TFT Set 12 Guide: How to Play Blaster

How to Play Blaster — TFT Set 12: Magic N’ Mayhem

Welcome to our trait guide, where we’ll be covering the Blaster trait in the new TFT Set 12.

In this guide, we’ll explain how Blaster works, cover the different champions, provide notable Augment choices, and cover some potential team comps.

Explore all of the new Set 12 traits here!

How TFT Blaster Works

Blaster Trait Bonus

Blasters gain bonus damage, which increases for 3 seconds after casting their Ability.

• (2) 7% bonus damage; 25% after casting
• (4) 15% bonus damage; 40% after casting
• (6) 30% bonus damage; 89% after casting

Blasters are mostly DPS oriented units with a focus on their ability. This makes the trait flexible as there are AP focused Blasters and AD focused Blasters.

In a general sense, many of them scale well with Attack Speed and Mana generation. Having some form of Crit is also nice as ability damage is a good portion of a Blaster’s kit.

Blaster Synergy

Here are all of the Blaster Champions and their other traits:

• Rumble (2G) – Sugarcraft + Vanguard
• Tristana (2G) – Faerie
• Ezreal (3G) – Portal
• Hwei (3G) – Frost
• Varus (4G) – Pyro
• Smolder (5G) – Dragon

Interestingly, there is no 1-cost Blaster. It’s not common for Class traits to have overlap, and Blaster is no exception. While it will be easy to run 2 Blaster units and activate their Origin traits, it gets much harder if you want to go up to 4 Blaster or 6 Blaster.

In metas where 4 Blaster or 6 Blaster are meta, you usually run a few just to be trait bots. If you happen to get a Blaster Emblem from an Augment or Charm, you gain a ton of flexibility when it comes to team building.

TFT Blaster Champions

Rumble (2G) – Blaster + Sugarcraft + Vanguard

[See Rumble’s Champion Page]

Rumble is interesting because he’s the only dedicated frontline unit for the Blaster trait. Since Rumble is a Vanguard, you may think that building Vanguard as your frontline is natural for a Blaster team comp.

However, this doesn’t necessarily seem to be the case. If you look at the roster of Bastion units, the Origin overlap is much more enticing than the Vanguards.

Even still, Rumble has a Hero Augment that can turn him into a carry, and having three traits to buff him up is important.

Tristana (2G) – Blaster + Faerie

[See Tristana’s Champion Page]

Tristana is our other 2-cost Blaster, and she plays into the Faerie trait. As a 2-cost unit, her value on a team comp is difficult to assess.

She can definitely be part of a reroll comp, but there 4 other Blasters that are higher cost than her. This makes it likely that you look to replace Tristana for another option late game unless you want to hit Blaster (6).

We generally don’t recommend Blaster 6 unless you have an Emblem. Using too many unit slots on offense can backfire if you don’t kill the enemy team fast enough.

Ezreal (3G) – Blaster + Portal

[See Ezreal’s Champion Page]

Ezreal is one of  two 3-cost units for the Blaster trait, which opens up potential for a reroll comp. Having two Blaster units that are 3-cost can make rerolling easier.

If you hit one or the other, you can power spike and help you stabilize until you hit both or choose to level up.

Ezreal’s ability is fairly simple, dealing AoE damage with a movement aspect as well. Hopefully the AI is good and Ezreal doesn’t through the fight by dashing into danger.

Hwei (3G) – Blaster + Frost

[See Hwei’s Champion Page]

Hwei is the other 3-cost Blaster, and his ability is also AoE damage. Every third cast, he will target extra units with the lowest percent Health.

This can synergize with Ezreal. If Ezreal’s ability deals damage to a backline unit and almost kills them, Hwei can clean up the job with his ability.

Varus (4G) – Blaster + Pyro

[See Varus’ Champion Page]

Up next, we have Varus, the traditional 4-cost carry for the Blaster trait. Like the other Blasters, his ability is damage focused and has AoE as well.

If you want to play around Varus as your carry, you likely won’t reroll for Ezreal/Hwei since that will make finding all of them too difficult.

With Varus, you should look to push levels to find strong 4/5-cost units to power up your team. Even still, anything can happen. It’s possible a 4 Blaster comp itemizing all of them is viable.

Smolder (5G) – Blaster + Dragon

[See Smolder’s Champion Page]

Smolder is making his TFT debut in Set 12, and he flys around the board, attacking enemies with fireballs. We’ve seen similar champions before, like Singed from Set 2 or Aurelion Sol from Set 3.

Smolder will be the most powerful when activating the Dragon (3) trait, but this makes your team building less flexible.

Even still, Smolder will likely be a strong unit without his Dragon upgrade as long as you have some Blasters alongside him.

Best TFT Blaster Augments

Blaster Crest/Crown

Gain a Blaster Emblem and a Tristana.

In general, running 4 Blasters can be quite demanding for the trait bonus. With an Emblem, you’re able to get the 4 Blaster trait while effectively only using 3 team slots.

This makes it much easier to fit 4 Blaster. Furthermore, the Emblem allows you to buff up another unit that isn’t a Blaster.

Molten Caramel

Gain a Rumble. Your strongest Rumble’s Ability does 166% damage and costs 30 less Mana but no longer reduces damage.

This Augment is Rumble’s Hero Augment and turns him from a frontline into a carry. As a carry, you’ll want to buff him up with traits like Sugarcraft, Vanguard, and Blaster.

The Blaster trait doesn’t have a specific trait Augment, but in general, combat Augments will be a great way to buff up your team.

TFT Blaster Team Comps

As of writing this article, the PBE has yet to even release yet. While I was fortunate enough to participate in the playtest for Set 12, we definitely need more time to test/theorycraft team comps.

Be sure to check back as I’ll be updating this section with potential Blaster team comps. We also will be updating our TFT Team Comps page as our team plays the PBE.

Blaster Bastion Team Comp

[Link to Builder]

Firstly, this comp uses the Bastion trait instead of Vanguard to synergize with the Blasters. Here’s a breakdown of some of the overlapping traits.

• Ezreal/Taric – Portal
• Varus/Shen – Pyro
• Hwei/Diana – Frost

For this team comp, I decided to omit Frost as it doesn’t provide too much for the overall team. This team comp also doesn’t use the Dragon trait and instead focuses more on Varus as the main carry. Smolder and Diana are strong secondary item holders.

Dragon Blaster Team Comp

[Link to Builder]

This second comp doesn’t go for 4 Blaster and instead uses the Shapeshifter trait as the main frontline. You still activate Pyro with Nasus, and Shyvana gives you Dragon.

Instead of going for 4 Blaster, this comp only uses two with Smolder and Varus as the main carrys. This allows you to add in stronger units like Morgana and Briar into the team comp.

You can even look to transition into this team comp if you were planning on playing Blaster 4. The main thing to keep in mind is that you would need to transition your old frontline into a Shapeshifter one.

Thanks for Reading! If you want to try and come up with your own team comps for Set 12, check out our Team Builder. For a full overview on the new set, check out our TFT Set 12 Reveal Page.