Welcome to the League of Legends Champion Spotlight, featuring Tristana, the Yordle Gunner.
Tristana is a free-spirited, fearless commando. Though she's smaller than most, her bravery
often drives her into the heat of battle where she blows away her targets with her trusty
cannon, Boomer. In game, Tristana is a highly mobile marksman who works best using her massive
late game range to fire from distance before jumping in to lay down huge burst damage and
kick off her signature reset rampages.
Tristana's passive is Draw a Bead. As she levels up, Tristana gains increased range
on her basic attacks and targeted abilities, so while she starts out with a pretty standard
range, by level 18, she can pew pew from over seven Teemos away.
Tristana's Q, Rapid Fire grants Trist a huge attack speed boost for a few seconds.
That's... all it does.
Save Rapid Fire for instances when you can reliably attack targets for the full duration.
It only lasts a few seconds and has a lengthy cooldown, so make every shot count!
Tristana's W is Rocket Jump. After a brief pause, the wee rocketeer launches herself
to a target location, damaging and slowing all enemies in her landing site. Note that
Rocket Jump gives Tristana more air time the farther away her target is, and, being the
super soldier commando that she is, she's able to use her other abilities in midair.
Most importantly, because this part is awesome, earning kills or assists resets Rocket Jump's
cooldown - if you had infinite mana and infinite near-dead enemies, you could potentially jump
FOREVER.
Save Rocket Jump as a gank escape whenever the enemy jungler comes in for a kill. The
range on the ability is pretty huge, meaning Trist can safely extend farther than most
marksmen in lane.
Tristana's E is Explosive Charge, which has a passive and active component. Passively,
Explosive Charge causes anything Tristana kills with basic attacks to explode and deal
damage to other surrounding enemies.
When activated, Tristana throws a sticky mine to a target unit. After a few seconds, the
charge explodes, dealing damage to all nearby enemies. Tristana can pump up the bomb by
attacking her charged target before they go boom - the more attacks, the bigger the bang.
If Tristana fully pumps up the charge, her next basic attack will detonate it early.
If she Rocket Jumps onto a target with Explosive Charge, she'll deal extra damage depending
on how pumped up the charge is. And just like basic attacks, she'll detonate it early if
she jumps onto a fully primed target. Finally, Tristana can attach Explosive Charge to enemy
turrets. When she does, the ability's explosion is significantly larger and actually damages
the turret itself. Turns out yordles are pretty good at blowing stuff up. Who knew?
Use Explosive Charge to shove minions and siege the enemy team. The passive will mean
you push naturally, and the charge itself can deal tons of damage to turrets.
Tristana's ultimate is Buster Shot. Trist fires a massive round at her target that knocks
them back and damages them. Buster Shot's powerful enough to also knock back nearby
enemies without damaging them. Note that Buster Shot's knockback distance increases as Trist
levels up the ability, meaning that late game, Trist can fire enemies over most walls.
Use Buster Shot to keep initiators away from your delicate little face. The knockback will
often buy you the few extra seconds you need to get away to safety, or murder them.
Most marksmen work best sitting at the back of teamfights, safely shooting whatever comes
into range as their front line keeps the enemy assassins at bay. Tristana starts fights this
way, but she's also League's daredevil reset carry, and gets her multikills by jumping
onto vulnerable targets and shooting them in the face from pretty much point blank range.
Here are some fancy combos to turn Trist into a rampaging, resetting rocketeer.
Here's Tristana's best burst combo. Start by tagging your target with Explosive Charge,
hitting Rapid Fire after so you can charge up the bomb as quickly as possible.
Once it's ready to pop, Rocket Jump in to deal huge amounts of damage. If that hasn't already
killed your target, turn to your basic attacks and Buster Shot to secure the kill in style.
Once they're dead, look for either potential Rocket Jump victims or an avenue to safety,
depending on how HAM you and your team are feeling.
Because you can cast Buster Shot while Rocket Jumping, there are quite a few clever combos,
the most aggressive of which is to Rocket Jump over your opponent and cast Buster Shot
just as you cross past them. On the more defensive side, any time you're in danger, use Rocket
Jump to cover Buster Shot's cast animation so you don't have to stop to use it.
In typical teamfights, the enemy tanks and fighters will try to get in your face as much
as possible. On its own, Buster Shot is a solid disengage tool against Trist's tough
frontline enemies, but by hitting them with Explosive Charge and pumping it up with Rapid
Fire, she can use that same Buster Shot to send the enemy team their very own buddy bomb!
Unlocking Explosive Charge at level one pretty much guarantees you'll hit level two before
your opponents when you actively push your lane. Make the most of your impending level
advantage by getting aggressive as soon as you ding and earning yourself that awesome
first blood gold. Even though Tristana and Thresh start off focusing different targets,
their massive level advantage gives them a relatively easy kill on Lulu.
When she's played right, Tristana can make assassin-style plays all on her own, even
early in the game. After priming Explosive Charge, Flash Rocket Jump followed by Buster
Shot secures the kill quickly and lets her jump back out to safety.
Using Explosive Charge on turrets is an excellent way of disrupting your enemies as they try
to defend. Its explosion is way bigger and can do awesome things like kick the crap out
of unsuspecting defenders, as well as stop champions from recalling. Sorry, Soraka.
I'm not sorry.
Being a pretty squishy marksman, Tristana's often a prime target for enemy assassins and
fighters. Fortunately for her, she has a couple of tools to help her survive these encounters.
Rocket Jump helps her escape Kha'Zix's burst here, while keeping her close enough to reply
from range with a basic attack. Kha'Zix closes back in, but the knockback from Buster Shot
again creates distance, forcing the void bug to flee. Well… try to flee.
Remember that while jumping toward the enemy team often deals great damage, if you don't
get a kill, you're extremely squishy and extremely exposed to attack. Here Tristana gets a little
cocky, and ends up paying for it with a boulder to the face. Seriously, don't go overly aggressive
or you're going to cost yourself some games.
Finally, here's Tristana doing what Tristana does best - repeatedly looking for opportunities
to jump in, get her resets, and jump again and again. Noticing that Ezreal's isolated,
she Rocket Jumps in more for the slow than the damage to prevent his escape. Looping
around, she spots that Lissandra's only one hit away from dead and then decides that a
4 v 2's pretty safe, jumps into Jarvan's Cataclysm and wraps up an easy, bunny-hopping Quadrakill.
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