Teamfight Tactics strategy makes champions basically immortal

While testing out the upcoming Teamfight Tactics changes on the League of Legends Public Beta Environment (PBE), Twitch streamer Hafu encountered a strategy that made an enemy champion effectively immortal.

Hafu is one of the top Teamfight Tactics players, being the highest-ranked during the original PBE phase and finishing in the top-four of Pokimane’s TFT tournament, but she was completely shut down by a strategy that allowed the enemy Shyvana to win a 1v8 against her team.

It was a must-win round for Hafu, who only had 1 HP, and she started off the fight looking strong, with her team wiping out the enemy line-up with relative ease and leaving only a single champion for eight of her own units to deal with.

Unfortunately, that champion was a level-three Shyvana wearing a Thornmail, Hextech Gunblade, and Warmog’s Armor, which proved absolutely impossible for Hafu’s team to kill, and she could only watch as it wiped out her team one-by-one.

Unlike some carry builds which put focus on maximizing the damage output of the carry champion – such as the Akali one-shot build or the Lucian strategy that deals absurd amounts of damage incredibly quickly – this strategy focuses more on keeping the carry alive.

The Thornmail reflects 35% of all damage taken, while on the PBE Hextech Gunblade allows the champion to heal 33% of the damage they deal (up from 25% on live) and Warmog’s Armor regenerates 6% of their max health (up from 3% on live).

• Read more: How to play Teamfight Tactics: Beginner’s guide, champion tier list, more

These aren’t the only defensive bonuses Shyvana gets in this composition, however. With an Aurelion Sol also in the line-up, Shyvana benefits from the Dragon trait bonus, becoming immune to magic damage, and with three Shapeshifters she also gets 100% increased health.

The result is a Shyvana that is effectively immortal, with the significant damage of Hafu’s Elementalist-Assassin composition barely even making a dent in the champion’s health as she marched to a solo victory.

With the likes of Hextech Gunblade and Warmog’s Armor getting buffs on the PBE, this strategy obviously won’t be quite as powerful on the current live servers – although it might still be very successful, and unless Riot make further balance changes this patch is likely to go live in a matter of days.

It’s also very possible that this item combo could prove effective on a variety of champions, although it’s certainly especially powerful when used with Shyvana under these circumstances.