TFT Patch 10.21 has been dominated by three things — Divine, Warwick, and Statikk Shiv — forging one of the most OP comps ever. Riot are aware though, with lead developer Stephen ‘Mortdog’ Mortimer confirming a nerf is on its way in just a couple of days.
Divine was one of the weakest traits when TFT Fates released. Then, Patch 10.21 came through. The buff now gave Divine units even more damage, more defences, and even a cleanse.
This made units like Warwick, who was already pretty contested in Brawler-Ashe compositions, a lot more valuable. It could have ended there, but there was another change — Statikk Shiv got a huge damage buff, dealing more damage if a unit was affected by crowd control.
This catapulted Divine from one of the weakest traits, to the strongest almost immediately. Off the back of Warwick, Statikk Shiv, and Divine, lobbies were filled with people rolling for the insta-win combination.
TFT players have been calling for a hotfix for days. Now, Riot are heralding their calls, although they remain cautious of what they want to do.
“I don’t think the new Divine is OP with Warwick. I don’t think Shiv is that out of line on non Warwick champs. But the combination of the two is clearly out of line,” lead developer Mortdog told players on Reddit.
Riot still aren’t sure of the exact solution they are going to implement in TFT Patch 10.21b. Mortdog has stated the dev team are working on a solution that cuts down the power of both Divine and Statikk Shiv without making the two useless.
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This includes a nerf to Divine’s damage reduction and true damage, and converting Shiv’s damage from true damage to magic damage. Neither of these changes have been locked in however.
With this particular patch though, I also don't think the solve is as simple as one change.
Ex.) Shiv 175 >>> 100 (would be far less effective than)
Ex2.) Shiv True Dmg >>> Magic DmgDivine DR/True 50 >>> 45Lee Sin Stun 4sec >>> 2sec (AS AN EXAMPLE)
— Riot Mort (@Mortdog) October 17, 2020
They haven’t locked the patch in with 100% certainty either. They want to give players a bit more time to figure out some counters. However, Mortdog admitted that it’s coming with “basically a 100% chance” in the coming days — likely on October 20.
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Riot haven’t decided if any other changes will be shipped in the b-patch. The mini-update in TFT Patch 10.20 included nerfs to Aphelios, Ashe, and Spirit. It’s likely Divine could be the only trait targeted, but if something else crops up as being meta-breaking, Riot won’t hesitate.
“We’re willing to B-Patch frequently as needed so you aren’t stuck in a bad state for two weeks,” Mortdog said.
We will update you once Riot release the TFT Patch 10.21b notes.