A greatsword wielding barbarian is not an assassin

He is supposed to be someone who fights where the blood is. His lore states that he traveled to all the tribes of the freljord and bested their warriors. He is supposed to look for conflict, not avoid it. His gameplay and his theme DO NOT MATCH.

That is exactly the reason that Fiora is being reworked. Its because she plays like a handgrenade and yet she is SUPPOSED to be a fencer. So Guinsoo is working on making her gameplay feel like a fencer, to match her artistic theme and original design direction.

Sion is being rebuilt from the ground up because his theme and gameplay don't match.

Champions aren't just reworked because they are problamatic or underutilized or have little counterplay or are too frustrating. They are sometimes reworked because they do not fulfill their original design intent, because their gameplay and their theme do not match.

Thematically, there is no overlap between "raging barbarian king" and "skulking sneaking assassin". Tryndamere's current gameplay revolves around split pushing and avoiding large conflict-- he avoids team fights and focuses on winning by applying pressure to the map and structures. In the rare case in which he does team fight, his play pattern is no different than an assassin's. He skulks around on the side of the fight out of combat and watches and waits for most of it to be over (and most of the CC to be expended) and then he dives onto a squishy target, uses his ultimate, and then kills that one target and perhaps escapes with his life unless he is fed-- if he is fed he might use his ultimate and score a multi kills. That pattern is no different than katarina's. How the hell does that FEEL like a raging barbarian juggernaught? How does that FEEL like a greatsword wielding WARRIOR?

He should be a lumbering force of nature who is very easy to outrun or outmaneuver but who is unassailable in his element. He should not be a skulking rogue that specializes in strike fast-first methods and dismantling towers. His true threat should come from the fear he imposes on you when his allies are near to prevent you from outsmarting or outmaneuvering him. In other words, big messy bloody battles are the things that barbarians dream of. They don't dream of demolishing structures and skirting around the edge of team fights looking to instagib someone who can't defend themselves like an assassin.

How do you make Tryndamere's theme and gameplay match eachother while offering his enemies a compelling gameplay experience? I don't know. I only have a few ideas, and they may be bad ones, but here it is anyway. Any recommendations or alternative ideas are greatly appreciated, and is the reason I made this thread. I want you to post your ideas.

Here is what I suggest:

Undying rage now gains +X seconds on kill or assist, but tryndamere is self silenced during.

He can't use q w or e during undying rage. He can still use summoners and items.

He gains something and he loses something:

What he loses: Now he's not nearly as oppressive in a split push because his ultimate prevents him from escaping with spinning slash, and prevents him from using mocking shout so he can't use it to help him dive you under the tower. Kiting him in his ultimate is much easier and you don't need to burn a summoner spell or multiple allies to do it, because he can't use skills but you can.

What he gains: He is a better team fighter, but only significantly so if his team can burst down targets or kill people at a steady pace. He is pretty much immune to death for the entire team fight as long as his team keeps churning kills out on your team because his ultimate will keep gaining time. He still probably won't do much damage directly to squishies himself though because he can't use skills to slow or close the gap on a squishy target. He really can't be expected to reach an important target without a ton of help from his allies in terms of speed boosts disables and positioning. What he becomes is a tank who's tankiness in a team fight depends entirely on scoring assists and who trades 100% of his utility and mobility for raw damage output.

X would probably be something like 3 seconds.

Do you think he'd be more interactive with both the enemy team and his own team this way? Would he offer his allies the experience of slowing, snaring, and dooming their enemies for the lumbering devastation of the ponderous blows from the freljordian juggernaught? Would he have more reason to fight alongside his teammates and offer his enemies the experience of successfully peeling away from him and damning him to die in a heap of malcontent? Would he be more interactive this way?