Teamfight Tactics Tests New Hextech Trait on PBE

Hextech champions aren't yet released in Teamfight Tactics yet and their special trait granted to players who have enough of them has already been changed. Still about disabling enemy items like the original concept was, this new trait will temporarily turn off enemies' items in an area of effect as opposed to permanently disabling a fixed number of them depending on the amount of Hextech champions on a team. There's a chance that this trait could change again before the champions are released to Teamfight Tactics' live servers.

The previous version of the Hextech trait which was announced by Riot at the end of July disabled either two or four items on the enemy's board depending on whether you had two or four Hextech champs on your side. Champions with items would be randomly selected, and in the case that those champions had more than one item, one of those items would be randomly selected.

Over on the PBE though, it appears that trait is gone. The new trait as noticed by Redditor Mr-Deer will instead toss a pulse bomb at the enemy team to disable any items within its area of effect for eight seconds. The number of Hextech champs on the board determines how large this area of effect will be.

Hextech Trait Changed on PBE from r/TeamfightTactics

Riot Mort responded to a question within the thread to clarify that this pulse bomb would target one enemy that has at least one item with the effect starting there, so players won't have to worry about their Hextech bomb being shot off to somewhere where it won't have any impact.

Despite not being broadcasted quite as loudly as the first announcement, this change isn't too surprising. When Riot first announced the new Hextech units, it said the way it'd affect enemies was subject to change.

"Hextech units temporarily disable enemy items," Riot said about the Hextech effect. "This is still under significant iteration, so the exact mechanic beyond this is not locked yet."

Since the effect was announced and was being tested on the PBE, it's been met with mixed responses. Some players praised its potential to disable stacked units and level the playing field while others weren't pleased with the idea of having items they worked to create completely removed. This new effect may find a middle ground by giving the items back, but eight seconds is a long time in a Teamfight Tactics match.

Teamfight Tactics' Hextech champions will release onto the live servers in Patch 9.16 on August 14th.