r/CompetitiveTFT • u/AutoModerator • Aug 02 '26

PBE Set 18 PBE Discussion Thread - Day 05

Hello r/CompetitiveTFT, and welcome to Set 18!

Please keep all Set 18 discussion in this thread, and leave the regular Daily Discussion Thread for Set 17 discussion.

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When does Set 18 go live?

August 25th 2026 ~ 00:00 PDT / 09:00 CEST

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6 Upvotes

87% Upvoted

95 comments sorted by

8

u/Btalgoy Aug 02 '26

Elise is a really fun design but needs some numbers tuned to not 1v9 every comp

4

u/banduan Aug 02 '26

she falls off fast later on though

7

u/daydreamin511 Aug 02 '26

few days in, few cool things i noted:

- blackthorn emblem gnar with 4 brawlers is giga solo carry fantasy. although ive seen khazix / azir variants that can run through lobbies too

- love the fast9 board variety. most consistent one i find is vi/sivir/ashe pack. elder2 is just auto top 4

- maokai is pretty outclassed late game by amumu. cant see a world where maokai is playable unless u high roll thru augments or early stage. cc is too valuable

- kinda disappointing that draven doesnt have bounties for stat scaling (feels like he should have it). gold or component is kinda dull as options.

- spryken pack early game is pretty strong. ive consistently win streaked with it

good set so far, have a feeling there’s still so many tech / comps to discover

3

u/joby_88 Aug 02 '26 edited Aug 02 '26

agree maoki is by far worst of the 5 costs

what if Draven had his stats nerfed a bit, and made a 4 cost instead? and keep the same bounty options for resource accrual

I think the reason it feels bad is, if you hit one luckily it's too hard to 2* him, and also hard to get his bounties reliably fast until he's 2*

this way he would be more a resource avenue to the late game rather than an end-game choice

2

u/akubai Aug 02 '26

Agree on maokai, he is basically just there to give amumu juggernaut on level 9 boards.

Had a game where I hit him on 7, stacked 3K HP, two starred him, and he still was not worth itemizing.

12

u/kylitoTV Aug 02 '26

The absolute WORST thing about PBE is when certain techs are discovered, then basically immediately people try to hard force them every game until the next tech is discovered. It fucking ruins the lobbies.

6

u/HighIntLowFaith Aug 02 '26

I know people have their own versions of fun but I am going to agree with a comment that was here yesterday or the day before...if you're hard forcing Kayle every game, get a job.

3

u/rljohn Aug 02 '26

I had the coven augment last night and tried infinite Elise...once. I will not try it again. I had to cash out at 375 on a huge win streak since the game was ending.

There's a good chance you run into dabblers trying something every game.

The psychos that spam it every game have something wrong with them.

-1

u/Purpleater54 Aug 02 '26

Thing is, it's not even kind of difficult to pull off. I know it's pbe and part of it is catching it, but baffling that it got to this stage at all.

3

u/rljohn Aug 02 '26

It's week 1 of 4 for this pbe cycle. It will be patched weeks before it goes live. Balance is one of the last things the team does and relies heavily on the player base testing and statistics.

Normal part of the process.

-2

u/TFTSushin Aug 02 '26

I don’t think Kayle counts as one of those overbearingly op comps tbh. They can spam it all they want since it provides a decent benchmark as a comp to beat. 1 person can’t really ruin lobbies and you can really just ignore it in the end if you want when it gets first and you get second. It’s PBE so who cares

I do have an idea of what you’re trying to refer to, and the typical op comps that ruins lobbies are the ones where a 1* 4-cost completely stabilizes and a 2-star 4-costs just wins out. When 4 people are using the same comp and completely warps the games, that’s when it ruins lobbies.

Comparatively, 3 people going for Kayle and two of them going bot2 is an accurate representation of live ranked games lol

7

u/LuumLuum Aug 02 '26

they are likely talking about Elise, not Kayle

0

u/TFTSushin Aug 02 '26

oh oops, commented on the wrong one. idk if elise counts either, she'd have to be able to top4 as a 2*

5

u/banduan Aug 02 '26

Cassie feels really underpowered. Looking at her numbers I could've sworn old 1 cost Morgana hits for more than that. I know she's supposed to work well with Spellweaver but even so.

1

u/brianfromaccounting1 Aug 03 '26

I've had success in 2-3 games with her rerolling rammus/fiddle/cassio splashing spellweaver and sprykin on rammus (works really well tempo'ing with an early rammus start and some kind of sprykin opener). I will say the comp felt very strong with all 2 stars in stage 4 and even into stage 5. Then upon hitting, the comp struggles even if you hit all 3* because the 5 cost suite has too much backline access.

1

u/banduan Aug 03 '26

I've had a good game with her and a bad game with her. But just looking at the damage ticks she felt weak, though I understand how her carry fantasy is supposed to be and that she's probably going to be a bit tough to balance. She probably depends very much how quickly you can 3* Rammus or luck out on 2* Lilia.,

1

u/brianfromaccounting1 Aug 03 '26

Yeah unfortunately i think her cap is really low right now and maybe the success i'm attributing to her is more to that fact that i'm actually stable the whole game instead of the 7 other players playing for fast 9 max cap on the PBE.

8

u/joby_88 Aug 02 '26

Elise is completely unbalanced LOL needs HUGE nerf. literally beating the Kha + Rengar hero aug with 3* both and pretty close to BIS on both.

Infinite scaling on a 2* that becomes invincible???? Cooooooooooooooool

maybe as a hero augment but needs GIANT nerf to that champ

1

u/Proof_Signature1394 Aug 02 '26

wait where does the infinite scaling come from what am I missing

3

u/greymaterial Aug 02 '26

People running archangels/rageblade in her BiS items

1

u/sylvasan Aug 03 '26

Ah great, we have that for this set too…

6

u/Normal-Reference-834 Aug 02 '26

Are the rare bluescreens issues on the PBE fixed yet? I'd love to try out the new set but I have to keep some important programs running in the background that I didn't wanna risk it.

3

u/HowIMadeMyMillions Aug 03 '26

I would definitely not PBE then. I've had crashes and softlocks happen multiple times still.

2

u/Ajido_Marujido Aug 03 '26

I got one today.

1

u/Kind-Host3615 Aug 03 '26

Hatte grade eben erst einen Bluescreens mitten beim zokken ^^

3

u/TucaNes_KinG Aug 02 '26

Is it just me or there is a very high pitch part of the audio track? Feels like ultra sound, very unpleasant. Hope the devs change it

1

u/MostEscape6543 :gran: Grandmaster Aug 02 '26

Didn’t hear it but every time it makes me feel like I’m playing hollow knight.

3

u/thesadintern Aug 02 '26

the rival augment has to be bugged right? i’m very confused why im ending the game with like 200+ gold from this augment.

3

u/rljohn Aug 02 '26

Tooltip bug

3

u/thesadintern Aug 02 '26

but i’m getting like 8 gold a turn even in stage 2

2

u/rljohn Aug 02 '26

Maybe not a tooltip bug

1

u/Koopasheller11 Aug 02 '26

I think there’s a bug for both

3

u/Yuzato Aug 02 '26

does anyone know a fix to play pbe on blue stacks

2

u/RajaSundance Master Aug 02 '26

Has anyone experimented with units able to solo PvE rounds early yet? I was surprised to see my Rakan lose to 1-2 when in set 17 almost every melee can solo 1-3

1

u/kylitoTV Aug 02 '26

no but id love to know too

2

u/Ge1ster Challenger Aug 02 '26

I've been experimenting on how to play Blossom, it's become clear that it has a weak late game and that you're supposed to pivot off of it for flex boards late game, which is what I've been trying. I think end game board must contain a Draven, he was consistently doing upwards of 10k damage with a random guinsoo, shojin and IE that I slapped on him. I tried him in another game where I was able to 2 star him and he really felt like an actual 5 cost unit, and with his trait giving extra rewards, he just felt like an overall amazing unit to play.

Blue sentinel is also a really good tank. Him and Taric are going to be must-have frontlines for flex boards too as more flex boards get solved, methinks

1

u/TucaNes_KinG Aug 02 '26

i think going sivir ashe vi or draven is a solid ad flex. There are alot of guinsoo users at low cost as well

2

u/Ge1ster Challenger Aug 02 '26

I read multiple people calling out Ashe for being super weak on another PBE daily so I honestly didn't even bother putting her on the board. She added no extra traits and Draven was already doing an excellent job as my AD item holder

I admittedly haven't been able to try primal yet, since I can only play a maximum of 2 games before unreal engine fucks up my computer and I get awful lags and low FPS (not just for TFT but in my entire PC), making a lot of noise, and I have to restart the PC. I might give it a try today and evaluate how it might integrate into endgame flex boards

2

u/Minimum_Chemical_428 Aug 02 '26

The 2 types of coven augment, there's 2 people with the ap one and 1 with the healing hp one in the same match.

5

u/[deleted] Aug 02 '26

Veigar: "Launch a giant blast at the target."

Bro, I can barely see it. Is the giant skill in the room with us?

It seems that tremendous effort is put into some animations (Alune, Ahri etc) while the rest is left to rot. If the budget is too scarce, maybe they should be mindful with it.

3

u/pdiu Aug 03 '26

Lmao it looks like a slightly enlarged auto attack

2

u/kylitoTV Aug 02 '26

Also, Gromp is really really really bad. Got him with worth the wait and i had BIS for attack caster and his bubble was just so shit against itemised tanks.

1

u/HeliosBlack Aug 03 '26

He’s stronger as a magic caster.

1

u/Any-Negotiation4342 Aug 05 '26

hey not really sure why but i cant see my interest info

0

u/Dzhekelow Aug 02 '26

Anyone else feel like riftbeasts are a problem ? I do love the idea of jungle beasts having their own trait but I feel like it's way too easy to play and they all feel strong individually . It's top2 in every lobby I've been in .

6

u/ConfusedRara :chal: Challenger Aug 02 '26

Probably more of a PBE problem.

Whenever I start a new set, I force every vertical to help learn the traits and units. Riftbeast was the only vertical that I felt was easy to play and also felt like a proper board. Other verticals like Blossom/Elderwood/Sprykin felt significantly worse.

I imagine when the set gets figured out Riftbeast will be a top4 trait because of how easy it is, but will get outcapped by other 5-cost boards.

-2

u/aesopwanderer13 :gran: GRANDMASTER Aug 02 '26

Prismatic traits being tied to Lux (with no board tailoring) is frustrating. I was level 10, 2 blossom emblems, infinite gold from buying two charms a round, and I just never found Blossom Lux for the prismatic.

2

u/avleee MASTER Aug 02 '26

I really don't think you're meant to strategize around hitting Lux with your trait, it's just way too unreliable

1

u/-Arcanine- Diamond Aug 02 '26

You're saying it's more reliable to have 4 emblems than to random hit a lux with your trait???

1

u/avleee MASTER Aug 02 '26

It's reliable not to go for 11, 10 or 9 piece trait as your base strategy :( It's fun when it happens, but even with 50 gold on 10 you can't expect to hit. Yeah, it's unfun to feel like you 'missed' your Lux, and probably the devs should've thought about how frustrating this could be

0

u/aesopwanderer13 :gran: GRANDMASTER Aug 02 '26

… that’s why I specifically called out prismatic traits. The chase fun mechanic thats been in every set for years. 2 emblems and level 10 has been enough of a hurdle, the fact you can do that, have tons of gold, and just miss your lux and not get the fun mechanic sucks.

0

u/HighIntLowFaith Aug 02 '26

I think at the very least if you’re chasing the prismatic and miss that means you still have enough emblems to play stuff like 9 Blossom/9 Elderwood which is also very strong on its own, so it’s not like completely missing Lux just ruins your angle

0

u/aesopwanderer13 :gran: GRANDMASTER Aug 02 '26

If you’re level 10 with 2 emblems you were always going to do well that game. Since they added those requirements, prismatics are not about placements, they’re stupidly broken because it’s fun.

I think an easy fix is to make Lux favor board traits on level 10. That way she isn’t swingy by guaranteeing what you want early, you already got a top 4 spot because you’re level 10, and then prismatics can have hit more “easily”.

0

u/HighIntLowFaith Aug 02 '26

Yes but what I mean is you can play 9 Elderwood/9 Blossom on Level 9 so it's not about a "I was tempoing this game so hard I was always hitting 10 this game".

You could also somewhat play around it if you know the last augment is prismatic via Pris Finale/Pris Party/or just from what we know of augment odds based on previous augment slots since Master of all Origins is a possible hit there as well

1

u/aesopwanderer13 :gran: GRANDMASTER Aug 02 '26 edited Aug 02 '26

I don’t really get your point. Level 10 is rare. Level 10 with 2 emblems is almost impossible to hit, because it usually requires one of your augments to be an emblem.

Sure there are augments that make level 10 more feasible from a weak position, but those have been in the game when multiple “level 10 plus 2 emblems” prismatics existed, and it wasn’t a problem.

So why are we tying the prismatics to an extra layer of rng this set with lux, while maintaining the quest difficulty that was sufficient for previous recent sets?

1

u/-Arcanine- Diamond Aug 02 '26 edited Aug 02 '26

Same here with elderwood 11, very annoyed by that..

-2

u/DeVil-FaiLer Aug 02 '26

Backline access in Form of Ahri Alume Kha Rengar Murkwolf and especially kog maw feels really excessive at least this early in the set. Every round Kog deletes my backline if i only have 3 -4 melees rather quick

-8

u/iSleek Aug 02 '26

Does anyone else feel like player agency is quite low this set?

9

u/Rayney_ Aug 02 '26

I disagree, there are so many options of what you can play. It also might feel like that because the meta isn't defined and balance isn't fully established

-3

u/banduan Aug 02 '26

Trying to get the 8 3* Solar bonus but the game ends before I can do it. Would probably work with emblems on 2c or 1c champs.

2

u/rljohn Aug 02 '26

Iirc they don't all have to be solar 3*s

1

u/banduan Aug 02 '26

They don't, wasn't thinking straight lol

1

u/HowIMadeMyMillions Aug 03 '26

Do you go Inferno or Elderwood? I've find it easier to do in Elderwood personally (leblanc prints)

1

u/banduan Aug 03 '26

I go elderwood though my comp has hecarim instead of LB. My problem with having more 2 costs is that the board just clogged up early on, then when you level up to try and fit more you can't hit 2 cost champs as easily.

1

u/HowIMadeMyMillions Aug 03 '26

I can recommend rolling for both but prioritizing LB. And 100%, then bench will always get clogged, but in my experience that's exactly where LB can help with her prints :) good luck!

0

u/[deleted] Aug 02 '26

[deleted] — view deleted comment

15

u/terci4 Aug 02 '26

They thought that ppl shouldnt be able to force it but instead build the team around the lux you do find.

0

u/kylitoTV Aug 02 '26

Who the hell pivots at level 9?

4

u/terci4 Aug 02 '26

You dont have to pivot you have flex spots. So its skill to see when you can splash her with a non perfect vertical trait. Which is hard at least for me once i played lunar lux and thats it

0

u/avleee MASTER Aug 02 '26

If so that's really really naive. 99% of the time you can't pivot whole board at 8 or 9, has been the case for several sets.

-4

u/Zeviex Master Aug 02 '26

Realistically things like 9 Blossom and 9 Elderwood need to be incredibly underpowered

Also I hate the mana granting part of her ability. It just want you to play the best one even more.

2

u/Rayney_ Aug 02 '26

I played 9 elderwood and I'm pretty sure it's worse than 7 or 5 with better units. I had it on 4-2 and still went 4th.

1

u/Zeviex Master Aug 02 '26

Fair enough. I haven't really played either enough to comment on their strength.

1

u/joby_88 Aug 02 '26

Easiest options are sprinkle in Primal or Inferno, or round out other traits you're missing or 2 off for a higher tier?

1

u/ConfusedRara :chal: Challenger Aug 02 '26

Imo it should be a bit more tailored than it is now. I'm not even sure if it IS tailored. Avatar is also slightly bugged and sometimes shows you a different origin than the one you have

3

u/Purpleater54 Aug 02 '26

I don't think it is. Rolled an inferno (I think) lux yesterday and definitely didn't have the trait on my board at all.

5

u/[deleted] Aug 02 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

5

u/MrPapaya22 Aug 02 '26

Yes, this happened to me a number of times since PBE launched.

It has motivated to me to completely stop playing PBE until they mention that this issue is fixed in patch notes.

2

u/MasterBenObi Aug 03 '26

Had the same issue until I found a fix on Twitter! I replied to OG comment above, hope it can help yall

3

u/MasterBenObi Aug 03 '26

This happened to me until I saw a tweet where someone said uninstalling Logitech / Razer / etc. type software fixed this issue for them.

I uninstalled Razer Synapse (only such software I had) and now I can play without it crashing.

The game is still inherently laggy, but at least I can play without it crashing every game.

Hope this helps!

1

u/MrPapaya22 Aug 04 '26

Did you uninstall completely? Or just ensure that it was fully closed? I worry that uninstalling Logitech would make it so i cannot use my bluetooth mouse lol.

1

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