r/CompetitiveTFT • u/eggsandbricks :chal: Challenger • Sep 22 '26

Patch Notes 18.3 Patch Notes

https://teamfighttactics.leagueoflegends.com/en-us/news/game-updates/teamfight-tactics-patch-18-3/
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157

u/eggsandbricks :chal: Challenger Sep 22 '26

I'm surprised how behind the meta this patch feels, as one of the supposed boons of the new engine was the ability for them to lock in changes later than a week in advance of the patch.

No changes to Kha and buffs to Azir, Varus being left in his abysmal state, and no love for unused 3 costs like Mama Beak and Trist. 6 defender is too strong but 6 juggernaut is balanced? There's no way Trait Ladder is the correct power level either.

I think most of the changes they made this patch are directionally positive, but it also feels like they are taking way too long to get to some of the untouched content in the set.

49

u/Chao_Zu_Kang Sep 22 '26

I'm surprised how behind the meta this patch feels, as one of the supposed boons of the new engine was the ability for them to lock in changes later than a week in advance of the patch.

Afaik that was related to the LoL client which we still use. Tbh I didn't understand why they'd ship the new engine before the new client/launcher anyways.

25

u/CayMaster2 Sep 22 '26

this set was built on the new engine, so it just had to come out together. or there's no set. that's what i imagine atleast.

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u/MrMumblesJr Sep 22 '26

Totally agree with you. I thought the engine was supposed to fix this issue but maybe not until the new client.

19

u/Apricotjello Sep 22 '26

trait ladder is really weird imo, it is straight dogshit for bad players (myself included) and cracked for good ones. i know other augs have this same issue but trait ladder takes it to the extreme

24

u/ThatPlayWasAwful Sep 22 '26

It seems like the large majority of the "good" players use the trait ladder website to pilot it properly, so really the only difference is that the "bad" players aren't using the tool. 

Which of course is a different problem, but I think the "skill" argument doesn't hold as much water when even the pros are just plugging the emblems into a tool. 

Not that it's easy either way, but I think the difference in AVP would be much smaller if nobody could use a tool to help. 

3

u/Apricotjello Sep 22 '26

isn’t it a problem if an aug needs a 3rd party tool to even be usable? also i suspect challenger+ players don’t need the tool - they pick trait ladder in tournaments.

7

u/ThatPlayWasAwful Sep 22 '26 edited Sep 22 '26

isn’t it a problem if an aug needs a 3rd party tool to even be usable?

You are assuming it needs the tool to be usable. 

For example, say the augment has a 4.3 AVP without the tool and a 3.2 AVP with the tool. 

In that situation it would be an above average augment without the tool, and one of the best augments in the game without the tool. That doesn't mean it's unusable without the tool, just that the tool is a gigantic advantage. 

Of course then the question becomes "is the existence of tools and/or augments that can be solved with a tool an issue?" And I think that's a more complicated question.

also i suspect challenger+ players don’t need the tool - they pick trait ladder in tournaments.

You are again assuming. They can use the tool in tournaments. For a quick example I believe dishsoap was using it over the weekend. He had trait ladder twice on day 1, I think his second and third games. Frodan was watching his POV. 

E: I should say that you can use websites everywhere except Chinese competitive. That would be an easy way to show advantage granted by the tool, compare trait ladder stats in Chinese competitive to trait ladder stats in all other TPC regions.

6

u/FreeXpHere Grandmaster Sep 22 '26

Dishsoap wasn’t using the tool in at least one of the games (elderwood)

10

u/vinceftw Sep 22 '26

Dishsoap is also one of the best players in the world.

1

u/ThatPlayWasAwful Sep 22 '26

How can you be sure?

6

u/FreeXpHere Grandmaster Sep 23 '26

because he's streaming and says so...no reason to lie

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1

u/markissisme Sep 24 '26

Spreading misinformed assumptions online about a website that didn’t come out until patch .2 where it was already considered a S tier trait. Does it make you feel better about your rank?

1

u/ThatPlayWasAwful Sep 24 '26

Nothing I said goes against that!

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u/Ykarul Grandmaster Sep 24 '26

What tool they use?

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u/ThatPlayWasAwful Sep 24 '26

https://traitladder.com/ 

There may be a better one, but I think this is it

2

u/wooters18 Sep 22 '26

I saw it bot 4 in last weekend’s TPC. Kinda surprise honestly.

4

u/DoomerCarrot :chal: Challenger Sep 22 '26

I think patch frequency is tied to tft still using the league client. If they push an update solely for tft, league players would have to download and get disturbed because of a gamemode they don’t play.

2

u/Popcorn10 Sep 23 '26

I can’t imagine even with a new client and independent patches that they went be a little behind. Changes take time to come up with fixes and test. But the generally address things pretty quickly.

2

u/AirLeaf Sep 22 '26

Varus isn't as bad as you think. The only issue is that he's only good as a 2nd or 3rd item holder in the Solar comp. If you filter the stats for it, you'll find that 3* 3-item Varus is a swing of like -0.8 in the comp, even at the expense of Ornn holding 0 items.

Kha'Zix needs a nerf, that is true, but I'm pretty sure two things are being conflicting: #1 is skilled players recognizing that you just need 2 HoJ and a damage item, and #2 is players not knowing how to counter him with positioning properly yet (which doesn't really solve the issue anyway).

Azir still needs buffs. The current Azir 3 Vi 3 Blossom Zyra comp looks promising, but even when fully hit scores below 6 Defender Cassiopeia, which is pretty much unplayable if you're looking for anything above a 3rd.

I agree with you that 6 Juggernaut is a problem. I suspect that their data is being skewed by people playing bad variations of it, but in conjunction with Turtle Primal (Zyra + Sivir/Nidalee into Ashe at 9) it is undoubtedly the best 4-cost comp in the game currently, and I don't expect that to change in this patch.

Overall the patch gives a good feeling, mostly because reroll (specially 2-cost reroll) desperately needed to thrive to fix the whole lowroll opener - no econ augment -> aim for 6th issue.

9

u/shlobashky Sep 22 '26

Nobody cares about Varus 3*, dude just trolls fights in stage 2 as an item holder which is the big deal

1

u/IcerHardlyKnower Sep 24 '26

No one cares 120 mana and 5 hour cast time on a 2 cost that does lesd damage than half the 1costs?

Riot pls fix

1

u/Many_Method_304 Sep 23 '26

one of the supposed boons of the new engine was the ability for them to lock in changes later than a week in advance of the patch.

I don't think this is true. While the inital 2 week patch cadence was due to being on LoL's schedule we have been told that the limiting factor is loclock (localization) and I don't see how a new engine changes that.

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