ITEMIZATION (ADVANCED)

 Now that we’ve established the basic item principles, it’s time to talk about more complex topics. You’ll notice that some of these topics intersect with other guides because TFT concepts are very interconnected!

1. To start off, let’s discuss letting early components guide our game direction. Players often have favorite comps and just force them regardless of what items they have, but this is not good TFT practice. Good practice is seeing what items you get in Stage 1, Stage 2 Carousel and Krugs and letting those components decide which meta comps you’re considering.

<Insert items after Krugs>

Because I have _________, my gameplan has now been narrowed to playing ________ or _______________. 

2. If you have components that can’t be slammed, think of your components as potential items. For example, if I have a Bow, Sword and Chain, and I lean towards AD comps, that Bow could be Guinsoo’s Rageblade, the Sword could be Infinity Edge/Deathblade, and the Chain vest could be any tank item. This narrows my comps to Kog’Maw + Trist Reroll, Kalista, Jinx reroll, etc. 

<insert one pic of pre Stage 2 carousel and one after>

I have good components for _____ but I can’t make anything because none of my item slams are good. I take ____ off carousel to force a direction for my game.

3. Lose streak early if you’re undecided on what to play with your items.

If your items are ambiguous and you don’t know what to play, lose your early rounds to gain Carousel priority! The purpose of this is to get first pick on a component that can complete one of your benched components and give you comp direction.

<insert bad 2-1 spot>

Here, because my board is weak and my items are not slammable, I’m choosing to lose streak to get a high priority component to guide my direction for the game.

4. Making suboptimal items but using most components > Best in Slot items but leaving 3+ components on bench

This is a VERY important concept to learn for players trying to break into the top ranks! This is an issue at every elo, but even Masters players struggle with this sometimes. More often than not, making items that serve the same purpose but aren’t the absolute best helps us save a lot of HP during the game. This can save us multiple placements, and hundreds of LP in the long run!

<insert example where I slam items that aren’t BiS for tempo or to save HP>

Here, I slam _________ and ______ instead of __________ because I want to match the tempo of the lobby and save HP. If I greed for the best items, I will lose way too much HP in Stage 3!

5. Leave components open for potential utility.

Everyone loves damage items and some love tank items, but we mustn’t forget about utility items. I often see Diamond and Masters players neglecting resistance shred or anti-heal and paying the price in Stage 4 and higher. You want to slam items in a way that lets you make your DPS items, your tank items and leaves a component open for some sort of utility.

<Insert clip of me slamming items and leaving component open for shred)

In this example, I slam items in a way that ____________

You ideally want at least one form of utility item by Stage 5 at the latest. Resistance shred is a bit more important than Anti-Heal generally, but this is lobby dependent. Ideally, if you managed your items well, you’d have at least 1 utility item after Stage 4 Carousel.

*This doesn’t mean you can’t  slam utility items immediately, as items such as Sunfire Cape and Ionic Spark are really strong early game, but this is just a reminder to keep them in mind for late game!

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