League of Legends LII: Sin of the Blind Monk

[Cogwheel]

Your untrained eye is right here! AP Tristana is a thing.


For AD, same as most ADCs, since attack speed, crit and AD are multiplicative. You want AD, but you also want the other two and a Last Whisper. Typically it's Greaves, Infinity Edge, Bloodthirster or Blade of the Ruined King, Phantom Dancer or Statikk Shiv, Last Whisper and Guardian Angel, in no particular order.

[Olinser]

Completely changing gears...


I want to give more thanks, cookies, and brownies to the people who pointed me to the free champions because I am absolutely loving Tristana. She's really "clicking" for me, and any character who regularly exclaims, "Look at the pretty explosions!" is pure Win. I'm having trouble getting a handle on how to build her though, since her passive and Q scream "STACK AD YOU PUTZ!", but her W, E, and ult all scale off of AP. So my (thoroughly) untrained eye sees two different general builds:
1) Tons of AD, plus stuff like crit, attack speed, armor pen, etc. Sit back and machine-gun stuff down with Q, with the other abilities mainly being used for utility. Or...
2) Tons of AP, extra survivability (HP/Armor/M.Resist), and maybe a touch of extra mana. Use W, ult, and if needed E to vaporize a back-liner and then proceeding to pray to God that my W comes back up before I get obliterated in return*.

So I would greatly appreciate advice on which one to go for, as well as a few specifics for each one (particularly items, but skill rotation and pick order, runes, masteries, and summoner spells would also help). Note that I just picked up level 7 last night, which limits masteries and summoner spells for the time being. I also plan to get some runes, but only the ultra-cheap ones until level 20 at the earliest (19 runes x 15 IP/rune = about two games' worth of IP).


*This actually worked really, really well in one game last night, where my 21-1-1 accounted for nearly 2/3 of my team's kills. I am well aware that it is not even remotely representative of a "real" situation (ADC + no escape ability/summoner + wandering off alone = short life expectency ). It was fun as hell though

In bot games you can do either, but in 5v5 games, which build you want is dependent upon which lane you are playing her in.

If you are playing Tristana bottom lane, it is pretty much law that you will be playing AD Tristana.

AP Tristana is a decent build for mid lane.

Basically it boils down to communication with your team. I would highly suggest that you state before the game starts whether you are going AD or AP, it will avoid a lot of arguments and flaming against you.

With regards to viability of builds - AP Trist is more of an early-mid game build. She gets decent scaling off AP, and her rocket jump lets her absolutely crush somebody she catches out. However, without any tank items, she will just explode if she tries to rocket jump initiate into a team fight. Her cooldowns are a bit slow, and her attack speed buff is much less useful on an AP build, so she really isn't great in a sustained fight, and drops off towards late game.

AD Tristana starts out a bit slow, but is considered one of a couple 'hyper carries'. She'll start out a bit slow, but she has a great escape with rocket jump, and mid-late game will absolutely take off.

With a decent damage build popping her attack speed buff she will absolutely annihilate anybody (and towers, too).

Basically which one you want is dependent upon how you like to play.

[Antonok]

~snippeth~

You can build her ADC (BotRK, Static Shiv, Last Whisper, Inf. Edge) and absolutely wreck people with her q. But this also requires her to have a good start, which against caitlyn, is very hard (she has stupid range on her attacks and can pressure trist out of lane mercilessly).

The AP route is basically stack as much AP as possible, go around, jump into the squishies in the back and burst them down, then try to get out (zhonya's is particularly good for that).

[Nadevoc]

Tristana's ratios are a result of her being one of the original champions. It used to be that all abilities scaled off of AP (hence its name, ability power, rather than 'magic power' or something).

Trist is usually used as an AD carry/marksman. As you pointed out, her Q is amazing for auto attacking. Her passive is, too; she's shooting you in the face over and over again from really far away. Her E is great in lane when the base damage is still significant, and her jump and ult are good for keeping people away from her so she can continue to safely shoot them in the face.

Some people like AP Tristana. It does have some great burst, especially if you can get a reset or two on the jump. That's an off build that I'm not really familiar with, though.

[Dusk Eclipse]

Apparently, Lyon Gaming is the team you're looking for. They were formed from the members of Team Majestic.

http://lol.gamepedia.com/Lyon_Gaming

Awesome, thank you

[Antonok]

Some people like AP Tristana. It does have some great burst, especially if you can get a reset or two on the jump. That's an off build that I'm not really familiar with, though.

ARAM. That is all. They cannot escape, and they will fall. Same principle applies to panths man drop there.

[Nadevoc]

ARAM. That is all. They cannot escape, and they will fall. Same principle applies to panths man drop there.

I prefer AD Trist in ARAM, too.

AD Trist is really, really strong with some gold and levels behind her. ARAM gives you free gold and levels.

And I don't know about Trist, but Panth's man drop is generally just as easy to dodge in ARAM as it is on SR.

[MCerberus]

And I don't know about Trist, but Panth's man drop is generally just as easy to dodge in ARAM as it is on SR.

"Oh look a pretty circle, better stand in it" - every person in solo queue

[Wolf_Haley]

If theris one thing I wish people would FOTM from Worlds instead of champs it's how important warding is, warding isn't just the supports responsibility, and where to place wards.

[Dusk Eclipse]

"Oh look a pretty circle, better stand in it" - every person in solo queue

In normal too ¬¬

[PersonMan]

Until you play Pantheon. Then they gain ESP and walk out of the circle before they can even see it.

[SlyGuyMcFly]

Until you play Pantheon. Then they gain ESP and walk out of the circle before they can even see it.

So true.

[Eldariel]

Tristana's ratios are a result of her being one of the original champions. It used to be that all abilities scaled off of AP (hence its name, ability power, rather than 'magic power' or something).

All champs were also designed for both options, originally. That's why most of the champs have extreme AP ratios if they only have few AP-scaling skills; see e.g. Nidalee, Sion, Master Yi*, Gragas** and Shaco. Some still have them and are viable built either way; Tristana is a good example of that. It also lends itself to piecemeal build where you e.g. use runes for one stat for laning and build the other.

This works very well in a case like Tristana's where one build has amazing potential early game (AP Tristana crushes most lane opponents), while the other one is incredible lategame (AD Tristana is longrange mobile champ with a steroid and a disengage making her the ideal lategame carry). You can run full flat AP in the Glyph-slot (though you need summoner levels to unlock the runes) for AP and then build damage.


* This only applies pre-rework. After his rework he's no longer really quite as viable AP.
** While technically E is a damaging spell, it's not practically treated as such in design; kinda hybrid mobility/damage. I'm not sure if it even had an AP ratio originally.

[Hullabaloo]

I want to give more thanks, cookies, and brownies to the people who pointed me to the free champions because I am absolutely loving Tristana.

I would love to give out some cookies as well, but must have missed the post (you guys burn through post like nobodies business). How do you get 'free' champs? Nevermind, found it and dont have facebook (and people called me crazy pre-NSA leaks). Any other good freebees similar to that?

Also, basic question, but for the AP vs AD on Tristiana for example, the AD makes her auto attack more powerful, as well as her steroid, while AP makes her abilities and ult. Is there any mixing, ie building a bit of both AP and AD? or in group fights do you just focus on auto attacking as an ADC or using timely skills as AP mid?

[Eldariel]

I would love to give out some cookies as well, but must have missed the post (you guys burn through post like nobodies business). How do you get 'free' champs?

Subscribe to them on Facebook for Riot Girl Tristana + Tristana unlock and subscribe to their Youtube channel (use the link through their site, such as this) for Unchained Alistar + Alistar unlock.

It's worth noting that in this case, the things can be "free" in the sense that nobody is paying for them since we're talking about virtual currency that doesn't cost anybody anything to produce. Well, the skins have cost something to produce, I suppose. Then again, the subscriptions lead to advertising revenues through the websites so it's clear who's paying and what.

Also, basic question, but for the AP vs AD on Tristiana for example, the AD makes her auto attack more powerful, as well as her steroid, while AP makes her abilities and ult. Is there any mixing, ie building a bit of both AP and AD? or in group fights do you just focus on auto attacking as an ADC or using timely skills as AP mid?

Mixing ("hybrid") is possible to do efficiently on some champions. Tristana is a poor example of this though because the two playstyles are more or less mutually exclusive. In teamfights, if you've built AD you use your abilities to stay alive & Explosive Shot to reduce enemy lifestealing while you shred through the team with your auto attacks from safe range. AP wants to try to jump in, blow somebody up and chain as many jumps as they can before he dies.

Some champions that do support hybridization to some degree (that is, building hybrid items such as Guinsoo's Rageblade and Hextech Gunblade isn't strictly inferior to either straight build) include Jax, Kayle & Teemo but with the state of hybrid itemization it's still usually preferred to just build items that focus on either half and multiply with each other. Biggest offensive non-AP stat these champions use in their AP builds is attack speed, which they usually get from Nashor's Tooth.


EDIT: If you're paranoid but want the Facebook skin anyways, you can always make a throwaway account on Facebook in e.g. a library. Riot can't tell the difference, and the greatest deduction possible is "The owner of this throwaway account owns this League account. We still have no useful information on this throwaway account since it contains no useful data, and we know nothing we didn't already know about this League account."

[Maryring]

Worst thing about Pantheon? Having a "friendly" Vayne condemn someone to safety out of the blast range just as you land.

And Artanis, I added you on my NA account. Look for Skilvrel. Any who realize the marvel that is Tristana is a friend of mine.

[Hullabaloo]

Subscribe to them on [url=https://www.facebook.com/leagueoflegends/app_208195102528120]
It's worth noting that in this case, the things can be "free" in the sense that nobody is paying for them since we're talking about virtual currency that doesn't cost anybody anything to produce. Well, the skins have cost something to produce, I suppose. Then again, the subscriptions lead to advertising revenues through the websites so it's clear who's paying and what.

If you dont know what the product being sold is, you are the product :)

Some champions that do support hybridization
/snip

Very interesting, thanks

EDIT: If you're paranoid but want the Facebook skin anyways, you can always make a throwaway account on Facebook in e.g. a library. Riot can't tell the difference, and the greatest deduction possible is "The owner of this throwaway account owns this League account. We still have no useful information on this throwaway account since it contains no useful data, and we know nothing we didn't already know about this League account."

Do you happen to know if the Facebook email account have to be the same as your Riot account?

[Olinser]

I would love to give out some cookies as well, but must have missed the post (you guys burn through post like nobodies business). How do you get 'free' champs? Nevermind, found it and dont have facebook (and people called me crazy pre-NSA leaks). Any other good freebees similar to that?

Also, basic question, but for the AP vs AD on Tristiana for example, the AD makes her auto attack more powerful, as well as her steroid, while AP makes her abilities and ult. Is there any mixing, ie building a bit of both AP and AD? or in group fights do you just focus on auto attacking as an ADC or using timely skills as AP mid?

I forget which page I posted it on.

You can get Tristana for free by 'liking' them on Facebook, and Alistar for free by following the Youtube feed.

[Wolf_Haley]

Panth+Noc is the best, they can't see Panth's circle while Noc's ult is active.

[Eldariel]

Do you happen to know if the Facebook email account have to be the same as your Riot account?

I don't think so, no.

[Renegade Paladin]

Until you play Pantheon. Then they gain ESP and walk out of the circle before they can even see it.

I was gonna say, I randomed him on ARAM last night because he's free this week and never hit a damn thing with his ult.

[Dusk Eclipse]

Subscribe to them on Facebook for Riot Girl Tristana + Tristana unlock and subscribe to their Youtube channel (use the link through their site, such as this) for Unchained Alistar + Alistar unlock.

Do you know by any chance if you can get "free" Alistair even if you are already subscribed to their Youtube channel (and the Champseries channel and the latin channel >_>)

Edit: Nevermind, I just unsubscribed and re-subscribed again from the link

Woo now I own 9 champions... and I only use 3 of them!

[Olinser]

I was gonna say, I randomed him on ARAM last night because he's free this week and never hit a damn thing with his ult.

Pantheon and TF ults make epic backdoor steals if the game goes longer.

[Godskook]

Woo now I own 9 champions... and I only use 3 of them!

I can't remember when I forgot how that felt like; its been that long.

[Dusk Eclipse]

Too many champions or being able to use more than 3 effectively?

I feel bad about some buys (I'm looking at you Ashe) which I don't think I used more than once.

[brutii]

I only play a few champions seriously (like, champs that I'd take into a game I want to try my hardest to win) but it turns out that if you just hit the random button and take whatever it gives you into 1v1s with people, you get a passing familiarity with quite a wide range. For example, you learn the true power of top lane Taric/Naut/Blitz/Alistar (hint: Not actually that powerful, but people will always underestimate you).

[Godskook]

Too many champions or being able to use more than 3 effectively?

I feel bad about some buys (I'm looking at you Ashe) which I don't think I used more than once.

I have so many champions I stopped counting them a while ago and started counting the ones I have yet to purchase(23, +1 for Jinx). The number of champions I would choose to play in normal queue is difficult to count and is about 25-30. Of the rest, being unable to orb walk properly with ranged champions locks me out of enjoying the entire marksman position as well as a few mids/tops who rely heavily on it to be effective(Teemo, Orianna, Jayce, Kayle).

As far as feeling bad about buys go, don't worry about any 450 IP purchases you make. That's only....2-4 games worth of IP(depending on if you get 1 or 2 FWotD bonuses), so its really no big deal.

[Dusk Eclipse]

I have so many champions I stopped counting them a while ago and started counting the ones I have yet to purchase(23, +1 for Jinx). The number of champions I would choose to play in normal queue is difficult to count and is about 25-30. Of the rest, being unable to orb walk properly with ranged champions locks me out of enjoying the entire marksman position as well as a few mids/tops who rely heavily on it to be effective(Teemo, Orianna, Jayce, Kayle).

As far as feeling bad about buys go, don't worry about any 450 IP purchases you make. That's only....2-4 games worth of IP(depending on if you get 1 or 2 FWotD bonuses), so its really no big deal.

If we are counting how many champions we want to buy I have about 6 or 7 that I really want to get in the near future, but I dunno I am just getting used to Jax (my newest buy not counting Tristana or Alistair) and I am already wanting to try something new. I feel like I need to get at lease some proficiency with support and mid champs, but I also want to get good at top/jungling .... argh I am an indecisive mess right now.

Incidentally, how much do Runes affect the game? I was watching some youtube commentaries and I couldn't help but notice that most junglers could clear up at least 1 side of the jungle without using more than 1 pot. And when I jungle with say Master Yi I chug potions like crazy just to stay alive at one of the buffs.

[brutii]

Armour runes make a big difference in jungling. Also, a strong leash makes a big difference in jungling.

[Dusk Eclipse]

Nope, most of the videos I saw didn't use a leash.