Her base AS definitely appears lower than any other Marksman at any level, however her Q allows it to shoot up to way higher than any other Marksman.
Combine that with Explosive Charge always being at her Basic Attack range, it would seem that she has bursts of a shitton of damage and seems to be strong in teamfights since few last longer than its duration.
The Lost Marbles6 votesShe's extremely clunky early on, since E's cast time scales down with her attack speed. Which means her E relies on her Q to feel smooth, but her Q isn't very good at early ranks. You can't max Q first, though, or E does no damage, but at the same time E is unwieldy without ranks in Q.
That's just how I see it.
Tobias Brackner1 votesMmm I hear you. Although (if I understand the ability correctly) maxing Q second after E should put you ahead of the base AS of all other Marksmen while it is active.
OtterlyLost1 votes[{quoted}](name=The Lost Marbles,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=EqEcbtix,comment-id=0000,timestamp=2017-05-05T02:43:05.072+0000)
She's extremely clunky early on, since E's cast time scales down with her attack speed. Which means her E relies on her Q to feel smooth, but her Q isn't very good at early ranks. You can't max Q first, though, or E does no damage, but at the same time E is unwieldy without ranks in Q.
That's just how I see it.
It used to be that her Q and E worked together to reduce each other's CDs but Riot removed that at the end of season 5, making her far more clunky to play. :/
Basically, Tristana isn't played because she's an AA ADC that is super, hard core CD reliant and those CDs are longer than your 90 year old grandma's tits. She is actually a half decent ADC but her long CDs make her hard to work at times. Especially since CDR does not naturally fit into her build anywhere.
Sexualsaurus3 votesTristana is in a weird spot, her kit is alright but shes in a spot where players ask themselves "why play her when 
exists". She needs a buff but shes the type of champ that can go off on one if seen as a bit strong. Shes got a play rate % equal to Vi's at 2.6% which isn't too bad, if you really like tristana play her. She is fun to play, just a tad weak atm but that shouldn't stop u from climbing with her.
Tobias Brackner1 votesIdk, Twitch and Tristana are pretty apples and oranges unless you are regard both as "scaling hypercarry"
MrHaZeYo3 votesThey're both Assassin Marksman, with Vayne.
Trist just feels awful though early, like Twitch and Vayne. The later the game goes though the better Trist gets, She has the longest AA range of any marksman at lvl 18 (Excluding Kog with W on). She has a amazing Jump that has resets and a good AS steroid, she can plow through turrets and her ult can be used as a peel ability. She's really not a awful champion but when champs like Cait, Luc, EZ, and even Jinx exists, she has a hard time making it out of lane.
KoKoboto3 votesI think Tristana is good when you know the enemy team has champions that can dive the backline and when you know your team won't be able to peel for you that well, like if you have a leona or blitzcrank support.
Niyumi3 votesShe's not weak at all. She's a god just like every other ADC.
Thing is, Trist has to do more than just right click and AFK to automatically win. This is also why we don't see many Varus or Xayah players. A good Trist is absurd, but most Trist players can't really play her without feeding their ass off or doing nothing -- so a lot of people just don't.
Tobias Brackner1 votesYeah, I would say that doesn't make sense for pro players but nah they are also lazy bastards.
Niyumi1 votesI mean, a lot of them are. They make bronze 5 plays repeatedly -- but they have amazing macro play, and that's why they're in the division they're in. They work well as a team, even if they're not all incredible players.
When the "pros" whine about Camille having no counterplay, you know they're just as bad as anyone else.
And, last I checked, they do play Trist in LC$ occasionally. But right now, there are free win ADCs that are infinitely more broken that they abuse. Doesn't mean Trist is bad, she just isn't a free win.
fuffychan2 votesShe is exceedingly boring. Thats coming from an ADC main.
If they upgrade her SFX/VFX I might play her.
Tobias Brackner2 votesI don't know, I find her way more engaging than Jinx, Caitlyn, Ashe, or Ezreal.
fuffychan3 votesThats just my opinion. I play 
too, and hardly anyone does.
Tobias Brackner2 votesAhhh I hear yah. Yeah I can see Quinn being a way more intense and engaging thing to play when compared to Tristana.
ZOO WEE MAMA1 votesShe is exceedingly boring. Thats coming from an ADC main.
If they upgrade her SFX/VFX I might play her.
???? da faq? Do you even know what tristana's w does? 0 sec rocket jumps on kills and assists rofl its fun af
chipndip12 votesBefore Riot made changes to Tristana: You'd start off the game clunky but you'd have amazing mobility and dps come late game because your Q would just never turn the fuck off.
After Riot made changes: Your mid game's better because you get those jump resets easier, but your late game power's been slashed. She has the weaknesses of a hyper carry in the early game with her lacking good bullying tools, but she doesn't actually hyper carry come late game.
Tobias Brackner1 votesBut she does hyper carry. Her attack speed blows all other Marksmen out of the water and teamfights don't last longer than 7 seconds 90% of the time
chipndip12 votesIf she was actually doing her job then why does no one pick her? Cause any other real hyper carry melts teams (and her) way more efficiently. She doesn't rip through turrets or champs as well come late game anymore. Just cause you have a steroid doesn't mean you're a team blasting maniac anymore.
Tobias Brackner1 votesBut it does. There are literal hard numbers proving that she can carry with the best of them. If the numbers are there but the gameplay is not that means that the players are having some kind of problem properly using those numbers. It's not about efficiency, the numbers prove that she's efficient and powerful. The only problem I can think of is that she requires more thought but even that doesn't make too much sense.
The only thing I can think about is "pros don't use her"
Milodic Mellodi2 votesI remember back in Season 5 when no one played Tristana, and yet I just kept winning my games and told everyone Trist was so awesome and fun to play. After she won a game in an actual tournament, people started playing her more and due to that she got slightly nerfed. People aren't used to her Hypercarry Sniper Assassin style of gameplay (unless you play Jinx or Caitlyn, but even then neither has the mobility Trist has), and her abilities are somewhat easily choreographed, so people started playing her less now; but once you start realizing how you're supposed to play as her she's so fun to use.
Tobias Brackner3 votesAfter she won a game in an actual tournament, people started playing her more
Absolutely disgusting.
It's like people would rather just copy what the pro's are doing rather than think for themselves.
I feel yah on that "fuck other people I'm going to keep kicking ass"
That's my motto w/ 
supp
Milodic Mellodi3 votesI agree, I think it's disgusting. Everyone always used to talk shit about Tristana, and I even had people dodge simply because I picked Tristana (even as a Bot Lane ADC). After I essentially decimated my targets and got high KDAs, no one even said anything after all the shit-talk because they didn't want to admit they were wrong. After she started becoming more popular, suddenly it's like everyone pretends they didn't practically bully Trist mains for no good reason for the entirety of LoL's existence. This is coming from a Trist main. She was, and always has been, my main reason for even staying in League in the first place. How people can shit-talk on her is unknown to me, but how people can suddenly turn around on their own reasoning because she's suddenly popular and they want to bandwagon with the popular shit is outright disgusting. EDIT: Before Trist was popular, she was so unpopular that getting S grades as a good Trist was easier than playing AP Malphite is now. Now that she's popular, the most I can manage is S- because of how she is now.
Tobias Brackner3 votesYeah I'll get that too w/ summoner spells and some of my off-meta bot picks.
A lot of people don't really want to think about the game so I've decided to call them on their bullshit w/ hard numbers :P
JackMcSnipeyz2 votesbecause she isn't populor, that's the only reason. People watch people do, they see twitch cait and draven being played by everyone and jump on. Tristana is a very safe and strong late game scaler, great pushing and great teamfighting once she get her 3 item powespike
Tobias Brackner1 votesI'm actually excited because pro's are finally realizing that Tristana is good.
Warning Shot2 votesI play her specifically into match ups that are vulnerable to all ins at low level. I think this is where she excels.
Tobias Brackner1 votesI completely agree. She has insane early damage and her playstyle synergizes with a lot of supports.
ThePikol1 votesBecause she's not in free rotation and not many people want to have champ they never played before in their pool
Tobias Brackner1 votesEven in ranked though she doesn't see a lot of play.
ThePikol2 votesYes because players can't test her in free rotation, so they dont buy/get her
Tobias Brackner1 votesShe's one of the cheapest champs iirc.
ThePikol3 votesCost doesn't matter for me and probably for a lot of players. If I haven't played a champion I don't want to have him/her in my champ pool
zlumpy1 votesShe always felt like she needed more items than other adc's to really start going. Some adc's "turn on" after one item whereas trist seemed to need 2 or 3 full items to do that.
Tobias Brackner1 votesI don't see how she's more reliant on items any more than other Marksman
zlumpy1 votesMore reliant on AA damage than a lot of other adc as well as having to save mobility for defence instead of being able to use it for offence. A lot of other adc have more damage from skills built in whereas trist mostly just has her E early on. It is powerful but when compaired to a champ like caitlyn or lucian she has less early on demand damage.
Tobias Brackner1 votesCan you name some? The only ones I know of who are really reliant on skills are
From what I understand the rest are focused on AA and skills give them more utility. Like, they would rather just AA than use a skill in terms of dmg outpu.
zlumpy1 votesLike cait for instance. Any headshot is like a free item added in shot. And she gets them from trap and barrel net as well as passively. Plus she has the Q for ranged poke. Prior to 6 trist just has the bomb mostly since she has to save her jump most of the time and low ranks of the attack speed steroid are weaker.
Other adc have more dmg via skills that is like extra items added in. Jinx has zap and her toggle gives her boosted damage, range, and attack speed early on. Miss fortune has her double up which can be easier to land for more damage than trist bomb possibly. Even kog seems to have more damage in his skills early on.
I try to think of them in a vacuum kinda deal. Level 5 no items at all who will win trades. Most times I feel trist has to hit and run more and can't straight up trade early as well. I think that kinda play style paired with how aggresive bot lanes are now sees her getting pushed back harder than a lot of people want.
Ultimately I think she trades a lot of offense for being able to play safer and thats hard to translate into success in regular games atm.
Tobias Brackner1 votesLook up her attack speed steriod. Even at low ranks she blows the water out of other champ's AS.
zlumpy2 votesAnd? When she can't stop and trade the AS means nothing. Whereas a bunch of other adc can have more fire and forget damage that can get more benefit out of a single item or no items.
The whole point of my posts btw are why I think Trist isn't as popular. I don't know if you think I actually hate trist. Far from it. I'm just posting why I think other people don't play her as much. She feels a lot less powerful early game compaired to most other adc's and in a time when games are decided early thats not a good thing.
Can she be amazing if she can push the enemy under their tower? Absolutely! Just hope the enemy team doesn't gank you with something like a Lee sin or have a Leona that can sword onto your Jump and go with you.
Tobias Brackner1 votesAnd the point of my posts is that the reasons you provide don't make sense unless your argument is "people don't like to actually analyze and think about champions, even in ranked."
She can have a hard time trading autos but if she all ins then shit gets painful for Cait.
zlumpy3 votesTbh a lot of people really don't like to analyze or think ahead anymore. A lot of people just want an easy answer, always reliable stuff, and to have the easiest time playing.
Also the all in argument relies heavily on the enemy support as well. You probably aren't going to engage into a Leona or a blitz near their tower.
Tobias Brackner1 votesTrue but you still have plenty of options. And if they are near their tower then you are in that "pushing them to their tower" scenario for Tris.
Also yeah, a lot of people just pick something easy and then people who play against them are all "oh no, it's the easy guy" and then lose without trying to exploit weaknesses.
chipndip11 votesBefore Riot made changes to Tristana: You'd start off the game clunky but you'd have amazing mobility and dps come late game because your Q would just never turn the fuck off.
After Riot made changes: Your mid game's better because you get those jump resets easier, but your late game power's been slashed. She has the weaknesses of a hyper carry in the early game with her lacking good bullying tools, but she doesn't actually hyper carry come late game.