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Tristana Build Guide by KaalSchneid

ADC Tristana AD Hyper Carry by KaalSchneid

ADC Tristana AD Hyper Carry by KaalSchneid

Updated on December 10, 2017
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League of Legends Build Guide Author KaalSchneid Build Guide By KaalSchneid 25 2 194,679 Views 2 Comments
25 2 194,679 Views 2 Comments League of Legends Build Guide Author KaalSchneid Tristana Build Guide By KaalSchneid Updated on December 10, 2017
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Runes:

Precision
Lethal Tempo
Triumph
Legend: Alacrity
Coup de Grace

Domination
Sudden Impact
Eyeball Collection

Spells:

LoL Summoner Spell: Heal

Heal

LoL Summoner Spell: Flash

Flash

Threats & Synergies

Threats Synergies
Extreme Major Even Minor Tiny
Show All
None Low Ok Strong Ideal
Extreme Threats
Ideal Synergies
Synergies
Ideal Strong Ok Low None

Introduction

Hello, I am KaalSchneid (in game Brági (altcode 0225), here to help new players ADC effectively. Follow the build, but use your head as best as you can. This should keep you alive, and doing damage throughout the game. Message me or comment anything, I will do my best to respond.

ADC 2017... One more Meme of the League of Legends Community, I can't tell you how true this was in season 6/7! So, I no-lifed Tristana (my favorite ADC, and main) and her Items to make her effective once again: half a million champion points later, and above 50% of the NA community, here we are.

The thing about Tristana is: Her E is her bread and butter, and to use it best you need to Tag your enemy with it and auto/ Rocket Jump/ Buster Shot until it detonates (and usually beyond detonation). Tristana NEEDS Attack Speed and Attack Damage, it is ESSENTIAL on her to use her Abilities best as an ADC.
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Get Tristana Free, with Riot Girl Skin

Tristana is FREE with her Riot Girl Skin if you visit https://www.facebook.com/leagueoflegends go to Free Riot Girl Tristana, and follow the directions. You don't have to, but it is legit, and all that other wonderful stuff, 100% free, and it's official League of Legends content. Unlike Alistar, this is free for good.
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Pros / Cons

Pros.


++ Tristana is a very fun champion to play
++ She's firmly in the Meta - even got a nerf (fair balancing one) and still sees pro play.
++ Can make amazing plays and reposition with Jump and Ult
++ High mobility with W, easily resets
++ Super Easy to use abilities, point-cast, just watch the minions.
++ Can 1v1 most other ADC's with a lead and a little know-how.
++ Can take All Objectives rather quickly
++ Can take Baron with 4 items and 1 tank
+ Versatile, but very safe
+ Can benefit from many items for different usage
+ Tristana is a free champion.
+ Very High Damage Per Second
+ Long Range late game
+ Attack Baron Nashor and Dragon from behind their walls LVL 16+.



Cons

-- Difficult to Master.
- Amongst the most squishy champions (Watch those burst champions/assassins!)
- Can fall behind early, somewhat easily
- Can ruin teamfights with a misplaced Ultimate, watch where you're aiming that thing!!
- Always able to be Crowd Controlled, study up on her W.
- Not the strongest early game, but power spikes at level 4-5, and is always capable of outplay.
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Runes (REFORGED)

Tristana requires runes to effectively lane, and scale throughout the game... they're there to help.

As I see it, everything is in a state of rather extreme *uc*ery. There's really no other way to put it. We're trying to learn "what works with who, why, and how."

I spent hours here...
Spoiler: Click to view


NEW KEYSTONE RUNES!


+++ Lethal Tempo from the Precision Tree +++
You can and will break the Attack Speed cap late game, and that's so invaluable on Tristana. Unless you have a high-damage support that can benefit from Press the Attack, I wouldn't recommend skipping this Keystone Rune.

For those of you, like me, who also ALWAYS TOOK Warlord's Bloodlust - Fleet Footwork is essentially the same, and is safe and reliable. Don't hesitate to take it against a hard matchup.

Minor Runes
Triumph will help keep you alive during a teamfight,
Overheal can easily save your life, mostly if you have a super healing support ( Soraka, Janna, Sona), and
Presence of Mind can keep up your mana pool (however, this doesn't feel necessary to me, personally).



Secondary Runes


Domination

Taste of Blood (Healed 1000 damage in the average game)
Relentless Hunter (Out of Combat movement speed allows more farming, more roaming, more playing.)

Inspiration

Magical Footwear - Arrival time (on average) 9:00
Approach Velocity - Times hasted (on average) ~100


Sorcery (Low win-rate...)

The Ultimate Hat CDR cooldown (0-Obviously bugged...)
Scorch Damage - 400 (on Average)

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Items

Alright, very straightforward, but extremely important. The ADC is the Attack Damage Carry, and as an Auto Attacking champion, Tristana needs: Attack Speed, Attack Damage, and Critical Hits.

Start: Doran's Blade and a Health Potion for an strong reliable start ( Doran's Shield against heavy poke). Relic Shield is pretty much out.

Get 1300-2625 gold. B. F. Sword Boots of Swiftness/ Berserker's Greaves Refillable Potion Control Ward. Pushed out of lane early? Get a Cull, or Pickaxe.

B. F. Sword early AD spike, help farm, help damage trades, help everything!

Berserker's Greaves for Movement Speed and Attack Speed, essential except against full AD teams, where Ninja Tabi would be best.

Infinity Edge Huge power spike, heavy Crit damage, Creep Score Effortlessly.

Zeal/ Statikk Shiv increase Crit Chance, Increase Attack Speed, Movement Speed, and a sick Passive for pressuring lane and enemies.

Rapid Firecannon - Increased Range, Increased Crit Chance (to 80%$, it's so reliable), Increased Attack Speed, Increased Movement Speed.

Bloodthirster Maximum Lifesteal and Attack Damage, and a passive shield! Can you feel it Mr. Krabs?!

Lord Dominik's Regards for Added Armor Pen (even against squishies), and increased damage over all to anyone with more health than you. NOW YOU WILL RECEIVE US!

Quicksilver Sash/ Mercurial Scimitar Attack Damage? Lifesteal? Magic Resist? NEGATE CC!? Suck it @ Leona, Thresh, Nami, Blitzcrank... you get the idea.
Guardian Angel first to die? Here's your second chance. AD/Armor.


More depth:



Tristana needs Attack Damage and Attack Speed, first and Foremost. So, B. F. Sword will help you farm, trade, push lane, etc. Also, the initial price jump to get B. F. Sword is easiest to achieve first, as long as you're not getting bullied out of lane. SO, say you have a B. F. Sword... pick up some Berserker's Greaves, and start a Zeal item, if it's convenient for you. I typically rush Infinity Edge, unless I'm base-ing too often to get an item for it each time. I usually go Statikk Shiv for the waveclear, but Rapid Firecannon is also perfectly fine if you need the Energized extra range.

So, you have 3 items: Infinity Edge, Statikk Shiv ( Rapid Firecannon), Berserker's Greaves. Sometimes a Cull, Doran's Blade, and Health Potion or Control Ward.

Now... you start making the big decisions that influence the rest of the game most. If the Cull is finished (should probably be), sell it far before a Doran's Blade. Stop buying potions, it's time to analyze the enemy team.

Now, we're already on our final items. If the enemy team only has 1 tank, Rapid Firecannon will keep you out of their reach to damage squishies on occasion. If you need Armor Penetration, you can get Last Whisper into Lord Dominik's Regards or Mortal Reminder (Figure it out, but Grievous wounds is not your explicit job). Or you need more lifesteal: Bloodthirster is super reliable. If enemies are dense with armor and health, Lord Dominik's Regards will help shred them and make them feel squishy. Or if you're up against insane Regen (bunch of Spirit Visage's, or a Dr. Mundo, Darius, and Swain are Carrying the enemy team) Mortal Reminder will help stop part of that regeneration. Or (and this does happen) they don't really have a tank, but a ton of damage. Death's Dance or Bloodthirster, whether you want the CDR and passive self bleed of or the 5% extra lifesteal on .


Remember, I no longer endorse selling Berserker's Greaves at any point, anymore. If you're not doing well with them, you won't do better without them. Nuts, right!?
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The Most Situational Items

Blade of the Ruined King. %Current Health Damage, Lifesteal, Attack Speed.
...I never build this anymore. Bloodthirster is just so much better, helps Tristana's scalings better, gives her that awesome shield... if you have positive results with it, be my guest, but I only have one active item slot, and I always use it for Mercurial Scimitar or something.

Serrated Dirk/ Poacher's Dirk and what they build into. Lethality's nice on champions with burst damage, and while Tristana can certainly do a lot of burst, half of it scales with AP, and the rest more heavily will benefit from Critical Strikes and Attack Speed. Use at your own Peril.
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Unique Skills

PASSIVE - Draw a Bead - All Auto Attacks and Abilities increase range each level. Simple, the more you level up, the more you outrange other's auto's. Take note: Caitlyn, Jhin, Jinx, Kog'Maw, Lux, and Twitch are ALWAYS a danger, one way or another (also, possibly Vayne, that Tumble!) (without her having a Rapid Firecannon)!

Q - Rapid Fire - Increase Attack Speed for a while. Simple, bolt action to semi-auto.

W - Rocket Jump, DOES NOT JUMP. Dash with AOE Damage and slowing landing at High Mana cost early on. Resets CoolDown on champion kills & assists, or after detonating E on enemy champion early (if it just times up, no reset.). 70/30 good for getting away from fights, or into them. Beware, you are ALWAYS crowd controllable!

E - Explosive Charge, Tristana's Best friend.
Passive : Deals minor Magic Splash Damage on all kills (Yes, minions, champions, I've gotten a few double kills from the passive being the last hit).
Active : Sticky Grenade! Lots of Attack Damage, Good AD Scale, Each Trist Hit (including Rocket Jump, Buster Shot, and Auto Attacks), gives +30% damage up to 4 times, until detonation. Use on everything and everyone against you, beware excessive mana cost early on, and cooldown.

R - Buster Shot, Push target back, with pain! Decent Burst Damage, but helps runaway with rocket jump, too! Always level up at least once, then decide between it and your Q. Use for escapes or pushing enemies out of fights if your team is LOSING the fight. OR, rocket jump over a close enemy, and R them into your team: USE CAUTION in teamfights!!!

How to use:
Q - After E! There is no harm in it, ever, but early game is hard to benefit from fully.
W - After Q. To jump on a 3 hit E for extra damage, to close distance, make distance, etc.
E - Before all else. Q helps pump up damage, W & R help detonate. Good for farming, too!
R - Variable. Make distance, do some damage, pump up E, Increase distance with W.

To "bug out" W away, and Ult enemy away from you or toward/away from teammates.

Favorite combos.
1v1
Tag enemy with E, Pump with Q three times, W on to enemy for the kill, W away to safety.
Tag enemy with E, Pump with Q twice, W on to enemy to close distance, Ult to pop E, W to secure the kill or to safety.
W onto the target, tag target with E in mid air, land, pump with Q until detonation, W to safety or a kill. (Try not to risk getting killed, unless you really think you can double kill.

Tag enemy with E, Pump with Q once, W on to enemy, ULT, auto attack for kill. (RISKY! What happens here is you tag a low health enemy, Use Q to improve your Attack Speed, attack once (1), W onto them (2), Ult them (3), and if your Attack Speed is quick enough, the last Auto Attack should follow them to Detonate E as you Rocket Jump in. Then, you will get the typical reset, and can rocket jump again.)

1v2
Tag enemy with E, Pump with Q Three times, W on to enemy1 for kill, Auto Attack enemy2, W over enemy2, Ult enemy2 toward base, auto attack until dead.

Pentakill
Maximum Attack damage and lifesteal. Bunched enemies get E, Q, W, continue W and autoattacking until Pentakill is achieved.
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Skill Sequence

Tristana's Skill Sequence is a little strange my way, but I'll explain why.

Level 1, E Explosive Charge for trading with enemies, a lane pushing passive, it's really nice, and should be taken first every time.

Level 2, W Rocket Jump will allow you to escape most bad trades, can be used offensively, is an awesome positioning tool, and this one point is pretty essential.

Level 3, Q Rapid Fire allows you to pump up your E, increases attack speed for no cost, and with most champions, you usually want one point in each of your 3 basic skills by level 3.

Level 4 & 5 E Explosive Charge to increase the damage, increase the AD Scaling (110% AD at Skill Level 5), and decrease the Cool Down.

Level 6 R Buster Shot for a 250 Magic Damage (LVL 1!!!) Knock-back Cannonball. Again, most champs you want to upgrade your Ult once ASAP.

Level 7 & 9 E Explosive Charge to finish it, get the most bang for your buck, etc.

Level 8, 10, 11, 12 Q Rapid Fire to finish it for 110% Attack Speed. Ordinarily, at Level 11 you would take your Ultimate again, however, I get my own best results by maxing Q first, to benefit from it fully. One point in Buster Shot is almost always enough to make it to Level 13, but you can do what works for you.

13+ R whenever possible and W. Most times, the cooldown reduction from leveling up Buster Shot is negligible, but the damage is not, nor is the increased knockback. W can be reset very often without being leveled up, so upgrading W is redundant for Cooldowns and cost (cost increases as it's leveled up), and the buffs gotten from leveling it up are purely offensive, when it should be used mostly as defensively after laning phase ends.

Getting right down to it, your W is a life saver. If you take E for Level 1 to trade and Creep Score, (as you should) take W second. You can avoid a lot of bad situations, reposition however you want, you can attack with it, it's a real game changer in and of itself, with just one point.

Tristana's E Explosive Charge is her bread and butter. Her Best Friend, Second only to Teemo and Wriggle. Now, her W, rocket jump is her second best disengage. You slowly dash away (you are totally CC-able at all times!) If you really need to disengage yourself, or the enemy, use your R - [Buster Shot], it moves them a set distance away, the closer you are to them, the further they go. Q is cooldown only, and can more than double her Attack Speed. Keyword: can (cap at 2.5 AA's per second, without Lethal Tempo).

So, When starting off: Take E first for it's passive pushing power, then W to run from early trouble, then Q... Max E first, upgrade R at 6, Max Q whenever you can not Max E or R, and only upgrade Rocket Jump last.
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About Me

Okay, take a look at my Profile on the NA Server (Summoner name KaalSchneid), I have over 460,000 points in Tristana, as of Season 7's end. Tristana is my Main Champion, I am top 50% of League players, I play League of Legends almost every day, I've carried games as her, gotten countless challenger ratings on LOLSUMO... I take this chick seriously.

I've tried Essence Reaver (plausible for new players, lots of fun.)
I've tried Runaan's Hurricane/Phantom Dancer (each plausible).
I've tried 100% critical strike chance builds (plausible).
I've learned a very important thing: if you know HOW to benefit from the build and HOW to play the Champion, and HOW to play against each of the +250 other champions in the game: you can make a difference. I've put a freaking Mejai's Soulstealer on Tristana, On hit/classic builds, and made it work!

I'm not a God, I have bad games, I get outplayed, I miss minions, but I also do have perfect games here and there, I snowball appropriately whenever I get the opportunity, and I know my champion. I know what to expect from what I do, I know how to take press advantages, and I play with this toxic community all the time and make it work.
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Items in Depth

I have a build up above (Step By Step) On EXACTLY what to buy with Tristana's gold, up to your last item. But, let me explain these items in detail. The B. F. Sword is great for farming, and gives your Auto Attacks and your E an epic boost early game. It is essential you learn to get a B. F. Sword by last hitting minions, using your passive on your E, etc. When I don't have to worry, I kill caster minions with 4 auto's early game, and by then the melee minions are low enough to last hit, usually.

Next, Berserker's Greaves. If you want to win, you need winner's shoes. Berserker Greaves early in the game lets you minion hit even easier, and will give you attack speed over any opponent who takes anything else. Attack speed synergizes with your Q, which helps your E, and all good things from there. Get daggers to start your Zeal, or more items towards an Infinity Edge, depending on your Gold reserves.

Finish your Infinity Edge for maximum damage, poke, pushing, and scaling.

Thirdly, a Zeal item. Honestly, the only item I'd recommend against building out of a Zeal would be Statikk Shiv. You can try everything out, I've had good results from everything, really. They all give Attack Speed of similar percentage, the same critical strike chance, and a movement speed buff of 5-7%. Keep that in mind.

Those 3 Items should probably never change, until they, or Tristana, or the Meta are changed.

If you want to go Bloodthirster, you can (although, the cost gap is pretty big, even at this stage of the game, sometimes). I prefer a Rapid Firecannon before Bloodthirster against Squishy teams, or a Lord Dominik's Regards against lots of armor and health. But a Bloodthirster usually ends up in there

Honestly, whatever you didn't take as the Fourth item, it's wise to make up with the Fifth to accommodate the enemy team. If you got Armor Penetarion, get Lifesteal. Either way is fine. If you're up against a lot of CC/AP, go Mercurial Scimitar, lots of AD Guardian Angel, just think about how teamfights go, or if your comp is based around split pushing.

Sixth Item, it's entirely up to you, you have to learn what you need against your biggest threats. I'll admit, a lot of the time, that will be CC or Burst, and your answer should be a Mercurial Scimitar or Guardian Angel. Sometimes you wanna top off 100% crit chance. Learn your needs, and the needs of your team.
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Farming

Caster minions take 5 hits, with these runes, and a Doran's blade at level 1. If you get 3 hits on each, on the first wave, last hitting the center minion will score 3 CS (Creep Score). You have to learn how much Tristana's E's passive is going to hurt surrounding minions and enemies to make full use of it. You will push lane pretty hard by last hitting, but you CAN freeze lane if you're skillful, and you can push to their turret by auto attacking minions before last hits, but always remember "get minion gold, get CS experience, get ahead of your enemy before they realize, and know how and when to press your advantages."

If you go ward river and 3 enemy minions die, and your enemy laner gets the next level first... that can make your laning phase harder in just a few seconds. Keep everything in mind, know when the enemy jungler is ganking another lane so you you know "I can ward now, safely, after this minion wave." I've had my support out level me to level 6, because I had to back from getting poked, while my support leeched minion experience. Your support should be there to keep you alive or get you kills, and punish the enemy adc for CSing, remember their strengths and weaknesses. There's only so much an ADC can do with a bad support, if the enemy team is better synergized than you and your partner: it's gonna be much more difficult every time.
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Team Work

Tristana is actually pretty cool because of 2 abilities that can make her a ganking monster... her W and her R. If mid lane is pushed back, and you're pushed way up, you can walk to midlane, W into position behind the enemy, Ult them into the tower, and duel them while they deal with their new awful positioning. Just beware counter ganks, and your dueling potential. If you get bursted down too quickly, nothing can save you.

In team fights, you are the "Back Line." Notice the Quotes. You are actually pretty valuable, as a high damage dealer, BUT... you're not so valuable if you're not doing damage. Tristana skirts the outside of a fight, staying away from crowd control, and outranging other ADC's and (ideally) melting squishy casters from relative safety with her passive range. Unless you can hurt the enemy front line, don't use abilities on them. Unless you can get out safely, don't go charging in (against Tristana herself's preference). If your front line is dead, escape by any means necessary. You are the AD damage dealer, though, don't make them fight without you.
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Masteries (Nostalgic...)

Masteries are henceforth outdated, and are only going to be mentioned here for Nostalgic and Historical purposes. (Even though, this hasn't been updated for the latest patch from when Masteries were in existence.)
Spoiler: Click to view
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