Lets talk about Tristana

I Main Swain··2 votes·633 views

Ok, please tell me if im just not seeing it a balance here, but I feel like tristana has been getting a lot of gameplay recently for a reason(no im not coming out of a string of tristana matches). She doesn't really have any substantial enough weaknesses to balance her out. starting out with adc tristana, lets look at her abilities:

her passive gives her increased range per level. she starts out with 550, not exactly long, but it levels up with her levels. this allows her to play passively better than any other adc. this I don't have too much of a problem with, except in combination with her other abilities. you will probably never reach her, because she can just kite you with autos, and if she really needs to she can leap and ult.

Q - gives her some pretty good atk speed on activation (30 at rank one scaling up to 90). once this is maxed in rank, it gives such retarded high attack speed for a whopping 7 seconds that she really needs a item 3153 and a item 3087 to have almost maxed out atk speed.

W - a leap that sends her flying 900 units and slows enemies in landing area by 60% for 1-3 seconds depending on level. it has a hefty cooldown, but its refreshed on kills and assists. again, I wouldn't have too much of a problem with this if it didn't have such a long range on top of a long slow and a refresh (and don't forget her ult w combo that we all hate).

E - a single target shot that deals decent DoT and cuts healing in half for 5 seconds, on top of increasing her waveclear with its explosion passive which deals damage to units near a unit she last hits. works really well as both poke and to frustrate heal enemies like swain and mundo. on top of the explosion damage passive, her dueling and wave clear are incredibly good with this.

R - basically a ranged lee sin ult. deals a bunch of base dmg and pushes back target opponent 1000 units and pushes back other opponents hit as well. incredibly good for both defense and gaining the upper hand in a teamfight. you use that to get away in combo with w, I seriously doubt they'll catch you. you use that to kill someone and you can just leap after them and keep attacking.

now for the even more horribly ap tristana:

passive is basically only used for poke and safe farming

Q - don't underestimate atk speed on ap champions, especially not a boost that high. it helps her a lot in nudging that last bit of hp on a kill down, getting her e passive procs more often, and tower taking. more useful than you would think

W - high ap ratio, decent base, a very strong and long slow, aoe, AND a reset on kills or assists. horrible to deal with, deals tons of damage, hurts grouped teams like a Katarina passive and solo champs like a darius ult (ok maybe not quite as bad)

E - decent base damage, heal-cut, high ap ratio all on active. on passive, decent base aoe damage that can be used to poke and waveclear without ever even stopping your farming, as well as a pretty dang good ap ratio (for a passive at least). gives her the early game edge that she would be missing otherwise as well as that push power and poke power at all stages. horrible to deal with

R - deals ridiculously high damage too everything it hits (pretty sure it has the highest ap ratio in the game) and its a target ability.

one recommendation I have for her w is possibly making it so her w takes a little longer to cast and deals damage where it starts instead of where it lands and costs hp instead of mana. it even says she shoots a rocket at the ground, I think that would hurt more than a falling yordle, for her and the enemy. please do something about this rito. again if I am missing something feel free to tell me in a non-douchebag way.

5 Comments

MrBuffington2 votes

I discuss my position on Tristana here; in summary, it's the ADC itemization changes that makes Tristana powerful, nothing to do with Tristana's kit alone.

Worgslarg1 votes

Exactly. When the items got changed, she got a much larger benefit than other adcs.

12tales2 votes

She doesn't really have any substantial enough weaknesses to balance her out.

She can't project force beyond 700 units, her laning phase is pretty bad, she doesn't have any AD ratios so Attack Speed shenanigans just shit on her damage, and she's reliant on resets to remain positioned in teamfights (relevant since champs like Kayle, Zilean and Lulu exist).

Not that she isn't a balance concern, of course, but I don't think the issue lies in Tristana per se. You could obviously resolve her dominance by just nerfing her numbers, but before 4.10, nobody would have argued that Tristana lacked substantial weaknesses - she had plenty then, and has plenty now. The only difference is that now, the itemization paths for Critical hits and Attack speed allow her to poop out ungodly amounts of damage despite her weaknesses. Fix the itemization, and you fix Tristana.

Worgslarg1 votes

She is a lategame hypercarry, without the early weaknesses of a hypercarry. Think pre nerf twitch.

Nerf rocket jump's range, make e a toggle on hit for mana, remove the dot and active. if that's not enough, skill shot on ult.

12tales2 votes

I'm pretty sure fucking over every significant part of her kit would be sufficient. Just a guess, mind you.

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