Teamfight Tactics Items Guide - Empower Your Units With The Right Items!

TFT Items Guide

Since we already covered the basics with our texts about champion synergies and powerful team comps, now let’s take a look at some of the most overpowered items + champions combinations that are currently in the Riot Games auto battler. There are nine components in TFT that can create 45 possibilities of unique full items. If you're a starting player and you need an item cheat sheet, better start off by checking it out. We’ll start with the more obvious choices and work our way into some less-known interactions. Let's get right into the TFT items guide! It's difficult to create a Teamfight Tactics items tier list because every item works effectiveness changes on different champions and in different builds. 

Table of content:

Best Items

Honorable Mentions

Spatula Items

Category-Adding Items

Strongest TFT Items

Spear of Shojin 

Even though it received multiple nerfs, it's still a really good item for some champions. If a unit has a strong Special Ability that can be used multiple times in a fight, Spear of Shojin is going to work wonders on them. Pyke even wants to build two of them, since he has an extremely powerful CC in his ult, while as an Assassin he makes great use of the AD. Double Shojin Pyke used to be a complete terror in the first patches of Teamfight Tactics - while not as oppressive anymore, this item is still a really good choice for him. Other goods and well-known choices are Aurelion Sol, Brand, Akali, Aatrox, or Kayle. In the early game, it can be temporarily put on many different champions, including Ahri.

Some interesting ones that people sometimes forget about are Lulu and Gangplank. Spear of Shojin Lulu is probably the most obnoxious early-to-mid game champion in TFT. Get her a strong frontline, so she can spam Wild Growths for additional health on your tanks and crowd control on your enemies. Combined with early Knights it’s pretty much unbeatable since she will ult her allies over and over. Gangplank’s Powder Kegs can do a lot of magic damage that can be really useful in Gunslinger or Blademaster comps. However, it might be difficult to keep him alive for multiple casts though.

Morellonomicon

Especially on Garen – this is often the first TFT-specific thing that people learn in this game, but it’s so powerful that I had to mention it. Morellonomicon makes your abilities apply to burn that scales with the target’s max HP and denies the healing they would receive. The way it works in the game is that the burn is applied for every second of the Garen’s spin. Many players view it as the most universal item that can work in every comp.

For a similar reason, this item is also strong on Anivia, Swain, and to some extent Katarina (but she definitely wants mana much more than that). It's important to note that Morellonomicon on Garen was considered overpowered since the game's release and when Garen got some well-deserved nerfs, the item is still really strong. Many carries right now build either Bloodthirster or Hextech Gunblade and each Teamfight Tactics item that cuts the healing is extremely valuable against them. Since the 9.17 healing changes it doesn't cut all the healing anymore, but it's still a great counter to any form of sustain. 

Dragon’s Claw

This item is great when you put it on a carry – TFT offers plenty of passives that counter auto-attackers. Nobles and Guardians can provide armor, Yordles can dodge attacks and Knights get some damage reduction. This creates a rock-paper-scissors effect where these comps counter auto-attackers, but lose to spellcasters. Placing a Dragon’s Claw on your strongest carry allows you to have both the rock and the scissors.

It might seem counterintuitive to place an item consisting of two defensive components on your main damage threat, but the 75% reduction is actually a lot. If you get extremely lucky item drops and manage to also get Blood Thirster and some attack speed steroids, you can create a TFT Raid Boss that has no clear weaknesses. If you see a strong Sorcerer player in your lobby, you probably should prioritize the Negatron Cloaks during the carousel. This amount of magic resist you can get from Dragon's Claw is absurd and it can almost single-handedly ensure victory in a battle against spell-based teams. 

Titanic Hydra 

Graves has a pretty unique interaction with this item. This Pirate Gunslinger's basic attacks already deal AoE damage due to his passive and Titanic Hydra actually extends his range even further, allowing him to deal tons of damage to multiple targets. It also makes attack speed and on-hit effects extra powerful on him, but Titanic Hydra is definitely one of his strongest items.  

This item is also pretty strong on some other champions, like Draven for some extra splash damage or Kha’Zix. In TFT all the items work on both melee and ranged champions. Titanic Hydra still scales off of max HP and getting a unit to three stars gives it a lot of health, what makes this item scale really well if you’re able to collect enough champions to get the level three. Extra health from Giant's Belt and attack speed from Recurve Bow could significantly increase the power level of any unit, even without the splash damage.

Other good uses of Titanic Hydra include placing it on Volibear (or another champion) in a Glacial comp to proc AoE stuns. Combined with Sword Breaker it makes the user extremely hard to kill but also lets them disarm multiple targets at once, other on-hit items work well because of the same reason. Volibear is a great choice since he can multi-proc all the on-hit items with his ultimate what helps you gain a lot of damage and utility. Recently the item got really popular on Jayce, due to his high post-transformation Health and burst of attack speed. 

Phantom Dancer

A great counter against Assassins in TFT – Phantom Dancer allows the user to dodge all the critical strikes. Stacking Assassins gives them a passive that provides a ton of critical damage. It won’t protect you from their abilities, but it can let your carry survive the initial burst and start cleaning the Assassins up before they get a chance to ult. As long as the enemy doesn't have four Wild units, they won't be able to hit you with critical strikes.

Rapid Firecannon

Works wonders on ranged attack damage carries – funnily enough, RFC used to be a clear counter to Phantom Dancer. Alongside the attack speed, it also provided the passive that makes it so your attacks cannot be dodged and double your attack range. The never miss passive has been removed in patch 9.19 though. The range extension can still be really useful, making sure that your carry doesn't decorner. Moreover, you can use RFC to make your melee champion a ranged carry. The item was one of the core elements of the Volibear focused build in early 9.14. Stacking attack speed is also great with Noble comps because it lets you proc the passive healing more. 

Guinsoo’s Rageblade 

Obviously, a really strong choice on every conventional AD Carry with a strong frontline in the team comp, but there are some other heroes that can make great use of this item.

My personal favorite is Kassadin. His passive lets him burn enemy mana and apply a shield to himself with every basic attack. This makes him a great user of basically any source of attack speed that you can get him. Guinsoo’s Rageblade is a really strong one. Fully stacked Kassadin with attack speed and resistance is one of the strongest TFT T1 units that can carry even in the late game (but he's still definitely at his strongest in the early stages). If you're running some kind of a Wild-Shapeshifter comp it can work really well on Gnar.

Hextech Gunblade  

This item lets a champion heal for 25% of all the damage dealt. Units with strong AoE damage can use it champions that can nuke single targets can also heal a lot by using it. There is an interesting interaction with Veigar ult.

When he uses his Special Ability on a lower level enemy, he instantly one-shots them. The damage indicator on-screen shows some absurd numbers, often over 10 000. The 25% healing is calculated not from the actual amount of health that the enemy lost, but from the number shown on screen. It means that with every one shot, the Gunblade passive heals him back up to full.

Other than that, this item is strong on champions that deal with a big portion of their damage through abilities. Akali can benefit for that thanks to her low mana cost and frequent casts. Swain is great with Gunblade and some tank items because he becomes almost unkillable while dealing a lot of damage. Aatrox can heal back up to full with a single cast of his high damage AoE ult when he has Gunblade.

STATIKK SHIV

Currently, Statikk Shiv in TFT is most proficient as a Ranger item. They have decent base attack speed and the powerful buff from their class synergy. Ranger's are also probably the only class that can make a great use of Zeke's Herald. Shiv provides a reliable damage source that the class is missing. After her patch 9.14 buff, Fiora is a surprisingly good user of this item in the early game, but if you're running Blademasters, you're eventually going to regret not having the Recurve Bow for Draven and mana from Tear of the Goddess for Aatrox. Right now Statikk Shiv is an extremely powerful weapon for early game, but in comps other than Rangers, it pretty heavily falls off later on. That being said, most high-rank players happily "sacrifice" the two valuable components to ensure a strong start.

THORNMAIL

While armor from double Chain Vest and the unique damage reflection passive can work wonders on any TFT frontliner, we're going to focus on two very specific interactions. Shyvana with the Dragon synergy could get total magic immunity (now it's down to more reasonable, but still really powerful 83%). With this high resistance to spells, all she needs is some armor to become nearly unkillabe. Combine it with her high base stats and you definitely can build a team comp around that.

The second overpowered Thornmail user is much more interesting. Let's start with the fact that after patch 9.14 changes, Thornmail reflects 100% of the wearer's mitigated damage. Two-star Braum shield gives him 80% damage reduction, while three-star ups it to 90%. This makes tank-stacked Braum with Thornmail and unkillable war machine that can kill enemies without even hitting them, if he can get his shield up. It's definitely a gimmicky strategy, but it can work really well.

IONIC SPARK

The idea behind this item is simple. Every time an enemy unit casts a spell, they take 150 true damage (used to be 200). The item is not stackable in TFT, having multiple Ionic Sparks make it so only one of them procs. It's a decent damage source, especially for tanky team comps that lack damage. We recommend using it on Knights, Brawlers or Guardians, especially ones that can actually make use of the ability power (or more accurately for TFT - spell damage) from the Needlessly Large Rod component. Units like Poppy, Blitzcrank, and Cho'Gath are definitely safe bets. A bit of extra resistance to magic damage is also really useful, but it's definitely not enough against Sorcerer comps. 

In the past, the Imperial buff also applied to Ionic Spark, making its procs deal double damage. It has later been patched out of the game, but in early 9.15 it returned and is currently live. This interaction is likely to be removed again though. When it's in the game, Darius is probably the best vehicle for Ionic Spark, because paired with another Imperial he gets the chance of double damage buff. 

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Gunslingers are probably the most unique TFT class in terms of itemization. Thanks to their passive, they can make use of basically all the on-hit items, like Red Buff, Sword Breaker. Cursed Blade and Hush. Especially the Red Buff is great because it lets the wearer deal burn damage equal to 13% of their max HP as well as deny them most of the healing (it's not as effective anymore after the 9.17 changes). It significantly increases DPS and utility. The remaining items provide a chance to disarm, silence or shrink the target. At the same time, Cursed Blade got nerfed almost exclusively because of Gunslingers abusing it. In general the on-hit items play a huge role in every successful Gunslingers team comp, their attacks deal moderate damage, but the ability to apply on-hits on multiple targets is great. Elise's spiderlings and Volibear ult also apply on-hit effects. 

Luden's Echo is a great early game TFT item on characters like Ahri or Lucian, but the splash magical damage falls off extremely hard in the late game. You can put it on a character like Akali though, just for the mana from Tear of the Goddess and ability power.

Rabadon's Deathcap is great on powerful Sorcerers like Aurelion Sol and Karthus, but you definitely need a strong frontline to keep this heavy artillery safe. Akali is also a great user of this item because she casts her ability a lot and it's the only ultimate in the game that can critically hit.

The other full damage item - Infinity Edge, can also work situationally. You definitely want to build it on Assassins and sometimes Draven. Using Infinity Edge reliably kind of requires you to stack up a unit as a glass cannon, which is why it's not the most popular item in the game. It can work really well though, especially on Assassins.

Guardian Angel, while definitely viable after the patch 9.14 buffs, it's mostly strong as an early game item. Reviving one of your stronger units can definitely turn a fight early on, but in the late game it's much less impactful.

You can place Warmog's Armor on basically every tanky unit, combine it with Ionic Spark or Thornmail to get even more damage thanks to higher survivability and the percentage regeneration of the wearer's max health. Frozen Heart is good on tanks with strong spells, like Cho'Gath or Sejuani. It's even better on champions that can dash through the whole board multiple times - Pyke is currently the most popular user. 

Locket of the Iron Solari got significantly nerfed in 9.15, but it can still situationally work in Sorcerer or Assassin comps. Seraph's Embrace is a good idea on champions that need a quick first cast of their ultimate, like Katarina or Brand. Zephyr can give you a tactical advantage by temporarily removing a unit from combat, but it's most useful when you're in the final 2 and you know exactly who you're going to face. 

Thief's Gloves are a really fun and cost-effective item if you don't mind a bit of extra RNG in your game. Every round, the wearer of this item will receive an additional two random items for the duration of a single fight. If you place it on a unit that can use pretty much every stat, it will provide a ton of value. 

Spatula Items

By itself, Spatula doesn’t do anything, but still, many players will rush straight for it in almost every carousel round. That’s because this component can be made in plenty of interesting item choices, one of which is good in every game, some others are much more situational.

Force of Nature  

Let’s get the obvious one out of the way, combining two Spatulas results in Force of Nature, an item that increases the number of champions you can place on the board by one. When you’re level eight, this item’s value is basically 64 gold, since that’s the amount you need to get an extra spot by buying experience. If you get to level nine and have this item, you get access to an extra slot on the TFT board that’s unavailable in any other way.

The obvious problem with that is the fact that other players are also likely to try and get this item. Getting multiple Spatulas can be difficult, especially if you’re doing well and you pick late in the carousel rounds.

Runaan’s Hurricane

Especially on Varus or Ashe – just like in Summoner’s Rift, Runaan’s Hurricane creates extra bolts that hit nearby targets for reduced damage. You’re not getting this item to amplify your raw attack damage output, but to get more out of your on-hit effects. Build path is much different than in the standard League of Legends. Its components here are Spatula and Negatron Cloak.

Ashe can stun multiple enemies with the Glacial passive if she has this item, the same goes for Varus and the Demon origin mana burn. It’s obviously further enhanced by extra attack speed. After 9.16 damage buff, it became viable on Draven and Jinx.

Category-adding items

All the remaining Spatula items can add a new category to a champion. They can often be used to get extra synergies or to empower the pre-existing ones. The categories that can be obtained by items are Assassin, Blademaster, Demon, Glacial, Knight, and Sorcerer. It's important to note that changes in patch 9.14 made it so Spatula now doubles the bonus of the item that it's combined with.

Blade of the Ruined King – it grants a unit the Blademaster class. It’s by far the most used one of the bunch and likely the most powerful. Having at least two other Blademasters provides the BotRK user with a passive that gives them extra basic attacks.

The most popular team comp that utilizes this item is Gunslinger+Blademaster double synergy. Gangplank already has those two classes built-in. BotRK can provide it to another Gunslinger – preferably Graves, due to his AoE attacks. Combine it with the aforementioned Titanic Hydra and you have a monstrous carry.  

Another great use of Blademaster passive is Kassadin. You don’t need any other Sorcerers since he doesn’t really use that bonus anyway. Meanwhile, the extra auto-attacks let him deplete enemy mana more efficiently and stack his shield extremely quickly. Add some more attack speed or resistance to make him even more powerful!

Frozen Mallet – adding another Glacial to a comp that utilizes this synergy is always a power spike. Even if it’s a fifth or seventh one, you simply get another unit that can proc the passive CC and stun-lock enemy champions even harder.

If you’re running a double or quadruple Ranger comp, make sure to put it on one of the marksmen to get the second ranged auto-attacker to proc the stuns. It can also work really well on a random Graves or Lucian. The former has AoE basic attacks that let him proc the passive on multiple foes at once, the latter double-taps enemies after the dash. If you’re putting it on one of the Gunslingers, getting at least two of them can really help you out with the extra shots synergy.

Knight’s Vow – this one is even more situational and not that many players use it, but it has its merits. You’re pretty likely to get one of the T1 Knights to level 3, while Sejuani and Kayle are really strong late game champions.

Placing Knight’s Vow on one of your main damage carries grants the wearer Knight class. It not only empowers your other Knights but also makes that champion and all the other ones significantly tankier against auto-attacks and magic damage. It’s even more powerful if you get six units of this class. Spellcasters are an obvious weakness of this play, but we already talked about the way of working around that. After Knight's mini-rework at 9.15, it might become one of the most interesting items in the game.

The rest of category-adding items is very rarely used and almost definitely not worth spending the Spatula. Darkin can be used on a champion with high attack speed if you have some Demons in your team (Demonbear used to be a legitimate strategy, now after the nerfs it's still viable, but not that great). Yuumi can help you out when you only have two Sorcerers, but your team has plenty of powerful ultimates (for instance a Demon comp, with Brand, Aatrox, Morgana and some random Sorc). Remember that Youmuu’s Ghostblade will give your champion not only the extra Assassin synergy but also the passive that causes them to stealth and jumps straight into enemy backline. You might not want that on your carry. Using Mittens to make another Yordle is usually a bait and I don't recommend it. 

That's going to cut it for our Teamfight Tactics Items Guide. Do you have any other favorite item + champion combinations in TFT? Let us know in the comment section! If you're interested in more guides about TFT, League of Legends or other popular online games, make sure to check out our blog from time to time. A lot of interesting content is being posted there! You can also find us on Facebook and Twitter.

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