Tristana Build Guide by joeishere

Good input. You will see that getting Explosive Shot at level 1 is completely essential and advocated throughout my build. Despite this, I choose to max Rocket Jump first for several reasons.

1. Explosive shot still scales 1:1 with AP whether it's rank 1 or rank 5.
2. Rocket Jump increases in damage better per rank than Explosive Shot.
3. When enemy champions begin to play conservatively, you will never be able to land your explosive shot on them unless you Rocket Jump forward. You should have enough mana regen with runes and Philosopher's Stone to keep up this W+E harass quite often, but if your Rocket Jump is at a 20 second cooldown, they are prone to healing/regen up by the time you can harass them again. Particularly against champions like Vlad or Morgana.
4. If you Rocket Jump offensively and don't secure a kill, the 9 second difference between a rank 1 Rocket Jump and rank 5 Rocket Jump is often the difference between life and death. If you're being chased through the jungle, the shorter cooldown can let you jump over more walls to secure your escape.

Regarding Will of the Ancients:
I usually get this close to the endgame because that is when the enemy team is most likely to group up, making it difficult for you to secure kills. If you jump in to kill an enemy, you will most likely get CCd and killed, sometimes without even doing any damage to the enemy team. I've tried out a number of defensive items in place of Will of the Ancients like Warmogs, Randuin's, Banshee's Veil.. But to me what seems to be able to sustain you the most when you jump into 3 enemies is the combination of Will of the Ancients + Quicksilver Sash. When you use Explosive Shot, you regen 300HP over 5 seconds, when you ult, you instantly gain 400+ health.. The QSS should ensure you get your combo off, so when you get a kill, use Rocket Jump. Rocket Jumping onto a minion wave can take you from near death to full health. Or if there are enemies in the vicinity, Rocket Jump onto them to regain 200-800 health depending on how many of them are grouped up.

Regarding Lich Bane:
As I said in my build numerous times, the core items in this build is DFG, Deathcap, and Void Staff. These in addition to boots leave room for 2 items which are often situational. If you are getting into a lot of small skirmishes like 1v1, 2v2 or 3v3 type of fights, a Lich Bane makes a HUGE difference. If you time your abilities well, this puppy can land you 2000+ extra damage over 9 seconds (more than 200dps). If the game turns into a poking match under a tower, you can take pot shots at the tower and have it down to nothing in seconds. Or you can just poke any champion that gets in range. The Lich Bane is the icing on the cake that helps you take down tanky targets 1v1 that you would not be able to with any other item build. Like you said, her cooldowns are far too long to be truly effective in sustained battles. As such, AP Tristana shines the most in bursting down single targets and cleaning up teamfights with Rocket Jump. Lich Bane just adds another nuke to her combo. With Baron buff, Blue Elixir, and a full build, I've seen her get around 850 AP.. that's 2550 damage in just a few seconds.

Really, apart from the main 3 core items and boot, the other 2 items are situational, as I mentioned in my build. Other decent choices besides Lich Bane and Will of the Ancients are Rylai's, Rod of Ages, Zhonya's Hourglass, Banshee's Veil, Randuin's Omen, Quicksilver Sash, Warmogs Armor. Any combination the aforementioned items help your damage+survivability considerably. My premade team has inquired about getting a Mejai's early, but I don't really like such volatile items. While it's decent for a support or tank, it's not good for champions who fight often and is prioritized in teamfights.

Also, one more note to the above poster: You said you play AP Trist as 100% burst anti-carry, yet you fail to realize that Lich Bane is the item that will increase your burst damage most. For example, say you wanted a second Deathcap instead (similar price). What does that extra 140AP do for your damage? Let's see: it adds 210 damage to your ult, 140 damage to your Explosive Shot, 84 damage to your Rocket Jump. That's 434 damage. Take into account the passive of 30% extra AP, we can also traslate that to 564 damage, with MR taken into account 7 times. I guess you can also add 6% of the enemy's total health for your Deathfire. Assuming they have 4000HP, that's an extra 240 damage bringing your total to 804 damage with enemy magic resist calculated 8 times.

But say you have a full build with a Lich Bane. With Baron buff and Blue elixir, your AP exceeds 804, and MR is only accounted for once. But say you don't have baron or an elixir.. Let's say you're sitting on about 650AP. Your Lich Bane proc does 650 damage, plus the 80AP from the item increases your ability damage by a total of 322. Plus, you should get an extra 3% on your DFG, assuming they have 4000HP, that's an extra 230 damage. That means with this item alone, you are doing 1192 extra damage in BURST. If you manage to survive long enough for a second or third proc, your damage just went up by almost 2500 from this one item alone. Tell me, what other item helps your 100% burst anti-carry build as much as a Lich Bane?

very nice guide but i think it would be even better if you add a section for tristanas ulti. for example, how u could use tristanas ulti to save ur allies, using your ulti to steal baron etc.

From AD Trist to AP Trist...
Man, the jump was so... nice(I really can't find a good word).
For my playstyle, AP Trist just fits me so much better. I went from going negative/neutral as AD to all positive as AP. The burst is just so amazing. I love seeing squishy APs try to poke me, when I poke sooo much harder, then jump in Lvl2 and kill 'em. :D.

Simply, great guide, +1.

Rather good guide but I find that you are very prone to banshees veils. You could possibly add a section on how to try and remove then and which moves to use. I also enjoy the ability to jump from brush and kill ashe bfore she even knows what hit her but I find that you should comment on how useful void staff is because when you think of it, unless the opponent has less that 50 mr which is highly unlikely (even for most carries) then void gives move penetration that abyssal. Just a thought but good guide and keep up the good work.

DèathClaw :>

Hmm.... I play ap trust a lot amd I disagree with the philo stone and the regrowth pendant at the start just because the gp5 only pays for itself at late game and if the caster you are facing at middle starts with boots and pots then you're going to have a hard time harassing without blowing ur w just to get in range and opening you up to counter harass. So yeah.... Start with boots 3 and you win your lane...

Thanks for the comment! Your concern about the Void Staff is very legitimate. I will add a small section regarding my thoughts on magic pen items. In a nutshell, you're so squishy the MR won't do much and the item itself is much more expensive. Also, most champs in late game, including squishies, have at LEAST 50-75 magic resist. I will elaborate more in the guide when I have time. Thank you very much!



Hello! Thank you for your comment. I have a section talking about why I don't like boots 3, but I do acknowledge it is good against certain matchups. However, as AP Trist, I always start trading blows early (lvl 1) so I get a lot of use from the regen. It helps with any minion damage you might incur while trading blows. And if you honestly think about the regen (especially with the recent health pot nerf), a regrowth pendant heals as much as a health potion does in just 50 seconds. 3 pots = 450hp regen over at least 45 seconds. A regrowth pendant heals 450hp in only two and a half minutes. Your initial laning phase is (or at least should be) longer than that, not to mention you can also buy an extra pot if things get sticky. I never once had a problem trading blows with champions with a regrowth pendant. And honestly, counterharass is no big deal with that much health regen. You can easily take 200-300+ damage off a champion at level one and come out at full or almost full health.

Your claim that it doesn't pay for itself is not a legitimate claim, and I will explain why. If you look at it from a purely fiscal standpoint (not talking about how it gives you the most health sustain out of any starting item including cloth 5), a Philosopher's Stone costs a total of 800. Assuming you upgrade it to Eleisa's Miracle before you sell it, the total cost differential amounts to 390g. Phil Stone sells for 400 while Eleisa's Miracle sells for 910, but it only costs 500 more to upgrade. So with the total cost diffential being 390, 5 gold per 10 seconds = 30 gold per minute. So the item has paid for itself in just 13 minutes. Assuming you buy the item around or before the 5 minute mark (which I almost always do unless I don't feel like going back until I can buy a DFG outright), then the item has paid for itself at anywhere from 17-20 minutes into the game. It's basically a free item that gives you better health sustain than any other starting item apart from 13 health pot build...) The Phil Stone is no longer necessary after laning phase, but you can keep it around for the extra gold per 5, sell it so you can get other items faster, or upgrade it to Eleisa's Miracle for Tenacity if you are having issues with CC.

Give the regrowth a try sometime if you haven't and see if you don't fall in love with it. Run the numbers yourself if my math is off. I win my lane more than 19/20 times with a regrowth.. I can't lane without it!

I've been thinking about the survivability since, as you say in "cons" one is often focussed or picked as an easy kill in team fights. Would guardian angel make justice instead of will och the ancient perhaps? Or maybe skip void staff (unless enemies build heavy MR) and go with will of ancient + guardian angel? :)

EDIT: Might add that I laned mid against a brand today, the regrowth was amazing because I regenerated his harasses so fast while his HP still was low :) Just too bad that his "fire pillar" took 1/3 of my HP... So it was kill or be killed, many times it ended in a draw because I got stunned before being able to land ulti after DFG :P

Nice suggestion. I do admit Void Staff has been pretty habitual for me. You never know when an enemy decides to walk out with a Negatron Cloak that can end up in your death when you try to kill them. To be safe, I tend to get lots of magic pen early. GA is definitely a great choice. If you decide to get a GA, I would definitely go for Void Staff also to maximize your damage with the other 4 item spots (minus boots) remaining.

Champions like Brand, Leblanc, or Anivia are quite volatile. Small mistakes can be your undoing. However, with practice, you can learn to predict/dodge their harassment and attacks and use W+E to harass them by predicting their movement as they pace their zone in lane. If you play against a Brand that clears his wave to harass you, you can attack him while his abilities are on cooldown. If he tries to land his pillar on you, try to predict it and jump on top of him. Rocket Jump can dodge his pillar, and deal a big chunk of damage to him at the same time.

Great guide. I have had a lot of success recently with AP trist. The major problem I have is that people instantly assume you are a troll and treat you as such, often picking an AP carry after me, despite me having stated that was my intended role from the start. I have found she is a particularly good counter to vladimir, who has given me trouble with nearly every other mid champ due to his heal harass.

Out of curiosity, and sorry if this was mentioned before, but why is morellos evil tome not mentioned once in this guide? It has become one of the core items of my personal AP trist build (derived from your own) and I don't think I would ever play her without it. The cooldown reduction and cheap AP is just too much to miss for me and I often get it before my deathcap and instead of the deathfire grasp (I feel the extra ability unecessary and the item itself is bad value for money without needing the ability)