TFT Set 9.5 Guide: How to Play Ixtal

How to Play Ixtal

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

Set 9.5 brings a few new traits to the game, and Ixtal is the most unique of the new traits. The trait is a call back to Set 2’s “Elemental Hexes.” These hexes will buff up your units in different ways depending on each game.

Let’s get right into the guide.

If you haven’t checked out all of the Set 9.5 information yet, check out our Set 9.5 Reveal Page!

How Ixtal Works

When you activate the Ixtal trait, you will gain access to Elemental Hexes. These hexes change location and effect every game, making it a very unique trait to play around. There are 6 different Elemental Hexes, and each will buff up the unit standing on it in a different way.

You start out with 1 hex at (2) and then gain an additional hex at (3). If you are able to get 4 Ixtal (which requires a non-craftable Emblem or Augment), your hexes will gain a bonus effect.

Ixtal Trait Bonus

Ixtal: Gain elemental hexes, which give a different bonus from game to game.

• (2): 1 Hex
• (3): 2 Hexes
• (4): Bonus Effect

Ixtal Elemental Hexes

Here is a list of all of the Elemental Hexes and what they do:

Note: these bonuses may be different on release

• Electric: The first time an enemy takes damage from each empowered champion’s ability, they are stunned for two seconds.
  • Bonus Effect: Empowered champions can stun each enemy once every 6 seconds instead.
• Fire: Damage received from an empowered champion’s ability sets enemies ablaze, dealing 45% of ability damage dealt as magic damage and burning them for 1% of their max HP each second, over three seconds.
  • Bonus Effect: Fires deal 90% of Ability damage dealt and 2% Burn instead.
• Ice: The first time each empowered champion is reduced below 30% HP, they will get covered by a protective ice layer and will become untargetable. They will also heal for 30% of their max health over two seconds.
  • Bonus Effect: After getting frozen, adjacent enemies take 30% of their max health as magic damage.
• Stone: Empowered champions become immune to crowd control effects and reduce incoming damage by 20% for 8 seconds.
  • Bonus Effect: Empowered champions heal 550 on takedown.
• Wind: The empowered champions gain 40% Attack Speed for four seconds at the start of combat and every time they use their ability.
  • Bonus Effect: Bonus Attack Speed stacks and lasts until the end of combat.
• Wood: The champions who are empowered by the Wood hexes gain 10% max health. At the start of combat, they also gain 20 permanent max health and also grow in size.
  • Bonus Effect: Every four seconds, the empowered champions gain 15 Ability Power (AP) and 15% Attack Damage (AD).

Ixtal Synergy

There are only 3 Ixtal units, so there isn’t any overlap in their traits. Here’s a list of the other traits shared in from the Ixtal units.

• Invoker
• Rogue
• Slayer
• Bastion

Because Ixtal is such a small trait, you likely won’t be flexing it into too many comps.

However, Neeko being a 3-cost Bastion is quite flexible, so depending on certain Hex combinations, we could see Neeko +1 Ixtal being flexed into other comps. They can also be used in the early to mid game while playing strongest board as well.

Even still, since Milio and Qiyana are low cost units, it will be difficult to imagine a meta where they are put into late game boards outside of Ixtal specific comps.

Ixtal Champions

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

Note: These abilities are based off the PBE, so while the values may have changed, the overall champion design should remain the same.

Milio – Invoker + Ixtal

Milio is the first entry in the Ixtal trait. He is an AP damage unit with a unique targeting mechanic. Milio will target his target initially, but his ability will bounce behind his target, and then explode in a small AoE.

This makes positioning Milio extremely important as you want his bounce to hit enemy carries. Similarly, positioning against Milio is just as important, as there are ways to basically ensure that your carry doesn’t get hit at the start of the fight.

Qiyana – Rogue + Slayer + Ixtal

Qiyana is the next Ixtal unit and is a 2-cost Rogue Slayer. She’s basically replacing Zed as the 2-cost Rogue Slayer, but with Ixtal instead of Ionia.

Her ability is a mix of damage and CC, which usually isn’t common for carries, but her CC can potentially be more impactful than a pure damaging ability.

Milio and Qiyana seem to be the carry targets for a reroll Ixtal comp, but the viability will depend on the balance of the units and their stats.

Neeko – Bastion + Ixtal

Neeko is the 3-cost Ixtal unit and the most flexible of the three. Bastion makes Neeko a solid frontline unit on many team comps, and she can even be used mid game to play strongest board.

Unlike other Bastions, Neeko’s ability also deals decent damage, so there’s even potential to use her as a tank/carry hybrid unit.

Even if you don’t play heavily into Ixtal, you can still look to use Neeko as a solid unit, and either Qiyana or Milio as a trait bot to buff up your main carry.

Best Ixtal Augments

Here is a quick list of some of the standout Augments for the Ixtal trait.

Ixtal Heart / Crest / Crown

Getting 4 Ixtal gives your comp access to very powerful hex effects. However, you are very likely pigeonholed into playing around Milio or Qiyana as your main carry. If you want to itemize a different carry, taking up two board slots for Milio and Qiyana is a huge liability.

Those slots could be Sion and Heimerdinger or something like that. Time will tell if the bonus effect hexes are strong enough to warrant running outside of Ixtal specific comps.

Rejuvenating Flames

Allies heal for 10% of their maximum Health every 5 seconds. Allies that started combat in an elemental hex heal for 15% instead. Gain 2 Ixtal Champions.

This is the origin specific Augment for Ixtal, and it provides a lot of sustainability to your team comp. Even still, 5 seconds is quite a long time, and Ixtal comps generally are reroll comps that use less units.

I don’t have high hopes for this Augment as you aren’t getting a ton of value from the Augment when you’re rerolling and running less units.

Even still, if you can stack this healing with something like Targon, it could potentially be very powerful if your opponent doesn’t have any scaling damage in their team comp.

Ixtal Team Comps

With everything in mind, let’s go over some sample team comps for the Vanquisher trait. Keep in mind that these team comps aren’t meant to reflect the meta. These are simply different paths you can go down when approaching the Vanquisher trait.

As different patches come and go, different variations will be better than others, or the trait as a whole might be underpowered.

Milio Reroll Comp

This first comp is likely what will be most popular for Ixtal comps. This is mainly due to the synergy between the 3 units, Milio, Neeko, and Shen.

This is essentially the Invoker Karma comp, but instead of Karma, you’re rerolling for Milio. It’s a bit awkward because this comp only rerolls for 1 unit (Milio). However, if you can hit lots of copies early, this comp can be a solid option to go for.

I do worry that Invoker Karma will just be the better comp, as you’re rerolling for multiple units like Karma and Taric. I could even see an Invoker Karma comp flexing into Ixtal as you only need to add in Neeko to get the Elemental Hex bonus. If the Hex buffs up Karma well, it can be something to keep in mind.

Qiyana Reroll Comp

I don’t have huge hopes for this comp as you kind of need to run a bunch of useless units to keep the traits Ixtal and Rogue. Usually, Rogue comps like these are either super broken, or just straight bad.

Even still, a Qiyana carry comp could be something that’s good in one patch or another. I don’t expect it to look exactly like this, but I thought I’d show this as a baseline.

Ixtal Flex Comp

The last comp I want to cover is the idea of using Ixtal to buff up a non-Ixtal unit. In this case, I decided to go with Xayah, but it can theoretically be just about any carry. I decided to showcase Xayah because she pairs with Shen for Ionia, and Shen is a great unit to pair with the Ixtal units.

A comp like this is really only good if the Ixtal hex buffs up the unit you’re planning to run. For example, I might consider trying this comp if the Hex is Wind, but not so much if it’s Wood. If it’s something like Electric or Fire, you could also try to empower Ahri, but finding Ahri consistently is not easy.

Lastly, the position of the Elemental Hex also matters a lot. If the hex is in the front row, this comp wouldn’t be viable. There may be some other flex comp that can use a short range carry, but the possibilities are really endless, so I can’t cover them all.

Conclusion

All in all, Ixtal is, in my opinion, the most exciting trait coming to Set 9.5. The trait can be very simple if you just play a reroll comp, but it also has a lot of flex potential depending on how you use the hex.

Ixtal will hopefully give the set a lot of replay value as there are tons of combinations to explore with this trait.

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.