Tristana PBE Buff Discussion

Ok, so I have a prior thread where I said Tristana felt weak even after the latest update in 5.5. 5.5 was a great patch, but I said I felt the emphasis placed on Explosive Shot was odd and that the damage on her E early game is weak. I stand by that analysis for the most part.

With the right equipment Explosive shot can be very powerful. When I saw the Crit percentage buff test I thought hot dam, this could do more damage than most in play ultimates when max equipment is reached. That was reverted quickly. As Rammus would say, "Ok."

In 5.5 Riot gave Tristana CDR per hit on her Explosive Shot target up to 5 when the bomb explodes. I was surprised and slightly annoyed that Rapid Fire cool down was not simply made 15 seconds. Tristana players know that prior to her new kit she had 7 seconds of active on her Rapid Fire and 20 seconds of cool down. Now we have to wait 20 seconds for 5 seconds of active.

The plus side to this method of cool down change is it makes CDR more powerful if you land your CDR hits. 20-40% = 12 and 12 - 5 = 7 effective cool down if you get all your hits in and maximum %CDR. In reality I and most Tristana players build near zero CDR, so the effective CDR is probably 20 - 5 = 15, but I want to admit there is a plus side worth valuing. 15-40% = 9 is not as good as 20-40% = 12 and 12 - 5 = 7. Thanks for that. I do think this is something of a pipe dream tho, because Tristana needs defense runes and does not itemize CDR.

This puts more emphasis on her E, not just landing it, but following up on it with at least 4 hits. I want to stop here and point out that most skill auto attack quantities for payoff are only 3 attacks (Diana, Jax, Xin Xhao, Gnar, Vayne, etc, etc). All of a sudden we have a higher threshold for max damage, we have an active and 5 hits are required for full-immediate-gratification. It's an AOE and it can have great damage once you have serious equipment, but it felt right to point this out.

What I don't like most about Explosive Shot is that Tristana's only kit ability to ensure that she gets to stick to apply those 4 attacks is Rocket Jump. At the same time her Rocket Jump damage incentivizes Tristana to wait until you have 4 hits before committing the Rocket Jump.

Right now Riot is testing cool down reduction on Tristana's Explosive Shot based on Tristana's ability to hit targets during rapid fire. Unsurprisingly, this is shown on Tristana's Rapid Fire tool tip.

I don't have a problem with any of these things. Explosive Shot cool down is very high and it doesn't get that much lower at level 5, so providing CDR per hit on that is nice too.

Moving forward with the discourse, AD Tristana is not incentivized into rocket jumping for the damage much. If you are AP, you get a lot of damage from rocket jumping onto a charged live Explosive Shot (base rocket jump +0.5 AP damage). If you are AD, you get up to double base rocket jump damage which is nice, but also highly suicidal. Should we be incentivizing aggressive AD rocket jumping more or are we creating a separate player experience by giving this incentive primarily to AP Tristana? Is landing a rocket jump on a fully charged Explosive Shot the pinacle of high level play or am I over valuing?

How is AP Tristana doing?

If you are AP Tristana how are you supposed to stick for 4 hits? Is Furor enchantment required? You can buy Nashor's Tooth and max Rapid Fire, but sticking must be harder for AP, because of lack of movement speed items in general as well as because you are holding your rocket jump for maximum damage on a fully charged Explosive Shot. Can anyone playing AP Tristana speak into this?

This discourse isn't so much about where to buff Tristana as it is analyzing her current state and sharing my observations.

Thanks for reading.