What adjustments are being made to items in patch 14.17? | Teamfight Tactics TFT S12

When a whale falls, all things prosper. After Deathcap was nerfed, Guardbreaker, Giant Slayer, JG, and Archangel's finally had their day in the sun. Let's get the conclusion upfront. From a Mage's perspective, Giant Slayer is back in the Mage item lineup. Among the damage-boosting items, Guardbreaker, Giant Slayer, and Deathcap are now your go-tos without comparing stats. Just decide based on your opponent's comp. The two-season-long debate between Deathcap and JG has finally ended. Champions with innate AP and damage boosts should naturally go for JG. Now, the role of Deathcap is focused on champions needing both AP and damage boosts. For example, Blue Buff + Nashor's Tooth, for champions that double down on mana regen. In patch 14.1 of season S10, the designers made changes to improve the unstable relationship between Deathcap, JG, and Archangel's. They reduced Deathcap's AP to 50 AP + 20% bonus damage. AP items now have their own focuses: Archangel's focuses on AP, JG focuses on crit, Deathcap focuses on bonus damage. Now, in patch 14.17 of season S12, the designers nerfed Deathcap's bonus damage by 5% and buffed Giant Slayer's AP by 5 points. But what's the reason behind this? Because Deathcap was simply too strong, providing a straight 20% bonus damage without any prerequisites. Even though Guardbreaker and Giant Slayer offer 25% bonus damage, who can guarantee they trigger 80% of the time? Such pure numbers make Deathcap the top item for bonus damage and also the top item for AP. Without nerfing Deathcap, the other four items would never get their time to shine. Think about it— when was the last time you saw JG + Guardbreaker? Let's take 3-star Veigar with 5 Mages as an example. For the first two items, you choose Blue Buff + Nashor's Tooth as the base. Now, let's simplify things. Assume Guardbreaker and Giant Slayer have a 60% proc rate. This levels out the bonus damage differences between the three items. From the trend of the line graph, Guardbreaker activates the fastest, Deathcap provides the highest damage, but overall, the gap between the three items is small. This shows that for Mages' bonus damage items, you shouldn't stress over the stats. Focus on the nature of your opponents instead. Use Guardbreaker against shield comps, Giant Slayer against high HP comps, and if in doubt, go with Deathcap. From an AP perspective, pre-rework Deathcap was too dominant, which frustrated many players. For example, Spirit Blossom Syndra in S11, or Veigar in S12— these champions naturally favor JG, but their data always showed Deathcap > JG. This led many viewers to have a bias against the data. We ran the numbers ourselves, with the same Blue Buff + Nashor's Tooth. The old Deathcap clearly outperformed JG. But the new Deathcap is now very close to JG. Looking back at the 14.16 data, do you still think Deathcap being stronger than JG was just a data error? In terms of sample size, Deathcap had a 23% pick rate, and JG had a 50% pick rate. The sample size difference is within one order of magnitude, making it fully eligible for comparison. Moreover, if an item has a 50% pick rate, and there’s no controversy, its ranking difference should be around ±0.00, just like in the current 14.17 patch. If the core item's ranking difference is over +0.2, it indicates the item's status is disputed. Some players are clearly using other items to climb. The designers explained that the purpose of the item adjustments was to close the gap between similar items. So, Blue Buff was nerfed to bring it closer in line with Shojin, without affecting Blue Buff's status. Nashor's Tooth was nerfed to provide Blue Buff + Shojin within the double mana regen system. Blue Buff + Helm These two options can be seen in the data charts. Helm performs quite well. Nerfing Nashor's Tooth also means you can go for a single mana regen + two damage items setup, such as JG + Giant Slayer, JG + Guardbreaker, or JG + Deathcap. These three combos can be seen in the data charts. Single mana regen + JG + Giant Slayer compared to double mana regen + Deathcap is only a matter of speed. The damage difference isn't significant. Plus, the most important thing for Veigar is to get through the frontline, so I think Giant Slayer works too. I just don't know when the designers will remember to revert Giant Slayer's threshold. Follow the TFT Meta to stay ahead in the chaos and climb faster. See you in the next video!