TFT Set 11 Guide: How to Play Trickshot

How to Play Trickshot — TFT Set 11: Inkborn Fables

Welcome to our TFT trait guide series, where I’ll be covering the Trickshot trait and how to play it. I’ll be covering how Arcanist works, analyzing each champion, and go through some potential team comps.

In general, classes often come back in TFT with similar effects. While there may be some slight changes or a name change, classes usually have a similar feel across sets.

The Arcanist class is the classic AP buffing class. By putting more in your team, you’ll buff up the AP of your entire team.

Let’s get right into the guide.

If you haven’t checked out all of the Set 11 information yet, check out out Set 11 Reveal Page!

How Trickshot Works

Trickshot Trait Bonus

Trickshots’ abilities ricochet. Each ricochet deals a percentage of the previous bounce’s damage.

• (2): 1 richochet; 40% of the previous damage
• (4): 2 ricochets; 60% of previous damage

Champions: Sivir (1), Teemo (2), Bard (3), Kai’Sa (4), Xayah (5)

The Trickshot trait is a fairly straightforward trait. When activated, the abilities will bounce between enemies, dealing more damage.

Trickshot Synergy

Here’s a list of the traits you can branch into from the Trickshot units:

• Storyweaver (Sivir)
• Fortune (Teemo)
• Mythic (Bard)
• Inkshadow (Kai’Sa)
• Dragonlord (Xayah)
• Lovers (Xayah)

Considering the Trickshot trait is quite small, it’s unlikely that there will be an overlap between the Origin traits. Every Trickshot unit can be the carry in a team comp, but their viability depends on the meta.

Since Trickshot also caps out at (4), you won’t need to fill your entire team with them, giving you plenty of space for other units.

Trickshot Champions

Let’s briefly go over each Champion in the Trickshot trait and what you can do with them. To check the updated stats and ability values, be sure to check each Champion Page.

Sivir (1) – Trickshot + Storyweaver

[Link to Champion Page]

Sivir is the first Trickshot, and her ability buffs up nearby allies. This makes her a solid unit even in the late game. While there are better units later on, if you can make use of her traits and ability, she will be a strong addition.

In the early game, she can also hold AD items to be your backline damage.

Teemo (2) – Trickshot + Fortune

[Link to Champion Page]

Moving on, we have Teemo, an AP based Trickshot unit. If you’re playing around the Fortune trait, he’s a solid unit to put items onto. You can also use Fortune in the early game to go for a big cashout. After this cashout, you can then pivot into a Trickshot team comp without Fortune.

If you’re high rolling very hard, you can try to keep Fortune and go for 7 as well.

Bard (3) – Trickshot + Mythic

[Link to Champion Page]

Bard is next Trickshot unit, and his damage is split between AP and AD. His Mythic trait also gives him bonus stats. You’ll often look to build Rageblade on Bard, as this efficiently scales his damage.

Outside of Bard carry comps, you can use him to reach 4 Trickshot as well. If you’re playing around 2 Trickshot, you’ll likely have Bard as your carry or use other Trickshots instead.

Kai’Sa (4) – Trickshot + Inkshadow

[Link to Champion Page]

Up next, we have Kai’Sa. Her ability fires a ton of waves toward the enemy, which will ricochet with Trickshot. If an enemy is hit by 10 waves, they take increased damage from the waves as well.

Her Inkshadow trait is something you can play around, but that is meta dependent. Some metas, vertical Inkshadow will be strong, and in others, going for 4 Trickshot might be better.

Xayah (5) – Trickshot + Dragonlord + Lovers

[Link to Champion Page]

Lastly, we have Xayah. She is another late game Trickshot unit that is an AD carry. She also has the Dragonlord trait, allowing you to flex in other Dragonlord units.

You can reach Trickshot 4 without finding Xayah, but finding her will be ideal as you can then replace one of your weaker Trickshots like Sivir/Teemo/Bard.

Trickshot Best Augments

For this section, I’ll be covering some Augments that particularly synergize with the trait. Lots of Augments are universal, like economy based Augments or item Augments, but I’ll try to cover particular synergies to look out for.

You can check out the full list of Augments here.

Lucky Ricochet

Trickshots bounce 1 additional time for 40% of original damage.

This first Augment is the Trickshot specific Augment. This will allow your Trickshots to ricochet one additional time. While this isn’t technically a 40% increase in damage, it still helps scale your main carrys damage very well.

Being able to ricochet an additional time also means they’re more likely to bounce to a weaker backline target, which can be very beneficial.

Overall, it’s an easy pick up if you’re playing Trickshot.

Jeweled Lotus II/III

Your team gains 15/40% Critical Strike chance, and their Abilities can critically strike.

Jeweled Lotus is another strong Augment for Trickshots. Since a majority of their damage comes from their ability, being able to crit with it provides a nice damage boost.

Infinity Edge and Jeweled Gauntlet are still fine to build with this Augment as well. These items now grant bonus Crit Damage if your ability can already crit.

With 25% base chance to crit and 35% from IE/JG, you’re at 60%. With Jeweled Lotus III, this will turn into 100% Crit Chance. With Jeweled Lotus II, you’ll be at 75% instead.

In this situation, you can look to build items like Hand of Justice/Guardbreaker/Last Whisper, which inherently grant 20% Critical Strike Chance from Sparring Gloves.. (Ending up at 95%)

Two Healthy

Your units gain 111 health for each 2 cost unit you field.

This Augment is strong with Trickshots due to Trickshot comps often going for Bruiser frontlines. Because of this, you end up playing units like Aatrox, Riven, and Teemo, all of which are 2-cost.

Trickshot Bruiser comps also tend to play Senna before they find Udyr, another strong 2-cost that helps you hit Inkshadow 3. With this Augment, that’s another strong 2-cost to buff up your team’s Health.

If you’re playing a specific Trickshot comp like Reroll Bard, this Augment won’t be as good.

Trickshot Team Comps

The Set has finally released, and our team has been working hard experimenting on the PBE. Here are some early team comps you can try out.

As the playerbase plays more and more games, stronger meta comps will definitely rise up the meta. Be sure to stay up to date on the current meta at our Team Comp Tier List.

4 Trickshot 4 Bruiser

[Link to Full Guide]

This first comp is the most traditional team comp for Trickshot. The comp has 5 frontline units and 4 backline units, a nice even split. At level 8, you’ll probably look to run 4/4.

Kai’Sa is the main carry for the comp, with Xayah being a secondary late game carry. Teemo can also hold AP items while also helping in the early/mid game.

Galio is the dedicated tank, with Sylas and Udyr being mixes of damage and frontline.

It’s a fairly straightforward comp to play, but there’s a lot of flexibility with how you approach the early and late game.

Teemo Carry

[Link to Full Guide]

This comp is basically the same 8 units above, but it revolves around Teemo 3-star instead. In the current patch, we wouldn’t recommend trying to go for Teemo 3 and instead level up normally. Kai’Sa is a powerful and strong carry, so risking it for Teemo is not usually ideal.

However, if you find tons of Teemo copies, this is something you can look to play around. You can always level up and itemize Kai’Sa/Xayah as well.

If you’re able to hit everything, your comp will be stronger with Teemo 3, but it’s inherently more risky to try.

Bard Carry

[Link to Full Guide]

For this comp, we have Bard as the main Trickshot carry. Instead of playing around Kai’Sa and Inkshadow, we instead have Mythic units.

This comp uses less expensive units, but you want to 3-star Bard and Tahm Kench to really hit your power spike.

Trickshot Dragonlord Flex

This is another level 9 team comp you can potentially go for. Instead of playing around 4 Trickshot/4 Bruiser, this comp uses the Dragonlord trait.

This comp arguably has an even more powerful ceiling, but is more expensive to hit. If you’re able to go Fast 9, you can look to itemize around Kai’Sa/Udyr/Azir.

The Dragonlord trait will provide a lot of utility as well. This comp will shine more in games you have lots of items from Augments/Encounters to itemize multiple carrys.

Vertical Inkshadow

[Link to Full Guide]

Lastly, we have a vertical Inkshadow comp. In the current meta, 4 Trickshot/4 Bruiser seems to be more powerful and consistent, so this comp isn’t as advised.

However, this comp is still an option to keep in mind. If you can’t find your Bruiser units, playing around this team comp can help you place higher.

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.