Lead TFT developer responds to Zeke’s Herald balancing backlash

Lead developer of Teamfight Tactics Mortdog has responded after players demand nerfs to Zeke’s Herald stacking strategy.

Set 9 of TFT, Runeterra: Reforged is easily the biggest set that Teamfight Tactics has ever seen. Including the release of brand new units, traits, and augments, we also received the Portals mechanic which gives variance between game to game. Add on top of this Legends, which allow players to guarantee certain augments throughout the game.

Unfortunately, with the many new changes have come a bunch of problems. The Public Beta Environment wasn’t able to handle the sheer amount of players keen to hop into Set 9, buckling under the pressure. On top of that, the meta has taken a turn for the worst on live, with many players building multiple Zeke’s Heralds to win their matches.

Zeke’s Herald gives the unit and adjacent allies attack speed, making it a great supportive item for carries. The item can be stacked as well, resulting in a huge increase in stats for those who commit to building the item. Gaining the same components for this item is generally exceedingly difficult, but that has changed with the Twisted Fate Legend. With the community up in a fuss, the lead developer Mortdog has responded.

Lead developer Mortdog responds to Zeke’s Herald unique nerf

Mortdog responded to a player’s inquiry about making the effect of Zeke’s Herald unique.

“Wouldn’t making Zeke’s unique solve the problem? Nope. And making Zeke’s unique is just designed arbitrarily said Zeke’s is unique for no reason. There is no logical reason for why Zeke’s should ever be unique. And that’s bad design, to just arbitrarily slap a label on something because you can’t balance it.” the developer stated.

It’s not certain what Riot has in the plans for balancing Zeke’s Herald stacking. But with the strategy infesting the meta and being one of the strongest around, Riot will need to ensure they make some changes to switch up the game’s balancing in the near future.