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Recommended Items
Spells:
Barrier
Flash
Items
Ability Order
Draw a Bead (PASSIVE)
Tristana Passive Ability
Introducion

Hello there. This is my first guide here in MobaFire so please be gentle with the newbie. Plus, I am brazilian so please excuse any poor English or grammar mistakes.
The reason I picked


"But why Tristana? when there are a lot of “better” champions to play with?", you wonder. Well, the answer is: there aren’t!
























Ok, so I’m saying she’s incredible? No… not yet... SHE'S INCREDIBLE!!! Now I said it. :)
Well, obviously our little smurf isn’t any of the those guys listed above, but she has a great mix of them all in a single character and that mix is what makes her so great both early and late game.
Pros
+ Incredible late-game due do her passive ![]() ![]() + Easy positioning in teamfights. + Extreme mobility and survivability with ![]() + Great defensive ultimate ![]() + Misplacing combos for ganks/assassinations. + Counters healers and "leeches" (like ![]() ![]() ![]() + Coexisting active/passive effects on ![]() + Easy farmer / animation. + Can push lanes (and enemies into their base) extremely fast when fed. + VERY strong combo and harass early game if you choose to play risky/aggressive. + Smurfette ♥ |
Cons
- Extremely squishy (like every carry out there).- ![]() ![]() - ![]() - Weak early game trading potential due to lame range. - Hard to master when/how to use her skills properly. - Extremely vulnerable to CC. - Mana dependant if you play aggressive early game. |

- I have attempted to make this guide as newbie friendly as I could. Ok, you already know how to play LoL or
Tristana but that next guy to read this might not, so let’s all be kind and give them some attention instead of just throwing out a build that they would blindly follow not knowing why. I'll try to mark most in-depth/newbie stuff as spoiler marks, and explain WHY did I make such choice over something else. That leads me to the second point;
- I try not to be rigid with my item choices but after countless games with her in bottom lane I believe I understand her well enough to pick items that synergize well with her arsenal (look mom! I made a joke! I’m being funny! -_-‘). I have thought each and every one of them and will explain my choices in the proper section;
- If you have any other build suggestions, any other items you would like to make or just chat about
Tristana’s potential, feel free to talk to me and I will read whatever you say with an open mind, thinking about it, testing it and hey, good thing here, you can even help me improve! After all, I consider myself a good
Tristana… But I'm FAR from perfect ^^
As I have learned in Egy’s **AWESOME** guide about old Karma, I will divide this guide in several parts. Some of them are Recommended Reading, some others are Essential Reading, others might be Optional Reading. Suit yourself =)
- Introduction - this is where you were a minute or two ago. It's optional reading.
- Pros/Cons - Essential reading.
- Personal Goals with this guide - you're here. It's optional reading as well.
- Coming Up Next... - Optional reading
- General Game Basics - this section will tell you a bit about goals and what to do with
Tristana. It's essential reading.
- Runes - they don't add too much to your game but they do round-up your first 10minutes. This is Recommended reading.
- Summoner Spells - if you know them all, you`re alright. This section goes through all summoner spells and my opinion on them. Recommended reading.
- Masteries - almost every carry will have the same. optional reading, just like runes.
- Skills - this section will explain skills, in a near future show videos of it and it will tell you how and when to put your arsenal to work (haha, I love this pun. -_-') Essential Reading.
- Items - This section will go through item choices and "timing" as well as tell you about some situational items that might save your game. Essential reading for any good
Tristana
- Gameplay and Personal Experiences - This section will tell you what to do and when to do it. How to use
Tristana, where to position, combo etc. Optional reading.
- Matchups - this section will go through enemy carries you will face in lane and what they can do and how can you beat them. recommended reading.
- Support pickups - this section will go through most support champions and how they synergyze with
Tristana. recommended reading ((STILL MAKING THIS SECTION!!))
- Thanks - This will say "thanks". Optional reading. Essential reading for those who helped me xD
- I will update a section on support picks and synergies as soon as I get my computer back x.X
- There's another way to play
Tristana in laning phase and I will further test it to see how playing aggressive with skills combo synergyze with each support character out there.
- I don't think AP
Tristana is a good way to go, but for knowledge's sake I will update a small section on it too.

Well, this game is all about killing other champions, getting fed ASAP and PWN your opponents and dance over their corpses, curse them all, keep saying “easy, too easy” and calling them noobs, right? WRONG!
This is a game about patience, strategy, communication and teamwork. You’re an ADC (stands for *A*ttack *D*amage *C*arry – ADC). You’re nothing – wait, let me repeat it – NOTHING without your whole team to back you up.
Your support is the one who’s going to keep you alive, maybe even die for you if you do anything stupid (it happens more often than any of us would like…) and let you feed. He’s the one healing you, stunning your opponents,

You and your support are stuck to each other and if you’re a d*ck, you BOTH lose. And I don’t think you WANNA lose. Well, anyway, you’re both stuck to each other in what we call the LANING PHASE.
- LANING: The laning phase is where the game starts to form up. Some consider this to be the most important stage of the entire game. Don't be a d*ck if your support makes a mistake. Simply say "i'm sorry" if YOU make a mistake. Laning defines a good part of the game, but there's no such thing as a "lost game" until the nexus gets destroyed. In this stage of the game, your main focus is to FARM as much as you possibly can and, if possible, net a kill or two on the enemy laners as well.
If you see an opportunity to harass an enemy, DON'T YOU DARE MISS IT! Punish him/her for playing poorly!:D This video is quite interesting and well made, if you wanna know more about it. :)



- TURN PHASE A.K.A. Mid Game: The TURN usually starts when a tower falls or when people get their somewhat level 9 (1st skill maxed out) and start roaming the map trying to grab some kills for the money reward (300g per kill, mainly) to feed faster than killing minions.
Players start pushing objectives (towers,Dragon) in this stage. Remember to call MIA’s when your matchup leaves sight for over 6 seconds or so.
Your role is to communicate with other teammates coordinate actions and FARM. If you're winning your lane, take the enemy turret down and go roaming.

- PUSHING A.K.A. End Game: Ok, so now our goal is to lay some turrets down and finally PWN our enemies, right? Nope, kiddo.
Your main goal is to kill other champions (seriously, who cares for turrets? it's like a weak champion who can't heal, can't focus, can't skill you and you and your teammates can take it down in 2 second when fed...) – oh, wait… don’t forget to farm! – and get some gold out of it.
Teamwork is essential. You’re naturally squishy that’s why Riot gave you that attack range so abuse it and don’t go melee versus somebody if you can shoot him dead before he reaches you.

This game is played 5v5 for a reason. Play accordingly. Play smart.
Want to play solo, roaming by yourself shooting people in the head? Go play Counter Strike, LoL is just not your game.

By now you probably already picked up how to play as

- Farm early, get fed on minions, grab a kill if you you can.
- Always communicate with your support and other teammates.
- Call MIA’s, help your allies.
- Sit BACK in the teamfight pumping out damage on your enemies.
- Play together. Play FIVE vs 5 (depending on their teamwork).
Remember: the less organized and cohesive team loses. 120% of the time.
For more information on a few game mechanics, objectives and mistakes people make in low elo, This video is SOOOOOOO true it's actually quite scary!

Runes




Honestly they don’t make a big difference. I’d like to point out to newbies out there: if you’re under level 20, save IP, buy champions… don’t throw it out on runes. I made that mistake. Runes suck. Those before tier3 are… ugh!

What about our beloved yordle?



MARKS: 9x Greater Mark of Armor Penetration
Greater Mark of Armor Penetration
Greater Mark of Armor Penetration




After 10min into the game, those quints won’t even be noticed. But it is cool to harass you opponent a bit harder pretty soon into the game.


As for summoner spells I can’t avoid to recommend
Flash. It has so many uses, so many situations where you would want to close a gap, either for escaping dangerous situations and escaping from death’s jaws, or to jump towards an opponent to take that last shot to his face and net a kill but your
Rocket Jump is on cooldown... So many uses it’s a must on nearly every champion in the game. .



This is THE summoner spell to pick up if you wanna go on a "KILL LANE" with
Tristana. The amount of damage you can deal with it early on can net you a few kills in the laning phase of the game if your enemy makes a mistake.
Rocket Jump >
Explosive Shot (E) >
Ignite > autoattacks. Try to combo him while in the air so you can max your time auto-attacking when you land. If he
Flashes away from you, feel free to
Flash too and kill him if you’re absolutely SURE you’re going to kill him. Otherwise, let him run in fear and go back to farming. You wasted his summoner spell while saving your own
Flash for an escape if needed. When he gets back, he won’t have his
Flash, but your
Ignite will be refreshing in a minute or two. You still have a window of two minutes to kill him before his
Flash is up again.











Well, this is a popular spell nowadays. And it’s good. The thing about it is that it must be used in that very exact second where the other guy is going to kill you. It gives you a two second protection. Late in the game it kinda falls off but hopefully you would be super fed anyway. Knowing how to use it can net you a kill early game.

Wanna break the meta? Get this beauty! It's actually funny when you coordinate with your support on a kill lane. Your
Leona initiates,
Exhaust their
Draven so he can't fight back as you auto-attack >
Explosive Shot > auto-attack. 2 seconds later you jump on his sorry head and
Exhaust him again. He won't be able to run and will just lick your boots.






Well, well. Nobody likes to get CC’d (silence, stun, slow, snare, taunt...) except for
Irelia and
Gangplank. This is the solution to your problems! Buy
Cleanse now and get a CC-remover, for only $9,99 !!
Seriously, this will take Crowd Control Effects off your pretty blue *** ONCE and let you either jump, hit them back and punish them for the audacity or, well, get CC’d again. If you go
Cleanse versus a
Leona and escape her Q (
Shield of Daybreak), she’ll just Ultimate you with
Solar Flare and stun/slow you again. And that’s why I don’t like it THAT much. A
Quicksilver Sash might save your life in the very late game, but it’s just unlikely that it would be so. Plus, the
Quicksilver Sash builds into
Mercurial Scimitar, which is a great ADC item to have.



Seriously, this will take Crowd Control Effects off your pretty blue *** ONCE and let you either jump, hit them back and punish them for the audacity or, well, get CC’d again. If you go







Non-Viable Summoner Spell Choices
Well, the name says enough. Not a good pick for ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Well it does allow you to ward-gank ( ![]() ![]() |
Seriously? Don’t you have enough mobility with ![]() ![]() |
Don't. Just don't.
|
Gives you mana. Don’t pick it. |
If I forgot any summoner spell, well it’s just so bad I don’t even remember it :p

![]() |
space |
OFFENSIVE
|

DEFESIVE
|
![]() |
space |
UTILITY:
|








But let’s go more in depth into every skill of hers and their proper uses, shall we? After all, remember, that newbie might not know and we might have something to learn ourselves!


At level 18, Tristana has 153 bonus range on her autoattacks (703 total range).
Now this is AWESOME. Most people forget about their champions/enemies passive. They shouldn’t. You shouldn’t.






This is not the first skill you get, but it's the first you max out. This is your face-melter as well as dueling skill. Champions like










This is

Some guides will tell you to max it first, for the cooldown reduction and increased damage. Although it could be OK when playing as a kill-lane, it sucks up too much mana (I go level 2 on a kill-lane, TOPS) and it's cooldown shouldn't be a problem anyway. You wanna jump in to either kill them or scare them enough so they won't fight back.







This is your main harassing skill as it deals Damage Over Time, reduces enemy life regen/heals/potions. It can also passively harras enemies in lane if they stand by a low-health minion.






This is your ultimate. The ultimate is your most powerful skill and it can be leveled up until 3. Level it up whenever you can, at levels 6, 11 and 16. Your ultimate works both offensive and defensively on a relatively low cooldown so don't be afraid to use it, but don't spam it either.




Well, items. The best thing I can say to you is: There is and there will NEVER be a "perfect" build set in stone for a character. ANY character. And this is why League is so amazing. everything from boots to top-notch stuff.... everything is situational.
You don’t have to go






Maybe you have seen someone build it and rock a game by himself. But maybe that was the only time in his life he would ever do such build... maybe that guy was just a pro player in a smurf account... maybe he had an excellent team to back his calls.
What’s essential here is that you STOP AND THINK about what to buy. I can give you tips, suggestions, but I must say and stress and repeat: THIS BUILD IS NOT WRITTEN IN STONE. YOU CAN (and should) CHANGE IT AND ADJUST IT TO YOUR PLAYSTYLE, ON A GAME-TO-GAME BASIS!
But then again, there are a few building tips I could give you.

Well, this game is all about reaction. It's about studying enemies, paying attention to all champions whenever you recall and respond to who's fed and who's not. Therefore, I'll try to focus the Item Section more as a "decision 1, decision 2" kind of thing, rather than just spit several items and walls of text.
I think that way should be eficient to cover for "standard builds" that might not work in certain situations. If the enemy team has




In this game you have to make decisions for yourself, and fast.
The first one you’re going to make is:
Decision #1. Game started, champions picked, you can see who’s going against you in your lane. You also know your support by now. Define with your support which type of lane you guys will play (up and against). Your


Decision #2. As the game goes on, how’s your lane going? How much money have you got by now? This part is where you kinda define what your gonna aim for in this game.
Aim for finishisng off mid-game: You destroying everything like there's no tomorrow? Fine and dandy, go for badass damage and snowball.
Aim for Late-game: You're not doing so well and need some traction in lane? Go for sustain! Getting pwned? Get a Doran's and make a comeback!
Both situations, focus your boots soon!

What’s important here is: Keep farming, level up and don’t die. Remember, even if your tower goes down fisrt (who cares, really?) if the score is 0x0, you didn’t die, neither killed your opponent, but you are 50 minions ahead of him, that means you won!
Decision #3: First big item.
At this point in the game you must notice other lanes to figure out which item do you wanna build first. Take some time, a deep breath, and analyze: Who's fed on their team? How are YOU doing? Can you afford to go balls deep into melting faces or you feel too squishy and would like more sustain?
A mix of those two questions will define your next item.
99% of the time you'll get either




"Goal build" by now should be:







4. Well, by now, a few teamfights might be popping out here and there. Not a safe time to wander lonely through the jungle, or even the lanes. You’re nothing without your team so don’t push your luck. Focus on sticking with your team in times of danger. Separate to farm a lane ONLY if you know where their entire team is and there is no threat neither for you OR YOUR TEAM in doing so. That will nearly never happen, but if it ever does, quickly farm and go back to your buddies side.
As teamfights start to pop and become more and more constant you’ll notice you kind of lack some attack speed when you’re not on





5. I got all 4 "core" items! What do i build now?
Phew we’re reaching endgame here!
By now, what have we got in our pretty little yordle?




This far into the game i can't "throw up" an item's name and hope it works... you know enough about this game, so help ME help YOU!
If you still need my help building up, you haven't learned enough with this little guide xD
From this point on, you can choose between quite a few items that will add-up to your awesomeness. Ask yourself a few questions and make your call taking a few points into account!

We should be focusing more damage, cause we're playing a carry, right? Nope. That, my friends, is already enough for our lovely carry. Especially considering our enormous range. Press TAB, look at your own score and ask yourself if you're dying too often.

Study your game accordingly and buy accordingly. That’s the best “brain” skill a summoner can develop.

Laning as smurfette:
Well, as you might remember by now, your early game is where you FARM. You’re not strong enough to kill anybody with auto-attacks, your W is your most damaging harass but puts you into great danger since you have to land in your opponents head for the damage and the slow and you have a built-in ignite that’s ok but won’t kill anybody by itself.
Focus on farming. NEVER stop moving and if/when the enemy enters your range and goes for a farm… harass him with E


MID-GAME
Well, you do remember the Laning Phase 1st line, don’t you? It says “Early game is when you FARM”. And shows an example of a match and the importance of it, even tho I was harassed enormously. (by the time we actually fought I hated




Are they working together?
What’s reeeeeally necessary to you now? Consider:
- Building
Blade of the Ruined King versus a health-stacker that happens to be feeding (common ones are
Volibear,
Nasus,
Garen,
Vladimir and a few others);
- Building a
Mercurial Scimitar versus a CC-based mage who happens to be feeding. How sweet would it be to get out of
Morgana’s
Dark Binding and stomp her face? How incredibly nice would it be to waste
Nasus
Wither and just roll his face down as he asks himself what went wrong? The
Mercurial Scimitar, built from the
Quicksilver Sash is an incredible item!;
- Building a
Runaan's Hurricane versus a cohesive group OR if you’re farming poorly OR if you want to start pushing enemies into their base by carrying minion waves
- Building
Bloodthirster if you went all-in on your
Rapid Fire and feel like you need more damage instead of utility or attack speed right away.
Mid-game is where you can get your face rolled OR roll theirs.
Your skills, specially W



The right choice on items to build, plus farming well early on, will give you a sweet mid game as your team covers your back and you fire at will.
If you didn`t feed early in the game, don’t get desperate, ask your team, politely, to protect and corral you as you farm. (ask them to protect you by staying in strategic places while you farm the lane and you guys move to another one if/when you meet the other team). Try to avoid teamfights for now. Whenever you see a loose guy, wandering by himself on the map: Aim, Set, Fire!! Gather EVERYONE and go as a single cohesive unit on that person and punish him/her for being that stupid.
DO NOT RAGE if someone else gets the kill. You get the assist, you got 150g you wouldn’t get if that person wasn’t around AND having both fed is better than if you fed alone. So don’t be a b*tching kid saying “boohoo you stole my kill, ima ragequit and call mommy and tell her you’re a meanie!”

Back to

Carrying isn’t soloing. Carrying is cooperating with your team and doing our role. As you see a few of my scores in the end of this guide you’ll see I hold plenty assists. And I sometimes leave kills behind for my friends when/if they need money to feed a bit. Otherwise, how are they supposed to protect me for more than 1second? ;)
As you keep farming you can build more items but more important, you will level


As for the personal experience, I have both situations to tell. Both good and bad early game endings.


Now for the last part of the game.
LATE-GAME
By now everyone is around 16-18, everybody has some nice items, everyone learned how to combo their champions with their teammates and if they aren't downright STUPID everyone walks together not risking going solo anywhere, not even the bathroom (ewwwww!).
Your

Stick TOGETHER, everyone. Maybe check the other team's builds one last time. Who's fed, who isn't, who are you guys focusing etc.
Maybe even adjust your build as you ask your team to postpone showdowns and corrall you...

Anyway:
This far into the game, every teamfight could be the last (and probably will). With everyone fed, taking a complete lane will take around 40seconds, 3 turrets + inhibitors. Meaning being aced is deadly to your game. As well as theirs.
You wanna win teamfights by now, so ask yourself and your team: Is everyone fed? Does anyone need to finish an item quickly that could turn the tides to our favor? (remember Yamazato's




Study your positioning, hit Q


Peace, everyone!
Be cool to newbies and teach them just like I tried to teach you, please.
Don't rage on KS's if that guy is just trying to help.
Don't be afraid to ask a teammate what does his champion do. NEWBIES DON'T ASK CAUSE THEY'RE SCARED. You're a pro, you're golden. You know so much about so many champions that you CAN afford to ask about one or two. ^_~
Whereas noobs never ask, pros ask all the time.
Be nice when people ask and remember you're a carry but that guy tanking the whole damage so you can net some kills is NOT a newbie just because his score is negative. Plus, he's NOT less important than you.
Remember one last and VERY important thing. A good player's score is NOT - i said N O T - defined by the amount of kills he has. He is OWNING if he has tons of assists so don't call HIM a "noob" if his score is 1/9/45.
It's a LOT better than your 20/7/3. It means he is helping his TEAM, assisting his other three buddies in netting kills.
You're looking more like you should play Counter Strike by yourself with that score and attitude.
See you in the Fields of Justice, my Jedi knights! (if you read this entire guide you're no padawan anymore. Plus, given the extension of it, you automatically get promoted to Buddhist Monk too.)
Peace!
GL&HF!
Oh! And farm a bit more, will ya? ^_^

I was asked to make a section about lane matchups and counters as well as how to play against them.
Since

BUT!
Since






Still… in order to please the crowd out there, let’s go through some basics on other champions:





























I’d like to, first of all, thank Leelan for quite a few things:
- Introducing me to the game;
- Being my girlfriend for quite a while putting up with my sh*t;
- The friendship and trust;
- Helping me practice and study
Tristana and her builds.
- Revising the guide over and over and over again.
- Letting me FARM!
- Being my support
- Warding.
- Corralling.
- Harassing.
- Warding.
- Warding.
- Healing
- Warding.
- Warding.
- Healing.
- Warding.
- Thanks to my buddy Dylan as well whom I remember fondly whenever I play
Fiddlesticks. Peace brother. Even tho you won’t ever read this guide… :/
- Thanks to BOTs for dying so easily and allowing us to make our tests and learn new stuff about our champions.
- Thanks to Ghanadaur Dragon for 1000
Shen ultimates
Stand United plus
Shadow Dash (tho he doesn't always lands them Mwahahaha) and saving my blue booty.
- Thanks to Yamazato for being an incredible support when not playing mid-lane and trying to carry xD
- Thanks to Bordoni for all the corralling, patience, fun, laughs and critics
- Thanks to Red (that cursed
Shyvana) for reading the guide and correcting it.
- Thanks to How to make a guide! by jhoijhoi for allowing this guide to exist. =)
- Thanks, to Egypsian_Lover who’s probably crying over Karma’s death, just like I did, for making the clearest and best guide I ever read here on Moba.
- Thanks to mom, dad, grandpa, grandma, my dog, Phillip Morris for producing my Red Marlboros
- And, last but by far not least: Thank YOU for reading it. =D
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