How to Learn New TFT Team Comps Faster

How to Learn and Master New Teamfight Tactics Team Comps

New TFT team comps often appear quite quickly in TFT as bi weekly meta shifts change things dramatically. Some comps are invented on patch notes day, while others are adjusted over time and appear close to the end of a patch.

New comps can be quite jarring to play as it’ll feel like learning the game all over again. So here are a few main things to keep in mind when playing a new comp.

1. Know the purpose of items

If you are learning a new comp, chances are that you are reading a guide that already has optimal items for you to build. While this will be very helpful to follow, you don’t always follow the guide precisely.

Recommended Items

For example, here we have an example 3 item for Twitch. These may be our recommendation for best in slot items, but you can swap some items depending on what you have.

Infinity Edge is the best damage scaling item for Assassins. It synergizes perfectly and results in massive damage. Giant Slayer is another item to scale damage, but in a different aspect.

While Infinity Edge scales Crit Damage, Giant Slayer will simply give bonus damage. If you don’t have an extra Negatron Cloak, you can simply replace Runaan’s Hurricane with Giant Slayer.

Replacement Items

Edge of Night can be a possible third item for Twitch as well. He can output great damage, but is somewhat frail. This can help him survive just a bit longer in the late game to deal with enemy teams.

In situations like these, you should experiment with different items and see what results you get. Maybe you are able to find other items that are also strong, or maybe you fail and your team is nowhere near as strong.

Either way, you will learn what items will be good for a new comp, and judge whether or not you should play said comp based on your items.

2. Have a leveling strategy

Leveling strategy is one of the most important things to consider when seeing a new comp. For example, a comp like Draven and Friends will play a fairly “normal” strategy that looks to find 2 star units for a complete level 8 comp.

Conversely, comps like Talon Reroll or Mutants look to find 3 star units and stay at level 6 or 7 for longer. This is why at Mobalytics, we’ve added a leveling guide to our comps to ensure you know what you should prioritize at certain points of the game.

However, maybe you find a guide that doesn’t go in-depth on this topic, or maybe you play against a comp you’ve never seen before. In these situations, you should learn how to come up with a leveling strategy for yourself based on your previous experience.

Depending on the cost of your carry, you will be able to determine this yourself. If the comp carry is Ahri (4-cost), you will likely level normally to level 8 to finish your comp. If the comp carry is Kai’Sa, you might want to greed more to hit level 8 early.

If the comp carry is Senna, you may want to stay at level 7 longer to reroll for 3 star Senna. If your comp carry is Talon, you will want to stay at level 6 to reroll for 3 star Talon.

These leveling strategies have evolved over the course of the game’s history, and for a more in-depth guide, check out our resource on Leveling Strategies.

3. Optimize your positioning

Positioning in TFT is a unique aspect to comps and in my opinion, one of the least important aspects of any guide. While there may be a general positioning you should follow, positioning has a direct correlation to the enemy comps.

If you are playing against Assassins, you want to put your carries more to the side or front. If you are playing against Blitzcrank, you want to position your carry so they won’t be hit by his ability.

What if enemies have Zephyr? What if enemies have Shroud of Stillness? Or Blitzcrank? Or Blitzcrank with Zephyr?

Positioning will always be a choice based on the opponents you face. As such, when reading a guide, or looking at a new comp, simply try and see what things are necessary.

Ask yourself why the positioning is the way it is rather than simply copy it. As you find answers throughout your games, you will start to understand the general concepts of positioning like:

• How do I protect my carry?
• Who should be my main frontline
• Should I turtle in the corner or spread my units out?

4. Adjust your team comps according to game state

If you see a new comp, or read a new guide on a comp, you will be tempted to simply buy only the necessary units. While this may work out, you might not hit your units early enough, take too much damage, and bleed out in the late game.

If the guide you read covers everything you need to know, you might not need to know this, but there are a few ways to improve your game knowledge, and adjust to new comps.

Use transition units

Transition units are a great example of adjusting comps. Maybe you are running a comp like Draven and Friends and have items like Infinity Edge + Runaan’s Hurricane.

There are a plethora of units that can hold these items for Draven in the early and mid game. Ezreal, Warwick, Senna, Ashe, are some easy examples.

Even if your final team comp runs a unit like Senna, it’s important to still use your items to stay strong. You can eventually find more units to get your items back, but you can’t get your health back. (Unless you have Metabolic)

Adjust your item choices

We touched on items previously, but items are also an important counter play mechanic. If you see an enemy that has a lot of healing, you may want to prioritize getting a Morellonomicon over your ideal carry items.

If the enemy has a lot of CC or Enforcer, you may want to prioritize getting Quicksilver. Carries will often have ideal items, but make sure to also itemize against what you are playing against.

Understand interchangeable units

Let’s look at this team comp. It’s a fairly standard build that runs 5 Innovators along with other traits like Clockwork, Enchanter, Socialite, etc.

You can follow this exact team comp every game and find success, but learning how to adapt and react to opponents will make you an even better player.

Examples

• If I have an Innovator Emblem or Heart, who do I take out for Singed for Innovator 7?
• If I can’t find Jayce, what does my ideal team comp look like?
• Should I replace Ezreal with a stronger unit or keep Scrap?
• What’s the best unit to add in at level 9?
• Or do I swap out multiple units at level 9?

There are many variations you can do for any comp. Just look for traits that support your team or units that have powerful abilities. If they have both, even better.

Conclusion

When learning a new comp, it will be easier to follow the guide word for word and see what happens. While you may get decent results, thinking critically about what you should do to make the comp optimal for every game will allow you to truly master a comp faster.

There will be times where straying from the path will result in bad games, but you learn so much more in the process. Think about it like an investment. If you push the comp and change things, you will learn things that will improve your game knowledge.

Eventually, you will reach a point where you only need to know what units are run in a comp. After that, you will be able to fill in all the blanks yourself.

This will be even more useful on patch days. When many changes happen, new guides can be a bit delayed as they wait for the meta to settle.

In situations like this, your primary source of comps will be the opponents you face or streamers.

The moment you play against a new comp, or see it on stream, try to fill in the blanks yourself. Eventually, you will reach a point where you can master a new comp even before a fully fleshed guide comes out for it.

Thanks for reading! Be sure to check out our recommended team comps, champs, and items to help you adjust and adapt.

To learn about the new TFT Set, head to our all-in-one Teamfight Tactics Set 6.5 reveal page that covers all champions, synergies, and more!