Mecha is interesting as it has two forms - a regular form and an ultimate form. In the ultimate form, the Mecha units upgrade their ability and gain health. They also count twice toward the Mecha trait. On top of this, they take up two team slots while in their Ultimate forms.
Riot has experimented with taking up two team slots before - namely through the Dragons in Set 7. It was a learning experience for them as it was quite hard to balance. However, Dragons were not locked to a single trait like Mecha will be.
Champions: Urgot 3g / Aurelion Sol 4g / The Mighty Mech 4g
Innate: Mecha units can transform into their Ultimate form, upgrading their ability and gaining 60% Health. Transformed Mechas take up two team slots and count twice for the Mecha trait.
(3) Energy Cells: Mechas gain 20% AD & AP.
(4) Overclocked Cells: Increased to 35% AD & AP.
(6) Precision Engineering: +1 max team size
Mecha Champions and Synergy
There are only 3 Mecha so there are very limited options for trait webs
Urgot (3G) - Brawler + Marauder
The Mighty Mech (4G) - Voyager
Aurelion Sol (4G) - Channeler
The Mecha Trait
There are only 3 Mecha units, but this makes sense if they are in their ultimate forms. If all 3 Mechas are in their ultimate forms, then they activate the Mecha 6 which gives your team an additional unit size. This makes the downside of 6 Mecha a lot less. This is also interesting because this is the first time that we have had traits that give us an additional team size! It is cool to see this experimentation in a trait!
All of the Mechas are three or four gold which means this is more of a mid or possibly even late game trait. This is not a trait that people will have in early stages most likely, but if someone were to get lucky enough to have all 3 Mechas in late Stage 2 or Stage 3, my guess is that they would take out the competition pretty quickly. This was also what was seen when people hit Dragons (4 cost) early on level 5 during stage 2. I would not be surprised if that was the case for Mechas as well. On the bright side, because these units can take up two slots in their Ultimate forms, this means that people take less damage from an early Mecha tax.
For capping out with this trait, I am guessing a lot of the time people will pivot out of the Mechas and go for more Legendaries. However, Bard being a Channeler with Aurelion Sol and likely a strong unit in this set - means that the Mecha trait will have Legendary options for capping out which is incredibly important if people do want to stay with the Mecha trait.
Urgot has the ability Unstoppable Dreadnought. This ability has a passive and an active ability. The passive is Proximity Blast where whenever an enemy enters a specific range he fires a blast in a cone towards the closest adjacent hex that deals (AD) physical damage which falls off per a hex.
Each adjacent hex has a cooldown as well. With his active, he gains a (AP) shield for a number of seconds and he dashes behind the current target - resetting Proximity’s Blast's cooldowns.
The Mighty Mech has the ability Gravity Matrix that costs 100 mana. Mighty Mech enters a defensive stance for a number of seconds gaining durability. While in the defensive stance, he attracts nearby enemy projectives and heals (AP) health over the duration of the defensive stance.
When it ends, he releases a shockwave that deals scaling Armor & MR as physical damage in a determined hex range.
Aurelion Sol is a Channeler with the ability Deathbeam. Aurelion Sol channels a deathbeam in a line towards the current target for a duration of seconds. It deals damage per a second (AP) magic damage, reduced per enemy it passes through. Deathbeam ignores a percent of the enemy’s magic resist.
Aurelion Sol will likely benefit from flat ability power in his items since he naturally ignores some of the enemy’s magic resistance. If fights go long, then Archangels might be a good choice for him as well.
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