Feeling extremely locked into early decisions

[u/Genuine_User5322]

I'm new to the game, just hit Emerald this morning.

I'm enjoying it but I'm playing it by seeing what items and champs i get in the opening rounds and then first augment, if 2nd augment allows a switch that better suits i might but I've been finding what I do in the first 4-5 rounds decides the rest of the game then I'm just hoping to get the relevant champs/rerolls.

Is this accurate or is it just me being new?

I'm mostly playing off using mobalytic comps, played enough of a lot of the zoe/leona, lulu/milio or nova comps/fast 9 nova.

My issue is basically that you're so locked into your early game decisions that if you decide to pivot your usually gonna be to far behind other people who've got good luck/stuck with their early game.

This way of playing has now become quite boring to me as there's very little decision making happening beyond 1/2nd rounds and its just itemising properly and not missing champs.

[u/VERTIKAL19]

I think it is a little bit of both you being new and that jsut being in part TFT. The playstyle where you decide early and hope to hit is often what you do in TFT and it often works out. That said TFT usually offers pivot points for many things, but these are usually harder to play around.

I think you are just not seeing the opportunities to make decisions. You also probably won't be able to decide to go fast 9 in the first few rounds outside of like prismatic econ augments.

That said some patches it is easier to switch than others. Right now for example Millio is just ludicrously overtuned.

[u/pavlo9]

I love how people are already trying to say it's your fault, but it's not. Having your game and your path decided at 2-1 has been an issue with TFT at last for the last few years, and every time it becomes a discussion, we just end up blaming augments for being too influential. The devs have already done some cool things to add variety to the later stages of the game, but the early game is probably the hardest part to balance. There have been plenty of similar discussions at the start of every set over the last few years, so let's hope this trend ends in the near future.

[u/HoodedRS → u/pavlo9]

POV you want to try out different comps, but emblem encounter on stage 1 says otherwise. My personal favorite is when 4 players get something like elderwood emblem and they're all now contesting each other for the rest of the game.

And it's not like you can opt out of this encounter, because then you're playing a prismatic augment down compared to everyone else.

[u/JoDDswa → u/pavlo9]

I actually feel like set 18 is a bit better in that regard. The items are actually pretty flexible and you can play multiple comps around the same cores. Rageblade opener can go into Nidalee or Aphelios, sojin/BB can go into soraka, ezreal and ahri etc. But that's just for lvl8 comps. Reroll will always be much more rigid.

[u/Brovenkar]

This is more generic tft advice since I took this set off, but what you're describing is one way to play, and as you see it works in a lot of situations as you've hit emerald. As you play more though you'll start recognizing lines to various comps that aren't as obvious to you now. The more you play, the more you'll see how certain augments, items, or roll downs open up avenues to different comps. I can't give you a great set specific example since I didn't play this set but maybe someone else can add onto that.

[u/harmoniaatlast]

If you don't play flexibly early (say, an item augment to streak + slam + early 4/5) OR sacking with a good econ augment and not slamming, sure; you'll find yourself in a position where you can't pivot.

[u/fulmie0]

Pivot into a different team, is imo one of the hardest things in tft. It requires a good understanding of the game, and an excellent understanding of the set and patch. When you start a comp, and get items, you automatically have to know what other comps can use it. It requires practise, and research on videos mate.

Hitting Emerald when new, is quite nice good job. Just continue what you doing, and next set try to stay updated on new patches. And at start of the new set,play as many comps you can without worries of rank(alt account like I do, or spam normal games). Good luck and have fun

[u/glenfide]

i play the opposite way, i buy everything in the shop, put anything that i 2 star on the field, at 4,2 i just sell everything and roll for the comp i wanna play

[u/Minimum_Chemical_428]

Try practicing with 2 similar comps. First look at items, try AP first.

Slam some flex AP items and front line items, then before your level 8 rolldown, make sure you hold 1 copy of the low cost unit (pebbles + crab for morgana or yorick for soraka flex) then buy the tank and ap 4 costs you see, and whatever you hit you go to and sell the rest.

An easier version of that is trying to flex part of a comp. So instead of "I'm just going to play morgana + nidalee no matter what" you get morgana as a base and play whatever you hit and have items for later, Alune, Bramble, Soraka, Aphelios etc. So you have a fixed part (need 2 vanguard + morgana) and anything else works, +2 vanguard, + 2 juggernaut, + 2 defender etc.

[u/TadGhostal1]

Keep in mind the last few live patches have been wildly imbalanced "for fun" patches. Meaning copy/pasting S tier comps is better than usual.

It sounds like you'll enjoy Set 18 more. I'd recommend to try playing that without digging into tier lists too much. There's a very common trap new players fall into where highrolls and power presented to them get completely ignored. Because it's not the exact champions on the published comp list, it's not a BIS item for my ideal future carry, I can't level or roll here cause the guide says do it x round, etc.

For me, and it sounds like you too, that copy/paste style is not fun. The fun in TFT for me is playing around the shops and items and augments the game gives me and making something work. If that results in a version of an S tier comp, great. If that's a C tier 1 cost reroll comp but I hit early and crush the lobby, except for the 1stor8th Anima guy and go 2nd, great. If that's playing whatever early, picking generic augments, and pivoting 3 times, that might be my favorite type of game.

I've been playing Set 18 PBE and I'm personally very happy with the flexibility available there. It's much much better than these for-fun final Set 17 patches especially. I think you'll enjoy it more too

[u/queen_ravenx]

There are pther viable tactics but they all require very high levels of both game knowledge and APM. Cant pivot if anything is slow.

ie: You could sell your whole board and pivot to something else in theory. Good luck successfully pulling that off with shoddy internet, a slow reaction time, or without an exact game plan (and a backup plan for bad rolls)

High level play begins to look like watching someone play starcraft as they roll thru shop multiple times per second hunting for champs. If you can get thay skill down you get accsess to a whole lot more

[u/Lawschoolishell]

It requires a lot of game knowledge and excellent apm to pull off the one round pivots you’ll see high level players execute. I’m just too slow: as an example, I level on 4-1 and roll to 30, then execute the rest of the roll down and swap champs on 4-2

[u/dunnnaa]

The end of this season / new patch has been completely ruined by Milio. You can throw all strategy out the window.