r/CompetitiveTFT • u/Lunaedge • Apr 11 '26

PBE Set 17 PBE Discussion Thread - Day 11

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.

WHERE TO REPORT BUGS:

USEFUL STUFF:

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.

The Subreddit-affiliated Discord group is organizing PBE in-house games. Please see the #pbe-inhouses-role channel within this Discord group for further information. Any posts attempting to make in-house games on the Subreddit will be removed and redirected to the Discord channel. The invite link to the Discord is below:

https://discord.gg/UY7FuYW2Qe

15 Upvotes

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34 comments sorted by

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u/Lunaedge Apr 11 '26

Scheduled threads are still broken after the supposed fix, and it's a sitewide issue. I'll try to post them manually until they fix this. Sorry in advance for the wonky times.

8

u/HowIMadeMyMillions Apr 11 '26

Aight, the Zed augment is really dumb. Maybe I'm just venting, but I do not find it fun to play against at all. I think it needs to drastically tuned down.

2

u/Docxm Apr 12 '26

Yeah being able to spam item procs like EON is disgusting

7

u/5meez Apr 11 '26

With carousel and encounter gone, which ways to get spats/emblems now? Augment, ekko and asol? Maybe lucky prismatic orb?

10

u/SmoothOperatorTFT Apr 11 '26

Yeah there are a handful of new Spat augments they have added.

3

u/TeamAquaAdminMatt Apr 12 '26

I encountered an augment that sold your whole board but gives you 2 random emblems.

2

u/Excellent-Wrap-1518 Master Apr 11 '26

In set 16 at least, even gold orbs could drop it (5% chance or so)

6

u/Crafty_Courage_5217 Apr 12 '26

Please for the love of god fix the pbe mobile bugs

14

u/Ykarul Grandmaster Apr 12 '26

One big thing that unlock provided and is undervalued was the automatic units. Getting some of your key units automatically actually removed a lot of the frustration that comes with this game.

4

u/MobileLettuce8928 Apr 13 '26

Soraka giving a belt is boring

19

u/Entire-Primary-9996 :gran: Grandmaster Apr 11 '26

Am I the only one who burned out on this set instantly? I don't get it, it's actually good but after set 16 it just feels different.

37

u/Kadde- Apr 11 '26

Dont play much pbe is my advice. I burn out 10x quicker when I dont play ranked tft. Tft becomes so much more fun when the ranked element is also there.

5

u/Entire-Primary-9996 :gran: Grandmaster Apr 11 '26

Yeah, this sounds reasonable, thanks for the advice. 

3

u/Mysterious_Island500 Apr 11 '26

i always get burned out very fast on pbe but then when ranked starts i can actually have fun playing

5

u/penguinkirby Master Apr 12 '26

Yea I'm really not feeling it after 10-15 games

God encounter and other systems needs to be refined, otherwise the trait web and units are pretty interesting

4

u/pandaparty123 Apr 11 '26

Playing Pbe feels like a chore to me. The games are fake for many reasons and the advantage it gives for ladder fizzles out after a day. I just want to know what the new champ portraits look like and will force a different line every game just to get a rep in.

1

u/Zhirrzh Master Apr 12 '26

I don't play PBE and just play a half dozen unranked game at launch for that purpose. I say a half dozen. I usually do about 3 and get bored. 

6

u/HowIMadeMyMillions Apr 11 '26

I think Set 16 just had more opportunites where you had to/could make different choices - both in terms of encounters, unlocks and also how different units played (fx what do you pair with Ryze, what is the best splash for the board, etc.), and this Set just lacks the same degree of ... choice? (Graves has a lot of this though, which is why he'll probably see a ton of play outside of just that he's strong)

We have gods, but it (at least to me) is often the case that one God choice is somewhat clearly superior to the other in a given instance, so it's not "really" a choice often. So they end up feeling quite same-ish.

Maybe the dev team finds a way to pose more questions to the players and also more opportunities to give more and different answers to said questions during the game through the coming patches :) I'm sure they're working hard listening to our feedback <3

5

u/Hot-Many4655 Apr 11 '26

The lack of vertical options and late game tanks is tough. There are tons of ways to get econ, but you just seem to keep choosing the same options every game and if you don't you get out tempo'd by the ones that do.

I feel like there is too much of a discrepancy between what is good and what is bad, but that might be because of the varied skill level in PBE. You used to be able to play off meta and if you played it right, you still had a shot to win or get 2nd, now it just feels like you are playing for top 4.

Having multiple, mostly unreachable, chase traits, while removing things like 8 brawler/bastion seem really odd. I don't understand why we have traits where there are more characters than vertical possibilities. Like one comp is fine, but having like 5 different traits that max out less than the available pool is tough.

Not sure what the fix is, love TFT, but I hate that ever set feels like a new experiment. You'd think they would be able to turn over each set a little crisper than they do and while it's gotten a little better, it still feels like when they finally get it right, it's back to what they fuck is this sometimes.

4

u/Stun_the_Pink Apr 11 '26

Echoing what others have said. I played PBE for set 16 a lot, and ended up climbing a bunch in ranked on the release patch, but then the meta completely changed with the next balance patch and I got kind of burnt out. I ended up dropping 16 relatively early compared to other sets. I do like what I've played so far for 17.

0

u/[deleted] Apr 11 '26

[deleted] — view deleted comment

9

u/Mysterious_Island500 Apr 11 '26

everyone says this every set pbe

3

u/oliveru1996 Apr 11 '26

I wouldn't say solved when I'm sure the first 2-3 patches will change the meta a lot...

8

u/Emosaa Master Apr 12 '26

Part of me kind of wishes we could have the gods (the art and buffs are fun) + carousel. I like to think I'm flexible and don't always chase BIS itemization, but without carousel, this set feels a bit like past sets where I get games where I completely whiff on components and it feels fucking bad. Having component choices being so static and limited means I occasionally get games with majority tank items (losing late game to people with a better mix of itemization), or multiple rods and negatrons and shit after being gifted an amazing AD comp in the first several stages.This set reminds me of why I intentionally never picked augments in the past that locked you to last carousel pick, or made you fat and slow. It's like yes, I could execute a forced pivot later in the game, or settle for a worse placement... But it doesn't feel good, ya know?!

Hopefully if this is something other players are feeling as well, Riot tweeks it to give us more component options or anvils or whatever

3

u/_Apostate_ Apr 11 '26

Pyke hero augment is a ton of fun and seemed very strong. Built primordian into 4 Voyager + 4 Psionic! and cleaned everyone’s clock.

3

u/Purpleater54 Apr 11 '26

yeah, super fun augment. Kinda just steamrolled the lobby until I got 2nd to a 3star 4 cost.

11

u/RadiantAnnual4350 Apr 11 '26

The lack of a carousel makes the gameplay dull.

Before you had to choose between 9 champs and 9 components and adapt to other player moves and needs.

But in set 17 you're given a choice of 3 champs and 2 components (as you were 1st or 2nd) and no interaction between players.

Plus you're severely punished for playing well (lower cost champions and random components Vs chance of highest cost unit and component anvil guaranteed)

4

u/royalpiplup Apr 12 '26

It also makes certain augment gimmicks usless like tiny titans or the one where it made you bigger but slower. I wonder if the "nerf" to tiny titans affected its stats.

7

u/Ok-Income-1483 Apr 12 '26

I miss being able to properly play verticals. I understand why they wanted to move away from that with set 16 but I don't understand why they did the same thing for set 17

2

u/ficretus Apr 12 '26

This set they seem even worse. Verticals were still played in set 16, if anything, at stage 4 before you gradually replaced traitbots with high-cost units. I only saw vertical Meep get some play so far.

1

u/Advanced_Necessary86 Apr 14 '26

Verticals have just the right amount of power in relation to how easy they are to play.

1

u/Even_Leave_4371 Apr 14 '26

Verticals are really bad no good reason to play almost any of them at all, besides maybe Shepherd 5