TFT Set 8.5 Guide: How to Play Quickdraw

How to Play Quickdraw

Welcome to another in the series of our How to Play TFT trait guides.

Quickdraw is coming to the mid set update, and it’s quite similar to the Recon trait that’s now gone. We will see if Quickdraw can live up to the Recon trait that it’s basically replacing.

Let’s get right into the guide.

If you haven’t checked out all of the Set 8.5 information yet, check out out Set 8.5 Reveal Page!

How Quickdraw Works

Quickdraw units’ abilities are all projectiles. After 2 damaging ability projectiles, they will shoot out an extra ability projectile dealing reduced/increased damage.

Each Quickdraw unit each interacts with this trait a bit differently, but for the most part it’s all the same. Their ability damage is buffed with this trait.

To be perfectly honest, this feels a bit just like a reskin of the Recon trait. While the Recon trait gave Crit Chance and Ability Crit, both traits mainly buff the damage from abilities.

Quickdraw is a bit more flexible as there isn’t a huge incentive to go for 4 Quickdraw, but we’ll see how the comps evolve.

Quickdraw Trait Bonus

Quickdraw: After every 2 damaging ability projectiles, Quickdraw units fire a bonus ability projectile. Bonus shots deal:

Quickdraw (2): 60% total damage

Quickdraw (3): 100% total damage

Quickdraw (4): 140% total damage

Quickdraw Synergy

Since Quickdraw is a class, there likely isn’t any synergy in the origins of the units. As expected, none of the Quickdraw units share origins, but the same was for Recon in Set 8.

Here’s a list of the traits you can branch into with the Quickdraw units.

• Underground
• Parallel
• Star Guardian
• InfiniTeam
• Renegade
• Anima Squad
• Ace

For the most part, the Quickdraw units simply help buff damage without adding much synergy for the rest of the team. However, there is one exception.

Lucian and Ezreal both pair well with Ultimate Ezreal, who is both InfiniTeam and Parallel. This makes the two units have good potential late game, but hitting Ultimate Ezreal isn’t an easy task.

As for Kai’Sa and Miss Fortune, they likely will see more play in their own comps, with Quickdraw as a bonus to their damage if you can fit them in.

Quickdraw Champions

Let’s briefly go over each Champion in the Quickdraw trait and what you can do with them.

Note: The stats for these units were not provided yet, so these are simply filler numbers until we can get their actual numbers from PBE.

Lucian – InfiniTeam + Quickdraw + Renegade

Lucian is the first Quickdraw unit in the game, and his ability is a simple magic damage ability. (Don’t be fooled by the image, he’s definitely a Blue Buff user, not 100 mana pool). It is notable that Lucian has the Renegade trait, but the Renegade trait early on isn’t very impactful, and by the late game, you likely won’t care too much about Lucian.

Lucian may have potential as a 3-star carry, but that entirely depends on the balance numbers. It’s more likely that players will use Lucian as an item holder or trait bonus for other stronger units like Ezreal or Ultimate Ezreal.

Ezreal – Underground + Parallel + Quickdraw

Ezreal, along with the rest of the Quickdraws are returning units, so don’t expect anything too new. Even still, Ezreal does have the new Parallel trait, which makes him much stronger when combined with Ultimate Ezreal.

Instead of dealing  AoE damage with his ability, it will be a piercing wave of damage, similar to that of Sona from Set 7.

The Underground trait also makes Ezreal a perfect 1st or 8th playstyle as you can go all in for a Fast 8 find Ultimate Ezreal strategy, or go 8th.

Kai’Sa – Star Guardian + Quickdraw

Kai’Sa is another returning unit, and honestly, she probably won’t be too different. The only difference now is that you can build Jeweled Gauntlet on her as a decent item.

We saw Recon Threat reroll be a very popular comp in Set 8, and with this new set, I 100% expect people to try Quickdraw Threats with basically the exact game plan.

Recon Emblem did have very good synergy with Bel’Veth, but there’s probably some unit in the set that utilizes Quickdraw Emblem well. Or maybe not and Kai’Sa will see no play, who knows.

Miss Fortune – Anima Squad + Ace + Quickdraw

Lastly, we have Miss Fortune. Once again, just like Kai’Sa, I don’t expect too much excitement from Miss Fortune. Vertical Anima Squad comps were already good in Set 8, and I expect them to also be good in 8.5.

With the new Quickdraw trait, there is now more room to buff up Miss Fortune’s damage, but at the cost of other utility units like Ekko or Alistar. It will be interesting to see if throwing in a random Ezreal or Lucian is worth the damage buff, but outside of that, I don’t expect much innovation here.

Best Quickdraw Augments

There are a lot of different Augments to choose from with the new Hero Augments system.

The Best Hero Augments will change over time as the meta evolves and patches change things. Other than the Hero Augments, here are some general augments to keep in mind.

Quickdraw Heart / Crest / Crown

As with Recon, having the +1 Quickdraw trait is a big boost in damage. At 4 Quickdraw, the extra ability projectile will deal 140% damage, which is quite strong.

Even at 2 Quickdraw, you’re getting some free extra damage you wouldn’t otherwise. As for Quickdraw Emblem, I’m unsure what unit will make the most out of it.

I’m also unsure exactly how the Emblem will interact with certain Champion abilities. More testing will need to be done to figure this one out.

Cybernetic Uplink / Axiom Arc

All of the Quickdraw units (except Kai’Sa), benefit greatly from mana generation. While Kai’Sa’s ability is good, it’s not a priority for her compared to a unit like Miss Fortune.

Good augments will depend greatly on the type of comp you are playing, but for the most part every Quickdraw can use some extra mana.

Jeweled Gauntlet

Lastly, all of the Quickdraw units deal most of their damage through their ability. Because of this, Jeweled Gauntlet is the perfect augment to have. Even with Recon, Jeweled Gauntlet allowed you to drop down to 3 or even 2 Recon.

With Quickdraw not giving any crit related stats, you’re getting full value out of Jeweled Gauntlet in a Quickdraw comp.

Quickdraw Team Comps

The Set isn’t even out on PBE yet at the time of writing this article. As I was able to play in the Preview, I have some insight, but expect optimal team comps to evolve a lot once the set comes to PBE and then releases.

Quickdraw Threat Team Comp

[Link to Builder]

A big part of why Recon comps were strong was that you had a lot of strong reroll targets. Kai’Sa, Vayne, Rammus, and Cho’Gath were all very powerful, especially if you hit all of them.

Personally, I think Morgana is a bit stronger than Cho’Gath, but I’m not 100% sure. Not having Vayne is unfortunate as she was another potential carry, but this  comp will likely be an option to try out.

It’s basically the same comp, except you have Aatrox, Miss Fortune, and Lucian over Zac, Vayne, and Ashe.

Will this be a viable comp? Who knows. If it’s not Kai’Sa will need some help. Or maybe the dev team will leave her in the off meta category of the set.

Ezreal Reroll Team Comp

[Link to Builder]

I talk about this team comp in the InfiniTeam guide, but this is just a simple Ezreal reroll comp that makes good use of the early Quickdraw units.

Lucian and Ezreal pair up early game very well, and if you can hit Ultimate Ezreal, your team will be dealing a ton of damage.

The hard part is hitting Ezreal 3, a strong frontline, and getting to level 8 to find Ultimate Ezreal. Luckily, you have Underground to help you get there… hopefully.

Conclusion

Overall, the new Quickdraw trait doesn’t feel very new. While some things have changed, it’s very reminiscent of Recon. As such, the trait shouldn’t be too difficult to learn.

We hope you enjoyed this guide, and hopefully it helps you climb some ranks. Good luck and have fun!

Thanks for reading! Be sure to check out our meta team comps page, or head to our Team Builder to try and come up with your own comps.