DTIYDK #48 - Americas Tactician's Cup II Reviewed ft. MeanMisterKien & PannyAndrew

[@DragonKingSkye]

Bro the intro to this with Panny describing his TikTok was funny as hell

[@Lesterberne]

I agree with Bryce. I miss rolling on stage 3!

[@ryanator18]

Something I wish would get discussed is the power level distribution between traits, unit cost, and items. Everyone always talks about the state of the game behind certain cost rerolls, and with good reason. The game tends to be more focused around hitting 1 carry and 1 backup carry where you fully itemize them. Often they are of the same cost and if you hit, it feels great. If you miss, it feels terrible. It feels like it's been the case for a while now, but maybe some discussion should go into how strong items make units vs how strong traits make them. If someone goes deep into a vertical, how strong should their unitemized 2/3 cost be? Should it compete with some else's very wide 4 cost? Personally, I think so, but I don't see this happen until you hit the prismatic version of a trait. I don't have stats to describe power level of units but it wouldn't surprise me if it was something like 130%/170%/220% for a 1/2/3 item carry's power level. What does the power level multiplier look like for units that have a bronze/silver/gold trait level boost? How about the difference between 1/2/3/4 costs? Something that interests me greatly is just the idea of where does riot think certain cost units should rank in power level vs each other. How does a 2 cost gold trait unit rank in power next to a 4 cost bronze/silver? What if the 2 cost was 3 starred and if the 4 cost was 2 starred? That's the insight that I want to hear about. And I understand that it's different across units. Some units are meant to scale harder with items and carry, others are meant to be used for their splashable traits, but I just mean in general terms. Maybe it goes against the philosophy of design to disclose that info and I'm sure there would be some memes running around with people complaining about "oh x unit 1v1'ed my y unit and that goes against what they said". That sort of complaint is always prevalent I feel like and to me, it's annoying but it'll always exist. It feels good to tell stories and to describe experiences of "wow I had these 3 items on my carry and I hit and they destroyed everything". That makes for a good memorable experience for the player. Is it the best for balance and design? I feel like there's some debate you can have. TFT is a game with so many levers needed to be adjusted and as was stated by some of the members of the podcast here, I do think that there is a level of hey this state is OK, let's leave it here and address these other states that are less so. Totally understand why that happens. It makes sense prioritizing urgent needs. I do think though that there are some fundamental levers that have massive impact on the game that could be improved and even though they are in an "alright" state now, I can't help but wonder if there's a better spot they can be and how much better that could make the game. If you stuck through my incoherent ramblings, then congratulations lol idk if I even made sense when typing this

[@johnw9848]

misterkien with a crazy take, frodan: "that's a lot to breakdown" lmao