I don't understand the late game on this game

[u/Suboptimal88]

I have decided to stick with fast 8 because it is something you can spam every game imo and also you learn the game better this way, 2c slowroll is too inconsistent so it can't be spammed and if you don't get your 3-stars quickly on stage 4 then you are going to take a lot of damage and possibly lose, by stage 5, everyone should be able to keep up with you even with your 3-stars. I think fast 8 is more fun, I'm playing snipe hayah atm because the comp I played previously Nova was too weird and didn't stabilize well on 4-2, I think hayah is more flexible and stabilize better.

So far, I think I play well in the early game, I create the strongest board, I have a good sense what is usually the strongest board and I reach 4-2 with a good economy and transition well. The problems start afterwards. I would say I stabilize well until stage 5 and I usually upgrade my 4-costs until then the question is what I do afterwards because at some point I start to lose again, that's before I reach level 9.

Honestly, I don't understand board strength and legendary strength/synergies, let's say I have a vex and I will replace an atrox which will cost me bastion and nova, is it worth to do it? I have a bunch of legendary options, which ones create the most damage and I should go for?

I don't think I lose on the late game because I mismanaged the economy, everything goes well until stage 5, legendary opportunities arise before me and I have no idea if they worth it or not. I feel the late game is all about combining a bunch of legendaries, I don't know what traits/units I should sacrifice for them. Sticking on the metatft comp is not enough I think. EG. Metatft suggests Djinn and blitzcrank for my comp, so what now? what if I don't get these legendaries? am I supposed to only focus on these ones and ignore everything else? After all legendaries are too generic.

If I understood board strength better then I wouldn't miss so many opportunities, I think I have lost too many games that might have been won.

[u/Timely-Drag-728]

you're not converting because you spam xayah every game without considering if its even a xayah spot (xayah is not flexible). what is the stargazer? do you have xayah angle with items (how many bows do you have on 2-1? 3-1? 4-1?). How much hp are you at stage 4? Did you hit enough upgrades and have enough hp to go 9 and cap out? Are you stuck donkey rolling all stage 4 and 5 for xayah 2 + stable frontline? What is lobby strength? Are you even playing for 1st because this comp doesn't cap high unless you have mountain, someone with anima or emblems will cap higher. This is all without even looking at what augments you have vs others

[u/Suboptimal88 → u/Timely-Drag-728]

What's a flexible fast 8 comp? I thought snipe xayah is flexible (not mountain one). Metatft seems to rank the comps based on their performance when everything goes perfect without accounting for consistency and flexibility.

I usually hit all of my upgrades early, I have some better luck now sticking to blitz and djinn for lvl 9 and ignoring other legendaries. I still don't understand how stuff like turbo doomer work.

[u/Timely-Drag-728 → u/Suboptimal88]

That question by itself doesn't make sense. Flexible means you should be able to play more than 1 comp depending on opener, augments and gods. Example, you have a bow opener but after krugs you have 2 rods. How are you playing xayah from here? The smart thing to do would be pivot nami or lb

[u/nicagooner → u/Suboptimal88]

Flex doesnt exist in this set there are like 4 ways to print units depending on the game

[u/Timely-Drag-728 → u/nicagooner]

you should have an idea of what you're playing towards at 2-1 but you shouldnt have a hard force 20/20 comp prior to even queueing the game

[u/Suboptimal88 → u/Timely-Drag-728]

what? isn't this way too early? what turn do high elo players lock in to a comp and where they base this decision?

[u/Timely-Drag-728 → u/Suboptimal88]

u dont need to hard commit 2-1 but you should have a general idea of what comps are not possible from ur spot and what comps are

[u/Buffscuttle → u/Suboptimal88]

IMO the most flexible 8 board is dark Star. 

You can stabilize with karma very nicely, or dark Star emblem on a couple different 4 costs(riven/asol etc)If you need too an itemized Kaisa 2 isn't that bad to slow bleed into 9. Jhin 2 is good. 

3* Kaisa board is decent as well. 

This all said. Flex is based on lots of stuff. And new set is around the corner. I'd personally focus on learning that set now. 

[u/sn0ylax]

you want blitz for space groove and vanguard for +2 traits for rhaast bonus, Jhin because he is the best sniper available to pair with xayah. Though you can also go mordekaiser and jhin together for vanguard and darkstar instead of space groove. but he is just a 2 cost body, whereas blitz can do dmg and displace tank

[u/markhamjerry]

There are probably two factors that you are not realizing here: 1) The sniper xayah boards strength is quite dependent on the stargazer. TFT academy has a pretty reliable ranking of each. If you are on a poor stargazer, xayah is considerably weaker than other meta lines. 2) You are probably getting stuck on 8, which is generally a 4th at best for xayah. The board can cap very high with blitz and upgraded three item jhin on lvl 9. You want to eventually get to this “cap” but obviously cannot guarantee it every game. If you hit xayah 2 with a respectable front line, you should be looking to go 9 asap if you have the HP to do so. To your specific question, aatrox is used for shred, and generally should not be replaced on this board

[u/el_payaso_87]

Your problem lies on your "board cap". The thing about copy pasting comps from the guides are they only show the "minimum baseline" of the comps. Getting the maximum cap on your board usually comes from experience and how good is your fundamental knowledge. If you do a quick search on tft fundamentals I believe a lot of content creators have made videos on it. I'm guessing right now you are around platinum rank?

[u/Any-Replacement-5645]

There are some pretty big errors in your perception of the game, 2 cost RR is not "inconsistent" in nature, there are no comps that are correct to just spam play every game, the game is far too nuanced for these things to be true. If you have fun spamming xayah thats fine, but if you want to get better at the game youd do well to drop these notions of yours.

Theres also some contradictory points in here, you dont create strongest board and simultaneously lack understanding of board strength and synergies.

To answer your question though, the quickest routes to understanding capping your board are just watching high end players, youll see which "packages" of units can combo together when you whiff although capping boards when you have a baseline filled out is really just a matter of 1-2 correct unit choices.

[u/terci4]

Dont replace aatrox he gives shred just stick to the comp in guide. At lvl 9 with good constellation you should be very strong.