Tristana Rework Idea

Tristana's gameplay and identity don't match. She wants to get into the thick of the fight, but in practice, she uses her "getting into the thick of the fight" tools for safety instead.

I don't enjoy playing against her kit regardless of how strong she is in the current meta, she has a very low amount of skill expression and is either the most impactful champion in the match, or the least.

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Currently her kit combines aspects that individually aren't very toxic on their own, but paired together make her kit incredibly toxic. These aspects are:

• High range, albeit, scaling with levels.

• Stat check damage / low amount of skill expression.
• Mobility with resets.
• Self peel.

Ability breakdown and their inherit problems:

• Passive, gain attack range scaling with levels. This gives her the highest permanent attack range in the game at later levels, and it goes against her identity of getting into the thick of the fight.

• Q is just outright bad design: push button, attack faster. It's definition stat check.

• W is entirely too powerful for an ADC, it's essentially Kha'Zix's evolved E with an additional way to reset its cooldown.

• E is the only ability that I have no real issues with.

• R on its own is fine, but with her W already offering her a way to get out of a bad spot, it makes her too safe.

To put it simply, her kit is stat check damage with resetting mobility and a self peel ultimate. So long as her kit exists in this state, she will either be a top tier pick or bottom tier pick.

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Rework idea:

• Passive, largely the same with a new effect: Based on how close Tristana is to enemy champions, her auto attacks deal 120-80% damage. Damage scales as following: 200 units or less: 120% 200 - 300 units: 110% 400 - 500 units: 100% 500 - 550 units: 90% 550 units and above: 80%

• Q, reworked entirely: Tristana channels and charges her cannon for up to 1.5 seconds, must charge for at least .5 seconds. At the end of the charge can then shoot a powerful projectile in a straight line, damaging the first unit hit, with a 1 second window to cast at the end of the charge, and can end the charge early to immediately cast it. If she charges her cannon for at least 1 second and the projectile hits a target currently affected by her E, it adds 1 stack.

Skill shot is narrow, shares the same range as her auto attack range Physical Damage: 100/125/150/175/200 + 1.0 Total AD * seconds spent charging The damage will likely need some tuning, as it needs to deal enough damage to be worth using instead of auto attacking, but not do too much damage to prevent her from becoming an assassin.

• W, rework: Tristana channels for up to 1 second, she then leaps to a target area, the distance she can leap to increases with charge time. In addition, her W does not cancel her Q channel, and she can begin the Q channel during her W channel. No longer fully resets, reduces cooldown by 50% instead.
• E & R remain unchanged.

The goal of these changes are to make her gameplay match her identity better, reduce the stat check nature of her kit, and reduce her inherit safety.

With the changes to her passive, she would keep her ability to play safe, but at the cost of dealing reduced damage. However she would be rewarded for getting into the thick of the fight by gaining increased damage.

The combination of her Q & W changes address multiple problems and synergize well together. With her Q no longer empowering her attack speed, and requiring her to successfully land the new ability to deal maximum damage, reduces the degree of stat check to her kit. Her Q paired with her W gives her a lot of room for skill expression and her W no longer gives her such a powerful safety net.

Thoughts & criticism welcome, and if you have a different direction for a rework, please feel free to share.