New TFT patch brings some much-needed consistency to Arbiter and Psionic

Teamfight Tactics patch 17.4 is upon us, and Riot looks to be rebalancing conditionality. While the one-cost reroll menace was finally defeated in 17.3, I feel like the playstyle itself has been overcorrected. We do have a decent spread of higher-cost boards now, but highly-conditional boards continue to dominate - Serpent Stargazer Xayah, Dark Star emblem vertical, and Yi with the correct Psionic item all come to mind. If you don't hit a narrow RNG chute, you're suddenly in a four-way battle to hit the only real default board: Corki-Riven. In the patch 17.4 rundown, Live Balance Lead Tim 'Truexy' Jiang has some thoughts on this, and I'm inclined to agree.

Before delving into the meat of the TFT patch, Truexy takes a moment to discuss conditionality. "It's been floated around that conditional comps are bad and unconditional comps are good, and I think that's not a fair representation of how we approach balance," he states. "I think conditional is more of a scale, and depending on the type of content, that conditionality should go up and down."

As Truexy says, hero augments are a solid example of good conditionality in the auto chess game. If you click Shieldmaiden with zero Leonas and terrible items, you already know you're cooked. Good TFT is understanding the conditions of your spot - items, units, econ, augments - and getting the best out of it. You know what you're in for when that augment pops up. The issue, according to Truexy, "happens when too many things go on top of that core TFT conditionality, which makes the paths too narrow. And I think that's from both sides."

Interestingly enough, Truexy offers up the 'unconditional' Corki-Riven board as his first example. "I think if you could load up into the game and say 'no matter what I'm going to do, I'm going to loss streak, get my perfect items, and hard force this comp and I can succeed' […] I don't think that comp is very fair." Being able to 20/20 a board, no matter your spot, is the dream if you want to climb, but I don't think it makes you a good player. It's not 'narrow' in the sense of 'can I play this comp?' In terms of expression, though, it certainly is.

Conversely, you have the hyper-conditional spots - your Diana rerolls, Master Yi, LeBlanc, etc. "If you load up into the game and you're like 'I have the perfect LeBlanc spot, but I can only play LeBlanc one-in-five games because of external conditions [Arbiter modifiers],' that's also not good TFT," Truexy continues, "because you've had the game lead you down this path and say 'oh, at the end of it, you can't actually do it.'"

So, how's the TFT tackling the issue? Well, Arbiter modifiers have now been streamlined, and are now grouped into three input categories: consistent, conditional, and economy, and three output categories: offense, defense, and economy. In doing so, you should always hit some combination that is useful to your spot, whether that's making Leona a supertank, or pumping up LB's DPS.

Psionic, meanwhile, is becoming far more flexible, with each item now having a use case for both AP and AD units. Malware Matrix, for example, now reduces Magic Resist if slammed on an AP unit. Having had a dedicated team builder slot just to check what some of the conditionals were each game, this makes me very happy.

Elsewhere in Truexy's rundown, we're getting some vertical trait tweaks. Six Dark Star's taken a considerable hit to its damage output and star tankiness, which is well overdue. Conversely, traits like Sniper and Space Groove are getting some love. Space Groove's trait web is pretty awkward, and I don't think a 5% boost at seven groovers is going to do much to change that. Ornn is getting an extra 100 base health this patch, while Nami's mana costs are coming down slightly, so we'll see if there's enough there to collectively move the needle.

As noted, reroll has really suffered this patch. Some of the three-cost boards like Challenger Miss Fortune and Lulu have been solid, and Lissandra reroll has become a decent angle with enough early copies of her and Cho. However, for the most part, it's been pretty meh. Twisted Fate, Talon, and Aatrox have all been buffed in the one-cost arena. Meanwhile, Bel'Veth, Gnar, Gwen, and Zoe have had some love in the two-cost pool. Notably, Jax's damage reduction no longer scales with AP, so I'm presuming Crownguard priority won't be so high now.

Considering Viktor's getting a light buff, I can see him creeping back into the meta again. I'm not sure how the Psionic item change is going to shake out just yet, but I can imagine there'll be some sort of busted interaction. Perhaps the most substantial unit-specific change on the patch is a flattening of Rhaast's team-wide bonuses. Statistically, he's outperforming some five-costs, which isn't surprising when you think about it. Set 17 hasn't been big on long verticals, so you'll see far more bronze traits on the average board. By virtue of this, Rhaast can pump out a ton of value on most boards.

When it comes to four-costs, I'm pleased to report that Corki's received a love tap. I still expect to see plenty of meeping, but it's a start. Xayah's had a substantial buff to her spell's main target damage, which alongside the Sniper buff could help her become less reliant on specific Stargazer spots. Gnar and Samira are generally unpopular, while Jhin priority could diminish with the Dark Star nerfs, so I can certainly see vertical Sniper plus build-your-own-frontline being a viable option.

Five costs are generally in a more balanced spot relative to each other, but it's still not quite perfect. Riot's granted Shen more damage, though he quickly settled into life as a secondary tank after the patch 17.3 changes. Graves has a little more DPS. Zed's clone health and mana have both been nerfed, which is an absolute blessing. Finally, Fiora's spell true damage has been knocked down a small peg.

With big changes to conditionals and some smaller tweaks to verticals on the way, I can see Set 17 take another big step forward. If we can also see some of those lower cost reroll boards re-emerge, while getting players out of the default Corki trap, then I'll consider the patch a massive success. Admittedly, it's been hard to maintain an interest in Space Gods, but TFT has historically had its fair share of early set teething issues. For now, then, I'll continue to trust the process.