Teamfight Tacticsis constantly evolving from set to set, and staying on top of things is no easy task. Just like its counterparts within theLeague of Legendsfranchise,Teamfight Tacticshas to juggle adding new content with adjusting existing Champions. The Lunar Festival is one of the biggest events of the year for millions of players around the world, which makes now the perfect time to assess the direction that the game is headed.
Game Rant recently spoke about this subject with severalTeamfight Tacticsdevs, with set finalization lead Kent Wu discussing reworks and other attempts to address any balancing issues withinTeamfight Tactics. Wu revealed the specific steps the team takes to make important balance decisions, with the hopes of not having to encounter more difficult decisions down the line.
How Teamfight Tactics Keeps Every Champion Feeling Fresh within the Meta
How Teamfight Tactics Stays on Top of Broken Sets
The team had a lot to say regarding balance updates. This shouldn’t come as a surprise, as they no doubt face several unique challenges withTeamfight Tacticscompared to any othergames by Riot Games. First and foremost, Wu revealed details about the step-by-step process that is conducted to reach a stable meta.
“We rely on three different sources to try to make the best balance decisions:
By combining these 3 sources, we can put together a solid view of the meta and make decisions on what to patch.”
Similar toLeague of Legends,Teamfight Tacticshas a thriving community that developers can consistently rely on. This process is highly dependent on player feedback, which goes to show the value of a symbiotic relationship in this regard. Hopefully, player perception and satisfaction remain prominent aspects of future balancing decisions.
How Teamfight Tactics Knows When it’s Time for a Champion to Receive a Rework
Thanks to thechangesArcanemade to Viktor inLeague of Legends, reworks have been a bit of a hot-button issue across various Riot titles. Wu was confident that Viktor’s design overhaul didn’t receive nearly the same backlash within theTeamfight Tacticscommunity, in part because that’s simply how he was introduced. Then, Wu had more to say about the intentions behind each character’s design. In short, every unit should have a “3-item fantasy” that lets players put 3 items on them and enjoy watching them do their thing, whether that’s deleting the board or tanking everything. Wu then elaborated:
“For example, to succeed with Set 12 (Magic nʼ Mayhem), Ahri players needed to position the entire board one exact way with 3 specific items which allowed her to kill multiple units at a time with her true damage, and if players didn’t do this, she sucked. Balance changes would’ve adjusted how good the success case was but wouldn’t have helped with the success criteria, so we opted for a rework. We’ve been able to start validating this goal much earlier in development, so the hope is that going forward players won’t need to experience units changing on them in the middle of a set.”
This shows a general hope to avoid reworks entirely, which is undoubtedly the preference for most players. On the other hand, it also shows an attentive eye for when a rework is unavoidable. This shows the difficult balance that developers have to strike when balancing an ever-evolving game likeTeamfight Tactics. If this approach continues, the game should remain healthy for quite some time after the Lunar Festival concludes.
