Intended or not, there are champions that are stronger than others in Teamfight Tactics. For now, Draven and Volibear stand out as the strongest champions. People say that Aurelion Sol is also quite broken as well. After around 20 hours of play, (and more hours of waiting in queue…) I’ve found some champions and items or synergies that go well together.

Draven

Alright, Draven is broken at the moment. More often than not, you can see a 1-star Draven pounding the **** out of your 2 or 3-star Garen. He has already been nerfed, but he still remains as one of the strongest champions in the game (intended by devs). Draven has a passive skill which gains on-hit damage and attack speed. The skill description may not seem very strong, but if you place him on the board behind your tanks, you can see him go mad.

Synergies

Draven’s an Imperial Blademaster. If you have two Imperials on the board, one of the two Imperials would deal double damage. That’s a 50% chance for your Draven to deal double damage. It may be a bit difficult in finding your third and fourth Imperial since they have higher rarity, but you can worry about that later. Darius can be found easily in the early rounds; if you’re planning on picking up a Draven during mid-game, you want to keep all the Dariuses you see. Going further down on picking up Imperials is a late-game decision and it may not be the best choice.

The Blademaster synergy is a bit trickier because it requires three to have the first level synergy unlocked. The synergy grants the Blademaster champions a chance to have extra attacks, which is perfect for basic-attack-based champions like Draven, Draven, and Draven. Fiora is an easy-to-get Blademaster, and the Noble synergy goes well with Draven as well. As for your third Blademaster, try to grab a Spatula and Recurve Bow to make the Blade of the Ruined King. That turns any champion into a Blademaster (don’t put it on the Draven or Fiora because you’ll waste it).

Draven goes well in any compositions, but personally, I think 6 Nobles + Draven + Darius (2 Imperials) is one of the best comps out there. Yes, it’s hard to get the 6th Noble, Kayle, but when you finish this comp, most likely, the win is guaranteed. If you have the Blade of the Ruined King on Vayne, you’re all set with the Blademaster synergy as well.

Items

Draven goes well with any AS or AD item. Mostly, I equip him with a Guinsoo’s Rageblade and a life steal if possible. He actually deals tons of damage without any items, so Guinsoo is not a must. Besides Guinsoo, you can pick from Bloodthirster, Infinity Edge, Hextech Gunblade, Sword of the Divine, Sword Breaker, Guardian Angel, Statikk Shiv, Rapid Firecannon, Cursed Blade, and Runaan’s Hurricane.

Volibear

Glacial Brawler. Brawler doesn’t do much for him, but the Glacial is amazing. Volibear’s ability is to attack additional targets, also a passive skill. The Glacial on-hit synergy to freeze an enemy also applies to the chains generated from Volibear’s passive. Since he’s a melee champion, equipping him with a Rapid Firecannon is essential, but once you get the Glacial synergy and the Rapid Firecannon, he becomes monstrous.

Synergies

The Brawler synergy could be useful, but not essential when using Volibear. The Glacial synergy starts when you have 2 champions, gets stronger with 4 and 6. The best part of this origin is that you don’t need to find Anivia (5-cost) to activate the full synergy. Find a Frozen Mallet (Spatula + Giant Belt) to make any other champion into a Glacial. Works well with champions that have high attack speed.

When you have 6 Glacials, you can see your opponent constantly freezing and unable to attack. After having experimented with 5 Glacials + Draven (Frozen Mallet), I can confirm that this comp is one of the best.

Volibear also goes well with 6 Nobles… Yeah, Nobles are pretty good. I'll get to Nobles again below. Wilds are also useful as well. Higher the attack speed, higher the chance to freeze an enemy. Warwick is a Wild Brawler, so you can gain additional HP on your Volibear with the Brawler synergy. Since there are 5 Wilds, it would be easier to collect 4 of them.

Items

For Volibear, Rapid Firecannon is a must. Grab two bows and put it on your bear friend to activate him properly. Until this is equipped, Volibear’s effectiveness is cut in less than half. Rapid Firecannon allows Volibear to take a step back from the front line, relieving him from the starting aggro. Plus, he doesn’t need to move if a target is within two hexes; moving equals DPS loss.

Aurelion Sol

People (mainly Scarra) have been claiming that Aurelion Sol is even more broken than Draven. I haven’t had the chance to experiment with ASol yet, but the developers even buffed the champion in the latest patch. Will update after the client allows me in. 

Nobles

One of the strongest synergies in the game is 6 Nobles. It's almost the same as the Goblin buff in Dota Auto Chess, but it works a bit differently. Basically, it heals all ally champions that throw out basic attacks.

It’s not easy to collect all 6 Nobles, and it’s really hard to transition from 3 Nobles to 6. You can’t even see the 3 Nobles buff if the champion with it gets stunned and explodes in half a second. Furthermore, the 5-cost champion, Kayle won’t appear until level 6, and chances are extremely low to see her in reroll. Highest chance to get her is the Carousel, but with such a champ, competition is fierce.

Still, the synergy is extremely good. Leona is the owner of the longest stun in the game with 5/8/11 seconds per level, Vayne and Lucian are decent damage dealers, and Garen is quite useful from the early game. So here are some tips on transitioning to the 6 Nobles buff from 3.

Basically, you start off with Fiora, Vayne, Lucian and Garen to activate the 3 Nobles buff. After that, you’re stuck until you get both Leona and Kayle. During the transition, try to pick up all the Glacials. Sejuani, Ashe, Braum share classes with Garen, Vayne, and Leona. All three are activated with just two champions. By doing so, you have a higher chance to pick up something effective, rather than just rerolling and picking up potentially useless champions.

Sejuani’s stun activates as long as it’s thrown out. Ashe and Vayne’s Ranger synergy allows the champions to attack faster, which is important for a champion like Vayne. Ashe’s ult usually stuns the main damage dealer of the opponent, earning precious time for the front line. Braum and Leona’s Guardian buff adds armor to adjacent allies, so it’s good to protect your champions, but Leona’s rather hard-to-get.

Here’s the best tip from RiotAugust; don’t try to get Kayle from rerolls in Levels 6 or 7. You might be better off going for the Lottery.

Useful Champions to Use Alone

When you’re trying to build more synergies and move on to a bigger team, but don’t know what to buy, these are the best choices if none of what you want shows up. They’re good in-between champions to use for a while and sell away when you get the champions you need.

Kindred

Kindred’s ult makes the champions around her invincible. Her attack speed is quite fast, so she can gain mana to activate her ult quite early. She can be used to protect the vanguard from melting or to protect the damage dealers from being killed by assassins… unless she’s targeted first and dies to crits.

Draven

Enough has been explained about him above.

Sejuani

Sejuani’s ultimate stuns champions in a large area for 3/4/5 seconds. Once her ability is cast, it stuns the enemies even if she dies before the stun is activated. For those of you who’ve played Dota Auto Chess, you can think that she’s equivalent to Kunkka. Also great to have more Glacials.

Kennen

All ninjas are useful when used alone, but Kennen has AOE damage and is quite powerful. Great when you have nothing to put on board after you level up.

Gnar

Gnar jumps behind the enemies, pushes, and stuns them. If protected until his ulti, he’s very effective. You can also move on to a bigger Shapeshifter party with him.

*Images via Riot Games