League of Legends: Twisted Fate has emerged as the OP champion of Season 14, here's how you can take advantage
Changes in Season 14 were favourable to Twisted Fate, and combined with changes that came with his rework, he becomes a nightmare in three roles.
Another patch, another OP champion. This seems to be the case for Season 14 of League of Legends (LoL) so far.
With the many item and balance changes introduced into the season, some balance-breaking builds and hard-to-counter champions have risen, like the controversial Caitlyn build that can one-hit enemy champions.
This time around, it’s Twisted Fate (TF) on a rampage on the Summoner’s Rift. This S-tier champion is so overpowering that he’s taken over three roles: Top, mid, and bottom lane.
According to popular LoL analytics page u.gg, Twisted Fate’s win rate is at least 51% and at most 53% across all three roles.
TF is quite versatile because he can be built into Ability Power (AP) or Attack Damage (AD). He currently thrives in the meta due to his dependable point-and-click crowd control, solid poke, excellent scaling with AP items being particularly powerful, and a powerful utility ultimate. On top of this, his passive gives him free money — so this means he can scale even faster than any opponent ingame.
His diverse skill set allows him to adapt to various roles within a team, while his signature Gold Card ability offers precise crowd control at the click of a button. Furthermore, his Ultimate enables him to apply pressure across the entire map by swiftly moving between lanes.
On top of this, changes in the top lane terrain allow ranged champs to make their way into the top lane meta, with TF being the new ranged champ bully.
Item changes have also allowed the card master to dominate the mid lane, and even take over the bottom lane.
Many players have been calling out Riot to nerf the champion already, especially since AD TF started to appear even in Pro Play.
He's doing so well that he's starting to show up in pro matches too. The Card Master has been chosen 64 times this year alone. That's four times as an ADC, four times in the top lane, and a massive 45 times he's been banned in almost every League region.
But interestingly, he hasn't shown up yet in China or Korea's top leagues. However, some pro players have been seen on the Korean solo queue testing out new Twisted Fate builds, including Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok, the LoL G.O.A.T. himself.
It looks like Riot isn’t about to nerf the Card Master anytime soon though with Patch 14.04 underway, so while there’s still time, you may want to check out these tips and builds to try.
How do I dominate lanes with Twisted Fate?
To dominate with TF, you should be familiar with his skills in-game. With the AD build, he can afford to do early invades, using his yellow (stun) cards. This especially works for squishier champions. In the mid-game use your Ultimate Destiny (R) to split push or help your team catch rotating enemies.
If you want to build TF in the top lane, you’d need to use an AD build to pull it off. Some runes to take would either be Fleet Footwork or Lethal Tempo.
Fleet Footwork especially helps level 1 Twisted Fate pull off invades with a stun card spam, helping him either chase enemies or run away from them. Other runes to add to this AD build include Overheal, Presence of Mind, Alacrity, Bone Plating, and Overgrowth.
For the items, take Kraken Slayer, Guinsoo’s Rageblade, Terminus, Runaan’s Hurricane, Immortal Shieldbow, and Bersker’s Greaves.
Other items seen on Faker’s solo queue build also include Infinity Edge combined with Stormrazor and Rapid Firecannon.
When playing Ranked games, do not play AD TF in the top lane against Wu Kong or Pantheon, because they can instantly gank you, and they have all the tools available to survive your early invades.
This build, however, works well against slower champs like Illaoi and Mordekaiser, and semi-mobile champs like Renekton or Sett. In the bottom lane, AD Twisted Fate trumps the likes of Corki and Smolder and overpowers Akali, Le Blanc, and Veigar in the mid lane.
If you’re still sticking to AP TF in the mid lane, some items you can include would be Rod of Ages, Sorcerer's Shoes, Lich Bane, and Zhonya's Hourglass.
Faker was also seen on solo queue combining Shurelya’s Battlesong with Lich Bane and Rod of Ages.
Rapid Firecannon is another item that still can be built into AP Twisted Fate because when stacked, it gives his auto-attacks extra range, which synergizes well with TF’s W. This makes his W’s range longer than Caitlyn’s auto-attacks and close to Jinx’s rocket ranges.
Will you be trying Twisted Fate in the top lane or the bottom lane? More importantly, do you think these builds should stay in the meta?
Anna is a freelance writer and photographer. She is a gamer who loves RPGs and platformers, and is a League of Legends geek. She's also a food enthusiast who loves a good cup of black coffee.
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