More will be added to this overtime so stay tuned (suggestions are ALWAYS welcome)!

So I started playing about a year ago, and I simply loved it. The style, the depth, just everything. Soon I started playing on the Twisted Treeline, and was instantly hooked. Now as you might have guessed, I hadn't played 3v3 very long before I ran into my now favorite character: Tryndamere. I was amazed by how powerful he was! After I bought him (around level 9) I struggled with him for a bit. Trying to come up with a good build, learning how to lane with him, the fine details about his skills, and just how to play him in general. Well if you're looking for insight into this character, then this is the guide for you. So hold on, because we're about to destroy your learning curve! So whether you're new to Tryndamere, have used him for a while, or consider yourself an expert, I hope to give you the abilities you need to blaze the trail to

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This is an in-depth, comprehensive analysis of Tryndamere and the different aspects associated with playing him. I will go in-depth on such things as your runes, masteries (masteries will be revamped soon), summoner spells, and items. I will also go in depth on the superior way to play on the Twisted Treeline.

If you are in que right now and simply need a fast build, simply look at the build up top. However, if you wish to learn more about this character and how to play him, then keep reading the rest of the guide. Trust me, you'll be glad that you did.

Please don't vote or comment on this guide unless you have fully read it and comprehend it. If you have questions after reading it, I will be more then happy to answer them. If you can't understand part of the guide, chances are other people will have problems with it to, and seeing as I created this guide to help others, I will be more then happy to address any issues you may have. Thanks and enjoy!

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Now usually I try to be fair to people. I try not to be prejudiced, try to give second chances, and be understanding of other people's thoughts and views. However, if you're the type of player that can't understand why you SHOULD be taking SMITE in EVERY 3v3 match (at least ONE of the people on your team should have it), then I ask that you please leave this guide right now. I am honestly sick of people's only gripe with my long, very detailed, very personally taxing in-depth guide, being that I took an "unnecessary" summoner spell. Please. Don't rate this guide, don't READ this guide, don't look at it any longer.

The FACT is, smite makes your game 100x better. It allows Trynd to farm earlier, longer, harder, and without worry of his red buff or dragon (worth a GREAT deal to your WHOLE team), being stolen by the enemy teams gay *** Nunu & Willump who's trolling around with his level 5 Consume. Smite gives you more items and more buffs (which are worth more then any of the other summoner spells you could have taken), and just makes you a better player. If you don't already know this, then you must not play 3v3, or just don't play it WELL. So please, take your uneducated opinion on this matter and go play some ranked 3v3 rounds where the enemy has 3 smites, takes dragon at level 5, and procedes to rape you mercilessly until you surrender at the fifteen minute mark. You owe it to yourself.

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Pros: + Cheap (only 1350 IP) + Easy to Learn + High Damage Output + Great Mobility + Consistent Build + Naturally Bulky + Undying Rage + Huge right arm

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Cons: - Requires proper timing - Weak early game - Susceptible to CC - Situational slow - Very item reliant - Thornmail - Ignite - High blood pressure

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Requires Proper Timing: There are tips and guidelines I can give you, but for the most part this simply comes with experience. Remember: practice makes perfect.

Weak Early Game: With this guide, we'll be starting you off in the jungle, and due to his passive, we'll turn this con into one of his biggest PROS.

Susceptibility to CC: Even if you were to take Cleanse AND a Quicksilver Sash, CC would still be your greatest downfall. With only 3 people on the opposing team, there's less of it to contend with, so it won't be as bad as on Summoners Rift.

Situational Slow: You're just going to have to get used to his skill set. Mocking Shout is similar to his ultimate in that it simply takes practice. I'll give you pointers and tips on this when we get to the skill explanations.

Very Item Reliant Because you'll be taking solo top AND dominating the jungle from level 1, you will have lots of farm at your disposal. You should get a steady flow of cash so you can buy these expensive items fairly early on.

Thornmail This build will get you an obscene amount of damage, a great amount of armor penetration, and a large amount of lifesteal. If you're still having problems with armor stacking then there are items in the situational section to help you out.

Ignite I have just one thing to say on this subject: Quicksilver Sash. /insert troll face here.

High Blood Pressure: Sadly there's nothing we can do about this one.

Summoner's Wrath : Improves any of the offensive summoner spells you take. Brute Force : Gives us a bit of extra attack damage (AD) Alacrity : Greater attack speed will help in every area, from proccing more crits to lowering the CD on Spinning Slash quicker. Demolitionist : More damage to turrets? Yes please! Deadliness : Crit chance is always good for , and this is required to get Lethality further down. Weapon Expertise : This is possibly the best mastery for any AD carry to have. If you go up against tanky opponents, you can combine this with Last Whisper to get 50% armor penetration. Lethality : An added 10% critical strike damage is a huge bonus for Tryndamere, allowing you to hit people for 260% of your base AD on crits once you buy your Infinity Edge. Vampirism : This is a great investment for Tryndamere. It will help negate damage dealt to you by minions and jungle creeps as well as harassment in lane. Think of it as a free Doran's Blade worth of lifesteal. Sunder : Combined with armor penetration runes, this mastery will give you a flat 31 armor penetration. The more of this you can get, the better off you'll be. Executioner : For only one point, you're getting a pretty significant amount of damage. As long as your target is below 40% of their max HP, you're going to be dealing an extra 6% damage to them with each hit. Great for finishing the job.

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Summoner's Resolve : You should only be taking this if you plan on taking a summoner spell that this will benefit. If you're not taking one of these, place this point in whichever mastery slot you think will benefit you the most (maybe in Scout ) Hardiness : With this mastery and your runes, you'll be starting off the with an extra 19 armor, which is more then Tryndamere's base armor at level 1. This will help gimp that minion and jungle creep agro damage, and help with any lane harass you get (at least physical damage harass).

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Good Hands : This can be a game changing mastery. It will shave around 6 seconds off of your death timer late game, and that can be incredibly significant. I try to take this mastery on all my characters, for those times when death is unavoidable or you slip up. Improved Recall : This point really isn't needed, I just find that it's fairly useful for just spending one mastery point. Reduces your recall timer by 12.5%. Can be handy in some situations, but feel free to place this elsewhere if you so choose.

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• Greater Mark of Desolation: All our damage is physical, so this makes sense.
• Greater Seal of Armor: For jungleing and laneing
• Greater Glyph of Magic Resist: Almost all characters do at least some magic damage.
• Greater Quintessence of Desolation: Same reasoning as the marks; more damage.

For most people, the runes above and the explanations will be more then enough (if so skip the rest of this section and move on to the Summoner Spells). For those of you that want other options, more explanations, or some more insight, you can keep reading. I would also suggest that you look here for more information. Click on the header for this section for additional help with runes.

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p.s. If I left out a rune that you know works well, please leave me a comment about it below and I'll add it in here (if it's really viable). Thanks!

In this section, things are going to be incredibly simple. That's because these are the only two summoner spells you should be choosing. Now I know you may be freaking out right now and telling me how nooby I am, and how closed-minded this is, but before we get into all that I'm going to explain to you WHY these are the only two spells you should take.

Basically this is introducing a new playstyle to you, which we'll talk about in-depth later. This playstyle requires that you have Tryndamere. But not just any Tryndamere! It requires a Tryndamere whose skill set includes Smite, and who also has Exhaust. These are the two spells you need to have the right CHARACTER to use this ! Now if you REALLY feel INCREDIBLY strongly that you NEED to have Flash, Ghost, Heal, Revive, WHATEVER, the only semi-replaceable spell would be Exhaust. Smite however is non-negotiable.

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This spell should be part of your arsenal whether you jungle or not. It simply gives you a huge advantage that is too impressive to ignore. Here are some (just SOME) of the reasons for taking this particular summoner:

• Jax
• Master Yi
• Tryndamere (on the other team)
• Your lack of CC (you only have a situational slow with Mocking Shout)
• Useful for chasing
• Useful for standing your ground
• Useful for running
• LOTS of people carry it

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Alright, let's get real for a minute here. Because of the way the Twisted Treeline is built, there is a higher % of space dedicated to the jungle on this map than in Summoner's Rift. That means that if you control the jungle, you can basically control the game. I believe EVERY team on the Twisted Treeline, Tryndamere or no Tryndamere, should have SOMEONE with this spell, simply because the buffs and especially dragon are so crucial to success on this map. Some of the added benefits for Tryndamere are:

• Allows for a solid early game
• Gives you the option of early jungleing
• Allows for more gold/faster leveling
• You can take red buff early
• Early dragon (even at level 6)
• Securing your buffs
• Stealing your opponents buffs
• (MOST IMPORTANT) stealing DRAGON

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Take Exhaust because it gives you a huge edge in fights, and if your opponents have it to (very likely), then it will level the playing field.

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Take smite to jungle early, get more gold and buffs, and steal stuff from your opponents. It is also good for securing dragon for your team, which is (often) vital to success.

Now, if you have a spell that you feel you can't play Tryndamere without, and you decided that the above reasons are not enough to use Exhaust and Smite, then these are the best secondary options. I don't recommend you take any spells other than the ones listed here however, because the others are simply not as beneficial to Tryndamere or are just bad summoner spells in general.

Cleanse

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Since it's revamp, this spell is now in my top three favorite spells for Tryndamere (even above flash). It provides a massive edge, now that it removes both Exhaust and Ignite, making it literally impossible to 1v1 you if you play it right. This spell has so many good uses, I'm glad I can finally recommend it to people. This is a top pick for Tryndamere now.

Flash

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Of all the other summoner spells you could choose, this is one of the best. With all the walls in the Twisted Treeline, the potential escape routes this spell will open up to you are incalculable. It can also be used to help when chasing and tower diving, in conjunction with your Spinning Slash.

Ghost

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If you feel that Spinning Slash is more then adequate to get you out of tight spots and you're looking for some fleet feet, then this is the spell for you. It helps significantly with chasing people down, and will make it almost impossible to catch you after spinning through a wall. Simply one of the best summoner spells out there.

Ignite

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I'm not a big fan of this spell on Tryndamere, because I find that the other summoner spells listed above are more optimal. This can be a good spell to carry if you run into any annoying healers however, like Dr. Mundo and Swain

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Battle Fury (Passive): Unlike most other characters, Tryndamere's passive is the core of his skillset. This passive affects all of his other skills in some way (except for Mocking Shout), and utilizing it will make you incredibly strong. Battle Fury is similar to Renekton's Reign of Anger but with some modifications. You gain fury on each hit (more for a critical strike) and for each point of fury you have, you gain critical strike chance.

• Because of your passive you don't need to spend as much money on crit-chance items
• Try to get a full fury bar before engaging your opponent
• Getting lifesteal will allow you to avoid using your rage with Bloodlust to get HP back

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Bloodlust(Q): This skill passively gives you AD and gives you additional AD for every % HP that you're missing. While this is great, the best part of this skill is when you activate it. On activation you consume however much rage you have at the time, and use it to heal yourself. The more full your rage bar and the more ability power you have (with this build none), the more effective the heal.

• You gain more damage the less health you have, so don't be afraid to walk around with less then full HP (but be smart about it).
• You gain a small amount of health from the heal even if you don't have any rage.
• You can use the heal in between camps in the jungle if needed.
• Sometimes it's better to keep your rage bar full, so use the heal wisely.
• You can use the heal at the end of Undying Rage to keep yourself alive.

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Mocking Shout (W): Your only form of CC, this skill is very unique. It is one of two spells (the other is Cassiopeia's ultimate, Petrifying Gaze) that relies on the direction your enemy is facing. If they are facing towards you, then the only effect it has is lowering their attack damage by a set amount. If they are facing away from you however, they also have their movement speed slowed down by a significant amount.

• Because it lowers attack damage as well, you can use this to get the upper hand in a fight by lowering your opponents damage (only works on AD though, not AP)
• You can slow somebody if they are facing sideways and have a VERY slight angle away from you.
• Because this skill can only be used when an enemy is within its operational radius, you can use it to detect opponents who are in the brush, on the other side of walls, and even stealthed . Keep an eye out for when this skill lights up.
• If you're enemies have Banshee's Veils, then you can use this at the beginning of (or preferentially before) a fight to remove their spell shields.

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Spinning Slash (E): You will see basically every other Tryndamere starting with this skill, and there's a good reason for it. This is a fantastic skill for chasing, escaping, getting into range for your Mocking Shout, and just general mobility. It scales on a 1 to 1 ratio for Ability Power, but has a 1 to 1.2 ratio for AD. This skill only scales off of BONUS attack damage however, so it won't hit very hard early game.

• Once you get a decent amount of crit chance, you can auto attack creeps to lower the cooldown of this ability. This can be helpful if you are in the middle of a lane near a creep wave and you know a gank is coming.
• Spinning Slash is similar to Gragas's Body Slam and Renekton's Slice and Dice but it carries you further, and allows you to move through thicker walls.
• It's range is similar to that of Kassadin's Riftwalk
• If you switch this skill over to smart casting it can help you make clutch escapes/chases
• The scaling on this ability is amazing. You can use it to do a significant amount of damage to all enemies in a line late-game. Great ability for farming.
• You can use this ability to move through Veigar's Event Horizon. While you will still be stunned upon passing through it, you will stop at the end of the spin, not on the circle of Event Horizon.

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Undying Rage (R): This is the main defining feature of Tryndamere, where your character gets really stuborn, and basically just says "I don't have time to bleed". It means that when you press the R key, not even an entire team can kill you for the next five seconds. It allows you to be incredibly ballsy and live to tell the tale. This is why people scream at you saying that you're playing a "nooby OP ", but hey, haters gonna hate right? Another thing to notice is that it grants you bonus rage upon activation, adding a nice boost to your damage.

• Try to use this when you're almost to 1 HP. This will make it last as long as possible.
• Don't wait TOO long to activate it however, or else you'll end up dying when you normally shouldn't have.
• You can use your ultimate to bait people into attacking you, even though they can't actually kill you. Very useful when you're under your turret.
• Watch the cool-down on this skill very closely, and try not to engage in any fights until it is ready to be used. You never know what could happen.
• You can use your ultimate whether you are feared, snared, stunned, silenced, or otherwise imobilized.
• If the enemy team is bursty (as in Veigar or Annie), then you are going to have to activate your ultimate earlier then normal. Remember, it's all about the timing.

This is a fairly normal skill sequence for Tryndamere, with the exceptions of where you allocate your level 1 and level 2 points. Because we're starting off in the jungle, you should try to get Bloodlust first. If, however, your opponents show up to gank you in the jungle, and you realize you have to get away fast, then you should allocate your first point to Spinning Slash for the mobility.

Other then that you should never need to deviate from this skilling order. What this does is gives us early damage and sustainability from Bloodlust, a good slow and an amazing attack damage debuff from Mocking Shout, and a good late game farming tool with Spinning Slash. You naturally want to improve your ultimate whenever possible.

These are the items that I start with every game. You may think it's wasteful, but consider this:

• From the 1:40 mark to the 5:40 mark, you have almost as much attack speed as a Dagger would give and as much crit chance as the Brawler's Gloves offer
• Since you're starting off in the jungle, you're going to be taking all the creep damage from that first camp. To enter the lane and not get killed instantly, you need HP pots
• This setup allows you to straight farm for those 4 minutes better then any other starting item(s) would allow you to
• You usually get one or more early kills because you can get your rage bar up quickly and efficiently and have good starting stats, the HP from the health potions doesn't hurt either
• Because of all those HP pots you can keep your HP up and have a full rage bar, because you won't need to use Bloodlust to get your HP back up.
• All of the above contribute to get the snowball thundering down the hill of victory

Still not enough incentive for you to go this route? Well there are two other options: either you can scrap this guide and go find one that focuses on early laneing, or you can take the below route. Nither option is near as strong however.


With these starting items, you're going to start your jungle in a different spot. You will also need to go back to base as soon as you have enough money for your Madred's Razors, because you won't be killing creeps as effectively as you would with the green elixir start, and you need to get that early farm going. You also won't have as much HP at your disposal, since you're only starting with one health potion. However, this does give you a couple of benefits:

• You don't spend as much money on temporary items
• You rush your Madred's Razors earlier
• The enemies have a harder time tracking you in the jungle (we'll get to this later)

When I go back to base for the first time (once my Elixir of Agility finally runs out), I usually have enough money to pick up the Wriggle's Lantern and the Boots. If I'm doing poorly I usually try to get at least a Madred's Razors, and the Boots or Vampiric Scepter, depending on my opponents and the situation I'm in. If I'm doing well however (more often than not) I usually just go ahead and buy the full Wriggles with the Berserker's Greaves and continue farming.

These are the items you should be aiming to complete before you should feel comfortable deviating from the build. While there are the rare occasions where you need to postpone one or more of these items or add in a completely different item (like an early Sword of the Divine for Jax), this is what I aim to get in 90% of the I play. With these core items you get:

• Massive damage from the Infinity Edge, with its crit damage and AD
• Survivability from the 18% lifesteal you get from the Wriggle's Lantern
• Movement and attack speed from Zeal and Berserker's Greaves
• Free wards from your Wriggle's Lantern

As far as the priority goes, once you have your early core items completed (boots and lantern) you should try to get the B. F. Sword. If you need more attack speed or move-speed at this point, then feel free to get your Zeal next. If you're farming really well or simply want to rush your damage, buy your Infinity Edge before buying Zeal. These two items complete each other however, so getting one before the other is mostly personal preference. Do NOT, however, complete your Phantom Dancer before your Infinity Edge. Being able to move around and attack really fast won't help you if you aren't doing any damage per hit.

This is what I enter the game que hoping to complete. This build gives you unbelieveable amounts of damage, high mobility, sustainability, and even free map vision with your Wriggle's Lantern. However, you should take note, that once you actually get into the game and start playing it, you will almost always have to change things up. Either your team is seriously lacking in one area, or their team has something you need to adjust to. Remember that this is a , and this is the RECOMMENDED final build. So feel more then free to adjust this build to fit your needs.

Wriggle's Lantern - This is simply an underrated item by many people for the Twisted Treeline. Because it's such a small map, that one ward can give you vision of around 25% of the important paths in the jungle. That key information is something that no other standard item could replace. This item is also amazing for farming early, and will be your key to finishing the rest of the items you need.

Berserker's Greaves - These are the only boots you'll usually get. They're cheap, versatile, and simple provide the best stats for Tryndamere. Since our only other attack speed will come from the Phantom Dancers and Black Cleaver, you're going to need these to reach a high enough attack speed.

Infinity Edge - A Tryndamere without an Infinity Edge is like a Veigar without his Deathfire Grasp. They just go hand in hand. This item was made for Tryndamere. It will give you a greater DPS then any other single item in the game. Combined with the Phantom Dancer you get, you'll be an incredibly scary carry.

Phantom Dancer - It gives you a good boost in movement speed, a massive attack speed increase, and critical strike chance. Combined with your Infinity Edge and a full rage bar, you're going to have 90% crit chance. This item is pretty self explanatory, and should always be bought after buying the Infinity Edge.

Black Cleaver - An exceptional DPS item, and exceptionally cheap for what you get. By this time your opponents should have stacked up at least one armor item, be it a simple Chain Vest or a full fledged Thornmail or Frozen Heart. This will help you to cut through some of their defenses, while also increasing your AD and attack speed significantly.

Bloodthirster - If you get this far in the game, you're obviously not doing your job well enough, so this is the next logical step. It gives you a lot of AD, and 25% life steal at full stacks. It will also keep you from damaging yourself if your opponents bought a Thornmail (If you're lifesteal % is greater then the % damage you're dealing back to yourself, then you begin to heal yourself again with each hit).I honestly have only gotten to this point a couple of times on the Twisted Treeline. But for those very rare occasions where you do, you can't go wrong with this item.

Note: If it gets to a ******ed stage of the game where you have a 3k+ amount of gold, and have already stocked up on elixirs ( ), then you should replace your Wriggle's Lantern with either another Bloodthirster or whatever item you think you need to buy, based on the situation.

Last Whisper

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This is a situational item that I find myself getting more then the others, but not as often as many people might think. This item is only viable if two of your opponents are stacking 200+ armor and the third is getting pretty beefy as well. If that condition isn't met, then you're only gimping out your own damage. Don't think of this as adding lots of armor penetration and some damage, think about it as substituting those benefits for the benefits gained by Black Cleaver

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Stark's Fervor

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This item is only a viable pick on Tryndamere if you have two other people that can use it. They don't both have to make exceptional use, but one of them should significantly benefit from it while the other one CAN benefit from it. But again, see if one of your allies can take it, because it's taking up a very valuable slot in your valuable inventory that could be spent on something better.

Youmuu's Ghostblade

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To be perfectly honest, I'm not a huge fan of this item. I know that many have this as their core item. I know it has significant benefits and can let you deal tons of damage. But remember a couple things first; you can't farm on it's active, if you get stunned after using the active you're basically screwed over and don't get the benefits, and after it wears off you'll be weaker then if you took a Phantom Dancer. Just sayin.

Frozen Mallet

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This is an amazing item, and I love buying it on any of my AD carries. Often getting this makes the enemy confused on whether or not to target you because A.- You didn't spend your last 3k gold on straight damage and B.- Your HP bar is starting to look more like Dr. Mundo's. This item is great if you need a bit more beefiness, or your enemies are too fast and you need some extra oomph because Mocking Shout just isn't covering it.

Executioner's Calling

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I have a friend who also plays Tryndamere and he has this as one of his core items. While it isn't a bad item, it's simply not a good use of space. Being a low-tier item, it doesn't give you as much damage as other items you could fill this slot with. Only buy this if you're facing a Fiddlesticks, Dr. Mundo, Swain, or maybe Vladimir.

Sword of the Divine

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This item is under "very situational" for a reason. There is one situation and one situation ONLY where I would condone the acquisition of this item: when facing a Jax. Even after those massive Hextech Gunblade nerfs, he's still not to be underestimated, and if you want a chance of beating him, this is it. You should take this item instead of your early Phantom Dancer, with the Recurve Bow replacing Zeal in the build order.

Madred's Bloodrazor

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If you find yourself up against a team with two or more obnoxious health stackers (like a Dr. Mundo, or a Vladimir, or maybe even an Olaf), and/or you notice that they are all starting to stack armor early game. Simply turn your Madred's Razors into this and forgoe the Wriggle's Lantern (you still need some lifesteal though). You may need to change up the rest of your build depending on whether you need more damage from this, i.e. more atk speed. This CAN be your main source of damage.

Atma's Impaler

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This is a rare purchase indeed, but for those occasions where you find that going "off tank" Tryndamere works better than the "glass cannon" approach, this is a good item. If you combine it with a Warmog's Armor and/or a Frozen Mallet, then it can give you a great amount of AD. The crit boost is also nice, and it gives you a decent amount of armor to help you tank more damage.

Thornmail

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This is honestly the only armor item I recommend on Tryndamere. There are a number of reasons for this. First, unlike the other armor items, it allows you to do damage to your opponent. If they're fed, they hurt themselves more. Secondly, it has the highest armor of any item in the game, and is also very cheap (only 2k gold). It allows you to move on to your other items faster. Use it only when their team does massive or just mostly AD damage.

Force of Nature

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This is the best item for Trynd if you're up against a heavy AP team. Usually you're damage output will allow you to shred any AP carries before they become a huge problem, but for those odd times when you're facing an Alistar, a beefy Annie, and an AP Shaco (trust me when I say this is NOT fun), it's more then time to get this item. NOTE: don't take Banshee's Veil. You waste the mana, and the passive isn't reliable enough to spend that much gold on it. FoN is much better.

Quicksilver Sash

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This item can be incredibly useful if the enemy team has a couple of ignites, exhausts (sometimes both), Malzahar, or Warwick. It will take some practice to know when to use this item, and you'll have to decide quickly. It's similar to your ultimate; it's very powerful, it takes practice, and if you screw it up it can ruin the fight. Be wary of taking this item if you aren't used to using items with actives on them.

Hexdrinker

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Personally I never use this item, but I can see where this would come in handy. Once you get to low health, you get a shield similar to Morgana's Black Shield. If you are facing problems with burst casters killing you before you can activate your Undying Rage then you should try out this item.

Wit's End

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I haven't experimented too much with this item, and I can't see many situations where this would be viable. I can see it working well with Madred's Bloodrazor if you're up against HP stacking casters, but even then I'm hesitant to recommend this. It's not a very high-tier item, and would likely be sold later on in game (assuming it lasts long enough). I would say this one is more up to personal preference and playstyle. It could be a great item given certain circumstances, or a really ****py waste of gold in others.

Frozen Mallet

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I know I already put this item in the offensive items section, but it can also be used if you're struggling with defense. It gives you a large amount of HP to soak up more punishment before using your ultimate, a small amount of damage (couldn't hurt), and some great utility. It's still one of my favorite situational items.

Warmog's Armor

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This item should only be bought in conjunction with Atma's Impaler, and only if you feel you truly need it. If you're doing really well in the game, don't buy this item. If you're doing mediocre, and you realize that you're going to need to beef up to not get raped by the other team, then maybe the Atmog's combination is for you.

So your opponents realized how dangerous you are and decided to get smart huh? Well for many a Tryndamere, as soon as his opponents get this, that's the end of the line for him. But not for us! Here is a list of things you can do to help beat this horrible hardship, and break loose of the thorns:

• Armor penetration works wonders when faced with items like this.
• If you can increase your life-steal enough, you will gain back as much health as you lose to this item on each hit.
• Magic resistance items ( Wit's End, Force of Nature, Quicksilver Sash) will reduce the damage this item does to you.
• If you start building counter items for Thornmail as soon as you realize your opponents are building it, you will SIGNIFICANTLY reduce the effect this item has the rest of the game.

Warding on the Twisted Treeline is much more simple and straightforward then it is on Summoner's Rift, but conversely it's twice as important. On the Twisted Treeline, it only takes a few seconds for many champions to simply leave their lane and hop into yours. This poses huge problems if you aren't prepared.

Below is a map I've made up with the most common ward spots on TT. On it, you can see your base highlighted in green on the left, the enemies base highlighted in red on the right, and the primary warding locations. There are a few times where placing wards in other locations can be beneficial, but they are few and far between.

(Green are most important, with yellow being more offensive wards, and purple being defensive wards. Blue ones are situational)

Green: Mandatory

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The green circles are the two places you must ALWAYS have warded at ALL times. Placing these two wards will cover most of the pathways on the map, as well as give you vision of the red buff and dragon (the top ward will give you vision of the brush at the entrances to the wraith/wolf buff camps above dragon as well). You should use Vision Wards here so you can find the wards the other team places and eliminate them.

Sight Ward Yellow: Offensive

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The warding spots highlighted by the yellow circles are nice to have bonuses. The times you would place these are when you're trying to push into the other teams territory and you need to know where they are. The most needed ones are the ones in the bushes closes to the top lane, near the other teams outer tower. The others are a bit more situational then that, but will still be helpful.

Sight Ward Purple: Defensive

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The purple circles show where you should place your defensive wards. As you can see, they are basically a mirror image of the offensive wards. These will allow you to help control (or at least be able to safely navigate) your half of the jungle, and make fighting them on your own turf have more of a "homefield advantage". You should usually only place these if they're aggresive and have you pushed back, or if you feel you need them once they destroy your two outer towers.

Sight Ward Blue: Situationl

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These two warding locations are simply extra, and usually you don't need them. With the bottom lane you'll usually have minions to give you vision around that area, and people don't often pass through the very very top brush where the second warding location is. However, I have found times where both places have been useful to ward, so I figured I better mention them here. Of the two, I would recommend the very top brush ward. Sometimes people will run there to escape when you chase them through the top jungle, or to avoid your central ward next to the dragon.

Now on occasion, you may find yourself needing to place wards in some stranger locations. Maybe their Shaco is setting up boxes in a particular bush, and you need to place a Vision Ward in it so that you can disrupt his traps, or he ran into a bush and you need a way to see where he went. Well, here are some times when you may need to deviate from these warding locations are:

• When the enemy has some kind of trap or turret they can place in bushes (think Shaco and Teemo)
• If you are entering a fight and the enemy walks into a bush you don't have warded, it can often times help if you place a ward in that bush before entering it.
• Placeing ones directly inside your opponents base next to their nexus and their outer wall (in case you want to backdoor it, and need to know that it's safe)
• Along the outer edge of your base wall, near your nexus (to avoid from BEING backdoored by the enemy, if they can pass through that wall)

Oracle's Elixir

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Once you get to mid game, it is usually a good idea to get an Oracle's Elixir to scout for the enemy team's wards. It doesn't have to be you that buys it, but it should go to the person who has enough money to spend on it, and probably won't die after purchasing it (as that would waste 400 gold). The less vision your enemies have of the battlefield, the better off you are.

With your Wriggle's Lantern you should always be able to have one of these locations warded. If you don't have the disposable income to buy Vision Wards for the two central locations, then it is acceptable to put up the sight ward from your wriggles in those locations. While Vision Wards are much better to have, regular old Sight Wards are MUCH better then nothing, and can still serve your needs quite well.

Once you spawn, you should pick up your Elixir of Agility and six Health Potions, and then continue to one of these creep camps (the one closest to your base of course):



You should wait in the brush just above the creep camp*. This ensures that if the enemy tries to come and gank you, you will see them before they arrive and can act accordingly. It is often beneficial to have your teammates wait with you until the minions spawn, and you're sure that the enemy team does not plan on killing you right off the bat.

Both of these small camps spawn at the 1:40 mark, so you should move your character right in front of the spawn points a second or two before this. Have your smite ready, and once the camp spawns, use it on the largest of the creatures that present themselves. It will either be a camp of four wraiths, or a camp of three golems (it is randomized so you never know which it will be). How you proceed from here varies ever so slightly depending upon which camp spawns.

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The Golem and Lizards The large Golem won't die immediately to your smite spell, so after you smite him, you should focus on him. As soon as you attack the first time, you should consume your Elixir of Agility and que up two of your Health Potions. Upon killing the golem/lizard camp, you will reach level 2. You should put your next point into Spinning Slash.

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The Wraiths The large wraith will die immediately upon being smited, leaving you to clean up the three smaller wraiths. Just like with the lizards, as soon as you land your first hit, chug your Elixir of Agility and one Health Potion. You won't lose as much health from killing the wraiths, but you won't level up either.

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You got the golem camp! Congratulations! You reached level two before even showing your face in lane! This is by far the optimal position to be in. Since you achieve level two before your opponents get their first bit of experience, you have a couple options:

• Option 1: you can go and kill the two opponents in the bottom lane with your massively devastating 35+% crit chance. This is only a viable option if you have two good allies you know you can trust, and they need to have CC (think Sion)
• Option 2: you can simply head to your lane up top and start farming. Because you already have your gap closer and massive amounts of damage though, you can start harassing your opponent immediately if you decide to. Odds are you can get an easy first blood.

By the time you finish, the minions should be beginning their brawl in your lane, so normally you should just start farming them. Because you began farming before your opponent, you're going to have a full rage bar and get level two well before they do. This should be taken advantage of as soon as possible, by either denying them of exp by zoning them out (look here for a zoning by Shurelia), harass them so that they have to back to base, or just flat out kill them.


For the most part, no matter what camp you get, your path should usually look like this (unless you or your opponents gank extremely early):




Start with the small camp mentioned above, then farm the lane for a few waves. Hopefully you get a kill, but if not then you should just focus on farming and zoning out your opponent. Once you push the lane close to the enemies tower, go into their half of the middle jungle and take their creeps. From here it's completely situational what you do. Here are some of the more readily available options:

• Kill the Lizard Elder in the middle of the map and obtain red buff (you'll need to save smite for this. Remember to be sure you won't be ganked by the bottom lane)
• If you already used smite to gain the enemies small jungle camp, go kill yours again, it will have spawned by now
• Gank the bottom lane
• If you have a decent opponent top lane it may be wise to simply dominate your lane and zone them out at this point. The less farm they get the better (remember to try and last hit only. Refer to the zoning tutorial I linked in the wraith section)

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Note: There isn't as much detail on this section because I rarely (never) use this path. Some of it is just personal preference.

Start off the game by buying your Long Sword and one Health Potion. For the Defensive Path we're going to be starting in the top jungle. This gives us a few advantages:

• It's harder for the enemy team to successfully gank you before the laneing game starts
• You won't need to invade their half of the jungle as early just to keep your income flowing smoothly: You'll still have the mid creep camp on your half (which you take in the superior path)
• If the enemy has a CV on their team they will probably waste it on the mid camp looking for you at the start

So once you have your items proceed to one of these two jungle camps (the one closest to your base of course):

Once you complete the camp you should head into lane and start farming. The actual laneing part is very similar to the superior path up above, however you want to focus more on just last hitting and staying in lane. Because you didn't get as many Health Potions you can't keep taking damage constantly like you can in the superior path, so jungleing after the first camp isn't a great idea. Your main objectives with this path are:

• Securing your lane by being a threat (you have a full rage bar upon entering the lane)
• Attempting to zone out your opponent and deny them exp and gold
• Build up enough gold so that you can port back to base and buy your Madred's Razors and maybe Boots if you're farming well.

This route is aimed at simply securing a good foothold in the game. If you're up against tough opponents who are going to be roaming the jungle looking for you, and you don't feel safe invading their jungle early on with the superior path, then this is the way to go. Both are completely viable, this one just has a bit less risk with fewer potential rewards.

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If you haven't figured it out by now, the greatest advantage to this playstyle is flexibility. Unlike the jungle routes on Summoners Rift, this is a hybrid playstyle, and you don't rely solely on the jungle. This allows you to adapt to whatever team you and your opponents have, everyone else's playstyle, and whatever circumstances you are faced with. But keep these things in mind: Even if you're dominating early game, if you're bottom lane is feeding you will more often then not lose anyways. Help them out if they need it. Even though it's nice to come out of the jungle with a full build 25 minutes into the game, you can't just AFK farm forever. You need to make stuff happen. If you don't pick a fight, you're enemies will BE AWARE OF WHERE EVERYONE IS AT ALL TIMES! I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH! You NEED to have good map awareness on the Twisted Treeline, because it takes mere SECONDS for people to switch lanes and gank you or your allies! Try to call MIA every time your opponent leaves the lane, or if he takes a bit too long to come back from their spawn pool. Ward ward and ward. There are only a couple (two) key locations that need to be warded, and bingo, 90% of the potential ganks you could have fallen prey to are instantly avoided (more on this in the warding section) Be confident, but don't push your luck. You're Tryndamere, not god (though they're pretty close when it comes to the Twisted Treeline)

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This is something I cannot stress enough to you: YOU SHOULD ALWAYS BE KILLING SOMETHING. You have a lot of expensive items that you need to buy, and the more farming you do the faster you can get them. Also, because of the way the map works, the more farming you do in the jungle, the less farm your opponents have readily available to them. You want to minimize your opponents farm so that each of your items will mean more in comparison to the items they are able to obtain. There are a few primary ways to minimize your opponents farm and maximize your own:

• Take as much of the jungle as you can. Buffs, small creep camps, dragon, anything and everything you can get your hands on.
• Zone them out in the lane and deny them gold. If they're too scared to face you in a fight, use it to your advantage. Stand in the lane and intimidate them, while you get last hits and they get nothing.
• Do NOT take their inhibitors until you are ready to make the final push on their nexus. Having your side spawn super minions simply gives your opponents larger creeps to farm, and will keep the minion wave comfortably within your opponents base for easy farming. You should only take down an inhibitor prematurely if you want to keep the other team occupied while you get your jungle buffs for the final push.

There's really nothing special to do as Tryndamere where farming is concerned. Just remember to stay on task, set your goals, and achieve them. You should also note that your Spinning Slash makes a great creep farming tool, especially once you have a couple of damage items under your belt.

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They happen often, and they happen fast, so you need to be ready for them. Because this is the Twisted Treeling and not Summoner's Rift, you are most likely going to be the best initiator on your team, so if you normally like staying out of the fight for the first few seconds, it's time to grow a pear (this is a half joke). In teamfights, your role is fairly straightforward:

• If your team lacks a better initiator (likely) then it will be your job to make things happen.
• You need to find their squishiest person or their most valuable asset (often the same person) and tear them to shreds as fast as possible
• Communicate with your team to focus one person
• Always be watching your health, and use Undying Rage at the proper time.

This pretty much sums up the teamfights. If you realize things are seriously going south, and you have no chance of winning that teamfight, GTFO if at all possible. You have great escaping skills, and if you're 100% sure that sticking around will simply end in you dying for no reason, it's best to retreat.

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Even during the early , you should be keeping your eye on the dragon and looking for opportunities to take it. Because you're a melee DPS who is getting an early Wriggle's Lantern and is taking Smite, you should be ready to take the dragon before the other team. However, during the mid game, both sides will be able to take the dragon whenever it spawns, so it is imperative that you guard and utilize this powerful resource. Some things to know about the dragon:

• The dragon spawns at the 4:40 mark.
• The dragon's respawn timer is five minutes
• Killing the dragon will grant everyone on your team 280 gold and 200 experience
• The dragon does significant damage (over 100 damage per hit, depending on your armor)

You should also note that certain champions can solo the dragon incredibly early in the game (Tryndamere can do this too if you it right). If you have one of these opponents then you will need to ward the dragon as soon as you know that they have the potential to kill the dragon. Some of the best at it are (in no particular order):

• Tryndamere
• Warwick
• Udyr
• Fiddlesticks
• Master Yi
• Sion (If he's going AD. Requires ultimate)
• Nasus (Requires ultimate)
• Dr. Mundo (Requires ultimate)
• Most champions, if they buy Madred's Razors or Wriggle's Lantern

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Unlike the early game, this is where your teammates truly begin to impact your game. Because team fights are starting, and people are roaming the map more then laneing (probably), you're going to need to find a way to rally your team and lead the charge. Because you're playing such a versatile and powerful character, not only do you get the benefits, but also the responsibilities that come with it. You have an important role to fulfill, so it's time to up your game. Remember:

A team of bad people that work as a group can almost always defeat a team of good players that work individually. Even though Tryndamere's playstyle and mechanics might suggest a more rambo you vs. the world playstyle, trust me when I say you're better off in a group. Control the jungle, and you control the game. Lose the jungle, and you should probably just surrender right then and move on to a better game. If you ward the jungle and take note of when objectives are going to spawn (mainly dragon), then you'll be that much closer to success. Change up your build to fit the direction the game has taken. If their Sion went AD and is wrecking your team, adjust your build accordingly and coordinate with your teammates to take him out. Keep a positive attitude and DO NOT PLAY THE BLAME GAME. Yes your allies may both be feeding, but directing your endless rage upon them with caps lock is not going to solve the problem, it will simply put the nail in your own coffin. Try to help them improve their gameplay and make a comeback. Keep in mind that the game is not won with kills alone, but with towers. If you win every team fight, but their Master Yi has backdoored your entire base and kills your nexus, noone's going to give a rat's *** about your 21/0/13 score. Take every opportunity (especially after winning a teamfight) to take down turrets.

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End game is going to be the easiest time for you. You should have plenty of damage, good mobility, and a fair amount of lifesteal. This means that farming anything is a breeze and requires little to no micro-management, like you had to do early game. All of the things from the mid-game carry over to the late game, however there are a couple things that you need to note:

• Even if you are the most fed person in the game at this point, don't get too cocky. One wrong move, and you're out of the game for the next minute. If you have halfway decent opponents, they will capitalize on this, and that's bad news for you AND your team.
• Inversely, if YOU manage to kill one of your opponents, it's time for some serious pushing. You have a large window where things are either 2v3 odds or better. You have to take advantage of these opportunities.
• This is the point in the game where burst casters become VERY dangerous to you. They should have a good amount of AP now, and if you're not careful (assuming they're any good), then you could completely miss your ultimate. If this happens, go see point #1 again.
• Dragon can win or lose the game. I'm not joking here. When everyone on both teams is level 18, the main differences will arise from gold and buffs. The dragon buff will give a level 18 character a 20% damage increase, which is HUGE. Make sure this does NOT fall into the wrong hands, and secure it whenever possible.

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At this stage of the game, if you're doing things correctly, you should have already pushed out your opponents two outer turrets (at LEAST the outer turrets). This gives them a smaller overall presence on the map, and opens up larger portions of safe terrain to farm and have team fights on. It also reduces your enemies vision in those areas, allowing for easier navigation of the battle field.

Pushing can be very tricky on 3v3. Because it is such a small map, you have less base to defend. It also takes a rather short amount of time to get around on the map, so if you start knocking on the front door of their base, get ready to have your face slammed in it. Split pushing only works occasionally on this map, and usually only in low levels of play. For the most part you either need to wait until you've eliminated part or all of the enemy team before any serious pushes can be successful.

There is the possibility for backdooring, but the likelihood of you getting caught is usually pretty high. I would only suggest this if you have an extremely beefy tank who has a couple of high-tier armor items already, and can safely tank tower shots for you.
Since you're doing well, you should try to press any advantages you have, be it better jungle control, benefiting from walls (think Poppy and Vayne), or you simply have characters that mesh better then your opponents do. If you're confident about winning teamfights, make them happen. If things have been pretty even all game, wait for the other team to make a mistake. Oftentimes, if you wait long enough and are careful, you'll be able to catch one or even two of them in a bad position and then it's just GG. But whatever you do, play it smart and keep up the coordination with your teammates.

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So things didn't go as planned. Either you're in a train wreck right now, or you've simply had a bad couple runs and are on the defensive. Either way, your only option at the moment is to search for a way to turn the tables. There are a few ways you can do this:

• I know it sounds like a low level sort of thing to happen, but you will not BELIEVE the number of teams that will get over confident after stomping you early on, and simply lose their cohesion late-game. Make them pay for splitting up and underestimating you by going with your teammates and hunting for their individual members. I've won a number of games this way.
• Just keep farming. Anything you can find, just farm it. If the enemy shows up to stop you, back off and farm something else. The most important thing to do if you are attempting to re-level the playing field when you're in a jam is to avoid any serious confrontations and find a way to get the items you need.
• Last Ditch Effort: let them take your inhibitors (maybe just 1). If you find that you simply cannot farm the lane because you will get ganked, you cannot farm the jungle because they dominate it, and you can't get kills because your opponents are already fed, this is your final resort. This will allow you to get farm if all else fails. It may mean that they just have a free shot straight at your nexus, but you have no other options left. ONLY do this if you literally have NO other options.

I would like to tell you now to "never give up" and that "there's always hope", but sadly that's not the case. True, in most losing situations there's a way to make a comeback, but sometimes it's just better to type /surrender into your chat box and go dance on your spawn. If you can't trust your allies, or your allies simply picked horrible characters for 3v3 ( Anivia, Miss Fortune, Twitch, Evelynn just to name a few) and fed with them, then it's probably just over. But if you can see a glimmer of hope shining on the horizon, then persevere. If you want it bad enough, you'd be surprised at how rapidly a bleak situation turns into a glorious triumph.

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By this time, you're hopefully the most dominating force on the battlefield. Assuming you've played the game to the best of your ability and tried to coordinate a team effort, then you've already won a victory in my book. Now for some tips on how to see that splendid victory button at the end of the match: Be the team leader. Especially in solo-que. If you qued with your friends and you all work well together then this probably isn't an issue, but in solo-que, do NOT trust that someone else will lead the way. Remember: A team divided is easly broken. Capitalize on your opponents errors. Make them pay EVERY time they make a mistake. They didn't grab a buff when it spawned? Take it. They decided to split up to farm? Hunt them down and then push their towers. One of them is out of position right before a team fight? Snap crackle pop, it's a 3v2 now, GG. DO NOT GET OVER CONFIDENT UNLESS YOU ARE LITERALLY JUST ROFLSTOMPING 6 YEAR OLDS. If you get a huge head, you're just giving your opponents more to aim at. And if they couldn't hit you before, odds are they can't miss hitting you now. Have fun. It's a game afterall. So win or lose, be a good sport about it, and just have a good time. That's what are all about.

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You will notice that I put some links to other pages throughout my , and I have collected all of them (and others) here. If you would like to know more on the following topics, simply click the links embedded below (all credit goes to the creators):

• Rune by Searz
• Rune list -
• How the Math Works: Atk Spd, Crit, CDR, MR & Armor by Complexicate
• Warding (not for 3v3 but the same general rules apply) by Panglot
• In-Depth Item Guide by theBMB
• 5v5 Tryndamere guide by Apotheosis
• Smart Casting -
• Zoning Tutorial by Shurelia

Now for the people I need to thank for helping make this guide possible:

• Apotheosis: For inspiring me to originally Tryndamere with his (then) 3v3 oriented guide
• JhoiJhoi: For her guide making guide!
• Pozsich: For his invaluable review and helping me make the guide better. Check out his 5v5 Trynd guide here
• The MobaFire community: for all the hard work you do and inspiration you give
• My friend Adam for introducing me to the League
• The LoL community: JUST KIDDING, you think I'd thank all those trolls!?

11/6/11 - Guide published

11/7/11 - Added in the "Blunting the Thorns section to help deal with Thornmail

11/17/11 - Completely redid the mastery section due to the latest patch (November 15, 2011) where they redid the masteries for season two. Also fixed some grammatical errors and added Cleanse to the alternative summoner spell section, due to the revamps on the summoner spells.

12/27/11 - Added in the "Warding on the Twisted Treeline" section. Fixed some minor grammatical and visual errors.

1/9/12 - Added smite "rant" to the intro and fixed some grammatical errors.