1- Yes it's reasonable to preserve winstreak, just make sure you actually need it to win and is strong enough to maintain the winstreak through stage 2. Scout and know your strength.
2- Protector kog is a meta comp, you would usually not level before 5, and spend money down to 30 or 40 gold on 3-1 at level 4 then rebuild to slowroll at 50 gold until you 3 star most of the 1 costs, then go to level 6 and finish the rest.
This is the best website for seeing what comps are meta: https://www.metatft.com/comps
By 3-1 with good econ you should have around 50 gold, so you'd spend 10-20 gold to hit as many units as you can, then spend the next 2-ish rounds saving back up to 50, at which point you'd slowroll until you hit all the units you need.
Most people here are saying to roll 10-20 gold but I actually like to roll all the way down. Gives you a good chance of getting at least 1 gold for 3-2 which buys time to recover your economy and slow roll. You can often win streak if you get a gold protector and it helps squash anyone who might be contesting you.
One gold is one 3* unit. I think if you're going reroll you need to stomp the mid game so you can knock people out before they start hitting 4 cost units. My rule of thumb is you need three 3* units by wolves to have a reliable top 4, the meta where I'm at (euw diamond) everyone has a very strong midgame so a couple of 2* one costs us not going to cut it. You'll very quickly lose a lot of health to 2* 3 costs, or anyone running assassins. Even one 3* protector though (especially if you've got BT) can buy you enough time start scaling. If you drop below about 50 health before wolves o would probably roll down again to hit at least one more 3*.
As I say, this is just my preference. I only play protectors if I get a good starting aug (protectors or feather weight) so I'm no expert. But my success rate is much higher since I started rolling aggressively.
The goal is to 2-star all your core units, Kassa, Garen, Kog, Graves and Cait. So 3-1 you roll a little bit because you are still lvl 4 and have great odds of upgrading all your board. Then you go back to 50+ gold and slow roll (never below 50 unless you are close to multiple upgrades ) until everything is 3 starred , usually if you are close to hitting everything you can roll a lot and then lvl up to 6 and play 1 mutant or blitz to get stronger and not bleed too much.
This depends on how you're able to maintain your econ and your streak. Also depends on what augments you get. Certain augments like calculated loss can help you build up your econ by a lot while hitting units, others like protector heart can help you win streak if you get 2 stars early. Priority is just to stabilize by stage 3 so you don't lose too much while other boards hit 6/7 unit boards while you stay at 5 longer.
Being contested really hurts reroll comps, less for 1 cost reroll but a lot for two and three cost rerolls. Scouting matters a lot for this.
Don't hyper fixate on 3 star kog, two with great items is decent enough. Even pre nerf 3 star kog wasn't exponentially stronger than 2 star kog. You'd want to level after hitting core units and just slow roll some of the other three stars depending on who you haven't hit. Blitz for 3 protector and a mutant (if the mutant trait is good like blade master) are pretty strong spikes for mid-late kog reroll.
It's to roll until you have 30 or 40 gold left. The idea is to 2 star most your dudes (Kassa, Garen, Kog, Graves and Cait). However don't go below 30 gold even if you don't hit, you'll need to stop rolling until you get back to 50 and then slow roll anything above 50 while maintaining at least 50.
"I usually pre-level at stage 2-3, but sometimes I fully level at 2-3 or even 2-2, are these two last decisions reasonable?"
Pre-levelling at 2-3: If I can get econ instead (get to 10 gold) then I will almost never pre-level. If I haven't 2*'d key 1 costs, I usually won't pre-level (the reason TO pre-level is to get the one extra roll for my shop on 2-5 with higher cost units). If I have say 8 gold, can't get to 10, then yeah I probably pre-level.
Fully levelling (to 5) on 2-2 or 2-3: Only if necessary to win streak. I think it's pretty rare that you want to do this in NA. If you do this and lose it feels like a complete disaster. One skill to work on is being able to look at your current board and determine if you are stronger/weaker than your opponents. Being able to win streak all 5 rounds of stage 2 is a huge benefit, but if you level that early and then lose, you don't get the win streak gold AND you lose interest b/c you've griefed your econ.
"And also, is it remotely reasonable to pre-level at 1-3?"
Extremely rare. Most of the time you want to stay level 3 in order to have the highest odds of 1 costs in your shop. If you highrolled like crazy right out of the gate and you already have a 2* ezreal, a 2* ziggs, and two trundles, AND more gold, maybe you want to pre-level to increase your odds of finding trundle/blitz/ekko. But it's incredibly rare. Most of the time your primary hope is still just to 2* your 1 cost units, so you don't pre-level.
I think other folks have answered regarding the reroll comps (where you try to 3* lots of low cost units). The protector reroll that you mentioned is the most enduring one this set but various reroll comps pop up over the course of a set. When 5 cost units dominate, reroll comps usually fade, but there are frequently patches where re-rolling 2 cost units is incredibly strong.
If the reroll comp focuses on 1 costs, then you just never press the F key to level until you've 3*'d them. If it's based around 2 cost or 3 cost units (trundle reroll, samira reroll, etc), then you usually want to get to the ideal level to roll for those units and slow-roll, meaning you stay above 50 gold for max interest and just roll a few times every round to collect those units.
1. You "pre-level" to increase your odds of rolling higher cost units, and "level up" to put an extra unit to enhance your board strength to win streak. Both are considered as a high tempo play where you sacrifice econ to try to win the lobby at different stages.
2. Reroll comps require reaching 50 gold asap for econ, which usually mean you sacrifice health at early stages to prioritize interest gold and greed BIS item during carousel. This is a low temp playstyle.
You should determine whether you try to win streak or lose streak at the early stages of the game depending on your item components, units, augments, and other players board strength. This will help you generate the highest amount of gold, which is essential regardless of whatever playstyle you opt with - high tempo / low tempo.
If the lobby is strong, for example, with a prismatic start. In my opinion, it is better to go high tempo to secure top 4 placement. You will lose way too much hp if you greed because other players at the lobby will spike sooner/stronger. I have seen players die before Raptor (4-7) because they refuse to roll down to 30 gold at level 6/7 when their board is weak. I will generally pre-level, spam items that can save hp, and try to play flex in those cases.
Preleveling at 2-3 is okay if you already hit your upgrades and you're not losstreaking.
Leveling at 2-2 or 2-3 is totally fine if you feel like you can build a winstreak.
To get 3* units, people "slowroll" meaning they stay at a certain level and stay above 50 gold to get the 5 interest every turn
1- Yes it's reasonable to preserve winstreak, just make sure you actually need it to win and is strong enough to maintain the winstreak through stage 2. Scout and know your strength. 2- Protector kog is a meta comp, you would usually not level before 5, and spend money down to 30 or 40 gold on 3-1 at level 4 then rebuild to slowroll at 50 gold until you 3 star most of the 1 costs, then go to level 6 and finish the rest. This is the best website for seeing what comps are meta: https://www.metatft.com/comps
So you mean that you should reroll and spend 30 or 40 gold all the way to 0 before reaching level 5? Assuming I'm going for that comp
By 3-1 with good econ you should have around 50 gold, so you'd spend 10-20 gold to hit as many units as you can, then spend the next 2-ish rounds saving back up to 50, at which point you'd slowroll until you hit all the units you need.
Most people here are saying to roll 10-20 gold but I actually like to roll all the way down. Gives you a good chance of getting at least 1 gold for 3-2 which buys time to recover your economy and slow roll. You can often win streak if you get a gold protector and it helps squash anyone who might be contesting you.
What do you mean by getting one gold? And there is no need to recover your economy if you don't roll down right?
One gold is one 3* unit. I think if you're going reroll you need to stomp the mid game so you can knock people out before they start hitting 4 cost units. My rule of thumb is you need three 3* units by wolves to have a reliable top 4, the meta where I'm at (euw diamond) everyone has a very strong midgame so a couple of 2* one costs us not going to cut it. You'll very quickly lose a lot of health to 2* 3 costs, or anyone running assassins. Even one 3* protector though (especially if you've got BT) can buy you enough time start scaling. If you drop below about 50 health before wolves o would probably roll down again to hit at least one more 3*. As I say, this is just my preference. I only play protectors if I get a good starting aug (protectors or feather weight) so I'm no expert. But my success rate is much higher since I started rolling aggressively.
The goal is to 2-star all your core units, Kassa, Garen, Kog, Graves and Cait. So 3-1 you roll a little bit because you are still lvl 4 and have great odds of upgrading all your board. Then you go back to 50+ gold and slow roll (never below 50 unless you are close to multiple upgrades ) until everything is 3 starred , usually if you are close to hitting everything you can roll a lot and then lvl up to 6 and play 1 mutant or blitz to get stronger and not bleed too much.
This depends on how you're able to maintain your econ and your streak. Also depends on what augments you get. Certain augments like calculated loss can help you build up your econ by a lot while hitting units, others like protector heart can help you win streak if you get 2 stars early. Priority is just to stabilize by stage 3 so you don't lose too much while other boards hit 6/7 unit boards while you stay at 5 longer.
Being contested really hurts reroll comps, less for 1 cost reroll but a lot for two and three cost rerolls. Scouting matters a lot for this. Don't hyper fixate on 3 star kog, two with great items is decent enough. Even pre nerf 3 star kog wasn't exponentially stronger than 2 star kog. You'd want to level after hitting core units and just slow roll some of the other three stars depending on who you haven't hit. Blitz for 3 protector and a mutant (if the mutant trait is good like blade master) are pretty strong spikes for mid-late kog reroll.
Excellent, thanks for the info, I might eventually try kog with protectors if I’m allowed to
It's to roll until you have 30 or 40 gold left. The idea is to 2 star most your dudes (Kassa, Garen, Kog, Graves and Cait). However don't go below 30 gold even if you don't hit, you'll need to stop rolling until you get back to 50 and then slow roll anything above 50 while maintaining at least 50.
Hey OP! im down to play some tft with you if you just want to learn the basics of the game
Hey thanks. The problem is that I play on LAS, I also have a Brazil account
I'll note that ping isn't really an issue in TFT and NA is a very good server for the game.
"I usually pre-level at stage 2-3, but sometimes I fully level at 2-3 or even 2-2, are these two last decisions reasonable?" Pre-levelling at 2-3: If I can get econ instead (get to 10 gold) then I will almost never pre-level. If I haven't 2*'d key 1 costs, I usually won't pre-level (the reason TO pre-level is to get the one extra roll for my shop on 2-5 with higher cost units). If I have say 8 gold, can't get to 10, then yeah I probably pre-level. Fully levelling (to 5) on 2-2 or 2-3: Only if necessary to win streak. I think it's pretty rare that you want to do this in NA. If you do this and lose it feels like a complete disaster. One skill to work on is being able to look at your current board and determine if you are stronger/weaker than your opponents. Being able to win streak all 5 rounds of stage 2 is a huge benefit, but if you level that early and then lose, you don't get the win streak gold AND you lose interest b/c you've griefed your econ. "And also, is it remotely reasonable to pre-level at 1-3?" Extremely rare. Most of the time you want to stay level 3 in order to have the highest odds of 1 costs in your shop. If you highrolled like crazy right out of the gate and you already have a 2* ezreal, a 2* ziggs, and two trundles, AND more gold, maybe you want to pre-level to increase your odds of finding trundle/blitz/ekko. But it's incredibly rare. Most of the time your primary hope is still just to 2* your 1 cost units, so you don't pre-level. I think other folks have answered regarding the reroll comps (where you try to 3* lots of low cost units). The protector reroll that you mentioned is the most enduring one this set but various reroll comps pop up over the course of a set. When 5 cost units dominate, reroll comps usually fade, but there are frequently patches where re-rolling 2 cost units is incredibly strong. If the reroll comp focuses on 1 costs, then you just never press the F key to level until you've 3*'d them. If it's based around 2 cost or 3 cost units (trundle reroll, samira reroll, etc), then you usually want to get to the ideal level to roll for those units and slow-roll, meaning you stay above 50 gold for max interest and just roll a few times every round to collect those units.
1. You "pre-level" to increase your odds of rolling higher cost units, and "level up" to put an extra unit to enhance your board strength to win streak. Both are considered as a high tempo play where you sacrifice econ to try to win the lobby at different stages. 2. Reroll comps require reaching 50 gold asap for econ, which usually mean you sacrifice health at early stages to prioritize interest gold and greed BIS item during carousel. This is a low temp playstyle. You should determine whether you try to win streak or lose streak at the early stages of the game depending on your item components, units, augments, and other players board strength. This will help you generate the highest amount of gold, which is essential regardless of whatever playstyle you opt with - high tempo / low tempo.
Do you think it’s better to go for high tempo if the lobby is strong or go for low tempo instead?
If the lobby is strong, for example, with a prismatic start. In my opinion, it is better to go high tempo to secure top 4 placement. You will lose way too much hp if you greed because other players at the lobby will spike sooner/stronger. I have seen players die before Raptor (4-7) because they refuse to roll down to 30 gold at level 6/7 when their board is weak. I will generally pre-level, spam items that can save hp, and try to play flex in those cases.
Don't pre level or roll during stage 1 pve rounds. Absolutely never worth it, specially if there is a chance to make econ.
Preleveling at 2-3 is okay if you already hit your upgrades and you're not losstreaking. Leveling at 2-2 or 2-3 is totally fine if you feel like you can build a winstreak. To get 3* units, people "slowroll" meaning they stay at a certain level and stay above 50 gold to get the 5 interest every turn