Teamfight Tactics (TFT) is a tough game to balance out and keep multiple play styles fun and effective. This is due to the game's complexity and variables such as champion units, items, and augments. So every now and then, it's inevitable that something slips up in each set, and breaks the entire meta game.
Kassadin was the strongest unit in S1
Time Knife Shen - New Champion Augment for TFT Set 8.5 Patch 13.7
In TFT Patch 13.7, Riot decided to add a brand new champion augment Time Knife. Most players didn't think at the time that it was going to be OP, except for elite players who saw the potential immediately. And like any augment that doesn't specify "the strongest champion", after one-two days the best players found the optimal way to use it (and get the most amount of LP).
How did Time Knife Shen Comp work? First of all, you needed to find the augment Time Knife at either Round 3-2 or 4-2, without it, the comp does not work. After it was found, the trick was to play with the Defender Trait and look for 4 to 6 units, this was done to get the most amount of armor for the Shen to pop out insane True Damage Numbers.
If you found the augment, it was a guaranteed top 4
On the board placements and how it was played, you needed to have two Shens on board, even three in some instances, they were placed just behind the frontline. The unit star wasn't important, because the true damage numbers were given by Items and the Defender trait.
On items, you needed to get Protector's Vow for extra mana + armor stacking, and Rapid Fire Cannon for extra range (Not mandatory). For the other Shen items, most players looked to either stack armor/hp or build utility items like Quicksilver.
Complaints on Time Knife Shen
Once the comp began to rise in popularity, it didn't take too much time before players started to complain, for instance, there are several clips from various TFT Streamers such as BoxBox complaining about it.
Teamfight Tactics subreddit even started to share posts and clips complaining of the strength of Time Knife Shen.
Hotfix after two days of being live
Riot Mortdog in a tweet announced the hotfix right away, after only two days of Time Knife Shen being added to the game. The change to the augment was that instead of giving the buff to all Shen units, now only works on the strongest Shen unit.
With that nerf, the brief Kassadin vibes from S1 stopped quickly. Now one of the remaining OP traits Oxforce didn't get nerfed after dominating the last patch, but Riot Mortdog already said that nerfs are coming in patch 13.8-9. How the meta will look ahead of the TFT international is still very unpredictable, but for me I hope Threats make a comeback.
