Why is it people tell me Tristana is good, but say they will feed if I play her?

Nilok·Apr 23, 2015·4 votes·1,588 views

Ever since Tristana's remake I've been trying to get back into playing her after a couple seasons, but have been both having so much trouble playing her now and that when I try and join a team, most people either quit or feed.

I've raised this question several times after her remake as well, and have been told "she does tons of damage" and "shes good", but when I look at the Riot API provided stats, it is atrocious. Second lowest of all damage and assists from all ADCs, low kills, low gold.

The only thing she does okay is escaping and killing towers, which I would happily trade for a more effective champion in being either a Marksman or Assassin.

What am I not seeing here on Tristana? http://champion.gg/champion/tristana

21 Comments

Only Play DariusApr 23, 201510 votes

Because she is bad. This is coming from someone who's first main was Tristana.

It was bad enough that they gutted her attack speed stats, but I draw the line at what they did to the passive. I mean, that could have been the ONE thing you didn't have to touch. Now you have no reason not to pick Caitlyn , she pretty much has Tristana's LVL18 range at level one.

All for what? A timebomb on her E. Granted, her previous E was hilariously useless unless you went AP Tristana (a respected build which by the way is now unviable thanks to the rework) or needed the grievous wounds for some sustain monster. But this new E is hardly any better, seeing as casting it costs 1/4 of her mana, and it does so little damage. Before you say "That's because you're supposed to charge it up with basic attacks" guess what, you rarely get to do that, because it has a long cast time and the gutting of her natural attack speed means you can barely get 4 attacks off before it actually pops. If that wasn't enough, the reduction to the range on her passive means it's too easy for enemies to simply walk out of range the moment they see you toss the bomb. And in the end, it doesn't even do that much damage, even when fully charged up. At least not anywhere near the amount of damage you would expect for all the work you put in charging it up.

I used to juggle between my two favorite ADC's, Jinx . Now I only play Jinx. And i'm willing to bet Tristana's gutting is part of the reason Jinx's winrate is so high these days.

Sailor MintApr 23, 20153 votes

She doesn't feel bad, the meta should be favoring her. But her win rate screams the opposite.

I think the most worrisome part is her win rate against the most played ADCs. 42% against Graves, 40% against Jinx.

StoningtonApr 23, 20153 votes

She's not good. She has serious problems.

Edit: Ok, let me explain. Her csing is really bad. Her AA windup is really long and when they removed her AS scaling it made csing very difficult considering her explosive shot. This also makes her kiting worse. Her burst is really weird too. They have the new mechanic for CDR on both Q and E. But that really doesn't matter in an all in. It also doesn't help for quick trades. It helps take towers faster, which she's always been good at after the rework. But she's never strong at any point in the game. So taking towers fast is a moot point since she'll never get to a tower to begin with.

NilokApr 23, 20151 votes

They really does explain a lot, they tried to hyper focus her at taking towers, but to the detriment of the rest of her gameplay.

Yordle XayahApr 23, 20153 votes

As a Tristana Main, I can tell you... 100% of the times you die, it's your fault. Tristana should NEVER die. You have a push and a jump. If you get caught, you were not well positioned. If you get flanked, you don't have good ward/vision control.

Another problem is that people don't seem to understand that you have literally NO BUSINESS picking fights during the early game. It's funny/sad when people expect Trist to trade successfully early against Lucian, Corki, Graves or even Jinx.

If you are picking fights early as Tristana, then don't be surprised that you aren't getting anywhere. Your job is to farm and get to that IE+PD power spike. THEN you can start taking fights, but pick them well. The problem with Trist is that people don't seem to be aware of her strengths and weaknesses.

Respect the enemy lane at the early game. Keep your distance during fights, and NEVER use your W to go in, unless all enemy team is around 25% HP left and you are doing janitorial work, cause otherwise, the moment you go in with Rocket Jump, you are making a statement to the enemy team: "Here, my escape is gone. Kill me"

You also shouldn't be rushing to take out the outer towers. If you are winning lane, don't kill the tower, just stall it. It's free farm for you. if you super rush it, it'll be harder for you to farm and you'll never get to your power spike in time.

She also favored by ASPD, so go for the item 3153 After IE and PD, before item 3072 . They nerfed her ASPD because it's so good on her. Consider also Blue ASPD runes. MR will do little for you if a mage assassin tries to go for you, but the extra ASPD will do wonders for you.

You also must be aware of your team and support. You can't play the lane the same having a Thresh than a Janna. You can't fight the same way with a Sejuani jungling than with a Lee Sin.

No, the thing with Tristana is that she's in the same place as Diana right now. You have to know the champion very well and know what you are doing to be effective.

Learn the map, respect the early game, farm up, don't rush the first tower and keep that jump to always remain safe.

NilokApr 23, 20151 votes

So I have to ask you what should you do against aggressive common lanes such as Thresh, Blitz, Leona, or Naut and Jinx, Graves, or Sivir who can both out range you, starving of farm, and can quickly CC and kill you?

Only Play DariusApr 23, 20153 votes

You let them win early game because late game Tristana is a god and once she gets 6 items there really is nothing that can stop her.

Oh wait, I was thinking about pre-rework. Now Tristana's late game is terrible.

Yordle XayahApr 23, 20152 votes

You farm under tower... I mean, I was assuming you know to do that. You get a Janna and the shield helps you with those last hits, R to disengage.

And who says you have to win lane? Sit under tower and farm, cause if they push super hard they are open for plenty of ganks, which in turn can open the chance to secure a couple dragons. You should have your IE and PD by 23 mins or so.

Look, I'm not saying I'd like her to be stronger, but that's different than not knowing how to play her and blaming it on her current balance status.

I mean, if you wanna hard trade early and lane bully just play Graves or Lucian... why are you even playing Tristana if you are not willing to accept that you are in a lane disadvantage? You are appealing to your late game presence, but if you can't wait for that... then the best thing I can tell you is that Tristana is not the champion for you.

Kalista for example is super strong, but I don't understand her, and I'm bad at her... so I just play other things

NilokApr 24, 20151 votes

I just did some research, and have a questions I would like your advice on.

The average longest game of league in ranked is 33:49, how do you extend the length of the game so Tristana can reach potency?

Yordle XayahApr 24, 20151 votes

By 30 mins you should be on item 3031 + item 3046 And item 3035 + item 3072 or + item 3153 That's it. You are done.

If you are not hitting those items by min 30, you may need to improve your farm rate.

TengrichanApr 23, 20153 votes

Well for one her Rocket Jump is still coded as a dash. I am sorry but this is just stupid.It was fine before i guess but now it's just dumb and should have been changed to an actual jump which have z axis coordinate as well.I mean how misleading is that when i see an animation that takes me into the air yet i can't jump over projectiles?What about that clarity Riot?It's a perfect example how bad is the feedback on this ability.Oh i jump into the air->means i can jump over projectiles such as ezreal ulti,ashe ulti,blitzcrank Q,etc. WRONG.New players must feel pretty dumb.

As others mentioned her animations are clucky and rather long: auto attack,Explosive charge,Rocket Jump.

I think she has no niche at the moment.Jinx overshadows her.She could be this awesome guerilla style adc who jumps in and out and all that but her current kit does not allow it.Be it manacosts or cast times. Also there is a really annoying bug with Buster Shot:Sometimes it does not knock back surrounding enemies around that target.It just doesn't for some reason.

Knight SoIaire Apr 23, 20152 votes

because her kit conflicts itself

as ad version of herself, she is a long ranged adc who relies on jumping on your face, not to mention that before the end game she will need to hold onto one target for at least 2 seconds, adc's switch targets quite often to be safe (she is a marksman who needs to stay safe, while rioot wants to make her all about going in and sitting in danger)

as ap version of herself, she relies on burst that is created through sustained atacking while she doesnt want the atack speed and is forced to buy raw power instead, so many contradictions

whatever you do there is something that doesnt click there, something that you cant do in your current situationm, and riots ballance team counts that in thus giving us crap

junglerboy16Apr 23, 20152 votes

She is an objective killer, not a champion killer. Her E+Q combo takes down turrets faster than any other champion during the mid game, and she is incredibly safe at almost all stages of the game. ADCs aren't just about dealing raw damage (if it was about that, Draven would be the most powerful ADC since his release), it is about safety, team synergy, and powerspike timing.

If her style doesn't fit your play style, then that's fine, play somebody else, just understand that she isn't garbage for not matching your likes. She probably need buffs, yes, but she has a different niche now than she used to and they are only going to make her better at that niche, not give her a different one that 4 or more other ADCs already hold.

NilokApr 23, 20151 votes

Maybe, but it feels strange that even if I am ahead, my only real way I can defend myself is running away. Maybe they should remove the Assassin tag for her if this is their plan for her.

ModAcademy KaynApr 23, 20151 votes

Well to answer the title: we are not a hive mind. We have feelings and opinions.

Otherwise, I got nothing on Trist.

NilokApr 23, 20151 votes

Maybe not a hive mind, but there seems to be a general consensus that Tristana should not be looked at or buffed.

DomainSpecificApr 23, 20151 votes

I don't know; she is the only ADC that I know how to play, and I usually do well with her. I think the main problem is that people are not used to her quasi-suicidal playstyle.

The way I play her in my mid-high Elo (plat III) is stay safe shooting the tanks, but when the enemy carry is about to die and all enemies have used their CC spells, I jump into the middle of the fight, kill the enemy carry, and jump back.

If I miscalculate my damage, I usually end up dying without outputting the optimal damage. Maybe this is why her stats are so bad lol

BemaponApr 23, 20151 votes

Tristana is very underrated. If she can get up to a tower mid/late game it is pretty much down. She has great aoe damage for teamfights thanks to her E and can peel for herself with her ult. While I would not mind if she got some small buffs I really like her kit right now.

SaiannaApr 23, 20151 votes

Her stats are pretty OK'ish, but she's kinda clunky. Her AA animation is too long and too easy to cancel. Then her ultimate that is worse in every aspect to Lee Sins. It can hit & push multiple targets, but that's about it. Then het Q, awesome steroid yet on waaay too long cooldown. While other ADCs with some AS steroids have similar buffs with bonus effects (like graves has dash, Jinx has her second Q switch)

And in the end there are alot better ADC picks than her. Jinx or Cait.

Drunk RummateApr 23, 20151 votes

She is a hypercarry, she is incredibly hard to kill. Unfortunately she's heavily gated by her Q cooldown, especially early-mid game and it limits her snowball potential so she ends up doing a lot of farming for 30+ minutes before her damage kicks in, which is why those Riot API numbers are probably so low. I imagine most games where trist gets 4+ items and boots she wins though.

NilokApr 23, 20151 votes

I'm not sure how true that is, seeing how past 40+ minuetes, she only has a 47% win rate.

Edit: Just did some research, the longest average game length is only 33:49, which means Tristana is rarely ever reaching potency.