Teamfight Tactics Devs Recommend Their Favorite Traits from Set 12

Which traits are you prioritizing in Teamfight Tactics Set 12?

By Tanner Dedmon

The League of Legends spin-off Teamfight Tactics will usher in Set 12 on July 31st, a set called "Magic n' Mayhem" that's brimming with elemental effects, dragons, bakers, and bees. Riot Games unveiled the best look yet at the many traits in Set 12, new and returning units, and the Charms that players will be able to buy from their shops to compliment whatever kind of team comps they're trying to put together.

Set 12 heads to the PBE on July 16th for players to go hands-on with it themselves, so we'll see soon which traits people are drawn to, but ahead of the PBE getting underway, ComicBook spoke to the Teamfight Tactics developers about Set 12 to learn more about their favorite Magic n' Mayhem units and traits. Unsurprisingly, some of their favorites were ones that players already seem drawn to based on early reactions to the set.

Peter Whalen, the game director for Teamfight Tactics, said he's partial to the Sugarcraft trait. Sugarcraft in Magic n' Mayhem consists of Soraka, Rumble, Bard, Jinx, and Gwen and focuses on building items while working on the trait early to maximize its effects. Sugarcraft champions build layers of cake after player combat rounds to increase their damage per layer with "gold and other surprises" dished out once the cake hits seven layers.

"I like a lot of the traits where you build up powerful stuff over time," Whalen said. "I think Sugarcraft captures some of that baking fun fantasy for me." 

While not tied to the Sugarcraft trait, Whalen added that he was also partial to two different five-cost units: the Dragon/Blaster unit Smolder and the Bat Queen/Preserver unit Morgana. The former mirrors his League self by flying around and dealing damage, launching fireballs, and healing himself with attacks at max upgrade while the latter can shield herself and summon swarms of bats to occasionally abduct one-star copies of units or item components.

Dan Townsend, game producer for Teamfight Tactics, suggested two other traits: Eldritch and Honemancer. The first of those consists of Ashe, Elise, Nilah, Syndra, Mordekaiser, Nami, and Briar. Eldritch effects are activated after losing a set amount of health at which point a creature is summoned to assist you. Having three Eldritch grants you a "Tainted Golem" which is like a corrupted version of Ivern's pal Daisy, five Eldritch gets you the "Dark Monolith" which is basically Malphite, seven gets you "The Many-Eyed Beast," and 10 gets you the massive "Stormbringer" which mirrors Volibear's appearance on the Howling Abyss back when he was reworked.

"I'm an Eldritch main," Townsend said. "I'm always chasing a Prismatic Volibear. I play a lot of Aram, so being able to bring that from the Aram event from 2020 was super cool."

When not chasing Eldritch 10-unit breakpoint to get the Stormbringer, Townsend said he also likes using the Honeymancy trait. Honeymancers consist of Blitzcrank, Ziggs, Kog'Maw, Nunu & Willump, and Veigar which are all swarmed by bees that deal extra damage based on damage dealt and damage taken. Once a Honeymancer falls in battle, the bees swarm to one of the remaining Honeymancers for the rest of the fight. The peak Honeymancer, Veigar, also has an ability called "King Bee's Judgement" which grants ability power per Charm purchased, a trait that Townsend said allows the champion to interact with the new Charms in interesting ways.

Prior to Honeymancy's full unveiling, people were hedging their bets on whether or not it'd be a meme comp or not. Townsend said it's got some meme-y qualities, sure, but that there's more to it than that.

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"It's got some of that memeness to it," he admitted. "It's one of my favorite comps because it is kind of meme-y in the grand scheme of Magic n' Mayhem. We do believe that it's toward the edge of that magical realm that we created, and we're just really excited that we're kind of being able to push the boundaries with the tone on that thing. I would call it 'silly,' and we were targeting that with the goal of creating something like Honeymancer and Sugarcraft really because we want to separate it from the darker traits that we have, more like Witchcraft or Eldritch. And then we have ones that are more in the middle, more typical magics like Frost and Pyro."

Teamfight Tactics Set 12 releases on July 31st, but you'll be able to play it in the PBE starting on July 16th.

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