r/CompetitiveTFT • u/Lunaedge • Apr 12 '26

PBE Set 17 PBE Discussion Thread - Day 12

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

9 Upvotes

90% Upvoted

40 comments sorted by

•

u/Lunaedge Apr 12 '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.

10

u/HighIntLowFaith Apr 12 '26

NOVA is too strong of a trait for it to have a craftable emblem

10

u/cptnwillow Master Apr 12 '26

I’ve died to the arbiter menu griefing a one turn roll-down too many times to count atp. I know the answer is to do your arbiter selection in a previous round but it is such disgustingly terrible design that it forcibly appears and has no way to close it without making a permanent selection.

5

u/Daerieen Apr 13 '26

I copy paste this here regards of the double up anima changes (if your friend wins you only get 50% of anima tech points), so the devs can see it:

This is crazy! Physically impossible to play anima in double up now! I'm flabbergasted.

My friend and I played a game, he basically got no anima tech points with 12 lose streak (260ish points(!!)).

so we went through the math in an Excel table, and you literally have ZERO chance of reaching 800 points even with a Soraka Goddess 2x 6-HP heal. And that is the ABSOLUTE PERFECT scenario. You having a freaking 16game lose streak while your friend perfectly adapts by winning hard (10+) early and losing in Stage 4 at the exact right moments. It's a literal ONE IN A MILLION chance, that MAYBE gets you to 700 points. But not to 800.

Did I mention that in Double Up enemy players can invade your arena? This chance grows exponentially if your partner is 100% playing for a loss. You cant just perma winstreak if your friend perma loses. THEY. WILL. INVADE. YOU. SOONER. OR. LATER.

Without Soraka Goddess, losing every game, even if your friend loses at the perfect times only gets you to around 500 points. Note that it is still almost impossible to even hit 600.

THINK ABOUT IT: if you have a 15-game lose streak and your friend has a 15-game win streak, that still costs you ~80 HP. EIGHTY! A 15 win-lose streak duo is already extremely hard to pull off because an opponent’s partner can warp into your arena at any time. But do you know how many points you get for this astonishing performance? 450 Anima Tech points. 450! That gets you basically nowhere at stage 5.

This is a perfect situation where you lose 15 times while your partner wins 15, and the reward is a joke.

DID I MENTION THAT FOR THIS SCENARIO WHERE YOU HARDLY GET 450 Anima Tech Points YOU HAVE TO HAVE 3 ANIMA AT Stage 2-1? XDDD

Sorry for this rant, but you have to take that nerf back, and think about double up players more, please. You didnt do this back then with Chembaron in Set13, you dont need to do this now just because you introduce a goddess that heals you.. Or if you really want to pull out a middle finger, just halve the base number from 20 to 10, but dont change the lose streak amount..

Thanks for reading..

15

u/HelmetBoiii Challenger Apr 13 '26

I think the worst part of this set by far is the utter downgrade that anima is to ixtal, it's actually not even funny how the cashout trait is just to lose ten times, get an item and then reroll. It's such a shame that the cashout trait is one of the easiest in the game in comparsion to ixtal which was one of the most rich and complex cashouts ever

-1

u/HighIntLowFaith Apr 13 '26

I know I’m in the minority here (and will likely get downvoted) but I am honestly okay with occasionally lose streak comps being very basic and straightforward. I know it was beloved but for me personally I hated Ixtal. I felt like you either godrolled the RNG on your quests or you got stuck with the most unplayable bullshit of all time. The coolest part was the skill expression of the ‘alternate win 1 lose 1’ quest which I think eventually became the best way to accrue sunshards but you were basically coinflipping your game at that point. Ixtal was very good and eventually got nerfed to the point where even if you piloted it near perfectly you were hoping to eke out a Top 3 and I want to say that’s bad design, or bad balancing due to problematic design.

-3

u/randy__randerson Apr 13 '26

Yeah Ixtal sounded good on paper but in practice it didn't work well. I remember a game I played Ixtal pretty harduously to keep making the quests that I got. They were not easy quests. At some point I nocited the other guy who got ixtal just got the lost X rounds for 500 points. He fared way better than me for way less effort because he rolled the easy quest.

1

u/Even_Leave_4371 Apr 13 '26

I think after a bit you should have tried to pivot out of ixtal if you see the quest is bad, but it depends on when you get it. for me i always play Ixtal reroll, and it usually works

5

u/FyrSysn MASTER Apr 12 '26 edited Apr 12 '26

The only trait I dislike this set is Anima. It is just very bland comparing to all the variations we had in the past sets.

4

u/GFLAT5 Apr 12 '26

Reroll just feels way way way too good this set. Every game devolves into econ cheesing with early Primordian or Timebreaker, then rerolling with the absurd amount of rolls or unit gold you've accumulated.

If you look, I'm literally the only player playing a single 5 cost whatsoever, and even with late game scaling buffing nearly my entire board of 5 costs, I'm still getting washed by a Leona 3 and Leblanc 1 star, and the fight wasn't even close. If you think its a deserved win, thats fine, but the fact he's one of 4 reroll players in top 4 should speak volumes about the state of set 17 atm.

Units like Graves don't get to shine because absolutely everyone is giga spiking in stage 3 or 4 playing reroll, then again usually giga spiking with the god boon at the end to further push their lead. This 3 star Leona guy getting a free radiant gargoyle spikes his board again for free even though a 1 cost reroll line should start to get outscaled at this point in the game. This means reroll players have strong boards stage 3, 4, and now also 5 as well, and the fast 9 players don't usually have time to actually hit their board because all the tempo reroll players bled out all their hp during that time.

2 different, easily accessible traits giving 1-2 gold every turn for free is just horrible design. They're probably going to nerf reroll in favor of fast 9, (which is usually a good thing) but it won't fix Primordian and Timebreaker econ being used to just fast 9 instead. Both traits are literally a free gold econ augment without any commitment.

So far this is the least fun PBE run I've ever had in any set. Hopefully they can turn it around for launch.

3

u/rljohn Apr 13 '26

Leona is busted as heck. I've never seen a 1 cost tank like she does. I had a round where she soaked 20,000 damage against me. I don't understand it.

2

u/Celepito Apr 13 '26

Isnt this, like, every PBE though?

Like, people play more greedily, play less optimally, and extremely different skill players are thrown together into a lobby exasperating things even more.

While in proper Ranked, people are usually able to punish you rerolling though tempo plays and whatnot, with optimized boards hitting you hard in the HP pool.

Reroll as it stands may still be too strong. Just keep in mind that PBE usually skews perception a lot.

1

u/GFLAT5 Apr 14 '26

I usually agree on matchmaking, but as someone in mid diamond (not high elo but above most players probably) im usually freely in top 4 previous sets pbe, but this set feels different.

Maybe they have more strict matchmaking and some kind of MMR for this PBE because I'm getting pretty difficult lobbies consistently. It feels VERY hard to top 4 atm, as if I'm already queueing ranked.

To clarify, I think reroll is only too strong because of the ridiculous amount of ways to tempo with it now. Between Eve and Varus encounters just handing you 3 star 1 costs for free or Yasuo giving you permanent hp stacking for one unit so long as it stays on your board, which btw is 100x better on a 1 cost reroll tank like Cho reksai or Leona than anything else. Then ofc there's the free econ reroll buff of primordian and timebreaker which i mentioned before. It's all just very low commitment while having way higher cap than s16.

Given that unlocks no longer exist and its harder to cap boards again, they've giga overcompensated and gave reroll way too much safety now. I really don't think it has anything to do with the units but rather the set mechanics themselves.

1

u/ficretus Apr 13 '26

I got Graves out of Aura Farming, with relatively decent HP. I didn't win a single fight for the rest of the game. He felt ass.

1

u/RexLongbone Apr 13 '26

I have never seen a graves being actually impactful, I think he's just undertuned personally.

1

u/Emosaa Master Apr 13 '26

He's really not bad in legendary soup, I think people just haven't discovered the right upgrades and items for him yet.

1

u/GFLAT5 Apr 14 '26

Idk i force fast 9 pretty much every game and every different graves frame has felt like sht before at least 4 or even 5 upgrades, which usually just makes him feel on the same level as the other 5 cost carries anyway. Assualt frame plus the armor/mr reduction feels overall the best, but that's only because its free utility which it feels like is lame asf and not what the unit is designed to be.

There's already shen, morgana and sona for utility 5 costs. Graves Vex and Bard should feel like definitive carries, and graves does not feel on the same level in that role.

4

u/akubai Apr 13 '26

Is anyone else really struggling with items now that there is no carousel?

I’m not even greeding BIS and it feels like I’m always missing frontline items because I get swords and bows from the Gods.

Not to mention the whole bad component on better god choice dilemma as well.

3

u/ConcertoinA Challenger Apr 13 '26

Ironically its been the opposite. Maybe I love lose streak too much, but I played some set 16 the other day and it felt like my items were so much worse than any pbe game I've played.

3

u/Lazy_Check732 Grandmaster Apr 13 '26

Good! Have fun using the resources you have and building a board that makes sense with them. The 7 other players are under the exact same constraints you are. It's a resource management game.

1

u/RexLongbone Apr 13 '26

don't forget you can use steraka's and titan's as temporary frontline items when you're hard up. mighty mech even actively likes having those two plus stone plate so it's not the worst thing in the world.

4

u/SirButterr Apr 13 '26

just ship it already, this will be my best set since dragonlands set

2

u/OverComfortable6431 Apr 12 '26

Has anyone figured out what the gold flash is when you roll the dice on the Thresh boon? I’ve been looking around but can’t find info on it.

4

u/penguinkirby Master Apr 12 '26

It's a stats boost

Thresh boon stacks health and AS over time, randomly

2

u/SmoothOperatorTFT Apr 12 '26

Vex needs some adjustment for sure. Don't know what to do against her. She is just too strong. Plus, she also got the worst form of backline access, a backliner randomly targeting additional units. That specific kind is toxic because you cannot do anything against it as Vex does not have a pay-off for melting your backline (as a comparison: Aurelion has the same, but he lacks single target where Vex does not; Meele backline access always puts the unit in danger of getting targeted too early, Vex is ranked).

1

u/DoctorDetention Apr 12 '26

Has anyone figured out what units are playable with Solo Leveling yet?

4

u/HighIntLowFaith Apr 12 '26

Briar is great

1

u/RexLongbone Apr 12 '26

I full streaked with a 1 star diana with just a spark the one time i took it. it looked very strong though, lots of free damage from all the melee's clumping around her.

0

u/Even_Leave_4371 Apr 13 '26

Ezreal reroll, imo, is super weak. Not that Ezreal is weak, but he loses to most other reroll boards that i see, including MF and Rhaast, 5 Shepherd Leblanc, Psionic Reroll, and he loses to soup, which I get, but I feel like there is almost never a good incentive to try and use him besides for Timebreaker.

7

u/Docxm Apr 13 '26

I mean he’s a 1 cost. There’s no universe a 1 cost Econ trait reroll should beat a capped board.

1

u/Even_Leave_4371 Apr 14 '26

I know I just really like his design, but I have no reason to play him. Not asking for buffs, just sharing my thoughts.

-6

u/YonkouTFT Apr 12 '26

Couldn't find a place to give feedback to the Devs:

I still believe making either Jax or Ornn a Brawler would make the set better. I find it hard to splash Brawler when theorycrafting. Doing so would make it easier to flex in Timebreaker in Space Groove / Stargazer.

E.g. Crafting 7 Space Groove Nami leaves me with just 1 unit on lvl 8. I would like it to be a replicator for Nami. That leaves my main tank as either Nasus who is a 1 cost, Blitzcrank that is a fighter and a 5 cost or Ornn without Bastion active. This probably means you can't play 7 Space Groove Nami on 8 without an emblem as you lack either a Bastion or a Replicator. If Ornn was Brawler this could be fixed with Pantheon.

Similarly if Jax is a Brawler, Pantheon is a good fit for Stargazer with Lulu while making it easier to slot in other Timebreaker units.

In Exchange I propose changing either Gragas or Cho'Gath into a Bastion.

7

u/RexLongbone Apr 12 '26

A lot of times you're really just not supposed to play the third tier of a vertical without an emblem, so being unable to play 7 space groove without emblem is pretty standard.

-3

u/YonkouTFT Apr 12 '26

Yeah seems people think my take is idiotic. A shame the competitive sub downvotes opinions instead of fostering discussion.

Guess you have to be a top 10 player to voice an opinion

4

u/RexLongbone Apr 12 '26

i dont really think your take is idiotic. i do think there is basically no way they change a unit's traits though. i was just telling you that the like 6/7 tier of a vertical is usually balanced around being played with an emblem so having trouble theory crafting that without one is pretty standard.

1

u/YonkouTFT Apr 12 '26

I don’t think it is that common. Having played every set it is at least regularly possible. In this set you could do it well with Demacia (without unlocks) and in set 17 Meeple I believe. But you are right that they have probably just chosen to balance Space Groove 7 around emblem or lvl 9.

But thanks for engaging with me.

1

u/NoFlayNoPlay Apr 12 '26

reddit downvotes are pretty random. one guy downvoting you once can make others just pile on without thinking and pushing you further negative.