Patch 16.1b Guide
The most popular meta lines for the patch are included here. Use the tier list to see all lines. Tips for the patch:
- Patch Overview: 1) Fast 9 is less consistent. The most common route, Yordles, provides fewer free rerolls and the units on the fast 9 boards got nerfed. This means you need more gold to stabilize, but have less than before. As such, Fast 9 is more situational. It's still strong once you hit.
- 2) Bilgewater is arguably better than it was last patch. Fast 9 was the biggest counter to Bilgewater. Skip the nerfed Doubloon and save your serpents for the 7 Bilgewater items, then transition down to 3 Bilgewater as usual.
- 3) Kai'Sa boards are performing better across the board. AP Kai'Sa is still better than AD Kai'Sa in the stats, but the gap is smaller and both should be playable. The Void boards are quite stable on 8 now. Might be better to do 1 econ augment, 1 item, 1 combat instead of always angling econ for Void now.
- 4) Rest of meta is mostly similar. Diana is still good, reroll is better than it was before as long as you have a good spot (especially Ashe Tryndamere). Most Fast 8 lines are more viable since Fast 9 is less consistent.
AD Core Lines
These are the lines you should play in most games if provided attack damage (AD) items. Conditions are recommended, but not mandatory.
AP Core Lines
These are the lines you should play in most games if provided ability power (AP) items. Conditions are recommended, but not mandatory.
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tryndamere might be broken. slamming the quickstrike emblem produced interesting results
i need form jhin carry admin 🙁
Great work man. Your work has helped me consistently hit top 0.1% every season, it’s very much appreciated. Also as a fellow web dev, you have me geeking out over the WP setup.
0.1% who needs a guiide every season XD
Feel like the item recommendations on this site aren’t super reliable this patch, not a complaint but just a comment, I’ve had multiple games where I supposedly acquire “BiS” on my units, and lose fights against a mirrored board with no combat augments and theoretically worse items. Dunno, just feels inconsistent compared to previous sets.
You’re going to lose with “OP” tier comps a lot more than prior sets. You’re going to lose with Best in Slot far more than prior sets. Why? Because in this set, there are so many more options for how to cap your board. Having some broken artifact is not enough to win games. Talisman of Ascension Sion can lose to a Zilean 1. Darkin Bow Bel’Veth loses to fast 9 max cap boards. You aren’t guaranteed a win just because you got BiS. I don’t know how to communicate this, but the OP tier on the website has traditionally averaged around a 3.3 or better in the stats, not a 1.0. You’re not going to win every game just because you have an OP-tier condition, so what hope do you have with “just” best-in-slot for an S-tier or S+ tier comp?
For the record, I am not trying to say that there are zero incorrect best-in-slot builds on the website. I know there are several that must be inaccurate because they change over the course of the patch as more data comes out. But that’s easy enough to check if you try a build and see it fail — Just go check MetaTFT or Tactics Tools. The data will tell you if the build was the problem or it was another part of your game that was the problem. For example, if you tell me Darkin Bow Bel’Veth is not good because you went 7th, I know for a FACT that other things in your game went completely wrong. But if you see a build that looks bad in stats and the site recommends it, it just means the build was good at one point and no longer is — Leave a comment and I’ll fix it (or I’ll catch it myself eventually, but it’s easier if you just comment).
Lastly, and I’m really trying not to be rude with this but it is a serious concern: Really seriously think about whether you are at the skill level where you can evaluate what is going wrong in your games. The amount of times someone tells me that a comp is trash because they bot 4’d with it, failing to realize they had a terrible spot for the line or that they played the line terribly is staggering. Just go on Reddit and you’ll find countless posts of “how did this lose” and 99% of them are not that surprising.
No worries I didn’t interpret anything you said as rude, thank you for taking the time to reply to me about it and for the work you do on the site. Your comment changed my perspective for whatever it’s worth, I realize there’s nothing on the site advertising that I’ll win if I meet XYZ conditions and that everything is just a recommendation, but I will admit I was under the impression that anything under the “OP” tier or with conditions that set something to “OP” it would generally be considered closer to a 1-2 and not a 3.3, reading that the average is a lot more grounded makes me realize I’m just expecting too much about what “OP” means
Sorry, that is my bad
All good! It’s very hard for a singular condition to modify your average placement by more than 1.5, and if it does it’s usually doing so in a comp that averages a 5 in the first place so it doesn’t even reach the OP tier. There HAVE been conditions in the OP tier in the past that were truly broken, like Silvermere Dawn Jayce last set before they nerfed the item. That averaged a 1.8. So the OP tier has a wide range, from around a 3.3 to 1.8 being the most broken condition the site has provided so far I believe. There have been other conditions that were in the 2s though like Luden’s Ahri last set. Also, to be clear, the OP tier is not “exact” cutoff at 3.3 (or ~30% win rate). That’s just the cutoff has typically worked out when I checked the stats of conditions I thought were OP, but there are some subjectiveness that goes into it.
Sorry if I was rude in my response 🙂
why is demacia not default line if its A tier and good with vayne 2?
Added it, think it’s pretty conditional on Vayne orb but is good if you have it
i see, thank you
I would love some double up guides / tips and strategies
Got my first Ixtal win thanks to you, you are the GOAT! One question..who do you put Diana items on before you unlock her??
Leona would be good for unlock, or whichever bruiser fighter (rek’sai, viego, etc.)
Any upgraded melee bruiser
Something I feel would make this site even more complete would be showing level 4, 5, 6, and 7 board (for a fast 8 comp) from a common opener on the bottom of each meta comp similar to what Sologesang does with his pro comps.
Agreed
yeah this would help people like me to learn about the comp so much quicker. It doesn’t have to be ultra detailed either maybe even just saying who can hold the item before the final board.
this is by far the best guide and website out there, so my only question is how can we donate to keep you doing this? thank you very much
I appreciate the kind words 🙂 There are several ways you can support the site which are all provided on this page: https://tftflow.com/patreon . One option that can be entirely free if you have Amazon Prime is the Twitch option, although I don’t stream that often! But it still directly supports the site. Regardless of whether you support, I am glad you find the site useful
Hey, why is the Demacia Vayne Comp not on the Site?
https://tftflow.com/composition/set16/demacia
Video is up for B-Patch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqXLXvsv_lI
Binary Airdrop is currently bugged and will be disabled soon according to the tft twitter account
bless you just saved my game
zaun is very bad still
So far meta does not look too different other than Kai’Sa looking stronger and Fast 9 being less popular due to Yordle rolls nerf. This is EXTREMELY early on, so expect more changes as patch gets figured out.
W, thanks for keeping this up to date
Updating website for B-patch with predictions for now, then will update for actual meta when data is available.