This is not a general purpose build. This is a situational/partial build, used only when you need the maximum DPS with little risk of death.

Let me go into a detail a bit.

After hours of trial and error testing, mathcrafting and taking into account everything (that includes armor penetration, runes, masteries, even the 100 extra damage every 4 attacks on sword of the divine, etc.), I have not been able to find a single better build for damage dealing against a universal arrangement of targets (squishy, nonsquishy, tank) than this.

This build focuses around early-game harassment, mid domination and late-game carrying, but it has a very high risk-reward factor. You need a lot of experience playing Tristana to make it work, since you'll go down immediately if you're out of position or can't rely on your team.

Note: I will still have to re-do calculations for the post-1.0.0.108 Black Cleaver. At the moment I haven no idea how good of an item it is.

Did the calculations now, TBC is better than SotD in every aspect.

9x Greater Mark of Desolation
- Fairly obvious choice. Does more DPS than crit dmg runes, especially in early-game.

9x Greater Seal of Critical Chance
- Gives you that little extra crit chance you need in early-game.

9x Greater Glyph of Scaling Mana Regeneration
- Much needed mana regeneration ensuring you can jump at an enemy and still have enough mana left to pull off your escape combo if things go bad. Nothing is more frustrating than losing a kill or dying because you're out of mana.

3x Greater Quintessence of Desolation
- Must-have for Armor Penetration, the single stat that you're lacking most with this build (but it's still worth it).

Optional: Greater Quintessence of Health

Standing 21/0/9 build, there's really no other way to build her. You don't spam skillshots unlike Ashe or Sivir so no need for the 21 utility points.

Important Masteries:

Havoc
- Must-have

Lethality
- Also a must-have, crit builds are simply the dominant damage dealing builds available

Archaic Knowledge
- Do not underestimate the power of 15% spell penetration on Buster Shot or Explosive Shot

Deadliness
- You *need* crit chance in early and mid game

Avoid the following:

Offensive Mastery
- Completely useless. Last-hitting isn't a problem even without the 4 extra damage to creeps.

Very good picks

Ignite
- Very good offensive pick, great for first blood, good for finishing runners (for example Tryndamere), and excellent against healers. I personally get this because I like strong early game presence, but it's rather useless for late-game as you already have Explosive Shot to counter healing. Still, if getting kills early on wins you the game, it's a solid choice. Ignite + Buster Shot will finish off everybody under ~30% HP.

Exhaust
- A very good spell, both offensive and defensive. After the change which allows it to reduce the damage of spellcasters it's practically a must-have for every single team. Combine it with the slow you already have to make it impossible for an enemy to get away even if they have flash. Also, the 10 reduced armor with Cripple make a significant difference in first blood scenarios.

Ghost
- Tristana is a very slow hero. Ghost counters this excellently, especially if you're playing a squishy build. Also, I've seemed to notice that the higher your Elo goes, the more people use ghost. It's practically a necessity to run Ghost + Anything right now, just so you won't fall behind your teammates and enemies.

Cleanse
- Great to break out of CC prematurely so you can Rocket Jump away. A real life-saver.

The first two are offensive, the second two are defensive. Mix and match them according to your playstyle. I personally roll with Ignite + Exhaust but any combination of the above are excellent picks.

Bad choices

Flash
- You already have Rocket Jump which can cover crazy distances, and Buster Shot to separate you even further. No need for an additional Flash.

Fortify, Clairvoyance, Rally
- Leave these for your supporters.

Clarity
- You won't have mana problems with runes.

Revive, Smite
- Simply useless.

For killing / initiating a single opponent

1. Rocket Jump
- Ideally, you want to hit him with your blast for the extra damage + slow and come down somewhere behind him.

2. Ignite + Exhaust
- You can cast these while still in the air as well. He won't even know what hit him until he's suddenly double slowed.

3. Explosive Shot
- Do not underestimate how much damage the active on this deals, and it along with Ignite prevents the enemy from using Heal as well.

4. Rapid Fire
- For maximum effect, activate it just before you start auto-attacking

5. Buster Shot
- Cast this when the enemy is either nearly dead or nearly out of range. At level 1 it deals 300 magic damage, and your enemies never expect it coming. Don't be afraid to cast it while chasing somebody, but you have to be absolutely sure it will kill him. When done correctly, you can send another auto-attack flying behind it, often in mid game the buster shot itself will hit for ~500 immediately followed by another crit for ~400 in case they survive.

For killing somebody at your own tower

Rocket Jump + Exhaust + Buster Shot
- This will send your enemy flying towards your own tower, while double slowed. Rarely are enemies in such a bad position (good players will never be), so this combo isn't as useful as it sounds. But when you can pull it off, you can expect at least three tower hits to devastate your target.

Escaping ganks and bad situations or saving a team-mate

Rocket Jump + Buster Shot
- If an enemy is coming up from behind you, rocket jump over their head and send them flying in the opposite direction. You can use this skill in the air, it will knock them back when you land.

Finishing somebody off in a teamclash *RISKY*

Rocket Jump + Buster Shot + Rocket Jump.
Ideally, buster shot should kill them while you're still in the air, allowing you to immediately jump out again. This only works when you're ridiculously fed or the enemies very weak, otherwise you *WILL* die. I've ruined my 20/0 stat often this way, since I get too greedy when fed, ending games with 20/1 or even worse.

Harassment

Explosive Shot + Auto-Attack
- Standard harassment combo for when your enemy gets too close. At level 1, Explosive Shot deals significantly more damage than a regular auto-hit, so if possible you always cast it first. Plus, the enemy won't see the glow around you since it has no cast time and a fairly decent range. A skilled Tristana player however will *always* send another auto-attack along with it, which gets easier at higher levels since your auto-hits begin to have a larger range.

At around level 6 or so, you can stop using Explosive Shot since the range is too short to be effective compared to your auto attacks.

During team-fights

Rapid Fire + Sword of the Divine
- Activate both of these at the same time as you start attacking. (It's good to wait for an enemy to be stunned/snared before wasting the cooldowns) .108 change: Just activate Rapid Fire

Starting Items

Doran's Blade
or
Doran's Shield
- Get the blade if you're facing a squishy and want to deal more damage, get first blood, etc.
- Get the shield if you need more HP regeneration, for example if you're facing somebody who can harass well.

1.0.0.110 update: Not having a health potion sucks, but it's probably still best, just gotta play more cautiously. If I find a better starting route I will update accordingly.

First trip back

You shouldn't need to go back at all until you have over 1850 gold. Once you do, go back and purchase a B. F. Sword. If you do have to go back sooner, or if you're facing somebody like Karthus who can spam skillshots, you can get a Pickaxe + Boots instead.

It is important to note that you build your sword you will be doing a ton of damage. You can start playing aggressively, enemy squishies should drop in no more than ~3 auto-attacks + your spell combo. I usually try to "surprise" my enemies by playing passively until I get the sword, then jumping at them with unexpected damage.

Second trip back

If you started with a sword, pick up the Pickaxe + Boots now. If you started with the Pickaxe, pick up the missing B. F. Sword.

Third trip back

Finish your Infinity Edge. This will be the most significant damage boost you will ever experience throughout the game.

Mid-game

Mercury's Treads
- Pick these up after your infinity edge, try not to get them before you do as you are ridiculously item dependent and unlike other champions, boots alone will not allow you to kill people.

1. Infinity Edge + Black Cleaver
- A simply awesome combination. The armor pen and attack speed on the cleaver plus the raw damage of the edge will obliterate any squishy enemy in several hits at this point. A single crit should be taking away like 30% of an enemy's life. (Note: I used to have a Sword of the Divine here, but TBC is better even though it costs 1k more - it still outperforms a SotD + Zeal)

2. Zeal
- After completing the above combo, finish up with a Zeal to further boost your damage output (although not quite as significantly) and make it much easier to land crits. If you have a bit more gold, you can follow up with a Cloak of Agility. At this point you have more than enough attack damage so you need to focus on your critical strike chance instead.

Late-game

1. Phantom Dancer
- Turn the Zeal you bought earlier into a full Phantom Dancer, which provides a ridiculous amount of crit chance and caps your attack speed at 2.5 when combined with Rapid Fire.

2a. Bloodthirster x2
- The only thing you need to top off the build now is more damage and life-steal, which can both be obtained from bloodthirsters. If possible, you can even purchase a second one as sixth item, rendering your build complete. If you need more survivability, start with Vampiric Scepter. If you need more raw damage, start with B. F. Sword.

2b. Banshee's Veil
- Depending on how strong the enemy is, you can also grab a Banshee's Veil instead of two Bloodthirsters. This is probably the best defensive item in the game. Armor isn't really needed because you can Exhaust melees.

Elixir of Fortitude + Elixir of Agility
- Get these whenever you can after finishing your first Zeal. They provide a nice but small boost. Any sooner will only unnecessarily delay your core build.

Items to avoid

Vampiric Scepter
- This is *NOT* a good start item, despite what many builds tell you. Lifesteal is the only stat you *don't* need at the beginning. You need damage to get last hits and first blood, and health to survive enemy combos/ganks. Doran's Blade provides you with both of this. Lifesteal won't do anything unless you're auto-attacking creeps all the time, which is a very bad thing to do. Plus, a Doran's Shield will provide you with more health regeneration than a scepter will let you heal.

Long Sword
- Some characters need this to trigger passives. You don't. The 2 AD don't make a difference.

Doran's Blade stacking
- Stacking them is a waste of money once mid-game starts. Sure, you have a lot of extra health and a very efficient way to get AD per money, but the AD that it provides is still completely insignificant compared to the AD you could be getting for the same money by building towards your Infinity Edge.

Youmuu's Ghostblade
- Even with the active, it won't deal as much damage as a Phantom Dancer. Don't believe me? Here are the numbers:


Malady
- A terrible item before the change, a terrible item after the change. *Never* get it.

Sword of the Divine
Black Cleaver outperforms it after the 1.0.0.108 patch:

I haven't made the graphs pretty, but here's the information for those curious (numbers listed in DPS, first two are at level 18 with a full item build, the second two is at level 11 with just IE + one item, I added a Zeal to the SotD build to make up for the missing 1k gold)

SoTD:
vs squishy: 1687
vs nonsquishy: 1328
vs tank: 495

TBC:
vs squishy: 1836
vs nonsquishy: 1419
vs tank: 504

SotD:
vs squishy: 439
vs nonsquishy: 348
vs tank: 133

TBC:
vs squishy: 506
vs nonsquishy: 393
vs tank: 141

Situational items

Last Whisper
- Ever since the nerf on this item it is no longer as important for Tristana. Sure, you can deal a bit more damage to armor-stacking tanks, but they usually have Thornmail so doing lots of damage to them isn't as important in the first place. Most of the time it's better to drop the carry fast than drop the tanks a bit faster. For the curious, however, here's a chart comparing it to a bloodthirster:


(Click the image for a larger view)

Madred's Bloodrazor
- Only get this if you absolutely need it (for example with Olaf, Cho-Gath, Mordekaiser or Vladimir in the enemy team stacking nothing but health with hardly any resistances). I still don't think it's the AD carry's job to get this item though, leave it to somebody else. You could experiment with replacing a Sword of the Divine by it, but you won't deal enough damage without the armor penetration on its active.

1. Explosive Shot
2. Rocket Jump
3. Explosive Shot
4. Rapid Fire
5. Explosive Shot

Getting explosive shot to level 3 soon helps significantly since it increases the splash damage on killing a target allowing you to effortlessly keep the lane in the middle even against heavy farmers like Morgana, while also increasing the duration of the DoT / healing debuff. Rocket Jump is the second skill since you need it for escaping.

6. Buster Shot
7. Rapid Fire
8. Rapid Fire
9. Rapid Fire
10. Rapid Fire

Rapid Fire is priority one during mid-game since it provides massive DPS.

11. Buster Shot
12. Rocket Jump
13. Rocket Jump
14. Rocket Jump
15. Rocket Jump
16. Buster Shot
17. Explosive Shot
18. Explosive Shot

Just getting rid if your skill points. Rocket Jump only needs to be level 1, the distance does not increase.

Practice last hitting minions. Do *NOT* simply auto-attack. Also practice last hitting while at your tower, since this is one of the strategically best locations to be for your jungler.

Before you build your first B. F. Sword, it takes two tower hits + two auto-attacks to kill a melee creep and one tower hit + two auto-attacks to kill a ranged minion, so you need to auto-attack them once before the tower focuses them, then again to finish them off. Also note that a single Explosive Shot explosion will damage the other creeps about as much as an auto-attack would, so killing one creep will ensure every other creep has the correct amount of HP to kill them, but doing it twice will ruin it since the tower will one-shot them. (If this happens, just try to kill at least one more by auto-attacking before the tower finds it)

After your B. F. Sword or even a Pickaxe, it just takes one/two tower hit + one auto-hit to kill a ranged/melee creep, respectively, making last hitting at the tower ridiculously easy.

For larger creep waves, don't be afraid to use Rapid Fire to finish them off fast, your Explosive Shot AoE will tend to deal the most damage to large groups - you just need to kill 3 or 4 creeps yourself and the rest will die on their own.

Never use Rocket Jump to farm, it's a waste of a cooldown and mana and deals insignificant damage.

You *need* good teamwork and a good pre-made to make this build work. Positioning is the key to winning everything, you can ace a team even if the kills are 10-30 if you have better positioning and tactics than them.

Don't forget your role as a DPS carry. You're to stay in back, guarded by your team, until the opportunity arises for you to unleash hell on the enemy. You're a glass cannon. Get stunned or out of position once and you'll most likely be dead unless you have a Shen (I usually do) or can Rocket Jump away in time.

Nonetheless, despite the drawbacks, you can simply deal more damage than probably any other character in the game thanks to Rapid Fire. Enemies will start fearing you even when you're alone. I've gotten quadra kills and penta kills almost daily using this build. If you manage to get fed, the game is auto-win.

Avoid initiating a team-fight on Tristana. You can harass well due to your long range, but initiation is not something you should do, not even with Rocket Jump + Buster Shot.

Don't be afraid to steal kills by using Buster Shot to guarantee the last hit if you're playing random. Sure, your team might hate you for it, but if you can get the gold for your build, you *WILL* win the game for them. A decent premade should *always* let you have the kill. You have the highest priority on creep waves, red buffs, ultimates and such.

Pros

- Possibly the highest DPS in the game
- Longest auto-hit range in the game (you outrange Annie at level 8, and Caitlyn at level 12)
- One of the best escaping mechanisms in the game ( Rocket Jump + Buster Shot)
- Has a free 90% attack speed steroid with Rapid Fire
- Can completely own dodge stackers like Jax thanks to Sword of the Divine

Cons

- *VERY* item dependent. If you cannot get kills or farm effectively, you will be useless.
- Squishy as hell. You need good positioning because of this.
- Slow. Further enforcing the "cannon" metaphor, Tristana is one of the slowest heroes in the game with only a measly 300 movement speed.

If you can play her effectively, Tristana is one of the overall best heroes in the game and a definitive Tier 1 for arranged teams, but as mentioned many times throughout this guide you need a good team to make her work. She isn't a pub stomper by any means.

Match history using this build:
Here's what it looks like when you complete your build, in this case a long 4v5 match:

Finally, let me add a few words on how to play vs. most mid champions you will be facing.

Akali

This is one of the hardest characters to play against, at all. There's no use trying to initiate a 1 on 1 fight, just farm as much as you can until your jungler can gank her. Immediately Buster Shot her away when she uses Shadow Dance on you as she can and will drop somebody as squishy as you in seconds.

Anivia

Anivia is rather fun to play against, but hard to kill due to her passive. The most important skill to master is expecting when and where Flash Frost will come and dodging it appropriately. If you get stunned by it, it's pretty much game over if she has any AP - in the best case scenario, you'll need to recall and heal up. As long as you can avoid it, laning is child's play. Keep harassing her. What you want to do is abuse the fact that Anivia stays aggressive even at low life, then do your best to force her into egg form without using Buster Shot or Ignite. After that you either have freefarm for 4 minutes, or if she isn't expecting it and keeps on poking you, you can drop her rather fast as she is a squishy char using your combo.

Annie

She's squishy. Abuse it. Constantly drive her back using Explosive Shot since it hurts her quite badly. Try to deny her farm as much as possible, but beware of her combo once she's level 6+. Try to kill her before then if possible. Rocket Jump immediately if you see her cast anything at you and she has her stun up. You'll get stunned after you land, well out of her reach. You can out-range her at level 9.

Ashe

Stay behind your creeps to dodge her Arrow Volley as best as possible. She's just as squishy as you, so you can build up immense pressure with Explosive Shot + auto-hits. You *will* win any direct poking exchanges, so abuse that fact to pressure her. Go in for the kill at level 6 if she's below half or so, but don't attempt to tower dive or do anything stupid since Enchanted Crystal Arrow will save her and probably even kill you. Save up Ignite + Exhaust for when she uses her arrow as well, it will turn the tide in your favor quite significantly.

Caitlyn

She has one of the strongest early-games ever, and to make matters worse, she can out-range you until you hit level 12 or so. It's not all bad news though: Her Piltover Peacemaker can easily be dodged since the animation and microstun is well-recognizable. Run much sooner than you normally would since her Ace in the Hole will finish you if you're not careful. If you see her casting it during the fight already, immediately cast Exhaust or Buster Shot on her to reduce the damage / interrupt it entirely. Another mechanic you can abuse is that your Rocket Jump goes much further than her 90 Caliber Net, if she shoots her net at you you can simply jump towards her to negate the distance gap and slow her as well.

Cassiopeia

A slower, less-spammable skillshot than Karthus and you can simply avoid stepping on her Miasma. Without being poisoned, her Twin Fangs is useless, and to top it off she's squishy as hell as well. This should be child's play for you. You could probably first blood her *before* level 6 if you tried really hard, otherwise just jump in + combo + Buster Shot for an instant kill.

Cho'Gath

A fortunately less common but ridiculously strong mid champion, there's practically nothing you can do against this beast. Avoid his Rupture and try to farm as much as possible. Don't bother harassing him.

Corki

Try to flank his Gatling Gun. I sadly cannot give any further advice since good Corki players are very rare.

Ezreal

There's not much that can be said about Ezreal, it all boils down to dodging his skillshots and predicting his Arcane Shift. Be extra sure *not* to get hit by his Essence Flux since it reduces your attack speed significantly. It can be more advantageous to move around dodging skillshots instead of attacking him directly during a confrontation. Wait for him to waste them, then jump at him and make him feel pain while they're on cooldown. Try to circle him at a close range, it will be ridiculously hard for him to hit you that way.

Fiddlesticks

If you see a fiddelsticks going mid instead of jungle you already know he's a noob and it will be an easy fight. Nonetheless, keep using Explosive Shot on him every single time he uses Bountiful Harvest. He will absolutely hate you for it. He's squishy as hell and can't heal himself up thanks to you, so this should be one of the easiest fights ever. If he ever does fear+drain you, simply Rocket Jump away to break it then immediately move back forwards again.

Gragas

Predict his barrels to the best of your ability. It's not enough to dodge them, since they roll so fast that you can't actually escape, unlike other skillshots. He's hard to take down so wait for a gank / farm.

Heimerdinger

Maintain a fixed distance between him to avoid his rockets. If he runs forwards, run backwards a bit until he uses his rockets, then immediately chase him back and try to get off an Explosive Shot to maintain lane dominance. Use the time in between last hits to attack his turrets, wasting his mana. He's rather cowardly and therefore hard to first blood. *Never* chase him through his turrets, he will ult and most likely kill you. If you see him low on mana, kill his turrets first and *then* jump at him - keep them constantly low on health to make this easy. He is fairly squishy so once you get a hold on him he will most likely fall.

Karthus

One of the hardest champions to solo against, without a doubt. It is *very* hard to last hit in his presence. Immediately rush Mercury's Treads to dodge his Lay Waste, which will still be a very hard thing to do. Last hitting while dodging bombs at the same time is a very excruciating mental exercise, especially for extended periods of time. Keep dodging him and he will eventually lose interest and focus on using his bombs to last hit instead. Stay on your guard though since he can change his mind at any time. I do not recommend going mid against Karthus if you're new to Tristana or the game in general, ask for somebody else with more experience to take it. Notes: Buster Shot can interrupt Requiem, use it to save a teammate if he casts it in plain sight of you, a good Karthus will go behind the tower for this reason. If he casts Wall of Pain on or behind you, immediately Rocket Jump away from him - it's the first step in his kill combo.

Kassadin

Difficult to lane against since he can escape well, chase well and silence you to prevent you from using Explosive Shot. Try to bait him into using his Void Sphere, then cast it as soon as the cooldown wears off, followed by an auto-hit or two - you will probably still do more combined damage than his sphere. If not, give up this tactic and focus on farming instead until you're higher level in order to out-range him. Once you have a B. F. Sword you can start playing aggressively against him, he's ridiculously squishy.

Katarina

Maintain a bit of distance from your creeps to avoid her daggers. Note that the targets are determined when she casts the skill and not per-bounce, so running away from your creeps after she casts it will change nothing. Once she reaches level 6 she *will* try to kill you with Shunpo + Death Lotus. Save up Buster Shot for this purpose - as it interrupts it. This will infuriate her if you keep doing it. I recommend saving up Buster Shot during teamfights to interrupt her as well, unless you have a Taric or Sion on your team. Do note that a good Katarina will know this very well and bluff Shunpo to make you waste it, so wait until you actually hear the sound before casting it, at the expensive of getting 1 or 2 daggers instead - it's worth not wasting the cooldown.

Kennen

Dodge his shuriken as much as possible and he won't be able to do anything. Note that he'll often use his lightning rush to get in front of *your* creeps, then throw a shuriken at you - be aware of this fact and prepare to dodge to the side if he runs towards you. Abuse the situation by casting Explosive Shot as he runs into range as well, and he will quickly give this tactic up. Rocket Jump out of his ultimate if he ever decides to waste it on you.

Kog'Maw

Very hard to lane against. Once he reaches level 6 you need to take great care to dodge his Living Artillery, and his slow trail even before that. If you see/hear him use Bio-Arcane Barrage, simply run out of range and wait for it to run out - it's not worth it. Ask for a gank on this one as he can be hard to take down on your own.

LeBlanc

Ridiculously hard to solo against as she is hands-down the best single-target nuker in the game. Try to deny her farm as much as possible. If you know she's going to initiate her kill combo, Rocket Jump to the side *before* she lands her Distortion, thus interrupting her combo and making her unable to trigger her marks. If you manage to remove even one component from her combo, the damage will be reduced quite significantly. Continue to be aware of Ethereal Chains, but it's a fairly slow-moving skillshot and therefore quite easily dodged. Don't be afraid of using Buster Shot on her when you're in a bad situation, it will push her back even further if she flashes back again. Make sure to use Ignite on the real LeBlanc if you get her low, it can be extremely frustrating to waste the cooldown *and* the kill by hitting the wrong target. Make sure to ping her before she drops below 40% so you know which one is real.

Lux

She has rock-solid CC so you need to take great care to avoid her double cage. She'll usually try to land it first and then follow it up by Lucent Singularity. If she casts the latter first, she's usually just trying to hit your minions. When running away with low health, make sure to Rocket Jump to the side if you can to avoid her Finales Funkeln, or simply be prepared to run sideways immediately if you see it. Don't try interrupting it with Buster Shot, it channels faster than it takes for buster shot to knock her back (although I have not confirmed this). Just try to pressure her away so you can farm minions. If she's dumb and exposes an opportunity for you however, do take it - Ignite + Buster Shot easily overpowers her shield so she'll have a hard time saving herself without Flash. When she starts running away, prepare to dodge to the side as she'll cast her snare towards you in order to try saving herself.

Malzahar

He is one of the best farmers in the game so you'll have to do as much as you can to prevent him from slaughtering your minions and/or tower. Stay aggressive, drive him back with Explosive Shot. Keep distance from your own minions though, as Malefic Visions will jump over to you if you're not careful. Don't initiate him after level 6 unless you're 100% sure you'll win or he just used his cooldowns on creeps, as his ultimate can and will hurt you significantly. If you're *very* skilled, you can cast Buster Shot before he casts Nether Grasp, and it will immediately interrupt after it's done flying, but this is risky as you could potentially waste the cooldown, probably killing you or simply forcing you to retreat to your tower while you wait for the CD to expire.

Miss Fortune

Very annoying, She can harass and farm well, and her ultimate deals crazy AoE damage. She will most likely win any direct poking confrontations, so try to outsmart her, dodge her Double Up as best as you can, and wait until you can finish a B. F. Sword before diving her. Note that Buster Shot interrupts Bullet Time, so be sure to save this up for when she does it (alternatively, if you have Rocket Jump up, simply rocket jump next to or behind her instead of interrupting her, that way you can attack her a few times unless she cancels it). Ask for a gank.

Morgana

Dodge her Dark Binding, simple as that. If she casts her ultimate, simply Rocket Jump away. Beware of using Buster Shot while she has her Black Shield up as it will absorb the knockback. Do what you can to deny her farm, but be aware that Explosive Shot is practically useless against her so you can only poke for about a third of what you normally would.

Nidalee

Dodge her spear as much as you can, try to guess when she's going to heal and preemptively use Explosive Shot to reduce that as much as possible. Once she uses cat form, Rocket Jump somewhere where she doesn't expect to make use of your range vs hers, dodging her pounce in the process. You are very squishy but so is she. If you can dodge 2 or 3 of her skills, she won't have the damage output to counter yours, providing a kill if she remains aggressive.

Pantheon

If you get a Pantheon in mid simply rush Mercury's Treads and Rocket Jump out of his Heartseeker Strike whenever he does it. He won't be able to deal any damage after this,. especially since the spear nerf. Use Explosive Shot to harass since he blocks your auto-hits.

Ryze

Kill him before level 6. If you can't by that point, ask for a gank. *Never* initiate him alone, *especially* not with Rocket Jump - he will simply obliterate you. Try to catch him off-guard or when he doesn't have his ultimate up in hopes for a lucky combo kill, but don't try to keep this up if you end up nearly suiciding. Nothing is worse for mid-game than a fed Ryze.

Sivir

Dodge her boomerang. Try to break her Spell Shield with Explosive Shot, nothing is worse than having her eat up your Buster Shot. Don't bother chasing her, she's much faster than you. She won't be able to win any direct confrontations so she's going to try farming creeps as much as possible, it's up to you to keep up the pressure on her to deny that.

Swain

Try to Rocket Jump out of his Nevermove or Torment combos. Pop Explosive Shot and Ignite whenever he uses his raven form, he won't be able to heal himself *whatsoever*.

Teemo

Oh how I hate Teemo. He *WILL* out-DoT your Explosive Shot in any confrontations so any sort of poking is absolutely useless. Best thing you can do is farm until you have your ultimate up then surprise him with sudden aggression. Nonetheless a very difficult character to lane against. If you're on top of him after initiating, the first thing he will do is place a mushroom on you so be sure to avoid that. (You will have to wait for Blinding Dart to run out either way)). Once the blind is gone, use Exhaust on him yourself and go for the kill.

Tristana

Tristana vs Tristana is just about player skill, runes and masteries more than anything. Try to out-farm her by last hitting well so you can build your items sooner than her in order to gain the advantage, or out-push her, forcing her to her own tower as it will be much harder to last hit, and you can take occasional shots at the tower as well - Tristana hates this and will instantly Explosive Shot you to deter your aggression so watch out of this and move back accordingly. Don't cast your Buster Shot too soon but don't cast it too late either, the perfect sweet spot would be *just* before she casts hers to avoid death. Any sooner and you'll save her, any later and she'll save herself.

Twitch

Ridiculously squishy. Two Explosive Shots and a couple of auto-attacks will nearly kill him, simply keep him low until you get your ultimate, then pop it to one-**** him. Use Exhaust whenever he uses his own, he will hate you for it.

Urgot

It's rare to see an Urgot, especially in mid, but when you do you have to take care to avoid his Noxian Corrosive Charge. If he does manage to lock you, Rocket Jump away *immediately*, the range on his missiles is ridiculous. Keep poking him to force him to retreat / recall often.

Veigar

It's very hard to lane against a good Veigar due to his Event Horizon. Rush Mercury's Treads and Rocket Jump away whenever you get hit by it, that will allow you to dodge Dark Matter, making him unable to harass you (if he doesn't harass you to about ~60%, he won't be able to one-shot you with his combo, so that's his goal most of the time). Try to take advantage of his own squishiness. Veigar is great at kiting, even better than you are, so try to close the gap if you're sure you can win. It's *much* harder for him to stun somebody directly on top of him, since he has to move his mouse so far and it's also hard to aim. (He'll usually try to cast it on the opposite side of you so he has additional insurance in case he misses, as opposed to behind you where if he overshoots only slightly he'll have no stun whatsoever)

Vladimir

Very hard to lane against. Use Explosive Shot whenever you know he's coming up for a Transfusion to hurt his healing. When you've gotten him low enough to finish him using your combo, you need to bluff first to make him activate his pool too early, then jump at him *after* it's gone as it has a very high cooldown and wasting it is the number one cause of Vladimir deaths.

Zilean

Without a doubt the hardest character to solo lane against in the game. There's pretty much nothing you can do to counter him, ask for a gank and tower hug until then. If possible, swap with somebody else who isn't as item-dependent as you so you can freefarm at a side-lane instead.