Tristana: The Rise of the Megling Gunner

Tristana: The Rise of the Megling Gunner

Over the past few weeks of LCS we’ve seen a variety of AD carries being used. We’ve seen Draven, Corki, Vayne, Miss Fortune, and of course Ezreal. During Super Week however, an old AD carry and my personal favorite Tristana was brought into the spotlight. Over the first three weeks of LCS Tristana saw a measly 2 picks. In super week Tristana was picked five times and was even banned once against MRN’s Heartbeat. What caused the sudden spike in interest in Tristana?

Before looking into Tristana’s sudden appearance in LCS, let’s look at Tristana’s abilities and stats.

Tristana’s passive ability is one of the strongest passives in the game. As Tristana levels up, her attack range increases and the range on her Explosive Shot increases. This passive gives Tristana the highest attack range at level 18. This allows for her to be out of danger while still putting out massive damage.

The following pictures demonstrate the increase in range from levels 1-18 for Tristana.
  

At level 18, Tristana can even attack Baron Nashor and the Dragon across the walls of their pits.

Tristana’s first ability is Rapid Fire; it is an attack speed steroid on a very high cooldown. The steroid increases each level (30%/45%/60%/75%/90%) with the mana cost remaining 50 through each level. This steroid is extremely powerful and provides a great amount of damage if used at the correct time.

Tristana’s second ability is Rocket Jump. This ability “jumps” Tristana to a specified location within a certain range dealing magic damage and slowing all enemies hit for a short time. This ability refreshes on kill or assist. Rocket Jump may sound amazing but it has a major flaw, while Tristana appears to jump through the air her hitbox remains on the ground. Tristana’s jump can collide with such things as Caitlyn traps and Fizz ults even though they are on the ground. While Rocket Jump can collide with abilities on the ground, she can also use it to jump over walls all around the map.

Standing in the middle of the Dragon pit, Tristana can jump over the walls of the pit.

 

Tristana’s third ability is Explosive Shot. Explosive Shot’s passive ability is whenever Tristana kills an enemy with her auto-attack the minion explodes dealing magic damage to all surrounding enemies. Explosive Shot’s active ability shoots a targeted shot which applies a debuff to the target, dealing magic damage over time and reducing healing by 50%.

Tristana’s ultimate is Buster Shot. Buster Shot launches a targeted projectile which deals magic damage to the target and knocks back all enemies next to the target. Tristana’s ultimate is one of the most powerful ultimates at level 6; it provides an immense burst of damage at a point when people haven’t built up much HP. However, when Tristana reaches later levels the damage on Buster Shot is lackluster. From level 6 to 18 the damage only goes up from 300 to 500 damage while the knockback distance increases from 600 to 1000. At later levels this ultimate is used primarily for utility as it can help Tristana escape or push enemies towards her team.

Now that we’re familiar with the megling gunner, why did she burst out in week 4 of LCS?

While Tristana has always been a solid AD carry, she has been overlooked a great amount due to her atrocious mid-game. Recent buffs and itemization changes however have allowed her to gain an edge in Summoner’s Rift.

In season 3, Blade of the Ruined King was introduced. While many people don’t like rushing Botrk on AD carries I loved doing it on Tristana. With Tristana’s level 6 burst damage combined with the active damage from Botrk (or Bilgewater Cutlass) you can be a real terror in lane. In addition to the insane burst potential on Tristana, Botrk also allows Tristana to have one more escape when she already has two in her kit. A Tristana with Botrk is very difficult to stay on. While this item was still present in the first few weeks of LCS, it was not commonly rushed on AD carries and was more of a bruiser/ mid-late game AD item. This item received buffs to its passive’s damage which allowed for even greater melting of tanks and even more healing for the user.

In patch 3.01, Tristana’s Rapid Fire was buffed by reducing the mana cost from a costly 80 to a more manageable 50 mana. Also in this patch, Tristana’s Explosive Shot had its damage increased from 110/140/170/200/230 to 110/150/190/230/270. While the buffs may seem minor, the mana cost decrease on Tristana’s Q was much needed as the mana cost was insanely high considering Tristana’s mana pool.

With Blade of the Ruined King on Tristana, there is a great potential for teams to take an early shot at Baron Nashor. This was seen in MRN’s victory against GGU in week 3 of LCS. Heartbeat’s Tristana picked up an early Blade of the Ruined King and slowly gained a farm advantage, after a 3-0 fight in favor of MRN they quickly rushed towards baron. With Heartbeat’s Tristana and Blade of the Ruined King, baron quickly melted and led to a MRN victory.

Are these recent buffs and itemization changes what really brought Tristana into the spotlight? Perhaps, it could also be MRN’s Heartbeat whose mastery of the megling gunner brought Tristana into the forefront as one of the better AD carries.

What lies ahead for Tristana? After patch 3.03, Tristana’s attack speed/level was increased from 3.01% to 4%. This buff is HUGE for her as it makes her late game even more terrifying. I believe Tristana will be even more prevalent in the coming weeks of LCS, and I can’t wait to see what the pros do with her.