Teamfight Tactics Tests New Assassin Bonus

One of Teamfight Tactics‘ strongest Classes has a new effect that’s being tested on the PBE. Riot Games is currently exploring a change for the Assassin bonus that would see those champions gain a smaller amount of critical strike damage while having a higher chance of actually landing a critical hit. The updated bonus may be changed further while it’s on the PBE, assuming this version of the effect even ships at all.

Riot’s lead designer for Teamfight Tactics Riot Mort shared a tweet on Thursday that outlined the changes being made to the Assassin bonus on the PBE. This new effect lowers the critical strike damage buff from 125% for three Assassins to 75% while the bonus for having a team of six goes from 350% to 150%. To make up for that lost damage, these Assassins have their critical hit chance increased by 10% and 25% depending on how many Assassins are on the board.

The Rioter elaborated on some of the ramifications of this bonus change within the replies to the initial tweet by confirming that this change is intended to be a buff for any Assassin who equips an Infinity Edge. The item currently gives critical strikes a 200% damage bonus, so being able to land more critical hits will result in an increased DPS. This change will also end up buffing Akali as well since her Five Point Strike ability can critically strike and will theoretically do so more often if this new bonus goes live.

Assassins were some of the strongest champions to emerge in Teamfight Tactics when the game launched, though the meta has settled since then to allow more team compositions to enter the fray. Nobles, Voids, Brawlers, and Guardians among others are different types of champions that players have been finding success with recently.

Riot also recently announced another new champion for Teamfight Tactics. Pantheon will join the game mode soon now that he’s on the PBE for testing, a Dragon/Guardian champion who crashes into the enemy team using his ultimate.