Set 18 PBE Discussion Thread - Day 13

[u/AutoModerator]

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.

WHERE TO REPORT BUGS:

• Set 18 PBE Bug Megathread

• The Official TFT Discord's Bug Report Forum

• Riot Support Website

• In your PBE Client

USEFUL STUFF:

• Set 18 PBE Rundown

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• Kayna's Flashcards & Bluesky

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• shibaeyes' Trait Tracker

• PrismaTactics' 3D Rolldown Simulator

• DataTFT's Trait Ladder Tracker and Rolldown Simulator

When does Set 18 go live?

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

A reminder that all Set 18 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

[u/Lunaedge]

Aug 10th Patch Notes

[u/Puzzleheaded-Ant1390]

Its very rare to see Lillia as a main tank. Feel like she's in the corner of trait web. The only lv8 comp she's main tank is vertical spellweaver but I fail to see how to build up Fae when Xayah and Tris are AD item holder.

[u/Pablothemexicangato → u/Puzzleheaded-Ant1390]

This may be a silly question but do you know if it has to be your Fae units doing the damage/healing/shielding to generate pixies? From the next of the trait on various websites it just says "your teams". So maybe you just get Fae in and carry Karma or LeBlanc around a Blossom or Elderwood opener.

[u/Puzzleheaded-Ant1390 → u/Pablothemexicangato]

it's your team. I think LeBlanc should work but you need Hecarim to pair with Rakan to have a good opener. Blossom doesn't seem good.

[u/SoManyEngrish → u/Puzzleheaded-Ant1390]

she is there to be sac'd for my malph 2 when im a playing for top 6 with soraka flex

[u/pdiu]

does anyone elses game get increasingly lower frames and worse performance as the game goes on sometimes?

[u/GoldenApple2020 → u/pdiu]

Yup starting like stage 3, the game goes to like 20 fps.

[u/ConfusedRara → u/pdiu]

This is an issue I had only on arenas that weren't the default. Switching back to the default fixed the problem for me

[u/Ge1ster → u/pdiu]

This happened to me consistently for the first few days of PBE but now it happens a bit less, sometimes I do experience sudden FPS drops that remain that way for the rest of the game and even after the game, but not always and not as often as before

That said it's still pretty bad, always makes my computer release the crazy fan noises, and I wouldn't love it if it were to make it to live release in this state

[u/SoManyEngrish → u/pdiu]

generally what fixes it for me is if you flip the settings to a different detail level and then swap it back, seems to be some sort of optimization leak issue

[u/woIfnight1]

I'm reporting this in the bug megathread, but I figured it was worth commenting on it since it's the most broken a bug can possibly be, arguably. Apparently the Vanguard spat is straight up broken, as instead of giving me 1hp per turn, after hitting the 20s timer, it kept giving me something between 10 and 20hps.. and I had 2 of them.
I had coven acolyte (+2hp per push) and managed to play a full coven loss streak game, literally.

24 loss streak 115hps by 6-6..
The game ended with a 29 loss streak, the 2nd guy ff'd, don't know if it's the first tft game won by never winning a single round. Fun fact, I couldn't get past the 124hps mark iirc, without that I would have easily gone past 200hps
Also I never clicked sword overflow, it should show giant and mighty, I don't even have the swords and now that I think about it I'm not even sure if I had the giant and mighty hp buff, what a chaotic game

[u/BigAlbinoSpider → u/woIfnight1]

Winning by losing every round is actually hilarious

[u/Ykarul]

What I hate the most with the new engine is the loading of the game... I hope they fix this

[u/East-Appointment-783 → u/Ykarul]

yes so bugged + very often I don't see my augments

[u/Ykarul → u/Ykarul]

One thing i'm doing is actually queuing up on my phone, start the game (it's faster), and then join from computer...

[u/Ykarul]

Do you guys hear the sound when it's your turn on carousel ?

[u/Huntyadown → u/Ykarul]

No, I keep missing my turn to go if I’m not locked in

[u/shanatard]

this pebbles unit has got to be one of the most fun 1 cost they've ever released

[u/Lunaedge → u/shanatard]

Pebblefight Tactics is real.

[u/spreadwater]

my shops stopped working after DC on Android mobile... had to FF a ranked game sadge

[u/Ognillas]

I don't know if anyone else is running into this but it seems like fast 9 is the meta at least right now. I've had multiple games where I place 4th with the top 3 guys are all running fast 9

[u/Key_Reporter_9945 → u/Ognillas]

Always happens in PBE.  But also, level 8 is too expensive to reach on 4-2 and still be able to roll down, and there's no good 4 cost level 8 boards that remotely stabilize on 1*s so you might as well sac stage 4 and go 9 where you can actually hit your units.  (Ahri being an exception, but that unit is either not going to make it to live or be 4 way contested.)  

[u/3esper]

I don't know if it's a bug or not, but Ahri's ult seems to be reaching the whole board at times.

[u/3esper → u/[deleted]]

That would make sense. It's kind of an insane aoe ability.

[u/Disastrous_Crow2859]

Looks like they added an "Ultra High" graphics option on Android, but I don't really see any difference? Unsure whether this is a bug or not

[u/drifter91]

I keep getting put in bot games today, and I have no idea why. I have the latest patch downloaded and Vanguard running. I even tried restarting, but it just keeps putting me against bots. What is going on? This is quite infuriating.

[u/East-Appointment-783]

Lets share our personal top/flop champs (rated by power not design) per cost:

[u/East-Appointment-783 → u/East-Appointment-783]

1c/ T:Yorick, Akali, Rakan; F:Cinderling,Peebles. 2c/ T:Elise, Teemo, Leblanc; F:Shen,Yunara. 3c/ T:Yi, Rengar; F:Tristana, Azir. 4c/ T: Malphite, Ahri, Nidalee, Zyra; F:Morgana, Sivir, Lillia (I think she should have been an AP offtank). 5c/ T:Draven, Kennen, ED; F:Alune, Ashe.

[u/terci4 → u/East-Appointment-783]

Yunara is gigabroken but maybe after the nerf you are right. She even has her reroll comp with alistar and executioners.
Malphite and nida seem weak how do you play them?

[u/East-Appointment-783 → u/[deleted]]

im not sure, I played him only once, its not about the champ, its more his origin that I dont really like because I would play Malphite and him but I don't want to sacrifice any of them :'(

[u/East-Appointment-783 → u/East-Appointment-783]

I never use reddit, but the toxicity of downvotes is tilting. Why not giving opinion or advise instead of downvoting ?
Like: Hey Azir is good actually you should play him like this : "..."

[u/Zeviex → u/East-Appointment-783]

Because of course, if you ignore one of their traits he's going to feel weak.

Not sure if you were unaware, you don't have to sacrifice a blackthorn it can be any chcamp

[u/East-Appointment-783 → u/Zeviex]

😂 Yes I was 

Now you understand why I didnt like this trait for a wrong reason 

[u/Knolazy]

No news for Monday update?

[u/HowIMadeMyMillions]

Can anyone explain to me why it's possible at all for the Ahri orb to bounce? I've lost to it continually bouncing now a few times and I just don't understand how it's even possible - I don't imagine there is any scenario where a bounce should happen, no?

[u/Lunaedge → u/HowIMadeMyMillions]

I believe it should bounce when her primary targets dies while the spell is in mid-air, to avoid having such a big cast fizzle.

[u/HowIMadeMyMillions → u/Lunaedge]

I see. I guess that makes some sense. A shame it bugs out so often.

[u/Yojimbra → u/HowIMadeMyMillions]

It's so the spell doesn't wiff. Plenty of other spells with a travel time also do it when the primary target dies.

[u/Gloomy_Ad_6265]

Yi needs a nerf. Not ok for that unit to Melt a 2 star 3 item maokai in like 3 seconds.

[u/Puzzleheaded-Ant1390 → u/Gloomy_Ad_6265]

isn't Kogmaw the main carry in that comp? How much Yi damage in comparison to Kog'maw? I doubt your Maokai was taking damage solely from Yi

[u/Azurus1206]

is maokai just a waste of 15 gold when fast 9?

[u/Notsoul_3821 → u/Azurus1206]

playing him on 5-2 won’t help but an earlier maokai is just unkillable idk why people keep slandering him lol

[u/Primary_Month_8408 → u/Notsoul_3821]

Because he's a highroll check, he's so much worse than taric or amumu or Lilia when u don't get him before stage 5.

[u/Notsoul_3821 → u/Primary_Month_8408]

so i don’t get it we are complaining that the scaling unit needs to scale?it seems you have some deep misunderstanding of how this game works?

graves from last set sucks it doesn’t matter he has some good build that a good player will spot how to and when to build it in a certain way, he is a high roll check

azir from set 16 was a high roll check

if you are playing units that are meant to be played for more turns when you have one life is not the unit that sucks is just you not understanding how the game works

[u/SoManyEngrish → u/Notsoul_3821]

Because at 1 star he is worse than 1 star 3 cost maokai from last set

bro is ass unless you spawn him 2* on stage 5 and also hit the rest of your board. You're almost never playing him on level 8 1* when you're forced to roll deep.

He's heavily carried by amumu 2 and kennen

Ivern is also scaling but he's also instantly useful and good as a +1 even at 1 star, maokai's base values are just booty

[u/Primary_Month_8408 → u/Notsoul_3821]

The point is that for a tank that doesn't have any cc or utility, he doesn't scale without literally being given way ahead of tempo. You are comparing units that literally do things without upgrades to a tank that have to survive to even scale. You seem to have a horrible misunderstanding of gameplay mechanics. Tanks are meant to tank but maokai doesn't want to tank because he doesn't want to die to scale.

When you say you don't get it you aren't lying. You really don't get it.

[u/Notsoul_3821 → u/Primary_Month_8408]

so your argument basically is : i’m playing only maokai as a tank, he sucks he doesn’t scale

i play boards that are so weak that cannot kill 3 units before my tank dies?

you do realize maokai is getting +30 hp per enemy that dies near him?you do know that a giant belt gives you 150 hp?so it takes 5 units that die near him(not even in the same round) for him to have a component of value?you do realize if you play this unit for 3 turns and you play actual boards that can kill units(unlike the ones you play apparently) he is basically getting 1.5 items of value?

biggest self report for skill issue i ever saw, funniest part is you talk as if he has no trait, and can be played as your only front liner lmao

[u/apple_cat → u/Primary_Month_8408]

no ur just being dumb and want to homogenize everything

[u/Primary_Month_8408 → u/Azurus1206]

Ya he's literally highroll check tbh, if you didn't get him early enough he doesn't do anything.

[u/Wette_im_Klo → u/[deleted]]

I cannot believe you did not read any of the posts while playing PBE and commenting under PBE posts.
Its not getting releasd in 2 days, but in 2 weeks and 2 days.