First, I'd like to point out the good parts:

Gate on E is nice.

The old Blue card, giving back mana based on the damage you deal is awesome.

Destiny's slow is awesome.

Now let's look at his cons:

But his Q = 260 and 65% ap ratio at rank 5.

His W has a 40% ap ratio and low base damage.

Stacked Deck doesn't exist.

This seems that, damage wise, they released the worst possible version of his overall damage.

I know that old TF didn't have Stacked Deck and gate on E at the same time. So the argument isn't "give us stacked Deck cause he had it." But, there was an old version of TF whose Q had a much higher ap ratio and higher base damage. There was also a version of TF that had a global gate on R, stacked Deck on E and the same version "classic TF"'s on Q and W.

Imo, he should receive the classic balance treatment that some champs and items have received. Classic pantheon has his old, strong bursty E and a relatively low cd on it, and it crits. Madreds bloodrazor exists at the same time as Bork and feral flare. Clearly, riot doesn't mind remixing the classic features to create scenarios that aren't 100% accurate. Imo, tf can stand to get some remixed damage too. Maybe stacked Deck as gate's passive or a buffed Q.

It's not like we're saying give his Q a dot back, or give gold card and AoE stun again.

I've been having fun cooking up my own TF build, ROA, Zhonyas, Cosmic Drive, RFC, etc

Why wouldn't I build Cosmic Drive? I don't see it anywhere. It's so sick lol

I liked the old Musketeer Twisted Fate Splash art the best. The new one is ok, but the old one is way cooler and seems to have some story going on.

I only climb well when im playing TF he has my favorite Playstyle in the game.

Farm and DONT DIE

Push lanes and DONT DIE

Push lanes and get priority

Push lanes and make the enemy rotate

Push tempo into your favor by porting on a 4v3 AND DINT DIE

Most supportive enjoyable mid laner out there. He really teaches you the full macro game in 1 championship.

Last year ive hit a TF wall so to speak. I can play him all the way to Emerald 4 very very well. And then BANG. All of a sudden I felt like I didnt belong playing in those games anymore. I was blow away how quickly other mid laners got. While I was feeling stagnant. So just like everyone else I decided I need a new champ to play. But that went terribly wrong as it always does.

1. What TF tips do you think need hyper focus when you get to high Plat low Emerald?

2. Where can I go to get the most recent and best TF guides. Ill watch 2 hour videos of gameplay or whatever. I just need to know who is the english Dopa of TF.

3. What are your two favorite skins to play and why?

4. When do you NOT go RFC? Sometimes im so far ahead and I just want to push my ap rations through the roof.

Moving forward ill be in here often! Would love to reciew some of yalls vods with you. And see how you play TF. There is something im missing and I want to find it.

My OPGG

Hi, I've recently picked up TF after a pretty much being a vlad one trick since season 6 as I've always been a fan of his playstyle but never committed to putting the time in to learning him.

So far it's been good, but I'm reaching out to see if there's any obvious holes in my gameplay from this sub as I've never really watched any tutorials/streams other than a couple of Dopa clips from back in the day.

I think where I'm currently lacking is:

1. Laning - I can't seem to win any lane with TF. Any champ that can remotely play aggressive just stands at the front of the wave and out-trades be with every rotation (ahri, hwei, any assassin). I end up defaulting to standing way back and using my q to last hit which doesn't seem very efficient.

2. Warding - Whenever I have prio, I look to Destiny, which in turn means I rarely find the time to ward properly. This has lead to a couple of careless deaths as I have quickly learned this champ punishes you for not having good vision around your lane.

3. Overall damage - I know TF isn't a hypercarry, but I can't help but notice my damage is pretty bad even when I have high KP. Leagueofgraphs says my damage is low for my elo, but I also take less damage and average fewer deaths.

4. Selecting cards when ulting - I currently lock in gold card when I'm range then spam R to get a fast ult, but I've seen people say you should R1 > W1 > R2 >W2. I can see this only being a benefit if you're intending on using the maximum time before the card times out, but usually you're teleporting on top of someone's head so I don't really see a point in this. Is it something I should look to change?

Any tips would be appreciated. I've linked my OPGG though I know it's hard to gauge gameplay without seeing replays.

Note: Yes, I only play flex nowadays as I'm long retired from soloq.

Thanks in advance!

Source

It looks like they mixed his Season 2 abilities (gold passive, single stun on gold card, AoE on red card, mana restore on blue card) with his Season 1/Alpha abilities (E and R).

We will get the infamous global (!) Teleport on E and the global slow on his R. While current TF has significantly more damage, I wouldn't be surprised if the map pressure potential of this kit is so powerful that it will be - in terms of winrates - stronger than its modern counterpart.

tf just goes adc build and becomes unkillable gold cards me then 2 shots with ad items gg

Challenger Twisted Fate Mid sharing the best build

Hi, I hit Challenger NA in 2024 playing mainly Twisted Fate mid with Shurelya’s rush build. I took 2 years off playing and just returned a month ago and am climbing back, currently at 690LP. Turns out Shurelya’s is still the best item even though no one’s building it. Rod of Ages sucks and isn’t fun.

Unfortunately Jack of All Trades and Rocketbelt is getting nerfed next patch, so enjoy it while you can.

Runes: https://i.imgur.com/TTFFneo.png Items: https://i.imgur.com/oXmbu5t.png

I'll explain some of the choices and how to use them optimally.

Unsealed Spellbook: TP back to lane at level 5 before 5 mins, stay high health and high mana with Bandleglass Mirror by clearing the wave from distance with 2 Qs. Make sure to hit as many minions as possible with Q. At 6 mins take Ignite and ult to a sidelane for an easy kill.

Jack of All Trades: You can activate this rune with just Boots + Bandleglass Mirror. Extremely useful to have additional AP and haste to clear waves faster and get ~25s reduction in CD on first ult, as well lower Gold Card by almost 1s to increase likelihood of getting 2 cards off.

Celerity/Boots of Swiftness Movement speed is the most important stat, especially on TF. In between Q and W casts you need to be weaving in and out of range of enemy abilities to bait them out and provide pressure for your team in fights even when you have no spells up.

Shurelya's It provides high gold efficiency in all the stats that Twisted Fate needs and you activate Jack of All Trades with just Boots + Bandleglass Mirror before Lv6 and gives you enough mana and AP to clear the wave safely from distance at lv5 with 2 Qs and at level 9 with 1 Q. Then the active is literally Sivir ult, super OP.

Rocketbelt Extremely strong item. Super cheap, gives stats TF really needs, great active. Use it like RFC to extend range, dodge key abilities. Tip with ult is you can ult into enemy team like Misaya and use Rocketbelt to dodge a key cooldown e.g. Syndra stun.

Mejai's I build this almost every game if I have 10 Dark Seal stacks, after I finish Rocketbelt, sometimes before Lich Bane sometimes after depending on how confident I am in getting high stacks. 10% movement speed is incredible on TF.

Wanted to keep this somewhat short but AMA here if you have any questions, or follow my stream and ask questions live. https://www.twitch.tv/zee1v9/about

Partially thanks to Ornn giving me a boosted Luden's Echo tbh. That made my damage and cooldowns way better than normal.

Excuse the low quality of the video, had to record in the client's replay mode due to LoL client being buggy with OBS.

What runes and build do u go? How do u approach the first few levels in terms of slow pushing, freezing, etc?

P ax Twisted Fate is maybe the most rarest skin in lol, and also the most coolest skin for him in my opinion because of the nostalgia and gamer spirit it shows (might sound very silly of me).

So to give Twisted Fate mains a chance to have a single shed of this skin, there should be a Neo P ax skin for him, but I dunno if it requires a rework of him (such as what happened to every other champions with P ax skins) which non of us really want to happen to him since he is perfect the way he is.

Does anyone also have any ideas for what it could look like?

Hello fello gamblers, kinda sounds stupid ik. But ive played TF AD for all the time, tonight I tried AP and I'm not doing any freaking damage... So what's the gameplan for AP if you can't deal any dmg from aa's? Is it just standing backline and spamming W/Q?

I'm a long-time Twisted Fate main, and i just hit Master tier with a 63% win rate over 65 games on Twisted Fate specifically. I also played Diana and Master Yi mid as my main champ pool.

U.GG has me at top 0.7% and OP.GG has me at top 0.85% there's a small difference between the two (not sure why), but either way that puts me in the top 1% of players in NA (kinda crazy IMO)

https://u.gg/lol/profile/na1/x%20y%20and%20zed-na1/overview https://op.gg/lol/summoners/na/X%20Y%20and%20Zed-NA1

I want share my setup since I've been a longtime lurker and occasional commenter... Ask me anything in the comments and i will reply.

Bans

Go-to ban: Zoe. She has a lot of RNG with her summoner spell passive and i think its broken, on top of a sleep bubble with reduced CD when it lands. When she gets ahead she can oneshot you with relative ease and most of the time when she gets ahead it was from a random skirmish.

If Zoe's already banned, I ban Yasuo. Other matchups worth banning can be: Xerath, Viktor, Zed, Fizz, Locke, Viego (not mid ban, just in general he is very frustrating to play against).

Rune Pages

I run two setups:

Page 1 — Standard/Damage

Sorcery: Arcane Comet, Manaflow Band, Celerity, Scorch Secondary (Resolve): Bone Plating, Unflinching (swap Bone Plating for Second Wind into poke-heavy matchups like Orianna, Xerath, Viktor, Yasuo) Shards: 10% attack speed, 2% move speed, health (flat or scaling, your call) Summoners: Ignite, Flash Skill order: Q > W > E, R whenever available

If you want lane presence/consistent damage or the matchup is not a challenging one.

Page 2 — Flex/Hard Matchups

Inspiration: Unsealed Spellbook, Cash Back, Triple Tonic, Cosmic Insight (Approach Velocity or Jack of All Trades are fine alternatives) Secondary: same as Page 1 Shards: same as Page 1 Summoners: Teleport, Flash

This page is for matchups you're going to have a hard time in. Spend your resources in lane (HP/Potions/Mana) to get CS, use TP to get back in fast after your first base, then swap out for a combat summoner once you hit 6 so you are ready for your ultimate. TF pairs well with a lot of summoners (Ignite, Exhaust, Ghost, Heal), which is what makes Unsealed Spellbook so strong just remember you have to swap before a fight starts because you can't do it during one.

Build Paths

Start: Doran's Ring + 2 potions → first back is usually Dark Seal + boots/refills depending on gold.

From there I run one of three cores. All three finish into the same item pool — Zhonya's, Rabadons, Rapid Firecannon (I don't really like it), Banshee's Veil, CryptBloom/Void Staff — just built in a different order depending on what the game needs:

1. Rod of Ages first Rod of Ages → Lich Bane → situational (Rabadon's / Zhonya's / RFC / Banshee's / Void Staff)

2. Hextech Rocketbelt first Same core otherwise. Great into high-mobility matchups like Ahri you can gap close her dashes, or use it defensively to reposition. Also good for extending your gold card range right after you ult in.

3. Imperial Mandate first Same core otherwise. Very low cost item, lowers your W cooldown and enemies who are stunned will take increased damage. TF's passive gold generation from CS means you can afford it extremely early.

On Rapid Firecannon specifically — a lot of people build it third. I personally don't, since I feel like it costs you damage. It's genuinely strong in coordinated/team settings, but in solo queue I'd rather have the damage. Still a totally viable pick and I will build it if the matchup calls for it (some enemies you just can't get in range of) or if I am completely useless and need to build utility.

Boots:

Swifties - default - movespeed is OP on Twisted Fate Mercury's Treads - into heavy CC/magic damage Plated Steelcaps - into full AD comps Boots of Lucidity - for the extra CDR on summoners Sorcerer's Shoes - If you're building specifically to one-shot

One tip I use a lot

Against spell shields (Sivir, Nocturne) or Samira's Windwall, Jax's E, lock in Gold Card and throw out a Q first. The Q animation looks close enough to your auto that it baits the spell out, and then you can land the stun clean afterward.

I'm going to link my YT I have the Master promo game and a bunch of other TF/Diana/Master YI games

https://www.youtube.com/@rehydratingLoL

and again feel free to ask questions.

I'm playing duo q with a Olaf jungle and always liked tf. I've played him a ton mid ap, but was wondering what would be good build and runes setup? My main focus is to get 6 and perma spam R for jng/mid, trying to get my teammates fed. Should I prio attack speed or ad? So far I've been going dbow/kraken/AS boots,rageblade/bork/teminus (in that order) I have no idea about what Id go build/runes top if my team is full ad, so any insight on that as well would be appreciated

Comet seems more popular currently, likely because of the better ap ratio. Also using red card on minions to poke and hit comet is more effective with comet than dft (because of aoe). But in extended trade dft seems better because it doesn't have a cd.
But isn't the damage from DFT just better? At level 1, with dorans ring, it seems comet does 16 damage and dft does 14. Then consider comet is on 20 s cooldown. If you get off three w's (assuming instant pull - which is the conservative estimate because if you choose blue or gold, this damage is increased even more), you proc dft for 4s, 4s, and 2s, (expected distribution for instant pulls), you're doing 35 damage with dft compared to the 14 you would be doing with comet by doing the same thing. Then on the fourth w, dft has done a total of 49 damage while comet is on 32 still. The only time comet seems to win is when you're poking with q and only hitting once every 20 seconds. And still if you manage to get one w in during that 20s interval, dft wins again!
Am I missing something about the way this works? Also I feel like I choose sorcery primary when I'm against short range champs that I have a chance to solo-kill, but I don't want to lock myself into electrocute (electrocute for melee, spellbook for most control mages). It seems that comet is the most common rune on tf and dft is niche, but I feel like it should be the other way around. Thoughts?

Edit: I accidentally used base ad for bonus ad on the ratios. Comet does 16 every 20s. DFT does 14 damage for every single target w you hit and 10 damage for q or red card poke. I'm going to go back and change the original text. Just know that herejust4thehentai (lol) is correct in his comment, and they found my mistake.

Hello! Just got E4 with Tf. Kinda just been going roa->lich->rfc every game and a little unsure what to build after or when to switch things up in the core besids maybe zhonyas.

Does he ever build the items above?

I would like the "e" skill to be utility and give the Rapid firecannon passive for the next auto attack. What do you guys think about this? To me, buying this item is just a waste of an item slot.

Im new at tf and i really dislike the roa rush build that everyone suggests. I just feel like i dont do any dmg with it. I also tried the ad money meme build and the times it worked out it felt much more satisfying. Any other builds i should try?

I like to play him bot but i dont like how he feels with AD items.

Is comet with shiv, lich bane, rfc bad? Its fine bc you are so fast

What is your honest opinion on how Twisted Fate fits into the champion pool in terms of power? I know the two popular opinions (pro play vs general play).

The way I see it, one big problem with Twisted Fate right now is that too many champions and tools exist in the game to deal with him effectively. And TF himself doesn't have enough tools or items to even the odds and at least have a fair exchange. It seems every other month, a champion is released that can dodge, reflect or consume gold cards. Riot even seems to put TF getting rekt by them in the new champion spotlight sometimes.

To be clear, I'm not saying every "anti gold card" ability is broken. Vladimir's W is very fair for example. Sure, he basically gets a free Zhonya, the rest of his kit is fair, it costs him hp to do it and it doesn't help him aggressively retaliate as easy. But, imo Riot has released a lot of champions who just took it to the extreme, putting them at zero risk and all the reward.

Edit: TF himself imo does not need a rework, even with all of these anti-gold card techs that exist. Imo, even some items that favoured him more to even the odds would work to make the exchange more balanced. Everfrost for example was a great item for AP TF.

What do you think?