Team Fight Tactics (TFT): Fates is here, and it is awesome.

If you are like me and have been waiting on pins and needles for the new rendition of Team Fight Tactics (TFT) on League of Legends (LoL) then the wait is over! The game brings all the strategy we love about the game and some new twists to keep us excited. As a note this article is not meant to be a definitive guide on how to play. It is only my thoughts about the new version and who my dream team(s) would include.

This new version is very visually pleasing and the music definitely has that more far east sort of mystic calmness that the "Fates" version of TFT is going for. All the champions available in the store are wearing the skins that give the feeling that this is more an epic martial arts movie like "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon" with more the color scheme of "House of Flying Daggers". I personally find the choices to be one of their better put together versions. Do not get me wrong. I'll miss the Chrono's and Celestial's of last season, but only 2 days out and I am already in love with the new line up.

By far my top 3 talents to go for are Sharpshooter, Hunter, and Elderwood. To a lesser degree I do enjoy Spirit and Dusk. Ones that I do not really like are Fortune, Warlord, Mage, or Cultist.

Sharpshooters, once activated, allow for auto attacks and spells to bounce to multiple targets doing decreased damage. The decrease does not bother me really because I appreciate the spell effects hitting multiples. For instance Teemo's blinding spell hitting several enemies is awesome especially if you are up against Duelists (attack speeds get faster every auto attack) or Assassins (increased critical strike chance and damage). Or take Jinx's Rocket that stuns that can definitely slow down the champs on the opposing team.

Hunters are fun because every so many seconds of fighting all Hunters on your team will target the enemy unit with the lowest health. It makes it easier to pick off weaker ones rather than getting stuck trying to take down beefed up Brawlers or Vanguards. No longer do Mages only fear an Assassins team. Riot Games finally made a way to get around the tanky champs without being limited in choices. I truly appreciate this because that was really one of my biggest critiques of the game and its many versions in general. If someone built a really strong tank or two and put it up front chances are you would lose, but not if you go with the Hunters. Their spells are fairly mediocre which I guess is the balance to their target changing status. You do not want one team to became to overpowered. Plus since Kindred is both a Spirit and a Hunter it is ok to make Hunters main and Spirits second. Spirits increase the attack speed of all unit the first time they cast a spell. I find that comes in handy both for Hunters and Sharpshooters.

Elderwood champions gain increasing stacks to their stats every so many seconds; however, it is capped at only being 5 stacks. How much it goes up depends on the number of Elderwoods at the start of the match. It does take 3 to activate it, and most Elderwoods do not show up until about level 3 for your personal stats. The good news is you can create one by using a Golden Spatula and a Negatron Cloak on a champ. I would suggest doing that with either a Vanguard or a Hunter. You could also do it with a Dazzler, but I would only bother with that if you did it to Morgana and were sure to get Ezreal. Morgana's spell has a massive Area Of Effect (AOE) plus it heals her for a portion of damage done, but sadly Ezreal is a 5 gold champ and does not show up until later in the game. So you might have to forgo the reduced damage of the Dazzler status of Morgana for sometime.

As for the ones I do not like. Fortune: you get a gold pay out when you win, and the longer you go without winning the bigger the pay out. Besides the fact that the power rewards you for losing, the champions are fairly uninteresting and do not cross over well (in my opinion) with other ones. Warlords: They gain stats every time you win with a cap, but if you lose you start over. While it is nice that they added this sort of check and balance to this element it is a bit annoying if you are using them because one loss might make it impossible to get back in the game. Also like with fortunes I do not like the crossover potentials either. Mage: has altered Ability Power and casts spells twice. Problem here is on the first tier with 3 mages you actually lose ability power. Sorry not sorry, but I am against anything that causes you to lose power rather than gain it. Though if you do hang in there at 6 mages on the board you start to gain Ability Power, but it is so minimal I do not see it as worth it. You can make a Mage by using the Golden Spatula and a Tear Drop. Cultist: this is simply a remake of summoner and mecha. With at least 3 of this class on the field a Galio will be summoned at some point in the match. The power and spells of Galio are determined by how many Cultists are on the field (3, 6, 0r 9). Galio is super useful to who ever gets him, and there in lays the problem. Everyone is trying to get him! Through most of the game you are struggling with 3-4 other players also collecting Cultists and usually all 4 will end up towards the bottom.

The most interesting aspect of the new version in my opinion is the Chosen by Fate champions. This can be literally any champion that shows up in your store. They will always be a tier 2 champ and one of their elements will be highlighted. The highlighted element will count as 2 towards the activation of the element in the game. For instance, there are only 5 Sharpshooters in the game, and no way to make one with the Golden Spatula. Unless you manage to grab a Chosen by Fate champion that has the Sharpshooter element highlighted you will never get the full power of Sharpshooters. Also complicating the situation is, from what I have seen, there will never be to Chosen of the same champ or same element in the game. I.E. a Chosen Nidalee Warlord and a Chosen Nidalee Sharpshooter, or a Chosen Nidalee Sharpshooter and a Chosen Teemo Sharpshooter. Each player may only have one Chosen. Once you have selected one, whether on the bench or on the board, no more will show up in your shop. Now if you decide you do not like your Chosen you can sell them and this will reactivate their appearance in the shop; however, do remember you paid star 2 gold for a Chosen and when you sell a star 2 you always do it at a loss. My advice be certain which one you want and only look for that one, or buy the first you see and build your team around that.

Over all I think the TFT team over at Riot Games have really outdone themselves with the Fates version. It is definitely one of the more strategy based versions they have made to date. I for one will be very sad when it ends.