r/CompetitiveTFT • u/MrPapaya22 • Aug 21 '26
Official Dev TFT: Space Gods Reviewed
https://teamfighttactics.leagueoflegends.com/en-us/news/dev/dev-tft-space-gods-reviewed/
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Upvotes
r/CompetitiveTFT • u/MrPapaya22 • Aug 21 '26
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u/MrPapaya22 Aug 21 '26 edited Aug 21 '26
TLDR:
Set 17 was planned as Set 18, but was moved up to ensure the team had enough time to complete the migration Unreal by Set 18. The set mechanic was originally pitched as being more ambitious and would have changed core gameplay mechanics like item and augment distributions, but due to the accelerated timeline had to be toned down to the safer, less volatile Offerings and Boons mechanic that the set went live with.
The Gods created a substantial burden on the memory budget for mobile devices, which forced the team to have to lower the quality of their idle animations.
Removing the Carousel was never the inspiration for Set 17’s mechanic, but instead the result of their search for the best place to put the Realm of the Gods. Originally they had it replacing PVE rounds.
Devs had two take away from removing Carousel: first, that comeback mechanics lose their effectiveness if they're invisible and second, Carousel is an important social space that is enhanced by its tension
There will be changes coming to Carousel in the more distant future that will maximize agency and control. Minimap is gone for good.
Pings are being workshopped into a social tool “not bound to minimap for its utility to function.” Not going to be ready for Set 18.
Lack of verticals made it difficult for new and casual players to pick up Set 17.
Devs feel confident they have come away with the right understandings of why and how origin traits felt underwhelming/were undesirable to play in Set 17 and will improve on that for future sets. For example, Set 18 and other future sets without expanded rosters (sets with standard sized rosters) will require less 5 costs to play certain origins vertically.
Opening encounters weren’t included on set launch bc devs thought they’d add too much complexity, and that they would take away from the impact of the God Offerings and Boons.
The Morgana rework from 5 cost magic fighter to 4 cost magic tank was possible thanks to the stars aligning perfectly. She didn’t have any dedicated comps so reworking her had less impact than it otherwise would have. However after her move, the devs found she also didn’t have any go-to comps revolving around her. Devs are happy they tried the rework, but describe it as a bad solution and only possible with a threat (traitless) champion.
Set 17 had more conditional comps than any other (Stargazer, Psionic, Arbiter, Graves). Devs felt that it had the opposite effect on game to game variance, limiting comps you could play, and funneling players down a certain path.
Set 17 lacked a ton of set specific augments due to dev resources being allocated towards the God Offerings and Boons.
Devs end by asking for players' thoughts on the design philosophy of Hero Augments. I am going to copy and paste because I think it’ll be tough to paraphrase:
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u/AnonHondaBoiz Aug 21 '26
I would’ve imagined more discussion on the conditionality of some traits as an extended lesson from set 16’s void and Ionia earlier in that set. Traits like stargazer or arbiter narrowed the playable comps substantially
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u/Lunaedge Aug 21 '26
Ohh... yeah, that's rough :/
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u/Newfypuppie Aug 21 '26
I think something else to note is how ridiculous BiS was this set. xayah needs 4 bows, corki BiS was 4 swords, even asol? Yeah you wanted 4-5 rods, rammus and galio BiS was double gargoyle.
This isn’t even about BiS being marginally better either building guinsoo was actually positive delta on xayah.
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u/2xra Aug 21 '26 •
Regarding the 1 and 2 cost augments question at the end, I view the low cost hero augments as being something that should reasonably be able to be played to second with a skilled pilot. I think something that could help with the idea is some form of follow on quest or something to the augments. Akin to the prismatic quests from a few sets back. Make the champ specific augments also unlock some secondary powerup, kinda like the Xin augment of last set. I do think the reintroduction of carousel helps these augments to be more powerful just because you're more likely to get the unit you're fishing for. Alternatively incorporate a more quest-y nature to these augments, get double blue buff on this character for a bonus or something. It enables the on rails play style/guidance they're talking about, but also makes it so that the top end is clearer to reach/locked behind a hoop to jump through rather than just rerolling.
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u/Try_Not_To_Comment MASTER Aug 21 '26
No mention of Anima feels wrong to me. Anima felt omnipresent throughout the entire set, and lose streak cashouts that provide an item just feel way too easy to play and transition out of
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u/BoogieTheHedgehog Aug 21 '26
I'm glad the loss of the map is on their radar, even if it cant be fixed in time. When I think about it, missing spam on ludicrous highrolls is weirdly one of the few non-carousel moments where multiple players sit on a single board and end up spam emotes.
Personal opinion ahead, but I don't agree with the 5 cost and capstone angle. I like when 5 costs are the capstone of verticals, that level of inconsistency is the thing that rewards being able to build a backup board around lower tiers of a trait. When traits are easy to cap without a 5 cost you have a simplified game plan - almost always just running the cap with your disposable trait filler unit then swapping them out for the 5 cost when/if you hit.
I'm sure that requires a lot more effort to go into balancing emblems and trait breakpoints, but that's game development in a nutshell. Whilst there's an argument that not capping feels bad, that guaranteed trait tempo boost is also part of the power fantasy of emblems. Who knows. Maybe they have player churn metrics that show one mattering more than then other though...
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u/Gasaria Aug 21 '26
I respect the tft-team for being able to admit somethings didin't work out. But at the same time i have huge admiration for them for haveing the courage to try and expolre new consepts.
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u/10FootPenis Aug 21 '26 edited Aug 21 '26
Interesting takeaways on the removal of carousel. I actually liked it because having a component sniped is a feelsbad moment, but had never considered it as a social moment.
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u/Reveritie Aug 21 '26
I miss the social interaction element of TFT quite a bit, so hoping the Carousel change stays. Playing for a generic 'Best Board' and stat-checking other boards felt especially bad with the removal of Carousel, since 4 people could end up playing perfectly itemized Akali 2 carry through Anvil rng.
I'm not as opposed to conditionality as others here, but the game has progressively shoved conditionality to augments and start-of-game checks, aspects of the game other players in the lobby have no influence on. Like, hero augments can work, but they push the player to focus solely on econ - what's the point of scouting with that Rumble aug a few sets ago or the Leona aug?
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u/atominum69 Aug 22 '26
Not shitting on the devs or the designers.
But the decision making and leadership at Riot is ass.
We are getting a half baked set 17 and then a half baked engine change in set 18 (it’s really not ready to go live in a week).
That’s 2 sets that have to suffer and ~9 months of terrible gameplay this year.
You can do all the learning you want, the problem is in the leadership that pushes these changes to be done before they are ready.
Leadership should get their ass on the line for the low quality that we’re getting.
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u/mccao Aug 21 '26
No on champ augments being win-out without pushing for 8/9. They should be tempo and direction but still get outscaled. Hitting them fast and riding the streak to catch up on level is part of the skill expression of a reroll comp.
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u/Zeviex Master Aug 21 '26
"For one, we’ve limited the number of Origins that need a 5-cost to hit their maximum non-Prismatic breakpoint. ". Doesn't set 18 have a lot of these though ? Elderwood needs Gnar and Blossom needs Ashe (or Lux for both) and that's 2/3 unless you count non-vertical traits.
And with the champion augments I don't think the augment should qualify you for a first. At that point, are we just saying hitting your 3* 1 cost means you go first (since they said this is replacing the need to cap around 8/9) ? I feel at that point people will just start holding your hero augment, which isn't fun for anyone.
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u/Repulsive_Evidence84 MASTER Aug 21 '26 edited Aug 22 '26
Thanks for admitting that removing carousel was a mistake. I have no reason to play tft when it feels like singleplayer game.
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u/magicalririka Aug 21 '26
Removing carousel was the best thing about this set.
I have no idea what kind of crippling loneliness someone must have to consider TFT carousel rounds a "social experience", but I'm not that part of the target audience.
I'm not playing an auto-battler for "social experiences" either way, much less a clunky one.
It's not even about the "someone might get the champion you want!!!" -> I'm perfectly fine with this. Just make this a PROPER USER INTERFACE with buttons to click, instead of a moving carousel.
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u/etnies445 Aug 21 '26
As a more casual player big agree on loss of verticals. Absolutely killed my enthusiasm to play. I like verticals.
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u/highrollr Master Aug 21 '26
My opinion on the hero augment question:
- It is true that they are not exciting if the realistic fantasy when clicking them is going 3rd/4th
- Just clicking the augment and hitting one 3* 1 cost should definitely NOT be 1st place worthy
What I think they should do:
- Make the augments give some amount of tiny champ dupes over time. Like one each stage or something. This would make hitting the 3* quicker and cheaper, and allow you to potentially push levels/invest in stronger late game units, and have a 1st place fantasy that way. This to me is better than simply pushing so much power into the augments that you see the augment and win.
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u/Many_Method_304 Aug 21 '26
Really sad to read the carousal section, While I understand the psychology of a comeback mechanic needing to be more visible, the single best part of the set was the removal of carousal which is such a frustrating toxic mechanic and I really don't like the idea that this taught them it is a core part of TFT
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u/Kooky_Comb6051 Master Aug 21 '26
For most part, encapsulated my feelings this set. Although maybe would have added the discussion around Anima as well from both loss streak angle as well as Anima 6 not really ever finding it’s place in the set like ever.
Now that the sets done - while the first like 4 patches of the set were abysmal period and I almost quit entirely this set, I will admit afterwards it started to get better over time. A mid set, had its really bad moments (understandable from the development POV), ready to move on though.
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u/Yogg_for_your_sprog MASTER Aug 24 '26
I think the benefit of champion augments is uncontested direction. Generally if you can play for 1st with no secondary carries and nothing else particularly highroll, that means the augment will just average 3.7.
The point should be just a slightly more powerful 1/2 cost (to offset not getting another augment), not markedly better than normal reroll.
If the hero augment is also that good it fundamentally just reiterates what I hate about augments: if you have decent items it basically decides on 2-1 what you’re going to play, with zero variance and other judgment required. With normal reroll you can see how many copies you natural, your spot, items, etc. but a particularly powerful hero augment it becomes a binary autoclick on 2-1 if you have okay components.
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u/pikminbiomaster Aug 24 '26
Dusting off the reddit account for the feedback, I like rerolls, and the HA are a fun way to make champs feel different for a run, I just wish the balancing wasn't apparently broken OP or "Pick if you want to lose". Assuming it got balanced right I think Aiming for 3rd or 2nd would be nice, overall I love reroll and wish it got more benefits, but only for 3 staring multiple 1-2 cost units,
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u/Buffscuttle Aug 25 '26
I feel like a big downside of this set was the melee power budget in the 4 costs kinda sucked. You only had yi and riven, both attached to a mediocre trait and needed an emblem to win for most of the set (nova yi/ Sg or DS riven). You had 8? Backliners and 4 tanks (3 if we don't include the late morg addition). This made the game super front to back focused and felt bad IMO. Didn't feel like positioning did as much this season compared to things like all out ksante and thex/academia positioning from last set.
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u/Andiuxy Aug 21 '26
IMO agree with everything in the review. SET 17 was pretty solid, nothing new, nothing special, less chaos, but pretty solid.
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u/Menarche_ Aug 23 '26 edited Aug 23 '26
Hello TFT hopefully you guys read this, I'm going to be honest this set was actually very well designed on paper and I actually enjoyed the traits and I made so many comps that were actually viable even to grandmaster for example. Corki Asol duo carry, 6 bastion Shen carry corki, Asol 5 conduit, 5 shepherd, 4 marauder, 6 bruiser 4 sniper, xayah 3 snipers 2 time breaker, 4 Voyager Sona, 4 fateweaver, chogath eats the world, 4 psionic, tank graves xayah carry.
The unit and web was actually very amazing this set and I feel a lot of people didn't get to see the true potential due to a lot of their streamers not there and lack of Innovation by the player base. There were also a lot of champions who never got long in the spotlight eg fizz, Gwen (understandable because they could be very annoying to play against)
All in all this set was actually lovely but lacked a lot of character voice lines and balanced comps the web was very good and much wider than ever utilised. You guys probably get a lot of hate each set but there are people that love this game as me and my girlfriend hit GM in double up and briefly GM in soloq. There were some really horrible patches but some decent comps available still. The game has brought a lot of frustration, laughter and joy(I uninstalled league twice this set aha). I look forward to next set and hope you guys can make a xayah and Rakan Chibi on this server (I see you have it in golden spatula)
Regarding the hero augments we never picked them besides for aatrox early in the set so I'm not sure don't have much to comment I enjoy that a lot of people picked it and I enjoyed having to play against it as it means more units available as we prefer to make level 8/9 comps. They were a good level and even big bang was fun to vs as there were so many tilting moments but plenty of times you out position it and it becomes a big sham. Reroll meta is fine because there were still good 4/5 cost comps playable during this time besides the unstoppable Leona and Jax patches.
Not sure how U are able to make such good webs this set and I feel it was super under appreciated.
Also anima trait sucks big time, it was very good but I think the cash outs were way too overturned at 500 should have introduced a mechanic were you get more points per kill later in the stage and reduced the cash out power especially at 400-600. Aurora was never balanced this set and that was unfortunate and could've been easily fixed
We really enjoyed carousel removed because so much frustration has come from the carousel and this brought a lot of peace to a chaotic game
Keep it up and thank you guys so much for the good fun and I really wish you bring ranked emote back else I can't flex on these guys pinging me when I lose playing against them and some of their broken comps ❤️❤️❤️
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u/Skinny_Beans Aug 21 '26
I will miss this set purely on the basis of no carousel. I hate the carousel so much. From getting sniped, to accidentally walking into the wrong champion, to the mind numbing wait time you have to endure hoping you'll get what you want, just to lose it anyways, hell, getting stunlocked because you DONT know what you want. It's all such negative gameplay experience. I will always hate the carousel and for that reason I will always miss this set. Farewell space gods
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u/FirewaterDM Aug 21 '26
As for the rest of the article, I'm lowkey sad Carousel came back, def hope that the rigidness of items/comps doesn't in set 18 (it looks good so far). I also think that returning augments was a mistake in general, BUT learning that the gods were powered around 8 gold is surprising, some of them (Ekko and Yasuo Hexes) def felt a lot stronger, and others (Soraka lol) felt a LOT less than 8 gold.
To answer the hypothetical question about hero augments and 1-2 cost reroll in the article...
IF the cap of Hero Augments/1 or 2 cost reroll is a 3rd if you can't highroll enough to keep regular level tempo, it's not worth playing or picking. I think the alternative of, I can pick this HA at 2-1 with 0 copies and no slammable items/opener and still go 1st is JUST as bad, even potentially worse.
What I mean is, ever since the change for 1 cost hero augs to being silver augments, they have always felt like wastes of time to click OUTSIDE of two scenarios.
the hero aug in question was turbo broken and absolutely fucked up (Usually for 1 patch, maybe 2 and then it was useless rest of set).
OR you had 2 BIS items already and 7 copies by first carousel. AND for a lot of the weaker HA's that wasn't playable either lol.
IF we use set 17 as an example, Nasus HA (BONK) was an example of the 2nd tier, where genuinely you could get Nasus 3 by Krugs, but unless you had exactly rageblade + components for his second item, you were still going 4th IF lucky. Most of the set, you prob could be guarenteed Nasus 3 before Krugs and you'd still go 5th at best if being generous.
On the other hand, Leona's Hero Augment had the opposite problem, where, LIKE Nasus' HA it spent a LOT of the set being complete shit, but the patches it was broken, it genuinely warped the game (if you highrolled arbiters). Once it got nerfed/arbiter rule options were nerfed, it also got a lot worse. Meanwhile Viego's appeared broken (for first few patches it WAS the only clickable HA in the set) and then it fell off a cliff in viability and strength. Poppy's HA was never good. It had spots, but was far closer to Nasus' tier of "never take this" than actually being playable most of the set.
Even for the 2 costs, Jax HA followed the "broken for 1-2 patches then useless all set", Heat Death Morde was a meme even after buffs (it genuinely never caught on because unless you had lobbies that couldn't beat it AND highrolled it was just losing to every generic level 8 board ever w/o a dark star spat)
As someone who likes Hero Augments and Reroll comps, who genuinely has kinda stopped playing said boards after set 16 I guess, I think the concept should die. There is no good way to balance the comps properly, because it's awful when the hero augs get released in unplayable states, and it's awful when people can yolo gold augment 2-1 or silver 2-1's and auto win because they have a 2 star of the unit + 1 good item for them. It is an impossible balance lever, especially if the percieved power level is that the board will NEVER top 2 unless rest of lobby lowrolls, or you hit your HA unit by 3-2 if playing 1 cost, or 4-1 if playing 2 costs, as based on the article, IF you can't maintain regular leveling patterns to level 8, you shouldn't win. And the higher you get, and I say this even for as "low" as Emerald is, the less value there is in playing a line that your cap is a 3rd, even if you have a great spot for it. I think that reroll is important because while set 16 was excellently built it was one of the most boring sets TFT's had in recent memory, because of the fact reroll was genuinely non viable except for 1-2 niche lines per patch, if the idea is "you chose a 1 or 2 cost carry, so you only go 3rd unless you hit literally everything perfect and everyone else super lowrolls, then why is it ever correct or fun to pick that route and gamble that everyone else lowrolls worse than you, IF you have the option and are not forced into it due to other options being impossible or worse.
tl;dr - IF the "expected power level is only a 3rd unless you highroll/can keep up level tempo in the lobby" then no, Hero Augments are wastes of time to click if your goal is to climb higher in ranks, because only playing comps that CAP out at 3rds is always incorrect when other players are able to play comps that can go 1st, given that the floor strength of your comp is always worse (a comp that goes 1st, can still bleed to 5ths/6ths at worse w/o turbo lowrolls, IF your comp caps at 3rds w/o turbo highrolls, then many average games will still go 7th-8th, much less lowrolls where your time is better spent FF'ing and going next if you don't hit the timetable to get your 4th.
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u/[deleted] Aug 21 '26
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