On today – January 6, the first version of 2022 was officially released and had a huge impact on the Tactics Arena meta. With both the Idol system and Kai’Sa being heavily nerfed, the spawn rate of this squad has decreased a lot compared to the previous version. Meanwhile, the squads that were inherently strong but did not get nerfed in patch 12.1 such as Mage, Inventor, Jhin and friends continued to be extremely strong.
It seems that since the beginning of season 6, no version of Jhin has been “out of meta”.
Besides the names mentioned above, the Gang lineup also skyrocketed in the rate of reaching the top 4 as soon as 12.1 was updated. Specifically, 2 Gang squads combined with 4 Assassins and Idols – Scholars are both having a rate of reaching the top 4 out of 54%. It is worth mentioning here that the Gangs clan itself was only buffed very little in the last version. So what is the reason why team-comp, even though it’s not so strong, is still in the top meta? Let’s find out together.
First of all, we still need to reiterate how the Kai’Sa – Idol lineup was heavily nerfed and disappeared from the meta. Basically, this is a too hard counter for the Gang team when it is very difficult for you to defeat Giant pieces like Sion and Galio early. Meanwhile, with the skill to surf to the place with the fewest opponents, Kai’Sa is not afraid of the Assassin units of the Gang team.
Even another extremely strong squad, the nerfed Chemical Technique, also makes the Gang team much stronger. This formation has the feature of taking the “buffalo” of the Gladiator units as strength, so it is difficult for the Assassins to defeat them. Moreover, when Urgot uses skills, it will attack the nearest enemy (usually Assassin units), so it also strongly counters the Gang team. Obviously when hard counters are weakened in patch 12.1, the Gang will benefit a lot.
Statikk’s Electric Knife was heavily nerfed, causing Urgot’s power to decrease quite a bit
Next, the rise of squads like Jhin, Inventor or Mage in version 12.1 also contributed to pushing up the value of the Gang squad. The common feature of the above team-comps is that they all depend on the backline mainstays to deal damage. Once pieces like Jhin, Seraphine, Lux, Viktor are approached by the Assassin, they are easy to lay down and do not contribute much to the fight.
Lux and the Mage units are afraid of being approached by the Assassin
In addition to the above objective factors, the Assassin system or the Gang clan itself also received a remarkable buff that made this team-comp much stronger in version 12.1. For example, when Twisted Fate is buffed, this is a very good way to keep blood at the beginning of the game for the Gang team. In addition, the fact that Assassin’s Seal now provides Talon instead of Ekko also helps this system deal damage more effectively.
Having a good start will make it easier to roll out Akali in the late game
In short, with so many hard counters being nerfed and the “prey” of the Assassin units being used a lot, the Gang team has become extremely strong. If you feel a bit surprised with the new meta and don’t know what squad to build, the Gang Gang team is a very good choice at the moment.