I've been a bit busy with work and I spent some time at the end of S2 getting my pretty Diamond border, but now I'm back, with another HAM guide for you guys!

Update; Looks like I made Tryndamere crazy popular and also got Diamond with him in S3! :]

Season 3 brought a lot of changes to the League of Legends, and many of the items are still in the balancing stages. We can see that as riot tweaks and works with the new items over time.

Now, the stars have realigned for our friend Tryndamere. Let's go explore my favorite champion, and how and why Tryndamere has come back into viability as a top laner!

This is the best Tryndamere guide on the MobaFire, I guarantee it! Probably the best Tryndamere guide in the world!

(Please check out the video section to see live ranked gameplay :])

Well it's quite simple really.

The armor pen rework is where we begin our journey. Now taking armor pen runes in Greater mark of armor penetration is better than ever, and the investment will still cash in late game, even with your % pen items like Last Whisper and your mastery choices. This means Tryndamere will not be sacrificing late game power to get early/mid game kill potential. This is a pivotal aspect of Tryndamere's return to viability, and we use it here in this guide.

The second part of our journey is the introduction of Statikk Shiv. This item is so incredibly important. It is at least as important as the armor pen rework, and perhaps even moreso. Statikk Shiv gives us a better early/mid game than Tryndamere has ever had before. In fact with Tryndamere's passive, our crit chance will be so high that you can almost count on having your Statikk Shiv getting a crit. Toss in the move speed, attack speed, and crit chance, and we have a build and a hero that's starting to pump out a lot of damage without costing a lot of gold.

Boots of Swiftness are now an amazing and very underrated boot, which provide top notch move speed and reduce slows! These boots in conjunction with a move speed item or two (Or merc treads if enemy team is low on slows high on harder CC's) will keep you sticking to your opponents and landing those important auto attacks for the kill and crits to reset your Spinning Slash.

And last but not least, they have buffed Tryndamere's attack speed by a touch and REVERTED the fury nerf. It will now be placed back at 8 seconds before it begins to decay. This improves Tryndamere as a hero. It means to maintain your fury levels, you no longer need to power push the wave. In fact, 8 seconds can mean the difference from simply last hitting to maintain your fury, instead of having to auto attack from time to time at 5 seconds before fury decays.

In short, a lot of little things have come together and created one big upgrade to Tryndamere as an overall hero, and placed him squarely back into the realm of viability in League of Legends.

Yeah, I've been getting a little creative. You don't have to use this rune page, you can use a standard page with armor yellows and MR blues if you'd like.

Personally, I really like the slight boost to my damage that I get out of AD blues, AD quints, and Greater mark of armor penetration. I hit REALLY hard, and I'm gonna keep it that way whenever I can get away with it! I like to combine my runes and mastery choices to create one unified concept, instead of trying to optimize them separately. In this way, I'll be getting 9 armor and over 60 bonus HP at level 1 in my generic build path.

When combining your runes with a complimentary mastery path, you will be quite tanky, and very damaging when running these runes. With 18 armor pen in total, and 12 ad, you're going to be surprised at how hard you hit. You can opt out of the AD blues if you can't stand the thought of losing your MR or don't own the AD blue runes and don't want to buy them. This will scale Tryndamere's bonus AD on Q nicely, while getting you through early game with lots of HP! What ends up happening, is that if you can farm well, your mid game is superb with this set up.

If you can't farm well in a lane, you will need to default to a different rune page. Something a bit tankier, like the one shown in the third build.

Double up on armor and take some bonus HP as well to muscle your way through the early game in the more brutal lanes. If you get ganked, most physical casters have a stun or another form of hard CC, in addition to heavy early game damage output. This is essentially the only way to survive the early game against a physical caster / early game bruiser without being laughed at by your team. Take mastery choices to compliment this set up. In these lanes, your main goal is to get to level 6 to get Undying Rage. At level 6, you become very difficult to dive, and a lot of players will resort to shoving you under turret to make you try to farm under tower. Here, your Mocking Shout will be more beneficial to you and make farming easier.

In short, each rune itself may not be the most "Cost effective" rune in the game, but we take them anyway because they help us accomplish our key objectives with Tryndamere. Those goals include: trying to cheese a kill levels 2-3, making it to six, and trying to farm a lot and maybe land a few kills towards the end of lane phase before teamfights begin.

There is only one item you will be getting every single game, and the earlier that you can get it the better. That item is Statikk Shiv.

As previously outlined, with no other items, and varying levels of rage bar, you will sit somewhere between 20% and 55% crit chance. Don't forget that your Q is going to give 25 AD, and with your 12 bonus AD and 18 armor pen in runes and masteries, every crit you land with this path is going to sting.

The really amazing part is that the magic damage on your [[Statikk Shiv] can crit as well. You will be out damaging all other champions in a 1v1 scenario, if you have comparable amounts of gold upon this purchase.

You will need boots 2, of your choice. I recommend Boots of Swiftness as your go to purchase, Mercury's Treads vrs heavy CC teams, and Berserker's Greaves for a more cost efficient boots two and attack speed in a bundle to help make a come back into games you're losing where every piece of gold has to somehow get some damage into your build.

Beyond that, all you need is a Vampiric Scepter, or one of the items it builds into. You need this because mid-late game you have to be able to heal very quickly to be effective. Power shoving a lane should leave you at full HP or close to it, and you'll want to be able to heal up without using your Q if you can help it, to preserve your kill potential.

So your core build is very simple, Statikk Shiv, Vampiric Scepter, and boots 2 are the only items in your core build!

Infinity Edge: This might be Tryndamere's second favorite item. However, you don't have to build it. In many games, it isn't wise to go for an Infinity Edge. You'll need to gauge the enemy team. If one squishy is carrying, an I.E. almost can't be a bad idea. If you can erase that one dangerous squishy in 3 hits, the I.E. was worth it. Also keep in mind, it does add the 50% extra crit damage modifier to your Statikk Shiv as well, so you'll be pumping out heavy damage with this combo.

Phantom Dancer: Arguably better than Infinity Edge. It gives you some sweet attributes that allow you to fly around the map and attack even faster. It almost guarantees that your Statikk Shiv and every auto attack will be critting and the price is not too outrageous.

Last Whisper: You're going to be building this in almost every single game. There's almost no exception. The question is not if you build a Last Whisper, it's when you build it. Remember, even against a target with only 100 armor, Last Whisper is still a surprisingly cost effective item, penning 35% of that!

Ravenous Hydra: Is this item better than a Bloodthirster For Tryndamere? I think it is better, but not by much. It allows you to have the potential for some silly AOE damage, offers you a nice little active, and the nicest part about the Hydra is the POWER wave clear potential with Statikk Shiv on Tryndamere. You blow the creep waves to bits, instantly. You also farm better and faster, spending less time on jungle mobs. Proper timing of the active can result in a damage increase superior to that of Bloodthirster.

Bloodthirster: Higher values of AD and Life steal in a single buy cannot be found, which means again, if you need to erase a single high priority target, this is an item you may want to consider building. The best thing about the item is the extra 8% life steal, however 25 higher AD than any other item is not to be scoffed at either.

Quicksilver Sash: No need to explain, you're gonna get CC'd.

Mercurial Scimitar: This makes QSS a super viable pick up.

Good optional item's might include...

Frozen Mallet

Guardian Angel

Sword of the Occult: (No, I'm not trolling you. Think about it, a cheap source of AD while you rush Statikk Shiv and a Phantom Dancer with a Vampiric Scepter. IT'S AN OPTION!)

Trinity Force

Wriggle's Lantern: A decent comeback item from losing lanes vrs bruisers.

Atma's Impaler: Admittedly I'm not a big fan anymore but it isn't terrible.

Blade of the Ruined King: A decent buy when you're against a tanky team with lots of HP.

The Brutalizer

Youmuu's Ghostblade

Black Cleaver: Only build this if you're not doing very well and your ADC is fed.

Zephyr: Only buy this is you need both Boots of Swiftness AND Tenacity in an item, like say if you're vrs and Anivia or a Teemo and they still have 3+ stuns or suppresses that you need ti be able to power through.

Now keep in mind these are not in the main builds for a reason, and I don't generally recommend most of these items.

Tryndamere is fairly easy to understand. Make every crit count, and crit often.

Don't get CC'd.

Damage and Quicksilver sash is all you need to build, but if you wanna get crazy, these are some items to consider anyway.

The main thing you need to know about Tryndamere's skilling is to get points into Q Bloodlust early. I max Q Bloodlust first for free damage to scale through crit and attack speed purchases (And of course your passive), and for the amazing "Vladimir-esque" sustain in lane that allows you to trade and/or sustain and farm better than many top lane champions.

Many may ask why max E Spinning Slash before W Mocking Shout as my "Go to" skill order, instead of W before E Spinning Slash. The answer is sometimes I do max W Mocking Shout before E, both are strong. But the reason I will try to max E Spinning Slash before W Mocking Shout if I can is because the damage goes up while the cooldown goes down on E Spinning Slash. This wouldn't be that significant if that was where the story ended, but it's not where the story ends. From here, if you build more attack speed, more crit, and you max your E, the CD goes down from 13 to 9, and your crits reduce it by a flat rate per crit, meaning your spin becomes a very accessible and reliable tool both for offense and for defense.

This is what allows you to make the big plays with Tryndamere. It increases damage output, and improves tower diving capability drastically by helping you not only stick to your target, but also get away from threats and towers more safely too.

W Mocking Shout max is better in lanes against big bruisers that you've already begun to lose. When your main concern is farming under tower, after your Q Bloodlust, start sinking points into W.

W is also a remarkably powerful tool in early teamfights once you get a few points into it, so keep that in mind. You should not blindly max E every game, but just remember that maxing E is perhaps "The best" thing a fed Tryndamere can do.

As Tryndamere in season 3, we're always looking to get as much gold as we can.

Our primary source for the gold is to farm it out of lane and jungle mobs. We'll take it all.

Our secondary source is going to be via kills, but with the dynamic of the game in season 3, we want to use our aggression intelligently. Kills put a bounty on our head faster than ever, and we don't want to get a few kills only to feed that bounty back out.

Kill them at level 2 if you can. Or even level 3. This is a great pivotal moment to seize the lane with Tryndamere. If your opponent doesn't respect your crit chance and you roll the dice and cash out on a big crit early, there's a very decent chance that the kill is going to be yours.

Don't miss any CS, but if you see a good opportunity and you know where the enemy jungler is, go ahead and kill them! You have high mobility and the most reliable source of early game crit chance in the game. It's entirely likely that with a little luck and a ballsy play, you can land an early kill around levels 2-3.

Once you've killed them, get some CS, base, and spend your gold.

However, no matter how many times you kill them, don't break their tower yet. You want to become super man before you break that tower. Their tower is what's protecting you, and causing them to be vulnerable and lose a lot of CS when you either kill them or cause them to base.

DON'T BREAK THE TOWER and tell your jungler not to break it too if he comes top. If he ignores you, tell him not to come top anymore. Insult his family line, do something to make him go away. You are STRONKOMERE, you don't need jungle ganks when you're winning, maximize your win potential by having your jungler dominate the other lanes while you take care of yours.

When you are huge and feel capable of WINNING 1v2's, and/or when mid tower falls, break top and seize control of the upper part of the map and their jungle. If you break tower too early, you'll need to buy two-four wards, one at their blue and one at their jungle exit to baron to safe from potential ganks (Or one at red and one closer down to their AP, depending on which side you're on. If you can win a 1v2, you don't need quite as many wards because you can just beat them if they gank you. It' harder for Blue side to ward top enough to be safe for pushing.

On purple team, if you wait for mid to fall, you can simply buy only one ward, and place it at the lower corner of the bush at their blue buff to gain sight from all potential paths of entry. Your opponent would have to go up along river to catch you, which is unlikely if mid has already fallen.

If you choose to down top tower first, use that to your advantage. Go gank mid from time to time if you're feeling strong and have your ulti, or go steal their jungle a bit. If you find a jungler in there, farm him as well! You're a highly mobile champ with a strong slow and the ability to dive towers if the situation calls for it and the kill is there. If you do it correctly, and time where their jungler is, you can start to swing the game in your favor.

If you do it wrong, their jungler shows up right as you dive, and you die for free. Don't be that guy. Use map awareness as one of your weapons, just as strong or even stronger than your summoner skills.

You'll have to take some educated risks, because as a kill champion who can be shut down in team fights with CC, you'd prefer to win the game before the team fight phase ever comes around. Mid game is Tryndamere's time to shine. Super late game, he's okay, but you'll need to play with extreme finesse and trust your ability to kill squishy champions in a few hits and a tight window of opportunity.

The type of player who sits back afraid and farms passively can be successful with Tryndamere in lane phase of Season 3. However, the kind who sits back and never makes "Game winning plays" will never be truly successful in League. You have to be the aggressor, you have to be the play maker. You have to be one step ahead of your opponent, and try to get your team on the same page.

That is the fine line that separates Bad players from Average players, Average players from Good players, and Good players from Great players. What kinds of plays do you make each game to win your game? You can have all the CS in the world and group in all the right places and it does not mean ****, and it means even less when you play a kill thirsty champion like Tryndamere. You have to make the plays that win the game to be a great player.

Those plays are different with every champion. Cho'Gath for example, flashing and landing a nice pop up on retreating opponents at minute 30-40 can mean towers, inhibs, and a free Baron. With Tryndamere, making plays means farming well and using your kit effectively to land kills onto priority targets. All the best Tryndamere players are hyper aggressive and get lots of kills by the end of the games that they win. That doesn't happen on accident.

Intelligent aggression wins games!

Landing kills in lane phase earns your team three important advantages.

1; Gold in your pocket

2; Your opponent is not farming or getting kills during this entire time that they are dead and returning to lane

3; Map presence. Any time your team has more players active on the map, you have an advantage. Any time your team has less players active on the map, that is time spent at a disadvantage, meaning less objective control, less gold income, less map control in general.

Due to those 3 factors, if you can successfully land consecutive kills, you're literally winning the game bit by bit just by crushing one lane. Focus will be shifted towards top lane, and if they don't react in time, you will be big enough that their attempts to shut you down will be unsuccessful or even backfire. I will be ganked after a kill or two, and result in killing 1-2 of them often using this strategy.

However that being said, an early gank on you can put you behind in lane for a long long time with Tryndamere. Part of how Tryndamere becomes powerful is by purchasing specific items and reaching strength points. If you have to build crutch items to come back from a losing lane, you are delaying Tryndamere's peak power items and thusly you are shut down more immediately than your opponent.

Be careful about level 2-4 ganks, but once you have ulti, the whole name of the game changes.

This is why a healthy combination of farming and landing kills is so effective, and keeps your enemy jungler off their toes. it effectively accomplishes the three most desirable goals of lane phase without endangering you too greatly.

Gold income for your team.

Shutting down their solo lane's gold and experience.

Map control and therefore objective control. (They can't get dragon if they're trying to get the Tryndamere. The Tryndamere that their solo lane cannot fight 1v1 even under tower.)

I recommend you try to ban Lee Sin and Malphite, as they will hurt your attack speed greatly.

Beyond that, just try to avoid landing yourself in lanes with big scary early game bruisers. It's as simple as that, most lanes can be outplayed or farmed in even if they are disadvantageous.

Darius is a mean lane, but if you farm it well, your ulti counters his ulti fairly well. You can also get to a place in your items where you can eventually beat him 1v1.

As I continue to stream, more videos will be uploaded here. So far I only have a few videos to upload, so be patient with me! :P Hopefully you can see some of the strategy here at work and get a feel for how it works!

All videos are ranked, and either Gold division or higher. (I am now in the Platinum range but started making videos when I was around Gold 1 this Season)

http://www.twitch.tv/dufftime/c/2468733

http://www.twitch.tv/dufftime/c/2468918

http://www.twitch.tv/dufftime/c/2468867

http://www.twitch.tv/dufftime/c/2451738

http://www.twitch.tv/dufftime/c/2451694

http://www.twitch.tv/dufftime/c/2451683

http://www.twitch.tv/dufftime/c/2427180

http://www.twitch.tv/dufftime/c/2427199

http://www.twitch.tv/dufftime/c/2073013

http://www.twitch.tv/dufftime/c/1911954

http://www.twitch.tv/dufftime/c/1901300

http://www.twitch.tv/dufftime/c/1926418

http://www.twitch.tv/dufftime/c/1926361

http://www.twitch.tv/dufftime/c/1926466

http://www.twitch.tv/dufftime/c/1996227

Shorter clips of Duff goin' HAM with Tryn! Again, all ranked play here.

http://www.twitch.tv/dufftime/c/3412706

(Pentakill!) http://www.twitch.tv/dufftime/c/2494588

http://www.twitch.tv/dufftime/c/2427221

http://www.twitch.tv/dufftime/c/2065647

http://www.twitch.tv/dufftime/c/2097960

http://www.twitch.tv/dufftime/c/2080838

http://www.twitch.tv/dufftime/c/2065563

http://www.twitch.tv/dufftime/c/1948156

http://www.twitch.tv/dufftime/c/1926664

(^ Watch the ulti timer closely on the fiddles kill Lol. Le pleis.)

http://www.twitch.tv/dufftime/c/1948230

http://www.twitch.tv/dufftime/c/2080499

http://www.twitch.tv/dufftime/c/1948204

http://www.twitch.tv/dufftime/c/2709416

As a player who has gone through the ranked ladders and achieved Diamond, I can tell you the builds work and are effective.

Tryndamere is a load of fun and I truly hope you enjoy as much of my new season 3 technology as you like.

Remember, take what you like from the guide, and make your own style that optimizes your own play style. This is just what works best for me :]

Tune in to my Facebook page, Twitter, and follow my Stream for future updates about guides and other content!

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/DuffTime

Twitter: @RealDuffTime

Stream: http://www.twitch.tv/dufftime

Take care, Duff loves you :*