Tristana Build Guide by geenius3ab

Thanks for commenting on my AP Tristana build. I try not to preach too much on other people's guides. Different builds and strategies work for different people and I simply posted what has worked wonders for me in solo queue.

I answered your concerns about Lich Bane and Will of the Ancients both in my guide, and in a seperate comment in response to yours. If you haven't tried these items yet, you should at least consider them situationally. After DFG+Deathcap+Void Staff, you pretty much have all the nuking power for squishies. The WotA gives you sustain in team fights, and more survivability when the enemy team defends your target (you can spell vamp more HP than Rod of Ages and Rylais combined!). Lich Bane enables you to become the tank/tower slayer of your team.

Regarding your build, it seems pretty basic. All the essentials are there, but more elaboration on your choices would be nice. About 2 months ago, I fell in love with mana regen seals.. Have you tried those yet? It let's you harass your opponent much more frequently ensuring you can keep the enemy low enough for kills/ganks, even if they're high regen/heal/shield/sustain like Lux, Morg, or Vlad. If the enemy is playing defensively, you need to Rocket Jump forward to land your Explosive Shot on them, so mana regen comes a long way. After a kill or two, or exchanging harass a few times, most smart enemies will just fall back and farm with abilities so the shorter cooldown on Rocket Jump is just another preference of mine.

Oh, few other side notes.. Tristana is a girl :)
And also, Leblanc is easy mode. Personally the only champions I have ever had trouble with are Riven and Wukong. A good Anivia can be troublesome if you play too aggressively. What exactly is your issue with Leblanc? Maybe I can give you some tips.

The problem with LeBlanc comes from her silence + instant teleport + Stun + huge *** burst. Any decently skilled Le Blanc will eat you and spit you out.. You can't do skill exchanges or harrasing cause the burst she can do is much more, and it usually ends with you standing under the turret 24|7. If you haven't met a decent one, then you've been in luck.

The Lich Bane is only good if you have the time to stand around a couple of extra seconds, which i usually don't. Though you do get much more constant dmg, I find that maximizing burst is more useful. That's where the gamestyle kicks in. :)

Will of the ancients is only good if you're willing to take a bit of hits for yourself, which you honestly shouldn't do as ap tristana, and I don't find it too good either, cause I usually get down the most important target first, and only if I can get another kill or stop someone from retreating by using my jump, I usually don't stand in the teamfight for too long.

And about the mana regen seals, you don't usually need em for E harass, as your Mana won't really run out till their hp is low.. And jumping onto lux, Morde, Vlad is something I'm not willing to do, as after the jump you're just a sitting duck, and lux CAN deal a lot more dmg if she hits all her skills (Orb + basic attack, and bind + basic attack.).. Jumping in to harass, it is usually something I only do to either finish the enemy off, or to make him leave the lane for sure.
If you do the good ol' E harass, you won't need that mana regen, as you'll always have enough mana to spare.

Don't assume I've never played against a good LeBlanc. I've played literally versus every champion as AP Trist. I have over 1000 games played with her. I've played plenty of games versus Leblanc in 1500+ ranked matches. And one of my good friends mains LB and I regularly practice with her 1v1. LB and Trist have many parallels, but the reason why I prefer Tristana is because LB can only kill squishies. AP Trist built correctly can take down entire teams of tanky champions (Lich Bane :D).

I've had a problem with LB every now and then, it's usually because of my own mistakes. You need to play more cautiously against volatile matchups like LB.

Remember the following when playing LB:
1. She can't Q you without getting in range of your E
2. Your burst IS higher than hers
3. She can silence you

LB, even with MR runes take quite a bit of damage from you. If you're in ranked or draft mode, MR glyphs will help give you an upper hand. Your damage output at level 1-2 is crippling to LB. If you exchange blows with her once or twice, you should have a pretty big lead and she'll think twice about jumping in. The key is to always stay at high enough health so she can't burst you down. If she appears to jump in for a combo, jump away immediately. Remember she's a burst combo champ. If even one of her abilities fails to hit, it'll greatly reduce her damage output. A good LB will do something like this:
Q from a range, W on top of you to trigger the silence as soon as the Q hits, throw her chain at you while you're silenced, and kite you around with autoattacks until the chain triggers, then throw another Q at you. When she initiates this combo, you must quickly assess counterattack vs. running away. Regardless of which you choose, make sure you get your E off on her so she doesn't get away for free. If you know for sure her full combo won't kill you, that's when you counterattack. Remember Tristana is originally an autoattacker. Her AD and AS scale well so in a shooting match, you will win. You can still hurt her while you're silenced. Also, if she initiates, she WILL be taking damage from your minions. So just autoattack her and as soon as the silence is over, Rocket Jump on top of her and use Explosive Shot. She's ridiculously squishy, moreso than Tristana (base stats). It might leave you both crippled, but if you're confident in your laning power, you should be able to take her down first. If you choose to run away when she initiates, just E her and immediately jump away. Doing this ensures 1: her chain won't trigger and 2: she can't hit you with a second Q.

2 more tips: Like I said, harass her often at level 1. Use your superior damage to zone her out and deny her experience. Keep her away from the creeps. This ensures that as long as you don't die, you will have your ult before she does. It might only be for one minion, but you have to utilize those few seconds to kill her with your far superior damage.

Also, take a regrowth pendant. Seriously, when you're up against LB especially, buy a regrowth+pot. If you guys start exchanging blows at lvl 1, you'll have regened somewhere from 850-1100 health by the time you reach lvl 6. Ridiculously good item for AP Trist. You can trade blows with her and be at full health until she reaches lvl 3 where she gains her full combo.

Last response to the item build: You said you shouldn't be willing to take hits as AP Tristana. Well, I beg to differ. When I play with my premades, I know in the back of my head that even though I'm 22-2-9 and my Caitlyn is just 5-3, she can carry the team better than I can. If that means soaking up cc and ultimates and sacrificing your life so that your team can win the game, then you just have to accept it. Yes, AP Trist can EASILY get kills endgame. Sometimes you will be able to get two kills in an endgame fight, or maybe even 3+. But your highest value comes from disabling their primary damage dealer. As long as you kill their carry, it's okay if you die. But getting items like Will of the Ancients enables you to kill their carry and do massive damage to the rest of the enemy team before they can kill you. In a lot of ranked games, I might end up 10-0 early-mid game and finish the game at 20-10. That means in the end game, you're going to end up dying for every kill. But remember your role: anti-carry. If you die for their carry, the remaining four on your team has the advantage over the remaining for on their team. Trist has no great CC or anything, so her value drops immensely when her burst is on cooldown. But a lot of carries DO have CC or AOE spells, or just a lot higher DPS. Cassiopeia has the highest DPS, AND an AOE stun, slows, and damage over time. If you kill her and end up dying, that means that their team used their CC on you, and they lost their highest damage dealer, AND aoe CC. Whereas your team just lost an anticarry who can only do damage every 10 seconds after she uses her combo.

Sometimes the enemy team might have a really fed tanky dps who is carrying (Lee Sin, Irelia, Shyvana, etc...) and you're the only one who can kill them. I've been in fights where their whole team ends up dying except for that one Lee Sin who proceeds to get a triple/quadra/penta kill.. every single time. In these games, although it's counterintuitive, you need to be the one to take him down. Or, at the very least, get them as low as possible so your team can finish him off. This becomes much easier when you have a Lich Bane. Space out your skills and make sure you get every proc off. Remember, every Lich Bane proc does damage equal to 2/3 of their fully built Warmogs armor.

Feel free to add me in game if you want to practice. I can play LB or a host of other champs. Gotta help out my fellow AP Trist players in any way I can. Sorry my responses are so long. I've got a lot of experience that's begging to me shared :P

You really don't seem to understand.. Le Blancs dmg output at lvl 2 is somewhat equal to yours. And while she has a jump + teleport back, meaning she will be able to avoid minion dmg.. You can't.. If you jump and E, she can just Q + W.. Which almost equals the same amount cause of the Q's silence + extra dmg proc.
AP tristana's weak point is her flimsiness, and long CD's. Meaning she has a huge burst at low levels, but le blanc is just extremely good at skill exchanges.
And you said that to Q you she has to get into your E's range.. Guess what?.. Her Q is followed up with a W the next millisecond. That's quite a mistake you did.. Le blanc has everything to counter Tristana, a stun + slow, a Silence which makes tristana useless for about 3 seconds, and a flash + flash back.
Skill exchanges usually can't end too well against leblanc.
And you said to Harass at level 1 as much as possible.. But you should understand how in vain it is.. Le blanc usually stays back at level 1, and starts playing agressively from level 2.


And to answer your claim about leveling W is better then E (You answered on your own guide).. The CDR is only a couple of seconds and it's riskier to jump in so it's mostly used to get close, though hitting the enemy is also pretty good. While you also get CDR on your E, which also buffs the main dmg. You also shouldn't get into situations where your jump wouldn't help.. Cause it's the longest instant escape mechanism in the game.
It's a fact that most of your dmg comes from E, and keeping the debuff at all times just wears the enemy out faster, and safer.
For me, to jump in would be like I said risky.. To either make the enemy leave the lane, or to get a kill. W doesn't really help you with taking the enemy down (Stun while in mid flight is easy to do.). I really don't see the need for leveling W. It's risky as hell to jump in, in a ranked game, and E harass is just more consistent no matter how you look at it.

Lich Bane is just a choice that depends on what you want from AP Tristana. Lich Bane needs you to stay in a place to shoot of the Procs, and I from the way I play, it doesn't really help me much.
You can check out the replays I posted here. From the way I played, LB wouldn't have been too good.

You seem to be stuck on the idea that LB is superior to AP Trist. No point trying to convince you otherwise. I'll try to record a game laning against a LB so you can see how I play. Playing against a Leblanc is volatile, meaning one false move means you die, and then she can level up faster and start controlling your lane. But it goes both ways: If you capitalize on her attacks, you're the one who is going to kill her and control the lane.

You said it yourself: LB plays passively at level 1. Use this to your advantage and push her back so she levels more slowly than you. The first 30 seconds in lane is your biggest opportunity. If you capitalize on it correctly, you will be in a good position for the rest of your lane phase.

I don't understand why you think it's completely possible to keep your E on an opponent. After taking a couple hits, they're not going to get in range. That's why you should start using your jump offensively when it's safe to do so (jungler accounted for with cv/wards). It's not risky if you know what you're doing.

If LB uses her W to back out to avoid minion damage, she's not going to get her full combo off. If she doesn't get her full combo on you, then you WILL outdamage her. If she stays, just jump away. If she initiates, you either have to kill her (with minions), or jump away and put your E on her. You will never lose an exchange if you judge your situation correctly. I'll recommend a regrowth pendant once again, particularly versus Leblanc.

First:
If she Q + W's she will have done dmg equal or more then your E + W (And also silences), if she also uses those chains while she jumps in.. You'll be silenced and snared without a chance to jump away or do anything.

Second: You can play aggressively when your E is always off CD..
If you're pushing, and playing generally quite agressively.. You should always be able to use the jump to get away , instead of harassing.

Third: Warding both of those pushes is nice and all, but being able to get kage's pick and boots instead, and you can't afford a ward (Just as an example.).. And still I have to say that even if the jungler comes to gank the sec after you use your jump.. You will most likely be too far in to get away. There just are cases like that.


Fourth: If you think that ''you should just get the lead in the beginning'' like it's easy.. The other Le Blanc can also be a decent player, which means that she will be able to avoid the aggressive play from level 1, and start doing her thing from level 2 when you're somewhat equal.


And we got off-topic quite a bit here.. Though if you show me a vid about how you dominate a SKILLED Le Blanc, then it would be something to see.

Why is Leblanc able to boss you around when she's stronger than you at level 6, but you can't boss her around when you're stronger than her at level 1? If you are unable to use that time frame to your advantage, that's an issue of your skill, not the enemy's. Yes, she can avoid aggressive play at level 1, but that is going to be at the cost of losing minion experience. Put her in the position where she has to choose between taking a ****ton of damage or losing experience. Either way you come out on top. Also, crunch the numbers again. You still outdamage Leblanc until she hits level 3, and that's assuming she hits all her skills (remember you can jump away from her E and effectively cut the damage of that skill by half).

Finally, Leblanc is a ****py farmer. As long as you don't die, you're going to have enough money to putter around with her. Perhaps the problem is with your opening. I will yet again advocate a regrowth pendant/philosopher's stone opening. Teleport may also turn out to be more useful than flash so you can get a free back for some heal+items.

Know any "skilled" leblanc players? Send them my way. I played all day yesterday and didn't get matched up with one. What's your Elo anyway? Also, since you feel as though you can win against any champion besides Leblanc, do you have any tips for me playing against Wukong? He's currently my biggest problem with AP Trist, though lack of experience might have something to do with it. I've only had that matchup 3 times, but was never able to come out with a decisive lead.

Le Blanc deals more dmg then you if you use your jump to dodge her E, so you'll lose the exchange for sure like that..
I did say it before that her Q + W deal as much dmg as your E + W .. If she also hits her E then you completely lost that exchange and will most likely lose atleast 50% of your hp.
You do know that at level 1 you will be leveling faster then at level 2, 3, 4, 5, 6? It should be quite obvious. You will level to level 2 with the second minion wave, even if you don't get 100% of the exp .. So your ''taking advantage of the first level !'' plan is prone to not work. Unless the Le Blanc is a moron.

And even if Le Blanc is a ****py farmer, she more then makes up with her dmg output. Her dmg output per skill level is higher then yours. And she CAN kill you quicker then you can get your W + E + R combo out.. Cause you need atleast 1-2 seconds to set up the combo.. She can just interrupt it with a Q + R + E.. Which means that you're also dead after jumping in.

I personally have had no problem against Wukong. Staying back and doing the basic E harass, while getting some explosive AoE rounds into minions whittles his hp down 1 by 1.
Getting boots will help you kite him as well.

Edit: AP tristana is the same kind of a champion as Le Blanc, and cause of the fact that she has a 3 sec silence, heavy single dmg slow/stun, which is why she is a great counter to AP tristana, who is quite dependant for his skills to hit, and can't do anything while silenced or stunned, and is rather low on hp in the first place. I do not think that you can take on a le blanc of equal skill-level, without doing some heavy trick-play.

Though I said that they're the same type of champions, the burst from AP tristana is better, and her contribution to a teamfight is better, as she is harder to kill then Le Blanc, who dies after 1 stun.
Both of these champions/builds have their good parts, which makes on better from the other.. But in a straight 1 v 1 scenario, Le Blanc is better.

And I do await you to put up a vid of you beating a skilled Le Blanc.