Dev Teamfight Tactics:
Dragonlands
Compositional variety
“TFT is at its best when there are TONS of viable team comps.” Scalescorn was an example of a trait that was limited in the number of combos it could make, which worked thematically but not as a gameplay element.
Dragons
Dragons weren’t successful. From a thematic perspective they sounded cool however mechanically they really didn’t work. At the beginning of the set, you could only have one dragon which limited compositional variation. Even when later on in the set players were able to play multiple dragons it still didn’t work since dragons were expensive and took up too many team slots.
Champion Power Expectations
Traits that break player expectations make it difficult for players to know what the right decisions are. i.e. dragonmancer funneled all the trait bonus into a single low cost champ defied expectations that higher cost champs at the same level would be more powerful than the lower cost champ at the same level.
Early Game Economy and Risk vs Reward
Drip rewards = small rewards given every turn you do something
Cashout rewards = rewards that trigger after you’ve done something for an extended period of time
Cashouts are healthier and more fun for the game because they feel more fun and exciting than the slow drip feed model and they don’t provide such a massive advantage. Drip rewards are fine in the later stages because it doesn’t compound so much. This philosophy is specific to traits since economy augments can be balanced around since they are permanent once you pick them whereas traits can be swapped in and out of.
‘/Dev Teamfight Tactics: Dragonlands Learnings’. 2022. [online]. Available at: https://teamfighttactics.leagueoflegends.com/en-gb/news/dev/dev-teamfight-tactics-dragonlands-learnings/ [accessed 31 Oct 2025].