I have NOW specified this guide as a middle lane guide and am now linking to http://www.mobafire.com/league-of-legends/build/tristana-the-little-package-of-destruction-137728 please upvote The Little Package of Destruction guide as we need to take down the current #1 guide as it is far inferior and is pointing tristana players in the wrong direction.

People like to tell you that Trist is worse than such and such AD carry for solo queue. This is not true. Trist consistantly out shines other AD range carries in a bad team situation. However the only exception to this is when your bot with a support it can be deadly to have a less skilled support with you but you can still queue with a support and do good in solo queue ranked. I would rather be Caitlyn with a bad support but outside of laning phase I would much rather be Tristana with a horrible team.

The new masteries are worse than the old ones for the purpose masteries serve. I am not saying they are weaker I am saying they do not provide proper diversity.

For example the route you take for an AD carry is obvious. The only time you really think about grabbing something else is the lifesteal. You may also be tempted by the +10 dmg to towers but since full alacrity is required for 10% armor reduction you wont be taking a point away from that tier thats for sure. There is no more 21/0/9 thats gone. No one is going to give away that much HP for and some extra armor/mr for 2 movement speed and extra mana.

Now when putting 21 points into utility there is diversity there. Granted not exactly as diverse as other games but still its something. Defense is less diverse but still not as bad as offense. Also with defense if you really feel you need something extra just spend more than 21 points as 9 in offense/utility offers very small perks for most champs.

TLDR: Offense tree diversity sucks, and 9 in defense makes 9 in utility look stupid.

Posted a screen shot of my current masteries today. Hope that helps.

I can no longer do the super flash jump I was talking about a few weeks ago. I guess they just keep tweaking it. It's not quite as cool as before but its more reliable now. If you smart cast rocket jump then immediately flash you'll flash forward prior to the rocket jump. This is still faster than just flashing forward and then immediately rocket jumping but its not quite as fast as the super flash jump I was doing before. Perhaps it was a bug that riot has patched...I could certainly understand Tristanas rocket jump with longer range and nearly instant being a problem.

Sexy guide. Unfortunately I am not an avid tristana player (like you or andreas), I uh, well, won't take too much heart into reading this. But I can tell a decent guide to one rushed in 20 seconds. Also tried out tristana, seems legit.

Now have over 1000 Tristana games played in MID. Updated guide to reflect that.

By popular demand I have been trying to determine the best way to play Tristana on Dominion. Here is what I have come up with so far:

Request bot in lobby, (ignite+exhaust is a viable option on dominion)
Start with Pickaxe, Boots, 1 HP Potion.
Use the normal skill order, 1 explosive shot, 2 rocket jump.
Cap the closest Bot point then move towards the Speed/Health items.

If the other bot is not close to this area go ahead and grab the speed buff and go after him but try to make sure you are the one closest to the HP buff. This is your crutch that will usually allow you to get away with doing something as foolish as starting with pickaxe. Some champs you are not going to be able to beat, in those situations you can either trade out bot or play more defensive. The idea with getting pickaxe first is simply to get your IE as soon as possible.

Edit: Make note that this is still in testing.

I absolutely agree with you there :)

+1, it's pretty great. That orianna with the dumbass downvote and no legit reason really pissed me off LOL.

(Below info added 10/14/2011 12:30pm)
I know I said I wasn't really going to go give detailed pointers on game play but I need to mention 2 things that I see Tristana players struggling with.

1. When to engage: In general (a typical normal match) you want to engage right after the enemy engages one of your allies. In many cases the entire team won't switch to you if they are already on a team mate. Common mistakes are engaging too early and dying immediately or waiting too long to engage to sweep up the killing blows. Engaging late doesn't make you a good player...sure it can give you awesome multikills and great scores but you are not playing to your full potential.

2. When do use Rapid Fire (Q): You do NOT use Q when your poking. Q is your bread and butter and you should only use it when you feel you can make use of a decent portion of its duration and not be caught in a team fight with it down. Consider your teams CC when you are making the decision as to when to pop your Q.