First Impressions: The 5 Best Units in TFT: Fates

Riot Games have finally revealed all the new champions that will be appearing in the new Teamfight Tactics expansion, TFT: Fates. Along with the champion reveals, Riot revealed the cost, ability and traits of all the champions as well.

There is a lot of information to digest with 58 new champions to explore but just by looking at the champions on paper, it’s easy to pick out which champions will be the stars of the set.

Without further ado, here are some predictions of the five best champions that players will want to try out in TFT: Fates.

5. Jhin

Jhin is returning to TFT for his second straight set and just like in TFT: Galaxies, Jhin is back as a tier 4 unit. He also returns with his same exact ability. Players from set three will remember how dominant Jhin was. Being able to one-shot enemies even with little to no itemization, Jhin was one of the best carry units in the game. There is little reason to not believe the same will apply this time around. In fact, he might actually be better in TFT: Fates.

Jhin has swapped out the Darkstar and Sniper traits for the brand new Cultist and Sharpshooter ones. The Cultist trait gives Jhin access to a large shield in front of him in the form of Galio if he is on a team of at least two other Cultist units, which will allow him valuable time to hit many fourth shots. But the best trait he has without a doubt is Sharpshooter.

Back in early days of set three, Runaan’s Hurricane was a devastating item on Jhin as it allowed for his fourth shots to practically shoot at two different units. Sharpshooter is like a free Runaan’s Hurricane but better. If Jhin is on a team with three other Sharpshooters, he actually fires at three units which means hes killing more units than ever before. Jhin definitely wont be bad and only time will tell if he will be among the elite in set four; but he’s definitely a safe pick for players to pick up and try.

4. Warwick

Warwick rejoins TFT after a set absence but unlike his past forms, this time Warwick is suited for carry duty. As a tier four-unit this time around, Warwick comes packed with a crazy ability. His ability this time around is Primal Hunger. When active, it gives Warwick an insane amount of attack speed and a lot of life steal as well as increased movement speed for the rest of combat. While he is in this state, any takedown Warwick gets causes him to fear all enemies adjacent to him for a duration.

The reason why this is so good is that It allows for Warwick to snowball. Once he gets one takedown, the enemy is easy prey for continued takedowns and Warwick can chain his CC if he gets the takedowns quick enough. Due to his traits, it seems like he will.

Warwick is a Divine Hunter and Brawler. With the Brawler trait, Warwick will have plenty of health to take any hits that come his way while he’s literally terrorizing the battlefield. The Divine trait makes it so if Warwick does dip below 50% health which he might before activating his ability, he will take 25% less damage for the rest of combat as well as deal bonus true damage. When his ability activates he can just heal up quickly and due to the Divine trait, he will take less damage making it very difficult to stop Warwick if he gets going. The last trait is a fantastic one for Warwick as well.

The Hunter trait causes all Hunters to target the lowest health enemy every three seconds and deal bonus damage to them as well. This means that Warwick will have no problem getting resets on his fear until everyone on the enemy team is dead. Warwick is a monster of a unit and players should look to control the fear before the fear controls them.

3. Yone

The lone tier five-unit on this list is Yone. The jury is out on whether or not the other tier five units will have truly game-changing abilities; but one thing is for certain, Yone will be a unit everyone will want to grab if he pops up in their shop. Yone’s ability is Seal Fate. Seal Fate when activated allows Yone to strike a path in front of him dealing massive magic damage to all enemies hit and knocks those enemies up for two seconds. Once they are struck they are “marked for death” which means their armor and magic resist are reduced by 60%. This is good by itself as it’s an AoE CC ability which is already nice but it does a lot of damage and reduces defense. But wait there is more.

After Yone casts Seal Fate, his ability is replaced with Unforgotten until there are no more enemies marked for death. Unforgotten is a 20 mana spell that makes Yone dash to the lowest health “marked for death” enemy and kills them instantly. This ability is insane and paired with Yone’s traits it gets even better.

Yone comes equipped with the Exile and Adept traits. Exile returns from set one which states that if Yone is not surrounded by allied units, he gets a shield equal to 50% of his total health. This is nice as it allows Yone to face tank the front line and then kill them all with his ability. But it’s better than its set one form. This time the trait can be active with one or two Exile units. If Yone is paired with Yasuo, Exile units will also gain 100% life steal. This means that Yone will almost always stay alive long enough to pop off.

His other trait Adept will make sure it always happens. Adept states that at the start of combat, every enemy unit will have their attack speed cut in half for a few seconds. All it takes is for Yone to get his ability off once before he wrecks entire teams. While everyone else in slow motion, Yone can delete teams before they even knew what hit them. Look for Yone as a centerpiece for comps once TFT: Fates comes out.

2. Talon

Assassins have always been a menace in TFT and in previous sets, certain assassins have dominated metas. Akali from set one and Kha’Zix from set two come to mind. This sets super-assassin comes in the form of Talon. Talon’s ability is Truestrike. This ability allows Talon to stab his target for over 200% of his AD. If this kills his target, Talon becomes invincible as he leaps to the enemy unit who has done the most damage in the round and refreshes his mana which allows him to do the same ability immediately.

What this means is that if an opponent big brains and tries to position their carry away from Talon that it won’t matter because Talon will dash to the carry anyways and while he does, he can’t be touched. His traits only make it easier for him to execute his game plan as well as enemy units.

Talon is, of course, an Assassin which carries its same properties as its set two form. This means that if the Assassin trait is active, all Assassin units come with increased crit chance and crit damage making Talon’s hits extra hard. He also comes equipped with the Enlightened trait which gives Talon even more mana generation making it easy for him to start the snowball effect. Some players love playing Assassins and if so, Talon is definitely the champion to build around. For the players that hate Assassins, buckle up.

1. Kalista

A somewhat odd pick for the top spot but Kalista looks really strong. Kalista might only be a tier three-unit, but as seen in past sets, some of the best units in the game are in the tier three slot. Kalista is looking like the new face of the tier three carry brigade. Kalista’s ability is Rend. Ever time she auto attacks a unit, she puts a spear into them. Each spear represents a percentage of the struck unit’s max health. The current numbers are 3% at 1*, 4% at 2*, and 5% at 3* which the unit will take when Kalista pulls the spears out.

So for example, if Kalista throws five spears at a unit while she is level two, she would do 20% of their max health when she pulls them out. Kalista will only pull out spears if doing so would kill the target. This means that Kalista essentially has a built-in predator trait from set two. Kalista’s ability is essentially a scaling execute that becomes stronger as the fight goes on. Kalista will love attack speed and looking at her traits, she gets a ton of it.

Kalista comes packed with the Cultist trait which will give her access to a big wall in Galio. Cultist also gives Kalista a fantastic supporting cast of good units like the aforementioned Jhin. But the real reason why Kalista is the number one pick for best unit is her other trait, Duelist.

The Duelist trait gives Kalista increased movement speed which is nice. But the other effect is amazing.  Kalista also gains scaling attack speed with every auto attack which stacks up to seven times. With two duelists, Kalista can get an additional 70% attack speed which means 70% more spears. With four duelists it ramps up to 150% more attack speed which makes Kalista a monster. That’s before any itemization.

Runaan’s Hurricane and Guinsoo’s Rageblade will make Kalista into an unstoppable machine gun. On first impressions, no unit seems to have more going for them than Kalista does. On day one, players should make sure to try out this deadly unit for themselves.

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