True Strike is infamous as probably the worst cantrip in 5E. As an action, you give yourself advantage on your next weapon attack before the end of your next turn. Given that you can also typically attack with an action, there are very, very few cases in which this is in any way better than simply making two attacks. Attacking twice is basically just advantage, except if both succeed, you get the damage of both attacks. So why, why on earth would you spend an entire action just to give yourself advantage on your next attack?
(There are some scenarios where I could see it coming in to play, but these are real edge cases - something like if you have a really fancy "arrow of dragon slaying" that will do way more damage than your typical arrow, or if you're a Rogue using this to set up sneak attack in a scenario where you can't hide and aren't using the Tasha's rule Steady Aim. But unless you're using a spell scroll, you probably don't want to use up one of your cantrip options on this extraordinarily situational spell.)
The new True Strike in playtest 8 is a total redesign.
The format will be familiar to players who use Green-Flame Blade or Booming Blade, but there's one key difference.
The new version has you make an attack with a weapon, but rather than using Strength or Dexterity modifiers for its attack and damage rolls, you use your spellcasting ability modifier. You can also replace the damage type with Radiant, or use the normal damage. Finally, like other cantrips, this scales up at level 5, 11, and 17, adding a d6 of damage to the weapon's attack at each tier of play.
So, the ultimate upshot here is that this makes a weapon a very reasonable option for a spellcaster to use as their "default meat and potatoes" attack.
Light Crossbows are the highest-damage simple weapons (tied with versatile Spears and Quarterstaffs as well as Greatclubs, but with the obvious advantage of being a ranged weapon). They have the Loading property, but if we're playing a Wizard or Sorcerer, we probably don't have extra attack anyway, so that's not really a concern. If we start off with a +3 to our spellcasting ability, we're looking at a +5 to hit with this cantrip - the same as our spell attack bonus - and the damage is going to be 1d8+3, or 7.5 average damage. Compare this to Poison Spray, which is currently the highest-damage cantrip (tied with Toll the Dead, but we're comparing attack rolls, and the new Poison Spray is an attack) and our damage is 1d12, or 6.5 average damage.
So, we've got a higher average and on top of that we've got a higher minimum damage (4 versus 1). The Light Crossbow has a decent range with 80/320, which means that in most scenarios we have the range (and if we're willing to take disadvantage, we get a higher range than basically any cantrip that isn't enhanced in some way).
Furthermore, True Strike can turn the damage to Radiant, which not only very few things resist, but this also affects certain monsters (Zombies and Vampires) to shut down some of their regenerative/survival powers.
So, if we compare this again with Poison Spray (ignoring Poison Spray's low range and the fact that Poison is a very unreliable damage type) at level 5, Poison Spray's average damage goes up to 13. True Strike becomes 1d8+1d6+4 (assuming our Wizard/Sorcerer is spending ASIs to get their spellcasting stat up as quickly as possible - something that admittedly might not be as likely with the new feat design) which is 12, which is, admittedly, falling behind. But only against our beefy d12-based cantrip. It's still outperforming Fire Bolt. And if we start taking into account magic weapons, the benefits continue to stack up (even ignoring attack bonuses - we could be getting a similar Wand of the War Mage,) with a simple +1 Light Crossbow keeping pace in tier 2. At tier 3, Poison Spray is doing 19.5 average damage, Fire Bolt is doing 16.5, and True Strike without a magic weapon is doing 1d8+2d6+5, or 16.5 - which is the same as Fire Bolt, but with a far more reliable damage type.
In other words, True Strike has gone from an absolutely terrible cantrip choice to, actually, a pretty reasonable one. Even, if you have magic weapons (and enough gold to keep yourself rich in Crossbow Bolts,) a really good one.
So, I think this becomes one of the options - one of the top tier options - for pure spellcasters that don't mind the aesthetic of fighting with a weapon. If you're a classic Bard, Wizard, Sorcerer, and maybe Warlock (who also get this spell) this could be a great option.
But let's talk about who you might think would use this but actually shouldn't:
Eldritch Knights:
Given the structural similarity to this with Green-Flame Blade and Booming Blade, you might be tempted to think this is good for an EK. The problem, though, is that using your Spellcasting ability modifier instead of Strength or Dexterity is not optional with this spell - you have to do it. And EKs will still want to focus on making their main physical attack stat their priority. Even if you attack with Intelligence with this, you'll still be using Strength or Dexterity with your other stats, so unless you have those equal to one another, some of your attacks will suffer if you use this cantrip.
Arcane Tricksters:
This is actually less of a problem for ATs than EKs, as they don't have multiattack, so you could make a pure-intelligence Arcane Trickster that uses this with a finesse or ranged weapon - even if you're not using Dexterity, you can still get sneak attack. Still, Rogues are reliant on Dexterity for their AC and also important ability checks like Stealth, so I'd recommend still focusing primarily on your Dexterity for this subclass.
Artificers:
While True Strike isn't an Artificer spell (which is honestly surprising) you might be tempted to grab this with Magic Initiate or some such source if you're one of the spellcasting-focused artificer subclasses. The problem is that both Alchemists and Artillerists only get their damage boosts (1d8 for Artillerists and their Intelligence modifier for Alchemists) if using the appropriate spellcasting focus for their subclass - alchemy supplies or the special "arcane firearm." Now, the material component here does not have a gold cost nor is it consumed, meaning that in theory you can replace it with a spell focus, but that creates a problem: what is the damage die for a set of Alchemy Supplies? What's its range? As a DM, I'd for sure work with a player to custom-homebrew some stats for their weaponized tool kit (I'd even done some initial homebrewing to create a "alchemical sprayer" and an arcane firearm to have them focus on weapon attacks) but losing out on the bonus to their damage would mean this cantrip falls by the wayside.
Warlocks:
In general, I think this version of the spell is still not great for a Warlock. Pact of the Blade warlocks will get the biggest benefit from this by default, and Thirsting Blade is far better scaling than this cantrip gets. For those who just want a ranged option, Eldritch Blast is still going to scale better than this if you have Agonizing Blast.
On the other hand, some classes will really like this cantrip.
Bladesingers:
You kind of have the same issue as the Eldritch Knight, though I think in the case of a Bladesinger Wizard, you are more likely to prioritize Intelligence over Dexterity (or Strength, if you're a madman) and so this actually starts to look pretty good. Indeed, while their second attack after level 6 will suffer, this might be perfect for them.
But overall, I think they've done a really remarkable job of turning the most infamously terrible cantrip in the game into something that's actually a reasonable choice for a lot of character builds. There are some ambiguities to clear up (such as the material component issue mentioned in the Artificer section above) but I think we're looking at something I genuinely think could see play, and that is way, way better than the old version.
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