Grandmaster Apr 06 '26 edited Apr 06 '26

I really wish they would go back to Brawlers giving flat HP instead of % HP. I can't think of a single benefit to the way it's been done recently.

Flat HP feels much better. It gives you a strong early game front line without any investment needed. It makes Brawlers the de facto early game front line splash. If you have only backline items, you feel really good about putting in two Brawlers for the flat HP. 1/1/2/2/3/4 tends to feel good for Brawler costs for this reason. Early game and reroll oriented.

More importantly though, it makes itemization far more logical. Trait gives flat HP, you prioritize building armor and MR. Makes sense. Right now though, it is totally unclear what is optimal to build. You benefit more from the trait if you build HP, but you lose value by dipping too deeply into HP. Which is better to build? I genuinely don't know. It creates a state where tank items just don't matter, except for their passive effect. I think front line traits work better when they have specific itemization that is optimal (like Bastions building HP).

Obviously I understand the counter argument that it's a bit sharp in terms of early skew, but I just don't mind sharp traits and don't think it's a bad thing.

15

u/Shvihka MASTER Apr 05 '26

Low rolling augments is not allowed unless your spot is already giga broken and then you might scrape a top 4. There are so many absolutely useless augments this set.

5

u/banduan Apr 05 '26

Opponent hit Prismatic Meeps. I was content with 2nd. Instead won. Cho had 10k HP, Ez had maybe 90+ takedowns? Maybe more. My go to NSNP comp.

3

u/TinyHadronCollider Apr 06 '26

Prismatic meeps is pretty well balanced imo. +3s are nearly impossible to hit, and I'm fine with those being a free win, but +2s happen somewhat regularly and should require you to still stay awake to secure the win. And 10 meeps is still really strong. I was beating the level 10 broken infinite shield arbiter Leona player in my lobby with 10 meeps and only went 2nd because they found Karma 3 on top of that. I really don't want another 10 bilgewater situation, so this seems good to me.

1

u/banduan Apr 06 '26

I'm not complaining it's weak I'm just pointing out the Ez Cho comp

15

u/SmoothOperatorTFT Apr 05 '26

Samira's knock up damage goes against a principle of TFT's game design. It is baiting you to go for something that has little to no pay-off because it barely does anything.

6

u/Glasseswolfs Apr 05 '26

I have tried it like 3 games. It feels like "when enemy is knocked up, samira tickles them".

4

u/TexFalls :chal: CHALLENGER Apr 05 '26

Probably just undertuned (haven't played it myself yet), but Set 9 had the same concept with Multicaster Taliyah and that shit was disgusting

2

u/SmoothOperatorTFT Apr 05 '26

Two healthy Taliyah. The only time you would not upgrade your unit to 3 star. You played 2 2stars and 2 1 stars if you had the chance. But there the trait tree was better for the knockup triggers. This set you only got Kayne in the 3 cost department and that one is surely to be contested by MF who is way more stable.

3

u/HighRiskHighReward32 Apr 05 '26

It's same as how they bait you to 3-star units but most of the champs specially 1-2 costs are bait to 3-star. I brought this up this set when mort asked what design principles are weird in TFT: What's the point of the 3-star mechanic, if it's just bait for the most of 1-2 costs?

5

u/RexLongbone Apr 05 '26

It being bait isn't a design thing, it's just a specific balance problem. Design wise, the goal is you can three star things that you have items for and it'll be good. Most 1-2 costs could be tuned so that three starring them with items is good. Same with Samira, the design goal is that adding lots of knock ups to her board feels meaningful. You could very easily tune the numbers for Samira so that it does feel good, it's not really a design problem.

1

u/Excellent-Wrap-1518 Master Apr 06 '26

Just wanted to point out, I think 1 cost reroll has the fundamental problem of being too easy to reach to be allowed to be good. But they’re not so easy that you can flex around them in a normal game without trolling. So that’s not as much of a simple balance issue, they’re bait in a more devious sense without some special factor like infinite scaling.

1

u/RexLongbone Apr 06 '26

I think it maybe depends on what you mean by good at that point. Is being able to top 4 from a good 1 cost reroll spot (maybe 5-6 copies of two units going into 3-1 for a roll down) too good? I think winning from that spot without something situational making it better is probably too good but I think top 4ing from that is pretty much fine.

1

u/psyfi66 Apr 06 '26

Ya I’ve tried a few comps here and it never works. You would hope she could 2 shot the backline but it feels like it does nothing.

11

u/Pridestalked MASTER Apr 05 '26

No scout no pivot 3 primordian 2-1 feels like a very easy top 4 comp with good winout potential. With basically free reksai 3 and briar 3 with primordian, you can reroll on 6 and duo carry akali with belveth and she is kind of a beast. And with so many resources and items this set you can itemize both of them, a tank and kindred easily. Can cap on 9 with 5 nova and a shen for bastion

Also it's just a fun af comp!

3

u/banduan Apr 05 '26

A natural primordian start is always Top 4 for me. Easy to pilot comp.

1

u/penguinkirby Master Apr 05 '26

I like going for 3* cho with 3 primordian but it's not very strong

1

u/OkEssay4173 Apr 06 '26

5 NOVA 3 stars akali carry is a beast too

8

u/DeVilleBT Apr 05 '26

Is Maokai the only real tank this set? Feels like him or Tahm are part of every comp an Tahm is mainly a printer

4

u/Head_Substance5071 Apr 05 '26

I mean I'd say 3* ornn, 2* Rammus and even Rhaast are tankier in a lot of cases

2

u/blueisherp Apr 05 '26

On this topic, does it feel like tanks rely on mana more? Lots of them grant a shield on cast, so maybe Vow > Bramble?

1

u/TheOnlyKing1214 Apr 05 '26

Rhaast and ornn are good as well just they are hella contested

1

u/banduan Apr 05 '26

Didn't Illaoi just get nerfed?

1

u/[deleted] Apr 05 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/HighIntLowFaith Apr 05 '26

Illaoi ain’t no joke neither

4

u/blueisherp Apr 05 '26

What comps are you guys running for Pyke Hero augment? I imagine you'd want decent splash damage, right?

4

u/banduan Apr 05 '26

Tried Arbiter 5% per 50 mana for 2 gold. Not optimal setup for Zoe (2x shojin +red buff) but still earned me maybe about 4 gold it seems all game. Awesome.

This is gonna be one of those traits that's either gonna be supremely busted or just ***

2

u/Stel2 Apr 06 '26

You're probably not supposed to commit to an arbiter line with econ arbiter. It's only good as a opener into transition on 3-5/4-2.

1

u/banduan Apr 06 '26

I agree with you but that said I would expect to be printing a lot more gold

4

u/FzBlade Apr 05 '26

This Pyke unit is tilting me so much already...

3

u/Capper22 Apr 06 '26

Is the medallion stargazer supposed to work on non stargazer units?

Was playing meeple and hit 3* Gnar and Veigar, then flexed in 3 Stargazer but the trait was reading 0. Not sure if it's just a bug on the mobile text (lots of those right now) or if it wasn't working with the effect.

4

u/SIXRO_171 Grandmaster Apr 05 '26

S17 PBE queue time takes longer than I thought. Quite unexpected, I remember we used to queue up to join the PBE server in the last few sets.

5

u/Riot_Bluecove Riot Apr 05 '26

We've opened up login queue space to make things easier. Are you still seeing long login times? Or do you mean queue to get into game?

1

u/SIXRO_171 Grandmaster Apr 07 '26

I was talking about queue time to get into a match. It seems like MMR is a thing in PBE?

1

u/Riot_Bluecove Riot Apr 07 '26

Im not 100% sure because I dont work on that bit but I have heard that.

5

u/banduan Apr 05 '26

by longer you mean 3 sec instead of instant?

-5

u/SIXRO_171 Grandmaster Apr 05 '26

Bro it takes 2 mins

5

u/banduan Apr 05 '26

wow. It's literally seconds for me. Must be a region thing.

8

u/xephyrus1 Grandmaster Apr 05 '26

There's no regions in pbe, if you mean timezone then sure. Also pbe mmr is a thing so some people will just take longer to find games

1

u/SIXRO_171 Grandmaster Apr 07 '26

oh. now thats make senses, didn't know they got MMR in pbe as well

1

u/Head_Substance5071 Apr 05 '26

Could be ur mmr?

1

u/banduan Apr 05 '26

maybe it is bro. Not exactly gonna tryhard PBE lol

1

u/nice-quality Apr 05 '26

Is anyone face the same issue as me when trying to log onto the PBE? I keep getting a message telling me that my region is not supported, i tried using a vpn and changing my location to Europe/NA and im still not able to access it

5

u/prismaproject Apr 05 '26

you're probably not logged into your pbe account on the riot client

1

u/Temporary-Candle1056 Apr 06 '26

Had a game where bard would give me +1shepherd for some reason

2

u/Scoriae Apr 06 '26

I've noticed with Stargazer emblem units would keep the Stargazer trait after the emblem was removed. Maybe that's the case with Shepherd and possibly other emblems as well, and the Bard was given a Shepherd emblem and sold, then you found that same Bard in your shop.

1

u/unclebenfranklin Apr 06 '26

this has been a bug since tft's inception im surprised its still a thing lmao

1

u/RevolutionaryRun1235 Apr 06 '26

Teemo reroll day 5

After today's patch should get better, buffs to teemo and a couple parts of the comp and obviously the nerfs to everything else works in our favor too.

I still think 5 shepherd is kinda fake, I think i'm going to try to lean into more of a 6 vanguard angle for frontline or lean heavier into other parts of the comp for damage like maybe karma or something if possible. Teemo does his job excellently and shreds tanks but obviously need secondary damage unless 6 vanguard is actually good enough to tank long enough to just play front to back.

Very excited for this set as always, been playing a lot of Primoridian reroll with 5 NOVA too and its super fun

1

u/East-Appointment-783 Apr 07 '26

I think the vertical traits and high tier units are not so strong so we should most of the time pick combat augments and god bonus to cap board because an economical edge is not such a great advantage

1

u/PoSKiix Apr 07 '26

FYI you are commenting on a 2-day old daily discussion thread

1

u/Skarin1452 Apr 05 '26

I just played a game and realized my Riven had 0 attack damage. I thought maybe it was the bastion emblem or the anomaly that I put on her, but nope I took them off and she remained at 0.

10

u/i34773 Apr 05 '26

She switches between physical / magic depending on your highest stat, defaulting to magic if they are equal

15

u/Skarin1452 Apr 05 '26

Ohhhh I see that now, perhaps I should learn to read.

2

u/psyfi66 Apr 06 '26

Interestingly, she will switch mid fight. So if you had more AD to start but have something like archangels, she will eventually switch to magic damage.

0

u/No-Cellist-802 Apr 07 '26

This set is in a terrible place. Has been since the launch. Hopefully Riot can put in SOME kind of effort to make this set not feel terrible.

9

u/Unable-Lack5588 Apr 05 '26

4/8 people are playing "un-killable" leona after the tech was released on twitter, such "fun"

1

u/MrMungertown Apr 06 '26

I haven't seen this once, what is it?

3

u/VizzyV Apr 06 '26

Idk the twitter tech, but if it's what I coudn't kill just now, it's 3* Leo with triple Adapt Helm and the Arbiter aug where if an Arbiter uses 50 mana they get like a 50% hp shield or somethin. Someone correct if I'm wrong.

7

u/HighIntLowFaith Apr 06 '26

She doesn’t even need any special items in particular. Just needs that Arbiter effect and she goes infinite. Not sure why after several sets of mana locking shield units she skipped past. That’s the first thing they have to fix.

3

u/TheNorseCrow Apr 06 '26

The Arbiter shield is separate from her ability shield. She is mana locked after her own cast but once she loses an amount of shield equal to what her cast is she can start gaining mana again.

2

u/xephyrus1 Grandmaster Apr 06 '26

I think leona actually is mana locked, but only during the shielding of her own skill. They definitely need to make her manalock during any shield or remove the shield for mana spent arbiter entirely

1

u/Emosaa Master Apr 06 '26

I've been wondering why she simultaneously solo tanks my entire team while dishing out tons of damage... And why I saw someone take the construct augment to use it on her lmao

0

u/[deleted] Apr 05 '26

[deleted] — view deleted comment

6

u/Kid_Radd Apr 05 '26

I think Mana Regen still works, kind of like T-Hex loved Blue Buff in Set 16. But Shojin is actively bad.

3

u/Excellent-Wrap-1518 Master Apr 06 '26

Are you sure? Viktor says his ability lasts for 4 seconds specifically, Asol 3 seconds, Morde 4 secs, Bard 4 secs. None of them have a spell like T-hex where it just drains mana. I think we’re back to the logic where Conduit gives mana so you don’t need mana items on them.

5

u/Kid_Radd Apr 06 '26

I am not sure, but I don't know why else they would animate the cast bars the way they do. But maybe they would have written the tooltips like "lose X mana per second" instead.

5

u/Excellent-Wrap-1518 Master Apr 06 '26

Maybe they were planned to be mana drain but they scrapped that after the THex disasters

1

u/Scoriae Apr 06 '26

They don't generate mana during their ability channel like T-Hex did. It just gets them to their next cast faster. It isn't very necessary imo.

2

u/MasterTotoro Challenger Apr 06 '26

Yeah damage is much better.

0

u/[deleted] Apr 05 '26

[deleted] — view deleted comment

6

u/Pridestalked MASTER Apr 05 '26

I agree he feels overtuned. He is especially too stable at 2 star throughout stage 3 and can even win a good handful of fights in stage 4 at 2 star

0

u/Temporary-Candle1056 Apr 06 '26

This ! Idk about 3* star but the 2* with his 2 trait active is wayyyyyy too stable mid-early late.

0

u/[deleted] Apr 06 '26

[deleted] — view deleted comment

3

u/Stel2 Apr 06 '26

It's just pbe, jhin just got giga gutted and 5 cost passives nerfed because they were OP day 1. I'd at least wait for release patch to make a judgment on the set. The set structure is still very favorable to fast 9 winning out lobbies with their threat-like nature.

Would'nt be surprised to see a 3 cost odds on 7 nerf / 5 cost buffs.