Patch 13.3 20/20 Tear Start +350 LP
tactics.tools profile, lolchess.gg profile
Hey all, I've had a lot of success this patch with tear start, climbing from the 200s to 600s in LP. I've basically only been starting tear, except when I lose carousel. Even in GM/challenger games I don't end up losing carousel very often because almost no one contests tear, so I thought I might share my experience/how I play with tear start if you're interested in playing a less contested line.
Strengths:
- Tear/AP usually uncontested
- Tons of blue buff holders throughout the game
- Lots of very consistent top 4 outs/comps
- Good hero augments
- Lots of good combat augments
- Potential highest cap if you can go 9 for Syndra + Fid/Urgot bench
- Augments give a lot of direction
Weaknesses:
- Inflexible frontline (Annie Alistar Ekko almost every time)
- Hard to 1st/outcap Sureshot boards who usually play a lot of Aegis
- Not good at using/hard to fit a lot of the broken units on lvl 7/8 rolldown (Bel'veth, Samira, Sej, even Fid/Urgot can be hard to fit)
- Capped to a 2nd/3rd without good combat augments
Augments
A big reason I like starting tear is that augments give you a lot of direction.
Example regular augments:
- Battlemage/First Aid Kit -> Yuumi/Nilah/Supers (Redemption, BB)
- Anima Squad Heart/Crest -> Vertical Anima (Shojin, Shiv)
- Spellslinger, Star Guardian -> Shojin is now a good slam
- Heart Heart/Crest, Luden's -> Soraka/Heart Zoe
- Recon -> Recons w/bow opener, can also play around Spreadshot (Shojin is a good slam)
Additionally, a lot of the most broken hero augment comps use or need tear as well:
- Cringing Safeguard -> Redemption Lee, infinite Shojins/BB
- Yuumi/Nilah/Supers: Rell hero augments, Nilah hero augments, Malphite Guardian Spirit -> Redemption, Shojin/BB
- Lux carry is a fucking 4.02 average -> NEED Shojin/BB
- Spreadshot -> mana item Vayne, slots into existing viable gameplans of Recon/Vertical Anima (more on that later)
- Flaming Ricochet -> BB GP
- Growth Spurt/Bigger Better Buckler -> BB Lulu
Early Game
Hold any good BB holder. Slam any good frontline item, JG, BB. I usually save tear if I don't get dropped a second one off minions since tear is usually going to be uncontested on carousel -- for example, I wouldn't slam Shojin unless I know I'm playing Taliyah/MF. The reason for this is blue buff is an insane item (also still good in Taliyah) -- there's so many crazy holders that ALSO abuse early game augments (see above). It's not a secret that there's a lot of broken 1/2 AP hero augments right now. BUT if you get a bow/strong opener you can slam shiv and play Kaisa/Laser Corp/Anima Squad so tear start is a lot more flexible than you might think.
Play off your augments, your gameplan revolves around blue buff. A really nice part of this is a lot of the best early holders (Lulu, Yuumi, Sona) auto-tailor your board to hit the broken shit on 3-2 if it wasn't 2-1 hero augment (Cleansing Safeguard, Yuumi/Nilah/Super augments, if you hit early Vayne you can play for 3-2 Spreadshot).
After 2-1/3-2 hero augments you should already have an idea of what you're playing if you hit one of the broken 1/2/3 hero augments, so the next part of the guide won't cover the less common lines (Spreadshot, 1 cost rerolls, Recon, Anima).
Mid Game
If you're really weak or have a lot of pairs, you should roll like usual on 3-2/3-5/4-1/4-2. Can usually stop after a couple frontline upgrades/BB holder upgrade, dependent on lobby tempo. Use what you hit to give you direction. For example, early Taliyah/Soraka. If you hit a lot of Zoe's/LB/Sona maybe you look to reroll. If your Admin is good for Soraka/LB, play around that. If you hit good SG Augments play around Taliyah. Play around broken hero augments. Example midgame boards:
You'll want to transition the non-reroll boards to the late game boards below, they usually translate in a pretty straightforward manner.
Late Game
All the AP boards beside the reroll comps usually NEED Syndra if you want to outcap and play for a 1st. This is because you usually can't fit Urgot and Fiddle with your frontline and required traits (3/5 Star Guardian, 4 Spell, Admin+Hearts) Example level 8 boards (slot in Syndra for Lulu/Yuumi/Sona and fill in missing traits at 9):
Cringing Safeguard, 1 open slot
Soraka/Zoe Reroll: Lulu/Poppy if no Nunu
Taliyah w/Star Guardian +1 or Spell +1, LB is flex if SG +1
Tier List
Lastly, I'll give my quick tier list of all the BB/Shojin comps:
- S Tier (Broken): Cleansing Safeguard, Yuumi/Nilah/Supers, Good Admin Soraka, Spreadshot Vayne
- A Tier (Can top 4 every game): Taliyah, Mid Admin Soraka, Good Admin LB Reroll
- B Tier (Situational, Augment or 3 star dependent): Zoe Carry, Zoe/Annie Reroll, Vertical Threats with Mana Item A-Sol
Anyway, this post ended up a lot longer than I thought it would but I'm sure there's still parts of my thought process that I didn't explain and lines I missed. Let me know if you have any questions or feedback!