A-Patch, what’s that!? An A-Patch is a small, emergent change made very soon after the patch is deployed. Sometimes these slide in the day before or the day Patch Notes releases, but sometimes, they come a bit later (as with this one). A-Patch changes only allow us to change files that have not already been altered in the primary patch.

For today’s A-Patch we’re nerfing our most overperforming comp, Morgana Bastion, but specifically targeting the comp’s most powerful version, Bastion (6), and the power of the Emblem that allows Morgana to translate Bastion’s tankiness into a ton of AP. We're specifically targeting the survivability of the comp, as it can lead to frustrating moments where you just don't have the DPS in the mid-game to get through a strong frontline. We want to go light here, given that the balance is quite good and the comp isn't that far out of line. But this should bring it back down to a comparable level with similar comps.

This patch simplifies TFT's cosmetic rarity tiers to ensure they're straightforward and consistent. To learn more about the update, check out the article. TL;DR below:

While novel, the two-star 2-cost Opening Encounter, Upgraded Start, was deceptively impactful, with the champion you randomly started with often dictating your opening game plan and tempo. Combined with the random items you'd start with, this could create a super snowbally combo (Twisted Fate two-star alongside a Rageblade slam) or an avalanche of despair (LeBlanc with no Cypher units in sight).

To Split or Not to Split has been bugged to sometimes not include the OR part. Without that, it's just extra gold with no dilemma. We're opting to disable this Opening Encounter, but you'll still see Split or Not Split hacks in your games.

With two Opening Encounters departing, we're increasing the odds of some of our other fun Opening Encounters.

We're updating, replacing, and reworking several of our core items to better fit their fantasy, open up new ones, and shore up some design flaws. For most of our item swaps you should play them in a very similar way as before, but I'll be sure to call out some of the gameplay changes here. We've also got a whole article outlining the why for each change here, so for the rest of this section, I'll be diving a bit deeper into how the changes have landed on PBE and what to expect.

First up, Guinsoo's Rageblade. We're changing the way you gain Attack Speed (AS) with Rageblade to allow more champions to use it (Senna is good with it now), while also encouraging more build diversity for champions that use it already (one Rageblade is enough now). With those goals in mind, let's dive a bit deeper into the rework. With Attack Speed on-attack, Rageblade allowed champs to scale multiplicatively with Attack Speed (AS) as attacking faster made you, well, attack even faster. While big numbers are exciting, the nature of Rageblade scaling so well with additional Attack Speed meant AS carries' best builds would be just to build more rageblades. This limited who could use the item, and made those users require it in a way that led to less flexibility. By making Rageblade stack with time instead, we remove the multiplicative nature of the item that has created such sharp power outliers while also allowing the item to be built on champions with lower base Attack Speeds. As alluded to above, we expect to see more build diversity with Attack Speed carries, but we also expect to see champions that didn't traditionally pick up Rageblade be able to slot it in more effectively.

Striker's Flail is our new Guardbreaker. By getting Damage Amp from critically striking instead of hitting a shield, the item becomes less of a "can you hit a shield with an AOE" and more of a flexible item for anyone with crit. Be sure to pair it with Infinity Edge or Jeweled Gauntlet carries just as you (hopefully) were before.

Kraken's Fury is the Archangel's of AD. It will reward AD champions who want to survive to the end of the fight like Zeri. It landed a bit strong on PBE so we've lowered the AD just a tad in preparation for its debut on live.

Spirit Visage is our greedier replacement for Redemption. It now provides Durability and Health regen for just the holder, making it work well with Health stacking items just like Redemption did. This is certainly going to be a hit on Cho'Gath and Neeko.

Our reworked Sterak's Gage should fill a similar niche to the old one, but we expect it to be a bit more noticeable and stronger. Try this on Zed as a defensive option or Renekton when you can't get your hands on range extension.

Void Staff, our replacement for Statikk Shiv (which has moved into the Artifact space), should still be used on a secondary magic damage carry (not your primary), but will be much better on AOE mages like Ziggs who can shred more MR with their AOE ability.

As above, so below, but now aglow.

With a few core items changing, we're also making adjustments to our Artifacts, either to extend the item fantasy of an old core item with the power budget of an Artifact (Statikk Shiv, Flickerblade), or fill in a gap left by Anima Visage becoming Spirit Visage (The Indomitable). These new Artifacts should have clear fantasies like Shiv for backliners or our re-tuned Wit's End for frontliners.

While we're at it, we're making a balance pass on existing Artifacts to ensure they don't gather dust. Lastly, we're removing Spite. While having some very niche builds (Zac with Spite), Spite performs too inconsistently and is much harder to utilize compared to our other, more supportive Support items.

Anima Squad (3) has been one of our weaker openers and late game splashes. Sharpening, shining, and oiling their weapons should add a splash of Anima spunk to early- and late-game boards alike.

Aside from some very niche item and Augment combos, Exotech (7) has been all but absent in Cyber City as of late. It's time to put this cool tech to good use.

Giving our favorite bot-like trait bot (read that ten times slow to create a sick beat) a carry buff that'll make them deserving of your Deathblade/Infinity Edge slam.

Speaking of bot-like trait bots (it's so much harder to do when you make it plural), Nidalee's had two jobs this set, getting you A.M.P. 5 or collecting garbage (scrap). It's time to make this litter-born litter cleaner a litter-born board cleaner.

Whether they're coming up short or missing the mark, we're sending some love to our lower-performing 2-cost carries. This is especially the case for Graves, who has been absent in the meta for a while.

Vayne's one of two champions that is losing DPS with our Rageblade change, as she oftentimes ran two, which is now not a great play. We're giving her a compensatory buff here that should make her best builds use Rageblade alongside other items like Kraken's Fury and a third AD or AS item.

In 14.4, Rengar carry made me think about that time I left the door open and couldn't find my cat for a full day. But just like my cat, he was hiding in the closet the whole time and just needed his favorite can of tuna (2 AD) to spring into action.

Leona can stall out games a bit too long with repeat Durability casts. We're increasing her max Mana to slow down the repeats and give a larger window for her enemies to take her down.

With our item reworks and updates, we're removing a few Augments that no longer fit. Adios, Anger Issues, you will be missed. We plan on making similar Augments in a future set, so this is more of a see you later than a true goodbye.

Us having to nerf 10,000 IQ just shows how smart TFT players are.

A.M.P.'s capped board is a bit too capped. We're taking away some HP but the Nidalee buff should help this feel a bit less impactful.

Shipping some buffs to 1-cost rerolls at three stars and a special nerf for our largest 4-cost at three stars. Don't worry, he'll still be huge!

We're also cleaning up Ziggs' ability by fixing some mistimings with his animations while speeding up his total cast. Should feel snappier all around!

Jam on for another patch of Revival: Remix Rumble, which'll be available until July 29th.

Giving Annie the Vegas Open nerf she barely dodged.