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Tryndamere Build Guide by

Tryndafear: Reaper of Sin

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5 Comments League of Legends Build Guide Author LeoVarharris

Tryndamere Build Guide By Updated on

Guide Discussion (5) More Tryndamere Guides

Spells:

Ghost

Teleport

Items

Ability Order

Tryndamere Passive Ability

Uhhhh.... A bit about this guide and why I decided to do this

Welcome to my very first guide written on Mobafire ever, so if it is terrible in it's presentation, I apologize never done this before.
I don't normally write guides of any description really but I silently decided that If I see one more person waste the full-potential of and get destroyed by opponents they really shouldn't ever lose to, I was going to start tracking these people down and busting them over the head with the not-so-friendly end of a filled black&decker coffee pot until they started making sense with their life-decisions. Namely, I speak of the items that have somehow made it into the recommended build list for Tryndamere despite them being absolutely Useless when stacked against everything you SHOULD be getting for Tryndamere.

Special thanks to PandaWarrior, and Ted2016 for tips on improving the layout and look of the guide, and for directing me to places to teach me how to write this, The difference is Night and Day in my opinion, between how it looked yesterday, compared to how it looks now.

Skill Sequence

OK so I guess I'll start off with what Skills you should be focusing on with Tryndamere and why I believe this sequence works are needed:

a very good escape method for Tryndamere to have of course, but it can also be used in another way. It can be used to very easily trade hits with an opponent and get away from them before suffering a counterattack. You should only ever really NEED 1 rank of this however so go ahead and max this one last.

arguably Tryndamere's most important power, it is a decent heal that is completely cooldown based which allows for near-infinite lane sustain. And it passively boosts your natural attack damage, as well as your critical strike chance. It's only drawback is that all of these things are affected by how much rage you currently have so to make full use of it last hitting is a must. As your most important power (Sans your ult of course) Max it first

As most people know, this is an ability that slows your opponent down so long as they have their back turned to you here is the part that I have found most Tryndamere players DON'T know about it (I guess cause it isn't a visual effect) which is a MASSIVE attack damage debuff for all nearby champions. At first rank, this ability drops the attack damage of all nearby champions by 20 flat points I am aware that isn't much but in the early stages (First 6 levels) you are essentially negating the effects of Items. The best part is: the attack debuff happens regardless of whether or not the enemy is facing away from you or not. At max rank, this ability serves to do a whopping 80 point Damage Debuff which is effectively shutting down 1 major damage item the opponent may have, definitely max this second

the move which I call the "One Does Not Simply Kill Tryndamere" Maneuver although the for short, I often refer to it as the "**** you I lived" attack. His R is quite simple: upon activation, Tryndamere IMMEDIATELY gains 50 points of Rage (Which more often than not, is enough to max him) BUT more importantly, the effect everyone says is utter ******** and should be removed from the game Trydamere becomes Unable to be killed for 5 whole seconds Best. Ult. Ever. Considering that 5 seconds stuck fighting a Tryndamere means 1001 chances for you to suddenly and very violently explode. Although, before you try it let me warn you the Fountain Lazar ignores his ult and still kills him despite the death immunity. Other than that though, get it every single time you can

Summoner Spells: A complete overview

OK most people would call this spell a staple, and for the most part, they are right for good reason. This spell saves everyone's *** in otherwise inescapable situations and thanks to the spell cooldowns from the mastery page you'd be able to use it more often.... HOWEVER! for purposes of Tryndamere I actually DO NOT recommend using this spell as your spinning slash pretty much already does the same thing. It IS a very useful spell, however there are two other spells that are actually better for Tryndamere to use. Sorry flash I love you, I respect you, and I never like leaving home without you. But in this situation, your services are not required.

This is honestly the spell I would recommend for Trynd in lieu of Flash because even though there are merits to both spells, honestly this one just allows Tryndamere to escape any given situation OR mercilessly hunt down that escaping target and its cooldown is far shorter than Flash's CD is so its tough to say this but: Take Ghost over Flash with Tryndamere

This is the other spell that Tryndamere should honestly have, mostly because of one simple fact: You are a solo lane, the jungler wont be able to cover all the time and really shouldn't HAVE to either. Plus, this spell will allow you to back without really losing any progress which is important because the item you need to rush to dominate the lane is cheap. It's just a good Idea to have this spell, I wouldn't reccomend the Flash/Ghost combo I figure alot of you are thinking about simply because it would make you hard if not impossible to successfully gank, BUT you need the ability to return to lane quickly to truly control it, besides you already have 2 escapes just with ghost a third would be redundant and a waste of time honestly.

Obviously If you take this setup, you are jungling, so for really good ganks use a Ghost/Smite combo.

Again, this is a spell that I would normally recommend, and it definitely has a place in Trynds armory, however this is more situational than anything else and something I would recommend in Lieu of Teleport for an exhaust/ghost manhunter combo, not to say it doesn't work. But don't back without knowing your lane is properly covered if you do this.

Pretty good for surviving the rogue Ignite one might place on you, and can be used to survive 1v1 fights to the death, or be used as just plain insurance, however you shouldn't really NEED this spell so take it if you are comfortable with it but I personally leave it.

Ok, go ahead and do it. I dare you because its gonna be really funny to watch you get ripped to pieces at the top lane over and over again for taking a spell best suited for the support, you MIGHT spot an incoming gank but just CONSIDERING taking this spell is enough of a reason for me to hate and belittle you, top laner.

See above answer

Okay stop it, you are just deliberately trying to piss me off now, you're gonna have lifesteal and Barrier provides more defense anyways.

VEEEEERY situational for Tryndamere, to the point where there is literally only one foe whom I would recommend taking this spell into battle against, But we will get to that later. (although if you play trynd, you could probably hazard a guess as to who the champion I'm talking about is)

Not necessary as you see, you are TRYNDAMERE, you should never NEED ignite although I don't doubt every game will have a moment where you severly wished you had the spell you do enough damage to kill most opponents before they escape anyways. Leave it behind you

Uhhhh.... Your goal should be to NOT die so if you plan on dying a lot then take it I guess but if you have to then all I can say is **** you?

*Note* I didn't bring up garrison because I play Dominion like once a year or so. Although from my brief experience of 5 dominion games, tryndamere shouldn't be the guy with Garrison anyways so again, leave it but go ahead and ignore Teleport for that mode.

Pros / Cons

Pros:
+ Has a high damage yield and is capable of bringing down MOST targets he ends up faced with
+ Can snowball to an almost unbeatable state if fed hard enough
+ Ultimate makes him immune to death for 5 whole seconds, ensuring he will be able to contribute something to teamfights
+ Near Limitless Lane sustain
+ Natural escapes make him really hard to gank
+ powerful Slow/Dmg Debuff
+ one of the highest early game damage outputs in the game

Cons:
- One of the more Squishy characters in the game
- Has virtually no magic resist
- CC, in any form destroys Tryndamere in battle
- If unable to snowball, or otherwise shut down, can be nearly impossible to come back
- Tends to get focused down in teamfights if fed
- relies solely on basic attacks

The Tryndafear

Alright lets delve into the meat of the guide: The build itself, this is the whole reason I made this guide, because I see people play one item in particular that I am going to quite enjoy ripping to pieces here, but I digress. These are the items that I have found turn Tryndamere into an unstoppable monster in lane.

Starting Items:

X4

This is a pretty standard start, I go for these because it gives good movement speed to start to make up for the fact that I am using Damage Quints, instead of Move speed Quints

Laning Phase:

Put all else from your mind except rushing this item, The Executioners Call one of the greatest early game items ever made. Seriously I'm kinda pissed that this item isn't more popular, lets analyze what 1900 gold gives you:
+25 attack damage
+20% Crit Strike Chance
Passive: Grievous Wounds (Reduces all healing effects on target by 50%)
Basically, this item will establish early on who is the owner of top lane, this item basically shuts down your lane opponents ability to sustain himself because heals are useless on him, the 20% crit strike is REALLY good for trynd, especially at full rage when that crit chance goes up even more, this item is one of the greatest things to have early game because you can even shut down an opponent who rushes lifesteal with this because 50% of said life steal disappears. This item forces your opponent to either
A) Back off to heal at their fountain, good it keeps them out of your lane for free farm and you can either take the tower, or back yourself without worrying about your tower.
B) Stay under their tower to heal, which means they are still not farming AND they are sticking around to allow you to dive them when you hit level 6 for a kill.
The reason I say these are their options is because every time I've pulled this weapon and they continued to attempt to trade with me well.... I have bloodlust to heal myself, and even another Tryndamere now does not because I effectively shut down his ability to heal himself. This is the weapon you rush and since its a mere 1900 gold you should get it quite quickly, once you do the stage is set for you to rule. HOWEVER do not be afraid to get rid of the item in favor of something better at the later stages of the game, honestly as good as the item is early game it will only remain useful if the enemy team is giving you problems with heavy lifesteal, or otherwise gets massive amounts of life back during battle (Such as ) otherwise, sell around the time you have both and

Core Items:

What is even better than being able to deny your opponent any lane sustain? Well killing him of course but besides that! Having lifesteal of your own that won't be interrupted because I swear to god I'm the only person on the planet who ever thought to use to deny things like that. (I say this because I have NEVER seen someone play it, whereas I destroy things and that's the first item I grab) And SO! BOTRK! This item is great because it provides some much-needed attack speed, as well as a good amount of lifesteal, if you manage to get Executioners, AND BOTRK during the laning phase, you win. Period. There is no other outcome, they cannot sustain against you, your damage at this point is starting to add up, and now you have lifesteal on top of that ****.

Now then, lets make your rise to power even more fun! is the obvious 3rd item to get because of the MASSIVE amount of damage that it brings with it, plus the added bonus of extra crit strike chance and even more crit damage on top of that. When you have full rage you will be criting every other attack almost, This is the core of your damage.

Take this as your fourth item, The , after achieving this item you should have a 75% Crit chance (55 if you sell Executioner's like you probably SHOULD by this point) BEFORE applying the bonus granted by full rage. This item also provides a little bit of movement speed, as well as more necessary attack speed, plus it's passive essentially gives you a noclip through minions, both yours and otherwise. allowing for easy escapes by simply charging through a crowd, but lets face it. We are getting to the point where retreat will soon leave your vocabulary.

VersuS

OK for your final base items we actually have a tossup on which to get FIRST betweenandThe Bloodthirsterand honestly, whichever one you get first should really depend on what your team needs at this stage in the game. as an example: if you really need to start splitpushing, grab the Ravenous because this item is great for splitpushwhereas the Bloodthirster is the item you want for more damage as the heavy attack damage focus makes itGood for dealing massive damage to a single target.

Situational Items:

Atma's is an item I wouldn't really recommend unless you NEED the armor. As Trynd doesn't have much HP to really take advantage of its passive, however this item is still a consideration because of the 15% Crit Chance which would bump up your strike chance (sans full rage) to 70% (90 if you kept , all in all its a tossup. It has it's advantages but since tryndamere really cannot take FULL advantage of the attack damage increases potential of it I am hesitant to put it in the Core.

Zephyr too is an item that would be more of a consideration than anything else. you would entirely grab it for the move speed and attack speed buffs at this point as it would make tryndamere nearly impossible to catch, or escape from. But the 25 additional points wouldn't really help that much so it would entirely depend on if you wish to strike harder, or more often. Keeping in mind that phantom dancer and BOTRK are already giving you 95% attack speed when put together though, I would leave it. Again though, entirely up to you.

The Armor penetration is pretty much to ONLY reason to buy this, so it would depend on if they enemy team has a lot of tanks, if they do you want to get this item. If not however, leave it to the mages to make quick work of the tanks because you should just worry about 2-shotting the carries.

This is an Item that entirely depends on how the game has been going, if you are getting super fed without dying I might consider grabbing this straight after . Just be warned that buying a stack item has a tendency to paint a giant target on your back for the enemy to shoot at and beat the hell out of, getting focused is all but guaranteed once you start charging it, and ganks are gonna be coming your way by the truckload so only do this if you KNOW you can stay alive long enough to fully charge it at which point you should have a full build and now be truly invincible.

This item can be quite good on tryndamere because of a nice health/damage increase, plus the slow is amazing for when tryndamere is on the chase. I wouldn't get this item though because you have and furor for chasing down targets, do you really need the slow? take this item if you took Atma's I guess so at least then this item synergizes well with something else in the build but otherwise I'd say you don't really need it.

This is an item I almost put on the "Don't get these" list. and for good reason, it provides a small amount of health and a decent amount of armor, but the offensive bonus from the capes passive is really not that good. This is something I would take in combination with for a last item if splitpushing quickly is your highest priority, so I wont say DON'T ever get it, but I don't see a situation where you'd really NEED the damage buff.

OK here is one that is highly situational, it's passive is really good, but the 5 minute cooldown is less than ideal for it, it's armor and magic resistance bonuses are pretty good though and something I'd consider getting over Atma's Impaler if you already do more than enough damage to ace the enemy team quickly as this will make it harder to be focused down properly. but it's a bit of a double-edged sword because most people tend to get kinda careless with their life after acquiring this item, and really you want this item as a last resort, it is NOT a get out of jail free card so do not treat it as such, treat as a second chance for when you **** up.

this item is pretty much something you want to use when facing an AP heavy top lane and start losing. because this Item will pretty much solve all of your problems in that department, especially because it's passive will supercharge bloodlusts heal which may be enough to hold off on getting lifesteal for a bit longer. Just remember it provides no offensive bonuses, if you must get it, rush it after in place of the BOTRK.

The "don't you ****ing dare get these or I will strangle you" Items

As cool an item as this is, one third of its effect is completely wasted on Tryndamere, its not like with Atmas, where trynd simply doesn't get to take advantage of the full *potential* of the effect, Tryndamere seriously CANNOT take advantage of a full third of what this does. the only reason to get it would be the slow but you REALLY don't need it, grabbing this is a perfect way to waste an inventory slot.

a Movement speed bonus is not worth the complete and utter uselessness of this item, the armor pen isn't anywhere near as good as the cleavers and the crit strike chance is negligible, Again if you want the extra crit, just get a ****ing Atmas.

OK lets talk about this one... I don't really see the point in getting this item on Tryndamere, I am aware it is useful but lets be honest, Tryndamere is meant for damage, not tanking. Anybody who thinks otherwise has never seen Tryndamere before. At least Atma's grants him additional attack damage in addition to the armor so that makes it viable, however I don't consider warmog's to be truly viable on Tryndamere because its just 1000 HP, it doesn't actually improve his ability to tank damage, it just makes the carry have to land a couple extra blows on him before bringing him down due to him having an item that serves no damage purposes whatsoever.

I don't consider this viable on tryndamere because Tryndamere is NOT A TANK, if you need armor, really Atma's will provide for you and it at least gives you offensive bonuses. I suppose that it's active would be good for escapes and maybe pursuits, but this item is nowhere near optimal on Trynd so seriously leave it alone.

Oh god.... Where to begin on this one? Well before I start let me just say thank you Riot for putting the worst item in the game on Tryndamere's "Essentials" list, that brought me so much anger. This is the item that made me start this guide I am soooooooo sick and tired of seeing idiot Tryndamere's rush an item that pretty much does NOTHING! Now to be fair: I know the strategy behind putting this on splitpush tryndamere but this build incorporates hydra for that purpose and it works out even better in my opinion. OK fairness done back to ranting! This item does absolutely nothing that other items don't already do a hell of a lot better. OK now I'll begin: This item is completely useless on Tryndamere, It is an item that provides THE worst attack speed bonus in the entire game, you get the exact same amount of crit chance with Executioner's Calling that you do on this item except that Executors is a lot CHEAPER (approximately 600 gold cheaper to be exact) and a 6% move speed increase. That'd be fine if it wasn't for the face that an item that is ONLY 300 more gold than shiv, provides 10% MORE attack speed, 10% MORE critical Strike chance, and ONLY 1% less Movement speed, BUT in exchange for that 1% we get the passive that lets us move through units making escapes SO DAMN EASY....... Why does shiv exist again? Oh right, because of a passive that I guarantee you will never even NOTICE! except for its impressive visual effect.... 100 points of magic damage that takes a lot to charge up to that point in the first place? Well not alot if you have decent attack speed but this item doesn't even provide that decent attack speed, this item provides THE WORST attack speed bonus in the entire game out of the craftable items meaning Dagger and Recurve Bow don't count because you just buy those you don't build them although while we are on the subject buying both of those items for a mere 1300 gold already gives you more attack speed than Statikk Shiv does, but I digress.... I can pretty much Promise you that aside from the visual effect (Which I admit is cool, but that doesn't make up for the fact that you are buying a completely useless item) you won't actually notice a change in your damage output when it goes off AT ALL, not to mention Minions have a tendency to be lightning rods for its effect to you cant even poke with its effect because it will prefer to target minions instead of champions. the only way to get the damage off on a champion is to hit a champ when the charge is full but the extra 100 damage is nowhere near as good as it sounds. You will NOT notice a significant change in damage, This item is the very reason I started this guide, because people who use it on Tryndamere, yes it is kinda viable but it is a complete waste of his potential. Plus most Tryndamere's who grab this item do so as early as possible so the 'splitpush' part of this plan doesn't apply yet and you are wasting gold on an item that is exactly like not a real thing.
DON'T. PLAY. STATIKK. SHIV. ON. TRYNDAMERE. OR AT ALL REALLY! BUT ESPECIALLY NOT ON TRYNDAMERE! Thank you and have a nice day. Also to reiterate: RIOT TAKE THAT USELESS PIECE OF TRASH OFF OF TRYNDAMERES ESSENTIAL ITEMS LIST!

Thank you for listening to that whole rant, I HAD to get that out of my system because that is the biggest thing that has been bugging me about Tryndamere for a while.

Tryndamere's Common Laning Opponents

Alright I added this chapter because It completely spaced my mind to do so when I originally wrote this yesterday, so this is a recent addition and here I will explain all of the opponents I have commonly fought as and about who I believe to be his counters, and vice versa.

is who I decided to start this off with because well it's his arch nemesis in the lore, also I believe tryndamere utterly destroys Aatrox with this build, now let me explain why. Ordinarily Bloodwell, in combination with Aatrox's ability to heal himself without lifesteal would eliminate Tryndamere in a 1v1 battle. HOWEVER, Changes the dynamic of the battle against Aatrox a lot, because you shut down his ability to heal himself when you fight him, and Tryndamere has a much higher base damage then Aatrox, even if Aatrox kills you once he should still be done when you get your hands on this item
YOU COUNTER!

is one of those Top Lane opponents Tryndamere shouldn't have TOO much trouble with but be warned: Just like you don't 1v1 Tryndamere when he has full rage, you don't want to get too close to renekton when HE has full rage, his stun can be quite brutal but if you can survive it, trade blows here and there, and otherwise bully him to keep him from farming to build up rage you should be fine. If he gets a kill advantage on you though,

Quoted:

you're gonna have a bad time.

EVEN MATCH

Is a laner that I end up playing against often in the top, and he's certainly proven to be quite good in that lane, EXCEPT when confronted with Tryndamere, Jayce has a ranged kite that allows him to Harass more effectively than possibly any other top laner in the game, AND the range of his shots can be quite hard to judge, however Tryndamere has lane sustain, Jayce doesn't. See Jayce's problem isn't just that he WANTS to kill you, no the problem he has is that he NEEDS to kill you because his sustain is so low he will be forced to back often and if he cant kill or push you out of lane he will fall really far behind in farm and eventually lose the lane.

Spoiler: Click to view

YOU COUNTER!

Is a champion who i find quite odd to play against given the massive difference in skill between Riven Players

Spoiler: Click to view

Her makes her a nightmare to escape from in many circumstances and she seems to act a lot like tryndamere in the respect that she posseses a high early game damage output, BUT she is very squishy. Another thing that puts her in the same class as tryndamere is the fact that Riven is a champion who generally snowballs hard and becomes an absolute demon, or gets shut down and fall out. Get your jungler to perform an early gank so you can get ahead of her (Be it by outfarming or scoring a kill on her) and you should be fine, but if the same happens to you, well... See the quote above.
EVEN MATCH

Oh Jesus here we go.... This is an absolute nightmare of a lane to deal with, if you see yourself get counterpicked in draft or ranked by one of these this is the one and only time I tell you to screw and grab instead. Trust me, he will wreck your ****. however Cleanse to remove the blind,poison,shroom slow will at least give you a fighting chance against him, tell your jungler to pitch a tent until you at least get 3 kills ahead of him, and then you should win but you are probably still going to lose.

Spoiler: Click to view

HARD COUNTERED!

is an opponent I would rather NOT have to battle as tryndamere because he can dodge your basic attacks with his which does more damage based on how many times you try to hit him while its up. The first thing you have to do before you can kill him is bait out his counter strike because the one fault of it is that it has a really long cooldown so the odds of him being able to pull it more than once in the same battle is not that great. If you can trick him into wasting it, you SHOULD beat him but you will be stunned every time because of the , , combo. Tryndamere's only advantage over this guy is a higher base damage so if you can survive and recover from that combo before he gets AP to supercharge his Empower with, you should have a chance, but call for ganks often.
COUNTERED!

is a champion whom you should absolutely dominate in lane, I'm not kidding Fiora is useless since she was made to be a top laner but she can't even do that well thanks to Riot giving her no escapes, not CC, and not even a high move speed to make up for it that is the biggest problem for her, she relies on her opponents fearing her but is one of the many champions who Truly has NO REASON to fear her. You have Bloodlust to sustain against her attacks, has a ridiculously stupid CD for something that is literally her only defensive option, and its easy to turn the tables on her when she uses by walking into an area that is sure to kill her (Such as under a tower, or in the middle of your team when she attacks alone because fiora is stupid) and when baited out, she has no way whatsoever to escape ganks, unlike tryndamere who has at the very least, but also summoner spells such as , etc.... This is a laughably easy lane
YOU HARD COUNTER!

Is a champion that MOST people would consider the ultimate level of OP ever since his rework, and they aren't entirely wrong, but against , The rework still loses. Again, this is another example of the early game power of against health regeneration, See most master Yi's have heavy lane sustain early game due to Meditate, the problem with that though is they have to stand perfectly still, and unless they do it under the tower, you can still hit them. Master Yi, compensates for this by gaining a large amount of Armor and Magic Resist whilst doing it however you don't need to hurt him when he uses , you need to inflict Callings Passive Grievous wounds onto Yi while he's trying to heal so his meditate does nothing, this will force Yi to back if he wants to live because suddenly you have shut down his lane sustain, this will allow you to outlevel him and outfarm him because Yi's weakness is the fact that he is so damn squishy. Is really easy to dodge since it now has a clearly defined attack pattern, of the nearest 4 units. The only real threats you have are because Yi does true damage with it, and because it can make him both impossible to escape, AND impossible to catch. This is an opponent where taking Is perfectly fine because you actually need it to be a lift up when he highlanders away from you.
EVEN MATCH

Jungling advice (Not really a part of the guide just my two-cents)

I'm going to be honest. I'm not the best jungler, in fact I'd say that I'm only KINDA decent at it (Cop-out meaning bad) but I have found a jungling strategy and a few principles on the subject that allowed even someone as bad at it as me to do quite well. Sooooo, anyone can follow this.

-Start at the red buff, smiteless if you can
-Follow it up with golems (which you burn smite on)
-Move onto wraiths
-follow up with wolves
-Gank a lane
-Repeat

This is a very simple method that I have come to understand but It doesn't account for counter-jungling and I think I should probably explain my views on what a "Gank" are before there is a misconception. To me, a gank is when the jungler or another player comes out of the bush to help kill the enemy champion, HOWEVER killing him does not necessarily have to happen. In truth, you only need HURT the laner or force him out of lane for a bit for a gank to be successful. As an example of something that really happened:

Nidalee was fighting against a ziggs in the mid lane, ziggs was kicking her *** so I went to gank at level 3 (By kicking her *** I mean he had better farm and she had 1/3 of her health left while he had almost full) I went in and hit ziggs a few times to drop his health down to about 1/2 left. and I withdrew after gettting seriously hurt. I recalled and then went to get a few more camps before heading bot, nidalee suddenly scored first blood on ziggs. The ziggs had stayd in lane because he still had just as much health left as she did and she didnt back down, spear shot took him out about 3 minutes later (Yes they were in lane for 3 more minutes without backing) now here is the question for you
I was responsible for Nidalee scoring first blood. Yes or no?

So yeah a gank doesnt have to immediately result in a kill to be successful, a gank can just be leveling the playing field to give your laner a fair fight if you cant get him the kill. this is something I have learned through jungling experience. Yeah not really a part of the guide so much as a few pointers to anybody taking Trynd into the jungle, you don't HAVE to kill the laner, just level the field at the least, then withdraw.