Hello friends of Mobafire! Maatix here, making my first and probably only guide for my first and favorite champion, Tryndamere! This build is mainly for solo top situations, as indicated in the title, and the build shown above is a basic build that I use. Remember, there's always room for improvement in every build! I am in no way claiming this is the only way to build him, nor should anyone believe that is the case. As this is the build that works for me, I felt it would be unfair to not share my build with others in case they happen to be interested in trying the build themselves.

Now, onwards to the guide!

8/11/12: Added BBCoding to Runes and Items sections; Will be updating the rest over the next few days.

Item Order
Begin game:


Mid game:


Late game:


Final Build (Ideally):


Other Options:
Zeke's Herald

First, people should always know Tryndamere loves CRITS. This is why Infinity Edge is a must on any Tryndamere. (Except maybe AP, but I'm no expert on AP Trynd.) With nine crit marks ( Greater Mark of Critical Chance) and an early Avarice Blade, your crits should be more than healthy enough to last you pretty far into the game, however. Plus, the added gold/10 makes building up MUCH easier. This is why Infinity Edge takes a back seat to your boots, Vampiric Scepter, and Zeal.

Attack Speed and Life Steal are why this guide is called the Sustain O' Mere build. With enough attack speed and life steal, you will never die in a team fight. This is because you can initiate against an enemy champion, usually pull off a kill depending on enemy CCs, then Ult and allow both you and your team to burn down a large chunk of the enemy health. And as soon as your ult is up, anyone still focusing you is wasting their time, so you're able to steal back health until it's safe to Bloodthirst and spin to safety.

The last two items are entirely optional. NORMALLY, I build Armor Pen and sell my Avarice Blade for a second Phantom Dancer, but that is entirely by choice of the user. I've experimented with a Zeke's Herald for some additional attack speed and life steal for the rest of my team, a second Bloodthirster for more Life Steal, a Guardian Angel for a third chance to score some more kills... As with all good guides, the options are there. Whatever you feel is important during your battle is what you should go for.

To sum up:

Must have items
Infinity Edge (Gotta love dem crits)
Phantom Dancer (Attack Speed + Crit, no brainer)
Bloodthirster (Life Steal + Heavy AD, your damage will skyrocket once this is built)

Optional items
Boots ( Berserker's Greaves, Mercury Treads, or Ninja Tabi; One of the above is required)
Avarice Blade (Highly Recommended, but not required)
2x Phantom Dancer/ Bloodthirster (I would recommend getting two of at least one of these, unless you plan to build a Zeke's Herald)
Last Whisper (Armor Pen never hurts; If the enemy team is low on armor, feel free to replace this for another BT/PD)
Zeke's Herald (A strong amount of Attack Speed and Life Steal, plus added aura for your team. Not as strong as PD or BT, but still a good choice for added team use)
Guardian Angel (I almost never build this, but it IS an option)

Greater Quintessence of Desolation

9 x Greater Mark of Critical Chance - Crit, crit, and more crit. Tryndamere loves crits, and so should you.
9 x Greater Seal of Armor - Despite your ult being the ultimate "Oh Sh-" button, you don't want to be killed in a matter of seconds. Having some extra armor won't kill your damage. Promise!
9 x Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist - In solo top situations, you won't run into many champions who build AP. Those champions are usually mid. Therefore, having the extra magic resist LATE game will be better than having the heavy magic resist EARLY game. The opposite is true for the armor runes above.
3 x Greater Quintessence of Desolation - Armor Pen. For those pesky tanks who just refuse to die, and those other smart champs who build armor to counter you. Counter their counter and show them who's boss.

Other rune options:
Marks:
Greater Mark of Desolation
These two marks are really the only other choices you have. Greater Mark of Attack Speed is close, but with how quickly you'll be attacking by end game with just the item build, they'll practically be unnoticable, and drop off heavily by the time you build your first Phantom Dancer.
Also, I have been experimenting.
Greater Mark of Attack Damage may be better to use in place of Greater Mark of Critical Chance. Yes, this does mean your crit chance drops off significantly early game. However, it gives you more damage early on, allowing you to hurt the enemy champions more reliably. It also means that late game, when everything is built and you're critting every hit anyway, you have a small boost to your already very high damage. The choice is yours.

Glyphs:

Since you are focusing heavily on being a sustainable glass cannon (So to speak) using this build, you HAVE to have some kind of defense against enemy champions. In case you hit your ideal situation, you should still have some semblance of magic resist. Therefore, Greater Glyph of Magic Resist or Greater Glyph of Scaling Magic Resist are my only two choices.

Seals:
Greater Seal of Defense
Similar to the explanation above, even in the ideal situation you should have some kind of armor to give you time to use your abilities before you're killed. Therefore, I highly recommend some kind of Armor rune for Seals.

Quints:

All of the above runes, I would only use if I am using Greater Mark of Desolation in place of Greater Mark of Critical Chance or Greater Mark of Attack Damage. This is because the loss of Greater Quintessence of Desolation leaves you with no armor penetration early game. If a champion chose to build armor against you while laning, you would essentially lose your lane immediately. Having early armor penetration is a must, even if it's only 10%.
Greater Quintessence of Critical Chance, see explanation in Marks for reasoning why not to use them. You'll get much more use out of Greater Quintessence of Desolation for sure.

Tryndamere's Masteries are pretty straight forward. An average 21/9/0 build.

Explanations
Offensive
Summoner's Wrath - Added bonus while Ignite is on cooldown, never hurts.
Brute Force - Attack Damage. What's not to love?
Alacrity - Attack Speed for that added sustain, once you have some decent life steal.
Weapon Expertise - Armor Pen. Show those tanks why they shouldn't mess with Tryndamere.
Deadliness - Attack Damage per level. As if you don't hit hard enough, now you'll hit even HARDER per level.
Lethality - Added crit damage. Gotta love dem crits!
Vampirism - Life Steal. Added sustainability, and more time in lane instead of back at the base.
Sunder - Armor Pen. See Weapon Expertise.
Executioner - Extra damage against champs lower than 40% health. Never let anyone slip past you with low health. Unless you'll die in the process, in which case spin to safety!

Defensive
Resistance - Magic Resist. Since you'll have high magic resist late game thanks to your runes, you should max Hardiness instead of this.
Hardiness - Heavy armor early game, to combat those AD champs that you'll usually lane against.
Durability - Extra health. You've gotta last long enough to hit your ult in order to use it, right?

Just for a quick overview, I'll go over Tryndamere's abilities, including his passive.

Battle Fury (Passive)
Tryndamere gains 5 Fury for striking a unit or 10 Fury for a critical strike, and 10 extra Fury for killing a unit.
Each point of Fury grants +.35% Critical Chance.

You passive is essentially your way of filling your resource bar, which is known as Fury. Fury stacks up to 100 points, and is automatically consumed when you use your Q ability or when you are killed. An important note is that it also degenerates when you are out of combat!
With this passive, you are granted additional critical strike chance per point of Fury you have. Keeping in mind that each weapon swing also grants more Fury, it means each attack grants you more chances to crit until you reach full Fury, giving you passive 35% crit chance.
Essentially, this passive ensures you are critting when you need to. And believe me, you NEED to.

Bloodlust
Passive: Tryndamere thirsts for blood, gaining 5 / 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 Attack Damage plus 0.15 / 0.2 / 0.25 / 0.3 / 0.35 per 1% Health missing.

Active: Tryndamere consumes his Fury, restoring 30 / 40 / 50 / 60 / 70 Health (+150% of ability power), plus 0.5 / 0.95 / 1.4 / 1.85 / 2.3 Health per Fury consumed.

Bloodlust is your Q ability, also known throughout this guide as your Heal. Passively, it grants you more attack damage per level, and also grants MORE attack damage as you take damage. The lower your health, the more damage you do.

Activating this ability at the right time can save you from an enemy's DoT as your Ultimate Ability wears off, or even just save you from an otherwise too powerful enemy. Always make sure you're keeping both your amount of Fury in mind, as well as how much damage you're taking when fighting. It comes down to your best judgement about when to use this ability.

Mocking Shout
Decreases surrounding champions' physical damage by 20 / 35 / 50 / 65 / 80, and enemies with their backs turned also have their movement speed slowed by 30 / 37.5 / 45 / 52.5 / 60%. Lasts 4 seconds.

Known as your Shout throughout this guide, Mocking Shout is your W ability. It can be used in two ways.
1) If an enemy champion is attempting to escape, use Mocking Shout while the enemy has it's back turned. The slow will keep the enemy within range.
2) If you are facing an enemy with high physical damage, Mocking Shout will reduce all physical damage done by the enemy champion, regardless of whether they are looking away from you or not.

More often than not, you use this ability to slow the enemy, especially early game. If necessary, always keep the secondary use of this ability in mind. It can be the difference between life and death!

Spinning Slash
Active: Tryndamere spins through his enemies, dealing 70 / 100 / 130 / 160 / 190 (+100% of ability power) (+1.2 per bonus attack damage) physical damage to enemies in his path. Spinning Slash's cooldown is reduced by 2 seconds whenever Tryndamere critically strikes.

Another reason to love critting as Tryndamere, Spinning Slash is known as your Spin in this guide, and is also your E ability. Spinning Slash is your main initiation ability, as you can spin within range of the enemy, or even spin ONTO the enemy for additional damage to start the fight. It can also be used as a secondary Flash, as you can use Spinning Slash to travel through forest if the forest is thin enough. It is a slight speed increase for the small distance it travels, so it can also be a way to return to lane faster.

Undying Rage (Ultimate)
Tryndamere becomes completely immune to death for 5 seconds, refusing to be reduced below 1 Health and instantly gaining 50 / 75 / 100 Fury.

This ability encompasses all of your main source of survivability. You MUST learn to time this ability perfectly against an enemy team, or it will go to waste. As it says, when activated, this ability prevents you from being reduced below 1 health until the duration is over. During this time, you suffer no penalty to attacks unless CC'd. In other words, if an enemy team is focusing you, popping this ability just as you reach low health will destroy an enemy team's entire burst sequence, and give you and your team five seconds with which to use as you please.
Keep in mind: This ability can NOT be stopped by any means! It can be used through CCs including stuns, knock ups, silences, and polymorphs!
This is what makes Tryndamere such an amazing initiator for team fights. The enemy team begins to focus Tryndamere; As his health gets low, he pops his ult, and his team effectively gains the advantage by having all of the time attacking that the enemy team wasted trying to kill Tryndamere to kill off enemy champions. If smart, Tryndamere will also Spin/Flash to safety once his ult is about to run out, get off a quick heal, then return after the enemy team is on the run.

To put it in it's most basic form, your skill sequence should be:
Ult > Spin > Heal > Shout
R > E > Q > W

There is another way to build this, in which you only take the first level of your ult, then max everything else first. I don't normally do this, as the reduced cooldown is key to surviving turret dives and team fights. I always max my ult as early as possible.

As for Spin vs. Heal, in a solo top situation, you're bound to find an enemy team on occasion that chooses NOT to jungle. In this case, I suggest maxing heal first. If you are ever in a 1v1 situation up top, max Spin before Heal. Your damage will be the most important part of winning your lane. If you aren't harassing the enemy hard, he'll harass you. You NEVER want to lose your lane as solo top. And as soon as you hit level 6, you have no reason to fear death in a 1v1 any longer. (Unless you fed the enemy champ. Never feed them, no matter the situation.)

Always take at least one rank of everything in the first three levels. Your shout is not a strong ability until late game, but as soon as the enemy turns their back to you, it's amazing for it's slow. It will allow those early kills that you need to keep yourself on top.

Ignite and Flash are almost always what I run on Tryndamere. Ignite for the ability to secure early kills on a champion that's about to hide under the turret, and Flash for the added ability to escape. There are other options, as always.

Exhaust is a powerful alternative, I've found. If you ever find yourself in a situation where you are not as strong as an enemy champion, for example, Exhaust will reduce their damage by 70% for the duration, which should be more than enough to give you the edge. If you'd like that little extra time hitting a fleeing enemy, Exhaust will slow the enemy by 40%. It is a very strong option for keeping enemies afraid of you.

Another alternative, if you'd like even more survivability early game and some more team utility late game, is Heal. Heal will keep you in lane a little bit longer, and may give you the edge on an opponent who thinks he's got you cornered with lower health.

Teleport is another option, although not one I would recommend. Since you are soloing the top late, staying in lane is the most important thing to do. If you ever have to leave, being able to instantly return is a strong choice. It also has the utility of teleporting towards a team fight you might not be close enough to help out in, otherwise.

If you choose to go into the jungle after awhile, your main goal should always be to score Red. The slow on attacks, plus DoT, is incredible for Tryndamere. However, do not attempt this until you have both your Zeal and Vamp Scepter safely in your hands. It will ensure you do not take too much damage attempting to secure the buff. This should also be discussed with your jungler, who may wish to use the buff for more ganks, or another AD character who the buff could be more useful for. Always communicate with your team!

There was a comment asking about the laning phase using this guide, so I've decided to add this section to the guide for a quick explanation.



Your main problem as Tryndamere early game, as you pointed out, is that you have very little RANGE. Champion health drops the moment you manage to swing that hulking sword of yours, but the problem is making sure you're able to do so. Until level 3, you won't be able to do this well unless you take Exhaust as a summoner spell (Which, like I said, is very nice for slowing opponents.) Once you hit level three, you become a harrass king with your W.

First, let your opponent get a nice lead in lane. Don't let him take it, but let him push forwards, give him a safe feeling, and make his jungle back off if he has one. As soon as he tries to attack you, spin at him. That should throw him off, and cause him to try to run. Immediately, shout. He is now slowed by a large percentage, allowing you to keep him in range. I've caused countless enemies to blow their flash just to get away due to this, and THEN fall for it again to score kills. This also lowers their attack damage, giving you enough of a lead to kill them long before they can kill you. (Especially if you have a large amount of Fury built up; Always try to engage with high fury, as it both gives you crit, and also increases your heal.)

If an enemy jungle tries to engage before level 6, don't fight back. Ever. Spin towards your turret, flash if necessary, and do whatever you can to keep yourself safe. After level six, you have to be your own judge. If you've been doing well and have some good items built up, maybe you can take him and even grab your red buff without having to leave lane.

Last bit of laning: Laning against two opponents.

I've had several games lately where the enemy team did not have a jungle. It is IMPERITIVE to have your jungle help you early and often if this is the case. If the enemy does not have a jungle, do not engage the enemy without help from your jungle. Chances are you will die, no matter if you're lower, at, or higher than level 6. You may lose out on some XP due to this, and unfortunately it's either lose xp due to sticking to the turret, or lose xp due to dying. You have to rely on your jungle until you've built up some kills, then you can rip them apart for ever trying to mess with you.

There you have it! A strong, sustainable Tryndamere who can solo top like a boss. (And also practically solo a 3v3, for those who are interested in that as well.) I'll be posting results shortly; I've been in an experimental phase with champions as of late so I currently don't have a screenshot of successful Sustain O' Mere battles, but I'll be returning to update this guide with such a screenshot later.

This guide is far from being finished, but rather than sit and wait for feedback, I will place it up for viewing and possibly come back to edit it later. Feel free to comment with your questions or feedback!