TFT Set 9 Guide: How to Play Demacia

How to Play Demacia

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

Set 9 is finally here, and there are tons of new champions and traits to cover. Demacia is a fan favorite, and lots of  familiar faces are coming back to TFT with this trait.

Let’s get right into the guide.

If you haven’t checked out all of the Set 9 information yet, check out out Set 9 Reveal Page!

How Demacia Works

Demacia combines a mix of bonus defensive stats as well as providing bonus items. As you activate the Demacia trait, you will gain access to Elite units.

Your strongest Demacian unit(s) will become Elite, gaining a bonus Radiant item during combat, and also grant Armor and MR to adjacent allies.

Demacia Trait Bonus

Demacia: During planning phase, your strongest Demacians become Elite and equip a random Radiant Item for the next combat. Elites grant Armor and Magic Resist to themselves and adjacent allies, but this does not stack. Radiant items are upgraded versions of completed items.

• (3): 1 Elite, +10 +10
• (5): 2 Elites, +10 +10
• (7): 3 Elites, +20 +20
• (9): 5 Elites, +30 +30

Demacia Synergy

The Demacian roster has 7 units in total, and here’s a quick rundown of the traits that you can branch from these units:

• Invoker
• Juggernaut
• Strategist
• Slayer
• Sorcerer
• Yordle
• Bastion
• Multicaster

The first thing to note is that there are no shared traits outside of Demacia within these 7 units. This likely means that vertical Demacia comps will be underpowered unless their numbers are tuned highly.

Fortunately, Demacia gains a lot of value simply from the (3) bonus. Making your carry gain a Radiant item, while semi-random, is very strong, and the bonus stats are a nice cherry on top.

Demacia (5) can also likely see some play if you happen to have a frontline and backline carry both in the Demacia trait.

When it comes to (7) and  (9), I find it hard to believe these comps will be consistent unless you have strong bonuses from your Augments that complement your team.

Demacia Champions

Let’s briefly go over each Champion in the Demacia 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.

Kayle

Kayle is the first entry of the Demacia units, and she is essentially the same carry type unit she has been. She will be a backline ranged DPS that scales well with Attack Speed and Ability Power.

This time around, Kayle scales along with your tactician level, capping out at level 9. This is interesting as trying to 3 star Kayle usually means you will be behind on levels. I imagine that a 3-star Kayle at level 9 will be quite powerful to balance this fact. Getting there is usually the hard part.

Poppy

Poppy is the first tank we see for the trait, and Bastion is a solid trait that provides bonuses defenses. Yordle is also something to keep in mind, but that will focus more on the Yordle trait rather than Demacia.

In the case of Demacia comps, her 4-star upgrade doesn’t seem amazing, but if you reroll for Kayle, you might as well reroll for Poppy and Yordles as well. Alternatively, you can also branch into Yordle and look into Teemo carry. Teemo is a Strategist, which will pair alongside Jarvan IV, another Demacian Strategist.

Galio

Galio is the only 2-cost Demacia unit and will round out your early game trio to complete Demacia (3). While he is a tank, his trait is more for utility as Invoker provides bonus mana to teams. If you plan on using an AP carry, Galio can be an option to consider.

Garen

Garen is another frontline unit for Demacia, but his role is to be a hybrid of damage and tank. He will deal AoE damage around him, but he will need to be really tanky in order to survive long enough to carry a team.

As such, if you want to build around Garen, having both Demacia and Juggernaut will be important.

Lastly, Garen spins faster based on his Attack Speed, so buffing that up with items or Augments will be important to scale his damage.

Sona

Sona is a 3-cost Multicaster that will look to provide some damage and utility through Attack Speed buffing. She targets the largest clump of enemies, so you ideally want to be along a diagonal opposite the enemy team to buff up the most allies possible.

In the context of Demacia team comps, her Multicaster trait can be useful for building into a carry like Vel’Koz, while also potentially having 3 Demacia to buff up your tank and frontline.

Jarvan IV

Jarvan is a frontline with great utility, but he isn’t super flexible in terms of his traits. He does fit into some comps, but he isn’t as universal as something like Bruiser Sejuani in Set 8. Even still, he is amazing in the comps he can fit into.

Being a 4-cost tank with a strong CC ability easily makes him a powerful utility unit.

Lux

Lux is the last Demacia unit and she is a single target AP carry. Usually AP carries deal AoE damage or burst damage. Because of this, Lux is quite unique as she deals damage over time (sort of) and single target.

Personally, I’m not a huge fan of single target AP carries, but if her numbers are strong enough, she can definitely be strong enough to be the main carry on a team.

Best Demacia Augments

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

Demacia Heart / Crest / Crown

As with many traits, the options that give +1 Demacia is a simple and effective Augment to pick. However, for Demacia, this bonus is quite effective.

Your team doesn’t actually gain anything from having more Demacian units, so hitting a higher tier will let you buff up your strongest Demacians. Conversely, the bonus is also useless if you have an extra bonus that doesn’t hit a higher tier of Demacia.

Petricite Shackles

Your Demacians deal 15% more damage, increased to 35% against enemies with 100 or more maximum Mana. Gain 3 Demacians.

This Augment provides a solid damage bonus for your Demacian units. With this trait, the more Demacia units you have the better, but as long as your main carry is Demacian, this Augment will still provide enough bonus.

Pumping Up I/II/III (Legend)

Your units gain 5.0% Attack Speed. Each round, increase this by 0.5%.

This Augment is specifically if you want to spam Kayle. Kayle scales with Attack Speed and Ability Power, so having this Attack Speed bonus is great for Kayle comps.

Demacia Team Comps

With everything in mind, let’s go over a few sample team comps for the Demacia 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 Demacia trait.

As different patches come and go, different variations will be better than others, or the trait as a whole might be underpowered. If you want to see meta team comps, be sure to check out our Tier List.

Demacia Kayle Comp

[Link to Builder]

This first comp looks to build around Kayle and the Yordle synergy. Kayle and Poppy will both become Elite units through the Demacia synergy. (note that you only want two items on these units, but we show 4 item options)

However, this comp needs a lot going for it. You’re looking to 3-star 4 different units, Kayle, Poppy, Kled, and Teemo. Furthermore, you want to reach as high level as possible to buff up Kayle, while still upgrading your supporting units.

This comp needs a lot of things to go right, but if they happen, the comp should be quite strong.

Demacia Juggernaut Comp

[Link to Builder]

This next comp builds around Garen as the main carry. Juggernaut 4 provides a very tanky frontline, and Demacia 3 will make Garen an elite unit.

Teemo is the perfect trait bot here as he will provide the team with both Multicaster for Sona and Strategist with Jarvan. If you reach level 8 with this comp, you can simply look to add in a strong 5-cost unit like Sion for some utility.

Demacia Strategist/Multicaster Comp

These next two comps are very similar in the units they run, but differ in carries and when to slow roll.

[Link to Builder]

This first comp is a Teemo carry comp that looks to slow roll at level 6 for 2-cost units (Teemo, Kled, Swain, and Poppy a 1-cost unit). You most likely will want Poppy to become a secondary tank and Elite unit, providing more frontline for the team.

[Link to Builder]

This comp uses very similar units, but uses Vel’Koz as the main carry, with Sona as a semi carry. You will slow roll at level 7 with this comp for Vel’Koz, Sona, and Taric.

Conclusion

Overall, Demacia is a very solid and flexible trait to build around. While the units within the trait don’t overlap much, because they branch into many traits, there are lots of different comps you can play with Demacia splashed in there.

I didn’t cover any Demacia 7 or 9 comps, as I don’t expect them to be very consistent, but they may be strong. Be sure to try things out for yourself and see what works.

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.