TFT patch 18.5 rebalances AP champions and overhauls augment economy

Riot Games has published the full patch notes for Teamfight Tactics 18.5, the fifth major update of the Enchanted Wilds set, according to Esports.gg News.

Developers Rodger "Riot Prism" Caudill and Katie "Riot Ukime" Guo described the patch as a smaller, more targeted follow-up to 18.4, with the stated aim of making AP-based team compositions more viable while lifting several underperforming champions.

On the unit side, buffs land on Caitlyn, whose empowered auto damage rises, alongside Master Yi, who gains more starting attack damage in his AD form and a larger ability hit in his AP form. Tristana's ability damage per attack goes up while her mana cost drops.

Among higher-cost units, Malphite's shield strength increases, Morgana's curse damage rises both on application and over time, and Sett's heal scales higher with AP. Soraka's star damage is boosted on both the initial and additional hits, and at five-cost, Ashe's damage-over-time effect and Alune's Moonshard damage and attack speed all tick upward, while Taric gains more resistances and a stronger empowered-attack payoff.

Azir and Kha'Zix are the two units nerfed in 18.5. Azir's ability damage is reduced across all levels, and Kha'Zix loses damage on both his isolated and unisolated ability hits.

Two other units are adjusted rather than straightforwardly buffed or nerfed. Mama Beak's mana lock now ends when her Tiny Beaks begin to despawn rather than when they finish, cutting roughly a second off the lock time, though her ability attack damage is lowered. Sentinel's stun duration is halved from one second to half a second, offset by a larger shield.

Trait values also shift. Blackthorn's six-piece enhanced bonus and base AP sacrifice are both trimmed, and Elderwood's nine-piece summon health bonus is reduced. Fae's healing percentages increase even as the gold thresholds for unlocking the fourth, fifth and sixth Pixie are lowered. Flora Fatalis loses a point of max-health healing, Rapidfire's attack-speed-per-attack scaling is flattened at higher stacks, and Riftbeast's seven-piece AD/AP bonus drops from 6% to 5%.

Riot has also pulled back two Radiant items: Adaptive Helm loses mana regeneration and bonus AD/AP for non-tank and non-fighter holders, while Blue Buff's base AD/AP bonus is reduced from 30% to 25%.

The augment pool sees extensive rebalancing. Riot has made augments that favour either AD or AP comps less likely to appear for players already committed to the opposite line. Gold-granting augments are reworked broadly: Pandora's Bench and Pandora's Items II both have their gold payout slashed from four to one, offset by two new variants, Pandora's Items II+ and II++, which appear later in the game and grant more gold. Investment Strategy I and II both have their initial gold reduced, while Build-A-Bud, Malicious Monetization and Nesting Anvils all grant more gold than before.

Dark Ritual's AP curve is smoothed across its tiers, Patience is a Virtue now grants an extra starting reroll, and several augments including Cooking Pot and U.R.F. have been excluded from specific trait-tree and coronation-style augments to stop unintended stacking. Heart of Steel has been disabled again after Riot identified a bug, and a damage bug affecting Electrocharge II has been fixed.

Wisp mechanics are also updated. Wisps that filter by the number of itemised champions on a board now account for benched units as well, and wisps that filter by role snapshot the player's last combat rather than their current board state. Costs and stats are retuned for several wisps, including Beggar's Wisp, Blood and Iron, Hand of Baron and Heroic Sacrifice, while Returning Friend and Grove Armor have been added to the Stage 3 pool.