What are the best TFT comps? The Syndra-geddon has finally ended, and as normality returns to the Teamfight Tactics realm we’ve already seen a major meta in patch 14.16. Though one OP reroll comp has died a death, a new one has sprung up to replace it. However, pushing to level eight is now more rewarding than it was before thanks to the Syndra nerfs no longer letting her outscale your capped boards.
Of course, hero augments are still ridiculously strong – the likes of Deja Vu, High Horsepower, and Molten Caramel are prominent in the TFT meta right now. However, these conditional comps can still be trumped, putting the auto-chess game in a much better spot than it was last patch. Read on to learn the Teamfight Tactics tech that’ll help you hit your peak in Set 12 Magic ‘n Mayhem. We’ve also tapped some of the TFT dev team for their favorite champs and traits – you can find those at the bottom of this guide.
TFT comps
Here are the best meta TFT comps for Set 12 on Patch 14.16:
TFT Scholar Zoe comp
Dancing with the three-stars.
- Comp type: Level 5 reroll
- Units: Lillia, Poppy, Zoe, Ahri, Hecarim, Ryze, Taric, Milio
- Traits: Bastion x4, Scholar x4, Portal x3, Arcana x2, Faerie x2, Witchcraft x2
- Component priority: Tear > Rod > Bow > Belt
- Recommended Augments: Pandora’s Items (Silver), Pandora’s Bench (Silver), Spellblades (Gold), Higher Education (Gold), Learning to Spell (Gold), An Upgraded Adventure (Prismatic), Prismatic Ticket (Prismatic)
Zoe reroll was already a popular pick on the last patch, and we can imagine it won’t be long before it’s hit with nerfs due to how accessible it is. To get the board rolling, eco hard until 3-1, picking up any Ahri, Lillia, Poppy, and Zoe units you can afford. Ideally, you’ll loss streak through Stage 2 to guarantee carousel priority – you’re going to need lots of Tears to make Blue Buffs for both Ahri and Zoe.
At 3-1, roll down until you two-star those four (it’s not the end of the world if you don’t hit Ahri 2 so don’t roll to zero if you’ve already secured two-star versions of the other three). From there, eco back to 50 gold and begin to slow roll to 50 every round until you three-star your one-costs – slam tank items on either Lillia or Poppy depending on which one you have more copies of as you roll. If someone else is playing High Horsepower Lillia, that’ll most likely be Poppy, and vice versa for Witchy Wallop so scout accordingly.
By the end of Stage 3, you should have your core four three-starred, at which point you can go to Level 6. At Level 6 your board should include Bastion x4, Arcana x2, Scholar x2, and Witchcraft x2 – Lillia, Poppy, Zoe, Ahri, Nunu or Shen, and Hecarim. If you haven’t three-starred your core four, roll down to zero – you won’t make it through Stage 4 if your board isn’t stable.
At Level 7 add Bard while you continue to push to Level 8. If you hit Ryze or Taric you can also put them in – swap out Nunu/Shen for Taric if you want to put two of the units in here. At Level 8 your full board should be finished bar Milio (unless you high roll him on Level 7). If you do hit Milio on Level 8, swap him for Bard. Milio’s ability to make temporary items each round offers the highest possible cap for your board, and will help it scale against higher-cost boards.
If you’re high-rolling out of your mind and manage to hit Level 9 healthily, add Xerath for your third Arcana.
Itemization notes: If you end up taking High Voltage, don’t worry about slamming a Statikk Shiv on Ryze – you can opt for something like a Rageblade or Shojin instead depending on what leftover components you have. Lillia/Poppy, Zoe, and Ahri are the most important units to itemize.
If you are playing either High Horsepower or Witchy Wallop on this board, then make sure the other one-cost three-star is itemized as a tank. Prioritize Zoe out of her and Ahri as your secondary carry.
TFT Molten Caramel Rumble comp
HOT TO GO!
- Comp type: Level 6 reroll
- Units: Galio, Rumble, Tristana, Zilean, Mordekaiser, Rakan, Tahm Kench, Xerath
- Traits: Vanguard x4, Arcana x2, Blaster x2, Faerie x2, Preserver x2, Sugarcraft x2
- Component priority: Rod > Cloak > Vest > Bow
- Recommended Augments: Featherweights (Silver), Final Resistance (Silver), Molten Caramel (Gold, Mandatory), Shields Up (Gold), Vanguard Crest (Gold), Sugarcraft Crown (Prismatic), Support Golem II (Prismatic), Vanguard Crown (Prismatic)
While we won’t be covering all of the hero augment boards that are making their mark this patch, Molten Caramel is the top performer on 14.16 so far. Thanks to the death of Vanguard Syndra, units like Galio and Rumble are not nearly as contested as they were, making Molten Caramel and Deja Vu boards more likely to hit their three-star two-cost.
As a general rule of thumb for two-cost reroll boards, econ heavily until 3-2 and level to Level 6 before rolling down until you hit a two-star copy of your hero unit – in this case, Rumble. From there, eco back up to 50 gold and begin to slow roll to 50 throughout Stage 3 and 4 until you hit the three-star version. By the time you hit, you should hopefully have three-starred Tristana as well.
At Level 6, your board should have Vanguard x3, Blaster x2, Preserver x2, Sugarcraft x2 – Galio, Rumble, Tristana, Zilean, Bard, Mordekaiser. At Level 7, add Tahm Kench for Vanguard x4 or Rakan for Preserver x3 depending on what you naturally hit as you push for Level 8. Warwick can be used as a stop-gap fourth Vanguard unit if the Kench doesn’t get unbenched.
At Level 8 your board should be complete except for Xerath (unless you get lucky and natural him at Level 7). When Xerath comes home, slot him in for Zilean to gain Arcana. Alternatively, you can drop Zilean for Morgana to bring in a premium Preserver. If you get to Level 9 you can always put the other five-cost unit in.
TFT Portal Ryze comp
On your left.
- Comp type: Fast 8
- Units: Jayce, Zoe, Galeo, Kassadin, Ezreal, Ryze, Taric, Diana, Nora & Yuumi
- Traits: Portal x8, Bastion x2, Scholar x2, 1x Best Friends
- Component priority: Bow > Rod > Glove > Tear
- Recommended Augments: Branching Out (Silver), Exiles I (Silver), Portal Crest (Gold), Little Buddies (Gold), Magic Wand (Gold), Wandering Trainer I (Gold), New Recruit (Prismatic), Portal Crown (Prismatic), Wandering Trainer II (Prismatic)
While many, ourselves included, had limited success with Ryze last patch, hitting Portal 8 without dying was a Herculean effort. Even then it barely guaranteed a top-four finish depending on how many Syndra, Kassadin, and Honeymancy players were in the lobby. Now there’s some breathing room for Ryze to come online he’s out here taking names.
Though it’s initially considered a Fast 8 comp, with you aiming to hit Level 8 on 4-2 or 4-5 at the latest, you will most likely need to roll a little bit as you level to ensure your board remains stable. As with any Fast 8 comp, playing the strongest possible board to conserve HP is crucial to surviving long enough to hit your comp.
At Level 6 you should be looking to put Portal x6 in – Jayce, Zoe, Galio, Kassadin, Ezreal, and Ryze if you hit him, or either a temporary Vanguard (Mordekaiser/Rumble) or Shapeshifter (Neeko/Swain) if you have a Portal emblem. It’s not the end of the world if you don’t find Ryze as you role to stabilize, but as long as you two star everything else you can still put in the aforementioned alternative units to bolster your front line as you push to Level 7. The Portal trait scales with the star level of your Portal units, so it’s paramount that you don’t level until you’re stable – you will hemorrhage health if you’re not careful.
Don’t worry about spending too much time at Level 7 unless you’re really hurting in the HP department and desperately need to fish for Ryze to bring Portal x6 online – focus on getting to Level 8. If you do naturally stumble upon Taric or Ryze here, though, slap them in – put your Portal emblem on another Bastion if you find Taric. If not, simply pop in another Shapeshifter or Vanguard so you have two of each (Zoe, Ezreal, and Jayce should offer up enough damage for the time being depending on your itemization).
When you finally reach Level 8, roll down until you two-star your board and ideally find Nora & Yuumi – Yuumi should go on Ryze. If you have a Portal emblem you won’t need to worry about the latter to get Portal x8 online. With your board capped for now, start pushing to Level 9 to add Diana for Bastion x2.
If you have the means to giga-cap your board with Portal x10 at Level 10 we’d recommend putting Nami in here for Mage x3, as well as her excellent stalling potential. If you have a strong econ, plenty of Ryze copies, and lots of other players are taking non-Ryze four-costs out of the pool, then you can also opt sacrifice Bastion to stay on Level 8 and look for Ryze 3 – the world’s your oyster.
Itemization notes: While Rageblade is BiS for Ryze statistically, Shojin is still perfectly fine on him so don’t panic if you don’t get enough Bows. If you only have one Portal emblem, put it on Diana and play her at Level 8 over Jayce (provided you have Nora & Yuumi for Portal x8). Up until this point the emblem should ideally have been used on either a Bastion, Shapeshifter, or Vanguard unit, so it should be a natural front-line switch.
Riot’s favorite TFT comp picks for Set 12
We all know the TFT devs play their own game religiously – just check out gameplay director Stephen ‘Mortdog’ Mortimer’s Twitch stream if you don’t believe us. Of course, we had to learn all the secret tech from the masters themselves, which is why we pinched game director Peter Whalen and game producer Dan Townsend to divulge the deets on their favorite units, traits, and interactions from the new set.
Peter Whalen’s favorite TFT comp picks for Set 12
Units: Morgana and Smolder
Trait: Sugarcraft
Having attended a preview event for Magic N’ Mayhem just before it dropped, PCGamesN had the pleasure of chatting to Whalen and Townsend. When we put the question to the pair, Whalen wasted no time in declaring: “Bewitching Morgana is my favorite unit in the set.” Delving deeper, Whalen says that he loves the “super, super fun” Sugarcraft trait. “I love the visuals with it,” he continues, “it’s that kind of joyous silliness that I think is wonderful within TFT, and I think it captures some of the vibe of the set.”
Whalen also professed his love for Smolder, a champion that has peaked and troughed in our League of Legends tier list since he was released into Riot’s MOBA game back in January. But judging from Whalen’s double-dragon anecdote, he’s going to be quite the unit in Set 12 when he makes his TFT debut.
“One of the best games I’ve had was our EP and I were the top two left,” Whalen recalls, “we both had like 60 life, and I got up to eight Smoulders but I never found the ninth one. I just could not do it. But I at least had two fully-itemized two-stars that ended up doing the job.” It’s certainly an unorthodox way to win out, but sometimes lightly Bill Gates-ing your board is the way to go.
Dan Townsend’s favorite TFT comp picks for Set 12
Units: Volibear (Edlritch 10 summon), Veigar
Traits: Eldritch, Portal, Pyro
A “big Eldritch player,” Townsend says that he chases Volibear “every single time” he can as the Stormbringer is his favorite piece of Set 12 content. As we know, though, you can go entire games without so much as getting a whiff at your ideal pieces for that perfect comp. Fortunately, Townsend has some other recommendations.
“Our Honeymancers are also so fun,” he stresses. “And because I’m a reroll player, there are champions that fit into a lot of different compositions – Veigar is a really cool carry that also interacts with our set mechanic, Charms, so there’s a lot of connection there too. If you buy more Charms Veigar gets more powerful, and having him in a comp makes a lot of sense.
Townsend further vouches for the “mayhem and craziness” of chasing the Portal trait, which results in some rather explosive treats. Then there’s Pyro, which the dev likes to add a “splashing” of for a tantalizing attack speed boost – this is especially potent when matched with Varus. Suffice to say, the set’s going to be a bit of a beast to solve.
And that’s our full rundown of the best TFT comps Set 12 has to offer. If you’re not vibing with the patch, be sure to check out more of the best multiplayer games you can dig into. If you’re interested in something a bit more analog, then check out how to play chess – Elo’s Elo, after all.