TFT Set 5.5 is going to shake up the meta, obviously. No more Dragonslayers means Mordekaiser is out of the picture, and the new Sentinel additions will definitely shake things up. What are the best comps to play though? We asked the devs.
Every patch in Teamfight Tactics often leads to a meta shift. In Reckoning, it was Skirmishers one patch, and then Aphelios and Draven the next. Vel’Koz, Karma, and plenty of other carries have featured since — even Soraka.
However, the fun usually lies in trying to figure out the new meta after a massive update. With TFT Set 5.5, named Reckoning: Dawn of Heroes, and its host of new champions and traits, as well as Radiant Items, it’s got a lot of people experimenting.
So, we asked the people with the most experience with the set: the devs.
Here’s their best and favorite compositions to play in the Mid-Set, so you can jump into games on day one with a better idea of what’s good, and what’s not.
Mortdog’s pick: Revenant-Fiddlesticks carry
Lead gameplay designer Stephen ‘Mortdog’ Mortimer (or radiantMortdog, if you’re so inclined) has found his new favorite unit of the set in Fiddlesticks. The four-cost Abomination Revenant Mystic has a lot of useful traits, but it’s the middle one that makes him particularly good.
“You give him Titan’s Resolve, Jeweled Gauntlet, and perhaps another Titan’s Resolve, and because of Revenant he ends up coming back to life and does a lot of damage,” Mortdog said.
“The way his spell works is every time he gets a kill he heals back up, and he eventually becomes this massive AOE damage monster, combined with Volibear wrecking the shields.”
- Read More: What are Radiant Items in TFT Set 5.5?
Building out the Fiddlesticks carry with 3 Revenant (Volibear and Ivern) and 4 Abomination (Kalista, Brand, and Nunu) is Mortdog’s recommendation to get a nice strong team going. You can throw in Mystics like Gwen or Ironclads like Rell and Nautilus if you need more defenses.
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Wittrock’s pick: Sentinel-Lucian carry
Lead set designer Matthew ‘Wittrock’ Wittrock is taking up the new trait, Sentinel, and their poster boy Lucian. He called it a “very straight-forward” composition, but it has one goal in mind — shoot fast.
“I’m still not quite sure if I like playing the 6 Sentinel or 3 Sentinel version better, but I really like having Lucian firing a lot of cannonballs,” Wittrock said.
- Read More: Everything we know about TFT Set 5.5
Regardless of how many Sentinels you pick up, you need to get 4 Cannoneer, so grabbing Senna, Tristana, and Miss Fortune is a must. Then build out your frontline with Cavaliers (Rell and Hecarim as a duo), Knights (Galio is a good pick), or Ironclads, and let your Lucian shred with plenty of attack speed.
GreenTeej’s pick: Gwen, Fiddlesticks, and Heimerdinger, all in one
TFT product lead TJ ‘GreenTeej’ Bourus is much more of a utility guy, focusing on out sustaining enemies. What better pick for that than the new five-cost Gwen, who gives her allies a massive damage reducing mist, while dancing around the battlefields herself stealing resistances.
“I just love utility comps, so I’ll be trying to find a way to run Gwen, Fiddlesticks, Heimerdinger into some Renewer-Mystic-Revenant build,” GreenTeej said.
While he wasn’t sold on it 100% being meta, it’s a ritual for him to “try every patch and see if [utility comps are] strong for once.”
Grabbing units like Volibear and Ivern are a must for 3 Revenant (and 2 Renewer), while Gwen and Fiddlesticks gets you to 2 Mystic from the start. Throwing in some Invoker on top could be a good idea, running a Karma carry composition with a couple of Dawnbringers like the new Garen to round things out.
TFT Set 5.5 goes live on patch 11.15, set for release on July 21.